Teaching on Hallowe'en

Yeah, yeah, I'm way behind, and I promise to get a full-blown post up soon. But this will have to do for now: A few observations on teaching on Hallowe'en.

First, I taught at the local high school today. Thank goodness, I'm not sure how crazy it would have been at an elementary school (but I have a good idea). It was Spanish class, and they were already in the middle of watching some movies, so I just wrapped them up. The first year classes watched the DVD of Haunted Mansion in Spanish with English subtitles. When some of them tried to wheedle me into switching those languages around, I threatened to switch the subtitles to French. The second year students watched the Spanish tape of Casper. It was fun, but I did see Haunted Mansion a few times too many (my usual complaint when I show a video — but at least it allowed me to quietly catch up on some reading as well). There was also a class working on the yearbook, but I pretty much had to take roll, then let them do their stuff. To my surprise, there were not a lot of costumes, but this may have been due in part to Homecoming being last week (I was even there for the Homecoming assembly), and they had a lot of dressing up for that. Best costumes I encountered were a boy dressed as a cow, and a girl just wearing some generic black outfit with a cape who said something different every time someone asked what she was. I think I ended up asking her about a dozen times, just to see what she would say. Oh, yeah, there was also a very impressive movie-style Batman roaming the halls as well.

For the first time ever, the evening tutoring job was open on Halloween, and as I suspected, it was not a huge success. Many students cancelled, and many others didn't show up. Of the ones that did, the younger ones were too excited about the holiday to fucus well on their work. It was so light that many of us teachers got to go home early (which is why I actually have time to blog about it tonight), and when the final hour starts, there will be only two teachers and three students. If they ask me (and they won't), I will recommend going back to having the night off in future years.

My new job is gone

I didn't get the job. After the job was offered to me, they had to go through and check the paperwork and my references, plus the district's legal department had to check out an incident a few years ago. The good news is, they cleared me. The bad news is that the school, without anyone to fill the position, went ahead and restructured the math department and shifted things around and such so as to eliminate the position. So now I have to go back to full-time subbing and tutoring and fourteen hour days and no sleep and late dinners and feeling lousy and crummy and miserable.

I am, as you can imagine, extremely unhappy and upset and angry and annoyed and pissed off and I want to hit things and I want to cry and I want to do nasty things to a lot of people, but I won't because I'm too nice a guy, and I'm above all that.

What really gets me is that they never even bothered to tell me this was happening until I e-mailed the school to ask what was going on. That is extremely unprofessional, in my opinion. They said they might offer me the position again when it starts up again second semester, but I'm really not inclined to take it now. I've already lost too much money and time dealing with them, so I doubt I will ever accept an offer, or even an interview, with them again.

Gads, I hate my life...

Cool education pictures

Nope, still no word on the job, even though the assistant principal I've been talking to has left a message now, and I've left two since then. Grrr...

So, here's an article about alternative education programs in Seattle from today's Seattle Times. Okay, it's not that great, I just wanted a link to the pictures. The second of the set is terrific, so I thought I'd share. I did sub out at AS #1 many, many years ago, and it sure is a different place. I liked it, and I hope the program can survive. That day I subbed there, however, I got hit in a rather indelicate place, shall we say right between the legs, during a game of dodgeball. I don't think it was deliberate...

The latest update

Today is the day I was supposed to start my new job, until they figured out that they hadn't checked my references yet. *sigh* So after the past tough but fulfilling week of teaching math at a more local high school, I'm taking today off. I've quit my evening tutoring job, but I've been assured that if this new job falls through, I can step back in.

So, here's the latest article from The Seattle Times about math education reform—printed on the front page, no less. I've been saying for some time that the NCTM Standards were overinterpreted, and there still needs to be basic skills taught, and drilled. We've seen that in our students at the tutoring center, as othewise very bright students come in with few math skills. After a little time with us learning more traditional skills, they do fine. (But why are some of those schools using Saxon? That's a curriculum that I've seen kill any enthusiasm and interest students have in math.)

AAAAARGH!!! It's on hold!

It turns out that they had not checked my references yet, and couldn't officially offer me the job until they did. So right now, it's on hold again. And if they talk to my principal in that strike-riddled district, I may be in trouble. At least I've told my potential new employers that they won't get a good reference there, and why. The rest of them, at least, should be good.

Yikes!

I start on Friday.

The teacher currently doing the job leaves on Thursday, so there will be no transition. Unfortunately, I can't start any earlier because of my current obligation to a job that runs through Thursday.

During my planning on Friday, I have to pop over to the district office and sign all the paperwork.

Talk about being dropped into the pool at the deep end...

Excellent news!

I got the job! More later once I know more of the specifics.

This week in teaching...and more!

Here's the usual quick summary. But first, Jerry Large's latest column about math education.

Monday: Elementary PE. It was fun.

Tuesday: Junior high school library. Hmm, two classes coming in to do some research, and otherwise all I had to do was spend time with the books. Oh, yeah, that was a sweet day!

Thursday: High school math. This was a block day, the first period was planning, and the other two classes just did work in the computer lab. Oh, yeah, that, too, was a sweet day!

Friday: Day 1 of filling in for a high school math teacher who had to have some surgery on her foot. Other than not quite having enough time to explain solving a system of equations by substitution to two of the classes, it went well. I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

"Hey," you're asking, I hope, "what about Wednesday?" That's the truly interesting part. Remember that job I interviewed for twice back in June? They called back and wanted to talk to me again! It seems they have one position where they have had trouble keeping someone (first a sub, then a non-math person). So I went in on Wednesday to talk. They wanted to know if I was interested in the job — and would I be able to stay and teach a class, so they could see how I did? Okay, that was a surprise, but I had nothing else going on. I actually got to observe one class, and they were a bit of a handful. The next class was the one I actually got to teach, and they were fine and engaged and interested in who this weird new guy was, I think. I did all right, under the circumstances. Friday afternoon, the vice principal in charge of all this got back to me and said they were still considering me and another candidate — then it turned into another mini-interview about management and discipline. Uh-oh. Well, I'm still in the running, I think, and they should be able to tell me in a few days. Yes, I'll tell you as soon as I know.