matching tracksuits

fun in threes, sometimes fours

g

Second Day

Friday 09 August 2024

"Mr. S, you're my favorite teacher so far." We were lining up this morning to head out for related arts (or "essentials" as the new nomenclature dictates -- people in education love to rename things to show supposed progress and improvement), and he said this out of the blue.

"You've only had one class with each of your teachers so far," I laughed. "How could you possibly form an opinion that fast?"

"Well, your class was the only class we actually did something in yesterday," he clarified.

I am not one to begin the first day of school with a long lecture explaining all the ins and outs of my classroom procedures. Sure, I have a specific way I want students to turn in papers, but I'll explain that when they have their first papers to turn in. Certainly, I want them to know about my website, which I work hard to keep updated daily, but I'll show them that when I've created my first update so they realize firsthand how useful the site can be. Definitely I want them to understand how we're going to get into groups for collaboration, and I want them to know where each group is to sit, but we'll go over that when we get in groups for the first time. So the first day, I always make sure we work. We do some writing, some reading, some chatting. We work in groups; we work in pairs; we work individually.

And the second day, we go over procedures.

Are you kidding? We have too much material to cover! Any procedures I've neglected will have to wait until that first time we need it!

First Day 2024

Thursday 08 August 2024

Last year's first day -- exactly one year ago -- was a little strange. In here, I wrote it was a good day, but that was not entirely true. My two on-level classes were, in a word, hyper. Several students were immediately chatty, immediately disruptive, and there were several more students who fed into that. There was a bit of attitude at times, and while I tamped it all down quicky, it didn't seem to bode well for the rest of the year.

I was right.

Last year's eighth grade was tough. We'd heard they'd be tough from sixth-grade teachers; we'd heard they'd drive us to insanity from seventh-grade teachers; and we saw the difference immediately.

Most eighth-grade classes are pretty calm at first. Most eighth-grade students are reasonably relaxed those first days, trying not to push boundaries, trying to make a decent first impression. Those kids (rather, many of them) did not do this. And it was a harbinger of things to come.

"This year's kids are better," everyone said. We met them all today, and I would have to agree: a night-and-day difference.

One less stress.

Our kids started school with the usual excitement: the Girl is starting her senior year (how in the world is that possible?) while the Boy is starting seventh grade (how in the world is that possible?).

"Enjoy your last first day of school," I said to her, though that's not quite accurate. She's planning on going into bio-engineering, and she's already accepting/planning on getting a doctorate, so she has plenty more first days of school.

As for the Boy? A snippet of a conversation from a couple of weeks ago says it all: "You have to pay for college?! You have to pay to sit in school?!"

Turned Upside Down

Wednesday 07 August 2024

Our school district has a way of jostling teachers out of their comfort zones. Take this year, for example. We've known for a long time that we'll have new standards for English. The logical way to let teachers transition to these new standards is to let them take their existing lesson plans and retool them as necessary to meet the new standards. True, they are, by and large, almost the same standards, but there are some new items on that list which will take some time to unpack and figure out how to teach. Perhaps letting us focus on that during the first year would be a good move.

We're also getting new textbooks this year. This means that a lot of the stuff we've done in the past might not necessarily work with the new selections in the new textbook. A lot of it will, but not everything. The logical way to transition to this new textbook would be to give teachers a year or two to make the move over. After all, we'll likely be using these books for six or eight years. We can take our time with transitioning and make sure we do a good job.

Or our district could manage these transitions as they actually chose to this year:

  • Provide new standards (actually the state did that, but...)
  • Provide a new text book
  • Provide a detailed unit pacing guide that we must follow to the letter
  • Provide a 35-question, 18-page mandatory test for the end of that unit, a test that has some questions that are not even covered in the unit
  • Demand all teachers make the transition immediately
  • And best of all, do all this the day before students return for their first day of the school year.

There are a lot of stressed teachers today. I had to talk an experienced teacher out of walking out and simply quitting today. This is her last year before retirement, and it's not how she wanted to end her career. If she'd walked out, I wouldn't have blamed her.

Reflections

Tuesday 06 August 2024

Why would there be any way to see hate in a text written by a completely benevolent deity?

Why would there be any way to see prejudice in a text written by a completely benevolent deity?

Why would there be any way to see malice in a text written by a completely benevolent deity?

Meet the Teacher 2024

Monday 05 August 2024

"Last year's kids were a real challenge," the seventh-grade teachers all admitted. And to be fair, they warned us about them this time last year: "This is some group!" We hear that a lot, and we put it down to a typical exaggeration: they're never as troublesome as last year's teachers make them out to be.

But last year, they were right. One-hundred percent accurate. Last year's group was exhausting.

"This year is going to be so much calmer for you guys!" all the seventh-grade teachers have been reassuring us during these first days back. Today we met a lot of them.

It's hard to tell after such a short exchange, but we are, indeed hopeful.

Band concert

Sunday 04 August 2024

Here's a video of the Boy's spring band concert.

Camping as a Teen

Saturday 03 August 2024

Supporters

Friday 02 August 2024

Before Biden bowed out, a meme was going around among Trump supporters.

I'm not going to label his followers as this meme does, but anyone who can look at Trump and not see how completely unhinged he is almost all of the time, how uneducated he appears to be, how incapable of critical thought he seems to be -- I just don't understand.

I freely admitted that Biden was showing some mental deterioration. I never worshipped the man: I was only support him to do a job. Many Trump supporters, however, seem almost to worship the man. He literally can do no wrong.

And even if he does wrong they overlook it.

Nationals

Thursday 01 August 2024

Today, the Girl competed in AAU Nationals in high jump for the first time in her life, but it's the fourth or fifth time she's competed in AAU Nationals in general. It's just that before today, it had always been in volleyball.

Unlike volleyball, though, these nationals did not take place a day's drive away. Instead, they were a mere three hours away.

It was also by far the biggest track meet she's ever participated in: three high jump mats with over 50 girls participating.

Talking to her coach

How did she do? She'd say "Meh" if you asked her that question.

But she placed twelfth out of fifty-one girls.

And of course, no matter how it ended, we're all proud of her and her accomplishments this year.

Dinner

Wednesday 31 July 2024

The Girl has decided she needs to be cooking more, to learn how to cook more than mac and cheese and quesadillas. She’s done chicken alfredo a couple of times, but when K asked L to cook dinner tonight and suggested she just make the tried-and-true chicken alfredo, the Girl demurred. She wanted to try something new. Something different.

Something Asian.

Long, long ago, when K and I were dating, she wanted to do the same thing — try something new, something different. She decided on something decidedly non-Polish, something from southern Europe. She chose lasagna.

Mother and daughter both chose pasta. They both had similar issues with the pasta. And in both cases, those they cooked for ate the dish with enthusiasm.