Day 22 - Getting Ready to Think

When I first started teaching, I established myself in my school and was left to do what I knew to do. My kids thrived and I grew as a teacher. When I transfered schools, I didn't realize (but should have) that I had to start over again. I'm now in the position again that I am left to do what I know to do and my kids and I thrive. The first year, however, was a nightmare. The principal was the sqawn of Attila the Hun. I think she actually derived some twisted pleasure out of getting me in tears and sending me back to my classroom to teach. She moved on or I would have gone back to my old school district. One of the things I learned during that experience is something my husband always used to talk about, but I poo pood the notion. He would talk about the "dog and pony" show when referring to observations. I realize that there are people who have everything perfect all of the time, but I am not one of those people. I can change direction for a class at the drop of a hat to follow a concept they are struggling with illustrate a point that needs to be made from a question they brought up. My "stuff" may not be always handy, but I feel compelled to address the question in the moment. This means that sometimes I'm talking to them while digging through my closet for Dee Dee the Fraction Ferry (her name reminds you to divide down) or my skull that I use to give them a visual for the circumference of a circle (To pi or not to pi, that is the question).

For the National Boards, I need to put on the Dog and Pony show. I need to almost script my sessions (which I sort of did the first time, but obviously not enough). This time I will also stage the session. The two kids who have diarhea of the mouth will be somewhere else that day. I will borrow another teacher's room, because the lighting in my lab is too poor for taping. I will also tape three different lessons and decide which one to use for the portfolio, not just three different versions of the same lesson. I think this will work.

Day-I've lost count

It's the Christmas season again. I'm getting a retest for Christmas, oh joy and exhaltation. I couldn't stomach doing two portfolio sections, so I selected one portfolio section and one test section. I can't believe that I didn't do better on the test! Oh well. Life goes on, even for losers.