Is It Friday Yet?

Workday - 7:30am-9:00pm

Oh. My. God. This week is just painful. I don't know how I'll survive another 3 days. Zzzz...

Insanity

Workday: 8:00am-8:00pm

Good god, it's going to be a lonnnng couple of weeks. Just writing to say that today was a (usual) 12-hour day. Tomorrow is going to be a 13 to 14-hour day. I can't imagine how I'll make it.

The next two weeks are the end of the term (or middle of the semester). This means my careers class is coming to an end, and their final project is due. I also have a major (3-chapter) test coming up in my math classes for next week.

Next Monday will be a 15-hour day (yes, that's right. Fifteen). I won't be home much earlier than midnight, only to have to come back to school for 7:30 in the morning next Tuesday. That day, if I'm lucky, will be a mere 11 hours long.

I'm in hell. I'll see you when I get out of it.

Slackers

Workday - 8:00am-3:45pm

In today's post I'm going to address the issue of slackers. No, I don't mean myself for not blogging for two weeks. And no, I don't mean students either. I'm talking about slacker teachers.

I'll stick to just one related anecdote today, though.

Every day I bust my ass making up lesson plans. This semester being the first time I've taught all of the courses I'm teaching, I'm making up notes from scratch. I realize that I'm a younger teacher and I have to pay my dues. I can't wait until 5 (or so) years down the road when my resources will be brimming, and I can slack off like the rest of them! Hahah.

But what about teachers who never paid their dues? Well, frankly, it's none of my business. I'm not going to get my shorts in a knot because someone out there found an easy street where I did not. It's their prerogative.

It does, however, become my business when their slacking affects me.

I have a colleague who is teaching the same math course that I am. Not long ago when she returned from a lengthy maternity leave, she asked another teacher for her notes for teaching this course. This other teacher wouldn't give them to her. Then she found the best student from that teacher's last class and photocopied her notes from that kid.

As lazy as you may (or may not) think that is, I wouldn't even condemn that if she were just using the notes as a guideline. Even I would love to get my hands on someone else's notes from this course to help me make my own. And, hell, I wouldn't even think it so terrible if this teacher used someone else's notes word for word, on the occasion, writing them on the board for her own students.

Of course, she used neither method.

The teacher keeps these notes that she neither devised, nor even wrote down herself, in a binder. Every year she simply makes photocopies of them to hand out to each student to have for themselves and voila, she's magically "taught" the course. Because of her pedagogy, she can also zip ahead full chapters past the rest of us.

How does this affect me? Soon enough, my students are finding out how things run in other classes from their peers. My problem is, what do I tell my students who ask me why their friends are so far ahead of our class? Nevermind the fact that I'm on schedule, and sometimes even a day ahead of yet another teacher of this course.

What do I tell my students who ask why I can't just give them photocopied notes? I can't "sell out" the other teacher, obviously. I'm stuck simply telling them "that's just not how things are done".

It's one thing when other teachers are unprofessional, but entirely another when their behaviour reflects negatively on the people who are actually doing a good job.

March Break

It's March Break, now. I'll try to start posting again more frequently once school is back in session.

Fortunately, some timetable issues have been attended to and some have been resolved. It's quite possible things will work out next year, and we could have as many sections of music as this year. Though, even if that's the case, nothing's a guarantee that I'll stay on at this school. All of those worries, however, would have been there with or without this recent problem.

Right now I'm just happy to enjoy a nice week off. I need to rejuvenate before I can tackle the rest of the semester.

Bad Friday

Workday - 8:00am-5:00pm+

Today I learned my own fellow staff members are lobbying to drastically cut our music program. A motion's already been passed (and is, as far as I've heard, irreversible) for next year as it is. With this specific decrease in class sections, my job is basically gone.

I suppose nothing's ever for sure until closer to the end of the year, but things really don't look good. With the way our school keeps fighting the music department, my colleagues are getting fed up. Two of them have already mentioned seriously considering leaving (one leaving the school, the other leaving the profession). I suppose if they quit, I probably will have a job next year after all. Of course, what good will it be?

As you can probably understand, I don't feel like blogging much right now. If I don't post for the next while, you'll know why.

The Cops Have Us Surrounded

Workday - 8:15am-3:00pm

I'm far too busy to write anything long. However, today was a bit of a crazy day at school. More violence and gang activity (though, this time it occurred further away -- across the street). A section of the main street was blocked off for investigation, and the school was in a heightened security mode. All traffic from that part of the main street was detoured onto the street in front of the school. Most of these cars had no regard for things such as crosswalks. Kids were being nearly run down all day (as if we didn't have enough to worry about, today)!

I don't know much about what happened in the area last night, except that there were 3 shootings (possibly drive-bys?). It's just becoming common in our area. It's awful.

And now, I must get back to tackling the marking pile.

Ms. Bitch

Workday - 8:15am-5:15pm

I was a real hardass today! I gave two detentions.

I noticed on the attendance printout that two students had skipped my period 3 class yesterday, so I was prepared to hold them back at lunch for a half hour. Then one of them was away again! Both kids had skipped at least once before, but I let it slide then (I don't really know why). The one girl who fulfilled her lunchtime detention wasn't the least bit sour about it, either. In fact, she spent the 30 minutes chatting to me about math, telling me how much she loves it and that she goes to a math school outside of here, etc., etc. Maybe that's not how I should be giving detentions. I'm probably supposed to give them a stern look and make them do homework silently. Instead we just had half-hour gabfest.

In 5th period, two guys showed up 10 minutes late (each with a can of pop in hand. The cafeteria is on the complete opposite side of the school from my math classroom, so I can see how that would make them 10 minutes late). I figured I was on a roll with my one detention, so I kept those two after school for ten minutes to make up the time they missed. Again, they were polite about it and pleasantly said goodbye to me when I dismissed them.

What a difference between here and my last school. I think these kids are just worried I might call their parents (these kids being the last in a dying breed of children who still fear their parents). Plus they're only in grade 9, and not ready to take these risks so early in their high school careers.

Perhaps today was the day for being a hardass. A coworker told me he had confiscated something from one of his students, himself. He handed me this paper with a list of phrases in Cantonese (that translated into very rude insults). I made sure to study it well.

Good thing for it, too. In a multicultural society like ours it's important to be able to tell students "your penis is very small" in a variety of languages.

Ye Of Little Faith

Workday - 7:15am-5:15pm

As a new-ish teacher, I realize I don't exude all the confidence I should in the classroom. However, I do think I fake it well. Considering I'm teaching all courses that I have never taught before, I'd say I'm doing a pretty good job.

Usually when I take up math questions on the board, I'm just winging it. I haven't seen the question before and don't know what the answer is going to be. I'm just doing the math along with the students. I realize it would be more professional to look at homework questions ahead of time, so I can be prepared for the difficulties they might have, but where do I find the time for this?

I think that one of my strong points as a math teacher can also be a weakness. As I've said before, I can see several different ways to approach a problem (just as there are several ways to answer most math questions). When I'm teaching a lower level math class, this skill comes in handy so that I can explain the concepts in a new way to students (if they don't understand the first way). However, in a higher level math class, I think they're seeing my "multi-method solution" approach as uncertainty. Perhaps I come off as a bit wishy-washy. While other math teachers look confident because they say "this is how you do it. Done, done, and done!", I'm often saying "now, you can get the answer this way, or you can do it like this... and then there's this method, too!". Perhaps I should stop showing alternative solutions.

Today in my period 3 math class, I was taking up homework on the board. One of the questions (as usual) could have been answered in a couple of ways. While the students were volunteering their solutions via one method, I told them to use a different one. There was no argument for one being right or wrong, I just knew mine was the way to go. I was going to say that my way would be faster in the long run, but I wasn't sure until I checked it. And so, in the middle of the question (as we were debating how to solve it), I paused to make sure my way was quicker before I said it aloud.

As I paused, I heard a student mutter to her classmate, "see? She doesn't even know what she's doing".

It was funny, because it didn't even think to take that as insulting at first. In fact, we had just been joking around before this incident which put me in a fun mood.

Before realizing that this girl obviously did not mean for me to hear her comment, I snapped back, "hey! I do too know what I'm doing. I'm just seeing which way is quicker". Again, I wasn't offended. I had said this in a light-hearted manner.

Then the whole class went silent.

It only dawned on me then that I shouldn't have acknowledged her remark. While I still hardly cared that it was said, we were both thrust into an awkward moment. I dealt with it by carrying on as normal and finished writing out the solution. Behind me, I could hear other students whispering to her "you're bad!" and "you shouldn't have said that".

Of course, the more I thought about it, the more I let the comment get to me. If the class hadn't reacted that way, I may not have given it another thought. I realized she's probably not the only one thinking this, and lord knows how many of my students don't have faith in my math skills.

All in all, it's not going to shoot my confidence. It's not that my math skills are poor (though some of them are, depending on the topic), but that I don't teach in that "hard and fast" style. It's just another teaching mistake I get to learn from. Hell, I may even adjust my style by tomorrow.

Too Busy...

Workday - 8:15am-4:15pm

...sorry.