hit or miss continues

Well, my urban learners session was affirming (hey! that's my kids!) but not particularly enlightening. A lot of recognizing my own students' behaviors, descriptions of the urban learning environment, relating to the broken discipline system, and generally feeling like someone out there is going through the same things I do on a regular basis! But they didn't really tell me anything I don't already know.

I did just get out of another session run by a Pearson rep which was actually useful. Short, to-the-point, and gives me ideas to take home that don't require a lot of investment. I'll take it. It is also good to know that some companies out there are publishing for kids who are not on level from a vocab/reading perspective. And by that I mean, not just publishing reading intervention programs or reading material, but publishing subject area texts for secondary education on elementary reading levels. A big part of the reason that my class text is pretty useless to me as a teaching tool is because the vocabulary and reading comprehension skills of my students are not yet up to the level of the book. The text is abstract and the vocabulary is difficult for students who can barely read. Even when the text uses concrete examples and modeling, the instructions are too difficult to interpret for my students. So I am forced to improvise. Wouldn't it be grand to have a text written on a lower reading level with all the same content?

conventioning in Boston

So here I am at the Hynes Convention Center, skipping out on my first session of the day because it's boring as hell and not particularly helpful. I took my copy of the power point and left. I started a 'strand' of panel sessions by the Access Center on differentiation yesterday and it continued with a more specific math and science track this morning but I have been disappointed. Yesterday's module was excellent.

There are a couple words that educators throw around these days, one of which is 'differentiation' (an ambiguous term to say the least). With the laws as they are these days and inclusion (another education buzz word) in the classroom, differentiation is something that everybody says but very few really know what it means or what to do about it. We have to differentiate instruction, they say. Well that's great and all, but have you met my children? HELP! For once, during the session yesterday, I actually got some concrete useful information and not just lip service. I was hoping for something in-depth and math-specific this morning but I've been let down. For a two hour session, I heard everything I needed to know in 20 minutes. So here I am blogging about it.

Overall, the conference has been a bit disappointing for me. I am learning that educators can be notoriously bad about saying what they mean. And by this I mean that lectures and panels that have one title and description often turn out to be completely useless to me. I struck out twice yesterday before hitting something that had any meaning. For instance, a 'demonstration' ostensibly titled "State of Practice: Implementation of Inclusion and Prereferral Practices Across School Systems" that claimed to be about improving collaboration to improve inclusion practices (I realize that this means little to any of you out there - but it's important) turned out to be an awful slide show about the demographics of special education students in one small area of Texas. Useless to anyone not from Texas. "Strategies to Sustain Improved Outcomes for Youth with EBD and Their Families" turned out to be another data presentation with no real helpful information about what strategies were used in order to get such encouraging results. Most of my special ed students (and even those with 504 acommodations) have some sort of EBD (emotional/behavioral disability) classification and I need help, ideas, a starting point. It's why I came to this conference in the first place. So far, I got nothing. Most of the presenters I've seen have been preoccupied with presenting the specifics of the data from their studies without ever telling me how I can use the results of their study to benefit me or my school district. That's higher education for you.

I'm a math teacher. I need my presentations to be practical, to-the-point, and devoid of unnecessary information.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the city so I took a walk around the neighborhood and admired the brownstones and enjoyed the cold but sunny weather. Today is nasty and rainy, but if it lets up any time soon I may skip out of the conference for a little while and go find the comic shop and waste some time. Either that or I'll hit the mall or Barnes & Noble and hide until 5 o'clock. Oh, but look! There is a session titled "Differentiated Instruction, Social Skills and Behavior: Teaching Urban Learners" that claims to want to give me concrete and applicable information. Off I go.

Council for Exceptional Children Expo

So I'm in Boston for the CEC conference. It's more than a little on the chilly side but I'm hoping that it will be worth it. If nothing else, I've gotten away from the kids and out of town for a few days. I get to spend it feeling all professional and enjoying my swanky hotel room and the fabulous king-size bed and flat screen TV. Also hoping that I can do some good American consuming downtown between sessions and escape the group I'm with. Not feeling very social. Up for an adventure.

Anyway, perhaps I'll have something interesting and educational to blog about tomorrow.

the good, the bad, the professional

So much to blog about, so little brain power. So let's bullet point the overall picture and we'll see where I end up.

* I had an official administrative observation on Tuesday
* I had my wrap-up/evaluation today
* I am going to at least one, if not two, conventions in April
* How does one choose between cool things at work and roller derby?
* Classes at UNO have begun again
* Oh crap.
* Barack Obama sound bite on education
* Wow, my job is cool.

Now for the long version: I had one of my official observation/evaluations on Tuesday. There were about a million people in and out of my room and I felt totally off my game. The principal and the master teacher and all sorts of folks are always coming into my class, but usually just as a walk-through. I felt unprepared and disorganized and was slightly worried when Mr. G and the master teacher and whoever else was watching left about half-way through class.

But...after observations we are supposed to do a wrap-up and self-evaluation with the master teacher. And I'm not too proud to say that for the most part I got glowing reviews. (On our scoring rubric, we are aiming for 3s and the MT kept saying 4!) This mostly makes me happy because I know that it means I have a job next year at the school I want to be at working for the people I want to work for. It also helps to know that starting next year we will be working on a performance-based pay scale and glowing reviews means a sweet paycheck. I like sweet paychecks. But beside that, I like feeling appreciated. It is comforting to know that even if I can't see when I'm doing things right, someone sees it. I want to be the best. I want to take pride in what I do. This helps.

I also have to admit that it was pretty cool to hear about Mr. G's enthusiasm for my lesson. He's just the type of guy that you can't bear to disappoint. He inspires people to want to be better and that's an awesome quality to have in a principal, especially for a low-performing school such as ours.

Now I know I've made it into the "professional" world: I'm going to conferences! The charter association is paying for professional development in the form of sending teachers to conventions for various teacher-type subjects come spring time. For me that means paid room and board for two separate conferences in April, back-to-back. I'll spend four days in Boston for the 2008 CEC convention dealing with special education topics. This is the one I am most looking forward to development-wise. Dealing with my special needs kids is my biggest challenge and currently my biggest failing. The week after that I am going to Salt Lake City for an NCTM conference, Becoming Certain about Uncertainty, whatever the hell that means. It should be a good time, however, a lot of my favorite teachers are going.

Plus, two weeks away from the kids! In other cities! I like traveling for free.

On the downside, going to both conferences means that I will not make practice requirements in April in order to skate in the championship bout. This makes me very sad. But I have got to take care of work before derby. At least until the day derby starts paying.

Classes at UNO have started again. Yeah. I don't want to talk about that. It makes me want to hyperventilate and die. Which brings us to...

Oh crap.

I had something to say about Barack Obama. But I have to go grade 50 papers and update my gradebook and for that I need the last of today's allotment of brain cells. So it will have to wait.

That said: Wow. My job is cool.