Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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?)
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?)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
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.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
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.
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.
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