Right Now: Summer School done

I haven't postes in awhile cause I have been enjoying my summer school class. This might have been my favorite summer school class ever.  Well it's done and now we have 3 weeks off.

Our school has had an exciting summer as well, but I will get into that later. That's it for now.

Inside Four Walls: Summer School day 1... problems? really??

So I haven't finished with my thoughts on last year, but I have to share this story from the first day of summer school. Now at our school we have these students for 5 hours (2.5 hours with a 30 minute break, then another 2.5.). Due to budget cuts, we have been told if we drop below 35 we can lose our class... I have 39, but I think that might drop by one.

So I am done with introductions and we are going over some of the material and this kid starts talking I will call him Student R. So I tell him to stop talking and work. Before the break, I have warned Student R about 3 times to work and stop talking because it is disrupting to the class.

After break he continues to talk. I tell him "Look it's the first day of summer school, I don't want to call your parents, but I will if I have to." That usually works. In fact, I have about 2-3 students who I have had in the past that have seen me do it. They give this look, he's serious.

So what does Student R do? Continue to talk. So I get his mom's cell phone and get ready to call. Now Student R gets worried. He tells me that his mom's at work and is too busy to talk to me. And I could "call if I want to, but I would be wasting my time". So I call, I was going to anyway. So I get mom on the phone and;

Me: Hi this is Mr. W from WHS and I am calling to talk to you about your son's behavior in class. I am constantly telling him to get to work and to stop talking. I have warned him about 5 times already.

Mom: Already? It's the first day of summer school.

Me: I know...kind of funny huh? Anyway, I have about 40 kids in the class and I can't have him constantly disrupting everyone around him. I have people wanting to get into the class and I would rather have someone that wants to be here and try than someone that is constantly talking and being disruptive.

(this is the part where I was shocked)

Mom: hmmm do you think you could transfer him to another class?

Me: uhh no, I am the only Algebra B class during summer.

Mom: ohhh well...

Me: Do you want to talk to him, he's right here?

Mom: yeah

So as you can tell, not much parental support. Think about it, instead of backing me up and talking about fixing her son's behavior...her response? Move him to another class. It's not over though. I hand the phone to her son;

Student R: yeah mom, he caught me talking like 2 times. I am doing my work I will show you. I don't know why...maybe he's out to get me. But this phone call has straightened me out and I won't talk again. Love you bye

With that he handed me the phone back. That whole conversation was about 20 seconds.

Me: Yeah I don't think your son is going to be too successful in here with that attitude he just showed you and me.

Mom: yeah well...

Me: I suggest you have a strong talk with him tonight and hopefully he can do a 180 tomorrow or he isn't going to last too much longer.

Mom: Ok thanks

Me: Bye.

Yeah that's what I am dealing with. Hopefully, it won't be a repeat of the school year from 2 years ago. It can't right?

Thoughts Without Words: Summer School 2/3 done

two weeks to go and all is going smoothly as possible. I try to make summer school as painless as possible, mainly by giving the students a ton of time to do the homework in class. We do like 3 sections a day and that's adds up to a lot of homework. It's funny still to see students not take advantage of the free time to do it. Oh well.

I really don't have much to add to this. I will be doing an update on a new favorite show of mine pretty soon and probably another Spider-Man update (love that show!).

I can't believe we are already 5 weeks into our summer vacation? Where did it go?

Thoughts Without Words: summer school

ok, I am going to try and beef up my post count during the summer and post regularly, being that I am not be hampered by Webwasher. So what better place to start off with then summer school. Summer school is pretty enjoyable. 6 weeks to cover about 7 chapters (when I am teaching Algebra B), that one summer where I did 13 chapters in 6 weeks...unreal, just unreal. The nice thing is that the pace isn't bad and there is plenty of time in class to go over and clarify the material.

I will also be teaching in my new room this summer. That should be pretty interesting as well. I haven't been in a class in 3 years...gonna miss that portable. I have my room arranged to hold 40 desks (class sizes are going up people) and I think it looks good...maybe one row will have some trouble seeing with a glare, but I will have to wait and see on that one.

I haven't had problems with parents in the summer, but who knows what this summer will bring. After the year of parents wanting more and more...I really don't know. I try to stress responsibility and accountability for the students. Those that can do it, thrive. Those that can't usually fail or get a D. I had one freshman parent tell me that their child doesn't do well in that kind of environment. I won't go into to it anymore...that's more of a Venting the Anger post, but I am hoping to avoid all of that.

next post will be about either the new Scrubs or maybe a spotlight on a band.

Summer School

I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left of summer school & I haven't posted anything on it. In a nutshell;
- good class (couple loud kids)
- Alg. B is easier in the summer than Alg. 2
- hardest test of summer is today
- forgot what it was like teaching next to another teacher

Summer school & some random movie thoughts

ok so we are 2 weeks into summer school with 4 more to go. This pace is pretty crazy for me. I have never taught so fast...ever. The students are doing a great job of keeping up, but I am pretty worried about later chapters in the 2nd half. It is all brand new material. I give them a lot of credit though, 5 hours a day,a ton of homework every night, and tests pretty much every other day...that's tough. I don't know how many will pass or fail. I expect most if not all to pass 1st semester, but I can't say anything about 2nd...too early.

Ok so something you might/might not know about me is I am kinda nerdy/fanboy when it comes to movies/comics/etc. Two new movies are coming out this summer, Die Hard 4 & Transformers. I will talk about the latter later (how's that for a tongue twister?). As for DH4, seriously how can they make a Die Hard and have it rated PG-13? DH is a rate R movie...always has been always should be. For that reason alone I will probably never go see it. Listen Die Hard was a classic action movie. Tons of explosives, shootings, adult language, and humor...with a little love story for the women that had to see it. DH 2 was more of the same, except it was a total change of location. The thing I liked about DH 2 was that it was a stand alone movie, there were very few references to the first DH (minus the plane scenes). As for DH3...ugh this is were it jumped the shark. Now I love Sam Jackson (huge Star Wars fan remember?), but he killed it. McClane doesn't need a sidekick. To me it just smelled of cheap movie tactic. The only thing I did like about DH3 was the "fuull circle" approach from DH1...the whole brother thing. It was done perfectly. I saw the previews for DH4 and I see the wanna-be cheerleader guy from Dodgeball running around with McClane...that is even worse that Sam Jackson. A ton worse.

ohhh man, why did they do this? Seriously though it can't be as bad as the new transformers movie coming out. I will tackle that one later.

Summer School

so day 2 of 24 for summer school. I don't mind summer school, it breaks up the monotomy of summer. It is 5 hours though...which can get kinda boring. It's funny because most brain research says that after 20 minutes the brain just kind of shuts off for awhile. So I have to find a way to present 4-5 sections in a 5 hour span without frying their brains. I don't find it too challenging until the later chapters that are more difficult. I'll give the students credit, I never wanted to do a summer school class in high school. Now in college I did take Advanced Calculus in the summer. It was my last "hard" math class (until I sat in on Topology Math 417..yikes!) and it went 3 hours a day 4 days a week...or something like that. Anyway, I liked it because that was all the math I had to learn. Although what made it somewhat worse was the fact I had just started working at UPS @ 3 a.m. everyday. I am happy with the fact I pulled off a B or B+ in the class after I totally aced the final. Seriously, you know that feeling where you just happen to know everything on the final? That was me. Ahhhh memories.