This week in teaching

This was an unusual week for me, since I accepted a weeklong job at a junior high teaching English. I took it mainly because it was a whole week, and the message said it would be easy. No kidding! First off, this teacher is only .8 FTE, so I only had four classes a day instead of the usual five. I didn't have to, but I went ahead and showed up at the usual time anyway each day, just to give me some time before school to get ready, and to have a little down time in case they needed me to fill in somewhere. But that gave me plenty of time to catch up with some reading as well. Furthermore, a lot of the students were out on various days this week due to nature camp for the first three days, and various field trips.

It was an interesting mix of classes. The first class was writing a persuasive essay about skate parks, and whether one should or should not be built in a hypothetical community. We had an interesting discussion on Monday about it, determining the pros and cons of a park. Surprisingly, a lot of them seemed to be leaning against a park. Well, I collected them yesterday, and haven't had a chance to read them, and I doubt I will now. But they were a good bunch who knew what they were doing. The next two classes were advanced learners — at least, the students I had. One of them was particularly hard hit by campers, and I think I only saw three of those students all five days that week. That class had a few others, however, as a social studies teacher at camp sent his students to me with an assignment. Needless to say, I was juggling a few more balls than usual those days, but it went well. The few students I had had a couple of stories to read and answer questions about in their literature book, but once everyone was back, I just had to turn it over to the students to use as a study hall. Good thing, as it seems the math teachers didn't let up at all, and the ones who had been gone were grateful for the extra time to catch up on their math. Then in my last class, they spent the whole week working on a series of projects related to The Outsiders. For some reason, even though they all had a number of ideas to choose from, they all started off by putting together a collage...

I did have one other class this week. The band teacher was out on Wednesday, and no sub was found, so I got to cover his strings class for one period. I knew there was a good reason why I usually don't take band and orchestra classes, as the class was so big, and everyone was so intent on getting their instuments and warming up that it took me a while just to get them in their seats and quiet so I could take roll. After that, however, it got better, as I let students take turns conducting, and they picked some favorite pieces to play. (It did confirm my idea that, if I had my life to live over again, I'd learn to play the cello — after the crying and screaming at having to go through my life again, of course.)

One bit of disappointment this week. I was asked to talk to a junior high math teacher about taking over his classes for the rest of the year, but becasue of the tutoring job and incompatible schedules, I wasn't able to even talk to him before he picked someone else to take it on. Poop.

Most districts around here seem to be taking next week off for spring break, but not the local district I work in the most — and that pays a little better — so I'm going to work this coming week, but then the week after that I'm mostly going to take off. The exception? I've already signed up for a half day job, to make up for the half day I'm taking off Monday. A science teacher I've subbed for quite a bit asked for me for just the afternoon. I almost turned it down, then realized that having time to recover from this weekend's big Emerald City Comic Convention would be a good thing. My wife is there both days, today and tomorrow, but she's going with her sister today, then I'll go tomorrow. Anyway, to get back to spring break, I plan to spend most of the week filling out applications. I just hope I'm not too late already.

This week in teaching

Son of a gun, all those allergies I thought I was getting last weekend? Nope. It's a nasty head cold. I've been fighting and dealing with it all week, and now that the weekend is here, it finally seems to be clearing up. However, our finances are in such bad shape that I couldn't take a day off to recover. Yeah, I feel like crap. And it's too bad, since otherwise this would have been an enjoyable week. First off, I was all in the nearby regular district again, which even resulted in a couple of jobs that I could walk to.

Monday, however, I was at another high school teaching Spanish, after I helped proctor another round of the WASL. Very pleasant, as these were advanced students, and all I really had to do to was get them started. Tuesday was a bit different, as I taught at the local elementary school, which is only two blocks away. This was a great sixth grade class, as they got right to work and were all attentive, productive, and quiet. Eerily quiet, at times, in fact. Wednesday I had a longer walk, up to the local junior high school for PE. It was the Wednesday run, so about all I had to do was watch and time them. Not terribly difficult, but it was a cold day. Thank goodness I had my hat and gloves, as it kept my cold from feeling even worse. Thursday and Friday was a math job, back at the high school I was at on Monday, and fortunately no WASL. Some of the classes were chatty, but when they got going on math, they chatted about math, and helped each other out in figuring things out. They asked good questions, they managed to catch my few errors, and they were great to work with. Now if I can only figure out how to get my own class and students...

This week in teaching

Pretty straightforward week for me, but with a couple of twists. Thanks to the WASL (that's the big state-mandated test) starting up this week, I didn't get as much secondary work as usual. And just by chance, I also ended up teaching most of the time in the slightly-further-away back-up district, instead of my nearby main district. I started the week off there, however, with an elementary PE job. As they were between units, the regular teacher encouraged me to do something with scooterboards. Kids like scotterboards! So after the safety talk (and sure enough, despite everything I said, one kid ran over her own fingers iin the last class), we played scooterboard soccer. Lots of fun, lots of rolling around, and only one major accident (a misplaced arm resulting in a cut lip, with some blood, but everything turned out fine). Tuesday it was off to fill in for one of my tutoring colleagues again, and I lucked out there. He teaches junior high Language Arts/Social Studies, and the English classes were all about the counselors coming in to get them set to register for next year, mostly going over the courses and catalog and stuff. I helped out, but didn't have any actual teaching, so all I had to worry about were the two social studies classes. One was honors and all I had to do was give them the assignment and turn them loose, and the other was…well, not quite so easy. Oh, well, it was only one period. Wednesday was elementary music, and I realy lucked out there! Wednesdays are short days anyway in this district, and this was her light day, so I only had four classes. In all of them, I got to show the Disney version of Peter and the Wolf, which worked out very well. (There was one kindergarten student who kept telling me about how he'd already seen Peter Pan, even though I explained to him a few times that that was a different movie. I think he got it once it started, however.) Thursday and Friday was high school math, and thanks to the WASL, it was anything but business as usual. Thursday started with the WASL (I got to proctor, which basically meant that I sat around and read my magazine while the students took the test and the other teacher kept an eye on things, not that he didn't do some of his own work on the computer as well), then two long block classes, and a long planning period. I made up for it on Friday, however, which meant long block classes all three periods, an extended advisory, and a pep assembly, all without a break beyond lunch. Whew!

It's quite so far for the coming week. In fact, except for a high school math teacher I've already worked for on Thursday and Friday, I have nothing else lined up for the rest of the school year, which is unusual. But I know something will turn up. It always does. And if it doesn't, I have plenty to do to apply for jobs for the fall.

A shout out to all those school secretaries out there! I haven't seen this much with high school secretaries, since they see so many teachers in a day, week, or year, but there have been a lot of junior high and elementary secretaries out there who have recognized me and greeted me by name, many after not having seen me for months or even years. I've always said that the two most important people to make friends with at a school are the secretary and the custodian, as they are the nerve center of a school that can really make things work for you.

Happy π Day!

Ah, π Day! That glorious day where we celebrate the wonders of π and all that it does for us. Today, to celebrate, we're eating quiche for breakfast, turkey pot pie for dinner, and chocolate cream pie for dessert. (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a math job for today, but at least I'll be teaching math tomorrow and Friday.) Go out and make it a good π Day, everybody! Oh, and here's an article about this most important of holidays from the local paper.

Three and a half dwarves

Right now, I'm sleepy, dopey, and grumpy, with some remnants of sneezy as a result of last week's cold. I'm getting really tired of the grind again, as I'm also having to slip in what little I can do about hunting for a new job next year. I have several requests for letters out, and I need to get things ready to go. But with two jobs, I have so little time during the week and so many other things going on weekends, that I'm not sure when or how to do it all. Still, I'll keep trying...

So, how was the past week, at least? Not so bad, but with some twists. Monday I filled in for a high school technology teacher I've subbed for before. All went well except for the kid in welding class who took his goggles off too soon and had to go home early and see a doctor. I had to fill out an incident report, but I got the impression that nobody was blaming me, at least. Tuesday was high school PE, which basically meant tell kids what to do, then watch them do it. I also had a preliminary interview in a nearby district that afternoon, and I think that went well. Of course, I still need to actually apply. Wednesday I took a half day elementary library job so that I could write a lesson plan that afternoon — more on that in a little bit. Thursday I went to a junior high computer lab. It's far enough away that I left earlier than I normally would, as I've had traffic problems there before. This proved to be a good thing, as traffic was just fine, but the turnoff road was blocked due to construction! Fortunately, I had enough time to find a way there, and I got there just in time. Friday was fun because it was a junior high math class I've subbed in before, and the teacher was kind enough to let me write up a lesson plan and teach them in the hopes that an administrator could observe me. No administrators showed up, sad to say, nor was a video camera (my back-up plan) available, but it was at least a good opportunity, and the kids responded well (I think the change of pace was good for them).

So far, things are pretty quiet for the coming weeks. I have a single day as a junior high language arts/social studies teacher on Tuesday, filling in for one of my tutoring colleagues, on Tuesday (I've subbed for him before, and they're great), two days of high school math coming up in a couple of weeks, and that's about it. But I'm confident something will turn up. It usually does.

The week in teaching

Wow, what a weird week, even for me. Monday, a friend of mine who teaches elementary PE asked for me. This was the first day back after midwinter break, and I guess she has been really sick, since she was out the week before break as well! The original plan was that I would take her classes through Wednesday, and see what happens after that. It went well, except for my own health. Yup, Tuesday was the day I caught it full force, and decided it wasn't worth the effort. So I cancelled the job, e-mailed my friend to apologize, and spent the rest of the morning sleeping. My wife also insisted that I not go in to tutor, either, which was probably a wise move. Fortunately, the day's rest seems to have been enough, even though I'm still not quite up to 100% yet. Since the PE job was originally scheduled to go through Wednesday, but I'd cancelled it all, I was free on Wednesday to teach for a junior high school science teacher I've been in for a few times this year. Soon after I got there, the snow started to fall! No, not again! We've had enough this year! Oh, well. Things were fine at the tutoring center, however, so I went in — except it had picked up and gotten thick again during the evening, and so for the third time this year I had a horrendous drive home among a bunch of people who don't really seem to know (or learn!) how to drive in snow. At least this time it only took me about forty minutes to get home.

Now, Thursday was the really weird day. I knew there would be some schedule changes because of the weather, so as soon as I got up I headed toward my computer to check the reports. But before I could get to any reports, I got a call to sub in the local district. Great, science at the nearby high school, call the teacher, fine. Then I immediately got a call from my other district offering me another job. I told their machine I wasn't available, however, as I already had a job. Then I finally got online to see what was up — and the local district was completely closed! So, I'd accepted a job that no longer existed. (I did call the teacher anyway, just to say, "Yeah, I took it," and we had a bit of a laugh over the situation.) Oh, well, no problem. The other district was open, but late, so I got on their website to see what was not only available, but close, as I didn't want to go too far in the snow. Sure enough, one of the elementary schools had both a music and PE position. I thought about the PE job, but realized I still wasn't quite up to it, so I took the music job instead. Good choice! All I had to do was show the first three segments of Fantasia 2000 to each class! Plus, I didn't have any students until 10:30, and an hour and a half break in the middle of the day for lunch! Surprisingly, nobody took the PE job (I guess a lot of people were not willing to drive in the snow), so since school started an hour and a half late, the PE teacher came in himself. It was a short day, he figured he could handle it. By the time school got out, most of the snow was gone, or at least a lot slushier, so driving was fine.

Thursday night, Laura kept getting lots of offers for half day jobs for yeaterday, but she knows I like full day jobs, and kept turning them down. Finally, I got a full day offer — French, of all things, at the local high school. Well, I don't know French, but I do know enough Spanish to get by, and I've done other languages before, so I decided to not worry, Good thing, as this teacher also taught a section of Spanish. More importantly, he knew that I probably wouldn't speak French, and set things up real nice so that most of the classes had some vocabulary activities that didn't require me to speak the language. Piece of cake! And both my health and the weather had improved enough that I was able to walk, getting some badly needed exercise in.

The coming week is already shaping up. I have high school PE on Tuesday and junior high math (in two different schools) on Thursday and Friday. But the really interesting event comes Tuesday afternoon. I'm finally taking advantage of my university's career center to get the inside scoop on jobs, and it's already paying off. One local district is having interest interviews that day, and I managed to get one of the last two openings. Sure, it's preliminary, and all I need to bring is my résumé (which I will be updating tomorrow, not that it should need a lot), but it's a start! So I also need to get on the stick and get letters from teachers, perhaps talk to a principal or two...

More snow???

Soon after I got to my job yesterday, it started snowing, and it went on for most of the day. I got to my tutoring job on time, and by then it had already started to let up, but I guess it kept going. The drive home last night was perilous, mostly because of the idiot drivers who don't know how to drive in the snow. My fishtailing a few times didn't help, either, but at least I seem to handle that pretty well. This morning, before I could get online and see who was closed or late, I got a call for a job in my primary district and took it. It was the closest high school, just up the hill, and normally I'd walk. With the cold still hanging on and the weather, however, I'd already decided to drive. Almost immediately, I got a call for a job in my other district, but didn't take it as I already had a job, right? Nope! My primary district is closed, and my job is cancelled. So I jumped onto the site for my other district (which is opening late today) and found a job at a good location that's not too far from here. Since it's in an elementary school, it's also starting an hour and a half late, so I should have plenty of time to get there. To be honest, however, I'm worried about tutoring tonight...