Advice From the Sunset Of My Career

Hi!!! Ms.POd. I got a 5!!! on my BC calculus test. I still cannot believe it since I messed up many questions.

You always believed in me. Thank you so much :D . I probably can take multi variable this fall, which I greatly looking forward to.

I just got this e-mail from a boy a certain individual would not let take trigonometry and pre-calculus together.  This boy studied trig on his own last summer, got a 98 on the regents and had a "friend from above" get him into the BC class.

 

I have been reflecting on my career and trying to figure out exactly what I did right over the years.  I'm not that smart, I'm not organized and I don't always have the best classroom management.  And then, I started reading over the comments the kids wrote in the book I gave them during my last few days. 

 

I am posting some of the words and expressions here, not to brag but to give advice to new teachers.  Words from the kids, not from the administration.  Words, not added value data.

1.  Encouraging me even though I didn't do so good in your class

2.  Enthusiastic

3.  Caring

4.  Giving

5.  Believed in me

6.  Never give up on me

7.  Sympathetic

8.  Strong

9.  Outrageous

10.  Passionate

11.  Making a hard class into a fun one and an easier one

12.  There was never a moment you made me feel lower than anyone

13.  You pushed me to pay attention

14.  You gave me confidence

15.  Even when we didn't believe in ourselves you fought hard to make us believe.

16.  You never gave up

And my favorite:

17.  You are like the teachers you see in movies. When the kids give up and you still have faith.

 

Better Than The Beach



I just finished calling several of the parents of my algebra kids to tell them to get busy on their credit recovery.  I don't believe in this nonsense but since it is being done, I want my kids to use to.  One parent thanked me for calling but then went on to tell me how she has heard her son, talking to friends, about how he wants to go to summer school and how he plans on failing a few subjects to make this possible.  They all think summer school is going to be fun.  They expect to go on trips and to hang out with their friends.  His mom can't convince him otherwise, and she is tough.  He has no cell phone, only one pair of sneakers and basically gets only the necessities of life until his grades improve.

Here is a parent we can't blame.  I refuse to take responsibility for his failure.  This time the system is at fault.  We are so worried about statistics we've created a carefree summer environment that kids want to attend.  The whole thing sucks! I'm glad I am going to be gone before my paycheck and livelihood depends on kids with attitudes like this.

Too Funny



During the Field test for the Algebra regents, the kids kept trying to ask questions.  I told them I couldn't answer and I wouldn't even be in the room with them during the real regents.  One girl then asked, "Can we text you then?"

All I could do was laugh.  These kids are too much!

More Important Than Stats

Too bad everyone is so hung up on stats. I'm old fashioned and this e-mail means more to me than the grade. I wish people like Obama and Bloomberg would realize that as well.

Hi Mrs. POd!
This is J :)
I hope you are enjoying your summer with your family !
Hmm, I just got your email about R sending her AP score to you.
well, I only got a 2 :( But, I'm still really glad. At least, I will still be ahead in calculus when I learn in college this year.
You've taught me calculus as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
You were really awesome and you were the best teacher out of all my four years of high school.
There aren't a lot of teachers who really cared and encouraged their students as much as you did. :)
I'll really visit you one day :)
Until then, take care!
- J.

I thanked her for her letter, told her that I am glad she is not stressing about the grade and that the grade did not matter to me at all.

I'm sure, come September, or sooner, Mr. AP will have some comments about these grades as well. I'll just have to learn to live with them.

When I'm Feeling Down

When I feel like there is a conspiracy against older teachers (I am not in that group, but I still feel the pain.)

When I feel like education has gone down the tubes and it is not worth the effort anymore.

When I feel like chucking it all because I'm tired of fighting the system. I'm tired of administrators who put accountability first and learning second.

I open my e-mail and find this:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, Mrs. PoD!

These kids are making it hard for me to do what I know I should do.

The Original Super Hero

When we do derivatives and integrals of "e" to the x, I always call "e" the original super hero because whether you integrate it, or differentiate it, you always come back to the same function. It's corny, but it helps the kids remember.

Last week, we were doing a problem in which involved an "e" and I mentioned the super hero story again, when a girl had trouble picking the part of the integral to use for the "u" in her substitution. Calc Boy then yelled out "Ln is e's Kryptonite." Everyone laughed, but I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face. For those of you who don't know the math and are still bothering to read this post, e to the lnx, is x, thus the e is destroyed.

I couldn't believe this boy made the connection. I can't believe the crazy affect I am having on them. This is a kid I will miss.

I'm Engaging

According to dictionary.com, the definition of engagement is to gain over; to win and attach; to attract and hold; to draw.

I'm good at doing this. Too bad doing this is not the same thing as teaching.

My kids were really engaged on Thursday. I was wearing a pair of pink, Diesel sneakers which, according to one of them look "really fly". He got out of his seat, ran up to the front of the room, and then lifted the bottom of my pant leg to get a better look at my sneaker. He then commented on my cute pink shirt and the tank I was wearing underneath.

Another kid, yelled out, "yeah, real fly. I wish I was older."

Now, before I go on, I have to tell you that I am old enough to be their grandmother, so comments like these are not exactly offensive to me. In fact, they are good for my very sensitive, very low, easily bruised self esteem.

Self observation report for the day:

Engagement: outstanding

Teaching : needs improvement

My Next Career

One of my students told me to get a job here when I retire. He thinks it would be great for national defense.

He said I could have done more damage to Noriega in half the time than this group did.

I never thought of myself as this bad in the classroom. I hope he was kidding.

The Math Swagger

One of my students asked me today if I patented my swagger. I wasn't sure I heard him right. He repeated, "You know, you have that math swagger. I was wondering if you patented it?"

This one I've never heard before. I thought I heard them all.

Now Try Doing That Every Day

The observation by the Quality Review people reminded me of the only other time I was observed by multiple people. Since I still have no confidence in what happened this time, I'll relive the past one. (I've been told this one went well, but I can't figure out why it did.)

When I first started at Packemin HS, I was assigned to teach math in the special education department. My former school had lots of remedial classes and I really liked those kids. I didn't think the special education kids could be much lower functioning and I wasn't wrong.

Although I was not a new teacher, I was fairly new to this building when the coordinator of the department came to me and said, "Ms. POd, on Friday there will be 10 supervisors from around the city here to observe your class." I almost wet my pants. Not only did I hate being observed, I was not around that long and I had no special education training. I tried to plead my way out. "No, she said. Don't worry. This will not affect you at all." It was easy for her to say and impossible for me to believe.

I told the kids what was going to happen. I emphasized that they were not being observed. Some of these kids were ultra sensitive and I did not want to put any pressure on them. I said, just be yourselves only try to do it without talking so much."

The big day came. The supervisors crowded into the room. I taught and survived the 40 minute class. I don't know what these guys thought because true to my supervisor's word, no one spoke to me about it. The big thing I remember from the day is that as everyone was leaving, one of the wise guys in the class threw his arms around me and said

"Great job Ms. POd, now try doing that every day."

He smiled as he walked out the door. I know the supervisors heard this. At least one of them snickered. I know I turned bright red and wanted to fall through the floor. I still wonder if they think the comment was true.

Stay tuned, I am eventually going to get the courage to publish what I wrote about the Quality Review. Writing about this one took me over twenty years. Hopefully that one will happen sooner.

Number One Complaint

A guy from a nearby college came to school today to try to get the kids to enroll in a Saturday class for enrichment and much needed remediation (although he did not use that word.)

And the number one comment from one of my students:

I went last year and you didn't give us any food. The class is too long. We need to be fed.

Little Ms POd On My Shoulder

When Ginny saw me after the Math B regents, she ran over and gave me a big hug. Since Ginny is not a particularly good math student, I was wondering why?

"Ms. POd", she said. "I was failing math but Mr. P said he would pass me if I passed the regents. He didn't think I could possibly pass. I know I passed. He only taught me 1/3 of the work. I learned the other 2/3 from you last year. While doing the exam I felt like I had a Ms. POd sitting on my shoulder yelling out things like CPCTC. I'm bringing you a big bouquet of flowers when I get my grade."

I don't know if Ginny passed or not. It is nice to know that she felt confident about the things she learned in my class. I do know, that the papers I marked from the kids I taught last year, the proofs were right. I'm going to look for Ginny's paper as soon as we finish marking tomorrow. She made my day!

The Things Kids Say

Judy stopped me in the hall. The following conversation transpired:

Judy: Ms, are you dying your hair?

Me: Yes, after two years of you, if I didn't I would be totally white. You would even have sucked the gray out of me.

Judy: You mean 2 and a half years of me. [She smiled as she said this.]

Judy walked away laughing. She drove me crazy but she knew I loved her.

I Can't Understand

Why do kids only worry about how many questions are on the exam?

Don't they realize that one question can have 20 parts?

Haven't they ever taken an easy test with many questions and a difficult one with only a few?

Why don't they just pay attention and try to learn the material instead of wasting time with meaningless questions?

Inquiry Team

A girl I have been working closely with keeps mentioning the name of an ESL teacher that she is also working with. This struck me as strange, since the girl is African American. She was born in the USA and so were here parents. English is her native language.

Today, I saw Ms. ESL and asked her how she happened to be working with Jen. Ms. ESL told me that she is on the Inquiry Committee and Jen is one of the students the committee is looking at. Ms. ESL wants to do more than look at data so she has been talking to Jen, looking at her work, and trying to come up with strategies to help her.

Ms. ESL told me that the Inquiry Committee is looking for ways to give these kids extra credits towards graduation. They are considering summer school, evening school and Saturday school. They are considering giving kids credit for eating lunch, taking the bus, getting 8 hours of sleep a night, knowing how to use a cell phone or an i-pod, etc, etc, etc. (Only kidding about the last sentence, but trying to make a point.) They are trying to do everything except get to the root of the problem.

Ms. ESL is a teacher. She wants to understand what Jen's problems are and help her fix them. She is tired of looking at data and coming to no helpful conclusions. Everyone knows the kids being studied are failing. No amount of data analysis is going to correct that.

Ms. ESL has come to the conclusion that Jen has some learning disabilities. She needs a very structured learning environment and she would benefit from smaller classes and more individual attention. Ms. ESL has discovered Jen's problem and a possible solution.

Principal Suit says there is no room in the building for small classes. He has no money in the budget for small classes. Interesting, he has a huge office for holding these meetings. He has extra money to pay people to be on Inquiry Committees. He has money for all these extra programs. He has NO RESOURCES to do anything constructive.

Another interesting thing about this Inquiry Committee is that there are no math teachers on it. More kids have trouble passing math than any other subject, but no math teachers are on the committee. This strikes me as ridiculous.

It is time to stop giving lip service to helping kids and really do something to help.

Worth While

Cooper is a young man I met during my C-6 tutoring assignment. He needed to pass the regents in math B to pass the course. He came in with a well used regents book and lots of questions which showed how hard he was working.

The last day of school Cooper was the only one who showed up for tutoring. I was able to really help him that day and showed him some tricks on the graphing calculator that would help him on the regents. Since he didn't own one of these calculators, I gave him mine, to practice and to study with. Although I only learned his name five minutes earlier, I had no doubt that he would study and return the calculator to me.

I was correct on both counts. Cooper was waiting for me after the regents to hand me the calculator. He was in the street because someone told him I had gone for lunch and he did not want to miss me. And, Cooper passed the exam. He didn't just squeak by, he got a 76. He was thrilled when I called to give him the news.

I know I do more than my fair share of bitching and complaining about those C-6 assignments, but a kid like Cooper makes doing it all worth while.

Tower Of Babel

Heard from a kid taking the English Language Regents this afternoon:

Kid: Ms., Can I have a copy of the test in Spanish?

Ms.: Sure, and I will bring you the Spanish regents in Greek.

Concave UP, OY!!!!!

We just finished graphing in my calculus class and spent Thursday reviewing for an exam. One of the kids was questioning concavity. I did my usual, explaining that concave up was like a happy face, you feel happy when you are up and concave down was the frown when you were sad. One kid said she remembered concave up because it began with a U like "up". We all agreed that was great. Another kid, a sweet, innocent (or so I thought) yelled out "concave up is like two legs in the air." Needless to say, we all started laughing. I don't know if I will ever be able to teach concavity again with a straight face.