Saturday, December 25, 2004
Unsichtbarben Rennt
Upon the request of my relatives, who heard the following story over a deli lunch this afternoon, an expansion upon an event mentioned in my previous post, namely how I was placed in the unenviable position of organizing the logistics of an assembly for the entire 9th grade.
To begin with, you should know that Underwood High School is divided, like many schools throughout The City, into a series of small learning communities also referred to as "academies." This organizational configuration subdivides the teaching staff and administration into smaller, theoretically more managable units and provides the possibility for specialization. Hence the existence of a Business Academy (to prepare students for a career in business), a Health Academy (to prepare students for a career in health related fields), or the Scholars' Academy (for those students deemed based on test scores, etc. to have a possible future in the wide world of academia). Since arriving at Underwood last fall, I have been a proud member of the 9th Grade Success Academy, which really is more of a catchall for all the ninth grade teachers rather than providing some specialized career focus. (like preparing students for a career in...success? in 9th grade? what do you think?)
The head of the 9th grade academy is one stressed out lady. And trust me, gentle readers, I do not make this assertion lightly. To lend some perspective, imagine all of the discipline issues I have ever mentioned on this blog since its inception. The cussing, the fighting, the thrown objects, the defiance, the name-calling, the bullying, the theft, and so on and so on and so on. Now imagine having to deal with all the boring administrative paperwork necessary to deal with about 20X the number of violations and you have an idea of what the head of the 9th grade academy is dealing with everyday. She has said on multiple occasions she would rather be doing other things than serve as a disciplinarian, but the job requires it, especially this year. This year, the ninth graders have become much more disruptive as a class--the amount of violent incidents among freshmen, for example, has skyrocketed--and everyone was feeling the stress by the time last week rolled around.
So like a good leader, the 9th grade academy leader decided it would be a great idea to hold a party for the rest of the 9th grade teachers. She contacted one of the English teachers and sent around a signup sheet to gauge interest. Obviously, the opportunity to avoid teaching class one day during a shortened, almost certainly stressful week, and instead chat with colleagues over holiday snacks held some appeal, so quickly the list filled up. What would we do with the students? Simple...stick them in the auditorium and have them watch a movie! It sounded like a perfect plan.
And this was the way things stood until Wednesday, the day of the event. Arriving at the school early, I dropped by the room of my friend the English teacher/organizer of the party. She had obtained some movies on tape for the kids, simple but fun like Drumline, Bringin' Down the House, or for that authentic holiday flare, Elf. But she was uncertain as to certain details that had me concerned. Little stuff like when would the assembly start--the last period of the day or the next to last? Also, how was the movie to be shown? If a video projector was needed, I could obtain one, but only if informed sufficiently in advance. Oh, and what about sound?--my little projector, or even the science department's televisions would not prove sufficiently powerful for an audience of 550 kids!
We had no answers here, so we went off in search of our academy leader...who had somehow disappeared. She was off doing some sort of paperwork most of the morning, so our concerns had to wait. I gave my class a quiz on environmental science (finally done with that damn unit...stupid nature!) and smiled through advisory before running off 2nd period in search of my fearless leader for some sort of guidance. First, down to her office. No luck. Then off to the main office. No one there. A quick check with the party organizer suggested that she was in the building, but perhaps still working on that aforementioned paperwork. I decided to make some inquiries into my other questions and check back later. A quick run to the 4th floor to check with the school's sound tech suggested that things might not be as straightforward as originally implied? Because despite earlier assurances that the auditorium had been reserved for the ninth graders, the Scholars Academy had laid claim to it as well and would be holding a ceremony last period that day to celebrate its perfect attendance and honor roll students. Which was all well and good, but that would mean we'd have to teach 8th and 9th period! And the assembly would be cancelled! And my homemade chocolate raspberry fudge made special for the party? WASTED! Not cool.
I bolted down a floor to the Scholars' Academy office, confirmed the auditorium reservation, and then set off in a mad quest to find my academy leader. I stopped by every conceivable place I could think of...the library, my classroom, her office (at least 5 times!)...on and on and on. She would not stay still. She would not answer her walkie-talkie or her office phone. At one point, the party organizer actually did get her on the line, and confirmed that the assembly was still on. She made her aware of the location shift, and we started work to find a new venue...the options were slim: either the gym or the cafeteria. In the meanwhile, guess who had been giving the task of handling the remaining logistics? The one guy who knew about all the technology involved and actually had the stubborn wherewithal to assemble them into a working whole...me.
But this was not good. The assembly was scheduled for 1:00. I found out I was fully responsible at...10:45, halfway into my 3rd period class. My academy leader contacted me to let me know that the gym had granted her permission to use the space and that she would cover my class after lunch (between 12 and 1) so that I'd have basically 1.5 hr. straight of prep time. But would this be enough? Well...let's cover the bases:
Not that anyone could tell because the windows in the gym could not be closed and the room remained very bright. But the sound was phenomenal! And I felt tired, and exhausted, and stressed...but the job was done and to the best of my ability too. Everything came together despite the miserable delegation of responsibility from my academy leader and the lack of coordination from the rest of the staff. But it worked and we all snacked on homemade (and not so homemade) holiday goodies for the rest of the afternoon. And you know what? I think the kids liked it too. Except for the fight which broke out around 20 minutes before the end of the day...which I suppose is a bit symbolic in its own way.
My legs are still sore from all the running I did that Wednesday around the building. I really should invest in a pedometer...
Upon the request of my relatives, who heard the following story over a deli lunch this afternoon, an expansion upon an event mentioned in my previous post, namely how I was placed in the unenviable position of organizing the logistics of an assembly for the entire 9th grade.
To begin with, you should know that Underwood High School is divided, like many schools throughout The City, into a series of small learning communities also referred to as "academies." This organizational configuration subdivides the teaching staff and administration into smaller, theoretically more managable units and provides the possibility for specialization. Hence the existence of a Business Academy (to prepare students for a career in business), a Health Academy (to prepare students for a career in health related fields), or the Scholars' Academy (for those students deemed based on test scores, etc. to have a possible future in the wide world of academia). Since arriving at Underwood last fall, I have been a proud member of the 9th Grade Success Academy, which really is more of a catchall for all the ninth grade teachers rather than providing some specialized career focus. (like preparing students for a career in...success? in 9th grade? what do you think?)
The head of the 9th grade academy is one stressed out lady. And trust me, gentle readers, I do not make this assertion lightly. To lend some perspective, imagine all of the discipline issues I have ever mentioned on this blog since its inception. The cussing, the fighting, the thrown objects, the defiance, the name-calling, the bullying, the theft, and so on and so on and so on. Now imagine having to deal with all the boring administrative paperwork necessary to deal with about 20X the number of violations and you have an idea of what the head of the 9th grade academy is dealing with everyday. She has said on multiple occasions she would rather be doing other things than serve as a disciplinarian, but the job requires it, especially this year. This year, the ninth graders have become much more disruptive as a class--the amount of violent incidents among freshmen, for example, has skyrocketed--and everyone was feeling the stress by the time last week rolled around.
So like a good leader, the 9th grade academy leader decided it would be a great idea to hold a party for the rest of the 9th grade teachers. She contacted one of the English teachers and sent around a signup sheet to gauge interest. Obviously, the opportunity to avoid teaching class one day during a shortened, almost certainly stressful week, and instead chat with colleagues over holiday snacks held some appeal, so quickly the list filled up. What would we do with the students? Simple...stick them in the auditorium and have them watch a movie! It sounded like a perfect plan.
And this was the way things stood until Wednesday, the day of the event. Arriving at the school early, I dropped by the room of my friend the English teacher/organizer of the party. She had obtained some movies on tape for the kids, simple but fun like Drumline, Bringin' Down the House, or for that authentic holiday flare, Elf. But she was uncertain as to certain details that had me concerned. Little stuff like when would the assembly start--the last period of the day or the next to last? Also, how was the movie to be shown? If a video projector was needed, I could obtain one, but only if informed sufficiently in advance. Oh, and what about sound?--my little projector, or even the science department's televisions would not prove sufficiently powerful for an audience of 550 kids!
We had no answers here, so we went off in search of our academy leader...who had somehow disappeared. She was off doing some sort of paperwork most of the morning, so our concerns had to wait. I gave my class a quiz on environmental science (finally done with that damn unit...stupid nature!) and smiled through advisory before running off 2nd period in search of my fearless leader for some sort of guidance. First, down to her office. No luck. Then off to the main office. No one there. A quick check with the party organizer suggested that she was in the building, but perhaps still working on that aforementioned paperwork. I decided to make some inquiries into my other questions and check back later. A quick run to the 4th floor to check with the school's sound tech suggested that things might not be as straightforward as originally implied? Because despite earlier assurances that the auditorium had been reserved for the ninth graders, the Scholars Academy had laid claim to it as well and would be holding a ceremony last period that day to celebrate its perfect attendance and honor roll students. Which was all well and good, but that would mean we'd have to teach 8th and 9th period! And the assembly would be cancelled! And my homemade chocolate raspberry fudge made special for the party? WASTED! Not cool.
I bolted down a floor to the Scholars' Academy office, confirmed the auditorium reservation, and then set off in a mad quest to find my academy leader. I stopped by every conceivable place I could think of...the library, my classroom, her office (at least 5 times!)...on and on and on. She would not stay still. She would not answer her walkie-talkie or her office phone. At one point, the party organizer actually did get her on the line, and confirmed that the assembly was still on. She made her aware of the location shift, and we started work to find a new venue...the options were slim: either the gym or the cafeteria. In the meanwhile, guess who had been giving the task of handling the remaining logistics? The one guy who knew about all the technology involved and actually had the stubborn wherewithal to assemble them into a working whole...me.
But this was not good. The assembly was scheduled for 1:00. I found out I was fully responsible at...10:45, halfway into my 3rd period class. My academy leader contacted me to let me know that the gym had granted her permission to use the space and that she would cover my class after lunch (between 12 and 1) so that I'd have basically 1.5 hr. straight of prep time. But would this be enough? Well...let's cover the bases:
- Video Projection: The first and most difficult aspect of this whole affair would be to obtain a projector and screen to allow for video display. Although, as I had mentioned, I did have access to both a rearview projection TV and a screen, I was not relishing the idea of detaching the former from my home entertainment system and bringing the whole thing into school. Plus, I knew that someone in the building had to have an LCD projector, after all..we had watched power point presentations on a big screen during professional development. So I started a mad quest up and down the 3rd and 4th floors checking with social studies teachers (who were kindly and sympathetic, but said no), business teachers (unkind and unsympathetic...also saying no), and science teachers (kind and sympathetic...and said yes!) finally finding an available projector from the science department's resident computer goddess and technical wizard. And all seemed well and good.
- Video Playback: The projector provided was a wonderful piece of hardware, but it had one major drawback. It was designed to work with computers. In otherwords, if I could find a laptop, it could certainly project anything on it onto a screen. And if that laptop happened to be playing a DVD...well, that led to two issues. First, all the movies my colleagues had arranged earlier were on VHS tape, not DVD. And second, where the heck was I going to find a laptop? Fortunately, a quick solution came up for hte latter...use the 9th grade academy's powerful iBook computers, which my academy leader swore were capable of playing DVDs...
- Sound System: Fortunately I happen to be friends with the Scholars Academy department head and was able to convince her that the sound system should really be moved to the gym because after all there would be a basketball game down there later and oh yes, the auditorium, having been closed off due to collapsing ceiling issues, was a relativley small space so big speakers really weren't too necessary. She was also kind enough to provide her screen, a six foot beauty with a nice tripod which allowed for adjustable height, something with which mine would have slightly more difficulty.
- The movie: As soon as my after lunch class was covered, I bolted to Blockbuster and obtained the newly released DVD of Spiderman 2. Everyone loves stylized violence and 8 limbed supervillains.
Not that anyone could tell because the windows in the gym could not be closed and the room remained very bright. But the sound was phenomenal! And I felt tired, and exhausted, and stressed...but the job was done and to the best of my ability too. Everything came together despite the miserable delegation of responsibility from my academy leader and the lack of coordination from the rest of the staff. But it worked and we all snacked on homemade (and not so homemade) holiday goodies for the rest of the afternoon. And you know what? I think the kids liked it too. Except for the fight which broke out around 20 minutes before the end of the day...which I suppose is a bit symbolic in its own way.
My legs are still sore from all the running I did that Wednesday around the building. I really should invest in a pedometer...
