Quick Update

I really do need to blog more often -

• Next year I will be teaching AP Language and AP Literature. I am excited about the whole Brit Lit thing, but gobsmacked about the amount of work.
• For whatever reason, this year I cannot get a list of students who have registered for the AP classes until the last two days of school. Forget the fact that all who have registered are sitting in the computer or that for the past two years I've gotten the list in May... suddenly it's an issue. The overly helpful person who inserted him/herself into the situation suggested that I simply give the summer assignment to those who ask for it. I think this person is pissed that I actually have a summer assignment that students do because it's graded. Of course, if I simply give the assignment to the three students who ask for it, it won't be... thanks for your support.
• Our department is no where on finding a vocab. program. I haven't seen anything I'm remotely interested in and everyone else seems to think I'll find one, so why bother looking.
• I'm so ready for summer. My sophomores are killing Julius Caesar. No matter what I do they sit in the room like dead fish. Many of them smell like dead fish also.
• We had two days of summer-like weather and we discovered that "booty-shorts" (hot pants) have made a big come back. Seriously, how do parents send their 14 year old children out of house with butt cheeks on display and then express shock that little Susie will be having her own "little susie"? It's also been suggested that the school's name be changed to Hoochie High School.
• I hate wedges. I hated them in 1982. They're really ugly... why do people keep buying them?
• The baby has to see a lung specialist because of her Darth-Vader-like breathing. Unless you're born with a large black plastic helmet, you're not supposed to breath like that. Who knew?
• Luckily, the appointment was scheduled so far in advance that I actually got a sub. Others have not been so lucky lately.

It's been a busy few weeks.

In Class Writing

I'm thinking of changing the way I do writing assignments next year.
The amount of time it takes to grade assignments and do Internet
searches for those that have been plagiarized is staggering. At the
same time, I have a few students who absolutely cannot write on
demand... they just freeze up. I have others who cannot write an essay
in the time allotted to each period.

Then again, maybe they will learn something about writing, stress and
getting the job done if they are forced to write... it just isn't what
I had in mind in teaching. To me, on demand writing is cold, sterile
and rife with formulaic writing. Of course, I could just do sophomore
classes as in-class writing only. Everything they write is WASL
formula anyways.

36 Days Left

Not that I'm counting...

Actually, I hate counting by the number of school days left. It makes it seems like there is only a month left, when in actuality, there is a month and half. But however, you count the school year is winding down. We're talking about what to spend our budget on (new vocab. program? books?), what everyone will be teaching next year - we're loosing a teacher, so some shifting has to be made. I'm taking one for the team and teaching AP Language and AP Literature. A friend suggested that I demand an extra prep period for taking on AP Literature. I laughed really hard.

Next year's budget looms large overhead. As with most schools in WA state, we're loosing students. Apparently, the 90's weren't a huge baby-making decade. This means we'll get less $$ from the state. Since teachers are finally getting a COLA raise and this is adding to the local budget burden. As a result, the teachers are getting a huge guilt trip from the superintendent. I'm pretty sure he's never read "How to Win Friends and Influence People".

In the meantime, I'm trying to keep up with grading, the lawn and figuring out when the baby is going to crawl. She's finally gotten to the stage where she'll push herself around. Alas, no crawling seems imminent.

When the Chickens Come Home to Roost

Graduation is coming up. You would think this was a happy time of
year, but for teachers and administrators it is one of the most
stressful.

The stress can be summed up in one word. Parents.

Parents who believe that little Johnny should be graduating even
though he hasn't passed all of his required classes. Parents who
believe that their child is being slighted because a teacher gave
him/her a bad grade. The list goes on...

Today it's Honor Cords. Yes, those flimsy little cords awarded to
members of the Honor Society in good standing. This year, some people
aren't getting one and the parental units are up in arms.

You see, in the past, Honor Society paid for cords for everyone who
had a 3.5 or above GPA. No one bothered to check to see if they were
an Honor Society member or had even participated. The students paid
money once a year and that was it. To say that the group was dying was
an understatement. The few who attended meetings could fit in a
closet. No students led anything, few showed up to participate in any
activity.

Last summer, the advisor went to a "leadership camp" for advisors. It
was suggested that a point system would help encourage students to
participate. Especially, if they knew that no "yellow cord" would be
coming forth. Now, the advisor has been pretty lenient about how many
points would be acceptable... suffice to say that if said student
participated in a single function, they were ok'ed. These are Seniors,
Honor Society members are usually involved in numerous activities and
it's a new system. Really the advisor doesn't want to be a hard ass
about this, but does want membership to mean something other than
spare changed collected from the car ashtray.

The problem comes in when the parents find out that little
Johnny/Suzie hasn't attended a single event or meeting despite
numerous reminders, announcements, etc. and won't be getting that
"yellow cord". It's apparently a "punishment" for not participating -
here all along, I thought it was choice, but since I'm not a parent of
a teenagers, what do I know? Perhaps the advisor should have sent
notes home to Mommy and Daddy so that they can remind little
Johnny/Suzie to be sure to participate, but it's an unpaid position
and the advisor actually has a life.

So, how will it turn out? The advisor already checked to make sure
that there were extra cords because the administration is sure to cave
in... just like the 15 or so other times something like this has come
up before.

You know you are from the Puget Sound when...

(please note that this list only applies to the Puget Sound Area - not
the entire state of WA or the PNW as a whole. A real Spokanite
wouldn't do even half of these crazy things!)
1. You know the state flower (Mildew).
2. You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.
3. Use the statement 'sun break' and know what it means.
4. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee.
5. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
6. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant.
7. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the 'WALK'signal.
8. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted,
it's not a real mountain.
9. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Tulleys, Seattle's
Best, and Veneto's.
10. You know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon.
11. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon,
Yakima, Snohomish, Skykomish, Scapoose, Tulalip, Stilaquamish, and
Willamette.
12. You consider swimming an indoor sport.
13. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.
14. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark
while only working eight-hour days.
15. You never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho.
16. You are not fazed by 'Today's forecast: showers followed by
rain,'and 'Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers.'
17. You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
18. You know that Boring is a town in Oregon and not just a state of mind.
19. You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see
through the cloud cover.
20. You notice, 'The mountain is out' when it is a pretty day and you
can actually see it.
21. You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but
still wear your hiking boots and parka.
22. You switch to your sandals when it gets about 60, but keep the socks on.
23. You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
24. You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.
25. You buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old
ones after such a long time.
26. You measure distance in hours, based on doing a mile a minute (60mph).
27. You often switch from 'heat' to 'a/c' in the same day.

WASL

The Math WASL begins today - boring, boring, boring. Two hours of watching various students waste time and try to entertain themselves. And we don't even get a "healthy" snack this time!

Coming Up for Air

Towards the end of Spring Break, the baby started getting very sick. A visit to the doctor did not result in any progress on the wellness scale... On Monday, I got a call from the daycare saying that the baby's temperature was pretty high and rising. Luckily, the day was almost over. Another teacher covered the last half hour of my class and I rushed off to the doctor again.

It was pneumonia. Just a small spot, but definitely not good. We got a stronger antibiotic and spent Tuesday going crazy. Ok, just I went crazy. The baby just cried and slept.

Today we sat outside in the sunshine, free of fever, coughing and best of all... snot!

In the meantime, school is rolling on as normal. There are 10 weeks left and I'm really wishing that I hadn't been told that. I'm wanting summer already! and I shouldn't even be thinking about it yet.

Advisory Hours

This year, my school choose to start the Navigation 101 program. It's a program spreading over the state... those that have joined in in some manner will probably be shepharded in soon or at least that's the way it appears to certain people who worry about these things.

Mine is not working out as well as I had hoped. The class meets twice a month. I really don't know the students in class - I'm still trying to figure out names. I only see three of them on a daily basis in an education class. Generally, I get the "lesson plan" the day before the class takes place. This doesn't give me much planning time and given the resources I have at hand, not much with to spice it up. These lesson plans are generally 15 minutes long, but the class itself is 35 minutes long. They say things like "dicuss whether or not parents use a bank and which one for 5 minutes". Seriously. This leaves a lot of time to argue "why we need to do this crap" and "why should anyone care". The lesson plans are online, but our school does not go in order. It's impossible to say what will happen the next time we meet, because the uber-lords haven't met to decide what we'll be doing until two days before.

Our last meeting was to discuss the student-led conferences. Fourty percent of my students did not attend. Of those who did, only a couple of students actually followed instructions or had anything to say besides "here's my grades". I basically just gave up, handed out the feedback sheets on which a majority wrote "it was stupid" or "gay" and let them talk the rest of the time.

Do you have an advisory? What do you do with them?

Loobylu is Back!

After year long hiatus, Loobylu is back! And full of crafty ideas! I think I'm already inspired!

Check her out!

Spring Break

Spring Break is here and it's snowing! Predictions are that it will rainy/snowy/generally crappy weather... I'll be using the time to catch up on everything that has been piling up over the last three months. My desk appears to weakening under the pressure of the paper piles.

 

The essays from the Writers' Workshop seem to be very well done. I've only gone through a few, but the students seem to be very proud of their work and are excited to share them with each other.

 

Unfortunately, the research papers seem to be full of plagarized information, wacky citations and little student opinion, reflection or even thought about the chosen topic. I was so disappointed, I almost cried. Instead, after talking to several colleagues, I gave the papers back and told students that they had two weeks to clean them up and turn them back in. So far, I've received 5 back - out of 30 students. Even in choosing their own topic ( an issue in a book they had read/enjoyed previously), working on it for two weeks, conferencing with each student, they still choose the easiest way out of doing anything possible.