I did not mean for this to be so drawn out, but this one is just too priceless to not share.
Now, I am not one to jump and label teachers as complainers. Our job is tough. We often have to vent. We often get the short end of the stick. But occasionally, I have to shake my head and say, "Could everybody please shut the fuck up so we can all get back to work? I have shit to do." This was one of those occasions.
So, the chairs they had us sitting on were kind of uncomfortable. It wasn't unbearable. I just sat on the edge of my seat, or turned it sideways. Some stole other chairs from other places in the school. Other reasonable people brought pillows or things like that. But the majority complained and complained about how horrible they were. To be fair, one pregnant lady did tip over in her seat. To me, a reasonable solution would have been to bring her a special one. But naturally the DOE solution was much more unnecessarily complicated.
A few days in, they made the announcement that we were searching for other chairs. The next day, they stated with great jubilation that new chairs were coming in. The custodians wheel in the carts of chairs. Row by row, we stand up so they can pull out our old chairs and replace them with new ones. Once we look at them, it becomes immediately apparent that these are exactly the same as the ones we already have, except they are white instead of black. Now, more complaints come up. Rabble rabble rabble, these are no better! Why are you wasting our time?!?!
The worst part is, since the order had come through for the custodians to replace the chairs, the custodians were going to replace the chairs. They still went row by row, pulling out the old seats and giving us new ones. No one in charge told then to stop. No one they were supposedly helping even needed their help. And it was all another colossal waste of time and resources. There's a metaphor hidden in there but I can't quite find it.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
More tales from the grading site...
The week and a half that followed my first day of "training" and test grading never really got much better.
First, we spent 15-30 minutes every day getting set up. That means I showed up at 3:30, people slowly trickled in, and we never got started unti 4:00. We also usually finished between 7:00-7:15 and spent the leftover minutes filling in our time cards. Now, I am not a math person, but at $40 an hour per 200 graders, that adds up to roughly several gazillion dollars wasted of us sitting around drinking coffee and doing nothing.
The best part is when the state required that the booklets of a particular grade had to be finished and sent in that night. Every time, they had to scramble and ask people to volunteer to stay late to finish grading. I volunteered along with a dozen or so people a few times. Once I stayed until 9:00 PM. Meanwhile, all I could think was, "Gee, if they had handed out the booklets at 3:45 instead of 4:15, that would have been another 30 minutes of manpower among 200 people instead of 15 of us busting our asses to get this done."
The worst part, for me, as an overachiever, was getting labeled as such. Yeah, in middle school I was a big nerd. I thought by the time I reached a point where I was working with adults, that label would fade away. Nope. This one guy at my table was repeatedly telling me to slow down. When we finished a box and I would raise my hand to have them pick it up, he would pull my hand down. He would tell me to stop reading so quickly. Etc. I mentioned this to my friend who works for the DOE offices and her exact words were, "The higher up you get in the department, the more you see that. Having meetings about meetings. People sitting on their thumbs, getting paid to do nothing. Teachers getting cushy office jobs because they are horrible teachers are keep getting pushed through the system. That sort of thing."
Again. It instills a lot of confidence in the organzation, don't you think?
First, we spent 15-30 minutes every day getting set up. That means I showed up at 3:30, people slowly trickled in, and we never got started unti 4:00. We also usually finished between 7:00-7:15 and spent the leftover minutes filling in our time cards. Now, I am not a math person, but at $40 an hour per 200 graders, that adds up to roughly several gazillion dollars wasted of us sitting around drinking coffee and doing nothing.
The best part is when the state required that the booklets of a particular grade had to be finished and sent in that night. Every time, they had to scramble and ask people to volunteer to stay late to finish grading. I volunteered along with a dozen or so people a few times. Once I stayed until 9:00 PM. Meanwhile, all I could think was, "Gee, if they had handed out the booklets at 3:45 instead of 4:15, that would have been another 30 minutes of manpower among 200 people instead of 15 of us busting our asses to get this done."
The worst part, for me, as an overachiever, was getting labeled as such. Yeah, in middle school I was a big nerd. I thought by the time I reached a point where I was working with adults, that label would fade away. Nope. This one guy at my table was repeatedly telling me to slow down. When we finished a box and I would raise my hand to have them pick it up, he would pull my hand down. He would tell me to stop reading so quickly. Etc. I mentioned this to my friend who works for the DOE offices and her exact words were, "The higher up you get in the department, the more you see that. Having meetings about meetings. People sitting on their thumbs, getting paid to do nothing. Teachers getting cushy office jobs because they are horrible teachers are keep getting pushed through the system. That sort of thing."
Again. It instills a lot of confidence in the organzation, don't you think?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Tales from the grading site...
Oh, state tests, you are so beautiful. You take up 2 weeks of my life, you make my kids crazy, and you are inane and boring. I spent months leading up to you, freaking out, knowing my "grade" as a teacher is based on you and my kids' ability to pass or fail is based on you too.
But none of that, no none of it, prepared me for the MIND-NUMBING TASK that is grading the written portion of the exams.
I have to break this up into many posts, and really there could be endless ranting. But let me start with this. Day 1: I show up bright and early at 8:30 AM on a Saturday. We proceed to sit around for 15-20 minutes. We then get a 30 or so minute introduction from everybody, none of which is actually explaining what we are doing. But that doesn't matter since everyone at my table is a veteran teacher with many years of grading under their belts. They quickly explain the process of filling out the forms for me.
We finally begin the "training" portion of the day, where we read through books on what answers can be accepted in graphic organizers, short essays, and long responses for the 4th graders. Then they read them out loud for us. Then we grade sample questions. Then they tell us what the grades should be for the sample questions. Then we argue about what scores were given for grades for the sample questions, which really doesn't matter because the state made up the booklets in the first place and that's what we have to go by. This takes the entire morning. We actually have to leave for lunch late (12:15) because it takes too long and we have to take a test verifying that we are following the mandated scoring guides that everyone was arguing about. The grading itself does not actually begin until 1:15, and then goes until 3:30, where we stop and go home. What a use of a day. A sweet, sweet, taxpayer funded day.
The kicker? I scored higher and did better on the training and test grading than anybody at my table. I was also way more articulate and cognizant about explaining how I got my answers and reached all the right conclusions. When it came time to choose a "table leader" to re-read scores and organize materials, they unanimously pointed at me. I have one third of the experience of the next least experienced teacher at my table. Two were near retirement. One had a child almost my age. Glad to know I am somehow the most qualified person in the bunch. That makes me have A LOT of faith in the system.
More to come once I catch up on all the sleep deprivation from working 12 hour days and weekends...
But none of that, no none of it, prepared me for the MIND-NUMBING TASK that is grading the written portion of the exams.
I have to break this up into many posts, and really there could be endless ranting. But let me start with this. Day 1: I show up bright and early at 8:30 AM on a Saturday. We proceed to sit around for 15-20 minutes. We then get a 30 or so minute introduction from everybody, none of which is actually explaining what we are doing. But that doesn't matter since everyone at my table is a veteran teacher with many years of grading under their belts. They quickly explain the process of filling out the forms for me.
We finally begin the "training" portion of the day, where we read through books on what answers can be accepted in graphic organizers, short essays, and long responses for the 4th graders. Then they read them out loud for us. Then we grade sample questions. Then they tell us what the grades should be for the sample questions. Then we argue about what scores were given for grades for the sample questions, which really doesn't matter because the state made up the booklets in the first place and that's what we have to go by. This takes the entire morning. We actually have to leave for lunch late (12:15) because it takes too long and we have to take a test verifying that we are following the mandated scoring guides that everyone was arguing about. The grading itself does not actually begin until 1:15, and then goes until 3:30, where we stop and go home. What a use of a day. A sweet, sweet, taxpayer funded day.
The kicker? I scored higher and did better on the training and test grading than anybody at my table. I was also way more articulate and cognizant about explaining how I got my answers and reached all the right conclusions. When it came time to choose a "table leader" to re-read scores and organize materials, they unanimously pointed at me. I have one third of the experience of the next least experienced teacher at my table. Two were near retirement. One had a child almost my age. Glad to know I am somehow the most qualified person in the bunch. That makes me have A LOT of faith in the system.
More to come once I catch up on all the sleep deprivation from working 12 hour days and weekends...
Thursday, May 5, 2011
I guess so
Today we were doing word study with math vocabulary since the state ELA tests are over but the state math tests are next week. Actual quote from my classroom:
Me: So, when the word 'translate' doesn't have the -tion on it, is it a noun, verb, or adjective?
Most of the class: Verb!
Me: That's right, because translate is an action. So when I add on the suffix -tion, is it a noun, verb, or adjective?
Some of the class: Noun!
Me: Awesome!
AW: That's the sound my cat makes. "Noun, noun."
Really? That's where your brain was at during this lesson?
Me: So, when the word 'translate' doesn't have the -tion on it, is it a noun, verb, or adjective?
Most of the class: Verb!
Me: That's right, because translate is an action. So when I add on the suffix -tion, is it a noun, verb, or adjective?
Some of the class: Noun!
Me: Awesome!
AW: That's the sound my cat makes. "Noun, noun."
Really? That's where your brain was at during this lesson?
Sunday, May 1, 2011
classic
Heard this story from a friend that used to teach in New Orleans. At best, it is only marginally related to teaching, but it is indicative of larger problems in society.
She had a friend who was doing research on Katrina victims. He was at a woman's house verifying and entering names for a survey. He looked at one name on the list and couldn't believe it. He said, "Your daughter's name is Shady Nasty?" The women said, "No, no, her name is Sha'Dynasty, they forgot the up-comma."
(Up-comma is my new favorite word.)
This, by the way, is a really fun game I play with fellow teachers. What's the weirdest name you have heard? I like the girl who introduced herself as "Camry. Yeah like the car." We had a boy at my old school named Yes. I have heard endless accounts of girls whose names are spelled Le-a and pronounced Ledasha. And Sha'Dynasty? Frankly, it's still almost as horrible as the name Shady Nasty would be.
She had a friend who was doing research on Katrina victims. He was at a woman's house verifying and entering names for a survey. He looked at one name on the list and couldn't believe it. He said, "Your daughter's name is Shady Nasty?" The women said, "No, no, her name is Sha'Dynasty, they forgot the up-comma."
(Up-comma is my new favorite word.)
This, by the way, is a really fun game I play with fellow teachers. What's the weirdest name you have heard? I like the girl who introduced herself as "Camry. Yeah like the car." We had a boy at my old school named Yes. I have heard endless accounts of girls whose names are spelled Le-a and pronounced Ledasha. And Sha'Dynasty? Frankly, it's still almost as horrible as the name Shady Nasty would be.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
testing testing 123
In the past month, my students have spent exactly 8 school days doing "practice" or "instructionally targeted" assessments. This is NOT counting the many earlier "predictive" or "instructionally targeted" assessments done in several previous months.
This is not really funny at all, especially considering the amount of time and money spent (wasted?) on all of this citywide. But it was pretty funny when they took a math exam that more or less required the use of a calculator for one portion, and then I only had 10 calculators for 20 kids.
It's okay. I'm good at following the philosphy of "make it work.
This is not really funny at all, especially considering the amount of time and money spent (wasted?) on all of this citywide. But it was pretty funny when they took a math exam that more or less required the use of a calculator for one portion, and then I only had 10 calculators for 20 kids.
It's okay. I'm good at following the philosphy of "make it work.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
sort of
Today I read aloud an article about Jane Goodall so they could practice listening, taking notes, and doing responses based off what they heard. After we discussed how she helped save chimpanzees in the wild, one of my students asked, "Is it illegal to kill all animals?" I said, "Not all, but many animals, especially endangered ones." She responded, "Oh yeah, like koalas and dinosaurs."
Yeah. Exactly like that.
Yeah. Exactly like that.
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