Enjoying my last weekend of freedom before I head back to school on Tuesday for a professional day. We get the students on Wednesday.
Actually, I've been back in school since August 27th. I coach JV volleyball so I've been in the building since that day. For the first three days, we had double practices so in between practices, I would go up to my classroom to unpack and get it ready. We then switched to afternoon practices so I would go into school in the morning to do work.
Even though I'm a high school teacher, I work very hard to create a very comfortable classroom environment for my students. Most of my colleagues don't decorate their classrooms and make their rooms feel "homey." Every school year, the kids tell how warm and welcoming my classroom feels to them. I hate bare white walls so I will hang up student work. I don't care how old you are but kids still love to see their work hanging up on a bulletin board or wall. Currently, I hung up posters and projects from last years' students. Once I get going, I will hang up work from the kids this year. I always keep student work as samples to show students what I expect for a final project.
So, my classroom is all ready and waiting for the students to arrive on Wednesday.
My teaching schedule will pretty much be the same. Still in the freshman house. Still have four classes of World History (3 college preps and 1 honors) and the local history class elective for upperclassmen. The only difference will be that two of my college prep World History classes will be part of the new transitional team (one of the college prep transition classes will be co-taught with a special ed teacher in the room). The administration has already "red flagged" 30 freshman students at risk for dropping out of high school due to emotional and behavioral issues (some related to horrific home lives). Those 30 students will be in smaller classes (15 students per class) and share the same major content teachers (History, English, Science, and Math) in the freshman house. English and History classes will be taught in the middle of the day and back to back. Math and Science will be the same (we teach on a 4 x4 block). For example, this will allow English and History to do more interdisciplinary units - when I'm teaching about Ancient Greece in History, the English teacher has the kids reading The Odyssey. The transitional team came up with themes per quarter: 1st quarter -The Ideal Individual, 2nd quarter - Tolerance, 3rd quarter - Freedom, and 4th quarter - Service. All of our curriculum will be taught around these themes. I will not be teaching World History chronologically but thematically with these kids - this is a first for me. I thought I would try it and see what happens. My school has a 60% graduation rate so we are trying to increase the number of students graduating. Since the implementation of the freshman house, our numbers have gone up 10% (five years ago, our graduation rate was 50%). So, we have our work cut out!
We have a professional day on Tuesday. The day will be filled with meetings and small presentations from faculty and administration. I've been asked to do a short presentation to the faculty on explaining the use of the library and web site. The librarian and I will be running double sessions and she thought of me to help her since I take my students down to the library all the time and teach my students how to properly use the library. My principal told me that I will receiving a small stipend and PDP's for the presentations. Cool! :=)
We are starting school late compared to other schools in this area and even the country. Since I read a lot of teacher blogs from all over the country, I know some schools have already been in school for at least six weeks! Sometimes I wish that we would start earlier and then get out earlier but our buildings here are not equipped to handle the warmer weather (aka no A/C). Since I have an inside classroom (no windows), my classroom is VERY WARM right now - temps in my classroom during the past week have been around the high 80's. I have two fans running but all the fans do is circulate the warm air around the room. Thankfully, the weather here in New England has cooled off somewhat so hopefully the classrooms will eventually cool off as well.
The summer is coming to a close. It was a real nice and relaxing summer for M-Dawg! A very much needed mental health summer. :-)
So, here we go and wishing everyone a productive and invigorating school year! :=)
Showing posts with label Professional Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Professional Day. Show all posts
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Almost time to go back to school . . .
As I logged into my blog this morning, I looked over at my counter and realized that I have only seven days left until the first day of school. My goodness! Where did the summer go?
Since I've been coaching volleyball since last week, I've been able to have a little time getting my classroom ready (we've had double sessions so I usually have a two hour break in between practices to get stuff done). However, yesterday the workers started waxing the floors in the halls so I couldn't get into my room. I have a ton of boxes to unpack. The head guy of building and grounds (major control freak) refuses to give us (the teachers) our keys until the 1st official day of school so I can't get into my own desk or cabinets to organize them. Plus, the building is still in construction so they are hoping to finish everything up over the Labor Day weekend (I'll be VERY surprised if it happens). You can't use the main entrance of the school so it's a huge walk around the building to get into the building. I have a ton of stuff that needs to come back to school but I'm waiting until I can carry it through the front entrance. And, the poor custodians and construction guys . . . the elevator broke the other day so they've been having to carry heavy furniture up and down the stairs! They seriously don't get paid enough . . . .
This year, we only have one professional day until we get the kids. So, that means only one day to get everything ready if a teacher doesn't come in this week to get their room and office ready. I don't want to complain too much about the loss of a PD Day since I've been reading a lot of horror stories of other teachers across the country that have already started school and had to sit through pointless and waste of time type of meetings. Our union voted in a horrible contract last year and one of the "bonuses" was one less PD Day. Now, I'm hearing the teachers that voted that contract in complain about how little time they have to get their rooms ready! Did they not THINK about this when they were voting????? Duh! All they saw was one day off from school. Ugh.
The PD Day focus: all the new technology in the building. All the classrooms now have a LCD projector installed from the ceiling and a new MAC computer for the teachers. We are going to be doing attendance online now too. The faculty needs training on the technology. The majority of our faculty doesn't use any form of technology so it will be interesting to see how that PD Day works out. We also have three new computer labs (30 new MACS with LCD projector and SMART boards). A faculty of 160 - only 20 uses various forms of technology in our classes. Scary thought in 2008! Three years ago, I came from a school that did everything technology so I felt like I was going backwards in time by working at this school. I ended up going out and buying a lot of my own stuff (Ex: LCD Projector).
So my homework the past week: I've been trying to update and change the homework blogs for the kids and organized my curriculum binders. I need to work on my syllabus for my two courses (World History and the local History class). I already have a rough idea of the first two days of school - it tends to be all the administrative paperwork and getting to know you stuff anyway. A working photocopier would be nice so I can start copying stuff.
I think I'll feel better once my classroom is ready. With coaching volleyball this year, I won't have all the time like I normally would to set everything up.
I love my job . . . . I love my school . . . . . keep repeating until next June! :-)
Since I've been coaching volleyball since last week, I've been able to have a little time getting my classroom ready (we've had double sessions so I usually have a two hour break in between practices to get stuff done). However, yesterday the workers started waxing the floors in the halls so I couldn't get into my room. I have a ton of boxes to unpack. The head guy of building and grounds (major control freak) refuses to give us (the teachers) our keys until the 1st official day of school so I can't get into my own desk or cabinets to organize them. Plus, the building is still in construction so they are hoping to finish everything up over the Labor Day weekend (I'll be VERY surprised if it happens). You can't use the main entrance of the school so it's a huge walk around the building to get into the building. I have a ton of stuff that needs to come back to school but I'm waiting until I can carry it through the front entrance. And, the poor custodians and construction guys . . . the elevator broke the other day so they've been having to carry heavy furniture up and down the stairs! They seriously don't get paid enough . . . .
This year, we only have one professional day until we get the kids. So, that means only one day to get everything ready if a teacher doesn't come in this week to get their room and office ready. I don't want to complain too much about the loss of a PD Day since I've been reading a lot of horror stories of other teachers across the country that have already started school and had to sit through pointless and waste of time type of meetings. Our union voted in a horrible contract last year and one of the "bonuses" was one less PD Day. Now, I'm hearing the teachers that voted that contract in complain about how little time they have to get their rooms ready! Did they not THINK about this when they were voting????? Duh! All they saw was one day off from school. Ugh.
The PD Day focus: all the new technology in the building. All the classrooms now have a LCD projector installed from the ceiling and a new MAC computer for the teachers. We are going to be doing attendance online now too. The faculty needs training on the technology. The majority of our faculty doesn't use any form of technology so it will be interesting to see how that PD Day works out. We also have three new computer labs (30 new MACS with LCD projector and SMART boards). A faculty of 160 - only 20 uses various forms of technology in our classes. Scary thought in 2008! Three years ago, I came from a school that did everything technology so I felt like I was going backwards in time by working at this school. I ended up going out and buying a lot of my own stuff (Ex: LCD Projector).
So my homework the past week: I've been trying to update and change the homework blogs for the kids and organized my curriculum binders. I need to work on my syllabus for my two courses (World History and the local History class). I already have a rough idea of the first two days of school - it tends to be all the administrative paperwork and getting to know you stuff anyway. A working photocopier would be nice so I can start copying stuff.
I think I'll feel better once my classroom is ready. With coaching volleyball this year, I won't have all the time like I normally would to set everything up.
I love my job . . . . I love my school . . . . . keep repeating until next June! :-)
Thursday, October 18, 2007
I think I need a vacation . . . .
It's been one of those weeks. Even though I was out sick on Monday and Tuesday, it seems like a very long week!
I go back to school on Wednesday - an early release day for the kids in the morning and a professional day for the adults in the afternoon. My school didn't make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress - a No Child Left Behind thing) so we are going into freak out test the hell out of the kids mode. The 9th graders spent two hours doing MCAS English and Math practice tests (in my state, you need to pass these tests to graduate - don't pass - no high school diploma). Since I'm on the freshman team, I had to proctor the tests. These tests were thrown together at the last minute so there were no instructions and no communication to the teachers. The 10th and 11th graders were given the PSAT's. The 12th graders were shown a video on how to make positive choices (no alcohol or drugs) and then were put into groups to create activities (they got the better end of the deal since they got to bond with their class). The 9th graders had an assembly for the last hour about responsibility. The last two blocks of the day were shortened to 30 minutes. Not a lot of academic learning could take place in that time.
After the kids left for the day, I got to sit in a department meeting for an hour and an half to brainstorm about how does my dept. help with MCAS (our MCAS are still in pilot mode and won't count until 2012). We then met as a faculty to discuss all the ways every single department is supporting MCAS. It sounds like all departments are doing what they are supposed to be doing to help the kids succeed on MCAS. I just don't know what more we can do except maybe take the test for the kids. The skill level of reading and writing is VERY low at my school. I have a lot of kids this year that can barely read above a 2nd grade reading level. How do I work with that? I'm not trained in it. I help the kids as best as I can during the school day when they are in class with me but they need more help. They need to stay after school for extra help and they won't stay. Compared to my last school, students don't value their education or respect their teachers. It's emotionally draining to continue sticking your neck out to help these kids and they just don't get it! The day was very long and draining and I still wasn't feeling well. I probably should've called in sick again but I really didn't want to take another sick day.
Today, I had parent conferences after school. I had a line! Almost all the parents that wanted to talk to me were the Honor's parents and all they just wanted to hear how great their kid was doing in my class. The conferences were supposed to end at 3:00 but I didn't leave school until 5:00 pm! Ughy!
Also, today the union rep stopped by to ask if I would mind wearing a t-shirt and protest outside every morning to support the union negotiations. Yes, we are still without a contract and the 2nd year without a raise. And, I need to point out that this is my second year so I'm not tenured yet. It's a high risk to go out and protest for the union since the union can't protect me my first three years anyway. $500 a year is taken out my paycheck for union dues.
Oh, my Dad went to the emergency room yesterday morning. He was in pain - he's got a kidney stone and it won't pass. They admitted him and monitored him. I got a phone call a few hours ago and they are performing surgery to get the stone out. Please think happy thoughts for my Daddy! :-)
Sorry this post is all over the place. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. And, I still feel like poop!
I go back to school on Wednesday - an early release day for the kids in the morning and a professional day for the adults in the afternoon. My school didn't make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress - a No Child Left Behind thing) so we are going into freak out test the hell out of the kids mode. The 9th graders spent two hours doing MCAS English and Math practice tests (in my state, you need to pass these tests to graduate - don't pass - no high school diploma). Since I'm on the freshman team, I had to proctor the tests. These tests were thrown together at the last minute so there were no instructions and no communication to the teachers. The 10th and 11th graders were given the PSAT's. The 12th graders were shown a video on how to make positive choices (no alcohol or drugs) and then were put into groups to create activities (they got the better end of the deal since they got to bond with their class). The 9th graders had an assembly for the last hour about responsibility. The last two blocks of the day were shortened to 30 minutes. Not a lot of academic learning could take place in that time.
After the kids left for the day, I got to sit in a department meeting for an hour and an half to brainstorm about how does my dept. help with MCAS (our MCAS are still in pilot mode and won't count until 2012). We then met as a faculty to discuss all the ways every single department is supporting MCAS. It sounds like all departments are doing what they are supposed to be doing to help the kids succeed on MCAS. I just don't know what more we can do except maybe take the test for the kids. The skill level of reading and writing is VERY low at my school. I have a lot of kids this year that can barely read above a 2nd grade reading level. How do I work with that? I'm not trained in it. I help the kids as best as I can during the school day when they are in class with me but they need more help. They need to stay after school for extra help and they won't stay. Compared to my last school, students don't value their education or respect their teachers. It's emotionally draining to continue sticking your neck out to help these kids and they just don't get it! The day was very long and draining and I still wasn't feeling well. I probably should've called in sick again but I really didn't want to take another sick day.
Today, I had parent conferences after school. I had a line! Almost all the parents that wanted to talk to me were the Honor's parents and all they just wanted to hear how great their kid was doing in my class. The conferences were supposed to end at 3:00 but I didn't leave school until 5:00 pm! Ughy!
Also, today the union rep stopped by to ask if I would mind wearing a t-shirt and protest outside every morning to support the union negotiations. Yes, we are still without a contract and the 2nd year without a raise. And, I need to point out that this is my second year so I'm not tenured yet. It's a high risk to go out and protest for the union since the union can't protect me my first three years anyway. $500 a year is taken out my paycheck for union dues.
Oh, my Dad went to the emergency room yesterday morning. He was in pain - he's got a kidney stone and it won't pass. They admitted him and monitored him. I got a phone call a few hours ago and they are performing surgery to get the stone out. Please think happy thoughts for my Daddy! :-)
Sorry this post is all over the place. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. And, I still feel like poop!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Professional Day in Boston
Today, I drove into Boston to attend The Bill of Rights Institute Seminar on the 1st amendment. The official name of the seminar was Conflict and Continuity: The Story of American Freedom. Very intriguing! Got lots of free curriculum and teaching ideas . . . which is always a good thing.
The seminar was held here. Let me tell ya, this is how the real folks live and work! Very fancy place -
One of my colleagues from my department attended the seminar with me. There were also a two middle school teachers from my district there. We sat and chatted and compared notes about students and curriculum.
I have to say that I'm exhausted from sitting there and listening to speakers all day. I took a ton of notes that I hope to be able to use in my lectures. I hate to admit it but I'm so used to being on my feet and walking around the classroom that my butt fell asleep at the end of the seminar. :-)
Oh, they also fed us some great food! And, the grand price of this trip for me: gas and parking. That's it!
It was so nice to be treated as professionals. Unfortunately, as teachers, we don't always get treated with respect.
The seminar was held here. Let me tell ya, this is how the real folks live and work! Very fancy place -
One of my colleagues from my department attended the seminar with me. There were also a two middle school teachers from my district there. We sat and chatted and compared notes about students and curriculum.
I have to say that I'm exhausted from sitting there and listening to speakers all day. I took a ton of notes that I hope to be able to use in my lectures. I hate to admit it but I'm so used to being on my feet and walking around the classroom that my butt fell asleep at the end of the seminar. :-)
Oh, they also fed us some great food! And, the grand price of this trip for me: gas and parking. That's it!
It was so nice to be treated as professionals. Unfortunately, as teachers, we don't always get treated with respect.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
