I'm trying to remember back to a first few weeks of school where we didn't have something dramatic happen. Trouble is, I can't seem to find a memory that fits that criteria.
Today was no exception.
This morning, probably about 15 minutes after the kids left homeroom and went to first period, all the power went out in The School. I was actually in the hallway on my way to the front office when it all went dark. (Fortunately, since we have first and second period planning, we didn't have any kids.) The power went off, the emergency lights went on and gave off enough light to somewhat figure out where you were going, and all was quiet.
Seriously quiet.
What was weird, is that in the nine years I've been at The School, this is the first time we've had the power go out and I DIDN'T hear a large yell from the student population. Usually when the power goes out you can hear the kids yell. You'd think they'd be used to power going out considering the number of severe storms we get here, but no, every time the power went out, there was an uproar.
Except for today. There wasn't a peep - even out of the sixth grade. You'd walk by classrooms and you'd hear teachers teaching (sans all our technology) and the kids listening, and just everyone carrying on as normal.
Wow. Amazing.
Showing posts with label Back to school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Back to school. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Shopping on the Donors' Dime
This year The District has something new in place called the Teacher Free Store. Apparently the local Education Foundation got a bunch of donors (mainly businesses in the area) to donate school supplies and things teachers use in their classrooms so they could set up a "store" that teachers can visit four times a year. Considering that teachers spend an average of $500-$1000 a year out of their own pocket for things for their classroom and their students, I thought this was a great idea.
Personally, I don't need that much for my classroom. I've taught at a summer camp for the past few years and they were always more than happy to have me take leftover and slightly used items off their hands. Storage over the school year was an issue and the less they had to store the better. So, for most teachers, I do pretty well.
However, the kids this year are having an awful time getting basic supplies, especially binders, pencil pouches, and divider tabs. Our free and reduced lunch numbers are up and fewer and fewer people are paying school fees. So, I figured I'd go down to the free store and see if I could find a few things for my kids.
(On an aside here...if there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's people who can't take care of their kids' basic needs like food, clothes, and school supplies, yet have enough money for beer, cigarettes and lots and lots of body art. Priorities people.)
In any case, I made my appointment to go down to the store, drove down there, and spent about ten minutes picking up things for my kids. I got some binders, some pencil pouches (no dividers, alas), two sets of multiplication cards to use with our team remediation class, and a stapler. The stapler was the only thing I got for my room, as I now have 8 lab groups, not 7, so I was short one stapler.
All I had to do was write a thank you note to the donors and that was it. Painless.
So yesterday one of my kids, Tank Boy (this kid screams football player when you look at him, even though he's only 12), is digging through a bunch of folders to find his make-up work from when he missed class. I like this kid a lot. You can tell he doesn't have much support at home financially, but he's a hard worker, participates in class and has a lot of potential. I notice the folder and ask him if he needs a binder.
"Oh yes, ma'am, I do," he says.
"Wait a second," I say, and go to the cabinet where I put the goodies from the Teacher Store. "Do you need a pencil pouch too?"
"Oh yes, and tabs if you have them," he says. His eyes are getting wider and wider as I start pulling the binder and pencil pouch out of the cabinet.
"Well, I don't have tabs, but I have these," I say as I hand him plain boring binder and a pencil pouch. You would have thought, from the look on his face, that I'd given him something much more valuable.
"For me?" He says, as if he couldn't believe I was actually giving him something to keep.
"Yes, but I expect you to take care of them, stay organized, and keep your grades up," I say. (Never hurt to lay out the ground rules again!)
"Oh, I will!" Tank Boy said with a huge smile. "Thank you so much!"
Thank you, dear donors, for helping me make this kid's day.
Personally, I don't need that much for my classroom. I've taught at a summer camp for the past few years and they were always more than happy to have me take leftover and slightly used items off their hands. Storage over the school year was an issue and the less they had to store the better. So, for most teachers, I do pretty well.
However, the kids this year are having an awful time getting basic supplies, especially binders, pencil pouches, and divider tabs. Our free and reduced lunch numbers are up and fewer and fewer people are paying school fees. So, I figured I'd go down to the free store and see if I could find a few things for my kids.
(On an aside here...if there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's people who can't take care of their kids' basic needs like food, clothes, and school supplies, yet have enough money for beer, cigarettes and lots and lots of body art. Priorities people.)
In any case, I made my appointment to go down to the store, drove down there, and spent about ten minutes picking up things for my kids. I got some binders, some pencil pouches (no dividers, alas), two sets of multiplication cards to use with our team remediation class, and a stapler. The stapler was the only thing I got for my room, as I now have 8 lab groups, not 7, so I was short one stapler.
All I had to do was write a thank you note to the donors and that was it. Painless.
So yesterday one of my kids, Tank Boy (this kid screams football player when you look at him, even though he's only 12), is digging through a bunch of folders to find his make-up work from when he missed class. I like this kid a lot. You can tell he doesn't have much support at home financially, but he's a hard worker, participates in class and has a lot of potential. I notice the folder and ask him if he needs a binder.
"Oh yes, ma'am, I do," he says.
"Wait a second," I say, and go to the cabinet where I put the goodies from the Teacher Store. "Do you need a pencil pouch too?"
"Oh yes, and tabs if you have them," he says. His eyes are getting wider and wider as I start pulling the binder and pencil pouch out of the cabinet.
"Well, I don't have tabs, but I have these," I say as I hand him plain boring binder and a pencil pouch. You would have thought, from the look on his face, that I'd given him something much more valuable.
"For me?" He says, as if he couldn't believe I was actually giving him something to keep.
"Yes, but I expect you to take care of them, stay organized, and keep your grades up," I say. (Never hurt to lay out the ground rules again!)
"Oh, I will!" Tank Boy said with a huge smile. "Thank you so much!"
Thank you, dear donors, for helping me make this kid's day.
Friday, August 06, 2010
1 down, 179 to go...
So today was the first (half) day of school.
And, considering some of the first days we've had in the past, this wasn't too bad. Really. (In case you're wondering about one of the less than stellar first days, click here.)
The buses were all unloaded quickly, the sixth graders made their way to the gym, the seventh graders made their way to the theater, and the 8th graders (who should, for the most part, know their way around) looked up their homerooms which were posted, and went to their class. In fact, the buses all unloaded so fast that we had to wait nearly 15 minutes to start calling out our kids because the walkers and parent drop off kids hadn't all shown up yet.
We did have attendance lists and rosters. We also had - surprise! - emergency cards which we weren't expecting until Tuesday. Out of 29 kids in my homeroom, 25 showed up, which isn't too bad. However, I still have some really unbalanced classes - 27, 31, 19, 35, and 18. The Administrators all walked around to welcome the kids and The Principal mentioned that she really noticed the unbalanced class sizes and was going to see if Guidance could fix it before Tuesday (I hope...) Apparently this is what happens when you let a computer system do your schedules for you. Still, with block english/language arts, special ed, advanced classes, and all that, sometimes it's hard to get the class sizes balanced. We shall see.
The kids were really pretty good - chatty to start with, but on the whole not bad. It's always so dreadfully boring the first day or so as you spend most of the time handing out paperwork, going over stuff like supply lists (exciting stuff), and forms that need to be signed, returned, blah, blah, blah. Like I tell the kids, it's boring to me too. We did finally get through all that, had the five of us on the team circulate and introduce ourselves, and then I had the kids do a few "getting to know you" activities because it amazes me that they can sit in a class with a kid for a year and not know his or her name! They liked that activity because it was noisy, involved moving around the room, and they could talk, talk, talk.
One thing I noticed...out of 25 kids that showed up, 23 ride the bus. That's huge. It will make going to lockers at the end of the day a bit of a challenge because I always let bus riders go first...and now that's most of the class. Hum...
Monday it's in-service on our new School Wide Positive Behavior Support program (more on that soon). Tuesday it's back to reality with a full day, a full schedule, and a whole bunch of kids.
And, considering some of the first days we've had in the past, this wasn't too bad. Really. (In case you're wondering about one of the less than stellar first days, click here.)
The buses were all unloaded quickly, the sixth graders made their way to the gym, the seventh graders made their way to the theater, and the 8th graders (who should, for the most part, know their way around) looked up their homerooms which were posted, and went to their class. In fact, the buses all unloaded so fast that we had to wait nearly 15 minutes to start calling out our kids because the walkers and parent drop off kids hadn't all shown up yet.
We did have attendance lists and rosters. We also had - surprise! - emergency cards which we weren't expecting until Tuesday. Out of 29 kids in my homeroom, 25 showed up, which isn't too bad. However, I still have some really unbalanced classes - 27, 31, 19, 35, and 18. The Administrators all walked around to welcome the kids and The Principal mentioned that she really noticed the unbalanced class sizes and was going to see if Guidance could fix it before Tuesday (I hope...) Apparently this is what happens when you let a computer system do your schedules for you. Still, with block english/language arts, special ed, advanced classes, and all that, sometimes it's hard to get the class sizes balanced. We shall see.
The kids were really pretty good - chatty to start with, but on the whole not bad. It's always so dreadfully boring the first day or so as you spend most of the time handing out paperwork, going over stuff like supply lists (exciting stuff), and forms that need to be signed, returned, blah, blah, blah. Like I tell the kids, it's boring to me too. We did finally get through all that, had the five of us on the team circulate and introduce ourselves, and then I had the kids do a few "getting to know you" activities because it amazes me that they can sit in a class with a kid for a year and not know his or her name! They liked that activity because it was noisy, involved moving around the room, and they could talk, talk, talk.
One thing I noticed...out of 25 kids that showed up, 23 ride the bus. That's huge. It will make going to lockers at the end of the day a bit of a challenge because I always let bus riders go first...and now that's most of the class. Hum...
Monday it's in-service on our new School Wide Positive Behavior Support program (more on that soon). Tuesday it's back to reality with a full day, a full schedule, and a whole bunch of kids.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Oh, It's Just Me Frying an Egg on the Sidewalk
It's nearly 5:00 pm and the temperature on my shaded front porch is 99.3 degrees Fahrenheit. (Hey, I'm a science teacher, so of course I'm going to tell you whether I'm talking Celsius or Fahrenheit!) The heat index is supposedly 111 degrees. Just about 50 miles north of here the heat index is supposedly 122 degrees.
And school starts on Friday.
Some school districts in the region are delaying opening school since they apparently don't have functioning air conditioning systems. We, however, do have functioning air conditioning (cross my fingers) so we're going to go ahead and start. I feel bad for the kids who ride the bus because they are definitely not air conditioned. All outside activities are canceled, which is smart. Actually I've been at The School the past few days and it's been rather comfortable. So, if nothing breaks, we're good to go on Friday.
Still, there's some concern about the fact that we start school so early in August - the hottest month of the year. (And there are some districts who start in late July!) Some argue that we could save money by not having to air condition schools as they'd be unoccupied by students. Others argue that we've taken away kids' summers, so much so that there's a political action group here called Save Our Summers who would like to see statewide legislation requiring that school cannot start prior to Labor Day.
Personally, it really doesn't matter much to me when we start school. In fact, I wouldn't even mind year-round school. As long as I have enough time to teach content prior to The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests, I'm happy.
But it got me to wondering...readers, when do you start school? Any of you teach/attend a year-round school? What do ya'll think???
In the meantime, I may just go cook supper out on the sidewalk. You know, save some electricity.
And school starts on Friday.
Some school districts in the region are delaying opening school since they apparently don't have functioning air conditioning systems. We, however, do have functioning air conditioning (cross my fingers) so we're going to go ahead and start. I feel bad for the kids who ride the bus because they are definitely not air conditioned. All outside activities are canceled, which is smart. Actually I've been at The School the past few days and it's been rather comfortable. So, if nothing breaks, we're good to go on Friday.
Still, there's some concern about the fact that we start school so early in August - the hottest month of the year. (And there are some districts who start in late July!) Some argue that we could save money by not having to air condition schools as they'd be unoccupied by students. Others argue that we've taken away kids' summers, so much so that there's a political action group here called Save Our Summers who would like to see statewide legislation requiring that school cannot start prior to Labor Day.
Personally, it really doesn't matter much to me when we start school. In fact, I wouldn't even mind year-round school. As long as I have enough time to teach content prior to The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests, I'm happy.
But it got me to wondering...readers, when do you start school? Any of you teach/attend a year-round school? What do ya'll think???
In the meantime, I may just go cook supper out on the sidewalk. You know, save some electricity.
Friday, July 30, 2010
A Little Like Christmas In July
Summer is done.
Today I loaded up the car and headed over to The School to unpack and get my room set up. Amazing how long that can take.
Every year we have to box up and pack up our rooms. For those, like me, who have absolutely no built-in storage, this means EVERYTHING. Mrs. Eagle had cabinets and all sorts of counters in her old room so it was simply a matter of just putting stuff away. My room, however, has nothing of the sort, so I have to box it all up so that the janitors, bless their hearts, can empty the entire room to strip and wax the floors. Then they haul all the stuff back in and, thankfully, read the little map we tape to our doors so they know, more or less, where things go. I have to give them credit - this year I didn't have to hardly move a thing. They were rock stars.
A few years ago I got tired of the Spring hunt for boxes with which to pack up my room and instead bought big plastic tubs to store things in. This has turned out to be one of the smartest things I've ever done. For one thing, it increased my storage during the year. Four of these huge tubs can sit under the work table by my door. That means I can store things in these four tubs during the year. The other ones I simply stash in an out-of-the way corner (I do not have a square room so there are a lot of weird little corners) and then I pull them out every Spring and pack them up again.
I do not, however, label them with what's in them. Because that changes every year. Which means that today was kind of like opening presents at Christmas. Wonder what's in this tub? Oh wow, books, pipe cleaners, and my precious red Swingline stapler! Cool!
I did get a lot accomplished. Still need to get out and hang up posters, and figure out kid seating, bring in the plants and clean a few things, and then I should be ready to go. Heavens, I even got the technology up and running and working. That can sometimes be a disaster but this year worked out fine.
Now if I can just find a way to fit a rumored 34 kids per class into a room that's made to accommodate 28...
Today I loaded up the car and headed over to The School to unpack and get my room set up. Amazing how long that can take.
Every year we have to box up and pack up our rooms. For those, like me, who have absolutely no built-in storage, this means EVERYTHING. Mrs. Eagle had cabinets and all sorts of counters in her old room so it was simply a matter of just putting stuff away. My room, however, has nothing of the sort, so I have to box it all up so that the janitors, bless their hearts, can empty the entire room to strip and wax the floors. Then they haul all the stuff back in and, thankfully, read the little map we tape to our doors so they know, more or less, where things go. I have to give them credit - this year I didn't have to hardly move a thing. They were rock stars.
A few years ago I got tired of the Spring hunt for boxes with which to pack up my room and instead bought big plastic tubs to store things in. This has turned out to be one of the smartest things I've ever done. For one thing, it increased my storage during the year. Four of these huge tubs can sit under the work table by my door. That means I can store things in these four tubs during the year. The other ones I simply stash in an out-of-the way corner (I do not have a square room so there are a lot of weird little corners) and then I pull them out every Spring and pack them up again.
I do not, however, label them with what's in them. Because that changes every year. Which means that today was kind of like opening presents at Christmas. Wonder what's in this tub? Oh wow, books, pipe cleaners, and my precious red Swingline stapler! Cool!
I did get a lot accomplished. Still need to get out and hang up posters, and figure out kid seating, bring in the plants and clean a few things, and then I should be ready to go. Heavens, I even got the technology up and running and working. That can sometimes be a disaster but this year worked out fine.
Now if I can just find a way to fit a rumored 34 kids per class into a room that's made to accommodate 28...
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Back Where We Belong
After a week off for flooding, we managed to get back to school this past Monday.
Thank goodness.
The kids seemed to be glad to be back. Some of them mentioned some flood damage at home, including flooded basements and garages, but for the most part seemed to take a lot of the week's drama in stride. These kids prove, once again, to be a pretty resilient bunch. Mrs. Social Studies asked most of them what they did with their week off (the weather was absolutely beyond beautiful) and most of them mentioned that they stayed inside watching TV, playing video games, or helped parents clean up after the mess. How sad that so many of my kids aren't allowed outside unless a parent is home. They're prisoners in their own homes.
Everyone seems a bit stressed because instead of having three weeks to do all the end of the year stuff - field day, academic award parties, the drama club play, National Junior Honor Society - we have two weeks. Two weeks that are crammed full of events and activities. I'm almost glad that teachers have an extra work day to make up from our snow days back in January and February as we're so busy now that we need that day to pack up our rooms.
It's nice to be back.
Thank goodness.
The kids seemed to be glad to be back. Some of them mentioned some flood damage at home, including flooded basements and garages, but for the most part seemed to take a lot of the week's drama in stride. These kids prove, once again, to be a pretty resilient bunch. Mrs. Social Studies asked most of them what they did with their week off (the weather was absolutely beyond beautiful) and most of them mentioned that they stayed inside watching TV, playing video games, or helped parents clean up after the mess. How sad that so many of my kids aren't allowed outside unless a parent is home. They're prisoners in their own homes.
Everyone seems a bit stressed because instead of having three weeks to do all the end of the year stuff - field day, academic award parties, the drama club play, National Junior Honor Society - we have two weeks. Two weeks that are crammed full of events and activities. I'm almost glad that teachers have an extra work day to make up from our snow days back in January and February as we're so busy now that we need that day to pack up our rooms.
It's nice to be back.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Really Bad Timing
I don't know what Mrs. Eagle and I were thinking.
We are encouraged to work at least two after school events every year. They range from dances, to basketball games, to choir concerts and the like. For some reason Mrs. Eagle and I decided to work the first back to school dance, probably because we wanted to get at least one of our events over and out of the way.
Which in itself is a bit silly because we tend to volunteer and end up working most of the dances and events anyway.
However, this was one of those weeks where we both had something to do nearly every single day after school. I had a historical society meeting, a Civil War round table meeting, a board meeting for a non profit, open house, and then, lastly the dance. Obviously we didn't check our calendars when we volunteered to work the dance.
I don't think we realized that open house was this same week. For some reason the district scheduled the middle school open house really early this year - like nearly a month early. We're just barely getting all the kids' names down (I know their names but I still can't remember what class period I have them) and now we've got parents, grandparents, siblings and who knows who else coming by the room to say hi and see what it looks like. This open house was busy. Really busy. And to top it off we had the book fair (also very early this year) and our second annual community health fair which has turned out to be hugely popular. What was amazing was we didn't just see parents of the good kids, but my team actually got to meet the mothers (and get their emails) of two of the boys that were put on our team so they'd be close by Mr. Enforcer...and because he told the moms that we don't put up with any nonsense. The moms both mentioned that and thought of it as being quite positive - their sons needed a firm hand.
Side note. One of my students who is now sophomore showed up to visit. He's HUGE. He's a grown up! We talked about how much fun it was on the camping trip and what a goofball he was in class. It was nice seeing him, but kind of weird because he's so different now.
Anyhow...so the dance arrives and we're just beat, to say the least. It's been a long week. And our kids had been keyed up about the dance all day (and man, some of those girls were dressed up!) But hey, a dance is easy work for the most part. The student council sponsors and members are actually doing most of the work (it's their fundraiser, after all) and we're just there for crowd control.
And we had a heck of a crowd.
It may have been because it was the first dance of the year, and the kids were still excited about being back with their friends. Or, as Mrs. Bunny said, it was a good way to get rid of your kid for a few hours. In any case, it was packed. Not just with sixth graders and seventh graders, but even the jaded, cool eighth graders who don't often show up at dances because, well, they're just so over that.
The gym was packed. The cafeteria where the kids spend a fortune shoving candy, soda and pizza down their gullets was packed. And those of us working the dance spent most of the evening telling speeding sixth graders To Stop Running.
What is it about sixth graders that they come to a dance to run? We should have track meets with music for these critters.
The good news is that the student council cleared two grand which will go towards our angel tree program at Christmas.
And it's the weekend.
We are encouraged to work at least two after school events every year. They range from dances, to basketball games, to choir concerts and the like. For some reason Mrs. Eagle and I decided to work the first back to school dance, probably because we wanted to get at least one of our events over and out of the way.
Which in itself is a bit silly because we tend to volunteer and end up working most of the dances and events anyway.
However, this was one of those weeks where we both had something to do nearly every single day after school. I had a historical society meeting, a Civil War round table meeting, a board meeting for a non profit, open house, and then, lastly the dance. Obviously we didn't check our calendars when we volunteered to work the dance.
I don't think we realized that open house was this same week. For some reason the district scheduled the middle school open house really early this year - like nearly a month early. We're just barely getting all the kids' names down (I know their names but I still can't remember what class period I have them) and now we've got parents, grandparents, siblings and who knows who else coming by the room to say hi and see what it looks like. This open house was busy. Really busy. And to top it off we had the book fair (also very early this year) and our second annual community health fair which has turned out to be hugely popular. What was amazing was we didn't just see parents of the good kids, but my team actually got to meet the mothers (and get their emails) of two of the boys that were put on our team so they'd be close by Mr. Enforcer...and because he told the moms that we don't put up with any nonsense. The moms both mentioned that and thought of it as being quite positive - their sons needed a firm hand.
Side note. One of my students who is now sophomore showed up to visit. He's HUGE. He's a grown up! We talked about how much fun it was on the camping trip and what a goofball he was in class. It was nice seeing him, but kind of weird because he's so different now.
Anyhow...so the dance arrives and we're just beat, to say the least. It's been a long week. And our kids had been keyed up about the dance all day (and man, some of those girls were dressed up!) But hey, a dance is easy work for the most part. The student council sponsors and members are actually doing most of the work (it's their fundraiser, after all) and we're just there for crowd control.
And we had a heck of a crowd.
It may have been because it was the first dance of the year, and the kids were still excited about being back with their friends. Or, as Mrs. Bunny said, it was a good way to get rid of your kid for a few hours. In any case, it was packed. Not just with sixth graders and seventh graders, but even the jaded, cool eighth graders who don't often show up at dances because, well, they're just so over that.
The gym was packed. The cafeteria where the kids spend a fortune shoving candy, soda and pizza down their gullets was packed. And those of us working the dance spent most of the evening telling speeding sixth graders To Stop Running.
What is it about sixth graders that they come to a dance to run? We should have track meets with music for these critters.
The good news is that the student council cleared two grand which will go towards our angel tree program at Christmas.
And it's the weekend.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Blah, blah, blah, blah, and blah
I am so sick of hearing myself talk.
That's one of the things I hate about the first few days of school. I feel like all I do is hand papers at kids and talk and talk and talk and talk. It's boring as all get out, but It Must Be Done.
On Friday, the first half day, we handed out and discussed all the school paperwork - fee lists, supply lists, fee waivers, free and reduced lunch forms, emergency cards, bus information, student information sheets and on and on and on.
Today was the first day I had all of my classes, not just my homeroom. Today it was all the stuff about science class - the parent letter, the science lab rules, the Science expectations sheet (how I run my class, basically), class do's and don'ts, and our first study guide. Of course I had to go through each thing and explain it, but show them around them room and on and on and on. Here is how we do homework, here is what the new workbooks look like, here's where you find my vocabulary podcats.
Yawn.
By seventh period I was pretty darn sick of hearing my own voice, my throat hurt and I'm sure the kids were wondering when those stupid buses were going to show up so they could go home.
And my feet hurt. No surprise there, they always hurt the first week or so until I get used to standing all day.
Tomorrow will be better...I don't do all the talking.
That's one of the things I hate about the first few days of school. I feel like all I do is hand papers at kids and talk and talk and talk and talk. It's boring as all get out, but It Must Be Done.
On Friday, the first half day, we handed out and discussed all the school paperwork - fee lists, supply lists, fee waivers, free and reduced lunch forms, emergency cards, bus information, student information sheets and on and on and on.
Today was the first day I had all of my classes, not just my homeroom. Today it was all the stuff about science class - the parent letter, the science lab rules, the Science expectations sheet (how I run my class, basically), class do's and don'ts, and our first study guide. Of course I had to go through each thing and explain it, but show them around them room and on and on and on. Here is how we do homework, here is what the new workbooks look like, here's where you find my vocabulary podcats.
Yawn.
By seventh period I was pretty darn sick of hearing my own voice, my throat hurt and I'm sure the kids were wondering when those stupid buses were going to show up so they could go home.
And my feet hurt. No surprise there, they always hurt the first week or so until I get used to standing all day.
Tomorrow will be better...I don't do all the talking.
Friday, August 07, 2009
It's So Good, Something's Bound to Go Wrong...
Today was, at last, the first half day of school.
(As an aside, don't ask me why we have a half day on Friday, give the kids Monday off, and actually start school with a full schedule on Tuesday. I have no idea why. It's weird. But It Is How We Do Things.)
And something really weird happened.
Nothing went wrong.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but I remember first days when the entire network crashed, the phones crashed with it, and not only couldn't we call anyone, we couldn't print schedules, enroll kids, or even look up anything. A new kid would enroll and guidance would just go park him or her in a nearby classroom for the day until the system went back up. It was ugly. We've had days where many kids had no schedules or crazy schedules with, say, three math classes. We've had days where kids had no clue where the buses were and the bus drivers didn't know where to park.
And then we had last year when The Team decided, after the first half day, that everything we'd heard about those kids was True and we were in for a helluva year.
This year was so smooth we kept waiting for something to happen. The seventh graders were excited to be back, so much so that they cheered for The Principal, Mr. Enforcer, and Mrs. Sparrow, our new Assistant Principal. The Principal looked over at us with surprise and commented on that never happening before. The fact that these kids cheered for Mr. Enforcer, the guy who does a lot of the discipline referrals, was pretty amazing. And then they actually got quiet, listened for their names to be called, and waited quietly outside the theater (with the PE teachers supervising) for us to finish calling our homerooms so we could collect our cherubs and go to class.
They sat, they listened, the did their tasks, they were nice, they were polite, it was, well, a shock. We all gathered together after the kids were dismissed and kind of stood around stunned.
"Is it me, or were these kids just a lot better than what we had last year?" asked Coach Math.
"They're better," Mrs. Social Studies said. "I could tell within the first hour that this was a better bunch. It's weird."
I guess The Team is just used to our Seventh Grade Class From Hades acting like a bunch of hooligans and having nice, respectful kids in class is truly something we haven't been used to in the past year.
It was, truly, a really nice, easy, comfortable day.
Of course, the eighth grade teachers didn't have such a nice day. Apparently our fervent hope that our group from last year would grow up and mature and develop some people skills did not come to pass. Mrs. Angora, a fantastic 8th grade science teacher, came up to me before we went into our afternoon session.
"Oh. My. God." she said.
"Uh, let me guess...they didn't mature," I responded.
"Not even close," she said. "They were awful. Just awful."
And she got the best of the bunch. I truly feel sorry for our 8th grade teachers this year.
(As an aside, don't ask me why we have a half day on Friday, give the kids Monday off, and actually start school with a full schedule on Tuesday. I have no idea why. It's weird. But It Is How We Do Things.)
And something really weird happened.
Nothing went wrong.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but I remember first days when the entire network crashed, the phones crashed with it, and not only couldn't we call anyone, we couldn't print schedules, enroll kids, or even look up anything. A new kid would enroll and guidance would just go park him or her in a nearby classroom for the day until the system went back up. It was ugly. We've had days where many kids had no schedules or crazy schedules with, say, three math classes. We've had days where kids had no clue where the buses were and the bus drivers didn't know where to park.
And then we had last year when The Team decided, after the first half day, that everything we'd heard about those kids was True and we were in for a helluva year.
This year was so smooth we kept waiting for something to happen. The seventh graders were excited to be back, so much so that they cheered for The Principal, Mr. Enforcer, and Mrs. Sparrow, our new Assistant Principal. The Principal looked over at us with surprise and commented on that never happening before. The fact that these kids cheered for Mr. Enforcer, the guy who does a lot of the discipline referrals, was pretty amazing. And then they actually got quiet, listened for their names to be called, and waited quietly outside the theater (with the PE teachers supervising) for us to finish calling our homerooms so we could collect our cherubs and go to class.
They sat, they listened, the did their tasks, they were nice, they were polite, it was, well, a shock. We all gathered together after the kids were dismissed and kind of stood around stunned.
"Is it me, or were these kids just a lot better than what we had last year?" asked Coach Math.
"They're better," Mrs. Social Studies said. "I could tell within the first hour that this was a better bunch. It's weird."
I guess The Team is just used to our Seventh Grade Class From Hades acting like a bunch of hooligans and having nice, respectful kids in class is truly something we haven't been used to in the past year.
It was, truly, a really nice, easy, comfortable day.
Of course, the eighth grade teachers didn't have such a nice day. Apparently our fervent hope that our group from last year would grow up and mature and develop some people skills did not come to pass. Mrs. Angora, a fantastic 8th grade science teacher, came up to me before we went into our afternoon session.
"Oh. My. God." she said.
"Uh, let me guess...they didn't mature," I responded.
"Not even close," she said. "They were awful. Just awful."
And she got the best of the bunch. I truly feel sorry for our 8th grade teachers this year.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Tick...tick...tick...
Counting down to the first half day.
Which is Friday.
Which seems way too early, but that's how it goes. Other districts in the area actually started last week.
So, for the past week or so, I've been to two in-services, unpacked and set up my room, met with Mrs. Eagle and Ms. Hummingbird and actually planned our lessons for our first science unit, met with Mrs. Bunny and Mrs. Eagle to plan some things for seventh grade, met with the team, and just more stuff.
It will be a different year this year. First off, the Seventh Grade Class from Hades is now the Eighth Grade Class We Hope Grew Up Over the Summer. Our rosters showed up in PowerSchool today so I had quite a few 8th grade teachers dropping by to get some insight on their kids (especially in terms of putting together lab groups - some kids don't need to be with each other). The good news is that my long email last spring to guidance about kids who needed to be separated worked because many of my more memorable kids (Sassy Girl comes to mind) are no longer with their fellow friends and trouble makers. Mr. Owl will have his hands full with some of his kids, but he got a great bunch for his Physical Science class.
My team is much smaller this year - only 93 kids as of today. So last year's nuclear meltdown when I had 37 kids in my homeroom didn't happen. I have only 23 and that's my largest number. Our seventh grade numbers are down a bit, so we lost a position, and only have four teachers - Mrs. Social Studies, Mr. Math, and Mrs. English (Mrs. English will be teaching reading/language arts blocks which is something they are trying in 7th grade this year). The Principal got approval to get a split Language Arts/Reading position that will teach one block in 7th grade, and the other in 8th grade - his/her room will be in our team area so we'll see quite a few 8th graders in our area, which should be interesting. She doesn't know when the position will be filled, so we've been told to expect a sub for the first week or so.
We had a cookout today to celebrate our Very Big Deal Government Mandated Test Scores which were amazing. We basically kicked butt over nearly all the other middle schools in the county (including two "rich" schools) and all this with a free and reduced lunch population now at 60%, not a whole lot of parental support, and kids that were, to be nice, a handful.
Tomorrow, more meetings, and I need more time to get posters hung up, and some copies made before the cherubs arrive on Friday morning.
Here we go!
Which is Friday.
Which seems way too early, but that's how it goes. Other districts in the area actually started last week.
So, for the past week or so, I've been to two in-services, unpacked and set up my room, met with Mrs. Eagle and Ms. Hummingbird and actually planned our lessons for our first science unit, met with Mrs. Bunny and Mrs. Eagle to plan some things for seventh grade, met with the team, and just more stuff.
It will be a different year this year. First off, the Seventh Grade Class from Hades is now the Eighth Grade Class We Hope Grew Up Over the Summer. Our rosters showed up in PowerSchool today so I had quite a few 8th grade teachers dropping by to get some insight on their kids (especially in terms of putting together lab groups - some kids don't need to be with each other). The good news is that my long email last spring to guidance about kids who needed to be separated worked because many of my more memorable kids (Sassy Girl comes to mind) are no longer with their fellow friends and trouble makers. Mr. Owl will have his hands full with some of his kids, but he got a great bunch for his Physical Science class.
My team is much smaller this year - only 93 kids as of today. So last year's nuclear meltdown when I had 37 kids in my homeroom didn't happen. I have only 23 and that's my largest number. Our seventh grade numbers are down a bit, so we lost a position, and only have four teachers - Mrs. Social Studies, Mr. Math, and Mrs. English (Mrs. English will be teaching reading/language arts blocks which is something they are trying in 7th grade this year). The Principal got approval to get a split Language Arts/Reading position that will teach one block in 7th grade, and the other in 8th grade - his/her room will be in our team area so we'll see quite a few 8th graders in our area, which should be interesting. She doesn't know when the position will be filled, so we've been told to expect a sub for the first week or so.
We had a cookout today to celebrate our Very Big Deal Government Mandated Test Scores which were amazing. We basically kicked butt over nearly all the other middle schools in the county (including two "rich" schools) and all this with a free and reduced lunch population now at 60%, not a whole lot of parental support, and kids that were, to be nice, a handful.
Tomorrow, more meetings, and I need more time to get posters hung up, and some copies made before the cherubs arrive on Friday morning.
Here we go!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
I'll Believe it When I See It
The first year I taught at The School we were lucky enough to get new science textbooks.
Except they didn't arrive until October.
And school started in August.
Every time we had a faculty meeting, a science teacher would wave his or her hand in the air and ask the soon to be infamous question, "Any news on when we'll get our science books?"
The answer, which our vice principal got from book distribution guys who most likely got it from a publisher rep who probably got it from a guy named Buddy who drove a truck was "They're on THE TRUCK."
We had no idea where THE TRUCK was and soon wildly exciting guessing games were going on about just, where, THE TRUCK was. Many felt that Alaska was a good guess. There was much joy and celebration when the new books, finally, arrived.
So this year, what with the standards changing and our old books having pretty much seen their better days, we are supposed to get new books. We've spent the whole year gearing up for the new books, going to publisher presentations, reviewing the sample copies, and eventually selecting the book that best suited our needs. And we were told that they would definitely be there in August, ready and waiting for school to start.
However.
None of us really, truly believed that. For one thing, there's always a BUDGET CRISIS and one of the first things that get yanked are new textbooks, and there had been rumors going around all year about the fact that we may just have to milk another year out of our old books. That was something none of us in middle school even wanted to contemplate since our standards got all switched around and our books were built around the old standards. One idea floated was to have a class set of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade books and just use whichever book had that particular standard in it. Fun.
And then, after our experience with THE TRUCK, whenever anyone said, "Oh, yes, they'll be there in August," we all snickered and laughed and kicked each other under the table at faculty meetings.
Sure they will. As I told my students last year, "I'll believe it when I see it."
I saw it.
Today Mrs. Eagle and I were coming back from lunch and walked in by the front office only to see a young man struggling to open a door and push in a huge cart with boxes stacked on it. We went and held the door open for him so he could get through, when Mrs. Eagle noticed the labels on the boxes.
"Hey, are those science books?" she asked him.
"Hum, I think so," he said. "I'm not really sure."
"Hang on, I want to read the label," I said and I checked the label out. "It's science books," I said. "But I can't tell what grade."
Since the young man didn't know where the book room was, we gleefully showed him the way...and made him open one of the boxes so we could see what was inside.
Glory Be! They were all seventh grade science books!!!
I think we may have scared him a bit when we started squealing and clapping our hands in excitement.
Except they didn't arrive until October.
And school started in August.
Every time we had a faculty meeting, a science teacher would wave his or her hand in the air and ask the soon to be infamous question, "Any news on when we'll get our science books?"
The answer, which our vice principal got from book distribution guys who most likely got it from a publisher rep who probably got it from a guy named Buddy who drove a truck was "They're on THE TRUCK."
We had no idea where THE TRUCK was and soon wildly exciting guessing games were going on about just, where, THE TRUCK was. Many felt that Alaska was a good guess. There was much joy and celebration when the new books, finally, arrived.
So this year, what with the standards changing and our old books having pretty much seen their better days, we are supposed to get new books. We've spent the whole year gearing up for the new books, going to publisher presentations, reviewing the sample copies, and eventually selecting the book that best suited our needs. And we were told that they would definitely be there in August, ready and waiting for school to start.
However.
None of us really, truly believed that. For one thing, there's always a BUDGET CRISIS and one of the first things that get yanked are new textbooks, and there had been rumors going around all year about the fact that we may just have to milk another year out of our old books. That was something none of us in middle school even wanted to contemplate since our standards got all switched around and our books were built around the old standards. One idea floated was to have a class set of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade books and just use whichever book had that particular standard in it. Fun.
And then, after our experience with THE TRUCK, whenever anyone said, "Oh, yes, they'll be there in August," we all snickered and laughed and kicked each other under the table at faculty meetings.
Sure they will. As I told my students last year, "I'll believe it when I see it."
I saw it.
Today Mrs. Eagle and I were coming back from lunch and walked in by the front office only to see a young man struggling to open a door and push in a huge cart with boxes stacked on it. We went and held the door open for him so he could get through, when Mrs. Eagle noticed the labels on the boxes.
"Hey, are those science books?" she asked him.
"Hum, I think so," he said. "I'm not really sure."
"Hang on, I want to read the label," I said and I checked the label out. "It's science books," I said. "But I can't tell what grade."
Since the young man didn't know where the book room was, we gleefully showed him the way...and made him open one of the boxes so we could see what was inside.
Glory Be! They were all seventh grade science books!!!
I think we may have scared him a bit when we started squealing and clapping our hands in excitement.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Easing into the New Year
Alas, it is over.
No more sleeping in. No more sitting in my jammies doing sudoko puzzles until noon. Not much college football left to watch (I swear, Daddy Bird and I watched just about every bowl game there was). No more afternoon movies with Hubster.
Yup, it's back to school.
We went back today. The kids, however, did not. I happen to love this. It gives us a day to kind of ease back into the routine (getting up at 5:00 am takes some getting used to again) and we get some good in-service time in.
Tomorrow, the chickadees come back to roost. Hopefully Santa gave them some work ethic and motivation for Christmas, but more likely he just hit them over the head with the hormone hammer. We'll see. It could be a pleasant surprise.
The good news is two of our worst-behaved and lowest achieving students withdrew on the Thursday before break. One, to a pre-adoptive foster home which is something this girl needed. She had the most useless foster parents I've ever encountered (wouldn't return calls, answer emails, basically were non-involved with this kids' academic and behavior problems) and she needed to be somewhere where someone might actually give a rip about her. The other was a young man who was living with his aunt and since he didn't bother to put forth any effort he was failing all his classes and was spending way too much time in ISS for back talk and generally being a pill. His father decided enough was enough and off he went to live with him in...North Dakota. Talk about a culture shock. I hope he has a warm coat because he's going to need it.
As for me, I need a nap.
No more sleeping in. No more sitting in my jammies doing sudoko puzzles until noon. Not much college football left to watch (I swear, Daddy Bird and I watched just about every bowl game there was). No more afternoon movies with Hubster.
Yup, it's back to school.
We went back today. The kids, however, did not. I happen to love this. It gives us a day to kind of ease back into the routine (getting up at 5:00 am takes some getting used to again) and we get some good in-service time in.
Tomorrow, the chickadees come back to roost. Hopefully Santa gave them some work ethic and motivation for Christmas, but more likely he just hit them over the head with the hormone hammer. We'll see. It could be a pleasant surprise.
The good news is two of our worst-behaved and lowest achieving students withdrew on the Thursday before break. One, to a pre-adoptive foster home which is something this girl needed. She had the most useless foster parents I've ever encountered (wouldn't return calls, answer emails, basically were non-involved with this kids' academic and behavior problems) and she needed to be somewhere where someone might actually give a rip about her. The other was a young man who was living with his aunt and since he didn't bother to put forth any effort he was failing all his classes and was spending way too much time in ISS for back talk and generally being a pill. His father decided enough was enough and off he went to live with him in...North Dakota. Talk about a culture shock. I hope he has a warm coat because he's going to need it.
As for me, I need a nap.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Hey Brother Can You Spare Some Copies?
I teach in a Title 1 school which means that over 50% of our student population is on free and reduced lunch. I think last year we were at 54% and I'm guessing this year it will be even higher. What this means is that we have a lot of Federal money sent our way to help our at-risk population.
Over the past three years this money has helped pay for things that have benefited our students. Hiring aides to work with our at-risk kids has been one of our expenditures that have seen real results. Another one has been the Reading 180 program that has moved kids up 2-3 grade levels in reading within a year. These have been the major expenditures.
Some of the minor expenditures were something as simple as extra copies. Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Robin and I got permission to go over our allotted copy budget to make individual copies of our tests. Now this may not seem like a real important thing to spend money on, but one of the things we really focused on last year was teaching kids good test-taking skills, and to make our tests more like the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests. This was something that Mrs. Standard, our Science Consulting Teacher from The District, had wanted us to do as it allowed kids to mark up the tests, cross out obviously wrong answers, make notes on the edges, highlight things and so forth and so on. Granted, it took longer to grade as I graded it by hand but it gave me a better idea of their thinking, and allowed the kid to see where the mistakes were. A bubble sheet doesn't quite do it. And, since we only get 3,000 copies a month, we got permission to use Title money to supplement our copies.
And we had the highest test scores in the school, so maybe there was something to it. I don't know.
So last week we get an email from The Principal, who had a meeting with her boss, and the long and short of it is that the Feds have decreased a lot of the funding to this program, and money we were expecting isn't coming. In fact, everything is frozen. Not just Title 1 stuff, but everything.
Frozen freaking solid.
So, when Mrs. Eagle and I wanted to give our health class kids a "fun food Friday", where we taught them how to make easy healthy snacks, we found out we had to pay for it ourselves. Which we did. (And weirdly, not one of them whined or complained about eating carrots, red peppers, celery and zucchini as a snack.)
However.
The bulk of our science labs where we use up a lot of consumables are at the beginning of the year, according to our pacing guide. And until something shakes loose, we may just have to pay for the supplies ourselves.
And don't even ask about copies. The way things are going now, we'll be lucky to get 2,000 a month this year.
Sigh.
Over the past three years this money has helped pay for things that have benefited our students. Hiring aides to work with our at-risk kids has been one of our expenditures that have seen real results. Another one has been the Reading 180 program that has moved kids up 2-3 grade levels in reading within a year. These have been the major expenditures.
Some of the minor expenditures were something as simple as extra copies. Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Robin and I got permission to go over our allotted copy budget to make individual copies of our tests. Now this may not seem like a real important thing to spend money on, but one of the things we really focused on last year was teaching kids good test-taking skills, and to make our tests more like the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests. This was something that Mrs. Standard, our Science Consulting Teacher from The District, had wanted us to do as it allowed kids to mark up the tests, cross out obviously wrong answers, make notes on the edges, highlight things and so forth and so on. Granted, it took longer to grade as I graded it by hand but it gave me a better idea of their thinking, and allowed the kid to see where the mistakes were. A bubble sheet doesn't quite do it. And, since we only get 3,000 copies a month, we got permission to use Title money to supplement our copies.
And we had the highest test scores in the school, so maybe there was something to it. I don't know.
So last week we get an email from The Principal, who had a meeting with her boss, and the long and short of it is that the Feds have decreased a lot of the funding to this program, and money we were expecting isn't coming. In fact, everything is frozen. Not just Title 1 stuff, but everything.
Frozen freaking solid.
So, when Mrs. Eagle and I wanted to give our health class kids a "fun food Friday", where we taught them how to make easy healthy snacks, we found out we had to pay for it ourselves. Which we did. (And weirdly, not one of them whined or complained about eating carrots, red peppers, celery and zucchini as a snack.)
However.
The bulk of our science labs where we use up a lot of consumables are at the beginning of the year, according to our pacing guide. And until something shakes loose, we may just have to pay for the supplies ourselves.
And don't even ask about copies. The way things are going now, we'll be lucky to get 2,000 a month this year.
Sigh.
Monday, August 11, 2008
It's a Good Thing I'm a Little Nuts Already
The saga of the exploding homeroom continues.
On Friday, 29 of 35 kids showed up. Whee!!! I had seats for everyone. It's not unusual to have a good chunk of kids not show up because a lot of them move over the summer and we may not have received a request for records yet from their new school. I was hoping, as you can imagine, that this number would stabilize.
This morning, three of my "missing" children appeared, so my number jumped to 32. I have, barely, 32 seats available. This means every single isolation island is being used, and those kids will need to have some spare chairs to pull up to a lab group when we do labs - there's no extra lab tables available to start with and there's no room to put when if I could find one. So, I sent a request to the head custodian to find me 4 plain chairs. Mrs. Social Studies, next door, had to get 3 more student desks. We are not alone. Chairs and desks are a hot commodity right now.
This afternoon I get an email informing me that a student was being transferred from Mrs. Eagle's team to my team. I knew the name right away - it's the younger brother of a kid I had a few years ago. His mom is very involved, but I actually kind of enjoyed her - if I ever needed a volunteer, she'd be there. She had told me a year ago she wanted her youngest on our team - however, the team her older son had isn't the same. I'm the only returning member from that era, and in fact, Mrs. Bunny's team has two of the teachers that were on our team that year. However, amazingly enough, her team's numbers are even higher than ours are, so I ended up with Little Brother.
Of course he ended up in my homeroom.
I informed Guidance Mom that he'd be sitting on the floor as things stood now. She's going to try to move another kid out of that class and into one of my others, and hopefully we'll keep that 32 number. As it stands, most of my classes are in the 28 range which is a pretty big group.
However, it beats sitting on the floor.
Our numbers this year are, well, unpredictable. The Principal informed that even before school started, we were running 100 kids over the prediction. I have no clue where they are coming from, but they're here and we're running out of chairs.
I have heard, however, that the 8th grade is rather empty, compared to sixth and seventh grade. Funny how things work out.
Speaking of 8th graders...I'm teaching an 8th grade Health Class this year which is going to be kind of fun, as long as my 8th graders don't get lost. I have 29 on my roster. When the bell rang for 7th period, only 7 had shown up. Something was wrong. I asked one of my kids from last year to show me his schedule and discovered that it had my name, my room number, and the title was "PE"...ah, health used to be part of the PE department and apparently that didn't get changed when they did the schedules. So, I had seven kids who read their schedules and came to the right room (and earned a Jolly Rancher for not being a goober), and 22 who, most likely, ended up wandering lose in the gym.
I got a hold of the Guidance Goddess to see if she could radio the gym teachers and send me my missing kids. About ten minutes later one of the coaches showed up with the missing sheep, and was on her way to drop off Mrs. Eagle's missing sheep (she only had 4 find her room!)
You know, I quit watching soap operas when I began teaching...it's just way more entertaining.
On Friday, 29 of 35 kids showed up. Whee!!! I had seats for everyone. It's not unusual to have a good chunk of kids not show up because a lot of them move over the summer and we may not have received a request for records yet from their new school. I was hoping, as you can imagine, that this number would stabilize.
This morning, three of my "missing" children appeared, so my number jumped to 32. I have, barely, 32 seats available. This means every single isolation island is being used, and those kids will need to have some spare chairs to pull up to a lab group when we do labs - there's no extra lab tables available to start with and there's no room to put when if I could find one. So, I sent a request to the head custodian to find me 4 plain chairs. Mrs. Social Studies, next door, had to get 3 more student desks. We are not alone. Chairs and desks are a hot commodity right now.
This afternoon I get an email informing me that a student was being transferred from Mrs. Eagle's team to my team. I knew the name right away - it's the younger brother of a kid I had a few years ago. His mom is very involved, but I actually kind of enjoyed her - if I ever needed a volunteer, she'd be there. She had told me a year ago she wanted her youngest on our team - however, the team her older son had isn't the same. I'm the only returning member from that era, and in fact, Mrs. Bunny's team has two of the teachers that were on our team that year. However, amazingly enough, her team's numbers are even higher than ours are, so I ended up with Little Brother.
Of course he ended up in my homeroom.
I informed Guidance Mom that he'd be sitting on the floor as things stood now. She's going to try to move another kid out of that class and into one of my others, and hopefully we'll keep that 32 number. As it stands, most of my classes are in the 28 range which is a pretty big group.
However, it beats sitting on the floor.
Our numbers this year are, well, unpredictable. The Principal informed that even before school started, we were running 100 kids over the prediction. I have no clue where they are coming from, but they're here and we're running out of chairs.
I have heard, however, that the 8th grade is rather empty, compared to sixth and seventh grade. Funny how things work out.
Speaking of 8th graders...I'm teaching an 8th grade Health Class this year which is going to be kind of fun, as long as my 8th graders don't get lost. I have 29 on my roster. When the bell rang for 7th period, only 7 had shown up. Something was wrong. I asked one of my kids from last year to show me his schedule and discovered that it had my name, my room number, and the title was "PE"...ah, health used to be part of the PE department and apparently that didn't get changed when they did the schedules. So, I had seven kids who read their schedules and came to the right room (and earned a Jolly Rancher for not being a goober), and 22 who, most likely, ended up wandering lose in the gym.
I got a hold of the Guidance Goddess to see if she could radio the gym teachers and send me my missing kids. About ten minutes later one of the coaches showed up with the missing sheep, and was on her way to drop off Mrs. Eagle's missing sheep (she only had 4 find her room!)
You know, I quit watching soap operas when I began teaching...it's just way more entertaining.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Duck! It's the Helicopter Mother!
I know I haven't been posting much, but it's quite simply because it's the week from Hades. I've had something to do every single night after school and it's all I can do to get it done before I crawl into bed, exhausted.
For example, Open House was on Thursday.
We get an amazing number of families in the building on Open House days. Not only do we see our current student and his or her parent or parents, but we'll often see all the brothers and sisters tagging along as well. Our big goal is to smile, introduce ourselves, and have the kids show their parents their rooms, lockers, etc. Mr. Social Studies and I both have PowerPoints scrolling on our screens letting parents know about our classes, along with music playing, and an email sign up list.
One thing we do try to do is to not get trapped in a room with a parent who wants to talk grades (not a good thing when half the neighborhood is wandering through), so we tend to stand in the hall area outside our rooms. Mrs. Math, Miss Reading and Mrs. Language even had a table set up outside their room area. Mr. Social Studies and I didn't do the table thing, but instead simply stood in the hallway which gave us a chance to see who was going where and keep an eye on our rooms as well.
And that's when our number one Helicopter Mother from last year came by, along with her husband (whom we never met), and her two sons, Chopper Boy who we had last year and one who's in sixth grade. Mr. Social Studies saw her heading towards us and whispered "Look out," under his breath at me.
See, this mother had some definite problems with both of us at different times last year. She didn't like the fact that I had assigned a PowerPoint project for the students because she didn't know PowerPoint and couldn't prepare her son for the project. She even threatened to take her "case to the principal" if I couldn't "justify" the technology project I was assigning. Mr. Social Studies incurred her wrath when he told the kids that if they handed in anything on a piece of notebook paper that had been torn out of their binders that it would be counted as a zero - part of our big GPA program is that kids keep EVERYTHING in their binders and tearing out paper is a big no-no. She proceeded to not only complain to the principal about him, but showed up with a case of reinforcements. I still have over a dozen packages of reinforcements in my desk drawer from her gift.
So we were a little surprised when she showed up in our hallway with a big huge smile on her face.
"Oh, I wanted so much to come by and see you two," she gushed at us. "I wanted to know if parents are allowed to request teachers, because our son will be a seventh grader next year and I want him to be on your team."
Mr. Social Studies looked dumbfounded and didn't say a word. I think he was in shock. It takes me a minute or two to come to my senses and then I mumbled something to the effect that I think parents can request teachers but there's no guarantee they'll get their request. I'm sure I sounded like a complete moron. Good gracious, did we want this mother as a parent yet again?
"We're just so pleased with all the work you did with Chopper Boy. We got his Big Deal State Mandated Test Scores last week and he scored off the charts in science and social studies and we know it's just because of the fantastic job you two did with him last year."
"Uh, thanks," both Mr. Social Studies and I manage to mumble. Were we talking to the same mother we had last year?
"I just really like your philosophy on education and your values and I want my other son to have the same great teachers Chopper Boy had."
"Well, check with guidance next year and they'll let you put in a request," I mutter again, still completely astounded by this apparent change of heart.
"Will do!" she says. "Thanks again so much!" She walks away with her family, heading to the 8th grade hall to inspect Chopper Boys current crop of teachers. I feared for them.
"Well," says Mr. Social Studies. "That was a surprise."
"No kidding," I respond. "Especially considering how mad she got at both of us last year."
"Looks like we'll have another steady supply of reinforcements next year."
For example, Open House was on Thursday.
We get an amazing number of families in the building on Open House days. Not only do we see our current student and his or her parent or parents, but we'll often see all the brothers and sisters tagging along as well. Our big goal is to smile, introduce ourselves, and have the kids show their parents their rooms, lockers, etc. Mr. Social Studies and I both have PowerPoints scrolling on our screens letting parents know about our classes, along with music playing, and an email sign up list.
One thing we do try to do is to not get trapped in a room with a parent who wants to talk grades (not a good thing when half the neighborhood is wandering through), so we tend to stand in the hall area outside our rooms. Mrs. Math, Miss Reading and Mrs. Language even had a table set up outside their room area. Mr. Social Studies and I didn't do the table thing, but instead simply stood in the hallway which gave us a chance to see who was going where and keep an eye on our rooms as well.
And that's when our number one Helicopter Mother from last year came by, along with her husband (whom we never met), and her two sons, Chopper Boy who we had last year and one who's in sixth grade. Mr. Social Studies saw her heading towards us and whispered "Look out," under his breath at me.
See, this mother had some definite problems with both of us at different times last year. She didn't like the fact that I had assigned a PowerPoint project for the students because she didn't know PowerPoint and couldn't prepare her son for the project. She even threatened to take her "case to the principal" if I couldn't "justify" the technology project I was assigning. Mr. Social Studies incurred her wrath when he told the kids that if they handed in anything on a piece of notebook paper that had been torn out of their binders that it would be counted as a zero - part of our big GPA program is that kids keep EVERYTHING in their binders and tearing out paper is a big no-no. She proceeded to not only complain to the principal about him, but showed up with a case of reinforcements. I still have over a dozen packages of reinforcements in my desk drawer from her gift.
So we were a little surprised when she showed up in our hallway with a big huge smile on her face.
"Oh, I wanted so much to come by and see you two," she gushed at us. "I wanted to know if parents are allowed to request teachers, because our son will be a seventh grader next year and I want him to be on your team."
Mr. Social Studies looked dumbfounded and didn't say a word. I think he was in shock. It takes me a minute or two to come to my senses and then I mumbled something to the effect that I think parents can request teachers but there's no guarantee they'll get their request. I'm sure I sounded like a complete moron. Good gracious, did we want this mother as a parent yet again?
"We're just so pleased with all the work you did with Chopper Boy. We got his Big Deal State Mandated Test Scores last week and he scored off the charts in science and social studies and we know it's just because of the fantastic job you two did with him last year."
"Uh, thanks," both Mr. Social Studies and I manage to mumble. Were we talking to the same mother we had last year?
"I just really like your philosophy on education and your values and I want my other son to have the same great teachers Chopper Boy had."
"Well, check with guidance next year and they'll let you put in a request," I mutter again, still completely astounded by this apparent change of heart.
"Will do!" she says. "Thanks again so much!" She walks away with her family, heading to the 8th grade hall to inspect Chopper Boys current crop of teachers. I feared for them.
"Well," says Mr. Social Studies. "That was a surprise."
"No kidding," I respond. "Especially considering how mad she got at both of us last year."
"Looks like we'll have another steady supply of reinforcements next year."
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Why I'm So Tired I Can't See Straight
It would be nice if a teacher's work day actually ended when the contract says it does. If that were the case I wouldn't be falling asleep in my supper. Truth be told, this has just been the week from hell, in terms of after-school-things-I-must-do.
Let's see....Monday....optional science teacher gathering at Central Office, but Mrs. Eagle and I had to pass because I had to run Hubby's vehicle to the repair shop (she was my ride home). We'll be making the next few, especially in October when we get to hear about our new standards (and they're really changing).
Tuesday...go to Central Office, meet with Mrs. Standard and help edit benchmark tests. That took about two solid hours, but was worthwhile. I was just losing my brain by the time we left and was turning to jelly. Looking at tests can do that to me. Oh, yeah, I have 110 tests to grade this evening because I'm hand grading tests this year (and that's for another blog).
Wednesday...literacy meeting (all academic areas must meet), and Mrs. Eagle and I have to prep for our Thursday lab, plus go get the vehicle, and try not to forget my allergy shot again.
Thursday...Open House. Enough said.
Friday...Mrs. Eagle and I, foolishly, volunteered to work the First Dance of the School Year. Fortunately it is a right-after-school-dance which means I should be home by 5:30 or so.
I think the first chance we'll get to the gym is this weekend. Thank goodness it's a long one.
Let's see....Monday....optional science teacher gathering at Central Office, but Mrs. Eagle and I had to pass because I had to run Hubby's vehicle to the repair shop (she was my ride home). We'll be making the next few, especially in October when we get to hear about our new standards (and they're really changing).
Tuesday...go to Central Office, meet with Mrs. Standard and help edit benchmark tests. That took about two solid hours, but was worthwhile. I was just losing my brain by the time we left and was turning to jelly. Looking at tests can do that to me. Oh, yeah, I have 110 tests to grade this evening because I'm hand grading tests this year (and that's for another blog).
Wednesday...literacy meeting (all academic areas must meet), and Mrs. Eagle and I have to prep for our Thursday lab, plus go get the vehicle, and try not to forget my allergy shot again.
Thursday...Open House. Enough said.
Friday...Mrs. Eagle and I, foolishly, volunteered to work the First Dance of the School Year. Fortunately it is a right-after-school-dance which means I should be home by 5:30 or so.
I think the first chance we'll get to the gym is this weekend. Thank goodness it's a long one.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Roasting and Baking
There is a huge uproar going on around the state, and including my community, about the fact that we start school before Labor Day. This has been brought on by the fact that we have pretty much shattered just about any record ever set having to do with heat in the month of August. Thanks to one of my new blog links, Category Five (a blog put out by the folks at the National Weather Service in Nashville), it's easy to check out all the records we've broken. Or to figure out how darn miserable the weather really is just in case you haven't figured that out already.
Here's a run down...31 consecutive days over 90 degrees, 15 days at 99 and above, seven consecutive days at 100 or higher. There's a lot more, but you get my drift.
The result is Metro Nashville schools were pretty much on half days most, if not all, of last week, and some counties shut down schools altogether for Thursday and Friday. Our district stayed open and on regular hours, probably because we have a kickbutt maintenance staff and our AC was working great. In fact, it's so cold in my room, and the kids keep complaining about it. I just tell them to bring a sweater and keep it in their lockers since we really don't have any control over how hot or cold it is in our rooms, as we're in the old part of the building. After last summer when the AC didn't work until the day before school started, I'm not complaining. I'm still being thankful.
However, I don't have to get on a hot bus and ride home in the afternoon when it's 105 outside, and I also don't have to walk home in the same dreadful conditions. Many parents are, understandably, having melt-downs because their kids are suffering in the heat as the buses are not, obviously, air conditioned.
The local paper had a survey that asked "Do you think that the District should put air conditioning on school buses?" The answer was something like 68% in favor. However, I contend that if the question had been worded, "Are you willing to pay higher taxes so the District could put air conditioning on school buses?", the response would have been significantly lower.
So the debate is raging - we should start school after Labor Day. I have no problem with this and could care less one way or the other. When I grew up in Los Angeles, we started school towards the last two weeks of September and got out in the middle of June. Up in Ohio we started the week before Labor Day. Here, we start around the 8th of August, which means most teachers are actually starting to work in their rooms in late July. Some of the reasoning given about why we start so early is it means the high school kids don't have to study for semester exams over the winter break, seniors can get their transcripts faster, people don't like to be in school past Memorial Day and honestly, September can be pretty amazingly hot as well. The big reason, however, in my eyes is the amount of time we have to prepare for our Very Big Deal State Mandated Tests, which are in April. If they scheduled them in May, which I wish they'd do because the kids think they're done after the tests, it wouldn't be an issue. But as it is, that August start date gives us nearly 3 solid weeks of instruction before Labor Day.
So readers and fellow teachers...when do you start school? And how does your public feel about it?
Here's a run down...31 consecutive days over 90 degrees, 15 days at 99 and above, seven consecutive days at 100 or higher. There's a lot more, but you get my drift.
The result is Metro Nashville schools were pretty much on half days most, if not all, of last week, and some counties shut down schools altogether for Thursday and Friday. Our district stayed open and on regular hours, probably because we have a kickbutt maintenance staff and our AC was working great. In fact, it's so cold in my room, and the kids keep complaining about it. I just tell them to bring a sweater and keep it in their lockers since we really don't have any control over how hot or cold it is in our rooms, as we're in the old part of the building. After last summer when the AC didn't work until the day before school started, I'm not complaining. I'm still being thankful.
However, I don't have to get on a hot bus and ride home in the afternoon when it's 105 outside, and I also don't have to walk home in the same dreadful conditions. Many parents are, understandably, having melt-downs because their kids are suffering in the heat as the buses are not, obviously, air conditioned.
The local paper had a survey that asked "Do you think that the District should put air conditioning on school buses?" The answer was something like 68% in favor. However, I contend that if the question had been worded, "Are you willing to pay higher taxes so the District could put air conditioning on school buses?", the response would have been significantly lower.
So the debate is raging - we should start school after Labor Day. I have no problem with this and could care less one way or the other. When I grew up in Los Angeles, we started school towards the last two weeks of September and got out in the middle of June. Up in Ohio we started the week before Labor Day. Here, we start around the 8th of August, which means most teachers are actually starting to work in their rooms in late July. Some of the reasoning given about why we start so early is it means the high school kids don't have to study for semester exams over the winter break, seniors can get their transcripts faster, people don't like to be in school past Memorial Day and honestly, September can be pretty amazingly hot as well. The big reason, however, in my eyes is the amount of time we have to prepare for our Very Big Deal State Mandated Tests, which are in April. If they scheduled them in May, which I wish they'd do because the kids think they're done after the tests, it wouldn't be an issue. But as it is, that August start date gives us nearly 3 solid weeks of instruction before Labor Day.
So readers and fellow teachers...when do you start school? And how does your public feel about it?
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
They're Starting to Freak Me Out
We have two full days of school under our belts.
And truth be told, this group of kids is starting to freak me out. Big time.
Because they're being so very, very good.
Seriously.
Case in point. Every year the first thing all my kids are taught to do when they walk in my room is to look at the schedule on the board, and then get out their agenda and fill it out, copying the information I have on the board. Every stinking year, every single class period, every single day, I have had to walk into my room and tell the kids to "please get out your agendas and fill them out." Some kids have had to have a personal invitation to do this.
So today as I walk into my room from watching the hallway, before the first period bell even rings, I get ready to make my daily announcement only to realize That Every Single Kid Already Had His or Her Agenda Out...and was filling it in. Correctly.
Okay. This is an aberration. Has to be.
Except it happened second period, it happened third period, it happened all day.
It gets better.
Students are supposed to take their agendas home every night and have their parents check and sign them. So today, during our MOST period (it's a twenty-two minute block of time after 3rd period where we work with the kids on organizational skills, study skills, check agendas, etc.) I'm checking my kids' agendas and every parent but one had signed off on the agenda. The kid who's parent hadn't signed was profuse in apologizing because his dad forgot to do it even though he left it out for him.
Oh. My. Gosh. Even the parents are following directions. Usually I'm lucky if 50% of my parents bother to sign the agendas. This was, well, freaky. Wonderful, but kind of unsettling.
I'm guessing that a lot of the credit goes to our sixth grade teachers who have, obviously, taught both parents and children the importance of using the agenda. Bless their hearts. They did a fantastic job.
But then again, could this just be a really good crop of kids? Or am I going to regret saying this in a week or so when their true colors show?
Because if they really are this good, this is going to be an incredible year.
And truth be told, this group of kids is starting to freak me out. Big time.
Because they're being so very, very good.
Seriously.
Case in point. Every year the first thing all my kids are taught to do when they walk in my room is to look at the schedule on the board, and then get out their agenda and fill it out, copying the information I have on the board. Every stinking year, every single class period, every single day, I have had to walk into my room and tell the kids to "please get out your agendas and fill them out." Some kids have had to have a personal invitation to do this.
So today as I walk into my room from watching the hallway, before the first period bell even rings, I get ready to make my daily announcement only to realize That Every Single Kid Already Had His or Her Agenda Out...and was filling it in. Correctly.
Okay. This is an aberration. Has to be.
Except it happened second period, it happened third period, it happened all day.
It gets better.
Students are supposed to take their agendas home every night and have their parents check and sign them. So today, during our MOST period (it's a twenty-two minute block of time after 3rd period where we work with the kids on organizational skills, study skills, check agendas, etc.) I'm checking my kids' agendas and every parent but one had signed off on the agenda. The kid who's parent hadn't signed was profuse in apologizing because his dad forgot to do it even though he left it out for him.
Oh. My. Gosh. Even the parents are following directions. Usually I'm lucky if 50% of my parents bother to sign the agendas. This was, well, freaky. Wonderful, but kind of unsettling.
I'm guessing that a lot of the credit goes to our sixth grade teachers who have, obviously, taught both parents and children the importance of using the agenda. Bless their hearts. They did a fantastic job.
But then again, could this just be a really good crop of kids? Or am I going to regret saying this in a week or so when their true colors show?
Because if they really are this good, this is going to be an incredible year.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Whew! It's Finally Done!
The first day of school arrived and went without any major crises and accompanying disaster. This, in itself, was amazing. The air conditioning worked, the phones worked, and the computers worked. Granted, the transportation website that we use to locate kids' bus numbers crashed, but other than that, it appeared to go pretty well.
And considering that it was 102 degrees outside, that's a good thing.
Every year I'm one of the teachers that volunteers to go out to the buses, get on the bus with marker in hand and write down bus numbers on the hands of the middle schoolers. (We do this because you'll ask a middle schooler what bus they get on to go home and they'll tell you "the one that stopped at my house"...with 30 buses lined up behind the school at dismissal, it's a little tough to figure out which one that is.) We started doing this at 7:00 am and the buses were already sweltering. Some of the buses were just crammed with kids, and they had to have been just about fed up with the heat. I can only imagine how the buses were later when they took the kids home.
Our guidance department did some unique scheduling this year so one team wouldn't end up with all the troublemakers, lower kids, smart kids, etc. The idea was to balance it all out a bit more. I can't tell if it worked or not yet, but I did notice that I didn't have too many kids who stood out with that "I'm going to be the thorn in your side this year" look. There definitely were a few, but not an overwhelming number.
This is a good thing. A very good thing.
I did notice that it seems as if nearly every sixth grader who was a member of the chess and board game club last year is now on my team. This means I seem to have a number of classes that have a relatively high proportion of, well, nerds. Face it, a lot of the kids in the club are a bit on the dorky side, which is one of the things I like about them. Mrs. Eagle said she didn't recognize any of the kids from the club last year so apparently they really are in my classes and not hers. In the meantime she says she has more siblings than ever before.
We did have a few minor problems, most of them having to deal with kids who didn't know their bus number, who didn't (apparently) follow directions to hold out their hand so we could write their bus number of it, didn't know their address, and didn't know their phone number. I'm amazed they made it to class. I'm assuming they made it home since we didn't get any hysterical parent calls reporting a missing kid.
It remains to be seen how this year is going to turn out. In the meantime, I'm ready to get it going. It's nice to be back in the routine again.
Although getting up at 4:45 in the morning still sucks.
And considering that it was 102 degrees outside, that's a good thing.
Every year I'm one of the teachers that volunteers to go out to the buses, get on the bus with marker in hand and write down bus numbers on the hands of the middle schoolers. (We do this because you'll ask a middle schooler what bus they get on to go home and they'll tell you "the one that stopped at my house"...with 30 buses lined up behind the school at dismissal, it's a little tough to figure out which one that is.) We started doing this at 7:00 am and the buses were already sweltering. Some of the buses were just crammed with kids, and they had to have been just about fed up with the heat. I can only imagine how the buses were later when they took the kids home.
Our guidance department did some unique scheduling this year so one team wouldn't end up with all the troublemakers, lower kids, smart kids, etc. The idea was to balance it all out a bit more. I can't tell if it worked or not yet, but I did notice that I didn't have too many kids who stood out with that "I'm going to be the thorn in your side this year" look. There definitely were a few, but not an overwhelming number.
This is a good thing. A very good thing.
I did notice that it seems as if nearly every sixth grader who was a member of the chess and board game club last year is now on my team. This means I seem to have a number of classes that have a relatively high proportion of, well, nerds. Face it, a lot of the kids in the club are a bit on the dorky side, which is one of the things I like about them. Mrs. Eagle said she didn't recognize any of the kids from the club last year so apparently they really are in my classes and not hers. In the meantime she says she has more siblings than ever before.
We did have a few minor problems, most of them having to deal with kids who didn't know their bus number, who didn't (apparently) follow directions to hold out their hand so we could write their bus number of it, didn't know their address, and didn't know their phone number. I'm amazed they made it to class. I'm assuming they made it home since we didn't get any hysterical parent calls reporting a missing kid.
It remains to be seen how this year is going to turn out. In the meantime, I'm ready to get it going. It's nice to be back in the routine again.
Although getting up at 4:45 in the morning still sucks.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Loop de Loop
Every year we are instructed to unplug and pack away all of our technology goodies. We can take our computers home over the summer (all teachers have laptops) which is handy if you're doing some in-service work over break. However, everything else, including phones, hubs, printers, document readers, etc. are safely tucked away. Being the slightly paranoid type, and not trusting my memory after a summer of heat and wine spritzers, I obsessively label everything I unplug so it's simply a matter of putting all the pieces together when I return.
However, a few years ago someone in the building in an attempt to get all of his or her technology hooked up, managed to create a loopback. This loopback basically shut down our entire phone and computer system for two days until the techy people from District located it and fixed it.
Not having phones and computers on the first day of school is, as you can imagine, a nightmare. Guidance was having new kids enrolling all day and basically was just putting them in rooms to have a place to hold them until they could get the computer problem fixed and schedule them.
So, one of the Powers That Be at District declared that no one was to hook up any technology. Instead, they would be sending techy people in to each building to get us all set up. No problem because we teachers have a lot of other things to do to get ready and having someone set up all our technology sounded like a great idea.
Except they didn't show up until yesterday afternoon.
In the meantime, we're all having meltdowns because we need to print out and copy things like team rules, parent letters, and all the massive amount of paperwork we hand out to our darlings on the first day. And when they showed up they weren't the techy people from District. Instead they were college kids hired as temps from the local University.
So what do you think happened?
Yup, you got it. They created a loopback.
*snort*
So this morning, while The Principal covered her ears and went "La, la, la, la", the Guidance Goober, who's also our techno dweeb, told us to just hook our stuff up if we knew what we were doing, and help those that didn't. So I got up and running, and got Mrs. Math up and running, and everyone was good to go.
At least the techy college kids did come by to see if I needed any help. Poor things, they tried, but trying to figure out our network is like eating spaghetti with a spoon!
However, a few years ago someone in the building in an attempt to get all of his or her technology hooked up, managed to create a loopback. This loopback basically shut down our entire phone and computer system for two days until the techy people from District located it and fixed it.
Not having phones and computers on the first day of school is, as you can imagine, a nightmare. Guidance was having new kids enrolling all day and basically was just putting them in rooms to have a place to hold them until they could get the computer problem fixed and schedule them.
So, one of the Powers That Be at District declared that no one was to hook up any technology. Instead, they would be sending techy people in to each building to get us all set up. No problem because we teachers have a lot of other things to do to get ready and having someone set up all our technology sounded like a great idea.
Except they didn't show up until yesterday afternoon.
In the meantime, we're all having meltdowns because we need to print out and copy things like team rules, parent letters, and all the massive amount of paperwork we hand out to our darlings on the first day. And when they showed up they weren't the techy people from District. Instead they were college kids hired as temps from the local University.
So what do you think happened?
Yup, you got it. They created a loopback.
*snort*
So this morning, while The Principal covered her ears and went "La, la, la, la", the Guidance Goober, who's also our techno dweeb, told us to just hook our stuff up if we knew what we were doing, and help those that didn't. So I got up and running, and got Mrs. Math up and running, and everyone was good to go.
At least the techy college kids did come by to see if I needed any help. Poor things, they tried, but trying to figure out our network is like eating spaghetti with a spoon!
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