Se Hace Camino Al Andar

This guy teaches in Alaska. cool.

I went to the Orchid Show last Sunday. This weekend is the last chance to see it! For those of you that are car-less, MetroNorth stops in the parking lot (just take the Harlem line to Botanical Gardens). Can’t get any easier that that!

Check out my set on flickr:

I’m usually able to shake off stress by taking everything in stride but oh boy…this apartment stuff is more stressful than I thought it would be. Filling out the application and digging up all the financial information I need to provide is making me flustered. I threw out my 2004 W2! Who knew I would need it!? Eek. Also, there’s some information that I don’t have handy and I need to bother other people for it.

In teaching news, I started making some changes to my classroom. Today, I moved four heavy file cabinets to the back of the room so that I could push two heavy bookcases to the front and start organizing the classroom library. I also re-arranged all the desks into three concentric half-circles. I visited a Ramp-Up classroom today in Manhattan and all I could say was, I’m definitely not doing enough. Not by a long shot. The worst part is, we’re getting check-ups from the Region on whether we’re following the RUAl routines and so forth. This would have been nice at the BEGINNING of the year, when I could still do something about it. A few out-of-class trainings is not enough to prepare someone for teaching RUAL. Not once has anyone from the Region ever come to visit my RUAl classroom and give me feedback, assistance, whatever. Gah. Summer, hurry up already.

But despite it all, I’m pretty happy these days. Here’s some proof:

PS I called my dad…my go-to person on all matters financial. I’m a lot calmer! Thanks, Dad!

I love the New York City Writing Project, I really do but one of their shortcomings is that they have practically no web presence. I won’t even bother linking you to what they do have because it’s useless. This is really too bad because they have a Teacher-to-Teacher conference coming up in May, which should be good but alas, there is no online information about the conference.
Basically, the conference is a series of morning and afternoon workshops at Lehman College presented by classroom teachers on various topics. The keynote speaker is Michael Smith, the co-author of “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys” : Literacy in the Lives of Young Men.
If you’re interested, shoot them an email and ask for the registration form (and workshop descriptions). You can also email me your fax number and I’ll fax you the registration form. It’ s 20 dollars for non-members ($30 if you register onsite), 10 dollars for members ($15, onsite). For Lehman students, it’s 15 dollars or $20 onsite. Lunch is an additional 10 bucks. If you are currently taking an NYCWP course, it’s free…

(In the interest of full disclosure…I’m presenting at this conference. LOL.)

A phrase we’re hearing a lot around my building these days is “scholarship reports.” Scholarship reports are, simply put, the breakdown of a teacher’s passing and failing rates by class. All we’ve been hearing lately is “we’ve gotta bring up those scholarship reports, gotta bring up those scholarship reports.” Mostly, we’ve heard from this people whose job depend on the quality of the scholarships reports. The insinuation has been, pass the kids. Naturally, some teachers are having a serious problem with this…it basically amounts to grade inflation.
My take on the situation? Grades are crap. They don’t measure actual knowledge and learning. Maybe once upon a time they did but all they do now, as far as I’m concerned, is measure how good of a student one is. A 95 doesn’t mean you learned anything. A 95 means you came to class everyday and did the work. So, I’ve been staying out of this “scholarship report” fray because it means absolutely nothing to me, nor do they mean anything to my students. They only care about “passing.” To them, I say, “I don’t know if you passed but did you learn anything?”
I give out grades (maybe it would be more politically correct to say that students “earn their grades” but I digress) based on whether I feel that a student has learned something, anything…and that is measured in so many ways. I use a variety of assessments and I rarely give tests. I assess my students based on their verbal participation in class, the writing they do and the interaction they have with their classmates.
I give out grades because I have to but I place little to zero stock in them. In order for me to take grades seriously at my school, there would have to be a total culture change. Let’s see if that happens anytime soon!

So, the UbD meeting today was just what I needed…a nice little reminder of what its all about and assuaging of guilt that I haven’t been really using UbD. I’m not alone…AMEN. The biggest obstacle for most people in the group was simply time. Sitting down to crank out a unit takes a good chunk of unbroken time. So, I made some headway on a UbD plan for my hip-hop poetry unit. The meeting was led by the same woman who interviewed me for the literacy coach job. While I was there, I took myself out of the running for the job…I’m so not ready and I need more PD experience. With that, she said that I should spend this next year being more actively involved in regional PD and we could try again next year. Yay!

Also, I found out that Region 9 has a professional library! A big one! You can borrow texts from them, with some heads-up on when you’re stopping by and what you’re looking for. Total teacher nerd-dom, believe me…I’m there.

I made a little mistake…totally careless and unintentional. I’m taking a UbD workshop today. I thought the workshop was all day, so I put in for all day coverage. Last night, I looked at the email for the workshop to find out where it was being held. That’s when I noticed that the workshop is from 12:30 to 3:30! Big oops. I figure as long as my classes are already covered, there was no point in going into school this morning (I only teach one class in the morning). Instead, I’m heading up to see my broker and sign some papers for the apartment. I guess after I sign these papers, I will officially be in contract. Barring any unforeseen circumstances (like shoddy finances on the part of the building), the place is pretty much mine. Scary!

Tonight is the opening reception for the new AIM exhibit atBXMA. AIM stands for Artists in the Marketplace and it’s a program that teaches up-and-comnig artists the business side of things in the art world. I’m going to check out the exhibit and see whether I can bring my students to see it, in terms of appropriateness, and so on. I’m also planning a trip to El Museo del Barrio.

I have parent-teacher conferences tomorrow night and Friday afternoon. Not fun.

Link: The Education Wonks: The Carnival Of Education: Week 59 – Thoughts And Ideas Freely Exchanged.

I wish the NYCWP newsletter was online, because then I could link to the article in which something I wrote on the listserv was quoted! Woo hoo. (I know…I’m very easy to please)