Equinox

It's the first day of Autumn and the last day of the first six-weeks.

Grading, grading, grading!

Wow!

It's been 2 weeks, now. Things are actually going well. I've seen each class 4 or 5 times. We're in to content now. I've still got new students trickling in, and there are still a lot that I've yet to see, but we're moving ahead.

We've had a much better start than last year, and I'm positive about this year. The new high school made a difference. Even though they only took 9th graders from us, 500 less bodies is 500 less bodies. A smaller population makes a for more relaxed school.

And We're Off!

It's our third day with students. It's our third day with the A/B Plus schedule, so this is my second day with these students.

I've spent the past two day playing Getting To Know Each Other. Today and tomorrow I'll teach them how I teach. We won't start substantial academics until Monday. Late registration still has the Library packed, so I'm just giving the laggards a chance.

I'll start implementing the new Tardy policy today, which means I'll lock the door on the last bell. I expect that in 2 weeks we will see a whole new level of promptness.

Set up

My wife came by my classroom this afternoon and helped me set it up, to the tune of Sugarland's new CD, "Love on the Inside". I'm not much of a country fan, I've just got a couple of old Lyle Lovett CDs, but I do like this album.

I'd been worrying and / or ignoring the layout for my room this year. I'd spent part of the day giving a new dept. member a tour, introducing her to people and showing her things like the copy room and our dept. supply room. Otherwise, I was just working on notes and grumbling about still not having a network connection. Elena came in about 3 PM, took a look around, and said, "Let's take care of this." We worked about two hours and got everything done. Now it's just lesson plans.

And It's Almost Over

We go back on Wednesday. We get students the following Tuesday. (sigh)

I've been into my classroom a few times, trying to set up. I got new furniture over the summer. I actually got more than I expected in the form of bookcases and storage cabinets. I wanted to arrange the student desks differently from last year, but I've got a half dozen more than I had and there just isn't room. I need those desks, though, since I have sophomores this year. My teacher desk is up on 2X4's because it's so small that that's the only way my knees will fit under it. And I'm only 6'3". Still, it's wonderful to have all these nice, clean, unblemished desks.

On the downside, I have no network connection. They've been doing a major remodel on the wing next to our portables, and we won't be reconnected until the day we start. I've got a whole bunch of stuff on the server and no access to it. I've just been working off of thumb drives. And I have to blog from home. I'm sitting on our front porch right now with my laptop and a cup of coffee, occasionally glancing at the roadrunner hunting lizards in the community area across the street. Man, he's fast!

I'm going to our church's Men's Retreat this weekend. It centered around meditation, so I'll be mellow on Monday.

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-sum-summertime

We're into July now. I've rested, I've had toe surgery, I saw "Wall-E" with my grandson. Now we're focused on getting him and his mother moved to the southern part of the state so she can start graduate school next month. We'll be heading down there next week. I'll be driving with a "boot" on my right foot, because the stitches don't come out for another 11 days.

Right now my wife is outside with members of our community checking the sprinkler system. Apparently plants have been dying. I can see them through our open front door. I was happy to plead fatigue and a need to elevate my foot. I'm sideways on the couch with my foot up.

I went to the AP Summer Institute for US History. I came away a lot of ideas. I'm ready to use AP techniques in regular classes. I'm going to teach topics and posthole through history. If I can't meld Layered Cirriculum into this, I'll abandon it. I'm going back to testing, using objective tests with Scantron answersheets because they're all going to be taking standardized tests. They'll also be doing a lot of writing. It will be work, but they'll learn to think.

Home Stretch

Seniors have 3 weeks of instruction left, as of today. They have a total of 16 days left all together. We're having potlucks in my 3 economics classes during block periods today and tomorrow. So far, the food's been pretty good.

Most teachers save the parties for the end of the year. I know from past experience that my students will be scrambling those last few days to get their final projects done. That's one of the reasons I haven't done this for a couple of years. The other is that they've been more hassle than nutrition. I even brought myself a sandwich today as back-up. However, this year I restricted it to my seniors and so far they've come through. We just spent a crushing week on monetary policy, so they needed the break. We got the food out and distributed, then I gave them the assignment of making posters of the functions of the Federal Reserve.

Down side: I have a student I took on for Independent Study of Gov't because he failed it last semester. He's been avoiding me for over a month. I'd track him down, he'd promise to start coming, then I wouldn't see him until the next time I tracked him down. I'm done. He's not graduating next month.

Break's Over

We got back Monday. The seniors are more attentive than I expected. We're doing the Federal Reserve. I figure monetary policy such a complex subject anyway, they might as well work. So, I'm treating it as an AP level subject and teaching it as such. They'll be happy to move on to something else next week, but this week we're timely.

I wish I had a phone in my classroom.

They told us at our faculty meeting yesterday that on the next inservice day there will be a 90 minute block in which all teachers are expected to make phone contact with at least one parent for each of our students. We have less than a dozen phones available to us. When I, a social studies teacher, pointed out that the math didn't work, we were told, "Do your best." I'll do what I usually do, which is send home printed progress reports for a parent signature. I'll make calls on any senior who's failing, but that's not many.

The Break is Coming!

It's my prep period on flex day. Two hours that I thought would be total solitude, but two seniors just showed up to work on their project. Unfortunately one needs constant reassurance that what she's about to do is right before she does it. I refuse to do that. I tell her to do what she thinks best and then I'll grade it. Fortunately, her partner seems willing to take the role I refuse. I'm just sitting here typing with the music loud enough that I can't understand what they're saying.

It's the week before Spring Break. Experience tells me this is one of those weeks when they're too squirrely for the usual academics.

My solution for the seniors is a project on moving out of home and into an apartment. This involves a deposit, furniture, utilities, and of course a monthly budget. I assign each student an hourly wage I get from a random number generator, so most of them band together with others in the class as roommates, though I don't require it.

My solution for the juniors is a movie, the only movie I show all year. We're on the Great Depression. I show "Cindrella Man" because it depicts what it was like for families then better than any other movie I've seen. And the boxing keeps them awake.

Two more days, then Vernal Holiday (Good Friday) followed by Spring Break. Next week, I'll be putting in a vegetable garden.

Back

I'm back. I haven't posted for a while. The last two week of Feb. I was consumed with finishing and submitting my Professional Development Dossier. Then March started with Parent-Teacher conferences and 4 days of NCLB testing. And at that point I was catching up on all the grading I ignored while I worked on the PDD.

I not only didn't post, but I didn't read my favorite teaching blogs, either. In fact, I didn't practice my guitar. I canceled today's lesson because I haven't touched my guitar since last week's lesson.

I'll find out about the dossier on April 12. Now, it's just wait.

Late Work

The 6 weeks ended yesterday. I've been warning all classes since we started the semester that I was on the verge of changing my policy on late work. I have been accepting late work within the 6 weeks it was assigned for half credit. This isn't make-up for an excused absence, and there's no make-up work allowed for unexcused absences. This is stuff that they were there to turn in, but didn't.

I feel they've been taking advantage of me.

Many students seem to think that they can wait until the last week and then pile it on me. They think that converting several zero's to 40 or 50% will push them up to an A. I spend the next few day slogging through stuff that we should be well past.

A colleague had his epiphany over the break. I've been envious. I think I'm going in on Tuesday and posting my decision in large letters on the whiteboard for all to see: EFFECTIVE 2/22 - NO LATE WORK ACCEPTED! I'll read it to each class. Then they'll whine. Then I'll ignore they're whining. Then we're done.

Finally, an end to Progressivism

Today was my final day for Unit 8, Progressivism, in my 2 US Hist classes. The students have kicked in to the layered curriculum. We both learned from it, I think.

I learned that I have to allot at least a half hour each period to grading, time in which they can work. I also have to set a reasonable end date and stick to it. And I have to tighten up my lectures.

I'm hoping they learned that they need to keep working straight through to get it all done. I think I'm a quicker study. We'll see.

More Layered Curriculum

I don't know how two classes can be so different. Fourth period is just eating up the assignments. Sixth isn't. Of course, sixth was my do-nothing class before.

I love how 4th is stepping up to it. They're doing the work. And I love the one-on-one. I really feel like I'm teaching. And I can tell they're learning.

I guess 6th period is going to have to crash and burn before they get it. The grading period ends Friday, so here it comes.

Layered Curriculum the Third

I had to put down an insurrection in 6th period today. They wanted to abandon the Layered Curriculum and go back to tests. I pointed out that except for a couple of them, they all sucked at tests. They didn't care, they wanted lectures and tests back. I know why: Layered Curriculum forces them to work. I pointed out that I'm the one that plans the lessons.

We're sticking with Layered Curriculum.

Layered Curriculum 2

Do they get it? I thought they did at first, but now it looks like the laziness has kicked back in. Or maybe they did get it. Maybe they finally see how much work is involved in passing, and they still haven't made the choice.

Layered Curriculum

Fourth period had more ready than I could get to today. I couldn't speed up my discussions with each student as I checked work and assigned points.

Sixth period had almost nothing. One student had one piece of work.

This whole thing will take time to get rolling.

Practice Testing

In preparation for our NCLB Standars Based Assessment of our 11th graders, we're having simulations. It's a free day for 9th, 10th, & 12th while the Juniors come in and do a cut down version of somebody's test, not ours.

It's about the testing, not the test. That's what we tell them. It's been 2 1/2 hours and their getting ansty. One more break, then one more hour, then 1/2 hour of feedback. Then we teachers spend rest of the day with our consultant.

I hope this helps. Personally, I think we'd get more results from starting school later everyday.

SNOW DAY!!!

5th Period

There was a time when I told my 5th period that they were my favorites. Today, when I called for homework, I found only 3 of them had done it. Two had excused absences and the rest offered excuses that were lame at best.

Since this is a screwed up week what with the holiday and testing, I had something for my Econ classes that was light, fun, diversionary, and informative. I gave 2nd and 3rd a geography test that they just ate up. It's the Baldridge test I give to my US History Class. Both classes loved it. Fifth is doing last night's homework in class right now for less credit. So much for fun.

By the way, my PDP went great! I got the highest possible rating: "Recommended for rehire." Our education bureaucracy is so sentimental.

Eval

PDP tomorrow at 7:30 am. Working on it today.

The big difference between the old corporate Performance Reviews and these PDP's mandated by the state Ed Dept. is that I create an Action Plan at the beginning of the year and then show how I implemented it. I'm doing mine early because it must be on file at the district HR before I submit my dossier next month.

And I just wrote more than I intended. Back to it.

Back to School

Today was madness. Between MLK Day & the competency test, it's been 4 days since they've been in class. Add to that the fact that we had real nice weather today, and they were out there.

ISS had so many kids they had to move from their classroom to the auditorium.

No lecture today. In Econ, I did a quick review, then set them to work on using the Decision Making Model I gave them when I last saw them a week ago. I'll do similar with US Hist tomorrow.

Merry Testing Season!

And the first shot was fired across our/their bow.

Today we began our High School Competency Exam. This is generally administered to sophomores, but since it's required (by State law) to graduate, we had a lot of juniors and seniors doing make-ups. The sophs will continue on in their English classes for the rest of the week (everyone has an English class). The rest are done for this year.

I had junior make-ups in my classroom. They just had to do the sections they still needed, and they could leave. I had 30 students on my roster; 17 showed up.

And of course, this is just the beginning. Next month is A2L to determine what the boys and girls will need for remediation next year (no computer labs available to regular classes during this), and in March we have the Standards Based Assessment for NCLB. And all of these are counted as instruction days. Go figure. (Do I have a lot of parenthetical asides in this post?)

New Help

I've been uncomfortable with US History this year. My old, free-wheeling style really hasn't been working with this year's Juniors. They need more structure than in past years. This morning I approach my colleague who teaches AP US History. He showed me what he does and then directed me to the website where he found it.

It's called Layered Curriculum. With each unit, I hand them a sheet of paper that tells them what assignments/activities they need to do to get each level of grade. Differentiation is built in. It was developed by Dr. Kathie Nunley and the basics are available for free at help4teachers.com.

I have a lot of work to do to prepare this, but I should be able to introduce it to my students in a week. I'm really excited.

My 6th

They just tried and tried to sidetrack me. They got me to repeat a story I told them yesterday. That's OK. I stayed on task and covered everything I intended to cover today. They'll get a test on this material and tomorrow's on Friday, diversions or not. They know it's coming. We'll see how they do.

We're Back

We had students today. We're back. The Spring 2008 Semester begins.

Grades are due by midnight Thursday and some of my colleagues are still grading. Thank God I'm done!

Most students were happy with their grades. Some weren't. Some of my seniors failed Gov't. They have to pass to graduate. That means Night School. I had a lot more Juniors who failed US History. Most of them didn't show up today.

District mandated in-service yesterday, followed by a faculty meeting today. Today we started haggling over which schedule we'll have next year. I have my preferences, I'd really like to see every student every day, but any of the proposed schedules is better than the stupid flex schedule we have now. It was bad last year; it's worse this year.

I guess I'll be going to Instructional Council meetings again, at least until this gets settled.