New Equipment

Does anyone have any ideas on what method to use in approaching central office to secure new equipment or software for your lab? I gathered quotes from venders on computer memory upgrades and SolidWorks engineering modeling software, which is state of the art, but designed for high school students. This information was submitted to central office in August 2006. Central office replied “this is good information; we will consider this”. That was the last I heard about the equipment. My concern is that I have 24 students going to my third level mechanical and electrical system class, but I do not have any courseware for the class.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on this matter, please blog. Help! Help!

School Equipment

I am very excited for those that were able to secure new equipment for your labs of any kind. I now see how resourceful my students and I have been to work with and make the best with what we have. I am thankful for what we have, however I am looking forward to receiving broadcast quality tools that are desperately needed for my classes. I hope that the equipment I have requested will come in before school lets out so that I may practice and become familiar with it before Fall. You guys have a great Spring Break...you deserve it!

Project deadline

Well, this week went better than anticipated. I had the students research a career they were interested in and then create a brochure with all of the requested information. I gave them two days to complete the project and found that was not quite enough time. A few students turned in their brochures on Thursday but the rest finished theirs in class on Friday. It definitely helped having a project with a firm deadline to keep them busy and focused. Of course, I still had to keep them on track at times because they wanted to talk about their plans or share their packing list for their beach trip.

I do have to say that I think I was more ready for this break than they were. Lately, I've started to wonder if I'm in the right career. I'm so overwhelmed with my classroom and all the many tasks that go with it that I'm missing out on life with my family and friends. The past couple of weeks have been really hard for some reason. I've already signed my contract so now I'm committed to one more year. I sure hope that next year goes better. If not, I'm really considering going back to industry just so that I will feel some kind of peace in my life. Right now, my life is a roller coaster and I'm ready to jump off at any cost. Has anyone ever felt this way?

Spring Break May Lead the Blog Entries

Hello All,

This entry is coming to you from very late within the Boyland household. BUT, myself and a little girl of 9 years of age are excited because we have the following week off. My fellow teachers have asked me what I am going to do to relieve the stress from first year teachers' blues. And when I respond.........I will complete assignments due to NTI and promise to have no fun, they are sympathetic and cordial. I had an unscheduled observation by my Principal yesterday, that went very well. My daughter was very proud when I posted my "report card" on the refrigerator next to hers.

My proudest moment was when my Principal walked into the TV studio, with a Coke in his hand, and every student whispered..."Mr. Shaw has a drink in the studio area." And then the Principal walked into the Control Room and the students yelled...."Mr. Shaw has a drink in the Control Room!" Mr. Shaw wondered about the excitement. I explained that he was in trouble and...........I was very proud that my students recognized that no food or drinks were allowed in the studio or control room. If anyone from NTI is on Spring Break this week...................Please Enjoy! If you are not on break or have had your break.................I hope your brain and body recovered.

Short Week!

Although I didn't teach but three days this week, it was challenging to keep the students engaged. They would rather be anywhere but at school, and they are anticipating Spring Break and what they will do during their week off.

Well, I guess I'm pretty much ready for a break too, even though I had a short one this week. I was only there Monday through Wednesday because I was ill Thursday and Friday. I hope everything is in one piece when I get back. I talked to another teacher Thursday afternoon to see how things went, and he said he had to keep going to my room to wake up the substitute teacher. He's lucky the students didn't super-glue his fingers together or tie his shoe strings together. I guess I'll hear if anything happened that was real interesting when I return from Spring Break.

The Clinic is Open

Do I miss hands-on patient care? How could I! I do nursing of some sort every day at school. No, I am not the school nurse, yet there must be an invisible shingle hanging at my classroom door announcing, "Joyce D, RN, BSN. The Clinic is Open. " Students come to me regularly to ask about their ailment of the day. Before school is the peak time for visits. Sometimes the waiting room is bustling. Kids I don't even know come to the clinic. I give out bandaids, triple antibiotic cream, and medical/first aid tips daily. I look at every kind of bump, bruise, burn, and boo-boo imaginable. I do more listening than anything. I hear about students' and their family members' trips to the doctor or hospital. I hear details about injuries, even to pets. They tell me about medical things or non-medical things they have heard or have seen especially on TV. These conversations occur hourly in my classroom clinic.

The talk in my room usually begins something like this: "Can you feel if I have a fever?" "Would you take my blood pressure?" "What do you think is making my eye swell shut?" "My friend hurt her foot and it's all swollen up. Is it broken?" "What do you think these bites are from? They itch real bad!" "Is my belly button infected? I just got it pierced last week. I don't want to take it out!" "Look at this bump and tell me what it is." "I jammed my finger. What should I do? I can't even see my knuckle and it really hurts." "I have a pain right here. What's it from?" "What should I put on this sunburn?" I make a few comments or suggestions, but mostly, I look, smile, and I listen.

Yesterday a student stayed after class to talk to me privately. I was expecting something very profound. I had to mask a large grin when she asked if there was a medical treatment she could take to become taller. She wants to be a model and feels she can never reach her goal at the height of 5'2". She was very serious.

I went to the school counselor a few months back about a student's confession of depression and burning himself. This student occasionally comes by the "clinic" to talk even after finishing weeks of counseling. Several students invited me to the library to hear them as they read poems they had written. The recovering depressed student and others I knew spilled their guts as they read their poesm. I was an honored guest and they thanked me for listening.

Two of my students are pregnant. They have asked about fetal development and child birth. Another student confided she was afraid she had gotten pregnant over the weekend and wanted to know long until a home pregnancy test would give a reliable result. One senior was going for her first pap smear and wanted to know what to expect. She didn't want to ask her mom. Students tell me what they know and inquire if they are on target. I do explain some things to them, but most of all I lovingly affirm them and listen.

Even teachers come to the "clinic" at times. Several come regularly to weigh in on our scale. One is loosing too much weight stressing while her husband is in Iran. Some want their blood pressure checked and are concerned about their medication not working. I have been summoned several times by a teacher or administrator to respond when a student was having a seizure and the school nurse was not present. The student and their parents want to talk, to hear details about what happened, and to know what to communicate to their doctor.

One day last week a coach came running into the room asking for the wheelchair. One of our student athletes has a BKA (above the knee amputation) and a prosthetic leg. His "leg" broke at the ankle. He needed a way to get around school. They took the chair to him. At the end of the day the student came to return the wheelchair saying he had to go to a track meet. I asked how he would get around. He said he could hop. Until his prosthesis is fixed he is using our department's crutches after school and wheelchair during school. Every morning and afternoon he comes by to make the exchange and to talk.

You know, as a nurse in the school setting, I find things really aren't much different than they were in the hospital. There are a lot of people in both places that need someone to care for them but more than anything to listen.

The easy way out?

What do I write about this week? It’s been tough coming up with a topic because the week was for the most part uneventful. Considering that Spring Break is next week the students behaved themselves fairly well (although as the weather gets warmer the dress code takes quite a beating). I must admit that I gave myself a little bit of a head start though. I thought back to last year and remembered that the kids were pretty much done paying attention by mid-week, so I showed a movie this week on Thursday and Friday. One teacher made a comment to me that showing a movie was “cheating” and taking the easy way out. I started to feel a little guilty, but later I overheard that same teacher complaining that his students were “out of control” and being disruptive in class. I didn’t feel so bad after I heard that.

I know that the kids in our school are not unique in this regard. Did any of you try something different or unusual this week to get the kids attention? I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting ideas.

How effective is a conference call?

Scheduled any advisory committee meetings lately? They never seem to have the right timing. Getting everyone together can be a real challenge at times. Tonight, we had our scheduled meetings from 6 P.M to 7 P.M. Attendance and participation were low as compared to our last meeting. Looking back over the last several years, we have never really had consistency in total team participation.
Our group arrived at the conclusion that we need to remain proactive in building stronger communication channels within our advisory teams. If we can’t get them to meetings, then we can at least have dialog with the team wherever they are located. Technology allows this process to take place any time and anywhere.
One of the proactive steps we implemented during this meeting was initiating a conference call with one of our major corporations in New York. This appeared to be a fairly successful process, so we plan to be innovative, set-up and test conference calls periodically with all our advisory team members before our next semi- annual meetings.
We have innovation at our finger tips, so why not use it. It appears to work well in the private sector and in major organizations. The conference call has become a way of life. Every6ne is on the run and use conference calling in one form or another. We also realized that a number of our committee members drive across the city during peak traffic for a one hour lunch/dinner then return to work or home. Could we improve everyone’s time management through effective planning? We think the answer is yes. So we plan to put it to the test .before school ends. We have about 10 committee / teachers on the advisory team. We may test 5 to 7. We will let you know how it turns out.

So why can’t I get extended day pay?

Not only am I supposed to do lesson plans and teach now that the end of the year is fast approaching I have to be caterer. Here is my list of functions. April 19th – 200 people at the Civil War museum in conjunction with Col. Tech., April 26th Advisory meeting 20 plus people, May 1st 20-50 people Superintendents Luncheon, May 10th 500 people End of the year Awards Banquet, and sometime in between I was supposed to serve lunch to the Basketball team because the won state, and possibly a end of the year going away party for faculty that is leaving.
I very seriously doubt people have any idea how much time and effort is put into food preparation and running a staff. Did someone mention I don’t actually have a staff? I have some kids who half heartedly pay attention to me when they want to and if they can’t eat what they cook they don’t want to participate. Then there is all the time planning which is done after school. Going to and from Sam’s and or vendors (because the never return calls) eats up alit of personal time. Man it sucks to be me.

I’m sure next year this will happen both semesters

Hook a brother up already. Pay for my gas to Atlanta, pay for NTI, a fat raise, something, please.

the final count down

Here we go count down to spring break and boy is it taking its sweet time.I don't know about the rest of you ,but I am so ready scary. The kids are ready to there antsy truly a task to get them to work. However, somehow we do against all odds we do because we are teachers and that's our job.Do any of you just sit and listen to the students conversations you should some time. I'm talking about just listen not participating. It's amazing the info about what goes on ,has gone on ,and what is planned to go on next. you can find out and run blocker for so many of the issues in your schools and they don't even realize how their getting caught. A week ago I took a knife off of a student it looked like a pen until you pull it apart and there was a 31/2'' blade inside that student actually asked if I would give it back to him ''He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed '' I must say. I guess what I want to say is kids there ruff there bad but they are also their own worst enemy.

Should I or They

I didn’t know if we were supposed to do a blog this week or not. If we were, my fault. I’m late. Sorry

So lately, it’s seems like some kids just don’t get it, and then some really do. I have a student who is a freshman. He’s in my Work Place Readiness class. I’m not exactly sure if he has an IEP or not but he is definitely an average student. He struggles in class, but I encourage him all the time. He may come to me and ask me questions on the directions or exactly what needs to be done for the lesson. He wants to make sure there is no room for error and that he comprehends what he is doing. It may take him a bit longer to do his work assignment, but I don’t mind giving him the extra help or time. I also tech him to lift weights once or twice a week when I pop into the weightlifting class. I can tell he is very grateful.

Then I have a kid who is a senior who thinks he knows it all. He was an exemplary student until right after Christmas. He was an A-B student and worked at Callaway Gardens for almost a year. After he entered the Art Institute of Atlanta best teen chef contest his ego became inflated and he had no follow through. Not only has he entered the contest but he applied to the Art Institute right after Thanksgiving and has not heard back from them yet. He was going to do the page one contest but he didn’t finish filling out his paperwork nor did he ask me for a letter of recommendation. He just simply didn’t get to it. Now he is working at the prestigious Chattahoochee River club and I believe he thinks he has surpassed the master. Oh my lord does someone need to knock this kid of his soap box.

My point of this blog is: I would rather have a class full of kids like the first student I mentioned rather than the second. With the first student at least I know I would be giving that child skills for life and be nothing but proud of him/her every day and they would be grateful. With the second student that normally does well when they become sophomoric in nature they become apathetic and ungrateful and begin do disappoint you.

Eh, what can you do? Try – Try – Try, harder. Should I try harder or should they try harder?

Guidance Counselor

This week I sat down with our one and only guidance counselor at my school to complete the guidance counseling report assignment. I discovered, after speaking with her, that there is probably a large body of students who never utilize her services. The particular service I'm referring to is career counseling. Because our school does not offer a job-readiness course, I think that our students miss out on opportunities because they do not know the opportunities are there. Why should they ask her for help when they don't even know that they need help?

While talking to her, she gave me some websites that she refers students to when asking about careers and their options. I've scheduled her to come to all three of my classes on Tuesday and she is going to walk the students through taking an online survey which will determine some career options based on their likes and dislikes. Originally, I was going to have them search for jobs only in the graphics industry, but then I realized this might be their only chance to look into other careers.

I'm trying something new this week so I hope that it goes well. Here is the plan: after they take the online survey, they will pick a career path and then make a brochure about this career. The brochure will include potential earnings, type of education required, the pros and cons of the career. At the end of the week, I'm going to have the students stand up and present the information about the career that they researched.

I really hope that this will be a good learning experience for them and for me. I'll let you know how it goes.

GACE....Two Thumbs Up!!

March 17, 2007 I took the math portion of the GACE assessment for new teacher. Compared to the PRAXIS series, GACE is a much better assessment of basic skills required for new teachers. The test was straight forward and no trickery of questions. All the questions were math you had seen and used before. Twice I have taken the Praxis (all three basic assessments) and I only passed the math portion. In my opinion, the Praxis Series was not trying to assess new teachers, instead, Praxis was used as a money making tool for the company.

Most people that I talked with who were trying to become teachers had taken the Praxis Series I or II, three or four times, at $115.00 for one test or all three sections. Do the math; this is expensive for a new teacher. The GACE series is only $25.00 per test which is very reasonable compared to the PRAXIS SERIES. I am happy Georgia changed to the GACE. I am confident I passed the test on the very first try!

Best Layed Plans Go Astray

I had an interesting learning experience at the start of this week. I had to call in a sub last week on Thursday due to illness (flu). Thursday was our last day and we had Friday and Monday off for vacation break. The call in for the sub went smoothly and I checked with the school in the early morning and everything was lined up. Emergency lesson plans were in place for them to use and it should have been an uneventful day. I came back Tuesday morning and the kids were raving how good the substitute was and wanted him back again. I came to find out that he never even used my emergency lesson plans(never received them from the administration). He allowed the kids to use the lab all day. He even got the administration to open up the tool room for him by telling them that the lesson plan for the day called for tools to be used. The administration did not have a key to the tool room so they allowed a student to use a ladder to climb up through the suspended ceiling, over the wall of the tool room and climb down into the tool room to open it from the inside. Unbelievable! When I confronted the administration on it about the emergency lesson plans not being followed and liability issues with not a qualified instructor in the lab, did I get a big run around. None of them wanted to talk about it or investigate it to correct a potential problem. Push it under the carpet and forget it. So now my students know how to get into my tool room without using a key. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet. It's been an interesting week dealing with students and administration. Hopefully next week will go better.
Mike M.

Lesson learned

I had an interesting experience this week that reminded me just how much trouble teachers can get into if they’re not careful. At our school, teachers that don’t have a 4th period class have to do lunch duty. My job is to keep watch over the kids who have been assigned to lunch detention, which is called the “Penalty Box” and is held in a large furniture storage room next to the cafeteria. Most students have to serve five days, and there is a list of rules that they must follow. We’ve had some repeat offenders, but usually once they get done with their week I don’t see them again.

On Wednesday I had just one female student, and it was her first day. She was polite and quiet, but not what I would call shy. We went into the detention room and I told her to pick a seat. I asked her what her name was and if she knew what the rules were. She gave me her name, told me that she had a sheet of paper with the rules on it and that she had been assigned three days. She took out her lunch and some study materials and the rest of the lunch period passed in silence (students are not allowed to talk). When the bell rang at the end of lunch she gathered her things and left.

The next day I received an email from the assistant principal who had assigned the student to the Penalty Box. She wrote that I needed to switch lunch duty assignments on Thursday and Friday with another teacher, who happened to be female. I thought it was a little odd but said ok, fine with me. After lunch on Thursday I caught up with the AP and asked her what was going on and also asked if she had saved me from a possibly bad situation. She said yes and then told me the story.

It turns out that after school on Wednesday the student went home and told her mom that she had been forced to spend lunch in a smelly storage room alone with a man. Of course, the mother called the school to complain. I certainly didn’t like the sound of that, but the AP told me that the situation had been handled and the teacher switch was all that was needed.
I was relieved that it was over but also realized again that we need to be careful and keep ourselves out of trouble.

Let's Play a Game!

Hello all! I have had a productive week. I finally used the Jeopardy game Ms. H. sent us last semester. My kids ate it up! They absolutely loved it. This was our way of reviewing for our Progress Check on Tuesday. My students know what to look for on the Progress Check. I didn't let them use their notes and they did really well without them! I was amazed at what they had committed to memory and how well they could guess! HAHAHAHA! That's it for me tonight. You guys have a wonderful weekend! -Lin

Lights.......Cameras........ Action

This morning Lassiter High School did their morning announcements "live" from the recently installed studio and control room for the first time in school history. It was not a major production that would have involved teleprompter, video sources and graphics. But it did involve 2 cameras, a news desk and a chroma-key curtain. I was, probably, more excited than the students. My adrenalin was high enough to feel like I was doing a "live shot" from The White House. Many students and faculty had positive comments. But what I tell my students is, that if people have good things or bad things to say, it means our viewers our watching and our Nielsen Ratings our high. It is just the beginning of what I expect to accomplish within the world of Broadcast Video Production at Lassiter. For as heated and tense that a control room and studio can get because of a "live" environment.................... no "F-Bombs" are allowed!

Block Scheduling can be Intimidating

We have been on Block Scheduling for the last several weeks while students prepared to take the GHGT. At first, planning for two hour instruction was a little intimidating but it all worked out.
This week we tested,(GHGT) so many of my classes were greatly reduced in numbers. It gave me the opportunity to spend time and provide quality instruction to some of my students that I would not have been able to give as much attention in our regular class time. Most of the students remained focused throughout the period with minimal distractions. We did some hands on activities and really explored the key points of the lesson. The students really appeared engaged and stated they learned alot from the lesson covered.I know it is a dream to think smaller classes and longer periods classes can produce successful instruction, especially in vocation classes. It just makes sense.Sorry, I got carried away, it was just a thought. I know someone out there knows that smaller classes might just yield quality results but they don't pay for themselves according to formulas used to calculate and allocate dollars from the government.Larger classes with major distractions tend to have higher failure rates and yield questionable results. Which would you rather? I thought we were discusssing block scheduling. Oh well, back to the grind.

Failed Test

After all the instruction we have received on writing tests, I should be doing a wonderful job of writing them, but I'm not. I gave a test this week and to my utter horror, half of my students failed. When my "A" students fail a test, I know there is a major problem. I believe that the problem this time was primarily me. The test looked flawless. All the directions were precisely written. The multiple choice and matching answers were all in alphabetical order. I used capital letters where there were supposed to be capitals. The multiple choice included one extra answer, to be sure students knew the material. All the columns were properly labeled. That test looked like a piece of art.

So where did I go wrong? For one thing, I didn't have time to write the test before teaching the material. I perfected the form of the test but not the content. Also, in teaching this particular unit, I used very little lecture. I thought it would be best not to bore them with listening to me teach a subject that they had previously covered in middle school, in biology, and etc. Students wrote vocabulary words with definitions to study. They did some wonderful activities to solidify the material in their brains, or so I thought. When I graded the tests I found that my students did not know what I believed they knew. I learned that I needed to spend more time in lecture and review of the material. Thankfully, this test was only given to my two smaller classes; students I have had all year. I love them and they know it and love me back, shortcomings and all.

What should one do after messing up so badly? Here's what I did. First, I apologized to my students and told them I felt I was largely at fault for the poor grades. I thanked them for being such good sports over breaking in a first year teacher who was learning many things the hard way at their expense, including the writing of tests. I told them that starting Monday, after I have the weekend to write a new and appropriate test, we will take a few days to cover the material be certain they understand know what is expectedof them. They will all take the new test and I will take the better score of the two tests. Being the great bunch of students that they are, they were very happy with this plan. More than that, they were happy that tomorrow is Friday and we are going to go ahead with our plans to do the "Autopsy of a Pickle" project to the body planes and directions. (I wish I could take credit for the pickle idea but it is not a Joyce original.) Anyway, the students aren't the only ones happy that tomorrow is Friday!

Planning

I'm starting to think that this last semester will be the most challenging as far as presenting material and making sure that the students retain the information. With the graduation test, then Spring Break in a couple of weeks, then end of course testing, and the nice weather outside all of this combined will make it difficult for me to present the material.

I'm planning to go ahead and present material the week before Spring Break that will be needed when we get back from the break. I just hope that I don't have to teach it all over again. This is my first time through this so I'm curious to see how the students will be in class with everything else going on.

Has anyone found it to be more difficult during the Spring semester to keep students involved? Just curious if I'm worrying about nothing.