Everything Counts in Large Amounts

All Dressed up!

When Halloween is on a school day, I try to go all out and I very much encourage my students to dress up as well. Initially I purchased star leggings and a wonder woman t-shirt, thinking that I would keep it low key this year but then ended up buying a skirt since the leggings were a bit tight and not quite teacher appropriate, and needed the head and arm bands to make the costume a bit more legit. The lasso was just to get it over the top!

Work Day

Today was a non-eventful work day, which means it was a wonderful day of kids making art. While kids work, I work. I often feel like I have 10 things going on at once-- a little grading, emails to follow up on, planning, projects to check in on, students to connect with. Quarter grades are due next week, so I want to make sure all of my students are passing so I work primarily with the kids who are not to try to get them caught up. Currently I only have 4 students who actually attend that are not passing and all four are in Photo 1, so it is a very manageable project.

And there is yearbook, which keeps me busiest especially since it's a year long course. Making sure pages are in progress, and kids are on task is on going. There was an event last night that no one took pictures of because I forgot to make sure a kid attended with a camera in hand. If I don't make sure something happens, it typically won't. We needed to change our ladder since we would not be able to make a page on that event without photos. I did send some emails to see if any teachers took any pictures but the few I got back were not large enough for print. There's a Blood Drive tomorrow, so we decided to cover that instead. I moved a few pages around so that the Blood Drive and Halloween were a double page spead. Problem solved but it took a bit of time to make it work. At least it's work I don't mind doing!

 

Transparency and Race

Today was a PD day for teachers, so kids had the day off. I had been asked to lead a break away session that nearly 30 teachers signed up to attend. I had at least 25 in my classroom today. I was nervous and found it interesting that I skipped over many items I had made notes to discuss and threw in comments that I had not planned to say and am not sure why I said them. When it was all over, I relieved and asked for questions but didn't really have any. Several comments that were shared centered on my transparency both for students and to the teachers as I shared. I thought it was interesting how my transparency is often highlighted as refreshing, different, important. I think about the things I shared and I know what I'm dealing with is common, but I wonder why it is so different to talk about it.  To the right is a slide from my introduction in my presentation, where I discuss where some of my transformative ideas came from. Below I have included written feedback from the presentation (note all the different ways my name is spelled).

I admitted to my own growth in how I think about race, culture and education. I was a little taken back this week by the news of the firing of Megyn Kelly on NBC over her comments about black-face and Halloween. Race is still very much a very hot topic, on the school campus, among teachers and in today's America.  As we gear up for Halloween, today's students are pretty up on what is okay and what isn't. I'll be sure to report on the day's events next week. I'm trying to organize a dress up day on Diwali for Indian traditional wear and I'm struggling with my role as an educator-- can I take the lead on this since I am not a Hindu or Indian?  

I appreciate Teri's presentation on her classroom action research.

Teri Parris Ford was refreshingly honest.

Teri Paris-Ford was extremely open and honest about her own reflective practices and it made others want to be honest and introspective about their practices.

Thank you to Teri Parris Ford for her welcoming warmth and for her candor.

Teri—thank you for being so open with your practice and sharing your work. It was awesome to see!

I liked both sessions Terri P-F and EE

I also got a lot out of the session by Teri Parris Ford on her experiences in the classroom.

Terry is doing some good work in her classroom and is clearly dedicated.

Teri Parris Ford's presentation was terrific. It was relevant, personal, and engaging.

Terri did a great job of sharing her experiences with reflecting on her practices and modifying them to become a more reflective classroom teacher.

Terri PF was fabulous! She was honest and real. She gave me a lot to think about in regard to how/who I teach, who I reach out to and who I ignore. I realize it isn't easy to present to colleagues, but she did a wonderful job. She was prepared and definitely knew what she was talking about.

The Presentation

I talk to groups of students everyday, but I rarely talk to groups of adults.  On Friday I'm doing a presentation to 30 or so teachers about the classroom action research I did last year. Yesterday the principal asked me to do a short presentation to the leadership team today. I had a 40 minute slide show prepared already but I needed to shorten it to 15 minutes, so decided not to use the slide show and just show the poster (above) that I made for my class. I was nervous but I knew everyone in the room and most were friendly faces. I talked as fast as I could. I wish I was better at public speaking but I know it's not something I need to do often. The irony is that if I had more opportunity, I'd get better.

As for the poster, it's supposed to be "freeze dried" collection of information from Zaretta Hammond's book on Cultural Responsive Teaching and the Brain, along with some of my research, quotes from kids and my own thought process splattered in.  The research was good work last year and I'm trying to keep up the processes I came with this year. 

Creating Demand

I am at the beginning of my 5th year as the yearbook adviser/teacher. Initially I started on as a club adviser. I had kids in a media class help out but eventually I was able to get enough kids to sign up for a stand alone yearbook class and now, I have two full year class (40% of my allocations). Part of my plan was create a group of kids that not only created the yearbook but felt very special to be a part of that group. It means buying lots of treats and designing one very cool long sleeve t-shirt.  The hope was to have the t-shirt promote the program. I've had kids ask to buy one but they are never for sale. The only way to get one is to be a part of the yearbook class. I'm currently designing this year's t-shirt. I really like designing t-shirts as one can see if you check out my portfolio of t-shirts. I've got a couple of really nice t-shirt quilts at home with all the school shirts that have come my way. I'm not sure why today's high school is so full of t-shirts-- every team has to have one! I created a dark green one, but the kids complained they have too much green already so we are going with ash grey. I will certainly post pictures of the final product on kids!

Some days are good

Some days everything goes right. The students are all on task and everyone seems to be genuinely excited to be in my class. Today was one  those days. Every class seemed to have 100% participation. Every kid seemed happy to be in their seat working on their projects or participating in the discussion. I wish I could say everyday was like that, but I'm lucky to get a day like today once a week. 

Yesterday I had a boy crying in my first hour class, a couple kids in photo playing video games and normal chaos in yearbook. I have several students who need translators in order to understand what's going in class. I have a couple of kids that won't work unless I'm sitting next to them helping them one on one when they show up (neither were here today). I have a student who asks for my apple almost everytime I bring one in for my morning snack because he's hungry. Sometimes I give it to him but not always, I'm starting to bring in two apples. While not every kid in my class is passing, every kid who is attending regularly is progressing and will eventually pass. 

I love my job but sometimes it's a struggle for me to make sure every kid is engaged and happy. There are days when just too much is going on and I have to just pick and choose who I'll deal with. Today when the bell rang, I felt like I could walk away without a care-- nothing to follow up on, nothing or no one waiting. It was a very good day.

The Students Who Stay

The last class of the day is a yearbook class. The kids work independently on lots of different projects. Many students are athletes, have jobs, appointments-- lots of different reasons to have to leave early at the end of the day. Every so often I take attendance at the end of the hour. Legally I can't mark kids absent for leaving early, I can only mark them tardy with a note that they left and how many minutes they missed of class. It is my understanding that the minutes are kept track of and those kids that miss more than some magic number, get pulled in for detention, or maybe their parents are called.

What I like to do is get treats for all the kids that stay till the end when there isn't a lot of kids left and make a big reward of it the next day. It's my way of making the kids who left feel kind of bad, even though they might have had passes for legit appointments! It is one of my methods-- rarely punish, rather reward often! At times I feel like I'm buying my student's love with candy or cookies, but it pays off, especially when there are only a few kids at the end of the day. The fewer the kids, the bigger the prize. I'm thinking I'll get brownies or muffins tomorrow. Occasionally I will actually bake, but not tonight. 

The Newspaper Club

For the past 10 years I have advised the school's newspaper club. I have taken the club from a very small group of intellectuals who published a newspaper 3 times a year, to an inclusive club of 30 plus student who publish a paper every month and new this year, started a bathroom publication. This one sheet subsidiary of the newspaper was supposed to be mostly for entertainment purposes. Our first issue got a community complaint because of a somewhat slanted write up on the governor's race. The original article in our monthly issue seemed unbiased but the shortened version for the bathroom was a bit less biased. I got notice from our principal this afternoon to take the paper's down. I have to admit, it is very difficult to get both side of the political isle in the school paper, as the majority of school community as a liberal bent and everyone involved in the paper is totally leaning left. As a teacher, who is a centrist, it's easy take the kids to task but no so easy to get coverage for both sides. At least I feel I make an effort to keep things fair. 

This month my editors are putting on workshops every Monday for student writers. Today's workshop was on writing reviews. My editors run the show. I just bring candy and supervise. The newspaper club is my favorite activity as a teacher. I'm not sure if it's thoughtful students who are involved, or the fact that I love writing and love kids who love writing. I've thought about retiring as a teacher but somehow trying to stay on as the newspaper adviser. I'm not doing for the money although I do get paid for my work. 

The Substitute Situation

I've been sick all week. I won't get a sub although I probably should have. I had a CD student yell at me Tuesday for coughing on her and then proceeded to warn me yesterday and today how rude it was that I was at work coughing getting students sick. It is refreshing to have someone so boldly tell me the truth. The reality is that most of my classes are just working quietly, so I know that my work day is not that challenging while going through all the hoops to get a sub would be a bit of a hassle-- having to write sub notes and print off rosters.  I have a cold and cough-- not the flu. As I get older, my sick days become more valuable as I need to save them up to cash out in retirement. If I can sit comfortably and sip hot tea in class while my students work quietly, then why take the day off? Yesterday I came home during lunch to take a short nap before going back to work for the last hour.  

Today I subbed during my prep for a gym teacher friend. She had a doctor's appointment and didn't want to get a sub (probably for the same reason I don't want to get one), so she asked if we could do a switch. Sometime when I need my 7th hour off, she'll cover for me in exchange for my covering for her today. Joe and I often cover for each other, which makes life so much easier. I had never covered for gym before, so it was kind of cool. The kids all ran around playing, so I really didn't have anything to do after taking attendance. The day was painless.

The Busyness of the Week

My hope to document my work week teaching on this blog hasn't really materialized as I thought it would. I wanted to get more into thought process and philosophy than I have, but the reality of the work week is that often I am in auto-pilot. Much of what I do is intuitive and I am almost always doing several things at once, so that every second of my day is spent juggling. 

First quarter progress reports were due on Tuesday. Last Thursday I had a dozen kids failing my photo 1 classes. After collecting data on all my students last week, I began working with my failing ESL kids to get them a translator to help get them caught up first. I informed case managers of my failing special needs students that were going to need modifications, then I worked one on with the rest of the failing kids to try to get them caught up this week. By today, I only had 3 failing students. These dependent learners, who might be a quarter of my students, take up more than half my time. The goal is to get them to a place that they can work independently or at least with other students to keep up, but I've learned most of them will need my constant prodding all semester in order to pass. I tend to push hard during grading periods, then ease up for a bit. Last year I learned to keep a list of dependent learner who are easily disengaged for various reasons by side at all times to try to keep up a more consistent push, but it's hard, especially when students are absent a lot. 

This week I wrote emails to all of  my parents introducing myself, explaining my google classrooms and how I grade. I invited everyone to parent teacher conferences in November and to an informational meeting next week for people interested in going to Europe with the department in July. I only received one parent reply (out of 125 emails) but it was a really good one. I ordered a new monitor for my yearbook workstation and installed it today. I turned in receipts from all the purchases I made in September, deposited funds from ads for the paper, and sent artwork to print to put on display in the art lab.  I created new presentations for two classes and updated the school's announcements displays several times. I sent out surveys to my students, to get feedback on how things are going.

I am in computer labs all day for the first time in my career which I am enjoying. My morning classes are in the art lab teaching illustration and photography, then I run to the photo-lab for 4th hour yearbook. I have lunch and prep time before teaching yearbook again. My 2 yearbook classes spend about 1/2 their time away from the computers, planning or collaborating. The yearbook classes are made up of almost all seniors, most are athletes or very involved in the school with clubs. They are very fun kids to work with but I have to be very organized to make sure all that needs to get done is getting done. Each class has 5 groups of 5 kids working on different sections or aspects of the yearbook. Each group has different deadlines. I often spend my evenings at home prepping for yearbook as it is the class I am still working out the curriculum for, especially with having 2 classes. I find myself needing to create more work for them. I like the work, but it is work.  

I am hoping to be more consistent about writing out the things I do and of course, I'd love to add in all the funny stories that happen. Those seem to be forgotten by the time I get home. There are days that are filled with laughter. I remember the laughter but not always what it was that made me laugh!