The personality of a class

It's funny how one class can have such a different personality than another. This is never more apparent than it is with my two AP Psychology classes this year. My second period has 29 students, many of whom are bright, curious and funny. My sixth period has 24 students, many of whom are also bright, curious and funny. However, my 2nd period is a vastly different group of students as a whole than my sixth is. In my second period class it always takes much longer to complete a lesson. With my sixth period, I am frequently done early, whereas I'm always sneaking a little time from the announcements (shh! don't tell the principal!) to finish up the lesson. Why is that? Well, first of all, any class that has 29 students is going to take longer to do anything - presentations, handing out papers, attendence, etc. But what I've noticed is that the students are just genuinely more curious about the subject than my sixth period is. They ask more questions. They ask more thoughtful questions. They discuss the topic with each other more (and ok, yes, sometimes it just takes a bit longer to get them focused on the topic, but that's to be expected from any class of 29 students, really).

Here's an example:

I assigned debate topics to groups of four students. They were to present their topic, state their opinion, try to persuade the class, etc. The guidelines gave them 30 minutes to have the debate in front of the class, and then they were to take questions from the class, so all in all, they would probably go a little longer than 30 minutes if they followed the guidelines of the assignment.

In my sixth period, we got through four of the groups in about an hour. And while that averages 15 minutes a group, I can tell you right now, that only one group took about 20 minutes, while the other three groups took at most 10 minutes. At the end of each group's turn, when it came to ask questions, it was the typical cricket chirp response (that would be a great giant silence, in case you were wondering).

Today in my 2nd period, we got through three groups. And I had to cut off two of the groups and the question/answer period at the end because we were running out of time.

By the way, they had the same list of topics:

Should the insanity defense be used in criminal trials?
Should animals be used in medical testing/experimentation?
Are humans naturally good?
et cetera and so forth.

So why does this happen, one wonders? What magical grouping of children did I get in 2nd period that I don't have in 6th? I am quite convinced that i have some of the brightest students in the 11th grade class in my sixth period. I have some very bright students in my 2nd as well, but I think that I have something like 8-10 out of sixth, and 5 or 6 in my 2nd. That's nearly 40% of my 6th period and 20% of my 2nd. So what's the story? Here are some theories:

1. Time of day: I have my second period first thing in the morning: 7:30-9:05. Ok, this could actually be an argument for less of a stellar performance, especially given all the research on sleep and teenagers recently. But, I'm getting them first thing, they haven't gone to any other classes, and so maybe haven't had a chance to be exhausted by the rest of their day yet.

2. Number of lower performing students in the class. The percentage of students in my 6th period who have lower skill levels, and weren't prepared for an AP level course is higher than it is in my 2nd period. I also think that many of the students in my 6th period aren't really that interested in the course, and therefore just don't care to participate as much as in my 2nd period. I also think I have a higher number of "performers" in my 2nd period - they are more willing to talk, more willing to take chances than in my 6th period.

3. Time of day part II: By the time I get to my sixth period, it's already the third block of the day (it's 11am), and I'm tired, so perhaps I'm not conveying properly my ideas about how the assignment should go, or something like that.

So the question remains, as it does for any good teacher, how can one avoid this syndrome? How can one alter the personality of a particular class so that the lesson goes equally well in one class period as it does in another? Ah, the eternal question.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again

My dear AP Psychology students,

Please, please, for the love of all that is good and holy, do NOT prescribe a prefrontal lobotomy for anxiety!!!

Every year for the last five years that I have used this one essay that asks students to describe treatments for anxiety, my students have leapt right onto the lobotomy (or just as bad, electroconvulsive therapy) bandwagon. Why? Are they so quick to think that brain surgery is a great idea, and would really help some poor soul who feel anxious all the time? Brain surgery? Really? Something that is irreversible?

Really? And especially given that without fail every time we talk about drug therapy (the appropriate answer, just in case you were wondering), they all remember the commercial for the drug with the little bouncy ball thing:

See, and now you can see why I'm worried.

Maybe this would have helped...

In class today we asked our students: "What was Ronald Reagan's policy in the 1980s towards the USSR?" We were looking for something along the lines of "Massive military build up". One of our students replied "Coupons!"

Let the whipping begin…

I am beginning to understand the impulse behind the Flagellants. At their height during the incidences of the Black Death in the Middle Ages (1348 ish), they wandered from town to town, whipping themselves because they believed that the plague was a punishment from God. They would often beat or even kill those who opposed them. And of course, in the process of traveling around the countryside, whipping themselves eagerly, they probably brought the disease with them.

So, why do I say that I understand the impulse that drove these people? Well, I’ve begun a sort of mental flagellation as I watch my students prepare for the AP exam. I’m reading through their essays right now (well, obviously not RIGHT now, as I am typing this instead of actually reading their essays), and feeling that given that the AP exam is next week, and that we’ve been doing essays and talking about this content all year long, these essays should be much better than they actually are. And yes, I am aware that the previous sentence was probably a run-on, thus the irony of me saying that my students wrote bad essays. I never said I was perfect. Plus, the essays these students are supposed to write aren’t really about grammar and good writing, but about knowing content and being able to express that knowledge and apply concepts in a written format.

Get to the point, I hear you cry. What on earth does all of this have to do with the Flagellants? Or are you just trying to impress us with your knowledge of history??

Well, yes. Of course. But I digress.

Where do the Flagellants come in? They come in because as I read these essays and watch my students take their practice AP test, the thoughts that are running through my head are:

“Have I done enough to help these students? Probably not. I didn’t spend enough time on [insert topic here], and it’s my fault they don’t understand how to answer this essay. I didn’t have enough time during the year and I was distracted by all the things we had to do to get this department and school up and running (‘We’re a work in progress!’), and so therefore I have done these students a disservice. It’s entirely my fault that they are not going to do well on this exam.”

Why is it that teachers take so much of the blame on themselves for something like this? Rationally, logically, reasonably, I know that I did a decent enough job teaching this content. Decent enough. That's the rub, isn't it? Is decent enough ... enough? I did not do as well teaching them this year as I did last year, for instance. Or, at least, according to my subjective view, I did a pretty darn good job teaching AP Psych last year. However, the scores show that my students didn’t do any better last year than the students the year before. I do feel that I definitely did a lot worse teaching them this year, though, and I worry very, very, very much about how they are going to do on this exam next week.

So again, I ask, why is it that we shoulder so much of the blame? There are so very many factors that impact how students do in my classroom that have nothing whatever to do with me or with what goes on in my classroom. Home life. Extra curricular activities. Geo-political events (ok, well, I don’t know how much that impacts my students, but it looked good). Individual students. The skills they had when they came to my classroom. All I can do is impact them in the 95 minutes I have them every other day.

So yet again, I ask, why do we blame ourselves so much? Why do we whip ourselves the way the flagellants whipped themselves? How do we stop blaming ourselves, and by doing so, will we become worse teachers, or will it not impact our instruction at all?

What do you think, dear reader?

Spring break!!!

Pics from the Dominican Republic! Ahh, seven days of lazing on the beach.


You can check out http://flickr.com/photos/jesstchr/130196573/ for more pictures.

I demand a recount!

I don't get 57%! Ok, so I'm upset by this...why? Explain to me - I don't even know what the score even means. This would be what we in the ed biz call a "bad assessment."


The Completely Pointless Personality Quiz

Seven brides for seven brothers…

Seven Things to do before I die

1. Get a PhD in history
2. Travel to India and explore
3. See Machu Picchu
4. Perform a complete shoulder stand in yoga without breaking my neck
5. Go hiking on a portion of the Appalachian Trail – preferably not the incredibly dangerous bits. :)
6. Live in London
7. Find the man of my dreams


Seven Things I can’t do

1. Perform a shoulder stand in yoga without breaking my neck
2. Drive a car with a manual transmission
3. Sleep on airplanes
4. Turn down queso dip when offered
5. Speak fluent French – just “restaurant” French (I know enough not to order the cow brains)
6. Run
7. Focus on grading papers at home

Seven Things that attract me to Europe

1. My family living in England
2. My family connections in Austria and the Czech republic
3. History (natch)
4. The beautiful architecture
5. The beautiful landscape
6. The diversity of cultures
7. I feel at home there

Seven Good Books

1. Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
2. Harry Potter
3. Nearly everything by Steinbeck
4. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
5. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
7. Oxford Children's History: Earliest Times to the Stuarts

Seven Good Films

1. Singing in the Rain
2. Back to the Future
3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
4. Ghostbusters ("Nobody steps on a church in my town!")
5. Arsenic and Old Lace
6. Charade
7. Sabrina (the one with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn, not the remake, even though it did have Harrison Ford)

Seven Things I Say

1. “Ladies and Gentlemen…”
2. “Chill out, yo”
3. “Like, oh my gawd!” (in an ironic Valley Girl way, thank you)
4. “If we can focus, please”
5. “Sweet Georgia Brown!” (don’t ask me why, I just do)
6. “Right, so where was I?”
7. “Ooh! Shiny object!”

Seven Blogs to Tag

Gawd. Seven??

1. Sarcasmo’s Corner
2. dreams and bones
3. I’m a novelist
4. Denmother2525
5. Intellectuals Inc.
6. dietgirl
7. Pound

Tag! You're it!

After weeks of wondering what the heck “being tagged” was, or even what a “meme” was, I have been tagged not once, but twice! The first one is from Leslie, which I will tackle today. I’ll tackle the second one later this week.

And we’re off!

1. Name five of your favorite books

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

You realize of course, if you were to ask me this same question tomorrow, next week or in a month’s time, this list would be entirely different.

2. What was the last book you bought (or brought home from the library)?

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

3. What was the last book you read?

A Wild Sheep Chase I finished it last night. An odd book, and I’m not quite certain what the heck was going on in the end. I was also very taken aback by the fact that very few characters had names, and those that did were named things like “The Boss” and “The Sheep Professor”. No women had names, they were all “she” and “her”. I’m trying to decide whether that’s hiding misogynist tendencies, or what.

4. List five books that have been particularly meaningful to you.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - This actually is not so much because of the book itself, the writing or the story, but the experience I had while reading it. I was the sponsor of the student book club at my old school, and last year the students chose to read Reading Lolita in Tehran, and then chose to read Lolita itself. I was impressed by the fact that they not only chose to read the book, but then actually stuck through it, and had thoughtful things to say about the book at the meeting. For me that was a great teaching moment. I was able to help guide the students into taking on a scary challenge, and they rose to it. I felt very proud of the students at that moment.

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Doesn’t everyone read this in high school? I know all of my friends did, in fact I remember several of us torturing our 11th grade English teacher with the relationship between Guinevere, Lancelot and Arthur. Zimmer Bradley’s particularly interesting take on it was quite the shock for Mrs. Douglas. By the way, Mrs. Douglas: Sorry!!! You were a good teacher; I didn’t mean to behave so badly in class. Although I really did hate reading The Scarlet Letter.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien – I read this in fourth grade. The teacher asked us to begin reading the first chapter, and she would let us know when to stop reading. I just read and read and read, and the next thing I knew, my teacher was telling us to stop reading, and I had completed almost four chapters. I loved this book, and it made me realize that I loved reading, too. I was quite sad when I saw the movie, because it was so different from the book (my first experience with bad film adaptations! I’ve yet to be fully satisfied by those…another reason this book is significant, I suppose!).


The Roosevelts: An American Saga by Peter Collier – This is one of the first books of history (ok, technically it’s biography) that I read for pleasure. Ironic that it’s American history, given that I actually don’t really enjoy much about American history, and really like European and Global history the best. I’ve always been fascinated by Teddy Roosevelt, partly because we used to live on Long Island, near his house on Sagamore Hill, and we’d visit pretty frequently. I have a great many happy childhood memories of wandering around his house and the beautiful grounds. This book also gave me a healthy respect for FDR as well. I put it here because it also began my foray into reading history JFF (just for fun, something we crazy history teachers do!).

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne – Does this really need explanation? Winnie-the-Pooh is such a lovely, lovely character, and the writing is so appealing. Just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Besides, isn’t it time for elevenses?

5. Name three books you’ve been dying to read, but haven’t gotten around to.

Here’s what I have on hold at the library (I’m waiting for them to become available):

PostSecret : Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren
Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie
The Cell by Stephen King

I shall tag Ann and Sheila.

If you can make it there...

Thanks to NPR for having an item about this site on Morning Edition (Bob Edwards, I miss you!). My new favorite blog is Overheard in New York. Each of these snippets of actual conversation brings me back to the city that never sleeps - and it is so typically New York, it's wonderful. Peruse, enjoy, some of them are not really suitable for work, but they're all wonderful.

Panda-monium!

In case you hadn't heard, DC is in the midst of panda-mania. Tai Shan was born this summer to great excitment (make sure you check out the slide show of photos). I'll admit I was one of those very excited people - not out of any particular panda love, but because baby animals are cute (although the baby porcupine (who was quite adorable, but not cuddly) born last week got considerably less press than Tai Shan). On Sunday, Tai Shan got to his enjoy his very first snow. After a reluctant beginning, he apparently enjoyed frolicking in the snow with his mom. All at once now: "Awwwwwwwwwwwww..."

Amateur meteorologist

Whenever there is snow in the forecast, most teachers become amateur meteorologists. We avidly watch the Weather Channel, or the local news, whichever is the preference, and make all kinds of proclamations that most of us are completely and totally unqualified to make.

"Oh, the snow will pass off to the west - we won't get much precipitation at all."
"It'll sock us in, we won't be in school for days. Better stock up on bread, toilet paper and milk."

One thing I have noticed: every school has a Weather Guy. Or at least, in my vast experience of two schools, they each have had the "Weather Guy". The Weather Guy is the one who makes weather his hobby. He talks about it with extensive background knowledge - he may even be a science teacher. He is the guy that people go to when there is the threat of impending snowy weather (because frankly, much as we love our jobs, teachers are often even more excited about snow days than students are), and he will hold forth on the subject.

The Weather Guy at my previous school was a really nice guy. He taught science, and actually taught something called "Geosystems", which actually teaches weather systems. I figure this actually qualifies him to make pronouncements about the weather. He was also a very calming presence, and always had a smile on his face when I went to the coffee club in the mornings, and as far as I know, despite the sometimes raucous nature of the morning coffee club, he never had a bad word to say about anyone, even people he didn't like. He loved students, and loved teaching. This was a Weather Guy you could go to with confidence. And he was frequently more correct than the official weathermen that the local networks hire.

The Weather Guy at this school is a social studies teacher, and he's also a nice guy, but I'm just not sure why he's the Weather Guy here. He is actually a self-appointed Weather Guy, whereas the Weather Guy at my previous school had Weather Guy-ness thrust upon him. The WG here is on some kind of e-mail list that sends him weather alerts from the National Weather Service - so we will open our e-mail in the mornings, and there in our inboxes will be an e-mail from WG saying "Fog alert for the county" or "strong wind alert" or something like that. For every single weather event WG has sent us some kind of alert or warning. Even weather events that were non-events. What's that all about?

My question is this: What is it that compels someone to become a WG? Is it truly an obsession with wind patterns and pressure change and precipitation? Is it a need to be desired as a source of knowledge? Is it a sense of self-importance? I am currently under the impression that with the WG at this school he just wants to help - he likes being able to inform people of the world around him, which is only natural - he's a teacher. We like to tell people stuff. We like to share interesting pieces of information, it's what we do. (In fact, at a social gathering last night, I brought out the teacher mode, much to my horror. I began to give a mini-lecture on the design of Washington, DC. Something in which I am not even remotely qualified, except that I think I read a book somewhere once. I watched, horrified, as I took up "teacher stance" and used "teacher voice" and began blathering away about L'Enfant and the diagonal streets. They may never ask me to come back. I did have the good sense to apologize, but the damage may already be done. Nobody likes a know-it-all, and teachers are the worst...and best!) Hey, is there such a thing as too long for a parenthesis? I may have pushed the boundaries on that one.

So with Weather Guy, I suppose one will never really know what drives one to become a WG, but suffice it to say that as long as there will be snow days, there will always be Weather Guys, and teachers who remain glued to the tv or the internet, watching the progress of a storm eagerly.

By the way, I heard this on the Weather Channel on Saturday while I was watching for the storm: "Today, periods of wet rain." Um, what? Is there another kind of rain I need to worry about? Is there dry rain? Should I worry about that? Will it damage my car's tires?

Enough babbling, I have lessons to plan.

I love it when a good plan comes together!

One of the cool things about starting a school from the ground up (ha ha! Literally! Whee I'm punchy today), is that you can make all sorts of wonderful grand statements about how you WANT it to be.

• "I want this to be the kind of place where all students are respectful to each other and to their teachers."
• "I want this to be the kind of place where academics take precedence, but we acknowledge that high school is also about a total curriculum, not just math, science and English."
• "Let's make English and Social Studies a partnership, so students are learning humanities, not just English and Social Studies in a vacuum."

It is this last one that I would like to address today. (Hmm, that was very speech-y. I don't mean it to sound that way, but since I've gone that direction, perhaps it's best to stay the course, what what?)

I truly believe that I am actually an English teacher in disguise. This drives my history students crazy. I love history, and I love teaching it, but I also think that I would love teaching English as well. It is as important to me that my students have good content knowledge when they leave my classroom as it is that they can express themselves through writing in a clear, concise and eloquent manner. They hate that. "But Ms. H, this isn't English class!!" is a popular complaint in my classroom. The idea of teaming with the English department to teach a humanities, or civilization course, as we're calling it (we will not be offering English 10 and World History 2 next year, it will be World Civilization 2), was a very exciting prospect for me, and frankly it was one of the (many) reasons that I decided to come to this school. We're not quite at the "Humanities" place yet, but we're definitely getting there.

This week I started teaching "The New Imperialism", and we started talking about "The White Man's Burden", a poem by Rudyard Kipling about one of the causes of Imperialism. And this is what I heard from many, many of my students in each class throughout the day. "Oh! We were talking about this in English!" Now seriously, how cool is that?!!?!?!?!?!!! Yay for the English teachers in our school! This, my little friends, is exactly what the whole civ program is all about - using English class to support content in history and using history class to support reading in English. I was so excited - SO excited!! - to hear the students make that connection. I think I may have scared the kids a little bit, but that's ok, they already think I'm completely nuts, so it's all good.

Boggles the mind...

A) the fact that someone took the time to do this
B) that there are so many interesting connections
C) that while they list Mahler, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, they have neglected Bartok and Prokoviev, and a host of other 20th century composers.
D) My aunt and uncle live near the Run-DMC stop. I'm sure they'd be thrilled beyond belief to know this.
However, that's not going to change the fact that it's WAY cool, and it's SO going up on my wall in my classroom.

You can read the full article by going here.

Yes, I am procrastinating, by the way. I have whiled away my planning period by not doing much of anything. But it's a Friday. And it's raining. And I was here until 5:30 last night. Did I mention that it's raining?

Ok, this is hilarious

Even though this requires listening to a Backstreet Boys song (although you can turn the sound off), it is worth the time. These guys crack me up!

A word of advice to middle school students everywhere...

Dropping an entire bottle of cologne in the hallway is not funny. Spilling an entire bottle of aforementioned cologne in your friend's locker is also not funny. Spraying yourself with half a bottle of cologne will not make up for the fact that you have not taken a shower in a week. Take a shower. Please. For the love of all that is beautiful in this world, take a shower. Really. If there was ever a time in your life that you should, nay, MUST take a shower, it would be every day during your puberty years. Perhaps twice a day would not be asking too much.

This has been a public service announcement. Your friends, family, peers and teachers will thank you.

Oh, and use soap.

There's a whale in the Thames

Really. Thanks to the Londonist for bringing this piece of information to our attention (and thanks also for some wonderfully amusing prose about it as well). You can also go here to see what the BBC has to say about it. The Londonist also has a link for some wonderful photos, if you're interested. So is the whale just sightseeing? Perhaps he was interested in see the Houses of Parliament, or perhaps the Tate Modern. I mean, London really is one of the greatest cities in the world, and I believe it was Pepys who said that the man who can't find anything to do in London isn't alive (although it could have been anyone, it was quoted to me by my father) or something along those lines. I'm quite certain I'm horribly mashing up the quote, so don't quote me on that (ha ha ha), but you get the idea.

You mean she STILL hasn't updated it?

Don't you just hate it when you go to your favorite blog (or even the blog you occasionally visit just to see what's up), and you find that it hasn't been updated yet...and it's been months? I know I certainly do. Drives me nuts. Makes me want to e-mail the person and give them the ole e-mail throttle. Or something.

It's called irony. I know, I know, I'm awful about writing here. And it's not for lack of things that I want to write about. Here's a sampling of the things that have popped into my head as of late:

Why my gym needs an F-chip (instead of a V-chip).
Sharing the classroom with another teacher
Sharing students with another teacher (two separate topics, really)
Why putting 2400 children into one building is a bad idea during a full moon on Friday the 13th.

I'm sure there's more. Anyway, I promise to be better from now on. I really do want to write about that stuff, so I'll be along shortly with a post or two.


Really.

My least favorite question...

I know that they probably don't mean it the way it sounds when they ask "Are we doing anything today?". Or, even better "Are we doing anything important today?" Now, granted, not every single minute of every single one of my classes holds equal importance (one could argue that in a progression of increased knowledge, excellent planning and fabulous teaching, each moment is more important than the last, but that would require a hell of a lot of ego, so we won't argue that, now will we?), but given that I work hard to plan meaningful lessons and I take the time to research the content, the question "Are we doing anything (important) today?" is vastly insulting. Most of the time I get the question when the student has to leave class for some reason (doctor's appointment, choir/band/orchestra concert, field trip for another class, press conference), and they are trying to assess what it is they are going to miss while they are out of class. With my AP students, frequently the question means that the student is weighing whether or not they really want to miss class in favor of whatever it is that they have been offered as an alternative. If it's going to be a lot of new material, the student will opt to stay in class rather than miss out. With my World history students, who are younger, and frequently less mature, they seem to mean the question a bit more. And usually the question comes not in advance of the missed class, as it does with the AP student, but the day after the missed class ("I was sick, Ms. H, really!"). "Did we do anything yesterday?" Oh gosh, no, I'm sorry, we sat around twiddling our thumbs for 95 minutes. You didn't miss a thing. Thank goodness you're here, I was worried that we would never finish the French Revolution at this rate.

I know, I know. They don't really mean it the way it sounds. They are, after all, only 15 or 16 years old. And they really do mean "What do I/will I need to make up?" It's just such thoughtless phrasing that bugs the crap out of me, ok?

Please oh please...

Can I tell my students about James II of England's nickname, Séamus á Chaca?

Timing is everything

One of the things that was a challenge for me when I was in "teacher school" was timing. How much time should a particular activity take? How many different activities can I fit into a given class period? Our school is on a block schedule, so that means that over a two day period, you will see each one of your classes twice, except for one class that is an "embedded" period, which means you see them for less time every day. For example, on one day (Green days, here) I would teach 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th. 1st, 3rd, and 5th periods are each approximately 90 minutes. 7th period is 50 minutes. Then on the second day (blue days), I would teach 2nd, 4th, 6th, and then see 7th again. Actually, I don't teach all of those periods, each day I have one period that is set aside for planning, contacting parents, meetings, and whatever else I might want to get done (Cough cough, like writing in my blog, cough cough). But the planning period is a story for another day.

Anyway, I was talking about timing your instruction. During my student teaching, on the day I was being observed by my university supervisor (basically, the person giving me the grade for that course), I stuck to my plan's times, which were WAAAAAAY off, and ended up with about 45 extra minutes. So we did the last activity for 45 verrrrry long minutes. Those were some of the longest minutes of my life, I gotta say. Anyway, since then I've always made sure that I have extra stuff planned so that doesn't happen. In fact, more often than not, I have so much planned for each 90 minute block of time that I'm often pushing one activity into the next block. So you can see that timing is still an issue for me.

Today was a strange schedule to begin with. We had a three hour delayed opening - instead of students reporting to school at 7:30, they came at 11am, and we had mini parent conferences. Basically we sat in the gym at tables all around the outer edge of the gym, and parents could come up to us and talk to us for five minutes about their individual student and how they were doing in our class. After that activity, we had 6th period, and now we're in the middle of my 4th period (planning, see above). For the students it was almost like a half day in reverse. In fact, no almost like, that's exactly what it was. I teach AP Psychology to 2nd and 6th period, but there was no 2nd period today, so I didn't want my 6th period to get ahead of 2nd period, so what I did was plan a lesson where students could be in essay workshop groups with their peers and they could work on their essays.

They were done with nearly 40 minutes to spare at the end of the period.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A. Hasn't happened to me in seven years
B. I didn't really have anything else for them to work on, and I didn't want to move into the next unit.
C. I hate being one of those teachers who just show movies to kids when they're too lazy to come up with a plan. It's not good teaching, and that's not who I am as a teacher.

But D. That's what I had to do (only I wasn't lazy, it's not laziness, it's much worse, it's poor planning on my part).

I had an old NOVA program: Brain Transplant that I whipped out of my cabinet and showed the kids for the remainder of the period. I was embarrassed and angry with myself. On the plus side, there was a ton of good information in the video, and I am now considering finding time to show the portion that I just showed to 6th period to my 2nd period, especially before I show them Awakenings (which is an excellent film, by the way), because it explains several concepts that are in that movie quite well. And I suppose in the end it was worthwhile because it talks about L-DOPA, and Parkinson's disease, etc., etc., etc., but it still doesn't change the fact that I was caught with my pants down.

Well, not literally. That would get me fired. But you get the point. And that's the note that I'm leaving with for the weekend. Yay. Talk about feeling like Worse Teacher Ever.

Check this out!

Now this is cool. Thanks Google! You can search the full text of books, although it seems mostly for books in the public domain. Here is what Google has to say about the topic.

In over my head

No no no, don't panic, this is not a teaching post. I'm not in over my head at school - I'm actually ahead!!! My grades are DONE DONE DONE and they aren't due until tomorrow morning, 8am. In fact, I've been pretty much done since last week. LAST WEEK! Whatever it is that I did, I must remember to lather, rinse and most importantly...repeat. I'm hoping that in the future I will be so organized. Except in all seriousness folks I have no idea what on earth I did to be ahead like this. Ok, so the project was due three weeks before the end of the quarter, and I managed to get it graded relatively quickly. The essays that I held onto for a wee bit too long I finished last Wednesday night (staying up way past my bedtime to do it, but I had promised I'd have them back to the students by Thursday). The unit test is tomorrow, so I can't possibly fit it onto this quarter. Heck, even the World history journals are graded (it helps that I'm teaching with another teacher - together we knocked out 85 journals in a couple of hours).

So why is it that I'm "in over my head," I hear you cry? Well, it's this page, actually. For some odd reason, my formatting has gone a little bit kablooey - or at least, it looks that way when I look at the page. My sidebar with all the previous posts and my profile is way down there towards the bottom of the page, and I have no idea why. I'd been hoping to add in a few links to other blogs from this page, plus a nifty NaNoWriMo participant icon to the page as well. I've got the code, I've got the downloaded info, I just can't seem to get it to work properly. I have met my match, and it is html. Or at least it is for today. Anyone out there have any suggestions/hints/ideas? Or just a readable "html for complete and total idiots"?

And while I'm soliciting help, has my Tivo gone completely barking mad, or is it ABC? Two weeks ago, my Tivo didn't record Lost, and my assumption was that it wasn't a new episode (although frankly after last weeks' issue, which I'll get to in a second, I don't believe). I didn't get around to watching the episode that my Tivo had recorded from last week until last night. When I started watching, I realized I'd seen the episode before. So is it my Tivo, or is it ABC?

Couldn't resist

Discovered this quiz through Sarcasmo's site ... Thanks much! Not sure how I feel about the whole Elmo thing. Was kind of hoping for Grover.

Elmo You scored 66% Organization, 76% abstract, and 54% extroverted!

This test measured 3 variables. First, this test measured how organized you are. Some muppets like Cookie Monster make big messes, while others like Bert are quite anal about things being clean. Second, this test measured if you prefer a concrete or an abstract viewpoint. For the purposes of this test, concrete people are considered to gravitate more to mathematical and logical approaches, whereas abstract people are more the dreamers and artistic type. Third, this test measured if you are more of an introvert or an extrovert. By definition, an introvert concentrates more on herself and an extrovert focuses more on others. In this test an introvert was somebody that either tends to spend more time alone or thinks more about herself. You are mostly organized, more abstract, and both introverted and extroverted. Most people either love or hate Elmo. I hope you love Elmo, because that's who you are. You are both somewhat organized. You have a good idea where you put things and you probably keep your place reasonably clean. You aren't totally obsessed with neatness though. Elmo has the same basic approach. His place is pretty tidy, but he doesn't spend all of his time cleaning it up. You both are abstract thinkers. You definitely are not afraid to take chances in life. You only live once. You may notice others around you playing it safe, but you are more concerned with not compromising your desires, and getting everything you can out of life. This is a very romantic approach to life, but hopefully you are also grounded enough to get by. Elmo's whole life is based on fantasy and his imagination. In the beginning he was a regular character, but now he spends most of his time in this fantasy world. You are both somewhat extroverts. Like Elmo, you probably like to have some time to yourself, but you do appreciate spending time with your friends, and you aren't scared of social situations. Elmo spends some of his time with real friends, but he also needs some time just to chat it up with his goldfish. The other possible characters are Oscar the Grouch Big Bird Cookie Monster Ernie Snuffleupagus Kermit the Frog Grover The Count Guy Smiley Bert If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also if you want to tell me your favorite Sesame Street character, I can total them up and post them here. Perhaps your choice will win!

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages...Presenting....

The scantron machine!!!

AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!

E-mail is down! Red alert, red alert!!! Whatever will we do? We will never, never, never recover! Good God! We may actually have to...no, I can't say it, it's just too terrible to be true. We may actually have to...speak to each other face-to-face! Say it ain't so!

Do you miss us?

Sarcasmo asked me if I missed my old school, and I've gotten e-mails from a few of my previous students asking me the same thing. This is a good question. The short answer is yes, of course I do, but then where would be the fun in just that?

I miss the students most of all - I really miss knowing students that aren't currently enrolled in my classes. I like seeing students in the hallway that I've had in the past - asking them how their new year is shaping up, how they like their teachers this year, how they're doing in their current history course. There is something very comforting about seeing familiar faces in the river of students that rush past my classroom every morning. I just don't have that here, but then, nor does pretty much everyone else in the building, except for those few teachers who came from the same schools that the kids did. It's disconcerting not knowing the students - and I know that will change over time, but it's definitely one of the things that gave me pause when I was thinking about leaving my old school.

I miss the camaraderie with the faculty. I knew the people I worked with quite well at my old school, and we got along very well, too. I count them among my closest friends. I miss them very much. I also miss how comfortable we all were with each other. We're not comfortable with each other here yet, and that's making it difficult for some of us. The department chair has done a spectacular job of trying to establish a safe place where we can begin to feel comfortable, but there's still the aspect of time - we've only known each other really since about the second week of August. Oh sure, every year there are new teachers in the department that have to blend into the already existing fabric, but that's usually two, maybe three at the most. The blending happens pretty easily, for the most part, and we can continue on. Here there are sixteen teachers in the high school Social Studies department, plus an additional twelve middle school teachers, and none of us knew each other before coming here. I'm finding that to be the most difficult. Frankly, I don't trust the other teachers yet - that probably says more about me than it does about them, but there it is. I know they are bright, they know their content, and that they are good teachers. I know all of that intellectually, but emotionally, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

When I was contemplating leaving the old school, I met with a colleague who had been there with me, but had since moved on. One of the things he said to me was that what we had had at that school was special - we got along well, we were friendly, close, and had a shared vision about where our department was going. He felt that he would probably never find that again at another school, and he missed it. I acknowledged what he said, but dismissed it, thinking "teachers are special - it doesn't matter where we are, it'll always be like this", and didn't think anything else of it. However, I wonder if in fact he was actually correct - maybe what we had as a faculty at the other school I won't ever find again. I was lucky to have it for six years, but I won't find it again.

Wow, that's a depressing thought.

I think that the camaraderie will come. I don't think it will be exactly like it was at my old school - it just can't be. But I think it will definitely come here at this school - I think we are all working very hard towards it.

You know you're tired when...

...You're too tired to come up with a proper rant about the lack of proper school supplies in your new building. Sorry yesterday's post was so lame.

We do, however, now have a nice shiny, brand new scantron machine in our workroom. Hallelujah!

Back to School Night tonight. This is a curious phenomenon. When I was a student (all those many years ago), I remember my parents going off to my elementary school to meet my teachers. I think one year we made cutouts of ourselves to put at our desks so our parents knew where we sat. That may have been for Mrs. Paley's first grade. Hey, Mrs. Paley, if you're out there: Thanks! You were awesome.

Anyway, I don't remember my parents going to BTSN when I was in high school. They can correct me if they wish (and they will), but I don't think we had it. So it's interesting that here we do have it. The other interesting thing is who comes. I think we will have a pretty big turn out, just because this is a new school, and the parents want to check us out. It's a wee bit like coming to see the animals in their natural habitat. However, this time, please feel free to give the animals chocolate and coffee. (Yes, pump the teachers up on legal stimulants, what a great idea.) In years past, I have consistently had a pretty big turnout of parents - and not just one, but both. I always have a lot of my AP parents come - they want to make sure I'm not going to ruin their child's chances of getting into UVA or something. No fear - I know what I'm talking about (crash, bang, boom, as I trip over the wires in the front of the room in a classic Lucy Ricardo-esque stumble).

However, I think BTSN scares the kids to death. Yesterday in 7th period (our most rambunctious, but pretty much on task class), we asked them if their parents would be coming tonight, and they said "NO!" with horrified expressions on their faces. I think that they think the parents are coming to find out how they are each doing in class - like one great big tattle tale or something. No fear, fair students...they're just here to check us out. If anything, we should be the ones saying "NO!" with horrified expressions on our faces!

BTSN is grueling, it is long, and frankly, it's a little scary. It's one thing to get up in front of a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds, but parents.... At any rate, this is my 7th BTSN, so you'd think I'd be really good at this by now. I don't know how much sense I make when I get up there - I tend to go into a caffeine & terror-fueled rant...err, ramble (not much better, I know), and then before I know it, my 10 minute speech has been completed in 5 minutes. How's that for instilling confidence!? Still, it must work, because most parents seem pretty satisfied by the time they leave the room. Or at least they aren't running to the Guidance department demanding that their child be pulled out of that crazy lady's classroom.

I think this BTSN is going to be especially important - like all the other firsts this year (first pep rally, first day of school, first football game, first fire drill...the list goes on and on) - it will help to set the tone for what our school is about. Our principal is very big on setting tone and establishing who we are. He wants us to be ... well, almost like a beacon. It's so important to him that this school be a place where people feel safe, where students and parents know they will be getting a quality education, and where our students have lots of school spirit but are also respectful of others, their school and their country. (Insert waving flag and grandiose music in the background here) I'm not nervous about BTSN yet - there's still the whole school day to get through, but get back to me at about 3:30 this afternoon, after the kids have gone, and when I can't grade one more essay without my eyes falling out of my head. (Yes, I know, I assigned them, thanks very much, so I've only got myself to blame.)

My tips for surviving BTSN:

1. Get a good night's sleep the night before. Well, that's shot - I exercised too late last night, so was up 'til 11:30.
2. Wear comfortable shoes during the day (my sneaks ain't comin' off 'til the parents get here)
3. Wear a comfortable, but professional looking outfit (I love my new school clothes. Yes, I am such a girl)
4. Try to take a walk away from the building for at least 15 minutes - get out in the sun.
5. Have an agenda, and something for the parents to fill out.
6. Try to have student work on the walls if possible.
7. Relax and smile - the parents love you for what you do, they just want to make sure you're ok.
8. It'll be over soon, and tomorrow you can go to bed at 6pm if you want.

The straw...

I was calm and collected when I learned we wouldn't have use of our Smartboards on the first day of school. I took it in stride when we were told we didn't yet have our World History textbooks. I was ok about the fact that we didn't have a laminator. What was it that finally sent me over the edge? We don't have a *#$&! Scantron machine! So that test I gave on Friday? Can't run it through the machine, because we don't have one!!! Who opens a school without a scantron machine?

You got WHAT in the WHERE?

Well, there's always a first for everything...I got punched in the nose today. Yes, you read that right, a student punched me in the nose. She didn't mean to, it was entirely an accident. It was hilarious! She is, of course, mortified. Let me set the scene for you...

In AP Psychology, we're learning about research. I'm doing an activity to help students think about all the different aspects of an experiment. I didn't actually think up this activity myself - it came with a series of lesson plan ideas from TOPSS (an association for high school psychology teachers). Anyway, it involves testing reaction times of students. They have some great activities and lesson ideas that can be adapted for any classroom. I've used a bunch of their ideas. For this one, the idea is that you set up an experiment that is HUGELY flawed, and students have an opportunity to point out the flaws, until you think you have all accounted for. You start with the hypothesis that boys have a faster reaction time than girls, and you call up students to test that theory. You hold a ruler up over the student's hand, and they have to catch it between their thumb and forefinger. I had said student up in front of the room, and she was on her second trial (the first one she hadn't caught, so she was getting increasingly flustered). She caught the ruler, and, as I was leaning over to check where she had caught it so we could keep track of our data, she raised her hand and bonked me on the nose. It didn't really hurt very much, she didn't get a chance to get much momentum, but it was a relatively good bonk, nonetheless.

I told her it was no big deal, and that there was a first time for everything. The whole class, of course, erupted into giggles (mostly nervous giggles, I think they were trying to figure out how I would react more than anything else). I think I handled it pretty well, actually. I had a laugh, and I told her it was fine, and when she kept apologizing, I told her it was ok, really.

And then we had a fire drill. So, business as usual.


My nose does kind of hurt a little bit, but I can't tell if it really hurts, or if I just think it hurts.

3...2...1...we have liftoff!!!

First day done! And successful, I would say. The computer equipments worked, our plans went ... well, as planned. Kids were on time to class, they were mostly curteous and seemingly eager to learn. One of the questions we asked the students was to tell us about their expectations for the year and the school, and the overwhelming response was that they wanted to continue to be in such a nice building, and they wanted to do well in school this year. They were determined to try to make a fresh start of it. Let's hope that stays!!

Some of you were amused by the fact that we had to sing for the parents and students last week. Don't you do enough for the students, I hear you cry? Well yes. But I really think having us stand up in our school shirts and sing the school song was a pretty powerful statement to the parents and students who were in the gym with us. There we all were, in one section of the bleachers, and so we were quite a sea of green polo shirts, I can imagine. I think that having us sing for the students and parents let them know that we were just as invested in the school and creating a community as they were. I think we are well on our way to creating a community.

However, I love stuff like that. Gets me a little teary, donchaknow?

What went really well today:

the bells all rang at the proper time
the clocks all were set to the same time
morning annoucements produced and read by students were ready to go
students were on time to class
students seemed eager to be there...even those students who wished for a longer summer vacation!

What didn't:

Frankly, can't really think of a thing, with the exception of attendance/students schedules. We had several students walk into class who weren't on our lists, several students who were on our lists who weren't in class today, and several different lists of students that didn't quite match up. I had one list that said two different pieces of information: "Students enrolled in class: 19...Students in course: 20". That was confusing. Schedules will be in flux for several days, I'm sure. I have found that schedules tend to be in flux the first few days of school no matter where, however.

I'm going to take my tired old bones on home. Wish me luck for the second day!

School starts on Tuesday....

...and our syllabus was FINALLY APPROVED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!! I'm off to the copier!

Do the numbers...

28: number of school buses we have
74: number of acres of land the school and fields occupy
256: number of staff, faculty and administration
949: number of parking spaces
1027: number of middle school students
1454: number of high school students (that's a total of 2481, and we don't even have seniors).

Oh, you're with the new school!

Workroom update: still all in boxes. At the earliest, the end of the week. It's more likely to be next week. Luckily, I have my own classroom to work in (and I mean that, I am lucky to have a room - a lot of people are in a bunch of different rooms).

During our meeting Monday morning, we had a power outage for ten minutes while the power company shifted us over to a different transformer.

The bells are working though, as is the PA system.

Someone asked me if we had a mascot, a song. Yes, we do. Our mascot is the stallion. We have been enduring any number of horse jokes. On our intranet, we have this scary looking horse with extra muscular biceps and pecs. Yes, it's a biped stallion. He's buff, thus, the stallion. We have school colors: green, blue and silver. Now, I loved my old school, I love the people I worked with, the students, nearly everything about it. However, I hated the school colors: purple and white. Those were also the colors of my college, and I told myself that I would never again put myself in a situation where I would be required to wear purple and white, and look where that got me. However, I love green and blue, so I'm a pretty happy camper. We got two shirts to wear for "spirit" - one is a grey t-shirt with our name and logo on the front, plus "Established September, 2005"; on the back is a neat slogan, which you should see here. I believe it means "Excellence in all endeavors" (or endeavours, should you choose the British spelling). The other shirt is a nice polo shirt in dark green. The insignia has our school initials and underneath is says "Charter Staff", which I think is really cool.


"But wait, you haven't said anything about the song", I hear you cry. Yes, we have a fight song. Or rather, we will have a fight song. They were still writing it as of Tuesday. We will apparently be learning it later this week, and then when we have the Stallion Stampede (I told you, unending horse jokes) next week (when the students come in to get their schedules, etc.), we will apparently sing it to the students (and parents, and community members, and any other Tom, Dick or Harry who wishes to attend), and then teach it to them. Fostering community spirit, see?

We took a bus tour of our boundary - the neighborhoods where our students live. There is a heck of a lot of construction going on in the area - more so than I've seen in the parts near where I live and where I used to teach. Roads are being widened, or even just built, new housing complexes are going up, old houses are being expanded upon, etc. We have houses that are enormous, but are on teeny little lots, we have houses that are enormous that are on larger lots, and of course, we have houses that are enormous that are on enormous lots too. There is some subsidized housing, so there is going to be a big gap between our wealthiest and poorest students. However, we are quite diverse, which is pretty exciting. The area that we serve is huge - it goes for miles in all directions. I wonder if our students will be as able to socialize because of that issue. I know it will be a problem for the middle school students, given that they will be dependent on the parental units for transportation.

Here is my burning question: I'm 5 ft. 6 inches. Many, many students are taller than I am. How on earth do they sit on those school buses comfortably? My knees were wedged in!

17 days and counting...

I had planned on carting every single box from my condo down my stairs and out to my car. But it is pouring, and I can just see myself slipping, falling, breaking several necessary bones (most likely in my wrist and/or ankle), and getting all my precious binders and papers wet. Can't have that, can we? However, I will probably bring down the smallest of the boxes that I can manage in a little while, and I'll go into school later today. However, I have pictures! Take a look at these:











This is my classroom. The first one is the view from the doorway. Please note the window! The one on the right is a view from the front of the room looking toward the back. For more pictures, please go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesstchr/35342186/in/set-782089/. Don't view the images as a slide show - if you look to the right hand side of the page, you'll see a smaller image of the picture you're looking, and an opportunity to click next. If you do that, you'll get the captions, and that way you'll know what the devil you're actually looking at.

19 days and counting...

The first day of school is 19 days away. I am sitting in my new classroom, which is in my new school, which is so new that the driveway out front isn't even finished! The construction signs are still out front, and the Social Studies workroom is still a pile of boxes - no furniture at all. My chair still has the plastic wrapping on it - yes, I haven't taken that off yet. I feel that I should leave it on, if nothing else because it's still very dusty in here! I shouldn't even be using my (new) laptop in here, now that I think about it. But, e-mail had to be checked, letters had to be written to the new department chair and other members of the team. Between Monday and today (Wednesday) I had 25 e-mails. And we're still four days away from the day teachers go back. Usually teachers in this school district go back a week before the students do, so we can have a ton of meetings, set up our classrooms, get together with friends we haven't seen since June (I'm absolutely positive that our superintendent wants us to have time to socialize!), etc. At our new school we have an extra week to do all that - and I have a feeling that it will be mostly taken up with meetings. In fact, I've been warned by everyone who knows my new principal that that will indeed be the case. He is also well aware of his reputation - he made a comment at our first meeting (the day after the last day of school, which was in, like, July...Well, June 28th, but that's practically July, isn't it?) about how everyone had probably told us that he liked meetings. Well, he didn't deny it, so I guess I'm in for a lot of meetings. Must remember to use the loo before the meeting starts.

When I drove up to the building (after having to make a u-turn, because the entrance I was expecting to make was closed, and I had already passed the entrance), there in front of the main entrance (right outside the principal's office), were several groups of students - already! Some of them were in the color guard, practicing with their flags, and the others were the drumline from the marching band (who placed them right by the principal's office? What great placement! ha ha ha!). I actually found it very comforting - knowing that students were going about life as usual for a school meant that we were actually getting off the ground. Drumline and marching band means the beginning of the school year to me. I think mostly because my parking spot has been in the same general area where the marching band has rehearsed.

Things we've been working on so far:

1. building camaraderie. We've had several bbqs and department meetings, we went bowling last night (I did surprisingly well - one strike and two spares, thank you. Not bad for someone who usually gets a gutter ball).
2. determining a common syllabus for the different subject teams. Our idea is that students (and parents) should be getting the same education and the same policies from one teacher to the next. We've also got plans to work on common assessments for each era of history that we're teaching. No more teacher shopping!

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now.

Kids wear the darndest things...

I just saw the best t-shirt in the hallway. It said:

Note to self:
Do not eat pink insulation.
Not cotton candy.

I told you not to throw all that stuff away...

Every year there has to be some kind of issue. Something that keeps us occupied during our free time. Our oh-so-copious free time. In previous years it's been locks on the bathroom doors, bad copiers, terrible PSATs (and not scores, mind you, but the actual experience of giving the PSATs).

This year's fun has been toilet paper.

Yes, this is what occupies the minds of teachers and administrators when they aren't concerned about student achievement, content, grading, planning and any number of other items that a teacher must think about on a daily basis.

Apparently the guy who is in charge of purchasing toilet paper for the entire county messed up the order (there's one guy, that's his job. Who knew? I wonder what the qualifications are?). Instead of ordering by roll, he ordered by sheet.

I kid you not.

By sheet.

Needless to say, in a district of hundreds of thousands of people, employees, faculty, students, the whole kit and kaboodle, there was not enough toilet paper for all. How did this manifest, you may ask? Well, I am about to tell you. Every day instead of 5 or 6 rolls of toilet paper in the ladies' faculty restroom (and I can only speak to that restroom, since I don't loiter in the student bathrooms (with good reason) or the mens' room), we would have 2, maybe three per day. I at first thought this was a result of something the custodians were doing. It's happened before - they take too long to refill the soap dispenser, or there's not enough paper towels. So this was not out of the ordinary. But then came the days when there was only one roll of toilet paper in there (for two stalls, and at least 40 women). And then there was the day when there was no toilet paper at all. That morning I entered the Social Studies workroom, and found the department chair of the English department visiting us, and I said something about the fact that there was no toilet paper in the women's room. At 7:05 in the morning.

Her response was to remove her cell phone from her bra (yes, you read that correctly, that's how she carries her cell phone around school. She has been known to pull it out of her bra in the middle of the hallway to answer the phone), dials the phone and proceeds to complain VERY loudly to whomever was on the other end of the line about the lack of toilet paper. It was at this point that the news broke that the toilet paper shortage was a district-wide event. We were on toilet paper rations. It was England, 1942 all over again. Next it would be sugar and butter products. Women would be penciling nylon "lines" on the back of their legs, and we'd be swing dancing in the dark during an air raid drill. Or, we'd just buy our own damn toilet paper and bring it with us whenever we went to the bathroom. Which is pretty much what we did.

It's better now, by the way.

There was a teacher who'd had his house tp'd earlier in the fall. He should have saved the stuff and brought it in.

A gentle reminder...

Please vote today.

tigers and catnip

Ok, so by popular demand, I looked it up, and apparently tigers are affected by catnip. Who knew?

The things the kids come up with...

When discussing our "fight or flight" survival mechanism in class, I used the example of seeing a tiger on the street, and asked the students how our body would respond. One of my students went left field (beyond, actually) and asked the following question:

Are tigers affected by catnip?

It rendered me speechless.

That's PROFESSOR H. to you, mister!

Ah, fall. Hurricane season, new school supplies, the smell of mold in the classroom...wait, isn't that supposed to be chalk?

To update:

Still teaching AP Psychology and World History. This year I am the only teacher teaching AP Psychology. There are three sections of the class, but apparently the guidance department (and by that I mean the Director of Guidance, to whom I will henceforth be referring as The Ass) is unfamiliar with the term "cap". I know, I know, many people don't like caps. Look at the NHL. They don't want salary caps (and frankly, with salaries like that, who can blame 'em???). But I am quite attached to class caps. Why, you might ask? Well, because class caps mean that you can only have a certain number of students in your classroom. For example, the state says that in core courses (required courses, like my World History class), the cap is 28 students. I have always been under the impression that in elective classes, the cap has been 30 (which is still a lot of students, especially when essay writing is a requirement of the course, but after this fall, I think I can get over that). Ask me how many students I have. Go ahead, ask.

In 2nd period: 32
In 3rd period: 34
In 5th period: 30 (my small class!!)

I feel a wee bit as if this were my punishment. When I heard last year that my colleague who taught AP Psych with me would be leaving teaching to take care of her three children (you GO girl!), I went to my department chair and asked that I not teach a course load that was entirely Psychology - I wanted to be a history teacher as well. He, being the cool guy that he is, said that was fine, he would tell guidance to hold the number of classes to 3. Someone forgot to mention the cap.

The Ass thinks I hate him.

Probably a good thing to think. I don't hate him, I hate the fact that the man is a moron, can't do his job, and doesn't like to say no. How difficult is that? "Hi, I'm little Billy Sue, and I'd like to sign up for AP Psychology." "I'm sorry, you can't, the course is full. You will have to wait until next year." How difficult is that? Did I mention that they were still trying to put children in my class on Thursday?

Oh boy.

However, they are all really great kids, and while I'm not too upset when they ask to leave (as one or two already have, bringing my numbers down to what I indicated above), I am sorry to see them go.

So, in addition to that, I have a student teacher for the first quarter. This is an interesting fellow, who will get a whole entry all to himself at some point in the future. Needless to say, I think that teaching is probably not the best choice for him, but we will see in the weeks ahead.

But wait, there's more.

I'm also teaching a graduate course at one of our (many) local universities: Social Studies Methods (basically, how to teach Social studies). How cool is that??? I am co-teaching with someone else who teaches in another school district in the area. He is awesome - he's a great teacher, he's very enthusiastic, and he's very good at what he does, and I'm really glad to have this opportunity. But (you knew there was a but, didn't you?) he and I have very different teaching styles. He's more a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants guy, and I'm more of a need-to-know-weeks-in-advance-what's-going-to-happen girl. In other words, he's much more laid back when it comes to planning, and I'm much more anal (OCD girl, comin' through!) In the end it will be awesome - we have 12 students, all of whom are working hard, and most of whom are in schools, either observing, teaching already, or some combination thereof. Plus, they are graduate students, so they do their homework. This, to me, is an amazing concept. Even my AP students don't do all their work all the time.

At any rate, you can see why I have been neglectful of the blog as of late. However, I'm hoping to be better about that, and at least give you weekly updates. I have made that my goal. Let's see if that actually happens.

For now, remember that the brain is the final frontier.

Kids will be kids...

So last week in my first period, my tenth graders asked if they could bring food to class for a sort of party today. I said that as long as we did what I had planned for my lesson, then they would be welcome to bring in food. I think they were expecting that I would say no. They were pretty surprised.

But here's the kicker. I passed out a signup sheet so everyone could write down what they were going to bring, in an attempt to help them actually remember. And only three kids did - one girl brought donuts, one girl brought juice, and one girl brought paper plates. They begged to have another chance next class. Let's see if they actually remember.

I was walking through the park one day...

"As England was trying to get rid of absolutism, James I came by."

What, was he taking a stroll, and just happened to bump into England? "Sorry old chap, didn't see you there. Would you mind if I became king and tried to rule by divine right? Gorgeous, thanks."

I'm so glad I had my students turn in rough drafts!!!

In a student's project about the kamikazes: "Pilots would load their planes with explosives and purposefully crash into enemy targets to cause major damage. They did this to show that they
would fight to the death and weren't scared of dieting to win the war."

I tell ya, I'd stick to a diet if it would help to win a war...

learning a new thing every day...

"Rasputin had apparently died many times."

Apparently, I'm a terrible teacher...

Here's the evidence. On their World War 2 test (which they all had to retake, because someone cheated), I found the following information:

lebensraum is also known as "Il Duce", inventor of Fascism.
Franco is the leader of the Third Reich, and wrote Mein Kampf
Korea was an Axis power.

OY!!

Talk about an understatement...

From one of my students homework assignments: "Imre Nagy tried establishing Hungary's independence from the Soviet Union, which didn't go so well and cost his life."

From the pens of children...

"Social Darwinism was a theory that Charles Darwin developed. It goes back to the theory that humans were developed through chimpanzees such as the homo erectes."


There are so many things wrong with this statement that I don't even know where to begin.

Nope, not dead yet...

Just wish I had two more of me to get these $*#@$ essays read. Love the end of the quarter.



I'm wondering why one of my students wrote "Woot woot AP Psycho" on my board. She signed it with a picture of a heart and her name. Hmmm. Yes, she's in my AP Psych class. So should I take the "woot woot" to be positive?

Things that make you go "hmmm..."

In response to a question about someone who is alive/famous today that might be considered a "Renaissance Person":

"Snoop dawg - he is a musical musician. He is very funny and a good person."

From the mouths of children...

"Two reason [sic] Europeans began to explore by sea was it was a lot faster to go by sea then [sic] by feet. Another reason is because they could find more land by boat because you can't walk across the ocean."

An example of creative writing...

"After Christopher Columbus left the Americas, the native Americans' population suffered in decreasion."

Sounds contagious...

It's been a month!!!

Yes, I know.

It's been a crazy opening, what with the master schedule not being right, and hurricanes, and new responsibilities (I'm the team leader).

More later.

The beginning approacheth...

One of the things that I really love about teaching is that I get to start new every fall. Or late summer, depending on how picky you are. Teaching is unique in the sense that what we do has a beginning, a middle, and a definite end. I used to work as an assistant in a tourism office when I was in grad school, I know from what I speak here - there is NO end. Sure, we would finish projects, but then we'd go on to another almost immediately, or rather, we would shift our attention to that project that had already begun much around the same time as the one just completed. But with teaching, you get an end, a break, and a fresh start. I will have all new students this year. I'm also hoping to have some of the same kids I had last year - several of my World History students told me they signed up for AP Psych. Since I'm teaching 3 of the 5 sections offered this year, odds are better than 50% that I'll get a few of them. This is great, because I liked those kids. But back to the new.

Of course, I'm always overly optimistic. "This year I'm going to be the perfect teacher," I tell myself. "I'm going to call parents when there's a problem immediately! I'm going to be so creative with my lessons! I'm going to plan more than two days ahead. I will have great tests and even better essays with fabulous rubrics with which to grade said essays. I will use all the right techniques, and my students will love my classes." Ha ha ha! Well, I should know from experience (this being the beginning of year 5) that that shit ain't gonna happen. But I'll be better than last year. And I will be more creative in some senses. I will use some of the same lessons, but they'll be improved. And dammit, this year I am going to use good rubrics, because it's all about the rubric. What is a rubric? Well, there are all kinds of definitions, none of which really apply, but the way teachers use them is that they are basically something that lists attributes that qualify the writing, project, etc., as an "A", "B", "C", etc. paper. Here is an example: Essay Rubric It's a really good one, by the way, thanks to the author of this one!!!

So while I am sad that my vacation is over (although no students next week, it's just teachers), I am looking forward to the New Year. It will be different, certainly - we have two new teachers, and an interim department chair, but that's part of the reason it's so much fun.

Things that make you go "hmmm..."

So no doubt you've heard about the massive power outages in the northeastern U.S. and Canada. (look here or here for info) Frankly, I'd be surprised if you had heard about anything else, that was all that was on the news yesterday. It was on all the local networks here, plus the cable networks, as well as the BBC news. My question is this. If there was no power in NYC yesterday, how on earth was NBC broadcasting from NY at all? Or any of the news agencies that are headquarterd in NY. Is it all a lie? Are they really just in a small building in Sheboygan?

Catching a cold?

The cat has been sneezing alot the last couple of days. And not those little sneezes that are almost fairy-like, you could almost see Tinkerbell sneezing like that. No, she's been sneezing two or three times at a shot, and they're great big snuffly things. We did go to the vet last week (and it was dog day, apparently, she was the only cat in a waiting room filled with canines), and aside from needing a visit to the kitty dentist, the vet gave her a clean bill of health. Other than the sneezing, I can't see anything else wrong with her, no running eyes, no listlessness, in fact, she's as active as she usually is. If it continues tomorrow I will give the vet a call, although I will also be spending part of the day waiting for the cable guy because my Tivo didn't work!!! So I returned it and got digital cable instead. Extravagance, I know!

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Every fall when we come back from summer vacation, there are always changes at school. Teachers who told you to have a nice summer, and they'd see you in the fall, have gone off to other schools, to higher positions, to pursue other careers. Others who said goodbye to you in June suddenly reappear in late August, as if nothing had passed between you in the spring, as if there had been no mention of their leaving. You whisper in corners with your colleagues about what happened, why did so-and-so come back, what job offer fell through, what was better about this job that made them want to come back? Part of the excitement of coming back in late August is finding out all this information, finding out how everyone else spent their vacation, finding out about the changes, and learning what new inanities the school district has decided we desperately need to do this year.

But sometimes the changes just suck. Well, suck isn't quite the right word for it. The change is good for the person making the change, but it has thrown my colleagues and me for a loop.

My department chair is leaving our school for another position within the school district. She is one year away from retirement, and we all kind of knew she'd be leaving next year, but that was next year. What we were not prepared for was this announcement that she would not be spending her final year with us. For her, it is an exciting opportunity to be able to have more flexible working hours and to be able to be involved in new ways of teaching. For us, for me, it is scary! Who will the new leader be? How will this new person differ from our former leader? Will the collegiality that currently exists in our department continue on? Will this new person trust in our professionalism and allow us to keep our focus as we have in the past? One of the things I like so much about this school that I hear is not the case in so many other schools in my district is the fact that the teachers, especially those of us in the social studies department, are given a lot of freedom regarding how we approach the state tests. Many other schools emphasize rote memorization and massive reviewing towards the end of the school year, something that has never been the case at my school, and our scores have always been pretty good. I hope this kind of trust can continue.

I also feel sorry for this new person for a variety of reasons: first, our former dept. chair is a wonderful woman, a good leader, and an excellent educator. These are some big shoes to fill! Second: we as a department are very close, and (from what I understand from people who have entered the department in the last couple of years) we can be intimidating, and not-so-easy to break into. We don't mean to be, I don't think, but that's the way it is. At least, I don't think we mean to be. For any new person the transition could be difficult. Of course, the new department chair could be someone from within our department. This also has dangers. It could cause resentment. Or it could be great. It's a great unknown, and that is what is so worrying.

I will also personally miss our department chair very, very much. She is not only my colleague, but a friend, and I have learned much from her about being a teacher and about being a leader. She was always a calming influence on my bad days, and always supportive when I wanted to try something new. I wish her the best of luck with her new position, and hope that she'll come back and visit us often. I can only hope that one day I will be half as good an educator as she is.

Tryin' to get down to business

I am excited about this. Heck, I'm just damn excited about today. First, according to the UPS tracking website, my Tivo should be coming today - in fact, it is currently in the back of a big brown truck, on its way from Alexandria!!! I wonder how many houses between me and my Tivo?

Sad, I know.

In addition, the current plan is to begin thinking about school again this week. Yes, I know, I did all that work on curriculum, and thus spent a lot of time thinking about school, however, I was thinking more globally (to use history teacher speak), rather than in my own classroom. Today's plan is to map out the World History course roughly for the whole year. Ha ha ha! In other words, make a schedule from first day until last day that as soon as I start teaching I will have to throw out of the window. The best laid plans... Why am I starting so early, you may ask? Well, it's really not that early, if you think about it. Between now and the first day that teachers go back (which is a week chock full of meetings, spending time with colleagues, and rearranging your classroom three times until it's acceptable (not right, just acceptable)), there are only three weeks, and next week I have a one day workshop, and the week after I have a three day workshop, so it's not really three weeks, now is it.

Wait.

Where the HELL did my summer go????

So, add to the Tivo and scheduling excitment, towards the end of the week, I'm going to Philadelphia to spend quality time with my dad and grandmother, as well as see some friends from my own high school days. Should be very much fun.

Hey, anyone out there know Gaelic?

An odd occurrence for July...

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I had a few things on my mind, most of which had to do with school. I was thinking about the kinds of things I could do with my students on the first day of school. The trouble with the first day of school is that everyone is getting to know everyone else, and figuring out how to get from one class to the next, and how to pronounce everyone else's names, so it's difficult to actually jump right into the content, although I think I am going to try doing just that with my World History kids. Nothing like a little map work to get everyone started.

Anyway, because that was on my mind as I went to sleep last night, I ended up having an anxiety dream about teaching. I generally only have those during the school year, and this kind of dream is the kind that I haven't had for a while. Most of the dreams I have had about school have been about particular students who worry me (as in I'm concerned for their future due to their performance in my classroom). In the first two years of my teaching, I had a LOT of dreams that were about my teaching ability...ok, well, they were really about me being an incompetent teacher, if we want to be frank about it. There was the dream where one ornery student would lead a rebellion against me, and encourage the whole class to leave the room, thrusting their fists in the air and yelling rebellious slogans. There was the dream where I stood in front of the class and had no lesson plan for the day, had no clue what we were supposed to be doing.

Well, last night was a doozy. It was a combination of the above two dreams. I was in a humoungous classroom where the sightlines were really poor, so I couldn't see all of my students, and there was a group of rambunctious girls hidden off in a corner, being loud and causing all sorts of trouble. I didn't have a lesson plan, and had actually forgotten EVERYTHING I knew about psychology (it was my AP Psych class, you see), and I think there was even another group of kids who were threatening to leave the room. It was such a traumatic dream that I woke up feeling very disconcerted. I think the thing that stuck with me was the complete and utter inability to remember the psychology, that I was standing up in front of these kids, a fraud. So when I did finally wake up this morning and remember the dream, I had to remind myself that I wasn't a fraud, nor was I incompetent, and that the scores my students received on their AP tests was an indication of that.

But why, dear readers, would I have this dream in JULY?

I am NOT apologizing...

I am not apologizing for my atrocious taste in television shows. I LIKE bad tv, dammit! So with that in mind....


I am Piper.


Which Charmed One Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Just in case you were up late worrying about this...

Yes, they did indeed correct the misspelling of "etc." at the gym. A good thing too, since I didn't have any dry erase markers with me to do the correction myself. I think that I was probably not the only to complain - either that or there's a manager who works there that can actually spell.

Complete and total subject change, hold on to your hats...

I think I mentioned at some point that I teach online as well as in the classroom. Well, no longer. I decided that I couldn't come up with any advantages for students and any reason why this was better, or that high school kids were even capable. So I let the folks at the online learning know I wouldn't be interested in doing it again, and man do I feel free!!!

AP scores are in, and we did really well - well, the kids did really well. 79% of our kids got a 3 or above (which is passing), and 56% got 4 or 5 (highest scores). Woohoo!

Not education related today, sorry

So I did it.

I posted an online personal on not one, but two separate singles websites. I even put up my picture. Hopefully I'm not asking for stalkers or psychos or even just clingy weirdo guys who listen to their walkmen and talk to strangers at the same time. Anyway, thus begins the adventure, or something. We'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted, dear readers, and someone will have to be the designated person to get the call when I'm home from whatever dates I go on so I don't end up in a ditch somewhere.

Boy, that's cheerful and upbeat, isn't it?

See, I told you teachers don't take the summers off...

Went to the gym the other day, and noticed they had put up a white board with helpful hints on how to stay healthy. They listed common hazards to maintaining good health, among them smoking, and then they meant to write "etc.", but they wrote "ect." OY!! So of course, being the teacher that I am, I had to point the error out. I was disappointed to find that when I left the gym they had not corrected the sign. If they haven't fixed it when I go on Monday, I will bring in my own set of dry erase markers and make the correction myself!!!

Our current terror level. I know everytime my eyebrows get like Bert's children go running in the street...

Mmmm, 80's music fest!!!

Going to see the "Monsters of Arena Rock" next week. Really, can you fight this feelin' anymore?

Saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company do All the Great Books. Very funny. I think you have to really know more about pop culture than the great books to really appreciate it, though. They did about 80 books. You can check out the syllabus if you want to see which ones they did. They technically didn't really do all of the books, they relegated a lot of them to just one sentence, and spent a lot of time on some of the other ones. They tackled The Iliad, The Odyssey, Ulysses (brave souls), Little Women (I'm not really sure the football metaphor really worked, but it was funny) and a bunch of others. Kudos to them for using the fight music from Star Trek for the appropriate scenes in the Iliad.

So I was in Target the other day (as always, I went in to buy ONE thing that cost $2, and ended up spending $39, but that's a story for another day) and I walked past the aisle where they have the seasonal stuff. You know, in spring and summer they have the garden furniture, the tables with the umbrellas, the cool plastic picnic sets, and what did I see???

SCHOOL SUPPLIES!

It's not even the middle of July yet! And I stood there and said to myself "The kids must be freaking out!" Then I realized, that hey, I was freaking out! I mean, come on, give me July at least!! But noooo, there they were, row upon row of pencils, pens, notebooks of all sizes, bookbags, folders, binders, calendars, the list just goes on and on.

The funny thing is that the next day I went into work on the curriculum stuff, and one of the people on my team said "Hey, did you see all the cool school supplies at Target? I had a great time buying all kinds of pens and stuff."

Oy.

Ok, so it's been so long since I've posted or even logged in that I didn't remember my username. (Boo! Hiss! Shame!)

I am feeling appropriately abashed, I promise.

So, this summer's plan: read, read, read, get some sun, work on curriculum.

What does this curriculum work entail? Well, so far as I can tell, it requires sitting in meetings. We've met once in June, had an all day long meeting, and so far on the first day we have had two long meetings that haven't really seemed to get anything important done. But from what I understand, that's what meetings are all about. The second meeting on the first day involved us being shown a whole new software program that hasn't even been made yet, and we won't get access to it for several months. Ahh, I just love bureaucracies, don't you?

Anyway, the curriculum work itself is pretty massive. I am working with the World history curriculum (not an easy word to type, by the way), and we're working on combining the state and county curricula. I think that ultimately the idea is that the first year teacher should be able to look at one document (preferably handed to them on a disk) rather than two or three, and it will be less confusing for them. The course is hard enough to teach as it is!

So what makes this job so massive? Well, to start with, the county curriculum (a "world class document") was written by some scholars and teachers a few years ago. It has something like 267 objectives that we are supposed to teach in one year. Objectives like "Explain the causes of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and analyze why the revolutionary government progressed from moderate to radical." The idea is that once the lesson is completed, the students should be able to do the above mentioned tasks. Note that that objective is actually asking the students to do two different things. So while we have 267 objectives, some of those objectives may have multiple tasks within them. So our job is supposedly to weed out some of the extraneous stuff. But what's extraneous??? That is the question. As I mentioned earlier, it is a massive task. It's funny, we all thought it would be a piece of cake. When we met back in June, we said "Oh, we'll be done in 2 days!!!" Yeah, well, we've been allotted nearly three weeks. I'm hoping it's enough time.

As for the reading bit. My plan is to read through all the books in my house that are unread. HA HA HA HA!!! That's a lot of books. I spend waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money at my two favorite places:
Amazon and Borders

So I have about a bajillion, maybe a tad fewer, books to read this summer. So far (given that we are nearly halfway through July), I have read:

Q is for Quarry - Sue Grafton
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (quite good, I recommend it)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling (natch)
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett (I really enjoyed it, but it took me about 50 pages to get into the book, but once I was in, I was hooked. I have found that to be the case with both the Ann Patchett novels I've read)
Girls' Poker Night - Jill Davis (standard Bridget Jones-esque. I found that it got frustrating towards the end because I think it took too long for the main character to come to her senses.)

I'm also in the process of reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang, which I really, really recommend, especially if you are interested in 20th century Chinese history. It's about three women and their lives in China starting around the turn of the last century (1900's). The author of the book starts by telling her grandmother's story, then her mother's, and then finally, her own. Very good. It totally has sucked me in.

Yes, I know, it's been a while.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed out, and I should be grading tests (two weeks old) right now, but I'm taking a minute out to share this with you:

"King Leopold called Africa a "magnificent cake" because that's just what it was. Africa was pretty on the outside, but mushy on the inside."

The only thing that's keeping me from going INSANE over the amount of snow we've had this year is the fact that it's March, and my theory is it can only get better. Oh yes, I know, it has snowed in March in the past (in fact we had a nasty snow storm in March during my student teaching a few years ago), and the Farmer's Almanac does show two snow "incidents" in March. But March means spring! March means green buds poking their heads through the ground and off of tree branches. And March means that spring break is just around the corner (this year not until the second week of April, curse the movable feast), and spring break means ... well, spring!

We have had 10 snow days. Well, 11 days off, but one of those days was a make up day for an earlier snow day. They are now discussing making the school day half an hour longer for two months so we don't have to go to school until July. Some school districts are asking their state to declare some kind of emergency that would allow the schools to forgive those days completely and not have to make them up.

This would never happen if this were the Midwest where they're used to snow. We get one snow flake in the sky here and people act as if it's one of the signs of the apocalypse (is that something that should be capitalized?).

Bottom line, what this means is that because we've missed so many days of school, I will not be showing my students Ghandi. Which is a shame, because a)it's about a wonderful man and they need to see someone trying to effect change non-violently b) it's a good movie and 3) it really shows the Indian nationalist/independence movement and even the problems between the Hindus and Muslims really well. Sigh.

I'm going out! I'm going to the supermarket. I'm giddy with the prospect!

It's been nearly a week since I've been in school. The "President's Day Storm of '03" has socked in all the schools, so we've been off since Monday. Monday, mind you, was to be a make up day for a snow day we had about two weeks ago. So, we're now going to be adding on snow days until the 25th of June. As of today. All bets are off tomorrow, when the school district decides whether or not to make us go to school for one day this week.

I'm not begrudging the school district its decision, apparently they haven't been able to plow out a few of the school parking lots. And some of the school buses. And well, frankly, a lot of side streets haven't been plowed yet, so it would be dangerous for small children (or even high school children, only some of whom are small) to try walking on these streets to get to school or just to the bus stop.

But I want to go to a music conference that is scheduled to start on June 22nd!!! And it's looking right now like that's not going to happen. Unless I can, by some miracle, get my instructional supervisor to ok my giving exams early. Right, so I can miss four days of school to go on vacation. I'm betting there will be ham at the Passover table in Rabbi Mendel's house before that happens.

Anyway, what this really boils down to is that other than a few quick jaunts down to the village for lunch, I've been cooped up in my house since Saturday.

Any minute now I think I may go mad. I am expecting the electrician tomorrow, and then I'm bloody well going out. Perhaps I'll go to the supermarket. Or the mall. Or the movies. Or any place that's not here. I love my house, but it's really getting to be a small place.

My big grammar pet peeves:

"Me and her"
"They went to Italy" (or whatever, the point here is who are THEY?!)
"He, she, it was a guy who did a thing"
"Because England had more natural resources"

Grrr...