Se Hace Camino Al Andar

Link: New York City’s Big Donors Find New Cause: Public Schools – New York Times.

One of my goals for the second term is to work closely with the ELA standards. In other words, I want to begin with the end in mind, as with Understanding by Design. I haven’t been using the UbD template and while I don’t follow the template to the letter, it is helpful for organizing my thoughts, in terms of thinking about what I want the end result to be and what assessment tools are appropriate to use.

Some of the resources I will have next to me as I plan are:
1) My department’s “curriculum”, which is just really a list of standards to be addressed, benchmarks for achievement and assessments for each grade level.
2) UbD book
3) Lessons that Change Writers, by Nancie Atwell
4) What You Know by Heart, by Katie Wood Ray
5) The NYC/NYS ELA standards

I know I want to do a LOT more writing in the new term and we need to do more reading. The fall term, we read parts of Romeo and Juliet and um…what else? I can’t remember and that’s bad! In this, my fifth year, I should really have my own curriculum, don’t you think? Part of the problem is that I lost about three years worth of lesson plans when my hard drive crashed last year (nope, no back-up!) but the bigger problem is that I get so overwhelmed with the day-to-day planning that I never step back and look at the whole picture of what I’ve done over the course of a term. Then, when I finally do, I see how disjointed and non-linear the term has been. As teachers, we should get time to be able to do this every term–to decompress and debrief on what’s been taught, what’s been learned, what’s been effective and what hasn’t been effective. I suppose the summer break would be a good time to do this but I know myself–I need structure. I need a place to go to and the feeling that I will be held accountable for my work. There should be some kind of teacher’s lab or something, a place where teachers can go to work, without distractions and the feeling that everyone around you is doing the same work. Some people are good at self-motivation; I am not one of those people.

In other news, more and more, I’ve been thinking about leaving my school to work at a small school or a charter school, a place where I can focus more on my craft as a teacher. I’m also thinking about applying for a position as a literacy coach, though I don’t know how well that would go over–a literacy coach who stinks at classroom management!

Link: In Middle Class, Signs of Anxiety on School Efforts – New York Times.

This week, I am hosting my little sister, who is in town for her 16th birthday. Boy, having a kid is tiring–and expensive! She’s a fun kid, though so it’s all good. Last night, I took her to Rockefeller Center to see the tree. I wanted to take her up to Top of the Rock, but we missed the last elevator. I’ve never been up there, and I especially want to see it at night.
Today, we both have work to do–she has projects for school and I have papers to grade and some planning to think about. Later tonight, a friend is taking us to Tribeca Grill for his birthday.

I think I would gladly work a year-round schedule if I could have more downtime. Tamara works at a year-round school–she’s on for 4 months and off for 2. That sounds nice. You can do a lot in those two months–a lot of prep and planning, a lot of decompressing, a lot of professional development. I wonder if there are any year-round schools in the city?

Anyway, here is a pic of my little sister and our cousin:

Who’s Afraid?
Originally uploaded by NaniRolls.

From Mom and Stepmom, along with an autographed copy of Teacher Man and some nice-smelling soap.

Well, who knew? I always thought that posting the “aim” was a recent fad but no:

“When you teach in New York, you’re required to follow a lesson plan. First, you are to state your aim. Then you are to motivate the class, because as everyone knows, those kids don’t want to learn anything.” -Teacher Man

A friend gave me Teacher Man as Christmas gift. I loved Angela’s Ashes, ‘Tis not so much, so I wasn’t sure if I would like the book. I resisted buying it for myself but right from the get-go, the book had me laughing at the familiarity of it all. The more things change, the more they stay the same after all…
Some choice excerpts:

“…a stack of white cards that I will insert row by row into slots in this tattered red Delaney book to help me remember the names of one hundred and sixty-odd boys and girls who will sit in rows every day in five different classes.”

“In Eisenhower’s America there is prosperity but it does not trickle down to schools, especially new teachers who need supplies for their classes.”

“Entering a room is a big deal. Why couldn’t they simply walk into the room, say, Good Morning, and sit? Oh, no. They have to push and jostle. One says, Hey, in a mock threatening way and another one says, Hey, right back. They insult one another, ignore the late bell, take their time sitting.”

“This time I’ll let it go. I won’t put a letter in your file. You don’t realize how serious it is to get a letter in your file. If you’ve got any ambition to rise in this system, principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, the letter in your file will hold you back. It’s the start of a long downward slide.”

(circa 1958, people!)

I had planned to do something similar to what The Mystery Behind Mr. E describes in his last post but instead, I decided to cut out pictures of the strike from the paper (I clipped the captions off), photocopy them into a packet and have the kids write a newspaper article about the strike, based on the photos and what they already knew. They were not having it. They were so not in school mode, so we sat around talking about the strike. I had way less kids today than yesterday. In one class, I just talked with the three boys that showed up–about the strike, about where they live, what their parents do…it was neat to be able to have this kind of conversation with them. The last class, the kids taught me a new card game called Piggy, which was pretty fun!
Tomorrow, who knows what attendance will be? We’re back on regular schedule according to the DOE.