Post by elementary on Aug 31, 2012 3:18:41 GMT -5
Dear Diary,
Not sure how much I'm going to be able to put down tonight. It's been a long day and I'm struggling to stay awake.
Ever since I got my scores back, I've been rededicating myself to keeping my instruction organized. With everything that happened lasat year, classes got muddled, instruction sometimes was confused, and the results show. So now I'm staying later after school and making sure I have everything laid out nice and neat for the following day. I'm also trying to be proactive in copying material for the class. Occasionally last year I'd run to the Xerox machine only to find a primary school teacher running off 30 copies of a 6 page bundle which forced me to alter my plans at the last minute.
I've been much better this year, but that also means I'm not leaving until 4:30 or 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (The other three days I'm picking up my daughter at 4:00.)
My new focus has been making me feel better. Things still aren't perfect, but it's good. The students are helping as well, as nobody has given me much of a pain yet - though two - who I'll call Natelli and Hills, are showing signs of losing some of their self control. I had to write up Natelli today when he ignored my lecture and idly taped a giant paper ball together. Hills' issue is that he can't control his mouth. He's a commenter, which means he wants to say something whenever I'm talking, and when I am chastising another student, he will start badgering them with "why didn't you listen to Mr. Foster?" It's rude and less than helpful.
Another bit of good news is that I'm down to only 5 non-multiplication doers, and two of them failed to do the assignment because they missed seeing it on the board.
When I went to recount my numbers, I realized I underreported the number of students who failed to turn in their multiplication pages earlier this week. Tuesday's number 15 and Wednesday had 11. Today's five is looking quite good.
I also have failed to mention that I've had perfect attendance the last three days. That is extremely rare. Last year, out of 180 days of school, I was lucky enough to have maybe 12 without an student being gone. Across my school district, absences were so numerous, it was as if each student had been absent 7 days during the year.
If you think that is excessive, keep in mind that I have students who top 25 tardies during the year, and others with equal amounts of no-shows.
To combat excessive absences, the school can take the family to court in a process called a SARB. This is a legally binding agreement that will actually ticket the parents $200 if their child fails to show up again without a valid excuse. We don't use it often, but it's one of the few things we can do to force parents to be responsible.
I bring this up because two of my students told me they will be gone tomorrow for some retreat in a small resort town nearby. One said he didn't want to go but his parents are making him.
I shrugged and am considering bringing something tomorrow to pass out while the other two are gone, but that's a little cruel, so maybe I won't.
Playing on the angel side of my shoulder is the prospect of going to Hawaii in a couple weeks as my wife is being pulled out there on business. If I tweak the students' noses for being gone, and then do it myself, it would be unfair, and I know I will lose stature with them.
I did get to the store today for playdough, as we will be making playdough earths coming up in science, and constructing a page on the three rock types with playdough 'rocks' showing how each is made.
I also bought 5 wire trashcans to put at the end of my rows, as there is beginning to be a laziness in getting to the main two trashcans and my floor is suffering. I also bought the students a class set of black dry erase markers. They have already been provided with small dry erase boards.
My district has a policy that prevents schools or teachers from making the parents buy anything for use at school. The idea is that anything the child needs should be provided by us (ie for you out there) the taxpayer. On top of what the school provides, I toss in a few extras. The dry erase pens used by school can be old - having sat for a summer or two before being unloaded on us. So I buy a set for the kids, but they only get ONE. After that they can go to the dollar store.
The school also Dibbled the kids today. I know that sounds like some horrible thing that Fox TV or CNN wants to hear so they can pounce and pump up their ratings, but in reality it's a little mundane and more than a little boring. All Dibbles entails is a reading fluency check following by a brief comprehension part.
It just sounds horrible when "I dibbled a kid today," is heard in the teacher lobby.
Our goal for 6th grade is to have students reading between 120 to 140 works with a retell above a score of 30. Looking at the numbers and the forms and the nuances of the process, I still haven't been able to figure out how they came up with the number 30. It's like the QB ratings in the NFL.
We get the numbers back on Tuesday - don't forget Monday is a holiday.
I'll finish with one other random event.
Today I started giving out the polished stones a friend of mine from Texas sends me every year. His support is extremely helpful in fostering the slow growing interest in science students at my school have. In the past I have placed his stones in baggies on my wall, but this time the students voted to have them taken down and put into one central glass container where they can see all the different types. They still want to be able to identify them (there is an accompanying document that lists each of the types of stones that is given to the students.)
The box containing the shiny swag had been sitting in my room for a couple days and I swear, it was a salt lick and my students were the deer. Every couple of minutes one of the students would raise their hand (often in the middle of the lecture - which tells me their minds are wandering a bit) and ask when I was going to pass them out. At recess I would get mobbed and a barrage of questions and requests would pour over me.
Well, I finally gave each of the students their first polished stone - except, of course, those who didn't do their multiplication. If they don't want to give me anything, I don't feel it's appropriate for me to reward them. Turn it in tomorrow, they get the stone.
Of not - eh, more for others.
It seems my brain wanted to do some talking and my fingers were willing to type.
I hope it doesn't sound to bad, cause right now, I've forgotten much of what I've said.
TGIF
L
Not sure how much I'm going to be able to put down tonight. It's been a long day and I'm struggling to stay awake.
Ever since I got my scores back, I've been rededicating myself to keeping my instruction organized. With everything that happened lasat year, classes got muddled, instruction sometimes was confused, and the results show. So now I'm staying later after school and making sure I have everything laid out nice and neat for the following day. I'm also trying to be proactive in copying material for the class. Occasionally last year I'd run to the Xerox machine only to find a primary school teacher running off 30 copies of a 6 page bundle which forced me to alter my plans at the last minute.
I've been much better this year, but that also means I'm not leaving until 4:30 or 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (The other three days I'm picking up my daughter at 4:00.)
My new focus has been making me feel better. Things still aren't perfect, but it's good. The students are helping as well, as nobody has given me much of a pain yet - though two - who I'll call Natelli and Hills, are showing signs of losing some of their self control. I had to write up Natelli today when he ignored my lecture and idly taped a giant paper ball together. Hills' issue is that he can't control his mouth. He's a commenter, which means he wants to say something whenever I'm talking, and when I am chastising another student, he will start badgering them with "why didn't you listen to Mr. Foster?" It's rude and less than helpful.
Another bit of good news is that I'm down to only 5 non-multiplication doers, and two of them failed to do the assignment because they missed seeing it on the board.
When I went to recount my numbers, I realized I underreported the number of students who failed to turn in their multiplication pages earlier this week. Tuesday's number 15 and Wednesday had 11. Today's five is looking quite good.
I also have failed to mention that I've had perfect attendance the last three days. That is extremely rare. Last year, out of 180 days of school, I was lucky enough to have maybe 12 without an student being gone. Across my school district, absences were so numerous, it was as if each student had been absent 7 days during the year.
If you think that is excessive, keep in mind that I have students who top 25 tardies during the year, and others with equal amounts of no-shows.
To combat excessive absences, the school can take the family to court in a process called a SARB. This is a legally binding agreement that will actually ticket the parents $200 if their child fails to show up again without a valid excuse. We don't use it often, but it's one of the few things we can do to force parents to be responsible.
I bring this up because two of my students told me they will be gone tomorrow for some retreat in a small resort town nearby. One said he didn't want to go but his parents are making him.
I shrugged and am considering bringing something tomorrow to pass out while the other two are gone, but that's a little cruel, so maybe I won't.
Playing on the angel side of my shoulder is the prospect of going to Hawaii in a couple weeks as my wife is being pulled out there on business. If I tweak the students' noses for being gone, and then do it myself, it would be unfair, and I know I will lose stature with them.
I did get to the store today for playdough, as we will be making playdough earths coming up in science, and constructing a page on the three rock types with playdough 'rocks' showing how each is made.
I also bought 5 wire trashcans to put at the end of my rows, as there is beginning to be a laziness in getting to the main two trashcans and my floor is suffering. I also bought the students a class set of black dry erase markers. They have already been provided with small dry erase boards.
My district has a policy that prevents schools or teachers from making the parents buy anything for use at school. The idea is that anything the child needs should be provided by us (ie for you out there) the taxpayer. On top of what the school provides, I toss in a few extras. The dry erase pens used by school can be old - having sat for a summer or two before being unloaded on us. So I buy a set for the kids, but they only get ONE. After that they can go to the dollar store.
The school also Dibbled the kids today. I know that sounds like some horrible thing that Fox TV or CNN wants to hear so they can pounce and pump up their ratings, but in reality it's a little mundane and more than a little boring. All Dibbles entails is a reading fluency check following by a brief comprehension part.
It just sounds horrible when "I dibbled a kid today," is heard in the teacher lobby.
Our goal for 6th grade is to have students reading between 120 to 140 works with a retell above a score of 30. Looking at the numbers and the forms and the nuances of the process, I still haven't been able to figure out how they came up with the number 30. It's like the QB ratings in the NFL.
We get the numbers back on Tuesday - don't forget Monday is a holiday.
I'll finish with one other random event.
Today I started giving out the polished stones a friend of mine from Texas sends me every year. His support is extremely helpful in fostering the slow growing interest in science students at my school have. In the past I have placed his stones in baggies on my wall, but this time the students voted to have them taken down and put into one central glass container where they can see all the different types. They still want to be able to identify them (there is an accompanying document that lists each of the types of stones that is given to the students.)
The box containing the shiny swag had been sitting in my room for a couple days and I swear, it was a salt lick and my students were the deer. Every couple of minutes one of the students would raise their hand (often in the middle of the lecture - which tells me their minds are wandering a bit) and ask when I was going to pass them out. At recess I would get mobbed and a barrage of questions and requests would pour over me.
Well, I finally gave each of the students their first polished stone - except, of course, those who didn't do their multiplication. If they don't want to give me anything, I don't feel it's appropriate for me to reward them. Turn it in tomorrow, they get the stone.
Of not - eh, more for others.
It seems my brain wanted to do some talking and my fingers were willing to type.
I hope it doesn't sound to bad, cause right now, I've forgotten much of what I've said.
TGIF
L