It's really about the people...

Several times while I've been shopping in my local groceries and deli's I have been approached for my opinion and given unsolicited advice. Today, a lady asked me to reach a box of cake mix for her because I was a little taller than she was. That was different. She then asked me if she would be able to use sunflower oil instead of vegetable oil. I said I didn't know, but that if I were her, I'd go with the vegetable oil. Then she was going to put the mix back because she didn't have an electric mixer. I advised her to just use a whip, and she said that made sense. So there... in a moment we had made a connection. Before we had gone on our ways, an older gentleman approached us and told us about smaller box mixes at another store that were on sale at a good price. He was a nice man. When Jesse was here a man told us about where to find the best prices on milk. It's as though everyone is watching out for each other and how to save the most money on groceries. I just found that very interesting.

Tomorrow there is a staff party. I am looking forward to that. I have participated in the secret Santa group this year. I've recieved fruit, chocolate, a spreading knife, and a lottery ticket. How fun. I've given, some potpourri, fruit, a chocolate chip cookie (big one), and a small candle. We reveal our Santa's a the holiday party.

I'm quite sad this weekend. One of my Aunt's passed away quite suddenly. Her daughters are the closest in age as I am and as we grew up together, they were close to me as an Aunt and Uncle. It is my mom's sister-in-law. She was a great person on this earth. I especially enjoyed listening to her tell stories about her family. She knew how to tell a story with just the right amount of detail. Not too many details, but enough so that I could picture everything. I love her a great deal. I worry about my Uncle, in that he had just come home from the hospital on Friday the 5th from surgery on an anurism. It will be a difficult Christmas for our family. She was an amazing, strong, beautiful woman.

Looking Forward

I am proud. Proud to be a teacher in New York City's public school system. Proud to be the teacher that is straight and honest with my students. They sometime want to get me to kid around and tell a lie to another student. I don't go along. I won't lie. The kids don't understand this. They think kidding and lying is acceptable and the right thing to do. It doesn't sit well with me. I think that Georgia and I talked about this idea frequently. It isn't okay with me to lie so that it's fun for the liar but not fun to the person being lied to. Just a thing I have.

This week will be crazy. The kids are getting spun up because of Christmas. Most of my students are Christian and a large amount of them are Catholic from Pueto Rico or the Dominican Republic. I do have a few girls that where head scarves, I think that means they are Muslim. (guess I should find out). I have to teach multiplying and dividing fractions this week.

I also took care of some business here in the city. I took care of filing paper work so that the city gave me 8 years of credit for my previous experience from work. This helps out quite a bit in the pay scale. That feels good.

What I am especially looking forward to is a gathering in Berkshire of some friends over the holidays. And... this Friday I am going home to spend time with Scott and to finish the holiday shopping.

We did a project on fractions. More to come later.

Things I want to Remember

I want to remember the rider on the train who was sketching. He sat across from me and sketched the young man sitting next to me. The young man sitting next to me was sleeping on the morning commute train. He never knew that he had been sketched. The artist drew with a fountain pen and had to change the ink in the pen while he sketched. We rode like this, him sketching, one sleeping and me observing, for over 20 minutes on the number 2 train. I remember that his fingertips were black from ink. Not completely black, but just dark around his fingernail base. It completely looked like the fingers of Will Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love. I just want to remember that moment in my time here. The invisibility people have in a city of millions.

On the same morning I made eye contact with a rider that returned the eye contact. It's really interesting how in a city of millions and the hundreds of people that I see in a day, there are only about 15 people in NYCity that I talk with. People at work and people at school. Note that I don't see everyone at school everyday. So it was just a day of realizing how alone I really am in this city with so many people.

I want to remember that I broke up a "fight" this week. Actually the one girl whom I've mentioned more than once (the thief and liar) was hitting another student. She had him cornered. And... she's 3/4 ths this boy's size and I saw 3 hard punches delivered by her to his chest. I took her (she's quite a bit smaller than I am and she has a respect for me) and took her arm and lead her to the office, where I placed her on the couch. I also told the staff in the office that she did not belong in the school. She ended up in In School Suspension today.

Lots of stories... lots. too many to write.

However, I need to spend some time grading papers and don't have time to write this any further tonight. Good Night!

Two degrees from President-Elect Obama

I will be only two degrees removed from the Inaugural Ball in January. A dear friends son will be attending the ball and all of the festivities. The son is married to a personal friend of the Biden family. I thought that was exciting.

Teaching and being tired...

I realized today that I was tired. I was tired enough to sit down in the front of the classroom. I had trouble finding words, I was tired. I taught four periods in a row as I do on every Thursday. By the last period, I felt my energy level drop. I did have coffee in my coffee cup, so I drank that while I taught. My lesson was good.

My students were very "excited" to do fractions. Since when do middle school students enjoy fractions? What really happened was... I told my 6th grade students that fractions were my favorite part of math. Since they like me, they want to like things that I like. So, since I told them I liked fractions, they decided that they too would like fractions.

Teaching fractions are one of the easier things for me to teach. My class at Pace University has been preparing me for these lessons. My students are working on a project and we have a kit of fraction pieces that they made. These kits tend to help them understand some concrete things about fractions.

Off to bed again.

Want to remember the Family Conferences

So, I want to post about some of my experiences with Family Conferences before I forget.

First of all, the student runs the show. They had work to show the parents, they had reflections on all of the work, and they had goals for the next report period. I acted as a scribe and took notes for the family as they discussed the good stuff and the areas needing improvement.

The majority of my 6th grade students goals were something about "will do all my homework." which is so typical of all students. If they do their homework, they learn the material. Although, I might go a week with no homework for my students and grade heavily on classwork. I just can't see if they understand material with homework that isn't complete or didn't get done because they just didn't do it.

Another item about the conferences is that all but one parent came for my students. I have one parent that still hasn't made it in, but I know has some meetings at school which she must attend, so family conference will be combined with these other meetings.

I could probably start a book on "What Parents should NEVER say to their children." The one thing that sticks with me from the conferences was the parent whose child is having trouble due to lying and stealing. The daughter has been mentioned in my blog before and is a self identified liar. I spoke very firmly with the student about her ability to change during this year and to control her words and her actions. Her mom, however, decided to tell her daughter that people that lie and steal in 6th grade, ... "grow up to be killers." I couldn't believe it. I talked very calmly and directly to the young girl and said that her mom was exaggerating and that young people who lie and steal, can grow up to lie and steal as adults. This young girl is so smart and has a lot of poise when she speaks. The last thing she needed was for her mom to tell her that she is a killer in her future. GEEZE! That is one I won't forget.

So Jeff was here for almost a week. I miss him. He starts his second semester Tomorrow and hopefully he'll be as successful as he was his first semester. Scott is here now and we will be celebrating his birthday with dinner out tonight. Woo Hoo! Oh... so I did see the windows at Lord & Taylor and at Macy's. Both are amazing! I love the city.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at Chris' house. I am hoping Athena's camera got some clearer pictures. Mine just aren't meeting my standard. Ugh.

PICTURES from 6th grade trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

From our trip to the MET and playing afterward with the 6th grade students.

If only All days were like today

As a first year teacher, I knew it would take me quite some time to figure out this "teaching" stuff. I'm not saying that I've completely figured it out, but today I had another glimpse of what I want it to feel like more often. I had one class complaining a little bit that I was going too fast. I have a habit (not a terrible habit, but one I need to work on) of going slowly enough so that a snail can keep up with the rest of the runners in the marathon. I need to move along and have the slowest of students see me after class to get some of the support that they need. This was new territory for me and my class to move at a quicker pace. It actually suited the majority of my students. It felt good.

I also had two classes of 6th graders without an issue to be found. Not one student was rude, or disrespectful for the entire time we were together. Note.... we do block scheduling so I am with students for about 90 minutes per day 4 days per week. Its tough for them to all behave all of the time. Today... it happened. And, being the bright teacher that I am, I told the second class that the first class had done it, and I wondered if they could be just as good. They were great.

My favorite part of today was telling students that there are math problems that have not been proven and that there are $1 million dollar prizes for proving them. We got onto this subject because Goldbach's conjecture was mentioned in their textbook. So I talked about it and we took the time to see about 12 numbers that were even and greater than 2 where we could write them as a sum of two prime numbers. Wooooo Hooooo..... .I felt good being a math geek today. I would bet that the other math teachers have not seen presentations on this particular conjecture. I, on the other hand, have had close friends work on this proof.

I had parent teacher conferences this last week. I'll blog about them this weekend. Just know that I had all parents except one come for conferences. We strive for 100% attendance, and if the parents don't make it in, we go to the houses. Sweet!

BTW, Jeff is coming tomorrow. Friday we have a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to look at Egyptian "stuff." Jeff gets to help me!

Jeff is Home!

Jeff completed his first quarter at RIT. RIT's schedule consists of 4 quarters with the summer quarter being a cooperative or intern time for the students. So, he did really really well. I think he adjusted to college freshman year quite quickly and kept up with studies and homework.

Jeff's biggest complaint was that he was tired. His body still likes a full night of sleep and it isn't always to get that in a dorm room with 3 other boys.

I'm so proud of him. He's coming to NY City later this week and spending next weekend with me in the city. I hope he enjoys it. I know I'm looking forward to taking him to school with me. I think I'll give him an opportunity to tell my 7th grade students about how he had dozens of write ups in middle school. He wasn't the best of students in middle school. He didn't do his homework, he was a pain in the neck student to the teachers. Then he can tell them how he decided he wanted to do better and how he made it to be accepted into RIT and now is at college.

So.... off to a day in NY City where I'm going to go shopping a little bit. I need to start and do Christmas shopping.

I like Thursdays

So... Thursday is my busiest day of the week. I start it off by teaching 4 periods in a row, which is quite tough. But... the first two periods are with 7A, the class that I struggle the most with. It urns out that they acan be taught in the morning hours. I have less luck with that task in the afternoons, especially Friday's last two periods.

So today, I handled them all by myself. We did the coordinate plane, and plotted points. They were great! And, to top it all off, m principal came in during this time to observe me and the class. I couldn't have felt more proud. They were all working, and working hard. I felt amazing.

It is beginning to get colder in NYCity. It was 43 degrees this morning. I wore my mittens, but didn't really need to. I still haven't really turned my heat on in my apartment. I do cook once a day and that sometimes warms the apartment up tooooo much, so I have the window open right now.

I feel very busy still, but I feel like I can manage the work load. We have parent teacher conferences next week. I have kept up with the work on coordinating this very large adventure.

I'm going to go watch some Patriot football. Enjoy the weekend. Oh... Scott showed me how to get to the mall from my apartment. It's two buses and 15 minutes of a ride. Don't know if that was a smart thing to show me... We'll have to see. Although... now I can find the movie theaters too.

If you had been in my school today...

I saw 7th grade students moved to tears while they watched Barak Obama's acceptance speech. I hear the kids say things like, "I love this country." "See, we can be anything." I heard kids talking ALL day about the election. When we put up the Thank You list on the board, they insisted Obama be the first name written down. They also wanted McCain's name on the detention list. They asked everyone who they had voted for. They also were exctatic. They had stayed up until 3am in some cases to go out into the streets of Harlem to celebrate in a celebration that was most like New Years Eve. The city was amazing with the energy this morning as people got onto the subway.

I am so happy I was here to see and hear this excitement. Some of our students will be voting in 4 years. They know it, and they are already planning to vote for Barak Obama! wow!

Being In NY City during a Historic Moment

Yesterday Mr. Obama was elected the next president of the United States. I witnessed lines for voting that were 1 to 2 hour waits. I saw people snaked around city corners with people waiting to vote. I also saw the large parties in Harlem and Time Square that looked like New Years Eve celebrations.

So today I will make sure the students understand how and why the president elect needed 270 votes to win. It will be a lesson about finding a number of the whole.

The students will be excited. They've been asking my politics for weeks. They are very tuned into the political stage.

Video of CAS singing the School Song

Lyrics to song they are singing

When you're at C. A. S. you will achieve,
Your goals in math, science, and history.
We are the school that is right on the top
Higher and higher, we just can't be stopped

(chorus)
Community Action School!
Our colors are white and blue.
We're keepin' our eyes on the prize,
So you betta recognize!

(repeat chorus)

For service we go to help other schools
Help little shorties to follow the rules
We work with people both young and old.
The teachers are diamonds, the students are gold.

(chorus)

Halloween Part III

Halloween Part II

Halloween Pictures

Is it your son?

Jesse came to my classroom today. The students were very interested in him, and assumed he was my son. That was cute, since I don't think of him as a son.

I had a good day, but tomorrow is Halloween, and the students are a little nutty ths week because of it. So tomorrow the school has an assembly last period with a crazy hat parade! It should be fun.

JESSE and I went out with HANNA from school. She teaches science in the room next door to me. We had Chinese. Jesse ordered Drunken noodles with Tofu.... that was a dish I would eat again! I had scallops and shrimp in garlic sauce that was great.

JESSE is with another friend tonight and he and I will catch up tomorrow and Saturday!

I miss Ithaca College and Home.

Excuse for being Absent

One young man told me today that he was absent yesterday because it was raining out. I thought that was an interesting excuse. I find a lack of ability to reason deeply in some of my student. It's as thought they haven't been taught to argue with valid points. They argue with emotions.

The other interesting moment was when a student wouldn't change his seat, and chose to not take an exam because he didn't want to move. Weird kids at times!

A different Week

One of the most difficult students in my tough class has transferred out of our school. The classroom has changed completely. Note that one other student was out for two days this week (the one who wouldn't acknowledge my existence). With both of these students out of the class, I have fallen in love all over again with this class. I find them to be willing to please and eager to please.

I also did a mini-project with my 6h grade students. I talked about one of my college classmates SUZ. The assignment talked about her bike and build trip across the country. The kids had to use some information I gave them to figure out distances, rates, and time traveled.

JENNY is here visiting JESSE this weekend. It's interesting that Jesse and I haven't needed to turn the heat on in the apartment. It's warm in the apartment. I live in a middle floor and have people on both sides of the apartment. So it's been cold enough to see my breath in the morning, but I haven't needed to turn on the heat. I think we are quite comfortable still. However... riding the train in the winter will be interesting. I live where the train is above ground for over 1/2 hour of my commute. This means that everytime they open the doors, my legs get cold. I need to get some leggings. I wear a skirt to work everyday. My legs get cold. Or.... I change the train ritual I ride and take the L train instead of M to 3. I'd be warmer.... we'll see how cold it gets here.

Teaching is the life for me.

I am really happy to report that I love teaching here in NY City. I have an excellent administration, I have good colleagues and I have amazing students. I enjoy my days so much. That isn’t to say that every day is perfect…. HA! Far from it.

I have a student who wouldn’t acknowledge my existence for about four or 5 class days. He would defy any direction I gave him. He was sent out of my room 4 days in a row. It is hard to teach a student who isn’t in the room. His mom was called in, we met with him and his mom. He was honest with the Assistant principal that he wouldn’t respond to me and wouldn’t do what I asked. He has a long back story and has some emotional baggage that he hasn’t worked thru in his 13 short years of life.

So on Thursday, he started to raise his hand in class and when I asked him if I could help him, he asked me to check his work. That one moment where he didn’t ignore me helped me to put my toe in the crack of the door he had just opened. I hope to keep this door open for him and me. I called his mom that afternoon and told her that I was proud of her son and that she deserved to hear that he had had a successful day in math class. Again on Friday, he was kind and courteous to me. I even spoke with him one on one and told him I saw a difference these last two days in his self control. Maybe … Maybe…. He’ll have a good week next week.

I have been accepted by my students in so many ways. One piece of evidence of my acceptance is that the girls want me to do the “Harlem shake.” I see them dance and move their shoulders and won’t even pretend that I would do this, but the simple request that they want me to do it with them, says that they accept me. They like to laugh with me and are very kind with their compliments to me. They frequently tell me I look nice or that they like my shoes. It seems trivial, but in an environment where I’m still learning the rules and language, these moments are assuredly an acceptance of me into their circle of trusted adults.

The math is going well also. I have taught my 7th grade class why multiplying a negative times a negative equals a positive. I did it while teaching some geography of cities or places on our planet that are cold. We demonstrated that each city’s temperature dropped 5 degrees as fall set in. We represented that decrease in temperature with a -5. We did that to 4 cities. Then global warming came along and TOOK AWAY the -5 degrees from each of the cities. It turned out that the temperature went up when we took away -5 degrees and if we took away 4 times then (-4) (-5) = 20. That was a successful lesson. I know because I had many students having that great mathematical moment called the “Ah-Ha Moment.”

So these students can learn and they want to learn. They can be lazy, but if I compliment the hard working students, the rest of the class craves the attention and public praise and try hard to receive it from me. My praise is genuine and warm. The students want to hear good things about themselves. I’m trying to do that more and more each day.

From Oct 6

Written 10/6

It’s early Monday morning and I’m nearly ready for work. Jesse is sleeping on the floor in the living room. I hope I haven’t woken him to the point that he can’t fall back to sleep. Today will be interesting. I wasn’t in my classrooms on Friday because of a visit to another school to look at CTT models. Collaborative Teaching. I understand that my students were NOT on their best behavior with a substitute. I felt that I had done everything I could by providing a seating chart, clear instructions, plenty of work, and had spoken to my class about their behavior.

Needless to say, I am disappointed in them right now. So, we’ll see how today goes. I have the week planned out already, and I’ve made the exam for the 7th grade class for Friday already. It’s so much easier to teach when the exam is written. 7th grade is reviewing Order of Operations. It’s a difficult concept, and we work on it all year long. Then they will be working on positive and negative numbers and their operations.

My 6th grade classes are working on solving single step equations with one unknown. We have evaluated expressions to the point that over 80% of my students are completely bored with it. Now to challenge them and to maybe bring along some of the others that are lost.

I researched a lot of things over the weekend to help me teach these topics. Hopefully, my research pays off and I’m more prepared for their insecurities and questions.

2 days off this week

I was off yesterday and today. I worked on Monday and then I work tomorrow. On Friday, I go to another school for some Professional Development. On Saturday, Jesse moves in and then on Monday I get to see a fellow fellow from NYCTF.

So as for teaching stories. I have one boy who I continue to send out or give detention. I wrote an email to his mom, and told her that one of the infractions her son had was to pretend to hold a joint up to his lips. He pinched his first finger and thumb together and put them to his lips in a smoking movement and facial. Of course, his mom tells me he knows nothing of drugs and that I shouldn't assume he was pretending to smoke a joint. I didn't reply back, but if her son doesn't know about drugs, then my question to her is, "Why not?" he should know about drugs at 13 years old from his mom's instruction as to the dangers of drugs, especially marijuana. So, she can be critical of my assumption as to what he was mimicking, but I know she is being naive. This young man just needs to settle down

I had another student write a note that started, "Dear Life, I hate my life. I hate my school." It went on to call me a vulgar term along with my assistant teacher in this class. She got in school suspension for the infraction. She is the same girl I called Pasha in a previous post and she had stolen from a fellow classmate. She really has some issues she needs to work through as a pre-teen girl. Her mom is real supportive and she frequently comes up and hugs me, but this is just a tough child to figure out.

I went home for the weekend. JEFF was home. I am so happy I saw him. I felt like I just wanted to hug him over and over and over. OMG... It was so good to go home. I enjoyed the leaves on the trees. I visited so many people, we went to Mom and Dad's house Saturday morning for Coffee. Then Donavan came over (Walt's step-son)and he visited. Then Athena, Mark and Leah came to my house so that I could meet Leah, my new Great-Niece. She was a sweety pie. I loved having her at my house. She is a happy girl and is just perfect in all the ways a baby should be perfect! Then mom and dad came to my house.
When they left people were coming for dinner. We had Randy and Giorgi, Joanna and kids all over for dinner. I made Macaroni Roma. It's a family recipe that I love to make because it takes so long to make. Then they all left. Slept in my own bed.

Sunday morning Jeff, Scott, and I went to Ithaca to see DREW, KATE, ALANA, MATT, and MIKE. OMG we had a wonderful breakfast. Thank you Drew... just you wait. I loved hearing about IC life and the math classes and professors.

Scott and I came back to the city. We then went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday. We saw some of the most amazing art, and we were in a little hurry because we only had about 3 hours. The VanGogh paintings just bring me to tears. Those and the Georges Seurat and the Jackson Pollack paintings were amazing. We saw some Andy Warhol, and Picasso. We spent some time in the hall with Roman and Greek statues. there were several students there drawing what they were seeing.

There is a suggested admission there, so we paid $15 for the two of us. Perfect. We had a great couple of days. I slept the one night for 12 hours. I think I was exhausted.

So... there was a fight at school today

First of all.... NO WORRIES!
Our school building houses 3 different schools. Ours resides on the top two floors of the building. Today, after a day where I gave out 3 detentions, 1 send out (kinda like in school suspension for the period) and about 19 warnings, I had the job of walking my homeroom down to the first floor to dismiss them for the day. I do this 3 days every week, so it's nothing new. However...
On the way down the stairs, I had one young man, who continues to challenge me, raise his hand as if to strike another student. I called him to the front and informed him that he would be going back upstairs with me to serve detention for the action. (This is the same student I sent out during my class). When we got to the door to the outside, he proceeded to leave me and go to the play yard. When I looked down to the yard, I noticed a fight and a group of about 40 students. none of the students were from our school.
I thought quickly and knew that my place was to protect my students from becoming involved. I corralled them to the sidewalk and attempted to get them to leave the school property thru the gated fence. Most stayed and wanted to watch the fight. I promised them that whoever stayed would be serving detention. Turns out that worked, and 90% of my students then left the area and I was able to maintain the walkway from the door to the sidewalk and get our students out of harms way. Another class was following us down the stairwell and I got them to leave also. Their teacher checked on the yard, and by this time other adults had arrived and the altercation was over and the students dispersed.
I felt good that I kept my cool, and wasn't really upset over all of this. It just was surprising. Many students from our school wanted to go and see... and they finally realized the excitement was over and left for home.

So... I've made it thru seeing my first fight. I've had a student sent out of my room... and I've played with lunch bags and cubes to demonstrate "unknown." I'll have to write about that another time.

I am still very encouraged by some of the work my students do. If I give them work, they do it and they are pretty good at it. I don't see many students who can't learn what I'm presenting to them.

Okay... I need to write a quiz. 2b + 4 anyone?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/education/22teacher.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin
I have many friends from the NYC Teaching Fellows program that are without jobs this fall. They've changed their life for a promise to teach in the city and to make a difference in the students' lives. However, they struggle every day because there aren't enough jobs for the total number of people hired.

By the way, avoid NYCity when the United Nations is in session. It's absolutely crazy around here. Even the subways are running slower, the traffic is not pretty.

But... David Blaine is in Central Park, and I'm going to go see him today.

I GOT PAID TO TEACH!

Another week of teaching is finished. Here are some highlights and lowlights:
• I got paid. So after three years of not getting any significant salary and attending school, Monday was my first New York City Department of Education Paycheck. It wasn’t too small either. I can live on what I get paid. I know teachers don’t make a ton of money, but I’m not here to make a lot of money, I’m here to make a difference.
• I had to talk to my Assistant Principal (AP) because I am having some difficulties teaching my CTT class. First of all I think that the 27 of them are wonderful individuals, but some of the personalities are difficult together. I spoke with my AP about the co-teacher in my room. She tends to yell at the students and I wanted to get advice on what to do. He asked me if I was comfortable in talking directly with her about the yelling, and I said I was. So I did sit down with my co-teacher and we did talk about classroom management style. I asked her to never yell at the students and if she felt that she was at a yelling point to get my attention, and I’ll take over. She hasn’t yelled at them since, and has started using other strategies with them, such as raising her hand and counting to five. It works well for them; they sit down and quiet down. Also, the principal came in to observe us as well as my math coach. They are all trying to guide me into helping my co-teacher into doing what we need her to do in the math room. So I felt proud that I had an issue early on and addressed it and showed my administration that I can handle difficult interpersonal issues professionally and positively. I made sure that I they knew I needed my co-teacher and I just want to help both of us to work together to teach these students.
• I had two notes from students. One respectfully asked me to change where she sat, which I did. The other was a note of admiration from a student. She realized that the noisy students in our class were a challenge and she appreciated and how I handled them. That was a great note to receive. I call it my first “love note.” The students respond very well to me and this is what I was hoping for.
• I had parent information night on Thursday. I met many parents and saw hope in them that their student will be successful. I hope to help them. My advice to the parents for homework help was to ask the student to show them their notes from class. I did however feel this strange feeling. It’s the feeling that many white middle class female teachers feel. It’s almost like we are part of the problem as we are trying to be a part of the solution. In the auditorium on parent information night, the only white women there were teachers. We have two teachers on staff that probably call themselves African-American women. I feel that I’m making a difference, but I wish there were more black and Hispanic teachers and role models in the school for these students.
• The SETSS teacher (he is a Para-professional in one of my 6th grade classes) gave me wonderful compliments at parent information night and told the parents that I could teach to all of the differing levels and skills in my class. I felt hopeful. I think that this teacher is a good support for my students and he has already seen from me, the skills that I have to get each student to participate. However….
• I started doing participation points this week. It constitutes 25% of the students’ grades. I have to keep track of hand raising, cooperation, compliments and things like that so the students can get really high participation points to help with their grade. I also track behavior warnings and detentions. So far the majority of my students max out their participation points each day.

So, it’s been a busy week. I administered exams to my students on Thursday and Friday and now I need to grade all of them. ICK. However, Andrea and Dan are here from Boston for the weekend and I’ve hired them to help me! We are going to go be tourists in Manhattan today and that should be fun.

Advisory Field Trip

Here are some images for you to appreciate the wonderful students that I teach.

First Time

Yesterday, Wednesday September 10th, a student in one of my classes came up to me on the street and screamed my name and gave me a huge bear hug. She was so happy to introduce her math teacher, Ms. Dyer to her mom. It was great!

Being in NYCity on September 11th is really quite interesting. There are a lot of moments of silence in many formats. We observed about 5 minutes of silence in homeroom. There are a lot of services happening all over the city. It's really quite warming to me that so many people want to feel connected to each other from this tragedy in the city. The students in my class were about 5 or 6 years old when the towers fell. They do not remember the skyline with the towers.

Class is good. I had a rough time with my 7th grade class today. I blame my coteacher and myself. We need to work with our own teaching styles. We need to get on board together.

I gave 5 students detention today for uniform violations. Ouch! They made it to 3rd period without anyone reminding them... well... I'm not so nice this second week of school even to the young sixth grader students.

Tomorrow I go on my first NYCity field trip to Battery park with my 6th grade advisees. They are all wonderful, yet there are a few I haven't even met yet, because they were assigned to me this week. OY!

Oh... They were taping Law and Order right 1/2 block from my school today. I looked around when I was done working, but I didn't see anyone who even looked like an actor. Cool though... lots of trailers and such.

First Week is over

Up one day and down the next.

So yesterday I felt like a real teacher. I had three classes (that’s all I have but they are double periods) and I administered an exam and collected homework. Real Teacher. I think the kids are great and they figured me out quite quickly. I don’t put up with giggling at other peoples mistakes. I don’t put up with picking on other people about anything, and I especially don’t like it when people touch my things. Thursday was a lot of fun for me and I left with a smile

However, things change quickly. Today… Friday. I had 1^st and 2^nd periods free so I planned/prepared a great lesson for seeing data put into a table. I was going to do this with my 7^th grade class. The 6^th grade class came in and I had my first teacher issue. One girl Annie accused Pasha (names have been changed) of stealing her eraser during the time we passed papers out. There are four people in the group.

I took all four out into the hall with their back packs and no one had the eraser. Pasha claimed not to have touched Annie’s eraser and certainly didn’t take it. Hmmm…. I told Annie I was sorry and we’d try to sort it out. When Pasha asked to go to the bathroom later in the class, the others at the table looked in Pasha’s desk and found the eraser. So I confronted Pasha in the hallway (I have a second teacher in the room) and asked her to think wisely before she answered my question. I asked her if she had touched Annie’s eraser (I had it in my hand which I don’t think she knew) and she admitted to picking it up and looking at it but did NOT take it. So, I gave her the thank you for being honest this time, but you lied earlier speech. I told her she was in trouble for lying and NEVER accused her of stealing the eraser. She just didn’t get it. I asked her, nope, I told her to apologize to Annie about lying. In order to make sure she had the right words, I asked her to tell me what she was going to say. She said, “I’m sorry the teacher found the eraser in my desk, I didn’t take it.” That was interesting and I instructed her that an apology was about something you did wrong yourself. It took MANY minutes to rehearse with her what she was to apologize about. OH MY!

Annie took the eraser and told Pasha some good things, like, “My mom works hard so that I can have school supplies.” She was a good kid in a bad spot. So… I took care of that one. Then…

My homeroom class was with me for 5^th period for what is usually small groups of 10 for break They couldn’t control themselves and I ended up giving the entire class lunch detention. OMG. That means that I didn’t get a chance to eat lunch. So they just wouldn’t settle down and I felt inadequate as a teacher to give them detention on day 4 of school. It turns out that they wouldn’t behave for my partner homeroom teacher either. That made me feel better. And where did they have to go after homeroom? MATH with me. I was with them from 5^th period to the end of the day. I did get the control I needed during our math class. I just started putting names on the board with warnings. It worked. Oh… then

Then….

We had a fire drill. 7 flights of stairs down and back up, with this same group of students. I was exhausted. I am so glad to be home. I was nearly in tears after they all left.

So it wasn’t the worst day in my life. It was frustrating and I made it through. I got the most difficult class in the school (it turns out). Oh well. We’ll all figure it out.

Math note. I collected summer packets from the students. The sixth graders were asked why math was important in life. EVERY single student mention money. They didn’t mention problem solving or logic or other jobs, just the knowledge to make sure you get the right change at the store, could pay your bills properly, and could calculate taxes and discounts. NOT ANY OTHER thing mentioned about math.

So, since you can do all that math by the end of 4^th or 5^th grade, these students wouldn’t need to take math seriously by 7^th or 8^th grade in their mind. How to let them know that math is more than money.

I need to go get my dinner. NYCity Pizza. Great place down the street. I’ll pick it up tonight.

First Day of Teaching!

So,
I'm tired. My feet hurt, my head hurts, I'm tired. What a day! I loved every bit of it. These kids are great! They are exactly what I expected. There are many students with great stories, and many who don't want to share their stories.

We have a school with a TON of rules, which makes life easier for me the teacher. The students wear school uniforms, and if they break a uniform rule, they get uniform detention. Just like that... break the rule, get detention.

I would love to write more, but I'm really tired and need to get to bed. I'm going to watch Andy Roddick on the US Open and fall asleep as he beats his opponent. Wish I was watching it live, it's only about 5 miles from my house. Next year, I'll go watch!

Talk with you soon!

Orientation for the new teachers

Today we had our first day with all of the staff at the school for this upcoming year. I must say that I appreciate the work that Arlene and I did in the Math office at Ithaca College. I helped her review the schedule and we checked the rooms, the assignments, and every detail many many times. I also knew it was right everytime I communicated the information to other people. I appreciate it, because today I witnessed a school trying hard to do scheduling correctly, but having simple errors. And since a schedule is so intricate, one mistake can cascade into many other problems.

So I was told today that instead of being on the 6th grade team, I'm on the 7th grade team. That's all good and whatever. But... they didn't go thru and make sure that I could have a 7th grade advisory, and so since I have a class during the 7th grade advisory period, I have a 6th grade advisory. So I am a little bit 7th grade team and a little bit 6th grade team. I'm all good with that. Schedules are big algorithms and are complicated by not difficult. One class had been scheduled for Art 5 periods in a row. Imagine those kids, let alone the teacher! Oy vay!

I have great people around me. My neighbor teacher Marc, helped me with his skill at moving a cabinet in my room without scratching the floor. THANKS MARK! His wife and CUTE CUTE 11 month old daughter were in today to help him. I was wishing I had a someone to help me.

So team meeting, teacher handbook, regulations, send-out policy, how kids go up and down the stairs... details detail day. Oh... funny one. the school is on the 7th and 8th floor of this building and when they take the elevator up, the class goes all in one elevator car and they must be silent. I can just see 20 6th graders all squished in the car and being quiet. I can't wait to witness this. Oh, and they take the stairs down and they must be silent, and we were advised that once during the first week we have to find someone talking and forcing the entire class to walk all of the stairs back up and then go down quietly again. I was told it only takes once and they will NEVER talk again in the stairwell.

That's all for now. I have made friends with the science teacher by giving her eyedroppers I found in my supply cabinet. :)

Off to bed and then work tomorrow. I sure will either get a lot of grading done or a lot of reading while riding the train.

Setting Up My Classroom

I have spent the last couple of days setting up my classroom. I need to go to the teacher store and get some letters for some bulletin boards. I have met so many people, and everyone says the same thing. They all say, "This is a great school." That makes me feel really good. It turns out that many of the teachers were Teaching Fellows, but most of them transferred to this school.

I love the math department. There are three teachers. Elizabeth, Shana, and myself. We have a math coach and that's Gail. Gail has been in education for many years and is just an amazing resource of information.

I still haven't received my start up supplies. I am planning to get them tomorrow. I also bought some cleaning product to get rid of tape residue. This school is masking tape happy and I do not like tape residue on doors or cabinets. So, tomorrow I am taking care of the sticky mess left on a lot of surfaces. I did see our text book for 6th grade. Still haven't seen the 7th grade text, but again I'm hopeful for tomorrow. One other thing I'll look for tomorrow is a power cord for my projector. Hmmmmm.....

I think my classroom is set up pretty well. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. I have to be at school at 8am so I need to leave my apartment at 6:45 for the at least one hour commute. We'll see how it goes. I am getting a chance to read a book or two on my commute! I guess that's a good thing.

How about a picture or two...

I have a long list of things to do today. I hope to be able to check them off systematically. One of them is to post pictures and to blog. Last night Scott, Jeff, and I went to Randy’s and enjoyed an evening of visiting. Jeff rode with Randy in the 280ZX, and then played some ping-pong with him. Randy beat Jeff 2 out of 3 games, and the one game he lost was close and went to Deuce. Jeff felt proud to have improved his ping-pong skills while he was on vacation last week in Cape-Cod.
I spent some time with John Curry on Monday. He is the principal of Community Action School. I hope he realizes how excited I am to work for him. Scott helped me arrange the desks and chairs in my room. I happen to have the classroom right next door to the office. It’s a large room and I have about 27 student desks and my own desk. I have a wall of lockers in the back of the room that are for me to use. I have a standing cabinet that locks, and several bookshelves. I have a wall of brand new white boards with a smart board included. If you aren’t familiar with a SmartBoard, just know that it’s a way to use a computer and a white board together. I used one all summer, and will definitely use it as I teach. There is an air-conditioner in the room, so it will be reasonable in the beginning weeks of school. Our school is on the 7th floor. That’s great… except when it will come to a fire drill and going down 7 flights of stairs. I am looking forward to returning to the school next week and spending some hours there working. I will have a computer in the classroom.
As for my apartment, Scott helped me so much in getting it ready for me to live in. We got the keys on Saturday morning and then spent the next two days cleaning and fixing things. We spent hours on the stove/oven and the grease around it. I think it’s going to be just right for me. I live in an amazing community and I’m looking forward to meeting my neighbors in my building. I think that it’s between 400 and 500 square feet of space, which will work fine for me. I have a queen size bed in the bedroom and the couch opens into a queen size pullout, so I will have room for guests.I return to the city on MONDAY and start work on Tuesday next week. Of course before I go back, I help Jeff get settled into RIT. He moves into his dorm on Sunday. That will be an exciting day for him.

I have a classroom

I went yesterday to my new school. I have my own room! Wooo Hooo! I set up a few things and got really excited about the beginning of school. Scott and I also set up my apartment in Queens. I love my neighborhood!

I will write more later and add some pictures, but right now, I need to put away groceries.

I’m in Berkshire this week and some of next week. I’m just enjoying the Olympics from China and reading as much as I can. I have purchased 264 spiral notebooks for my students this year. They were $0.05 each at WalMart and at Staples. This will allow me to give the students a notebook whenever they need one in my class.
I’ve studied the 6th and 7th grade state exams and reviewed the standards. I’ve written myself notes on some lesson plan ideas for some topics:
For Central Measurement (Mean, Median, Mode, Range): I think I’ll do a discovery lesson plan. This will mean that groups will receive data sets of numbers and the actual mean, median, mode and range. Their task will be to “guess” the definitions of each term. Then they will get another data set and see if their definition still fits. Maybe they will need to modify their initial definition. After reviewing all of the data sets, their groups’ definitions should hold up to all the data sets. For identifying radius, diameter, chords and central angles of a circle, I think I’ll do the same type of lesson.
I want the students to experience the discovery of mathematics. I had an excellent class in college that allowed me to have guided discovery learning and I remember thinking that students that don’t think of themselves as being “good at math” could see these lessons as a place where they see themselves as being good in the math classroom.
I think that many people confuse the ability to do computations quickly with being “good at math.” I think the student who creates logical problem solving processes can be equally good at math. I am reminded that future workers who are prepared to perceive patterns and to solve unconventional problems will be the sought after employee. Calculations are being done more and more by machines.
Our country should think of Mathematics as a pump rather than a filter in the pipeline of American education. Students shouldn’t be filtered out of careers by our math education, but instead math should be the key that helps push students into career paths.

Quick Update... a link to my new school

Here is the website to my school:

http://www.communityactionschool.org/home.aspx

Soon, I'll be on the staff list.

I got a Job!

So yesterday was an amazing day. I was offered a position at I.S. 258 Community Action School. It's located on 154 W 93rd Street in Manhattan. It's on the west side of Central Park. The school is reviewed on a site called Inside Schools. here is the link

http://www.insideschools.org/fs/school_profile.php?id=96

I'll be teaching both 6th and 7th grade math. I am mostly excited about teaching students as they begin learning about algebra. I find introduction to the topic to be so important, and I think I'll be a really good bridge between elementary and middle school mathematics. I am especially excited that the students in this school seem to have some real connections to the staff and faculty. The homeroom students are with the homeroom teacher 4 times per day.

They have recess, which I'm so happy about. After recess they go back to the homeroom to settle back down before the classes in the afternoon. I also will have an advisory group. I look forward to that quite a bit. We meet one time per week to discuss life in general. There is a curriculum guide, but it isn't dictated. I like the idea of having some free form time with the students.

Also in this school, there are not parent-teacher conferences. There are Family-Conferences in which the students also participate in the discussions. They orally share with their parents, their personal reflections on each of their courses. I like this idea.

I also have acquired an apartment in Queens. It's in the Ridgewood neighborhood and the bakery downstairs is a Polish bakery, where I can't even read the awning sign because it's in Polish. It reminds me of my Aunt Charlotte and my Uncle Ed. I like the European feel of the neighborhood. I am also really close to the M train. I won't have to walk far in the winter. Of course I will have three trains to take to get to work. That won't be fun, but I think the right school and the right apartment didn't talk with each other before they came to me.

As for my summer school experience, I am going to miss the students. I want them to succeed on their exam next week, and I hope I prepared them enough to do just that. I loved them. I had good relationships with them and they were a bit sad that I was leaving. I found students to not know their multiplication tables, not understand that "solve for x" meant that we could find a value for x to make the equation true. They struggled with the idea of adding a negative number. It was interesting.

Student's do NOT want to be bored and given low expectations. The higher I set the bar, the higher they reached. I will be looking forward to the fall and having my own students and my own classroom.

Enough for this post. Enjoy the read.
D

Teaching Summer School

I'm teaching summer school, attending Graduate Courses at Pace University and then attending sessions for the NYCTF program.

www.nyctf.org

Tomorrow I have a job fair to attend. I'm hopeful that I will connect with a principal that will want to hire me.

I am looking for an apartment with my friend Kayleigh.

So... I'm busy. I still haven't been to a Yankee's game, I think it's important that I go see one since it's only 4 stops away on the 4 train. Hopefully this weekend will be filled with time relaxing and enjoying the city.

The students in my class don't know their multiplication tables and they are in 8th grade. They also have a hard time adding numbers with negative values. They are great kids and are pleasant to be with and I love it when they smile and want to write up on the board. We use a SMART board and the kids respond well to that. I've been observed by my field visitor, and I feel good about the feedback he's given me.

All in all... I'm doing great! more to come soon....

Here we go... July 6, 2008. Let's start a blog for my life as a teacher in New York City. I have already finished my first graduate course and now have started my second class. Actually, as I write that, I realize that I have more reading to finish before class tomorrow.

Tomorrow at 9:30am I report to1573 MADISON AVENUE, New York, NY 10029. This is quite close to where I currently live. Today, I met with Kayleigh Rose. She and I are looking for an apartment in Brooklyn together. We are looking in Prospect Heights. It will serve her and my need to get to Manhattan easily.

So... here is my first Blog in this part of my new life. Oh... I went to Coney Island with my two favorite men and watched the Hot Dog eating contest and I rode on the Cyclone!