Meetings

I had two completely different meetings today and avoided a third. It is also more fun to start in a random order, so the one I avoided was the Peer Learning Community (PLC) meeting. Since I am hourly, I do not have to go to meetings. If I do, I need to get paid for it, but that is not in the budget, so no meetings. Realistically it would probably be useful, but starting next week I will be tutoring during that time slot. There is a grant for that tutoring, so I will be paid for that.
The first meeting was with my Marylhurst University Supervisor, Bob Miller. I was able to introduce him to my cooperating teacher, and talk about what is going on. He will be observing me teach every now and again, starting next Monday. I need to send him my lesson plan ahead of time, and tell him what I want him to look for. The goal is for him to be useful for my teaching.
The third was with the Vice-Principal, a parent and another teacher. This was to touch base about a student who was forcibly moved to my class, and make sure he does not fall through the cracks. Straight forward and pleasant, and then I went home.

Conversations

I had several interesting conversations with students today. One was before class, and I was asking about the student's preparation for the retest. It seems he may have come to the realization that actually doing the homework could be beneficial to doing well on the tests. It seems he had gotten through his last math class without doing most of it, just studying after getting the review packet. Not a great long term strategy. I am working towards getting students to realize that doing some work on time, greatly reduces the amount of work you have to do later. The students who did well on the first test and enjoyed a weekend without homework may have realized this already.
Another conversation was with a student who did not want to do all the extra homework for the retake. The theory was that the mistakes were stupid errors, not conceptual problems. The student seemed to have an understanding of the concepts, so I said OK, but on a condition. If he did not ace the retest, then there would be no future leniency.
I had another student ask if they needed to get the extra homework problems correct to take the retest. I said, no, but if you get them wrong, then you will not do very well on the retest.

PAT Picnic

Friday was a fun day of handing back tests. Most students wanted their tests back, but they did not want to look at the scores. Based on how they did I decided to devote Friday and Monday to review. So we went over the test. I tried to limit questions about scores by saying how I graded each section. That was more or less successful.
I am still having trouble getting the class to quiet down quickly enough when I need their attention. I had said previously that if we do not cover the material I wanted because they did not quiet down quickly enough, then I would hold everyone until I finished. Friday was the first time that was put into effect. With two minutes left in class I still had five minutes worth of explaining the online grading program. So I let me know that because of the time they had wasted, I would hold them over until I was done explaining. Hopefully this will get their attention.
After school was the PAT (Portland Area Teachers Union) picnic. Free food and free beer. So yes I was there. As were most of the teachers I know in Portland Public. The beer selection was good. There were two different beers that I have bought for myself and four that I consider worth drinking. The food was edible. But for the price, worth every penny. Although when you look at the fact that I am still paying full union dues at .2 time, I need to eat and drink my fill to come close to getting my monies worth.

First Test

Today was the first test for my PreCalc Class. I do not have enough room in my classroom to give a test, so we went into the cafeteria. The class is seventh period, but the cafeteria had not yet been cleaned. So we had to choose our tables carefully. We spread out over the room and had our fun. Although I am not sure how well the students enjoyed it.
I think they are a couple of things that explain the performance on the first test. One is the knowledge that there will be retakes. Second is the fact that homework is not collected and not part of the grade. Put these two together, and there has been very little motivation. As far as I can tell the three people who have done the homework passed with flying colors, and the others failed to different degrees. The other PreCalc teachers are all having similar experiences. We feel that this test could be the catalyst that enables all of our students to realize that they need to actually do all the work in order to succeed. The teachers have also set the bar for what you need to do to be eligible for a retake relatively high so as to encourage doing well the first time. Hopefully that will work for the next test.
Now I need to spend a day or two reteaching the first week of class, so that we can move on. What's the point of giving a test if you do not use the results to inform your practice?

Back to School Night

Today was back to school night. But first I still had to teach my one class. Today was a review day before their first test which will be on Thursday. Wednesday and Thursday are block days so I do not teach tomorrow. There are two 30 minutes FLEX periods on Wednesday for students to seek extra help or do other activities. I will not be around for those. That did not make my students happy. A large number are expecting to fail since they do not feel they learned anything in their class before switching. But none of them did any of the review problems to ask questions in class today either. Nor did they choose to stay after class to ask more questions. It will be a rude awakening for many of them. In order to do a retake they need to correct the test, write a reflection on what went wrong and what they are doing now, and do additional HW problems on the sections they need to improve. So they will either be a chapter behind for a while, or they will need to do double HW for a while.
However one student did stay and ask questions. As a result I was walking to my car at 4:05 to go home for a couple of hours and I had to ask the maintenance person to not lock the gate to the teachers parking under the football bleachers. They were locking the gate between 4 and 6. I am not sure why.
I only have one class so I only needed to be at BTSN from 9 to 9:10. I arrived early to hopefully meet the person I share the room with, watch someone else give their presentation to parents for the same class and make sure my presentation was ready. Only the middle one went according to plan. I missed the teacher because I was observing the other presentation. My presentation, which looked good at home, did not work at school, so I had to do some last minute recreation.
However it still went well. I met the parents outside my door, started on time, and stayed late to answer questions. Most parents were supportive, they were glad for the smaller classes and believed the glowing recommendation that the principal wrote about me. One parent did quiz me on my credentials, and another explained that her child really loved his old teacher, and if he couldn't switch back will want to set up a meeting. Overall, very not a bad third day teaching.

Full week

I am hoping that this is the start of my first full week teaching. I was under the mistaken impression that it would be last week at Focus. Here is hoping for this week at Lincoln.
This is an easy week for planning for me. Monday and Tuesday are review days. Thursday is the test. So I only have to plan for Friday. And if I grade quickly enough, then that will be partially handing back the test.
What I am looking forward to is Back to School night tonight. I get ten minutes with the parents of my students. It should be fun.

Second First Day

Yesterday one of the guidance counselors went around to the two math classes I am drawing from and let them know that there was going to be an extra section, and that they could volunteer to move over. But if too many people volunteered, not everyone would be able to get in. Conversely if not enough people volunteered, then some people would be randlonly chosen to move. So my class is a mix of students who are excited to leave the other teacher, and ones who are disappointed that they were forced to leave. At this point I have no idea where anyone falls in that range, nor do I care, but it is something to be aware of.
I arrived nice and early to get my ID picture taken and to see how much of the IT problems had been taken care of. It turns out most had been resolved. I also made sure I had time to figure out my smartboard and double check my lesson. Of course I changed some of my lesson, but when I tried something else out, I did not save my changes, nor did I realize this until I was teaching.
Class ended up starting about 5 minutes early for most students. The bells for the previous period had gone off ten minutes early. So most of the students were seated in the classroom and working on the warm up problem well ahead of time. The vice-principal showed up at the beginning of class to give me a little introduction and thank all the students for moving, and then I jumped right in. However I still had some confused students arriving late. The beginning of class was taken up with some procedural stuff, and I realized the FOCUS students picked it up much quicker. We will have to continue practicing for a while.
Class went well (I think), but there are always things I wish I had explained a little better. But I will have time because both Monday and Tuesday will be review days, and then Thursday will be the first test (Wednesday is block and I do not teach). Thankfully someone else is writing it.
After school I was able to pick up my own hard copy of the text, since one copy had been returned to the book room. I was also able photocopy the next chapter from the Teacher's Edition. So I am closer to being prepared. I also have the schedule for Back to School night next Tuesday. So I get to just dive right in for meeting parents.

New School

So it turns out that the .5 position at another school was a dream. An tantalizing ephemeral wisp that did not quite materialize the way it was suppossed to. When I talked to the principal it was .2 (one class) and that they were hoping to fund raise to bring it up to .5. I accepted on the condition that if they did not bring it up, I would be able to do enough student teaching there so that I would finish my teaching license this year. Since they were desperate for a teacher to start, and there was pressure on them from HR to hire me, we went through with it. So later today I will start teaching PreCalc 7th period at Lincoln High School.
On Wednesday I interviewed with the principal, but it felt more like a recruiting trip than an interview. Yesterday in the morning I went back to FOCUS to pick up the couple of things I left behind (I did not think I was leaving for good on Tuesday) and hand back my keys. The students at FOCUS had made a card for me saying they were said that I was leaving. Very touching after only being there a week and a half. That afternoon I went back to Lincoln HS to fill out some paperwork, observe one section of the class I was going to take over, and then start getting things set up. I also sat in on a meeting with the schedulers and he principal, and it does not look promising that they will open another math class for me to teach.
After observing a 90 minute class I started to try and get ready. As usual there are some stumbling blocks. First the school is currently out of textbooks for this class. So some of students do not have a book, and neither do I. No student edition and no teacher's edition. On the plus side I can access the student version online. Second stumbling block, I am currently registered in the PPS system as being at Focus@ Madison. This means I cannot currently log on to a computer at Lincoln, nor can I access the online grading system for my class. I also realized that the room I am sharing does not have a phone. So I was using my cellphone talking to IT to get some of the problems resolved. Their message said 2-5 minute wait time. After twenty minutes on hold I finally get through to a person. Right as we are about to get down to nuts and bolts, my connection terminates. So I call again and after ten minutes I get through, but then my connection terminates again. The third time I call I get through right away, to the same person as last time, but again my connection ends. The fourth time I call the connection ends before I get off hold, and I just give up for the day. I was frustrated and in need of a drink.
So this afternoon I get to teach my second first day of class. My one lucky coincidence is that today is the make up day for pictures and IDs so I will be able to get a Lincoln HS ID. I can add this to my collection.

Last Day at Focus

TSPC had told me they would respond about my license by 5pm yesterday. I did not get a chance to call them yesterday in the afternoon, so I called first thing in the morning. I was told it was still under review, and I would know sometime during the morning. So one thing I learned from Randy Spricks' CHAMPs training, "When in doubt, teach." So I went through with my plan for the day.
The plan was to give everyone a diagnostic test on fractions, and talk about their past math classes. I was able to do that, and I realized nobody remembers fractions. Plan for the start of the year,fractions, then start teaching everybody from the start of the class. No one who had passed part of class before felt confident in anything they had done, and they would not mind starting from the beginning.
While my food was nuking during lunch I called TSPC again. The verdict, I was approved for a transitional license as long as I was not teaching at an alternative school. So I promptly called my principal to see what we could do. Final result, I cannot teach at FOCUS. However there is a half time position at another high school. So time to keep my fingers crossed, or go to plan C.

First Day with Students

Today was my first day with students. I had the same basic plan mapped out for my three classes. Today was basically a day of rules and expectations. Of course we were quickly put off schedule. FOCUS was scheduled to get our ID pictures taken during first period. I start teaching second period. Surprisingly enough the pictures ran late and took up half of second period. So half of what I had planed for the first class never happened. We will continue tomorrow.
Then when I was able to get a full class, I realized that it did not take quite as long as I anticipated. I will be scheduling 70 minutes of activities for the rest of my 50 minute periods. I was able to add a bit more for the third period. That is the advantage of the same plan for multiple classes. You can fix stuff from one class to the next. Also I had a visitor for my third period. Rod, a former teacher (his picture is in an earlier post) who has subbing for Lorraine observed most of my class. He thought it went well and offered a couple of suggestions.
Tomorrow I will start with some diagnostic testing. I also plan to meet with each student for about 5 minutes this week to make sure I know where they are all started. This way I can figure out how to differentiate my classes.
Overall I am happy with the first day. The one disadvantage of having the same plan for all the classes is that I have a couple of students in multiple classes. It will be interesting teaching Algebra and Geometry at the same time to a couple of students.

To Salem and Back

Last night I was not as relaxed as I should have been. I was excited to teach my mini lesson, and I had everything ready to go. However I was worried about needing to get all of my paperwork in for my license. I arrived at FOCUS bright and early and started using the fax machine to send in forms to TSPC and request a transcript from Marylhurst. Then I was on the phone. First I called Marylhurst and explained that I needed to get my transcript that day. That every day they delayed was a day that I would need to pay for a sub out of my own pocket. They said, sorry, 5-7 business days. There is nothing we can do to help you. Then I called TSPC and asked whether they had received my fax. They had. Then I asked what else I needed to send them. They told me of two other things I needed, but also informed me that for the license I was requesting I only needed my undergrad transcript. Fortunately, HR had not opened theirs, and I was able to pick that copy back up and drive down to Salem to hand it in. Since I paid an extra $99 to expedite the license I now only need to wait two business days until I have my license. So by 5 pm (PST) I will have a license and will legally be allowed to teach in a classroom.
One thing I find funny is that you need to pay $100 to get a license. But they are so backlogged that people who requested theirs in July are still waiting. But if you pay $199 you get yours in two business days. Why not just charge everyone $200 and do them all in 2-3 days?
Back at school I taught my mini lesson to each family (advisory, we just call them families). The theme for this year is unity, so we did broken squares. This is a silent group activity, and each family responded very differently. Everyone is given pieces of a square and each person needs to build their own square, but they do not have all the pieces they need. The rules are no talking, and they only way to exchange pieces is to give one of your pieces to someone else. So everyone needs to be paying attention to the rest of their group and figuring out what they all need. The activity did not take up the full time. I also realized that I still need a lot of work with leading the post activity discussion. However I was able to get to know the students better in the extra time. I was also able to acquaint them with my dismissal procedure. I hate students leaving while I am still talking, so the rule is everyone stays seated until I say 'Thank you for coming, and have a great day." I think (hope) it will work.
I also have an update on the textbook situation. Textbooks has responded and says they will look. It is a step in the right direction. Maybe I will have books by the time I can legally teach.

Bureacratic SNAFU

I received a phone call today at 5:30 from HR telling me that I do not have a license, and would I please call them. When I was hired I specifically asked what I needed to do in terms of my transitional license. I was told I did not need to do anything. I asked twice, but was not told of anything I needed to do since my fingerprints were already on file with the Teachers Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC). Today I was told that I need to send them a form, all of my transcripts and a $100 license fee. Also I needed to pay $99 to get it expedited. This is frustrating. I already requested all of my transcripts for HR and it would have been very easy to request an additional copy for TSPC. Also one of my Universities (Marylhurst) does not do overnight delivery. So that one will take 5-7 days, unless they respond nicely when I call. This also means I need to have a sub in my room until I get the license. Under the contract, this sub would come out of my pay. I have convinced HR that since this week is only orientation and I do not have an advisory, all I am doing is prepping, so I do not need a sub until Monday. This means I have until Monday morning to get my license. There is a very good chance I may be driving to Salem tomorrow. We will see.

Ready for the Plunge!?

Tomorrow will be the first day with students. Although I do not think that it will be much of a plunge. More like dangling my toes, and then slowly walking into the water. I started off with a week of new teacher orientation, then three days of professional development and a long weekend. This week we started off with an extra day of planning, and then this week is all orientation and get to know each other activities. Because I do not have an advisory, there is not much that I have to do this week. It will be next week when I start teaching, but I will have already met all the student first. I met a couple of students who came by today to help other teachers set up. I will have at least one senior in two different math classes. At least he will be motivated, since he will need both to graduate.
The big story is still my quest to obtain textbooks. As of today no word. My principal is working on this as well, and she has not heard from the textbook department either. I tried emailing last week and calling today, but no response on the email, and I went straight to voicemail whenever I called. I figure I have until about next Wednesday. I will be starting off with classroom management and diagnostics tests anyway. I will keep you posted.

More Meetings

Today started off with the full FOCUS meeting. We went through the basics and set up when we would have our ongoing professional development meetings, and tried to figure out when to have more full staff meetings. The problem is I work in the mornings, Steve (who I share the room with) only works afternoons, and Simone, who does career guidance, only works Mondays. So we will be having weekly Monday lunch meetings with everyone, and I may get paid for an extra half an hour. The principal backed me up on not having meetings after school where I would either have to wait around for three hours or leave and come back. After lunch we discussed how we are going to run the first week of school, with orientation, team building and schedule making. Next week Monday is Labor Day, and then on Tuesday we have interviews for potential incoming students. So in effect we have one extra planning day. I still have until the 14th before I start teaching.
I have now asked for textbooks, and hopefully I will get them. I actually have plenty of textbooks, but not the ones that the district is currently using. I am also trying to get the teacher's editions and the associated materials. The advantage of lining up my curriculum is that other math teachers at Alliance (other campuses) have done a lot of work aligning it with standards and developing learning targets. There is also a suggested pacing chart for the class. Some of the teachers do not share my desire to align the curriculum on the theory that we are an alternative school, and the students transferring in have probably already failed the district curriculum so I should do something new. Being a new teacher, I wanted to start with what is supported and work from there.
The main issue as I see it, is that the units in the texts do not always fall nicely into 18 day blocks. So I will want tests to see if students learned what I was trying to teach in the block, but these will not coincide with the end of the unit. Which will give students another opportunity to master the necessary concepts. I have also found that for the most part once a student starts taking math, they tend to stick with it until they complete their full year of credit in the class. So I will probably have a fairly consistent class, but it may sharply decrease half way if a lot of the students only need a half credit in that class.

Teacher planning day

All of these photos are in the opposite order I wanted, but no matter. This is the view of my classroom this morning from the computer lab next door. My desk is behind the curtain on the right. I will wait until my room has been decorated before I post the next picture of it.




At 8am, I am talking with Joel and Lorraine, two other FOCUS teachers, when they see three people walk towards the school and set up chairs right under Lorraine's window. From L to R we have Eddy, Tom and Rod. They have all retired from FOCUS in the last three years and have about 60 years combined working at FOCUS. We were impressed that they all got up early to rub in the fact that they were retired. I received a lot of good advice for teacher math from non-math teachers. I believe I am the first math person that FOCUS has ever had. I also keep getting introduced as the "math guy," so I have to remind people that I am a person, not my problem. I also have had to remind people of that at Marylhurst, where I am also the only "math person."
This is one view of Madison High School. This is the main entrance to the school. The school mascot is the Senators. On the left out of sight is NE 82nd St. If you turned around you would see Glenhaven Park, and a very decent skate park. I am wondering how much the traffic there will go down once the kids go back to school.



This is the view of the wing where FOCUS is located. You can almost make out our sign on the right side of the building. My classroom is the third door on the left as you go in. FOCUS has the first three doors on the left, and the first on the right on the ground floor, and the first two doors on the right and left on the second floor (or first floor for all of you french speakers).



Today was my first teacher planning day, and my classroom almost looks like a classroom now. There is about the right about of furniture, arranged in a way that probably wouldn't last a week. My computer is set up, and I have a projector and a screen. All I need now if a nail strategically placed so that the screen will stay down. I have no art of decorations on the walls yet, I am hoping that my students will help me out with that.
I am closer on books. But not that close. I went and visited Lisa, another Alliance teacher at another campus, and received a lot of great info. I will not have to reinvent the wheel for some of my classes. She has lessons linked with the district standards and specific learning targets. I still need to track down some Algebra 1, and Geometry books that correspond to the lesson plans I have been given. But I am moving in the right direction.
Tomorrow is a meeting with the principal and all the FOCUS teachers, and then we will plan our first three days of combined activities. So 6 days until students, and 12 until actual teaching of math.

PD

Today was my first contract day, and my first day of Professional Development. I learned last week that since I am only half time, I technically do not need to stay for the full day. I could leave at noon. While this is something I could do, I did not think it is something I should do. Definitely not at this point in the year and my teaching career.
The day started with two hours at Madison and I was able to get a set of keys and my ID. All the people at FOCUS get a key to everyone else's room and a front door key. I tried my keys and realized I had keys to every room except my own. I spent an hour or so getting into my room from the adjacent computer lab. The computer lab is only separated from my room my a collapsible wall which is currently open. Later I was able to go back to the main office and correct this.
In my room I have some tables, not enough, and a handful of math texts. Not enough to give one to everyone in any of my classes, and none of the textbooks that the district has adopted for what I am going to teach. So my plan for tomorrow is to either locate some textbooks, or figure out how to order some.
The main part of the PD was at the Meek campus (ten minute drive away). The focus for this year is WAD/WID. Teachers love acronyms. Writing Across the Curriculum, and Writing In the Discipline. It seemed useful, and I was able to meet one of the math teachers at Meek who has been working to get the math curriculum in alignment with the standards. I will be meeting with her tomorrow to get a lot of wonderful information.
My current dilemma is about my teaching. The curriculum we have for math is the College Prepratory Math (CPM). This is a curriculum that guides students through figuring out the main concepts by themselves. I was able to observe this in action for Geometry last year in Tualatin where I did my observations. In the other Alliance schools students just work until they have done enough to receive a quarter credit. For math this means they work through about two chapters, pass a couple of quizes and a test. At FOCUS we have ten 18 day blocks. Some students come in with partial credit in math, and there is no guarantee that any student will stay in math for consecutive blocks. This could lend itself very easily to teaching math in the same way. However, then I feel like I am simply baby sitting students doing a workbook. However it is hard to teach math in 18 day chunks when you have a constantly changing group of students. I am not sure whether I will be able to insure a consistent class. Any feedback or comments on this issue would be welcome.

New Teacher Orientation

Last week I had 4 days of new teacher orientation over 5 days. For those who are having trouble with the math that is two half days (Monday and Wednesday) and three full days. This was paid at my hourly rate, so it will also be my highest paid week for the year. I had first contract day today (only 30 days until the insurance kicks in). The orientation was useful and for the most part was information that I needed to know, like how to request a substitute. My favorite quote was on Tuesday morning the person organizing everything described it as follows, "Education is not about filling a bucket, it is lighting a fire. Today we are going to fill buckets." That about sums it up. I did get to meet some other first year teachers and a couple of other math teachers. It is amazing how many of the got a job where they are student teaching. Coincidence, I think not. It is a great way to get your foot in the door. Everyday of student teacher is a mini job interview.
Thursday and Friday was a two day seminar on classroom management. Randy Sprick decided to tape a DVD to accompany the second edition of his book. I was lucky enough to be paid to go. And I learned a lot of useful stuff. My classroom management class does not begin until the last week of September.
On Friday I decided to stop at Madison and see my room on the way home. Unfortunately I was unable to get into my room or pick up my ID.

The Beginning

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my climb up Katahdin and finishing the AT. Since that was the subject of my last blog this seems like a fitting time to start up my new one. I have been up in the air about starting a new blog, but again I have had some pressure to do one. I think it will be a good place to do some reflection, however, it will be a censored reflection.
A little background for non immediate family. I moved out to Portland last September after finishing the AT and started my Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) at Marylhurst University in Lake Oswego, just outside of Portland. This is an 18 month program. So if you do the math, I am six months away from finishing. My original plan had been to hopefully get a part time teaching job towards the end of the program. I felt that I should be able to do this since I already have my master's in Math. And even with the economy and a bad year for hiring teachers (unless you teach math or Spanish), I was able to get a job. So while most of the other people in my cohort are doing their student teaching, I am getting paid, and also getting some tuition reimbursement. I will get 6 credits paid back this semester. The down side is that I do not have a cooperating teacher to review my lesson plans and give me feedback after each lesson. The up side is that I get to run the classroom as I want to and I get paid.
I will be teaching half time Advanced Math at Alliance High School, FOCUS@Madison. FOCUS has been a program at Madison high school for years. It is a school within a school for students hwo have not been succeeding. Three years ago when there were some questions about its continued existence four alternative programs joined together and became Alliance High School.
I think this is a good starting place, I will be adding more information as I know more and get corrected on what I have written. I will bring my camera into school tomorrow and get some pictures of the school and my classroom. Also if anyone sees something that I need to edit, let me know. I am a math teacher after all.