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.