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.