Continuing on a Technological Track

Well the snow melted, and school resumed, and finals were bumped back a week, so we ended up having several days in the computer lab to work on the final project - creating an outline of a persuasive paper. The reason I had the kids write an outline is that I feel if the kids can identify and write the various parts of a paper separately, it will be easier for them to later construct a WELL-written paper, instead of a hodge-podge of partial thoughts and illogical sentences. And I am sooooo tired of reading mashed up research papers that make absolutely no sense...they make me frustrated and angry.

Parts of this project went better than expected and parts of it went worse. First of all, the kids really struggled with making an outline. They have a tendency to put a lot of extra words around the main thought and have to really fight to get it down to a stripped-to-the-bone main idea. In addition, only about 10% of the kids understood how to make an outline. The other 90% tried to write it in paragraph form.

On the flip side, as I am grading them I am noticing that once I convinced them to get those extra words out of the way, most of the kids so far seem to be doing pretty well. I think part of that is that I stood over them for a lot of this project. We were in the computer lab for 3 days straight. On the first day I went around to each kid individually and checked their thesis statements, redirecting when necessary. On the second day I went to each kid individually and checked the explanation portion of their outline (where they explained how the supporting detail supported their thesis). I think this really helped the kids work out some of the kinks and kept them moving in the right direction, and allowed me to get more one-on-one time with them.

In addition, I had the kids send me their papers electronically instead of printing something out. This is something that every other educational institution in the free world has been doing for years, but my district blocks EVERYTHING, including all non-district email access, and they don't provide email addresses to the kids, so up to this year, there wasn't really a good way of getting electronic files from a to b. But last summer we were given teacher websites hosted by the district, and it came with a direct email button, so all the kids simply emailed me their projects on Thursday. Of course, this resulted in my inbox jumping from 100 emails to 220 emails, all with the same subject line, but it was really nice not to have to deal with paper and printing.

And another bonus...I am finding that I am grading these outlines faster, since I can use the Microsoft editing function to edit both word and powerpoint documents, allowing me to leave better, more detailed, and more legible feedback. Yea for technology...better late than never, I guess.

Fine. I'll tweet you.

Although I had a brief fling with myspace and have had a facebook account for years, I have never felt even the slightest twinge of desire to jump on the twitter bandwagon. The name stops me, first of all. I will forever associate it with the Disney classic Bambi, in which one character declares another character to be "twitterpated." The word "tweet" is ridiculous to me and while I can control who sees my thoughts on facebook, I cannot control it on twitter...and I don't really have anything that profound to say.

But then, another teacher mentioned that her students had asked her if she would set up a twitter account for homework reminders and so on, and it suddenly clicked. That might actually work.

So I contemplated it over break, and asked my kids about it (and got an overwhelmingly positive response), got a phone that will actually support a twitter app, and decided to just see how it works. The goal is to tweet things like "homework due tomorrow!" and "don't forget to sign up for the blood drive!" you know, lame stuff like that. =)

Meh....we'll see.

Treading on Eggshells

So far, this year my kids are awesome. I am afraid to mess things up, which is why I haven't posted anything lately, I'm a little afraid of jinxing things. =)

 

It's true! My kids are sweet, friendly, and very nice. There is one kid that is minorly annoying, but all the other kids in class simply ignore him, so it doesn't bother me at all. I have quite a few special ed kids this year, so it is nice to be able to give them a little more attention.

Um....this posted by accident. TO CONTINUE....

It is nice to be able to have some time to breathe. My goals this year are:

1. to take better care of myself
2. learn to understand my money and budget better (how else will I ever be able to go back to Hawaii?)
3. work more on curriculum development

Goal 1 - I joined a gym (after an extremely traumatic visit to another gym, I joined a Bally's close to my house) and have been working out most days. I would like to be able to afford a trainer to teach me how to use all the machinery, but that is out of my price range at this time. In addition, I am once again participating in the "Biggest Lose" challenge at school. As far as cooking goes, I am struggling a little with that, but am experimenting with taking salad to school each day instead of something hot.

Goal 2 - Ugh. This is my NEMESIS. But now that my car is paid off and I am within a year of getting the last of my credit cards paid off, I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am experimenting with a method of budgeting using digital post-its on my desktop, so we shall see how that goes. This month did NOT go well, but I had some unexpected expenses.

 Goal 3 - I hate grading and I wish someone could do it for me, but I am still in "training mode" in my classroom, getting the kids used to my expectations, so it is important that I have them turn everything in at this point, to get into the habit of DOING things, and it is important that I look at everything they do so I know what their capabilities are. All that to say that I am behind (AGAIN) and doing curriculum falls by the wayside when I don't stay caught up on grading. I am hoping to get back to my schedule of going somewhere to work on Saturdays this school year, it worked well last year while doing my national boards, and could work well again this year if I make it into a habit.

In other news, I signed up again to tutor my Somali kids at the apartment complex each Tuesday. It will mean there is one day a week that I will not be able to work out, but I think this is worth it. And while I am not going to be a class advisor again for a while, I am now officially an assistant to the ASB/Student Council advisor (one of my best friends at school) and am kind of excited about that. I think I will be in charge of organizing volunteer opportunities, which is something I am really interested in.

So to sum up....So far, so good. =) Fingers crossed.

Debrief

School started on Wednesday for the freshmen and yesterday for the rest of the kids.

All in all it has been a good week, and I think I have at least partially recovered my mojo. My classes are a little smaller than I was expecting and have been pretty quiet.

I was a little concerned when the zipper on my pants broke between 1st and 2nd period on the first day of school, because starting the school year by flashing 130 sophomores is Frowned Upon, but it all worked out. (Thank goodness for long shirts!)

I am glad for the long weekend, however, it will be a nice ease into the school year.

American Education...53 Years Later

Today I was at the Seattle Museum of Flight (more on that later) and was flipping through an exhibit on the space race that took place between the US and the Soviet Union. This particular part of the exhibit was a series of space-related articles and pictures from Life Magazine during the 1950s. In the middle of the articles was one from 1958 that compared two boys of the same age; one in Moscow and one in Chicago, specifically their comparative educations. Only parts of the article were there, but there was enough to see some very familiar complaints (all emphasis is mine).

I could swear I've heard some of this same stuff recently, but wait.....wasn't education better in "the good old days?"

Interesting how things have, and yet haven't, changed.

19 Days and Counting

I have to confess something....this has been a really tough year for me.

I haven't connected to the kids the way that I did last year, and am very frustrated with my 4th period. That class has not matured to the same level that normally occurs with sophomores by this time....in fact, I'm pretty sure they've actually regressed. Today, I had to kick two kids out of that class within 5 minutes, because one was threatening the other and the other kid refused to stop running his mouth (which was inspiring the threats). I can't deal with them anymore, so I called security and had them removed. I saw them both wandering the halls later in the day, so I'm sure they'll be back in class tomorrow.

Working on my national board certification was incredibly stressful for me. It took me a long time to figure out how to write the way I needed to, and I am still very unsure about the quality of my work. In addition, I am actually not done with the process, as there is a content based test to take in less than 3 weeks, and I have not yet had time to study for it. Since it covers world history, US history, economics, geography, government and current world issues, I need to study, but feel really overwhelmed about the entire process.

I am frustrated with the lack of skills acquisition with my kids. We have been working on thesis writing for the entire year, and on the last paper the kids turned in, I still have kids not writing thesis statements, not following instructions, not doing this thing that we have worked on for so long. It makes me really discouraged, makes me question my ability as a teacher, and makes me wonder if I am in the wrong profession entirely.

I am the senior advisor, and last weekend was prom, which was stressful, and in about 2 weeks is graduation. I had nightmares about prom for several days beforehand, and although it seems really petty, none of the kids really said thank you.

An opportunity has presented itself to assist the ASB (student council) advisor next year, which both of us would really like. She is too busy and is doing her national boards next year, and while I do love the social aspect of being an advisor, I do not want to take charge of another class for a few years. The problem is that we are running into obstacles with the VP. It's too long and complicated to go into here, but it is frustrating and I don't know what to do that will annoy the fewest people.

The same VP observed me a few weeks ago, and in my evaluation stated her belief that I need to do more direct instruction and not put the kids into groups (they currently sit in groups of two). On the one hand I am trying to recognize that she has an alternative point of view and sees my classroom with different eyes than I do. But on the other hand, I think that she's wrong. She told me that there were several students off task while she observed me, and that they were distracting to everyone else in class. What I saw was a class of 17 boys, who for once didn't talk about basketball for longer than 10 seconds, who got back on task as soon as I gave them the stinkeye, and did a difficult assignment in small groups while talking quietly about the assignment. I am frustrated with a less than stellar evaluation (although she didn't mark me down in any category, she did spend 2 paragraphs talking about how I could improve by using more direct instruction) and a feeling that for the first time I have fallen short of some set of expectations that I don't want to measure up to, but feel the compelling urge to conform with.

I am tired of the incessant rain that we have had this winter. I love Seattle and most winters I think that we get a bad rap about the weather. Normally I think the weather is beautiful here. But for some reason this winter I have really struggled. I don't know if it is a combination of the issues mentioned above as well as the unseasonably long winter, or simply the weather, but I am done with rain. This year, more than any other, I am ready to see some sun.

On top of everything else, I haven't been sleeping very well. I am so tired that I sit down and fall asleep....(including for about a minute during class yesterday - embarrassing!) but when I go to bed, my mind races and I toss and turn for hours without sleep. I got only 3 hours on Sunday night, and not much more than that the last two nights.

There are only 19 more days of school, so I think I will make it, but at this point it's a bit of a toss-up. I could use some good news.

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. =)

Moments

• Today, during my 3rd period, a friend unexpectedly dropped by. The kids didn't even look up from their work when she walked in, and I was able to talk to her for several minutes out in the hallway without any break in their work. This would not have been the case last year.
• Today during 5th period, I met with the new vice-principal who will be doing my observation on Friday. She said that the other times she had been in my classroom she had been impressed wiht me and my teaching style and thought I was a great teacher. She specifically mentioned my classroom management, which is the thing I worry about the most. This makes me feel so much better about Friday - I always get really nervous during observations.
• Today during advisory, I worked one-on-one with a kid who causes problems in a lot of his classes, but whom I connected with last year for some reason. He is one of those problem juniors, but for some reason, we really get along well. He worked on a math test for 40 minutes and while I had to stand over him and read the problems to him, by the end of the 40 minutes he was doing better and I was reminded of one of the reasons I like teaching - sometimes I get to work one-on-one with the kids and really see them "get it."
• Today during 5th period, I worked with the same kid on his science packet for another 40 minutes (he has been removed from his 5th period for the remainer of the week). Despite the difficulty of the material and his fairly low skill level, he managed to work on it and explain several concepts back to me in his own words, again confirming that some of these kids that don't do so well in school would do much better working closely with a teacher. I know that's not economically feasible, but in a perfect world.....

All in all, not a bad day all around.

Coming From Behind

I didn't used to like football. In fact, I didn't understand the game. I have since repented.


I love high school football games, despite the fact that attending a game here is NOTHING like attending a high school game in Texas. The football team from my school is an okay team but anyone who attends more than a game or two will notice that they have a couple of fairly serious flaws. One is that they have no passing game, but that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is that one of the biggest flaws of this team, and one that has been a recurring problem for as long as I have seen them play, is that they do not know how to deal with failure.


This is a scrappy team. There aren't any huge players, and the smaller players are actually the best players. They are a decent team, as long as they are winning. But if they ever get behind, they stay behind and they will lose the game. These kids do not know how to handle failure.


I don't know if it is a cultural thing, or a generational thing, but there it is and there is no other explanation for it. To these kids, failure is a giant, insurmountable hurdle that they absolutely cannot get past. They don't know how to handle frustration. In football, this is manifested by making stupid decisions, resulting in excessive penalties, loss in yardage, and an eventual loss of the game. They get behind or make a simple mistake, and instead of putting it behind them and moving on, they focus on it. Focusing on that mistake causes them to fear repeating that mistake, leading to higher stress levels, which causes more (and larger) mistakes. This continues in an endless cycle until the game is lost.


In talking to one of the coaches/new teachers about this, I realized that this same habit translates to my classroom as well. My students don't know how to learn from their mistakes. For my students, if they forget to do their homework, they not only don't turn in that homework, but they don't turn in anything else after that either. If they are working on a ten question homework assignment and they get nine questions done but can't find the answer to the last one, they won't turn in that assignment. They won't ask for help either. Getting over the hurdle of asking for help or using what is, in my opinion, common sense and turning in an assignment with a grade of 9 out of ten, doesn't occur to them as being the logical solution.


I don't know how to change this. I can see the problem, but I can't identify with the problem. I don't know how to make them understand that failure isn't something that should stop them in their tracks, it's a challenge to do better. I know these kids understand challenges. They all have challenges in their lives. What I (ironically) fail at, is getting them to translate how they deal with what happens in their lives to how they deal with what happens in my classroom or on that football field.

I wish I knew the solution. I wish I had a magic bullet or special powder to make them understand. But I don't. So I'll carry on, trying my best to help them, and hoping they someday figure it out.

Night and Day

Ok, I know the school year is only three days in, but I am already over the moon about these kids. Today, I walked into class when the bell rang and they were SITTING in their desks and had their work out all ready to go!!!!! NO ONE was jumping around like a monkey, punching anyone else in the arm/chest/head/groin, yelling obscenities across the room, or being disruptive. Then, I asked them to work in groups and analyze the themes of world history, and not only did the work with the people I asked them to work with, but they TALKED ABOUT THE ASSIGNMENT!!!!!! No one was talking about the party last weekend or how drunk their "friend" got.

I want to hug all the freshmen teachers.

Let the Madness Ensue......

Today was the first day of school. Well, yesterday was the OFFICIAL first day, but only freshmen came yesterday, so today was the first day that all 9-12 grade kids were here. It was a good thing yesterday was not the first day that I had kids in my room, because I woke up yesterday with a debilitating migraine. I went to school anyway, but that was a looooooong day.

So that meant today was the first day of regular school. I wasn't really nervous, despite the migraine from yesterday and the fact that the first kid on my roster in my first period was named Saytun. Nice. I am starting the day with Satan. In all actuality, she is very sweet and not at all satanic. My kids are great, for the most part. They participated, they were excited, and they were so sweet, especially compared to some of my kids from last year.

There were a few glitches, like the first day of any year. The schedule has been changed, so that school starts 15 minutes earlier than it did last year, which meant that I had about 8 kids walk into first period 15 minutes late. The kids were complaining about the schedule (which is admittedly a little odd....) and when I explained that it had come down from the district level and we didn't really know why it had happened, one of the boys asked if we could "boyscout the district." I tried really hard not to laugh, but I totally cracked up. So did he, so it was ok. =)

I know the new will wear off pretty soon, and there are a few kids that I can see some issues arising down the road, but for now.....I'm good. =)

"Help Desk" Awesomeness

The Help Desk in my district exists in order to assist teachers and administrators run the district owned computers, email, online gradebook and other technology. Over the last couple of years they have achieved new depths of infamy among the rank and file as being somewhat.....extreme (We call them Help Desk Nazis, but whatever). They have their moments of helpfulness, but most of the time....well....

When I started working in this district two years ago, my name was too long to fit into the automatic email thing, so I had to have it changed (the email, not my name, unfortunately). This doesn't seem like a huge deal, but when your email address is supposed to be firstname.lastname, it's difficult for the kids and the parents if it ends up being firstname.lastn. Last year, in April or so, they switched the domain name on our emails and I just assumed that my email was exactly the same. Until today. When I realized that my email had somehow reverted to firstname.lastn, I emailed the help desk with what was happening and a request to change my email address back to what it was supposed to be.

Below, in pink, is the verbatim response I got...and this is the kind of email we usually get when we email the help desk. Make sure to read the last part especially.

altirisIncident Change Alert
Medium
#22082 my email is incorrect

Description
Incident #22082, currently assigned to Mike was modified by Barbara on 8/31/2009 10:37 AM

Alert Details
Status: Open
Category: Break-Fix\Desktop

Comment
These changes were made:
Title changed
From: my email is incorrect
To: UPHS- my email is incorrect
Owned by name changed
From: Helpdesk
To: Mike
Assigned to name changed
From: Barbara
To: mike
Status changed
From: Requested
To: Open

Now I ask you.....WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??????????????? Last spring, when I emailed about a blocked website and got something just like this in return, I was so irritated that I sent it back to the help desk with 56 point font asking for a translation and received the following VERBATIM AND COMPLETE response:

Miss Dark Side:
We do not allow access to youtube.

Do you understand why they drive us insane? Why can't they just SAY no or give us a straight answer? Why the insane emails that mean nothing? ARGH!!!!!!!

School starts tomorrow...Wheeeeeeee..............here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nerd Alert (aka...I love Target)

As a teacher, I have sort of accepted my basic nerd status. I mean, I am currently reading a 600 page history of the life of Mao Tse-tung. And I have been going up to school at least once a week since July and most days in August for a couple of hours.

And, like most teachers, I am in L.O.V.E. with the dollar aisle in Target. Seriously, they pulled out all the stops for teachers this year. I currently have over 2500 stickers from there, and I spent about $7 for all 2500 of them. They have teacher stamps, plan books, and some seriously amazing pencils! The pencils are in lots of colors and styles, including some Superman and Hello Kitty pencils, Diet Coke, CocaCola and Sprint pencils, glittery and sparkly pencils, striped and swirly pencils and more!!! I keep buying the pencils and am thinking about using them as little rewards this year....or maybe keep them all to myself, who knows?
I got my schedule today....and I have no 5th period, which means I will have a long lunch period, and once a week I won't have any classes after lunch! This will be the first year for that schedule for me, and it will be a little bit of an adjustment. Only three more weeks to summer!

Job or Career

There are definitely times in the last seven years that I have wanted to throw up my hands, burst into tears, and walk out of my school, never to return. There have been many days that I wanted nothing more than to quit my job and get a job in an office or even in retail.

But I think that this high school thing might be more than just a job. Because despite the difficulties of the last year, I find myself getting excited about the upcoming school year. School here in the Northwest doesn't start until September, so I start hearing about my blogger teacher friends going back to school far before I do. Of course, as an inherently lazy person, I do LOVE summer vacation, but something about going back to school is so exciting to me.

I am such a nerd...I can't resist going up and down the back-to-school section in whatever store I am in. I love the small of crayons and new paper, and a pack of pencils is seriously intoxicating. There is such potential in these small things....new notebooks, new pens, new backpacks, everything is new and unused, just waiting for someone to come and use it - waiting for learning.

They say that a job is just a job, but a career is something you are. I am a teacher. I introduce myself as a teacher. I take pride in my career, and despite the difficulties and the tears, I love this job. I'm good at this job. I find pleasure in teaching and making connections with teenagers, getting them excited about a subject that they are not naturally inclined to like. So I guess this is what I am meant to do....at least for now. And to all my fellow teachers....best of luck going back to school!

This is the Song that Never Ends....

So far, over the last two weeks, 4 of my kids have been suspended, which is fine except when it comes to coordinating final exams. Today I found out that one of the suspended ones will not be allowed to come back this year and she has her final project with her. This is, of course, the final project that wasn't supposed to go home at all, but I made an exception for her so she could work on it at home due to the suspension. That suspension was supposed to end yesterday, and has now been extended through the end of the year.

So....I called home to see if I could talk to her or her mother about how to handle this, and heard the following:

"Hello, you have reached (unintelligible) phone. Leave a message after the beep."

And then....a song.

A song that lasted 2 minutes.

At the end of the two minutes, the voice comes back on and says this priceless quote, which I may have to add to my own message,

"If this is a bill collector, just keep on walking."

And then more music for another 30 seconds, followed by

"If this is my mom, just keep calling back."

Followed by another 30 seconds or so of music, and then

"Leave a message."

And then, and ONLY then, did the message end and I was allowed to say my own piece. Of course, by this time, I was laughing, and had sent a few emails to my VP, and had nearly forgotten what the point of the call was. We'll see if she calls back.

Numerology

Numbers are important, even if there are only ten of them.

1 more of my problem kids in 6th period will be spending the remainder of the year at home.
2 of the teachers in my department are leaving - Goodbye Hasselbeck!! =(
3 late-start days of finals this week....
4 of my kids spent the day in suspension on Friday and did not do ONE ounce of work
5 DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT. ONLY 5. I REPEAT......5

I love math.

I counted my chickens too soon

It is a common saying among teachers and it makes sense, that a school is one of the most unsanitary places in the world. I think it is nothing short of miraculous that we don't all die of diptheria every year.

This year, I didn't get sick. I have been subject to sinus infections since I was little and usually get one or two a year. But not this year.

I counted myself lucky and thought that maybe I had finally acclimated to teaching school. So that even though this year was so incredibly stressful, I didn't get sick.

But now I am.

It figures that the kids waited until almost the end of the year to give me this noxious crud, but despite being sick all last week with the hottest classroom in the world, I made it through the week.

Don't worry...I plan on taking my revenge and infecting as many as possible. I'll use their own methods against them - sneeze on a paper and then hand it to them.

Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!

11 days left.

This is the DARK side after all.....

I have definitely realized over the last week that I am now thoroughly and completely Seattle-ized. Seattleites have a very narrow window of comfort when it comes to temperature - roughly between 68 and 73 degrees. Hotter or colder than that and we whine. A lot.

It started heating up over Memorial Day weekend and it has been getting steadily warmer ever since. I open both the windows at night and close the windows and blinds during the day and my house turns into a cave that is slightly cooler than the outside temperature. I don't have air conditioning, which is usually not a problem here.

Two years ago I lived in Dallas, where the average temperature during the day July through October is 95 and the average humidity is 80-90%. Every building and every car has air conditioning. No one goes outside during the day in the city unless they are suicidal.

No one has air conditioning here. You've been hearing about how hot my classroom is, and today it hit about 90 degrees outside (very unusual for June here) so my classroom was hot and S.T.A.N.K.Y. I can keep my room cool until about 1:00 in the afternoon, halfway through 5th period, and then it heats up fast - 10-15 degrees in half an hour. My infamous 6th period has actually been pretty good about not complaining when it is brutally hot inside my room, but I do sympathize with them. I understand it's hard to work when it's hot and humid inside.

So today I made them a deal - we could go outside into the courtyard and they could work outside, but their work still had to be done by the end of the period and if it got out of control we would never go outside again. We spent a little over an hour in the courtyard and they did pretty well. It helped that two of the Problem Children were suspended (one until the end of the year!!). We came back inside for the last ten minutes of class and my classroom was never quite as hot as when we came back inside, away from the shade and the breeze. At that point it was just HOT and miserable.

It was hot enough that I actually heard a student say, "I wish it would rain..."

Me too. I wish it was cloudy and rainy and cold. Dark, in fact. The sun is already up at 5:15 when I get up and it doesn't get dark until around 9:30. It's kind of weird and makes me think I'm late all the time.

There are 12 days of school left....tomorrow is the last day for classwork and Monday we start the final.

Hot and Stuffy

My classroom has no air circulation. It sits in the center of a cube, overlooking an indoor atrium (the commons) and is nestled on the third floor between two bathrooms and two other classrooms. Consequently, the shape of the room is long and narrow. There is a small, 8 foot hallway that leads into my room along the center of one of the narrower sides and the windows overlooking the commons are screwed shut since 16-year-old neanderthals can't help but throw things like staplers onto the heads of their frenemies three stories below.

All this means that my classroom is an oven for the approximately ten days a year that the outdoor temperature soars to the MID-80s. I know. Ridiculously hot.

To be fair, this was never an issue in Texas, the air conditioning kicks on in late February and doesn't get shut off until November. And here, it is usually cold. The kids were wearing hats and snow jackets just last week. But every now and then, it heats up, and the lack of circulation in my room actually caused me to change my lesson plan today.

Which actually worked well, the kids worked relatively peacefully and I graded. I have hit the point of this year where I have accepted the inevitable failure of some of these kids. I can't force them to pass my class. So, I assign them work. The ones who have matured to the point of being self-motivated will do the work. The ones who haven't matured, won't do it, and won't pass.

Seriously, this particular class of kids is so unmotivated. Out of 120 kids in my 5 classes, I have 26 that are failing just due to ATTENDANCE. That doesn't even take into account the kids that are failing due to their utter refusal to do anything that vaguely resembles work.

So. I have one more week of schoolwork, then 2 weeks to work on the finals, and I'm done. And the way this year is going....I'll see them all again next year.

Bring it on.