WEEK 18 - #26Acts

In the past week, there has been a movement gaining ground on Twitter and other social networking sites to have everyone do one random act of kindness for every victim of the Newtown shooting. I've decided that when I get back, I will have a competition between my classes to see which class can get to 26 acts first. There will be no prize and no extra credit given, just the joy of doing something nice for another person. We'll figure out how to write it in Spanish, then post it on the wall. Not only will the students learn new words (as well as the past tense "I" conjugation), it will also help to build a positive climate in the classroom and the school.

I encourage you all to also do 26 nice things for people!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Date	Start	End	Total Hours
12/16/2012	3:45 PM	5:45 PM	2
	7:15 PM	9:00 PM	1.75
	9:30 PM	10:30 PM	1
12/17/2012	8:15 AM	4:45 PM	8.5
12/18/2012	7:15 AM	5:30 PM	10.25
12/19/2012	7:30 AM	5:00 PM	9.5
	9:00 PM	10:30 PM	1.5
12/20/2012	7:30 AM	5:45 PM	10.25
12/21/2012	7:15 AM	3:45 PM	8.5
12/22/2012
Total			53.25

WEEK 17 - Code Red

Due to the tragedy in Newtown Connecticut this past Friday, I've decided that this week's post will be about Code Red drills.

For any of you older than...about...28-30 years old, you probably never had to do a Code Red drill while in school. Code Red was brought into schools as a safety measure shortly after the Columbine school shooting in 1999. During a Code Red drill, students are supposed to huddle in the safest area of the classroom (usually the corner furthest from the door or windows) while the teacher locks the door, pulls the shades, and turns off the lights. Then everyone is to stay as quiet and still as possible until the drill is over. The idea is that if a shooter doesn't see any movement in the classroom, he'll be more likely to assume the classroom is empty and move on.

For many classrooms, the Code Red practice that the Newtown teachers had prior to Friday paid off. One teacher huddled her students into the class bathroom and told them that the gunshots was actually hammering. Another gave her students coloring books to keep calm and occupied so they wouldn't make any noise. And of course there is the story of Victoria Soto, who hid her students in closets and cupboards before being gunned down herself. All of these teachers kept calm and led their students in what will probably be the most terrifying experience of their lives.

This year's freshmen were kindergarteners when I was a senior in high school. Likewise, this year's graduating class was in 3rd grade when I was in my last year of high school. The students of today don't remember a time when they didn't have Code Red drills, yet I have no memory of Code Red at PHS. I remember fire and tornado drills, but no Code Reds. In such a short time, we have gone from not even fathoming something like Columbine or Newtown to having a generation of kids who have constant reminders (5 drills per year) that gunmen in schools are a very real thing.

Forget the killer, remember the victims.

Charlotte Bacon 2/22/06

Daniel Barden 9/25/05

Rachel Davino 7/17/83

Olivia Engel 7/18/06

Josephine Gay 12/11/05

Ana Marquez-Greene 4/4/06

Dylan Hockley 3/8/06

Dawn Hocksprung 6/28/65

Madeleine Hsu 7/10/06

Catherine Hubbard 6/8/06

Chase Kowalski 10/31/05

Jesse Lewis 6/30/06

James Mattioli 3/22/06

Grace McDonnell 11/04/05

Anne Marie Murphy 7/25/60

Emilie Parker 5/12/06

Jack Pinto 5/6/06

Noah Pozner 11/20/06

Caroline Previdi 9/7/06

Jessica Rekos 5/10/06

Avielle Richman 10/17/06

Lauren Rousseau 6/82

Mary Sherlach 2/11/56

Victoria Soto 11/04/85

Benjamin Wheeler 9/12/06

Allison Wyatt 7/3/06

Nancy Lanza

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	12/9/2012	7:15 PM	11:00 PM	3.75
M	12/10/2012	7:45 AM	4:30 PM	8.75
T	12/11/2012	7:45 AM	5:45 PM	10
W	12/12/2012	7:45 AM	5:45 PM	10
Th	12/13/2012	7:30 AM	7:30 PM	12
		8:30 PM	10:00 PM	1.5
F	12/14/2012	8:00 AM	3:45 PM	7.75
Sat	12/15/2012			0
	Total			53.75

WEEK 16 - Cell phones (and tests)

School has changed so much over the years. Not only are things like class sizes, standardized testing, and expectations different, but cheating has also evolved with the times. And cell phones have made cheating extremely easy. 

Ten years ago, when I was a senior in high school, only a very small handful of students had cell phones. Others had access to a cell phone, but it belonged to their parents. Nowadays, nearly every high school student has his or her own cell phone. And while most of the time the cell phones are used to communicate (via texting, not calling because that's such an antiquated way of communication) or play games, they are also used to cheat. 

How, you might ask? There are many different ways. First, there is the obvious texting somebody the answer during a test. Then there is the student that takes a bathroom pass and looks up the answer on their smartphone while out. 

If the student hasn't completed his homework, it's all too easy to text a buddy telling him to snap a picture of the homework and send it to him. I have caught students copying answers off of a picture of somebody else's homework.

I don't pretend to believe that I am aware of all of the different ways kids use their cell phones to cheat on hoemwork and tests, but I like to think that I have caught on to a few of these things and have put in place various policies that make it hard to cheat. First of all, no student is allowed to go to the bathroom during a test. Second, if I see a cell phone out during a test, I not only take the phone away, but I will also either give the student a grade reduction or make him/her take an alternate test. And finally, I make my homework worth sooooo little (shhh don't tell my students) that even if they copied from another person, it wouldn't matter since their true ability would show on test days. 

As a sidenote, I've also learned that when passing out a test, I have to personally hand each test to each student (as opposed to handing 6 tests to the first person in a row of 6 and having them pass them back) because I've had students grab a test, but it in their folders, then say that I didn't pass out enough tests. They will then have a copy of the test to show their friends who have class in later hours. 

My hours for week 16:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	12/2/2012	12:30 PM	2:30 PM	2
		4:30 PM	7:45 PM	3.25
		10:15 PM	11:45 AM	1.5
M	12/3/2012	7:45 AM	5:45 PM	10
T	12/4/2012	7:15 AM	5:45 PM	10.5
		9:00 PM	11:15 PM	2.25
W	12/5/2012	8:00 PM	5:30 PM	9.5
		8:15 PM	10:30 PM	2.25
Th	12/6/2012	7:15 AM	5:00 PM	9.75
		8:30 PM	10:15 PM	1.75
F	12/7/2012	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
		8:45 PM	10:30 PM	1.75
Sat	12/8/2012			0
	Total			63

WEEK 15 - Tardy in 1st hour

It's amazing how many students come late to 1st hour. Washburn starts school at 8:30, so it's not like it's an incredibly early start like some of the high schools in the area that start at 7:15. Yet, there's always a few students who just don't catch the bus on time and come anywhere from a minute late to missing 1st hour completely. Last year it wasn't really an issue, but this year, I always have 4-6 students who are late or miss class because they missed the bus. One day, 10 of my 29 students in 1st hour were not there by the time the bell rang. That's over 1/3 of the class. 

Sadly, the students who are consistently late are generally the students who need to be in class the most, and when you miss 20 minutes of class 2-3 times per week, it's inevitable that you'll fall behind. It's almost like for some students, they need to be very careful which class is scheduled in their 1st hour spot, because some kids keep on failing 1st hour, no matter what the class is. 

My hours for week 15:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	11/25/2012	9:00 PM	11:00 PM	2
M	11/26/2012	7:30 AM	6:00 PM	10.5
T	11/27/2012	7:45 AM	5:15 PM	9.5
W	11/28/2012	7:45 AM	6:45 PM	11
Th	11/29/2012	7:45 AM	4:00 PM	8.25
F	11/30/2012	7:45 AM	3:45 PM	8
		7:30 PM	9:45 PM	2.25
Sat	12/1/2012			0
	Total			51.5

WEEK 14- Thanksgiving

This week, since we had Thanksgiving break, I wanted to focus on the aspects of my job for which I'm thankful.

First and foremost, I'm thankful that I actually have a job. I spent quite a bit of time without a job, and without even a direction for where I wanted to go, that I am extremely thankful that I am able to work and earn a living.

I am thankful for my department. Nancy, Katy, Lydia, Josephine, and Alissa are some of the most supportive and understanding colleagues I could ask for. Whether they are brand new to Washburn or have one foot out the door, everyone is willing to try new things and adjust their teaching to fit the current needs of the students. We work well together, and I always look forward to lunch when we can decompress together.

I am thankful for my administration and their trust in me. As only a 2nd year teacher, it's very possible for me to totally mess things up before I really get my rhythm, but they keep their hands off and let me teach the way I want to teach, even if it means making mistakes along the way.

I am thankful that I had 2 very great mentors along the way: Robert Tangen, my Spanish teacher in high school, and Jonathan Townsend, my mentor teacher during my student teaching at Southwest High School. I do my darnedest to emulate these two great teachers, and often when I'm not sure how to teach something, I think to my self, "What would Tangen do? What would Townsend do?"

I am thankful that my class sizes are down to under 30 this year. Class sizes do matter, and this year I am able to give more individual attention to the students that need it.

I am thankful that the subject matter I teach can easily be used to open doors up all around the world, and that the students who wish to do so will better be able to compete in a global society because of my class.

Finally and most importantly, I am thankful for my students, both current and past. When I see my students playing around with the language for fun, or when a student shares a story of how they used their new Spanish abilities to talk with one of their Hispanic classmates, or when a student comes in completely excited because they understood something said in Spanish on TV, that's when I know that I am in the right profession. I look back to when I was starting my Spanish classes in 9th grade, then I think about all of the opportunities that I had because of my bilingualism, and I get excited about the variety of futures that lie ahead for these kids.

I took it easy during Thanksgiving break, as I should do every once in a while.

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	11/18/2012	9:00 AM	10:30 AM	1.5
		2:15 PM	3:00 PM	0.75
		8:00 PM	8:45 PM	0.75
M	11/19/2012	7:30 AM	6:15 PM	10.75
T	11/20/2012	7:30 AM	4:15 PM	8.75
		8:00 PM	9:45 PM	1.75
W	11/21/2012	7:45 AM	4:45 PM	9
Th	11/22/2012			0
F	11/23/2012			0
Sat	11/24/2012			0
	Total			33.25

WEEK 13 - Snot

This week's topic is snot. That's right, snot. It's surprising how many boogers get blown throughout the day, especially during allergy season. One box of tissues rarely lasts a week, and tissues aren't something that teachers are just given. There's no closet somewhere where we can just go and get more tissues (maybe other schools have that, but we don't). I know that our department had to actually put in an order to get a big box full of small boxes of tissues (putting orders in = paperwork = more time doing something other than actually teaching). We got those at the beginning of the year, and they're completely out now. I generally ask for donations, but many times students will bring rolls of toilet paper in from the school bathroom, which hold us over until we can get more tissues.

Teachers (and students) come into contact with many people and germs throughout the day. High school teachers generally see between 130-150 students per day. If we teach 5 classes, that means that every desk gets contaminated 5 times a day. And students touch EVERYTHING. Door handle. Pencil sharpener. Stapler. Light switch. Tape. Markers. Each other. Everything. On top of that, they hand in ONE assignment, and I get to touch 140 pieces of paper that have been contaminated by God knows what was on their hands.  Hand in 2, and I get 280 pieces of paper. Hand in 3...you get the picture.

Because of this, students and teachers get sick a lot. In our language department there are 6 teachers, and in the last 2 weeks, 4 of us have now gotten the same boogery, runny sinus infection. We've all had to take off between 1-3 days (although I could have stayed in bed for a week with how awful I was feeling).

As icky as it might be with all these goopy teenagers touching everything, I must say that it is way worse for elementary teachers who deal with kids who don't yet know how to sneeze properly and probably play with their boogers. Yuck.

My hours for week 13.

Sun	11/11/2012	7:30 PM	10:00 PM	2.5
M	11/12/2012	7:30 AM	4:00 PM	8.5
T	11/13/2012	7:45 AM	5:15 PM	9.5
		8:00 PM	10:00 PM	2
W	11/14/2012	7:30 AM	5:15 PM	9.75
		8:30 PM	10:00 PM	1.5
Th	11/15/2012	8:00 AM	4:15 PM	8.25
		7:30 PM	8:15 PM	0.75
F	11/16/2012	7:15 AM	3:30 PM	8.25
		9:30 PM	10:30 PM	1
Sat	11/17/2012	8:30 AM	9:00 AM	0.5
		11:00 PM	11:30 PM	0.5
	Total			53

WEEK 12 - Substitute Teachers

If you read my blog last week, you'll know that lately, I've been pushing myself quite a bit. And it finally caught up with me. I spent all of Sunday sick in bed, tried to push through and teach Monday (a mistake), then ended up having to take Tuesday and Wednesday off because I was pretty miserably sick.

For teachers, taking a sick day is not just a matter of calling in sick and catching up on your work when you get back. On Tuesday morning when I made the decision to call in sick, I still had to work an hour in the morning, while I could barely think because I was so miserable, to create a lesson for a substitute. 

The idea of a substitute teacher is that they will fill in and continue teaching whatever the teacher was on at the time. This rarely happens, especially for language teachers, since most substitute teachers don't speak Spanish. It's especially hard for lower levels of Spanish, since the lower the level, the more the students depend on the teacher to learn. In contrast, my level 5/6 class is pretty easy to prepare for, because they have enough skills to be able to read articles and write papers in Spanish (which is what they did while I was gone). Spanish 1 is always more difficult, because you can't expect the substitute to know how to teach different aspects of language.

Getting a substitute is a pretty easy process these days. I just go online to a website that Minneapolis uses, put in what day I'll be out, then it'll show up on the website as an opening which any available sub can snatch up when they log in. 

Getting a good sub is very important. Having a bad sub can mean having to do damage control the day you get back. One time last year I came back from being sick and the desks were all over the place, some overturned, books strewn all over the floor, a book that was stuck to the floor with gum, the attendance was recorded wrong, every student in one of my classes got 100% on the quiz (never leave a quiz with a sub) etc... It was a disaster. When I asked the students what happened, they all said that he just sat behind the desk watching Seinfeld the whole hour. One of my classes even said that he put Seinfeld up on the overhead so they could watch because the students weren't doing their work. Needless to say, he was never called back to Washburn. 

A good sub, on the other hand, is one that interacts with students, tries to help them out even if they're not experts in the content area, takes attendance, has the students straighten things up at the end of the hour, and leaves a note on what went on that day. There are many that do this, but they tend to get snatched up as teachers pretty quickly, so you have to find new good subs the next year. 

My hours for week 12, pretty short due to being sick most of the week. 

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
M	11/5/2012	7:30 AM	4:15 PM	8.75
		7:45 PM	9:15 PM	1.25
T	11/6/2012	6:00 AM	7:00 AM	1
		10:00 PM	10:45 PM	0.75
W	11/7/2012	8:00 PM	8:45 PM	0.75
Th	11/8/2012	7:00 AM	4:45 PM	9.75
F	11/8/2012	7:45 AM	4:00 PM	8.25
	Total			30.5

WEEK 11 - Breakdown

I had my first breakdown this week. There are only so many 55-65 hour weeks you can put in before it becomes too much to handle. By mid-week, I was to the point where all someone needed to do was look at me the wrong way and I would snap. What finally put me over the edge was the copy machine continually jamming while I was trying to make copies for the next day. I just sat down and let it out, all the while thinking of everything I still had to deal with before the end of the week. In this post, I will be talking about a few of those things that built up to eventually push me over the edge.

1. It's the end of the quarter. 23 of my 130 students failed this quarter, mostly because they come late, sleep, talk to the people around them, goof off, don't do their classwork or homework, then fail the tests. However, many think they can come in and jump through hoops at the end of the quarter to get their grades up. I take a hard line and tell them to work harder next quarter so that they quit failing the tests. I give extra credit only in extremely rare cases, and this is not one of them.

2. Wednesdays all teachers teach a 7th class not necessarily related to our content areas. I teach Spanish club. This is extra preparation from what we already have to prepare, and really ends up getting very little of my attention.

3. One of my students told me that the kids in his class are picking on him. I haven't seen anything, but said I will remain vigilant. The class he is in is a pretty chatty class, and nearly half of the students have either Ds or Fs, mostly because of apathy. Simply getting them to quiet down and focus on learning is a huge task in and of itself, but having to deal with bullying in my classroom under my nose will make it even harder. I have already spoken with the principal and the deans, and a dean came in to observe my classroom on Thursday. I'll have to sit down with the other students this upcoming week, probably during my prep time.

4. On Tuesday I got an email about a student of mine who was suspended for bringing a weapon to school. I am supposed to get some work together for him to work at home, give him an incomplete for the quarter (because he missed the final test) and stay after school with him (on my own time) when he gets back so that he can take that final test. Really??

5. On Wednesday, the parent of one of my students, Frank (not his real name), emailed to say that one of Frank's friends from middle school was murdered on Monday, and that is why Frank might be a little out of it. Emotionally, this took a toll on me. His friend died a gruesome death (by sword), and just knowing that Frank, a super sweet 14 year old has to deal with this just hit me hard. It has been on my mind for a few days, especially knowing that another one of my students is suspended for bringing a weapon to school.

6. On Wednesday, when all I really needed to do was grade and prepare for the end of the quarter, we had a meeting. Every other Wednesday our department gets together to talk about issues specific to the world language department, but this week it was the last thing on my mind, since I had so many other things to deal with. The meeting goes from 3:15-4:45 (or 4:30...not sure since we generally go past 4:30 every meeting). I didn't leave the school until 7:45pm that night.

7. If you have been following my hours, you will see that since August 20th, I have worked every single day. I have not taken even 1 day off from working on school work. Some might say that this is unhealthy (indeed, I am sick today) and that I'm doing myself and my students a disservice, but with all of the extra work that comes with being a teacher, just keeping ahead of the game keeps me on my toes every single day. Again, if I could just teach, and not have meetings and extra classes, and not have to play parent to many kids who don't know how to function in a large group, and not have trainings, this job would be a lot easier, and probably more in line with what the public thinks teachers do.

My hours for week 11:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	10/28/2012	12:30 PM	1:30 PM	1
		3:15 PM	5:45 PM	2.5
M	10/29/2012	7:45 AM	5:00 PM	9.25
		9:15 PM	10:45 PM	1.5
T	10/30/2012	7:45 AM	5:15 PM	9.5
		8:00 PM	9:00 PM	1
W	10/31/2012	7:45 AM	7:45 PM	12
Th	11/1/2012	7:45 AM	6:00 PM	10.25
F	11/2/2012	9:00 AM	12:30 PM	3.5
		1:30 PM	4:15 PM	2.75
Sat	11/3/2012	9:30 AM	11:30 AM	2
		7:45 PM	10:45 PM	3
	Total			58.25

WEEK 10 - Open Houses

This past Thursday we had an informational open house for 8th graders (and their parents) who are thinking of attending Washburn next year. During the open house, we had representatives from all different content areas to talk about what the students can expect in different classes at our school. I, along with Nancy Gustafson (French), was one of the representatives for the World Languages team. We were in Nancy's room and had to give an overview of our program and answer questions all within a 15-minute timeframe. We had to do this for 6 different sessions. The open house went from 6:30-8:30pm, which made for a really long day at school (I left only to give someone a ride home, then returned and continued my work until the open house).

Although open houses don't happen all the time, this was the 2nd one so far this school year. The first one was for the parents of current students to come and see what we are doing and ask questions. This one was for prospective students. In a few weeks, I will have another open house at one of nearby middle schools to answer any questions that those particular parents and students may have about Washburn's language program.

My hours for week 10:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	10/21/2012	8:00 AM	12:15 PM	4.25
		5:00 PM	9:30 PM	4.5
M	10/22/2012	4:00 PM	5:25 PM	1.25
		8:30 PM	11:00 PM	2.5
T	10/23/2012	7:15 AM	6:45 PM	11.5
		10:15 PM	11:30 PM	1.25
W	10/24/2012	7:45 AM	4:30 PM	8.75
		5:15 PM	6:00 PM	0.75
		9:00 PM	10:30 PM	1.5
Th	10/25/2012	7:45 AM	8:45 PM	13
F	10/26/2012	7:30 AM	4:00 PM	8.5
Sat	10/27/2012	8:15 PM	9:00 PM	0.75
	Total			58.5

WEEK 9 - Spending MEA training in North Carolina

This week is MEA. For all of you who don't live in Minnesota, MEA stands for "Minnesota Education Association." The 3rd weekend in October students have a 4-day weekend (in Minneapolis it's a 5-day weekend because we do conferences on Wednesday) so that teachers can attend conferences for educators. For many teachers (and students), it's a nice break from normal day-to-day activities.

This MEA weekend, I don't really get a break. In fact, on Thursday morning I left my house at 9am to board an airplane to North Carolina for IB (International Baccalaureate) teacher training. IB is a bit complicated to explain, (you can look it up if you want) but basically I'm getting this training because I teach the highest levels of Spanish (levels 5 and 6) and the students in those classes will have to sit for some pretty extensive exams in the spring, and I have to know how to adequately prepare them to do this. 

I arrived at 5pm Thursday, but because Tuesday and Wednesday we had parent-teacher conferences, I was completely wiped out and ended up going to bed extremely early. Friday and Saturday we had our training from 8am until 4:15pm, and after the conference Friday, my colleague and I spent 2 hours taking what we learned and applying it to a project we're developing for our classes. Tomorrow (Sunday) we will have more training from 8am until noon, and then I fly back in to Minneapolis at 9pm. So as you can see, not only am I not getting an "MEA break," I'm not even getting a weekend. 

Many people might say, "oh you have MEA weekend, and since my kids get a long weekend off, teachers must also get that time off." Well, even though I only taught Monday and Tuesday, I worked a total of 56 hours this week. To calculate my time this weekend, I included the time spent at the conference, the time my colleague and I spent working on a project after the conference, and the time spent on the plane. 

While I won't always have to spend MEA out of state doing a training, it's important for people to know that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and that we're not just at home chilling during MEA or other breaks, like their kids are doing. 

My hours for week 9:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	10/14/2012	5:30 PM	6:30 PM	1
		7:30 PM	10:30 PM	3
M	10/15/2012	7:30 AM	5:30 PM	10
T	10/16/2012	7:15 AM	8:30 PM	13.25
W	10/17/2012	7:45 AM	12:30 PM	4.75
Th	10/18/2012	11:00 AM	4:30 PM	5.5
F	10/19/2012	8:00 AM	4:15 PM	8.25
		5:00 PM	7:00 PM	2
Sat	10/20/2012	8:00 AM	4:15 PM	8.25
	Total			56

WEEK 8 - Parent-Teacher Conferences

This week we will have parent-teacher conferences. The first part will be Tuesday from 4pm-8pm. The second part is Wednesday from 8am-12pm. Generally conferences would be all day Wednesday (students have Wednesday off, and then Th and F for MEA), but we voted to split them between Tuesday and Wednesday so that parents who work odd hours would have different choices about when to come.

Personally, I love parent-teacher conferences. I have had nothing but good experiences with parents during conferences. The way I see it, if a student is doing awesome and his/her parent comes in, I get to be the bearer of good news, which I love to do and parents love to hear. And if a student is struggling, I get to connect with the parent, who many times is unaware that his/her child is struggling. In that case, I have the opportunity to get the parents on board to help support the student. Only good has come from my interactions with parents.

Although I have not had any issues during conferences, I do understand that that's not the case for everyone. Many times parents have an idea of how things should or shouldn't be taught, and they sometimes put the pressure on the teacher to change what they are doing. Other times, parents think that their child should be getting a higher grade than s/he deserves, and in their minds, it becomes a problem with the teacher rather than the student. I personally have not had these experiences, but I know that it happens all the time, and can be a very stressful part of teaching.

My hours for week 8:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	10/7/2012	9:30 PM	11:00 PM	1.5
M	10/8/2012	7:45 AM	6:00 PM	10.25
		10:30 PM	11:15 PM	0.75
T	10/9/2012	7:30 AM	5:30 PM	10
		7:30 PM	8:30 PM	1
W	10/10/2012	7:45 AM	5:00 PM	9.25
Th	10/11/2012	7:30 AM	6:00 PM	10.5
		9:45 PM	10:45 PM	1
F	10/12/2012	7:45 AM	5:00 PM	9.25
Sat	10/13/2012	9:30 AM	1:30 PM	4
	Total			57.5

WEEK 7 - Energy (Part 2): Duty that extends beyond the classroom

Remember last week when I likened teaching to being in a 5 hour meeting every day? Well, this past week, I actually had quite a few meetings on top of my daily 5 hour "meeting" with students. On Tuesday, we had an open house for parents to come in and meet the teachers and see what it is we do in our classes day in and day out. I always enjoy meeting parents, so this was good fun. It went from 6:00-7:30, and then after that, the Spanish teachers hosted a meeting for the parents of students who want to go on the Argentina trip. Because of these two things, I left work at 8:45pm, having logged 13.25 hours straight at Washburn. When I got home, I still had more planning and grading to do, so I ended up putting in 15.25 hours in 1 day. That took a ton of energy.

The next morning, because I had a meeting at 7:30am, I had to get to school at 7am. It was an IB (International Baccalaureate) meeting for students in the highest levels of each content area. Then I spent the day not in my classroom, but in my colleague's classroom talking about what it means to be an IB Spanish student. After school, we had a 90 minute department meeting that went until about 4:45pm. Keep in mind that during all of these meetings, we have no time to create our lessons or do grading. All of this happens after hours. If you look at my hours for only Tuesday and Wednesday, in 2 days I logged 27.25 hours of work.

Additionally, nearly every day I have at least 1 student who comes in before school and at least 1 student who comes in after school for help. Most of the time, it's more than 1. In fact, during the week of September 24th, I had over 20 students come in either for help or to make up a quiz or a test. When I have students coming in so frequently, I have to get to school earlier than normal, or I stay later than normal, just to get my normal duties completed.

Again, if we only had to teach, and we only had to teach within school hours, it would be a cakewalk.

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	9/30/2012	7:30 PM	9:30 PM	2
M	10/1/2012	7:30 AM	6:00 PM	10.5
		8:30 PM	9:30 PM	1
T	10/2/2012	7:30 AM	8:45 PM	13.25
		9:45 PM	11:45 PM	2
W	10/3/2012	7:00 AM	5:30 PM	10.5
		9:00 PM	10:30 PM	1.5
Th	10/4/2012	7:45 AM	6:00 PM	10.25
F	10/5/2012	8:00 AM	5:30 PM	9.5
Sat	10/6/2012	8:45 PM	9:30 PM	0.75
	Total			61.25

WEEK 6 - Energy (part 1)

This week and next week I wanted to talk about energy: A teacher's energy and students' energy and how that plays a part in a teacher's career.

Think back to a time when you had to get up in front of a group of people and give a presentation. Maybe it was for a class project, a work meeting, a performance, etc. Now imagine having to do that presentation for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 9 months in front of a group of 30-40 kids who many times are not interested in what you have to say. It really takes a lot of energy to stand up in front of people all day long and share with them something about which you are passionate, yet they may not even give a hoot about. Public speaking is the #1 fear in the United States, but teachers speak publicly all day every day, to a group of people who are still learning how to function in society. For me, sometimes it takes a lot of energy to interact with people all day, but to rarely have the opportunity to interact with adults.

Every single individual brings with them a certain amount of positive and negative energy, which many times is determined by what is happening in their personal lives, and oftentimes affects their performance in school. As teachers, we really have no control over what type of energy the student brings into the classroom. A student who is dealing with homelessness (and yes, I have had several homeless students in my very short time of teaching) is not thinking about how to get an A in Spanish class. A student whose parent abuses him is not trying to be the star student. A student who is being bullied could probably care less about where Honduras is. I can preach all I want about how important it is to do your homework and do well in school, but for many kids, it's just not the most important thing they're dealing with at the time.

In situations like these, the teacher then becomes the counselor, the confidante, and, often times, the parent. Good teachers care about their students. When a teacher finds out that their student is going through something tough, it can actually be hard on the teacher as well. We want to help and give support, and sometimes we are powerless (or at least that's how we feel).

If we just had to teach, for many of us, the job would be a cakewalk. We know our content area; imparting that knowledge is not necessarily the hard part. It's all the other stuff that surrounds nurturing and forming individuals into functional adults that many times sucks the energy right out of us (not always the case, but many times it is). It is no wonder that I can sleep 10 hours on Friday nights, take 2 naps on Saturdays, and still be able to sleep Saturday night.

My hours for week 6:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	9/23/2012	5:00 PM	7:30 PM	2.5
M	9/24/2012	7:45 AM	6:45 PM	11
		8:00 PM	9:15 PM	1.25
		9:45 PM	11:00 PM	1.25
T	9/25/2012	7:15 AM	6:00 PM	10.75
		9:00 PM	9:30 PM	0.5
W	9/26/2012	7:45 AM	5:30 PM	9.75
		9:00 PM	9:30 PM	0.5
Th	9/27/2012	7:30 AM	7:00 PM	11.5
F	9/28/2012	7:30 AM	5:30 AM	10
Sat	9/29/2012	5:00 PM	5:30 PM	0.5
	Total			59.5

WEEK 5 - Observations

In Minneapolis (and most other districts as well, I presume), every teacher has to have a series of observations done by either an administrator or some higher-up from the district. As a non-tenured teacher, I have to do 5 this year. During these observations, the observer looks for certain things, such as how well I communicate the objectives and content, and how well I create a positive climate with routines and transitions, among other things.

The observation itself is actually great, in my opinion. I love it when other people watch my class and give me feedback on what I can do better. The only real negative about the observation is that for both the observer and the observed, it's a lot of paperwork. For every observation, we have to do a pre-conference as well as a post-conference. In order to prepare for the pre-conference, I have to fill out papers that outline just what I'm going to do, how they meet the students' learning objectives, how they meet the "Standards of Effective Instruction" for teachers, what I anticipate might be difficult, why I decided to do this lesson, what data have I gathered from my students' abilities that helped me choose what the lesson will be about, what instructional strategies I'll be using, how I'm connecting my lesson to other classes the students are taking, how I know if they've understood, and how I will differentiate based on the different abilities of the students.

Filling out all this paperwork took me just under 2 hours on Sunday. Then on Monday, I communicated all this information to my observer during our conference, which was about 45 minutes. The observation was Wednesday during my 2nd hour class. Then on Friday we had our post-conference. To prepare for the post-conference, there's another series of paperwork that needs to be filled out outlining what I felt I did well and not well, and how I would rate myself in the different domains of teaching. This took me an hour, then the next day we had the conference, which was another 45 minutes.

Bottom line: there are many more things that teachers do than just teaching.

My hours for this week:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	9/16/2012	10:00 PM	11:45 PM	1.75
M	9/17/2012	7:15 AM	4:15 PM	9
T	9/18/2012	7:15 AM	5:30 PM	10.25
		7:45 PM	10:15 PM	2.5
W	9/19/2012	7:00 AM	6:00 PM	11
		8:45 PM	9:15 PM	0.5
		10:00 PM	10:45 PM	0.75
Th	9/20/2012	7:15 AM	5:30 PM	10.25
		9:30 PM	10:30 PM	1
F	9/21/2012	7:30 AM	4:15 PM	8.75
Sat	9/22/2012	3:30 PM	5:30 PM	2
		6:45 PM	7:45 PM	1
	Total			58.75

WEEK 4 - September 11th

It was very interesting spending September 11th with the students this year. For those of us who remember the terror of that day and just how much things have changed since then, it's hard to imagine not taking 9/11 seriously. I was just beginning 11th grade when the attacks happened, so I wanted to share my story with my students.

In my level V/VI class, all but 2 students are seniors. That means that they (the seniors) were born in 1994 or 1995, which puts them in 1st grade on September 11, 2001. For my level I classes, nearly everyone is a freshman, which means they were born  in 1997 or 1998. For the freshmen, only very few had any actual memory of that day, since they were all around 3 or 4 years old.

I wanted to take advantage of the fact that some of my students actually still remember 9/11, so I had my seniors do their first journal entry answering the question, "What do I remember from 9/11?" This was a great opportunity to practice their Spanish in a personal way, and to also work on their preterit and imperfect tense usage. :)

For the freshmen in level 1, I shared (in Spanish) with them my experience, using as many gestures and pictures as possible. Many students were really engaged, not only because of what I was saying, but by the fact that I was saying it in Spanish. Other students shared that they felt like they keep hearing this broken record of how big 9/11 was, but in some ways it's meaningless to them since they don't really remember life before that day.

It's really interesting how 1 decade makes such a difference.

My hours:

Day    Date                  Start              End               Hours
Sun    9/9/2012           1:15 PM       4:00 PM          2.75
M      9/10/2012          7:45 AM      6:15 PM          10.5
                                    7:45 PM      9:15 PM           2
T        9/11/2012         7:30 AM      5:30 PM           10
W       9/12/2012         7:30 AM      5:15 PM           9.75
Th      9/13/2012         7:15 AM      6:00 PM           10.75
                                    9:15 PM     11:00 PM          1.75
F        9/14/2012          7:45 AM     5:00 PM           9.25
Sat     9/15/2012         8:30 AM      9:00 AM          .5

                                                      Total:                57.25

WEEK 3 - Peeing. Yes, peeing.

Teachers can't exactly leave the classroom with students unattended, no matter what the age of the student. This means that if a teacher has to go to the bathroom, he or she is sort of out of luck. At Washburn, we have 5 minutes between each class, but this really isn't enough since there are always students who stay late to ask a question or discuss some issue. Also, at Washburn we have 1 staff bathroom for 2 whole floors. That means that there is only 1 toilet for maybe 40 or more people, and there is always a line to wait for the bathroom. It is no wonder that teachers have the highest rates of urinary tract infections. What other job inhibits your ability to go to the bathroom so much?

Technically, we can call down to the office to have someone come up and watch our class while we go to the bathroom, but then you run the risk of losing instructional time, or you have to create individual work on the spot that students can work on while you are out (and even with individual work, students always have questions). Many teachers just decide not to deal with it, and just hold it until they have a break.

My hours for week 3:

Sun	9/2/2012	5:45 PM	7:45 PM	2
M	9/3/2012	8:00 PM	10:45 AM	2.75
T	9/4/2012	7:15 AM	6:00 PM	10.75
		10:30 PM	12:00 AM	1.5
W	9/5/2012	7:15 AM	6:00 PM	10.75
		7:15 PM	9:15 PM	2
Th	9/6/2012	7:30 AM	5:15 PM	9.75
		9:00 PM	10:00 PM	1
F	9/7/2012	7:45 AM	4:30 PM	8.75
Sat	9/8/2012	11:30 AM	12:30 PM	1
	Total			50.25