Hedgetoad Teaching

The weather has not been inspiring any dreams of sitting poolside, at least not without a sweatshirt. Could it be another summer without sun? School has been out for nearly a week and my room still looks like a bomb went off inside. On the last day of school I realized that I just wasn’t going to be able to shove everything in the closet and head out at the end of the day. Instead I tracked down a custodian and asked when I really had to be “out” of the room.  “August.” Suddenly the month of June was my oyster. I’m going through the file cabinets and weeding out all the 9th/10th grade crap, duplicates and just plain crap, while organizing it all into some organizational pattern. All those folders full of something mixed together – unmixed and filed correctly. And I finally expanded the drawers for AP into three! I can actually pull stuff without risking a nasty paper cut. I have many, many graphic organizers (not including the dusty binders sitting in the bottom of my closet) a...

Estimate how much money you will need to send your kid to college here .  Apparently to send my two kids to college I will approximately $175,000 for an in-state, state university. And I though day care was expensive.

Yesterday our Principal resigned. We all knew this was coming, but change is never easy. And with an adversarial relationship between teachers who think about students as kids and administrators who view students as dollars and data, who knows what will happen. Then there is old caveat of hiring principals during the summer... that only the bad ones are left. Not exactly inspiring confidence, but hope springs eternal.  Meanwhile, back on the farm, I'm going through all my files and weeding. Last year I hastily toss files into boxes and promptly forgot about them. I didn't even open two of them. That usually means they are candidates for the trash bin. But, lucky me! I'll be teaching English 11 next year and hopefully something in those boxes will be helpful. The first thing I found was a early fall semester assignment used in my AP class. I was very upset last September when I couldn't find it and had to do a g*ogl* search to find another copy of the text. And that i...

Grade finals/AR/Writers’ Notebooks Clean off walls Clean out Closet/Shove everything back inside Toss old papers Draw map of classroom furniture Collect Summer Assignment Contracts back up files from computer print out assignment and syllabus for AP Institute Print out grade book Collapse at home

I don't know why this year seems to be getting away from me... but it totally is. Yesterday I realized that I had not even started the order for next year's supplies! And I'm going to have to bag elections for the club I'm advisor for - I just don't have time for it and no one else seems to really care at this point.   Yesterday was the basically the last day for the seniors and I'm already bummed. It's sad to think that these kids I've watched growing up for the past four years will gone and for most, I'll never see again. I can't remember if I was this sad last year? I think I was more consumed with other things and just relieved that the end was near.   One more week to go and then I'm free to pee when I want, read when I want, go to the gym (stop laughing - I'm going to get a trainer. maybe.), build a new curriculum. again. If only the sun would shine for more than a day.

With only a few more days until summer, I'm already gone in my mind... Grading? what is that anyways? Just a quick list of things I've already started planning: Story Time @ the library swimming gardening making play dough visit poppa ride a merry-go-round wash the car go to the beach water park 4th of July Party make bubbles sun prints finger painting sidewalk chalk sprinkler county fair famers market camping dig for dinosaurs birthday parties!! pick strawberries hiking play dates mini golf outside movies play with Uncle James Fun with cousins It's quite a list! and doesn't include all the things currently on MY list. But we are going to attempt to get all of them done and have a rollicking good time. Now if only the weather would cooperate. It looks nice out there, but it's barely sixty with a strong cold sea breeze. Plus it keeps raining every other hour... not the best summer preview.

For the past two months, I’ve been trying to avoid the news, blogs, and articles about the state of education in America. If you listen long enough, there’s really no place to go but depressed. In the search for yet another scapegoat, teachers are getting hammered. The only solution everyone (but teachers) seems to have come up with is the teacher/Mother Teresa. In order for our children to get a quality education, all teachers must work 12+ hours per day (to make up for that long summer vacation), spend all weekends and vacations planning, collaborating with co-workers and tutoring students, leaving a few hours on Sunday for family and friends . Then, of course, there is all of the end of the year stress. Testing, testing, test. State tests, AP tests and year end monitoring tests. Then I get to collect and analyze all the data, deciding the elective fate of approximately 300 students. Oh the power! The power to refrain from stabbing myself in the eye. And… toss in a bit of plannin...

The month of April flew by... well, sloshed by quickly. I'd love have some exciting tales to tell, but mostly I avoided reading/thinking about education outside of my classroom. Really, it's just depressing. The constant barrage of so called "experts" railing against teachers, their benefits, summer's off, not teaching, not wanting to improve... etc. To those who are now railing against the so-called "cadillac" benefits teachers recieve, I can only say... get your own union. YOU didn't want to pay the dues, YOU said you could do it yourself. YOU didn't. Don't come crying to me. Pay $100/mo in dues and maybe you too will start to see some benefits. Otherwise, bite me. While I was off galavanting in my own little world... I applied for a technology grant. Didn't get it. Applied for the AP Fellows grant, go it! Finally, I will be attending a training session that is devoted to what I need. The first year I taught AP, my summer institute ...

You have male students, right? At least half of them “hate” reading, because it’s “stupid” and “boring”. It’s a never ending quest to find something that will interest them enough to read an entire book or at least an entire sentence. Found in the NYT – Guys Read Devoted to books that “guys” will read. Handily arranged in categories such as “Robots” and “At Least One Explosion”, with reviews and user ratings. Take a look around during your break and maybe find something for the reluctant reader in 3rd period.

Giggle to yourself if you thought this might be an x-rated posting. I’ll wait. Ok, back to education. Back on the 28th, the Chicago Trib published an article about class sizes. They’re going up, because we as taxpayers won’t pay for teachers. At least not as many as in years past. Research is sketchy on the effects of class sizes upon students, so it seems to be an easy cut. Parents are, of course, against it in their own child’s classroom… but for everyone else, well, you know. (mafia mentality rules. me and mine only, screw everyone else )  The article pointed out several sticky issues – like differentiating instruction for students or giving attention to all students, not just the loudest. District administrators all pointed to data which shows a good teacher in a large room is better than a bad teacher in a small room. A lot of administrators in WA believe this is gospel and are creating budgets based upon it. Is it true? Yes, but… As they say, the devil’s in the details. ...

Remember way, way back in your childhood when people would ask you what you wanted to be when your grew up? Of course, no ever said something like “actuary” or “insurance salesman”. We always replied something along the lines of “cowboy”, “firefighter” or “teacher”. Did you play school as a child? Pretending to teach with lots of art projects and coloring. Then again, my experience in kindergarten WAS a lot of arts projects and playing that taught us without even knowing it. It was just fun. Was teaching ever “fun”? Did my kindergarten teacher turn in her lesson plans to the principal a week prior, with EALRs and Blooms Taxonomy highlighted? Was she just given a script to read from as many teachers are given today, no deviation allowed for any reason? Today I was talking to a teacher from a distant district about all the budget cuts being made in his district this year. Pay cuts for all staff members, increase in medical insurance (which will now probably be taxed heavily to – it d...

Well, it seems that I will spending at least part of tomorrow “child-proofing” the back yard and trying to figure out a place to store more outdoor toys. The cuddler was attempting to move bricks this afternoon. For some reason, he felt that they all needed to be in the same place. He’s very big into organization and putting things in their place. I’m hoping that this means a clean teen-age room… but back to the bricks. I guess he just felt that there wasn’t enough to play with while Mommy was rebuilding the garden fence. He found some bricks in one area and then spied some stacked in another area. I was surprised that he was able to pick them up, but he seemed rather determined to stack them all together. At least he did while I was dragging him away to find something a little more suitable for playing. The Easter Bunny will be bringing a s*a*n*d*b*o*x to play in a couple of weeks. Shhhh! don’t tell.

For all those who will be spending two plus hours this morning alternating between extreme boredom and a strong desire to throttle the kid sleeping away the AYP step. I'll be grading research papers (because I'm the idiot who ALWAYS assigns papers due the day the grading period ends) and worrying about all the things that I probably should have covered more and whether the students will take the test seriously.

This week, my students will be taking the High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE), formerly known as the WASL. I’ll have to admit that I’m nervous… there has been a lot of pressure this year to improve scores. Weird pressure… it’s been a weird year altogether, but suffice it to say that this year many people will be biting their nails until the June scores.  If I can convince my students to take the test seriously they should all pass. The problem is that there will be those who won’t take it seriously. They will finish in less than 30 minutes and sleep for the remaining hour and half. And I can’t really do anything about it. If the student decides he/she would rather sleep in with the rest of the juniors and seniors who passed last year and mom thinks it ok? There’s nothing I can do about it. The student who transferred last month from another state, who may or may not have an IEP in that state? Hope for the best. And when these students don’t pass, according to the President it will...

Happy Pi Day! I think English/Literature needs to find a day like this... a celebration of something ubiquitous to the content that makes people think of a food item that is easy to carry to school... for teens. I mean, I'm all for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie , but it's hard to pull off with teens trying to be casually cool. It's also hard to justify an academic purpose to the administration. And let's be honest, if it's not related to the ELARs, then it shouldn't be happening. I'm totally blanking on an author's name/book title that makes one think of a food. Any suggestions?

Much has been posted about the recent firing (and rehiring) of all teachers in a consistently low performing high school. As some have already noted, there probably wear/are teachers at all over the effectiveness spectrum. If, however, a super-majority of the teachers were on the low end... how, pray tell, did they all end up at the same high school? Who hired them? Who interviewed them? Did only ineffective teachers apply? Did the effective teachers bolt as soon as a new job opened? Was it some nefarious plot by the district human resources department to stack the deck with dead weight at this particular school? It's not random, as someone hypothesized, that ALL of the teachers were ineffective and I don't believe that only through some magical twist of fate do "good teachers" end up at a school. Many good teachers prefer to work at schools with issues . Somewhere along the line, there was a reason the "good teachers" and "bad teachers" chose to ...

Yesterday I signed up to take the West-E Social Studies exam so that I can add a social studies endorsement on to my certificate. Sounds simple right? Take the test, pay the money... done deal. Today I started delving into the study guide. Umm... economics? it's been about 20 years since I've done that. Specific court cases? Not so much.. Brown v. Board of Education, sure... but the Boldt decision? I have a boat-load of studying to do (no pun intended.. fishing right - boats... get it?) So far, I've got an APUSH study guide to read and plan to get economics for dummies (highly recommended by those who've taken the test)... but I haven't a clue as to where to study the WA specific stuff that wasn't covered in my Washington state history courses. And the kicker! I signed up to take the test on April 17th! So, guess what I'm doing for Spring Break?

In reading across blogland, it seems that spring is truly on it's way. Students are getting restless, the countdown to testing has started and some flowers may have been spotted around the corner. My school mailbox contained the annual "tell us what you're planning on doing next year" form... which means that RIF notices will soon be coming too. Since I'm still (!!!) at the bottom of the seniority list, it's my annual time to stress out about it and seek constant reassurance that "it won't be [you]". Although this year, I may feel a twinge of dissapointment about that one. Weird thing just keep happening, weird-scary things, and everyone is walking on eggshells. Or a little bit closer to running around campus screaming at the top of their lungs. Either one is equally probable. A "friend" told me about a job opening in another district for the coming year. It would be a very different job, but with the possibility of a much lighter wor...

I, seriously, do not believe that I made it through the semester. I don't know what happened or how, but it seemed like every minute of every day was full of crap I had to do right then... and usually three other things that I really should do. Ok, I've got two kids in diapers now, so that makes things busy at home... but I only ate lunch four or five times in the last 18 weeks because I was too busy working through them! I'm pretty sure it has something do with our superintendent's belief that if teachers in Africa can teach 80 students using sticks and a dirt floor we can too. Speaking of which, the budget cuts that have come down and are coming down have really produced some interesting changes the personalities of our staff. The guy who had no problems will not shut up about class sizes (granted, all of his classes are over 32 in room built for 25 AND most are really stinky freshmen), the lady that used to help out everyone is no longer seen anywhere (and forget a...

As I was grading finals, I got to one that just befuddled me. Actually, the student has befuddled me all semester.  Mostly because, despite anything I said, wrote or explained (repeatedly) this student never seemed to understand the concept of critical thinking. Regurgitation was not a problem, but going beyond that was like pulling stumps with a soup spoon. Because the class was an advanced one, he was transferred to a regular english course for the next semester, so this final was the last hope of seeing a spark of understanding. Granted, at the beginning of the semester there are a few students who have this problem. After a month, however, few are still confused. This student never got it. Not conferencing, notes, models, diagrams...  nothing seemed to phase this student. He just went on his bumbling way without any thought to anything I said, other students said or did. It was like trying to talk to rock. On the final, the students were to read a prompt and ...