Salvete.
I passed my PPR. That's good. For any layperson reading this who does not know what the PPR is, it is the Pedagogy and Professional Responsibility test. That is a fancy name for "The test that keeps you from your certification if you fail it." That was the gateway I had required myself to pass through in order to [re]begin applying to districts in the Dallas area. I knew I was going to pass it, but I wanted to be able to tell my (hopefully) future employers that I was ready and able to apply for my permanent certificate.
Here are a few tips for the day you go take your PPR.
-Get there hella early. Those proctors are grouchy. Being late is extremely stressful.
-Print out your entry ticket off of the ETS website. Those proctors are grouchy.
-Do not forget your driver's license. Those proctors are grouchy.
-The ETS website may very well tell you the wrong room number. My test was in a completely different building than ETS told me.
-Bring two pencils (duh).
-Eat breakfast. OMG. That test is long, and boring. If you are easily distracted, hunger will work as well as anything to take your mind off of what you are doing.
-The classroom on the PPR is not a real classroom. It is a classroom in fairy tale land. These are not real scenarios. These are not real teachers. You know this is the case because you have cooperative parents, twenty students in a class, and every material you could ever want at your fingertips.
-When you are done, get out of there and go have a drink.
In other news, I am tired of this school year. Here is a list of the things of which I have become tired:
-gossip
-laziness
-team meetings where we don't anything done
-disrespectful children (not just towards me, but towards each other)
-tardies
-absences
-paperwork
-pressure
-TAKS
-early wake-ups
-late work
I'm sure there's more, but I am moving on. Here is a list of things I like about teaching:
-sweet children
-helpful parents
-PTA, or VIPS, or whatever it is called
-getting off work
-tutorials
-my coworkers
-Latin
-Microsoft PowerPoint
Eh, that's all the effort I can put into the good list.
I'm still feeling disillusioned. I've been sort of depressed the last week or so. Getting to see my love last weekend helped a lot, and hanging out last night with my friend who has recently moved here also helped. I haven't been home since January 4th, and that is wearing on me. However, when I am home, I want to be at my apartment where things are convenient and I know where everything is. Alas! Eheu! It seems we are never satisfied.
In keeping with the spirit of today's apparent theme of bulleted lists, here is a list of things I want to do differently next year, from the outset:
-refuse to take crappy work.
-enforce deadlines...if you don't turn it in, I'm not taking it beyond three days late.
-I do this with Latin now, but I didn't from the outset: have the missing assignment sheet for the kids to sign and give a reason if they don't have their work.
-if you want to borrow a pencil, you have to give me something in return. I will be holding all loanable writing utensils hostage.
-call parents more often
-find a different way to hand back graded papers
-find a more efficient way for kids to turn their papers in (right now they have to put the paper in my hand to turn it in, which isn't too bad, but it confuses some of them)
-put a stamp or a check or something on their journal every day when they do it. It will be easier to keep track of credit.
-show them how I want the journal set up. TIP: MODEL EVERYTHING
That's all for now.
Valete,
Magistra
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
We shall be free..
..of the TAKS test in 2011 or something.
In the mean time, salvete!
Tomorrow is the school's "TAKS Blitz." This is a day when we all come together (kicking and screaming, mind you) in order to play motivational music and practice for the TAKS test. For the day of the actual test, I have been "randomly selected" as a proctor. Translation: I have to stay in a room for seven hours with children I most likely do not know, read predetermiend, approved responses, and ensure that I do not sit down for the entire time. Also, we must not spill food on the tests, because getting the test booklets dirty would be considered an "irregularity," and such things are not okay.
I knew TAKS was going to happen at some point, but I hoped it would be something that would happen to someone else. There are alternate proctors, but these characters will be popping in and out, making sure the main proctor (me) doesn't need any restroom breaks or the like. To make an already horrible situation worse (we can read, we can't sit, we can't play on the computer, etc), there are no windows in my proctoring classroom. This will lead to a depression which will, no doubt, lead to me hurting one of the more obnoxious students.
There is at least one positive in the TAKS Blitz tomorrow. If a child is unruly in any way, we are encouraged to kick them out without warning. This means no extra credit for attending, no free lunch, and (most distressingly to the student, no doubt) no TAKS tutorials. It also does not, in any way, resemble what normal class is actually like.
I'm tired, and disillusioned (for tonight).
Valete,
Magistra
In the mean time, salvete!
Tomorrow is the school's "TAKS Blitz." This is a day when we all come together (kicking and screaming, mind you) in order to play motivational music and practice for the TAKS test. For the day of the actual test, I have been "randomly selected" as a proctor. Translation: I have to stay in a room for seven hours with children I most likely do not know, read predetermiend, approved responses, and ensure that I do not sit down for the entire time. Also, we must not spill food on the tests, because getting the test booklets dirty would be considered an "irregularity," and such things are not okay.
I knew TAKS was going to happen at some point, but I hoped it would be something that would happen to someone else. There are alternate proctors, but these characters will be popping in and out, making sure the main proctor (me) doesn't need any restroom breaks or the like. To make an already horrible situation worse (we can read, we can't sit, we can't play on the computer, etc), there are no windows in my proctoring classroom. This will lead to a depression which will, no doubt, lead to me hurting one of the more obnoxious students.
There is at least one positive in the TAKS Blitz tomorrow. If a child is unruly in any way, we are encouraged to kick them out without warning. This means no extra credit for attending, no free lunch, and (most distressingly to the student, no doubt) no TAKS tutorials. It also does not, in any way, resemble what normal class is actually like.
I'm tired, and disillusioned (for tonight).
Valete,
Magistra
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Wanna Join My Coven?
Salvete,
I picked up a note today that said the following (in paraphrase):
Male Student: What's cookin' good lookin'? LOL!
Female Student: Nothing...do you know anything about Wicca? You got a religion?
MS: Not much...I'm a Christian but I don't go to church.
FS: It's about being kind to people and nature. Wanna join my coven?
This is the stage of the note-passing at which I plucked the note from their guilty fingers. I don't know if I wrote this last week (and I'm too tired from work to check...) but I picked up another note that was practically pornographic last Friday. BLEH! Oh, the things going through the minds of these little ones...I see girls with their breasts practically falling out of their shirts, and I want to say, "Do you know what boys are thinking when they see you like that? Because I assure you, you wouldn't like it. You may want them to notice you, but they would do that even if you had on a nun's habit. I promise." Teenage boys are disgusting.
Forgive the seeming disjointedness of that last paragraph. I just needed to get it all out there.
There was an interdepartmental coworker issue today between one of my English Team Members (ETM) and Foreign Language Team Members (FLTM). ETM routinely refuses entry to children if they are late, and also routinely ejects children from class if they are unruly. I have every respect for this teacher's methods. I wish I were more like her (she is what they call a "Hard Ass" and is greatly revered by both her students and her team). FLTM found one of ETM's (r)ejected students wandering, and, without knowing the whole story, went to our principal to let her know what was going on. What is wrong with reporting ETM, you say? I can hear the advocates of sound educational theory now: The children have to be in class to learn! The children should not be wandering the halls! That teacher obviously does not care about that child's cognitive development!
I say, HA! But anyway, here is why what FLTM did was wrong. Most obviously, FLTM broke the chain of command. In the workplace (yes, even in the public schools) there is a chain of command that must be followed. This chain keeps the Highest-Ups from having to deal with every little issue that arises. FLTM should have gone first to ETM's team leader, then to her department chair, and THEN to the principal if the problem persisted in such a way that FLTM was unsatisfied with its outcome. However, FLTM broke that chain and went straight to the top, violating the prerogatives we have as teachers to govern our classroom as we see fit. A few other things that should not have happened: FLTM misquoted and therefore misrepresented ETM's take on the situation, and FLTM did not discuss the issue/misunderstanding with ETM first.
The moral of the story is, pay attention to the way you treat your coworkers. If you have a problem with the way someone else runs their classroom, talk to them first, and then follow the chain of command from there. And just know that not everyone has the same ideas about Classroom Management that you do.
Valete,
Magistra
I picked up a note today that said the following (in paraphrase):
Male Student: What's cookin' good lookin'? LOL!
Female Student: Nothing...do you know anything about Wicca? You got a religion?
MS: Not much...I'm a Christian but I don't go to church.
FS: It's about being kind to people and nature. Wanna join my coven?
This is the stage of the note-passing at which I plucked the note from their guilty fingers. I don't know if I wrote this last week (and I'm too tired from work to check...) but I picked up another note that was practically pornographic last Friday. BLEH! Oh, the things going through the minds of these little ones...I see girls with their breasts practically falling out of their shirts, and I want to say, "Do you know what boys are thinking when they see you like that? Because I assure you, you wouldn't like it. You may want them to notice you, but they would do that even if you had on a nun's habit. I promise." Teenage boys are disgusting.
Forgive the seeming disjointedness of that last paragraph. I just needed to get it all out there.
There was an interdepartmental coworker issue today between one of my English Team Members (ETM) and Foreign Language Team Members (FLTM). ETM routinely refuses entry to children if they are late, and also routinely ejects children from class if they are unruly. I have every respect for this teacher's methods. I wish I were more like her (she is what they call a "Hard Ass" and is greatly revered by both her students and her team). FLTM found one of ETM's (r)ejected students wandering, and, without knowing the whole story, went to our principal to let her know what was going on. What is wrong with reporting ETM, you say? I can hear the advocates of sound educational theory now: The children have to be in class to learn! The children should not be wandering the halls! That teacher obviously does not care about that child's cognitive development!
I say, HA! But anyway, here is why what FLTM did was wrong. Most obviously, FLTM broke the chain of command. In the workplace (yes, even in the public schools) there is a chain of command that must be followed. This chain keeps the Highest-Ups from having to deal with every little issue that arises. FLTM should have gone first to ETM's team leader, then to her department chair, and THEN to the principal if the problem persisted in such a way that FLTM was unsatisfied with its outcome. However, FLTM broke that chain and went straight to the top, violating the prerogatives we have as teachers to govern our classroom as we see fit. A few other things that should not have happened: FLTM misquoted and therefore misrepresented ETM's take on the situation, and FLTM did not discuss the issue/misunderstanding with ETM first.
The moral of the story is, pay attention to the way you treat your coworkers. If you have a problem with the way someone else runs their classroom, talk to them first, and then follow the chain of command from there. And just know that not everyone has the same ideas about Classroom Management that you do.
Valete,
Magistra
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