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March 27, 2008
Ode to too much work
Since the middle of March, I've been working every evening training other teachers and scoring the state math exams. I leave to my normal school job in the mornings, do all my normal work, then jump on a train downtown to do the scoring work. We finish at 8pm, I get on a train, and I'm home by 9. I work Saturdays and Sundays 8 hours a day, then go get groceries, then the next day do laundry. My normal home jobs and tasks take up the remaining time or are postponed. I also stupidly opted to complete a six week online math course during this time. Stupid, stupid optimism.
I was sitting there on the subway heading home, trying to read some math lessons I'm planning, and I could not focus. I read through the text, realized I had read a whole page without any comprehension, then just gave up. When I got home, I didn't want to do any school work. I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to pay bills. I didn't want to to anything at all.
Here's the big idea that struck me. I realized that my level of tiredness is what so many of my students' parents deal with every day. Some work twelve hours a day, and I know their jobs are more exhausting than mine. I can't even imagine dealing with kids after 12 hours of work, plus laundry, groceries, cleaning, medical stuff, and checking homework. I can just imagine that hearing a terse message from their teenager's math teacher is probably the last thing they want to hear.
I'm lucky. I'm doing this for extra cash and building experience evaluating student work, not because I have to pay rent. Derrick walks the dog, makes me lunch, and cooks the meals. If he weren't here, I would be coming home to dog poop all over the house, and I'd be eating a bunch of PB&J.
I have to do my extra work for a few more weeks, then I'll have time to relax again. I'm not saying I'm giving up calling the parents. They still need to know that their child is the school's expert wedgie-giver, but I know that I'm going to take extra care to be as respectful as I possibly can of their lives.
Posted by G at 09:05 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
March 13, 2008
Who is your math scoring daddy?
Me, that's who!
I was just selected as one of the ten trainers for all the scoring of state math tests in Manhattan. Cool honor, plus I get 80 hours of after-school payment. For the next 3 weeks, I'll be first training, then supervising the scoring of approximately 70-80,000 tests. Every evening, plus Saturdays and Sundays. Crazy hours, but crazy money. Oh yeah, I'm also completing a 30 hour online course for a Geometry software training program, five hours a week.
So goodbye social life. Goodbye free time. Goodbye watching cartoons on Saturdays.
Posted by G at 08:18 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
March 09, 2008
Science articles that make me chuckle
Sun's corona is both hot and kinky.
Posted by G at 11:23 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
March 07, 2008
King for a day
I don't talk much any more about my work. Some of my reticence stems from knowing that other teachers know about the blog, some comes from the lack of interaction with kids, as I now work primarily with teachers. My time= 50% office work, 30% teacher work, and 20% classroom work.
Today was classroom work at one of my favorite schools. It would be one of my top choices of schools to step back into the classroom. It has pretty serious gang problems, attendance problems, and the majority of the kids are from very low income families. They also have a dedicated, positive staff and a supportive administration.
By the way, this is where I love to be. There is no fun being in a school where all the kids are all working perfectly. There is no hope in a school where the administration is negative.
Today I got to work with a series of teachers with whom I have built a good relationship. They're willing to take chances, which is crucial. If a teacher is willing to take chances, they can usually get students to take a chance too. Today we turned the tables on a group of low-level students who were struggling through circle geometry, letting them be the teachers. They were in groups of four, and each student was given a geometric construction of circles, quadrilaterals, and triangles, somewhat like this:
They had to describe using only words their shape as the other three students had to draw it. They could measure it, use any examples or vocabulary they wanted, then the next student had to describe theirs, and so on. For a teacher accustomed to working only at the board, this is a powerful moment. When you have a rich task, kids cease to really have behavior issues, and your job as a teacher changes. Yes, the kids were talking, but they were talking about the math- laughing, comparing, clarifying, questioning. By the end, most of the kids were using correct vocabulary, as they realized that the more precise the language, the easier it was to do their work. The other great thing is that the teacher was really free to listen to the conversations, guide their questions, and really assess the students' knowledge more effectively than an exam.
This is how math should be learned. I'll be in the same school for a few days next week, again modeling lessons with other teachers, other classes. I am so excited to be doing this. I miss being a teacher. I miss working with the kids.
Every time I am back in the classroom, it is so tough to go back to the office. I'm good at the office stuff, and a lot of our good ideas are ones I think of, and I know that I'm helping other teachers. I have so many pushes from all directions to keep heading upwards, but the only way I could see that would be in an English model, where I still teach at least one class, or maybe a lab/fishbowl setting.
This is one of those weird education dilemmas.
Stay in a classroom, keep working on being the best teacher possible. Rewards: The situation that occurred last week, when one of my students from a few years ago spotted me on subway, came up, and thanked me for math, telling me that what I taught him he still used all the time. I get to personally involve myself in the lives of about 100-120 kids every year. Summers filled with sun and fun. Costs: Crappy income. Frustration about inability to change system. Grading homework. Stinky kids.
Move up. Train other teachers. Take my good ideas, spread them out. Become a policy maker. Rewards: Watch my ideas affect a small group of teachers, but thousands of students, but only in a diffuse manner. More money. Costs: Getting bogged down in management. No more class time. No connection to actual students. Wearing a suit. No summers.
In Education 1.0, this would have been different. I wouldn't have started teaching in my mid-30s. I would have entered teaching WAY back when I still had hair on the top of my head, and by 40-45, gone into an administrative position. In Education 2.0, a huge swath of experienced educators and administrators are retiring, and education recruits people like me in the middle of their lives. Of my 2001 Teaching Fellows Cohort of about 30 teachers, I know about half are already in some form of administration, not necessarily from desire, but because of need. We entered the world of education because we saw a dire need, and now that we are becoming decent teachers, we also see a dire need for more effective administrators.
Posted by G at 04:18 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
March 02, 2008
Nader as the Pinto
I've spent the last 8 years being politically cranky. I was serving in Peace Corps Uzbekistan back in 2000, my absentee ballot being sent to the morass of Texas, anxiously trying to find any news of the election in my world of no tv, radio, or internet. Gore lost, Ralph Nader also lost and siphoned off 97,000 votes, precluding this country from having possibly the greenest president ever. I will not put the blame on him, as he had every right to run for president, and he has every right to reject the two party system.
Since that point, let's compare the two men. Al Gore won a Nobel prize for his efforts on behalf of the environment and pulled the environment into the discussion, becoming a nationally admired hero. And what has the former Green Party candidate (not endorsed by the Green Party in 2004) done since 2000?
I began by searching numerous websites, almost all of which are incredibly critical. Wikipedia has quite a few links that are better referenced. To be fair, Nader campaigned for Jason West, the Green mayor of New Paltz, NY back in 2007. He lost, but that doesn't mean that Nader also cost that election. Nader doesn't sit on his laurels, but almost everyone who will still listen to him does so because of his greatness in the 60's and 70's.
My friend James is an adamant supporter of Ralph Nader. James is right, by the way, that Nader more accurately reflects my political beliefs than either Hillary or Obama, although Kucinich got my vote. If Manhattan were its own country, then Nader would possibly be a terrific president, although I do have serious concerns over his autocratic and secretive personal style. There are numerous, valid criticisms. His own finances and stocks include Halliburton and Exxon. He smashed the of unionization of his own magazine, and his own preference for lawyers rather than grass-roots change leaves me cold.
James is wrong, though, because if Ralph had really wanted to be a real candidate, he would have had the courage of Dennis Kucinich and recognized that this is a two party system, period (and yes, we should all move to Canada). Kucinich is as liberal, as progressive, and he had the courage to attempt to sway the party that basically includes everyone who is liberal and progressive. James can criticize the two party system all he wants, but even if this were a parliamentary system, the religious right, the bigots, and the homophobes outnumber him and would have their own parties. We would always still have a centrist coalition, and in the US those are called the Democratic and Republican parties.
If Ralph actually wanted the Presidency, then he should have joined as a candidate of the Democratic Party. I would have loved to see him debate Hillary, Obama, and Edwards; swaying enough people through logic and positions to get him the nomination. Like McCain, he could have gone with public financing, thereby avoiding the corporations he advocates against.
However, just like the Ford Corporations that he sued in earlier decades, he refuses to accept that his politically spiked steering wheel has endangered thousands, if not millions. And just like the courts decided that Ford was dangerous years ago, the last two elections have told him that they don't want him, as they find him unsafe at any speed. He is just ignoring our voices, and all of us are unwilling passengers.
Posted by G at 08:47 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack