Special Thx
Seriously? You’re not even going to try?
That’s right, I had the majority of my first class not even try on the assessment and a few students in other classes. Several marked random answers. At least one marked all C’s. Another marked twelve questions and no more. Great. Thanks. You screwed my data!!!!! To think, in 2014 my salary will be determined by clowns like this. Unfreakinbelievable. I made it clear that those who obviously trashed the test had better not even think of asking me for even a tenth of a point and the extra credit opportunity is off the table for them. (They have to attend review sessions and make growth on their final assessment.) Really? You couldn’t just take the test? I even told you the questions that I could actually use! 47% of the test was material we had covered. Granted 53% of it was crap, but I could have used the data from the 47%. Grrrr.
Pay-for-performance, yeah…great idea. This is the crap we deal with on a daily basis.
In the home stretch
We are approaching the end of the school year, and the pressure is on. As my district gears up for pay for performance everyone is growing increasingly nervous and frustrated. The students are angry. If PFP is implemented entering freshman will possibly take around 64 standardized tests before they graduate. AP and IB will take more. This does not count SATs and ACTs. The district is spending millions on the creation of pilot tests. So far, these have been awful and useless. All of this while the district is looking at another round of employee and program cuts. Salaries have been frozen for two years now. Fifth year teachers are making the same as they did their first year. (I’m told the base salary increases do not start until year three.) Most teachers are not complaining about being paid for their performance. They are complaining about the crappy tests used to measure student achievement and teacher performance being measured by students who bubble answers in the shape of flowers and cartoon characters. During last weeks test day many students protested. They thought about walking out, but since it was on senior presentation day that would be bad for seniors who have to attend all of their classes in order to participate in the after school senior requirement. The other grades decided against it because they felt it would only bring negative press to the school and not meet their objective. I did not have to administer a test, but I am told that students decided it would be best to obviously throw the test. They either quietly refused to bubble answers, or bubbled only one answer all the way down. Many wrote letters to the school board and to the superintendent. A few students spoke with the superintendent at a meeting he invited them to. I’m told their questions only served to make him angry.Will it make a difference? I doubt it. No one is listening. They are plowing forward without considering how poorly the plan is. Pay for performance, that’s OK and fair. Another measure of performance has to be developed.
Unproductive Day…
Two hours of writing test where I am fortunate enough to be a hall monitor. This means I had two hours to sit in the hall and grade papers. At least I accomplished something even if my classes didn’t.
After the writing tests we met all four blocks, which seems like a good idea. The students were not mentally there…and many were not physically there. Most seniors didn’t bother coming for the first two hours of the day since they would have to sit in a secluded room. Many juniors and freshman did not bother since they were required to spend two hours in homeroom while the sophomores took the writing test. They. Were. Wild. I teach mostly 10th graders and they were not interested in class. We quizzed on an assignment from yesterday and attempted to begin an image depiction project of the amendments. I fear for the quality of their products.
Honestly, I fear for the future. Most students today are lazy and uncreative. Independent thought is a lost art. It is something I don’t know how to teach. I ask questions and guide them through the process but it doesn’t stick. What really scares me is that I don’t think students around the world are this way. Is it the fault of the teachers? Partly. We have allowed it. Granted, we are forced to prepare them for standardized test after standardized test. Independent thought is not encouraged in the final assessment of their performance. They are required to produce a test appropriate answer. Granted, they must sometimes think at a higher level in order to achieve this answer…but not always. My district has spent millions on assessment creation. It is frightening. Millions for assessment and it took five months for me to get a pencil sharpener and stapler that was not brought from my home. Someone down the hall half joked that for about five years he has been asking for lightbulbs in his room. This year he was given a Promethean board. Still has burnt out lightbulbs, but that Promethean projector lamp puts out a good bit of light.
Priorities. The educational bureaucracy is lacking.
Pants and Weave…on the ground
I am so sick of seeing butt. Do I need the knowledge that my students are wearing blue grippies or Stewie boxers? NO I DO NOT! Pull your frickin’ pants up! I had one kid tell me “that’s how da gurlz like it.” Sorry dude, but I have received information that contradicts that statement. I think the real meaning is that you are advertising that you like boyz…but hey, I’m just a teacher. IDK.
Had a little excitement in my room today. Girl A comes in visibly bothered. Girl B is showing no indication of issue. Girl A talks smack about drama from earlier and is told that it isn’t worth it to throw down at school and she needs to take care of business outside of school. I had her last semester in another class so we were cool. I didn’t know that her issue was Girl B. I talk to another student about a personal issue and then take care of some desk maintenance. When I turn around Girl A is up shouting multiple F bomb profanities at Girl B. I tell both to back off and sit down. They keep going. Security is called and when I turn around they are going at it. Boys jump in to pull them apart and there is now chaos in my classroom. F bombs and fists are flying. Other teachers hear the brawl and come to help. Oh. Joy. One of my boys gets clocked in the eye. Two of them are trying to get the girls apart and keep me from getting hit. They are so sweet to care.
Gotta say, I did not see this coming. After tweedle dee and dum received the blue light special to down town I let my class chill until lunch. After, they came back in we had a good 20 minutes of instruction. Way impressed with them. I feel so sorry for the rest of the class. Outside of a few, most are not used to this sort of behavior. The maturity shown by two boys who separated the girls and kept me safe is amazing. One of them said, “I got your back. Besides, your white…you get hit is shows more.” Yeah, I think this is my new favorite kid.
Weave left behind, I won’t see these two for some time. Jem isn’t happy about it and hates that I am here. But it is kids like my protectors that I am there for. They need someone to believe in them and encourage them. So do the girls. Girl A is a young mother who is six months from graduating. I want to see her walk that stage and start making better decisions. I just hope it is possible.
WordPress and Educational Grrrs
WordPress is really starting to bug me. Updates are way too frequent and some plugins are ineffective. I thought about switching to another platform but it is a huge hassle and this is the only platform, that I am aware of, that allows me to update my website from school. (Not this site, but my class site.) Grrr, the frustration. On the plus side, I love the ease of customization and clean admin page…except for the update nags at the top of the page and “failed update” nag. Blogger is catching up in the clean admin and ease of use department. Gotta give ‘em props for that. I guess losing bloggers to other platforms is a catalyst for advancement. Paying attention to what is not working and making changes is something you have to respect.
On that note…Put this tidbit in the “if it isn’t effective get rid of it” column.
I get the whole pre-k advancement scenario, but there are other avenues for obtain pre-k education so if the district is short on cash here is a good place to cut. But what about low income families who can’t afford to pay for pre-k? If they are not available to instruct their pre-k child at home then they must be working, which means they can receive subsidized child care. This child care likely provides pre-k instruction. If it does not, find one that does there are plenty out there. I’m not trying to be harsh, but according to the article there is not evidence of real gain. There is great benefit to pre-k. No doubt! Children are socialized and some get a head start in their academic pursuits. However, this district hosted program is not more effective than external public school pre-k programs. Let’s face it $21 million can save a lot of jobs in areas where there are clear gains. This includes decreasing class size at the elementary levels and maintaining the assistants. It will also help local pre-k daycare providers and create jobs for the community. Either way taxpayers are footing the bill. It just seems that there is more benefit at the private level than the public.
Model UN, but really it’s class
Really excited about this semester. My classes are all about the same size and of a manageable size. In my second I could conduct a mock UN meeting and have several countries represented. I love the diversity, it really brings an interesting view to class. It does make instruction interesting. I have to be very careful about American colloquialisms. With 100% passing on last semesters end of course test I am receiving praise from Admin. Kinda nice to be on the receiving end of good comments. I’m hoping for good things this semester too. Day two of second semester…so far, so good.
Might should have reconsidered…
Instead of protesting school on today’s make-up day, students who were kept out might have been better served by attending exam reviews and getting their education.
Thanks to Charlotte Observer for image
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically… Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. quote
The time to complain has passed
Last year the school district voted on a calendar and it was accepted without complaint. On the calendar, snow make-up day on Monday, January 17th. In case you are not aware, this is also MLK day. With the recent Sn-ice we were blessed with an extremely long weekend and the opportunity to exercise our make-up day plan. The next days to be used: January 17th, February 18th, and 21st. BTW, February 21st is President’s Day. You would think students were asked to come to school on Christmas or Easter Sunday. The local NAACP is freakin’ out about the first make-up day. They are calling for local reverends to encourage congregations to keep their children home. I get that it is a holiday to honor a civil rights leader. I get that people may have had plans. I even get that some object to going to school on this day. No problem, but where were they when the calendar was approved? There were no complaints then. There are also no complaints about attending school on President’s Day. There were no complaints when we were in school on Memorial Day last year. It seems to me that the time to complain was when the schedule was proposed, not now. We cannot help that 6″ of snow was dropped on our area and then covered with a treacherous layer of ice. It is the end of term and we need to get this show on the road, take our exams and begin second semester. If you want to honor a civil rights leader then by all means, do it. Get an education and exercise the dream. Sorry that the sn-ice put a kink in your plans. Put on your big boy britches and take it up with God.
Sn-ice
We’re in the deep freeze again. Ice is covering the multiple inches of snow on the ground. Most of the roads are OK, but secondary roads are apparently nasty enough to cancel school again tomorrow…well, at least for the girls. We have a two hour delay. Wait. No. Revise. The students in my district have a two hour delay. Teachers have to be there at the normal time. Feel the love in that? Yeah, neither do I. I’m looking at it like this, one day closer to getting new students second semester. Unfortunately 5 AM still comes early.
Big sigh
The last two weeks have been a struggle to the line. Students were wired and ready to be out. For that matter, their teachers were too. It sprinkled snow here Thursday. My girls were out, but I had to go. This is the beginning of Friday drama that set the tone for the rest of my Friday and continued this week.
TeenKid was sick and the girls were out Thursday due to weather. I left, with permission from my AsstAdmin, at 12:30. Jem was able to go to work and neither of us lost a day. I’m off 4th so no coverage was needed. AsstAdmin had no problem with it. I went to the office, TheAdmin was talking to Secretary and AsstAdmin handed me the sign out book. Friday we were short on subs. TeenKid was still sick, but she we figured she would be ok on her own for 1/2 day. I was going to request to leave again instead of taking the whole day. When I get to school I am called for 4th block coverage. I explain that I need to leave and why and was there anyone else? Sec said that everyone available had already been called for coverage. (NOT TRUE.) I said I would work something out for my sick child and she said nevermind and hung up. Soon after TheAdmin comes down the hall and said I need you to cover 4th. I said I understood and said I would work out my situation, as I had told Sec when she hung up on me. He said I couldn’t just leave without signing out just b/c I had 4th off. I explained that I didn’t do that and the circumstances for me leaving yesterday. He said that the Sec didn’t sign me out yesterday. I explained that he was standing there talking to her when AsstAdmin handed me the book to sign out! This is all taking place in the hallway, with a teacher beside me and students passing. My fellow teachers were very uncomfortable. Well, my friends. The jerks on the other end of the hall were amused. BTW, these are the same jerks that leave 4th block, do not sign out, and are never called for coverage. In fact, Friday they were out the door at 12:47. Long story short Admin kept on about it, I defended myself and didn’t quietly take it, and I had to take on coverage 4th. Sec called 2nd block and said she had a sub, no need for me to cover. I said, “No. Admin instructed me to do coverage and I have made arrangements to do so.” No need, we have a sub. WTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why did she send Adminto make ME? I know I am not the only one that said I can’t and I know my excuse was better than making early happy hour for the Christmas Beer Crawl! I told Admin that I hadn’t planned on coming at all, but knew the sub situation so I did. I also told him I was going to seek permission to leave, just as I did yesterday, and sign out. He said AsstAdmin was out today. I explained the obvious, that there were others I would have asked if I hadn’t gotten an email response. Anyway, it was just absolutely ridiculous. My colleagues thought so, those who are not jackasses, and my students thought so. A public dress down is less than professional. Students should never be able to hear or see it. As for recourse, there is none. Crappit.
This little scenario pretty much sucked up my entire Friday and I did not leave early even though I didn’t have to cover. In fact, it is my goal to never set foot in Sec’s office for signing out again. The drama continued Tuesday when Admin beebopped into my room. He was dressed as Santa and AsstAdmin as an elf. I couldn’t tell who it was. My Sociology students (all eight of them who came) were watching Blind Side and it was dark. It is a sad fact that I can’t truly see clearly from across the room. So our movie is disrupted with Admin, and he comes to ask how things are. Right beside me, elbows on the desk. I am rather uncomfortable. Space issues you know. He also asks about TeenKid and I tell him she is still sick, but able to continue about her day. He said I could leave early if I needed. Um…gonna go with no on this. I had copies to make even if I was willing to walk into Sec’s office to sign out! Later that day…I was in the office asking AsstAdmin a question about professional development and get called into Sec’s office by Admin. Oh. Joy. He felt that I was rather irritated and wanted to clear the air. I stated that I understood him to be doing his job. He continued on with a round about apology and said the whole system had been revamped and that he didn’t realize I had actually worked out the details of signing out and such, and found everything I said to be true when he actually checked. He also said that Sec didn’t realize my family situation when I said I couldn’t cover. (I know my head had to have perked up. If you will go back several paragraphs to the original drama you will see that I was very clear on this matter when I was asked to cover.) Either way, it was almost an apology and more than I expected.
My opinion of Admin has changed drastically. I used to defend him to others and say that it was refreshing to see the enthusiasm. I have realized where my colleagues frustration comes from and can’t imagine that I will be offering words in his defense. They explained that I am not the first to receive strange, even unprofessional, treatment. I need to learn to just keep my head down and mouth shut.
It is all over and I can breathe a big sigh. Twelve days of break look really good right now.
Flair
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