Math is not incedental part 2

I emailed someone who is supposed to help the math department (except that she doesn't know the math and is arrogant enough to think teaching skills trump math knowledge) to discuss the Math 3 Support issue. Figuring (rightly) that her arrogance would mean she hadn't done the rudimentary homework things like signing up for state emails.

She assumed I had gone over her head to discuss this with the district person.

She went off on a weird rant about the graduation test failure rates in a nearby, more well-to-do county. Except that her argument is completely bogus. She talks about the students in Nearby County as being unable to pass the graduation test. An average of 88% pass all tests (96% to 80%). Compared with less than 60% at the school I teach in.

Oddly, at my school 80-85% pass English, Math, and Science. The buggaboo is Social Studies. Now, not to step on toes, but the social studies test is more memorization than the other 3.

I love getting into statistical arguments with people who are too full of themselves to actually know what they are talking about.

Non-math types thinking the math is incedental

The administration is non-math. The district has given us math people (the ones to give us direction on the district level) who are middle school or really science, not math. It isn't that we're snobs, but math is different. One thought I think (mostly to myself) is that it is so much easier to teach social studies or English or science as FUN than it is to teach math FUN.

Now, I love math. I always thought math was fun by itself. But I find the cutesy games that non-math types come up with as, well, trivial.

We are in the midst of rolling out a seven year math curriculum. There are two years to go. (1st year: 6th grade; 2nd year: K, 1st, 2nd, 7th (I think); 3rd year: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th; 4th year: 9th; 5th year: 10th; 6th year: 11th, 7th year: 12th) [I can't remember if K-1-2 came first or 3-4-5 but the rest is correct]

So, spring of 2011 will have the first graduation test for the new curriculum.

The legislature decided to let the classes of 2011 and 2012 (the ones who started the ball rolling the 1st and 2nd years) have an easier 4th year in HS and take Math 3 support and Math 3 and let those count for math 3 and 4.

And I love when non-math types get this confused and think it has anything to do with the graduation test when it really has to do with these kids getting teachers teaching it for the 1st time for 7 years in a row.

Maybe it's me. I just know I get so much better the second time I teach it. Or third.

I am going to my level best with whoever I am dealt. I just feel that the DOE could have planned it so much better.

We teach the students we have not the ones we wish we had.

I'm getting itchy

I know I can clean house. I know I can read education books. I could go to the movies, go for a walk, visit, write letters . . .

I want to start doing specific planning. I want to know what I am teaching. (Imagine me acting like a 2 year old, kicking on the ground.)

I don't know what the difficulty is. I really truly don't know why an administration that is so devotedly OCD refuses to plan ahead so that the school would reflect the same perfection he touts all the time.

It is getting to be really difficult. He will not release information until it is almost too late to do things - which is a form of perfection - the kind that leads to procrastination.

I honestly believe that he is incapable of understanding that there is a difference between Algebra 1 and Trigonometry and that knowing one doesn't make you prepared for the other.

Parking Wars

I was watching Parking Wars (because it was on and I was folding clothes). One scene had a woman going to claim her car that was towed when she was driving without a license. So, she goes to claim it and they tell her it has to be towed by a private firm or she has to transfer title to someone else. (Remember, she doesn't have a license).

She argued, she called it a city scam, she demanded a supervisor (several times - they all gave the same answer). But, she didn't get her car.

Then I watched a car get booted for multiple tickets. While he is getting booted, he drives off, hitting 3 vehicles, damaging the boot, hit and run - AND he still owes for the tickets.

Then I saw several people cuss out a meter maid. She laughed and said, "I'm older. He's a baby who just learned to cuss. I wonder what his mother would say?"

I felt like I was watching my dear students in a year or so. Lord, I hope they get smarter.

Prayers please

I just heard from the mother of one of my students. The girl, getting ready to enter her Senior year, with honors flapping behind her, has found several lumps in her breast. They will do a biopsy today.

Please include her in your prayers.

37 days of vacation left and I still don't know what I am teaching

There are 37 days of vacation left and I still don't know what I am teaching.

I get no answers to my emails. The phone is not working.

Oh well.

I wish I knew FB better ** updated

A boy I taught last year asked me to be his friend on FB. Anthony describes himself as a goon, and he appears that way to a large number of people. A lot of teachers are afraid of him and he had several court appearances during the year for assault.

I loved him!

Anyway, I accepted him as a friend and a post from his website appeared on my wall. The vocabulary was - awful.

I sent him a note "I would love to have you as a friend on FB. But, you use language that I don't want to read every day, so I am going to have to pass. My email is **@**.com and I would love to have you email me. I just do not want to read those words on my FB. Does that make sense to you? I hope so. I understand you need to talk that way for your friends, and that's fine." When I checked his FB - ALL OF THE FOUL MOUTHED POSTINGS WERE GONE.

Did he just make it so I can't see them? (That would be fine with me) I really do like him and hope he invests more in school than he has.

His response to my note was "Oh, OK". And then he told me that another of my bad boys said he loved me. I think this is so cute!

Updated: He deleted the offending posts from his page.

Wow.

Curtis

Two years ago I wrote about Curtis. He was a boy who for a short period period of time would appear to be charming but made it almost impossible to teach the rest of the class. I never heard of anyone who wanted him in their class (students or teachers). He was written up a lot just to get him out of the classroom.

He didn't pass enough classes that year to progress to his sophomore year so he was still a freshman this past year. One of the courses he didn't pass was math and he failed freshman math again last year.

I am not sure he will be a sophomore in the fall, because he continues to behave in the same way in class.

Most kids who act up in class are either looking for the approval of the teacher or (more likely) their fellow students. Curtis is just looking for attention - good, bad, doesn't matter. Just attention.

He hung out in that group outside my class this past year and I overheard him ask another kid, do you think 17 is too young to be a father? (Note, I have never ever seen him with a girl beyond annoying one) I listened harder. Apparently he feels that you are a better parent when you are a young parent, so he wants to have his children before he is 20.

The friend was laughing and telling him he will need a job.

He will need to graduate and the only way he will be able to do that is to knuckle down and do the work. At this point, if he applies himself (since he is capable), he could graduate in 3 years. He has the ability to LEARN the material so he could pass the graduation tests.

But I cannot see him planning anything academic that well or long.

Teaching Tool: engaging the student

Mr. K posted an idea about letting the student draw the number line to decorate the room.

Part of what I have been thinking about is do I ask enough of the kids?

Could I involve high school students in coming up with my word wall? A number line for my room? Postable examples of good work?

I do put some on the bulletin board, but I think I need to do more.

Rizzoli and Isles

I have only been seeing (as in noticing) Angie Harmon in the ads for Rizzoli and Isles - and have been looking forward to seeing the first episode since I love the books by Tess Gerritsen. I had noticed that the character of Isles is played by a non-Oriental - and I was ok with that.

Yesterday I noticed it was Sascha Alexander! I loved her as Kate on NCIS - but admired her later. Whatever your relationship with your mother-in-law (and I love mine) you have to admire a woman comfortable enough with herself to date and then marry Sophia Loren's son.

Six Word Saturday

I never would've thought of that.


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I think sometimes we get so bogged down in the day to day that we forget to just sit and think: sit on a riverbank, in a hammock, at the beach - turn off the tv, turn off the noise and just think.

And talk - talking with other people who do the same kinds of things or completely different things can lead you to an AHA moment.

How do I prepare my kids to pass high stakes tests?
How can I present material so that they GET IT?
How can I share what I know?

Here's to just thinking.

Stupid Moves by a School Board

Cobb County's school board is doing some really boneheaded things. It isn't new - all the incumbents were replaced during the last election because the last superintendent kept trying to push through laptops for every student.

Now, the current board keeps meeting in private (which is a violation of the state's open meeting law). When they get caught (on the front page of the local paper) they insist that they didn't do anything wrong.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Cobb let 600 teachers go - anyone with 2 years or less teaching. Then they hired back about 500 of them.

They have lost some incredible teachers to the system. I'm not talking about new teachers (and I am not going to get into a debate about who is a better teacher - new enthusiastic teachers or older experienced teachers) but teachers who have 2 years or fewer with Cobb and several years of experience in other systems.

In Georgia, you are "tenured" if you have three years of experience - or two years in the current district and were tenured in another district.

I just learned about an AP teacher who was caught in the sweep - 2 years in Cobb, 20 in another district in Georgia - and, while they have offered her a job in another high school, she will instead be going to another district in the fall.

Parental excuses.

Here are some wonderful excuses parents have written for their children. And the parents think we make stuff up.

Probability 2

I spoke here about state tests and students Christmas-treeing the tests.

I was speaking to a teacher from a state north of us, a state held in high regard and used as an example (as in, we should be more like them)to the educators in this state. This teacher mentioned the pass rate of their test, then laughed and said it meant nothing.

1) One student got 11% of the answers correct, but her adjusted score was over 70%

2) Another bubbled in B for every answer and got over an 80% (adjusted).

The teacher went on to say that you didn't need math to pass these tests, you needed to know how to use a calculator and you needed test taking skills.

Isn't it nice to know how we as teachers will be graded?

Weird - so, what would you do?

The other day I was in a bookstore. It's summer, so we're talking about 3 in the afternoon.

A man (forties or fifties, dressed business casual) walked up to me and kept asking me questions that seemed to me to be the kind you would address to a store employee. So, I kept saying, I don't work here.

He finally said "I work at AT&T. I am embarrassed but I left my check card at home. I have a flat tire and NTW wants $24.75. I have the $.75."

I told him I couldn't help him. He kept insisting until I walked off.

I keep coming back to the idea that IT WAS 3 IN THE AFTERNOON.

I would have called my son, my husband, my friends, my neighbors, thumbed home, walked the 10 miles before I would have walked up to a perfect (thank you very much) stranger and asked for $24.

If he worked at AT&T, why didn't he call them? SOMEONE would be in the office at 3 in the afternoon. On a Tuesday.

So, what do you think?

My husband made disparaging remarks about this man being a alcoholic and the panhandling price has gone up.

Two months until school starts

And I have no idea what I am teaching, just that it will be new and require a lot of work . . . . . . .

Probability

We teach statistics every year as part of the curriculum. As part of what we teach, we teach that theoretically if you have 4 choices, the probability is 25% that you would select a specific choice. But you also teach that it is POSSIBLE to select the same marble, sock, whatever 4 times in a row. Or 10 times in a row. I wouldn’t bet on it, but it is possible.

So, we’re in a department meeting and two teachers start complaining about students who say they Christmas-treed the state test and got a passing score of 70. The teachers kept saying “There were 4 answers [A, B, C, D], they should have a 25% not a 70%.”

They ignore:
1) 70 is the inflated and is probably a 40 (I forget what the cut score is, but it isn’t 70).
2) 40% is POSSIBLE
3) The kid probably lied that he didn’t read the problems because he wanted to build an escape plan (I didn’t pass because I Christmas-treed it. Never read the test.)

So why do the teachers spend time complaining about this? Heck,, why am I spending time complaining about THEM? I guess I just expect them to have thought this through before wasting my time.

NYC charter schools

I have a question about New York schools based on this.

It sounds like one building might house 2 or so "schools". Is this so?

Down here in the sticks, we are used to school referring to the building as well as the institution inside. But, if in NYC it means multiple charter schools inside one building, it starts making more sense.

Idea for the new year

What a great idea!! math raps.

I will need to see what I am teaching (yo, administration - I want to start PLANNING here) but I may get this.

Six Word Saturday

Teachers act as bad as kids.


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I was in a class all week. The students (teachers) would talk during instruction, blurt out answers when asked not to, not listen to instruction - sheesh.

The worst offender didn't even blurt out the RIGHT answers. Don't you think at a certain point you'd stop embarrassing yourself? I am proud of myself for not saying anything to her - I am not going to see her again and don't care if she corrects that r not, but I wish she had given me time to think through the problems.

Life Philosophy from The Edge of Darkness

Life Philosophy from The Edge of Darkness

"No one expects you to be perfect but there’s just a few basic things you gotta get right. Always do the best you can for your family. Go to work every day. Always speak your mind. Never hurt anyone that doesn’t deserve it.. And never take anything from the bad guys."

Mel Gibson in The Edge of Darkness

My brain is full.

More school news

I have written a lot about the layoffs here. AJC has an article about two of the laid off teachers and what they will do.

It's the usual stuff around here. Cobb has reassigned 350 teachers in addition to the ones it laid off. DeKalb is prosecuting the superintendent and several others, and the lawyers aren't behaving. The state colleges are supposed to verify citizenship and are having problems.

School starts in 58 days. No news.

Games

I suck at games, particularly games in the classroom. Here are two:

1) Matching.
The way it was presented was calculus: each team was given 10 graphs, 10 first derivatives (as sign graphs) and 10 second derivatives (as sign graphs). As a team, you had to match them

I can see this for identifying transformations, basic graphs (match the graph to the point slope form of the equation, etc) - and probably many other applications. Keeper.

2) review game
This one used a smartboard (which of course we don't have and I covet)Throw a koosh ball at the smartboard and a review question appears. You could do the same thing other ways (random number generator or something) as an exam review or even problem of the day.

OMG Calculus is SOOOO much fun!

The teacher is awesome and I will have some lessons to post later. I am having a blast!

How many of you know what you are teaching next year?

Our principal - having control issues - likes to tell us in July what we will be teaching in August.

This gets to be fun when you are handed something you have never taught before.

(I have mentioned we have no books, haven't I?)

He thinks this is reasonable because he was told we he reported for the teacher days before the start of school which English course he'd be teaching.

When are you told what you'll teach in the coming year?

Peeved. Irked. Annoyed.

Times are tight and there are limited opportunities within the school to make more money. I get irritated when it is the same person every time who is given the opportunity.

She pleads poverty but makes more than I do (I love working for a government entity where nothing is private).

Phooey!

Somethings just make future decisions easier.

Comments on the end of year review

· This was my favorite class all year. Thank you for all you did
· This class is awesome
· Thanks
· I will surely miss this class because out of all my other classes, this one taught me about real life math and not complicated stuff =)
· Good job, keep up the good work! Thank you for everything
· You’re actually a really cool teacher with great teaching methods, but the students (myself included) don’t appreciate and respect you like I should.
· My amazing teacher (from one I finally came to an understanding with the last day)
· I love you! (from a surprising number of students)
· You’re a great teacher
· My favorite teacher who wanted the best for me
· I will remember you – how you helped but was straight up.

I told them I wasn't looking for complements but for ways to improve. I need to work on how I ask that because I didn't get much in the way of improvement. I know I can do better.

Summer Rejuvenation Guide - free

There is a free book available from Edutopia - Summer Rejuvenation Guide: 10 Tips to Help You Relax, Reflect, and Recharge for the Coming School Year.

Topics include:
* 1. Grow Your Network
* 2. Party with the Stars
* 3. Do-It-Yourself Professional Development
* 4. Tell the Story of Your Life
* 5. Try Something New
* 6. Curate Classroom Artifacts
* 7. Give a Little, Get a Lot
* 8. Get Moving
* 9. Crack the Books
* 10. Plan Ahead for Next Summer

Be good to yourself and get ready for the next year!

The next Georgia School Superintendent

Meet the next Georgia School Superintendent.

Six Word Saturday

Wading through stuff looking for treasure.


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Sigh. It is time to clean house. I like the result, not the process.

Masters at teaching

I remember being told by someone (a secretary in the school, actually), that as a parent, she would rather have someone who knew how to teach than someone who knew the material. That (in this state) you can pass a test to be certified in a subject, and that mastering the material is secondary to being able to deliver it.

That certainly seems to be the philosophy in this county. Everyone (the principal [English], the superintendent [middle grades social studies], the assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum [middle grades English], the math curriculum specialist [middle grades English NO MATH]) involved in supervising us may be the world's best teachers but they do not know math, they do not know the curriculum. When we try to discuss problems, they cannot hear what we are saying because they are not math people.

Science comes the closest - and there are two science people over us and they seem to get it. (They also understand that science has freedoms in what you can do to illustrate a point.) It is easier to use mentos and diet coke to make a point than to expound on the Pythagorean Theorem.

I am getting frustrated trying to bridge this misunderstnding.

There is more to teaching math than spiffy teaching techniques. You have to know the math.

Why is that so difficult?

Here is the original

1.Repeat the number 8 one hundred times in a row to somebody. At the end (assuming they didn’t leave or punch you in the nose) ask them what number you were saying. Chances of success: extremely high.
2.Now ask (for your sake) a different person after repeating 38502 twenty times in a row (still 100 numbers spoken), what five numbers you were saying. Chances of success: high.
3.Find a third person and tell them any random string of one hundred numbers and ask them to repeat it. Chances of success: essentially zero.
4.Ask them about the first number of the sequence. Chances of success: low.
5.Ask them about the first five numbers of the sequence. Chances of success: essentially zero.
Adam Glesser

The entire article is worth reading.

The topic is worth discussing.

I have lost my mind

I read something today. It was awesome. I'll swear I read it here. but now I can't find it.

And it was SOOOO awesome.

So, because I cannot find the original, I will paraphrase it.

It was discussing how we add too much to the math curriculum and the kids can't get it. That we should simplify the curriculum and have them master fewer things. (I know that was the intent here in Georgia, but we still go in too many directions.)

1) If you repeated the number 8 one hundred times to someone (and they didn't hit you), you could ask them what number you said and the odds are great that they would remember.

2) If you repeated the number 32508 twenty times to another person (same number of digits) and asked the person the number at the end, you would have a pretty good possibility of success.

3) If you gave a person a 100 digit number, and asked them the first number (or the first 5 numbers) that odds for success are not good.

Teaching somewhere between #1 and #2 would lead to success. We teach #3.

Please let me know where I got this from.

Note: It did come from Kate Nowak at f(t) - but it isn't there now. You will have to make do with this poor substitute. Her post and the one she links to should be required reading and the first stepping stone to any meaningful discussion about standards based instruction.

Seeing the Future

I was reading a local blog when another teacher made a comment that people objected to. She said something about knowing her students are future felons. Non-teachers felt this was unfair.

Since coming to the school I teach in, I have made predictions (to myself) about future incarcerations. This year, one of them came true.

I never would have said anything to the boy at the time I taught him, but his arrest for felony assault and unlawful entry came as no surprise.

There are some from each year that I wait to read about in the paper.

One of the boys from my high school days, well liked, well raised, most likely to succeed type, spent 20 years in prison for murder. Some things are not predictable.

Nightmares and regrets

I failed 5 people this year. One really bothers me. Four didn't come to school - had they come, they probably would have passed because they would have been here to nag and get the work from them. But I saw them each about once the last month.

But the fifth was there every day. He was behaved, he was quiet, he was capable - he did no work.

I talked with him, I listened, I even wrote him a note. Nothing reached him. And he failed my class.

I have dreamed about him every night - but I wouldn't have done it any differently. If he had done SOMETHING, I would have curved the grade. But he either turned in nothing or a blank sheet with his name on it.

He would not even copy work placed in front of him.

Understand, he is capable of A work.

And I never figured out how to reach him.

Words of Wisdom

These were the words of wisdom my students put on their year end evaluation:

· Do your work
· Don’t transfer schools
· Go to class
· Be careful what language you use
· Pay attention
· Do your work and be respectful and Ricochet will help you all she can.
· Don’t mess with Ricochet =)
· Take notes
· Don’t sleep, do your work
· Study, pay attention
· Don’t. Fall. Behind.
· As long as you work hard & complete your work & turn it in, you will pass.
· Don’t try to argue
· Don’t miss a lot of days – you will get far behind.
· Listen, don’t argue, participate, respect
· Don’t waste your time – take advantage of every opportunity
· Turn your work in
· Never miss a day of her class
· Do the work when it is given to you.
· Don’t put it off.
· Be on time. Failure is not an option
· Be here every day

Thank you, Miss Teacha for the idea!

Schadenfreude

Yesterday was the last day. As I am trying to pack up my room (and reminding myself - as I do every year - that I bring too much) I was also dealing with a student taking my exam as she wasn't here when she should have been.

After the student left (she passed), a young teacher who was RIFfed (and apparently surprised) came in. gleeful that a student we had in common had failed more than one class. And not graduated.

I know this boy made the teacher's life miserable, but, REALLY? How can you be happy someone didn't graduate? For some of these kids, that's it, they won't come back. I will try to reach the kid over the summer and see if I can't talk him into finishing.

The young teacher got into a pissing contest with his students and everyone lost. Several of us tried to talk with him to no avail.

I still grieve for the ones I failed, even though I know I did everything I could and that they failed me rather than the other way around.

But there are no kids I would be happy to see fail or not graduate, even the ones I am doing the happy dance because I will not be teaching them ever again.

Summer

Today I have to empty my car of all the stuff I brought home. I won't take as much back.

I have to (HAVE TO) start weeding things out - both at home and from the stuff I brought home. When I find them, I will post the comments I received on the year end reflection.

I need to study for next week's class.

But, I did manage to sleep in two hours longer than normal.

It's early and I am about to go in

Dragging this morning - but I need to finish my paperwork and clean out my room. Don't know which room (or even which building - there are 5) I will be in but it wouldn't matter. In this school everything goes home.

Tomorrow I can sleep late - bet I don't.

It's outrageous

* We have always had a period (2 or 3 days) after school is out where kids with a 60-69 can raise their grade. Not this year (no money). I had a student this week say that if the teachers cared, we would come anyway. I pointed out I am here before or after school and if HE cared, he would have found a way to take advantage of that.

* I know teachers should not be responsible for making up budget shortfalls, but it galls me when a teacher sanctimoniously says he will not be buying paper, his kids can copy off the board. I am so not looking forward to next year.

* I am so tired I cannot think of any others.

One day left

I still have to pack my room and say goodbye to some who will not be coming back.

Hopefully we'll find out what we are teaching - but we are already getting assignments by the chair, regardless. (And, she is picking people's strengths to get jobs done, so this is good)

Two long days and I am more ready for a nap than for chores.

Six Word Saturday

It's all over but the cleanup!


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Graduation was last night and my babies all looked so grown up! I got enough hugs to last me til August!

The crowd behaved. There were airhorns, cowbells, and shouting = but they made noise for brief moments so you could hear each announcement. In the past the crowd really disrupted the ceremony.

It was disappointing that some people weren't there.

I can't find the previous post, but I posted about one student who wondered if she should invite her mother to graduation. And I told her that she should because it is the right thing to do - that you can be polite to someone for one night (she and her mother have issues). Then she asked in a small voice "what if she doesn't answer?" And I told her that she would know she had done the right thing and it is her mother's loss.

As of Thursday, she had not heard from her mother.

I said, if it matters, know that I will be cheering for her and acting and feeling like she was mine when she walks across the stage.

After graduation, I had another teacher take a picture of the two of us which I will send to her over the summer. She told me then that her mother had called right before graduation to say thank you for the invitation but she couldn't come because her back was hurting.

That woman doesn't know what she missed.

I'm done!!

One more exam, a room to clean out, but no more funsucker.....

Wish I knew what I was teaching.

Now to grade exams.

Don't get it

We are giving exams. Daily, I get kids interrupting the class to ask (usually demand) that they be allowed to take their exam at a time different from when the school says.

I have had kids not show up.

I have had kids ask for special treatment and then not show up.

But the killer is the kid who interrupts my class (taking an exam) to ask to take his exam a day early so he doesn't have to come to school tomorrow. When I said no, he went back and told his mother I cussed him out.

Now I cannot get ahold of the mother and I am ready to cuss him out.

One more day.

** Got ahold of mom and told her I did not say he wasn't worth it - I said catering to him might cost me my job (since we were told not to) and he wasn't worth my job. She laughed. Life is good again.

I finally figured it out

Funsucker was asked to take the non-seniors away so that I could give the seniors their exam. No kidding, she emailed me 4 times "when can I bring them back?"

Huh? She keeps saying she wants to teach. Nope, she wants to teach in a team environment so someone else does the discipline......

On a completely different note, I talked with someone from my high school (yep, the home lets 'em out periodically) and she made the comment that she only passed trig because of me. Probably true.

We had a nice man as a teacher - nice man, lousy teacher. He would assign homework today and go over it tomorrow. That was his teaching.

So, I'd go home, my parents would teach it to me, and I would hold class in homeroom and teach whoever would come so they would be prepared in class. I have no idea if we got a grade for homework or not, but we must have.

Nit-Pickincg

We finish Senior exams today and I had asked Funsucker if she would take the non=seniors to her room so I just had the rest.

She asked me "graduating seniors or all seniors?"

Every email we have gotten from on high has been "senior". I know I have three not graduating (because of the graduation test). WHY would I want to differentiate against them now? That strikes me as just mean.