Teaching High School

Why English is Hard to Learn

I have seen this many places and it can be found many places on the web, but since I am a foreign language teacher and the students always say, "Why can't everyone just learn English?", I thought it would be a good idea to put this in a place where I can find it.

Why English is Hard to Learn

1. We must polish the Polish furniture.
2. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
3. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
4. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
5. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
6. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
7. I did not object to the object.
8. The bandage was wound around the wound.
9. The farm was used to produce produce.
10. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?                     

Exam Fun

Exams were given ten to fourteen days ago, but the students and parents received the report cards in the mail last Friday. Now the email and phone calls come pouring in. (I wonder where the concern was previously, but who am I to judge?)

Funny comment from one: "How could my daughter fail the [foreign language I teach] exam? She studied hard and we are both native speakers of the language. Isn't that impossible?" Well, I taught English before too, and if having native speakers at home guarantees a passing grade, many, many students are not doing so well in a "native speaker" environment.

Trying Again

It has been nine months since I made any progress here. Much has changed. I am now teaching in my own room, teaching one subject, and teaching an extra class for which they pay me an additional 1/6 of my salary. It has been a better year, but not without its trials. Keeping that in mind, that there are trails, I want to take a new tact with this blog, one that will hopefully allow me to keep my sanity and see the positive side of what I do.

My new tact is to record the funny things kids say. They are often a funny bunch, because they are so young, but they are also sometimes truly comedic.

For a first entry on funny students, I turn back to the day before Christmas Break back in December. I was showing a movie as many teachers did that Monday and Tuesday, and a young man came to my desk. I was expecting a request to go to the bathroom, but it was better than that.

"Can I have a candy cane?" from said young man.

"Sure, so long as you get any mess and wrapper in the trash, please," from me.

"Oh. Don't you have one for me?"

"No, no I don't." I waited politely until he was out of earshot on his way back to his seat to say to the two girls in front of me, "What was that all about?" to which we all giggled.

Not Working

My blogging is not going the way I had hoped it would. I find I do not take the time to write in here very regularly. It feels like a forced activity at times (and by the small number of posts here, it is obvious I don't force myself to post very often).

I want to do other writing too and I rarely participate in that. I made a new paper journal two weeks ago; there are precisely two entries, neither being particularly long. I haven't written any fiction material in a long while.

But I am in first place on TopSpin for Xbox. Woohoo. That is totally an avoidance piece of software. I love to kick Anna Kounikova's butt.

A Compliment

One of the things about teaching that I really enjoy is the unsolicited compliment. This happened to me the other day and it still thrills me.

A young man who has the pleasure of being in two classes of mine (different subjects) said to me, "I've learned more [subject area] in one semester with you than I did with the teacher I had for two years."

I'm still beaming.

Teach Overseas?

On Monster I often get a job listing for teaching English abroad. I finally took a look at one of the sites cited. What always strikes me are the perks offered: 20 hours of teaching each week, overtime pay, fully furnished and paid for apartment, health benefits. This would be great if it allowed me to put $20,000 in the bank and learn another language (or brush up on the other one aside from English I know and currently teach). Unfortunately, I think the conversion amounts to under $10,000 for most of the listings which are typically in Korea or China or other Asian places. Have any of you done this or doing this now?

Seating Arrangements

I would like to let you all in on a little secret: I seat my better students in the front of the room. Yes, against all teacher prep courses, I put in the back of the room the kids who goof off, the kids who get poor grades, the kids who have actively made it known they don't like the class. A colleague and coach at my school made a speech about what he does to promote success in his room, and promote positiveness in himself, and that is to put the kids who are positive in the front, close to him. So for the last five weeks I've had such a seating arrangement. And let me tell you, I spend much less time reprimanding and cajoling inattentive students into being on task.

As it happens I overheard a student today say, "She doesn't have any control over this class." This came fromt the middle of the room. I pointedly looked at him, told him I didn't care what he thought (even though he probably didn't think I could hear him), and went on to teach to the kids who did care and were paying attention. I think the kids in front appreciate it since I've had much more participation from any of them in the last five weeks than I did in the first twenty. I think I'll keep it this way.

Sharing a Room

A bit of a problem here, and it's a problem I've been having all year:

How can I tell a colleague that she needs to leave when I am in that room to teach?

"You're Not Special"

Oh the giggle I had when I read Joanne Jacobs' "You're not special" entry. If I were asked to name one thing that I thought was a detriment to students coming into the junior high it would have been to not tell students so often --and so undeservedly-- how special and wonderful they are. Having to tell students "No" at the junior high in seventh grade came to be almost taboo because it would hurt their fragile young egos. They were only fragile because they hadn't heard that before, seemingly not from anybody.

The students I taught last year at the junior high started kindergarten the year I started teaching (so it goes to figure that this year my tenth graders also started kindergarten then too) and they were (the ninth graders) by far the ones who had the most difficulty being told they were wrong. My tenth graders this year seem to be a little more hardened, a little more hip to sometimes being wrong. But there are a few who still believe mommy and daddy will take care of anything they do that is wrong. And wrong can be many things: not getting an A, not getting the city they wanted for a project, not getting an extra day on an assignment given out two weeks ago but they were absent the day before it was due, not getting to work with a certain person, etc.

I do not know how to get around this problem. Back at the junior high, before some of my good adaptive lesson plans got nixed, I had been able to create environmets in my room where it was ok for students to be wrong. In foreign language class we would don new hats with new foreign language names (not my favorite thing to do, but it worked) in order to create a persona for the kids so they could take risks with the language. In my high school classes, some witty remarks seem to do the trick, as does me making (on accident usually) mistakes here and there. Having a good sense of humor on my part helps. Having had my 'hot buttons' uninstaled after my first year of teaching also helped tremendously. (You know, the 'hot buttons' the things that would get you irritated but then you wised up and realized you have to be selective in the battles you wage. I'm just glad it only took me one year to realize the kids won everytime they were able to push those buttons. Although, the buttons seemed to try to find their way to the top earlier this year.)

I do believe kids are special, don't get me wrong; but special in a way that means that I believe in them. Not special in a way that means they can do no wrong. Trust me, if I didn't believe in kids and the power of what they can do and what they can teach me, I wouldn't be teaching.

Seven "C's" of Education

I agree with my fellow blogger Jeremy about these Seven "C's" of Education. In previous years, I have used them with various projects while still being able to "cover" the required standards and curriculum content.

One project really stands out to me, one that I had great success in planning, integrating, and delivering. Of course, there was much complaining and whining, but in the end, my students were grateful. In compacted form, here is what I did:

Students were to pick a novel to read. The novel choices we had for the grade level were pretty abysmal, so I was determined to have students enjoy reading and still learn about the elements of fiction. I also wanted their choices to have a purpose, so the requirement was that the main character had to be vastly different from them. For example, if they were a young African American boy who lived with his father and played hockey, he could not read about someone like that; a better choice would be a novel about a young Asian boy who plays guitar. Some students chose to read about homelessness, some about other cultures, and others about the opposite gender. The librarian assissted students by finding novels that they would be interested in but would also fulfill the requirements.

As they read, the students were to keep a reading log, taking special note of what they were learning about the other culture and/or lifestyle of the main character. A few times a week we would share some of the more startling and surprising finds. Often this amounted to "This person is much more like myself than I thought" comments.

Another component was to make a trip to a cultural event around town which related. Some students went to a homeless shelter, some to a Holocaust memorial museum, and others to a special collection at the museum. I gave students plenty of time on this aspect, also ensuring that they had a vacation time period over which to get there so that parents could take them (I conducted this project at the junior high I taught at).

After the reading, they formulated opinionated thesis statements in order to do a persuasive research report. This is much more interesting than the "I did my report on sea lions" essays. Even if students had selected similar cultural books, they had vastly different opinions. This made for much more interesting reading once I started evaluating them.

The final step was to give an oral report on their findings, incorporating their reading log, their cultural experience, and their research report. They also needed a visual aid of some sort: poster, flyer, power point, etc. Some students refused to do this step despite it being quite a large portion of their quarter grade.

So in filling the Seven "C's" I would say I accomplished Creativity by allowing students choice in what they could do. Ultimately, what they ended up doing had so much more to it than if I had assigned Great Expectations. Also, the visual aid was aimed at creativity.

There was plenty of Critical Thinking. Pulling all their ideas together for the writing and then the oral delivery was thoroughly full of thinking. The riubrics I designed for each aspect laid things out clealy so that they knew what had to be done but it was not so spelled out that they wouldn't be doing any thinking.

As for Collaboration, the students worked with the librarians, with me, with thier peers, and with their families (many parents were sure to tell me that they were glad they took their child to cultural event). So many times learning seems to take place in the so-called vacuum of the classroom.

Certainly obvious is the Cross Cultural Understanding component. The real fun for me was seeing interest begin after the oral presentations. It piqued the interest of their fellow peers so that others might visit a homeless shelter or go to the African American exhibit at the museum.

Often overlooked in the standards in my district for English is Communication Skills. Despite, as I mentioned, some students not presenting orally, the ones who did knew the expectations: don't read directly from a written script; be sure to look at the audience (more than just me, the teacher); pause, breath, slow down; and, answer questions. Overall, the marks for the speeches were high and well deserved.

Using the Internet helped in the achieving Computing and ITC Skills. But also, they used the Reader's Guide books to find magazine articles --some students coming to prefer that method-- and using the online card catalog. They also used the Internet to find local cultural events. Sometimes this required using wide and varied keyword seaches as the name of the city and homelessness did not often result in what they wanted. Learning the skill of the good search was valuable.

Finally, Career and Learning Self-Reliance Skills mightnot be so obvious. It is my hope that the skills they learned through putting it all together helped this aspect. I also hope that a few saw some startling new doors pushed wide open for them to pursue career wise. And I also hope that the students learned much about tolerance.

At the end of that school year, I recieved a kind letter from a student telling me how much he felt he had grown that year, how much he had learned about people different from him, how much wider his circle of knowledge now was. He was grateful to me for opening those doors to him. The funny thing is: He opened them himself; I just guided him to some good doors to try.

Seeing Similar Views

At A Schoolyard Blog I found a similarly minded teacher and blogger. I have seen in my years that helping students understand a concept rather than go through the motions of the worksheet is much better, but that's not what the parents seem to want. What seems to be missing (and I read about this too in a blog recently) is actual learning, as can be evidenced by the emergence of professors lamenting the fact that many of their students are ill prepared academically for university.

"Covering material" is also mentioned at Schoolyard Blog and I find this fascinating. I hear many similar complaints from well intentioned teachers that they taught something or "covered it" and now the students don't know it. I have found that if I teach something in myriad means and do not overwhelm with material, there will be better chance of remembering it and knowing how to use it. Also good to employ is Bloom's Taxonomy with each topic, and not just the bottom level. Going to the synthesizing level as often as possible benefits learning. But the parents don't want that and the administration doesn't want you to spend so much time on one topic and the government doesn't allocate so much time as it writes standards.

So, thanks Schoolyard Blog; I will continue to read your work.

The Revamped Teaching High School Teacher

I last posted two months ago. This was a forced break so I could vanquish negativity out of myself. I am now ready to write again and try to be a better teacher.

This semester has seen me more organized, more excited, and more involved with my classes. It has taken until now to finally feel at ease at the high school. I cannot say that I am completely happy with this switch in schools because I still miss my junior high, but in the two months since my last post, I have done much to be more positive about my career despite some of the things I know I cannot do.

I want to write more about things that I know to be good and better for students and point out flaws in the way things are currently done. I want to cite sites from the Internet which support both sides. And I want to try to be happier in my resigned position of having to use some teaching methods which I may not agree with but which, by doing so, will ultimately help me feel less stressed.

Thank you for all of you who have been reading. It was a shock to take note of the hits despite not being here. And now that I have figured out how to write an entry on my PDA, sync with my computer, and have it sent here on its own, it will be even easier to do so.

A Great Take on Writing

I have on numerous occassions, fancied myself a writer. I've never been published, I've never even submitted work so that it might be published. But Alex the Girl has made my day with the post to which I've linked. (And thanks to Ms. Frizzle for the link.)

To be honest, to be truthful, in a way that is honorable to yourself, that is what needs to be done, that is what I need to do in my daily life (in regards to students as well) and what I need to do with my writing.

Thank you Alex for your wise words.

Arguing About Grades

I am feeling very frustrated with my students. In particular, I'm frustrated with my beligerent students, the ones who constantly and consistently confront me with accusations that I want them to fail. (A note: The grades resemble a perfect inverted bell curve, which seems to be the common-place plot of grades for the last number of years in my experience at junior high.)

I feel that these students are very disrespectful. And I fear what others may say: That I am not being respectful to them. To that I would have to say: Not true. However, I also do not feel I need to defend to this blog whether I am respectful or not to my students, and here's why: Their disrespect extends beyond me. They have no regard for themselves, no regard for the time they are wasting of their peers, and no regard for the administration.

When the keep coming at me, demanding things, I chalk that up to having no respect for themselves. They do not feel that the work they have done should represent the grade they have earned. They feel that they can talk and bull-doze their way out of a poor mark.

When their peers complain to these students directly that they are wasting time, the beligerent students do not care, they tell their peers that they don't care whether they are being fair to them. When these peers come back with telling the beligerent students are not being fair to me, the beligerent kids roll their eyes and come back to me.

When the administration does nothing for behavior referals for plagiarism and insubordination, I am left with little choice. It is obvious from the beligerent students' behavior that they must have learned it somewhere, and I will not call home to confront more of the same but from an adult. I also will not discuss any matters with the administration since it is quite obvious they will do nothing but give warnings.

I have five more of these times to go through with these students. I doubt it will get better. I will not back down from the grades and will not 'fix' the numbers. That I will leave to the milk-toast administration if they want to appease the parents.

A Nice Analogy: Dental No Child Left Behind

I received this as an email forward from a friend who is also a teacher. I'm sure many have seen it, but I wanted to post it here just in case. A good point is made.

**************
The Best Dentist---"Absolutely" the Best Dentist

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I have all my teeth, so when I ran into him the other day, was eager to see if he'd heard about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great.

"Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I said.

"No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"

"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, and Unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. It will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."

"That's terrible," he said.

"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"

"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry."

"Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."

"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele; so much depends on things we can't control? For example," he said, "I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there am some kind of problem and I don't get to do much preventive work. Also," he said, "many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all off," he added, "so many of my clients have well water which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"

"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. I couldn't believe my dentist would be so defensive. He does a great job.

"I am not!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to work where I am needed most."

"Don't get touchy," I said.

"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaw, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth. "Try furious. In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average, or worse. My more educated patients who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating actually is a measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse.  On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labeled below average?"

"I think you are overreacting," I said. " 'Complaining, excuse making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'...I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.

"What's the DOC?" he asked.

"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of mostly laypersons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved."

"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.

The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?"

"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."

"That's too complicated and time consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."

"That's what I'm afraid the parents of my current patients and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.

"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."

"How?" he said.

"If you're rated poorly, they'll send a dentist who is rated excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.

"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? Big help."

"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."

"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score on a test of children's progress without regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."

I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened.

"I'm going to write my representatives and senator," he said. "I'll use the school analogy- surely they will see the point."

He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed anger that I see in the mirror so often lately.

Saying "Shut Up"

Why do students see the phrase "shut up" almost as bad as saying "damn it" in class?

To be clear, "shut up" is a phrase I rarely use, prefering "be quiet" of course, --with "please" attached usually-- but when I am exasperated with a student, that is the phrase I want to use, "shut up".

Where do students get this from? Is it in a children's book published in the last 15 years? Is it from the overwhelming amount of undue self-esteem pumping up that is done in elementary school? What?

Where does their gasping come from when that phrase comes out of my mouth?

Update on "Fun"

I have decided, after being sick late last week and then not thinking about school over the weekend, that my classes are just doomed to not be fun. In fact, nowhere does it say that I have to be fun: Not in my contract, not in the curriculum guide, not in the state-wide learning standards.

I guess those (ahem, their parents) will just have to deal with it.

And I will stop making apologies for it.

School Should be Fun?

So conferences were the other day. Sigh. I thought they had gone so well; at least, in comparison to last year when the parents yelled at me and the administration did not care to notice and therefore did not intervene. There was no yelling and it was quite slow, really, for being in a new building. I was thrilled.

Until today.

I had been requested yesterday by my English department chair to meet with her for a few moments during my lunch today. No problem, she's a great lady, a wonderful teacher, and has always been helpful to me. Well, she asked me about what I had said to any parents about technology use. As I recalled, I had said some things about why I hadn't used the language lab for my foreign language teaching to a few parents who asked.

So, firstly, the wrong chairperson had been contacted by the administration to discuss this with me. Secondly, she was so embarrassed and apologetic to have to be talking with me about this. Thirdly, I knew which parents had talked with the administration about this and as it happens, they are members of elected positions for the district.

A few reasons I had told the parents when they asked me about the technology use --or lack thereof, really-- in my foreign language classroom, were that I am new to the building, I have never had access to language lab facilities for teaching foreign language before, and I really do not know what is available to do in there.

These parents went on to tell me, along with some other parents I saw, that their child was no longer having fun learning foreign language anymore. I informed them that I am not the teacher those students had the last two years and that she and I have different teaching styles, as well as this being new material to these students which is not as easily made fun. (Is there a way to make past perfect tense in any language fun? And can you make it fun when it is formed a different way in the foreign language than it is in English? Yeah, I didn't think so either.)

For the last two years these students made videos "using" the foreign language and played games. All of that is well and good, but that does not lead necessarily to actually learning the vocabularly, dealing with word order, and overall being able to continue on with the foreign language. So these kids are struggling. And in these parents eyes, it is my fault. Because, gosh darn it all to hell, I am not making it FUN for them.

Fuck that.

I had just gotten to the point with this move that I had figured out the rules of the game, and then they are changed on me yet again. I am tired of bending over for these problems.

I am a good teacher. I have been told that by many other parents and former students. But of course, it is always the negative stuff that sticks out in your mind.

What is Your Classroom Management Profile?

Thanks to Up the Down Staircase's blog for the link to find out "What is your classroom management profile?"

Mine is authoritative. Right after I took it, I only thought there were three styles mentioned: Authoritarian, Laissez-Faire, and Indifferent. All three of those scores hovered around the same number (7). Then I realized my mistake and added up for the the Authoritative and it was 13. I read that one and was not surprised. Of course, as it mentions and as is true for most any quiz like this, some of all of them speak to me.

After eight years of teaching though, I'm disappointed in my management for my last class of the day this year. I've rearranged their seating, I've talked to a few kids in the hallway, and various other little things. What surprised me is that they have the highest average of my three English classes. Sigh. Oh well, they do have many good things to say about what we are reading, it's just that not everyone gets to hear it. I'll be happy with those times when they are spot on with having a discussion.

Cheating --- Update

I was entering some homework marks yesterday afternoon and came across the assignment from the young man in my last post. Would you believe that not only did he try to turn someone else's work in as his on Tuesday, but he also copied his homework from a young lady in class and turned it in? Unfortunately, I am beginning to believe such things can and do go on much more than I would like to believe. So disappointing. Well, I do have the meeting with him and his mother to look forward to today. Although with all the coughing I did earlier this morning, I'm almost positive I should've called in today too. Perhaps tomorrow.

Cheating? Or Plagiarism?

Not that either one is an acceptable thing to do, but the following situation presented itself yesterday and I am having a difficult time deciding which it is.

Yesterday, after receiving current progress reports, a young man in my last hour class presented me with a completed and graded major writing assignment and said, "Miss G, you forgot to record my 30 points for my writing assignment." I looked at it, looked at him, and said, "That is not yours. You just erased someone else's name and wrote yours over it." It was pretty obvious: The pencil was darker and there were parts of the other name still visible despite erasing.

It went on. "No, Miss G, this is mine. You forgot it. You gave this back to me yesterday and forgot to record mine. And it shows on my progress report that I didn't do it. And I did. It is right here." I shook my head and told him no yet again and said, "I can tell you erased someone else's name and wrote yours on. I won't accept it." I even gave him the name of the kid whose paper it likely had been since the student in front of me told me I should check with that other student of mine the other day to verify that the student in front of me had done and does do notes on short stories. He emphatically said, "No, it isn't [that kid's] work. It's mine." He remained insistent that I take the assignment a few more minutes until finally sitting down. But I could hear him right behind me complaining to his friend that I wouldn't take "his" paper.

So I turned around and told him, "Fine. I'll take it and think about it. But I don't want to hear any more about it." His response, " ... ... ... . " I put it directly in my bag and put the bag under the desk. His non-response said volumes, really.

Once class, and therefore school, was over, I compared handwriting. Unwittingly, he had just given me a new sample via a comprehension quiz they had just taken, as had my other classes. So I pulled his out and the kid whose paper I thought it was, and amazingly, his didn't match... but the kid whose paper I thought it was was a definite match. I asked some other teachers as they walked by. They agreed.

I made copies of all three papers on the copier and made a copy of the page in the student handbook where it talks about plagiarism and cheating, and wrote up a discipline referal. When I saw the associate principal and gave her the run down, her response was so disheartening, "Call the parents and tell them and him that if it happens again, disciplinary action will be taken." Oh, and I could still give the student a zero on it. Thanks for small favors.

I called the young man's home. His father answered. I explained the reason for my call. He said to me, in a thick eastern European accent, "This is a very serious matter. Here is my wife's cell phone number. Please call her. She is a teacher too." Putting the receiver down and getting ready to make the next call, I thought to myself that this young man is in big trouble.

His mother was shocked, embarrassed, and sad. She told me he was going to have dire consequences, including no Halloween party this weekend. By her request, she, her son, and I are meeting tomorrow after school. I was ever so glad she understood. She asked if I had already told him I knew with certainty about the handwriting samples, and I had not, so she was greatful to be able to ask him, "So, what happened in last hour today, son?" The nice mom sneak attack.

From the other teachers I talked with, cheating/plagiarism is rampant at this high school. In the junior high I had caught a few kids copying research info from the Internet and turned them in. They each got three days suspension and F's on the research reports. Apparently, things are not like that at the high school. Other high schools in the district are, though, as one teacher who was at a different high school informed me. And she was sad to hear the response from this administrative office.

Parting Gifts

When I left the building last June, they gave me a parting gift. I'd seen such practice done previously with other folks who took positions in other buildings of the district and always thought it kind of strange. (This does not include gifts for those folks who retired.) Over the years, people have received nice platters from Williams-Sonoma, crystal vases, and earrings. The gift I received is not worth mentioning.

So I find out another teacher is leaving my previous building this Friday, of her own volition, to do something she wants to do outside of school. I was asked, very casually, not in any way to suggest I must or that I should, but mentioned in a reply email to a querry I sent, whether I wanted to contribute to the gift certificate to a day spa. I know I do not and will not.

I'm wondering from those of you who read this site: Are such practices done in your work environment? Whether you work in a school or not is irrevelant.

What’s New in High School?

It’s been a while since I’ve been a high school student myself, buy I must say it never would have occurred to me even now to have sex in the boy’s bathroom. Yes, that’s right: Sex at school. During the school day. In the gross (sorry guys, but it is) boy’s bathroom.

These two youngsters apparently had it arranged for someone to distract the teacher on duty so the young lady could sneak in and then they were able to get their freak on. And apparently it didn’t matter if a few people saw.

From what I heard from the staff, all who know her are shocked. Not much has been said about the boy, which goes along with our society’s double standard of it’s ok for the gents to score.

I’m disgusted. Mostly because the district I instruct in does not have a safe sex program or a sex program at all. The word ‘masturbation’ is not to be uttered. It’s a ridiculous policy. I imagine we’re getting close to only teaching the creationist theory of how humans got on this Earth. But I digress.

As a staff we were forbidden to talk about “The Incident”, almost to the point of not even discussing it amongst ourselves. Don’t talk about it with students, direct any media contact to the board office, and don’t discuss it with any parent of any student.

Suspensions are already being served and it may be decided that they should both be expelled. Although, I imagine the young lady, who by all of her teachers’ accounts is a soft spoken, all A student, will be hard pressed to show her face there again. But maybe I’m wrong; I’m not now 15. Maybe it’ll be seen as an act of courage.

The Truth Comes Out

Or: How I Got This Gig at the High School

Last May my then principal informed me (the day before such things can be told contractually, naturally) (oh, please do sense bitterness and irritation in this post) that I would be teaching at the high school. Thankfully it wasnt to be the high school to which my then current students would be attending (thats another story for another day), it would be a different high school within the district. They needed me to teach German at this high school (one of two majors; my other is in English) since the woman who had been teaching German there wanted to expand her other language program. I was under the impression that she didnt have a major nor a minor in German. I was also under the impression that at the other junior highs in the district there would be a German class in the fall, and since mine wouldnt, I was the best candidate.

My union rep informed me that nothing could be done. I lamented that I had been the yearbook advisor for the last five years and the department chair for the last two years at the junior high, and shouldnt that count for something? Not so. I was needed elsewhere, and I would go. I wrote a well received memo to my current colleagues about it the following day and distributed it to them the next day. Many were perplexed; many more were saddened to see this happen. As often happens on a staff of 35 when you have been there for eight years, you become close with each other.

At the end of the year union party, I came to learn that another teacher, with less seniority than myself and the same degree, would not be teaching German in the fall either. And AND!!!-- she had put in for a transfer request in the spring. She knew nothing of the position that I would have in the fall. I was enraged. I had my life turned upside down without my permission, and this other teacher wanted, actually wanted, to have hers turned upside down.

Than came the kicker from my former principal: In the end of the year newsletter, she wrote about staff changes. Here is a summary of what she wrote:

Mrs. Y. will be retiring this year. She has worked (blahblahblah) for (blahblahblah). Also retiring is Mrs. C. She has worked (blahblahblah) for (blahblahblah). Mrs. S. will be working at (blank) High School next year. Mrs. H. will be taking a position at (blank) Elementary next year. Miss Gemini is being transferred to (blank) High School next fall.

I had many, many staff members approach me on that subtle English language difference, from fellow English colleagues to folks in the Math and Science departments to staff who were on leave due to various reasons. (Note: Not that teachers of Math or Science cant tell the difference, its just that they have some history in that building of putting out typos and such in memos and emails. Not that thats a crime, but I think you understand. Or at least I hope.)

Fast forward to this school year in the high school. I came to find out the woman who didnt want to teach German is actually a native speaker of German but just didnt want to teach it anymore. I was also told that another teacher went to the principal of the high school and told him that a teacher shouldnt be forced to teach something s/he really doesnt want to teach. She did not realize, of course, the disruption this could make to someone elses life. The staff at the high school had been led to believe this was a transfer I requested. When they realize differently, it comes as a shock and they are apologetic, but they also know the ways of the district.

So here I am, a month in at the high school, and its fine. Not great, not terrible, but fine. I do have more time built into the school day in which to work than I did at junior high, and almost twice as much time to eat lunch. But I miss my friends at junior high. Ive seen two of the three really great friends already and been on the phone with the other and sent email, but its not the same. Seeing them every day, having time between classes to talk, figuring out what to do on pay day Friday I miss all of that. Moving from room to room to room to room to room all day does not give me time in which to make those connections. So thank goodness for email and phones.

Privacy Issues and Student Blog Use

In this entry at Jeremy Hiebert's site, he makes mention of privacy issues and how that might relate to using weblogs in the classroom. Since this is akin to my need to remain anonomous, I thought I'd comment.

First, as mentioned in my "About" page, I found the offending student's weblog at LiveJournal. I set up a LiveJournal account last year for a project I was working on. Around that same time, I heard students talking about thier LiveJournals in class and asked them why they did it. They said it was a fun way to communicate and share with friends.

So on a whim one evening, I searched for the city in which those students resided. It was not that difficult to ascertain to whom a number of the journals belonged, despite their entire full name not appearing on their Info pages. Oftentimes, though, they would do some survey and write in their full name.

The biggest surprise and scare though was the one entry which glared at me when I scrolled down to read the life-threatening comment with my name clearly mentioned. I immediately printed it and made a few calls to friends in order to calm down. With the help of them then, I had a plan to take to school in order to resolve this surprise.

Well, the surprise was on me when I was finally told some three days later that the district could do nothing. I was asked some ridiculous questions: "Did you tell your students to go to this site?" "Did you assign your students to write a journal?" "Did you inform your students you use that site?" "Did you let the student know you found the offending entry?" And so the student remained in the school district, in my same building, and in my class. It was quite uncomfortable for the remaing three quarters of the school year.

Second, I've thought plenty about using weblogs with students and have read about plenty of people who do. (See some examples in the side bar here.) I know though that it is not for me nor for the district with which I am currently employed. Too many rules and regulations and guidelines and acceptable use policies would hinder any real learning, inquiry, and sharing.

I do indeed see weblogs as a wonderful tool and I personally am enjoying using it as a tool as I am doing. There are many things in my district which do not really promote learning nor innovation (though it is espoused as a district which does do so, along with declaring they are a technologically advanced district) and I am seeing the hypocrisy even more clearly in this larger venue in the district.

I hope someday to be in a district where such advanced and engaging technology use is acceptable and the norm.

The P(r)ep Assembly and The Paper Issue

So today was the first pep assembly at a school with three times as many students as I'm used to. No student I had contact with had any interest in going; many wanted me to write them a pass to be excused. Apparently there had been an alternate venue in years past for students to go who did not care to attend the forced prep pep assembly. I imagine though that this became such a popular place that they had to stop offering it.

For whatever patriotic or showcasing reason, the National Anthem was sung first by senior members of the choir. It took a few moments for the crowd to quiet down. What surprised me (and maybe it shouldn't surprise me so much) were the students who remained seated during the singing. In the junior high I had been at, no one would have dared done such a thing. Maybe they are just more sheep like. Maybe these high school students are rebeling against the standard of order that states one must stand at such a time. I wonder though if they would do the same at a United States sporting event.

Afterward, exiting was chaotic. There are two double doors out. All students plowed down the bleachers only to wait in a large crowd to pass through the door. Students could be hurt and trampled with so much pushing. Well, until it happens, the exiting ridiculousness will ensue. Fun.

On to the Paper Issue. I teach in four different classrooms during my five class hour day. I have a workspace a foot shorter than my arm span at which to keep my materials in the teachers' workroom. I carry a backpack with me to each class which includes any texts and materials for each class, along with a mini office inside: pens, overhead and dry erase markers, paper clips, scissors, mini stapler, band-aids, etc. I refuse to carry reams of lined paper with me. (I have been issued a cart on which to store these same materials, but the passing time and physical area of the halls are not sufficient to manuever it around.)

In three different rooms in the last two days, there has been no paper. I cannot go in to the drawers in two of those rooms due to the teacher who uses that room five hours a day locking them. The third room just didn't have any. So when I needed my students to do some written work, a number of them were kind enough to share their own personal supplies of paper from home with others around them. This is (obviously) frustrating to me.

In two of the four rooms I share, I have been in the district longer than the teacher who has the room for five hours. That matters little to The Establishment. I have been looked at with disdain by one of these teachers when I inquired whether I could leave a few extra copies of texts, a dictionary, and some paper on a table in that room. So I didn't even bother to ask the other teachers if I could do the same in thier rooms. These folks are much too teritorial and they seemingly refuse to believe that they have been infringed upon in such a way by me (when in fact, I really had nothing to do with the room assingnments.)

Oh, and for the record: Of the 130 or so teachers in the building, about a third of them must be in two different rooms during the day, and of those about a third are in another (for a total of three rooms), and of those, two teachers travel to four different classrooms, one being myself.

I welcome the time when a parent calls to complain, "Why didn't my child have access to paper for your assignment?" because then I can say, "Well... " and go into some of the things I've mentioned here with a recommendation that they please talk to the building administration and the superintendent.

Anonymity of the Weblog

I've come to understand that my anonymity makes it "harder to become part of a network", so I wanted to explain. This information appears on my "About Me" page as well.

So, my note about this site being anonymous: It is a must. I understand that being and remaining anonymous makes my blog a little less personal.

Last year I came across a then current student's weblog which had threatening words towards me included in an entry; my district would do nothing to resolve this and she never found out I knew about her words. The police report I made had a non-result.

Not that I intend to make threatening remarks, but due to the incident, I do find it imperative to remain anonymous. I hope you all understand. If you have comments about it, I would love to know how you feel about remaining anonymous.

Nice

As an English teacher, and purchaser of six deluxe Scrabble games for school use, I think Wordblog rocks. I only wish I had thought of it first. Damn.

Something Missing

As I was planning a larger unit for English over the weekend in my head, it occurred to me what I was missing: My teaching partner. In the junior high school where I worked for eight years, I planned, thought through, conferenced with, found help from, and basically got much innovative curriculum designed with him. And now we don’t work together. Thankfully, he and I are also very good friends, and his house is on my way home from my new building. (Although truthfully, I go there more to play with his kids, than to talk shop with him.)

Hopefully, he and I will find the time soon to get together to discuss my tentative theme: Hope. Throughout the years, hope seems to be lacking from the students. They are lack-luster, don’t see the importance of an activity (even when –and actually almost especially when—the importance is explained to them). They cannot seem to see past tomorrow, or at the furthest, next week. I’ll grant that I probably didn’t either at their age, but the world has changed in the ten-plus years I have been out of high school. It is drummed into the students more how much importance these high school years have starting in the seventh grade. So “Hope” is the theme. I’m going to have a look at a book I heard about which sounds promising for this, called Common Shock.

Assemblies

***I read an excellent article in this month’s Harper’s by John Taylor Gatto. Unfortunately the actual article is not available; you’ll have to go look in the magazine. He makes good points, as he often does, about how education is failing the progress of our culture.*** UPDATE For now it is available here. Thanks to Diane for the link and to the owner of the site (rahoorkhuit) for posting it.***

This past school week, I took my English classes to the auditorium for two presentations. One was Sophomore Orientation and the other was from the local police liaison officer about student rights. Overall, the two presentations were well done.

Sophomore Orientation had to do with the big no-no’s in the building. The one which surprised me was about the dress code. I had been under the impression that it was just fine whatever they wore: skirts up to their ass, tops down past their cleavage, jeans sagging to their knees, and shirts with inappropriate pictures or phrases. I have had students already breaking each item mentioned and thought I was unable to send them down for fixing. So I guess I’ll start. Now, I do have a curious thing: if a student is wearing some Christian promoting shirt, and it could be offensive to other religiously affiliated students, should I send them down?

The other presentation was a little more shocking. I did not entirely know all the details the officer went into about student rights. Basically, they have none. They can hardly breathe without asking for permission. Ok, I exaggerate, but regardless. They can have their person, their locker, their car, their bags, etc. all examined and gone through for less suspicion than an adult. They have no right to remain silent (take the Fifth) because that is an admission of guilt. It was put to them this way, “If the student had something good to say, s/he would say it.” So if they can’t say “I didn’t do it” then they are guilty. Surprised me.

The Unremembered Topic

Note to self (and to all others, whether you think you’ll remember or not):
Write things down! You will not remember! You will be sorry when you don’t write down your excellent ideas!!!

Please take my advice. Especially, I must remember to do this. I guess I should write that down.

The Former and the New Student

The other day I received a call at home from a former coworker. She has taken over some of the duties I performed there and part of the reason for her call was to discuss those. The other reason for her call was to deliver a message she promised to get to me from a former student: "Tell her I came by and that I miss her." He's also in high school now. His parents were (and likely still are) very thoughtful of their son, and involved but not overly; they want him to succeed and push him to do so independently, offering him options and suggestions, consequences and routines. So after I got off the phone with my former coworker, I called him. It was so nice to hear from him, get his take on the high school experience. I wished, as did he, that he and I were at the same high school. Having familiar faces would make the transition a little easier. But then again, there are many of his peers whom I would rather not see again.

Then I also got a different call: A call into the associate pricipal's office. She wanted to tell me about a new student I'd be seeing on Monday. He is much like the character Russell Crowe played in A Beautiful Mind, as it was explained to me. He has an aide who will help him with his work. My class which he will be a part of was let in on this student's abilities and was told about what to expect. Some of them have had courses with him before and they seemed to deem it no big deal. I've had special needs students with aides helping them before, so it also is no big deal to me. And, I don't know if I should see this as sincere or as smoke being blown up my ass, but I was told that my course was specifically chosen for him. For now, I'll take it positively.

Ah ... The Weekend

Not that it was a particularly long week (only four work days after the Labor Day holiday), but last week was long due to feeling that I am still adjusting to it all. So this weekend was welcome. I managed to go out to dinner and a movie (a nice Thai place and Dirty Pretty Things), sleep in (until noon both days), and make dinner (chicken, green beans with a homemade tomato sauce, and a salad). I could've gone to a baby shower but I had declined in the RSVP because I knew I'd be wiped out. I'll send a gift after the baby is born. I needed my weekend to be my own. I so enjoy being home and watching nothing, sleeping in, eating late. And the two football games I watched ended with a victory for the teams I was rooting for.

Aside from that, it is still an adjusment. I am looking for a backpack to use instead of the bag I have now. I need more durability, less weight to the bag, and more room. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to see the link to it.

How Hard is it for a High School Student?

I can’t even imagine how difficult it is. I observe them and wonder why the education system makes it so difficult to really learn. And trust me, I have looked at various models that have been researched and are better than this traditional model.

Think about it:
Could you learn about seven different subjects each day, five days a week?
Could you switch gears every forty-eight minutes to adjust to each of seven (and for some kids, eight) different teachers’ rules and routines?
Could you be to your place of work by 7:15am each day ready to go?
Could you wade your way through 2000+ students in five minutes in 10’ wide hallways to get to your next place of “learning”?
Could you get anything done with the girls (if you’re a guy) dressed in barely there clothes?
Could you, after work, get down to the business of sports, activities, and/or band?
Could you then go home and do the ersatz homework (because, really, the work that is asked of them is really bullshit)?

My high school system was a little better, in that there was not 2000+ students, we had eight minutes to maneuver 15’ hallways, and classes were sixty minutes long. But really, I didn’t learn much in high school. Oh sure, I learned German because I really wanted to and it got me out of level 100 classes in university.

So I then wonder: Am I expecting too much of my students? Am I giving too much homework? (I’ve given about five pages of reading two of the six school nights we’ve had so far.)

Back After the Long Weekend

As I sit and sign students in who have a pass to the restroom, I feel sad for my former junior high coworkers. I seriously have more time at work/school to do school stuff during school time than I ever had. I get so much done during this restroom sign in duty. And it is so silly to have. I mean, I have to make sure students use the bathroom appropriately? What is that for? That was not fully explained, but I am sure it has something to do with security.

And then there is the beginning of the whining: This book is sooo heavy? Do we have to have it? Do we have to finish this story (five pages) for tomorrow? How do we actively read? (That after going over all hour and after they took notes on those terms previously and after I explained the assignment in three different ways. Ugh.) Welcome to the world of high school (although it really, at least right now, is not much different than junior high).

Anonymous Email?

This post is also at my other site, Flights and Dualities. Since it is of concern to both of the weblogs, I thought it best to post it in each place.

How can I remain anonymous in posting comments on other weblogs? I find that I must submit my name to Yahoo! and Hotmail for accounts with them and that my name will appear with the email. For various reasons, I want to remain anonymous at each website. I've read too many other "about" pages stating they had to shut down parts of their weblogs or start over due to things they had written. I want to avoid that as much as possible. It's not that I want to be scathing, I just want to feel free to say what needs to be said, especially in my blog about my current school year. I'd be okay with my first name, but not with the addition of my last. I suppose I could lie, but I don't like that; best to just leave it out altogether.

Finding Similarly Minded Bloggers

As I've been searching around and noticing people visiting my site, I've run into a number of nice places to learn more about blogging in the educational sphere and about blogging in general.

First, I'd like to mention Albert Delgado at Educational Weblogs. He has quite a site put together, utilizing all sorts of blogging technology. I am still working through much of what he has there as the side bars have many links to interesting things.

A site Delgado links to is Educational Bloggers' Network which apparently has roots in San Francisco, a place I would like to live.

Also interesting is Dialectic Journal. She has been blogging for a few years and is almost done with teacher training. From what I can gather, her site is a culminating project.

Finally, another site I enjoy is The Shifted Librarian. There are times when I wished I would have scrapped my already begun master's degree in Teaching and Curriculum to get a degree in library science. That site talks about all the things an excellent school library (or any library really) should do.

I am trying to find more educators to link here because I find that I go to those blogs from my link list and find more reasons on why I am writing this blog. A few are the following: 1) figure out how to use blogs in my teaching; 2) become a better teacher by reading other blogs; and, 3) write more in general.

Strange but True

We got out of school yesterday at 11am due to a water main break in a county north of us since that is from where the schools water supply comes and we'd have to boil it in order to drink it. I thought it rather odd that we were sent home, I mean, how difficult is it to not drink the water. But I guess since we wouldnt for certain be able to control that, we had to let them go home to drink the water there, which of course, was also affected. [insert eye roll]

Regardless, I was so happy. When I got home, it was good to be giggling and laughing instead of in pain and crying like on Wednesday. I took a few naps and still fell asleep a little after midnight and got up today just after noon. I have been wiped out apparently. Despite the fact that it is teaching ten fewer minutes than summer school, and thirty-five minutes fewer than teaching at the junior high each day, all the newness is so overpowering. And now I dont have to plan for Tuesday either, since I only taught two class before 11 yesterday and one of them is German II which I only have one class of and the other class, Sophomore English, probably didnt take home their homework due to the excitement of leaving early. But I should plan for the rest of next week so I dont have to worry about that either.

The Pain

When I woke up to the early sound of my alarm clock, my head was in dire pain. "Oh great," I thought, "just what I need on the second day of school, a migraine." Thankfully, I didn't have naseau. So it stayed with me all day, despite the Aleve I took. Being busy helped. But once I got home, it all fell apart. I found the prescription for Imitrex and took it to the pharmacy. He pulled the box right off the shelf and told me it would take at least 45 minutes. Why can't they just give it then? Seems strange to me. So it finally went away enough so that I could enjoy dinner. I went to bed a little later than I meant to, but I slept right away. So now I am ready to go... and ready for the four day weekend starting tomorrow.

The First Day With Students

I survived the first day!!!

Not as if I didn’t expect to, but as in I am glad it’s over. I finally slept by 1:30am and had to get up at 5am. This adjustment to the time is rough. Unfotunately I napped for about the last hour, so I’ll likely have a tough time falling asleep today too. It shouldn’t feel so rough, but I am guessing all the new suroundings and the new staff are partly affecting this rough feeling. The reason it can’t really be the amount of time making me feel so wiped out is because I just figured out that I was physically in front of students for ten minutes more this summer when I taught summer school than the number I am now. Plus my day is broken up by a prep, a lunch hour, and a hall duty. My nervousness is truly due to the adjustment of being in a new place.

So the students: They are much like the students I left last spring. Now that isn’t too shocking because I finished last year teaching freshman and now I am teaching sophomores, so it is as if I have followed them through to the high school. The two German classes I have (one level one and one level two) were much quieter and subdued. This could be due to a number of things. 1) The German students have elected to be in that class. 2) The German classes are smaller (19 in level one, 27 in level two, and 30 in each Sophomore English). 3) The English classes are in rooms that aren’t designated as English rooms (one in a Math, one in a Japneser, Spanish, French, and one in a Spanish room).

I need to put together my syllabus, or rather, my class information, objective, classroom rules, and materials needed packet.

The First Day

Teacher work day at the high school. So many unexpected things. To wit:
*A faculty meeting that lasted two hours (my junior high first day meetings were max an hour). Thankfully we didn’t have an English department meeting, although I did have a Foreign Language meeting.
*Learning about hall duty. This is new to me as we don’t have hall duty in the junior high. Apparently I have a table and chair in the hall (go figure) and check to be sure that students have passes when in the hall. If their pass is for the bathroom, I am to have them sign in and out as a record of them having been in the restroom. I am also to check at the beginning of the hour to see that there is no graffiti on the stalls or walls. If I smell smoke, I am to, as I read it, lock them in.
*I do not have a cart to wheel my materials to my four different classrooms for the my five total classes. (My two German classes are both in the same room.) I also do not have a desk to use in the regular sense of desk, but I do have counter space which is supposedly my work room desk. I do not have a wardrobe for my things (jacket when needed, purse, other personal items). I do not have a locking file cabinet. I do not have a bookshelf for my accumulated mass of novels for young adults. I do not have a permanent teacher computer to use as I traverse (with my non-existent cart, of course) from class to class. I am to use the computer already in each room, meaning that the other teacher will need to have logged off (or I likely will need to do so) and I must remember to log off. I also do not then have a permanent email program and must use the Internet portal access if I want to do so during class.

So tomorrow I expect students. I have about thirty students in each Sophomore English. In German II, I have twenty-seven, and in German I, I have sixteen. Not too bad for numbers, although, contractually, I am only to have twenty-seven in each English class. I will be giving them an information sheet which will give me addresses and phone numbers without me having to look them up if I need to reach a kid or her/his parent. I will also be asking them to fill out a writing and reading inventory in English so as to know their attitudes about English. I do not yet have a syllabus (didn’t know I was expected to give one, actually) and am glad I can. I also found out I am not required to give an exam like the other Sophomore English teachers are giving, my exam can be all my own. This goes against what was (and is) being professed at the junior high. “All teachers in all disciplines across the curriculum and district wide are giving common exams in each building.” Apparently not. I am glad I am not. I can teach any way I wish and test to reflect that. I may like this high school gig after all. (Except for the 7:20am start… for which I now need to go so I can get to bed.)

It Begins Tomorrow

My transition to a high school teacher starts tomorrow. As I mentioned in my other weblog, I taught at junior high for eight years and now I am teaching in the high school.

I was not expecting this transfer because I did not ask for it; it basically fell in my lap. I contentedly taught at the junior high those eight years and in that time I had been the yearbook advisor for the last five years and the department chair for the last two years. I worked on school improvement colaborations, crunched data, and researched how to do things better with that staff of 35. In this new high school position, I know maybe five other teachers out of 130.

Also adding to my chagrin about this transfer is that I will teach my five classes in four different classrooms, wheeling my "desk" around on a cart. My permenant desk is more like a counter in the teacher work room and I doubt I will be able to get much done there as my back would be to the room. I think I'll utilize the library.

A few good points are that I have 48 minutes to eat lunch instead of the 25 I had in the junior high. I will have a 48 minute prep/conference period as well as a 48 minute duty period whereas at the junior high I had one 55 minute prep/conference period. I will hopefully be able to get more done while at school. The last good thing is that school ends at 2:20pm which is pretty early. (But that is of course off-set by school starting at 7:20am which is also pretty darn early.)

I'll be updating here as I go through this transition.