Teacher's Diary

Photo of the Week - Greenhouse Projects

On Friday, my students mostly completed building mini-greenhouses, which we are using as a way of studying Earth's atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. I'm a big fan of project-based learning, and even though my new school doesn't require it, I'm trying to do as many hands-on labs and projects as possible. This upcoming week, my students will place their greenhouses outside with tomato and lettuce plants inside and see how they do throughout the winter. One of my students also suggested the idea of placing thermometers both inside and outside the greenhouses so we can monitor whether or not they are having a measurable effect on the air temperature inside.

I did this project last year with my students, but we only got as far a paper designs, since we never got the ok from the school to order the materials. This year, I took matters into my own hands and requested what I needed from DonorsChoose. If you haven't used it before, it is a gold mine for teachers. Check it out!

A Visit

Since today my charter school was still on Thanksgiving break while the public school children and teachers were back at work, I decided to pay a visit to the school I left behind.

A lot has changed since I left (only a few months ago). For one thing, the school has expanded - as a school entering its 4th year, it has finally reached capacity. Now, instead of being huddled on one side of a vast hallway, the school encompasses the entire floor. Classrooms have been moved around and there were many new faces, both among students and among the staff. Obviously, the principal changed over the summer and most of my former colleagues seem to think that was a good thing. However, there are still clear struggles.

For one thing, it appears that the former principal decided to screw the school over. This is yet another indication to me of how he did not care at all about the welfare of the students. Apparently he knew months before the summer that he was not going to be returning this school year, but rather than try to make positive changes, he instead destroyed the school budget over the summer, purchasing so much unnecessary crap that the school can't even afford to pay for enough teachers. The poor woman who took my job is getting paid by the day as a sub rather than as a full time teacher.

Also, it seems that discipline hasn't gotten much better. I heard that last week there was a gang fight in the stairs and the students involved didn't even get suspended. While there may be positive changes happening slowly, discipline will definitely be a major setback to true improvement.

It was nice, however, to be surrounded by familiar faces, to see kids' eyes light up when they saw me, to hear the shrieks and laughter of a place where I am accepted as a great teacher. I wish that there was more I could do to help my old students, but while I went today thinking maybe I'd try to get my old job back next year if things don't pan out at the charter, I still feel that not enough has changed. I could tell that the struggle to get the kids on track to graduate, let alone apply to college, is an incredible hurdle that is not yet being overcome.

I'll have to wait and see what the rest of this year holds for me. Luckily, I'm fairly rested and confident that I will teach as well as I possibly can, wherever I am.

Photo of the Week - Far Side of the Moon Image

I just finished up my astronomy unit and have asked my students to complete their moon phase observations over Thanksgiving break. However, this is a view of the moon they will never observe. This is an image of the side of the moon that faces away from the Earth. It is also colored based on topography, with white being the highest elevation and purple being the lowest. It's a great image that I will be showing not only in my Earth Science class, but also to my Science Olympiad team for practice with remote sensing techniques. It is a good exercise for students to analyze images like this critically, to pick out the information the picture provides. I hope you will use it with your students too.

The original photo was found here, at NASA's alway-wonderful bank of Astronomy pictures.

Staying Afloat

Any reader of this blog will have noticed the distinct absence of posts for the past couple of months. That's because your resident teacher now works at a charter school and - much as you might imagine - she is being worked to the bone. Sometimes in a good way and other times not. However, it's time to break the silence and let you all know what it has been like starting my new job as a charter school teacher.

As you may remember, I was unhappy with the lack of strong leadership and positive work environment at my previous school. I was also tired of feeling like I was the only one truly committed to making a difference. I figured - and rightly so - that teachers at a charter school would be more like me, tirelessly dedicated to improving the school and giving kids the best education possible. I was right about that. I feel like I can barely make my presence known, since every teacher at my new school is constantly starting student clubs or suggesting ways to improve the school. It is both a relief and a new challenge to try to make my own impact on the school culture.

I also hoped that a charter school or at least this one in particular would have a more supportive administration. Unfortunately, that was not exactly the case. First of all, soon after I told my old school I was leaving, that principal was fired and a new one with more experience was hired. From talking to my old colleagues, it sounds like things have been improving there. Meanwhile, the charter school I now work at also went through a change in administration over the summer and the new principal is still getting used to running the school. She is not the best communicator and is obviously drowning in work on top of that, making it difficult to get in touch with her or find out what is going on. I have been constantly stressed by the fact that we don't find out about changes or deadlines until about 24 hours before things need to happen.

On top of the administrative disorganization, the students are very resistant to forming relationships with new teachers. Because the school staffs many TFA teachers, there is a high rate of turnover and the kids are understandably wary of new teachers. It has been a struggle for me to work hard at building positive relationships after leaving a school where I knew every student and was extremely close to many of them. The students at my new school have been mean and difficult, but things are starting to take a turn for the better. I'm getting more used to the new systems and am able to plan more engaging lessons and make time outside of class to work on creating bonds with students.

It has been a long first quarter and I am looking forward to relaxing over Thanksgiving break. Hopefully I'll be better about posting as well!

The First Week and a Half

The lack of posts lately is testament to the fact that work has officially begun for me. Yes, charter schools start incredibly early. We don't have any kids yet, but rather there is extensive professional development and orientation for teachers prior to the actual start of the term. This is very good for me because I am going to be teaching a class that is brand new to me - Living Environment (Biology for non-New Yorkers) - in addition to one Earth Science class.

At first I was bummed to be teaching bio rather than more Earth Science, but my anger over that has died down enough for me to begin looking forward to a new challenge. Today I finally started to feel my feet touching down on some solid ground. We new teachers were given an overview of expectations and rules and consequences, good basic stuff that makes me feel more comfortable working in a new place where I definitely don't know all the procedures.

Am I happy overall to have made the leap? Yes.

Last week, the principal of my old school resigned and a replacement has not yet been named. The situation there is unlikely to get much better for at least the first year, plus students are going to feel that they caused the principal to leave, which will only make them more defiant. While I will miss "my kids" and the co-workers I had truly bonded with over the past to years, I don't think I will regret my decision in the long run.

I can see that I have a long and challenging year ahead of me, but I am ready to be in a more supportive environment and really get to work on becoming the best teacher I can be. Hopefully I'm well on my way!

No Facebook for Teachers

Should teachers be allowed to communicate with their students via social networking sites?

According to the state of Missouri, the answer is no.

A friend recently forwarded me this blog post, which describes the new Missouri law banning teachers from being friends with current or former students on Facebook and other social networking sites. The law is part of a larger act that protects children from inappropriate conduct by their teachers.

I agree that precautions need to be taken when dealing with our youth. I myself have taught students for the past two years, many of whom I know have been physically, sexually or emotionally abused by their parents and guardians. I certainly would not want them to be exposed to more hardship and trauma from their teachers. However, I feel that banning social networking of all kinds with teachers can have negative effects. I have a separate Facebook account especially for my students, where I post messages about upcoming tests and field trips and answer students' questions about homework and the content of my class. Since I will be leaving my current school, I plan to keep in touch with my former students using Facebook.

However, I am extremely careful in how I use Facebook. I never go onto my students' pages or look at what they have written to other friends. I monitor any pictures or notes that have my name tagged in them so that I am sure nothing inappropriate is tied to my name. I do not use the account for anything personal. I feel that, used like this, Facebook is an extremely valuable tool for communicating with students. Most of them do not check their email regularly, but they are on Facebook constantly. Should I stop using something that is working for me simply because others worry that it could be inappropriate?

I took the precaution this year of letting my principal know that I was using the account and offering to give him my password so that he could check my activity at any time. I think as long as teachers are willing to be open about how they are using Facebook and keep their activity in regards to their students on a professional level, things should be fine.

But that's just my opinion. Please comment if you have ideas about how social media should or should not be used as a tool for learning.

My Big Decision

I have mentioned several times throughout the history of this blog a certain unhappiness with the school at which I am currently teaching. Back in the spring, I had a big decision to make, as I got a job offer at an after school program, where I would have been working with a similar population of students, but in a much different capacity. I turned that job down because I felt I wasn't ready to leave teaching just yet. And as much as I was beginning to dislike the climate at my school, I decided to stick it out for a third year - mostly because I didn't have the time or energy to search for another school, which could easily be just as bad or worse than my current one.

Then everything changed.

The end of the year was a series of negative events for me. The school hired a new AP who was rude and literally badmouthed me to other teachers, even though the parents and students of the school voted me Outstanding Teacher of the Year. I felt that my ideas were consistently ignored and that the school was taking a turn for the worst. Next year, the school will have its first graduation ceremony and it seems about 15 students will walk the stage unless something drastic is done. But the administration seems stalled.

At the same time as all this was happening, I got a message about a job opening for an Earth Science teacher at a fairly well-known charter school. I looked into the school and it seemed like a dream job. Not only has the school been around for almost twice as long as most charter schools, it takes its mission of college for all students very seriously, requiring every student to be admitted to at least one college before they can graduate from high school! The school has music, art and drama - classes I had found sorely lacking at my current school - and the classes are capped at 24 students.

I couldn't resist applying, but though it unlikely that I would get the job. I was wrong. After an intense interview process, I was offered the position. The previous Earth Science teacher was leaving to become the head of the science department at another charter school and the other science teachers I met were high-energy and dedicated.

There were some negatives. The work day and year are both longer than a typical public school (which is a positive for the students). The commute is slightly longer, the pay slightly lower and I would no longer be part of the union - but I had grown tired of the union's antics at my school anyway. Overall, the positives far outweighed the negatives.

I accepted the job.

I'm excited and nervous to be moving on. I will be the 'new' teacher again, despite having two years under my belt. At the same time, I think this school is going to be a great place for me to grow as a teacher and experience success. The community feel is great and parents are involved on every level of the school. The students I have met so far are polite and studious, though I'm sure they won't all be like that. Still, I am hopeful that a new, happier page in my teaching career is starting.

No Child...

Last night I had the pleasure of going to see the Off-Broadway one-woman comedy "No Child..." at the Barrow Street Theatre in Manhattan. Actress Nilaja Sun has won 21 awards for the play and I must say, she deserves every one. The performance was spectacular - Sun transforms herself from a janitor one second, to a new teacher at another, then to three different students and back. Each characterization is distinct and true to my own experience as a teacher. I identified with the new teacher and saw many of my own students in the caricatures she portrayed. The play touches on many of the issues faced by our school today.

Even for someone who does not work in education, I would recommend this play for the sheer inventiveness and the amazing ability of Nilaja Sun to create so many varied characters and make them recognizable. I truly enjoyed it!

School Politics

Over the weekend, I was talking to the director of the summer camp I used to attend, back in middle and high school, just catching up and telling her about my life these days. Inevitably, talk turned to the current state of education and the amount of bureaucracy surrounding the field. Everyone who works anywhere near education knows that, as much as we would like it just to be about the kids, a lot of political shenanigans affect what we do. At my school, the end of the year was full of tension because of these issues.

The jury is still out in my books about the union. Yes, I think the union is a good thing for teachers - it protects us from principals who might fire us at will (and talking to my former private high school teachers, this is certainly not out of the question). Our union rep this year got involved in some pretty heavy and necessary battles with our administration and helped change things for the better - I personally will benefit next year by actually having the correct amount of seat time for my science class, while for the past two years I have had about 20 hours LESS than the minimum state requirement. Obviously, this was something the union should fix.

However, I also feel that the union throws its weight around unnecessarily sometimes. There were times this year that I actually rolled my eyes during union meetings as our rep went on and on about how we shouldn't have to stay a minute longer than required by the contract and that the mandatory staff pd set up by the school each week was a violation. And maybe those statements were true. I, however, can't help but wonder why we are wasting time and energy on these things. I know few teachers, at our school or others, who do not spend extra time at school to benefit their students. It's what we do.

In the end, all that happened was that our union rep antagonized the administration to such a degree that he started getting "unsatisfactory" ratings. He is leaving our school next year. Although I saw it coming, it still saddens me that a promising and dedicated teacher ended up losing his chance to work with these kids and actually make their situation better.

It has already been suggested that I become the union rep next year, but I'm not sure I'm willing to get involved in all the messy politics. Still, I do feel that we need a union rep who understands the powers of the union and can use them to make life better for both teachers and students (because in the end, our jobs as teachers are only as good as our students' lives). I hope that if I am put in the position of union rep that I do a better job of communicating with administration and create a better relationship between them and the teachers.

Summer Has Begun!

Sorry for the long hiatus! Any teachers out there know, however, what a hectic time the end of the year is and how much energy it drains from teachers. I went from the end of the year straight to a 3-day PD (more on that in a later post) so I had very little time to relax until this weekend, but then moving to a new apartment took over in the form of endless painting. No rest for the weary!

I would like to recap the end of the year, since there was a lot of news, both good and bad. Good news first - my Regents pass rate nearly doubled from last year! Although it is still nowhere close to the state average or where I would like it to be, it was a huge success, especially since I found it to be a very difficult test relative to the ones that have been given in recent years. I had a few heartbreaking 64s, but mostly my students either passes with flying colors or very clearly learned nothing from my class. I was proud of those who passed the test and have arranged for those who were relatively close to retake the test in August.

Another piece of good news is that I have one student attending Weather Camp next week! This is a great opportunity for her to learn about what causes weather events and the types of careers that go along with science. I am making an effort to get my students more involved in summer science programs because it keeps them learning over the summer and allows them to see more of the "fun" side of science outside the classroom. I really hope she enjoys it!

In terms of bad news, several teachers have decided to leave our school next year and I worry that our staff is going to be significantly worse, since I know we are having trouble finding people to hire. There has been a lot of negative politics surrounding the school, which I plan to write about in greater detail in another post, but it saddens me that bad leadership at the school is driving good teachers away, in turn leaving an already struggling school with even less. I have been struggling with this myself, since I feel very unappreciated where I am now but also don't want to abandon my students or the cause of helping in the worst schools. We'll see what happens.

To end on one last positive note, despite feeling generally unappreciated by the administration, I was voted Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the parents and students! I already put that one on my resume. I'm looking forward to having an even better year in 2011-2012.