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