Summer School rumination

It's funny. I think "rumination" comes from the same root as "ruminant" which is a cud-chewing mammal, like a cow or sheep. I've been chewing over a few ideas regarding my work right now, and you, dear reader, are the Oh So Lucky Recipient of my conclusions.

I started this blog as a class assignment in grad school and continued it, thinking it would be about lesson plans and great readings and cute things kids said at school. In reality, it's been more about my career in general, recession, the resulting lack of jobs, and the weirdness of working lots and lots of extremely part time jobs right after getting a *&%&*#@$% master's degree... but I digress. It's pretty much been about my own navel.

So, as I examine the aforementioned navel, I find that I tend to freak out a little sometimes. I was grading papers last night, after a lovely summer weekend spent largely not grading papers, and when I sat down to get to work I pretty much dissolved in tears over the ridiculousness of the scene. I felt a bit like a fraud; I don't know how I'm going to teach these kids what they need in four short weeks and I'm not being told I have to do any particular thing, so all I'm left is "professional judgement". I'm thoroughly enjoying every minute with my class, but I worry that they're not going to show improvement on the post tests. Not that I have serious reason to worry based on their performance thus far, I just worry in general. Just ask my dear husband.

This summer session is like a regular school year in microcosm. Assess. Instruct. Allow some free exploration. Instruct again. Assess (and hope like heck they've improved so a good statistic can be reported on a spreadsheet somewhere). I just hope it's being done well, and above all else that the kids are getting what they need. I do have an awfully good class, so I have reason for optimism.

Summer School!

Well, I spent the first month or so of summer break doing a combination of relaxing and stressing about my job prospects. It has been nice to stay up at night with my husband and the other grownups around here (we've had some house guests), sleep late, and of course to have more relaxed time with my daughters. Fortunately, though my work situation for the fall is still in limbo, I did have summer school to look forward to.

Said summer school started this week. I'm teaching the fourth grade, and I love it! I already knew many of the students, or at least recognized them. Most are from Favorite Elementary School, which is where classes are being held. Students from the whole district can attend, though, so there are some new faces. This summer session is targeting Title I, Migrant, and Title VII students; this means basically no change in demographics from the regular school year, so it feels just like home!

This is the first time I've taught summer school, and for starters I'm so grateful for the opportunity! I was lucky to be hired: the administrator running the show approached me about it during the spring and I immediately told her I'd been hoping to teach in the summer and would be thrilled to do it. As it turns out, those jobs were never even posted on the district's personnel site, so I doubt I would have had a chance if I hadn't already known and worked with Ms. Administrator.

From a professional standpoint, though, summer school is an interesting  opportunity. We have only 16 half days: four, four-day weeks. I have to do superquick assessments and dive in to targeted reading and math lessons as fast as possible. There's not a lot of time in which to make a difference for the kids, but on the other hand there's not the rigid, punitive air of the regular school year either. I want to show growth between pre- and post-tests, but what I choose to do and how I do it are largely left up to my professional judgement.

This is an interesting point. As a recap for readers who may not care to re-read my posts of the past two years, I got my master's degree and teaching license in the summer of 2009. I then entered the worst job market in memory (the Great Depression being outside most people's memories by now). I was fortunate to be hired as a long term substitute teacher, a gig that ended up lasting fully half of the school year (pretty great for subbing!) in one of my own daughters' former kindergarten classrooms. It was great. The second half of the year was spent rushing about between four part time jobs: Occasional Substitute, Title I Academic Interventionist for Rural Charter School (K-7), Math Interventionist for Favorite Elementary School (prepping students for their state assessments), and Tutor. Whew. All these jobs and still not more than 25 or 30 hours a week! But they were all in my field and what with the way the schedules and the travel time lined up there wasn't room for any other gigs.

So with my interventionist work, I was quite beholden to state and federal guidelines, and found myself administering a number of assessments and generally fitting students of all shapes into neat square boxes in order to satisfy said state and federal requirements (such as compliance with Title I or getting enough of them to pass their state assessment that the school would get out of AYP jail). While I have absolutely no complaints about the administrators with whom I worked last spring, and while I do feel they treated me respectfully and as a professional, the way I had to run my classes was entirely different than summer school. Did you wonder if I was going to bring it back around to my main topic? But yes, I did have a point!

Summer school is up to me. If the kids attend to my lessons, some improvement can be recorded, and we all have fun, then it is counted as successful. So week 1 for my 4th graders consisted of some pretests, a number of cursive and grammar exercises, math facts memorization, and some arts and crafts. And a lax attitude about how long recess should be. I'm used to developing plans more slowly, but now that we're 25% through, I feel that I know where we're going. I'm going to throw the decoding lessons out the window; it's all about comprehension. I'm going to back off on the worksheets on equivalent fractions or ratios and probability; we'll focus on the multiplication table and then probably drill on all basic facts, along with some online math games. The kids will do some silent reading, but most of that time will be used  by my read-aloud: The Lightning Thief. I hope to also share a whole bunch of books and graphic novels I picked up at the library on Greek Mythology as an extension of the read-aloud. And at the end of each week we'll do some art projects. Last week it was pop-up cards; I'd found a reading comprehension exercise where they read a page of instructions and then answer questions. Naturally I felt they should be able to actually make the cards. I think next week it'll be origami. This will require a lot of preparation, and the parapro and I will have to know what we're doing ahead of time. Maybe I can find animated how-to's on the internet. If I can incorporate some reading and written responses in the activity like with the pop-ups, that would be great.

I think I'm off to google origami now. And then a late afternoon iced coffee. Ahhh.

A new season commences

The beginning of summer. Our icky weather has finally warmed up. Climate change has done a number on my area this year. First we had such a drought that the governor officially declared it a disaster or emergency or whatever it is he declares things so as to make available money to help the victims (in this case the victims are farmers who are  trying to grow stuff in the high desert and will now be paid not to grow anything.). Then we had snow and rain all through the spring, which may or may not have been enough to officially change the drought situation but at least it made my dandelions happy. I'm talking Seasonal Affective Disorder in May and even the first of June. Now the sun has come out, the temperatures are in the 70s, but it's humid. I mean, we're east of the Cascade mountains, in the high desert beginnings of the Basin and Range Province. It's a dry place. But for the past couple of days it felt like East Tennessee in the spring: humid but not especially hot yet. At least I can go without a sweater now, but it's still weird.

School's out today. My sixth grader graduated yesterday, with tons of awards and a real live diploma. I cried through the whole thing, especially when the superintendant was reading Oh the Places You'll Go! as a last story for the sixth graders. I remember their first day of kindergarten so well, and now she's off to middle school. Sigh. At least I don't have any grey hairs yet.

In other news, the annual job hunt is in full swing. Got a "thanks but no thanks" letter from one of the elementary schools I'd applied to, and nothing yet from the other three. I'm branching out into not-as-much-in-my-field type jobs in this search. Our local theater and cultural center has an Outreach & Education director position, another social service type group has an education director, there are a couple of preschools on the radar, and I still have a lead on a not-yet-posted 5th grade position at Favorite Elementary. And adjunct teaching at the community college. So we'll see what develops.

I started this blog almost 2 years ago as a class assignment (ed tech, first quarter of the MAT program). I continued it mainly because it's kind of fun, but I can't help but notice that a disproportionate amount of the entries are all about Employment rather than Education. I guess our state's budget crisis (an additional 9% sliced off all state departments including Dept of Ed, on the heels of some other sort of big nasty cuts) means this will be a point of obsession for a while. At least I'm qualified if anything does open up, not that that was enough with any of the jobs I've applied for yet. Ugh.

Well, today's my 14th wedding anniversary. Enough doom and gloom. I'm going to bake a cake.

The end is nigh

The school year is almost done! I'm not looking forward to most of June and August without work. But I'll be teaching summer school in July, and needless to say I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be doing 4th grade, which is exciting (one of my own daughters is going into 4th, so it's personally meaningful too as I intend to help her along the way while I'm helping all those other people's children). It will be held at My Favorite Elementary School, and I'll get to collaborate with the sixth grade teacher my eldest had this year. The guy rocks. He's all about pushing the kids, creating poetry and sculpture (he has a kiln at home so they did a lot of pottery) and dramatic performances and pop-up books and so on to summarize their learning on all sorts of topics from forest biodiversity to Shakespeare. My daughter definitely grew in his class, and working with him will be fabulous. Also, if all goes exceedingly well, a sixth grade position could maybe possibly, but hush it's Not Official Yet, be opening up at that school and the principal told me this in secrecy and it sounds like he'd like to hire me but it's Not Official Yet so I can't count on anything (story of my life lately). If that sentence made any sense at all I'd eat my hat. Not really because it's still snowing around here and I'll need the hat.

Anyway. My daughter's 6th grade teacher was great and I'll be working with him this summer and possibly next year. There. Sheesh. There was also an elementary position at another nearby school that was posted in the middle of last week. I applied, and tomorrow (unless I get called to work) I think I'll pop in and cold-call the principal over there. I could walk to that school in about 15 minutes. That would be sweet. I don't really care what grade level it is, though I'm thinking I'd like upper elementary. I've been reading a lot about writing strategies and would really like to put it into practice. I know, I know. My day will come. It's just very frustrating right now because I'm not making anything like enough to pay the bills right now, the nest egg is rapidly depleting, and even with a full time contract job I probably will have us breaking even at best. I haven't earned any brownie points around here lately in the fiscal responsibility department. But full time work (I mean actual full time, not this working 5 days a week and somehow only netting about 19 hours routine) would be a big step in the right direction. I'll need a second job though. Sigh. At least in my state all the gas stations are full serve. I could put that master's degree to work pumping gas after school. And there's a station a couple of blocks from here. Sheesh.

Testing may suck, but on the other hand, WE DID IT!

My job at City Elementary is over, as today is the final day of state assessments. Since I've been prepping kids for their second and third tries at the math test and proctoring testing sessions, my work there is done. Despite mixed feelings about the whole testing ethos, I have to say that I came out of it better informed about the realities of what's expected of kids and better prepared to teach to the test  help kids succeed in the future.  It's not that what's on the test isn't important knowledge and skills. It's just that the standard multiple choice format only measures so much; I had a lot of students who I know can do more than what their scores show. Don't even get me started on the whole punitive high stakes philosophy imposed on us by the former administration and sadly not yet reversed by an otherwise decent new one.

My little Jump for Joy picture atop this post, then, should be taken with a grain of salt. The joy, caveated though it may be, is on account of WE MET OUR AYP GOALS!!! Just enough SPED and ELL students passed the accursed test for My Favorite School to get out of jail. For now. And not for Free. The principal and teachers there worked hard all year, and I was fortunate enough to be able to join them for the spring for my little intervention sessions. (So there you have it: without AYP and state assessments I wouldn't have had that job.) The thing is, those educators ALWAYS work really hard. I know. My daughters have been attending that school since 2003. They just had to put a certain type of attention on a certain type of performance this year. But because they're all such dedicated public servants (seriously), and because they gave me such useful materials to use in interventions, meeting this goal was doable. Irritating, but doable.

In other news, I have a second, very tentative job offer for next year. It will probably be an upper elementary grade (a teacher is moving away), but it could end up being any grade level if someone with seniority wants to do the classroom shuffle. The principal at Favorite Elementary asked me what my preferred grade level was. Naturally I responded "K through 8". I mean, it's a recession for cryin' out loud. Upper elementary is probably my preferred level right now, but if I've learned anything on that subject this year it's that there's something to love about every grade. And of course unique challenges to every grade as well, but so what. My own classroom is my own classroom. I'll love it no matter how big or small the kids are. That job and the other (also a little tentative) one are in Wait Mode. Won't know anything firm until mid to late June. More hurry up and wait. I'm pretty good at that by now. Not that I like it or anything. At least I'll have a month of work teaching summer school.

In the meantime, it's off to work. Interventions still need to happen, even though the clientele is a little squirmy with the whole end of school year thing. The oldest kids are in full-on hormone mode (girls in inappropriate warm weather clothes, boys having a heck of a time dealing with said outfits, noone wanting to stay on task, and at least one older middle schooler having announced that he's dropping out anyway so why do any more work.) The younger ones just want to get out and ride their horses (Charter School is a very small rural one, so a lot of the students have horses; most have serious outdoor access anyway, so lots of tree climbing and lizard catching is needing to be done right about now). I may resort to bribery to get it done.

Last week of state assessments. Finally.

I honestly came really close to falling asleep while proctoring a fifth grade reading test today. My job was to listen as the student read the selections aloud and occasionally tell her to "do her best" because I "know she can do it". ZZZZZ. At least when we proctor the math tests we do something, even if it is just to read the questions and the multiple choice answers to the kids.

Did I mention I'm looking forward to having my very own classroom and not having such a focus on tests?

The good news is that a lot of the kids I've sat with for their tests have passed! Most, in fact. And this is the last week for testing, so for good or for ill it'll be over soon. Sigh.

Yes, the middle school job looks very appealing. Actually it's not technically middle school, since it's multiple subjects in a self contained classroom. Regardless, the students and the curriculum are really appealing. I've started stocking up on Nancie Atwell and thinking about standards and units and all the writing we'll have to do. I'm hoping it does in fact pan out- the school has a board of directors (charter school) who asked me if I'd take the position but who also haven't officially signed off on anyone's jobs for next year or the budget. That's probably happening next month. All the teachers (all 4 of them, 5 including me) are crossing their fingers while waiting for the Official Word. But I'd be surprised if staffing changed at all other than, of course, me moving into a classroom and someone new filling the Title 1 interventions position. I'm wrapping up the school year by assembling reading intervention program samples that the board could consider adopting for next year. I like Reading Success from SRA. It meets the federal guidelines of being a research based program, it's fairly inexpensive (I think it can be bought with this little school's little Title 1 fund), and it's designed for 3- 30  minute sessions per week which is in keeping with the most likely schedule of the interventionist. At least it's what my schedule has been this year. And it includes levels for older kids (grades 4-8) who are struggling with comprehension and a little bit with decoding. Anyone have any thoughts on this program? It might not be fabulously satisfying work, as it's strictly direct instruction (as far as I can tell), but it's probably user friendly and will probably work well for RtI. The school really needs to adopt materials for next year!

Mid-Spring Update... I'm still here!

It's been almost two months since my last post. I've been up to my ears in assessments and progress monitoring and data entry and report generation and, occasionally, teaching kids some reading and math. I especially like the math. This is noteworthy for a humanities-focused art major, but it's true. I am tutoring a middle school girl in math (as well as English and history, but mostly math). I'm doing similar small group work with third-through-seventh graders in math, helping them with whatever lesson they're working on that day. My oldest daughter just started Algebra, so I've been helping her with her homework (and getting quite a review myself). And I've been doing a Testing Intervention in which I pull third-through-sixth graders for half hour test prep sessions in which we review math concepts a little and good test taking skills a lot. My head has been spinning from all the running around and all the different levels of my students! This intervention work is actually fascinating in a lot of ways, but I'm spread out over three part time jobs (while parenting and, lately, trying to help my husband get a house totally repaired for tenants!). It has been educational for me but it leaves me longing for my own classroom.

This brings me to the Employment News of the season (so far). I've been sort of offered an honest to goodness job for next year, teaching a 7th and 8th grade class at the little school where I've been doing Title 1 work. My only concern about accepting this position is the commute: 40 minutes on dry pavement (of which we get very little during the school year). But that's no deal breaker. I remember thinking about the older grades my teaching license covers when I was student teaching. I was really drawn to 6th, 7th, & 8th grades in theory, but of course have been staying flexible this year as I run all over the place working with all ages. The board of directors for the school in question extended the invitation this week, with the caveat that enrollment is not yet finalized and of course there's always budget stuff to wait on. I definitely responded in the affirmative! So I'm thinking a lot about the middle school age bracket, and have even allowed myself the luxury of imagining writing and social studies and scientific inquiry projects. I already know what the math will look like.

Assessment time: round two

Most of my time is being spent on test preparation for kids who didn't pass the state assessment the first time around. As is the case all over the country, these tests are high stakes; in some cases it seems the stakes are higher for the schools than for the students themselves. Because these are mainly the kids who struggle at least a little more than others, it's sometimes dispiriting work. A lot of walls get put up so these kids can reject the whole process, the whole idea of school, before it can reject them by informing them that they don't meet benchmarks. I wonder what the future holds for some of these kids; most will eventually master these skills but a few will end up dropping out or barely making it through school. And then what? Young people have few enough options these days; kids who self-limit by blowing off scool end up with even fewer. If only their frontal lobes were developed enough for them to comprehend the impact today's actions and decisions will make.

I have to both coach kids who need more work on test taking skills and convince the reluctant participants that it really is a good idea to take these assessments seriously and actually do their best. I go home tired at the end of the day.

Lots of number crunching.... is this teaching?

As a part of my job as Title 1 interventionist, I am also serving as the Title 1 coordinator for the school. This is by no means an official job title. It's just that now I am assembling/writing the school's Targeted Assistance School Plan. Seems that the person who resigned and who I replaced had not really assembled this year's binder of plans, schedules, data, etc that make up this Plan. So now I'm working on it in addition to helping students. Overall I have to admit that I kind of enjoy the work. Not that I'd like to do just this all the time, but it's informative and a good counterpoint to the hands-on work with kids. I think it's good for educators to have some insight into the needs and responsibilities of administrators, kind of like I think everyone should hold at least one service job. Gives you perspective. I'm not an administrator, but working with some of this federal government paperwork does give me a broader perspective on the work I do in the classroom. I just wish more pencil pushers had a chance to see how their work impacts children. It's a good experience overall.

Working on reading and math interventions

Things have gotten underway in my new job. I'm doing small group interventions for reading and math at a rural charter school. The whole school is only about 55 or 60 kids, and my groups are all four or fewer students at a time. The challenge (for now) is streamlining my curriculum. I'm working with five different levels for reading, and using as many different programs! There's a fair amount of prep involved on the front end to get this all figured out, but I feel like I have something coherent and relevant for each group now. The littlest ones are using Touch Phonics to review and incorporate some remedial phonics skills. The next level is using a Sight Words and Syllabication system. The next two levels of intermediate students are reading short high interest nonfiction passages and being tested for comprehension. I think I'll soon be adding Dolch word drills to their work as well. And with the oldest students we're timing their reading speed on short passages, repeating three times per passage, and charting the results on nice little graphs. They seem pleased in spite of themselves to see the improvements they make each time.

This is all a great learning experience for me. I have to deal with such a huge age range (7 to 13) that my classroom management skills are tested daily. But I'm loving the challenge and as I get to know the kids I think I'm doing a better and better job. Tomorrow is an inservice day and they're sending me to a training for Renaissance Learning. I'm looking forward to it because their systems are widely used in our local districts and it will be good to know better how to use them, and because I think the Accelerated Math component could be useful for interventions. Plus it will be nice to sit and learn in that format for a day.

All in all it's going well.