Day 17: So much to do, so little time.

So this is the life of a teacher. You've missed a lot haven't you? Thanks for checking back in. I guess to catch you up I'll start with today and work my way backwards. Today was a good day, a work day, but a good day. I have something called the Teacher Work Sample due on Friday, and it is a confusing bear and a half. To meet some of its requirements, I had to do things a little differently today. The oddest thing was administering a pre-evaluation which is supposed to be replicated in post-evaluation. I may simply not understand it, but it seems silly–especially when working things like reading comprehension: Read this paragraph and tell me what it means. Wrong! Read it again. I'm a great teacher! I don't get it, or I'm just too miffed to care.

Today I also met with a lady that has dragged me into some sort of dissertation of hers. I can't tell if it's dissertation or a research and marketing project, though. She's had me train on an online classroom simulator that is supposed to help teachers recognize and effectively manage students with different abilities and characteristics. It demands a lot more time than I thought and I wanted out of the program entirely, but I think she's trying to keep me on because of how effectively I can articulate what a waste of time the damn thing is. I'd do it here, but I really don't have time.

Last thing about today: I had student (really sweet and quiet kid) come in after school about a test he needed to finish and some missing work. I really felt like a teacher and encouraged him to take it home and do is best. I spend so much time in a day putting up with knuckle heads. Overall, God really gave me a number of breaks today. I needed them.

Yesterday (Day 16) was a nightmare. I spent an absurd amount of time over the weekend grading a paper I had designed for Friday. I put the test together to as both a review of the main points from the book so far, but mostly it was designed as a reading comprehension and critical thinking assessment. The thing that I'm proud of, is that I think the test worked. "Good" students didn't necessary breeze right through it and "bad" students with good reading skills were able to demonstrate their ability when the chips are down. It really revealed to me just how diverse my classroom is was enlightening and frustrating. The hardest thing about it was that for a few students, it revealed how significantly below grade level they actually function.

But all that is just back story. Yesterday was the day I gave them their tests back, and had hoped that those who didn't finish would take advantage of the time to do so, and those who did would be interested in who got what right and what the answers were. No such luck, and I was sad about this because there were a number of outstanding performers that I wanted to recognize and I didn't know how, and, even worse, I didn't really have a place for the students who were done to go. It felt like a homeroom. I think I would have come up with a plan had I the time. It isn't that I completely failed to anticipate the problem, so I guess I feel alright about that. I still had to live with it, though.

The Friday they took the test doesn't actually count as one of my days because I had to go to a seminar. I stayed up late getting the test ready and dropped it off during homeroom and explained the test to the first class so my supervising teacher could explain it to the following class. In some ways it was nice because I expect the students took the test more seriously knowing that their "real" teacher was administering it. I spent the day and Seminar wondering how in the world I'm going to have everything ready for them next week.

Day 15 was a Thursday. It was a modification from the day before which I'll get to later. I decided that I needed to take a larger role in guiding the review and modeling what it means to skim a chapter. First I had the kids read a play that covered the material we read so far and then I distributed a sheet with chapter titles and page numbers on them, directing them to write the main ideas or actions from each chapter. To do this I modeled skimming by "thinking out-loud," searching for main ideas and recalling events from the chapter. I tried to alternate with the students chapter to chapter with varying degrees of success. All in all, it took a lot longer than I thought it would and we didn't get a change to watch the clip from the Charlie Chaplin movie which is just as well.

Day 14 is when I dropped the bomb on them in the middle of class that we would be having a test. I did this after having read a chapter and without really warning them. My plan was to have them write, as a class, one set of notes that they could all use for the test, and that it was all they would be able to use. I also kept track of class participation. I don't think the idea was bad, but (same old story) time wouldn't allow it.

Take a break from this! Are you still reading? Seriously, there is much more internet out there!