interviews

This year's parent-teacher interviews were border line fun.  It's my third year at my school, and for many families their second child through my math classroom.  For the most part they come to check in, and just to visit. However, these families have also been watching from the sidelines as I've gone through some pretty significant growth as a teacher.

The only thing I was a little apprehensive about this go round was explaining to all my gr 10 parents how and why I was planning on implementing a no marks classroom.  It was a much easier sell than anticipated.  In fact, almost all of the parents seemed to have no issue whatsoever with the idea.  There was one parent who really reassured me that this is the right thing to be doing.

"So what you're saying is that your class is going to be about learning instead of about marks?"

Exactly sir.  Exactly. 

time warp

I was thinking of posting a week one back to school update. Then I realized I've been back at school for 2 minus a day weeks. How have I been back at school for two weeks?

If you haven't talked to me, myself and the two other learning leaders were in charge of organising our entire staff PD day on the second day back to school for teachers. This involved hours of meeting time, not sleeping Sunday night, more hours of work, and a general feeling that I may have been just a teeny weeny bit totally batshit crazy when I applied for/accepted this job. Guess what? Success! Everyone totally loved the day (for real, not in a we're just saying this so you don't cry, kind of way)! So at least our staff doesn't hate us from the get go. That part can happen a little later when we really dig into things. Just in case you're thinking when I say "my staff" I mean a happy little elementary school staff of 30ish people I do not. I mean 110 cynical high school teachers who instinctively roll their eyes when I get up to talk at least 50% of the time. The love, I rarely feel it.

So, as I'm sure you can guess, all the typical back to school things are good. My kids are great, classes are good, blah blah blah. The teaching bit, I still love it. I'm also really gaining some appreciation for the comfort factor that has really let me become a better teacher 6 (6!!) years later. My new job, however, is best described as challenging on steroids. It's a very bipolar position - one minute I'm just so excited about the dialogue and things happening, and the next I am beyond frustrated. There are lots of little pockets of very exciting things going on, they just happen to be buried under administrivia and garbage, not to mention a huge lack of time, clarity and real direction. I just hope the good parts are enough to outweigh the million frustrations as the year progresses.

So that's my first two weeks back. I'd be kidding myself if I thought it was going to settle down any in the weeks to come.

2007 resolutions in review

All of a sudden it's 2008!  Happy New Year everyone.  I thought it might be fun to see how I fared with last year's resolutions before I even consider making new ones.

1. Consume less and consume more intelligently.
I think I did pretty well here.  Honestly, I really kept purchases to a minimum last year.  What I did purchase was clothes and shoes, and most recently my macbook (but it was becoming very needed).  One success!

2. Moisturize more often.
If we look at the year as a whole, I failed.  If we look at November/December, I'm rocking this one.  As the new assessment practices are teaching me, it's only most current behaviour that should be assessed however, and that means I get to say I succeeded with this one.  2 down!

3. Drink more wine.
I said this was going to be my attainable resolution and it most certainly was.  2007 saw the arrival of a wine drinking Chelle.  I now drink wine because I enjoy it, not because I'm trying to make myself like it.  The arrival of Invisible Roommate and her extensive knowledge of good, reasonably priced wine has not hurt my cause any.  3/6!

4. See Nelly Furtado.
I failed.  Miserably.  But not because I didn't try, because I somehow slept in and missed my flight.  A big shout out to Westjet who managed to get me to Montreal on April 5th anyway.  A big boo on me for being in transit during the show.  Sigh.

5. Revamp the way I teach Math 10.
I am happy to say I have more love for Math 10.  I met some fabulous resources and was given some pretty fantastic opportunities this last year in the means of professional development.  I have definitely changed the way I approach the course in a much more concrete way - an I anticipate doing a much better job of marrying my new knowledge and my teaching style when repeat the course next year.  I think it means good things that my grade 11s have been a little jealous that they didn't get to do some of the things this year's 10s are doing.

6. Get out more often.
Just a meh here.  I did alright, but there is certainly room for improvement.  I do have more friends in the city now, and that was a year long project in itself, so I suppose there are small successes here.  I'm looking forward to my new semester (no core french!) and the return of Rach and Jeff to be sure.  JJ and her boy are also moving to the queen city, so I anticipate monthly visits in at least one direction to be sure.

All in all, I'd say 2007 was pretty successful and 2008 is shaping up to be even better.

good pd?

An opportunity arose for some PD revolving around assessment for any interested staff. Paid PD! It is true that all PD has a severe chance of being boring, useless, and an extreme waste of time. However, it looked like it had potential, it fit in perfectly with a program I'll be teaching next year, and downtown was footing the bill. If nothing else I would gain two free lunches and two days outside of school.

It was awesome! Between 5 schools, there were only 11 participant, but quality participants indeed. From my limited experience, it is very rare to walk away from a workshop with a drastically improved understanding of the topic addressed. Not only did we discuss many really interesting ideas, controversies and difficulties surrounding assessment in depth, many really good improvements and practical suggestions came out. I left wanting to do things differently AND knowing how to.

Fabulous! I'm very impressed someone pulled this together at the end of the year. Secretly I also hope I will get to count this towards my accreditation...

february break - the condensed version

So I had an eventful and an uneventful February break all at the same time. In no particular order:

The most time consuming part of my break was spent with Big Red. You see, the Friday prior he got a waaaaay overdue nose job. If you think you may need a deviated septum repaired, may I suggest you do this sooner than later? Since this was something that should most likely have been fixed, oh say, at least 10 years ago, it was a pretty big deal. Not only did they have to straighten his septum, they also needed to relocate cartilage and "shave" off a large amount of bone. Big Red spent most of the break not being able to move and swallowing large amounts of blood and gel foam. On top of the other stuff, they had to move a nerve to properly repair his nose so his mouth and teeth hurt and will continue to hurt for the next 3ish months. Awesome! Now that most of the swelling is gone and his splint is off, I enjoy staring at him. He looks the same, but different. He says I'm the only one who will notice since I spend a considerable amount of time looking at him, but I think it's fairly noticeable and that the gentlemen and ladies alike will notice his spiffy new nose.

Institute and Convention were blah-ish. The only thing I got out of the first day is that there are a lot of unintelligent teachers out there. I'm sure they are good teachers (well most of them) but most of the conversations I overheard people were raving about the keynote. It was a continuation of last years dreary, never ending presentation of brain development and the media. Yet again, there never was a real point made, or any tangible solutions, or well anything of substance. However, it seemed that since she could competently talk about YouTube, blogs and MySpace, everyone loved her. Boo. Not that I'm a genius or anything, but I'm pretty sure I could have given her entire 2 hour talk in no more than 20 minutes. So much filler.

Day 2 was slightly more inspiring. Mostly since I was able to participate in some really good discussion with a small group of teachers in the afternoon. I would call the morning a total waste of my time, only it did give us a catalyst for the lively afternoon discussions. Nothing too world changing came out of these discussions, but it is interesting for me to kind of realise that I am slowly solidifying some strong beliefs, values and opinions about my position as a teacher. It's an interesting evolution to chart if I think back to when I was an intern in 2001. Ya, that's right, 2001. Did I mention they've given me a student teacher for the next 2 weeks? In Core French. Gong show.

I didn't get as much planning as I'd have liked done (do I ever?), but I did put in some quality hours. What I did do was take a mental vacation from the stress Core French is putting on me. I think this is most likely as valuable considering the enormous feeling of hatred that would overcome me just thinking about it before the break has turned back into a feeling of disorientation, but also something that could be fun.

Oh yes, Big Red and I also played a ridiculous amount of Twilight Princess and watched and entire season of Scrubs.

Back to work tomorrow.

resolutions

When Rach asked me if I'd made New Year's resolutions this year, I answered no. Upon reflection, this is not entirely true. You see, I've been making resolutions since around mid-August when I commenced a slightly more active quest for a happier, more relaxed and more socially conscious lifestyle. This makes sense as my life revolves around the school calendar, and January 1st is really just an excuse to prolong the Christmas holidays (and a good one at that!). Anywho, since everyone else is doing it, I might as well firm up some of these resolutions. Heck, maybe I'll include them in my Annual Growth Binder as it's looking a little slim these days...

1. Consume less and consume more intelligently.
I hate that consumerism has become such a large part of our culture. I hate even more that people are defining themselves by what they own. The constant need to "upgrade" things that don't need upgrading while the planet is dying hurts me a lot. I'm really trying to be an intelligent consumer, but honestly it's difficult. There are so many hidden evils, so much conflicting information - who do you believe? So I have picked a few absolute evils, a few companies I feel good in supporting, but I think more important is the consuming less bit. Since buying my condo, I have been on a mini mission to simplify my life and a large part of this has been getting rid of unnecessary stuff. If you don't buy unnecessary stuff in the first place it gets even easier!

2. Moisturize more often.
Seriously, I must be related to crocodiles or alligators. I own things I can't touch without getting grossed out because they stick to my hands. Bare feet are a no no because they catch on the carpet. While I haven't yet gone out and purchased a bottle of Gold Bond, I do really wonder if it could get rid of the terrible terrible itching that is my back. You would think making myself bleed from scratching would have been motivation enough, but no. It would appear that noticing my skin is starting to look it's age may be the deciding factor. Does this mean my days of being ID'd are almost over?

3. Drink more wine.
I don't think I'll have any trouble with this one. I'm drinking wine right now! This is quite the progress considering just a little over two years ago I hated wine in most forms. (Not you ice wine, you have always been delicious. Expensive, but delicious.) So in the last couple of years, in the interest of looking much more cool than I really am and fitting into social situations with people my age, I decided I should like wine. I know I can force myself to like things as liking tea was my 2001 project, sushi was 2003 and these are now both staples to my diet. So now I like wine, but sometimes forget I like it, and therefore don't enjoy a glass enough. Besides, at least one of my resolutions needs to be attainable.

4. See Nelly Furtado.
On April 5th, live, in Montreal. This is for you Rach. I really am trying.

5. Revamp the way I teach Math 10.
I hate the way I teach Math 10. It's not a bad way, I accomplish all the provincial objectives and my students do well. But I have no love for Math 10. Partially because I have less love for grade 10 students compared to the other grades, but also because the course it a little bit of an oddity with the rest of the math flow. I've been reflecting upon this quite a bit lately, and I think with some changes I could learn to like Math 10 (or at least tolerate it more than I do now) and that this would also make me like grade 10 students a little more. If I like it more, I will be more excited and by extension they will like it more, right? It has potential to be one of the most practical math classes in a very literal sense, just not the way it's set out according to our ressources and common practice. This is the semester where I shall say screw that! and up the bar a little bit. This might be a bit of a challenge seeing as I have 3 new preps outside of this, but still doable me thinks.

6. Get out more often.
Possibly rendered a little more difficult by the last sentence in resolution #5, but most people give up on their resolutions by the end of January anyway so there's no harm in trying... Christmas really made me realise how much I've isolated myself this year; staying in to work, hang with Bid Red or to just watch tv. While these are all important things to do, I kinda forgot how much I enjoy going out with friends. This seems like a stupid thing to say, but I forget how awesome all my friends are. Sorry guys, sometimes it's just so easy to be lazy and to not call. While my Christmas schedule would be impossible to uphold all year round, I really do want to make more of an effort at getting out for coffee or actually getting together for that board game night instead of just talking about it all the time. Oh yes, and Dad, we should start going to movies again.

I think I should stop while I'm ahead. And before the wine hits and I start spewing nonsense. Happy 2007 everyone!

pd-tastic

Monday was a swell day. We had PD all day out at the Western Development Museum. No kids AND a nice change of scenery from a classroom or the cafeteria. Thank you PD committee, you are indeed doing a good job.

So we started off the morning with some entertaining group activities. Since we were at the WDM, naturally they revolved around early Saskatchewanians. We were divided into towns (go Pelly!) and each town was given the task and limited ressources to raise a barn. By limited resources, I mean our group had some cardboard, red paper, string and some markers. They also showed us a quick clip from some movie where Mennonites raise a barn, so we would "get the idea." A quick survey amongst the 6 Pelly townsfolk revealed none of us had ever raised a barn. Did I forget to mention a time restraint had been placed upon us? 15 minutes is not a whole lot... Anyway, despite our lack of expertise, our barn came together very nicely indeed. Keys were our main method of cutting things, and we securely wrapped our barn together. I, now a barn building expert, patented the design for our very solid roof. Just a hint, it involves slits and notches. Our group had finished the task and was just about delve into the discussion questions when a time extension was issued! Ridiculous! The competitive nature of Pelly did not appreciate the bending of the rules for lesser capable towns. However, we stood by our original product and chose to leisurely discuss the follow up questions over coffee instead of mess with near perfection.

Did I mention the media was out in full force for this little activity? I had a girl from Global in my face almost the entire time we were trying to build our barn. I think this testifies to how great the town of Pelly really is. I was however very glad she chose to interview someone else who had proper PD jargon down. Seriously, my fellow Pellian has a future in politics. One of my students came to school today and promptly informed me he'd seen me on the news last night. "You looked confused." was what he got out of it. Dude, I was building a barn out of cardboard and string, heck yes I was confused. CBC and the Star Phoenix were also out snapping away. From what I understand the story failed miserably at conveying what was going on and just reinforced the idea that teachers don't do any real work. They pay people downtown money to worry about my public image, I don't see the point in getting too worked up about it. I do think it's convenient that one 30minute activity in a 6 hour day is all that was mentioned.

Back to the barn. As I was getting my coffee, it became apparent Pelly was an independent and resourceful town. Other towns had scissors and tape! Cardboard rolls and newspapers! The discussions that followed the activity were surprisingly meaningful and insightful. Especially if you knew the bunch of jokers I work with. This part naturally got no media coverage.

We followed up our barn raising with some department time and a chance to explore the WDM. This was not overly useful for myself seeing as anything I could accomplish there I could accomplished as effectively and cheaper elsewhere. Someday if I'm in the position to teach an advanced class (they have more opportunities for multi-disciplinary projects) or maybe something in Core French will be more pertinent.

I need to mention lunch briefly because there was no mayo or mustard on the sandwiches. Do you have any idea how rare that is? Fantabulous.

After lunch I went to a fantastic session lead by a terrible presenter. I really felt for her. I was so interested in what she was saying, and amazed that she could be a teacher AND such a terrible presenter. I later found out she's even been presenting all over lately, so by now she should be at least a little better. I'm not sure what her presenting issues are, but I was able to overcome them to be able to appreciate what she's saying. She's teaching at my old school, and I feel a little jealous that I didn't get to work with her. What her old school in Ontario developed is something I really stand behind and would like to see more of in the curriculum revisions that will be coming our way shortly. Happily, I think it's something my current staff is leaning towards as well. Yay math! It's nice to be reminded about good practices and awesome ideas that get forgotten about when curriculum, textbooks and time get in the way.

We finished off the day with a good old fashioned scavenger hunt. Pelly had somehow disintegrated and we were down to 4 townsfolk. Urban migration isn't a myth my friends! At first I wasn't very excited. This took me all of 30 seconds to get over. 2 minutes until full competitive me took right over. It was requested we not run. Ummm, nice try. It was also requested that we not split up. Again, Pelly makes it's own rules. What do you get for making your own rules? 2nd place and an old fashioned candy stick. Looking to have a scavenger hunt? I highly recommend the WDM, it's chock full of history and tricky things to find. And had I had a camera and some friends - fantastic photo opportunities.

I'm already looking forward to our next PD day. Which may not be til January. I think maybe I should take a peek at my Professional Growth Binder before then...

acpi

No one really ever tells me anything at my school. Apparently, there exists things I am just supposed to know about and know what a big deal they are. When I was asked a month or so ago if I was interested in going to Congres 2006, I replied not really. The school only was alloted one paid spot, and another teacher appeared very keen on going. I could have applied to receive in school funds, but still would have had to foot a bill of over $100. So I declined the invite.

Weeks later, for reasons unbeknownst to me, the lady who wanted to go backed out. Our school now had a paid spot up for grabs. There was another teacher going, but he received in school funds (and didn't seem to care that he would have to pay) so I decided to go. It seems like a terrible waste of board money not to have them send someone. I filled out my forms and signed myself up.

No one told me that this conference was a really big deal. I mean a National conference that only happens every 2 years and won't be back in Sk for a guessed 15 years kind of big deal. 900 folks from around the country kind of big deal. I heard from many people that their schools had cancelled school so their teachers could be there. I just assumed it was a little conference with folk from around the province like is always offered. Silly me.

So I'm super glad I got to go. Not only was almost everyone I graduated with there (minus the girls on mat leave) but I picked great sessions, except for one. I left with lots of useable material and am feeling much better about teaching Core French next semester.

An an extra added bonus Not So French Girl was down for the conference and stayed with me. She's always a welcome house guest! It was unfortunate I had to work Sat night, but I think all worked out ok.

Fantastique!