New Layout

Workday - 8:30am-4:30pm

Nothing that exciting to report, today. I just thought I'd post that I'm trying out a new template for the blog. The chatbox is gone, but it's been replaced with the option to post comments for each entry. I'm hoping the comment link will appear with this new entry.

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Actually, I guess I'll give one rant.

There's this one teacher who teaches the same math course I have, and she's slowly (and unknowingly) making my life hell. A while back I posted my complaint about teachers who don't do their jobs and how it affects me when they're teaching the same course. Well, the teacher I complained about then is one and the same. Now it's not that she's not doing her job, but that she's doing it wrong.

It was her job to write the final exam for the course we (plus a few others) both teach. I looked it over last week and noticed questions on it that were beyond the grade 9 level. Now, it's technically scheduled for us to teach some grade 10 concepts in the grade 9 course just to get students introduced to them ahead of time. I taught them, but told my classes they wouldn't be tested on it nor would it be on the exam. This other teacher not only taught the required concepts, but went beyond into more difficult ones as well. Now she's included these problems on the exam and I have to go back and tell my students that I'm a liar.

Actually, I'm going to ask her if she can take them off first. They're really not supposed to be on there.

Secondly, next week all grade 9 math students have to write a standardized test. The mark they get on this test doesn't affect them in any way, but the results are used to see how kids are doing all over the province. Being grade 9s, these students wouldn't even think they had the option to not write the test.

However, this same teacher is telling her students she'll give 5 bonus marks to anyone who "shows up". It should be a given that they'll show up! And, more importantly, you can't give bonus marks for that. Just as we're no longer allowed to give any marks for attendance or participation or completed homework, these types of "mark giveaways" are a thing of the past. Meanwhile, of course every kid in her classes has told their friends this bonus mark story and now these other kids are going to their math teachers to ask for the same.

Not only that, but they also now have the idea that they can simply not attend. I have some of my best students (best in math and best behaved) asking why they should come at all.

I just told my class that this other teacher "can't do that". She can say what she likes, but in the end there's no way she can get away with it. I don't care anymore if it's unprofessional of me to badmouth a colleague. The fact is, she's either lying to her students or trying to get away with breaking the rules.

I said to my students "if you want, I can lie to you too". They all nodded eagerly.

So I grinned and spoke deliberately "Ok. I. Will. Give. You. 5. Bonus. Marks. Too.", shaking my head on each word.

Supply Teachers

Workday - 8:15am-4:45pm

The music department booked the entire day for a PD session. We spent the day in a conference room in the school discussing curricula and other plans for next year. And so, because I was doing this all day, I needed coverage for all of my classes.

Now you know I'm not one of those teachers who has something against supply teachers. I did my share of supplying, and I know what it's like. Of course, I do "have it out" for anyone who can't do his/her job. Be it in any career, including supply teachers, and even full-time teachers!

I had rented a video for my first period class to watch, so I made sure to put careful instructions that the video be returned to my mailbox when they were finished. I even wrote that it was my own rental and would be responsible for it (etc., etc.).

Sure enough, at the end of the day, I check my mailbox and it was nowhere to be found! I even went up to my classroom to look for it, then the storage where the TV/VCR goes, the business office (who's responsible for that TV/VCR), and still no tape.

At this point, it was after 4pm. I was thinking "who can't understand instructions that simple? And who can't understand that they were important?"

Fortunately, I went by the math office later and found a note on my desk (with the usual supply teacher debriefing), and at the bottom it said "video in box". So he did return it to my mailbox at some point, but it must have been after 4:00.

After I completed some prep work, I checked by the office again. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was past 4:30 and the office was locked up. I peered through the window where I actually had a view of my mailbox. It looked like there was a videotape in there. Whew. I'm just glad I have a week-long rental, because it's there overnight now!

Tomorrow I have a PD afternoon with the math department, too. This time I don't need any coverage, though. What a rip-off! I have to teach all three of my classes periods 1-3, and then I have to do this workshop in periods 4 and 5! Grr, long day.

Kids Say The Darnedest Things

Workday - 8:15am-4:00pm

After my last period class today, three students hung around to talk to me.

The class had a quiz which apparently was too difficult. Every quiz/test I make I try to go easier on them than the last. This quiz was the shortest one yet, and only needed the fewest number of questions to cover the entire chapter (it was one page front and back, 9 questions). I thought for sure they'd be finished in less than half an hour.

I was wrong.

They took the most time of all the quizzes! In fact, they really needed the entire period. I had to cut them off at 10-15 minutes before the end so that I could finish up some leftover material from yesterday.

I'm starting to get frustrated, really. Why can't these kids do this math? I suspect no one's doing the homework, and no matter what I do to counter that they still don't. They just don't seem to care that they're failing. But, anyway, that's another problem.

Back to the three students who stuck around afterwards. Two of them are those types of kids who are desperately concerned with getting good grades and squeezing extra marks out of the teacher wherever they can, but have little concern for doing the homework or coming in for extra help. The third oneis a good student and does her work, but when she feels she didn't do well on something she'll repeatedly ask how much it will affect her grade, and what it's worth, and what's coming up that might help bring up her mark, etc., etc.

It's weird, because the four of us were just having some casual conversation. We were talking as peers. Except this one kid was just tearing into me. I don't think it even occurred to him how inappropriate he was being, since he had a huge grin on his face the whole time. By the time they left 25 minutes later, this one guy had said all of the following:

"If I were in anyone else's math class, I'd be getting an A"
(Likely not true. He probably just has friends in other math classes getting A's because they do the work!)

"You mark too hard. All the other teachers mark easier than you"
(Just the opposite. I mark easier than any teacher I know. I cough up part marks in questions anyone else would write off straight away as a zero)

"I'm doing well in all my classes but yours"
(I told him, "you can't compare your marks in gym and drama to your math mark! If you were in my music or careers class your mark would be a lot higher, too". And I wasn't just using "gym and drama" as general examples. He actually was comparing it to his gym and drama grades. I just hope he understood the "it's not me, it's you" allusion in that)

"Did you take any math in university?"
("Yes, you can't be a math teacher without taking it in university. I took 4 full credits, 5 different courses altogether though")

"Oh? What marks did you get?"
(I told him about my 97 in first year before the second midterm. That shut him up. Except that midterm had dropped my mark to the mid-80s. I also got an A in second year. And a B in the hardest and only senior math course I took)

"Why did you want to teach math??"
(I said, "because I like to do math. It's more fun to do, really. I understand it's not exciting to sit in class and take notes, after all")

"When I come to this class, I just want to sleep. It's so boring"
(Of course, this is the same kid who kept asking me this week to let the class "play outside" instead of doing math. He has some growing up to do, I guess)

This student sure has a lot of nerve. I realize he's in grade nine and really doesn't know what he's talking about. He can't speak with any conviction about how other teachers mark, or how easy other math classes will be. I even told him, "just wait until you're in grade 11 math. You'll really be suffering!"

I just hate having to second guess my teaching abilities. Just when I think I'm finally doing ok, I get a day like today. The real problem is that teaching this course is different from any other. It doesn't really matter how good or bad a teacher I am in music or careers. In the end, they get a credit if they did enough work, or not if they didn't, and they move on. If they fail music, they just learn not to take it again, and they don't care.

However, these kids have to get this math credit. And even if they just squeak by, they have to know the principles taught in that course to stand a chance in grade 10. These concepts are the foundation of their entire mathematics career, and if they don't understand it now they'll be behind forever.

I guess what else is annoying is that most of the curriculum should be review for them. They should know these same principles from grade eight. So I guess the real problem could be with their junior high school teachers.

Yeah, that's better. That means I just might not be such a bad teacher. I think I'll just blame them.

Posting For Posting's Sake

Workday - 8:15am-6:00pm

I was at school until 6pm with band practice tonight. Afterwards, two of my colleagues and I attended a bi-annual teacher trivia gathering. That was pretty fun. Our school had 3 teams, and each of us was actually on a different team. I'm proud of how we all did. The original school team placed 3rd overall (there must have been 30+ teams altogether). My team beat the third team from our school, and we all placed in the top half. Not bad, considering our teams 2 and 3 were totally new to it.

I wish I could say I was a great asset to my team, but I might have lost them as many points as I won (that is, by insisting on answers that ended up not being correct. I wouldn't do that unless I was totally sure! But I guess I was just mistaken a couple of times. Oops). Oh well. It's all in good fun.

For the hell of it, here were some of the things I knew (that my teammates did not):

- the origin of the word "honeymoon"
- that Dr. Pepper is the oldest of our current popular brands of soft drinks
- that Kellogg's Corn Flakes were invented to curb masturbation
- the title and performer of the song "Hurt", as covered by Johnny Cash (when given the first 10-second clip of it)
- the title and performer of the song "Orinoco Flow"*, by Enya (again, with the first 10 seconds played)
- that "Everyday People" is by Sly and the Family Stone
- that Picasso had a "blue period"
- that Mondrian never used the colour green (ok, I guessed that, but I was pretty sure)

...plus some geography questions that I don't remember exactly. Although many of the ones I got for that category were also known by some of my teammates.

Another long day. Got home after 10pm. Now I need to sleep. Farewell!


* Annoyingly, the quizmaster insisted the title of this song was "Sail Away", which it is not. I have the cassette right here -- it says Orinoco Flow. A few teams lost points for that error. Grr.