Babies having babies

There is normally one girl every year with a baby - either here or on the way.

I have fewer students than I have most years, and I have 3 pregnancies and one just-turned-16-who-is-still-immature with a 3 month old.

Most of the ones this year are putting in NO EFFORT to pass.

Do not get it.

Out of touch

A student was talking about a highly respected teacher at our school. I know the kids really like this teacher - but I don't see that she adds to the profession. By that. I mean I do not see her offering information that helps people new to the profession or even new to the school.

This sounds petty - and I really don't mean it that way. She is in another department and in the 10 years we have worked in the same school, we have had little contact. We haven't had the same duty, we don't work on the same committees, we haven't had the same planning periods. We have shared the same lunch, but she is loud and I prefer quieter conversation.

I have heard rumors from special ed teachers and other teachers who work in that department, just an undercurrent that things aren't perceived the same way by adults that I respect as they are by the teenagers in her class.

A student was talking today (thinking it was riotously funny) that she requires a password to return from the bathroom. The password this year is Dripping Anus. Ok, it something else, equally classy.

I am not appalled. But I would not be "thrilled" to have a child in her room. It seems so completely unprofessional. When you add that in the twelve years of her teaching AP classes she has never had anything above a 2.

Results speak. I think she is fun - that doesn't translate as a GOOD teacher. And the teenagers in the school will probably never see that.

In another conversation this week, another math teacher was lamenting that her students (seniors) cannot skips steps in their head. If you are doing the Pythagorean theorem. a squared plus b squared equals c squared. So you know a = 6 and b = 8, you get c = 10. Her students screamed at her "You can't skip the steps. a squared is 36, b squared is 64. 36 + 64 = 100. The square root of 100 is 10."

And the teacher's comment was to shake her head and say the kids have no idea how behind they really are.

We are a needs improvement school. The culture needs to change. When you have teachers like the first one - a teacher held up as a paragon, how do you fix it?

Yeah, I am out of touch. (Thank you, I take it as a complement.) I would not have a child I love in this class - and yet I know I am working to change things.

Saturday's post, take 2.

'I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.' (from a Persian Sufi story)

I was upset with one of my children and was in a real snit because I had my feelings hurt.

Then I talked with a friend whose daughter is having an abortion tomorrow.

I am pro-choice but I am grateful I never had to make that choice.

Six Word Saturday

Keeping a secret? Clean up yourself.


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What level of passive aggressiveness is it, to move out and leave most of your stuff behind? And to treat valuables and trash in exactly the same manner. But, if you want to keep a secret, do not leave information behind for your parents to pack up.

six word saturday

Grading is easier with your effort.


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It is so much easier to grade work where the students are trying and (while making errors) have put effort into doing a good job. It is difficult to grade something where half the papers have their name on it and nothing else and the rest has answers like (0,0) r = 4 to the question "write the equation of a circle with a center at the origin and a radius of 4."

Do you give that any points? Were they sitting in class while we hammered this over and over? I am supposed to up the rigor but the results are worse with a test of increased rigor.

Oy vey!

Technology?

I rewrote an email today. One that our email system decided to lose for me yesterday. And I made a decision.

Since we have such crappy unpredictable a creative communication system, I will type the email into Word first and the copy it into the email system so that I do not have to write it multiple times.

This is supposed to be an improvement.

I have software systems on my computer that I cannot access because they ghosted the machines when school started and haven't fixed yet. They would make my life easier and aid in my teaching, oh well.

Because we getting a boatload of money from the federal government (or all of you taxpayers) we have spent a boatload on technology. That doesn't work. That does us no good.

Six Word Saturday

List the consequences? Then use them.


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You go to the expense of publishing the "rules" and consequences for students - like using profanity at a teacher. So why to you lessen the punishment because the student complains to you?

When you create a hostile work environment for the teachers, where the students feel free to call their teachers whatever they want, learning will not take place.

I believe your days are numbered.

This is early in the year for teachers to be making other plans. And yet we are.