My cold is back, and with a vengeance. What started as a head cold has traveled through my throat and into my lungs...As an asthma child, this was a VERY natural progression for me, and I was at the doctor with a juicy wheeze and either pneumonia or bronchitis at least once a year. However, I haven't had EITHER since my freshman year in college (knock on wood), and my asthma has been almost nonexistent minus the occasional shortness of breath that comes when I overdo a workout. However, all day I have been feeling a gradual tightening of my chest and felt my breathing become more and more shallow... I just dusted off my handy peak flow meter, a very basic gadget that measures your breathing...basically you just exhale a quick puff of air and it moves a little thingy down the meter depending on how strong your breath is. Well, I'm in the "yellow zone" for the first time in years. :-/ I guess this means I haven't totally grown out of my asthma! (even though I was insisting to my doctor that I had just a few months ago...)
What else does it mean? Well, I'm still going to school tomorrow. You'd have to kill me before I stayed home voluntarily on a Monday. I will at least make it for the morning...and actually, I don't feel HORRIBLE, just not my best. In terms of asthma, all the "yellow zone" really means is it's time to dust off "puffy" (aka my inhaler) and take it every few hours. Oh, and no spontaneous runs up and down the stairs tomorrow. I REFUSE to be sick again. I guess I should probably get to bed and rest up...And did I mention I only have about half of a voice? Oh, and I'm supposed to be observed Wednesday? This should be an INTERESTING week...
...Or, "Waiting for Parents who Care, Streamlined Teacher Education, and Clear Expectations for Teachers."
A few weeks ago I saw Waiting for Superman, the highly anticipated documentary about the ways that public schooling is failing our nation's youth. Here is the trailer in case you haven't had the opportunity to see it:
As anyone who knows me personally will tell you, I am a passionate person and have very strong opinions and beliefs. I am also fairly vocal when it comes to those passions and those things I feel strongly about.
Now, I don't pretend to be an expert on politics, the education system, or public schooling. But, as a teacher, I do know an awful lot about what goes on in MY school on a daily basis. And watching Waiting for Superman, I was frustrated (but not surprised...) by the glaringly one sided view of public schooling that was presented in the film.
Now, I'm not a robot. My heart sank when I saw the learning conditions in many of the urban public schools shown in the film. I grew irritated when I saw the many teachers being paid to sit in the "Rubber Room" in the New York City Public School system because their tenure prevented them from being fired. And I cried, actually cried when Daisy and Fernando (two of the students followed in the film) weren't picked in the lottery to attend the vastly superior charter schools in their areas. It was heartbreaking.
But, at the same time, I wanted to scream at the filmmakers, "You are missing SO MUCH INFORMATION!!!" Here are my biggest frustrations with the film:
1. Many subjective and generalizing terms are thrown around, especially "Good Teacher" and "Bad Teacher." Seriously. Those are the descriptive labels attached to teachers by the clearly knowledgeable film makers and interviewees. Good and Bad. Yet, at no point in the film is it explained what MAKES these teachers Good and Bad. An example is given in the film of a tenured teacher who read newspapers in class. Okay, I'm with you there. That's clearly a bad teacher. Then, later, a teacher is shown using raps and chants to help her students learn measurement conversions. Okay, that's a great idea, the kids are really getting it. Good teacher. But...what about the rest of us? I'll admit it, I don't use raps in my classroom. It's just not me. I'm sure they work great for SOME teachers and SOME students. But...it's not going to work for me. Does that make me a bad teacher? I don't read newspapers in the classroom. I love my kids, care about them, and literally would do anything for them. But, at the end of this year, let me tell you, a few will still be horribly behind in reading, some will have learning disabilities that remain undiagnosed for a variety of reasons, and some will not meet on state tests. Does that make me a bad teacher? If so, how can I improve?
2. Which leads me to my next point. The film is incredibly anti-union. Now, I'm not exactly Miss Union 2010, but I greatly value what my union does for me. In a profession when I am left alone with 24 minors during the day, when I am in parentis locus from 8:35-3:00 Monday through Friday, and when, if I give a student a detention or a C- that student just MIGHT, out of spite, go home and tell their family a dirty lie to get back at me, I thank my lucky stars that I have that union on my side. I know that my union will protect me if I am wrongly accused by parents or administration of something I didn't do. I know that my union will make sure I am not expected to take calls from my principal at night or stay at school late (or later than I already do) just to show I'm doing my job. What a scary thing it would be to go to work knowing that there is no one to protect you if Susie goes home and tells her mom that you threw a chair across the room because she is angry you called her out on talking back in class. I am thankful for what my union does for me, and that does not make me a lazy, bad teacher.
3. Speaking of unions, point three I'd like to address about the film is its attack on tenure. The film is absolutely correct that there are many lazy, burnt out, tenured teachers out there. There are incompetent, inept, and poorly trained and supported teachers out there who have survived through the four years necessary to acquire tenure. My question is, what principal LET those teachers keep their jobs long enough to earn tenure? Or, why weren't they given additional training or coaching to help them grow from inept teacher to excellent teacher? I am of the belief that most teachers are born with both a talent and a love for teacher that cannot be taught. You have it or you don't. But even if you are born with this gift, it does NOT a teacher of the year make. Practical training, coaching, mentoring, and regular constructive evaluation are just as critical. Imagine being plopped into a job in the medical profession, being given 24 patients to "cure," and then just checked on 2 or 3 times a year. At the end of that time, if your patients lived, congrats! You're a good doctor! But if not, oops. Bad doctor. That would be ridiculous. Why is it, then, that in many of our schools we expect teachers to learn on the job with very little support and evaluation? And if incompetent teachers do survive, why are principals allowing them to be tenured? Incompetent teachers should be identified within the first few years of their careers, supported and coached, taught the skills they need, and be cultivated into the excellent teachers they have the potential to become. And if for some reason they do not blossom into these excellent teachers, please, administration, find them another line of work. It's not tenure that's evil. It's the fact that teachers are being tenured in some schools and districts without appropriate support, training, and evaluation.
4. In the film, it is particularly heart breaking when the mother of one child, Fernando, describes the way she has been working tirelessly with her son. She has been taking him to after school reading support programs, hiring tutors, and reading with him at home. Yet still, she receives reports from her child's teacher that he is not progressing and may be retained. However, when the mother calls the teacher again and again, she is never called back. The teacher clearly does not see the value in communicating with her about her child. So, this mother works to get her child into a charter school. Sadly, his name is not picked in the lottery. Tears are shed by all.
This is incredibly sad, and I feel for Fernando and his mother. It irks me, though, to think that the audiences nation-wide watching Waiting for Superman are seeing only this representation of a public school teacher. Ladies and Gentleman, I am here to tell you that, while this may happen, it is NOT representative of every public school teacher and student. Fernando is blessed to have a mother who cares about his education, and even though he will not be attending the charter school, I know that his family will make all of the difference for him. Because it comes down to this--teachers can work tirelessly during the school day, but at 3:00 children go home. Some go home to families who value their education and have the time and skills to work with them outside of school. Some go home to empty houses, or parents who don't speak English, or to parents who just don't care.
In my personal opinion, one of the reasons why charter schools are so successful (one of many), is that they tend to have tremendous support from families. Parents have worked tirelessly to enroll their children in these schools. They have filled out applications, sat through lotteries, and traveled with them for miles to attend the schools. These parents are committed to their children's educations. As a teacher, I can tell you that when a parent calls me, I call back. But I can also tell you that there are times I want nothing more than to get in touch with a parent and I find lines disconnected, voice mail boxes full, or phone numbers incorrect. I had 6 families not show up for conferences this year, and I teach at a suburban school, hardly comparable to the inner city schools shown in Superman. Why wasn't this side of education shown in the film?
Well, that's all I have to say. There was a lot of truth in this documentary, and it was well made. But it had an agenda, and was very one-sided. What I think frustrates me most is that so many Americans already believe that having ATTENDED public school once upon a time makes them an expert in public school. This film will arm them with another reason to attack teachers, unions, and the public school system. I invite anyone who thinks they have it figured out to come to my classroom for 1 day and attempt to solve all of the problems. There ARE problems with public schooling, and I'm not saying I have all of the answers. But the problems cannot be reduced to tenured teachers and teachers unions. Anyways, that's all. Just my thoughts.
I have been ROCKING through the book list for Battle of the Books!!! Woohoo!!! And while they are not all the best book EVER, as I felt about many of last year's titles, I'm discovering (and rediscovering) some gems in the mix. And because I am nothing if not a list person...
Books I'm Reading:
Ida B
Frindle
Tuck Everlasting
Books I've Read:
A Year Down Yonder (5 stars)
Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark (2 stars...)
Among the Hidden (4 stars)
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 (4 stars)
Books to Read:
Hank Zipzer: The Night I Flunked My Field Trip
Exploring the Titanic
Lincoln: A Photobiography (SO not excited about this one, but I will feign interest for the sake of the kiddos...)
The Face on the Milk Carton
Hatchet
My Side of the Mountain
The BFG
1 more that is slipping my mind...
Anyways, Battle of the Books is up and running, and going great. We have about 15 kiddos this year, and many of them are already gung-ho about the books. We are reading Frindle together in shared reading style at meetings, which I am absolutely LOVING. We didn't do this with any of the books last year, but it's been a good way to model writing the questions and recording important information from the text. Plus. it's am amazing, hilarious book that I ADORE reading, and am elated to share with an audience who eats it up as much as these readers. Hands down the best part of coaching Battle of the Books is when kids come up to me both at meetings and during the week and say things like, "Miss Teacher! I'm halfway done! Look!!" or "Miss Teacher, this book is GOOD!!" Gets me every time. :)
Oh, and btw, to whomever invented books on CD, thanks. Thanks a million. I would never make it through this whole list without you!!!
In college, I started a blog called Smile Like You Mean It, mostly because my brother suggested it. I love writing, and used it mainly to share quotes, musings, pictures, and thoughts on books I was reading. I wrote sporadically. I recently started writing in it about running, and more recently, the injuries that have led to the lack of running in my life. Well, it is enough work to keep up ONE blog much less TWO, so I've decided that I will be ending my relationship with smile like you mean it, and posting all of those other things in this blog. In real life, I'm not JUST a teacher, so why should this blog be JUST about my teaching? Of course, this blog will still be MAINLY about my classroom adventures, but there may be some other things sprinkled in here and there. I think it's symbolic of the fact that, as a SECOND year teacher, I actually have something of a life outside of school!!! Although still not too exciting of one! ;) If you don't care about my outside of classroom adventures, please feel free to gloss over them. :) Anyways...
One thing I have been MAJORLY missing lately is running. On August 4th I suffered a stress fracture in my right tibia, which I am blaming on being sold a pair of running shoes that way OVER corrected my feet, and have consequently been finding myself staring out the window longingly at runners without being able to tie up my shoes. It has been pretty sad, especially since I had just gotten BACK into running for the first time since college, and had fallen back in love with the sport in a HUGE way. :( Anyways, my tibia is finally starting to heal, but I have still felt lingering pain every time I have tried to run in the past few weeks. There were at least 5 races I had hoped to run this fall that are one by one passing by on the calendar with me still bumming around the house, but the one race that REALLY matters, the Disney Princess Half-Marathon, aka my escape from Chicago winter in February, opportunity to run through Cinderella's Castle, first big-girl race, and basically dream come true, is still pretty far ahead of me.
My Pain-Free and Fabulous Tibia :)
However, as the weeks and weeks have gone by and my tibia pain has continued to linger (the only real cure for a stress fracture, just like a regular fracture, is REST and noooo running), I have been getting nervous about whether or not I'll have enough time to rehab my tibia, get back into shape, AND oh yeah, prepare my body to run 13.1 miles for the very first time ever. The first day I tried running again post-injury was a couple of weeks ago, and I WAY overdid it. I ran/walked about 3.5 miles when I should have started it out at, oh, i don't know, 0.25 miles. I got a little carried away...and paid for it with pain later. So today, I decided to dust off my running shoes, lace them up, and give it another shot.
A few weeks ago, some of the bloggers I follow celebrated Love My Body week. Today, my motto on my run was, "I love my body enough that I will LISTEN to my tibia, RESPECT my pain, and NOT PUSH IT!" I ran a pathetically slow mile and a half following 30 second/60 second run/walk intervals, and survived with NO PAIN. Wonderful. :) Not quite ready for Disney yet, but it's a baby step. And that's what it's all about, right?
In other news, I met a friend today to talk to her about Girls on the Run. She started a site at her school last year, and absolutely has loved being involved with the organization and coaching the program. I am super excited about the prospect of starting a site at my school possibly next year (you know, assuming I still have a job!). For now, though, I am going to do some volunteer work with the organization and help coach at another school. More on that to come!!
Hello! I took a blog break this week as I was fighting a nasty cold...Wednesday I got to school with dirty hair in a ponytail, a half-hearted attempt at makeup and a presentable outfit, a sore throat, and a a stuffy nose. By the time I left at 4 for autism tutoring, I was completely exhausted and feeling sick as a dog. I knew there was NO WAY I would be well enough to teach the next day.
One of the few things that I absolutely HATE HATE HATE about being a teacher is that you can't just call in sick. OH NO. I spent a ton of time typing out detailed sub plans and proofreading them, and even then I still needed to go in Thursday morning to set up the room. I have a group of kids this year who does not do well with subs. Last year, the principal or assistant principal would literally have to sit in one of the 4th grade classrooms when there was a sub just to keep fist fights at bay. I have a number of those kids in my room, and while there were no fist fights, my sub's report was hardly glowing.
Thankfully, though, the asst principal stepped in in the afternoon and told 6 boys who were causing most of the trouble that they would be missing part of Friday's halloween party. While that didn't completely turn them around, it did save ME from having to give a consequence. Let me explain: I believe that there should be consequences for poor choices. However, I have a hard time giving consequences for things I did not witness. Since I wasn't there, it would do more harm than good to come in Friday and tell these boys, who I do believe were causing trouble, that they were going to miss party time. I have several boys whose respect and trust I have had to EARN, and doing something like that, when I wasn't there to see what happened, destroys a little bit of that trust. So, the asst. principal saved me from that. I was able to come in and say, "Listen. I heard you had a rough time yesterday. I know that you will make a better choice next time. You will be having a consequence this afternoon, just like Ms. Asst. Principal said, but we're going to move on and have a fresh start today." And, in true love and logic form, when they protest, "But, [fill in the blank with something they did not do or something THIS STUDENT did]!!!" I can cut in and say, "Listen, we're not talking about the other studnets. We're talking about you. And I wasn't here yesterday. I don't know what happened, and I am not mad at you. So let's please just move on and have a good day today." And 9 times out of 10, it works.
I still hate missing school. But it was DEFINITELY the right choice. After a day of naps, Arrested Development, peanut butter toast, and jammies, I felt MUCH BETTER and was able to go to school Friday for Halloween. :)
This time last year, I was choking back tears every night and staying past 7.
While I still have 2 long days per week usually, and while many things still are frustrating and need work, I am not choking back tears. Not even close. In fact, I feel pretty good.
This week I have realized that I have great relationships with my kids. I care about them, and, more importantly, they KNOW I care about them. I am at a place with them where I can say, "Will you please do it, just for me?" and they WILL. It's amazing. Even my tough kids hold some pretty special places in my hearts. My toughest kid of all, who can barely read and is prone to temper tantrums and melt downs? I freaking love him. BTW this has been a melt-down free week. So proud. :)
Oh, and my kiddo who was skipping out on school last week actually TRIED this week! In fact, he did a fantastic job all week and I could not be prouder. Have we made progress??
ANYWAYS...
Today was an extra good day for another reason--I had a special guest!!! One of my good friends from my college elementary ed program, Miss S, came to help in my room today! Miss S is currently subbing in another district, but had the day free and offered to come help out. YES PLEASE!!!! It was unbelievable how much more we were able to get done with an extra teacher in the room. Miss S met with two of my reading groups which meant EVERYONE got met with today for a change (yay!), and in math she and I were basically like a swat team running from struggling kid to struggling kid (first day practicing measuring angles with a protractor--always a disaster! she could NOT have come on a better day!). Also, it's pretty great just having another grown up in the room to share a laugh with sometimes. Miss S, can I just pay you to co-teach with me???
Tomorrow is Friday. Hallelujah. Good week or not, I am E X H A U S T E D. Like, falling asleep in your grading exhausted. But in a good, I-gave-it-all-I-had-and-it-shows kind of way.
This evening's laugh-out-loud moment while grading vocabulary sentences:
"Slurp: When I got in trouble, I slurped my icy noisily and casually." Amazing. :)
Oh recess...what a love-hate relationship I have with you...
Let me clarify, we are talking about the extra 10-15 minute recess I sometimes take my kiddos out for in the afternoon (not the lunch recess).
I LOVE:
-a breath of fresh air
-getting a chance to glimpse blue sky and green grass rather than cinder block walls and brownish-orange carpet
-seeing my kids run around and actually act like the 10 year olds they are, rather than the 18 year olds they try to be
-how excited they are outside
-how some days they are SO ON when we come back in, just because their brains and bodies got a break
I HATE:
-how some days it takes so much time to settle down once we come back inside
-when the kiddos complain that i am taking them in earlier than they think i should be
-when they COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN that I don't take them out enough (they seem to feel recess is a RIGHT rather than a PRIVILEGE, no matter how frequently I stress the contrary!)
Usually I make the kids earn recess with good behavior throughout the school day, spelling the letters RECESS on the board. Today, I looked at the clock with 10 minutes left in our writing time, decided it wasn't worth starting somethign new, and announced, "We have 10 minutes left. I think...we should go outside."
The kids' incredulity was priceless. "What?? Are you serious?? YES!!!" It was actually kind of cute to see how shocked they were, and to catch them in a moment when they weren't begging for recess. Now, tomorrow, when they beg, I will remind them that sometimes I surprise them with recess when they are just being good and not asking for it. Stealthy teacher trickery at its finest. ;)
Extra exciting moment of the day: box of day old bagels from panera sitting in the lounge this morning, including special october pink ribbon bagels! yum! :)
Dear parent who believes it is perfectly acceptable to pick up her child at 4:20 from a club that ends at 4,
I am already dedicating 1 hour of my time every Monday to share my love of reading with your child and 14 others. I cannot stay outside with your daughter for an extra 20 minutes. And while I would be understanding if this were just a one time thing and you got the times mixed up, or even if you apologizes, I am really failing to understand how you can show up late and basically tell me, unapolegetically, that you can't be at school until that time because you get off work at 4. I'm sorry, I get off work at 4 too! Please don't act like it's my responsibility to stay with her and like it's a big inconvenience to you that I would even ask you to be ON TIME. If your daughter needs to be picked up, find a way to get her home!
Maybe I will feel more understanding later, but right now I am annoyed. Mostly because it frustrates me when other people don't value my time or acknowledge that I just might have a life outside of school or other things that could and should be occupying my time, like, oh i don't know, preparing for tomorrow. Your daughter is welcome at my club. I love reading with kids and that's why I offer my time. But please, when you look at me, see a human, not a child care robot. Apologize when you are late. Make an effort to make other arrangements. And do not treat me like I OBVIOUSLY have nothing better to do than babysit your daughter pro bono.
Sincerely,
Miss Teacher
Battle of the Books Sponsor
^I apologize. This is a rant. But honestly, it's not the time that is the issue, it's the attitude...
It would appear I officially have a cold. Achoo. Sniffle Sniffle. The works. I'd been feeling fine all weekend, but around 3:30 today I decided to take a bike ride, and part way through my nose started running like CRAZY! I was sniffling non-stop until I got home. (Okay, I'll admit it. I wiped my nose on my shirt sleeve a few times...I know, I'm disgusting...) Since then, I've been blowing my nose and sneezing NONSTOP. My nose is already so raw and red that it's seriously painful. No fever and no other symptoms except feeling crappy from the cloudy head that comes along with a runny nose, but I feel YUCKY.
I REFUSE to miss school on a Monday of all days though, and a handful of my tough cookie kiddos do NOT enjoy subs and REFUSE to behave for them, so I hate being absent...So I'm off to change into sweats, lay down on the couch with a bowl of soup (and a box of kleenex and vaseline for my poor raw nose), and just relax before going to bed early. I WILL be well enough to go to school tomorrow, gosh darn it!
