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.