Gravity Has Extra Pull Today

And you know how I know gravity has extra pull today? Both sodas I have attempted to drink have ended up in a dented puddle on the ground. Stupid stupid. So I've ended up having half-sodas that were almost completely flat. I know these aren't technically teacher-y things, but it's almost all I can think about right now.

The good news is that we just started a new semester yesterday, which means that as of right now, I have no grading. It's a rather magical feeling, to be honest. I have been spending a little more time than usual lesson planning, but that's because I'm adding some new things to my sophomore curriculum this year. We moved our teaching of Julius Caesar to this semester, despite normally doing it in the first semester, because we completely and totally ran out of time, and getting sophomores through Caesar in a week is ... well, not only not nice, but just not possible. But four weeks? This feels luxurious. I am actually going to make it through it. Slowly, ish. And so the new stuff? Poetic meter. It's crazy. Totally crazy. But it's hard. And that's why I'm doing it. Also, my students legitimately suck at memorizing things. It's so weird. I remember memorization being so drilled into us by high school that it was the easiest thing a teacher asked us to do. But I think teachers have gotten so far away from teaching that requires strict memorization that our students really just don't know how. So all my kids are really going to need to know are the different metrical feet and metrical patterns. That's about it.

I'm also very excited about their final project for Shakespeare: an oral interpretation! They have six options, but all of them require actually performing. I'm excited to see what they come up with -- they've got many options of scenes. Also, one of the options is a puppet show. I hope they pick this option. I'm kinda stoked about it. I also made a big fat fool of myself today by demonstrating an oral interpretation of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. I did it ... as a valley girl. It was quite priceless. The kids weren't really quite sure what to make of it, but I think they were amused and slightly offended. Mostly because I was generally imitating them and how they talk.

So that's that. What else happened today? I got upset with my fourth period class because they don't really know how to not talk when I'm talking. It's incredibly irritating. So they lost the privilege of my teaching today, at least for part of the period because, really, why should I sit there and do battle with them when they don't want my wisdom? Too much work, not enough payoff.

Then after school was my department chair meeting. This one was fairly uneventful and drama free, though, seriously, teachers can invent drama out of nowhere, mostly because they come in late or aren't listening. It's sad sometimes.

I left school about 5:30. ::sigh:: And now I'm sitting on my recliner, contemplating the gym. I really have little excuse not to go -- I've eaten. I have no lesson planning to do. It's getting late enough that it might not be that crowded. ... ugh. But I already missed Monday's workout because of work-related burnout, so I must power on.

An Eighth Hat

In my post from Wednesday, I discussed the many different hats that I wear. And today, via email, I was reminded of my eighth hat: Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador.

It's that time of year. College applications are basically done (and having done more than 30 letters of recommendation, I am now way more acquainted with this process than I care to be) and so the contacting of prospective candidates now begins for every major college. Last year, I became officially a part of the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network, or CAAAN, after *thinking* I had enrolled a few years back (I never received any students to contact, so after some poking and prodding of the local Cornellian in charge of the San Diego CAAAN chapter, I had seven or eight students assigned to me).

Whew. Eight hats. And this eighth hat is clearly one that is going to mean extra time. In the email I received today, the CAAAN representative said we would probably each have at least eight students to contact, given that, once again, the number of prospective applicants in the area has increased. Quite mightily, actually. Now, normally I don't like to do this kind of math, but here it is: if each of those eight interviews takes at least half an hour, that's going to be at least four hours of my life. But that's not counting commute time, waiting time, notetaking time after the students leave, and filling out the paperwork time. So if each student takes approximately an hour, that's eight hours. And some of the meetings (note that I've been deliberately avoiding the word "interview" -- in the training materials we receive, we are reminded several [million] times that Cornell doesn't call these meetings "interviews." You know, because Cornell is the kinder, friendlier Ivy.) (While you're applying. It's the least kind and friendly once you're actually there.) (But don't tell the kids that.) ANYway... some of the meetings can take more than an hour, especially if you find yourself with a particularly chatty or inquisitive little hopeful Cornellian.

And then there are some that last fewer than thirty minutes and FEEL like nine hours. Like the kid I interviewed last year who wanted to major in Economics because his dad wanted him to major in Economics and didn't even know WHERE CORNELL WAS. And if I recall correctly, the phrase, "oh, I didn't realize it was somewhere where there was winter" was uttered.

Despite the realization, as a result of this whole blogging thing, that I really and truly do have a LOT on my plate, this is probably the hat that I enjoy wearing the most. First of all, it happens in a very narrow window of time. We generally have about three or four weeks to squeeze in all of the student contact meetings, we file our reports, and the job is over. So though it's a lot of time in the span of a few weeks, hey, no big deal. Last year, I used it as an excuse to camp out at a coffee shop or cafe an hour before the designated meeting time to squeeze in some grading.

But in the bigger, grander scheme of things, I enjoy doing the student interviews because I feel like it's an important way to give back to Cornell. I can't contribute too much money to them, because I basically make none, so there will never been any McMillan-flavored buildings on campus and such, and clearly I live 3,000 miles away from Cornell, so I can't mentor or otherwise support current students. But I can, from the comfort of a local Starbucks, meet with a prospective candidate and find out whether or not they're a good fit for Cornell.

I also vividly remember my Cornell interview; it's the one that stuck the most clearly in my mind because it was so ... easy. So casual. It seems so weird for a hard-core Ivy League -- especially given that I was interviewing for a spot in the Engineering School -- to say that my interview was easy and casual. But being a part of the process now, I see why. That's their whole philosophy. Don't talk numbers. Don't talk grades. Don't talk about the things that are on all of their other application materials. Talk about them. Their passions. Their troubles. Their questions. It's so much easier and I think we learn a lot more about the kids than other schools that have what sound like fairly prescriptive interview protocol.

So that's my eighth hat. It wears me out to think about it just now, so I think I am going to lie back in my recliner and take a nap ... you know, to save up all of the rest I'm going to need to make it through this eighth heap of responsibility on my plate, aside from Speech and Debate, Science Olympiad, department chairs, and AP English teacher. Among all those other things.

Promised Pictures: My New Bulletin Boards

So, I did say in yesterday's post that I'd post pictures. So here they are:

The top pictures are of my "This I Believe" board and the other is of the Shakespeare board. After Tuesday's activity with Shakespearean Insults, there will be cartoons in the empty spaces on the Shakespeare one.

The Time is Now 5:27 p.m....

... and it is Friday. And I am still at school.

::face plant onto desk::

Oh, the joys of Finals week. I did, however, just finish just about everything that I needed to do to get grades updated to reflect their final grades, save a pile of essays to grade and some make-up/late work to muddle through. But since school ended at 1:01 pm, I have been really rather productive.

I have ...
* graded 80 sets of final exam short answer questions.
* run 80 Scantrons through the Scantron machine. These Scantrons were double sided and slightly cranky.
* Graded 40 final exam essays
* Recorded 6 sets of grades at 80 grades each.
* Created two new bulletin boards (pictures to follow) -- one reflecting on my students' "This I Believe" speeches and one for our first sophomore unit of second semester, Shakespeare and Julius Caesar.
* Recorded a stack of late/make up work of approximately 4" in height from five periods' worth of students. THis is one of my absolute LEAST favorite adventures in teacher land: the late work pile.
* Exported and updated my grades onto my school website and adding an announcement to it to alert the kids to the changes.
* climbed all over desks to remove rogue staples from my bulletin boards that aren't "done up" yet. I'm OCD about my bulletin boards. THey must not have staples lurking in them, unless said staples are holding things onto the board.

And now, I think I'm going to basically just teleport my body home and leave everything exactly as it is. My classroom is a disaster, but at this point, given that it's now 5:33 and dinner time looms, it's inevitable that I'm going to have to come back at some point this weekend not only to clean up my classroom, but also make the zillions of copies I need to survive at LEAST Tuesday, the first day of a new semester.

Thus, onward. Cattywhompus desks and random piles of grading and paper be damned. There's always tomorrow at Tara.

Finals, Day 2

Remember how I said yesterday that I was planning to be super productive on my prep period this morning? Go ahead, go re-read yesterday's post. I'll wait. ::leans back and eats another brownie:: See that?

Yeah, that didn't happen. So, hmmm, let's see. I had to go retrieve some Scantrons from one of my English colleagues because I thought she was going to be the Captain of the Scantron to make sure they were being doled out appropriately; little did I know that my trip across campus and up to the second floor of our enormous N-building complex was sorta for naught because there were, in fact, Scantrons in the English supply closet ... that is around the corner from my classroom. ::facepalm:: I'm sure the walk did me good, though. And I still got Scantrons for my test. Win? I guess? Then, I checked my mailbox in the staff lounge and found the CPS form our student services guru left for me. Le sigh.

See, teachers are mandated reporters. Meaning that if I have an inkling about child abuse or neglect, I am legally obligated to report it. That's all.

Moving on to better things. Er, maybe not better. Yeah, I definitely didn't get much done. I did get my finals together, got them ordered by number, made the ten extra copies I needed to accommodate for the forty students who needed to take it (I think my class set was 30 ... :( ), made a new key because there are new questions, and wrote instructions on my white board for them. Then, I sorta-kinda sorted some of my mess on my desk, had breakfast, and suddenly it was time to greet the kids and get them started on their finals. While they finalled, I tried to lesson plan -- I got some done, but I'm basically starting to rethink all of it now. Heh. I always do this to myself. But I'm sure it will ultimately be fine. I just ... need to talk myself down off of a ledge where I try to do TOO MUCH IN TOO LITTLE TIME. I have this problem a lot. But I dislike mightily the idea of students just malingering in their seats. Anyway, I created some new materials for the Shakespeare unit, reviewed some of my assessment materials for that, began a four week unit calendar for the Shakespeare unit, and printed things out to photocopy this weekend before the new semester starts on Tuesday. I have a feeling on my Monday holiday day off, I'll be zinging copies away like I did early in the first semester. Hundreds and hundreds!

After school, we had a little going away party for one of our assistant principals, who just recently found out he's being transferred to another high school in our district. It's great for them and sucks for us. He's amazing. Really and truly. He's what holds our school together. He's organized, nice, always in a good mood, smart, hard working ... everything you hope for in an AP. Beth is replacing him, and I love her -- she was an AP for two years before stepping down into teaching this first semester, but she's going back into admin because they need her. And I love working with her, and she'll be taking over the job of department admin for my department again, so that's a bonus for me. But I love Dave. And Dave does our master schedule... this could be baaaad.

Then, I helped another colleague find some colored paper in the English paper cabinets because, you know, I am the Keeper of the Keys in the English department. And as soon as I knew it, it was time to flee campus for my gym appointment.

And now, it's 27 minutes past my 9:00 pm bedtime I set for myself this morning when I woke up so insanely tired, and I'm still awake because I just got home for the night.

Also, because I want this blog post to end on a possibly-more-positive note. About my kids. Because, after all, they're why I do this.

My students are awesome because ...

... they want to do a flash mob dance in the quad to this ... Which I think means I'm going to have to start learning it...

... they found genuine joy in watching Despicable Me the other day. I love the sound of a room full of teenagers laughing at something cute and innocent, and not a Internet Fail Friday fail of humanity. I like when they laugh at cartoons. At cute things. At the goodness and pureness in the world, rather than the insane and stupid. I love them.

... they ply me with treats in an attempt to butter me up for some reason or another. It doesn't work, because I'm mean, but it keeps me fed nonetheless.

... they make funny faces at me in the hallways and/or absolutely freak out when they happen to see me in the quad or walking by a classroom they're in. And they get SUPER excited when I make a funny face or wave back. Teachers have an incredible amount of sway over how a kid's moment-to-moment life goes; that is, a simple wave or smile or acknowledgement goes a long way with pretty much all kids.

... they indulge me when I'm being silly. Since I don't get mad really easily (okay, MAYBE that's a lie. I don't get mad at my students easily...), sometimes I'm just irritated or annoyed at them, especially when they don't get quiet. But as I learned from my super amazingsauce methods instructor at UCSD, you never waste your voice and energy on quieting your kids down. I have absolutely mastered the art of the quiet, slightly impatient stare. It's brilliant. But sometimes, when I'm not really mad, but wanting to just move on, I'll add something silly that the students inevitably follow. Such as putting my finger to my nose, Nose Goes style, and waiting for everyone to freak out and catch on. Patting my head until they all are doing it. Monday, I made moose antlers with my hands and waiting until the WHOLE class -- and I mean the WHOLE class, even Cool Hipster Kid in the back of the room and Aloof Smart Kid in the front of the room -- had moose antlers with their hands. Then I made them wiggle them. First the right hand. Then the left hand. A moment of silly in a fairly stressful day otherwise, but they do indulge me. And they're happy to play along, because they've now had a break, they can refocus, and they're paying attention. (Mostly.)

So that's that for tonight. Maybe tomorrow, as an homage to the end of finals, I'll share the wit and wisdom of our current junior class about their understanding of American Literature. Or perhaps my students' beliefs. They were pretty good.

And now? Bed. 39 minutes late. Give or take the shower.

Finals, Day One

Oy vey. Finals. Which inevitably means grades are due. And my AP kids this year are grade grubby little suckahs, so they've been driving me INSANE in the membrane about their final grades, so I'm trying desperately trying to get them as updated as possible, and I still have one more fairly major thing to grade, and I've been honestly and truly trying to grade them every night, but holy crap on a cracker I have so many OTHER things going on that's making it really hard to finish. I'm training for a half marathon, so I've been trying to diligently start the baby steps into training for that, so I've tried to etch out time each night to work out, and I'm really going to try not to have tonight be the night that I don't work out. I'm also trying to put Christmas away, feed myself, make sure my finals are together and I have all the materials I need, and sleep enough. And though I know there are some teachers who sometimes pull all nighters or grade at night, but it's just not fair for me to grade them when I'm tired.

Also, I wear a lot of hats. Since this blog didn't exactly get updated as consistently as it could or should have, I don't think I really delved deeply into the many, many different roles that I play during my day/week/month/year as a teacher. Aside from being an English teacher, I'm an AP English teacher, so that's a different hat. I'm also the English department chair, so that's another hat. I'm the Speech and Debate coach; another hat. I'm the teacher advisor of the Science Olympiad team; another hat. I am teaching an afterschool class for teachers about technology; another hat. And I run an event for the San Diego Regional Science Olympiad; another hat. So, how many is that? Seven? ::smacks forehead:: Holy moly.

Tonight, I was wearing my Event Captain for Science Olympiad hat by sitting through a really long meeting at the Natural History Museum of which my part consisted of about fifteen minutes. And I went last. So I sat FOREVER through this meeting. And I'm definitely wishing I'd have taken my time, stopped for a bite to eat, and come in towards the end. My event is last alphabetically, although I'm thinking that's not really why I went last, I don't think. Now, normally I can multitask with the best of them, and given that none of this information really made any whit of difference whatsoever, but still, I couldn't focus. Part of it was that I was hungry. But part of it was that I was so annoyed by some of the questions. SO annoyed. But I get it: some of the coaches are new, some of the events are new, and sometimes the event captains don't always come to these meetings. But I have so much work I wanted to do that now I'm sad. It's 8:30. I've just wolfed dinner down. And I really need to eek out a workout because of my training plan. I guess perhaps more grading isn't really going to get done tonight. ::grumble::

Hopefully, tomorrow, on my long prep, I can do some lesson planning, some grading, some cleaning, and some prepping of final materials. And get my hand on some more scantrons. Joy. And then during my sophomore final, grade more. And lesson plan more.

Now, I'm going to make my lunch while some brownies cook (simple pleasures are the only thing getting me through) and then changing for the gym. I feel like if I feel better -- stronger, healthier, thinner -- I'll be more focused and a better teacher.

Onward.

New Year, New Resolve

So. Yeah. That lasted a long time. I was so diligent for awhile. Well, okay, not for very long at all. But, sadly, that's what happens when your year looks like mine. Let's see. We've missed October, November, and December. Three months. I guess that's not ... that ... much? Hah. The highlights and lowlights:

* We had another current student pass away this year. He was a senior. This time around, it was discovered that it was a latent heart condition; one of those things where their hearts are enlarged and just stop. I remember a fellow freshman Cornellian dying the same way, in his sleep over Fall Break. It's so sad.

* One of my students was diagnosed with lymphoma, and another with something else of which the name escapes me right now... but both of them have been missing for weeks, or in the case of the young lady with lymphoma, months. But since I have her friended on facebook, I get to keep up with her progress.

* The gas issue seems to have been resolved. They did all manner of testing and such and determined that it really was just the release of the gas when the heating/cooling unit kicks on in the morning. ::shrug:: Whatever.

* My AP kids are weirdly needy this year and have sucked up a good portion of my soul with their questions and their panicking. However, unlike how I was in my first few years, I now just look at them with a semi-interested stare and say things like, "No, you don't NEED an A. You WANT an A. Society tells you to WANT an A. But you have to EARN the A."

* We've finally developed a bit of inside-joke cameraderie in my AP classes; I kinda thought this was never going to happen this year. Last year's class was so quick to latch on to something as an inside joke. It's starting, slowly, with these kids. I love them just as much (though I think I'll always have a soft spot for that first group of AP kids) but dangnabit they're needy. So many questions!

* My sophomores are definitely a better crop than I had last year. They're kinda weird and kinda funny, but they're people-pleasers as a group, so when I get upset with them, there's an improvement in their behavior and their work. Last year's group? Pah. Not really. So this year's group is solid. But slipping into bad habits and part of that is my fault, so as second semester approaches next week, I'll be retraining them. Er, reprogramming? Haha. Retraining. We'll stick with that.

* I have graded SO MUCH work that I might need glasses and/or an eyeball transplant. I've killed several red pens. Like, carry the same one around and it runs out of ink by the end of a SINGLE ESSAY assignment. This has never happened to me. It's quite telling, both of how much feedback I'm providing, but even still, when I don't provide that much feedback, I've still actually run pens out of ink on a single set of papers.

* Have dealt with some interesting parent issues this year, from parents that want me to raise their kids for them to parents in denial about what is actually the true issue with their kid. But, weirdly, after blow ups with the parents, I realize that I have a better relationship with their kids; like their kids seem me on their side and not necessarily on the side with their parents. I mean, obviously I'm on the side with the parents when it comes to them being successful, but I'm articulating it and problem-solving it in a way that gives the child value. Two of these students, in particular, have maybe not entirely changed their behavior in terms of producing quality work, but they are much, much happier and engaging in class, and hey, as long as they don't make my job actually harder, I can work with that. One of these students got 100% on her This I Believe essay. I love this kid. She's awesome.

* Had a student faint in class; that was the day we found out about the student who passed away. He died int he morning before school, so it was all a very weird day, especially since we were supposed to be on an assembly schedule, and then we weren't... it was confusing and weird for everyone. But the student fainting was a first. But the kids are so good at my school that they all knew exactly what to do. Before even I could get my wits enough to tell kids what to do, a girl was already sprinting out the door to the health office. All seemed well. I mean, you know, considering. The student has been battling some health issues since last year; I had her as a student in the beginning of the year last year, but they enrolled her at our off-campus site when she was dealing with the majority of her issues. I think they're starting to work themselves out.

* Have been waging a war against the "I'll do it later" and "But I worked on it -- I know it was due nine weeks ago, but can I please turn it in for full credit?" mentality we've created at our school. My last war, which was the week or so before Winter Break, was about Saturday School. ::shaking fist:: I might rant about that in a separate entry. I have neither the strength nor the sticking power tonight to get to it.

I shall also at some point wax poetic about the fail that was Winter Break, given that this year so far has drained every ounce of spirit and happiness from me. Okay, maybe that's being a little drama-queen, but really, Winter Break and the whole holiday season just seemed ... flat. Like watching a 3-D movie without the glasses: you know it always holds potential, but you just lack the tools to enjoy it properly. Everything just felt hurried and harried and harassed and just not fun.

So. I guess that's being caught up. We're about to embark on second semester, so I will attempt to be more diligent in my blogging. I mean, what good is it, really, if I'm not doing it?! And Summer will make me. She's doing her own teaching blog. So if she can do it, I can do it. Huzzah.