Into the Strenuous Briefness

That may or may not be directly quoted from the official proctoring materials of my state’s standardized exams.

Sums it up, doesn’t it?

In addition to missing class time to test, and missing planning time to proctor, I’ve also been missing my paraeducator on days when my own students have been in my class because he is busy working the accommodations testing room. Meanwhile, I have a classroom full of IEP students who are also entitled to accommodations…

And I just got an e-mail from my ESOL co-teacher telling me she’s missing Friday because of testing and a couple of days next week. So that means this Friday I will have neither special education support or ESOL support in a classroom where literally every single student receives one or both of those services.

 ekaeden said: Has anyone sat with him and told him about his graduation status? Goodness geeze.. My school call parents when students are in danger of not graduating. ):

This kid has had adults on him constantly all year about his graduation status. In addition to my inclusion biology class, he is in a biology intervention program capped at ~8 students with another biology teacher. He receives alternative education support and has at least three of the adults in our alternative education program checking in with him almost daily and with me almost bi-weekly since September. He has a daily tutorial period in addition to the supported biology intervention.

Calling parents is just the very beginning of what my school does to support its students. I am very proud of my school’s elaborate and generally effective support structures for our diverse and needy student population. We have done our work with this student in just about every single possible way we can.

He hasn’t done his work, though.

I’m pretty over this school year. Monday is our state test, June 14th is our last day. I basically feel like I’m done—the kids have learned what they’re going to learn, it’s too late to really try any new routines or organizational systems, and we’re all coasting.

Part of what I find frustrating about this part of the school year is that I am energized for next year. This year is a done deal. Next year is new and exciting and full of possibilities. I want to spend my days poring over the AP curriculum, creating scaffolds for ecology, and tinkering with my GT assignments. 

I don’t want to plan for tomorrow. I want to plan for September.

I feel like if I can just power through this week, really concentrate on grading and planning, then I can have all of my school planning time for the rest of the year to work on future stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, my kids are great, and I’ll miss them, but my brain is buzzing in all directions and I don’t have the time right now to capitalize on it.

 parulia said: What an awesome way of letting the kids decide! Do you use Edmodo regularly?

Yep! It’s my online presence for my gifted bio this year. There is a lot I like about it, but I think I’m going to scrap it in favor of Google Sites next year.

I did a similar poll at this time last year (on the Weebly I was using at the time). The kids think it’s cool that they get to choose what we learn. Last year epidemiology won by a landslide, but this year’s kids seem to want to go in a different direction.

Our state testing is on Monday, so I am officially done teaching the state mandated curriculum. Cool.

BUT we are in school until June 14th! What to do with the children?

Let them decide, obviously.

I just posted a poll on Edmodo for what to cover after the state exam. My kids can choose from:

• Survey of life’s diversity (overview of different animal phyla)
• Human evolution
• Epidemiology
• Human impact on the environment
• Science and society
• Literature and history of science
• More detailed genetics/biotechnology
• Microbiology
• More ecology
• Plant ecology and evolution
• Viruses and prions
• History of life

So far the history of life is the front-runner, but only a handful have voted. I’m excited to see what they choose!

 msleahhbic said: You don’t like teaching dissection? How come? That was my favorite part of biology class.

To be fair, I have not ever taught a dissection. It was just my least favorite thing about taking biology. Compared to many biology oriented people, I’ve done relatively few dissections: earthworm, frog, crayfish, and rat.

It’s messy and smells gross. It’s also (obviously) all anatomy, which is by far my weakest content spot. It’s also, not coincidentally, the content I find least interesting. I genuinely don’t mind prodding around the insides of an already-opened organism, but as the Adult in Charge, I’ll have to do all of the dirty work, and I’m just not looking forward to it.

I had some mighty fine elementary teachers as a child.

In particular, there was Miss Platt, my fourth grade teacher at a Department of Defense elementary school in North Carolina. She was an awesome person—she had traveled extensively, by herself, all around the US and the world, and she worked her travel stories into our lessons. She was the first person who kindled in me an interest in traveling.

She differentiated reading and math pretty spectacularly—I was consistently enthusiastic and challenged by the work in class. Her lessons in science are my earliest distinct memories of science demonstrations, and that was also the year I decided to work on being a history buff.

Miss Platt was also pretty great at connecting with 9 year old kids. There was a fair amount of social drama in our little fourth grade classroom, and I trusted her completely to be fair and firm and fix everything. She was capable, confident, and managed warmth without a lot of sentimentality. (In retrospect, that’s really what I try to accomplish with my kids.)

Anyway. Fourth grade was a great year for me. Thanks, Miss Platt.