Hedgetoad Teaching

To be honest, summer school is somewhat boring. All of the lessons are pretty much scripted (" week 2, day 4 ") and most of the work is on demand so there is quite a bit of my wandering around while the students are working. On the plus side, I don't have to grade anything. I look at it and if it's what I asked for, the student moves on. If not, we chat about it and student has to re-do it. Of course, I have one student who pretty much refuses to re-do anything. I've talked til I'm blue in the face. I've explained. I've given strategies. I've warned that this quality of work will not receive a passing grade. So far the student has remained firming in the camp of "I wrote something and put my name on it, therefore I pass". S/He even had the gall to tell me that writing a 5 sentence essay (vs. 5 paragraph) received an 'A' in the regular school year. It was really hard not to point out (again) that if S/He had nothing to learn or ski...

The Carnival of Education went up yesterday at Scheiss Weekly - there is always something interesting and educational from fellow bloggers. And let's face it, what is summer for, if not for improving our teaching or discovering something new to bring into the classroom. This week I started reading Effective Instruction by Jim Burke (whom I love and highly recommend). I haven't gotten very far because it's really dense with information. For a book with only 126 pages, there is a lot in there. I think the first four pages cover as much information as the first six chapters in my master's educational theory class. So far, so good.

It's officially July! The summer stock up sales at Staples have started. I'm sure the back to school sale commercials will be soon blanketing the television. This week it's 2-pocket folders, pencils and purell bottles for 1 cent. 1/2" and 1" binders for a quarter and retractable highlighters for free (rebate)! Stock up now because the prices will soon be rising to their "Back-To-School-Sale" prices... which are not much of a bargain for those of us trying to keep over a 100 kids in school supplies for the year.

... the joys of daycare. Yes, the baby is at daycare for the rest of the week and it feels rather decadant. I know I'm home all day, but I have a lot of things to get done that would be better sans baby. Like, paint the kitchen (those colors have been chosen!) and maybe the living room; deep cleaning of the house; laundry; gardening, etc. It's a really long list. Plus, I need to install some baby gates. The baby is off like a rocket these days. Anyways, I'm hoping to get some home improvement projects done this week before the summer school onslaught next week.

For my week of freedom I've: planted some vegis mowed the lawn drove to Tacoma for a doctor's appointment took the baby to her first dental appointment (teeth [8] are great!) shopped at Wa**art, bought the baby new sandals and a huge can of thickening powder played in the pool with the baby looked a floor tile and countertops - no decisions decided the previous paint colors were not what I wanted; looked at new paint colors - no decisions (do you see a theme on this?) What shall we do this afternoon? Perhaps go to the park...

We're in the home stretch... the final afternoon session always seems to be a time when there is a need to do a bit of chatting and goofing around. After four days of intensive AP work, it's a necessity to drain the brain for a moment. Some good things really organized: each packet of information I've been given fits into a specific category. I can tell what it means in relationship to other packets of information. useful for classroom: not just a packet of graphic organizers, but rather a description of how it work, what it can be used for and specific examples paired works: this is one of the most difficult things for me to find pairs or poems that work with specific works or sections; finding appropriate excerpts. video, music and artwork pairings; again, very difficult and time-consuming essays to score, calibration; it's hard to teach what the readers are looking for when you aren't sure yourself. My AP Lang. course did this on 9 essays-one for each score. With...

The front page of the newspaper today featured " Chaos hits Can-Do U.S. Ethic Hard ". Barely 17% of people surveyed believe that the US is headed in the right direction, but it does beg the question of what the right direction is. According to this article, people feel lost because they have no control over events, especially natural disasters. Why is that? Have we really lost our "pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps" attitude? No. We've just traded the boots for 99-cent tennis shoes made in China. We have the can-do attitude, but sold the know-how to retail developers. A couple of years ago, I asked a former home-ec. (or what ever they call it these days) teacher why sewing is no longer in the high school. The response was that since a person could buy a $5 t-shirt at Wal-Mart, it was a waste of resources to teach something that wasn't necessary. This teacher wore Hawaiian shirts every day, so pointing out that a $5 t-shirt might not always be appropriate w...

Remember last month when I told the office to schedule only one section of AP Language ? Well, so far I have 40 students who told me they planned on taking the course next year... . Of course, only 32 actually returned the contract. As I saw kids on the last I asked them if they were still planning on taking the course. They all said yes... shining me on? Who knows. I'd love to have two sections of AP Language, but that's going to mean some sheduling shifting next year. I guess I'll just have to wait until July 18 and see how many summer assignments come in. In the meantime, I'm starting my own homework. Next week is the AP conference. This year, I harrassed the principal to register me, so I was registered last month. This means I got an actual "new" course, instead of a last minute shit-we-registered-to-many-people-but-not-enough-to-make-two-full-sections-of-new-and-experienced course. Hopefully this will mean I'll get information about teaching course ...

or rather, for two weeks, until summer school starts. The last day of grading! Sadly, that's all I could think about... getting those grades in. Summer school is so much easier. No real grading, just sitting around discussing. With only four to six kids, it's pretty easy to just sit around working until they get it to the best quality, rather than moving on. Which leads into an interesting conversation I had this week. Apparently, there is a group of parents in area who want to start their own school. Since charter schools aren't allowed in WA state, it would have to be an expensive private school. My reaction was an economic one - this is a rather rural area and there are already two private schools (rather small ones). Where would the number of students needed to support a school come from? The cost of tuition would far out of reach for 95% of local residents. The reactions of others I've talked to where much more interesting. One suggested enrolling in one of the pri...

There are two days of school left, plus the BBQ day... which shouldn't count as a school days since almost no students show up in my classroom. I still haven't graded the final, but all these students seem to be thinking that it will magically save their grade if only I will get it done! What I really need to do is print out a list of AR points. That's what will save or cook their collective gooses. Now, if I could just sleep the peaceful slumber of a teacher with an empty paper box.

I finally choose two colors for the living room - it only took two years. Now, I just have to decide on one. My dilema - I like the Brown Teepee, but it's a bit cold. The living room is on the north side of the house and gets pretty dark once the sun moves to about the midpoint of the sky. I have lots of windows though. Here the pics - let me know what you think. Brown Teepee or Peanut Butter (the orangey one) *Update* The votes are pretty much in favor of Brown Teepee, but I'm still looking for opinions. I can't pait for another two weeks, so get your votes in!

The “idea books” were a hit with the AP students – we shared them yesterday. Really creative and very personal. The students created the books on their lives, who influenced them, how they got to where they are in life, etc. I don’t think they would work in my less cohesive classes. The sharing could be emotional.   We finished playing the Julius Caesar games. Hands down the most creative was a variation of twister. The player choose a color, but the opposite team chose the category (marked on the row of colors) and if the player got the question wrong, which body part to use. The player had to be very calculating on their choice of color and know all categories. Or be really flexible.   Graduation is tomorrow. I wish I could say that I’m looking forward to it, but the controversy over the stinkin’ honor cords is putting kinda a damper on it for me. We came up with a compromise, but we’ll see how it goes over. Luckily, the ce...

I know those two don't seem like they go together, but during the baby years they definitely do. Two more weeks of school left! Woo Hoo! No more grading stress for two months. Of course, then the onslaught begins with both AP Language and AP Literature. But why worry about that now? The actual final is on Tuesday. Then we'll be watching inspirational movies and doing some kind of artistic life-goal project. The sophomores completed their game projects for Julius Caesar. On Friday, the groups traded and played another group's game. Most of the games got a thumbs up. Some were more popular than others; usually the ones that had a bit of a challenge to them or a real competitive aspect. Of course, no one would say that another group's game was not very good or didn't have a lot of thought behind it, but they would move on or back to another game. The sight of an empty board probably spoke more than a spoken review. The living room is starting to look a grown-up's l...

We were discussing the weather the other day at lunch – how cold and wet it has been during a time that should be bright and sunny and a bit warmer. It suddenly came to me just how cold and nasty it’s been this spring. Every spring, as the weather warms, I stop wearing winter clothes and switch to lighter summer types with short sleeves and cropped pants. And every spring at least one student per period interrupts to say “Miss! You’ve got a tattoo?!?!”   So far this year, no one has said that. My secret tattoo - which really isn’t a secret or even in a place that wouldn’t be seen in a normal climate – is hidden from view. I’m still wearing at least two layers of clothes every day. I haven’t even been able to switch to summer shoes. This in turn makes it hard to believe that school is nearly out. It’s June for pete’s sake and it still feels like April.   Warm places look really good right now. Is ...

Dishes. I did the dishes. Played with the baby. Mowed the back yard. Took dog for a few walks. Bought new bookshelves and wireless router. Installed wireless router. Accomplished nothing else... promise myself that I will grade papers at 9pm. Or nap. It's tiring to sit and surf the web.

Ok, so it's near impossible to sit and write for an entire cup of coffee while the baby is awake. Let's change this to "nap time writing". Friday afternoon was pretty fun. My AP class finished The Crucible and had three options for their final project - no papers to grade! - create a board game, rewrite a scene in a different setting and something that no one choose. Who can remember before the first cup of coffee? Only one student chose to rewrite a scene, but the board games were pretty fun! The first one was "Who Be A Witch?" It was set up sorta like clue. It was missing the vocab and plot elements of the assignment, but still fun to play. Moving on, I killed them at "Witches Pursuit". The Vocabulary questions were killer! Next year, we will discuss what makes a good question. Given a definition, it's nearly impossible to guess which word is the correct answer. I think of at least five different words that mean "the state of being unkno...

Ok, it's not really "after - noon", but it is during lunch, so it's pretty much my afternoon. What's so great about Friday afternoon? This when I'm totally optimistic about the amount work I can get done during those two days off. Completely catch up on my grading (including well over 240 essays), paint the living room, drive to Renton to shop at Ikea, find a new dog, clean the entire house, work in the garden and play with the baby. What will actually happen? play with the baby, water the garden and maybe make it out to meet a new dog. I might grade this week's vocab tests... I have a feeling that the essays are going to be a check off kind of thing. Everything else will be moved to next week or even next month (July, not June). Why do I always think I can do twenty more things than I actually have time or even the desire to do?

Kathie at Two Frog Home is copying Laurie at ...Slowly she turned in writing until the Saturday morning coffee is gone. It sounded like a good idea, so I'm copying too! Thursday I was off and up at the crack of dawn to head out to the big-big city. Luckily we didn't really encounter any traffic and made it to the doctor's appointment with enough time to complete a diaper change and go all the way back to the car to get the paperwork I left on the passenger seat. Of course, the baby showed no symptoms of anything - mini DarthVader breathing, so the doctor was confused as to why she was there. We ended up with a blood test and test for cystic fibrosis (not that anyone thinks she has that... but just to check). Friday I made it all the way to 2nd period before getting a call from the daycare to pick the baby up - fever. Can you believe that? Not even 24 hours after visiting the pulmonologist! We got into the her regular doctor and she was diagnosed with an actual "dayca...

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 ...

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.