End of first semester

Today marks the last day of the first semester. We took the freshmen to see The Nutcracker in Poway. I think that was a nice treat; more so for me because I had never been. Today went very smoothly. We got them all there on time, we were seated promptly, there wasn't too much commotion during the show and we all got back safely. Job well done. It was a great way to end the semester.

Being the last day of the semester, grades are due soon. It also means winter break starts next week. I'm excited about that. Although winter break is next week, I will be earning a little extra money working intersession. Then I will get the remaining two weeks off.

I wanted to share some highlights/accomplishments for this semester.

1) I was introduced to the world of International Baccalaureate.
Guajome is an IB school. IB really makes you think when you plan projects and assignments. I created one unit plan according to the IB guidelines. I can't say that it is very good, but it's done.

2) I climbed a pamper pole and jumped to a trapeze 50 feet in the air.
It took me half an hour, but I did it. I was pretty scared and tired towards the end. Actually, I'm pretty afraid of heights. I was only able to climb to the top with the encouragement of the rest of the staff.

3) I overcame my fear of calling parents because of my limited Spanish-speaking abilities.
I practiced a little bit and looked up some vocab words because I knew I was going to have to call sooner or later. I was even able to talk to them face-to-face. Speaking to parents in their native language yields better results. They feel as though they are being conversed-with rather than being talked-to. I plan on having a lot more Spanish-speakers in the place I am going to work next year.

I will also share some things I need to improve on.

1) Projects: I had them turn in the last project during the last week of school. I think I gave them ample notice, but I could have worked with them a little more. I also thought about moving the due-date up so they would have time to upgrade if necessary. I plan on integrating AOI's more in my projects next semester.

2) Quizzes: I had three quizzes throughout this semester. I didn't grade any of them because the students did so poorly. Next semester I plan on having more quizzes and grading them no matter what.

3) Intro and warm-up: I think at the beginning of the semester I did a good job in greeting my students at the door, but towards the end I started slacking-off. Also, I gave the students a warm-up every day we did a lesson. However, some of them weren't working on it because they knew there was no consequence for not completing it. I didn't grade them or check them. I think next semester I have to figure out what to do with that.

That was pretty much a summary of my first semester. My goal for tomorrow: finish grading residual work and start inputting grades.

Parents are power revisited

Today, I received a couple of gifts from my students. One gift was a box of white chocolate and peanut bars. Since I cannot eat chocolate, I am going to re-gift this to Priscilla. Just don't tell her. ;) The other gift was a card with a candy cane taped to the envelope. Both great gifts, but I really liked the card since it was more personalized.

These two items brightened my mood for the day. I wasn't bummed out over the fact that I subbed for someone today, so I had no prep and I had to observe presentations until 5 o'clock tonight. There was another noteworthy event that occurred today.

During class, I told one student who didn't turn in her SBP that she should stay after school and work on it. She is on the verge of passing. If she were to do well enough on the project, she won't have to repeat the first semester of Algebra I next year. Sure enough, she didn't show up so I called her mom. Her mom was aware of her failing grade, but she wasn't aware that her daughter could have stayed after school and make it up. She told me she would drive her to school immediately.

When I saw her there, working on the computer, she was not happy AT ALL. She had on her best I'm-in-a-bad-mood-face. It was funny. I helped her a little bit in between presentations. At the end, she made sure I had received her e-mail and that I was satisfied with the work.

Anyways, I almost forgot how powerful parents can be in helping you to get students to turn in their work. I know of one teacher that makes it a weekly routine to contact parents. I think I ought to try a little more and call home more often.

Shirley you're joking

I have a student in my advisory that I am going to call "Shirley". At the beginning of the year, Shirley was not at all enthusiastic about being in my advisory. For about a week, she asked me everyday if she can change advisories. She even went to another advisor and asked her if she can switch to her advisory because I have no control over my class.

Well, she never made it out of my class. It was past the first two weeks of school and too late. Too bad.

Several weeks later, she is talking to me now more than she ever has before. Yesterday, she drew a picture of me. Today she asked me why it wasn't posted on the wall. All her advisors that she drew a picture for put it up on their wall. I had to explain to her that the room does not belong to me.

After presentations today, I ran into her. She was upset because I didn't tell her specifically that she was supposed to present all five IB area's of interaction (AOI's). She's right. I didn't go up to her specifically and tell her. I addressed the whole class. I went over exactly what we expected of their presentation. I even went over the five AOI's with my class.

Anyways, I am glad things turned out the way they did. I thought I would never get back on her good side after giving her an F in advisory on her first progress report causing her a 2-week probation from cross-country. I wish I had the sort of pull on everybody that I do with student athletes.

Goal for tomorrow: Finish grading SBPs and other assignments.

Whistle while you work

I have to give credit where credit is due:

Today, I was hanging out in the teacher's eating area after presentations getting ready to go home. One teacher came up and waited to use the bathroom. As the occupant walked out, the teacher waiting jokingly asked her if she left the toilet seat up. It is a staff bathroom used by both genders. You would think she would just brush off the joke, but they got into a playful argument; or at least that's what it seemed like at the beginning.

The argument was that women expect men to leave the toilet seat down for them after they finish. Why shouldn't men expect that women leave it up when they finish? Thinking about it, I think there is some mathematical reason why he is wrong and we should leave it up and they should leave it down. I'm not going to get into that though.

The offended teacher got a little ticked off and expressed her feelings to other teachers in the area while the offender used the bathroom. It got to the point where she waited for him to finish. When he walked out, she asked to talk to him outside. I thought some stuff was going down so I kind of followed them as they were walking out.

Apparently she is upset over all the comments he has made all week. First of all, I'm thinking "all week?". It's been two days. I know this guy. He is just a cheerful and joking kind of guy. In fact, as he was walking out to talk to the fed-up teacher, he was whistling and swinging his arms around like he was Mickey Mouse. He gave one of my MET students a hard time in a jokingly manner for not remembering my name. I guess I get him and others don't.

Although I give this teacher credit for standing up to the other and expressing how she feels about people joking with her, I think she should have taken it for what it really is and laughed it off. It's December. The holiday break is right around the corner. I'm happy about THAT.

Goal for tomorrow: finish grading SBPs.

Wall decorations and learning environment

So many things happened today, it's crazy. There are so many things running through my mind right now.

First of all, there is one week left in the 1st semester. That alone means a lot. It means there are student presentations all week. It means I will be working on grades this weekend. It means we are half way through the year. I can write more about this, but I think I will save that for Friday.

Today I substituted one period for a middle school language arts class. This was my first time subbing for a teacher in the middle school (our school is middle school/high school). I do teach a middle school section and there are other teachers that wear both hats, but it all occurs in the high school building. Today I realized that the middle school building and the high school buildings are two different worlds.

As a new teacher, I am trained to survey a classroom and notice the set-up (seating arrangement, doors and windows, teacher's desk, etc.). One thing I noticed in the middle school building and other middle school teacher's classrooms is that the walls are covered with posters, student work and things of that nature. Unfortunately, you don't get that as much in the high school classrooms.

Decorating the classroom creates a comfortable learning environment for the students. Posting student work on the walls makes the students feel as though the classroom belongs to them; which it does. This raises the comfort and safety levels students feel when they come into the classroom.

Now, I have always thought about how I am going to decorate when I get my own room. I think I would have fun doing that too. Honestly, I don't think I would decorate my classroom very much only because I am not very creative. I am more about being organized. Once my room is organized the way I want it, then I will work on the decorating part. Also, I would need some students work to post on the walls.

Anyways, a well organized and decorated classroom will make students feel more welcomed and comfortable creating a better learning environment.

Goal for tomorrow: create a scoring rubric for the Small Business Project.

Food for thought

Today I ate with the same group of teachers I eat with everyday during lunch. Usually the talk around the table is student-centered and mostly I just listen. Today, I realized that this may be the cause of my averse feelings towards some students.

Today, walking to the mail room, I saw a middle school student trip over himself and face plant coming down the stairs. He was fine, but I could not help but laugh a little inside. I did make sure he was able to get up on his own and walk away.

The specific event that made me think that the lunch talk caused those feelings is when we started talking about our 9th grade field trip. One teacher, who likes to be in everyone's business asked us where we are going to leave the 9th graders that do not go on the trip. One of our 9th grade teachers asked her if we can stick them in her room and she asked "Can I beat them?" Now, I know they are completely joking, but talk like this occurs almost everyday. Another teacher adds in by telling her she should slap them in the hands with a ruler. The nosy teacher replied by saying that it would almost be worth it if they could bring back corporal punishment.

So, I know what some of you are thinking, what in the world could our students have done to provoke such punitive thoughts? Well, I do not have a good answer for that. I do know that it has caused me to feel a certain way about some students and I do not know if it is right to be thinking about students that way.

Surely I am not going to go around and start slapping students hands with rulers, nor has the thought crossed my mind, once or twice.

I pose a question to you: Do you think that it is okay for teachers in this day in age to be thinking this way or having such conversations knowing that they would never act upon them?

Benchmarks and projects.

Today, my supervisor from UCSD come to pay me a surprise visit. I really was a little surprised. Today, in Algebra, the students were working on the Small Business Project. I decided to give them the entire period to work on their own; half in the classroom and half in the computer lab. My goal was to have most of my students finish their project.

After talking to my supervisor, he made me realize that I need to have more benchmarks or checkpoints when I let my students loose and work on their own. In other words, do not just let them loose. He told me that I should create checkpoints so that students know where they should be at certain times. For example, "you should have questions 1-4 answered by the end of 10 minutes". This is in addition to the expectations I gave them for the end of the period.

The reasons for creating benchmarks is to make sure the students stay on track, they know what they are doing, they do not get lost and they get more work done.

Another thing I realized is that I did not spend enough time in class working on this project with my students. I also let the duration of the project drag on too long.

My goal is to have 2 more projects by the end of the year. I want to create my own or adapt an already existing project over the winter break. I also want to finish up the school year with another project.

Full-time no joke

To some, it may appear as though I have it easy. Sometimes, I think so too. So how is it I am able to come home, eat some food, play some Gears of War 2 and talk on the phone all night? Well, as an intern teacher at Guajome, I have only 4 class whereas a full-time teacher has 6. That means I have 2 extra prep periods. During these prep periods, I work and do what I have to in order to avoid taking anything home. Today I wondered, what if I was a full-time teacher and did not have those two extra prep periods?

That means that I would not have the extra time to do the things I need to do during school hours, write tests for example. Those kinds of things I would have to do after school or on the weekends. This reminds me of what my UCSD professor and supervisor told us: Sundays were his designated teacher-days. On Sundays, he graded tests, wrote lesson plans and prepped for the upcoming week, hermit-style. It scares me to think that I may actually have to do that in the near future.

Trust me. I am not one of those kinds of people that likes to take work home and work on it there. In fact, I left my laptop at school today because I do not use it here anyways. I may end up like those teachers that arrive to school at the crack of dawn and leave around sunset. Honestly, I would do that if it meant that I did not have to work at home all night or on the weekends.

Regardless, I know this is what I what to do and I am almost there.

A farfetched notion of trust

A lot happened today. During a passing period, the Spanish teacher stopped me and told me that all her students are saying in their presentations that they enjoy my class because I make it fun and they are understanding what they are learning. Now, this is not the main thing I want to talk about today, but I do want to say that I have to believe that a little. If you recall from yesterday's post, students lie. However, in this case, I want to say they are being truthful because they did not intend for me to hear about their presentations.

Anyways, I finished my final project for one of my UCSD courses. Today was the last day. We learned how to take Cornell notes. Do not ask me why. We just did.

3rd period was a little off task. Nothing out of the ordinary. I seriously need to assign them new seats.

The main thing I want to talk about is about a string of food thefts that have been happening in the teachers' area. That is the little area where our group of teachers eat lunch. I do not remember if I wrote about this, but one day I found that my chicken nuggets had been taken about a month ago out of the little freezer partition in our mini-fridge. That was not the first time that we have had something gone missing. Previously, another teacher had her Vitamin water taken out of the fridge. We have also had a Nature Valley granola bar taken. The last occurrence was a lean cuisine lunch taken out of the lunch bag laying on the table in the teachers' area.

Now think about this for a second. In order to eat the Lean Cuisine, the culprit had to have gone into the restricted teachers' area, open a teachers' lunch bag, take the lunch out of the bag, open in packaging, poke holes in the plastic, heat in the microwave on high for 3 and a half minutes, open and stir, heat for another 2 minutes, then let it rest in the microwave for 1 minute. Now think about the progression of the food taken. They started with just the water; easy and convenient. Then the granola bar; easy to swipe and it is food. Then my chicken nuggets. This was a little weird to me because I had taken the nuggets out of a larger bag in my freezer and put them in a little Ziploc baggie. They were not individually packaged. Then the most inconvenient, the Lean Cuisine.

This culprit (or culprits) have gotten awfully comfortable in our area. We are thinking about getting a hidden camera and catching the thief (or thieves) in action. I look forward to seeing what we find. In the meanwhile, I have been keeping my lunch, and anything else of value, in a locked cabinet. And you wonder why I do not trust these students?

Students are just actors

It seems like everything that comes out of a student's mouth is a lie. They pretty much lie about everything. The funny thing is, they actually believe the stuff they say.

Today, I handed back a test I graded over the break. I gave two boys in 1st period a zero for suspicion of cheating. Although I did not notice it during the test, their tests looked identical. They even had the same wrong answers. I could hear one of the boys bickering under his breath while I finished passing back the test. Not only did he cheat, he tried to deceive into thinking he did not cheat. After class, I told them that they could retake the test. Not a lot of teachers would do that, but it is enough punishment for these students to make them stay after school for an hour.

Going into 3rd period, a student came around the corner and murmured some indistinguishable nonsense. To me, it sounded like a display of dissatisfaction for being in my class. Not knowing what she had said, I gave her a slight grin. Then she said sorry and asked if she had hurt my feelings. Trust me, she did not. I do not take these things personally. I like to say there is a little bit of truth in everything you say. Therefore, I can only take her apology for face value.

In 8th period, one student appeared to be unusually concerned about his grade in my class. I am staying after school on Thursday so he can retake a test. Honestly, I cannot tell if he will honor his commitment and show up. He only does well when his mother forces him to.

In these past 3 months, I have become distrusting and ambivalent towards my students' appreciation for my class. I realize that some students do not have someone to push them to achieve academically. However, in order to give a little, you have to take a little. I have provided them many opportunities to perform well in my class. I just I have to teach them how to take them.