That's What Friends Are For...

The following is an email exchange between me and Megan. This is why I love this girl so much.

My initial e-mail: Oh man did I get pissed at my second period kids today. Hardly any of them did their homework and they were just not responding to what they were doing and I got PISSED. I did the whole "This is unacceptable and I will not tolerate this disrespect. You are wasting my time and you are wasting the time of those that were responsible and did their homework. I am collecting this worksheet tomorrow and for those of you that do not have it, it will be an automatic detention. And furthermore, I expect nothing worse than a 7/10 on the quiz tomorrow. Those who score below a 7 will receive an automatic zero." Imagine this in an icy cold voice (not yelling- just the scary steel voice of a teacher that I feel I have cultivated QUITE well). Now unfortunately, it turns out that the quiz is 15 questions. Oops.

Megan's reply: And I pretty much fell over laughing at how you talked to your class. I never thought about the other side of teachers, just the student part. This is a whole new perspective, quite enlightening, I must say. I can totally see you saying "not acceptable" in an icy tone. It's really funny. If I had been there I would have sat in the back and pointed and giggled. Probably not very helpful.

I love being able to share my experience with someone not in the teaching world. Love it! And love her!

Sub bizareness

So it's always hard to know what's going on in the classroom when you are a out and there is a sub in charge. But as the teacher, you have to trust that the person that they're sending you is qualified if not to teach at least to administer the plans that you've left. I always give the sub my email and number just in case there is some sort of emergency but I never expected the sub to call because my plans are always thorough and I always make sure to leave enough copies and the answer sheets and all that. I've been sick for this last week or so- fever, runny nose, cough, etc. so on Wednesday, I went in and made a sub plan and left lessons for two days- Thursday when i was going to be out for BTSA and Friday so I could have a day to recuperate, get better and be ready for Monday and the two week countdown to the first benchmark.

As I said above, althoughI leave my number, I never expect the teachers to call. So imagine my surprise when I check my phone at the BTSA meeting and I see that I have three missed calls from an unusual number and one message. Turns out that the sub has called me asking me where the answer key to the activity my eighth graders were doing (which was bizarre in itself, because I had paper clipped it to the back of my lesson plan). Anyway, I call her back, expecting to leave a message and she picks up! I don't know if this makes me old fashioned, but I never expected her to answer the phone when she's supposed to be supervising my kids. I know that I didn't' give her a lesson to teach but I don't think it's appropriate to answer her phone in the middle of class. She hadn't even left her number on the message so she shouldn't have been expecting me to call. But whatever, I just found it odd.

That night, around 9:30, I found another message on my phone from her telling me that my seventh graders will probably finish their activity early and they'd probably need another activity to do. So I appreciated that but I'm thinking that maybe from now on, I'm going to leave my email instead of my number- although I appreciated her calling me and letting me know since they knew I wouldn't be at school on Friday but I think from now on, I'll just be leaving an email or something...

Remote Controls

Sometimes I wish that my kids had remote controls. Just think- if you need to repeate something, you can rewind and start again. If you need them to move a little faster, you can fast-forward to speed them up. How wonderful would it be if you could put your students on pause for a minute- you need to think about teh answer or get your cool or something, just press pause and they're silent. And how about the mute button. Oh the money that I would play to have a mute button for some of my kids. That way, they could continue to talk and be annoying but NOBODY WOULD HEAR THEM! A-mazing! And then, of course, the most amazing button of all. Whenver you need a break, you can just puss the power button and off they go.... Oh goodness, if wishes were horses, then I would win the Royal Ascot. Can someone please invent a remote for my students? I would pay big bucks... not like I have big bucks but I would buy lottery tickets if I needed to. Any takers out there???

Comparing

I don't like to compare my classes and I know that I shouldn't because it does nothing good but sometimes I can't help but compare my fourth and sixth period classes. They're both seventh grade classes and they are so incredibly different. I just have so much fun with my fourth period class. They're such eager kids with such high enthusiasm and although they're not all geniuses, they're pretty bright. My sixth period on the other hand, it just seems like a chore to teach them. They're so not motivated and it seems like i have to drag so many of them along. There are a few kids in that class who just was attention sappers and they drain my energy. I'm really frustrated for those students who are on task and want to learn (similar to my fifth period problem), but I'm trying to get the other kids interested that it's hard to keep tabs on all of them. One thing that has worked is that one of my students got a week-long detention for taking another students' homework and turning it in as his own. Since then, I haven't heard a peep out of him. I don't know if he's just too scared to do anything or if he's pissed that I turned the paper into the VP or what but it is nice that he's quieted down a little. And the other one that's really loud has gotten a three day detention with me so I'm hoping that spending an hour after school will deter him. I don't like to use that kind of negative reinforcement, but I really do think that it works with some kids. So we'll see what the next few days bring.

Anyway, back to the comparison. I'm really glad that fourth period is great because it leaves me jazzed and hopefully that it can happen again with sixth period. If I get disappointed with sixth period, I get to go home instead of having to stay at school for two more periods, which is nice. The best situation that I've had with them lately was a debate I had them to. I wasn't sure what to expect but fourth period absolutely blew me away. They were divided up into two teams- the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.The groups had about a period of time to list the positive details of their Dynasty, then listen to each others arguments and then rebut the arguments. As I said, fourth period blew me away. One team did an excellent job taking the negatives of their dynasty and turning it into a positive while the other team did a fantastic job finding the flaws in the opposing side's argument and rebutting the facts. They were amazing and I was so proud of them. And honestly, they really seemed to enjoy it, as well as want to do some more later.

Sixth period was a whole 'nother story. One of the stipulations was that I needed everyoen to participate. When they did their initial arguments and not everyoen participated, I reminded those students that they may want to participate during the rebuttal. Even then some students didn't participate! Some individual students did a great job but in general, no one ended up winnign the debate because they were so boring and blah about the entire thing. I thanked them all for a rousing debate and they all felt the sarcasm, which was supposed to be heard. I ended up giving the points to those that aprticipated and told them who won the debate and rebuttal but they didn't get any points in general, so hopesfully that will be a deterrent for next time as well.

Seriously, fourth period rocks.

Two-Year Olds

Yesterday I was really struggling with my fifth period class. I have three students in that class that, when they're together, they're just terrible. They talk, they laugh, they mess around, and it's all very subtle. They'll pretend to be working but all of a sudden they'll start sniggering about something. And the Constitutional Convention is really not that exciting, to tel you the truth. So I try and keep them focused, especially the RSP kid who has SO many issues and I inevitably end up spending the entire time dealing with them. Meanwhile I have seventeen other kids in the class that are sitting there being frustrated because I cannot focus on them and I have to focus on the three kids screwing around. One great thing about my room is that I'm able to isolate students if needed. I have a lot of single desks around the perimeter of the room, so I eventuall put one on one side of the room, the other on the other side and finally had one kid on the middle. But I was still really frustrated that I was distracted by those three students at teh detriment of my other students. So I talked today to the VP (two of them ended up getting referrals because they had just crossed the line one too many times) and he recommended some strategies that I can use in teh future. On the bright side, today they did a much better job so I'm hoping it was just an off-day and they can continue to be on task as much as possible.

Knowledge

Confucius said: What is knowledge? If you know something, you know it and if you dont' know something, you realize you don't know. that is knowledge. I opened up Tuesday afternoon with my seventh graders with this questions and had them write a few sentences about what they thought knowledge was. They came up with some interesting ideas like being both street smart and book smarts, being intelligent, being able to show and tell people things, a bunch of really great ideas. then I talked about what Confucius said about knowledge and asked them what they thought it meant. They talked about how Confucius meant that you should share what you know and not say anything if you didn't know. So I asked them if they agreed- if they thought you should share when you know something. The class was definitely divided almost in half. The group that said you should shae said things like "if you know the cure for cancer, you should share it". The main idea they were mostly getting at was that you should share because it could be beneficial for others and that your knowledge can help others out. One student said that if you have a talent, you should share it with others because it's something that you're good at. Then one of my favorite students, we're going to call him Earl (because that's what I'm watching right now and because his name has four letters in it too), pops up and says "hey! I have a talent?" So I say, "OK Earl, what's your talent?" And Earl replies matter-of-factly, "Sleeping." Well, at least he's honest.

Then the other group gave their ideas. One said that it wasn't good to share what yuo know because you could become conceited. Another student asked what conceited was and Earl jumped to life. "I know what conceited it!" he exclaimed. What I asked him to share he again said matter-of-factly, "conceit is when you have a Myspace and you have forty pictures just of you." The class, and I, to be honest, cracked up but in all honesty, he was right. It was pretty excited to see their unconventional methods but they seemed to get it, which was great.

Plus, the myspace quote was amazing....

Rant continued....

OK, so I thought of a few more things as I had time to think and plan my lessons and all that (BTW, I realized that the whole mock Constitutional Convention isn't going to work out but I've got some ideas down, including a group project that I have to write up while watching Aidan Quinn on SVU). Anyway...

first of all, I should probably preface that I don't dislike my BTSA lady (despite the fact that has a slightly silly name)... she's very nice and I think she genuinely wants to help out. But, that doesn't dispute the fact that I got absolutely no encouragement from her today.

And I figured out some of the things that pissed me off about what she said. One thing that she mentioned was that because I have a lot of ELL learners, I need to try and show pictures. OK, fine, I understand that but I have NO resources to use pictures. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE using pictures- I used pictures up the wazoo last year- I had power points and slides and more pictures that I could count. And I would love to use pictures this year but I have absolutely NO resources. I have ONE white board to use for both periods, I have a piece of crap overhead that the kids and I both hate, I have no LCD projector and my TV is so small that the people sitting in the back can't really see it (plus, I have no cord to connect my computer to the TV). So there's really no way for me to show pictures unless I pass them around the class.

Another thing that my mom mentioned that is helpful is realizing that I should probably teach to the observer on the days that I'm being watched instead of teaching just to the kids. Sometimes when someone is only in the classroom one day/one period a week or every two weeks, they only get a tiny little glimpse of what is going on. If I'm having an off day or the kids are having an off day, that's all they see and that's all they're going to write about. So that's something that I need to work on for the next time.

That doesn't make me any less pissed off though....

A Sucky Day

Today was just that- a sucky day. I already felt behind because of the STUPID training session that was the biggest waste of time yesterday. I got to school really early and tried to be productive and was but still felt like I wasn't. One of the things that I was trying to do was get all this data on my students printed out for my BTSA event. I finally ended up getting into the data program but there was no way to get all the data into one big chart and there was no way that I was going to write down every student's information individually. So that was frustrating me.

Then in first period, I was being observed. I thought the lesson went really well and the kids actively were participating and I felt really good about how things went. First period is always, in any case, probably the most shaky period in general because it's the first time that you're teaching the lesson and there isn't anything to compare it with. So that's why I hate being observed first period. The other periods always are more stable because I can adjust and fix things that have gone wrong. I know that I'm not the only teacher who feels this way- Doug talked to me a lot last year about how first period is always the hardest because it's always new and untested. so I know that I shouldn't put myself down for not doing well first period. It's just hard knowing that I'm being watched at my worst. although I suppose, on the other hand, (I'm not sure how many hands I have at this point), perhaps it's best to be observed at my worst so that I know that in other classes I'm much more improved. It's still frustrating though.

Second period was pretty bad too because there was so little response from the students. I'll say it again and I've said it a million times. Teaching is not a one-man show. It's an exchange between teacher and student and when you don't have something/someone/the class to bounce ideas and exchange thoughts with, it is so hard and slightly miserable. Now I know why my teachers were always so eager when I raised my hand in class. I hate it when the kids just sit there and there's absolutely no response. It drives me crazy. And on the flipside, I absolutely love it when they come up with a great answer or really seem to understand where I'm coming from.

Third and fifth period actually both went great, which was really nice, and fourth and sixth were OK too, but the day just felt really long. And then after school, the BTSA lady came to tell me everything that I did wrong. She says that she's there to just observe and give back what she sees, like a mirror, and to not pass judgement or evaluate or anything. But does that mean that she shouldn't tell me what I'm doing well? Trust me, I know that I'm not a perfect teacher. I'm far from it and I accept that. Hell, I've only been doing it completely on my own for a month and a half. So, that being the case- don't you think I should at least hear some things that I'm doing well? Boost that confidence a little? No, I just felt like she was constantly telling me all the negative things that I was doing. No, not negative, I guess that's the wrong word. I suppose it was more like telling me all the ways that I wasn't helping my kids. Thanks, way to make me feel OK about myself and give me confidence to continue. I wish there was a Doug or a Don or a Patti or Deb here to watch me and give me both positive and negative criticism. Again, I know that I'm not perfect- far from it- but at least reassure me that I'm doing some things right!

Sigh, so that put me in a bad mood and really gave me lots of confidence for the rest of the day. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to teach the Constitutional Convention tomorrow and what I am going to do for World. I got seventh grade figured out and now I've got three hours until SVU or bedtime to see what I can do about the Constitutional Convention. I would love to do some sort of a mock convention but some of my classes are so small that I don't think it'll work. Hopefully if I can't think of something I can fall back on the TCI activity for that day which seemed kind of good.

I'm going to eat some ice cream.

Heightened Senses

I've always heard that when a person loses one of his or her five senses, the other four are heightened. This is why, for example, blind people have amazing hearing and sense of touch and I'm assuming that deaf people have a heightened sense of eyesight. I've discovered that this is certainly true for my students. The less hearing they do (and they oftentimes ignore me), their sense of sight and their ability to talk (OK, I know it's not a sense, but it's with the mouth so work with me here) increases. Today, for example, I was wearing an orange wristband from the House of Blues, where I went yesterday to see Jars of Clay and NeedtoBreathe. Of course, I should have realized that as my kids weren't listening to me at the beginning of the period, their increased sense of vision would certainly pick up on the orange wristband. And of course, I should have realized that as their hearing decreased, they would also need to increase their level of talking. WHich is what led to about tenty various hypotheses of what the wristband was from. Several of my favorites: I went to a club and got my groove on; I went to a bar and got really, really drunk; and my personal favorite- I went to Las Vegas and got married. To which I answered, "Yes, kids, because that's what I do every Wednesday night." This trend continued in the other periods when my students seriously turned off their ears and turned on their mouths. I probably had the same questions about a gazillion times, two seconds after I had originaly answered the question. It got ot the point where a cold stare was all that I needed to keep class moving forward. In a perfect world, I wish that my students would decrease their sense of talking and increase their level of listening to me. But, as I always say.... if wishes were horses, I would win the Royal Ascot. At least I can take comfort in the fact that my kids think I have a much more glamourous social life than I really do. They would never believe me if I told them how much sitting around the house I do during the week. Maybe keeping up the illusion that I have a fantastically posh and cool social life will keep them interested. Who knows.....

Stupid Announcements...

So funny story from this afternoon. I was playing a non-technology version of Jeopardy with my kids in fourth and sixth period in order to help them review for the test. Things were certainly getting heated: each table group was competing against each other for a few extra credit points and there was a two way tie for first place and a three way tie for second place going into Final Jeopardy.....

And then.....

....the announcements begin.

Now, we in sixth period, especially me, are not a fan of the announcements in general. Why not just do them at teh beginning of the period when the pledge happens. Who knows. But for whatever reason (his heart or his shoes.... oh wait, we're not in How the Grinch Stole Christmas), the announcements come at the end of the day. And it's at the worst time too.. about four minutes before the bell rings so I always end up feeling like I can't do anything during the last two minutes of class cuz the kids already think we're done.

Anyway- today, the kids were so pissed off that teh annoucnements came when they did. I was about to read the final Jeopardy question when the announcements come on. If only I had a tape recorder to record the unanimous groan that they let out. It was fantastic. But then, not only did the studdnts read the annoucnemtns, then the principal comes on and starts talking about this stupid pizza party competition that the Yearbook staff is putting on in order to getp eople to buy yearsbooks. At this point, the kids are so frustrated. "Just be quiet so we can do final jeopardy!" they kept exclaiming. So finally the principal stops talking and my mouth again is open to read the questions.

And then.....

someone starts singing...

Yes, four of five students start singing a little ditty about buying yearbooks to the tune of Avril Lavigne's "Can I Be Your Girlfriend" (Sidenote: Isn't Avril Lagivne married to the guy from SUM 41? Why is she singing about being someone's girlfriend when she's already someone's wife....) Now the kids are absolutely LIVID. They are in their seats, they are shouting, they are so indignant. One ever asked me if there was a volume level on the speaker so I could turn it off and we could get to final Jeopardy. They know that time is running out. It was SO COOL to see them so exciteda bout something, even if it was just a few points of extra credit. You should have heard the cheers when the stupid song (which was about five stanzas long, plus a chorus) was finally over. So I finally got to read the Final Jeopardy question, we ended up with another two-way tie for first place (incidentally, both teams were bold and wagered all their points) and everyone was able to finish the game happily. But seriously, the indignation of my kids when those announcements went off were enough to make me proud. :)

Backpack Analogies

So, I love analogies.... I really do. And I've found that oftentimes, they work really well with middle school students. In my eighth grade classes, we just finished our unit on the establishment of the colonies, life in colonial America, unrest on teh colonies and then, of course, the fantastic Revolutionary War. We ended the unit with the Battle of Yorktown and the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

This unit is the Constitution and the creation of our government today as we know it. So to build up to that, we were looking at John Locke and some of the politcal philosophers of the time. They had a little trouble understanding John Locke so I had to use some little analogies to help them understand.

For example: John Locke said that the point of governemtn was to not take away the natural rights of the people. Natural rights, such as life, liberty and property (or the pursuit of happiness as T-Jeff said... or the pursuit of happyness as Will Smith said). Additionally, kings should not be absolute rulers and take away the natural rights of the people. To help the students understand this, I explained that if I took Maria's backpack without asking and made it mine, I was abusing my absolute power as well as taking away her right to property. This they understood.

So we took it a little further. Locke also says that sometimes people have to give up their rights in exchange for protection and safety. So I asked what would happen if I took away Maria's backpack again. The kids said that I would be taking away her right to property. And I replied yes because I was using teh backpack to whack someone that was about to attack Maria. This laughed but understood that although Maria has to give up her right to property, she is exchanging it for being protected from the guy who is getting whacked by the backpack. Luckily, they got this too.

So, I really am enjoying how the analogies are working. i have a feeling that these ideas in the Constitution are going to be a little difficult for them to understand, especially my EL students, so I'm hoping that I can continue coming up with analogies and that my students continue to use the analogies to understand what concepts I'm trying to teach.

Oh, and they liked my nicknames for some of the framers of the Constitution: T-Jeff, B-Fran, Jadams, J-Mad and A-Ham. Good times.

Procrastination

So I had my first BTSA meeting with my supervision, Feather, today, and I have a list of things I need to do before I meet her again on Tuesday. She said she must have overwhelemed me with all she talked to me about/what she gave me and I was like "pssshhh, I went to ACI.... try and overwhelm me as much as you like." :)

So by Tuesday, when she comes to observe me, I have to fill out my Self-Assessment Evaluation Form, pick two girls from my first period class to observe (and apparently mentor...) and get my goals eady for my IIP, which I think means Individual Induction Plan or something like that. So many bloody acronyms.... And then I have to meet her on Thursday before our general BTSA training session to type out my IIP.

Additionally, there are six "events" that I have to have completed before the end of the year. Why they are called events, I'm not entirely sure... but that's a whole nother story (as is my beef with BTSA as an acromnym.... what a dumb name.... but i digress). So by Thursday, I'm also supposed to have the paperwork for the first "event" filled out. I have to get the list of all the students in my first period and divide them by ELL, IEPs, etc. (again with the bloody acronyms!!!!). I also have to fill up a bunch of paper work about what types of people I could use for references, Community, District and School profiles, the stuff like that.

So.... instead of working on this, I'm watching Scrubs and getting ready to watch Prison Break and Heroes. Yes, I may be slightly hypocritical when I tell my kids to not procrastinate. HOWEVER, I graduated in three years and got my masters in another year.... I deserve some mindless television. Because I know I will get it done.... eventually....

Laziness..... sorry

I have been incredibly lazy about posting this week. No excuses, it was simply laziness. So I'll categorize my thoughts to put them into some sort of order to catch everyone up with the week.

Jimmy- for those of you who were wondering about where Jimmy went. Apparently, Jimmy was supposed to be going to another middle school anyway and was going to JIIS because his mom had signed some paper sending him here instead. So when the whole suspension thing happened, his mom just decided to withdraw him and send him back to the school he was originally supposed to be at. So Goodbye Jimmy. And now, goodbye let's call them Tim and Pete. Both Tim and Pete, both gentlemen who I believe have not turned in a stitch of homework since school began, have both been withdrawn from my class. The upside that i see to this is that I don't have to deal with their constant msising homework AND my first period class is two people smaller. Hooray.

Jane- Jane appeared on my class list for about a week at teh beginning of the year and I think I remember her actually being in class but I can't be sure. Anyway, she was MIA for the first week and then disappeared from the roster. Now she's back, after being gone in Utah, of all places, for the first month of school. So she comes to me, three days before the 5 Themes of Geography Test and a week before the Islam test, ready to learn. I had absolutely no idea what to do with her. After consulting with my wise department, I decided to catch her up on Islam so she can pass teh benchmark and give her the handouts for geography so that she can take the test next week. So she'll pretty much be spending this next week working on her own, separate from the class while I finish up Islam with them and then join us as we start Africa. Or China. Or Japan. I really have no idea where we are going next in World History. This could be a problem...

Testing- The US history teachers gave our first test this week on Chapter 2 which is basically the early colonies, colonial unrest and the Revolutionary War. Huge range of grades in the end- some kids aced it no problemo, lots were stuck smack dab in the middle and then of course, those that I knew would do poorly did poorly. Hm.... it seems to me that all those that did poorly have aproblem turning in their homework.... Connection? I think so..... I'm interested in talking to the other members of the department and trying to compare exactly how my kids match up to them. It would be really great to see if I'm on the same page with them or if most of my kids are lower/higher than theirs. It would also probably give me a real boost in confidence to see if I pretty much match up with them so more on that later.

OK, honestly, those were the big things that were happening in Room 2 this week. I promies that next week will be more faithful to daily/almost daily postings. I promise...

Lack of Communication

So, I'm a little confused at the moment with the lack of ocmmuncation between the administration/front office/whoever and me regarding a student of mine. About two weeks ago, while I was teaching my sixth period class, the principal came into my classroom and asked for my fourth period seating chart. I immediately gave it to her and then went back to teaching but was slightly confused as to why she wanted it. was this some sort of a test to see if my seating chart was updated? Was I supposed to know she was coming in? Was my seating chart correct? What was going on?

So, after school that day, I popped into her office and asked her why she needed it? Apparently one of my students in fourth period had thought he or she (I don't know who this student is so let's call him/her Taylor) had seen a BB Gun in the backpack of another student, let's call him Jimmy. However, Taylor did not know Jimmy's name (and apparently this is a major theme in my classes as always there is a student passing out work who doesn't know the names of everyone else in the class. Come on, people, if I can do it when all 150 of my kids, can't you do with the 19-32 people that are in your class?) Anyway.... Taylor did not know Jimmy's name but knew where Jimmy sat. So the principal came to borrow my seating chart and used it to find otu the name of the kid (Jimmy).

So, this was on a Thrsday and Jimmy isnot in class on Friday. Nor is he in class again on Monday. Nor Tuesday. Finally, I got up to the office and ask about Jimmy. Apparently, Jimmy has been suspended and will be out of school until Thursday. Never did I receive any notification about this. Not a note in my box, a meeting, a quick visit from the P or VP, nothing! I asked if I could arrange to have homework sent home since at Timberline, in-school suspension REQUIRES the student to do their homework. They said I could put the homework together, so I put it together and got it ready for Jimmy's return on Thursday. When Jimmy returned, he fit right back into what was going on- he had the homework that he was supposed to turn in from before his suspension, he fit right into the activity that we're doing although he's missed a day, he seems to understand my direction for the homework, life is good.

I'm not in school Friday so I don't know if he's around or not but today, not only is Jimmy not in class, but Jimmy's name is crossed out on my attendance sheet once I get it back after school. I assume this means that Jimmy is no longer in m class but again, no notification? A quick note saying "don't worrk about Jimmy, he's being taken care of, etc." Is this the type of communication I am to expect regarding all of my students? How do I know if an absence is an illness, a truancy or a student in suspension? What if the kid is dead? Hopefully this won't be an issue I'll have to face but in general, that's my confusion. I don't know, I guess I expect to receive communication about my students just as the administration expects me to communcation about the progress of my students.

So yeah, tomorrow, hopefully the Mystery of Jimmy shall be solved and I'll know if Jimmy is permanently gone from my class or just again on a week-long suspension.

Poor Jimmy.....