Wow. This Week.

Something weird happened to time this week. Monday felt 3 days long. Then Tuesday through Friday seemed like two blinks.

Let me explain my last post about A days.

When our school switched to block scheduling last year, we created two different "days". We have A days and we have B days. Each day looks like this.

7:45 - 7:52 - Homeroom
7:55 - 9:30 - Class 1
9:40 - 11:15 - Class 2
11:25 - 12:15 - Instructor Access
12:15 - 12:50 - Lunch
12:55 - 2:30 - Class 3

So each day, students have three double period classes. Three of them are on A day, and the other three on B day. Each class meets every other day then. Instructor access is basically a glorified study hall. Some students have mandatory activities during that time such as AP exam prep, teacher aide work, language study, online classes, etc. Those who don't are assigned to a study hall. A very laid back study hall. Basically, teachers are supposed to be in their classrooms and available during that 50 minute chunk of time, because the idea is then that students can go to any teacher that they need help from.

So the A and B days alternate. But the homeroom stays the same all week, and the instructor access is different based on the day of the week, not the A/B schedule. Here is what mine looks like.

Monday - AP Calculus exam prep class
Tuesday - My teacher aide comes in to grade and slave away
Wednesday - I have a study hall in my room
Thursday - Secondary school chapel
Friday - Study hall again + my teacher aide

Last year, it worked out that I taught two classes each day and had one class off for prep work. The way it goes this year is that I teach all three classes on A days and only Class 1 on B days. A little unbalanced. And if an A day falls on a Monday or Thursday, I literally have no break all day. Here's how a Monday A day looks for me.

Homeroom - Make sure that all 20 tenth graders are in dress code and are listening to the morning announcements coming in over the PA system. Don't forget to submit attendance to the office on the computer (this is new this year - we used to have to phone it in to the main office).

3 minute break which is basically not a break at all because none of the 10th graders leave my room.

Class 1 - 10th grade geometry. Our books our online, so we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get everyone on the internet (for some reason only about half their laptops will connect at once) and the books loaded. Then I race through two lessons (on average, since I have to double up or we'll only cover half the book...) while trying to still make it interesting and interactive and give them enough breaks to not fry their brains while all the while making sure that nobody is on Facebook, Skype, Instagram, or playing games online.

10 minute break in which I quick switch gears, make sure everyone has gathered all their accoutrements (read: laptop cords, compasses, and graded assignments) and has gotten out of my room safely.

Class 2 - 11th grade Pre-Calculus. I like this class. I have always like teaching this class. I think this class will be a breeze. Now that the four kids that I'm pretty sure have never had Algebra have switched to a different math class... (Note - I liked the kids who were struggling. And I will genuinely miss them. It is just stressful to be explaining synthetic division with quartic polynomials to 17 kids when 4 of them keep raising their hands to ask questions like, "What is a constant?" or "Can we review division? I forget.") This is the fourth year I've taught this class with the same curriculum, and I know what works and what doesn't. I'm re-vamping some stuff this year, but overall, I think this will be my easiest class, just because I know it so well.

10 minute break in which I generally realize that I have prepared nothing for AP Calc exam prep and I frantically try to find a worksheet and often end up just giving them time to work on their homework together.

Instructor Access - Pretty sure I just summed it up above. Now that I've taught an AP class once, I'm trying to use this prep time more efficiently, which means less study hall time and more actual exam prep. But it takes a lot more work and planning. And I've never taken an AP exam before or had any kind of AP training. So this is tough. I'm relying a lot on materials left by previous teachers.

Lunch - I eat lunch with the students every single day. Our dorms set their food out buffet style, so I basically monitor the boys dorm food to make sure that no one boy is taking way more than he should and also that non-dorm students aren't just helping themselves to the food. This is actually a pretty difficult job. There may or may not be enough food for me to eat as well. On A days, I often bring grading to lunch to work on since I really have no other time during the day to grade anything at all. I also have to make sure that students are throwing away their trash and cleaning up their messes. In a school full of kids raised by pembantus, this is HARD. They are so used to being cleaned up after that they have very little motivation to be responsible for cleaning up after themselves.

Class 3 - 9th grade geometry. I have the benefit of teaching the same material first period every day, so I have it a bit more streamlined by the time I get to the 9th graders. The only problem is that the 10th graders have ALL had Algebra 2 because they are a class of geniuses whereas almost exactly half of the 9th graders pulled Ds and Fs in Algebra 1 last year. And that half would be basically all of the boys. I gave them their first Geometry test last week. The girls averaged a 91. The boys? 61. So now every boy has a female partner that they have to sit with every single day. I give them 10 minutes to go over homework together while firing up laptops (this also gives me 10 more minutes to grade), then we start the lesson. The girls help the boys. I have some budding teachers/mothers/wives in this class. They are all doing such a great job helping the boys. I thought it would be all awkward and weird, but they have really exceeded ALL of my expectations. And the boys are LETTING THEM. And the boys are GETTING IT. It has been great.

Once school is over, I usually stay 2 - 3 hours late trying to get some grading done. Then I haul AP Calc books home so I can sit on my butt on my own couch at home and study for the next days lesson.

My B days look like this.

Homeroom - Same as above.

Class 1 - AP Calculus. It is a lot easier the second time around. Stuff actually makes sense this year!

The rest of the day - Grade like a mad-woman, type up tests and quizzes and worksheets, screenshot and print pages of the geometry book for the next day's lesson (bc the online book is protected and cannot be downloaded, saved, or printed and this is the only way I can think of to be able to teach from the front of the room as opposed to teaching from my computer which is in the back of the room), re-arrange desks (because they always migrate to places where I don't want them), enter grades on the computer, meet with people I need to meet with, prep as much as possible for the next two days, get stuff around for my TA to work on, etc.

GAH! This year seems craaaaaaazy. I feel like I'm a first year teacher all over again. I haven't brought work home with me for YEARS. This is nuts. I don't think an A day has gone by yet that I haven't brought a thermos of coffee to school with me. And then sighed disappointedly when I drank the last drop.

We have no holidays for all of September  (which is really weird given that we have like 3047 days off a year), so right now, I'm just holding out for fall break in October. If I can make it that long, the worst will be over. There is no holiday-less stretch that long for the rest of the school year.

Prayers are definitely appreciated. Mostly for my sanity. And my ability to love well. I sometimes turn into a cranky mess when I am stressed out and tired, and then I am disappointed in myself, and then I just get more cranky and tired. I've already been dealing with some really tough situations with students this year. I caught one student cheating. They put so much pressure on themselves to do well. I'm also having a lot of really tough conflict with another student. This has led to me spending literally hours in my principal and superintendent's offices the past 2 weeks. Which, naturally, has not helped my workload. I'm also trying to help one of the new teachers as much as possible, which I honestly feel like has not been much. Good thing she's an independent girl!

I think I'm going to make it my goal to post more pictures. I haven't posted any for awhile. I really haven't TAKEN any for awhile. I'll try and change that this month. But please have mercy on me if I don't get to it until fall break! :)