Annnnnd We're back!

We had our back-to-school night Thursday and our first half-day of school yesterday. I don't feel ready to be back at work, but here I am, making desk assignments and trying to figure out what happened to summer.

I've noticed I have a surfeit of blond boys and small, dark-haired girls. They all look alike so far. Also, even with some low-ability special ed students, this looks like it will be a higher-ability class than I've had the past few years. They actually looked longingly at my bookshelves. I do have four exceptionally zippy boys, but that's nothing compared to the nine I had 2 years ago. That school year proved that I can live through anything.

My schedule is not for the faint-of-heart. I teach nonstop from 8:45 until 12:10. During this time I'll teach reading, writing, math, and language. Students will complete spelling assignments as morning work, leaving only science or social studies to be taught in the afternoon. I'll have to teach them during the last half-hour of the day. Lunch, recess, learning lab/Title 1/math centers, specials, and PE all come before I'll have instructional time again.

So, here's to a year good teaching, good students, and parents who won't go so far as to purchase/purloin tests for their students. I'm excited about the possibilities.

Wow--Where have I been?

I don't even know where to begin. Let's see if I can recall some of the highlights of the past 5 weeks:

1. Staying a half hour later, while beneficial (got that math curriculum TAUGHT!), proved to be really taxing. I was simply too whopped to blog during that time.
2. State testing came and went. I am hopeful that my students will show progress. We worked hard all year, and had a really great, productive review courtesy of the state--they used grant money to give us practice books that were, in all ways, similar to the test. Same number of questions. Same SPIs. My students' test anxiety was nil--they literally had seen a version of the state test.
3. I thought my days would be less hectic after state testing, but I was so wrong! I've had to submit my writing portfolios to the principal twice since then (not just me, everyone). If you don't know from writing portfolios (too much RHONY), let me tell you that they are a time-consuming pain in the tooshie. Writing pieces have to be scored with a rubric (6 Traits) and meaningful comments should be made on each and every story. And we're still not done. We would have finished this week, except for one small thing:
4. We had a major flood in my state and have missed an entire week of school. In May! For weather!?! Unprecedented. My city is downstream from Nashville--we got all of their floodwater a day or two later, plus all of our own. The dams on the Cumberland River were wide open (or overtopped!) and we have had severe flooding. Forget the 100 year flood plain--we had a 500 year flood. I can't articulate how devastating this has been for our state--it's just plain stunning to see the Titans' stadium flooded and a portable classroom floating down the interstate on the television. My son's piano teacher was distraught to learn that the Steinway at the Schermerhorn concert hall in Nashville was ruined. She had actually attended a concert there the night before it flooded. So many people have lost everything and have no insurance. You can't get flood insurance unless you live in the 100 year flood zone. Those outside the zone are ineligible. Hopefully, FEMA will help them out.

So, we go back to work on Monday after a week off. We have only 10 and a half days of school left and a ton to do. It's going to be a hard two weeks.

Now I can worry

I've read with sympathy and horror about school district woes across the country on the teacher boards I frequent. Some wrote of projections of 45 students in classrooms next year. All wrote of massive layoffs, going deep into their ranks--as deep as the 8th year of experience or more. So far, in my state, not as much as a peep. I seem to recall our governor being stressed about the budget, but promising education would not be affected.

My local newspaper today had a different story. Locally we're facing an 8.1 million dollar shortfall, due to incorrect enrollment predictions (down by 400 students), using part of the mandated 3% reserve to balance the budget previously, and the Lord only knows what other reasons. Additionally, they project that they'll have 7.9 million dollars in unfunded requests for the coming year's budget. They say they'll cut programs but try to leave classrooms alone.

I wonder which programs will get the axe. I'm hoping literacy coaches are the first to go--I don't think it's an effective use of funding to have a busybody running around the school, trying desperately to make herself relevant. Curriculum advisors are fairly useless, too, at least the special ed one I've met seems to be. The math, science, and reading/language arts ones do work hard--part of their job is overseeing the writing of our benchmark tests. Even if I can happily do without all of these folks, their salaries don't come close to being $16 million, so what else will get the axe? A new language series to replace our 6 year old one? I can live with that. Language doesn't change that much over 6 years. But after these, the cuts become harder to bear.

What I fear is that art and music classes will be eliminated. The daily PE classes at my school may have to go to 2-3 times per week. We don't have that much extra in our budget--years of no new property taxes have cut us close to the bone. Besides the effect this will have on these teachers, I worry about how it will affect students. We will truly become test-teachers when we eliminate art and music because these are the only classes where creativity is encouraged (or, alas, even allowed.)

I never had an art class in school. There wasn't one in elementary school, and I was never able to get in the one in junior high school. I had 2 music teachers in elementary school. One was a woman who would show up every now and then in our second grade class. She would begin each song by blowing in a pitch pipe and we would sing, reading the songs from a song book as we did. I remember we sang "A Froggy Went a Courtin'". I had another music teacher in fifth grade, a man. He hated rock 'n roll but loved jazz, and we were afraid of his short temper. I don't remember anything we sang. He came about once a month and terrified us.

Today, I can't sing a lick or draw very well and I wonder if I would be more musical or artistic if I had had a weekly art or music class. I like to draw, however poorly I do at it, but there's a lot about perspective that I never learned. I'm so incompetent at singing that I don't try it at all. :(

Okay, it's become a long post, but I'm worried that we're shortchanging our students. Heck, even before the rumors of budget cuts came, I was worried about our students. The joy of learning has been sucked out of so many classrooms as we concentrate on the damned test everyday, all year long. We begin preparing for it the very first day of school and don't stop until the day before the test. We begin preparing for the next year's test by pre-teaching content from the next grade level the week after the test is taken. There is no down time, no respite. We are a nation of testing teachers and our students are all test takers. Not scholars. Not excited learners. Test takers. It sucks.

Le Sigh

I have my own teacher website. (I'm not going to link it here in the interest of privacy--I want to be able to rant and if you know who I am, I won't be able to.) Mostly my website is the same as others--lots of helpful links for parents and colleagues. I have uploaded some things I've made for reading (a brochure-type thing) that have proven wildly popular. I'm not over-exaggerating, either.

I get several emails each week about the brochures. They're simple things, really, just a brochure that has three panels on each side. It has five questions that I took from the "guide on the side" of the teacher's edition and spaces to write the answers to the questions. Some unknown genius teacher came up with the original format, but it's easy enough to copy (steal!) and implement on one's own time.

I'm happy to share. Teachers should share, especially if they have better ideas than mine. I did the first 4 units (20 stories from the basal, folks--20 stories!) and then intended to do the rest as I needed them. But now, since Rotney's family obtained a copy of the assessment book and I've decided to drop this series in favor of the previous one, I'm not doing any more of the brochures. Mostly, because I'm busy reinventing the wheel as I try to come up with activities without the benefit of a teacher's edition. Partly, because I'm still mad about the whole assessment book mess.

Now comes the part with all of the emails. Ever single email that I get thanks me for the first four units and wants to know where the other two are. Begging. Pleading. Driving me crazy. I finally stopped answering them. That made me feel guilty, so I finally put a notice up on the website that this is all there is or will be this year.

I feel so relieved that it's all over. And, folks, these brochures aren't difficult to do. It takes time, a laptop, and a basal teacher's edition (ask Rotney's family for that last one--I'm sure they can get one for you!)

Fridays

Doesn't everyone love Fridays? We look forward to them all week long. We celebrate Wednesdays because we're now over the hump of the week, on the downward slope to the inevitable here-it-is-again Friday. Sometimes I worry that I've got it all wrong.

Maybe I should embrace Mondays, with their manic business as I try to prepare for the week. My students are always glad to see me on Mondays. I think they're victims of short-term memory loss, but it's nice to see their smiles on Monday mornings.

Or Tuesdays, the day of the hated computer lab and the crazy teacher because once Tuesday is over, I have a week before I have to face Tuesday again.

Or Wednesdays, because it's Art day. Art lasts 10 minutes longer than other specials and that 10 minutes is GOLDEN.

Or Thursdays. Wait--I have Cooperative Planning Teams on Thursdays. CPTs are the highly-staged mock-cooperative team drill we have to endure weekly. Instead of waiting until Thursdays, we cooperate all the time--passing in the hall, in the mornings, through email--why have these stiff meetings? Also, Thursdays are faculty meetings and IEP meetings. Often I don't get one minute of planning on Thursdays and I actually have to stay 50 minutes later. Thursdays suck.

I've got it. I'll celebrate everyday that's not Thursday! So, here's to the first not-Thursday of the rest of my life. I'm going to enjoy it!

Hodge Podge

Having math twice a day is working out better than I had anticipated. My students are learning about perimeter and area--much easier concepts to grasp than (shudder) adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. I taught and taught and taught that; I understand the "unlike" part--I intensely unlike anything to do with fractions now. Tomorrow we move on to probability. Hopefully this site, Math Live, will help. It has cartoons that explicitly introduce math concepts. I wish I had found it earlier this year, but it will help with the looming state test review.

There's not much going on. Rotney went home sick today; Moses went home sick yesterday. Both had stomach viruses. I'd be more excited about this, but my youngest felt fevered at bedtime and complained about a stomach ache--I may go in for a half day tomorrow and come home to spend the afternoon with him, if he wakes up sick or queasy.

There's a bit of a contretemps (I don't actually know how to say this word, but I know how to use it) about computer lab usage at work--2 teachers have signed up for the coveted end-of-the-day snowday make-up time for Monday-Thursday for the next month. Rather selfish, doncha know. If you knew one of them, you'd say rather typical. Some people. Of course, princiPal is out of town for the week, so it's going to fester for a while. Lovely.

Crunch Time!

Tomorrow we begin our Plus-30-minutes days of punishment. (You know what I mean--we've had so many snow days that they've added 30 minutes to our days until after our state testing.) It has been decreed that these 30 extra minutes will be devoted to Math, and one of the specials teachers or educational assistants has been assigned to every class during that time. I'll have my usual SpEd aide--she's fantastic and easily wins the award (if we gave one) for being the hardest working person in our building.

What will I do with this bonus time? CATCH UP.

I'm so far behind our math curriculum map that it's shaming. Especially since I helped make the darned thing.

It's not like I didn't know it would be impossible to stay with the map. Our standards have increased in rigor, and just by adding up the lessons that had to be taught, I knew we were screwed. But my princiPal doesn't seem to understand. I sense this because she's asked me many, many times why we, as a grade level, are so far behind where the map says we should be. She always gets the same answer(it's not possible!), but she's not happy about it.

I say she should ask the district math curriculum coordinator. It's her fault that we're not able to maintain the pace--she made us trim days off of units to add more days for review before the state test. What a dummy. I still don't understand the reasoning--trimming the days off didn't change the fact that those lessons needed to be taught.

Anyway, it's crunch time. I'll probably dream in mathematical symbols.

Frustration Reared Its Ugly Head

This is the first week we have a hope for a 5-day week in at least a month, and my students have forgotten that the purpose of school is to learn. They are at school to socialize. I've spent part of my precious instructional time in every subject correcting and admonishing students. They turn around. They leave their seats to wander. They talk. They pass notes. All of these behaviors while I'm teaching! Do they not know me at all????

So today they got the full tirade. For a full 10 minutes I lectured them on the purpose of school and their job as students. I spoke eloquently (and emphatically) about coming to school to learn versus coming to school to just be there. I told them that if they still can't simplify a fraction, the fault is theirs, not mine because I HAVE TAUGHT IT OVER AND OVER AND THEY HAVEN'T LEARNED IT BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO WANT TO LEARN AND PAYING ATTENTION IS WHAT PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEARN DO. I also promised failing grades to students who weren't learning what had been taught because I'm doing my very best and I expect them to do their very best, too. I don't think I've ever been as frustrated with a group of students.

I hope this helps. They sure did sit up straight and start paying attention.

A Good Day

I enjoyed today because it is one of the days I look forward to all year long. I'm idiotically happy whenever I get to teach students how to convert mixed numbers to improper fractions. I still remember how much fun I thought this was when I learned how to do it in junior high school. Yep, I didn't learn much of anything about fractions until junior high and until after seveth grade. My classmates and I were the victims of New Math.

I was okay with New Math for the first 2 years I had it. We did a LOT of set theory, and I do think it has made me a greater thinker than I would have been without it. Maybe I'm just smart and it hit me where I had a talent, but it made sense and wasn't at all painful. Then seventh grade came and HOLY HECK.

I've blocked out most of my seventh grade memories, but I'll always remember how desperate I felt. All of my teachers were secondary teachers--no more gentle souls tottering around in sensible shoes. My teachers were men (!) and aggressive young women's libbers. They were subject-area teachers and didn't seem to notice that seventh graders were 12 years old, not 17, and not ready to write essays. No one had taught us how to write essays and research papers and we were suddenly expected to--complete with footnotes, typewritten on my dad's old Remington, with ibids and ob sets. (Forgive me, Latin-teaching daughter. It's been more than 40 years. I'm sure I messed that up.) The entire experience was unnerving, but the math was horrendous.

We had to learn Math In Other Bases. If you can't wrap your head around why this was a problem, let me give you an example. In base 2, 1 + 1 equals 10. It made absolutely no sense to me, nor did base 5 (4 + 4 = 13. Really.) I couldn't have been more gobsmacked. I developed an aversion to math, limped through high school and graduated with 1.5 math credits. (If you wanted to get a diploma without doing much work, the 70s were a wonderful time! Even my dumb ole brother graduated. In fact, he graduated a year early by taking senior English at summer school after his junior year.)

Back to the math--why is it now my favorite subject to teach? I went back to college when I was 36 and had to take the required teacher math courses. Angst time! However, maybe 36 is the magic developmentally-ready-for-math-age, because I excelled. It all made sense, including the chapter on math in other bases. Emboldened by my success, I took even more math courses and found a favorite professor who cheered when I would solve problems in a creative way.

And, because I struggled so mightily with math when I was 12, now I have sympathy for my students. Some math (long divison, for example) is just hard. Buck up and learn to do it, and I'll be here to help you all that I can. But some math is so easy that it's fun to do, like converting mixed numbers to improper fractions. You multiply to the left and add to the right--we step to the left and slide to the right as we say it. At least I do. And today, everyone was riding along with me on my high, and everyone--every single one--was able to do it by the end of the lesson. Some won't have it tomorrow, but they'll pick it up again and feel happy that they've learned they can be competent about math.

Maybe tomorrow I'll tell about my colleague who told my Title 1 math students today that she's a better math teacher than I. ("It's not true!" Braided Boy said. "I never understand anything she's talking about and you explain things to us.") Or maybe I'll let it go and just consider the source.

Snow Days

We've had 8 snow days, including the one yesterday that was supposed to be a make-up day for one of the other snow days. So, actually, we've had 7 snow days and one snow holiday. Three days are "forgiven" because our school days are thirty minutes longer than the state requires. (This actually adds up to way more than 3 days, but 3 days is all they'll give us. They have a "don't ask because we won't tell" policy about this. Of course, "they" is the powers that be.)

So we now have 4 days to make up. And TESTING is JUST AROUND THE CORNER. You can practically SEE IT COMING.

Really, we're all stressed. Our curriculum map is in tatters. I'm so behind in math that I doubt I'll ever catch up and heaven forbid that I don't teach each and every SPI to mastery because my butt is now on the line (see previous post where government screwed teachers by tying evaluations to test scores).

The solution? Not four Saturdays. Not extra days at the end of the year for students because that would be past the almighty TEST DATE. We're going to add 30 more minutes to each school day.

Yikes.

I like this idea and I don't like this idea. I'm afraid my class won't want to have an extra 30 minutes of structured math time (because that's what it has to be--I can show a video and take care of Social Studies, but I can't get them to where they need to be in math without a lot of time on task.)

It's going to mean more planning--dedicated lesson plans for those daily 30 minutes. It's going to require some additional resources. It's going to require that third Diet Mt. Dew. Be still, my caffeinated heart.

I have about 2 weeks to get ready. On your mark, get set, GO!

A Long Day

My husband woke me at 5 o'clock to a dark and somewhat cool house. The power was off, and he was leaving for work. He knew there was no way on earth that I would ever wake up without my alarm clock. Unfortunately, 5 o'clock is about an hour too early. And I hadn't gotten much sleep--less than 5 hours, in fact.

I tried to read by candlelight, but that didn't work. (How did Lincoln--happy birthday, Abe!--do it?) Son and I ate pop-tarts and watched a saved Magic School Bus episode on my laptop, before I took him to school and went to work.

At 9:30, I got a Connect Ed call. His high school was still without power and students were being sent home. My husband also received the call, and took off work to go home. He didn't want him to be alone at home if there was no power. They both arrived home at nearly the same time and ten minutes later the power came back on. They had a great afternoon--son playing on his laptop, husband napping on his couch.

And I? I had to answer the question, "When is the field trip?" eighty-seven jillion times because today was the day of our field trip to the dentist's office. When I wasn't doing that, I was answering the question, "When can we pass out our valentines?" Fun, fun, fun!

Actually, I enjoyed the field trip, except for the part when Rotney told everyone that the pink capsules were made from blood so it would make their teeth look bloody. Yuck. Incredibly, some fourth graders will believe anything, if for no reason than the utter grossness of it. When the trip was finally over, they were all very excited to receive free toothbrushes and other dental products, so excited that some readily popped the toothbrush into their mouths to chew on them. I guess that didn't pay close enough attention to the toothbrushing demonstration. . .

Additionally, I gave them the free T-shirts I received last summer from the author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Since everyone immediately donned them, I'm going to extrapolate that they liked them. I thought that since the movie is coming out this week end, they might appreciate them. :)

And the six students who brought valentines to give out made everyone happy. We're not supposed to have a valentines party; they're only allowed to give out cards. Happily, several of the cards had candy attached to them.

A fun time was had by all. :)

Back to School

I guess we're going back to school tomorrow. There's still 3-plus inches of snow on the ground, but the city roads are clear. I guess the county roads are, too, since we didn't get the ConnectEd message canceling school.

It's tough to teach every other other day. Last week, we were in school Wednesday through Friday, having missed the previous three school days. My normally well-behaved class was absolutely bonkers for those three days of school. Too much time off and not enough time-on-task.

Monday came, and my class was back! Working. Not talking incessantly. Ready for the day. So, of course, we had an early release day. Totally pointless and a waste of instructional time.

And then we had two more snow days.

Tomorrow I'll be right back where I was a week ago, trying to corral an absolutely bonkers class.

Seriously, will this be taken into account when my test scores bomb because I wasn't able to teach how to add fractions with unlike denominators? I've been introducing fractions for the past 2 weeks and I've yet to get to lesson three!

I love snow days. I hate snow days.

More snow is predicted for next week.

Adventures in Pencil Integration

From the blog sidebar: "The year is 1897 and Tom Johnson works for a small school district. This is the story of the journey to move into the twentieth century with paper and pencil integration initiatives.

Yes, this is entirely fictional and any relation to "real life" is entirely coincidental."

If you're a tech-savvy person who doesn't like working with people who are actually fearful of on-line grade books, this is the blog for you. The premise: slates are becoming passe'. Adventurous teachers are moving forward (with some trepidation) to using paper and pencils. Students are introduced to "plogs" (pencil-logs). Teachers fret over whether students are responsible enough to wisely use the technology--what if they start drawing???

Go to the beginning of the blog (around the first of the year) and enjoy this fine bit of satire. The author, John Spenser, also maintains Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher. Both are good reads and regularly up-dated.

Snow Day Today and Tomorrow

Thank goodness for the snow days--I'm sick with a cold--snotty, coughy, feverish, and achy--nice not to have to use a sick day today. I had to take a 3 hour nap this afternoon, and those just aren't allowed at school. :) However, I'm sad about the snow days, too.

We did go yesterday (Monday), and Sweetie Boy told me that this would be his last week at school. I'm so bummed! Sweetie Boy has made so much progress this year, proving that he's not unintelligent, just uneducated.

I wish him the best, and I'm sorry this week is hastening away with snow days. I'd like to enjoy the few remaining days with Sweetie Boy.

I don't think this post is as sensical as I would like. Let's blame the meds.

Pencil Problem seems Solved!

I bought a bunch of pink pencils--bright, bright pink ones. I showed them to the class, and asked that no one else buy pink pencils like mine. I also told them that I could not afford to give them any more pencils. They are welcome to borrow a pencil for the day. I explained that "borrow" means to use for a while and then return to the lender in good condition. They evidently listened, because I still have all of the pencils. I do have to (usually) ask for their return at the end of the day, but I'm willing to do that. No one minds returning them, and I get an unsolicited "thank you" from most students.

This may be the best pencil idea I've ever had!

It's sad, the things that make teachers happy. ;)

I didn't watch the Superbowl

The Superbowl was on, but the TV was behind me as I worked on my lesson plans at the kitchen table. Consequently, I didn't watch any of it. I worked for hours--rewriting the science test, making a study guide for each science lesson, and making a chart for math. I'm getting a cold and my eyes are itchy and blurry. After staring at my laptop screen all afternoon and evening, I must now be legally blind. I am typing this with my eyes closed, only opening them to check for squiggly red lines.

Thanks for listening to my whine. Here's your cheese. :)

It's Just Wrong When Friday is the Busiest Day of the Week!

Friday's are normally a little hectic--it seems there's always at least 2 tests on Fridays. But there needn't be an IEP meeting with Rotney's family and an incident in the boys' restroom and 3 tests on Friday. That's just mean.

Just before lunch, Moses flew into the boys' restroom and forcefully slammed a boy into the sink. Boy was crying, Moses was saying, "It's okay. It was just an accident," in a manner that indicated he really thought it was okay he had nearly broken the sobbing boy's ribs because It Was Just An Accident. Arrgh.

This comment is about as welcome to my ears as "I was just kidding". It's always said after an unkind remark has been made. Saying "I was just kidding" doesn't make it better. Saying, "It was just an accident" doesn't make it better.

Moses is an Aspie, so it approaches being acceptable that he made the remark. I still held him responsible, though, even if I didn't punish him. I don't think he grokked my explanation of why it wasn't okay, but at least he heard it.

The meeting with Rotney's family went fairly well. I think one member of the family realizes that the other was in the wrong for acquiring a copy of the basal test book, and that Rotney has not been done any favors being taught to memorize everything and not think about anything. We've added more support services. They were appreciative, if not still a little demanding. Whatever. I don't want to put up with another knockdown, slap down meeting with them. Life's too short and we're on the downward turn of this school year.

My friend was released from the hospital today. She did have a mini-stroke, caused by a very small, inoperable aneurysm (that's a ridiculously hard word to spell!) in her brain. They will monitor it, checking every 6 months or so to see if it's increasing in size. It must be worrying--she must feel like a ticking bomb. She will be back at work on Monday; the doctors said she should return to her routine life as soon as possible. Keep your fingers crossed for her!

Best Friend Update

They're still not certain why my friend had her episode yesterday. For now, they're calling it a mini stroke. She's still in the hospital and tests are still being done.

She's someone who totally gets me, and I need her to be there to interpret my actions to the ones who don't. :)

Gosh, I miss her!

My Best Friend

I've written on here before about my best friend at work. She's the Special Ed teacher assigned to my inclusion class. We're both avid readers with similar tastes and we're always giving each other books (Okay--she gives me books; I lend her books. It works for us.) I'm her shoulder; she's mine.

Today she was taken from her home in an ambulance. She woke up, got dressed, and walked into the living room and started speaking gibberish to her daughter. Her daughter checked her pulse and blood pressure and both were sky high. My friend has no memory of this--she only remembers waking up in the hospital. She called me from the hospital, speaking with slurred speech and making little sense at times. At other times, she made sense, but the slurred speech was always there.

They think she's had a stroke, but they're not sure. She's been sent from our community hospital to a large teaching hospital about an hour away for more tests.

I'm so worried about her. She's 61 years old. She wanted to teach another year or two before she retired. She may not have that option anymore.

I get to work tomorrow!

Finally, after seven days (in case you've lost count--2 sick leave days, 3 snow days, and a weekend) I get to be a teacher again. The roads are clear, the parking lots and school driveways (incredibly, that kept us out today) are clear, and everyone is sick of being at home.

I've worn out the internets the past few days. One of the teacher boards I frequent had a post by a teacher that made me laugh. Maybe everyone who says we need to overhaul education has come across a teacher who expresses herself this way:

I used to spiratically jump on here and participate but haven't in a while.

Is anyone else picturing this teacher on a mini-trampoline, jumping and doing three-sixties as she participates? Clearly she meant "sporadically". It's frightening to think that to her ear "spiratically" sounded the same.

Maybe she's a closet pirate freak.

Maybe she does jump on a trampoline.

Or maybe she's one of those teachers who took the Praxis test half a dozen times, finally passing on her last possible attempt.

Those teachers are out there. They think they can teach primary grades because "First grade is so easy!"

They make me hang my head in shame.

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

I hate grading papers.

Hate it.

Thanks for listening.

Robert Jordan

I've been reading his series of 12 books steadily since Christmas, and I've yet to finish the fifth one. I feel like a reading failure since I normally take 2 or 3 days to finish most books.

However, most books aren't thousand-pagers. The fonts are small, too.

The main plot line has now split into three separate plots; it's dense and confusing reading. I frequently have to check the glossary to remember who someone is and how to say a particular proper noun (name, place, or thing).

In the fifth book, one Very Important Character hasn't been mentioned at all. I guess he'll get page space in book 6.

Accidentally reading the first 30 or so pages of the sixth book and learning of a key character's death has made me attuned to any nuance of foreshadowing about this character. I'm probably reading too much into most of it.

I'm enjoying the read, but it will be the end of March before I finish this series. I'm just not used to anything taking that long to read.

And it's seriously going to encroach on my rereading of the Dresden Files series, prepping for the next book release in April. I've got about a dozen of those to read, too.

My eyes hurt, but I'm captivated by the thought of being an Aes Sedai, so I'll plug along.

It's been a long time

Today marks the sixth consecutive day I have been out of school. I was out on sick leave on Wednesday and Thursday (my mother had cataract surgery). We had a snow day on Friday and another snow day today. I hope we go to school tomorrow because I won't remember my students names if I stay out much longer.

I need a checklist

The worst part of my job has to be the requirement to do things that I don't see the need for. Over the past few weeks, it has been decided by the princiPal and her pal, Wormtongue, that we all need to include in our plans:

1. Embedded writing in all subject areas.
2. Evidence that we're spotlighting the Trait of the Month in a writing activity.
3. A lesson spotlighting the math problem-solving strategy of the month.
4. A lesson or station addressing the reading strategy of the month.
5. A "Rigor and Relevance" lesson.

All of these need to be highlighted so that the cursory inspection by the princiPal will show her that we've jumped through another hoop.

And hoop-jumping is exactly what it all is. Planning and doing are two different things. Writing it in my plans doesn't mean I intend to do it. What I intend to do is teach the standards in a manner that I decide will enable my students to learn.

I hate being micromanaged.

Absolutely hate it.

Let's See

I could write about the problems my class is having with one BAD student in another class during their joint PE time, but I just don't want to go there.

I could write about my problem with Rotney's family this week but, happily, it was resolved amicably, and I've already been there many times.

I could write about my students who collectively think I own a pencil factory, but there's no point in going there because complaining about it won't solve the problem. (Buying a pencil factory will.)

Oh, I know! I'll recommend my three favorite educator blogs--the ones that make me laugh, the ones that fill me with admiration, the ones that make me think! Here goes:

Look At My Happy Rainbow written by kindergarten teacher, Matthew Halpern, both makes me laugh and fills me with admiration. His posts are insightful observations about his students. Mr. Halpern seems to be everything that all teachers try to be--caring, compassionate, and totally on top of what he's doing. And what's not to like about reading about kindergartners?

Michael Smith's Principal Page: The Blog is another favorite. I envy his "voice" and writing style. Previous topics include the declaration that any educator who can't microwave popcorn without burning it and stinking up the school is incompetent and therefore should be fired. I tend to agree with that! His light and funny style is very readable. He's actually a superintendent now (perhaps even still a principal) in a small school district in Illinois (or maybe Indiana--I always confuse them).

Confessions of an Untenured Teacher by Sarah, who teaches language to students with hearing loss, is another good read. It has short-but-sweet observations about school and life.

Okay, fatigue has hit. (That reminds me--I need to write "fatigue" on the board and see if my students can pronounce it. Fun for me and educational for them! Yes, we'll also discuss meaning. Sheesh.)

Have a great rest-of-the week. We're supposed to have a significant snowfall on Friday! The last time that was predicted, we got a half-inch. . .

Moses

This is from our math book, an illustration of a geometric pattern. The simplistic description of the pattern was: "Take away bottom row of triangles". That's not very mathematical, so I wondered aloud if I could find an equation to represent the formula. "Let's see," I said, "You start with 15 triangles, then you have 10, and finally you have 6.'

Moses, waving his arm wildly, interjects, "That's not 6 triangles, there, Mrs. Matters. There's 9 triangles."

"Nine, Moses? I count only 6."

"You didn't count the white ones, Mrs. Matters."

Rotisserate?

One of my SpEd kids scored an 85 today on a math chapter test, which is a major achievement. Fred is quiet and thoughtful. Most of the time I think he's not paying attention, but then he surprises me with the correct answer. He has difficulty with reading, but not understanding--I need to remember that.

Today's test was on motion geometry--transformations, geometric patterns, and tessellations. We had done a tessellation activity earlier in the week. After the test, we did a more specific exploration. Students were given tag board and instructed to make a scalene triangle, trace it onto the pink and yellow sheets of paper I had provided, cut out the triangles, and see if they will tessellate. (And the activity was so messy--scraps of paper everywhere!) Fred was working with a group at the table and I overheard his instructions as I walked by: "You have to make a triangle and see if it will rotisserate." While it's a laughable error, it makes sense. You do have to spin the shapes around as you fit them together to see if you can find a tessellating pattern. But where did my Fred, who lives in the projects, ever hear the word "rotisserie"?

Feeling Rather Desperate

My state has succumbed to the Race to the Top initiative. In order to qualify for a federal grant that we may or may not be selected for, the governor called a special session of our state legislature to upend teacher tenure and our evaluation process. Value-added assessment scores will now be used for up to 50% of each teacher's now annual evaluation. And damned if he didn't want it to be 51%--enough to fire a teacher. Here's the letter I wrote to my state senator and representative* (personal info hidden or reworded):

Dear Representative ###### and Senator ######,
I am writing to encourage you to support fair reform of our state’s tenure laws. As a teacher in a Title 1 school in the ###### School System, I have seen some teachers who need to retire or be fired, and support any change to tenure laws that would enable the judicious removal of them. However, I believe Gov. ######’s proposal to tie tenure to the value-added assessment system is unfair for several reasons.

First, let me state that I have great value-added scores. My position is not endangered by the use of value-added scores to evaluate me, and I achieved these scores while teaching in an inclusion classroom where approximately 50% of my students qualify for free/reduced price lunches. Why am I speaking out? Because, to me, Gov. ######’s plan is highly flawed. The most prominent flaw of his plan is to make testing high-stakes for teachers, but not for students. A teacher is then at the mercy of her students’ performances, however capricious these performances may or may not be, but nothing will happen to a student who willfully decides to fail a test. If the state wants to judge teachers by value-added scores, then please help level the playing field. Please insist that student accountability also become a feature of our state’s testing policies.

Secondly, value-added scores are tied to state tests, given to third through eighth graders. How will teachers who teach in untested areas be affected? How will the state determine accountability for kindergarten, first, and second grade teachers? How about high school Latin teachers? Or teachers of European history? Or physical education teachers of any grade level? Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t found any discussion of assessing teachers except for those who teach in grades and subjects that administer the state test. Adding assessment to the primary grades is a staggeringly bad idea—to put five, six, and seven year olds through the stress of taking a state-mandated test would be developmentally inappropriate. Adding tests to Latin I classes or health classes would be cost-prohibitive. So, how will these teachers be assessed? Will the assessment be as high-stakes as the one that will be used to judge third through eighth grade teachers? Please ask these questions of Gov. ######.

Finally, where on earth will our state find teachers to fill our classrooms if we fire beginning teachers because of poor value-added scores? Teaching is an extremely taxing profession. I will readily admit that my first five years in the classroom were spent becoming a competent teacher, often at the expense of my home and family. Even now, in my thirteenth year of teaching, I spend hours and hours out of the classroom preparing lessons, grading papers, and researching new teaching and management methods. It was even more difficult when I was a new teacher and learning the curriculum for six different subject areas. Thankfully, I had time to work out the kinks of my pedagogy, and quickly became a very competent teacher. Are we going to kick today’s new teachers to the curb, or give them time to develop the skills needed to be a quality teacher? It would behoove our state more to direct money to a quality support system for new teachers than to fire a first year teacher for her poor test scores. Let’s try to do this instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, or the rate of incoming teachers will never meet the loss of teachers to attrition.

Thank you so much for the time you’ve spent reading this. I encourage you to ask some hard questions and refuse to let a vote be railroaded through in an effort to grab a multi-million dollar carrot. Please encourage your colleagues to do the same.

Respectfully,
Elementary Matters

I received no reply from the state senator but did receive this reply from my state representative:

Dear Ms. Matters,

You ask some very good questions and so far, the administration has not been able to give us specifics, for various reasons...mostly they are "protecting the integrity and secrecy of our state's application for funds."

We will continue to press for information and I greatly appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

Keep up the great work.

#####

I did all that I could, and greatly emphasize with our union's president who wrote:

"I know in my heart I have failed Xxxxxx’s Teachers. Not only have I failed Xxxxxx’s Teachers but also I feel as if I have brought a pox on our members. I am concluding the most anguished week of my life during this special legislative session. Before this week, the worst event in my life was waiting by my mother’s bedside to see if her stroke would kill or paralyze her. I know many of you are angry, mad and frustrated and I want you to know that I am as well."

Before I read his letter, I hated the man. I felt he had let us down. But now I understand that he was put between a rock and a hard place and had to agree to abide by whatever happened because the governor had all the votes he needed.

I had naively believed that when Obama was elected to office that the hated and despised NCLB crap would end. I didn't know Obama was driving a U-Haul full of his own crap into the White House. I have no one left that I care to vote for, and I've voted in every election since I was 18 years old (except Reagan's first election--not registered and had a new baby). I don't think I'll make it seven more years until retirement. Between PITA parents and now PITA governors and presidents, I think I'd be happier asking, "Would you like fries with that?"

*I also wrote to the governor about 2 weeks before this (on Christmas day, if memory doesn't fail me), and I never heard back from him, either.

Recap of Last Week

We returned to school on Monday, Jan. 4 for staff development. Like all days devoted to staff development, it was fairly boring. Half of our morning was spent was spent in the library, where there was no heat to be found. None. We were all sitting there, wearing coats and gloves. (Ever try to pretend to take notes wearing woolen gloves? Not so easy.) During our first break, I pointed out to the princiPal that I had heat in my classroom, trying to subtly suggest a change of venue. It flew right over her head. Undaunted, I now went with the direct approach: "You know, princiPal, I have heat and plenty of room for everyone in my classroom". Ah-ha. She got it. Everyone moved to my room for the remaining hour and we cranked up the heat to 80 (a violation of system's 74 degree policy). It's so much more fun to be bored when you're warm!

Tuesday, Jan. 5--School resumed and totally ruined my birthday. ;) It happens every year (or near enough), so I'm used to it. After hugs and "What'd you get for Christmas?" queries all around, we jumped right back into the curriculum. Things went surprisingly well--everyone was on task and eager to learn.

About 10 o'clock, one of my sweetie girls came up to me with a $100 bill. "Is this real?" she asked. Yep, by golly it was! When I asked her where she had gotten, she said a girl on the bus had given it to her. I thought, "WTF!" but I said, "What on Earth!" I called the Lead Teacher (P.E. coach who handles discipline) and his exact words were "Hoo Boy!" I sent Sweetie Girl off to see him after reassuring her that she was not in trouble. Turns out a girl from another class had taken the hundred and a $10 bill from her mother's wallet and given them away while on the bus. (My husband said that the girl who only got ten dollars was really ripped off. ;)) The money was held in the office until the mother could retrieve it. We speculate that she was trying to make friends. Thank goodness for the honesty of my student--or was it really naivety?

Wednesday--My class walked in chatting away and stayed chatty for the rest of the day. Why? There was snow in the forecast, and that was all that their little brains could focus on for the rest of the day. We get snow rarely enough around here, and the forecast was for from 2-4 inches. Visions of snowballs danced in their heads!

Even though not a flake had fallen yet, all of the surrounding school systems decided to cancel school for the next day by Wednesday evening. Not mine. I think they like to wake us up with an automated phone call at 5:30 A.M.--at least that's what they did on Thursday morning. >:(

So, the snow came on Thursday--the entire half-inch of it. We were closed because the streets were slippery with snow that had stuck immediately. As the temperature fell that afternoon, the roads re-froze and, wonder of wonders, for the first time ever, school was cancelled the day before instead of the morning of! Seems lots of parents grumbled about having to find day care at the last minute, and my school system is nothing if not reactive to parental complaints.

So, to recap: I was off for Christmas break for 2 weeks (16 days), came back for 1 staff development day and 2 school days, and then enjoyed a 4-day weekend. I won't remember how to get through an entire week next week. I think several naps will be required!