Revelation

In my precalculus preAP class, I have about 50% seniors, some of whom find it difficult to actually put in the effort to learn the material, and some of whom find it difficult to get to class on time after lunch. And since we have instituted the new policy of no late people admitted to class, these kids often skip. .... Okay, I'm thinking of one boy in particular. Smart (bookwise) kid, but he has a major case of senioritis.

So anyway, he's failing my class, and he's finally figured out that he has to actually put out an effort to pass, so that he can go to college. He's been diligently coming to class lately. Today we had a quiz, and HE WASN'T THERE. Ach. Then after school, he comes rushing into my room, out of breath, saying he wants to be sure to make up the quiz. Fine, I hand it to him and am busy grading other things.

He looks up about halfway through the quiz, and says, "man, this is easy if you actually go to class." To which I had to smile and reply, "do you think other people know about this secret?" I don't have a good enough take on him to know if he was poking gentle fun at himself, or if he was actually amazed at the coincidence.

I've gotta love these kids. It's never boring.

Now listening to KMTH, all math all the time

For a few years now I've been successfully using the quadratic formula song to make it stick in the students' minds, and sure enough it works if "they work it". I have students coming back to visit and saying, "you know, I needed the quadratic formula the other day, and I still remembered it because of the song!"

So. Even though I'm teaching high school, and even though they were supposed to become proficient with fractions (+, -, x, /) in elementary (middle?) school, there are STILL students (gasp!) that can't manipulate the little buggers.

I came up with a fraction song that incorporates +, x, / to the tune of "jingle bells", and they've been practicing it for the last 2 days. It's too funny to watch them .... and the way various classes go about singing it. Some just really get into it and boisterously sing. Others, it's like they're reciting a death pledge or something .... all monotone and quiet. Too funny. Whatever, as long as they learn to do what they need to do. I'm going for 100% accuracy in 100% of my classes. Let's see what happens.

Still Breakin'...

Still loving Spring Break, but had to write about an epiphany I had .... or maybe I've had it before and I keep forgetting and then re-"having" it ..... so when does it stop being an epiphany? ... Or maybe since it's new to me each time, it still counts. Hmmmmm,

So earlier this year I had a horrendous time (the fall semester). It seemed that lots of demands and unreasonable expectations were being placed on me and the math department and there was a testing frenzy about the state test and "WHAT are we doing about it" and "how are you making sure the Algebra 2 team is in the same place" and "make sure they are all following the IPGs and are doing EXACTLY the lessons as prescribed in the IPGs (planning guides that are basically a script)" ... and I had poopy/rude kids .... and so on and so on. This semester is better. The kids have changed or I got some of them out of my class. I wrote a letter to our principal about how I felt, and that seemed to help. The jack*** lady who was supposed to be helping us with algebra 2 got replaced by someone else.

So what's the epiphany? Oooh. I forgot it again. Trick.

The epiphany is that I can be the calm in the center of the storm, and I don't have to buy into all the brouhaha that is swirling about me. I just have to concentrate on teaching the best I can and knowing I'm doing the right thing and just let everything else just wash over me and just be an observer and not make things worse for myself by taking on others' stress.

Deep breaths and "this too shall pass".

Spring Break

How excited am I to be on spring break? A whole school week and 2 weekends of sleeping in and being able to go outside during daylight hours and taking afternoon naps and going to matinees and reading reading reading and practicing the harmonica (when the dog we're dogsitting doesn't howl every time I start .... very insulting) and finishing the next step of my quilt for my next quilting class and just generally being.

Inservice Extraveganza

Yesterday (Monday) was packed with meetings (what else?). We had the morning 1 hour meeting that gave the "rah rah" as to why we need smaller learning communities. Then we had the 2 hour meeting with our potential group of teachers we'll be working with in our "academy". Then a few lucky ones of us had a 1 hour working lunch to discuss the "rising 9th graders" parents/signup-for-classes meeting. Then there was the 2 hour math meeting of what are you going to do for TAKS variety. And then to top it all off there was the 1.25 hour meeting to give us all a review of science and math facts so that we can intelligently discuss these things during home- room. Whew.

Simultaneously I was trying to grade 110 papers and figure out how in the heck I could make Tuesday's introduction to logarithms exciting enough so that when the 8 learning walk people (from central office etc) walked through my room on Tuesday, then they'd be all "ooh aah .... not phony at all".

Things went okay on all fronts. My class that had the "learning walk" .... they're so cute. When the people left after about 15 minutes (15 minutes of great behavior and showmanship), we all heaved a collective sigh and joked that now we could get the food out and hang out and do all sorts of "against the rules" stuff ..... and to top it all off, after that little "ha ha" we all got back to work. It's moments like that that make me love teaching and returning to these little tykes every day.

AND, shockingly, after my e-mail home to pregnant-surly-girl's mom about her not being in class since whenever, she was there today AND made eye contact and interacted in class. My my ..... how long will that last? Who knows, I'll revel in the small victories/successes.

Having Company

Tomorrow the superintendent and about a bazillion other people are taking a "learning walk" through 6 different math classrooms, and guess whose is one of the classrooms. (no cheating). So first I think, hmmmm I'm just introducing logarithms, hmmmmm could I get it more boring? I can't just state it and have them practice converting between log form and exponent form and that's that, can I? Then I think, well, I don't want to be (too) phony and "put on a show" of look how fun this is and how we incorporate games and alternate styles of learning and bla bla bla in our math classrooms. ... I think I've decided on a happy medium. If I just think of it as "company is coming over", and it's not phony to put your party dress on and be on your best behavior and mind your manners consciously instead of burping and picking up food with your fingers, then I think I can make peace with doing something a wee bit different from how I may approach this "normally". We'll see how it goes.

Quilting Teacher

Once again, it's extremely interesting to be on the "student" side of a learning situation. I had my 3rd of 4 quilting classes yesterday, and maybe it's a teacher thing, but I keep analizing the way she's teaching or the way she's interacting with us, her 4 quilting students. First of all let me say right off the bat that she has great skills and is imparting us will cool knowledge that will allow us, the beginner quilters to complete our project and be proud of the results. However.

Anytime someone has a question that does not fit with the current class, she seems a bit snippy or impatient and says with a humph in her voice, "we'll get to that next time. It'll ALL be explained next time." .... or when the owner of the quilting store walks through our "classroom" and makes a comment about the quilt tops, our teacher says (is it me or does it sound phony with that sing song quality of her voice), "they're doing such a good job. they turned out great." .....

I guess it's easy to be a critic. .... but it also gives me pause for thought on how I may come across to my students.

Sidenote: is it a bad sign that after 8 years of teaching, I'm more frequently having fantasies of retirement?

A midweek/midwinter break

How nice it was for the last couple of days to attend an SAT prep workshop and have a wee bit of a break from teaching. I apparently have gotten over my control freak behavior of HAVING to be at school all the time because it'll just be utter mayhem in my class and they won't learn and things could go wrong and ...... In fact, in my 8 years of teaching, before last year, the only times I was absent was for workshops. Last year I had a family emergency, so I was out an additional 3 days of the year. Now I'm like, eh, the break will be good for the kids and for me. I still don't think I'll ever take a sick day or mental health day .... mostly because I like my record (freak) and also because it seems that once you take it the day will probably go by quickly and maybe you'll feel robbed that it should have been much more exciting or fulfilling than it probably ends up being. ..... Also, when I feel in need of such a mental health vacation, I plan to leave school early on that day (translation: before 6 pm which is 1.75 hours after school gets out) and do something fun just for myself. That usually sustains me through the day .... the anticipation of the event and the event itself.

These last 2 days at the workshop have been great because:
1. We learned valuable things that I think will be immediately put to good use.
2. I got to go out to lunch 2 (2!) days in a row.
3. And breakfast :)
4. I had more of a chance to talk with a coworker and we had great conversations.
5. I met another colleague that I'd probably never have a chance to meet.
6. We got out of the workshop early both days, so I beat traffic and felt decadent.
7. We visited another H.S. and I saw how cool ours was (biased, totally)

Tidbits...

Today started out great because I got an e-mail from an old student who's now in college. I taught this student in the other school I was at in the northeast, and he just wanted to let me know that he enjoyed my class and all the things we learned and talked about. What a great kid :).

Then there's a girl I currently have who started out the year great, but became chatty and quiet and actually pulled a first on me a while ago (yes, the knitter!). So periodically for the last several weeks (months?), when I'm trying to teach and she starts (keeps) chatting, there's another girl in class that loudly tells her to be quiet .... now granted there are other people talking in class, but. So any way, I've just changed their seating arrangement, and without thinking about, the 2 girls are semi-next-to each other. Well, knitter-girl comes to me before class and asks if she can move her seat because she's having issues with this other girl and she doesn't think the other girl likes her and why do I always "praise" the other girl when she "rudely" shushes the knitter (perception is weird). Then this other kid who's hearing our conversation, pipes up with, "maybe she doesn't like us because we're smart." .... Oh please, please, please get over yourself. I tried to nicely say that it was rude to talk while I'm talking and even though they are smart, it's disturbing to others that are trying to pay attention to further explanations, etc. Not sure if it filtered through their ever so smart egotistical brains.

Then there's sweetie that always comes to visit my class before school starts. I've never had her as a student, but struck up a conversation with her last year when I had lunch duty. Anyway, I can always make her laugh, and she's good for a chuckle or two from me. So she reminded me today of her visit last week or so when she BEANED ME IN THE NOSE from across the room by throwing a chocolate peanutbutter cup at me. POW in the schnoz. Ouch. Of course it was an accident, and we had a good laugh over it, but ouch.

Then there's my sullen pregnant snotty girl who I think I've seen maybe twice in the last 6 school days. Heaven forbid she should make eye contact with me. Blach.

Then there's my puppy-dog last period class of younger 9th/10th graders who are so giggly and fun to be around for the most part. Today one girl had a picture of some current teen idol, and asked me if I wanted to date him .... and then proceeded to leave the printed out picture near my computer for me to ogle at :).

Thank You Note-ettes

Thank you to my 10-year old car with great gas mileage for choosing to die on a relatively safe spot, 10 minutes from my home on my 35 minute commute to work on Friday and allowing me to pull over to the side of the road before I was hit by other cars.

Thank you to the gas-station lady who let me, a non-cell-phone-owner, use her phone to call my husband after I couldn't successfully use the pay phone and my CVS calling card to complete the call (I was so SURE someone was jerking me around when the card numbers were accepted (twice) but my phone number wasn't). Note to self: memorize your 2-year old area code, do not use a random 1st digit from states past.

Thanks to the polite, helpful Texas cowboy who took time out of his morning to gently bump my car with his truck into an even safer parking lot nearby.

Thanks to my sleepy husband for coming to rescue me (twice. as he thought I solved the problem the first time and returned back home when he couldn't find me at the gas station that he thought I was at).

Thanks to my work friends for making me laugh and regaling me with their stories and suggestions and generally making the rest of my harried day pleasant.

Thanks to my students for listening to my car story and acting interested. And even thanks to E. who offered to buy my car for $500, for the smile that gave me.

Thanks to our friends at home who on Saturday took time out of their day to help tow my car back home.

Thanks to my general station in life where I have the resources (friends, family, money...) to be able to deal with such a situation and not have it snowball into an even greater catastrophe.

Parallel Universe

I'm experiencing both sides of the same situation. Through my work I have to interact with a person that I really don't like very much. This person has great skills, but keeps interjecting random statements everywhere that all basically boil down to, "gee look how great I think I am." Blach. So I feel hypocritical being polite to this person because inside I'm thinking, shut up already. But maybe that's just part of "civilized society". On the flip side of the coin, I have this student who I've had trouble with from day 1. (not being biased or anything), but this is not a nice person. Anyhoo, I believe this student is me in the previous scenario ..... I'm not sure (and GOD I hope not) that I go around giving off "I'm great" vibes, but I just don't think this child likes me. .... not that it's a requirement as a teacher, but it sure makes things go more smoothly. This child being a teenager doesn't hide his/her feelings as well as he/she could. So it's interesting to try to come to terms with my feelings in these 2 situations and to try to rise above it all ... not that I'm always successful.

Second Thoughts

So grades were due on Monday (2 days ago), and the last day of the 6 week grading period was the Friday before. Well, on Tuesday a student asked me if I had her grades and if she passed. This after her last minute (post last minute, as she turned things in on Monday) flurry of turning in late work for partial credit .... anyhoo, she did not pass (68%) .... [in Texas, the lowest passing grade apparently is a 70%]. Then she starts in on the, "is there anything I can do? I have to pass?" spiel. Oh my .... it wouldn't be so sad if it didn't happen every 6 weeks (this last minute flurry). Regardless to say, she did not pass.

Then (and here's where my 2nd thoughts come in). On that Friday (or was it Monday), I had another kid who's as smart as a whip bookwise, but a real a**hole otherwise. After doing his grades, he was squeeeeeeking by with a 68 or 69%. He happened to be in the room at the time and I had him redo this one particular assignment that he had turned in, and that boosted him up to a 70%. ..... So come today in class, I'm on one side of the room, and 1/2 way across the room I see him swaggering with a jerky bravado and bragging to one of his friends that he had passed all his classes .... the friend asked, "even this one?", and the jerky kid leans over and whispers something to the friend and they both chuckle. Hmph. Did I do the kid any favors, or did I just do him a disservice by helping pass by forcing him to redo an assignment? Back and forth and back and forth I'm wondering.

Full Moon Coming

Is it a teacher thing that I looked at the misty moon tonight, saw that it was *almost* full, and was dismayed and thought, "crap, they're going to be gamey soon, those little cherubs?"

Decadent Day

How much do I love the days when no students are staying after school, and I don't have to stay late to prepare for the next day (TAKS test all morning), and I can "sneak out" exactly when the bell rings and not have to stay until 6pm to wait for traffic to die down AND I get to indulge myself at the bookstore because I have a gift card AND some coupons? A lot (is the answer). And I even got home before dark AND I have time to surf the web before I get down to the serious business of exercising (treadmill and yoga) before making dinner. ..... Now if all Mondays could be like this, I think they'd stop having the bad rap they do.

On a side note ... someone gave me the brilliant idea of asking my snottiest (though extremely bright) student if she wanted to go on independent study .... so then I wouldn't have to look at her sourpuss face for the whole period or have to walk by her desk as she's doodling "I'm SOOOOO bored" in her notebook. .... I'm ironing out the details and will ask her soon. Just the thought of it put me in a good mood. ... But the evil side of me is whispering over my shoulder (no, keep her in class and make her suffer her boredom for all the grief she (you let her) put(s) you through ....). Hopefully, good will triumph over evil.

Rollercoaster week

Part of my coping strategies with this teaching thing seems to be to remember that every day is a fresh start, and even though you had a crappy day one day, the next could be terrific. So to catalog my week MtWthF (tuesday and thursday were crap days). Again can I say how much I love the first period that I teach ..... out of their mouths on Friday, "I have to say Ms. Cookie, you make math fun" .... (granted this from a student that I wanted to strangle earlier on in the year ... which is another lesson, wait until after Christmas to make your final "assessment" of students; you just may grow to appreciate them). ..... that caused me to say (unprofessionally, I might add), "hmph, come to my ___ period class" (the class with my snottiest, rudest, sleepiest students).

It was nice to commiserate with other teachers during lunch, if only to hear their tales of kids they did NOT get along with ..... AND after lunch, blessings of blessings, my most dreaded kid did not show up for class, and that made things run much smoother ..... AND they were actually awake for most of it.

Pissy Day

Okay, so maybe later the "expletive" will seem extreme, but REALLY, what a horid day today was. First of all, I find out that money was stolen from my classroom. (footnote: do not send an ever-so-helpful e-mail upon hearing about this that maybe I shouldn't be keeping valuables in my room. not conducive to warm fuzzy feelings towards you.) Then my rollercoaster success with one particular period of the day reached one of its lows. (do they sell bargain dartboards at the teacher store all ready for photos of particular surly/snotty/bitchy/crappy students?) Then I had to sit through 3 (not 1. not 2. but 3) meetings today feeling like crap and not engaged at all and having to pretend that I'm completely intrigued with the topics at hand while all the while I'm thinking, shut UP already.

On a bright note. It's time for bed.

The Quiet Ones...

So there's this SUPER quiet boy in my geometry preAP class, and he never talks with anyone, and he works alone when most others are helping each other out on problems and he NEVER comes in for help and he NEVER turns in his test corrections and he skips some homework and he was FAILING and failing and near failing for the last 4 sets of report cards. And I keep battling back and forth with myself wondering if he's appropriately placed and whether he would be better served in a "regular" class, but then I think, no, even if it's challenging for him, it's still good to get the exposure ..... and then I go to the other side of the pendulum, and in the last-period-of-the-day needy class of "squeeky wheels" that demand my attention in helping them solve various problems, he never raises his hand to ask for help, and he never solicits help from others and ..... on and on and on. ..... So I've made sure that I go over and help him when I can and I keep asking him to come after school for help and he never takes me up on it.

Well.

He was absent for a couple of days last week, a couple of crucial days, and he missed turning in a "quiz" that was worth a lot and he didn't do his quiz corrections, and SURPRISE he's failing. So. I basically (nicely) demanded that he stay after school yesterday (and today), and SURPRISE he did. And it was one of those freak times when no one else stayed after, and he could be as quiet as he wanted and I could concentrate solely on him, and sheesh, the boy does math. ..... He worked through all the hard word problems that the kids were struggling with .... and after we ironed out a few minor (unit changing) details, he got every single answer correct. Imagine that. And THEN, he stayed after today and did his corrections with me, and SURPRISE, he's passing.

And on his way out, he thanked me sincerely for the help. Then I thought to myself, sheesh, come in more often, buddy and you could be getting better than a C.

Warm fuzzy feeling :)

Patience...

Pop Quiz:

1. Which is a more effective, peaceful, and pleasant method of silencing your class and getting them to work?
a. All right you crazy kiddies (smiling), did you take chatty pills today? Let's get to work. Stop laughing and start working! Math isn't funny (again with the smile) , .....

b. Oh my GOD! Be QUIET!!!!! (deep breath with wide disbelieving eyes)

Hmmmm, even though I always theoretically know the answer, I still (today) in some periods (7th) revert to "b" when I'm not "consciously" teaching, and I'm just reacting.

On a happy note, tomorrow's another chance for a fresh start.

Surprise!

Okay, for the first time in my 40 years, I got a surprise birthday party :). Boy did my husband know how to keep a secret. I thought we were having 2 couples over for dinner, and on some ruse
(sp?) he got me to go over to one of the couples' houses and stay there for about 1/2 an hour. When I came back, there were cars parked near our house, and a big surprise as I walked in the door. Tres exciting. I don't like being in the center of the attention thing, but it sure was fun cherishing that these people either drove a LONG way and took time out to spend it with us this past weekend. That's what makes a nice life .... friends and laughter and all the good memories that come with it. ... That's one for the memory bank.

Being a Student

So yesterday, one of our (3!) ILTs set up for a math textbook author to come talk to us about the approach in his book and work through some activities with us. She was in the room with us, and 3 teachers took her up on the offer of coming to hear this guy speak. I went for one period, though he was scheduled for the whole morning .... but, I'm sorry, it's toooooo much work being out and making sub plans and "fixing" things once you get back, and besides that, you lose a day of teaching.

So in all fairness, he had some intriguing activities, and I'd like to investigate his book(s). BUT. ... So there we were working through this geometry investigation, and we're supposed to be working on it as "students" and he's giving us time to work on it, and he. won't. shut. up. and he. won't. stop. giving. guidance. and he. won't. stop. discussing. his. teaching. strategy. and our ILT (instructional lead teacher) has some sort of bug up her butt about always having to make some comments that "show" how much she knows or how "witty/savvy/smart" she is. Is it just me? or is that annoying and obvious? here are some highlights

"I find that when I am solving these problems, pictures are very useful" (said to maybe prompt some of us from just sitting there .... even though maybe we are thinking and analyzing strategies mentally)

"Go on, work on it. See what you can do." (said SEVERAL times in short intervals to the point that you couldn't think because there was TOO MUCH TALKING GOING ON)

So, anyhoo, at this point, I just shut down and go into observation mode and clock watch until I can leave to teach my class. And all the while I'm thinking back on when I teach similar activities, and do I do the same thing? God, I hope not.