Quick Update

Okay, very quick update. It's going to be short, though. I went through though the day today with my stress level just one notch above comfortable. It could have to do with the crazy snow-day-testing-make-up stuff, or the fact that I hadn't run in 4 days, or something else.

Testing. I was pretty disappointed with the scores, but some weak points from last year were stronger. I think I need to include some review lessons that discuss big-picture ideas, and that allow students to work with topics they struggle with.

Tonight was my longest evening run ever, 4.5 miles. It gave me a chance to zone out and made me feel like most of my problems were solved.

I'll end with an email thread from today, which shows an inspired moment I had and the respect my superiors show me.

<Me>

I had an idea that might help G and other students with behavior and engagement. G needs to work on consistency – only losing a couple of day, rather than trying to earn all his dollars back at the end of the week. He is also a builder (he is always fidgeting and creating), and I’m thinking of creating a reward system that takes advantage of this. It would look something like this: If G makes it through a day only losing $2 more dollars than he earns (on path to make his paycheck), and completes 1 assignment in Homework Center, I will pull him to work on an “engineering project”. [English teacher] suggested something like this. I think he has a lot of potential to be a really awesome engineer, if he can pass 7^th grade first. Is this something I can do, and is it something the school can buy? If it works, I can include other students as well. What do you think?

Thanks,
Robin

<Principal>

OMG yes.  I love this idea – [DOO] can answer your question about purchasing!

<Assistant Principal>

Great idea!  Thinking out of the box, Robin. :) If budgeting is an issue please let me know.  I’d be willing to purchase a kit.

Almost Wedding #1

Mostly, I'm excited about my sister's wedding on Sunday. I'm anxious about travel. I can't wait to party with my family. But it might snow when I'm supposed to fly out.

And they expect me to focus on my work?

This is testing week #3. Today was the second day of Literature testing. Tomorrow is history, and Thursday is science. I don't know if my students are more or less prepared than last year, but I'm doing a better job of reviewing key points with them during Do Nows and our Oral Drill Challenge. Overall, the classes are a little bigger than last year, and the scores are a little lower, but I'm hopeful. Last year, I was hoping for 75% of students to score over 75%. This year, I'm going for 70%. I'm not lowering the standards, but I did make the test harder. I think we can do it.

My classes actually went smoothly today. I rarely get three solid classes, especially when they are consecutive. Due to the schedule today, I have only about an hour of prep time between 7:40 and 5:15. Fortunately, detention is solid today, and I got a surprise bathroom break around 3:00.

I ran 5 miles this weekend! It felt great, and I was a little sore the next day, but two days later, I feel like I could do it again. Unfortunately, it'll have to wait until tomorrow, if I can drag myself out after parent-teacher conferences. This week is incredibly busy, so I'll have to do tonight's bike ride after tutoring, and tomorrow's run after conferences, which were rescheduled due to last week's (second) snow day. And then--running in San Francisco! I'm hoping for a 6-miler on Friday and 5 on Sunday, with maybe an hour on an indoor bike on Saturday.

Relationship Success

Whoa, crazy week.

Monday was a snow day.

Tuesday involved two successes in the parent-relationship department (plus, the student I had success with last week continued to make good decisions). Basically, I used my communication skills to "over-communicate" (making extra phone calls that I wouldn't have made otherwise) about things like missing homework or not-quite-perfect behavior, to repair relationships that I had previously thought broken. It turns out that when parents say things to teachers, they don't actually mean it, and are just blowing off steam about their child's imperfections. Okay, that's not the kindest thing to say, but I've had a few parents say some mean things about me (I have a God-complex), about our systems (you must have lost his homework, three times this week), and about our school (you are all picking on my daughter), and then discovered that a parent may not even remember who I am, a month later. I'm sure I'll understand one day.

I had some great running last weekend (3 miles on Saturday and 1.5 on Sunday, no pain), and have no time this week, so I squeezed in a run last night after school and before dinner with friends. I was afraid to stray to far, so I parked at the restaurant and ran laps up and down a hill right next to the main street area, which was well lit and shoveled. It felt good, and then I stuffed my face with Mexican food. I've been biking pretty consistently too (2-3 times per week). I haven't been so great with swimming (about every other week), but it's better than years past.

Today is a snow day.

Hope we can catch up before IAs next week!

Re-slump

Okay, so maybe I'm not done with the January slump.

I'm getting really, really frustrated with a couple of extra special personalities. I'm getting tired of fighting the same battles over and over again, with no new results.

The good news is that I completely rebuilt a disastrous relationship on Friday. Of course, this is not too difficult with 7th graders, because their deep-seated feeling change 100% every 11 minutes (or something like that - Mom knows). I am proud of myself, though, and proud of her, because while I distract her with "Nice job" and "You're a rockstar today", she's actually learning science.

My week kind of ended on a rough note, which is why I was so frustrated leaving on Friday. Usually on half days, there is one class period after lunch. However, on Friday, the schedule was modified so that lunch was last (to account for lower middle school activities). Students went to check-out first, got their jackets and cell phones, and then had lunch. This makes lunch detention extra fun. When an entire roomful of 7th graders, with no work to do, ready to go home on a half day, decide that they're done cooperating, it's a challenge to keep them together. It was a challenge. I left cranky. This is unfortunate, because the rest of the day had been great.

Yesterday, I had a good day of classes, but the most fun moment was when our office manager had an Excel conundrum. I spent about an hour (okay, I should have been planning) working through a programming solution (Excel doesn't allow for elseif, but instead nested ifs. There were a lot of nested ifs). It was a lot of fun, and I felt pretty proud of myself. I love solving puzzles!

Today, I came in and was reminded why I love this place and why I love this job. This morning was our school-wide poetry slam finals. Five 7th- and 8th-graders stood up in front of their peers and bared their souls. I was equally impressed with the poetry, performances, and peer responses. The winner will have their poem published in the high school literary magazine. It was awesome.

Another reason I love this school is that the history class is currently acting out a trial of Hernan Cortes. Students have been studying Spanish colonization of the Americas, and also courtroom procedure. Students were given the opportunity to dress up for the trials (especially the "attorneys"). Several students came in today and yesterday in suits or other professional wear, and looked like small grown-ups! I'd hire them. I love how they jump at an opportunity to dress up like small professionals.

I got some solid training in this weekend. Immediately after school Friday, I went for a short (30 min) swim, and then an awesome 2-mile run. My foot was feeling great, so I took it out on Sunday for 2.5 miles (with a couple of walking breaks, of course). It is cold. It is very cold. But, I hate the treadmill more than the cold, so I suffered some windburn for the cause. I also took a 1-hour bike ride (which I can do indoors, because I can more easily entertain myself than on a treadmill). That gives me a total of 3 hours of training for the week (plus another 30 minutes or so of core/strength in the mornings), which is not a bad place to be in January. If I increase training by one hour every month, I'll be in a good place this summer.
weekend training.

We're Back!

We were given this graph at our last staff meeting. It's relatable for not-just-first-year-teachers. Forgive me my slump, but I think I'm pulling myself out of it.

I was frustrated. Work was rough. It felt like playing tug-of-war with 12-year-olds who are bigger and stronger than me. Once their parents joined in, I had no chance. Plus, I hurt my foot and haven't been running in 3 weeks.

Fortunately, my colleagues joined the team, and we're starting to win.

On Tuesday, I had a particularly difficult phone call with a parent. She accused me of picking on her daughter. "At first, I thought she was a troublemaker, but after getting these phone calls so many times, I'm starting to think the teachers are picking on her...I want to meet with Principal and see if she can be transferred out of your science class...the Dean agreed that he doesn't know what is going on, that you must be picking on her."

Ouch. I cried a little. Of course, the principal and dean stand behind me 100%. After some hard-core brainstorming sessions, the dean pushed me to realize that this girl comes home every day and says, "Teacher did this, Teacher kicked me out for no reason, Teacher took dollars for no reason." SHE owns the relationship between her mother and me. Dean convinced me to suck it up, and own the relationship. So, yesterday, I took a deep breath, clenched my sweaty fists, and called mom. I shared how well her daughter did in class that morning, and how excited I am to improve communication between us. It went well.

I started a Time, Tone, and Place working group. "Time, Tone, and Place" is verbiage we use at school to teach kids to appropriately respond to unfavorable situations, rather than talking back immediately. For example, if a student loses a dollar for talking, but it was really their peer talking, they are expected to get back to work, and talk to the teacher after class or at lunch time. This working group was created for those students who are the talk-backiest. (And I am an expert on talk-backiness. Just ask my parents.) These students were given notepads, which they are encouraged to carry around, and jot down their thoughts and arguments. They will then meet with their mentor a couple of times a week (about 1-2 kids per 7th grade teacher) to figure out how to best approach the situation in a mature way. They can earn dollars for using their notepad properly. So far (since yesterday), the notepads seem to be working. The kids are excited, and we assigned them to mentors that already have solid relationships. We're hoping that by choosing the right 10 students for this group, we can significantly improve the response-to-feedback culture in the 7th grade with minimal effort from any one teacher. I call it a delegation win!

Yesterday, I had to videotape a class to PiA a Relay assignment. I was looking for a particular questioning skill. I had a PERFECT questioning moment, that showed the students working hard to teach each other complex skills, with minimal effort on my part. It went like this:

(Key point of the lesson: Acceleration is any change in velocity, including increasing speed, decreasing speed, and changing direction. An object is not accelerating only if it is not moving, or traveling at a constant speed and direction.)
An airplane is landing at an airport. As it reaches the runway, it slows to a stop. Is their airplane accelerating?

Student 1: I think it is not accelerating because it is slowing down, not speeding up.
Student 2: I disagree with Student 1. I think it is accelerating because it is decreasing speed, it is not moving at a constant speed.
Teacher: I can't decide. Let's take a vote. Show me on your hands. 1 if it is accelerating, 2 if it is not accelerating. All hands up in 3, 2, 1...[most students raise hands, teacher says things until 100% of hands are vertical] Student 3, why did you choose 1?
Student 3: It is accelerating because it is not moving at constant speed and direction, it is slowing down.
[Student 1 raises hand.]
Teacher: Student 1, what would you like to add?
Student 1: I now agree with Student 3, because I realize that the plane is accelerating because accelerating is slowing down or speeding up.

And then I realized the video camera was off.

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.