Hedgetoad Teaching

If you teach seniors, Saturday’s Dear Abby may have caught your eye. Students get the message throughout their high school years that all they have to do is get good grades and the world is their oyster. Then in the final semester of their senior year reality dumps on them like a brick wall in a earthquake zone.  They don’t get accepted to college of their choice; they can’t afford the college of their choice; scholarship applications are denied… the real world is not a helping hand up. It’s a harsh competition for diminishing resources. When confronted with a student whose dreams are… umm… altered… because of money, I try to point out the positive. “ A large college may not be the right choice for you, but are you determined to get a college education? If so, I know that you can find like-minded students. I, too, attended a well known party school. It also had a strong Honors program, a multi-national student body and some of the most out there technology on the cusp of bei...

Apparently plan 13 for next year has me keeping my job in my current position. However, plan 12 had me moving to a different school and the state legislature has not fully made up it’s mind yet, so the best guess is that we’ll know what’s going on in September. Until then it’s all supposition. FWIW, plan 12 had my department scared poop-less. Another teacher has already been signed up to attend an AP conference and is not happy about it. Then I mentioned that all the RTI coaching duties would have to move to someone else and the look on their faces was priceless. The mix of fear and horror was somewhat touching… I would definitely be missed. Back in the student’s reality, senioritis is coming on full strength. Two more months and they’re free! Of course, this means that concentrating on the mundane information from classes is extremely difficult. I mean, this is their LIVES!!! people!!! What college to choose? How is it going to be paid for? Should I just go to work? Where will I...

Met a former student today. He told me he’s planning on becoming an English teacher. Cue dismay. I told him to go for remedial math too. He told me another adult told him he needed a back up plan in case he couldn’t get a teaching job. Like his music. Yes, rock star is now the back up plan for kids who want to be teachers.

As of today, my classroom will become paper-free. We have run out of money for paper at the school and there won’t be any more. At least I still have my job right? If anyone else has gone paperless, please send ideas on giving tests (please note, limited computer access for students). I need help with this one!

Since finally installing the Mimio , I’ve been carting my laptop computer to and from school every day. As my student would OMG! My right shoulder hurts! Stupidly I looked at performance and price when choosing a laptop computer, not weight. I can empathize with my students who regularly carry backpacks weighing over 20 pounds.

Hit the dollar store about three months before a particular holiday and you’ll find a great selection of decorative things for your classroom. In Janauary, I stocked up on heart pencils and erasers, a St. Patrick’s day lei and shamrocks and picked up some quality plastic Easter eggs, Easter crayons and play-do. OK, the Easter eggs were for my own kids. But the crayons and play-d0 would work well for a simple projects in the classroom or pre-school. Also, they had fourth of July Ribbon 50% off – great for President’s Day! If you wait until the month of the holiday, you will find the selection very limited if not already taken off the shelves.

Do you teach your kids idioms? Do you use them at home? I am continually surprised at how confused my students become at what seems to me to be common phrasing in America. Once, I had to explain the meaning of “it’s raining cats and dogs” and I live in an rainforest favored by vampires for it’s lack of sunny days. Piece of cake to explain? Not so much. The other day, while explaining yet another reason why English class is important, I said that those who couldn’t be bother to learn spelling, grammar, or reading critically were “pennywise, but pound foolish.” Granted, they didn’t know what a pound note was – is the UK still using them or did they decide to jump on the Euro bandwagon finally? – but no one had ever heard of the idiom either. Given the number of “pennywise, pound foolish” decisions being made these days by everyone, including students, it seems wise to bring back these old bromides. If no other reason than injecting some common sense into our society.

2011 is going to be interesting in education. In his State of the Union address, the President asked people to become teachers… apparently unaware that thousands will be laid off in the next six months. Good, bad, young, old – probably even yours truly – there just won’t places for them at their previous schools. Those daring have a life (home, family, children, spouse, etc.) will probably be hit the hardest, as they also will not be able to move to areas where jobs are available. Houses cannot be sold (we lost a principal last year because he/she could not sell the house in a timely manner without incurring a huge loss), Rental markets are all time highs (all those previous home owners gotta live somewhere) and who has the money to pay for moving anyway? Class sizes next year will rival the average African shanty school. And the amount of supplies available to teachers will be about the same… I’m predicting fewer consumables, like workbooks or handouts for students. Much asking pare...

Is it just me or does this time year make every one a little kooky? I can't decide if it's the weather, wrestling season (was there ever a more annoying sport for teachers? starved adolescent boys and girls sleeping in class... fun!) or semester end looming. I'm looking for some fun ideas to do with poetry - something that will get everyone in a better mood and moving around but still include those durned learning targets! Ideas?

Back to the grindstone! I’m sure that spirits will be high, and there will be not much of a chance to get much done – I know I’m DYING to find out who got a new XBox Kinex and who got an Ipod Touch.

Yah, you know I totally love to make resolutions. I make them ALL the time! It’s Monday… time for a new resolution! It’s July… time a for a new resolution! I like to think of it as continual improvement and adjustment. 1. Obviously, my resolution for school is to, again, keep up with grading. For the rest of the semester, I think that will show up more as projects – wherein students are working for several days on a finished product, rather than having an assessment of their learning almost every day. And to quit screwing around during my prep period talking to people about stuff that doesn’t really need to be talked about, like who is going to make me loose my mind that day. 2. Sadly, although I received a Mimio for my classroom several weeks ago, I have yet really pull it out the box. I haven’t had the time to explore with it or even figure out how to plug it in. Hopefully, I’ll do that this year! 3. Be more organized! Actually, I did quite a lot of organization this summer – ...

You’ve spent a lot of time trying to avoid paying taxes and demanding that the government get out of your wallet this year. Meanwhile, the federal government has weaseled it’s way into your home and not only did you not see it coming, you actually cheered and screamed in approval. I know you are scratching your head in wonderment, but let me explain… Remember those lazy teachers? The ones who get paid in the summer to do nothin’ and are “finished by 3pm, every stinkin’ day”? Yah, those ones. The federal government has decided that the only way evaluate those teachers is by using test scores from one single test. And it decided that states that choose not go along will be denied funding – which they really, really need, now that you voted not to pay taxes. Still scratchin’? Well, here it is. In order for your child’s teacher to keep his or her job, he or she will have to be really, really involved in how you parent. In fact, everyone at the school will be! Their jobs now depend on h...

Hypothetical Situation: Let’s say that at some point, you receive a notice asking for the week’s class work for a student. You receive these notices on a regular basis and about half the time the work sits in the front office for a week until it is throw away, uncollected. As you looked at this notice you realize that it is for a student who has already missed 37 days in a eight week period. This student has also approximately 2 grades in the grade book – they were tests – and has not turned in assignment this semester. And it is the third time said student has been enrolled in Freshman English. The school secretary calls your room to inform you that this student’s parent is in the office and is wanting the school work from your classroom. Do you interrupt what you are doing with your class and gather work for the student? Or do you inform the secretary that you are too busy to gather work at this point for a student who will not complete anything sent anyways?

Are you enjoying your winter break? I am. For no other reason, than I can sleep in until 7am. And I don’t have to do breakfast on the run. Well… and the only person asking to use the bathroom is 3, so there’s no judgment as to whether the asker actually has to use the bathroom or wants to text someone or wants to take a walk or is bored… etc. It’s nice to hang out with people eager to learn pretty much anything I want to teach them. Right now, both toddlers are engrossed with plastic letters, determinedly searching for those that “spell their name”. If only I could get my reading students as engrossed in reading anything! These breaks are so needed! After months of 50+ hour weeks, it’s nice to just be able to work on things in a relaxed manner. No rushing to fit every thing in, using the bathroom when needed instead of desperately waiting for the lunch bell to ring. Tomorrow I’ll be back in my classroom trying to get organized for the coming months and finish up those lingering ...

The time of year when teachers are desperately attempting to get everything done before they leave for vacation because... no student will touch a book during the entire break. Really. Although, I will admit to possibly assigning my AP students a paper over break. Still debating on whether this will be a good idea or not... currently leaning towards not. Perhaps we will go with a AP style multiple choice test instead. Quicker to grade too! My plans for the holidays include: figuring out the Mimeo I received via Donor's Choose catching up with all the grading cleaning off my desk - oy! the piles of paper! Copying as much as a I can as it seems like our copying machine will probably be dead by the end of January... we've had for one day so far and it's already broken. No one can even use it yet. It broke "just sittin' there". planning out the rest of semester and working on next semester reading that one book on adolescent literacy I never read over the su...

This month just flew by! Last week we started every day 2 hours late! Despite every school around us closing on Tuesday, we braved through it and thus saved our snow days for future... or an extra day off in April. Which is nice too! Conferences were. Apparently, if junior and senior parents aren't really that interested in attending. I got some grading done. I'm behind in grading again. I know you're shocked too! I've managed to take two days off for RTI. I've finally got charts filled out for all our current intervention students and started the list of those to "watch." Hopefully, I can arrange for another day in the next week or so to go over those lists. I'm looking forward to doing A Christmas Carol  with my senior AP students. Finally, a group that doesn't need two-thirds of the description explained to them. But first A Modest Proposal . I think it'll make a fine intro to the Scrooge like public Dickens was skewering.

I like to think of myself as an organized person. Note: I like to “ think” I’m organized. In reality, it’s not so much organized in a Martha Stewart sort of way, but more in an “don’t touch anything, because it’s all precariously balanced, but I know what pile it is in” sort of way.   I do, however, have to sing the praises of the Avery write-on tabs. I love them with a love that would make Martha’s heart sing. Not only are they good for filing, but also for tabbing my textbooks, literature anthologies, the ginormous binders holding student testing data. Personally, I’m not sure how you could do an effective job in RTI without them. I discovered them this summer when a colleague was heading out on a Sta*^ple# run. I asked her to pick up some tabs for me. The ones I had in mind are from the makers of Post^it notes and are just tabs. They’re tiny, and I usually have to make up abbreviations for titles – which I soon forget and then get can’t find anything. I didn’t, however,...

My school requires that all English classes have an Accelerated Reader component. How I feel about that is a complicated rant, but I go along, because that's what we do.  In my AP classes, I try to make it a little more college level by requiring that the students read at least two "classics" each semester, in addition to their choice books. They're busy students! If you could get away with reading Twilight, a book that could be read in 24 hours, wouldn't you? The "classic" would be defined as something in the Western Canon. Other regions are acceptable, but they have to be cleared by me - they really have no clue about what makes good literature. Just yesterday, I had to tell someone that while Where the Red Fern Grows is a much believe childrens' classic, it doesn't count for AP. We are preparing for the AP test, not just reading for giggles all the time. It's interesting to see what books gain popularity every year. As one students fi...

I know I’ve mentioned several times previously about how little time I feel like I have these days – every minute there are several projects needing attention. And it’s not just me, everyone I talk to feels like their lives have spun a little out of control. Are we all working harder? Trying to pack more in, in less time? What ever happened to simplifying life? Sometimes, I think those pioneer women didn’t have it so bad… washtubs notwithstanding. The other day, it was brought up in a meeting that my lack of time to devote to RTI meetings was a hindrance to our moving forward. The solution proposed? Offer me more money to spend more time at school… yeah, seriously, that was the genius answer administrators come up with. Give more money to spend more time at school or give more money to those who teach better (determinedly? faster? “intentionally”?). The problem, much like the problem with merit pay, I already stay after school for hours. Without being “paid”, I might add. The money...

Do you have a mimio? Or a smart board?  ‘Cause thanks to USCellular, I’m gettin’ one! Very excited about this, but the amount of extra time I have this year could fit into a thimble.  Seriously, there are not enough hours in the day – especially when you’re a person who needs 8 hours of sleep. (I wish I could get by with 4… but it is not a pretty sight, trust me) How have you incorporated it into your classroom? What kinds of activities, lessons, ect. have you found to be most successful?  No one in my school has this type of technology – in fact, no one had even heard of a Mimio before I started talking about it – so there is no one to compare notes or bounce ideas off of. In fact, my success or failure may determine as whether any one else in the district gets anything similar. Budget cuts, not value added, yadda, yadda.