Tag Archives: teachers live at school

>Paper-wise and Paper-foolish

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>We’re under pressure at school to save paper. It’s a major expense, one we can’t avoid, but one we can adjust and minimize. Maybe.

  • I save extra copies or “oops” papers: the kind where the answer shows through on the page or I have two too many because kids moved yesterday. Those papers get re-used as scratch paper.
  • I copy back to back.
  • My colleagues and I use overhead projectors, small white boards and chalkboards, and other devices for keeping kids involved without requiring paper.
  • I copy straight from the blackline master book without making a new master copy.

But we’re stuck on other paper uses. Penmanship practice needs paper. Attendance is still on paper in our school, as is lunch count. Bathroom sign-out sheets are an unfortunate necessity.

Our district-mandated reading comprehension tests have bubble sheets to run off. My class’ bubble sheets took (are you sitting down?) 150 page. That’s 150 sheets of copy paper, more than one fifth of a ream. Multiply that by the five intermediate classes of similar sizes, and imagine the amount of paper and toner we’re forced to use. It’s like an unfunded mandate with the orders coming from downtown, but all the supplies coming from the existing site budget.

Running scores for the district-ordered Measure of Academic Progress test uses one page per child, three times a year. Multiply that times the number of kiddos in grades two through six and you get — a lot of paper.

If I run grade reports for conferences, there’s one page per student for Reading, for Math, for Science, for Social Studies…you get the picture. Multiply that number by five intermediate classes…we’re starting to look at red ink in the budget line for copy paper.

I haven’t even mentioned IEPs and other special education documentation, much less the daily behavior sheets for kids who need them.

So what do we do? I keep on looking for ways to be pennywise. My colleagues do, too. But there’s only so much we can do when the major paper usage comes not from us, but from record keeping and mandated testing that’s all ordered downtown at the district offices.

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>Just another really, really manic Monday

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>Monday, Monday. We were still in the throes of the month-long disruption we call No Child Left Untested. My grade level couldn’t have science because of the domino effect that a testing schedule creates. Eager to start teaching science again, I pulled a few videos off the library shelves to help the kids build a little background knowledge before starting the Human Body unit. One, National Geographic’s The Incredible Human Machine, was a little on the long side, but looked promising. National Geographic’s educational videos are good quality, filled with great photography and valuable content. This one was on the elementary library shelves, so I presumed it was age appropriate.

Oops.

The video started with a full screen shot of daVinci’s The Vitruvian Man in all his proportional glory. Any narration was lost in the hysterical giggles and noisy hoots of fourth graders reacting to this, um, detailed drawing. I stepped in front of the TV and reassured them that I understood they were naturally uncomfortable, this was a very famous drawing by a famous artist and they could take a deep breath and settle down as the movie went on.

Did I say settle down? The next piece in the opening discussed the body as art and showed a painter working on a nude portrait of a woman. The woman was tastefully posed, and nothing unseemly was shown, but it was enough to re-establish the hysterics.

I should have given up then. But shoulds, as my regular readers know, are bogus. The reality? I pressed on, kept attempting to settle the kids and redirecting them toward the paper on which they were to note new facts they hadn’t known before seeing this movie. The end result: They couldn’t keep it together. The class was officially off the walls with giggle fits and roars of inappropriate laughter. There was no possible way for these kiddos to learn anything from the video, no matter how fascinating the cinematography.

Later in the day I vented a little to my coworker in the 4/5 combination classroom. “It was a National Geographic film! Those are usually excellent!” She answered with a quirky grin, “Did it start with a naked woman being painted?” “OMG, yes!” She burst out laughing. “I had the same problem with the same video some ten years ago. I remember telling (principal at the time) that it was on our library shelves so I thought it would be okay!!”

Fast forward by a day and an email and the conclusion is this: it’s an old, old video. We’re clearing our shelves of all things VHS in the spring. This one will simply bite the dust a few months early. The principal knows about it and will field any phone calls. Hopefully, all will be well.
Until I actually start teaching about the incredible body machine….

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>I’ll take Blog Blasts for a thousand, Alex

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>You might be a Jeopardy addict if:

You think the Before and After category on Wheel of Fortune is wimpy (Whistle a Happy Tune-p? Try Notre Dame Fighting Irish Pub).
You phrase average everyday responses in the form of a question.
Your thumbs twitch when you’re watching the show.
Your cell phone’s ring tone is Jeopardy’s “Think Music.”
You talk about Ken Jennings as if you knew him personally (Ken would know this one).
You get upset when a contestant doesn’t know something you think is obvious (It’s Gerald McBoingBoing!).
You know exactly how long the commercial break is between the Final Jeopardy category and Final Jeopardy itself.
You plan suppertime around the evening show.
When the college alumni office calls, you offer to make a donation only if the caller can answer a trivia questions.
Kids tournaments make you wonder how you can get your students on the show.
College tournaments make you want to fix up your daughter with the hot champion who might be almost as smart as she is.
The show “Who wants to be a Millionaire” seems too easy because it offers choices and (gasp) lifelines.

When you pose a question to someone else, you hum the final Jeopardy theme song.

And finally the sign that Merv Griffin counted on you for ratings: You know you’re a Jeopardy addict if —
You actually know the title of the Jeopardy theme song!

This post suggested by Parent Bloggers Network and their partner du jour, Oliebollen.com. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what Oliebollen’s “fun stuff for kids” really means, but they’re offering an Arm Chair Holiday Shopping Sweep that sounds, if not like a Daily Double, pretty darn fun!
Oh, the theme song? Hint: Merv Griffin’s wife. What is……

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>It’s winter. We’re teachers. We’re creative problem solvers.

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>It snowed Monday. Briefly. But a brief snowfall was enough.

People called it a “five minute blizzard.” Within those five minutes, one of my students looked toward the window and cried out “It’s snowing!” and seven, I’m not kidding you — SEVEN kids rushed to the window like they’d never seen snow before.

We live in Northeastern Wisconsin. They’ve all seen snow. Lots of it.

I managed to corral the wayward dogies back into their seats, closed the shades, and attempted to hand out the spelling homework. Hah! Dream on, teacher. Whether they could see it or not, the snow was on their minds. I shifted gears, as good teachers will, and brought them to the rug for some read-aloud time which lasted only a few minutes.
After several gear shifts, a chaotic rendition of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and a final dismissal bell, I grabbed my bags and headed out the door to find my minivan coated with a thin layer of frozen winter wonderland.
I reached for the snow brush we keep in the minivan most of the year. It wasn’t there.
I started the defrosters and searched again behind the seats. No luck. So I attacked the windows with my gloved hands, hoping that perhaps I could borrow a brush or scraper from another teacher as the rest of the staff left.
No luck there, either. My friend the reading teacher set her car to defrost and came over to ask if she could borrow my — “Oh, I see you don’t have a snow brush or ice scraper either. Good thing we both wore gloves today!”
While the defrosters blew warm air at the windows, I dug under the seats one more time and found….an old plastic air freshener shaped like an orange.
The plastic was soft enough not to scratch, but strong enough to hold up under my assault on the elements. I used it to scrape enough frozen precipitation off the windshield that I could run the wipers and get the rest. My colleague took it next, and we were ready to hit the streets.

In our school building we are nothing if not compassionate professionals. We pulled in together the next day. I waved my new snow brush at her, picked up my coffee (both purchased at a convenience store on the way to school) and stepped out of the car. She said good morning and handed me — my air freshener.
I think I’ll put this little item back under the seat in my minivan. You never know when it might come in handy. At the least, it’ll be good for a laugh. Someday.

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>Reasons NOT to schedule SSR first thing on a Monday Morning

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>SSR. DEAR time. Drop Everything And Read. Silent Sustained Reading. Self-Selected Reading. As some kids say it (but not within earshot of the teacher) Sit down, Shut up, and Read.

Our normal computer lab time was cancelled due to the lab being used for state testing. I substituted time my students enjoy: extra silent reading. Normally they’d take a little time to find their books and magazines and then settle down to enjoy them. Today? Nope. But why? In typical teacher form, I analyzed the situation. Here’s the end data.

Kids who haven’t eaten well all weekend are too hungry to concentrate.

Children from (shall we say) “unstructured” homes have forgotten how to behave in school.
Sleepy kids aren’t awake enough to keep their heads up.
Kids who have been off their meds all weekend haven’t come down yet and won’t until their morning dose kicks in.

Good readers finished their books at home and have nothing to read.
NFL football fans who are still depressed after yesterday’s game might not want to read the Sports magazine for Kids they picked out last week.
The one who broke his glasses Saturday in Pop Warner football hasn’t had them replaced yet and can’t read a word.

Forgetful kids don’t have a clue where their books might be. Home? Locker? Desk? Did I have a book on Friday?
Maybe I’ll stick to SSR on Fridays. Oh, no, can’t do that — they’re already checking out mentally for the weekend, meds are wearing off, kids who don’t eat well on weekends are starting to worry….

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>Feeling a bit testy

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>Ah, yes. The bubble tests. The ones that bring fear to students and frustration to teachers. The tests that sorta kinda measure kids’ abilities right now, but the results won’t be back until mid-March at the earliest. Scores that late will no longer have any input on how we teach, but will still determine which children get to pass to the next grade and who will not.

Any time we’re testing, we’re not teaching. During these intense two and a half weeks, we’ll only have an actual math class four times. One of those will be spent in the pursuit of the “Practice Test.” Meanwhile, my students will make no progress in math, through no fault of their own.

All five classes in three grades (4, 5, 6) will miss science and social studies for the full two weeks, perhaps longer if there are multiple make-up tests to be done.

Due to our unique configuration of combination classes (which is due to budget crises and poor legislation that leads to inequitable school funding), the schedule is a nightmare. Every time I make a seating chart for testing I get changes in test groupings that force new seating arrangements.

Then there are the punch-out tools, the ruler, the tangrams, and whatever else is determined necessary. Heaven forbid that a kid use his own ruler and risk being accused of test fraud.

I checked and doublechecked my stopwatch to be sure the timing will be accurate.

The cancelled classes are the toughest to swallow. If we’re to improve our kiddos’ knowledge of math and science and social studies, we need to teach them. Cutting out those classes to have them fill in bubble answers on a set of tests that will be outdated by the time the scores arrive makes no sense. After all, if a farmer wants a pig to grow for market, he feeds it. If he weighs it every hour, the pig will have no time to eat and will not be ready for market.

So now I’ll attack the incredibly scintillating task of punching out the math tools for 40 kids. I’ll hope the pencils got sharpened in the paraprofessionals’ office. If not, I’ll end up bringing those home to do myself, too.

And to make it worse: the weather is warm enough that I can’t wear my testing sweatshirt!

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>NaBloPoMoPhoBia: overwork

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>I can say I’m happy to be overworked because it means I have a job, but that gratitude doesn’t create more hours in the day.

Class sizes get bigger, my clerical needs get greater, but clerical services (already slim to none) dry up like a puddle in the sun. Perhaps a more appropriate simile in this Northern climate would be to say that support services melt like a snowball in the sun.

So…I spend more hours at my desk doing paperwork. My pay doesn’t increase. My benefits don’t increase. Expectations, however, keep growing.

Special needs, medical and academic, increase. My expertise needs to grow to keep up. But training in ADHD, child and adolescent mental illnesses, specific learning disabilities, serving gifted students, differentiation, and more… well, training isn’t readily available unless I give up more of my own time and (you guessed it) money. The aforementioned money that didn’t increase with my growing workload.

So instead of blogging, despite the deep satisfaction of ranting through my laptop, I’ll log off for now and work on more of my own homework. Today it’s preparing a seating chart that takes into consideration state testing, pullout for English Language Learners, Learning Disabilities, students who are easily distracted (some medicated, some not), and more.

I enjoy the rewards of my career, both the tangible and the intangible. But I wish, really wish, that the general public would understand the challenges we teachers face each and every day.

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>NaBloPoMoPhoBia: Germs.

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>(with credit going to Minnesota Matron for the creative phrase in the post title)

Teachers Fear Germs. Illnesses. Sick days. Whenever I’m sick, I have to leave sub plans. Writing lesson plans for a substitute is twice as much work as writing my own plans. Writing sub plans while ill….agony. Simply agony. Catching up when I get back? I don’t even like to think about it. It’s sufficient to say that illness weighs on my mind a lot more than it does for the average middle class working citizen.

Influenza. Training as a Public Health volunteer made me realize that we’re closer to a pandemic flu than I thought. I’ve posted about my training and fears, thoughts for family preparation, and more. Immediate action? Flu shot. Clinic coming up soon!

Cold viruses, bacteria, pink-eye, and other lovely micro-organisms. 1. I wash my hands and teach the class to do the same. 2. Keep tissue boxes scattered throughout the classroom. 3. I don’t touch the doorknob unless I have to! 4. (see #3) Hand sanitizer on desk and at entrance to room.

Head lice. Yes, the unspeakable. I haven’t seen many cases this year, but in other years the need for nit-picking has been outrageous. Prevention: avoid touching children’s heads. If children hug me, avoid bringing hands to head until washed/sanitized.

Oh, yes, I have my share of phobias that are intensified by my line of work. So excuse me if this post is a little short: I need to check my stock of Airborne and echinacea and vitamin C.

Are you sneezing? Does your head itch? You’re welcome.

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>Random teachable moments

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>I remember the days when teachers could have kids bring in candy wrappers (empty, of course) after Halloween and graph their favorite candy bars. The kids learned about bar graphs, pictographs, and the parts of a graph like the horizontal and vertical axes. It took something familiar and made it a learning experience.

Then there were the times when we could take a day or two to enrich, to teach fun activities that used the concepts they’d been learning on pencil and paper.

Now we worry that candy graphs might violate our nutrition policy and that if we take time to enrich, we might not cover the important concepts by the time testing starts. And oh, my, if they can’t remember Mean, Median, and Mode by the magic November dates, the scores might go down and the folks in D.C. might think we’re not doing our jobs.

We still find time, though, to squeeze in a few items. I find time to introduce concepts through the novels I read aloud to the class. I choose these books very, very carefully, read them myself first, analyze them for teachable moments, and even put sticky notes in the books at strategic places. Twice a day for about ten minutes the kids gather on the rug or sit at their desks and listen. Some days we stop at critical points and I let students talk about their connections with the characters, the setting, and the story itself. These connections slow down the pace but deepen the experience and their overall comprehension.

Taking the time to illustrate a writing project or make a creative booklet is another great way to find an extension and make the note-taking/ research more enjoyable. Flip books. Mini-books. Booklets with terms, illustrations, and definitions. They’re all good teaching tools — when we have time in between the bubbles.

By the tone of this post, you can probably tell I’m heading into that time of year we call Test Weeks. I need to punch out the math manipulatives for my class(es), make sure the pencils are sharpened, and create a new seating chart to ease the temptation to talk or peek at another kid or test. I know the tests are high=stakes. I understand accountability is important. But if I could address the Powers-That-Be directly I’d tell them that good teaching isn’t measured by bubble tests. Sincerely, People-in-Power, it isn’t.

I have a wonderful career and I teach in a school with a generous and caring staff. Test season is discouraging for many reasons, but great teachers surround me on all sides. We’ll all help each other get through this. We support each other as much as we support the kids.

By the way: If you’re looking for free coloring pages, look here. The Mom Blogs sent this link to all the bloggers on their lengthy lists. While pre-made coloring pages are not a creative activity, they do have many uses. I’ve printed simple pictures like these to decorate the room for specific topics or let students use one as the basis for a poster. Children who are still developing finger strength can manipulate playdough or silly putty and then color a small amount to work on strength and control.

Strength and control for real writing, not just for filling in the bubbles.

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>Money makes the world go round…and voting decides who will control the money

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>”How’re you?”
“Overworked! But that’s good. It means I’m working.”

Indeed. While my salary isn’t keeping up with inflation, is anybody’s?

Health insurance costs are skyrocketing. We’re still negotiating a contract, working under one that expired last summer. Site budget costs increase, leaving us to cut back even further or pay out of our own pockets, out of our lagging paychecks. But at least I still have a paycheck.

I’m getting more vigilant about freebies. Whenever I send in a book order, I look for coupons and bonus items. If I can get a few more books into my students’ hands, it’s always good. I’m reusing paper for copies, assigning more textbook pages than worksheets, increasing my use the overhead and my class’ set of white boards. In a small way, we’re going back to the days of kids and slates.

I’m a scavenger. If another teacher retires and lets us pick through her materials, I’m there.

On the family side, I clip coupons and watch the sales. I’ve used online discount codes to buy ahead for holiday gifts so we don’t have major debt in January. I feel grateful that my husband doesn’t have to wear an expensive suit to work, racking up dry cleaning costs. He and Amigo dress casually, very casually. La Petite is a sale shopper like I am; she’s a frugal college student (is there any other kind?).

And yet I feel pressure, both Husband and I feel pressure, to bring in extra if we can. Our incomes are not growing anywhere near the rate of inflation. Despite our efforts to cut our food budget, we can’t control gas costs, electricity, or heating fuel increases.

The only way I can raise my salary is through earning additional graduate credits, which (you guessed it) costs money. I have to pay for 6 credits every five years to renew my license, but beyond those 6 I have to calculate how much it’s worth. Will the tuition costs return in the form of increased salary or not?

Husband’s 401k went way down in value. He set his head in his hands when the last statement came. My retirement account is fluctuating as well. We’re feeling lucky we’re not retiring anytime soon; our retirement funds have time to regroup and recover (crossing fingers and knocking on wood).

This election has a lot riding on it. The morale of the country has a direct impact on the economy, and the economy has a direct impact on morale. If people aren’t confident about spending, holiday shopping goes stagnant. Retail outlets fail, large companies fail, employees lose their jobs. Those employees don’t have money to spend, spending goes down, morale and confidence sink and the problems spiral larger and larger.

Money? It’s not about the cash or the numbers. It’s about security, stability, knowing that the roof above will stay above our heads and our table will be set tomorrow and the next day.

My workload grows as our budgets get tighter. My job gets more difficult as my students move in and out, can’t do homework because they’re hungry, can’t find shoes to wear in the morning.

Overworked? Yes. But at least I’m working. I’m grateful for that.

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