Testing Week

It's testing week, which is high stress for everyone. The kids are a little crazy, the teachers are a little crazy, and to top it off, it's snowing!

This weekend was crazy. I celebrated my sister's bachelorette party in Austin, Texas. There was lots of celebration and food and drink and even a mechanical bull. I'll spare the details, but suffice it to say, I'm really, really tired this week. Last night, I would've loved an early night, but instead had the pleasure of spending the evening at Relay, learning how to execute lessons.

I had a really fun run on Saturday, a nice 6 miles around Austin. The city is a great blend of old South, new hipster, and scenic views.

Once again, I'm extremely busy, so blogging will be light, probably until winter break - only 9 school days, including today! And I'm teaching only 7 of them!

Busy, Busy, Busy

That's it, I'm busy. I had a great Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm sad that it's over, but I'm back into the school routine.

I did a respectable amount of training over the weekend, including two solid swims, three runs (two solid and one easy), and I thought about biking. I enjoyed the warmer weather, and will continue to do so this week.

Yesterday, I got to play Science Guy. My principal, who has a history background, is responsible for designing the 8th grade science Interim Assessments. She had to add a few open-ended response questions, so we sat down for a half hour with a pile of old NY Regents exams (haha, pile, I mean website) and pulled some relevant questions, and then rewrote them together. She thanked me profusely. I felt like a boss.

I am still working on planning a field trip - I have a tentative reservation at the Museum of Math, I just have to wait for approval from the DOO - it's a little above our budget ($12/student), but it's such a cool-looking place that I hope we get to go.

Detention was actually not bad today. It was HUGE, but big enough that they enlisted another teacher to help. That shrunk it down to smaller than normal, so other than the first 30 minutes of herding cats and handing out homework, it went smoothly. Unfortunately, though, not smoothly enough to get ANY grading done. I think I'll have to get in early tomorrow.

Right now, I'm behind on my grading and my tidying, but I need to go home and run and relax a bit. Last night, I had Relay, so I've been on 100% since I woke up at 5:15 AM on Monday. I even have my coat and bag ready to go, so I can wait on the sidewalk with the detention crew and then hightail it out of there. For some reason, walking back in the building to get my things takes at least 15 minutes, and usually more. Probably something to do with the fact that I love my colleagues and love spending time with them, especially when there are no kids around.

Principals are Good Things

Saturday Relay is tough - but, I figured out how to make it better! I woke up super early (ouch, but worth it) and went on a great 6-miler. Then, for the rest of the day, I was in a good mood, and entitled to snack all day! There were further bread machine joys, and I managed to accomplish the impossible - I finished my thank you notes!

I've earned myself 3 days off from running. It's nice.

I have a lot of work this week. Well, I have the usual amount of work, but only 3 days to do it. I've been coming in early and leaving late, but I think I might make it through the week and get all my work done! I have until 3PM tomorrow until they close the building for Thanksgiving (OMG where has the time gone?).

Today's lesson was rough. I didn't have enough opportunities for the students to get guided practice for a skill (creating a scale on a graph), so I rushed on to Independent Practice. When this happens, students get frustrated, all hands shoot up at once, and then they get distracted and chatty. I can either spend the time putting out small fires, or admit my mistake and reteach the skill. It took me until the last class, but I finally admitted my mistake, accepted that we wouldn't have time for an exit ticket and still have enough time to practice, and redesigned the lesson. It helped that our principal fellow (like my IL last year, a sort of North Star expert principal-in-training) was there (can you believe that I actually enjoy having principal-folk in my classroom? My, how things have changed...). This class, which is my tough one, did very well, and we didn't finish Independent Practice, or the Exit Ticket, but they learned the skill, which is really what is important.

Back in detention. It's running smoothly - and there's only 30 minutes left. I have no run tonight (woot! but also lame!), so instead, I'm going out for Thai food with some friends. It don't get any better than this. 1 day until Thanksgiving break! This time tomorrow, I will be in the swimming pool. Or, home afterwards, drinking some of that delicious new port we bought.

It's an Emergency!

Haha, it's amazing how often students claim that they MUST go to the bathroom NOW. Almost every time, they just want to get out of class. I understand that (really, I do), but if they are failing my class due to weak classwork, I'm not just going to let them leave. It always surprises me how often emergencies are not emergencies, "I'm bleeding!" turns into "Go wash your hands", and the "hiccups" disappear with a stern talking-to. I'd like to think I'm going to make an awesome parent one day (very, very far from now), but then I realize that I'll get to distracted with cheeks and fat thighs to remember to parent.

I really need Christmas break. Tension is high, Relay isn't helping, and the students are getting antsy. Student paychecks are looking worse every week, and homework effort is waning. Students are getting frustrated with me, and I'm getting frustrated with them, and we end class sometimes in a spiral of frustrated dollar-taking.

Fortunately, I had a refreshing day today. Today I introduced Science Fair! (I forget that even though Microsoft Office automatically changes SF to Science Fair, Chrome doesn't. From now on, it'll be SF.) Students were introduced to the 5 topic choices - and they were so engaged! We had a good amount of joy, sillieness, and engagement. Besides, they are doing quite well on scientific method content, which we reviewed today.

It was refreshing.

Of course, now I'm in detention, so I'll end my post before I stop feeling so refreshed.

Workouts have been good. Lots of running. Oh! I forgot! I won a race this weekend! Okay, I didn't win, but I did come in 3rd in my division! I also beat my best 5K by 34 seconds! I'm pretty darn proud of myself - 28:49 - not even close to 30 minutes anymore. Of course, there were only 4 in my division, but that means I beat 1 person. Besides, I was only about 2 minutes away from the 1st place division, so I might have a shot at it next year (for this very small, very local race). I guess the extra mileage is paying off. I'm hoping to keep up my fitness binge (I had a very productive/exhausting weekend), keep off the weight (only 1 more pound to my Thanksgiving goal), and hit 20 miles per week by New Years'.

Electricity and Racism

Today I'm going to be a leader at our staff meeting and begin the discussion of dealing with that challenging class. They have the ability to be so engaged with the content, and there are so many...personalities...but it's getting very challenging to get any content across.

Last Thursday, the 8th grade science teacher was out sick. She definitely needed the day off, but it was my job to teach one lesson, and to teacher the other two coverage teachers the content, since I'm the head science dude here. Of course, it's my least favorite topic in science: electricity. Okay, maybe my second least favorite, next to magnetism (so happy she isn't sick this week). I kind of faked it till I maked it. It worked, though, and I briefly felt like an awesome head science dude.

I also had to video tape a class for Relay. The class had to follow the 5E model, which is a really effective science teaching model, but it's difficult to fit every step into a single lesson. The lesson went smoothly, but I felt like I was fitting into someone else's lesson plan, which is weird. It felt overplanned and not organic. Blech. Can't wait until I'm done with it. Useful stuff, but a lot of work.

Today I had a very uncomfortable moment in which I had to explain to a (black) student why it was not okay to draw a swastika on his hand in class. He didn't really know what the symbol meant, so the dean and I helped educate him. The dean gave him a bunch of readings on the history of the symbol, including its original  Sanskrit meaning of goodness and how it has since become a symbol of hate. I got to teach him a bit about why that symbol made me uncomfortable, and I asked him a bit about his background. It turns out, this student is half Arabic, and knows how to read a little Arabic. I shared how the funny language that he can read a little bit of is very similar to the funny language that I can read a little bit of. I think he walked away a bit more educated, albeit embarrassed.

It turns out, I am actually reading Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, not the other book I mentioned. Oops, right author, wrong title. I am still loving it, and sneaking it in as much as I can (like this morning, when I was tidying the classroom), but I hope I can finish the 11 hours left in the next 7 days! There's gonna be a lot of audiobooking this weekend.

Detention today is really, really stressful. I keep waiting for the powder keg to burst (okay, definitely reading too much WWI fiction). I can't focus on my work (hence the blog), but I don't need all my attention on detention. Oy. Oh well, I guess I'll give planning another shot. I still have 15 good minutes left!

Peanut Butter and Jelly, Take 3

It's pretty satisfying to teach the same lesson for the third year. It helps when it is one of my favorites. Yesterday, I taught a lesson on writing procedures; it is the first introduction to lab practicals this year. It includes an opportunity for students to write a procedure for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, that I then carry out...badly. It teaches them that "put the peanut butter on the bread" might result in an experimenter taking the closed jar of peanut butter and laying it on the whole loaf of bread. Procedures should assume the experimenter is not familiar with the materials or experiment. Essentially, they had to write for 7th grade students. It is a fun lesson that is also useful for learning exactly how much detail is best.

I was worries about doing this lesson with my difficult class, but we keep being told to assume the best, and to give each student a new chance each day, so I have myself a pep talk and dove in. I used a lot of positive narration, such as "thank you for giggling just a little bit and then quickly regaining focus", and I gave a lot of dollars for simple things like responding professionally to surprises, but it worked! Not only did it work, but they have fun. I'm still amazed how differently a lesson can go when it starts on a positive note.

Each year, we have a "culture inspection" at our school. Principals from across the North Star network, as well as some higher-ups in the organization, walk through our school for a morning. They judge us on things like "positive tone" and "educational posters". We spend the previous weeks practicing staying positive, and laminating posters, and making sure breakfast is silent, and making sure our corrections are minimal, and making sure transitions are perfect. Today, I had a few inspectors in my classroom, while we did a practice lab practical.

I had an awesome moment, and an awkward moment. The awkward moment is one that has happened before. Kids get a little excited and nervous when there is a visitor in the room. I sent the kids into a turn-and-talk, when they discuss a concept in pairs, but I didn't "brighten the lines" (give them an obvious cue), so when I said GO, they sort of stared around, unsure if they were allowed to break the silence, and then one student started talking, and stopped, until I gave them a better cue. This is not the first time this has happened to me.

The awesome moment happened during cleanup from the lab. The students followed my directions perfectly, silently, and urgently. Within about 3 minutes, all materials were perfectly cleaned up and students were working on their conclusion. It was beautiful, and was likely 50% awesome instructions and 50% students trying to impress. I was proud.

Unfortunately, I passed the principal after she had gotten her feedback, and she was not in a good mood. I'm hoping it is unrelated, but I don't think so. I think our school is getting a little weaker on the details after adding on an 8th grade, especially on the 5th/6th grade floor. Transitions are a little funny. I hope that we are getting some specific feedback on how we can improve our school (especially transitions!).

I'm on a workout binge from now until Thanksgiving. After my awesome run this weekend, I gave in and failed at my not-scheduling. I planned out two weeks of 8 workouts per week, followed by a light week Thanksgiving. Each of the two weeks will have 3 bikes, 4 runs, and a swim. I've already gotten 3 workouts done (okay, more like 2-and-a-half, because my legs are starting to feel the fatigue, and my bike ride tonight wasn't as hard as I can do when my legs are fresh). I had a tough bike ride (on the trainer) on Monday and a really great, medium fast run in the WINDY COLD last night. The run wasn't as fast as I had hoped (probably due to the biking the previous day), but the weather made me feel pretty badass, and it was my longest-ever school day run (4.43 miles). Here's the rest of my week:
Thursday: easy run 3.5 miles
Friday: REST
Saturday: run like last week (5.5 miles including fast 1km repeats), 1 hour bike (outside, for real)
Sunday: easy run 3 miles, 2000-yd swim

Here's to the wedding exercise binge, part 1!

Bragging About Unimpressive Accomplishments

I discovered recently that my blog was listed on a forum on Letsrun.com (a website for super serious runners) - on a thread about bloggers that brag about unimpressive running accomplishments.

You know what I have to say about that?

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Also, how do people know about my blog? Are there people out there who aren't related to me? Also, thanks for the traffic! I got 16 clicks through that link!

Once again, I am impressed by the respect I am shown at work, by my boss and my colleagues. At today's planning meeting, we spent about half the time lesson planning and half the time wedding plan. Having gotten married 4 months ago, my principal is kind of an expert.

Additionally, we tossed around some ideas about dealing with a particularly challenging class. One of my teams has been causing some problems. The class has a critical mass of mean girls and clown boys. As a result, the class culture has become one where students react to situations with just a little too much "extra", giggling and sneezing whenever possible, and general making it harder to learn, to the point that grades are noticeably lower than other classes.

I came up with a solution on my own, which was to focus on the class entrance. I know that if the entrance is sloppy, the whole tone of the class is off. And this class is an expert on sloppy entrances. They pile up in the hallway, joking around, knowing that I can watch either the classroom or the hallway, not both. What I've done is give them a challenge. I took away their Oral Drill Challenge privilege (the students enjoy that, and can earn team dollars) until they complete a new challenge: enter the class and have 100% pen to paper within 2 minutes. So far, they have only achieved this once (today) this week, but every class this week has been a lot better. It's much easier to start from an engaged class, then start from chaos and tone it down. This has also helped build my relationship with the entire class, because starting with chaos involves a lot of negative consequences and dollars lost; starting with an urgent and engaged class involves positive feedback over many small achievements.

The principal and I discussed this idea, and others we can put together to help this team be successful.

Once again, I'm noticing that I need to 1) come up with solutions for myself, and 2) ask for help when I need it. I am pushed to improve a lot less this year; I need to continue to hold myself accountable for getting better.

I had dinner with a colleague tonight, who mentioned that this is the time of year when we get comfortable teaching, it all comes back, and we're back in gear for a successful school year. I need to think about it that way - I'm not in a rut, I'm just getting comfortable. But still looking to improve.

Running rest week - instead of running tonight, I went out for grill cheese and cider. Not a bad way to almost-end the week.

Techincally Reading

Weekends are awesome. They are way too short. Why is it that everyone else gets a long weekend for Veteran's Day next week, except for us. Ugh. (I now roll my eyes and suck my teeth like a 7th grader.)

I've got the November blahs. It's draggy this time of year. Daylight savings is awful (really, this article gives many science-y reasons why). We've finished off the stress of IAs and end of marking period, and now it's just blah. It's not bad, just plain. Work is becoming a habit.

I've decided to spice things up by planning a field trip. I was thinking about the Museum of Math in NYC, which looks pretty cool. We can't do anything outdoors (weather), and we can't do anything that costs much more than $10/student. Any ideas?

Today in class, we took our first look at a reading strategy that will solve the problem we had last IA, which was that students don't do a very good job reading very difficult technical science texts. The strategy goes like this:
1. Read through the article. Don't underline or highlight anything. It's okay if you have no idea what's going on. Jot down a one-sentence summary of the article.
2. Read through the first paragraph. Write a one-sentence summary.
3. Go back to the first paragraph. Underline any phrases that support or give evidence to your paragraph summary.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each paragraph.

It lets the students break the article down, and only holds them accountable for one small piece at a time. We used it to take apart an article on global warming and different greenhouse gases. Did you know that CO2 has a relatively weak greenhouse effect, compared to other gases like methane and CFC, but it the most significant contributor to climate change because it is so prevalent.

Not all students understood everything about the article, but I'm hoping the strategy will allow the students to self-scaffold. That is, if a student can not understand the last paragraph, they can at least work through the rest. If another student can only understand the first paragraph, they should at least be confident in that. This will allow lower students to be able to answer some questions correctly, rather that just giving up at the start. It shows students that if they don't understand something, they can start with what they know, and that that's okay, and they can build up from there.

I managed to test out of Relay tonight, although it took some negotiating (there were some grading disparities, I was very professional about it, and I will refrain from posting the thoroughly entertaining email thread until I have my certificate and/or degree from Relay). I will take tonight to do something very important - get a manicure. I get to make myself feel special, and even impress my middle schoolers.

I also did a very big thing today. I added Tim to my health insurance. It'll save us about $500 next year. This is real, a real relationship. It's not the ring or the lease that does it; it's the acknowledgement from Blue Cross/Blue Shield that makes it official.

I've earned myself an easy week this week - I hit my workout goals for two weeks in a row (plus a bonus swim), and have absolutely no pain (well, except the sore everything from weightlifting yesterday). I get a week of whatever-I-want training (except today - I want to go running, but should really take the rest). I've started a new audiobook (Ken Follett-Pillars of the Earth), and can't wait to drive and go running any anything else that lets me listen to more. Guess I'll wait until tomorrow!

Addendum: I had been worried about starting a new audiobook because it is a very long book (~26 hours, compared to the usual 10-15), and I only had 4 days left on my loan (it is a 2-week loan, but another book became available that I had to read, and you know how that goes). Fortunately, I just learned that I am allowed to renew a book once per borrowing! That means I have a whole other 2 weeks to read it! It's the things like this that make my day.

Week 10

This is week 10. The end of quarter 1. The first 25%.

We're really moving quickly this year.

I spent a lot of time yesterday talking to the principal about my assessment-related revelations regarding reading skills. We discussed ways to formalize strategies for reading, and decided that the most important part of reading a difficult technical text is being okay with not really knowing what is going on, at least through the first reading. In fact, we decided on a thrice-read procedure. The first read-through is rough, just to get an idea of what is going on. The second time, write a one-sentence summary for each paragraph. The third time, go back and underline evidence supporting your paragraph summaries. All-in-all, it's a nice way to formalize a process that I might do without thinking, every time I read a technical text like a journal article.

Today is the Halloween Party, which will be ... interesting. It'll be a fun activity in management, candy, and loudness.

I got my 15 miles in last week, plus a good weightlifting on Sunday. This week, I'm going for at least 15, but spread over 5 days instead of 4. Possibly. I'm really achy after yesterday's run, so I may reject my initial plan to run a fast mile before going to the gym this evening. We'll see how well I can stand after the Halloween Party. In addition, since I have early-release Thursday (4 PM) and Friday (1 PM), I think I'll even get in a swim as well!

To finish, I wanted to share the responses I got yesterday, the day before we started glaciers, when I asked students to write down one thing they know about glaciers. Do you know which are true and which aren't?

1.    I know that glaciers are very big but move very slowly.

2.    They are made of compacted ice.

3.    Glaciers are a type of a water reservoir. They have ice and can be found in cold areas like Antarctica, Greenland, Alaska, North and South Poles.

4.    When wind erosion occurs, it can knock glaciers down.

5.    Cold, deadly, big, cause weathering.

6.    Cold, can affect ships in a dangerous way, very hard to break, they are near polar bears and penguins, move slow.

7.    They’re big mountain-like things that carry bits of frozen fresh water.

8.    That it is cold. And I don’t know anything else.

9.    Cold, mechanical weathering, freezing and thawing, frozen sticks.

10.  Cold, made of ice, move very slowly, cause weathering, erosion, and deposition, starting to melt because of global warming, can cover land, formed in Ice Age (I think).

11.  I know that they are formed by big chunks of ice that’s made by frozen water.

12.  Cold, Arctic region, ice, usually surrounded by water or the ocean.

13.  I don’t know anything.

14.  Glaciers move slowly. Glaciers melt into the oceans making them deeper causing it to flood land.

15.  When melted, the amount of water in oceans increase. Animals live on them. Melting due to global warming.

16.  One thing I know about glaciers is that it is formidable and can move things around. I also know that it is very cold and is made of ice.

17.  I know that glaciers are big chunks of ice. Also that they are melting because of global warming.

18.  Glaciers are huge ice blocks in an arctic area that if melted it can cause bodies of water to rise and eventual things like hurricanes.

19.  I know glaciers can form boulders of ice, I know that glaciers are up to -74 degrees C cold.

20.  Glaciers are huge chunks of ice, they cause weathering, erosion, and deposition.

21.  Glaciers are part of abrasion, glaciers are in cold areas, glaciers are ice.

22.  Glaciers are HUGE chunks of much more bigger pieces of ice – icebergs.

23.  Icebergs fall from glaciers.

24.  I know that glaciers are similar to ice and form in caves.

Dinosaurs

The trip to the museum was AWESOME. The kids were extremely engaged, and got as excited about dinosaurs as I had hoped. The IMAX about penguins was surprisingly entertaining. Some other groups had drama, but I like to think that I had an easier time because I am so excited about everything. That is probably at least partly true.

Of course, it was very stressful as well. As co-trip leader, I was 50% responsible for making sure every student ended up safe and back at VMS at the end of the day. There was a lot of counting kids, counting kids, counting kids.

My favorite moment of the day, though, was on the bus ride there. We had just driven through the Lincoln Tunnel (SO happy I don’t commute to NYC), and the kids noticed a man peeing on the side of an underpass. Of course, they all get excited and giggly about it. It’s early, and I’m tired, so I respond with, “That’s what happens when you don’t go to college.” And the best thing happened: a small, quiet, special ed student stands up, and shouts out the window: Get an education!

Best job in the world.

I was supposed to meet with a parent that afternoon, but she never showed. Fortunately, her daughter showed a huge turn-around in behavior the very next day. I hope it doesn’t end immediately after her birthday party this weekend, when she has or hasn’t received sufficient gifts from her mother. I have to figure out how to keep her engagement up even when there aren’t gifts riding on her behavior – maybe point out how well she does when she tries (hopefully, yesterday’s quiz grade will support this).

The rest of the week was especially busy, will a ton of grading, lesson planning, and one less day of work due to the trip (and Friday’s half day for PD).

My running goal was 15 miles this week. I did 3.33 on Tuesday (pretty fast and hilly), 3 on Wednesday (sloooooow and sore), 5.67 on Saturday, and I’m hoping for a final 3 on Sunday to make a solid 15. I can do it.

“Science educators are thus charged with two tasks: not only must they help students learn the correct, scientific theory at hand, but they must also help students unlearn their earlier, less accurate theories.”

IA #1

We had our first IA this year, and I'm proud to have written the exam, and I'm proud to have taught these students. Although the grades are lower than last year, the mastery in most topics is actually higher, and it is only the new reading portion at the end that brought the grades down. Since I'm very busy (less so than last week, but there are last-minute preparations for tomorrow's field trip to the American Museum of Natural History), I'll paste a piece of the formal assessment reflection that I had to do.

Things I learned about writing a critical reading portion of an assessment:

What misunderstandings are revealed in the data?

There was huge variation in results between the 6 questions, which will be addressed separately. A lot of the questions were poorly written, which contributed to some “unfair” questions.

A: Question A had strong mastery compared to the other reading questions (68%). It asked students to infer that the crust was being described in a quotation that described very little thickness and habitability. Students who answered correctly either cited the thickness or the habitability. Most students who answered incorrectly cited the line, “one half the thickness of…”, but saw the word ”thickness” and assumed it was referring to the thickest layer, either the mantle or outer core (depending on which source was used).

B: Question B had the highest mastery – most students were able to identify which was the thickest layer. The biggest source of error is that the question asked students to answer “According to the first picture,” but it wasn’t clear exactly where they were supposed to look. Many students answered according to the table, which gave a completely different answer – and is actually a more challenging question. Had the table not been there, or if the question more clearly directed students to the diagram of the layers of the Earth, mastery might have been higher.

C: Low mastery – 42%. Most of the wrong answers were C, showing that students were only looking at the “Top” column, not realizing that the “top” and “bottom” columns were referring to the same variable, and could be compared. Students needed to take 13.1 from the bottom of the inner core and subtract 2.2 from the top of the crust. Instead, most students used 12.8 from the top of the inner core, choosing answer C.

D, F: These questions had the lowest mastery (31% and 23%), but I believe they are bad questions. Question D is a mistake – in a previous version of the reading, the quotation was in an extra paragraph, but I removed the paragraph in the interest in making the reading shorter. The quotation was actually not in the reading at all, so the only context the students had was the word “indirect”. Additionally, even if the paragraph had been included, the paragraph doesn’t give good context clues. Although it would have helped, I don’t think it would have been a fair question anyway. Question F required knowledge of the definition “indirect evidence”. Most students answered with the results of indirect evidence (specific details of the core’s composition).

E (36%): This question asked students to add up the different layers on the table. Students had difficulty reading the table, and question were all over the place. Some students showed in their answer that they chose the layer closest to 890 km thickness, rather than adding up previous layers.

What gaps in the instruction of the standard contributed to these misunderstandings?

Reading activities haven’t been process-based. Lessons have mostly been about what IS the correct answer, not HOW it was found. As a result, students have practice copying correct answers, but not following a process to find it themselves.

What will you do to help students achieve mastery?

§  Reteach “deep reading” (interpreting a phrase or sentence that doesn’t necessarily make sense right away)

§  Practice staircase readings more often – 2-3 times per week, with more detailed process discussion

§  Include non-standard graphs and tables as practice, with real-life data related to course content, and practice analyzing quantitative and qualitative data

So, I learned a few interesting things, and I can't wait to improve them for next time.

I got some good running in this weekend (6 on Saturday and 1.5 on Sunday), but I lost my softball game. Tim and I have been enjoying our myriad of engagement gifts with such activities as: cheese-eating on a new slate board with new cheese knives; drinking wine out of new stemless wine glasses; eating a T-Bone with our new steak knives; and more!

Amazing

I had the most amazing weekend. It was a weekend-long celebration of mine and my sister's engagement.

The first two nights were dinners with lots of food and lots of drinks and lots of family. Those were okay. It was Sunday that was amazing.

A bajillion people with a bijillion gifts showed up at my parents house to share in the celebration. There was an open bar, a sushi bar, and a salads-in-martini-glasses bar. I partook in all of these things with great enthusiasm. I also got to share the day with my best friends from high school, some close friends from college, and some other long lost friends. Also, tequila shots. It was amazing.

I got a little bit of running in, as well. I did a hilly, hilly four miles and Saturday, and an equally hilly two on Sunday. Monday's run got blahed, so I went swimming instead. I forgot how much I love swimming. It's peaceful and challenging. The only problem is that I hadn't gone swimming in weeks, so today, I'm sore in all the wrong places. Ouch. Ouch, in a satisfied way.

A good workout is the kind that leaves you googling triathlon training schedules. I'm definitely doing the NYC Tri next year

School this week is stressful and busy. We had our first day of IA#1. It's a week to test my patience (because if we take to many dollars, the kids shut down and it affects test scores) and my bladder (tomorrow, I teach/duty for 6 hours straight). The first day went without a hitch, but time will tell...and two days until science! My kids are going to rock it this year. I just have to tie up a few loose ends that became evident after the diagnostic, mostly on objectives that were covered, but not in that much depth (e.g. what is salt water vs. freshwater). And they will ROCK slope. I guarantee it.

Conferences

Yesterday's planning meeting was unlike any I'd had last year.

For the first half hour, I proposed my idea to redesign the 5-8 science curriculum. It will take a lot of work, but I have a plan. And if it goes according to plan, it will be totally worth it. It will take two years: one year of reorganizing, and one year of pushing it from NJ standards to national standards. The result will be considerably more rigor. The cost will be my designing of 16 interim assessments by next year.

And the principal's response? That sounds like a great idea! Write a proposal. So I will.

We spent the next 5 or so minutes talking about my professional development goals: building relationships, CFUing.

And then for the next 10 minutes, she asked me for advice on time management during IA week (next week), which was put into a one-pager for today's staff meeting. I'm kind of a time management celebrity around here.

I decided this would be a light training week for me. This was a result of some solid running the last couple of weeks, and some extra obligations this week. After Tuesday's awesome 3.3-miler, I've been resting. I'm hoping to do 2 longish runs this weekend, but nothing until then.

I've been busy with, among other things, last night's parent-teacher conferences. I had to meet with parents of 9 students who are currently failing my class, at the halfway point of the first marking period. Overall, they went well, and I was extremely more prepared than last year. This year, I took the advice to have a conference binder, which includes all student's grade reports, with missing/make-up work attached to the reports of those failings students. I was able to hand the parent a packet of work to make up, quizzes to correct, and topics to study for today's test.

And today was the big diagnostic exam, a week before the first IA. I've only completed about half the grading, but they look good. The average will be about 80, which is about the same as last year, but the test is significantly more difficult (especially the scientific method content, which is arguably the most important). The kids are experts on slope and volcano identification. I'm doing something right.

I came across a really inspiring video clip. One of the international figures that we've studied at length at circle is Malala Yousafzai, a 16-year-old Pakistani women's rights activist who is so good at public speaking that she was shot by the Taliban. And she still speaks. She recently appeared on the Daily Show, and after watching only a 2-minute clip, I felt re-inspired to go to work every morning to educate children. This is where I'm supposed to be.

10,000

Detention started out a little rough, like it always does, and then cooled off pretty quickly, like it always does. Try herding 20 angry cats. You should check it out some time. Eventually, they all end up where they're supposed to go, but there's definitely some collateral damage. Many dollars were lost, and a few tears were shed.

Last night at Relay, we spent a lot of time talking about difficult conversations with students and their famillies. This is a PD I've had several times (including at last Thursday's staff meeting, in preparation for our conferences tomorrow), but I definitely learned one or two things. The most important thing was to steer each conversation towards mutual interest. That is the goal, because everyone is invested in mutual interest.

Today, I had a moment that was so perfectly aligned to last night's discussion, when I violently steered a conversation towards mutual interest. I was a little cranky today, and had just pulled a student out of line (maybe my first time yelling all year?). The conversation went something like this?

Teacher: WHAT WAS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAD TO TALK IN LINE.

Student: It wasn't me, it was another student.

Teacher: WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU TALK THROUGHOUT CLASS?

Student: I don't know.

Teacher: WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT?

Student: I don't know.

Teacher: YOU WILL NEVER SUCCEED IF YOU KEEP TALKING THROUGH CLASS.

Student: ??

Teacher: DO YOU WANT TO SUCCEED?

Student: Yes.

Teacher: DO YOU WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE?

Student: Yes.

Teacher: Where do you want to go to college?

Student: Uh, Kansas? Texas?

Teacher: To play football?

Student: Yes.

Teacher: To get into any of those programs, you need to do well in school. And to do that, you have to stop talking to your peers. Do you understand?

Student: Yes.

Mutual interest success!

Of course, today's exit ticket, I realized, was not aligned to anything. I did a slope reteach today, adressing positive and negative slope calculation. This year, the kids are MUCH stronger on slope, but only about 50/50 on calculating negative slope. So, we dove into calculating positive and negative slope today, and the exit tickets, that were supposed to assess their progress, asked them to calculate a simple positive slope. So I had to change it last minute. The results still look good, though. I can't wait to see the IA results next week, and send them to my old IL to show her how much I improved.

Friday night, I invited a couple of colleagues to my parent's house for Shabbat dinner. There was a lot of food, a lot of wine, and a lot of fun. On Saturday, I had Relay all day, which involved a lot of snacking, so my 5-miler afterwards was not fun. It still got done, though, which felt good. I'm up to about 13 miles per week, including 2 workouts (a tempo and a small set of intervals). Besides, my legs are feeling good. Except for the whole teaching part. Then my legs are still tired.

Sunday was kickball, and my team lost. It was all my fault. I was mistakenly called safe at 1st, as our tying run crossed the plate, and I was HONEST. I admitted that I got tagged for our 3rd out. This set us back 1 run and spoiled the momentum, so we finished the game a couple of innings later down by one.

I've got a nice fast and fun run with a colleague today. I can't wait - the weather is beautiful.

This blog just reached 10,000 page views. Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

Theoretical Curriculum Planning

I think my heart lies in curriculum planning. I’m sitting at Relay right now, discussing the Next Generation Science Standards (kind of like Common Core, but for science), and I’m so excited. I just want to sit down with the NGSS and the NJ standards and the North Star Assessments and plan. I want to redesign the entire NSA science curriculum, grades 5-8. I want to sit down and organize it, and make everyone start from scratch next year. I’m sitting in class, mentally drafting an email to the principal asking how I can go about redesigning the science curriculum for the entire North Star middle school system.

I’ve had some great lunch dates this week. I had a repeat lunch date with my favorite student from last time, who has been MUCH better in my class. I even spoke to her mom on Tuesday, talking about the behavioral improvement, a full two days before our second lunch date. Besides, lunch was fun. We talked about amusement park rides and about the relative merits of various candy bars (she prefers Laffy Taffy – no wonder we don’t get along).

I also started a weekly lunch meeting with 3 new-to-North-Star students, and one who was new two years ago, and all 4 are in 7^th grade. The major objective was to have one of those new students make some positive friends. She wants really badly to fit into the NSA mindset, but shuts down immediately when she is challenged. We hope that by having her make friends who are going through the same struggles, but who respond differently to adversity, she will start feeling part of the community and make the leap to accepting the way we like to do things.

This week, I awarded myself 10 points towards my number 1 professional development goal to build relationships with students.

I also got to share my strengths with the staff. At my weekly planning meeting, my principal wanted to pick my brain about best grading practices. I was able to share ideas that were given as resources to the rest of the staff. I rock at grading because I love data. I’m only in this for the data.

Lastly, I have proudly finished the process of rewriting and formatting our first interim assessment (IA). I am really proud, but anxious to see it grow up.

I had a great running week, two. In addition to 1.5 on Monday and a fast 3 on Tuesday, I threw in some intervals on Thursday. Now, if I can drag myself out for a run after class today, I’ll be proud. Bonus points if it’s more than 5 miles.

Weekly Detention Updates

It's detention. They're quiet now. Let's take a moment for reflection.

This morning I met with another science teacher to give her some tips for her lab. I think the best advice I gave was: It will get easier. You'll keep working just as hard, because as you get better, your standards get higher, but there's less stress about it. The swings between best class and worst class are smaller. You notice that, in November or December, you suddenly start sleeping better. It gets better.

I wish I had heard that advice in my first year.

I am similarly upset by my bad classes (in fact, I had one today), but "bad" is wayyyyyyyyyyyy better than it used to. Today, I had assisted with PE (our PE teacher broke his ankle), and had difficulty resetting the class before science. It ended with a pretty hard reset, and an exhausted and discouraged class pushing through mechanical weathering.

I went to Atlantic City last Friday...and fell asleep at 9:30. Whoops. Fortunately, I ended up about breaking even, so it was all good. I even managed a good 6-miler after I got home on Saturday afternoon. I'm pretty happy building up my long runs again. It feels good and I feel strong.

We lost our kickball game. Sports are much less fun when I'm not winning (except running, I never win at running).

Yesterday, even though it was supposed to be a rest day, I threw in an extra run. It was only 1.5 miles, but I'm hoping I can get into a routine of running more days than not. I've been pretty weak at consistency since getting back to school (sometimes I feel like consistency at work and home are mutually exclusive), but I'm going to change that. Running at least 4 times a week. But still not allowed to track miles. I want to track miles so badly. But, no.

Year 3, Week 5

It has been a busy week. I'm on schedule for my task list, but it's taken every moment of my day. I've even been missing my usual staff room chatting.

I have had a few notable successes this week. Some of them, I must admit, are a result of my time at Relay. It's not that Relay is teaching me new techniques, but rather it is reminding me of things I should already be doing. For example, one of the most basic teaching techniques is Quiet Power, or speaking in a calm, quiet tone in order to command respect. This week, when one of my classes started acting up, I lowered my voice, upped my energy, and Quiet Powered them to mastery.

I took another piece of advice: I asked our Relay leader (and North Star founder) Mr. V for some advice regarding a particularly distracted student. He suggested I choose one challenging behavior (giggling) and create a visual individual behavior plan. Giggles gets a Post-It on his desk every day, and is allowed 3 giggles (or other weird noises). Each time he giggles, he gets a mark on the Post-It. Every mark over three is a dollar lost, every mark under 3 is a dollar gained. So far, he's hit 3 exactly for each of the last two days

I'm also doing volcanoes this week, which is the easiest thing for engagement. Like, I just have to think about volcanoes, and all students sit upright with hands in the air.

Wednesday was my week for Sunshine Breakfast. My group decided to do a "tastes of the world" theme. I held down Eastern Europe with some blueberry kugel and blintzes. We also had arepas from Columbia, spicy eggs from Nigeria, and sausage rolls from England. It was delicious.

Today I had my first observation from my Relay professor. I was pretty disappointed by her feedback, which was accurate, but definitely underwhelming. I guess I've gotten too used to being big fish in little-ish pond in my school, so getting new feedback from another onlooker, who hasn't seen the huge strides I've made in two years, was a little frustrating.

That's not to say it isn't valuable feedback. This year, it looks we'll be working on my teacher radar. That is, we're working on my ability to know what is going on in every corner of the room, and dealing with it as efficiently as possible. This will help with the late-in-the-day giggles, which are either a problem that first started in my classroom this year, or I just never noticed until recently.

I got to boost my ego back up again in the afternoon, when I actually helped facilitate a radar practice for new teachers. I kind of really enjoy giving feedback to teachers (and of course watching them furiously writing it down).

I had a cold for most of the week, which made school especially challenging, but still managed a few good runs. Saturday, I had an exceptional 5-miler, and did an easy 3 yesterday. Tonight I went to the gym. I need to get back into a routine.

Next week's goals:
Take a step back in the classroom, to get a wider view
5 days of workouts

Detention Updates

Okay, the classes are definitely becoming less easy to manage. I guess the honeymoon period of the school year is over. Behavior management is more effort, and I can't decide whether that is the cause or result of my exhaustion this week. So tired.

I earned 10 points today for having a lunch date with the student who threw a tantrum the other day. I wanted to help rebuild our relationship, and I actually had a good time. I learned about her career aspirations to be a fashion model or corrections officer (like her aunt). TFA would be so proud of me.

I think this is just one of those weeks. I raced through the first three weeks eagerly, and my energy is coming crashing down. I should probably be impressed - I think last year I felt like this by the end of week 1. I also haven't really gotten in a good workout. I'm generally sort of sore and achy, especially my feet, ankles, back, knees, and everything else that might be used in walking or standing. I plan on having a better week next week.

Fortunately, tonight is our monthly staff dinner adventure (organized by me, including about 6-8 teachers). Tonight is Indian food. I can't wait. I think I'll start dreaming about it now.

I have so much detention this week. There's my usual Tuesday afternoon detention, plus Wednesday and Friday lunch detention. Also, I'm up for the rotating Thursday detention. Yay.

Detention today wasn't quite as smooth as usual today. This year, Homework Center (after school program for students who are less than consistent with their homework) is only Monday - Wednesday, so detention is fuller today than on Tuesday. It takes a lot more effort on my part.

And EVERYONE needs help with something or other. Or maybe just attention. Could that be it?

I've learned a few tricks. For example, no students are allowed to raise hands until detention work is handed out. Additionally, nobody can ask to use the bathroom until one assignment is completed. By that point, they usually get so distracted by their work that they don't need to go anymore. Funny how that works.

The last two lessons were on calculating slope, which was a huge challenge last year. I probably had 3 or 4 review/reteach days last year. This year (although I haven't graded the exit tickets yet, so I don't have any real data) is so much more successful. After the first 2-day lesson, I have (I think) 70-80% mastery, compared to last year's 40-50%. Although, tomorrow's quiz will be the real judge.

I love the last five minutes of detention, when students are tired of fighting, and are just doing their homework. It's quiet, productive, and makes me feel like a good teacher.

One of Those Days

This was one of those days. And not even the whole day, just the last class. And that class was awful.

Okay, since I'm an awesome teacher, the first 10 minutes were a disaster, the next 25 were a little rough, and the end was actually pretty good. But it was rough for a while. Whenever students decide to feed off each other, especially at the end of the day, it spirals downhill very quickly. I don't know what to do if a student starts being ridiculous, and then (loudly) asks to go the the dean's office because I'm bothering her. Do I give her what she wants? Or keep her in class to disturb the class? I opted to keep her in the back of the room for 10 minutes, so she would go to the dean's office on my terms, but it ended up costing a lot of class time lost to other student's feeding off her tantrum.

Okay, it's not that good of a story, I think I'm just over-tired. I got angry, although did an okay job of not losing my temper. Better than last year, anyway, and at the very least, I had that class 100% for the last 20 minutes. We got (mostly) done what we needed to do.

And now, students keep trying to come up with excuses to get out of detention. (Can I go ask this teacher for this thing? No, I'll help you. Can I go get this resource for my homework? Let me see your homework - you don't need that.) They're not going anywhere. I am the ruler of detention!

Yes, I really need sleep. I haven't slept well the last couple of nights. I don't think it's stress - I've actually been unusually relaxed for this job lately. Hopefully, I'll get some catch-up sleep tonight.

I can't decide whether to run tonight. I'm in the "off-season", so I should be a little more relaxed about running. I also can push this week from a T-Th-Sa-Su to a W-F-Sa-Su instead. I'm really sore from Sunday's weight lifting (and kickball). I'm not 100% sure that it's all muscle sore and not knee sore, so I should probably take a rest. You know what? I'll compromise. I'll hop on the bike trainer for a half hour and call it even.

Yom Kippur 2013

9:56 AM. Hungry, but not so bad. Kind of like any other Saturday morning, when I'm too lazy to make breakfast. Watched season finale of Dance Moms.

I read over last year's Yom Kippur post. It included my recent action steps for school. I am proud to have made all of those steps part of my normal routine, but also to have seen the direct effect of these habits on my classroom. I am consistently bringing energy (and joy!) into my classroom, holding students accountable for accuracy on written work, and (trying) to keep all kids engaged in the lesson.

Teaching is getting easier. Obviously, there are many things I can improve, but having a class run smoothly and having the same success as last year is taking so much less effort.

This week I received more advice about becoming an awesome teacher. I was told that if I want to one day be a Head Science Dude, I need to first work on being a super-duper-awesome teacher. My IL and I watched a video of part of my class, and found a few areas of improvement. My current action step is to reword improvised CFUs (checks for understanding) with the ideal answer in mind, so it is more clear what I am asking. This is a weakness of mine, because I'll reach a point in the class and want to lead the kids to make a connection, so I'll ask (what I think is) a leading question, only to have the student stare blankly back at me, or give an answer that is completely different from what I had intended. This leads to a 1-2 minute series of leading questions and student prompts, which completely derails the class and kills momentum. By just asking the initial question more directly, I can achieve the intended result and keep the pace.

Friday the 13th was full of unlucky frustrations. First, there was an accident on the Parkway in the morning, and I had to take a detour through backroads-suburban New Jersey, and still arrived at work about a half hour later than I had expected. I spent the morning scrambling to prep for my lesson, which was in another classroom due to the half day schedule. (About 1 Friday per month is a half day for PD.)

Then, morning circle (which was a lovely discussion on "The path to awesome") ran 15 minutes late, so I had to cram an already-over-planned 55 minute lesson into 40 minutes. It was frustrating for me and the students, and I felt a little chicken-head-cut-off, but I think I gave them the tools they'll need to read challenging texts using content knowledge from previous readings.

I kept that class a few minutes late, because they had typing next, and we're always encouraged to shorten typing class (as long as the classroom isn't needed for another class). When I tried to transition to typing, we noticed that another class was already in the computer lab. Uh oh. I brought the class back, got them started on their science homework, and checked the half day schedule. It turns out that the computer lab was double-booked. After some panicky emails, the typing teacher relieved me from "study hall", and I was able to use my abbreviated prep period to get some stuff done before afternoon PD.

My second two classes ran very smoothly, and the students were challenged and engaged. Besides, it was Lab Coat Friday.

11:17 AM. A little smelly. A little light-headed. A shower would be nice.

I don't feel atone-y yet, but I'm sure I will by about 4PM. This is the holiest day of the year. It's the day that jews reflect on the past year and atone for their sins. The last 10 days should have been atoning for sins against people, and today is for atoning for sins against God.

That is not why I fast. I fast to atone for sins against myself. I include any wrongdoing against anyone else under the category of sins against myself. Mostly, I said some things I shouldn't have. I'm not perfect. I usually apologize, if I know I did something wrong. What worries me is that I have done things that I'm not aware of. I don't know how to atone for these sins.

(I guess I was wrong, I guess I am feeling atone-y.)

I also fast because it gives my body a reset after all the junk I ate (and drank) this summer. It's at the end of triathlon season, so I don't feel like it's really ruining a training weekend (although I did squeeze in a lovely run last night before dinner). It helps me feel like I'm starting the year with a clean slate, physically.

I appreciate that the Jewish New Year coincides with the new school year. It gives me extra ritual and tradition to add to the usual start-of-school-year rituals of the teacher.

I've decided that my personal goal in school is to pretend to be Head Science Dude until I officially recieve the title. This week, I sent out the first weekly science department email. It included a reminder for Lab Coat Friday, some shout outs to fellow science teachers, and a fun science fact. It took five minutes of my time, but it made some smiles. I also realized that I need to spend more time observing/assisting the 5th and 6th grade science teachers. The younger kids are much more difficult, and having an extra adult in the classroom is always helpful. Besides, I can't shout out teachers I don't observe!

That's it for now. There may or may not be more reflecting later.

Fool Me Once

Today, three people tried to pull a fast one on me. They didn't get away with it.

Part of last night's homework assignment was to get the students' quiz grade signed. This is part of my mission to communicate better with families, and to set the precedent early that families are included in their children's education, rather than waiting until February to call and complain about something or other. On each quiz, every other Friday, there is a space at the top of the page for me to write the quiz grade, the current marking period grade (now, quarter 1), and comments. Immediately below this is a line for parent signature. The students knew when they sat for the quiz that they would be getting it signed. No unclear expectations here.

Yesterday afternoon, when I handed back the quiz, a student pointed out to me that I had made a grading error. He had an 80% on the quiz, a B for the quarter, and no comments. I fixed the mistake, crossed out the 80%, and replaced it with an 84%.

This morning, the signed quiz was handed in -- but the B was crossed out and replaced with an A. I knew for sure that I didn't do that, and even checked my gradebook to confirm. I immediately called the student's mother, and told her that he did, in fact, have a B. Using the advice from Relay last night, I used words like "we" and "we'll let him know he can't pull this on us". I then spoke to the student  took some dollars, and let him know that this wouldn't happen again. One.

We have a new system for cell phone storage in detention. Last year, students dropped their cell phones in plastic bins designated by homeroom in the morning. In the afternoon, phones were handed back out. Those students in detention left their phones in the bins, which were taken to the detention room and handed out again at 5. As a result of some inconsistencies in the system, a cell phone went missing. Now, we use lockboxes. I know the code for my homeroom's lockbox. The only way this works is if detention students get their phones back in homeroom, and then put them in the detention lockbox. This requires some degree of honesty from the students.

About halfway through detention today, a cell phone rang once, then stopped. The sound wasn't coming from the lockbox, and no cell phone rings only once without a human cue. I saw the girl that jumped, but didn't see the phone. I decided to give her an out. I asked if anyone forgot to put their phone in the bin. One kid raised his hand, and I took his phone, which was off. I didn't take dollars, because it could've been an honest mistake. There was still a phone out.

I pulled the allegedly-guilty girl aside, and asked her point-blank if she had a phone. I gave her another out - I asked if she wanted to check her bag to see if she forgot she had her phone in it. She loudly shuffles through her bag - "I have my lotion, and my chap stick, but no cell phone. I bring it every day, but I left it in my room today." Yeah, uh huh.

Inspired, I sent an email to her homeroom teacher, asking if he had given her a phone in homeroom, because she was claiming she didn't have one. Once the email was sent, I realized I wasn't sure if I had sent the email to the right place. While I was busy trying to open up the schedule, to confirm her homeroom teacher, the aforementioned teacher stormed into the room, waved the girl over, and I heard the fallout for several minutes. She got in some good trouble for that one. Two.

After school, I had a really, really great run. I ran pretty quickly, although I don't have an exact time because I didn't track it. The big difference was my partner. My partner and I had a calendar entry for this run, so when we both didn't want to go today, we had to anyway. We did, and the minutes flew by. We did a swift 3 miles, while catching up on summer stories.

I was pretty proud about outsmarting 12-year-olds, at least in the sense that they now know that they can't get away with anything in my classroom (I don't want to think about what was going on last year, when I was new to North Star). True to my PD goal of relationship-building, though, I started to feel guilty that I probably took several steps backwards in building relationships with these students. I then realized that it was an improvement that I felt guilty about this, and was okay with that.

On the way home from my run, I had about 1/4 tank of gas, so I stopped to fill up at one of those old gas stations that has mechanical, not electronic, pumps. I get filled up, the attendant takes my card inside, and brings out a receipt.

I usually reset the trip odometer when I fill the tank, so I can calculate gas mileage and get proud whenever I hit 28-29 mpg. I took a look at the receipt today, and saw that I had purchased 10.5 gallons. I was expecting more like 8-9 gallons, since I still had a quarter tank left. Suspicious, I took a glance at the pump: 9 gallons. And exactly $5 less than the amount on my receipt. I called the guy over, who apologized profusely and claimed that he had no idea what happened, and that he needed to call the guy who did the pumps, and that he was so sorry. I accepted a $5 bill and raced out of there. Don't go there (Getty on Somerset St in Watchung, just off the roundabout). Three.

I hope that today was an anomaly, because I don't know if I have the energy to live this meticulously every day.

I'd like to end by saying that my second class today started off so fantastically that I awarded a team dollar within the first 5 minutes of class, then pulled out the video camera and started taping in case anything happened that would be useful for a Relay assignment. It was an awesome class.

Short Weekend

It's frustrating when the first weekend of the school year is a 3-day weekend, and then the second weekend isn't. I'd love another day of weekend. Please?

Last Friday, we had our first quiz. The average was 76%. That is a very mediocre score. I'm proud that the test was much more rigorous than last year's first quiz, but I would've liked a higher average. At the very least, I've let the kids know I'm serious. I think I need to include more rigorous multiple choice so they can practice. I also need to review some scientific method content (as usual).

Less than one week after the lab reports were due, and I have all except for 1, and that 1 was absent all of last week. It makes a huge difference having the first major assignment in the second week of school, rather than a month later. Kids are still taking everything seriously.

This weekend, I did my first long run in a while. I was disappointed that I only lasted 5 miles, but it felt good to do it anyway. The weather was gorgeous, but I waited a little too long to leave, and it had warmed up quite a bit. I also did a gym workout and a 1.5 mile run on Sunday. I know I should be training on a bike, but I also need to refresh my triathlon head, so I'm not forcing myself to do anything I don't want to. So, when I check the weather forecast in hopes it'll tell me it's too rainy to ride this weekend, it's time to choose another activity. Same with swimming.

I also visited my parents this weekend. I found a dress for my sister's wedding, and for the engagement party. I keep getting more and more excited about all of these things.

Tonight I have Relay. I'm thinking positive about it. It's a session on building relationships with families and students, so I could probably use help in that area anyway!

Getting Easy

I have actually been given another task by my principal - to read over the 8th grade interim assessment - because I'm so under control with my current tasks. I had a great meeting with the principal today. She observed my classroom, had good things to say, and then gave me suggestions. I think this year she will be a great resource at helping me achieve my personal professional development goals (i.e. building relationships with people) in the classroom. She suggested that I build relationships with the skills students in my classroom by engaging them on their own terms, such as telling a student during independent practice, "Pay extra attention to #3, so you can share your answer with the class." This makes sure every student is part of the "culture of achievement", without surprising students who can't necessarily handle the surprise.

Today, our first lab report was due. And I did a MUCH better job with it. First, I gave them almost everything they needed to write. All they had to do was aggregate the information and present it professionally. Next time, I'll let them do some of the work. Additionally, I made my expectations on presentation clear, and reinforced, and reinforced. A bunch of students surprised me with great Microsoft Word documents. (They could choose to type or write in ink.) Only 5 students ended up with homework detention from science! 2 didn't do it, 2 didn't finish it, and 1 wrote it in pencil. It only took about 12 phone calls from students last night. Next year's goal: 100% complete, 0 phone calls.

Last night I had a briefly heart-breaking moment, though. My last phone call of the evening (other than the 11:45 PM one, which was not answered) was from a student's mother, who had just lost her job, and couldn't afford internet, and could her son bring in her assignment on a flash drive? Of course he can!

I had an awesome tempo run last night; I managed a 3.3 mile run, with the middle 2 miles under 10 min/mi. I was pretty proud, and it felt great. It's that perfect time of year when it is cool when I get home, but not yet dark. I also reached an accomplishment today: I actually thought to myself, Oh, it's only a lifting day, that'll be easy. Yeah, I'm that cool, I can have workout days that are easy.

Week 2

Time for another Tuesday afternoon detention update. Only, today's detention is totally under control. Actually, everything is totally under control.

For the most part, my classes are running really smoothly. I have a lot more engagement, a lot less off-task behavior, and it takes much less effort on my part. This third-year thing is awesome so far. Of course, we haven't had any assessments yet, so who knows?

I get to do everything over again, and I get to do it better. For example, today I taught my kids how to write a lab report, but I knew what to teach and what to reinforce and what to emphasize. I did a better job of scaffolding. I haven't seen the finished product yet, but I have high hopes.

I want the kids this year to learn how to follow directions. It'll save me a lot of headaches and phone calls if they learn to read the *&@$ directions on their own. As lesson #1, I put the following on their homework over the weekend: Directions: This week, you will begin learning how to write a lab report. Actively read this passage about the importance of lab reports. Answer questions 1-3 in complete sentences. Leave question 4 blank to show that you read these directions.

About half the kids did #4. It was remarkably satisfying to point it out to them during class today.

I still really, really like this school. For many reasons.

First, this morning's circle was a discussion of current events in Syria. With 7th and 8th graders. Yeah, our school is that cool. Additionally, I received these two emails this weekend:

Hey Robin,

Just checking – do you need any time this Wednesday for Rosh Hashanah? Or want to leave a bit early or anything?

Let me know if so! J

[Director of Operations]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for sending Week 4 lesson plans so freaking early!  You rock!

Attached with (minimal) feedback.  They look great!

[Principal]

I didn't run this weekend, but that is because I did a 10-mile hike and spent the rest of the weekend being happy and sore. I plan to return to my regularly scheduled (but relaxed, not really scheduled) running program today! If my feet stop hurting!

What will you do to make the world more awesome?

We watched this in circle this week. It's really worth your while.

Mastery

If I can keep up with my 3 days ahead of schedule, then I will keep Wednesday as my catch up day (before I get started on next week's work. Since I have no catch up to do today, I'll take a moment to blog.

In the last few days, I've discovered a couple of things:
My kids are brilliant.
I'm pretty good at this.
My feet hurt.

Each one shouldn't be too surprising, in my third year teaching, but I am taken aback yet again.

A big challenge I have is that my class is short. As my lessons get stronger, 55 minutes just doesn't seem long enough.

Yesterday's lesson was on purpose and hypothesis. This year, I tried something new with hypothesis. I wanted the kids to learn the standard middle school hypothesis format, which is the if/then/because format. A hypothesis could be: If I drink coffee, then I will stay up late, because coffee has caffeine. (I don't drink coffee. It tastes icky.) The students have no problem making educated guesses, but were having difficulty determining how to use the format correctly (I was getting a lot of: If I stay up late, then it's because I had coffee, because coffee has caffeine). This was a little unexpected for me, and left me with a first class exit ticket average of 74% (very low for a first objective), so I figured out a better way to explain it. The second class scored a 78%, which is not much better, and much lower than what I saw last year, when my expectations were a little simpler.

By the last class, I had figured out a hypothesis template: If [test], then [desired outcome/purpose], because [explanation]. This had the desired outcome - an exit ticket average of 90%. Woohoo! While I didn't see mastery from everyone, especially in my first classes, I was able to redesign my lesson in a way that worked.

This morning, I made a poster which has the hypothesis template on it, and did a mini-lesson in the morning. It was received well.

Since the lesson is so short, the kids don't have a lot of time to practice. Both today and yesterday, there was only 5 minutes left for independent practice, which means either 1) Kids do 1-2 questions and we discuss; 2) Kids do 3-4 questions and I show htem the answers; or 3) Kids do more practice but we don't go over the answers. I chose something between 1) and 2), which is nowhere near enough practice. Fortunately, my kids are brilliant, and fill the gaps on their own. Even though exit tickets were weak, their homework was looking much, much better. I guess the practice on their own was enough.

Once again, today, we were short on practice on independent and dependent variables (there was almost none), but we did exit tickets anyway, just so I can get a number. Well, that number is 88%. Yeah, my kids are rock stars.

In being unclear on my expectations, I've noticed that students are using their notes for their exit tickets, so it is a little more "open book" than I had expected. I think this going to work for me, actually. It will keep me honest in making more skill-based objectives, because I really would rather have them identify an independent variable, than to memorize the definition. Additionally, it gives me the ability to see whether they are having difficulty performing the objective (write a hypothesis, or identify a variable), rather than just having forgotten which variable is which. On the back end, this means that I will have to put more of a focus on memorization on their own time (which will be assessed during Oral Drill and Excellence) and on studying before summative assessments.

And, what makes me most proud yesterday, is that I actually went for a run. I had a cramp, and I felt like my feet were on fire, but I got in my 3.29 miles. It was slow. It was ugly. But I now know I'm capable of running after school (at least, early in the week). My feet still hurt, but I can think it's on purpose. I've promised myself that I am not tracking miles through the end of the calendar year. I think this will help keep my head fresh, so I can start training for a half marathon next year. For now, I'm just focused on getting in miles, getting a little faster, and relaxing after school.

Day 1 #3

This was my third first day of school as a teacher, and my 21st first day of school as a human being. This poster represents how I feel today:

I've never run 18 miles, but I am totally relating to the feeling of being so far into something that everything is fuzzy and sweet and mashed potatoes.

I love this job. If there's one thing I got from today, it's that I'm good at this. My class was unrecognizable compared to last year. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn good.

I love my new kids. I only know their first day trying-to-impress behavior, but I think I'm going to love them. I still miss the old kids, though. I took every opportunity to watch the new 8th graders, just because I miss them.

My classes were smooth. There were no major issues. The tracking was 100% most of the time. 100% of students took all their notes. In the last 20 minutes of the day, the principal came to observe (yay, end of day observation). I didn't think it was perfect, but I got awesome feedback. I was complimented on my CFUs (checks for understanding), which was an area for improvement last year. My one action step was:

  I love your push for voice – I think I’m going to use it in Circle tomorrow – give dollars for Leadership to reinforce the behavior. 

If that's the biggest thing I need to fix (giving more dollars), I think I'm doing okay.

I accomplished some personal goals, too. I made two positive parent phone calls today. I also returned all student phone calls (5 calls from 3 different students asking whether they are allowed to use highlighter on their homework reading. I <3 North Star). I spoke to 7 different students at lunch (one is a cheerleader, one is a dancer, one went to Six Flags this summer, 2 play basketball, and 2 play football).

There was one dark spot in the day. We have a new student. He reads at about a 2nd grade level and has tics that make him unable to sit in a classroom. I hope we can help him out, although it doesn't look like it right now. The worst part, though, is that when he sat with his class at lunch, a few boys were laughing at him. I had a serious teacher talk with the leader of the bullies. The good part is that later in the day, when the new boy joined the class in English, and others students started snickering, the former-bully-leader was silent. Still, I hope we can help this child.

I love seating charts. They help me learn names by locations, since I certainly can't do faces. I was about 30% by the end of each class, and maybe 10% on the sidewalk. Not bad to start. I'll give myself a month for 100%.

Like I said, it's the excited, proud brain fuzz that occurs 18 miles into the run. I know I'm not perfect, and that there will be things to work on. According to the principal, "We just finished the easiest day of the year. Start getting ready for days 2 through 195." I'm on it.

Transitions

TriRock Asbury Park Sprint Triathlon - Race Report
500 m swim
10 mi bike
5 km run

Pre-Race

I signed up for this race about two weeks ago, which is pretty unusual for me.  I was originally signed up for a race on Saturday (TOBAY Triathlon on Long Island), but found in July that I had Relay (science teacher class) that day, and I didn't want to take an absence on my first Saturday class. Fortunately, I had been signed up for the only triathlon I've seen that has full refunds available, and I received a check for the entry fee within a week from GLIRC (good organization). Tim had been asked to volunteer at the medical tent for the TriRock, and I really wanted to get in a third race this year so I can get an official USAT ranking (it won't be pretty, but it'll give me something to work on), so I signed up on a whim.

Of course, I later realized it wasn't a smart idea to do a triathlon the day before school starts. I would be sore and short on sleep. I've been super unmotivated lately and didn't really want to do the race.

A little later, I realized it was a great idea to do a triathlon the day before school starts, because I need something to keep myself busy this weekend.

Communication from the race was...lacking. I checked the website regularly between registration and the last week, but there was no information about race morning - wave times, packet pick-up, transition closing, etc. On Monday night (< one week before the race), they finally posted the information packet (I didn't get an email with the information until Wednesday), and I discovered that they had no race day packet pick-up.

Really? I have never seen a race without race day packet pick-up that didn't mention it clearly at registration and on the website, let alone not mention it until the week of the race. I had class during the entire Saturday expo, an hour away, so there was no way I was picking up my packet. And they wouldn't release it to friends or family.

I spent a night tossing and turning, and called in a panic on Tuesday morning. Oh, they do have race day packet pick-up. They just don't advertise it because they don't want a long line. The all-caps NO RACE DAY PACKET PICK-UP is just for show. I took down the name of the employee I spoke to, just in case, and got ready to race.

Last night, I didn't get my eight hours of sleep, because I was out dress-shopping with my parents (one mother-of-the-bride dress complete), and I didn't get home until 8:30. I spent about a half hour packing and prepping, another half hour relaxing, and was a sleep by 9:30-ish.

Race Day

I beat my 4:30 alarm by 10 minutes (perfect). I threw Tim in the shower, ate an Eggo waffle, and unsuccessfully attempted to use the bathroom. Oh well. I packed some toiled paper in my bag and loaded up the bike in the car.

We arrived at about 5:40. Tim got awesome parking as a medical volunteer, about 20 feet away from transition.

I picked up my packet (there was no line) and labelled my bike. In transition, I convinced a dude with a Sharpie to mark me up, because I HATE TriTats (temporary tattoo race numbers). I had TriTats at NYC, and it took three days of hard work to remove. I didn't want to show up to school with big "57"s on my arms, nor did I want to be relegated to long sleeves and pants for the first week of school.

I set up my transition, grabbed the TP, and tried again. No success. I was a little bit worried, but I really had no time goal in mind (what a terrible way to start a race!), so I could stop during any transition.

It was chilly, and I left my sandals and sweatshirt with Tim as I went to line up at the race start, about a 1/4 mile walk from the medical tent. I dipped my feet in the water, and was happy to discover that the water (74 degrees) was a little bit warmer than the air (62 degrees). I had decided to leave the wetsuit at home for the 500 meter swim. I figured the 1-2 minutes it would cost me in the race, plus transport and washing it, wouldn't be worth the 2-3 minutes it might save me in the race. Unfortunately, it meant I had to be a bit more sly about my usual pre-race pee.

Swim

The swim was nearly soul-crushing. There's always moment in every race that makes me question my life choices. This moment is usually much later in the race, giving me an opportunity to balance it with my successes. Not today. For the first 100 meters, we were swimming perpendicularly away from the shore, with waves breaking over our heads every 10-15 seconds. Each time I caught a wave, it would push me back 10 feet. It hurt. I couldn't see the buoy. I really missed the buoyancy of my wetsuit. It took 3:30 for the first 100 meters - embarrassing. In the pool, I can do 2:15 easy, and in a wetsuit it's closer to 1:50.

I found out later that 3 racers DNF'd in the first 100 meters.

I got into a rhythm for the rest of the race, except for the occasional wave and one big inhalation of salt water. Good for the lungs.

The last 100 meters was interesting. I started moving my legs more, to loosen them up, but about halfway to shore, I saw people standing and running already. I thought that would be harder then swimming, until the waves came. The undertow fought my swimming, and found it was most efficient to stand at the bottom, move slowly, and ride the waves in the best I could. I trudged up the shore at 17:21, or almost 3:30 per 100 meters.

T1 was slow (long barefoot run), but uneventful. I passed Tim, grabbed my bike stuff, ate half a package Cliff Shot Bloks, and got on my bike.

Bike

The bike went really smoothly. I kept up the pace pretty consistently. I passed a few people, and got passed by a few more. The ride was flat and beautiful through the newly gentrified Jersey Shore town of Asbury Park.

The route was marked well and I had a good time. I ended up averaging 14.9 mph (40:23), which is much better than I expected. A few times, I wondered if I could keep up this pace during short, flat training rides. It's almost a reasonable pace!

I ended up ranking considerably lower on the bike than the swim (348/422 compared to 301/422), so I guess everyone had a tough swim.

Run

The run was similarly uneventful. I didn't have a bad time, but I also didn't love every minute like in the NYC run and the entire Tri One On race. It was okay. I hit mile 1 in about 10:30, so I knew I wasn't going to break 30, and I had no time goal, so I just sorta hit a groove and stuck to it.

In mile 2, I met a nice girl who does nutrition research in Maryland. I tried to convince her to be a teacher. This keeps happening. I think I'm really ready to start the year.

I finished the run in a respectable 31:34, or 10:11/mile.

Post-Race

I got some ice cream and a parfait, and sat down on the grass while Tim finished up at the medical tent. His day was, fortunately, pretty uneventful. Mostly scrapes and bruises. I went home, took a nap, went grocery shopping, and then ate everything in the apartment.

My one final thought on the race organization is this: I am not fast. Many races I've done have run out of cups, or coconut water, or something at the finish line. At this race, the Porta-potties still had toiled paper at the end. This is not something you see every day.

The total time was 1:36:30. It put me at the 25th percentile for women, and 20th percentile for my division. Does this mean I can say I've accomplished my goal of being a midpacker this year? Eh. I'm not so sure. I already have a goal for next year: top half of my division. It's a hefty goal, but it means I can work on speed. For this race, that means having a good swim, building the bike A LOT, and building the run a little. I guess I know what that means.

There's gonna be some weekend bike rides this fall.

This afternoon, I watched coverage of the 2012 Ironman World Championship in Kona. Damn. I don't think I could ever do that. Maybe an Ironman, sure, but never a qualifying one. Those people are serious. And have really pointy helmets.

I've come to the conclusion that I can probably run 50 meters at the same speed an Ironman champion (woman) can run an entire marathon after running 112 miles and swimming 2.4 miles. That's something, right?

I did have more fun today than I have had in any recent workouts. It's definitely recharged my triathlon spirit. Pretty good way to end a triathlon season. I think I've kicked my funk and ready for some off-season speed training.

And I'm ready for a new school year.

Last Day

So, it is our last work day until school starts. Everyone is running around like chickens. It's crazy and stressful, but also full of camaraderie. Really, though, I just can't wait until it is 4:45 and we can all go to mandatory happy hour. I've finish my "must do" list, and have no hope of even making a dent in my "should do" list. I need to get out of here and relax a bit before go time.

Principal, at our school logistics meeting, in which we discussed all procedures, duties, and schedules for the year: "There will be a lot of information here. For new teachers, the next two hours will feel like drinking from a fire hose. Well, so will the rest of the first year, but especially now."

My big goals this year include building better relationships with students and their parents. I've started by getting a head start on calling half the parents in my homeroom (my homeroom partner will take the other half). In this process, I've had a total diversity moment; that is, I had one of those moments that you watch in diversity training videos. I made an assumption, and could have potential ruined a relationship.

I called the mother of one of my students. The phone rang a few times, and then stopped. It sounded like someone picked up the phone, but I didn't hear anything. After a couple of hellos, I hung up, and chalked it up to an out-of-service phone or wrong number. I then called her dad's number (this is a new skill - previously, if one number didn't work, I'd call it a day and pat myself on the back for trying). A man picked up.

-Hello, is this Mr. _____?
-No, who is this?
-I'm sorry, I must have a wrong number, this is Ms. Z from North Star, calling regarding Student.
-No, I am student's father.
-Oh, I'm sorry, what is your name?
-Mr. _______ [the same name that I had originally asked].
-Oh, okay.
-I screen my calls.
-I understand. I was calling to introduce myself, and to see if Student had any questions about the summer packet [i.e. don't forget the summer packet!].
-Student lives with her mother, so I don't know about the summer packet.
-Oh. I called her, but the call didn't go through.
-She screens her calls too. I'll call her and let her know that it was you calling. She'll call you back.
-Thank you so much! Do you have any quesitons for me?
-Nope.
-Please feel free to call if you want to know about Student's education. [Ugh, what a horrible thing to say.]
-I know about her education, I pick her up from school sometimes.
-Oh, well, then, I can't wait to meet you!

I spent the rest of the day thinking how weird it was that they were so adamant about screening their calls. Then, sometime in the early hours, it occurred to my why they might screen their calls, and felt horrible for judging them. I sincerely hope that it is a habit they have picked up from others who are harassed by collections agencies, and don't have to screen their calls out of necessity. Or, I could just be making more assumptions, and screening calls is the new thing to do. I'm not really the expert on picking up social trends.

I learn something new everyday. But what's more exciting, is that as a "veteran" teacher, I get to teach something new every day. I get to share my proven methods of organization, classroom decoration, and student management. I may not be an expert, but at least I feel like a rock star.