I don't often think myself old... even when my daughter was getting married, or both older daughters graduating from college / grad school in the same month, but occasionally it hits me in the face, like the other day.
I meet weekly with a small group of teachers who have many of the same students I have, to talk about issues we may be having with those students, and whether any of us have found good methods of dealing with those issues. The leader of this group is a history teacher who I've come to respect for her good insights and wise perspective. She mentioned her birthday was coming up. Someone asked which one. She answered she'd be 25. "My god," I realized. "I have a daughter older than you."
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Makin' Copies.
New rule, starting Jan 4: we've hired someone to make the copies for us - we're no longer allowed to make our own - and we have to submit the request 48 hours in advance. And we're limited to 1,000 copies per month. Of course, given that I have yet to have a worksheet ready for one of my courses more than about 6 hours in advance of the course, I'm unlikely to need the 1,000 copies.
I'm pretty sure this rule will go away very quickly, given that virtually every teacher in the school is going to go nuts the first time they need a worksheet or an article or whatever copied for their class the next day. That said, it's going to be a right regular pain in the class between now and then.
The 1,000 copies per month thing sounds like kind of a lot, but keep in mind -- I don't have textbooks. So if I want to assign homework, particularly on something like polyhedra (which no one can draw freehand), I have to produce a worksheet. That's 80 copies each day I assign homework. If I give a quiz or test, it's another 160 copies over 2 days. Which means I can give 12 homework / quiz / test pages per month, or about 1 per week, since I only meet with the same kids every other day. God forbid I should give a 2 page test or homework assignment.
I'm pretty sure this rule will go away very quickly, given that virtually every teacher in the school is going to go nuts the first time they need a worksheet or an article or whatever copied for their class the next day. That said, it's going to be a right regular pain in the class between now and then.
The 1,000 copies per month thing sounds like kind of a lot, but keep in mind -- I don't have textbooks. So if I want to assign homework, particularly on something like polyhedra (which no one can draw freehand), I have to produce a worksheet. That's 80 copies each day I assign homework. If I give a quiz or test, it's another 160 copies over 2 days. Which means I can give 12 homework / quiz / test pages per month, or about 1 per week, since I only meet with the same kids every other day. God forbid I should give a 2 page test or homework assignment.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Interesting Stuff
I gotta get to bed, so this is going to be short, but with any luck, I'll come back and edit it after the state visit on Wednesday.
I prepared extensively for a geometry lesson, with multiple handouts and lots of thought put into how to step the kids through a multi-step process that was going to be important for them to be able to get through.
First period is a disaster. (It starts with a kid who won't surrender her phone, forcing me to call security to escort her to the administrator's office). Virtually no one is paying attention, and the ones who are, are grousing about not understanding, my going too fast, etc. I can't get anyone in the room to focus on the work and get through the step-by-step process.
Second period... same process, same preamble regarding the work, etc. It goes incredibly well, the group all gets it, and we whip through several examples and extra problems with time to spare.
Third period was in between, but generally positive.
Why? The 1st period class has a personality, driven by a few students but contributed to by many. And that personality is not good for their education or my sanity. More than half the students are flunking, and one reason I prepared the lesson I did today was to give them a chance for an easy, good grade based on attempting the classwork. All it actually did was further separate the ones who are flunking (none of whom even attempted to complete the work) from the ones who are not (virtually all of whom completed the work).
I prepared extensively for a geometry lesson, with multiple handouts and lots of thought put into how to step the kids through a multi-step process that was going to be important for them to be able to get through.
First period is a disaster. (It starts with a kid who won't surrender her phone, forcing me to call security to escort her to the administrator's office). Virtually no one is paying attention, and the ones who are, are grousing about not understanding, my going too fast, etc. I can't get anyone in the room to focus on the work and get through the step-by-step process.
Second period... same process, same preamble regarding the work, etc. It goes incredibly well, the group all gets it, and we whip through several examples and extra problems with time to spare.
Third period was in between, but generally positive.
Why? The 1st period class has a personality, driven by a few students but contributed to by many. And that personality is not good for their education or my sanity. More than half the students are flunking, and one reason I prepared the lesson I did today was to give them a chance for an easy, good grade based on attempting the classwork. All it actually did was further separate the ones who are flunking (none of whom even attempted to complete the work) from the ones who are not (virtually all of whom completed the work).
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