Week 2. Day 1.
 

Just. So. Tired.

:|

Me, too. Tired.

week 2 nears an end
 

Tired and hopeful.

I haven't taught all the math lessons I need to this week. Literacy is going way better than it is for everyone else. Writing is going well and looks like it could be fun.

I've done 1/2 my reading assessments, all 3 of the writing samples (for each kiddo) and beginning of year math assessment. We are doing well.

My class has quite a few behavioral challenges. I decided to use tokens to help. Thank goddess I did. What they won't do for a plastic counting chip and some free time. A much much better day.

Next week I will master math lessons. It is 2nd grade. It can't be that hard. ha ha. I am not a fan of the "everyday math" curriculum. But I do need to use it.

With behaviors under control we may get an instructional pace established. Feeling like a rock star with throbbing feet.

Life keeps teaching us lessons
 

So the entitled annoying demanding TFA intern?

She still is that. And she WAS raised privileged, so she has those assumptions and expectations in her bone marrow.

BUT at 19, her father had a catastrophic health problem, and her family lost pretty much everything, including their house. Her mother has become his 24/7 caretaker, and the TFA intern and her sister now pay their parents' rent. :|

It's true that she has all these other annoying qualities of a TFA intern, but wow. Just wow.

It was a lesson for me that there is ALWAYS more to the story than how people present. In fact, this woman is what she appears to be. But she is more, much more. She is courageous and strong. And a good daughter. She is disciplined. She had to work all the way through college. No big deal, but still. She did it. My view of her has so changed. Such a lesson.

It's also a lesson about how vulnerable the middle class has become, how easily people can lose everything. She was still able to finish college. But she did have to give up her goal of going to law school. And she did it AFTER she spent a year after college studying for the LSATs while working a semi-shitty job. After much consideration, she decided that the job market was too soft for lawyers to risk being out there with a gigantic debt load. Not when she has obligations. She watched her good friend, who she had studied for the LSATs with, go off to law school. This is not the same harsh reality that our students face everyday, but this girl started out with more privilege than I had as a youngster but has had fewer options than I did -- because of long-term economic changes.

God, life is tough for all of us. I do so need to recall that.

Seriously, being middle class is not what it used to be. When a privileged, healthy, well-educated, disciplined young person can not enter the halls of power because she is not privileged ENOUGH, think of how hard it is for the working class to get ahead. And the idea of the law profession as a whole being peopled only by the very elite or very lucky . . . that is scary.

So as a result of my guilt, I have given this girl a lot of time. Re some Special Ed stuff, I have seen the scales fall from her eyes. Re other things, she's still overwhelmed and won't get it till she gets it. That's typical. But she's all grateful and thinks I am wonderful. Little does she know how I was reacting to her at first. Gawd.

My boss still thinks she is a useless waste of space (an opinion arrived at independently of mine, thank the gods). But, fortunately, my boss will not be evaluating the interns this year. The other principal will be.

So I've gingerly started job hunting. Hate job hunting! Mind you, does anyone actually enjoy it?

Sent off about four feelers today (although I have to actually sit down and update my CV), including contacting an ex student of mine (adult) from Saudi to see if he has any contacts.

I'll let you know if I get any interesting nibbles.

If only I had a teaching license or at least my Master's completed.

Figured I would drop an intro here. Been working in education for near 15 years as a "school bus bouncer" (okay, the real title is far less fun to say...Bus Supervisor I). And I specifically work with Special Needs (Read: Sp-Ed, EBD, deaf, HOH and blind students). I think this year has by far been the toughest due to my school district beginning the year with a $2mil deficit as well as cuts to Title 4 and other federal funding. Sadly, the students are the ones who suffer as result...but I am sure I am "preaching to the choir" about that.

Anyhow, wanted to join the ranks here and wish my fellow educators a smooth year.

I hate my new job. My boss is insane (no seriously, I am willing to bet my annual salary she is or could be clinically diagnosed) My class is pretty OK but I am so afraid of my boss and her illegal antics that my medical issues are cropping up. It isn't pretty. I am in the process of considering a career change. It sucks.

Thanks to all who sent love across the internets! It isn't lightly that I am discussing a complete career change (at middle age with a fairly young kid at home) and I thank you for your love and kindness. You, and all teachers, will always be in my thoughts and prayers even if I leave the ranks! {{{{{you}}}}}

Got the "School year cold #1" here too. Was hoping to maintain a perfect attendance for the first semester...but that didn't happen as that I took Friday off because of being sick :(.

Hope these little buggers don't have a new plague lined up for me waiting once I get over this one. :|

Wish my district has something like this:

I am on break and enjoying some of it. I am finishing up a move, which is no fun. Tomorrow will be hell. Anyway, I applied for a part-time job a couple months ago and didn't hear back. I did today. So I have to think about whether I want to work more. I could use the money, but . . . .

Last time I worked extra jobs, I stopped exercising and started gaining weight.

It would be OK interesting. It's Special Ed for kids in a virtual school. I guess I would tutor and test and run their IEP. Not sure.

But working extra jobs has not been a good thing in the past. I gotta figure out if it will be now.

a questions for our wonderful educators New York state has adopted the common core curriculum. Many may elementary school children are struggling with it especially in the math. homework every night and it is hard, my daughter is doing well very well but she always excelled but even she is frustrated and worried about her friends who are having a hard time. We also just got the test scores for the start of the year and she was very high in math and also in the english language arts but rated as meets standards this child who in the 4th grade reads at a 10th grade level and is currently on the second book of the hunger games. many parents are up in arms about this new common core kids not wanting or having stress over homework and kids hating school so what are your thoughts

Well, at this point in many states transitioning to Common Core, kids are getting tested on things they have not been taught. So scores will go down compared to when they were tested by state standards.

Common Core will mean spending more time on fewer subjects so students can learn at a deeper level. Skills are emphasized as well as content knowledge. Students will have to write and speak more -- they will be routinely required to explain how they arrived at an answer or a conclusion. There will also supposedly be more real world texts, problems, and projects, so kids will hopefully be more fully engaged. And in fact, it if it works, it will make them more prepared for college and the world, where you are expected to think, speak and write. All this is old hat to educators. But teaching to state standards has meant we have been forced to adopt the most backward and mind-numbing teaching strategies in order to raise standardized test scores.

Students have had to be taught so they could score well on multiple choice exams. For example, they'd learn that the Declaration of Independence expressed the philosophy of natural rights, but they'd never spend time with the text or be taught why it was so revolutionary at the time.

What happened was that the standards in most states were so broad and the consequences for not doing well on the exams so severe that school districts developed teaching strategies that were all about teaching to the test. We didn't actually teach the state standards. We taught the test. Our Districts gamed the state exams and gave us curriculum designed to raise scores. The whole purpose was to teach students tiny bits of what felt like unrelated knowledge while managing behavior when the understandably bored students were tempted to act up. So Common Core will be a real step up from that.

I have no doubt that Common Core is going to make a lot of textbook, tech and testing companies rich at the expense of school districts and taxpayers (and teachers and students). I imagine implementing it is going to be a mess until it's fine tuned by real practice and real feedback (which they should have gotten before implementation). I also think there is going to be more resistance than usual for a number of reasons. Even so, I do think it's a change in the right direction.

To answer your question, if it is implemented effectively, I think kids will hate school less although the later in their educational career they are, the more difficult it might seem. Kids should be less bored. In truth students -- humans -- like to learn, and they know when they've been stretched or when they've just been made to do something meaningless.

You also are referring to the fact that the reading level of texts is getting harder under Common Core, meaning books that used to be assigned in high school will now be taught in middle school. I don't have a problem with that. Kids need to struggle with hard text. And this is in English Language Arts only. Social Science and Science texts will still be at kids' instructional reading level.

Testing students to determine their instructional needs is one thing. Testing students to determine how a school is doing is another. As a parent I extremely dislike standardized testing that students do. If I could opt my kid out I would. I don't like the data mining, waste of instructional time and the money that is being spent on a sadistic way to torture children just so we know those schools are doing a good job. NCLB and Race to the top, and the Common Core have successfully brought about a more nationalized curriculum and helped testing and curriculum corporations make a lot of money.

Maybe it is time for a more nationalized curriculum. Less local control and such may be fine in the global world we live in now. However, the common core standards do emphasize deep understanding of concepts in math and language that may not be entirely appropriate developmentally.

As a teacher I am thrilled to work harder to teach deeper understanding to students. I see the kids I work with as very capable. However I think that can be done while remembering they are children. That their minds need to breath as well as learn. And the number of standardized tests required are too freaking much! There are ways of knowing the students needs without all the worry.

I agree with Martina.... an engaged student is less distracting to the learning environment. Keeping everyone engaged at their level and then more for a challenge is an art for sure. :) And it is good for kids to be challenged. I think we just need to get better at acknowledging them for rising to the challenge with out trivializing their successes.

Education lessons from around the world

American students routinely score low compared to other industrialized countries on problem-solving tests in math, science and reading. What are we doing wrong and are there lessons we can learn from schools around the globe? To get to the bottom of these questions, journalist AMANDA RIPLEY followed three U.S. exchange students into classrooms in Finland, South Korea, and Poland, some of the top education systems in the world. She writes about their observations in her book The Smartest Kids in the World – and How They Got That Way. Marty talks to Ripley and one of the exchange students about what education ideas we should borrow from abroad - See more at: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2013/....3QzelZf6.dpuf