I just finished reading the blog of a former student who recently came back from teaching English in Thailand. She kept us all up on what she was doing, where she was going, the people she met, the fun she had, and the food and sickness she encountered on her journey through countries I cannot imagine visiting. She has grown into an amazing human being and I taught her math and character education in 6th grade! Now believe me when I tell you I had NOTHING to do with who she is now and give God and her parents all the credit in the world. But when I think of that little girl with the great sense of humor, asking questions and giggling with her friends, and see who she is now... I am simply blown away by the person she has become... and humbled by what she has done and seen so far in her life. I feel honored and privileged to have been a part of her life and very lucky to still be connected in some small way.
These are the things many teachers never know. What adventures will the student who was fortunate enough to get into Yale University and wants to make movies, the beautiful, strong, and funny young women studying Latin and classics who used to make me laugh so hard with their quotes in Calculus, the United States Marine learning to speak Farsi who used to sleep in class and still understand what I was talking about, those who used to call me 'Chalang', and that funny group of boys who who were always doing something crazy that you just couldn't get mad about have? We, as teachers, are connected to so many people who are not yet finished. What a privilege!! Unless you teach, you will never know what an unbelievable gift that is...
I cannot wait to see who they all become and hope one day I'll know.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
8th Grade Health
The information on the teaching assignment said the substitute teacher must be "able to discuss dating abuse with the students." I thought about it for a few seconds and accepted the assignment.
The kids at the school were fantastic! We had some great conversations about the difference between healthy and unhealthy dating relationships and what the signs of something becoming unhealthy might be. The unusual thing was that the teacher taught the same thing all day so I had to have the same conversation 5 hours in a row! Now, seriously, as a math teacher there have been times when I've had to prepare for 4 different classes every day so it would be a dream to only have to prepare for one, right? Right! The topic was fine, I was comfortable talking to the kids and they responded well. So now you're thinking it was a great day right? Yes, it was!
Questions, concerns, problems? Well, yes. The problem was that after having the same conversation for 4 hours, besides my tired voice, I couldn't remember what I'd said to the previous class. At one point I thought, "Did I say that already?" I was having some weird kind of deja vous experience and by fifth hour I almost wanted to ask, "Did I tell you this already or was that the last class?" All I know for sure is that the time kept ticking away, I kept talking and the kids were still responding so I assume something positive was going on. By the end of the day I was laughing so hard at myself that I just hope I made a little sense to that last class!
The kids at the school were fantastic! We had some great conversations about the difference between healthy and unhealthy dating relationships and what the signs of something becoming unhealthy might be. The unusual thing was that the teacher taught the same thing all day so I had to have the same conversation 5 hours in a row! Now, seriously, as a math teacher there have been times when I've had to prepare for 4 different classes every day so it would be a dream to only have to prepare for one, right? Right! The topic was fine, I was comfortable talking to the kids and they responded well. So now you're thinking it was a great day right? Yes, it was!
Questions, concerns, problems? Well, yes. The problem was that after having the same conversation for 4 hours, besides my tired voice, I couldn't remember what I'd said to the previous class. At one point I thought, "Did I say that already?" I was having some weird kind of deja vous experience and by fifth hour I almost wanted to ask, "Did I tell you this already or was that the last class?" All I know for sure is that the time kept ticking away, I kept talking and the kids were still responding so I assume something positive was going on. By the end of the day I was laughing so hard at myself that I just hope I made a little sense to that last class!
Anybody know where...
Anybody know where first hour study hall is supposed to be?
That's the question I asked almost everybody in the math/science department at the high school when my schedule said study hall but the room wasn't listed. The answer? No. Nobody knows. NOBODY KNOWS? Nobody knows.
When she handed me the schedule the very nice secretary said, "He has first hour study hall but I don't know what room that's in so look on his desk to see if it's in his plans." "Ok," I smiled my please love me and offer me a job next year smile and said, "No problem." It's the kind of school where the teachers have offices in one area and move from room to room as necessary. So, after finding his desk I see the shortest email lesson plans in history, some worksheets and no information about study hall at all. Hmmmm. So I asked the teacher frantically running around getting things together for her own classes if she had any idea. She didn't. She asked somebody else. He didn't know either. She made a phone call. Then made another phone call and finally somebody called her back and she told me not to worry about it. Somebody else will take it or it's not his turn or something similar. Whew! Now, I have a class list of students that are supposed to be in this study hall but I'm going to take their word for it. I relax and look over what I need for the rest of the day.
It's not 10 minutes later that I hear, over the walls of my little cubicle, a lady asking another teacher if he knows where these study hall students might be located! What? I just giggled. Nobody knows where these students are!! Surely there was a group of kids sitting in a room somewhere wondering what was going on. I know a group of teachers were.
That's the question I asked almost everybody in the math/science department at the high school when my schedule said study hall but the room wasn't listed. The answer? No. Nobody knows. NOBODY KNOWS? Nobody knows.
When she handed me the schedule the very nice secretary said, "He has first hour study hall but I don't know what room that's in so look on his desk to see if it's in his plans." "Ok," I smiled my please love me and offer me a job next year smile and said, "No problem." It's the kind of school where the teachers have offices in one area and move from room to room as necessary. So, after finding his desk I see the shortest email lesson plans in history, some worksheets and no information about study hall at all. Hmmmm. So I asked the teacher frantically running around getting things together for her own classes if she had any idea. She didn't. She asked somebody else. He didn't know either. She made a phone call. Then made another phone call and finally somebody called her back and she told me not to worry about it. Somebody else will take it or it's not his turn or something similar. Whew! Now, I have a class list of students that are supposed to be in this study hall but I'm going to take their word for it. I relax and look over what I need for the rest of the day.
It's not 10 minutes later that I hear, over the walls of my little cubicle, a lady asking another teacher if he knows where these study hall students might be located! What? I just giggled. Nobody knows where these students are!! Surely there was a group of kids sitting in a room somewhere wondering what was going on. I know a group of teachers were.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sooo, You Wanna Be a Teacher?
Today I take a moment to rant or we can be more positive and call it sharing. I will SHARE with you all (whoever you are) a little bit about being a teacher and/or a substitute teacher.
First, all teachers are college graduates. This means that we have all taken countless courses and spent tens of thousands of dollars to be educated on how to educate. Not a problem as that is necessary for many careers. You get your license. Sweet! As you look it over you see that it needs to be renewed every five years. Not a problem except that you have to pay for it yourself: 125 clock hours of classes. Not so sweet.
Now that the state says you're qualified to teach, you go to your first district to apply. This should be great! You're eager to get going and the state says you've taken all the courses you need and have completed an accredited teaching program and yet every district needs a copy of your transcript? Hmmm. That doesn't make sense. Doesn't the state license take care of all that? Then you need to have a background check done and fingerprints. Ok, that all makes sense... at the first district. Then you find out that EVERY district you go to requires the same thing!!! Can they not share? No. They' can't.
So I've now applied to sub at a few districts and have paid the $15 to have a background check done at every district. One requires fingerprints so yesterday I go downtown to have my fingerprints done. 9-11 Monday through Friday... another $15. I've now paid $60 to be checked four times to get paid $100 a day if, in fact, anybody calls at 6:45 a.m. and needs me to be at a school half an hour later. So I'm up and ready to go every day just in case...
The kids can be snotty and downright mean sometimes, the federal bureaucracy is utterly ridiculous, the hoops you jump through to get a license and keep it are expensive and not well thought out, the districts require redundancy in their paperwork and nobody works together. Who wants to be a teacher? I do. I LOVE teaching. I just love it. And in spite of all the insanity, I hope I get the privilege of having my own classroom next year.
First, all teachers are college graduates. This means that we have all taken countless courses and spent tens of thousands of dollars to be educated on how to educate. Not a problem as that is necessary for many careers. You get your license. Sweet! As you look it over you see that it needs to be renewed every five years. Not a problem except that you have to pay for it yourself: 125 clock hours of classes. Not so sweet.
Now that the state says you're qualified to teach, you go to your first district to apply. This should be great! You're eager to get going and the state says you've taken all the courses you need and have completed an accredited teaching program and yet every district needs a copy of your transcript? Hmmm. That doesn't make sense. Doesn't the state license take care of all that? Then you need to have a background check done and fingerprints. Ok, that all makes sense... at the first district. Then you find out that EVERY district you go to requires the same thing!!! Can they not share? No. They' can't.
So I've now applied to sub at a few districts and have paid the $15 to have a background check done at every district. One requires fingerprints so yesterday I go downtown to have my fingerprints done. 9-11 Monday through Friday... another $15. I've now paid $60 to be checked four times to get paid $100 a day if, in fact, anybody calls at 6:45 a.m. and needs me to be at a school half an hour later. So I'm up and ready to go every day just in case...
The kids can be snotty and downright mean sometimes, the federal bureaucracy is utterly ridiculous, the hoops you jump through to get a license and keep it are expensive and not well thought out, the districts require redundancy in their paperwork and nobody works together. Who wants to be a teacher? I do. I LOVE teaching. I just love it. And in spite of all the insanity, I hope I get the privilege of having my own classroom next year.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
High School and Halloween
A substitute teacher at a high school the day before Halloween? As I was driving to the school I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't think too many kids would be dressing up as they're all waaaay too cool to do that but who knows? So what happened? Not a single cool costume! I think I had a few kids in class that went to a little trouble, there may have been a crazy wig and some serious make-up but then the question came to me... Is that a costume? Or not? Not being sure, I assessed the risk and decided on 'no comment' being the best plan.
It was also the first time at this large high school that I had lunch duty! I wandered into the lunch room, a little unsure of what my responsibilities might be and saw a few teachers just standing around the room, sorta hanging out and keeping their eyes open. I approached one and asked if the regular teacher had a post where he stood and was informed that there was a rumor that a fight was going to take place at lunch. Ooooh! Excitement! I looked around and everybody looked pretty normal so figured there was a good chance it was just a lot of talk. It takes a lot of gumption to actually start something in the middle of a lunch room with teachers all looking on. Nothing happened... no excitement... just hamburgers... and then I saw it.
Here it was the day before Halloween, no snow on the ground, a fairly warm day as I had the windows in the classroom open, and TONS of girls were wearing those Ugg style low leather boots with jeans tucked into them! What is up with that?? It could be 95 degrees and some girls would still be wearing those snow BOOTS with their jeans tucked in them. (With four or five tank tops, I'm sure.) They're not fashion boots, it's not cold or snowing, and they don't look all that great so I just don't get it. I guess it's true. Girls dress for girls: the straight hair, parted in the middle and those crazy leather snow boots. It doesn't matter what looks good on them or what looks good in general, if the other girls think it's cool then they wear it. Hmmm, that explains a LOT about the clothes I've seen lately.
It also explains the Farrah Fawcett feathered hair style and what I was wearing in the 80's. Some things, apparently, never change.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Amazing Technology
Today I went to a new middle school and I have to admit that I love high school but those middle schoolers are growing on me. The funny thing about kids is that they see you standing there instead of their regular teacher and ask, "Are you our sub?" Today I couldn't help it and replied, "No. I'm your regular teacher, I just got a hair cut."
One thing I've noticed at all these rather large public schools is that the amount of technology in every classrooom is astounding! When people say schools need money, you couldn't tell it by these schools. Every room has a large tv, VCR, computer projector, camera projector (no need for those simple overheads anymore), a Smart Board, and a Mac Notebook for the teacher. In this class all the students also had a Mac Notebook onto which their textbooks were loaded. I asked where their actual books were and they said they kept them in their lockers. Now, I understand that people in the U.S. are always freaking out about something and one thing is how kids need to understand how to use technology. But seriously, learning math (and many other things) simply requires paper, pencil, problems, and actually doing it over and over again until you get it. Not a lot of money required for that.
Anyway, I'm a PC girl but have done enough work on a Mac to be able to use one pretty easily. All the other technology, however, can be a little daunting so I sat down to familiarize myself with what might be needed for the day. Everything looked straight forward enough and there was a college student doing her teaching practicum in the class if I had any questions so I felt pretty comfortable. I got set up for the class and was doing fine when I noticed the resolution of the screen had changed. Uh oh. I must've pressed something to do that... but what was it? Not being a seasoned Mac user I figured my best bet was to re-boot but I didn't have the teacher's log-in info to get back in so... hmmm.... I muddled through until the students were working and asked the college student. She's a PC girl too. Great.
Then as we were sitting there looking at the screen thinking, the cursor started moving! My hand jumped off the mouse and I held both hands up to show her it wasn't me. The cursor just kept moving around! What the heck? We glanced at each other and seriously, we sat their with our mouths open just looking at the screen as the cursor traveled around as if it was intentionally moving through different pages. Freaky weird!! Maybe the screen changed its own resolution?
And then we heard a noise behind us and turned around to see a young man writing on the Smart Board and the cursor was following the pen he picked up off the teacher's desk. Relief. For a second I actually thought all that technology had maybe come alive and started thinking for itself...
One thing I've noticed at all these rather large public schools is that the amount of technology in every classrooom is astounding! When people say schools need money, you couldn't tell it by these schools. Every room has a large tv, VCR, computer projector, camera projector (no need for those simple overheads anymore), a Smart Board, and a Mac Notebook for the teacher. In this class all the students also had a Mac Notebook onto which their textbooks were loaded. I asked where their actual books were and they said they kept them in their lockers. Now, I understand that people in the U.S. are always freaking out about something and one thing is how kids need to understand how to use technology. But seriously, learning math (and many other things) simply requires paper, pencil, problems, and actually doing it over and over again until you get it. Not a lot of money required for that.
Anyway, I'm a PC girl but have done enough work on a Mac to be able to use one pretty easily. All the other technology, however, can be a little daunting so I sat down to familiarize myself with what might be needed for the day. Everything looked straight forward enough and there was a college student doing her teaching practicum in the class if I had any questions so I felt pretty comfortable. I got set up for the class and was doing fine when I noticed the resolution of the screen had changed. Uh oh. I must've pressed something to do that... but what was it? Not being a seasoned Mac user I figured my best bet was to re-boot but I didn't have the teacher's log-in info to get back in so... hmmm.... I muddled through until the students were working and asked the college student. She's a PC girl too. Great.
Then as we were sitting there looking at the screen thinking, the cursor started moving! My hand jumped off the mouse and I held both hands up to show her it wasn't me. The cursor just kept moving around! What the heck? We glanced at each other and seriously, we sat their with our mouths open just looking at the screen as the cursor traveled around as if it was intentionally moving through different pages. Freaky weird!! Maybe the screen changed its own resolution?
And then we heard a noise behind us and turned around to see a young man writing on the Smart Board and the cursor was following the pen he picked up off the teacher's desk. Relief. For a second I actually thought all that technology had maybe come alive and started thinking for itself...
Friday, October 23, 2009
Middle School is Quite Enjoyable
Yesterday I went back to the middle school I was at on Tuesday for the same teacher. The flu is getting bad. The agenda was to watch a movie (or start watching it) and there was a worksheet involved. It felt GREAT to be back in a familiar place and know the names of some of the kids!! Non-teachers may not know this but to be able to say a student's name is very powerful in the realm of classroom management. "Hey, you! Knock it off!" doesn't really have that ring of authority.
Anyway, what I forgot to say last time was that I learned a trick to the management of 7th grade boys who think they're way too cool for school and definitely too cool to be quiet. When they're chatting away and thinking they're hilarious you just catch their eye... and keep looking. For a few seconds they'll look at you and then at their friends and then they'll maybe make a few faces and pretend they're really busy but if you just keep looking, it'll unnerve them just enough to stop whatever it is they knew they shouldn't be doing in the first place. Worked wonders last Tuesday!
So, the rule during the movie yesterday was simple. (It works for middle school but not so much in high school.) "Anybody who can't sit still or be quiet during the movie gets to sit by me. We'll be new best friends." At first, I just sat with them in the crowd but then I moved a chair next to the teacher's desk. Complete success either way!! Wow. I had some good days at that school and another teacher has asked me to come back for her in a few weeks. I wonder where I'll go and what'll happen next week. Here comes Halloween! Could be scary in many ways...
Anyway, what I forgot to say last time was that I learned a trick to the management of 7th grade boys who think they're way too cool for school and definitely too cool to be quiet. When they're chatting away and thinking they're hilarious you just catch their eye... and keep looking. For a few seconds they'll look at you and then at their friends and then they'll maybe make a few faces and pretend they're really busy but if you just keep looking, it'll unnerve them just enough to stop whatever it is they knew they shouldn't be doing in the first place. Worked wonders last Tuesday!
So, the rule during the movie yesterday was simple. (It works for middle school but not so much in high school.) "Anybody who can't sit still or be quiet during the movie gets to sit by me. We'll be new best friends." At first, I just sat with them in the crowd but then I moved a chair next to the teacher's desk. Complete success either way!! Wow. I had some good days at that school and another teacher has asked me to come back for her in a few weeks. I wonder where I'll go and what'll happen next week. Here comes Halloween! Could be scary in many ways...
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