Rollercoasters

I have had the kind of day that will end with a big bowl of chocolate ice cream.

It all started yesterday, when I got a phone call from a family member. I don't want to go into details, but basically things are pretty rough right now, this person is far away, and I can't help, despite a desperate and overwhelming desire to run to them right now. I ended the day in tears, knowing that I would probably wake up with a migraine.

Which I did. Fortunately, it was a late-start Friday, so I didn't have to be in class until 8:50, so I texted my friend to tell her I'd be late, took some migraine medication, and went back to bed for an hour. It helped enough that I was able to get up an hour later and go to school without throwing up or being photosensitive. On the downside, it meant that I missed the teacher appreciation breakfast, where apparently very nice things were said about me by one of my favorite students.

Then I got to my classroom, opened my email, and got a snarky email from a helicopter parent. I have never really dealt with helicopter parents too much, since I don't teach AP classes and teach in a poor district where parent involvement is fairly minimal. This particular parent and I have exchanged very cordial emails throughout the year and earlier this week, she emailed me with a list of his missing assignments and asked what he needed to do to make them up. I emailed her back that day with a list of his work and the following paragraph:

"Anything else Mr. Z is welcome to make up whenever he chooses. He has access to the assignments at school whenever he wants them and is welcome to take his notebook home to work on them if he chooses."

Her response was "I don't appreciate your writing as this is the problem - If Mr. Z made smart choices on his own why would I be following up on this as his parent - He obviously needs more help and therefore promping me to work with you and him." Also in her response she gave a point by point excuse from her son for each missing assignment and a request that I give him all the notes he hadn't made up from being absent more than three weeks back.

I didn't know what to do or how to respond. I want her son to do the work but I didn't know how to respond without further enraging her, so I went to my department head and then my supervising principal. My principal told me that I had nothing to apologize for, and wrote out a response for me to send, which I did, concluding my email to the parent with the suggestion that she, her son and I sit down with the principal to figure out a solution.

Her son showed up immediately after school and did every missing assignment.

The day ended, as all Fridays should (!!!!!), with a mandatory meeting requested by the superintendent of the district. There was no clue given as to the reason, or whether it was good or bad for us. We showed up with trepidation, only to learn that a large, local corporation has chosen our school as the recepient of the "Excellence in Education" award, which comes with a $25,ooo check to use as we please.

The immediate faculty response? A second copy machine.

Observations

We have two new vice-principals this year and one of their duties is to conduct our classroom observations. If you aren't a teacher, this means that the principal comes into your room and observes you teaching for a period and then writes up a report that basically gives you a grade of "proficient," or "not proficient."

I was a little nervous about this year's observation since the principal is new and pretty specific about expectations (I call her "the hammer" and the other principal "the marshmallow") and was a social studies teacher when she was in the classroom. Before the observation, you have to write up a lesson plan and have a conference with her to tell her what is going to be happening in your classroom and so on. I am not so great at writing lesson plans. I know it is good for me and good for the kids, and I have actually gotten pretty good at writing unit plans, but I am still not great at lesson plans. It seems like a waste of time to me, having to write out every step of what I will be doing and what state standards it aligns to. I know that it technically does make sense to do so, but I struggle with it.

But...I managed, had my pre-conference and went away, under the impression that my observation would be on the Friday before Thanksgiving - on the day that the kids would be doing a study guide for the HUGE unit test.

But really, how fun would teaching be without the surprises? Wednesdays and Thursdays are block days, meaning the class periods are 100 minutes long. My 6th period is.....a little squirrelly, although NOTHING compared to any of my classes last year. So naturally, my principal walks in for that class. It turns out the mix-up was my fault, and since I refuse to change my lesson plan for observations, she sat and observed me, despite the fact that she was not feeling well at all.

Things went pretty well, I thought, the kids were actively doing a mini-review activity about the Mongols and the Black Plague. In the end, I was very glad she came that day and not Friday, since Friday did not work out well at all (STUPID PRINT SHOP!!!!).

I went in today for my post-observation, and she really had some nice things to say about me, which made me feel a little better than I have been for the last couple of days. She said I understood sophomores and their maturity level really well and challenged them while still allowing them to succeed.

All in all, things went well, which makes me happy. =)

Updates

Remember Samantha? She told me this morning that she got an abortion over the break. I didn't have time to talk because class had already started, but I did ask her if she wanted to do it.

She said no....and my heart broke, right there in 1st period.

Still here

I just realized that two posts back, I hit 300 posts. I think I talk too much.

I am still here, but things have gotten a little hectic. I will be back soon...here's what I want to talk about:
my observation
parent conferences (!)
Thankgiving with the parentals
content vs skills
my new (and awesome) staff shirt

back to cooking and cleaning....back soon.