floodgate.blog

We’re right on the edge of a severe thunderstorm warning… but yea, it’s raining on the east coast

Today was graduation day for my school.  I watched all thirteen of my seniors walk (was worried about a couple of them), including one who I had to convince that it was worth going to graduation.  This particular student and I spent a lot of time together this year.  We talked about random things, and sometimes talked about misunderstandings in math.  I spent all of this time convincing her that she should be at graduation, and I wasn’t able to find her after the fact to say congratulations, and more importantly, goodbye.

I didn’t think much of this until I checked my e-mail this evening and this student wrote asking where I went off to.  Should I feel bad?  Because I feel horrible.  I feel like I let someone down.  I went looking for almost 20 minutes with no success, and just assumed she had left.

I highly doubt this would have been the last opportunity to see this student, so I am not worried that this was a missed last opportunity.  But still… I think if the places were reversed, I would be equally upset for the same reasons as well.

thoughts?

We wrapped up final exams today, and had our usual department potluck.  Being the picky eater that I am, I only ate certain foods — in particular I was inhaling chips & dip, cake, and cookies.  I very rarely eat at school as I tend to only get hungry later in the day.  When I do get hungry, I usually grab a quick snack.

I was branded a “snackatarian” today.. and I guess I have to accept this nomination.  Proud of it too!  Who doesn’t love snacks?!?!?

I was also called “Coach McNasty” today.. I am still searching for where this actually came from… hmmmmm..

With my first year becoming a page in a history book, I feel the need to reflect, vent, and share the joy, frustration, and chaos of my first year.

Day 1 – Am I 15 again?

I remember walking into the building feeling like a little kid.  I had no idea where to go, and only recognized one face.  That one face was the principal, and he kindly directed me to the room where my orientation would be taking place.  I anxiously walked up the stairs and down the hall, took a seat, and remained silent and motionless.  I tend to be shy in new situations anyway, but being in a new situation which also happened to be a high school class room was very odd.  I waited patiently and eventually my in-school mentor came over and introduced herself.  During the breaks, she filled me in on the important items: where to get supplies, who to talk to when you need this, that, and the other, etc.

Day 2 – Silence

My first days were before the first actual day for all teachers.  I wasn’t required to be there, but I wanted to get set up.  I was also in the process of getting my son aclimatised to his new daycare, so I needed somewhere to go.  I wasn’t really sure what I should be doing: writing syllabi, planning lessons, thinking about cool things to try… I don’t really remember doing anything spectacular.

First Day

I found myself clinging to the few familiar faces I already knew on the first day with teachers in the building.  I spent my time with the mathies, being a passive participant in the festivities.  Once the first set of faculty meetings were done, I started asking “what do I need to do?!?!”.  I spent two days figuring that part out.

Freshman Fest

The freshman come in a day before all other students.  It’s a part of the whole transition from middle school and involves lots of information for the students, and a series of games and activities that the students and faculty rotate through.  I remember being a part of some weird hoola-hoop game (which my now-student-aide seems to remind me of often) and sucking at it, and feeling out of place just like the freshman.

Ok, Day 1 for real…

I guess the first real day would be the one with all of the students, and classes, and all that.  I was petrified.  I must have been lucky that either my students were doped out, tired, or not ready for school, but they were unbelievably passive; accepting whatever I told them.  I remember being very stern with my students on day one.. more on that towards the end.

The first two weeks

I think of this as being equivalent to “the first 100 days” in politics.. Lots of chaos, labor day, and getting the cobwebs cleared from the students minds were some of the tasks I was charged with.  I finally started finding a rhythm, slowly found a system for myself and a method to planning, homework, and assessments.  I finally felt like I was getting everything going… and then…

Open House Night

..we had open house.  We had a mentor/mentee meeting relating ONLY to this night.  Parents in the building, walking the halls in their son/daughter’s footsteps, and meeting me, a green-faced teacher for the first time.  I frantically probed the more veteran math teachers for what to say for an introduction, or what to focus on.  The first set of parents that walked through the door included the wife of my department coordinator (their daughter was in my first class).  Yay nerves!  I later learned that I also had two school board members in that same room.  I like to think I did an OK job with it.

The rest of Quarter 1, and P/T Conferences

I don’t remember many details on the first quarter.  I remember parent teacher conferences, and not really being shocked by the parents that came in.  I was very frank and honest in my discussions, and I feel like the parents who visited me were glad that I didn’t sugar coat anything.

NCLB Be Damned

In order to keep ourselves off of the naughty list for No Child Left Behind, we have our students run through various sets of testing.  We had standardized testing to assess progress in reading, writing, and mathematics for our freshman and sophomores (they had been taking these tests in middle school too).  They are supposed to track progress (which pretty much is all NCLB cares about).  The point is that this testing happened during the school day, and so I lost my sophomores for an entire week.  A different set of testing that was tied to more funding crap pulle dmy juniors away a couple times, again dragging my classes further and further behind.

Field Trips Be Damned

The other thorn in my side was the excessive number of field trips I had to deal with.  I never went on one, but lost many students (sometimes half of my class) to various trips out of the building.  My kids were only moderately responsible enough to seek out work ahead of time… made planning a nightmare.

Midterms, and Intersession

I got my first real lesson in “what they can and can not do” when I gave my midterms.  I remember the sheer terror on my advanced algebra 2 kids faces when I handed them an exam that wasn’t too difficult, but was entirely too long!  I had one student finish in the allotted time, and the rest began to panic (bear in mind, these are the types of students who ace everything, and the thought of getting an 80 and having to explain it to mom and dad is traumatising… yea…).  I learned more about what NOT to do during that process.

We had intersession this year.  We take the first two days of the second semester and turn them in to an alternative education setting.  Each teacher (or groups of teachers) planned a two-day course outside of the normal restrictions of a high school.  Some outdoor activities, some odd indoor activities (rapping, cake decorating, dog training), and my class which was 40 kids in a room playing Risk.  It worked surprisingly well.  We had a Russian exchange student this year, and I had the pleasure of having him in one of my classes as well as in my intersession class.  He joked all year about how his “communist roots” ran deep (mostly kidding, but he definitely enjoyed playing the part of the “foreign kid” — so much so that my other students started referring to him as Fez), and in true Fez spirit, he chose the red pieces to honor his countrymen.  They had more fun in that game than anyone else in the room.

Beware of Attack Coach

I decided I wanted to be a part of the swim team.  I offered my services as an assistant coach during swim meets only due to my non-existent availability.  I found a way to make it to a few practices and definitely felt like I had an impact on a few swimmers.  I really enjoyed getting back into my beloved sport

The rest…

I guess I can cliche-this-up and say “the rest is history”, although year 1 isn’t over until Monday.  I am in the middle of final exams now, and am finding that some students aim for better things, and others don’t care.  I found myself trying to justify a 20% curve today to bring the average in one class up to a 67%… that was primarily a group of “i don’t care’s”..

I know I ran short on the end of this — I may come back and update it later.   I think this is fine for now.

I’ve been in “Mac-dom” now for a while, and have tried out the various OS X-only applications that I heard so much about.  I searched high and low for various things, and am starting to realize that, like in PC-dom, there are certain apps that are just better than others (duh).  So, in my massive re-design process, I’ll be adding a software reviews section for the software I use and abuse.  I’ll add in my tidbits for PC-only ones too, but it seems like with only a few exceptions, I am using cross-platform apps anyway (which I already used in Windows, Linux, etc).

More on that later.  My current OS X-only faves are Adium, Vienna, and NeoOffice.