Sunday, June 18, 2006
The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Daze of "Summer"
The final full week of school has come and gone at Underwood High and I should note that it really didn't take long for the administration to realize that their initial edicts to continue instruction until the bitter end didn't hold that much weight. With class sizes rapidly dwindling, the leaders of all the various academies quickly arranged coverage schedules allowing teachers to consolidate their classes.
This proved most effective with the upperclassmen, since seniors no longer were attending regular classes and most sophomores and juniors know better than to show up for the last ten days of school since grades and attendance are closed. The combination of these factors makes it possible for one teacher to cover all of the students in a given academy for a period with relatively little difficulty. This explains why, although it was annoying, I could keep an eye on all the juniors in the honors program first period last Wednesday and then move on three periods later to cover all the juniors in the teacher prep. program.
The problem is that the freshmen are like moths drawn to Underwood's flame. Even though it's hot and potentially painful, they keep getting drawn in...right up until the very last day. Attendance in ninth grade classrooms must have been two to three times as much as those rooms holding sophomores or juniors, and despite their relative inexperience, the ninth graders were all just as aware that no real work was being done! The ninth grade academy attempted to keep up business as usual, but eventually the head of the academy realized that we needed a plan. In our customary ass-backwards way, she informed every ninth grade teacher there would be an assembly last period to hammer out a plan.
I brought down my students at the time I had been directed only to find an empty room. Apparently, there was an announcement a few minutes later...not that anyone mentioned that this, but so be it. When the head of the academy arrived, she explained that there were fewer students showing up the past few days.
"And that's good..." she continued. But there were going to be some changes in the last few days of school to allow teachers to clean up their rooms and finish the rest of the paperwork surrounding the end of the year. (Read: Make our lives easier!) Not that she had actually worked those changes out yet. So teachers, if you could all please go to the back of the room and figure out who is covering the rooms listed on this schedule...
Insanity. Instead of a premade coverage schedule like every other academy, yours truly and a few others stepped up to the plate and determined covereages for the entire ninth grade while the kids just sat there, yammering away! The basic debate was how to divide twenty or so teachers among six rooms with various preassigned themes...for example a math room, an English room, a drama room, and so forth. There were some snags, most notably a few teachers who refused to be involved. One teacher, whose room had been assigned as the "game room", flat out said she would lock her door and not follow the schedule.
But in the end, everyone, at least begrudgingly agreed to the schedule we hammered out in the back of the auditorium. Three or more teachers were assigned to every room, allowing at least one teacher to rotate out for a prep period, lunch, or bathroom break. I took it upon myself to type up the revisions we had made and volunteered to distribute them to all the ninth grade teachers. My thought was that maybe in doing so in a timely, competent fashion, the actual implementation of the schedule the following day would run more smoothly.
Needless to say, my faint flicker of optimism was not rewarded. Another ninth grade meeting the following morning proved disastrous and kids swarmed into the hallways with nary an idea of where to go or what to do. Fortunately, yours truly had taken it upon himself to have a relatively easy assignment. With my LCD projector, laptop, and powered speakers, I converted my room into "the movie room" where 6th season Simpsons episodes ran throughout the day. Kids came and went. At one point, a quick ID check revealed around a half dozen students who were not supposed to be in the room, including a few upperclassmen. (They were quickly removed and suspended until the end of the year. As my principal once said, they were "eliminated.") But, in the end it didn't matter. It was (and is) too late in the year to make a big fuss over this. As long as they didn't block the screen or make too much noise...I was willing to accept a modicum of chaos.
Because this time of year reveals teachers for what they really are at Underwood...glorified babysitters. Education? Ha! As long as those punk kids are in a classroom, that's good enough. The administration will never admit it of course, but that's where things are now. The funny thing is, even though I didn't have to teach a lick of science, just sitting there monitoring the students was as draining as a normal day. The kids remain loud, the room remains hot, and the end of the school year remains just beyond our reach.
Oh well. Only two more days to go with students followed by one day of professional development. Hopefully, it won't be too muggy tomorrow. Or if it is, maybe the kids will stay home. Either way, it's going to be an interesting day.
The final full week of school has come and gone at Underwood High and I should note that it really didn't take long for the administration to realize that their initial edicts to continue instruction until the bitter end didn't hold that much weight. With class sizes rapidly dwindling, the leaders of all the various academies quickly arranged coverage schedules allowing teachers to consolidate their classes.
This proved most effective with the upperclassmen, since seniors no longer were attending regular classes and most sophomores and juniors know better than to show up for the last ten days of school since grades and attendance are closed. The combination of these factors makes it possible for one teacher to cover all of the students in a given academy for a period with relatively little difficulty. This explains why, although it was annoying, I could keep an eye on all the juniors in the honors program first period last Wednesday and then move on three periods later to cover all the juniors in the teacher prep. program.
The problem is that the freshmen are like moths drawn to Underwood's flame. Even though it's hot and potentially painful, they keep getting drawn in...right up until the very last day. Attendance in ninth grade classrooms must have been two to three times as much as those rooms holding sophomores or juniors, and despite their relative inexperience, the ninth graders were all just as aware that no real work was being done! The ninth grade academy attempted to keep up business as usual, but eventually the head of the academy realized that we needed a plan. In our customary ass-backwards way, she informed every ninth grade teacher there would be an assembly last period to hammer out a plan.
I brought down my students at the time I had been directed only to find an empty room. Apparently, there was an announcement a few minutes later...not that anyone mentioned that this, but so be it. When the head of the academy arrived, she explained that there were fewer students showing up the past few days.
"And that's good..." she continued. But there were going to be some changes in the last few days of school to allow teachers to clean up their rooms and finish the rest of the paperwork surrounding the end of the year. (Read: Make our lives easier!) Not that she had actually worked those changes out yet. So teachers, if you could all please go to the back of the room and figure out who is covering the rooms listed on this schedule...
Insanity. Instead of a premade coverage schedule like every other academy, yours truly and a few others stepped up to the plate and determined covereages for the entire ninth grade while the kids just sat there, yammering away! The basic debate was how to divide twenty or so teachers among six rooms with various preassigned themes...for example a math room, an English room, a drama room, and so forth. There were some snags, most notably a few teachers who refused to be involved. One teacher, whose room had been assigned as the "game room", flat out said she would lock her door and not follow the schedule.
But in the end, everyone, at least begrudgingly agreed to the schedule we hammered out in the back of the auditorium. Three or more teachers were assigned to every room, allowing at least one teacher to rotate out for a prep period, lunch, or bathroom break. I took it upon myself to type up the revisions we had made and volunteered to distribute them to all the ninth grade teachers. My thought was that maybe in doing so in a timely, competent fashion, the actual implementation of the schedule the following day would run more smoothly.
Needless to say, my faint flicker of optimism was not rewarded. Another ninth grade meeting the following morning proved disastrous and kids swarmed into the hallways with nary an idea of where to go or what to do. Fortunately, yours truly had taken it upon himself to have a relatively easy assignment. With my LCD projector, laptop, and powered speakers, I converted my room into "the movie room" where 6th season Simpsons episodes ran throughout the day. Kids came and went. At one point, a quick ID check revealed around a half dozen students who were not supposed to be in the room, including a few upperclassmen. (They were quickly removed and suspended until the end of the year. As my principal once said, they were "eliminated.") But, in the end it didn't matter. It was (and is) too late in the year to make a big fuss over this. As long as they didn't block the screen or make too much noise...I was willing to accept a modicum of chaos.
Because this time of year reveals teachers for what they really are at Underwood...glorified babysitters. Education? Ha! As long as those punk kids are in a classroom, that's good enough. The administration will never admit it of course, but that's where things are now. The funny thing is, even though I didn't have to teach a lick of science, just sitting there monitoring the students was as draining as a normal day. The kids remain loud, the room remains hot, and the end of the school year remains just beyond our reach.
Oh well. Only two more days to go with students followed by one day of professional development. Hopefully, it won't be too muggy tomorrow. Or if it is, maybe the kids will stay home. Either way, it's going to be an interesting day.
