I need a bottle of fine whine...

Let's open this bottle of fine whine:

• Parents are crazy. From the "outside" looking in, perfectly reasonable (I'm assuming) people go absolutely nuts over their kids, whether it's necessary or not. Time to reevaluate the sanity of mine. Surely, they weren't this kooky? Right?

• Field trips are crazy. And tiring. And time consuming. 



At least, I got to come back with this. 

• Testing sucks. Developing a test or compiling test questions is the most soul-sucking task I've had yet as a teacher. Test days themselves suck. It takes all I have to not say after 10 minutes, "All right! 100s for participation. Let's talk about the energy transformation in explosions!"

• Graduate school and being a first-year teacher is the one of the worst situations I've ever put myself into. Seriously. 

Honestly, it would all be easier without this "Theory and Pedagogy in Middle Childhood Science and Math" class in my life. Or maybe it is the self-congratulating professor I could do without. Normally, I don't like calling specifics out in my life, so I don't. However, this class will be an exception. Excuse me for a moment while I go all "Inception" on my fine whines.

• Assigned readings that are 30 pages are a waste of time, especially when we don't discuss it or we discuss it at a superficial level. Why the hell are we wasting time figuring out how cells can relate to students? Let's talk about the variety of research on inquiry-based teaching methods. No? We're seriously going to talk about dude in the back and his adventure with an unruly student (which is the same "adventure" every teacher deals with at some point in time)? Yup. Wasted afternoon. 

• By the way, discussing the definition of the word does not a deep conversation make. No joke, an entire session was dedicated to what does the word "inquiry" mean. Did this lead to a conversation on what makes a good inquiry-based lesson or lab versus a bad one? No, it did not. Yet another Tuesday afternoon wasted. 

• Oh. I take the last bullet back (partially). We did discuss what some other dude who reported on another dude's research said made a good inquiry-based lab. However, I've got a question. When exactly do we let the students come up with their own instructions on how to do the lab (open-question inquiry lab, BTW)? I know we are all "constructivist" and stuff, but should I really let them "construct" their own labs without anything else beforehand? How reasonable is this? When in the "learning cycle" should we try to implement this? No discussion? No. Okay. And we're back to another wasted Tuesday afternoon. 

• Please stop telling us how awesome your lesson was unless we are about to deconstruct it to figure out why it was good, especially if you are not going to share what you did. You're wasting class time. 

My bottle of fine whine is empty, so I'll end on positive notes about my original three bullets. 

• If I were a parent, I would go just as hard for my kid. While it is annoying sometimes juggling parents, I try to keep in mind that (a) these crazy parents kept the doors of my school open, and (b) these parents actually respect me and my word enough that they ask me the 1,987,378,432 questions that they do. 

• Field trips are crazy. And tiring. And time consuming. But hell of a lot of fun. I had a good time experiencing the wonders of life with them, and more importantly, they had a good time and learned a lot!

•  Testing is still a drag, but it's a necessary evil that I'll learn to live with. Besides, it is a good feeling when they do well. 

If it is not obvious, let me state it: I love teaching. I love my school and my kids (though I don't say it enough to them). I hate graduate school :)

Five Minutes of Reflection #2

• The gym will be my saving grace. While I'm generally not a fan of extreme physical exertion, it has done wonders for my stress level and my energy level. Nothing like exchanging mental anguish and pain (I exaggerate) for physical pain!

How I feel when 900 dudes peak outside my window and stand in my classroom.






• Oddly enough, I'm getting used to the "Fish Bowl Phenomenon". Just like the fish in a tank get used to the folks tapping the glass, I am too. In fact, I don't mind it so much anymore, though I did last week, when I decided to teach in silence one period in response to misbehavior. Oh, well. We never know what Ms. Insane will do next!



Teaching Fail of the Month

• By far, the dumbest thing I've done in awhile was "trying to be cute" today. I thought because we had "special guests" at the school today, I would be a little dressier than usual...which would include actual adult heels. Big. Freaking. Mistake. As I type this, my feet are propped up. Teachers wear flats (and are frequent patients of podiatrists) for a reason. EPIC FAIL, Ms. Insane. 

The CRCT cheating report finally hit the fan

There are no words for the actual insanity found here, here and here. I'm so angry that a relatively small percentage of stupid, cowardly adults are what reflects the values of the entirety of Atlanta Public Schools.

More importantly, these losers have forever put the proverbial asterisk next to the affected kids' test scores. These kids will never know whether their scores were because of an effort on their part or by the efforts of some jerk administrators and teachers that felt the need to cover their butts instead of...you know, teaching! This, my friends, is real insanity. 

No matter your thoughts on standardized testing, we all should agree that nothing is worth risking our integrity as educators and more importantly, that of our students. 

"What's the point of this?"

More and more, I find myself thinking this in my grad classes this summer. Admittedly, this is partly due to fatigue, boredom, frustration, et cetera. The other reason why may be more justifiable.

In these education classes, I've already heard, "Make sure your instructional decisions are beneficial to your students," a million times. Got it, professors. Now, you sure your instructional decisions are beneficial to your students, especially because you teach in a college of education and should know better. 

To be fair, this is not an attack on them. They are all smart people with good-intentions in training teachers. However, some of them are guilty of making us do extraneous/cutesy/redundant/pointless/redundant assignments. How many reflections does each professor need? Why are we not learning or reviewing middle school math content in a content class? Why are we doing math puzzles in a content class? Are five chapters in five different books with the same perspective of the same subject necessary to discuss? While we, the future teachers, are supposed to be thinking about the purpose of homework or notes and why a hands-on might be better than direct instruction, it seems that some professors are sleeping at the wheel and not thinking about their craft. 

"Ms. 'Insane' Teacher? Ms. 'Insane' Teacher"

I have no problem with reflecting upon what we discuss.  Nor do I have a problem with reading a bunch of chapters every night as long as there is some sort of larger point to them all and it is not repetitive! In fact, I welcome the reflections and readings; it forces me to think critically about the decisions I make in the classroom and why I make them. I do have a problem with hypocrisy. If you are going to teach about good teaching, you must practice what you teach.

If only Magic Squares and Sudoku were a part of the curriculum.

Thoughts on Charter School Ruling

For background and the ruling, visit the AJC Get Schooled Blog (click the link for the story).

Though I'm not a lawyer, I think that this was probably the right decision, legally-speaking. Because I've been following the story for awhile, I've been waiting for this ruling to happen: Charter School Commission is unconstitutional. If I were running on pure logic, I would say that what happened today was good. It's done and over with. All parties involved can just move on. The problem is I'm not running on pure logic, here, which makes me uncomfortable. My day, since hearing the ruling, has been uncomfortable. Here's why.

In my work as an intern, I've seen behind the curtains of one of these schools. I've seen the daily operations, I've worked with the teachers, and most importantly, I've worked with the students. Sure, it seems like a normal school. A visitor just dropping in to see what the fuss is about would complain that nothing seems out of the ordinary. She would ask what was so special about this place.

On a normal day, my answer would be a quick, curt shrug as I run pass the visitor. However, catch me in a reflective mode, and... I still would not know how to respond properly. I really don't know what is so special about this school. I can't pinpoint it. However, ask me about my students and I'd tell you stories about conversations we have during rare free minutes. (My favorite: Their warning to me about becoming a teacher.) Or I might tell you about a day where they rocked the lesson. Or I might tell you about the assembly from last week, where I saw one of the best poets I've have ever had the pleasure of listening to and watching. And she was only in the seventh grade!

As I typed that, I smiled as I remember all of the...awesomeness I've experienced over the past year in this internship. Make no mistake though, it was not easy experiencing all this. I've experienced many hardships in this job, and I'm just an intern. However, I would and will be doing it again and again just to see how far my students have gone in only a year. Not only that, I would (and will) do it again, so they can see how far they have gone. What is really awesome is that they want to keep going! I didn't start thinking about college seriously until high school. (Not to mention, that I recently figured out what I'm going to do with life!) To me, that's priceless.

As a result, logic does not win today.I'm uncomfortable, because I'm truly saddened by today's news. I'm sad for my students and those at the other charters affected. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a proponent of charters, though I don't consider myself an opponent. They all aren't magic pills that will cure all the evils in education. However, for the ones that are cure for the common school for the students and their parents that choose to send them, why not fund them so that they can exist? Perhaps school systems can collaborate with them instead of compete with them, so everyone can improve.

Long-term, who knows what will happen to the charters affected and their students? I don't, but I know this. I support whatever works in favor of my kids. This ruling ruled against my kids. You do the logic.