#reaccreditation

[187days]

Day One Hundred Eighty-Five

Today was the last day of finals. I didn’t have any to give, and my grades were done yesterday, so I spent the morning cleaning my room (read: scraping gum off the bottoms of tables ew), updating my syllabi for the fall, that sort of thing. After that, I took everything off the ninth grade house bulletin board I’m responsible for, and made sure the kids in MfoL, which I advise, had done the same with their bulletin board (they had). 

As a thank you gift for all the work we did during the reaccreditation process this year, we were treated to a free lunch, which was delicious. It was a nice day, so everyone hung out on the picnic tables outside the cafeteria afterwards. There’s a little basketball court there, too, so it wasn’t long before a few of the guys I work with started a game of Horse. 

Obviously, I had to join them. 

Now, here’s the thing: I wear dresses and high heels to work nearly everyday, and today- despite it being the students’ last day- was no exception. I was looking fancy. So everyone got a kick out of it when I stepped onto the court and proceeded to drain my first shot. What’s even better is that the SRO- who is a big, young, athletic guy- was the next to shoot, and he totally missed. 

I didn’t end up winning, but I did acquire one heck of a cheering squad (which included all the female administrators in the building, naturally), and finished in a respectable third. It was tons of fun.

[187days]

Day Twenty-Eight

My Block 2 class on B days is huge, loud, and filled with students whose social skills need a bit of work. So it starts like a rocket blasting off: go, go, go! If I stop to breathe, they start talking. If I pause to take a question, there’s only a 50/50 chance it’ll be relevant and/or appropriate, so it’s always a risk. Today, a student interrupted class to tell me she was hungry (because she thought I might take pity and let her eat in class, which is a no-no at my school because of allergies and stuff). My response was, “That’s unfortunate,” which the whole class thought was the most hilarious thing ever. They totally cracked up.

Okay, sure.

I did manage to teach my lesson, too. We did vocab, and then talked about current events in Latin America, and actually got into a really good discussion about the politics of immigration, foreign aid, and so on. I was pretty pleased with that. 

In my Block 4 class, we didn’t talk quite as much about the political stuff, but they did give me excellent example sentences using their vocab. One boy related all ten words to North Korea, to his classmates’ amusement. We also had a chat during the last few minutes of class about what it’s like to go to the same school K-8 versus switching schools. It was interesting to hear students’ perspectives on that because they’ve had such different experiences; there are kids who’ve known each other for years, and kids who are newer to the district, and so on. Some love coming to the high school because it’s big and new, and some miss their little, familiar schools.

What else?

A funny thing happened during flex time. MfoL was meeting, but I was across the room helping a student with an assignment, so I was only partially listening to the conversation they were having about potential fundraisers... So when one girl suggested, “Make scrunchies to appeal to the VSCO girls,” what I heard was “... to kill the VSCO girls.”

So, of course, I was like, “WHAT?!?!?! THAT’S NOT APPROPRIATE!!!!” and they were very confused as to why I was reacting so dramatically to scrunchies... We all had a good laugh when I explained what I’d heard. 

It was a super productive meeting, though; they came up with some awesome ideas for fundraisers, club events, and so on. I’m psyched about the work they’re doing.

My day ended with two meetings: a team meeting and a faculty meeting. One of the middle school teachers came up to the team meeting give us some insight about a particular at-risk student, and then we discussed a couple other things that have been going on. After that, we all headed to the auditorium to hear closing remarks from the re-accreditation team, all of which I thought were positive and constructive. So now that’s done! Woohoo!

[187days]

Day Two

Today began with Freshman Orientation: just shy of 200 ninth graders came in for meetings with school counseling, tours of the building, Q&A sessions with upperclassmen, games and team-building challenges, and pizza. It was mildly chaotic, and by the end of it I wanted to curl up under my desk and take a nap, but it was awesome. I think the energy was really positive.

When it was over we had a nice, long lunch break (and free pizza!!!). Mr. E, Mr. W, Mr. F, Mrs. T, and I ate together and then helped each other get our classrooms in order. And then we had over an hour of time to get work done! It was glorious! I printed syllabi and other first day stuff, and sketched out the first APUSGOV unit in my plan book. Afterwards, I had two quick meetings: one with all the other AP teachers to go over some new stuff, and one with the whole faculty regarding our reaccreditation (we have site visits this year). 

That was it for the work day, but I actually did one more school-related thing this evening: I ran the Challenge Race. This is a scrimmage between my high school’s cross country team, the neighboring school’s team, and the local running club (of which I am a member). I figured I’d come in dead last since I’m a 100m-dasher and have zero distance running talent, but I always have a great cheering section, and it’s a fun race to run no matter what. Plus, there’s free food afterwards, which is great!

One more day of in-service!

[187days]

Day Twenty-Five

Weird, right? It’s a Sunday. But it actually was a work day for me because my school is going through the reaccreditation process, the final phase of which started today. Here’s the deal: every ten years, schools do a self-evaluation to start the reaccreditation process (there are committees that gather evidence and compile reports on different things... mine was school leadership), and the following year a team of observers visits to do their evaluation. They’ll determine whether or not a school remains accredited, recommend improvements, commend strengths, etc... It’s a big process. 

The visiting team arrived today, so we had a reception in the cafeteria, catered by the students in the culinary program, who did a fantastic job (there was this chicken with peanut sauce that was OMG amazing). Student leaders from various extracurricular activities were on hand, as well, so I got to watch the MfoL kids talk about their activism, which was so cool and I’m wicked proud of them. 

Did the club president and I also talk about how we both ate cookies for breakfast, and threw our hair into messy buns because brushing it would have taken too long? Yeah. I realize that’s not me being the best adult role model, but I actually think there’s some value (especially when talking outside of class with a senior) in admitting that there are times when we’re all faking our put-together-ness. So many kids these days are convinced that they have to be perfect when they grow up, and it’s causing their entire generation anxiety. 

If they didn’t have enough evidence that I’m very imperfect and out here surviving anyhow, the leader of the visiting team came up to shake hands with me, and I stumbled OVER MY OWN NAME. 

I blamed it on drinking too much coffee, but, really, I’m just a socially awkward butterfly. 

But everything else was good! There was a presentation in the auditorium, followed by one-on-one interviews (which I didn’t have to do, so Mrs. T, Ms. J, and I sat and ate cake), and that was that. The visiting team will be in the building for the next three days, so you’ll probably hear more about this from me in future entries!

[187days]

Day Twenty-Two

Today was Neon Day, so I spent the first block explaining the impeachment process to a room full of students who looked like a highlighter explosion, so that was pretty memorable. They asked some fantastic questions, many of which I had no answers for because they’re unprecedented hypotheticals. Once all the questions were asked, we went on with our regularly scheduled lesson (on the expansion of national government power through Supreme Court rulings), which went really well. 

There’s a unit test next week, so about half my students came back to see me during flex time for a bit of test review. We developed a study guide, I let them ask me anything (and then had a massive brain fart trying to come up with an example of a formula grant, which, ugh, so embarrassing, but it happens), and finally gave them some practice multiple choice questions to try. It was really productive, and I’m glad students took advantage of it. 

In World, students have been studying different aspects of culture in Latin America, and today I turned their collective attention to current issues in the region- illegal immigration, drug trafficking, deforestation in the Amazon, the situation in Venezuela, etc- and told them we’d been spending the next few classes figuring out the causes for those issues. So I lectured on post-colonial history, with a particular emphasis on the Cold War era, and gave them a reading to annotate about the emergence of the cartels in Colombia. More on that next class.

The school has observers coming next week as part of our reaccreditation process, and they’re commandeering the prep room in the ninth grade house Monday-Wednesday, so I spent my prep time today making all the photocopies I’m going to need those days. I also watched Mr. F’s geometry class for the last half hour of the block because he’s an assistant coach for the mountain biking team, and had to leave early for a meet. I didn’t have any work to get done after that, so I locked up, checked my mail, and headed home.

[187days]

Day Twenty-Six

The reaccreditation process continued with observers shadowing students, conducting interviews with the staff, and so on. I saw a few of the visiting team members during my prep time Block 1, but just in passing. I wasn’t one of the teachers they were scheduled to see. 

It’s a B day in the schedule, so my World lesson was the same as Friday’s: a vocab quiz, followed by a video. I think the quiz would have gone better if last week hadn’t been disrupted by Field Day and general Spirit Week distractions, so I’ll be more aware of when I schedule quizzes in the future. The grades were still all right- just not as high as last time- and students who want higher grades can opt to do a retake, so no permanent damage was done. 

During Advisory, I quickly scheduled my students out for flex time for the rest of the week (that’s what we do on Mondays), then sent them over to Mr. F’s room because I had to go to a funeral. My students were all really sweet when I explained where I was going; they offered their condolences and hoped I wasn’t too sad. It was a funeral for the longtime pastor at my church, so not someone I was super close to, but someone who was a giant in the community. Plus, his godson’s a former student of mine- and that’s a family I am super close to- and one of the priests celebrating the mass is my friend... and it’s what you do for people, you know? You show up.

It was a beautiful service. Powerful. 

I got back to work two hours later, so I had just enough time to grade the stuff I’d left with my sub during Block 4, make photocopies for APUSGOV, and then head to a meeting. The members of every reaccreditation committee- mine being school leadership- met with two or three members of the visiting team, and answered questions. I think I talked too much, but it was a pretty positive meeting. It lasted until 3:30, at which point I decided not to go back up to my classroom to putter like I usually would. I was tired- a funeral is a draining ritual, no matter who it’s for- and I figured it was time to head home.

[187days]

Day One Hundred Twenty-Seven

Today was an early release day for students, so our classes were only fifty minutes long, which meant that by the end of them I felt kind of like I used to feel after sprinting the 100m dash in college. 

I showed an excerpt from a PBS documentary about the Freedom Riders to my APUSGOV class. I knew we’d have a good discussion afterwards because what little my students know about the Civil Rights Movement is very sanitized, and this doc reveals just how much violence and vitriol activists endured. It was definitely a little shocking. So we talked about that, and about other acts of protest besides the Freedom Rides, and the response to those. I sent students home with a one-pager on the desegregation campaign in Birmingham, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which we’ll discuss next class.

In World, I was just doing a vocab lesson. I’ve said this before, but I’m always amazed how much I get out of something that is so basic and so traditional. I seriously just putting terms and definitions on the board for students to copy down. But I go slow, and I talk my way through the terms, connecting one to the next, and I let students stop me for questions at any time. My Block 4 class, in particular, likes to ask questions, and they had a TON today, especially when I was defining terms that relate to Hinduism because that’s all new to them.

So now they’re excited to dive into this unit and learn more, which is awesome. As long as that keeps being the case, I’m going to keep pre-teaching vocab this way, ‘cause if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

We had a nice, long lunch break after students left, so Mr. W and I went and had sandwiches at the local deli. We grabbed coffee from Starbucks before heading back up to the school because we cut one day off our mandatory 187 days by extending two of our afternoon teacher workshops to 5:30, and this was one of them. We started by having a faculty meeting, during which my NEASC committee presented its work for our reaccreditation process (which the faculty approved, yay!). After that, we had two sessions that were pretty fun; as a team-builder/morale-booster thing, the administration asked teachers to volunteer to facilitate different activities, and those of us who weren’t facilitating could choose what to do. So, like, the art teacher taught painting, the phys. ed. teachers set up a basketball tournament, the woodworking teacher taught everyone to make carved pens in the wood shop. I chose to go see one of the English teachers give a talk about awesome books, and having book discussions in class because I am a lit. nerd. Then I went to the ECE room and made chaos jars, which is something the high school kids in the program do with the daycare kids, and it was so much fun. I’m still covered in glitter.

We had some time to work on our own after that, so I got a bit of prep and grading done (I mentally rewrote my next three World lessons while I was teaching today- in response to the questions I was getting- so then I had to actually rewrite them). Then we had a little snack break, followed by two presentations: one from school counseling about the shifting landscape of college admissions, and one from special ed. about, well, special ed. These are serious subjects, and the presentations were packed with information, but my colleagues are hilarious people, so they kept the mood light. Oh, and at one point The SpEd Director gave Mr. I a shout-out for the accomodations/modifications cheat sheet he has for his students, and he, in turn, shouted out Mrs. T and I for teaching him to do that. Yay for all of us!

I rarely say teacher workshops are energizing, but this one honestly was. I learned a lot, I had fun, and it didn’t seem like a ten-hour workday at all. 

[187days]

Day One Hundred Two

I fell on my icy steps and was about five minutes late for my morning meeting, so my day did not start out well, but it got better. My reaccreditation committee finished its work with about fifteen minutes to spare in the allotted meeting time, so I was able to have some coffee and get squared away for the day. 

On the last B day my World classes didn’t go quite as well as I’d wanted them to, but today they actually went way better than I was expecting. Everything clicked, there was a ton of participation, and I felt confident that my students understood the material... I was initially worried about my Block 4 class doing the research part of the lesson (on current issues in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict) because my Block 2 class found it challenging. I helped each group one-on-one, and then they did really well, so it was all good. But, usually, if it’s challenging in Block 2 it’s going to be REALLY challenging in Block 4. So I adjusted how I gave instructions, added a bit more specificity about what they should look for, and they did excellent work. Most even finished early, and they were able to explain so much about the conflict when asked.

So I’m pretty happy, especially when I reflect on how hard it’s been, at times, to reach some of my students this year- and in that class, in particular. I feel like we’re in a good place now, the vibe is positive, and important learning is happening... Mr. F and I did have a bit of a tough meeting with one student this afternoon (Mrs. T had to leave, or else she’d have been there, too), but it ended on a good note, so I’m feeling optimistic.