Inhale

Break was lovely. (Isn't it always? At least this year?) Getting out of town. Spending time with an amazing friend. Being spoiled by her mother. (Listed because that's the order of how things happened.) Thank you, lovely.

And now three and a half days of school. Easter. More school. Family visit. And then a lot more school before the year's over. By lot, I mean that I'll have ~8 weeks after my family leaves.

Then my road trip home. If you want to be visited en route, let me know. I'm actually beginning to think about plans. Oooh.

Casting a shadow

To fill up an extra ten minutes in class on Tuesday I talked about the eclipse. I got super-excited running around trying to model the effect of what happens, looking up pictures online. It filled up the time and at least one student asked, "So when is this happening?" It made me feel like maybe I'd somehow done something (even if not directly related to my class) to spark an interest.

The eclipse tonight wasn't all that exciting. At least not to the degree that I was running around the classroom.

Eclipses, at least lunar eclipses, are one of those ideas that are fun to learn about. They always sound so cool. But really it's just the way things line up. Though watching your shadow grow longer can be pretty fun too (just on warmer days).

I want things to work out as well in real-life as they do in theory. Like planning ahead. Teaching with models. Keeping up with e-mails. Cooking leftovers on weekends so I don't eat out of a box during the week. Getting more sleep.

And with that will follow directions and go to bed.


P.S. Wow, for the place where I'm trying to be positive, I feel like this has had a negative twist recently. There are good things going on. Four of my classes really got what was going on today. (Granted, in two of them I was only working with one student.) Some of the students who I struggled with the most in the fall have really been on the ball recently. I'm amazed at how much attitudes have improved. I'm hopeful that some days the material actually sinks in. Wish I was better at giving the applications that were fun, but that's something to work on for next year.

Distractions from the past are amazing

Today was a rough day with admin at at school. (Which I'm not going to explain now. Really I should be lesson planning.) But when I came home, one of my professors from last year had e-mailed me asking if this one talk being given is using the same data set as my senior thesis.

It is.

So now, I'm looking up more stuff that's come out recently using my dataset and really missing the thesis and kind of wishing I was going to grad school next year, even though I don't know where I should go nor exactly I want to study.

Missing that thesis needed to be shared with someone. I couldn't decide who, so now it's all of you faithful readers.

and then there were two....

I'm still here.

And really, things have been going okay so far. I mean, yeah, the school is a total organizational NIGHTMARE (someday it'd be really nice to have a roster of who is supposed to be in my class. And not have student's schedules changed over and over and over).
Yeah, I feel really bad for my second period class (first is prep) because I get so much better when I know what they didn't get.
Yeah, it's frustrating not having a sense of where students are or what I can do to reach them (and that applies to the physical, educational, emotional....)

But I can tell that I've already taught them stuff. (Or maybe just reminded them of what they knew. But I promise you, it'd been long forgotten.)
And I had a student tell me that I make him laugh. (I think it was a good thing).
And I haven't really had behavior problems. (Sure there's the ones who don't want to work. But we'll see how I can get through to them. Day by day. If they come. Or I find out who is supposed to be in my class.) The custodian told me that my room is always clean, but he does it anyway. I think this is a good sign.
And my kids are actually following the procedure to come in and get started on their math journals. Grumbling, but doing it. I feel like things are getting done.

All in all, I'm happier than I expected/feared. Feeling good at this point. Knowing more bad will come. But still confident that I can handle it.

But losing another housemate is hard. Apparently I'm not good at the tough love thing. Want too much to understand what's going on. Wanting to support decision to leave if that's what's necessary. Knowing that I can't be in someone else's head. Wishing things were different. Not sure how my support network will change.

more moving

We finally got to start taking stuff over to the new school on Friday. I had the pleasure of packing up things, carrying them over, and then trying to begin to unpack them. (The old math teacher hadn't packed up his stuff at the end of the year. Gee thanks.)

Meanwhile, the new books that the school's been talking about all summer (aka the past three weeks of inservice) aren't to be found. The school's curriculum coordinator was telling my department head that we needed to get our act together so we could order more books this week. Not that either of us have the time to reserach textbooks. Or the background to evaluate them (yet). Further, the old books don't look that bad. And I'm not sure we're going to be sending books home with students. So, does it matter if I teach out of ancient books? Or not ancient, but old because they've been abused books. Or new books. *shrug*

AND...not sure what's going to happen with the supplies I requested. Thankfully, we found some boxes that the old teacher had ordered with some of the things I need. Still, it'll be nice to see what there actually is.

But the reality that I'm going to be a teacher is kicking in. Again. And again.

we all head west cause we were told the west had more daylight

It's crazy how late the sun sets here. But I'm fearing winter. It's going to rise so late. How will I get out of bed? Wake up to teach? And no, taking up coffee is not an option.

not sure this is healthy....

I'm tired of sitting down, staring at standards. At least I found (remembered, semi-reminded by housemate) my chocolate chips. So I've had nibbles this evening.

The good news is that Algebra Two is sticky-noted, planned for the year. The bad news is that I forgot to put the stickies for one unit on the calender. Good news is that there are weeks that don't have anything on them, so it may be squeezed in. Bad news is those are "testing weeks." Alas, so it goes.

Sorry for so much shop talk. It's kinda been my life today.

Oh, and I almost forgot. The highlight of the day! During lunch I was able to get a master key and follow a lead to find the (old) textbooks. They might not be what we actually use this year, but something is so much better than nothing. Here's to hope for some sort of organization.

zoned out

Spending way too much time staring at standards. And while I know one should
rely on the standards to decide what to teach, my methods of teaching prof was right when he said that textbooks decide what's taught in different courses. So it'd be really great to have our curriculum. Or someone who knows what it is. Maybe even someone who could just tell us the sequence of math courses here. Because trying to find out what "Advanced Math" is supposed to be was a wild goose chase. I mean, yes our entire department is new. But shouldn't that be all the more reason from someone to be looking out to make sure we're on track with picking up where some teacher (however long ago) left off?

Looking through standards trying to come up with long term plans of study or whatever is kind of annoying. So here's a list of things from last week that make me look forward to this year.

• I'm not the only math teacher.
• I have a department chair (who's not me!).
• My chair came to this school because he really wanted to work with this community. Meaning he should be able to help me learn to understand the community.
• I have an aide. Who is from the community and knows students, staff, everyone. Beyond being friendly and someone I'm excited about working with, I'm also glad to have someone else who will be a resource for me in my adjustment to life here.
• New classroom! I get to break it in. (Hopefully not actually breaking anything.)
• The fact that the school did get the washer and dryer into our housing makes me more optimistic that I will have a laptop in my classroom. (Maybe it can download Geogbra. Even better if I can convince them to buy Geometer's Sketchpad.)