Teach-by-Number

MHS is a "turnaround" school, meaning... well, I'm not sure exactly what that means, except that the students have not scored well or improved on the state-mandated tests for the past few years, and thus we're in a special category. There is a miniscule amount of additional money attached to being a turnaround school, like having a full-time English coach rather than half-time. However, there are apparently dozens of additional requirements, including one that requires all teachers of 9th- and 10th-graders to spend "10- to 15-minutes" each class period going over questions of the type that may appear on the State Assessment. These are called "Focus Questions."

[The following couple of paragraphs are an aside, and constitute a rant about how much paper I'm allowed to use. I'm not kidding - I have a paper allotment.] The Focus Question forms are designed to be used as handouts, allowing the kids to mark on them in the same way they'd mark on the State Assessment (e.g., filling in the bubble for the letter of the correct answer and doing "gridded response," which is something I am incapable of describing in less than 600 words). But the forms are typically two pages long, and I have 175 students in 6 classes over two days. So in a week, I would go through over 1000 copies and 500 sheets of paper, even if I copy the form two-sided. I'm presumably alloted 1000 copies per month, so if I do it the way I'm supposed to, I will have gone through my entire allotment in a single week. Even if I'm actually alloted 1000 pieces of paper (rather than copies), I'm done in two weeks.

Of course, I also don't have any textbooks for 145 of those students, so if I want to assign homework, I need to give them a worksheet. Assume I give homework every night, but I manage to squeeze all the questions onto a half-sheet of paper. I'm using another 35 sheets of paper a day, or 750 a month. Want to give a quiz? That's 175 sheets. A test? At least 350 sheets. Semesters are 9 weeks long, and I'm told we should give about 3 tests and maybe 3 quizzes. 1500 sheets of paper over 2 months. Want to send a letter and your syllabus home to the parents? 500 copies on 350 sheets of paper. Hand out your rules and regulations, policies and procedures? Another 350 sheets of paper. In a typical month, I would reasonably go through 5,500 copies (on about 3,000 sheets of paper).

One reasonable solution would be to project the State Assessment form onto the whiteboard using my laptop. Except that we have no LCD projectors for the math department. (There are 24 in the school, but they're all allocated to Reading.) I've tried using overheads, but they can not be seen in the back of the room. So I've been writing the questions on the whiteboard "before" each class. The "before" is in quotes because I typically finish writing the questions at about 5 minutes past the bell. The students, meanwhile, have been milling about in the classroom during this time, waiting to get started. I'd leave them up for the next class (the questions, not the kids), but I don't have enough whiteboard space to do that, largely because all my spare whiteboard space is consumed by the "workshop model" and "standards-based" instruction stuff that must be up and visible in all areas of the room. Why the students need to know we're working on standard A.1.9934.BC.2 "Using geometric forms to... blah, blah, blah..." is something no one has even attempted to explain, but is nonetheless state-mandated for "turnaround" schools.

Anyway, going through the Focus Questions actually takes about 25 minutes, so if you include the extra 5 minutes at the beginning of the period, I'm using 30 of my 90 minutes on ancillary stuff. If I thought it would be helpful, I'd probably be okay with it. But it's truly ancillary -- it bears no connection to what I'm teaching, and I'm not allowed to change it in any way to conform. So these kids, who are already confused by trying to understand the math I'm supposed to be teaching, are now getting bombarded by new stuff that doesn't fit in anywhere. It's inconceivable to me that this isn't just more confusing, rather than helpful. And I can't find anyone who disagrees. (Not that I've been asking anyone else -- in fact, the only questions I've asked about these Focus Questions is how I should present them. Of course, the moment I ask, I get a 10 minute harrangue about how nuts they are.) But tomorrow morning, I'll be at it again, discussing the Focus Questions.

So I've spent a week-and-a-half trying to meet the state and county mandates for word walls, workshop models, Focus Questions, Lesson Plans, etc. Fine. I can live with that. But I'm getting up at 4 in the morning and leaving the school at 4:30 in the afternoon, and in all of that time, I'm spending about 45 minutes each day working on what I'm actually going to teach in my subject area. That can't be good.