Ah, crap.

So I misplaced the ONE student today who I should never, NEVER have misplaced... Crap.

You may recall that about a month ago, I got chewed out by an irate mother who insisted I wasn't doing my job of teaching her son. I ended up backing down, but the administration helped out and now they deal with the mom. The follwing week, the father actually came to school to complain about me. Lovely.

Anyway, today the mother requested that her son stay with me after school so I could work with him for an hour and a half. Mind you, this is during my tutoring time, where I already have a class of 20 students. We were told that tutoring was supposed to be its own class, taught like an actual math class. That means I have to plan for another class 3 days a week. How, I'd wondered, was I supposd to work with this student AND my class of 20?

Somehow, it all worked out. The student worked independently while I worked with the tutoring class. Then I set the tutees to work and assisted the student. I kept switching back and forth, and it went pretty well. At the end of tutoring, we played our usual game, and the student participated. Good stuff.

HOWEVER, after the game, I walked the students out toward the bus. Since I'm not on after-school bus duty this week, I left after I saw the kids get to teh bus area. The one student, however, was supposed to be picked up by dear old mom. Something must've gone amiss, because 15 minutes later, dad was in my classroom, trying to find his son. CRAP. The ONE kid I shouldn't have lost... I walked over the ENTIRE campus with the dad (and another teacher, thank goodness)... and no son. I ended up having to tell the dad that his son was either on a bus or walking (since there were no other students around). No idea where the kid went. My fault... and the parents already hate me. Eeesh.

Anyway, I'm off to plan tomorrow and crash out. Long day. Kids are getting comfortable now, which is leading to some more obnoxious occurrences in class. I keep forgetting how tiring this profession is. Le sigh.

Ciao.

We're online!!!!!

So... today was a pretty sweet day overall. Aside from being Friday, I made a YouTube video with some of my students! (Fear not, every student on there had a signed permission slip from a parent/guardian saying they could be on YouTube and the internet.)

The concept was to have a “boring” teacher explaining the order of operations to her class. Then, as in a daydream, the students start whispering, “order of ops.” Then students and teachers burst into song! After the song, class resumes as if nothing had ever happened.

Lyrics are below, a few posts back.

Here it is!!!

A much better day

I keep forgetting how polarized this profession is at times. Today was a good day overall! Granted, Thursdays are usually pretty good because the kids get out an hour and 15 minutes early. This makes classes only 38 minutes long instead of the usual 50. Also, Thursdays are nice because I have all 4 of my math classes in the morning, back-to-back. Usually, I have 3, then lunch, homeroom, "math boost," and then my last math class. On Thursdays, I have all 4 classes, then lunch, homeroom, and "math boost." Not too shabby.

Anyway, I think the kids and I, overall, are jiving pretty well. We're making a math-related video (with a select group of students) tomorrow... It'll be on YouTube tomorrow afternoon! :) I'll post a link here when our video's online. (Don't worry; all the kids on it have parental permission signed off.)

Wow, we just got an e-mail that read: "There has been a bank robbery [right next to our school]. It is believe that suspects ran towards our school. Please walk your students to the bus."

Crazy times. Luckily, the e-mail came during my prep time, so I only had to walk my student assistant to the bus. I can only imagine what the rumors will be tomorrow...

Okee, off to a meeting for the next TWO HOURS. Funfun. But yeah, today was much better than yesterday, and overall, I still enjoy this job a great deal. Peace!

The need to vent

The need to vent

So right now, my homeroom class is sitting quietly, and most are reading. (This is usually what we do, school-wide, after lunch.) The students read books at their reading level (determined by a quarterly test) and then take individual tests on the books they read. The grade is based on how many points they earn from each test.

Anyway, I'm completely not into being here today. I almost screamed at my 2nd hour class. Admittedly, I'm exhausted (I'm averaging about 6 hours of sleep per night) and today's lesson plan was mediocre at best. However, I'm really sick of being a constant disciplinarian. It's 4812 little fires every day that I have to extinguish.

"Joey, sit down" or "Johnny, don't throw things in the classroom," or "Watch your language" or "Stop talking so I can explain this" or "Listen to each other" ... I'm just tired of it right now. I know I'm not the best at classroom managment, but it's SOOOOO frustrating when the kids constantly interrupt their own learning process. I feel bad for the kids genuinely interested in learning. Sigh.

Also, I'm always thinking of what things I can do. I think my next move will be the Peace Corps (hopefully)! I'm debating if I'd go next year or in 2010... I don't know how long I'll be able to teach.

Bell's about to ring... Ciao.

Looooooooooong day!

So today was pretty long... For the next two months, I have bus duty nearly EVERY morning from 8:15-8:40 (school starts at 8:45). Crazy. And THEN I have tutoring until 5pm.

Sure, a normal 8-5 job is fine... when you're in an office. When you're on your feet instructing, directing, and redirecting all day, it gets to be quite exhausting. A full day of teaching AND tutoring is becoming insane, especially with half an hour of my mornings spent herding children away from huge buses.

Anyway, I'm still astounded at how FAST time is going! We're already in our 2nd week back from Fall Break, and next week is the end of October. I hear November and December FLY by, so I can only imagine how that's gonna go.

Another factor that compounds my exhaustion is that my students and I are working on a YouTube video. I wrote a song last week called "Order of Ops," and it goes to the song "The Cupid Shuffle." (You can look up "Cupid Shuffle" on YouTube if you haven't heard the original.) Good song. Anyway, I rewrote the lyrics so they pertain to the order of operations. The kids got pretty into the song, and the other 6th grade math teacher suggested I record it and put it on YouTube.

Sooooooooooo the process has been crazy so far! I had to get permission slips from EVERY student who wants to participate, and I'm not letting them participate if they don't have their homework in EVERY day, this week and last. We're practicing during lunch (which is when I usually make copies), and we'll record it Friday at lunch. Then, Friday after school, it goes on YouTube.com. Crazy!!

Since the project is above and beyond the scope of the class, I'm not counting it as a grade (or extra creit); it's just for fun. This means that only the students who WANT to be there are. It also gives me some liberty to kick the kids out who are messing around.

Eeesh!! It's already later than I thought, and I've gotta go get tomorrow set up.

Cheers!

P.S. Here are my song lyrics:


Order… of Ops! (Repeat 5x)


(hook)
Down, down, do your math, do your math (Repeat 4x)

Verse One:
They say I'm a teacher, and I say yeah
They say what you doing, tryin’ to do some crazy math?
I just let the order of operations go
So all my classes can pass the 6th grade, yo
They got some crazy math, you gotta move your pencil
Crazy math, it's called the triple-O
It don't matter if you're 11 or you’re12 (here we go)
We gone show you how it go

Chorus:
Parentheses, parentheses, parentheses, parentheses,
Exponents, exponents, exponents, exponents,
Now mult or div, now mult or div,
Now add or subtract, now add or subtract
(let me see you do)

(hook) + Chorus (2x)

Verse Two:
Now you see what I'm talking about
I represent for the Bulldogs, yo
Where we known for mathing out
I'm gonna show you what I'm talking about

(hook 2x) + Chorus (2x)

Verse Three:
And do the order of ops
Do the order of Ops
It's ya friend PEMDAS, PEM to the DAS
Crazy math on the track, got another hittin beat
(here we go, hey)

(hook)