#mrs. f

[purlturtle]

We all know them, we love them, we wish we *were* them - or is that just me? Well, *you* clicked the link to get here, so you probably want

I made a thing! Let me know what you get!

[187days]

Day Forty-Nine

I simultaneously love and hate the first Monday after Daylight Savings. I love that it’s not dark out when I go to work, but I hate that my brain is convinced I’m running late because it’s not dark out when I go to work. It had me all out of sorts this morning. 

So, y’know, it was a perfect morning to get observed Block 1!

Actually, it was fine. It was just Ms. H observing me, so it wasn’t for my professional evaluation or anything like that. Of course, it’s still important because I want to set a good example for the new teacher, but I’ve had new teachers observing me since my second year of teaching, so it isn’t a high pressure thing at all. It’s just part of what I do.

It’s the start of a new unit in World, but since it’s the start of a new quarter, too, I began class by asking my students to write me a quick reflection: what went well Q1, what did they enjoy, what was difficult, what are their goals for Q2. I gave them my thoughts on Q1, as well (basically, tons of compliments on how well it ended). After that, I went over the new unit vocab in my typical, old school fashion (board notes). Usually, students will ask a lot more questions than they did during Block 1 this morning, but they might’ve been out of sorts like me, or nervous that another teacher was in the room. The students in the other two sections had a ton to say, though, so it balanced out.

My GOV students took a crack at an argument FRQ to start class- just for practice, not for a grade, since there’s a test coming up- and then I had them read a couple news articles relating to executive orders, administrative adjudication, and oversight- all concepts I taught them about last week. I always like to link the things I teach to current events so students can see the application. They read while I marked their FRQs, then we discussed everything for the last 15 minutes or so. So that was good. 

The day didn’t end of a high note, unfortunately. I have a student who’s either been disrupting class or skipping class most days. I thought we were making progress, but now it feels like we’re back to square one. Mrs. F, the student’s counselor, asked if it would be better for the student to drop my class and enroll in something they could pass and get credit for this quarter instead- try again with World next semester, or even next year- and that’s a question I almost never say yes to. 

But this time I did. 

Nothing I’m doing is working, and I’ve been teaching long enough to know that sometimes it’s just like that. No teacher is the right match for every single student, sometimes there are things outside our control that prevent students from being able to engage in their learning, etc, etc... I know this happens. I’ve even counseled newer teachers through it when it’s happened to them.

It doesn’t make it feel any less lousy, though.

[geminicollisionworks]

I also enjoy how Amanda La Pergola, writer and actor on ALTHAAR (and new mother of Imogen for almost 2 months), posted this image with pride in an Instagram story -- apart from Berit, the only actor with 2 characters in there!

[whyb0th3rw1than4me-blog]

I love Sanity circus, and I was quite reluctant to show these but, I'm just excited to see chapter 20 to come out!!!

[187days]

Day Fifty

This morning The Principal sent an email to the whole staff to notify us that there won’t be after school activities on the 16th because the local police are going to be in the building to do an Alice training presentation/demo for the administrators. I promptly wrote back to ask why they’re planning to do that, given that there’s little evidence that Alice training works and lots of evidence that it’s needlessly traumatic. Clearly, I speak very candidly to my boss, and, lucky for me, he actually appreciates it.

He came to my classroom later in the day to give me a chance to say more, answer my questions, and share his point of view. He assured me that any training will be coming from the local police- no paid consultants making money off of the nation’s inability to deal with the issue of gun violence- and that it won’t involve the student body. I asked if it would involve the staff, and reminded him that we went through a lockdown the year before he got here, and that realistic training for another one could be triggering. He acknowledged that point- and also that this year’s hard enough without adding on any more trauma- and he’s taking it into consideration going forward. I promised I’m not going to be a total problem child about this since, ultimately, it’s his call, not mine. But I was glad he heard me out.

It’s a heavy topic to shake off before going and teaching, but I think I managed all right. I’m covering types of governments in World right now, so today I started with our own as an example of a presidential republic. I divided the class into two teams, and had them use the Constitution to find answers to various questions (ie, what are the qualifications to be President, how long are terms in the House and Senate, who chooses Supreme Court justices). The team that answered them the fastest won. It’s something different than what we normally do, so I figured it would be fun. 

It went really well in my Block 2 class (everyone was engaged, we were discussing why the founding fathers made certain choices, lots of learning was happening), and pretty well in my Block 4 class (they actually had the best discussion, but I had a few students continually getting off task). It wasn’t bad in Block 1, but the teams were very chatty and distracted by one another, so I had to address that multiple times, and my teaching was choppy as a result. But, anyways, after we did that, they read an article about how parliamentary republics are different from presidential ones, we discussed it, and that took us right to the bell.

My APUSGOV students have a test tomorrow, so today was a review day. If someone came into the room during a test review, they’d see a lot of different things going on. I had some students writing in notebooks, some students on chromebooks, some just listening, some with their cell phones out to record (audio only).... I let them do whatever worked for them, and once they were out of questions for me, we did some practice MCQs together. They realized halfway through that I’d purposefully scheduled the test for the day before they have a day off- do the hard thing, take a break- and they were like, “Those are some serious planning skills, Miss M!”

I wish I could say all of my students were that grateful, but the one I mentioned yesterday is pretty pissed off that I gave Mrs. F permission to withdraw her from my class. She interpreted that as me wanting to kick her out, which isn’t what I want, really; I just want her to be successful, and I haven’t been able to help her. She didn’t actually withdraw, though, since there wasn’t another course she wanted to enroll in, so now I have to try and figure out how to turn this around. I’m not sure if I can, but I’ll do my best... 

The day ended with a faculty meeting. I admittedly didn’t devote my full attention to it because I had that student on my mind, and the conversation with The Principal, and a dozen other things. But I did learn that there are some cool things coming up, school-wide and/or district-wide, so stay tuned!

[187days]

Day One Hundred Forty-Six

I spent most of the day preparing my GOV lessons for next week. The faculty voted not to make changes to the schedule, but I decided I wanted to change all three of my lessons a little bit. So that meant revising a lecture, finding some new readings, editing an assignment to add some different requirements... Covid cases are still on the rise, though, so I’m not sure if we will be back in person or not. We definitely want to be, but it isn’t feasible I can teach over a Google Meet. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it’d be okay. 

We’ll see what happens.

My ninth graders were very quiet today, but that’s not a bad thing. They’re in the middle of drafting Book Papers, so they don’t need much from me, they just need time to write. I fielded a couple questions about citations, gave some advice about thesis statements, and that was pretty much it. Mrs. R and Mr. F also have students in the middle of long-term work, so we spent most of the morning in Mrs. R’s room because it gets a bit boring and lonely otherwise. It warmed up by lunch time, so we spent most of the afternoon outside, which was lovely. 

This afternoon, I have to attend a district webinar about health insurance, which is less lovely, but it saves me money, so... That’s cool.

[187days]

Day Sixty

My district realized that teaching during a pandemic is stressful and, at times, the workload can be overwhelming, and agreed to do one planned remote learning a day month during which classes would be held from 9-11 (half hour each). We originally thought that it would be up to us as individual teachers to decide how to use the remainder of the day, but then someone higher up started scheduling stuff in as if it was a teacher workshop day, and the union had to push back (and that’s why you should support your local!). We ended up with a compromise: time to do individual work first thing in the morning, then the remote school day, then department meetings to work on district stuff, then time for contacting students/parents. 

So I wrote college recs and filled out NHS evaluation forms in the morning. When my students’ class time began, I checked in with them briefly, then sent them on their merry way to do the readings I’d assigned. Mrs. W did a similar thing with her students, so I went over to her room and we did some collaborative planning for World, which was good. In our department meeting, Mrs. Z went over Program of Studies stuff, and we continued the rubric work we'd started during the last teacher workshop day. I didn’t have to do many parent contacts because I did most of them when first quarter ended, but I wrote a bunch of “caught doing something good” cards to send out. That’s something my school’s done for a while, and something The Principal’s been encouraging us to keep doing because families really do appreciate it, so I figured that was a good use of the time.

I’ve said this before, I think, but really haven’t been buried by work the way some of my colleagues have been. Mrs. F even said today, “I figured you were fine,” and I am, but there are a lot of reasons why that’s the case. My classes are comparatively easy to prep for, I’ve got a blessedly low-drama student population right now (here’s hoping I didn’t just jinx it!), and I don’t have a lot of outside stressors (ie- no kids to take care of at home)... It was still nice to have today, though, and go into the weekend quietly. 

[187days]

Day One Hundred Thirty-Four

Remote Teaching Rule #1: what happens in your department’s zoom meeting stays in your department’s zoom meeting...

So, it’s another Monday. My students have pretty much settled into the routine of remote learning, so they have fewer questions than they did last week, but I had plenty of grading, planning, and documenting of stuff to keep me occupied. I wrote this in my last entry, but, man, grading online is so slow. I miss having paper copies of student work, and marking stuff up with my flare pens.

One thing that’s surprised me is that my ninth graders are generally doing about as well online as they did in class. I don’t mean they’re learning as much (I may be good, but I will freely admit there’s less depth in these lessons), but their work completion really hasn’t changed. Students who did their work in class are still doing it with the same amount of effort, students who didn’t... aren’t. Thankfully, that’s not many, and I’m continually (read: annoyingly) contacting them and/or their parents to offer help. Mrs. F will do follow-ups, too. 

There’s a possibility that the schedule we’re using now may change next week based on student, parent, and staff feedback. We might move to four days of classes, one day for students to get individual help, make up work, do non-academic things (some of the clubs still want to “meet” and such), etc, etc... That gives teachers more time for their non-instructional duties, too, which helps the ones who have young kids at home, in particular. They’re the ones for whom this is most difficult, really, I think. 

I said this on Twitter this morning, and I think I’ve said it before here: wicked glad I don’t have kids right now.

I still have moments of feeling really anxious, even though I’m fine, my family’s fine, everything’s going alright... I’m sure everyone’s experiencing this. Gonna get through it, though!