Friday, April 16, 2004
"There was only one catch..."
I wrote a little while ago about the district’s New Teacher Academy, the state mandated program in stupidity intended to provide novitiates in the city school system with all the pedagogical fundamentals to be an expert teacher. Thankfully I have survived 14 of the required 18 sessions, held biweekly at a school in the exact opposite end of the city from mine. The sessions are not so much evil in and of themselves, just inconvenient and unhelpful. It regularly takes at least half an hour to get from Underwood High to Nikola Tesla Tech including a stint on the highway during peak traffic...and once there, most of the session is spent discussion abstract pedagogical theories with very little relevance to my classroom.
In any case, I arrived at the last meeting close to on time last Wednesday only to discover that in doing so I was inadvertently missing another entirely separate meeting at the grad school where I am also taking classes regarding next year’s student teaching program. Now setting aside for a minute the apparent absurdity of having a student teaching program when I am already independently working in my own classroom...a quick phone call to a friend at the meeting suggested that without attendance, one could not participate, and without participation, one could not get a teaching certificate. He promised to forge my name on the sign-in sheet, but after hanging up I began to think over the situation:
"So...if I don’t attend this meeting at Tesla Tech, then I don’t complete the New Teacher Academy and I can’t get certified."
"But...if I attend the meeting at Tesla Tech, I don’t attend the mandatory meeting downtown for student teaching, fail to enroll in the student teaching program, and end up without the graduate credit necessary to get certified."
I’ve never been a big fan of meetings one absolutely must attend or else...but this was ridiculous. The least the grad school could have done is sent out an e-mail reminder that this meeting was so damnably important! But that must have slipped under the radar too. And thanks to all this bureaucratic gobbledygook, I was so busy getting certified, I accidentally forgot to go get certified!
Most likely, all of this chaos will be worked out within the next few weeks. I’ve already sent an e-mail to the head of the grad school’s continuing and professional education branch: Major Major Major Major and between the two of us, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to escape this Catch-22.
Until then, I’ll be keeping an eye out for Nately’s whore.
I wrote a little while ago about the district’s New Teacher Academy, the state mandated program in stupidity intended to provide novitiates in the city school system with all the pedagogical fundamentals to be an expert teacher. Thankfully I have survived 14 of the required 18 sessions, held biweekly at a school in the exact opposite end of the city from mine. The sessions are not so much evil in and of themselves, just inconvenient and unhelpful. It regularly takes at least half an hour to get from Underwood High to Nikola Tesla Tech including a stint on the highway during peak traffic...and once there, most of the session is spent discussion abstract pedagogical theories with very little relevance to my classroom.
In any case, I arrived at the last meeting close to on time last Wednesday only to discover that in doing so I was inadvertently missing another entirely separate meeting at the grad school where I am also taking classes regarding next year’s student teaching program. Now setting aside for a minute the apparent absurdity of having a student teaching program when I am already independently working in my own classroom...a quick phone call to a friend at the meeting suggested that without attendance, one could not participate, and without participation, one could not get a teaching certificate. He promised to forge my name on the sign-in sheet, but after hanging up I began to think over the situation:
"So...if I don’t attend this meeting at Tesla Tech, then I don’t complete the New Teacher Academy and I can’t get certified."
"But...if I attend the meeting at Tesla Tech, I don’t attend the mandatory meeting downtown for student teaching, fail to enroll in the student teaching program, and end up without the graduate credit necessary to get certified."
I’ve never been a big fan of meetings one absolutely must attend or else...but this was ridiculous. The least the grad school could have done is sent out an e-mail reminder that this meeting was so damnably important! But that must have slipped under the radar too. And thanks to all this bureaucratic gobbledygook, I was so busy getting certified, I accidentally forgot to go get certified!
Most likely, all of this chaos will be worked out within the next few weeks. I’ve already sent an e-mail to the head of the grad school’s continuing and professional education branch: Major Major Major Major and between the two of us, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to escape this Catch-22.
Until then, I’ll be keeping an eye out for Nately’s whore.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Good Idea, Bad Idea: Spring Break Edition
This was originally slated to be posted sometime before the last few hours of spring break...but better late than never.
And now another edition of Good Idea, Bad Idea.
Good Idea: Helping students prepare for standardized tests in their regular classes.
Bad Idea: Not helping students learn what appropriate test taking behavior is their regular classes. (So much cussing...)
Good Idea: Coaching students in the freshman intramural basketball tournament.
Bad Idea: Playing against the winners of the freshman intramural basketball tournament.
Good Idea: Ordering pizza for the students after the final basketball game.
Bad Idea : Ordering pizza from a new place, resulting in pizza showing up 30 minutes later than expected.
Good Idea: Holding an anti-violence assembly with speakers from local community organizations.
Bad Idea: Not informing the faculty outside of a tacked on addendum to a memo the day of the event forcing a certain teacher to run around like a crazed idiot trying to find out what was going on.
Good Idea: Giving students individual pieces of dry ice to work with in class.
Bad Idea : Giving students the means (ziploc bags) to smuggle pieces of dry ice to other classes. (Fortunately, the other teachers recognized the substance for what it was and avoided student entreaties to touch it..)
Good Idea: Taking students to the science labs on the third floor.
Bad Idea: Expecting students who have forgotten their safety contracts for the entirety of the marking period to change this habit.
Good Idea: Checking out an alternate history novel to read for fun.
Bad Idea: Finishing an alternate history novel in one four hour sitting...beginning at 12:30 AM to 4:30 AM.
Good Idea: Spending spring break by myself catching up on work.
Bad Idea : Spending spring break by myself catching up on work.
In other news, there are approximately 10 weeks left in the school year. That’s about 50 days. In my experience, it isn’t particularly healthy to look beyond the moment when one is attempting challenging tasks...but this seems like a momentous occasion and one worth noting here. I can only hope that I can get through all the material my students deserve to learn in the short time remaining to us.
Oh...and happy Passover all.
This was originally slated to be posted sometime before the last few hours of spring break...but better late than never.
And now another edition of Good Idea, Bad Idea.
Good Idea: Helping students prepare for standardized tests in their regular classes.
Bad Idea: Not helping students learn what appropriate test taking behavior is their regular classes. (So much cussing...)
Good Idea: Coaching students in the freshman intramural basketball tournament.
Bad Idea: Playing against the winners of the freshman intramural basketball tournament.
Good Idea: Ordering pizza for the students after the final basketball game.
Bad Idea : Ordering pizza from a new place, resulting in pizza showing up 30 minutes later than expected.
Good Idea: Holding an anti-violence assembly with speakers from local community organizations.
Bad Idea: Not informing the faculty outside of a tacked on addendum to a memo the day of the event forcing a certain teacher to run around like a crazed idiot trying to find out what was going on.
Good Idea: Giving students individual pieces of dry ice to work with in class.
Bad Idea : Giving students the means (ziploc bags) to smuggle pieces of dry ice to other classes. (Fortunately, the other teachers recognized the substance for what it was and avoided student entreaties to touch it..)
Good Idea: Taking students to the science labs on the third floor.
Bad Idea: Expecting students who have forgotten their safety contracts for the entirety of the marking period to change this habit.
Good Idea: Checking out an alternate history novel to read for fun.
Bad Idea: Finishing an alternate history novel in one four hour sitting...beginning at 12:30 AM to 4:30 AM.
Good Idea: Spending spring break by myself catching up on work.
Bad Idea : Spending spring break by myself catching up on work.
In other news, there are approximately 10 weeks left in the school year. That’s about 50 days. In my experience, it isn’t particularly healthy to look beyond the moment when one is attempting challenging tasks...but this seems like a momentous occasion and one worth noting here. I can only hope that I can get through all the material my students deserve to learn in the short time remaining to us.
Oh...and happy Passover all.
