So the last like, 20 minutes of Professional Development before we break for the weekend and the last moments we are going to see each other before the kids come, our principal has us to the Pig Personality Test.
I don't know if you've heard of it, but I've done it about 20439439209 times. You draw a pig and then they tell you all these things about what that means about your life.
If you drew your pig at the top of the page that means you are positive and optimistic. If you drew it in the middle, you are a realist.
Now, I didn't see other people's drawings, but I've decided I'm probably one of the few people who drew my pig in the middle.
Let's get real here.
We spent the entire week before school starts playing games (I'm Hilarious Heather and you are Athletic Al!), debating the semantics of writing school mission statements (Should it say we FOSTER learning or ENCOURAGE learning?) and seen presentations on very obvious things (if a student misses a lot of school, they are in danger of dropping out.)
You know what we haven't done? Made decisions. Do we have locker assignments for any of the students? No. Do we know if there is a special schedule (extended homeroom) for the first day? No. Do we know what floor our students eat lunch on? No. Do we know what steps to take when someone doesn't follow all the rules we made up? No.
It might not seem like much, but those are the little things that add up to big things.
The problem is not that the staff is retarded. We aren't burnt out morons who just need a little pep to fix everything. Things aren't bad because we don't get along with each other. Things are bad because the CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE ANY CONSEQUENCES. Things are bad because there is MASS CONFUSION. Things are bad because we start each school year like we're opening for the first time and we're the first school to ever open.
"The kids just run wild in the hallway."
"Well, have you told them to stop?"
WELL I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Super.
Got my IEPs for the Special Ed students yesterday. I only have one new student so I'm reading through to find her learning accomodations.
"severe emotional/behavior issues" ...."reports feeling depressed and angry the majority of the time"..."is hostile toward other students"...
What are the students strengths?
"Attendance."
"severe emotional/behavior issues" ...."reports feeling depressed and angry the majority of the time"..."is hostile toward other students"...
What are the students strengths?
"Attendance."
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Your Highness
So, new principal has her doctorate. And as most of those people are, she is very proud of it. So we have to address her as Doctor Blahblah.
The other day she went on some long-winded blah blah about how we are all important and so she is ordering us nameplates for our door. (It's nice, I get it. I thought we were broke? whatever.) She wants us to put our first and last name and how we want to be addressed, as well as the colleges we attended and our majors.
Hmm... How I want to be addressed....
I'm waffling between "Colonel Vinson" and "President Vinson."
And I want my room to be referred to as HMR 118. (Her Majesty's Room 118)
The other day she went on some long-winded blah blah about how we are all important and so she is ordering us nameplates for our door. (It's nice, I get it. I thought we were broke? whatever.) She wants us to put our first and last name and how we want to be addressed, as well as the colleges we attended and our majors.
Hmm... How I want to be addressed....
I'm waffling between "Colonel Vinson" and "President Vinson."
And I want my room to be referred to as HMR 118. (Her Majesty's Room 118)
Saturday, August 13, 2011
More on Research vs. Experience
Last year, the school day went from 7:45-2:35. It had been that way for four years.
The Operators read some research that says that adolescents learn more later on in the day. They also saw many of our children coming to school around 9 or 9:30. Without consulting us (not that they have to, but maybe they should), they changed the school day to 9-4.
Here's something they didn't research: Our first year, those were the school hours.
And here's what happened that first year:
-4pm is the same time the elementary school that is attached us let's out, and our kids would try to bully the younger kids and get into fights with the 5th graders.
-The high school down the road is let out around 3:15 or 3:30, and by 4pm, they are walking through our parking lot and down our street. The kids who aren't busy bullying and fighting the elementary kids are busy being bullied or fighting the high school kids.
-It gets dark incredibly early in the winter (duh.) Our neighborhood is INCREDIBLY unsafe. Many of our students walk home, but just walking to the bus stop is still dangerous. So, you can't have any after-school activities or hold any type of detention for fear that the children will leave too late and be MURDERED.
-The kids who come to school late? The vast majority of them aren't doing it because they have too much to do in the morning or because they just cannot get up at 7am, it's because they don't want to be on time for school! Now they'll come at 10:30 or 11.
A lot of the staff is super pissed. I get to sleep later in the morning, so I'm not that bent out of shape. It's just another thing in the long list of ways they don't believe we have anything significant to contribute to their precious research.
The Operators read some research that says that adolescents learn more later on in the day. They also saw many of our children coming to school around 9 or 9:30. Without consulting us (not that they have to, but maybe they should), they changed the school day to 9-4.
Here's something they didn't research: Our first year, those were the school hours.
And here's what happened that first year:
-4pm is the same time the elementary school that is attached us let's out, and our kids would try to bully the younger kids and get into fights with the 5th graders.
-The high school down the road is let out around 3:15 or 3:30, and by 4pm, they are walking through our parking lot and down our street. The kids who aren't busy bullying and fighting the elementary kids are busy being bullied or fighting the high school kids.
-It gets dark incredibly early in the winter (duh.) Our neighborhood is INCREDIBLY unsafe. Many of our students walk home, but just walking to the bus stop is still dangerous. So, you can't have any after-school activities or hold any type of detention for fear that the children will leave too late and be MURDERED.
-The kids who come to school late? The vast majority of them aren't doing it because they have too much to do in the morning or because they just cannot get up at 7am, it's because they don't want to be on time for school! Now they'll come at 10:30 or 11.
A lot of the staff is super pissed. I get to sleep later in the morning, so I'm not that bent out of shape. It's just another thing in the long list of ways they don't believe we have anything significant to contribute to their precious research.
The Culture of Low Expectations
For the first time in my career as a teacher, I was informed of my new classroom #, the grade I was teaching and my classes BEFORE the day before school started. In fact, the lady who was our principal for a grand total of one month was so organized, she had it together before the end of the 2010-2011 school year.
I was told I'm teaching 7th grade. I'm ambivalent about that. It's the same kids which is good, but 7th graders are the devil and the curriculum is all wonky. Basically they want you to teach everything, ever. They aren't really into "history" so much as social studies concepts and skills. It's all over the place.
I've taught this grade before and I wanted a little more structure.So, I decided that I wanted to take 4 short fiction novels about children in different countries. (If you are dying to know: The Breadwinner-Afghanistan, Before We Were Free-Dominican Republic, Long Walk to Water-Sudan, and The Year of Impossible Goodbyes-Korea.) Basically, I would take these books as a supplement and study each country's culture, government etc.
I go to speak to the Director of Literacy about my idea. (She works for our Operator, the people who took over.) She informed me (and I have a witness) that, "Miss Vinson, we learned from last year that these kids don't really LIKE reading, so I don't think it's fair to have TWO classes, in addition to Language Arts, in which their grade is based on reading." Wellllllllllllllll.
I was in shock, so I had a hard time finding my argument. But I started by telling her that we wouldn't read the book like they do in Language Arts (no similes or metaphors, just culture) and that it would just be a supplement to the curriculum. She continued to insist that it was a bad idea. She eventually relented by saying that I could do the first book, but we would wait on the rest.
Things I wish I had said:
1. WHAT DO YOU THINK WE DO NOW? Look at pictures all day? No! We READ!
2. Because they don't WANT to??!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?
3. THIS. IS. SCHOOL.
The other teacher that heard this little exchange had some more input. She had been a first year Language Arts teacher. She said that it was pretty insulting of this lady to assume that kids didn't want to read EVER because of the mess that was her classroom.
These are the people that are supposed to be making us BETTER.
I was told I'm teaching 7th grade. I'm ambivalent about that. It's the same kids which is good, but 7th graders are the devil and the curriculum is all wonky. Basically they want you to teach everything, ever. They aren't really into "history" so much as social studies concepts and skills. It's all over the place.
I've taught this grade before and I wanted a little more structure.So, I decided that I wanted to take 4 short fiction novels about children in different countries. (If you are dying to know: The Breadwinner-Afghanistan, Before We Were Free-Dominican Republic, Long Walk to Water-Sudan, and The Year of Impossible Goodbyes-Korea.) Basically, I would take these books as a supplement and study each country's culture, government etc.
I go to speak to the Director of Literacy about my idea. (She works for our Operator, the people who took over.) She informed me (and I have a witness) that, "Miss Vinson, we learned from last year that these kids don't really LIKE reading, so I don't think it's fair to have TWO classes, in addition to Language Arts, in which their grade is based on reading." Wellllllllllllllll.
I was in shock, so I had a hard time finding my argument. But I started by telling her that we wouldn't read the book like they do in Language Arts (no similes or metaphors, just culture) and that it would just be a supplement to the curriculum. She continued to insist that it was a bad idea. She eventually relented by saying that I could do the first book, but we would wait on the rest.
Things I wish I had said:
1. WHAT DO YOU THINK WE DO NOW? Look at pictures all day? No! We READ!
2. Because they don't WANT to??!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?
3. THIS. IS. SCHOOL.
The other teacher that heard this little exchange had some more input. She had been a first year Language Arts teacher. She said that it was pretty insulting of this lady to assume that kids didn't want to read EVER because of the mess that was her classroom.
These are the people that are supposed to be making us BETTER.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Philosophical Differences
Towards the end of last year, we had a little Professional Development in which I was not bored (the usual PD feeling) but instead pretty peeved.
These people that took over our school, their whole outlook is based on research, not experience. In fact, faced with a boatload of experience that contradicts their research, they will still cling to the research like it's the last canteen of water in the desert.
This PD was led by the same woman who informed me that the reason I was at school was "to have fun." It was entitled "Relational Discipline." I should have been exempt from this little demonstration from the get-go. If I can do anything, it's get along with adolescents. But anyways, there I sat, ready to learn nothing and play games on my phone.
The meat of their presentation dealt with the fact that they believed there was too much yelling in the school. And research shows that yelling doesn't work. And based on the assumptions that they as people isolated from our children made, they declared that we, as teachers, were getting too emotional with the children and were thus yelling because we had reached some sort of boiling point and we had lost control.
I will now give the exact quote that made me slowly put down my Blackberry in order to raise my hand and rant at everyone. "Don't get angry if one of the kids calls you a fucking bitch. They are just trying to test you. Remain calm and disregard it." They continued to insist that the reason we are yelling is because our feelings get hurt by our students.
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. WRONG.
1. You know what? Sometimes I am a fucking bitch. It just goes along with being an adult that is dealing with children. You aren't always going to like what I say or do. I do not care.
2. Who cares what an 11 year old thinks?
I am yelling/angry/reprimanding this child because you don't use that kind of language in my classroom. End of story. I don't care if those are the only words you know--then you have to stay quiet.
I get what they are saying to some extent. But if Omar slaps Nia, I am going to yell at him. If Corey tries to stab Shae with a pencil, I am going to say something. There is extreme behavior pretty much every day, and this fucking bitch will let you know that it's not acceptable.
And you know what comes from that? Kids I don't even teach in the hallway apologizing to me for using profanity when they hadn't known I was there. Limited profanity in my classroom, and almost always apologies afterward.
The funniest part is that they constantly put me and another teacher up as the perfect model of what a teacher should be, and he and I both yell on a daily basis. Or at least use threats and intimidation. :)
These people that took over our school, their whole outlook is based on research, not experience. In fact, faced with a boatload of experience that contradicts their research, they will still cling to the research like it's the last canteen of water in the desert.
This PD was led by the same woman who informed me that the reason I was at school was "to have fun." It was entitled "Relational Discipline." I should have been exempt from this little demonstration from the get-go. If I can do anything, it's get along with adolescents. But anyways, there I sat, ready to learn nothing and play games on my phone.
The meat of their presentation dealt with the fact that they believed there was too much yelling in the school. And research shows that yelling doesn't work. And based on the assumptions that they as people isolated from our children made, they declared that we, as teachers, were getting too emotional with the children and were thus yelling because we had reached some sort of boiling point and we had lost control.
I will now give the exact quote that made me slowly put down my Blackberry in order to raise my hand and rant at everyone. "Don't get angry if one of the kids calls you a fucking bitch. They are just trying to test you. Remain calm and disregard it." They continued to insist that the reason we are yelling is because our feelings get hurt by our students.
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. WRONG.
1. You know what? Sometimes I am a fucking bitch. It just goes along with being an adult that is dealing with children. You aren't always going to like what I say or do. I do not care.
2. Who cares what an 11 year old thinks?
I am yelling/angry/reprimanding this child because you don't use that kind of language in my classroom. End of story. I don't care if those are the only words you know--then you have to stay quiet.
I get what they are saying to some extent. But if Omar slaps Nia, I am going to yell at him. If Corey tries to stab Shae with a pencil, I am going to say something. There is extreme behavior pretty much every day, and this fucking bitch will let you know that it's not acceptable.
And you know what comes from that? Kids I don't even teach in the hallway apologizing to me for using profanity when they hadn't known I was there. Limited profanity in my classroom, and almost always apologies afterward.
The funniest part is that they constantly put me and another teacher up as the perfect model of what a teacher should be, and he and I both yell on a daily basis. Or at least use threats and intimidation. :)
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