What A Day

Well, today was quite an adventure. Since my last post it seems that things have only gotten worse and I’m really starting to feel the effects of the low morale and increased expectations at the school. On Monday, when I went in to work, as I was walking down the hall to my room in the morning I could feel this level of tension pulsating off of the students. It just felt like there was something in the air and that things were going to come to a head soon. Well, by this Friday here is a list of things that happened: 2 fights1 firedrill1 basketball game where the students were being awful1 teacher passing out in the hallway1 student coming into my classroom trying to start a fight with another student.All I can say to that is, thank God it’s Friday.  

Unhappy Faculty

So, our school is being updated, both physically and in pedagogy practice. “They” meaning the elusive powers that be in education, have decided that we, the mere peons in the teaching world, are not working hard enough and now need to use an online lesson planning program to plan for the week. Ideally, we will complete our plans for the week over the weekend and on Monday our administrators will peruse our great writings and make sure that we are all doing what we are supposed to be doing. Now, in our first faculty meeting of the year this new online program was demonstrated and explained to the entire faculty- and it did not go so well. The problem with this meeting, besides the fact that they are instituting one more demand that is going to add busy work to our day, was that there are two camps in our faculty: the young, computer-literate crowd, and the older, computer-illiterate group. So, in this meeting where three separate people presented their lesson plans and how they uploaded them and created links and all of that fun stuff, half of the faculty was tuned out thinking “just give me a username and password so I can go home and start playing with it so that, in five minutes, I can understand it,” and the other half was saying, “Are we going to get written instructions to tell us how to get online and do everything?” and, “Do we have to link all of the documents we are going to use? How are we going to scan them in? I can’t even send an attachment through e-mail and now you’re expecting me to do all of this?” Needless to say it was an extremely frustrating meeting for many reasons, and all that was accomplished was making people even more upset and grumpy about a procedure that is being required of all of us anyway so there’s really no reason for the to spend so much time trying to “sell” this to us and show us how amazing it is.

Now, I’m Mrs. Technology. I am a self-professed techno geek who plays online RPG games, blogs (obviously), craves an iphone, is considering using podcasts in the classroom, and started the entire English department using an online classroom environment to get the kids more connected with the subject through the use of technology. I will embrace this new technology whole heartedly and not complain about it. But there is something that frustrates me to no end: part of the demonstration showed us how we could simply pull up this online lesson planning site in our classrooms, and click on a link to a powerpoint, word document, etc. and project them right onto our smartboards and use them for instruction. Now, wouldn’t this thoroghly excite a techno geek? It would if there were ever any hope that these things might actually happen in the classroom, but I don’t foresee this happening any time soon. Why? There are numerous reasons.
1. It is an act of God for me to even get my hands on an LCD projector to use for powerpoint presentations in the classroom.
2. When I do manage to beg, borrow and steal an LCD projector to use in my classroom, the cords they provide me with are not long enough to reach from my computer to the place where I need to set up the projector for use.
3. There are about five smartboards in our entire school, and they are by no means for the English department; science and math get automatic dibs on them.
4. When I manage to schedule time in one of two computer labs the school has there are always numerous problems, including but not limited to the following: there are not enough working computers for the amount of students in the class, the entire network goes down and the students cannot log on, and the T1 network (which supports three schools) becomes so bogged down that it takes half of the class period just to log on and get on to the school’s homepage.
5. Somehow the math and science departments have managed to aquire laptop carts with enough laptops for a class but when we asked for a laptop cart for the English department to share we were instead given these crappy word processor keyboards with palm software on them that the students were supposed to use to type papers and print them out in the classroom.
6. This one is the best! At the faculty meeting where the online lesson planning program was being demonstrated, they couldn’t show us the full capabilities because they were having technological problems and the network was down and they couldn’t get online. Do they really think that it is going to be any better when all of the teachers in the building are trying to access this program at all times throughout the day?

All of these technological problems lead me to believe that the probability of getting this program working to its full potential in my classroom is slim to none. It’s so aggravating. They expect us to use all of this technology to help our students get ready for the world they will be working, living, and learning in, but they don’t provide us with the adequate resources to make it happen efficiently and effectively.

Wow- that turned out to be quite a rant. Do I think that this type of thing is a good idea? Yes. However, I don’t think a school should implement these things, and make them mandatory, until they are fully capable of supporting such technology. Also, I don’t like being given busy work and when you tell me that my administrator (who can’t even find time to complete the mandatory evaluations and observations that I’m supposed to have) is going to have time to read my lesson plans every week, it just makes me more aggravated that I know i’m doing this when no one is going to even read them.

Gotta love being a civil servant! If anyone else has worked with such a lesson planning program I would love to hear how it works and how well the faculty embraced it.

My Fourth Year!

Wow, I can’t believe that this is my fourth year of teaching already! I did, however, feel a difference as the school year began. I did not have the same level of anxiety and nervousness that I have had in the past in regards to the beginning of the year and the greeting of new students. This year, as I was gathering books, preparing my classroom, and planning lessons, it just felt as though the previous year had never ended. I felt very at ease and comfortable in the routine of teaching; I suppose the major difference this year was my level of confidence in my ability to start off the year with a bang.

We are now in the second week of the school year and I am actually somewhat amazed at how smoothly the beginning of the year has gone. I haven’t had too many students transferring in and out of my class, I have enough books for all of my students (except for the dolt who managed to lose his book after only having it for one day) and I’ve jumped right in to all of my units and have had great cooperation from the students.

I would say that my only major problem so far, and I know that I’m going to be kicking myself in the ass for saying this now and jinxing myself, is that my students, particularly my sophomores, do not talk at all in class! I have found myself ending the lesson with 5-10 minutes to spare because the students in these classes are not talking to me when I ask questions!

I do, however, have on particularly needy student who has managed to lodge himself up my ass already. He’s so totally annoying in every way, to both teachers and students. He, and another particularly vociferous student who also likes to talk just to hear himself, are both in a class together and whenever I offer a philosophical question they are the only two to raise their hands. After allowing the appropriate “wait time” and asking for other volunteers I finally give in and call on one or both of these boys who then speak for the next 5 minutes. Finally, I asked a question and when these boys were the only two to raise their hands yet again I said to the rest of the seniors, “If no one else raises their hand you’re all just going to have to sit here and listen to Boy A and Boy B speak again, so I highly suggest that someone else contribute to the discussion.” This seemed to click with the students and finally some others volunteered. I guess that’s one way to get the students engaged

I’m sure as the year continues I will have some fun and interesting stories to tell, but so far all is quiet in our small little high school.

Ahh…The Start of a New Year

Perhaps part of the reason why I wanted to be a teacher was because a part of me really never wanted to grow up. It is at this time of year, the end of the summer, that I truly feel like a kid again. I start staying up later and sleeping in (which is torture because I then have to re-train myself to wake up early), I start lounging around the house more claiming “But it’s one of my last days of summer freedom! I shouldn’t have to do any work, or even get out of my pjs until at least Days of Our Lives is over” (2 pm for those of you who don’t know).

Then, just as I’m sure the kids say when they get their schedules for the new school year, I get my class lists and immediately say “EEeewww….I have that kid again??” or “Awww man, not that one! Everyone says he/she’s terrible!” And then I step back and laugh at myself for being so much like my students.

Inevitably, just as I sit here tonight, the day before the start of the school year (at least for teachers) arrives and it is time to pull myself out of summer beach mode and slap on the responsible, professional teacher role. And, just as I’m sure my honor’s freshmen are saying right now, I sit here and think “the summer’s over and I didn’t read the book that was assigned for the first day of school.” Ha, gotta love being a teacher and being young at heart I guess.

So it’s the night before I go back to work and I’m trying to lull myself into some sort of pre-slumber state so that I can fall asleep at a reasonable time. My plan, as laughable as it sounds, is to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow morning so that I can go to the gym before getting ready to go to professional development. I’m always a little nervous about the first day back, even though it seems silly now that I’m a “seasoned veteran” in my fourth year of teaching (insert sarcasm here if you missed it earlier). It’s also exciting because, as much as I love my summers off, I do get bored and lack the intellectual stimulation that I get from teaching. So, tomorrow it’s back to the grind: getting the classroom ready for the kids, getting my books from the book room (which is always on the other end of the universe from where my classroom is located) and catching up on the planning and reading that I should have done over the summer so that I’m ready to teach. Ahhhh…..I can’t wait.

I’m sure I’ll have some more lovely updates now that life is starting again. Until then…..adios amigos.

Is it so much to ask?

This Friday epitomized my feelings and frustrations about this year’s senior class in particular, and all students in general. One thing at the end of the day just pushed me over the edge and really made me question what we are doing in education that is failing these students or why the students feel the need to fail themselves. One particularly vociferous student, who must always be right about everything but who also feels that English class “doesn’t do nothing for my future,” was studying, along with the rest of the class, for a vocabulary quiz. The students were getting a bit loud so I said, I will give you until 20 after to study for the quiz. (It was 1:16 when I said that.) The student said, “huh?” and so I repeated that I would give her until 20 after (gesturing to the clock) to study for the quiz. The student then told me that she didn’t know what that meant and that she wasn’t good at telling time. I was, most likely visably, annoyed. How can a student graduating high school not know how to tell time? Wht is perhaps even more frustrating than that, however, was the fact that the student refused to even take 5 seconds to stop and think about what the words “20 after” suggested and try to figure it out by looking at the clock. She then told me “do you know how many digital clocks there are in the world?” It just sums up the lazy, complacent attitude that so many of our students have taken-I suppose it’s one more example of how technology has done more harm to our society than it has good.

I have no problem with a student if they are just not very good at reading an analog clock or remember what the phrases like “quarter after, quarter of, half past, etc.” mean. However, it does really annoy me that they won’t even stop to try and figure it out. I know, or at least hope, that they are intelligent enough to stop for just a few seconds and use their brains to figure something out so why won’t they do it?

This can perhaps be summed up in my new favorite quote said by another English teacher in my school. A parent e-mailed this particular teacher saying that she didn’t understand how these students were “drowning” in her class and nothing was being done to help them. The teacher replied to the e-mail by saying, “The problem is not that they are drowning, it’s that they are refusing to swim.” So many refuse to swim and simply rely on the floating devices that they are given over and over again. These poor students, what are they going to do when they get out into “open water” and everyone refuses to throw them a flotation device? They’ll then need to both learn how to swim and watch out for the sharks at the same time! These poor students!

Scary and Ironic

So Monday morning, around 7am I woke up and decided to start reading a new book, since that’s what I do when I’m on break from school. I picked up the next book in my “to read” pile which happened to be Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. This book is about school shootings and why they happen and the aftermath of such tragedies. Jodi Picoult has quickly become one of my most favorite authors because she has such a great writing style and really manages to touch on the most pressing issues in our society today. So I read for an hour or so, got up, had some breakfast and went about my lazy April vacation day when all of a sudden on comes the news with the update on the Virginia Tech Shootings. What a tragedy! As a teacher this makes me even more upset and scared. I can’t even begin to imagine how such an event would change my life as a human being and as a teacher if I were on that campus that day- it gives me goosebumps just to think about it.
I just thought it was ironic to be reading this book about school shootings on the day that I began reading this book, which was just recently released.

Look Out Colleges and Universities of the World!

So, if the whole secondary school structure falls apart it can only mean one thing for colleges and universities, they will ultimately have to water down their curricula and expectations as well, which will only lead to less competent people moving into the jobs that sustain our society. It boggles my mind that, in a world where people are asking for more vigor and responsibility for students, that my school continues to press “common” and “standardized” exams between all of the teachers of a certain class. Now, while I, by no means, object to standardizing exams to ensure that all of the students in the same grade are learning the same concepts and studying the same material, I do feel that we are short changing our students for when they get into the greater academic world and are forced to learn how to play the many different games of their professors.

More than just asking us to come up with a common exam, they are also asking us to find “alternate methods” to giving exams. They don’t want us testing the students on “minute” details like character names and basic plot points from the stories and novels that we spend so much of our time studying. I understand the importance of focusing on the greater concepts in these novels etc. but isn’t it important that they prove their knowledge of these things by identifying major characters and events from the stories?

I don’t feel that i am so far removed from college, I’ve only been out for four years, and I clearly remember being asked to remember details from the semester on the final exam! What are we doing for our students? Giving them these ideas that they can B.S. their way through essay and “alternative” exams only for them to get to college and be shocked to find that they actually have to learn and remember something?

Grrrr…..please tell me that there are other teachers out there who are having the same problem.

The Book Thief

I just finished the most amazing book! I took my students to the library to choose outside reading books for book projects and I happened to see the title The Book Thief on the shelf and decided to pick it up. The summary on the book caught my attention as it said it was “Narrated by Death….[about] a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she discovers something she can’t resist- books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever they are to be found.” The book was amazing, and….well I guess the best thing that I can say about this book is that I was crying as I read the last few pages. There are also some great sections that a teacher could use to supplement a unit on the Halocaust. All in all I would give this book two thumbs up and recommend it for readers of all ages.

Done- List

I found this idea on someone’s blog and thought it would be interesting to start one of my own. So here is a list of the things I have done in my life:

1. Taken a candlelit bath with someone.
2. Said “I love you” and meant it.
3. Spent the night sleeping on the beach.
4. Slept under the stars
5. Changed a baby’s diaper
6. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment.
7. Had a snowball fight.
8. Screamed as loud as possible.
9. Seen a total eclipse.
10. Ridden a roller coaster.
11. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
12. Had amazing friends.
13. Been heartbroken longer than i’ve been in love.
14. Alphabetized my CD’s
15. Sung kereoke
16. Lounged around in bed all day
17. Fallen in love and not had my heart broken.
18. Made cookies from scratch.
19. Got flowers for no reason.
20. Been on a cruise ship
21. Spoken more than one language fluently
22. Broken someone’s heart
23. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
24. Ridden a horse
25. Had major surgery
26. Had my picture in the newspaper
27. Dyed my hair
28. Selected one important author who i missed in school and read
29. Read the Iliad and the Odyssey
30. Gone skinny dipping
31. Learned to rollerblade
32. Played the cello, flute, and piano
33. Sung a song in front of an audience
34. Slept on the beach for the entire night.
35. Spent an entire day reading an incredible novel.
36. Watched a lightening storm at sea
37. Done a striptease
38. Stayed up all night and watched the sun rise
39. Taken a sick day when I was not ill
40. Had a food fight
41. Hit a home run
42. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
43. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
44. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
45. Taken Martial Arts classes
46. Bounced a check ( I didn’t mean to, but it happened)
47. Pierced my bellybutton
48. Canoed down a river
49. Had my picture in the newspaper (At least 3 times)
50.

A firery beginning to the new semester

It’s my favorite part of the year (next to the end of the school year): The new semester! It’s a time when I can put all of the frustrating things from the first half of the year away and begin fresh with new classes and new curriculum. So, on Monday this week I was in a great mood enjoying the fresh beginning. The first class of the new semester was a study hall, which made the day even better because I was able to get some extra planning for the week done, and the students had spent 50 of the 55 minutes talking quietly and working on school assignments. I was in heaven! And then, a loud pop and my computer shut down. I immediately looked up and in the back corner of the room there were flames coming out of the electrical socket in the wall and my rug quickly started to burn. I yelled to the students sitting near the flames to step on them to put them out and then asked what had happened. It turns out that the two “gifted” freshmen boys thought it would be amusing to put a metal paperclip into the electrical outlet. I couldn’t believe this! I thought that everyone was taught at the age of two not to put things into those tempting little slots in the wall.

Needless to say I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Gotta love teenagers- they are truly unpredictable. I will, however, be venturing to the local home improvement store to find some child safety covers for the electrical outlets in my room.