From time to time I'll throw a short blog into the mix about an interesting day at school. These blogs will digress from the train of thought being developed in my regular weekly blog.
Today we are in the midst of homecoming activities week and the kids were to dress as animals to earn points for their grade levels. I had a stuffed weasel that I put onto my shoulder with some masking tape. Kids just love being scared by a teacher. One sophomore girl screamed so loud when she suddenly saw it up close that she was heard throughout the building. Luckily it was between classes. What made it so funny is that I had her in class last year and she was used to my antics.
It is interesting how my relationship with my students has evolved as I have become more experienced. Kids appreciate a humanistic approach that includes some give and take teasing coupled with a teacher/student relationship that maintains some boundaries.
I have been wearing a lab coat on a regular basis for the first time in twenty years along with a tie. It is funny that most comments are about the lab coat and just an ocassional mention about the tie. There are only three teachers who regularly wear a tie so I am a bit surprised about that. but I did get comments about my Project Mercury/Space Shuttle tie today.
I will be retiring in 2-3 years and I thought I would go out looking as professional as when I started teaching many years ago. I wore a tie my first five years of teaching and then stopped, opting for a more casual appearance.
For secret agent day one of the sophomore girls is planning to wear a lab coat so she can be like me (although I don't see the connection to being a secret agent). One of the boys is planning to be me for Halloween and do the same thing. Should be interesting.
I had a lot of fun in lab today watching students struggle over finding a way to determine the volume of an irregular piece of salt so they could determine its density. In Physics one of my seniors figured it out. The advanced freshmen don't have a prayer. I seldom ever give kids a straight answer. I want them to use that thing between their ears to do some reasoning based upon the hints I give them. Some get frustrated while others accept the challenge. The trick is to keep them working at the problem without giving up.
Meanwhile my Fundamentals of Science 9 students are getting the hang of work with drafting equipment (mechanical drawing) and should be able to master scale drawings and subsequently map reading.
Last week all of my ninth graders were enthralled with the lesson. It was on an 18mm film shown on an old projector. None of them had ever seen an actual film in school. I have a film library purchased from EBay and the single concepts they present are as relevant today as when they were filmed. Videos tend to be too much of a shotgun aproach.
Next time it is back to Newbies.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Becoming A Newbie
A newbie is a first year teacher. I was one a long time ago in the state of Pennsylvania.
I still remember how nervous I was when I walked through students to enter the high school on my first day as an educator. I had applied to substitute at my alma mater and prepared to be drafted into the army for Vietnam.
I was called into the district office and met the superintendent from a nearby district who offered me a full time position teaching math. Since I had a science degree, he felt I could handle the math. Especially since the kids had destroyed three different subs and he couldn’t find any math subs with a death wish.
My cooperating teacher during my student teacher experience had taught me a lot and I was not only able to get through the rest of that school year, but was given a permanent contract to teach science the following year. Unfortunately my undergraduate education classes were little or no help at all.
As a new teacher, I depended upon the advice of other teachers to help me resolve bad situations. There were no mentors available to new teachers. I was lucky to be teaching with two other science teachers who willing to help me plus the district was a very small district where everyone worked together or at least knew each other's business.
New teachers today still have to complete student teaching in order to get their credentials. Then in Washington State they have to pay for an additional two years of education before they are considered competent enough to receive professional certification. Even then the state is not done. Every five years until retirement the equivalent of an additional 15 credits must be completed.
These requirements say a number of things. First, undergraduate educational programs are out of touch with reality and don’t prepare truly qualified teachers. Second, be prepared to spend money and time to be licensed to earn a minimal salary that is actually insulting to a college graduate. Third, teachers are not dedicated enough to stay up to date on their own and the state has to force them to recertify every five years (must have been a university lobby at work here). Fourth, bright, dedicated people take the good paying career tracks so the state and university system have to guide the rest of us bozos through the complexities of the classroom.
The reality is that dedicated people are subject to the mediocre teaching methods practiced in undergraduate education classes and then required to spend additional funds for continuing indoctrination throughout their teaching careers. Requirements are piled on while salaries stagnate.
In spite of all attempts by the state to keep the best people out of education, I have seen many dedicated people enter education and stay there. I have also seen some that needed a lot more training to be successful in the classroom.
In my next blog, I’ll share some stories about Newbies in school.
I still remember how nervous I was when I walked through students to enter the high school on my first day as an educator. I had applied to substitute at my alma mater and prepared to be drafted into the army for Vietnam.
I was called into the district office and met the superintendent from a nearby district who offered me a full time position teaching math. Since I had a science degree, he felt I could handle the math. Especially since the kids had destroyed three different subs and he couldn’t find any math subs with a death wish.
My cooperating teacher during my student teacher experience had taught me a lot and I was not only able to get through the rest of that school year, but was given a permanent contract to teach science the following year. Unfortunately my undergraduate education classes were little or no help at all.
As a new teacher, I depended upon the advice of other teachers to help me resolve bad situations. There were no mentors available to new teachers. I was lucky to be teaching with two other science teachers who willing to help me plus the district was a very small district where everyone worked together or at least knew each other's business.
New teachers today still have to complete student teaching in order to get their credentials. Then in Washington State they have to pay for an additional two years of education before they are considered competent enough to receive professional certification. Even then the state is not done. Every five years until retirement the equivalent of an additional 15 credits must be completed.
These requirements say a number of things. First, undergraduate educational programs are out of touch with reality and don’t prepare truly qualified teachers. Second, be prepared to spend money and time to be licensed to earn a minimal salary that is actually insulting to a college graduate. Third, teachers are not dedicated enough to stay up to date on their own and the state has to force them to recertify every five years (must have been a university lobby at work here). Fourth, bright, dedicated people take the good paying career tracks so the state and university system have to guide the rest of us bozos through the complexities of the classroom.
The reality is that dedicated people are subject to the mediocre teaching methods practiced in undergraduate education classes and then required to spend additional funds for continuing indoctrination throughout their teaching careers. Requirements are piled on while salaries stagnate.
In spite of all attempts by the state to keep the best people out of education, I have seen many dedicated people enter education and stay there. I have also seen some that needed a lot more training to be successful in the classroom.
In my next blog, I’ll share some stories about Newbies in school.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Two Down- 34 to go
I've been back in my classroom two weeks and things are falling into place. My students are getting used to me and I'm getting used to them. One even interrupted me ten minutes into lecture one day to ask when class would end, and did I intend to keep talking the whole time. It is amazing to me how some kids act toward a teacher. It is as if we can't do anything to affect their lives for the upcoming 180 days.
The class sizes are being adjusted with the health teacher down from 40 to the low 30's. My largest class is now at 32. But it is offset with a couple of small classes. That helps my average class size, but puts some limits on my helpfulness in the larger classes whenever individual help is needed.
Our school was just remodeled and I was rewarded with my own computer lab of 15 new Dells. I think the principal took pity on me because for the past ten years I have been supplying my own student computers through EBay. I just finished networking them and today students were able to start working with them. They are a great tool for teaching science.
Speaking of class sizes- let me finish my story from last week. Remember that this was my first full year of teaching. I don't think I mentioned that I was in a small district in Pennsylvania.
I waited for the 54 students to arrive for their first day with me. They all squeezed into my classroom. The twenty without desks stood around the back of the room. They were too shocked at the number of kids in the room to even think of throwing spitballs or kicking each other.
I "took the bull by the horns" and marched the 54 ninth graders out of my regular classroom down to the cafeteria, where I assigned two students to each lunch table. I rolled in a portable chalkboard and got ready to teach.
I actually had this situation for about a week. Not being an experienced teacher, I decided that I had to be a real prick or there was no way I could survive. The first student to start talking when I was lecturing got a severe reprimand in the form of a verbal toungue lashing, after I slammed a meter stick onto the table right in front of him. Talking was not a problem after that.
I assigned homework the second day and any student who did not have it done got chewed out in front of the class. I kept a paddle close to hand where all could see it.
I had decided that the only way to control such a large group of students, who were not academically motivated, was to be very strict and downright nasty. It worked for the first week. Then the science chairman volunteered to set up another class and took twenty of the students out of the class. I was then able to get back into a classroom and forgot about joining the army (at least for the next few weeks).
I'm not sure what had gone on behind the scenes. As a new teacher I was trying to survive. In those days it was pretty much sink or swim. The principal had put the schedule together and had messed up some classes. I suspect they were afraid of what might happen if I continued in such a difficult situation.
The joys of being a new teacher! Things are so much better for new teachers today. NOT! That everyone should want to go into teaching. YEAH, SURE! More on this topic in a future blog.
The class sizes are being adjusted with the health teacher down from 40 to the low 30's. My largest class is now at 32. But it is offset with a couple of small classes. That helps my average class size, but puts some limits on my helpfulness in the larger classes whenever individual help is needed.
Our school was just remodeled and I was rewarded with my own computer lab of 15 new Dells. I think the principal took pity on me because for the past ten years I have been supplying my own student computers through EBay. I just finished networking them and today students were able to start working with them. They are a great tool for teaching science.
Speaking of class sizes- let me finish my story from last week. Remember that this was my first full year of teaching. I don't think I mentioned that I was in a small district in Pennsylvania.
I waited for the 54 students to arrive for their first day with me. They all squeezed into my classroom. The twenty without desks stood around the back of the room. They were too shocked at the number of kids in the room to even think of throwing spitballs or kicking each other.
I "took the bull by the horns" and marched the 54 ninth graders out of my regular classroom down to the cafeteria, where I assigned two students to each lunch table. I rolled in a portable chalkboard and got ready to teach.
I actually had this situation for about a week. Not being an experienced teacher, I decided that I had to be a real prick or there was no way I could survive. The first student to start talking when I was lecturing got a severe reprimand in the form of a verbal toungue lashing, after I slammed a meter stick onto the table right in front of him. Talking was not a problem after that.
I assigned homework the second day and any student who did not have it done got chewed out in front of the class. I kept a paddle close to hand where all could see it.
I had decided that the only way to control such a large group of students, who were not academically motivated, was to be very strict and downright nasty. It worked for the first week. Then the science chairman volunteered to set up another class and took twenty of the students out of the class. I was then able to get back into a classroom and forgot about joining the army (at least for the next few weeks).
I'm not sure what had gone on behind the scenes. As a new teacher I was trying to survive. In those days it was pretty much sink or swim. The principal had put the schedule together and had messed up some classes. I suspect they were afraid of what might happen if I continued in such a difficult situation.
The joys of being a new teacher! Things are so much better for new teachers today. NOT! That everyone should want to go into teaching. YEAH, SURE! More on this topic in a future blog.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Stack 'em deep, teach 'em cheap.
One full week plus two days back in the classroom and enjoying almost every minute of it. I just love the banter with my students as I help them adjust to high school while turning them into "little scientists".
I have two ninth grade CP classes with 29 and 31 students. That is a high number to do any individual work with students, but in a CP class many of the students are self directed. I can handle it but it is not an ideal situation. In a 1 hour class period, each student gets 2 minutes (but then who's counting?)
Contrast that with the health teacher who has a room full of ninth graders of varying abilities and behaviors. He had 40 students until yesterday when 1 was transferred. We have had math classes in the high 30's and history is often in the 30's. Don't even think about PE where the 40's are not uncommon class sizes.
Teaching associations (unions) try to have class size limitations placed into teacher contracts. Seldom will a school board even consider any sort of binding language since the costs can be horrendous. The best we could get was an agreement that the district would work very hard at keeping the class size average about 24 across the district.
My district is a small district and scheduling is very difficult with our limitations. However, we have most class sizes set at reasonable numbers as we begin this school year. The administration realizes the importance of class size to education and does work to shrink oversize classes.
Some districts focus on costs when working with averages and will count the counselors, librarians, and SPED teachers, who are all certified personnel. That puts a number of zeros to low double digits into the calculations.
Any parent with a child in a large class needs to make some noise and annoy their school board representative.
I remember my first full year of teaching. We did not see our class lists until the day before the kids arrived. I taught the ninth grade science and geography. I had six classes. One of my two advanced classes had six students. My third period class had 54 students assigned to it. I took over the cafeteria and considered joining the army.
I'll tell you what happened in my next blog.
I have two ninth grade CP classes with 29 and 31 students. That is a high number to do any individual work with students, but in a CP class many of the students are self directed. I can handle it but it is not an ideal situation. In a 1 hour class period, each student gets 2 minutes (but then who's counting?)
Contrast that with the health teacher who has a room full of ninth graders of varying abilities and behaviors. He had 40 students until yesterday when 1 was transferred. We have had math classes in the high 30's and history is often in the 30's. Don't even think about PE where the 40's are not uncommon class sizes.
Teaching associations (unions) try to have class size limitations placed into teacher contracts. Seldom will a school board even consider any sort of binding language since the costs can be horrendous. The best we could get was an agreement that the district would work very hard at keeping the class size average about 24 across the district.
My district is a small district and scheduling is very difficult with our limitations. However, we have most class sizes set at reasonable numbers as we begin this school year. The administration realizes the importance of class size to education and does work to shrink oversize classes.
Some districts focus on costs when working with averages and will count the counselors, librarians, and SPED teachers, who are all certified personnel. That puts a number of zeros to low double digits into the calculations.
Any parent with a child in a large class needs to make some noise and annoy their school board representative.
I remember my first full year of teaching. We did not see our class lists until the day before the kids arrived. I taught the ninth grade science and geography. I had six classes. One of my two advanced classes had six students. My third period class had 54 students assigned to it. I took over the cafeteria and considered joining the army.
I'll tell you what happened in my next blog.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
My Teaching Background
My teaching career began in 1967 when I was hired by a small school district to teach six sections of math: general math grade 7 and grade 8, algebra grade 9, business math grade 10, and shop math grade 11 for one semester. The substitues that had taught these classes were "eaten alive" by the students.
That was a very interesting year and more than once I considered resigning and joining the army. But I survived and taught at that Jr. Sr. High School for two more years. I taught Earth Science and Geography for that time.
Then I took a position in another district from 1969 until June, 1986. I taught many different science classes/courses while at my new district. I taught courses in astronomy, geology, marine science, radiation biology, and agriculture.
I then left education for the business world in another state until 1992. At that time I accepted a teaching position for 8th grade science and history. I taught history for one year and then I taught only 8th grade science.
After nine years with eighth graders, I changed districts in order to teach high school students. I have just begun my ninth year at this last position and I will retire from it in either two or three years.
I have been teaching science, with a six year hiatus, for 37 years. I will havea total of about 40 years of experience when I retire from teaching.
I still enjoy teaching and I love to interact with my students. The constant challenges keep me energized and being around young people keep me feeling young myself.
I have gained many insights into the world of education and I have had many interesting things happen in my classrooms over the years. I have worked with many different administrators and teachers in a variety of school districts in two different states in different parts of the country.
I took my "rose colored glasses" off a long time ago. I will write about true events, do a little politicising, and I will point out what I see as some of the fallicies being spread around about public education today.
Stay tuned for some enjoyable as well as poignant experiences.
That was a very interesting year and more than once I considered resigning and joining the army. But I survived and taught at that Jr. Sr. High School for two more years. I taught Earth Science and Geography for that time.
Then I took a position in another district from 1969 until June, 1986. I taught many different science classes/courses while at my new district. I taught courses in astronomy, geology, marine science, radiation biology, and agriculture.
I then left education for the business world in another state until 1992. At that time I accepted a teaching position for 8th grade science and history. I taught history for one year and then I taught only 8th grade science.
After nine years with eighth graders, I changed districts in order to teach high school students. I have just begun my ninth year at this last position and I will retire from it in either two or three years.
I have been teaching science, with a six year hiatus, for 37 years. I will havea total of about 40 years of experience when I retire from teaching.
I still enjoy teaching and I love to interact with my students. The constant challenges keep me energized and being around young people keep me feeling young myself.
I have gained many insights into the world of education and I have had many interesting things happen in my classrooms over the years. I have worked with many different administrators and teachers in a variety of school districts in two different states in different parts of the country.
I took my "rose colored glasses" off a long time ago. I will write about true events, do a little politicising, and I will point out what I see as some of the fallicies being spread around about public education today.
Stay tuned for some enjoyable as well as poignant experiences.
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