...I actually do check my blog every day. Actually, about every hour. Even during school. As a matter of fact, I keep the page open during the day, minimized at the bottom of my toolbar, right next to my open agenda for all classes, my internet-based gradebook, my attendance record, and the blank Word document titled "SRP topics," one of the many items on my "to-do" list. So, I do have every intention of updating, even get the urge every now and then to post randomly--alas, then, that one little factor seems to ALWAYS get in the way...TIME.
Shall we explore a typical day in The Life of Krieger? Let's take a Monday morning, usually not fun, for example (except yesterday was unusually exceptional, I must say), and I'll give you the ABRIDGED version or we'll be here all day:
5:50 am--up and at'em; shower, makeup, dress, get Jon up, converse, towels to dryer, make bed, kiss Jon goodbye, check agenda for day, grab stuff, say bye to kitties, out the door...back in the door to grab a make-shift lunch, such as a jello cup or tapioca pudding...back out the door, drive to school on two wheels...
7:38 am--the fashionable "eight minutes late" routine, check my box for misc. HR stuff, papers to give out/educational survey crap, obligatory junk mail, down the hall, "morning" to five or six students/teachers...
7:41 am--my door's not locked, two or three seniors already in, eating breakfast, trying to wake up, finishing up last night's HW, time to check email...five new emails. Crap, faculty meeting Thurs.; go write down on agenda so as not to forget...delete junk email...respond to other two...
7:45 am--first morning bell...kids in three and four at a time...questions about last night's essay assignment...thesis sentences, better verbs, scholarly vocab, Beowulf's role as a classic hero, Vikings and Anglo Saxons random conversation...open up gradebook to check a student's current grade...out to the hall, 50 "heys" and "mornings," catch a quick conversation with the other English teachers...reminder: lunch Thurs. in teacher's lounge: bring homemade potato soup!...go write in agenda before I forget...
8:05 am--off to first block...all the juniors and other visitors scurry out...AP kids come by to confirm HW last night/quick word about their essay revision...remember to ask Colt if he got my text last night w/ the "better word--consecrate"...yes. check email again...last stragglers coming in...five new emails...check quickly!!...pull up class ROLL...internet down...error message...remember to give Jordan book she asked to sign out. LATE BELL!
8:10 am--start class. For the first time in five days, remember to take ROLL! Two kids absent so I immediately write down their missed assignment on the sheet I keep of absences. Take work from those absent yesterday, and open agenda to get the day rolling! Roll still down...15 minutes into class, students doing SAT practice questions, my fave email comes up asking me to "please submit ROLL during first 15 minutes of each block..." Internet down again. Signal low. Ignore email. Look at blog page quickly...no new responses...think to self "Man, I should really post to my blog..." Minimize page. Magically, ROLL comes up! Submit ROLL with two absences from memory, enter grades from today on quick visual assessment of paper revision (I have a photographic memory when it comes to remembering who had their assignments in class--this totally amazes the kids and makes it easy b/c I don't have to take up every little piddly thing they do in class...
9:40 am--bell...first block ends, here comes the little freshies for HR! TEN minutes of sitting down after standing for 90 minutes, take ROLL, update agenda from first block on what we didn't get done w/today (move it to tomorrow), make a note on agenda of who was absent in first block for reminder, give out HR lunch forms, letters from the office, remind them of their locker #s, freshman class officer elections. Say pledge, moment of silence (the ONLY silence I hear all day, mind you)...off to second block...MY PLANNING...
9:55 am--stand at door and yell at kids to get to class...they yell back at me--playfully, of course. Think: check hotmail! Yes! I'm rehired by Pearson to score SATs in October. Respond to email, print out "Confidentiality Agreement," sign, and run to office to fax. Fax not responding. Ugh. Check mailbox. Random crap. Remember an assignment I need to copy for 12II and three I need to copy for 12III AP. Back to room. Straighten up desks, erase board, find clean folders, label, and head back to copy machine. Forget stuff to copy--back to room. Check email once more. Three new emails. I need to submit my "no shows" list and pick up my HR freshmen advisees' folders in the registrar's office. Submit no-shows. Internet signal low...move to OTHER side of room and submit no-shows list. ok. Copies to be made; good machine taken, so I work on the crappy slow machine. Only 35 minutes left of planning. While machine's running, run and try to fax again. Fax goes through, confirmed, put in my bag to file away at home with other Pearson stuff. Stop by registrar to get copy paper box FULL of my 28 HR kids' permanent folders and records FROM THE LAST EIGHT YEARS. I will look at this info all of NONE times in the next four years. Lug back to copy machine. Copies made, collated, stapled by hand in office, holes punched, in proper folders, labeled, ready to go. Back in room, check hotmail again, delete junk mail. Open blog, check other sites quickly, wish I could find time to post. Minimize blog, open up gradebook, everything looks ok...push "SAVE," and get "ERROR: See System Administrator" message. Sigh, minimize gradebook. "Force close" all other programs. Five minutes before planning ends, eat jello cup, check personal agenda for after school plans, add note to start on the two sets of essays--one personal reminiscence, one summary report on the Anglo Saxon through Medieval Age general history--I've had for five days. 45 papers total. Quickly put a grade on AP's in-class multiple choice assignment for yesterday...text Jon regarding supper for tonight...open gradebook back up...seems to be working. Open all others programs as before and minimize. Get ready for 3rd block...
Shall I go on? Nah...lunch is the same as planning, only 30 minutes to do all of the above. Actual lunch time may occur randomly once per week. Third block is 14 kids instead of the 28 in first block, and my AP kids--eight of them--are my "breath of fresh air" at the end of the day. Intelligent conversation (they are laughing as they read this, I'm sure) and stellar writing style. Plus, if I need to do something, like go quickly make copies, or pee, even, I can leave them. Ahh...
After school is pretty much a repeat of all the above, and by the time I'm done each day, it's almost 6pm.
Do I regret it? No. I love the pace of my life right now. Sure, I'm tired, and I definitely want to just chill when I get home, but right now this suits me.
So, my new mantra is simplify, simplify, simplify. Hence the reason for so few blogs and so little noteriety on my part. Heck, it may be that all of two people read this blog any way, so this may just be a waste of good internet space.
I rarely even take my Mac home anymore, because if I do, I know I'll find 20 different work-related tasks to do. Jon even had to scold me this past weekend because I grumbled when the internet went down. I didn't know what to do with myself; all I kept thinking was, "I could be putting in SO many grades right now!" Geez! What's the matter with me??!!
BTW, I just had a filling on my bottom right side and it's only 30 minutes numb. What a pain! Two more hours of this numbing, no-eating-allowed crappy torture! AGLASKFGDJSKFDKJ! And where am I now? At school. In my room. When I could be going home FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR before 5:30. But no. All two of you deserve a blog. Voila. Done, and it's 5:41 pm. Home, here I come...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Nose to the Grindstone
So today was the first day of school. Again. Actually, this marks the seventh first day I've experienced, and I still find myself a little nervous and sweaty, a little unprepared, a little forgetful about everything I need to say, even to this day. Old habits die hard, I guess. At least, though, I seem to have gone through the "burn out" year last year, and that "seven year itch" you hear everyone talk about may just pass me by. :)
Five years of freshmen were quite enough. I'm teaching seniors this year; this semester, two sections of English II, British Lit., and one section of English III, AP Language and Composition. The group dynamics of each class could not be more different. As I was checking my roles earlier this week, I spotted several kids who were pesky troublemaking freshmen. I even remembered where they sat and what they did, which they couldn't believe. Typecasting students, you know, is something teachers are really adept at, especially in a small population school. However, I was pleasantly surprised at "said students'" behavior today, and despite their feeling a bit overwhelmed by the work load, I think everything will be peachy. But it was, after all, the first day. Seniors can be just as immature as the rest of the herd, you know. 18 makes you an adult on paper, not necessarily in maturity. Gosh, I feel old just thinking that!
AP should be fun--and challenging. This is our fledgling year, so to speak, as we try to build our AP program up and prepare students for college rigor and writing in all disciplines, not just 1101 and 02. We had 26 signed up in May for our two AP English courses, but about 12 have dropped as of today. They've decided to switch back to regular college prep senior English II. It's a fear factor thing. "Scared" seems the be the operative word with this group of kids--scared of failure (which they won't), scared of the work load (which is not that bad--what in the world are they gonna do when they get a 15-hour college freshman schedule???) and scared of, let me see...how should I phrase it? "It's my senior year and I want to have fun." Yikes. Yeah, we all want to have fun, but I just can't seem to empahsize to them the competitive nature of college admissions these days. Oh well. I could bore my audience forever and ever with my frustrations and soapbox on student work ethic and holding their feet to the fire. And I'm too tired to go there. 9pm leaving school every night this week has worn me down. 8am to 3:30pm? Yeah right. Not this white girl with an OCD to get it right and all planned out before I go home. Teachers hours my ass.
English teachers, by nature, are the workhorse professionals, the perfectionists, of the school faculty. I'm not being haughty. It's the truth. Just ask any faculty member at a school what group tends to ask the most questions, which department raises the most issues, and who gets on everybody's nerves the worst. Nine times out of ten, they'll say (usually while rolling their eyes, I might add), "Oh, the English department." Some might get their feelings hurt at that comment. But I don't care. I take my job seriously, and I DO NOT know how to do a "bad job" at something. I can't imagine being one of those teachers who passes out worksheets, or gives instructions and then goes to sit behind a desk. Get me OUT of education when I come to that point! And the kids know how hard we work, too. They respect how hard we work, and they reap the rewards when they get to college and are successfully prepared for their composition classes. We get phone calls and emails (and visits) all the time from former students who just want to share their success in college composition (or other classes). Among the disaster that public education sometimes can become, our English department is definitely one thing we have going for us. And that makes me proud.
Bedtime for me; I'm hoping to fall asleep to a movie I tevoed earlier today: the 1965 loose adaptation of Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" on TCM. Stars Vincent Price, whom I love and loathe, all at the same time. Have no idea how it will be played out, but knowing the cross between Poe's dark romanticism and 1960s cheesy cinematics, it may be a bit trippy!
"Tevoed." Hmmm. I wonder about the spelling of that. And how long will it take before that becomes a new entry in Webster's dictionary. Oh, and check out my AWESOME new quote that I totally made up today while standing in front of my AP class. Its creation prompted me to gloat and shout out loud. AP students, ya'll know the meaning. :)
Five years of freshmen were quite enough. I'm teaching seniors this year; this semester, two sections of English II, British Lit., and one section of English III, AP Language and Composition. The group dynamics of each class could not be more different. As I was checking my roles earlier this week, I spotted several kids who were pesky troublemaking freshmen. I even remembered where they sat and what they did, which they couldn't believe. Typecasting students, you know, is something teachers are really adept at, especially in a small population school. However, I was pleasantly surprised at "said students'" behavior today, and despite their feeling a bit overwhelmed by the work load, I think everything will be peachy. But it was, after all, the first day. Seniors can be just as immature as the rest of the herd, you know. 18 makes you an adult on paper, not necessarily in maturity. Gosh, I feel old just thinking that!
AP should be fun--and challenging. This is our fledgling year, so to speak, as we try to build our AP program up and prepare students for college rigor and writing in all disciplines, not just 1101 and 02. We had 26 signed up in May for our two AP English courses, but about 12 have dropped as of today. They've decided to switch back to regular college prep senior English II. It's a fear factor thing. "Scared" seems the be the operative word with this group of kids--scared of failure (which they won't), scared of the work load (which is not that bad--what in the world are they gonna do when they get a 15-hour college freshman schedule???) and scared of, let me see...how should I phrase it? "It's my senior year and I want to have fun." Yikes. Yeah, we all want to have fun, but I just can't seem to empahsize to them the competitive nature of college admissions these days. Oh well. I could bore my audience forever and ever with my frustrations and soapbox on student work ethic and holding their feet to the fire. And I'm too tired to go there. 9pm leaving school every night this week has worn me down. 8am to 3:30pm? Yeah right. Not this white girl with an OCD to get it right and all planned out before I go home. Teachers hours my ass.
English teachers, by nature, are the workhorse professionals, the perfectionists, of the school faculty. I'm not being haughty. It's the truth. Just ask any faculty member at a school what group tends to ask the most questions, which department raises the most issues, and who gets on everybody's nerves the worst. Nine times out of ten, they'll say (usually while rolling their eyes, I might add), "Oh, the English department." Some might get their feelings hurt at that comment. But I don't care. I take my job seriously, and I DO NOT know how to do a "bad job" at something. I can't imagine being one of those teachers who passes out worksheets, or gives instructions and then goes to sit behind a desk. Get me OUT of education when I come to that point! And the kids know how hard we work, too. They respect how hard we work, and they reap the rewards when they get to college and are successfully prepared for their composition classes. We get phone calls and emails (and visits) all the time from former students who just want to share their success in college composition (or other classes). Among the disaster that public education sometimes can become, our English department is definitely one thing we have going for us. And that makes me proud.
Bedtime for me; I'm hoping to fall asleep to a movie I tevoed earlier today: the 1965 loose adaptation of Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" on TCM. Stars Vincent Price, whom I love and loathe, all at the same time. Have no idea how it will be played out, but knowing the cross between Poe's dark romanticism and 1960s cheesy cinematics, it may be a bit trippy!
"Tevoed." Hmmm. I wonder about the spelling of that. And how long will it take before that becomes a new entry in Webster's dictionary. Oh, and check out my AWESOME new quote that I totally made up today while standing in front of my AP class. Its creation prompted me to gloat and shout out loud. AP students, ya'll know the meaning. :)
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