Going Back to School Early

Ms. Whatsit has been thinking about what our professional responsibility is before the school year starts--before we are actually on contract. Apparently she bended a little to save herself some stress, but mostly she is enjoying her last days of vacation while she questions why we teachers are given so little paid time to prepare.

In the last few years I've thought a lot about what I really need to do, and how much time I should put in outside of my contracted time. I've had great intentions of doing some planning this summer, but I haven't done as much as I had hoped. Why was I going to do it this summer? I had more time to think and plan. So, that's my choice. Well, actually, my true choice was to blow off doing any work for most of the summer like I thought I would.
So, there's a moot point.

When it comes to the amount of time I take to put my classroom and curriculum together at the beginning of the year, that topic does irritate me a bit. It seems impossible to prepare for the beginning if school with the amount of time we are given. The irritation for me stems back to the closing of school, when we have to remove everything from our walls and pack up our materials. Putting up bulletin boards doesn't take too long, but unpacking seems to take forever.

I did go back to school last week. I planned on meeting up with a colleague so we could work on some changes for our team, plus I thought it might be nice to get my room put together early because during our contracted time, I lose out on most of the free time because of my yearbook responsibilities. I wanted to go to my room not because I'm excited to be back but because I know I have too many irons in the fire and I can't do everything I need to in time if I don't. I'm slow moving when I start back to work. The earlier I start, the less stressful it is as I do a little bit here and there.

Well, guess what? The administration is refusing to give out keys earlier than the first official day for new teachers. It's true. They don't want us back yet. I'm hardly offended.

Guess what else? There A/C will not be turned on in our classrooms until the first day back for returning teachers. (Sucks to be a new teacher--three days with no A/C in their classrooms.)

I don't know, but it seems like my school is discouraging us from coming back early to work. I'm down with that.

Real Friends

Since I moved to the city, I tend to receive a lot more phone calls of this ilk: "Hey! Are you busy? I'm in town!"

It would be nice if my friends and family would call a few days in advance to let me know they're coming, but the sad truth is that I'm usually not that busy.

Last week an old friend, Mary, called one morning, "Hey! What are you up to? I'm at the Imperial. My husband's playing in a poker tournament. I've already lost too much money. Come rescue me."

I met Mary back in 1991 when I had to move back home in Utah to try to raise more money for college. I found a job at Burger King in January, and she was hired there a few months later. We joke about it now because I was her boss for a while. This is particularly amusing because she is several years older than I am, and she had a lot more experience in fast food than I did. Neither one us was stayed at that job long anyway.

You'd never believe what bonded us: yard sales, antique stores, and crafts. Maybe it's not so unbelievable, but I've never had any other friends with these interests. The crafting part was the best because we would visit all our favorite boutiques, declare (sometimes literally--continue reading) that everything was too expensive, and then go make our own homemade crafts for a fraction of the cost. And a lot more fun! And let me tell you, when she left fast food to work for a florist, our crafting went to a whole new level.

Mary can be boisterous and she's definitely opinionated. At times it can be embarrassing, but at least with her you always know what you're getting. My first husband didn't like her, probably because he was well aware of what she thought of him. But then, don't think for a minute that just because she was a whopping one of two friends I had left after our marriage broke up (not exaggerated), that she didn't tell me, "I told you so." There are the friends who soften the blows, and then there are your friends who keep it real.

I guess in my case "keeping it real" is picking up on an old friend on a corner on Las Vegas Boulevard (also not an exaggeration) when you haven't seen her in three years. No big deal. When I couldn't find any good antiques stores open on a Monday morning, she's the kind of friend I could bring back to my half-unpacked house so we could drink iced tea and gossip like old women--like old women who saw each other just last week.

I love how time and distance make no difference with good friends.

In Preparation for the Big Day

Today the kids and I participated in the great adventure of gathering supplies from the required supplies list. The kids were really excited. Seriously, what is it about new boxes of crayons and pencils? I'm usually a total sucker for new supplies, but my heart's not into it this year.

We started at Wal-Mart because I thought my chances of still finding spiral notebooks for a dime would be greater. (I supply my night school students with a notebooks and folder each quarter. They act like it's a great gift that I give them. I do it to prevent excuses of no paper and to provide ready-made organization. It's so worth my $20 annual investment.) It was a disaster at Wal-Mart with narrow aisles, supplies in confusing arrangements, and the crayons were nearly $2.00! What? They are suppose to be super cheap! I also chose Wal-Mart because I thought I might pick up some groceries, since we're basically down to rice and chickpeas at my house.

I dodged moving carts stood gawking in the aisle for about five minutes before throwing up my arms and saying, "Let's go. We're going to Target." Risky move. Target isn't always known for it's deals. And hey! Forget the whole grocery idea. The third-world diet isn't killing us or anything.

Thank goodness Target is a more hospitable store--and the one in our shopping neighborhood is under construction! They had their supplies (reasonably priced) in the seasonal area of the store, with the supplies kind of in a circle. It was easy to stand in the middle and look around for what you need, or to play, "Hey kids! Find the pink erasers. Bring four!" Lots of fun for the kids. Confusing for the mom reading from two lists.

I did end up finding notebooks for a dime. Plus, I stocked up on Maped pencil sharpeners because I can only find then at this time of year, and they last forever. (The school will provide electric sharpeners, but that grinding sound all day long drives me mad!)

Tomorrow the ritual continues on when I take each of the kids to buy school clothes. In the past I've either just bought them a set number of outfits or we've made it a family event to go school clothes shopping. Times are different now. Before I didn't know what clothes they had and my stepdaughter wasn't on the excellent hand-me-down system she's on now. Plus, we live with each other now, and I don't think the boys anyone has the patience for a family event involving hours of waiting for others to try on clothes. Wish I could get out of it myself, but I'm getting paid extra. Hahahaha! Don't I wish! I should be getting paid extra!

I have stock piled a few things as I found them on clearance (like the chinos for $2.50), so tonight we did inventory. It's going to be a quick shopping day for just a few things. Just enough to satisfy that feeling that we are preparing for the special event of the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.

It's always nice to have a few new outfits to make a good impression and some new black pens that will work for sure. I'm not going to say that starting school doesn't cost this teacher some money, but my preparation in going back to school is largely MENTAL. Do you think our students have to prepare themselves mentally, too?

It Takes a Team to Build Skills

A few days ago I was thinking about throwing caution to the wind by spending time teaching the secondary language arts skills of researching and speaking at the beginning of the year, although these skills aren't addressed in my curriculum until later in the year and it's going to put a burden on me because of the testing requirements.

Jennie offered her excellent idea of using more oral response in her classroom and asked if perhaps the social studies and science teachers could do projects. Ms. Whatsit asked what my team thought. For this post, this focus on just the research part, as it is the most difficult and time consuming to tackle. Of course, in this day and age, and in my technology-rich school, we are talking mostly Internet research.

Each class has at least one big project a quarter: math, science, foreign language, and English. I think the semester-long health class even does a few projects. The social studies teacher also does one big project a quarter, but she constantly has students doing smaller projects, which she simply calls assignments. The students don't think of them as that, though, as they usually take a few days to a two weeks to complete.

During team meetings, the poor quality of projects and assignments we receive has come up a few times. I know it might sound like an issue of students not understanding what is expected of them, but I'd say that everyone is clear with instructions and rubrics. However, we expect that the students know how and where to gather good information, and I think there's a gap there. Earlier this summer I met with most of the people on my team, and we decided that introducing research skills earlier in the year will raise the bar for the students, and in turn they produce higher quality work.

As I said in my previous post, the responsibility falls mostly on my shoulders to teach the skills. Just like reading and writing, isn't it? So, do you think the other teachers on my team have any problem with me going the extra mile to prepare the students to be better researchers? No way! Knock yourself out, HappyChyck!

The more I think about it, the more I feel alone. If I better prepare the students, what are the other teachers going to do to support me and the students? Will they continue to allow students to use Wikipedia as their best source? Will they continue to accept work without source documentation? Will they at least ask for a bibliography? Will they familiarize themselves and introduce students to excellent subject-specific sources?

Some of the teachers on my team are right there with me. They direct students to quality sources. They require source documentation. They are vigilant against cut and copy plagiarism. They are fighting the good fight!

Other teachers squirmed in their chairs as they admit their lack of knowledge on research skills and available sources--even those our own library has. Their nervous chuckles can't hide the fact they have no idea how to teach students to format a bibliography page. On the surface they seem on board, but I can tell by their glazed looks that it's all on me. One of them even said something to the effect that she didn't have time for all of this.

All of this? Grrrrrr. I established a Wikispaces for our team to use. Talk about time! I certainly hope that the other teachers on my team use their own spaces (which we all set up together) with their students, but even if they don't, I have established a research wiki for everyone to use as a reference--students and teachers. Did I do this because I know so much more they they do? Although, at this point it seems I might... NO! Seriously, I am insecure in my knowledge of smart resources for the students to use. Researching today is a lot more complicated than it was when I was learning to research. So much information--but is it the best and is it valid? I shared my information and techniques with my colleagues. I invite them to share theirs with me. I even invite the students to share, too. We're all invited to navigate this vast territory together. As a team.

I believe my team is in support of teaching students smart research skills right away so students can use those skills throughout the year. The more I think about it, the more I think my colleagues don't realize they must play an important role in applying the skills. We need to have another talk. They told me what skills the students need. I'll tell them what part they can play developing those skills.

Not That Cute Anymore

The inquisitive nature of my now six-year-old stepson is wearing on my nerves. Well, not just now. I've had a mommy break for the last couple of weeks, so I forgot how irritating this character trait of his is. It's not that he's just inquisitive. It seems 90% of what comes out of his mouth is in the form of a question--from quizzes about what I'm doing, to questions about why things are the way they are, to requesting permission to do something that he knows will be a cold day in hell before I say yes.

"What are you doing?"

Let's see...hmmm. You told me you were hungry a little while ago, and I told you I was going to make lunch in about 15 minutes. That was a 1o minutes ago, and now I'm standing in the kitchen putting turkey on a slice of bread. What do you think I'm doing?

****

"What's for lunch?" Kid, have you never seen turkey and bread before? Can't you figure this out?

****

While watching a movie, "What is that man doing? Why is he doing that?" Shhhhhh. Watch and you will see. Wow! Think of all you might learn from OBSERVING!

***

"Look, this box would be perfect for my turtle. Can I bring it home from my sister's house? Please?"

"No," is my stock reply, and at this time I am speaking as an extension of his father.

"Why?"

Some family member in California bought him a little turtle last summer at some yard sale or street fair. We've had this conversation for a year now. And recently I found out from a friend that turtles carry Salmonella.

Does asking me the same question over and over ever get you what you want? Yes, that's right. It just irritates me and and you get into trouble. What part of "no" do you not understand?

***

This whole questioning business was been worse as we are settling into our new house. Things are not quite all in place, and I suppose he's excited about a few things. It's taxing my brain, though...

Can I hang my gourd? (A little craft project they did with their cousin in Utah.)
Where are the thumbtacks?
I don't know.
Are the chimes going outside my window?
I don't know.
Why did you hang them on the wall? They won't chime there. When are you going to hang them outside?
As soon as your dad finds the hammer.
Did you find the batteries yet?
No.
Are my sister and I going to get our own computer?
No. You can use the family computer.
What happened to the computer that was in our closet? Wasn't that going to be ours?
No. It was a junk computer.
Where is it?
I don't know. I think your dad threw it out.
Did you find the batteries yet?
No. I. Did. Not. I will let you know.
Can we go to the store?
Not spending money this week.
Why not?
We're saving.
Why?


Repeat that 5 more times during the day. Add variations to include bizarre questions such as, "Isn't rain God's tears?" What do they tell the kids in Sunday school?

I think I'm losing my mind. Like the Chinese water torture, it's what I call the kid questioning torture. Drip, drip, drip.

Balancing Our Needs with Curriculum Constraints

I hate the first weeks of school. There's so much "training" that has to happen so the classroom runs smoothly. Last year I elicited responses from fellow teachers about what they do to start the year in their classrooms. Although, I know I have little time to waste, as many would agree, I still need to prioritize what should happen first. Of course I have quarterly benchmarks with lovely assessments that pretty much drive what I have to do. What I want to do is skip ahead a few quarters and hit the benchmarks for the 3rd and 4th quarters that have to do with public speaking and researching.

In English, we pretty much do the same skills year after year, adding and building a little more in each area every year. Of course, my students should have some idea of what good public speakers do and definitely should have some good research techniques, including a good idea on how to document their sources. They should know these things because the building blocks are in the benchmarks, and the students have had competent teachers before me. However, the other teachers on the team and I are often disappointed by the quality of speeches and projects the students turn in.

The obvious solution is that I should start off the year reviewing and building speaking and research skills. The responsibility falls on my shoulders because these are language arts skills, skills addressed in my curriculum. It is difficult to hear the other teachers on my team complain about the students' lack of skills or abilities. These big issues, researching and speaking, are things I have observed throughout the year, but as I have tried to explain to my fellow teachers, these are skills addressed later in the year, and I do have more to teach than I can handle. (No, I don't take total responsibility for what the students can or cannot do, as they do not come to me brand new to life.) I teach a high stakes subject area. It's about whether the students can read and write. Researching and speaking are secondary--that is, not assessed on high stakes tests.

The rub is that researching and speaking are important, especially in our student-centered, project-based magnet program. Actually, in life, researching and speaking are equally important to the other communication skills, and these often overlooked skills could be more important in some career fields. I've found that explicitly teaching public speaking skills (about a week) and research skills (about a month) makes a HUGE difference in the quality of work students present. Of course! Guidelines are set and examples are given.

So, the big question is how do I squeeze 5 weeks of instruction that will help students throughout the year in all of their classes into a quarter of already-crowded curriculum? How do we ever balance what the students need to be successful in their learning process with what Very-Important-People-Not-in-the-Classroom need to see in test results? Very carefully? Stand back, folks. I'm a trained professional, but this one could blow up in my face.

It's August Already!?!?!?!

I cannot believe how fast my summer is going. As always, I thought I would have enough time to have fun and plan for next year. Silly girl.

Earlier this summer I started working on some collaborative space at Wikispaces.

I have a copy of Twelfth Night next to my bed, which I planned on reading and planning an approach to use it with my students first thing in the year because we will be participating in a Shakespeare in schools kind of program in September. (Twelfth Night will be presented, in case you're wondering why that play.)

In June, I attended an afternoon training on innovative ways to use our new Macs in the classroom.

Last week I was in Texas learning more about teaching for an IB Middle Years Programme.

A little bit here and there to keep me connected to teaching, but really I've done little to keep my brain in the game--or to get myself ahead in the beginning when going back to the classrooms hurts so much. I'm not sure when I have to report back (three weeks?), but as soon as I get my house put together, I'll be putting my classroom in order since I left it rather a mess at the end of the year. (It looks fine on the outside, but beware if you open any drawers or cupboards!)

I've got thank Mister Teacher for reminding me that the beginning is near. Da da dum! He's been thinking about all the things he needs to do, too. I don't know... his list sounds pretty easy to me. At least he has a list. I have a sense of impending doom.