pointless

i hear what is going on in other classes and sometimes i wonder why in the world teachers assign the work that they do. some of it just seems entirely pointless to me. maybe that is because i don't see what is going on in the rest of class and i don't see how it all connects but still... it seems like a waste of time. i wonder if people outside of my class think that sometimes. i sure hope not. i try to only have my students do assignments that will actually help them. maybe i will ask a student that i trust will be honest with me what they think.

back to school, back to school...

Thanksgiving break is over.... and I am sad. It was really hard to wake up and come to work today. All of the students seem extra tired (and so do I!). It seems that when they don't have school they sleep WAY less than normal. One girl told me she thought that she slept only 8 hours the whole break (ok, I know she was exaggerating but still, I'm sure she didn't sleep much) It has been a struggle today so far getting them to listen and do their work. Hopefully they get back into the swing of things.

My new books got here today. Well, part of them did. I am excited! This trimester looks like its going to be a good one.

end of first trimester

Last Thursday our first trimester ended. I can't believe that I made it through my first trimester of teaching. It feels good to make it to this benchmark. Teaching has been getting better lately. My second trimester is going to be a lot better than my first. They took away my geometry class and are splitting up my algebra 1 classes into three classes rather than two. That means that instead of 30 or more students in each class I will only have around 20. I think that it will make life a lot better. Also, I get to start teaching out of new books which I think will make things easier. Basically my life of teaching is looking up.

I am loving coaching basketball. I have really grown to love the girls I work with. They are so much fun to be around and they make my life happier. I especially like that they feel like they can come to me and talk to me and I feel like I can help them and make a difference. That is what I really wanted to be able to do as a teacher but it happens faster and easier as a coach. I am going to miss basketball when it is over. Good thing it lasts until February.

Sorry I haven't been very good at writing on here. I am going to try to start writing more.

Basketball

Last week I started coaching the freshman girls' basketball team. It has been really fun so far. It makes me like teaching more. I think that it is becasue I get to interact with the girls in the way that I wish I could interact with all of my students. We have fun together but they still listen to what I say and I am able to listen to what they are saying. If only all of my students and classes could be like that.

Saturday we had two practices so that we could get in our 10 practices before their first game. They ran along the water for the first practice. It was fun to watch them bond together and finish a long run. The girls that finished before everyone else went back and ran with the ones that were struggling. Here's a picture of them finishing.


(i took the picture down because I decided it just wasn't a good idea)

cheating

Today my day has been filled with students cheating. During our breakfast break (yes, my school takes a break and serves the students breakfast for free... which I think is a really good idea) another teacher came and found me and handed me 2 pieces of paper. They belonged to two boys in my first period class. She said she caught one of them copying. So, I got to talk to those two about cheating.

My fourth period was the kicker. We were going over homework from yesterday and I look back to a kid sitting in the back row and he is so obviously copying off of another paper. I asked him who it belonged to and he just said it was his so instead of making a scene I told him he could just talk to me after class. Well, after class I went over and talked to him and asked him which student he was copying off of. He said that he honestly wasn't copying from another student. So, I asked him whose paper it was. Well, turns out his Uncle's girlfriend did it and he was copying it into his own handwriting. Yes the kid was stupid for cheating but what makes me really mad is the stupid girlfriend. I assume that his uncle and girlfriend are adults. Why would an adult think that it was ok and that it was going to help the kid. I am not a teacher that assigns homework just for the fun of it. The homework prepares them for the TEST! Doing it will help him get a good grade. So, if he isn't doing the homework by himself does she think that she will be able to come in and do the test for him?!?! I took everything from him and told him to redo it and give it to me tomorrow or he wasn't getting any credit. The nerve of some adults. No wonder kids cheat, that's what they are shown is acceptable by the adults in their lives that should be role models.

Think you idiot.

What is the one rule in my classroom? RESPECT.

I have a outside door in my classroom. I have asked the students not to open it without permission. Today, on a FREEZING cold day, 2 of my students were standing there with it open. So, I told them to close it. They decided to almost close it while still standing outside. I, joking around, told another student to shut it so that they would have to go around. Finally, they did and when they came in my room after the bell rang I told them they were tardy (joking around!!) well one student was like "I can't have a tardy I already have 6!" I was still joking told them that it was too bad they shouldn't' have gone out my door. Well the other on FREAKED out. He told me it was Bull S* so I told him he could stay in for lunch and then he went on and on. I told him to go out in the hall and wait for me. He decided to keep going as he was walking out dropping every swear word known to man including the horrendous F word. I told him to go to the office. What a great way to start my week. Now I have to deal with what to do with this kid instead of just dealing with a lame rule breaking that I was trying to handle with a joke.

Why do so many people in this world act without thinking?? If he would have just sat there upset he would have found out that I wasn't going to mark them tardy, I was just trying to prove a point. Then, we could have moved on and never thought about it again. But no, the idiot had to freak out.

I thought I was a teacher. Not a freaking babysitter that gets to get cussed out because some idiot 17 year old decided to lose it today.

inservice

Last week we had a teacher inservice day. I remember when I was a student and I got a day off of school for "teacher inservice" I had NO idea what that meant or what was going on. All I remember is being glad I didn't have to go to school. I didn't think that it meant that teachers has to be in meetings ALL day long. That is what we did on last Thursday. We had a guy come to out district that helps turn schools around. Our school has now had 3 years that we didn't meet AYP. (For you non-educating people that means Annual Yearly Progress. Since No Child Left Behind, every school has to show that they are making improvement every year until we reach the year of accountability.) 3 years is bad. 3 years means our school needs to make some serious changes or the government will step in and make changes for us. Anyways, this guy is supposedly one of the best at helping schools like ours get out of trouble. His name is Roger Taylor, google him if you want... I think he's kind of a big deal. He had some GREAT ideas and philosophy's. A lot of his methods were very similar to what I learned in school but I think very different from what some of the old-timer teachers were taught and do. His whole thing was teaching across the curriculum. He showed how important it was for all of the subjects to be working together towards the goal of educating students and by working together the students will be more successful. I COMPLETELY agree. Who doesn't learn better when taught the same things a ton of different ways by different teachers. It was a good, enlightening day.

Since then, I have decided I need to change things up. Right now our school uses Saxon Math. Anyone who knows anything about math education probably knows that Saxon sucks. I'm sorry, but it does. There is not one thing that I like about it. The books are horrible and don't help the students really learn math. They just push them through the material as fast as they can and hope that they pick it up on the way. I hate it. Currently I am the only one teaching Algebra 1 in the school and so I decided that I didn't want to use the book anymore. I talked to my principal this week and he said if I come up with a method and ideas that he would be ok with that. I am trying to figure out what I really want to do so that I can present it to him and then get started. I know it is going to be a ton of work but I really think that the students will benefit from it. I am excited/apprehensive about it because either it really works and everyone does well on their testing or it sucks and I get blamed for being a bad teacher. If only the stupid idiot who picked these books hadn't been so stupid then I wouldn't be in this position.

So, wish me luck. These next couple of weeks might be crazy as I get this all into place.