Inside Four Walls: 2009 - 2010 school year reflections part 2: students

If you missed part 1, it is here and it deals with the parents I had this year.

So what can I say about my students this year? I had a lot of freshman...a lot. Sometimes it's good, like in Geometry or Algebra 2 because those students work hard to get where they are. Other times you get them in Algebra B. Now even then it's a toss up. Some are there because they screwed around and didn't try and won't ever try. Others are there because they just struggled, but genuinely want to pass.

My Geometry students were a mixed bag. I had students that wouldn't miss a thing on a test and others that couldn't tell you what the sum of the interior angles of a triangle was. After state testing, the Geometry students were more upset than my other classes. They felt I didn't cover everything... we skipped reflections, translations, and dilations to finish some other chapters. They wanted to know why, so when I told them that if we finished the book completely some people would fail because of the faster pacing and they might not remember as much because we would be skimming and not going down a few levels. I think of all my classes, my geometry students thought I wasn't competent. But then again they did give me fainting girl, cheaters, and male chivalry at its best.

I can't say much about my Algebra B class. As I said, mostly freshmen. They were immature at the beginning of the year and for the most part, they didn't change. I will never forget the book check story...one of my all time favorites.

My Algebra 2 classes were fun. There were a total of 4 freshman between 2 classes, can you beat that? And a freshman in Algebra 2 doesn't act like a freshman. I had some problems with one period because our counselor decided to put 13 friends together in my class. Now, having 4 friends in a class is bad, but 13 ... come on now. I am sure they didn't do well on the state testing because they were mostly juniors and by then they realize that the CSTs have zero effect on them.

I had a ton of favorite moments from these classes, but my favorite came the day of finals. I was grading them on the Scantron machine and before I slid one in I noticed this one student (had a 35-40% going into the final) bubbled like 4 answers for one question. A bunch of times. I wasn't upset, I thought he wanted to be funny. After I scanned it, I looked a little closer. Here is the scantron.
See it? Well, if not, let me outline it for you...Stay classy Walnut. Pretty good in terms of originality, I will give him that much. I just never thought I would have a student bubble in a penis on a scantron, silly me.

Maybe I will submit this one to Zero Out of Five.

As far as summer school is going...it is better. That student hasn't done anything since the first day. I have a ton of stories I can't share because I want to wait til summer school is over. I will just say that this year's summer school highlights the failure of education and something better than this scantron.

Inside Four Walls: 2009 - 2010 school year reflections part 1: parent interactions

Ok I have said it before on here last year was a pain when it came to parent interactions. Parents complained about everything I did. I couldn't do anything right last year. You can read about the joys of last year, HERE.

This year? Much better. I had only one formal complaint (I know that sounds bad, but gimmie a second). My TA's phone was taken from my desk while I was teaching (she was returning an assignment to another teacher). I called the counselors to check the students, but some had left to the bathroom or locker so it could have gone anywhere. The next day, I told the class that I would have to treat them differently and that I couldn't trust them because that could have been my phone or anything else of mine. I also let my TA talk to them and she basically said the same thing. She threw in that she wouldn't help them if they needed help (she would help them when they asked) because she was a teacher's assistant not a student assistant. I didn't have any problem with what she said. I felt the same way. Now remember this is like the first 2 months of school.

So I get a call the next day from the secretary saying a parent complained about me to the principal. Now I wanted to stay under the radar and this was not a good start. I called the mom, who wouldn't tell me her name, tell me who her child was (male or female), or the grade out of fear that I would retaliate against them...cause all teachers want to do is retaliate right? The phone call started spinning out of control quickly. She was upset that I allowed my TA to talk to my class like that. I said, "she wanted to talk to the class to to ask for her phone and she had a right to do so". The mom then said that my TA couldn't do her job without prejudice against the class because she said she couldn't trust them. I asked her what she wanted me to do and she said remove her from the class.

So I said, "well I feel the same way. Are you saying that I can't do my job effectively?" The mom says "Can you? Maybe you can't. Maybe you should be removed from the class." To which I said, "Why don't you move your son/daughter out". And the next sentence maybe me think it was going to be a bad year...she said "No I won't do that because I am standing up for all of the students in your class. The ones that are too scared to stand up to you, well I won't be intimidated!"

It got worse, with her accusing me of twisting her words around. Because at UPS, we were trained to repeat what was said and start it off with "So what you are saying is..." I think that pissed her off some more. Whatever.

She called the principal and I went in and talked to him and he said try to avoid "blanket" statements. That was it.

All the other parent interactions were pretty smooth. I have over 120 emails back and forth to parents some serious, but most just updates. I sent home grade checks after every test, so the parents would always know where their child's grade was. I had them signed and returned. And I simply told them if they forged their parent's signature that they would be in more trouble when they were caught.

I guess the funniest interaction came with a parent who was worried about their son's grade and his connection with math. I told her that he never asked questions and kind of looked complacent at times. Now this kid is a junior, going to be a senior. We are trying to prepare them for college and all of that good stuff. In fact, the mom said his junior year was to sharpen his study skills for college. So I am thinking we are on the same page when she said, "You know he was really successful in math in the 5th grade. His teacher related everything to basketball for him. Maybe all of your lessons could revolve around basketball so he could pass and be interested." I obviously said no because if I did it for one, I would be doing it for 179 others. I was just shocked that a high school junior's mom would bring up the 5th grade...I mean that was 6 years ago. Oh well...it could have been worse.

Thoughts Without Words: New school year, CSTs, & upcoming albums

ok so today was the first day of school and what do I think about it? Who knows...really can you tell much from the first day and only 32 minutes with each class? Here's what I do know;

• have a lot of freshmen again, but with only one Alg. B class it shouldn't be too bad
• 1 Alg. B, 2 Geometry, 2 Alg. 2
  
• my room gets stuffy because a.c. won't go past 70, but with 38 bodies the room barely cools to 73.
• 4th period will probably be my nosiest class simply because there are about 10 - 15 who are good friends in that class
• it's gotta be better than last year...right?
  
• only 179 days to go :-)

CSTs are coming in slowly. We have a new system, but we have been told that some of our students are missing and aren't in the right class. I looked at my Geometry and calculated it by hand and had about 56% proficient or advanced. I'm not too happy with that. 5th period was the smartest class I had and I expected a few more proficient or advances in there. 6th period nothing surprised me there. They skated through the whole year and it showed in their results. With my Alg. B classes I wasn't too surprised either. I worked it out to be 50% proficient or advanced. This was one of my lowest groups of students and I told my dean that before 1st semester ended that my scores would be down alot because of the students' inability to be responsible and proactive. Oh well life goes on.

New music in September should be a good one. New Shadows Fall & Megadeth. The 3 songs form Megadeth I have heard sound like it could be the best stuff since TWNAH. I like the guitar tone, thanks to Andy Sneap I suppose. And as for Shadows Fall, I have heard 3 songs from their new album as well and it sounds a lot better than Threads of Life. Hoping for two great releases this month. Right now, Susperia is probably my album of the year...who would have thought? Don't get me wrong, Susperia is one of my favorite bands, but this album didn't hit me like Unlimited or Cut From Stone. I will say they are writing some of the best thrash/heavy metal right now.

that's it for now. I gotta talk about 2 of my new favorite tv shows next time.