WEEK 35 - Seeing students grow

One of the neatest things about teaching, I'm beginning to learn, is seeing students grow into young adults. We teachers spend 170-190 days with these students, and oftentimes build very strong teacher-student relationships. Then the year ends and the student gets a new teacher the next year, and another one the next year, etc. Before you know it, a few years have passed and you see a former student and think, "wow has he grown!" It has to be one of the coolest things I've experienced in teaching so far.

I got to thinking about this because recently I was contacted by a former student's mother. She wanted me to tutor her son Klaas this summer. Klaas was a freshman in my level 1 class when I was a student-teacher at Southwest High School a few years ago. He worked hard and spent some time in Spanish-speaking countries, and was able to skip levels 2 and 4 of Spanish, so next year he will be entering level 6 as a senior. I met with him this past Wednesday, and I was floored by his growth. Not just physically (he was very small as a freshman, but now he is taller than I am), but also in terms of maturity. He has more confidence, is very forward-thinking, and thinks deeply. His Spanish has also improved tenfold. Not only can he defend himself in Spanish, he can do it very grammatically-correct with a broad range of vocabulary! :)

I'm very excited to see what the future brings Klaas, because I know that when he graduates, he's going to go out there and do great things. The same can be said for many of my students now at Washburn. Most of these kids have no idea that they are destined for awesomeness, but we teachers often recognize it before they do. Yet, since we only get these students for a year, oftentimes we get to plant the seed but never see the flower. It is awesome when we get to see the final product, and know that we had a hand in its creation and development. Again, it's one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching I've encountered so far.

My hours for week 35:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	4/28/2013	5:30 PM	6:30 PM	1
		9:30 PM	11:30 PM	2
M	4/29/2013	7:45 AM	3:15 PM	7.5
		8:30 PM	9:45 PM	1.25
T	4/30/2013	7:15 AM	6:15 PM	11
W	5/1/2013	7:45 AM	6:30 PM	10.75
Th	5/2/2013	7:15 AM	6:00 PM	10.75
F	5/3/2013	7:30 AM	5:30 PM	10
Sat	5/4/2013			0
	Total			54.25

WEEK 34 - The case for year-round schooling

When most people in the US think about year-round schooling, they think it's absolutely crazy. The United States traditionally has had school years that span from September to June, which originally was to accommodate for the children who had to work in the fields during the summertime.

However, now that we have moved away from being a farming country, summer break for students is usually equated with relaxing, having a summer job, or taking vacations. When I was a student, I would have hated the idea of year-round schooling. Now that I'm a teacher, I see that there are many great reasons for it.

First of all, when I say "year-round schooling" I don't mean that students are in the classroom 5 days a week for the whole calendar year. Most schools that go year-round actually have the same amount of days in the classroom, but it's spread out over the whole year. Rather than having 4 quarters back-to-back and then having 3 months of vacation, students would have 1 quarter (9 weeks), then 3 weeks off. Then they'd have another quarter, then another 3 weeks off, etc.

Disadvantages of this would be that it would affect students' and teachers' abilities to get summer jobs, and some students would be in school in the heat without air-conditioning.

However, as a teacher, I feel like the advantages would far outweigh the disadvantages. Studies have shown that the first couple of months of the school year ends up being a review of the last year because kids forget things over the 3-month long summer. With only 3 weeks off at a time, it would be less likely that students would forget things, and in the long run, kids would learn more.

Additionally, it would help teachers plan better. To actually create a unit to teach in class takes a long time, and is extremely difficult to do during the school year. Therefore, many teachers do unit-writing during the summer. The disadvantage of this is that teachers are creating material without knowing the students or the students' needs. Contrary to what most people think, teachers can't always just use the same lessons over and over and over. Lessons are often changed or discarded based on the needs and abilities of the students. One year I might have a classroom filled with students with IEPs who need special modifications, and the next year I could have a group of kids that are complete high-fliers. No 2 groups of kids are ever the same and therefore lessons always change. If we had the 3 weeks in between each quarter, I could take the time to create new lessons based on what would work well with my students. Since we don't have that time, oftentimes my lessons are just thrown together because I have so many other things going on, like meetings and grading.

Also, I truly believe that human beings weren't made to go full force for 9 months and then have nothing for 3 months. The way things are set up now, students and teachers are expected to turn the switch on in September, then shut it off in June, but it is a highly ineffective way of doing things. We do this on a smaller scale as well, making students go full force with academics every day and cutting out recess, phy ed, and unstructured play time. Kids (and humans in general) are more efficient when they take frequent mental breaks.

My hours for week 34:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	4/21/2013	8:00 PM	10:15 PM	2.25
M	4/22/2013	7:45 AM	4:45 PM	9
T	4/23/2013	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
W	4/24/2013	7:45 AM	5:30 PM	9.75
		10:30 PM	11:15 PM	0.75
Th	4/25/2013	7:45 AM	8:15 PM	12.5
F	4/26/2013	7:30 AM	3:45 PM	8.25
Sat	4/27/2013			0
	Total			51

WEEK 33 - Special Education (part 2)

Every student who receives special education services has what's called an "Individualized Education Plan" or IEP. An IEP is a very long document that lays out what the student's disability is, and what modifications and adaptations the student will receive because of his/her disability. For example, if a student is blind, they might have an IEP that states that tests can be done orally rather than by writing. If a student has a cognitive disability, the IEP might lay out strategies to help the teacher give clearer instructions. The IEP is different for every student, and has to be written by the Special Education teacher (a long process, they tell me).

This year I have 21 Special Education students. Their disabilities run the spectrum, from autism to hearing disabilities, to speech impediments to cognitive disabilities. A few examples of accommodations that I have to make are: giving more time to complete assignments, having the student seated to my left so he can hear with his good ear, testing in a separate room, checking in daily to make sure the student understands the instructions. Every student can have anywhere from 1-10 accommodations.  Because I have 21 kids who all receive different services, sometimes it can get confusing and I can make mistakes. Like I said in a previous post, the best thing a high school student can do is advocate for him/herself if they feel like their IEP is not being respected (take note, parents of students in Special Education). Because world language is an elective, we do not get help from the Special Education teachers (oftentimes the Sped teachers will be in the classroom as "collaborators" with the mainstream teacher, but we do not get this).

In a language classroom, we find that we have more students in Special Education in the lower levels than in the upper levels. After doing a quick glance over our records, we found that there were roughly the same amount of special ed students in levels 1 and 2, but then there was a massive drop-off in level 3, and there were none in levels 4, 5, or 6. One reason for this is that most of the time, students in special education enter into level 1 in high school because they didn't have room in their schedules to take a language in middle school. Another reason could be the way in which language is taught at the school might be difficult for the learner (if the student has a low reading ability in English, they'll most likely struggle in a foreign language if there is a focus on literature), and they might decide not to move on after 2 years.

From a language teacher's perspective, the best thing you can do for your child in Special Ed is get them as much exposure to language as possible before they enter high school. Nowadays, even students entering into level 1 have had some background in the language, and it's easy for kids without exposure to fall behind, especially if they are up against some type of disability.

My hours for week 33:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	4/14/2013	7:45 PM	9:30 PM	1.75
M	4/15/2013	7:45 AM	5:15 PM	9.5
T	4/16/2013	7:00 AM	4:15 PM	9.25
W	4/17/2013	7:45 AM	8:45 PM	13
Th	4/18/2013	7:15 AM	4:45 PM	9.5
F	4/19/2013	7:45 AM	3:45 PM	8
Sat	4/20/2013			0
	Total			51

WEEKS 31 & 32 - New Leadership

I am currently at 431 hours of overtime this school year. That amounts for nearly 11 weeks (or 2 months) of full time work...all of it extra.

It is with extremely mixed emotions that I write this post. This past week brought big changes at Washburn. For those of you in the Twin Cities area who read the news, you are probably aware of everything that has been going on at my high school. I won't go into everything here, but I will touch on the important facts. You are free to look up the rest on your own.

Over spring break, news broke that our athletic director was under investigation for a personnel matter involving money used to buy a new scoreboard for the school. Students rallied around him and staged a walk-out on the Monday back from break. Over 200 students (of the 1200 students who attend the school) walked out during 4th hour and didn't return. Two days later, again over 200 students staged a sit-in in front of the principal's office. That night, as a big surprise to many, the superintendent decided to relieve our principal of her duties at Washburn and bring on an interim principal to finish out the year, citing the need to stop all of the distractions and restore an effective learning environment to the school.

For most, it was a complete shock. Even some students who participated in the walk-out and sit-in didn't realize that their actions could have negative ramifications against the principal. For others who did not particularly care for Ms. Markham-Cousins, it was reason to celebrate.

Ms. Markham-Cousins was in her 6th year at Washburn, and had led a school turnaround which resulted in transforming the school from being one that many did not wish to attend to one that so many wished to attend.

With the risk of sounding biased, I would like to say that this has been a particularly difficult pill to swallow. Ms. Markham-Cousins was a principal who walked the halls and made a point to get to know the students by name. She popped into classrooms and visited teachers just to see how we were doing or if we needed anything. She fought to support the language department's effort to start a course geared towards teaching native Spanish speakers how to read and write (studies show that if they can read and write in their first language, their English scores go up). When the school performed the musical Fame last year, she attended 5 times. Before Ms. Markham-Cousins showed up, our school hadn't put on a musical in 17 years. Before her, we had 5 band directors in 6 years. Before her, the language department was half the size it is today.

The way in which we found out about this decision was difficult. There were about 5 minutes left of the last period of the day, and a student walked into my room and said, "Ms. K, I think you need to check your email." I quickly checked my email, but there was nothing. The bell rang, and as I was standing at the door saying goodbye to students, there were many students running the hallways yelling, "We got Ms. Cousins fired! We did it!" It wasn't until afterwards that the district notified us of this decision. The decision had been leaked to the media and made the Southwest Journal and Star Tribune before any of us knew. It was very difficult to find out this way.

Were there things that she could have handled differently? Absolutely. Is it easy for a teacher to suddenly be put under the direction of a new principal when there are only 35 days of school left? Absolutely not. For whatever reason (which the board will not disclose), the removal of our dedicated leader had to happen immediately. Hopefully the truth will come out eventually.

Below is the link to the story at our school. Please be mindful that not everything you read or hear is completely true.

http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/news/washburn-principal-markham-cousins-reassigned

Here are my hours for weeks 31 and 32.

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	4/7/2013	12:30 PM	1:00 PM	0.5
		9:00 PM	10:00 PM	1
M	4/8/2013	7:30 AM	4:00 PM	8.5
T	4/9/2013	7:30 AM	3:45 PM	8.25
		8:45 PM	9:30 PM	0.75
W	4/10/2013	7:45 AM	4:00 PM	8.25
Th	4/11/2013	7:45 AM	4:30 PM	8.75
F	4/12/2013	7:30 AM	4:30 PM	9
Sat	4/13/2013			0
	Total			45

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	3/24/2013	8:30 PM	10:00 PM	1.5
M	3/25/2013	7:45 AM	4:45 PM	9
T	3/26/2013	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
		5:45 PM	9:00 PM	3.25
W	3/27/2013	7:45 AM	4:30 PM	8.75
Th	3/28/2013	8:00 AM	4:00 PM	8
F	3/29/2013	9:15 AM	5:15 PM	8
Sat	3/30/2013	9:45 AM	11:30 AM	1.75
W	4/3/2013	10:30 AM	2:30 PM	4
Sat	4/6/2013	9:00 PM	10:30 PM	1.5
	Total			54.25

WEEK 30 - Special Education (part 1)

This week's post is on Special Education. Because this topic is so huge, today will only be part 1, and next week I will post part 2, and I hope that I can do it justice with my relatively limited knowledge.

Special Education in the United States has changed greatly over the past few decades. Years ago, it seemed like the students who received special education services were easy to pick out of a crowd. Maybe the student had Down Syndrome or some type of obvious behavioral indicators. These days, many times it is very difficult to tell if a student receives special education services.

There are many types of disabilities that are covered in special education. It can be autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, emotional disturbance, visual impairments, specific learning disabilities, mental retardation, speech impairments, physical impairments, cognitive disorders, dyslexia, hearing impairments, or many others.

In order to receive Special Education services, there is a rigorous testing to determine if the student has a disability and what that might be. This generally happens in the younger years, but every once in a while it happens in high school. There are many pieces to this rigorous testing, but I only see certain parts of it. The part that I am generally involved in is a long survey of questions about the student's performance, behavior, and abilities, and then a meeting with the student's other teachers, a nurse, a special education teacher, and the student's parents.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1975 states that all children with disabilities, up to the age of 21, have the right to a free and fair education. The biggest thing to remember is that a "fair" education means different things for each individual student, regardless of ability or disability. Some students might have a speech impediment and need minimal services, spending their whole days in mainstream classes, while other students might need to have a few separate classes with special education teachers. Some might need to be completely removed from mainstream classes altogether. It all depends on the student and his/her needs.

Similarly, "fair" does not mean spending the same amount of money on every student. While it can be fairly cheap to educate a student in mainstream classes, it can become quite expensive to educate a student with extensive disabilities. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul newspaper) recently ran a story on a student whose education costs ran up to $100,000 a year. This is extremely rare, but the fact of the matter is that a big chunk of education costs go to special education, a fact that many people are unaware of. While I know that some people might disagree with how money is spent in schools, as a teacher I see just how important it is to give these services, regardless of the cost. Every student has a right to an education, and we cannot deny a person's rights simply because it costs too much. Not educating students with disabilities would be detrimental to our entire society, not just the student. Plus, with the right support, a student can overcome their disability and go on to do great things. Some famous people who did just that include: Christopher Columbus, JFK, Edgar Alan Poe, Bill Gates, Will Smith, Michael Phelps, and Bill Clinton.

As a high school teacher, one thing I have noticed is that most of the time, by the time a student hits high school, they have accepted that they have a disability and they know what it is that they need in order to be successful. However, one of the most important things a high school student with disabilities can do is advocate for him/herself. While an elementary school teacher might have 3-4 students in special education, a high school teacher can have anywhere between 20-30 students. Each of those students has their own IEP (Individualized Education Plan) which calls for different modifications and accommodations for each student. This can be very confusing and overwhelming for a teacher, and if a student can give his/her teachers a reminder, it helps greatly.

Next week I will talk about IEPs and what it's like to be a student with special needs in a World Language classroom.

My hours for week 30:

Date	Start	End	Total Hours
3/17/2013	6:30 PM	7:00 PM	0.5
3/18/2013	7:45 AM	4:30 PM	8.75
3/19/2013	8:00 AM	4:45 PM	8.75
	5:45 PM	6:15 PM	0.5
	7:15 PM	7:45 PM	0.5
	8:15 PM	9:45 PM	1.5
3/20/2013	7:45 AM	4:45 PM	9
	6:30 PM	9:30 PM	3
3/21/2013	7:30 AM	7:30 PM	12
3/22/2013	7:45 AM	3:45 PM	8
3/23/2013			0
Total			52.5

WEEK 29 - Just My Hours

This week, my post will be simply my hours. Stay tuned for next week's post, which will be on Special Education and IEPs (Individualized Education Plans).

Date	Start	End	Total Hours
3/10/2013	9:00 PM	12:15 AM	3.25
3/11/2013	8:00 AM	4:00 PM	8
3/12/2013	8:00 AM	6:30 PM	10.5
	10:00 PM	10:30 PM	0.5
3/13/2013	8:00 AM	5:45 PM	9.75
	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	0.5
3/14/2013	7:45 AM	5:45 PM	10
3/15/2013	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
	6:15 PM	7:45 PM	1.5
3/16/2013			0
Total			52.5

WEEKS 27 & 28: Snow day...sort of

Sorry for the 2 week hiatus. I was swamped with everything I had to do to prepare and execute my upper level IB exams. This week's post will include the hours from both week 27 (Feb 24-Mar 2) and week 28 (Mar 3 - Mar 9).

Anyone who grew up in Minnesota (or most northern states, for that matter) has experienced the great holiday known as the Snow Day. We've all had the exciting feeling at 10pm when we look out our windows and then cross-check what we are seeing with what the weather channel is predicting for the rest of the night. Will they call the day off the next morning?? For Minnesotans, who are pretty hard-core and are generally prepared to handle large amounts of snow in short amounts of time, the thought of a Snow Day usually ends up being wishful thinking.

And that's what happened Tuesday morning for Minneapolis students. 

Mother Nature dumped so much snow on Minnesota that nearly the whole southern part of the state got a snow day. But Minneapolis and St. Paul did not cancel school. There is a good reason for this; Minneapolis has over 30,000 students in its district alone, so to cancel school is a huge deal for many families, especially those families with elementary age children where the parents work (they would have to find a babysitter very quickly). 

So what happens when we have a snowy day without an actual Snow Day? I got stuck on my way in to work twice, and when I arrived our principal announced at our staff meeting (that wasn't canceled) that we had 6 teachers out who didn't have subs. In my first hour, I have 29 students on my roster. When class started, I had 4 students in my classroom. They were supposed to take a test that day, but I couldn't give a test when only 4 students were there for the whole hour. As more and more students started strolling in, I would have had to go over the instructions 10-15 times, and I wouldn't have been able to keep track of who had how much time already. So I postponed the test for 1st hour and made something up on the spot. Because I didn't want my classes to be in different places (any teacher knows that this can be stressful), I ended up postponing the test for all of my classes. So in reality, we didn't get a snow day, but we sort of did...

My hours for week 27:

Date	Start	End	Total Hours
2/24/2013	5:30 PM	6:45 PM	1.25
	8:45 PM	11:15 PM	2.5
2/25/2013	7:45 AM	6:30 PM	10.75
2/26/2013	7:45 AM	6:30 PM	10.75
	9:30 PM	11:00 PM	1.5
2/27/2013	7:45 AM	5:30 PM	9.75
2/28/2013	7:45 AM	8:15 PM	12.5
3/1/2013	8:00 AM	12:15 PM	4.25
3/2/2013	1:30 PM	3:00 PM	1.5
	4:00 PM	5:30 PM	1.5
Total			56.25

My hours for week 28:

Date	Start	End	Total Hours
3/3/2013	6:45 PM	8:30 PM	1.75
3/4/2013	7:30 AM	4:45 PM	9.25
3/5/2013	7:30 AM	4:15 PM	8.75
3/6/2013	7:45 AM	5:30 PM	9.75
3/7/2013	7:15 AM	5:45 PM	10.5
3/8/2013	8:00 AM	4:00 PM	8
	6:15 PM	8:15 PM	2
3/9/2013	9:15 AM	10:30 AM	2.25
Total			52.25