another Really?! Are you Serious?!!

however, this is not my sound-off which should be posted tomorrow.

This is going to be quick. We have two new math teachers in 7th grade. We only have two teachers who teach math in 7th grade. So, guess what this means for Wrestling Fan - he gets to be taught by one of the two new teachers (neither one of which are young, but both of which are new to teaching).

I would be fine by this were it not for the unmitigated fact that both suck. That's not my particular gripe right now. The teacher that Wrestling Fan has this year believes there is nothing wrong with giving a math test worth 1000 points. Then, this math teacher tells students that if they fail this one test for this quarter, their chances for passing the quarter are almost non-existent.

I know this all to be true because his math teacher came to see me yesterday to let me know how important this math test is and how it's worth 1000 points, so Wrestling Fan better study really hard.

I made the parental decision to keep Wrestling Fan home today. My concerns were voiced first thing this morning. He still gave the test and Wrestling Fan will have to take it on Monday, but you had better bet that I'll raise holy hell if this one grade determines his whole quarter grade.

Thoughts? Am I overreacting? Do you think a 1000 point test is necessary?

Really?! Are you SERIOUS?!

I attended a parent conference with a parent today, her innocent child in tow. This child is currently not reaching his full potential. However, he is earning passing grades in both of my classes (GATE L.A. & History), but apparently failing everything else. I'm the only teacher on my team that doesn't give zeros and have a very liberal late policy.

Somehow I ended up being the bad guy. Mom said, "he has earned grades on some of his papers that he thought were unfair." My response, "he has never come to speak to me about any paper."

"Well, he doesn't always feel comfortable talking to teachers about things like this."

Uh well, then I can't help if I don't know which particular grade he is complaining has questions about.

Then, she asked me about my grading policy in L.A. "What area in particular? Spelling? Grammar? Essays?" I asked. "You don't have a standard policy of grading for your assignments?" "No, grammar cannot be graded in the same way that an essay is graded. However, I always give very clear instructions and the standards that students need to cover when it's an essay and as for grammar, usually the answer is right or wrong."

"I still don't understand why you can't tell me how grade each thing exactly."

Now get this. This is the first time I have met formally with this parent. At no time has she called me on the phone or e-mailed me to ask why her child received a particular grade on any assignment, even though according to her, she is aware that her child has difficulty speaking to his teachers. Instead, she wants me to explain in general terms when she clearly has specific assignments in mind.

I'm frustrated. Several times throughout the meeting she said to all of us that she didn't know what else to do besides switching him off of our team. Her child ain't doing the work and I almost guarantee that she is not checking his agenda or checking to see if he has completed homework. It's just so much easier to blame all of us for his "lack of motivation" (her terms) than hold herself or her child accountable. I did mention in closing that all of our teachers in 6th grade hold all students to a high standard in that we expect students to do their work.

I don't think she "got it."

May I just say . . .

that this makes my heart soar. Of course, I'm a sucker for saving animals :)

Giving My Brain a Break!

A lot is happening right now in my personal and professional life. When I get home, I think about blogging and think a little bit more about blogging and little bit more . . . till it's dinner time or even later and I've written nothing. That is not good for blogging or for those of you who have added me to your various readers. Teacher Tips will resume soon, but I'm not going to commit to an actual date. What I would love is questions and/or topics from those reading my blog about teaching and maybe that will get this old brain percolating. Look for a new "Sound Off" this week-end. Something recently came up in my district that literally left me shaking my head in disbelief, like that's something new!

One huge thing that is going on in my life right now is that I've been asked to run for president of my union. It is something that I've been asked about before, but I've decided to make a go for it. The woman who has been our current president since I've started teaching will more than likely retire soon and asked me to put my name in. I'm in the process of doing fliers, thinking about strategy, and penciling in calendar dates of when I can get out to the various school sites in our district. Some of this is hard for me because I'm not a politician, but I do care about what is happening to students and teachers in my school district.

For instance, we have had two teachers assaulted within the past two weeks of school. While our superintendent thinks it necessary to repaint the interior walls of our new district office (only 2 years old), my colleagues and I suffer through leaky roofs which damages our classroom materials. In the midst of budget cuts and the laying off of teachers, a new job position has been posted in administration. The salary starts at $148,000. All the while, they tell us they have no money.

I have the passion to fight and the tenacity of a pitbull (that only wears lipstick on special occasions!). So while the political parts of this might be tough, I sincerely feel that I am the right person to do this at this time.

Of course, no decision like this is made without talking it over with my husband. He told me that it is something he thinks I need to do. He has listened to my frustrations with my district for many years and probably wants to stop yapping about it like that will happen and do something about it. That is where I am at. Scary, yet exciting stuff.

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Wrestling Fan just come home from rehearsal. They were giving out roles tonight. He told me that he didn't want anything big. Well, he got a medium sized role and he's more excited about it than he'll admit fine with that. He'll play "Tommy Djilas" from The Music Man.

Sorry Again!

No Teacher Tip nor a Sound Off last week-end and I apologize. As most of you know all three of you, there are definite hazards to teaching. The first being all the BAJILLION of unidentifiable grody germs that we are exposed to on a daily basis. The other is the extreme exhaustion and feeling of being overwhelmed in the midst of fighting the valiant battle against those germs!

Ah, yes! Ms_Teacher had a cold. It is one that is finally starting to reluctantly leave its host. I stayed home on Monday, but seriously, I probably could should? have stayed out for at least another day. The good news is that for the most part my students were relatively well-behaved for the sub, which I attribute much of that to the sub that I had. She was good or as the kids put it, she made them work and didn't put up with anything.

The best part for me when I came back to school on Tuesday? Her copious notes of the few students who managed to give her a hard time. I cannot stress this enough. If you are sub, please, please let the teacher know WHO caused you problems. Sometimes I have subs who are lazy or out of their minds I think want to be "friends" with 6th graders and so, will tell students they will not put their names down as long as they are good for the last 2 minutes second? miliseconds? of class. Seriously! It doesn't help me as a teacher to address the situation if the sub doesn't let me know who is causing problems. If anything, it just creates more problems for the next sub who comes into the classroom.

This next week, I will be out of class two days! The first day is for bargaining and the second is to attend a conference. I am so willing to do almost anything hoping that I get the sub I had this past Monday for both days.

So how are YOU doing?

Do this Now!

Visit Pink Friday

Only in Texas . . .

Liz has an article up about a teacher in Texas who has been suspended from his teaching position because he is "an atheist" and because parents have complained that he's "too liberal."

Just so you know, Texas is a right to work state.

It's a Small World

Really and Truly!

I am a Navy Brat and yes, those two words really do require proper capitalization, imho, because even though my dad served his country very honorably for twenty plus year, his wife and children "served" just as well.

Anyhow, when I was in 7th grade, we moved from cold as hellButte, Montana after my dad did two years serving in the capacity of being in charge of the recruiting stations. We moved back to the SF Bay Area to the district where I currently teach in. It was a rough transition in many ways, but I was lucky. Within a matter of weeks, I found a BFF. We were in choir together, loved the "twins" and giggled and laughed like only 12 year old girls will do. We were inseparable.

However, both of our dads were in the Navy. Two years into our friendship, my BFF moved away. We wrote letters and managed to keep in touch for a couple of years. Then, my dad retired, we moved several times, and eventually, I lost contact with my BFF.

Over the years, I've searched the Internet, tried friendfind, did Classmates and Reunion.com with no luck. Today, I was on Facebook. My mom and my sister are very active facebookers (is that a word?) and I've been trying to keep up. As I typed up respones to a meme from my sister, I thought to myself, I wondered if my former BFF was on Facebook. I typed in several variations of her name when I came upon a possible hit. I shoot off a message, thinking to myself that it's probably another dead-end. Literally within five minutes, I get a response. It was my former BFF!

Incredibly, she lives only 20 minutes from my house. She has lived there since she was 16! We have probably walked by each other at the local home improvement store. She e-mailed me her phone number and we ended up talking for about 40 minutes on the phone. It felt like old times.

One of the things I have missed as an adult is the friendship that exists between women. Part of that comes from having a shared history. Since I went to so many schools over the years, moved and lived so many places, I feel like I have a lot of acquaintances, but am only really close to my mom and my cousin. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but I will say this, I just talked to someone I have felt like I've known my whole life, even though the last time we talked we were both only 14 years old.

Teacher Tip Tuesday #31

Humor is an essential component in the classroom. I think that if you can make your kids laugh, then they are more likely to do what you want them to do. Students need to know that you're not some ol' stick in the mud, stuck on rigidity and conformity. I recognize that for some being humorous is not comfortable, but I think that there are ways to incorporate it into your classroom where it fits your style.

Last year, I wrote this post about a spelling word that more than a few of my students have gotten wrong over the years. Today I gave the spelling pretest for our 16 words and this week's lesson includes "assign." After I gave the test, I wrote "assing" on the board. I asked my students to please double check number ten to make sure that they did not the word on the board on their paper. I saw a few hurriedly make that correction.

I'm not afraid to make a bit of a fool out of myself if it means that perhaps within the space of fifteen minutes that I need my students to pay attention, they do exactly that. If I write something on the overhead incorrectly, I'll quip, "I must be having a blond moment" or "what do you expect from someone who roamed the earth with the dinosaurs?" Depending upon the student, I may even be able to "cap" on them and the kids absolutely love it. For example, a few months ago, one of my students was sharpening his pencil and a few kids turned to watch him. Darnell, trying to be funny, said, "What are you looking at? I'm not a t.v." I immediately came back with, "if you were, we would have already changed the channel." Darnell started laughing as did the rest of my students, and he replied, "that was good!"

Of course, there is that fine line between sarcasm and humor. I am a strong believer that no one should be made to feel bad at the expense of someone else.

(Wow! I can't believe that I've done 30 of these!)

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New to Teacher Tip Tuesday? Click here for past teacher tips!

Ms-Teacher Sounds Off on Bad Teachers

When I started teaching at my school site, I was immediately struck by the fact that one of my colleagues had no business being in the classroom. This was a man who routinely talked about our students as "ghetto kids" in front of the students and thought nothing of yelling at them so loudly that one could hear his voice even through unopened doors and windows. He was a bad teacher and my principal knew it.

Yet, my principal did nothing to try to remove him from the classroom. There was plenty of evidence to build up a case, from numerous complaints from parents and students, teaching staff, and through her own formal and informal observations. Mr. Bad Teacher would still be in the classroom today were it not for his unfortunate choice to use illegal drugs and his subsequent arrest.

I know that there are plenty of people who hate the concept of tenure. They would most likely point to Mr. Bad Teacher and say that the reason he continued to stay in the classroom was because of tenure. The reality is that he stayed in the classroom because my principal did not do the evaluation procedure as defined by our union contract. There are two processes for evaluations in our contract. The first process is for non-tenured teachers and/or those teachers who have been moved back to this process after a bad evaluation under the second process.

Within the first two years of teaching, a teacher can be let go without cause. This is the time for principals to really watch and evaluate the teacher in order to determine if that teacher qualifies for tenure. At my school site within the first few years of my teaching, my evaluations were done not by my principal, rather they were done by me. This was also the reason that Mr. Bad Teacher received tenure.

However, I also think that Mr. Bad Teacher knew that he didn't belong in the classroom, but enjoyed some of the "perks" that come with teaching, such as the holiday breaks and the summer vacation. Mr. Bad Teacher never signed up for any professional development programs and used a lot of work sheets and bookwork to keep the students busy. He wasn't really a teacher, not the one that I strive to be every day that I step into my classroom. He had it easy and no one held his feet to the fire to make him improve. No one held him accountable and the only people who truly suffered were the kids in his classroom.

Most of the teaching staff at my school site are hard working, dedicated professionals who strive to educate their students. However when Mr. Bad Teacher was at my school site, I absolutely hated that no one told him that perhaps he needed to consider another career choice, one in which there would be no victims. I know that part of the reason is that I work at a school that is hard to staff, hell, I work in a District where over a hundred teachers leave every school year. I recognize that part of the reason that Mr. Bad Teacher held onto his job for so long was because my principal didn't want to face the possibility of not being able to fill his position, even if that meant students and our test scores suffered as a result.

There are a lot of bad teachers who continue to stand before hundreds of thousands of students every day. They damage my reputation as a teacher. I resent them because I know how hard I work, even when I have time off. They make the same amount of money that I do with very little effort to make the profession better. They understand that if they can fly under the radar for the first two years, then they can receive tenure. They also understand that if they get hired in a district desperate for teachers, they are pretty much guaranteed job security, as long as they keep their nose clean unlike my former colleague.

They are the reason that merit pay are hot topics and why people routinely discuss doing away with tenure. They are the reason that so many people look at teachers through jaundiced eyes, collecting a paycheck without putting forth what is required to be a good teacher.