Random Things

There has been so much going on recently that I wanted to update my blog to include it all. Instead of writing a novel though, I will summarize some fun bits (and ignore all the difficult bits).

First and foremost, I was involved in a Harry Potter themed play about parent/teacher conferences. Yup. I was Lucius Malfoy and my lovely wife Narcissa (Gren) and I visited Professor Trelawney, the Divinations teacher (wonderful props like cups with skeleton hands, a crystal ball, quills, and a Hogwarts banner). Narcissa and I were terribly upset to find out that our sweet little Drakey-pooh wasn't at the top of the class. Of course, we didn't feel it necessary to inform the professor that he was allergic to tea leaves. Next, I was Hermione Granger and my mother and I met with Professor McGonegall. Much less excited and fewer cool props (though we still had the robes, hats, and quills). It was the "good" example for how a conference should be. Anyhow, wish I had gotten it on tape though that would have been terribly embarrassing. Funny though.

Also, I have been working on my website for MI Matters. The program got in the news! We are all famous now. You can get my autograph for only $5 at a special signing here at Starbucks.

In Educational Psychology, we did some role-playing and I was a teacher who had tenure and lots of experience teaching AP classes successfully. I think I did a fairly good job trying to show where my character would be coming from (against merit based pay, any significant changes to the status quo, team-teaching, but for someone else to do something about the kids who were not motivated in school). I started out kind of making it into a bit of a caricature, but ended up really taking on the role as a person. It was hard to stay in character and not to agree with the impassioned speech about the upsides of team-teaching though. Christi is an eloquent speaker!

I talked after class with the teacher and I think I really get her point about choices. We have so many, especially at this point in our careers. There are pluses and minuses about whatever we decide to do and we will all have to think very carefully about our futures and where we want to go. Some students are interested in teaching in Washington, D.C. where they have a new merit-based pay system and they can make tons of money while really doing something to help students who really need it. Seems like a win-win to me, but I am not sure I would be able to be successful in such an environment.

Which reminds me. I got to visit another school system with Jessica, Dan, and Cristi (though she wasn't there that day). It turns out that kids are kids, though their school had a bunch more mohawks and heavy-metal-esque clothing than where I teach. It was such an eye-opener and all the classes had huge differences from each other and were different from my own classroom. I LOVE their science area though. There is a long hallway sort of thing that works as offices and storage and lunch areas for all the science teachers. I bet it helps them be a stronger and more coherent department since they see each other and have a shared space away from the students. Anyhow, I could totally see myself working at W.M. school. Good times!

In other news, I am working on finishing overdue assignments, planning my webinar (on QuizStar, an awesome site), and working on my unit plan for next semester where I will be teaching all the classes for 3 weeks(ish) when I implement it. And of course there is the Evil Math class. Last week was all about a model where all lines are in a half plane, and they are perpendicular to the half plane, either straight or half circles. Yup, a half circle can be a line. An infinitely long line. And you can draw the whole thing. Uh-huh. Are you confused? Because I am confused. Hopefully it will make more sense by the final.

Okay, enough. Time to work on those overdue assignments. Sigh. I am a quick typist and a slooooooow writer. What's up with that?

Capsule Night

Tonight was Capsule Night, otherwise known as Meet The Parents. Scary!
Thankfully I got a bit of confidence when the first parent who asked me, "How is my student doing in your class," was one of the few students who I not only knew, but I knew where he sits and his exact grade on the recent test. Nice kid. And nice mother, too.

There were two sets of parents or guardians who asked about students who I honestly couldn't place, but thankfully there was the seating chart there, helping me out. Also, I faked it a bit. "Oh yes, of course." Sigh. I wish I was quicker on the memorizing names and faces thing but it is one of my weakest areas. Vocabulary recall of any type is a weakness in fact. I got around it in French class back in the day by using previous words for a response. "Is the gas station one street over and on the right?" "No, the gas station is one street over, take three rights, and go one more street over." All because I can't remember the words for 'two' and 'left' but it all worked out somehow.

But really, the whole meeting parents experience was a bit frightening. Parents are scary, what with their pointy, evil fangs and whatnot. Well, they seem scary to me anyhow. Next time will be easier, right?

We did have pictures flashing by up on the big screen which kept the parents occupied, and we demonstrated the lab we will do tomorrow which was pretty cool. Nice, shiny graphs made on the computer by the electronic equipment the students use... Technology bond in action apparently!

Anyhow, that's all for now. Wish I had a claymation to post like the cool kids who signed up for the last tech workshop.

My first parent meeting

This week I spent time at my new school. It was quite enlightening in many respects. The amazing number of passionate arguments all relating to the tardy policy, the amount of fun that can be had at a teacher's meeting, and the number of last minute technical issues were all surprising to me.

I also met my very first parent (at that school anyhow) when I visited the office to get my parking pass. She is a lovely woman who works for the school in some capacity which I have now completely forgotten. I think I need to work on my memory. Anyhow, I am much more excited about this than I would have guessed. I mean, who gets all worked up and giggly about the prospect of attending teacher's meetings for goodness' sakes? I would be more embarrassed about admitting that if it wasn't so amazingly obvious. It isn't like I haven't taught before. I even subbed for the first two days of school last year so there isn't anything too new here. Or was it the year before? I can't wait until someone invents an external hard drive with extra memory for the human mind.

Classes start on Tuesday at the high school, and have already started at the graduate school level. And I am already behind. Yikes! I should go do something useful now.
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