Circles

So I got up at the crack of dawn — actually, dawn is cracking much later lately, so it was before the crack of dawn — so that I could take the constitution tests (state and federal). Hmm, can I adequately express the joy of the experience? One hundred fill-in-the-bubble questions, that varied between numerical trivia and understanding law. It was obvious that there is no amount of studying that can adequately prepare you. On the plus side, there were some questions that I could answer. There were also questions for which I honestly said to myself “I have no idea, so the least I can do is fill in the circle nice and pretty.” No lie. Now if every position in state and national life had the same age and residency limits, the test would’ve been at least that much easier! Added to that was fighting the urge to doze off. I also had to resist the philosophical musings of “why the heck am I even here, if education is being flushed down the toilet and having a job and salary are a day-to-day thing?” But there are jobs that might be easier to get with a teaching license, I imagine. That’s if I passed the test. It’d be awful nice if they graded on a curve! But if I didn’t pass the test, dang — I’d better see when my sub license expires. I just need to get through the end of the school year.

The school is where the last test was that I took two years ago. It’s at the furthest NW point of the civilized area — not even in our city. The only redeeming feature was that I live in the central area, so I was already halfway there when I left my house, compared to other people. So it was only like 15-20 miles, which to me is a lot. Of course, I will get no sympathy from those who drive into Madison every day or drove their offspring all over town every day. But in my whiny little life, it was a big deal!

Of course, it also means that I can go back to working on my story, which is pretty awful in an amusing way.

Prophecy

My father tells this amusing little joke. Since I keep getting RIF’d each year, he says that when I’m teaching 34 years, the cut-off for not getting RIF’d is 35 years. Isn’t he a funny guy? And why do I bring this up?

Because of our anti-education state legislature, whose goal is to privatize education and eliminate public schools. And how do they plan to end education in the state? Well, they have a new set of amusing little laws that go into effect on Tuesday. They include (quoted from the union newsletter but verified elsewhere):

1. Districts are not allowed to use seniority (tenure) as a criterion for selecting teachers who are RIFed.
2. Districts are not required to maintain a priority list for recalling teachers who have been RIFed.
3. Districts may reduce teacher salaries in any manner at any time.
4. Districts are no longer required to issue teacher contracts by May 15th.
5. The April 15th date for teacher contract non-renewal is no longer required.
6. Compensated release time for association activities is prohibited.

What this means:

1. Anyone can be RIF’d. There is no cut-off. Someone who has taught for 30 years has no more seniority than someone who was been teaching less than a year. The claim is that in our school district, RIFs will be initiated by pulling random social security numbers.

2. Being RIF’d doesn’t mean that you have the right of first hire over an outsider, or that your return is according to seniority. They can recall anyone they feel like recalling and dump anyone they feel like dumping. In fact, every school in the state could dump all of its teachers and just hire college students or subs if they want.

3. There is no pay scale. There is no pay range. The sole purpose of a contract is slavery. Teachers cannot break their contracts for any reason. I’ve heard, in fact, that if a teacher breaks his or her contract, that’s grounds for permanently losing a teaching certificate. However, in spite of having a contract with numbers on it, if they wanted to, next Wednesday the district could cut all teacher pay to a dollar an hour if they felt like it. Or minimum wage. And in theory, we have no recourse. Of course, my own theory is that obviously under those circumstances there is no reason to hold onto or worry about holding onto one’s teaching license, unless one is planning to move out of state.

4. No contract date means that districts can choose to not let you know if you have a job or not until the first day of school if they want. They can make you wait all summer not knowing, but if you aren’t RIF’d then you aren’t laid off. Not laid off means none of the benefits available to people who are unemployed, which you really are if you have no contract.

5. See number four. They don’t have to tell you that you aren’t rehired any more than they have to tell you they want you back.

6. It used to be that union workers could attend to union business on company time with pay. If that’s a universal union thing, it should apply to teachers as well. But doesn’t any more.

So when I took my transcript to school to get it put in my file, the principal and assistant principal and others in the room congratulated me for NOT getting my Master’s in Education and thus for NOT being trapped in the field of education. Trapped. Their words. Yes, I have to figure out how to jump off of a sinking ship at the end of the year without landing in shark-infested waters. Landing on another ship, one that’s sailing in smooth waters, would be nice!

So that’s my week, aside from the fact that the new girl I got yesterday knows even less math than the new boy I got last week. And tomorrow I have a constitution test to maintain my teaching certificate, which expires in December.

Thursday

That’s Tuesday’s lists of what they liked and didn’t like about the painting. Did I mention that I also had them pose as the people in the painting? I really should’ve gotten pics of that!

Today after school I once again helped people with the computer (online) program for the reading program. Not many people came, so the rest (in theory) know what they’re doing. Fine, because I’m really done with this. And these people are like “You should write it out for us.” Nope. I figured it out for myself because I took the time. This is the 2nd-4th time you’ve done this. Either take notes or learn by doing it over and over. But accept that I’ve done more than my part by taking my extremely limited planning time and spending it teaching you. I’m not taking MORE of my time and writing up notes so you don’t have to. Just the thought is annoying!

A new snack I like: http://www.associatedcontent.com/image/302023/index.html?cat=22. Not that you’re going to stock up, but I never saw them before and got some and thought I’d mention it. 100 calories a pack.

I sent my new student to RTI today. RTI stands for Response to Intervention, because people who do education stuff like to make up bizarre acronyms (like why call it Success For All instead of A Reading Program, since the latter is more honest?). RTI is extra math help for people who need it. I can send four students. One who I’d been sending has attendance problems. When it became clear that darling boy had no idea how to divide and not much idea how to multiply, and darling absent girl was absent once again, I pounced. Now he can get some added help to get closer to being on track. He was tested for reading on Tuesday, and retested today. I assured the reading person that the first test was accurate. Anyway, is mastery level is 2.2 (end of second grade). I’m not the least bit surprised. Sweet kid, though.

Tonight I had a Sober Sisters meeting. That’s the group that helps the women at the Haven. We came up with our next event, which will be the Saturday right after New Year’s. It’ll be a game night (remember the toilet paper bride game?) and the snack’ll be cheese and crackers, and hot chocolate.

Seurat Day 2, etc.

Yesterday I got a new student. I think of that because we were just getting ready to do Seurat Day 2 when he left for testing so that they know what reading level he’ll be in. He doesn’t know any division, and only single-digit times single-digit multiplication. Fun.

Anyway, Monday night I remembered what else we’d done at that workshop. People posed as the people in the painting. That painting didn’t have many people in it, whereas Seurat had a ton of people. That was fun, getting the kids to pose as the different people! How often have you done that? I never did! So they got to be the characters in the painting and think about what that person might be thinking. Empathy isn’t their big skill, but you have to start somewhere!

Then I got to huge pieces of paper, and on one they wrote what they liked about the painting and on the other what they didn’t like. I’m still looking for a place to hang those up. When I do, I’ll take pics. So tomorrow (since we have no school today) we’ll actually do a chunk of writing about this. I’ll let you know how that goes!

I was going to do the after-school tutoring this year, but I’ve changed my mind. Here’s the thing. Mondays, we will have no after school time because fourth and fifth will be at another school working overtime. Remember that we have no specials, so the only alone time I have is lunch, and that’s if I don’t have detention. Tuesdays and Thursdays would be tutoring days, and they’re thinking of making them last forever again like last year because they are losing a chunk of Monday teachers (thus they have to squeeze the same number of hours into two days instead of three). We lost our Wednesday prep time a year or so (at least) before I started working there. The rule is that the staff meeting only lasts so long (which is why the kids get out an hour early) and the teachers still have their prep time. Nope. They not only take away all of our prep time, but sometimes the meetings last longer than 3:00 so we’re working overtime then, too. Free, of course. Our union rep never did much except tell the principal she was violating the rules. Fat lot of good that did! So anyway, if I tutored, my entire weekly prep period would be after school on Friday, even though now I’d have even more to prep for with the tutoring! Sorry, I just can’t do it.

NaNoWriMo is moving right along, finally. I was behind for a few days. I don’t have today’s ending word count met yet, but I do have some of today’s done.

I will be 52 on Sunday. I feel like I’m in my 30s! It’s just so unreal!

Seurat

You’ll remember that I recently went to an OMA workshop with Suzanne, our OMA person. http://www.omaproject.org So this week I’m trying to put some of that training to use.

Years ago, when I lived in Wisconsin, I went with Carla and Anthony down to the Art Institute in Chicago. It was an incredible experience, and I bought two prints. One was Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. So I figured out how to use this in class — I can use art if I can work it into a writing class. We are (all) doing persuasive writing this quarter, so it’s just a wee bit tricky. A lot of what I did for today’s part (I foresee this being all week long) was based on what we did at the workshop with a different picture, but some wasn’t.

First I explained what we were doing, and about my trip to the museum. I drew a line on the board to show how long ten feet is, because that’s how wide the painting is. That actually covered most of the board. We talked about Seurat and pointillism, or as much as I could based on last night’s research and the fact that I never studied art.

I had copied from the internet the picture onto paper, two copies per sheet, so that each child could have his or her own copy to look at. I had them glue them into their writing notebooks (note — these writing notebooks should be found in the writing bin and not the science or math bins, in case you weren’t sure). Their job was then to write questions and observations in their notebook. They didn’t need a ton, just enough to get started.

At the workshop, we said these things aloud and one person wrote them all down. Not me!! So what I did was I made four extra copies of the painting, and posted them onto huge teacher paper. Then I divided them into four groups. They needed to write down what they came up with, as well as come up with more observations and questions. These are ways to interact with the painting, not just glance at it and move on. We’ve never done this before, so I wasn’t sure how it would work. I was very brave.

They noticed things that I hadn’t (in spite of how long I had the print!), and also noticed what wasn’t there, like the lack of boys, ducks, birds, etc. They really did an awesome job –much better than I thought, but they did just what I’d hoped, and they totally got into it!

Fascinating

Forgot to post this gem yesterday. I think. I’ll go back and look and delete it if I need to. We were taking a math test on Wednesday, and a little darling GETS UP and goes looking in the bin where WRITING NOTEBOOKS live. Um, what are you doing, little darling? She’s looking for her MATH notebook. It makes sense to her, since sometimes notebooks get put in the wrong bin (by the students themselves, I might add). Did you look in the math notebook bin first? NO! Instead of looking in the bin it belonged in, she looked in a different bin! She didn’t find it, nor did I care, since we were in the middle of a math test!!! Of course it turned up today — in the science bin. I’m really not sure why I wrote MATH in big letters on one bin or why she didn’t look there.

Now same little angel got a 25% on that math test. The test was single digit times double digit, basically. And yet — be still my heart — her homework since then of double-digit times double-digit has been perfect!! Imagine that! She said her mom helped her. I’ve met her mom. She’d need a calculator too!

Then there’s the boy who’s not allowed to read Harry Potter because of the fantasy content, but owns a number of violent video games. Flying brooms are bad. Shooting people is good. Got it.

My World

This is my world:

A student’s brother was killed last (school) year in a convenience store parking lot by gang members. This weekend they’re having a car wash so that they can buy him a headstone for his grave.

Another student asked me at the end of the day if I had something for “this” — which turned out to be a scrape on her throat, where there was also a major bruise…from where her twin brother started kicking her face. It happened last night and the police came and took pictures of her face and throat. This was as calm as saying that someone did laundry.

Two students were absent yesterday, so they had to take the math test today. One was done very quickly — the one who is the one of the lowest students. That’s because he simply put a line through most of the answer spaces on the second page. That was simply easier than doing the multiplication on the test (stuff like 37 x 5). I made him take it back and answer the questions.

I get an email from the assistant principal who likes to torment me about math scores. Maybe I could talk to this other teacher to see how she gets high test scores. Um, of my students who didn’t pass, seven failed the third grade AIMS in math. So they were a year behind before we ever got to the multiplication, and I was excited that they all know at least some multiplication facts! That is great progress! Two more who failed would have failed the AIMS if they had been in Arizona schools and taken it. If you compare their pretest scores to their post-test scores, learning happened. I personally think going from a 15% on a pretest to 69 (or even 79, since only 80 and above are passing) is rather phenomenal, especially for students who are already behind and/or already have learning disabilities!

So I started to talk (vent?) to that other teacher, and before I’d barely started she said “You opened an email, didn’t you.” (um, yeah) She doesn’t open them. She sticks with the “my computer wasn’t working” story and slides through life much calmer for it!

I’m being bribed with chocolate chip cookies (homemade) to help with teaching the teachers how to use the same reading data web site that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to teach people to use. I got to name my price. Looking forward to those cookies on Tuesday!

My NaNoWriMo story is moving right along. The plot thickens. That’s good, because otherwise it sounds like an awful lot of whiny!

Do the math!

Good Lord, People!!! We had PD (which is really staff meeting) today, since it’s Wednesday. There is a training that all the teachers will be undergoing. Marzano, I think. It’s going to be at a different school — one that’s far away. They announced that they’ll get subs for us to take over our classrooms, so we can go. Isn’t that great????

So — Kindergarten and first go from 8 to 10. That’s great. They simply drive straight there and then come to work. Second and third go from 10:30 – 12:30. Not bad. Right after SFA. They’ll need to eat on the way back to school, but still. Fourth and fifth? We go from 1:30 – 3:30! We miss only one half-hour of class time, our after-school time which is the only time we can get anything done, and on top of that we have to be on duty an extra half hour than everyone else, since they all get to go home at 3! We have to do this every Monday for six weeks, starting 11/16! That after-school time is the closest we come to a planning period, since we have no specials. So while everyone else is getting a nice break from the classroom, we’re working overtime!

We were not happy, and one teacher suggested to the staff that either they pay us for that extra time or we rotate with the other grades. They acted like we sprouted horns, and couldn’t fathom what our objection was!

In the meantime, I may lose another child to ELD. He was listed as reclassified, but I’m sure that happened before he moved back to Mexico. There was no time for them to have been able to test him after he returned. He is so very low in everything that I asked. I want him tested (in language) because if he really is eligible for reclassification, then I need to know what else is going on with him instead! But they may just move him. They can do that with reclassified kids (reclassified as in no longer listed as an English Language Learner because they have allegedly reached a certain level of proficiency).

Tuesday

We had a fire drill today during SFA. Really, I was pleased that it wasn’t my fault, although I did sweat it at first! Then at lunch time the SFA staff and some other people (one of the people I carpool with, and someone else) had a little luncheon for me for getting my Master’s! It was very nice!

It has been weeks since I’ve had an entire class. Some stay home absent, and one or two go home sick. One threw up in my room yesterday (but managed to make it to the trash can first). That was my underdog friend. I’d sent him to the nurse, and she gave him mylanta per mom and sent him back. He wasn’t back ten minutes. First time it ever happened in my room in eleven years. Poor little guy. This is going through my room so slowly that it seems like it’ll never end. Some of the other teachers, they had like eleven kids out at once, which means that they were all sick at the same time, came back, and life went on.

I’m doing OK on my NaNoWriMo story so far, but it’s nothing like I expected. For one thing, I didn’t expect it to be in first person, with a bunch of different people telling the tale. Secondly, I expected the characters to be telling the truth when they told their part. Silly me!

I called and reserved a room for my cats at a place that boards pets so that I can go up to the family reunion in Phoenix. My friend who I thought would be able to keep an eye on them is going to Los Angeles — and was hoping I’d be able to keep an eye on hers! I still don’t know if we’re going up Wednesday after school or Thursday morning, but the cats have a reservation starting Wednesday afternoon. Since the singing part is Friday night, I’m guessing we’re coming home on Saturday. I also am expected to see my mother at some point during those two days. I heard a rumor that Glen and Aunt Kaye might be coming!

Alarming

Honestly, folks, I spend at least seconds coming up with these post titles!

First of all, I think there’s mold or something in the cooler pads/air filters in the combined AC/heater units in my classroom. I am basically fine at home, and then go to school and feel awful. Virgil said this morning that he’d get Elizabeth (who cleans my room) to check out my filters. He said this as he came to my portable to verify that it wasn’t on fire. Normally, he doesn’t show much interest in whether or not my portable is on fire, I’ll admit. But today, he seemed to think it was a worthy thing to do. That’s probably because I put the heater on high heat instead of low heat, thus setting off the fire alarms. As soon as the alarms went off, I knew it was my fault, since I go through this once a year. Nice to get it over with, I guess!

For the past three days, the head SFA person in my school brought new teachers into my class (among others) to show how I do SFA. Yesterday at the staff meeting they said that we need to have the children read silently the first ten minutes of the class (in addition to the regular reading time built in) because they aren’t doing their 20 minutes at night. I asked if this was to start today. Geez, you should have seen that! I simply asked if we should make sure our students go to SFA with a book in their hands. Some complained that the kids would lose the books. (You walk into your SFA room with a book and you leave again with the same book. How can you lose it?) Others complained that the kids don’t have books (although we have library every other week, and they all just got a free book from RIF). It got worse when one stared at me like I sprouted three heads when I asked her if she had books in her classroom. Since I have a ton of books in my classroom, those who didn’t bring one borrowed one of mine. After reading, we went over how to do the reading homework, so we went over time for that part of the class. I explained when she came in, though, why we weren’t on the next thing, and she was fine with that. You do have to explain this stuff a lot, though. You have to guess what people expect to see when they come in and then either tell them where/when it is or why they don’t see it.

We got this dumb email from the assistant principal who looks at our math test scores. I was rather pleased with mine, but she wasn’t. She said we should ask Karen what she does that works. Nonsense. I want to instead ask Karen how many of her students flunked the AIMS last year. Of the nine students who flunked the math test, seven flunked the AIMS test last year and the other two only didn’t flunk it because they weren’t in Arizona to take it. Otherwise, they would have failed it as well. They did make a lot of progress (as evidenced by the difference between their pretest and posttest scores), but that doesn’t count. So tell me how you got kids who failed the AIMS to suddenly catch up. Otherwise, bite me.

It’s been that kind of week. At the staff meeting, we went over the scores last quarter’s students got on the 4Sight test (a test that I firmly believe is invalid). The big push was on expository text and associated skills. I saw my scores and was devastated at how poorly they did, especially listening to this lecture on how we had to focus on this. So I raised my hand and pointed out that I spent nearly the entire quarter on this. Yet, when I looked at the test the night before I administered it, I knew my kids were screwed. Here’s the best analogy I can give: You’re told that the test is going to be about the parts of a newspaper. You go over the different newspaper conventions in the local newspaper, such as how want ads are worded differently from news articles, what the masthead is, Dear Abby, etc. Then your test questions are “Compare and contrast the Wall Street Journal and Morse Code,” “How do they decide which letters to the editor to publish,” “If a train leaves New York at 6:30 …”

The highlight of the week was the announcement over the PA system this morning about another staff member getting her Master’s degree and how hard she worked. Um, yeah. Thanks for that. I certainly don’t need it blasted over the intercom that I got my degree, but it does feel a bit like a slap in the face to only mention one person and ignore everyone else with the same accomplishment. So it’s been a bit of a cranky day.

On the plus side, I have a plot idea finally for NaNoWriMo, so I’m excited about starting to write on November first!