I've been taking my vitamins lately, and, boy, has it made a difference!
I'm reasonably caught up on grading (well, except for the last 4 days, when I was trying to put the grades into the computer - that's a WHOLE 'nother story), not falling asleep at 8 pm, and not dragging around the classroom by the end of the day.
You'd think I would have learned by now, but, no, I still need to be reminded about keeping in good health. It really shows up in a more relaxed and positive attitude with the students. Their minor misbehaviors don't get on my last nerve, and I remain calm, controlled, and able to follow the steps of the discipline plan without:
- giving them dirty looks, but not acting on it
- going straight to the guillotine
- ignoring the behavior, being too tired to deal with it
Good thing, too, as I'm teaching a subject (Chemistry) that I am less prepared to teach than Physics.
All the excitement of the new group of kids is over, other than Presidents' Day and Easter Week, we don't have any vacations left, and they've just started requiring us to submit weekly lesson plans.
Altogether, I'm tired and I'm ready for a few days off. My husband is grading (we're at work), and I'm more than ready for dinner.
Fortunately, I'm almost finished with my latest online course; it can't be over too soon. Amazingly, there were computer problems all the way through - mine (personal), the school's, the instructor's, and PBS. We got a few days extra to turn things in, in compensation.
Now - FUNNY - I just posted this, and the ***-Hum I put in the Title has been replaced with ***-hum. Some PC censorship, perhaps?
All the excitement of the new group of kids is over, other than Presidents' Day and Easter Week, we don't have any vacations left, and they've just started requiring us to submit weekly lesson plans. Altogether, I'm tired and I'm ready for a few days...(
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I'm setting up the equipment and materials today for a CBL/graphingcalculator/data probe (actually, motion detector) lab.
It's a good lab, one that I've done before; the students collect the data on the velocity of a falling coffee filter, and compare it to the velocity of a falling book. Then, they have to find the acceleration of both objects.
It's a tough one for the students; they have to read the lab directions, and make sense of them (not always an easy task - some students HATE to read). Then, they have to apply the methods we used to calculate velocity and acceleration. It's a tough task, as many students are not great with thinking through multi-step processes. Too often, teachers simplify until they require no HOTS at all.
I took several pictures, and will post them on the school web page. Kids always like to see themselves immortalized online.
I'm can't say that I'm surprised by
this.Young children who are smacked by their parents grow up to be
happier and more successful than those who have never been hit,
research claims.
It found that children who are smacked before the age of six perform better at school when they are teenagers.
They
are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to
university than those who have never been physically disciplined.
To be fair, the study also mentions that spanking after age six can lead to behavioral problems. But, as I see it, if you discipline them when they are young, you seldom have to to nuclear on them later.
I had been preparing to teach Physics for months; we had just started a new semester, and had been in professional development activities for 2 days. The students were due to arrive in just 15 hours.
Surprise, surprise, surprise, as Gomer Pyle would say.
I wasn't going to teach Physics, I was going to teach Chemistry.
Have I mentioned that Chemistry is my weak area on my certification?
Honestly, I do understand that things change, and that we all need to be flexible. However, I think it was very unprofessional for the administration to have waited until the day before to let me know that I would be changing assignments. It does take some time to get up to speed on a subject that I've only taught once, in another state. I need time to refresh myself on the concepts, learn the standards, and find out where everything is (plus, the room I teach in is NOT set up for safe Chemistry - no eyewash, no safety shower, wobbly tables - they bought the cheap model).
My first response was vulgar, and involved what comes out of the back end of male cows.
I'm trying to be a better person, but they make it so difficult.
I found
an interesting article about change - not specifically an education article, but involving general management issues.
Kaikaku is the type of change we often see today in education - a large, sweeping, holistic change. It's designed to clear out EVERYTHING, and bring in a whole new philosophy and implementation. It requires personnel changes, institutional changes, and considerable training time to bring everyone on board with the new mandates.
It often fails, because that kind of wholesale change is hard to measure, manage, or control. When it fails, even in some small way, it is often abandoned, and the system returns to the status quo.
The more subtle change that can be introduced into a system is Kaizen - change that involves tweaking very small components, then carefully studying the results. It can be systemic, or can be started at the grass-roots level. It can involve the whole organization, or just small parts of it.
Kaizen is on-going - ideally, it never stops. The point of kaizen is to focus on the little things, and adjust their implementation continually.
As teachers, we can't be anything but cogs in a Kaikaku model. However, in Kaizen, we can be the initiators, and the masters of the process.
How come the long two-week vacation always ends the same way? No time to get everything done (especially grading).
Where did that time go?
I'm in Cleveland, with my family, and finally getting into the slo-mo mode. We had a minor plumbing emergency (try to find a plumber who wants to work on the holidays), and are waiting for him to finish to be able to go to the family gift exchange.
Life is OK - I'm physically almost all better, my sister is dealing with her cancer diagnosis, we'll be leaving town in time to spend a few days catching up at home (where I have a HUGE pile of papers to grade), and we're not completely broke (although this plumbing thing might send us over the edge).
I'm excited about teaching Physics. I hope I do a good job - most of the class is seniors, and I think they should have fun with it.
I'm hoping that my next group of Physical Science students is more prepared for the work - I found that the skill/interest/motivation level of the last group, in general, was severely lacking.
I still have to work on my PBS course; it runs for the next five weeks, I believe. So, as usual, I'm still in over my head with stuff to do. One of these days, I'm going to take a cruise, with NOTHING with me, and NOTHING I have to do.
I'll probably go stark staring mad.
The good:
- We're nearly on Christmas Break (I REFUSE to call it Winter or Holiday Break, until you can show me ONE year when it doesn't coincide with Christmas)
- I got the End of Course scores back, and, although they are lower than I would like, I have more passing scores than they rest of the department (except for the teacher of Honors Physical Science). What can I say? I'm VERY competitive.
- My sister's surgery was successful (she didn't croak), and she's agreed to get radiation therapy.
- None of my kids are sick.
- I'm feeling better, although still a little stuffy.
- The overhead screen is FINALLY fixed (only took a month).
The bad:
- Too many of my students did a barely adequate job on the tests. I'm sure that if I plot the scores vs. the attendance, there would be a near-perfect correlation between the two. I don't know how to get more of them to attend regularly.
- I'm taking an online class, but have too little time to work on it. I may have to stay up late tonight to finish my second project.
- I gained weight over the Thanksgiving holiday.
- My sweet son-in-law was laid off, the first week of December. He's a computer network specialist, if anyone is hiring in the Cleveland area.
The not-so pretty:
- That cute short haircut I got last August has reached the NEVER a good hair day stage. I have to decide whether to cut it again, or live with the crappy hair until it grows out.
- I've developed a tummy and flabby, too-big thighs. My clothes fit, but I don't like the way they look.
- My classroom is a disorganized disaster area. I have almost no time to put it into order.
Not just the kids, but me, also.
I'm just getting over a nasty respiratory infection. As I am 90% healed, I decided to take advantage of the school's offer of H1N1 virus shots. So, yesterday, I lined up and got needled.
The kids are also in a slump. They don't particularly want to learn something new, so are somewhat resistant to learning right now. We've had the End of Course test, so I can't hold that over their heads. We DO have a final, which is 15% of their grade, so they do have an incentive to work.
Which, to be fair, most of them are. God bless them.
I had a brainstorm yesterday. I decided to use the last week of class having the students create podcasts on some aspect of either Physics or Chemistry. I'm going to sign up for the laptops today (I'll only need about 10), and this weekend, I'm going to find some audio and video podcasts for examples. They need to understand that the audio medium is different - without pictures, they'll need to have more detail in their script.
I'm really tired today. My husband and I made a presentation at the North Carolina Science Teachers conference on Thursday and Friday. It went very well, but, as a result, I'm truly exhausted. Fortunately, this is a very short week - we're heading out of town by Tuesday afternoon.
Fortunately, I had reserved the laptop cart weeks ago. Thanks to the wonders of technology, today is more running around the room than high-level thinking and teaching.
We're nearing the time of the End of Course testing - it starts the week of December 4th. I don't hold out much hope of dazzling the powers that be - my kids are, in general, lousy testers (with a few stellar exceptions). On the bright side, there is Christmas coming shortly after - only a few weeks.
Can we say "More Videos"? This can be a nice time of the semester, when I finally am out from under the time pressure and can include some videos in class.
Last Friday, I had a REALLY bad day at work. My computer was down with a virus for the last 6 weeks. The back-up computer I had borrowed was what I'd been using to input my grades.
And, when I turned it on, the screen was upside-down. Not the monitor, just the screen.
I found another computer (my husband's) and dashed off a REALLY cranky letter to the principal.
He stopped off today to tell me that he had forwarded my letter to the IT department, with a suggestion that they needed to fix it - soon.
Today is a whole lot better.
Don't take my word for it -
there are pictures!
You might want to visit this site. It calls into questions some of the commonly held assumptions about this issue.