Really?

Today I only teach one class since it is the first block day of the week. So at one point we were doing group work. Let me rephrase that, some of the class was doing group work, and some were working when I was checking on them, and then going back to their conversations. So I am now talking to one of my students. He says to me, "you know, I am only working when you are standing at my table." This was not a surprise to me. I had figured that one out already. It is one of the potential pitfalls with group work. I replied, that I had surmised that on my own, and that is why I was now at his table talking with him, and getting him back on track.
One of my other favorite conversation starters is cellphones. At first students would try and justify having their cellphone out by saying that they are only using the calculator part. Well, that does not fly since calculators are required for the class. When I ask students to put them away, it is amazing how many of them put their phone is their lap. Do I really look that dumb? My response is that it is easy for a cellphone to fall out of a lap. I do not want their cellphone broken, so could you please put it in your bag. On Tuesday I finally caught someone in the act of texting. So I took the phone away for the rest of the period. It was her best class of the year. She was paying attention and answering questions. I guess she had nothing better to do without a phone.

What a differenc a day makes

I think ending one of my classes yesterday with an "I was really disappointed with how class went today" speech was somewhat effective. While class today was not great, but was significantly better than yesterday. We got 50 minutes worth of class done in 50 minutes not 90. So I finished class with the "today was much better" speech. We will see how long this continues. I think I just need a little more structure during the group work and a little more accountability.
Overall today was a good day, but it was Friday. Seveth period definitely felt like the last class of the day on Friday. I ended with a quiz, and I could not keep the students who finished early from talking, so I dismissed them early. Nothing wrong with leting kids go five minutes early on Friday when they were done for the day an hour previous.

Lesson of the Day

This is about what I learned today. If you are planning to meet with a student during lunch, microwave your lunch first. Or bring lots of small snacks you can munch on during class. The next three hours will be very hungry if you do not.

Mandatory Meeting

Today started of with a mandatory meeting. So I was at school at 8 for a meeting 8-9 about suicide prevention. Tomorrow I need to make sure I get paid for being at that meeting. Since I work half tim in the afternoons, I am not required to be at morning meetings. However if it is mandatory then I should get paid for an hour an my hourly wage.
Then I had flex (office hours) for an hour. Then I was off until 2:45. Other than a student making up a test during lunch. Lots of time to get work done. However I was out of my classroom for most of the time, since someone else was teaching there. Also I was having trouble using the wireless. So while I did get some lesson planning done, I was not able to transfer my updated lesson plan to my smartboard in my room. I thought I had, but I was wrong. Since the first page looked correct, I did not double check until five minutes before class, and I could not get everything straightened out in time. So class did not run as smoothly as I would have hoped.
My personal lesson from the day was be careful what you say because everything will be picked up on by your students. I mentioned that I had a technology SNAFU. Most of my class was unfamiliar with this term, so I spent a minute explaining it. There were definitely worse things I could have said.

Same Same, but Different

So just because I am teaching two sections of Algebra 3/4 does not mean I am teaching the same class twice. The students in the classes give the two sections a completely different feel. Also one section came mostly from one teacher, while the other section came mostly from another. So they are at different places in the text, and different levels of understanding of what has already been covered. I knew this intellectually before today, I know it in my bones now.
After school we also had a fun PLC, and discussed grading and proficiencies. We have lowered what you need for an A, mainly so that the students who get a 6 are not retaking skills to get 7s. Which is good since most of the 6s I have seen did not improve to 7s. this will relax some of the students who have to get an A or else.
And it relaxes the teachers as well.

Lots of Little Things

Just as I am trying to get a feel for the new classes, and where they should be in relation to the other sections, one of my students tells me that he is going to Europe with his family for about two weeks. So tomorrow I need to give him work for two weeks in advance. I barely have a feel for tomorrow in that class, let alone Friday. So I checked what the pacing and recommended HW was from the teacher's edition and wrote it out. So if he does it, he could come back a day or two ahead, behind or right where he should be. We will see.
I started a conversation with two of the other teachers teaching Algebra 3/4 with proficiencies about the scoring. This will be continued tomorrow during PLC, so I will probably write more tomorrow. But it centers on how much lenience we should allow in grading, both in following the rubric and in granting A's. I also found out that a mistake I thought brought down a score from a 7 to a 6, another teacher thought should bring it down to a 4. The difference between A+ to A or A+ to C. I can see the point the other teacher made. However, I am not sure I completely agree, and I do not want to be out of line. Also at that point I was not going to regrade the entire test, but it is something to think about while grading the next assessment.

Technology

Some things you take for granted until they no longer work, or you no longer have access. When I arrived at Lincoln today I logged on to my computer, but I did not have access to my files or the department files. I logged out and tried again, but still no love. So I called IT. Within a minute I was talking with a real person. In the middle of our conversation she said, hold on someone just walked in saying something, and put me on hold. She came back after talking with that person who had said, "Lincoln is down." Her advice, since it was noon, was to have lunch and then try again, hopefully it would be fixed by then. My smartboard lessons were all online, as well as the test that I was giving out 7th period, and had not printed, thinking I can always do that Friday. Since I could not use my smartboard I looked around my classroom and realized that I do not have a chalkboard nor a white board. If my technology stayed down I was screwed.
So I went to another teacher giving the same PreCalc test and borrowed one so I could copy it for my class, and think what was I going to do the first day with my Algebra 3/4 with no smartboard. By the time I finished copying the test we were back online, so it was not a problem. In the future I will try and also photocopy everything a day in advance, and just hide my tests.

Goal Setting

Today I had the first conference as part of my evaluation. The meeting was with one of the vice-principals. The purpose was to explain the evaluation process to me, and to let me know what else needs to happen. This is partly to give me feedback, and partly for the district to make sure they have quality teachers, and for the school to have some information on whether they want to hire me next year. I was also able to have the schools curriculum goals explained to me since I missed the pre-service meetings and I had no idea what they were. At the end I was given an opportunity to come up with some professional goals. My goal is to not fail any student. I am starting to get a good idea of those students I need to keep an eye on to insure that.
Tomorrow I start teaching the two new classes. As of 4:30 today one class had 13, the other 6. I am assuming that those numbers will go up. While I was preparing I had some of my future students wander in and introduce themselves. I was planning on not doing much math tomorrow, and the vice principal stressed on how much she agreed with that. This way I have some time to figure out where these students are and whether I need to reteach some of the material. It should be fun.

Flu Season

Flu season has definitely hit Lincoln High school. I have had a quarter of my class out for the last two days. It makes for a nice intimate environment. I think this will probably continue for a while. Especially since the next test is Friday. So I will have some people ask me if they have to take the test then. It will depend. It is easier for me for students to ace the test the first time, so I feel if they are really not prepared, I will probably let them take the test when the retake center is open. That will probably make everyone happy. I just have to make sure that they do some productive work while the rest of the class is taking the test.

Roller-Coaster Ride

Hopefully the roller-coaster will stop at the top. On Monday I received a call from the Principal saying that they now had a little more money and was I interested in teaching two more classes and going to half time. The answer was of course YES!
So now I am a little on the busy side. I am about to start my work sample which means a little more documentation on all of my lesson planning and all that jazz. Also I am starting to prepare for two more classes. At least they are the same class, and both will be small. I will also lose some time, but that will only start on Friday or next Monday. So it is the teaching time of two more classes, while only the prep time of one more class. And I will have the advantage of teaching the same class twice in a row so I can modify on the fly. I will still have my mornings free to sub as needed, which is now a possibility since I was added to the sub list last Friday.

Trying Out

So as a result of the change of the proficiencies, I decided not to use the quiz I had written (no longer relavent), and use the quiz a different teacher had written. I had planned for 15-20 minutes for the quiz depending on how quickly we got through other material. After talking with the teacher who wrote the quiz, he said it needed almost 40 minutes. So with 15 minutes left in class I handed out the quiz. With one minute left in class I told everyone to put their pencils down and I was collecting the quiz, but that we would start the next class by finishing the quiz. As I was collecting one student asked me if I was worried about people cheating. Since they knew what was on the quiz, they could study that night. I replied that I am assuming they would not memorize all the numbers on the questions, so they would have to learn the whole concept. That is something I do not have a problem with. In fact I was hoping some would go home and relearn the parts they were struggling with. And for the most part everyone did well on the quiz.
The other thing I am trying out is having students write review questions. I told everyone which skills would be on the test for next week. The homework for the weekend is to write two potential test questions for each skill. I also said that this homework would be collected. I mentioned to some who asked that I would then type the questions out and hand them to the students as a review sheet for the test. Hopefully this will work. We will see on Tuesday.

Change of Plans

I have always done some changing on the fly with my lessons. Somethings you think should go in one order until you hit the ground running and you realize that you need to change. Today I gave the students the last fifteen minutes to start work on homework in groups and ask questions. Since I was answering individual questions for that entire time, I know they partly used the time as it was intended. I will find out tomorrow whether the rest of the class started working on the homework.
I have had some people ask to go over HW questions in class, but my current problem with that is so few people have been doing the homework. However I should not punish the students who are working. I also want to spend more class time with the students working, not me lecturing. We will see how well I make that transition.
I also found out today that the other two PreCalc teachers have changed the proficiencies for this chapter. So the quiz I had planned for today and postponed till tomorrow is not as relevant. So I will use a different teacher's quiz, on a slightly different topic. I just wish I were a part of the conversations when they change the expectations, so I can communicate that sooner to my students. This way it will be a little bit of a shock for everyone involved.
Tomorrow we have a different schedule from normal, so I will be teaching tomorrow. On the plus side, I have Friday and next Monday off.

Observations

Through Marylhurst, I have a mentor/university supervisor. Today was the first time he observed my class. I think he will observe another four times this semester. I had briefly mentioned on Friday that we would have a visitor on Monday, and said he was my mentor, but I did not want to draw attention away from me, or have them change their behavior. Although we know from Heisenberg that observing something changes its behavior. I also tried not to change how I teach so I could get the best feedback.
It was nice to be able to get feedback from someone whose goal is to make me a better teacher. I am not being graded or judged. Although I do think more about how I teach when their is someone else in the room. I am more concerned about what is working and what is not. But I like also have an extra pair of eyes and ears to let me know what is working and what is not.
Later on in the year I believe one of the assistant principals will also observe me, but that will have a different feel. They also want to help me be a better teacher, but they will also have more influence on whether I get hired next year or not. But that is not for a while. I have a pre-conference conference, or goal setting meeting next week. I swear that is what it is called. And I know I shouldn't swear (or start a sentence with and), but that is what the note I received said.

Getting Paid

So on Friday I was finally paid. It was only two days late, so not that bad. However it was still a little light, but I am working on that now. I was paid for everything that had been reported, so I have to make sure that the two day classroom management seminar gets reported.
One of the main problems was that it took a while for me to get an ID number. This sometimes happes with late hires. Then switching schools did not help anything out. Until I had the number, nothing about getting paid could happen. So on the 1st, after several people (I love the secretaries) made call for me while I was in class, I finally was given an ID number.
I had also signed up for direct deposit, surprisingly enough that was not yet set up. When I went to payroll to pick up my check I asked whether they had all the forms. They were right on top of the pile. Payroll had tried to set up my direct deposit on five separate occasions, but had been unable to do so since I had no ID number. That should all be under control know (I hope).

Some good news, some bad

Bad news always makes a better story, so lets start with the good news. I now have the teacher's edition for the textbook that I am teaching. That was easy enough.
Yesterday was pay day. Or at least if some things had gone correctly it would have been. I was assuming that the pay was going to be wrong. I was a late hire, and then had to switch schools, I was expecting some things to be off. I was looking forward to the conversation about what had been screwed up. However I need a paycheck to do that. I had signed up for direct deposit, so by 5pm yesterday with nothing in my bank account I knew something was wrong. When I arrived at school I started talking with the secretaries. I was wondering if my pay stub was supposed to arrive at school or at home. We then realized that it had not gone to the wrong school, it was never made. But after a lot of wonderful work by the secretary while I was in class most things were straightened out. I should be able to pick up a check tomorrow after 3pm. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

My room

One view of my room. The room was formerly the teacher's dining room. As a result it has air conditioning. The stairs lead to the boiler room. It is always locked and I do not have the key. Every table has 3-5 students. We have to move into the cafeteria for tests, otherwise the students are too close.




Here is a view of my smartboard and two computers. One computers is connected to the monitor, and the other to the smartboard. The projector is an waist height. So when I am writing on the board my shadow blocks the screen and I cannot see what I am writing. When I am done writing I have to move so the students can read the board. At the beginning of class I usually move the large trashcan to prop open the door.


This is my parking spot underneath the bleachers for the football stadium. We are not allowed to park here during games. Suprisingly enough there is a lot of trash that fall through.