Sunday, December 27, 2009

Adventures on Gchat: December 26, 2009, 10:59pm


10:59 PM Adorable But Slightly Sketchy Student: hey miss wassup
me: hi there
11:01 PM ABSSS: wat u got 4 crismas miss
11:06 PM
me: a few books
a pocket knife
and a gift certificate to best buy
and you?
11:07 PM ABSSS: hmm a new girl lol hmm money
me: a new girl?
haha
from school?
11:11 PM ABSSS: hell no lol i dont like 2 date girls from school bcuz dan ppls star talking and i like 2 kip my besnas 2 my self i dont like 4 ppl 2 know wat i do
11:13 PM me: i see
so where do you meet the girls you date?
11:17 PM ABSSS: myspace an on the streets lol


Oh goodness.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Stars in My Eyes

Wow. I made it to winter break! I did it! Yippee!!!!

My words of wisdom for the holidays and every day thereafter:

See the stars in each changing moment and dance among them, shining.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

So Close


I love my seniors. So much. They were sweet and well-behaved today, as always. Three of them later emailed me to inform me in advance that they wouldn't be in school tomorrow (I mean, I'd rather they come to school, but hey! at least they're being responsible) AND to wish me a great holiday break. My heart was full to bursting.

My 6th period class, on the other hand, was horrible. Obnoxious. Disrespectful. All I needed them to do was to stay quiet while they finished their benchmark exams. Nope, that was impossible. They just yelled and cursed me out. Typical.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Hard to Beat


So far, three students have emailed me or gchatted with me to see how my snowy weekend has been. (Another student called last night to ask about extra credit, having no idea that school was cancelled today.) So they either really like me, or they really want A's.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Number Crunching

I have 124 students enrolled in my five classes. 34 of them are passing. That's 27.4%. Nice.

Of the 34 students who are passing, 10 have D's, 8 have C's, 7 have B's, and 9 have A's. At least my grades are somewhat evenly distributed.

Of the 90 students who are failing, 55 have grades below 45%. 26 have grades below 10%. Wow.

Good job, Ms. Cyanococcus.

Arrghh! on a Thursday

Venting time:

I HATE when I ask chatty students to stop talking and they don't even acknowledge me, continuing to talk as though I had said nothing. It's bothering me even more than yesterday.

It gets better when the same students then call out to ask me a question and are pissed off when I don't respond to them right away.

Oh my gosh!! I know you want attention, but you are 15 years old and in 10th grade! Exercise some self-control!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

How to Measure the Quality of Code

This has nothing to do with teaching, but it's hilarious:

from OS News (via Engineering and Careering)

Help Wanted!

  • What do you do about kids who act all nice to you, but then, when you ask them to stop having a loud conversation in the middle of class, they ignore you and keep talking as though you had said nothing at all?
  • I helped my environmental kids set up gmail addresses. In most cases, this has been a really awesome endeavor... I love seeing my kids show up in my gchat window, because it means they're really using gmail! However, some of my guys took this as an opportunity to pester me with messages like "yo miss what up you look nice" and "miss wat u doing tonight?" Any thoughts on how to handle that?
In other news, 5 more school days until winter break! My poor kids need it so badly... And I finally figured out how to compute arrays on Excel (thanks entirely to Tim)! Woohoo!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Friday, I'm in Love

... with student achievement.



Well, I gave my 10th graders a test on cells today! We spent six weeks on the unit. They've known about the test for 2 weeks. They knew exactly what to study; I even gave them a study guide to complete and bribed them with extra credit if they actually did it. They should have been totally prepared to ace the test, right?

Not exactly. Most of my kids took one look at the test and immediately decided they were going to fail, so why bother trying? And the talking was out of control. In 6th period, they finally blew up at me for trying to keep the talking to a minimum. I was told eight times to go f*** myself, and heard six times that i was retarded. One kid even said, "Don't even bother talking to Miss, she's mentally retarded." Another girl said she would try to get me fired for telling her to be quiet and singling her out (which wasn't the case). Whew. So much for student achievement. We're going to have to work on the attitudes first.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

New Perspective

Breaking News: Period 7 Bio was under control today! We even finished 5 minutes early -- something that has never happened before, thanks to the absurd amount of time I spend each day trying to get them to quiet down.

So what was it?! Did swine flu strike? Was it the plague? A natural disaster? Did my students finally come to understand the meaning of the achievement gap? Well... no. My two most disruptive students showed up to class and promptly decided to go back to sleep. They put their heads down and snoozed quietly for the duration of the class.

Several months ago, when I was much more gung ho about all children realizing their full potential blah blah blah, I would have spent the entire period trying to wake those two girls up. Today, I was delighted that they both chose to go to sleep. What has happened to me?

I guess I am beginning to let go, just a little bit, of the lofty goals with which I started teaching. When disruptive kids have their heads down, 100% of students are not learning. But when disruptive kids have their heads down, I think the remaining students are learning 100% better. I found today that the rest of my students were more focused, more engaged, and more inquisitive. The talking didn't stop -- it never does -- but much more was conducted at a whisper. Students were more likely to stop talking when I asked them to, rather than follow the usual example of Miss Disruptive and Miss More Disruptive and blatantly ignore my requests.

So here I am. Somewhat giving up on student achievement. Three months in and on the downhill slope toward disillusionment. Or maybe this is a good thing? I just don't know yet.

Almond Cheesecake Apple Bars

Today's recipe!

Ingredients
For the crust and topping:
13/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp table salt
2 oz (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, well softened
2 oz (4 tbsp) cream cheese, well softened
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp firmly packed light brown sugar
3 oz (3/4 cup) slivered almonds, coarsely chopped

For the filling:
4 oz (8 tbsp) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
a pinch of table salt
1 lb (about 2 medium) Braeburn, Gala, or Roma apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/8 inch-thick slices (to yield 21/2 cups)

Bake
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut a piece of parchment into a 9x14-inch rectangle. Line a 9 inch-square baking pan with the parchment (it will extend beyond the pan). Butter the parchment and the unlined sides of the pan.

Make the crust and topping:
1. Set aside 2 tbsp of the flour in a small dish. Whisk together the remaining 11/4 cups flour and the salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the cream cheese and almond extract and beat on medium until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed, about 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup each of the granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium speed until blended, scraping as needed. Add the flour-salt mixture and 1/3 cup of the almonds and beat on medium low just until the flour is absorbed and the mixture starts to come together in clumps.
2. Set aside 2/3 cup of the dough in another bowl and press the remaining dough into the prepared pan in a thin but even layer. Prick it all over with a fork. Bake until the crust is golden, especially around the edges, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, but keep the oven on.
3. While the crust bakes, add the 2 tbsp reserved flour and the remaining 2 tsp each of the granulated and brown sugars to the reserved dough. Mix with your fingertips until well combined and then squeeze the dough together into one clump.

Make the filling:
1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar and beat on medium until completed, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat until combined, scraping the bowl as needed. Beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt.
2. Spread the apple slices evenly on the bottom crust and pour the cream cheese filling on top, gently spreading it with a rubber spatula to cover the apples. Crumble the remaining dough on top. The pieces can be fairly large, about the size of a cherry, and the topping needn't be completely cover the filling. Sprinkle with the remaining almonds. Bake until the topping and almonds are light golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Let the bars cool in the pan until warm, about 30 minutes. Remove from the pan using the parchment sling and set on a wire rack to cool completely. Transfer the bars, still on the parchment, to a cutting board. Slide a long metal spatula between the bars and parchment to separate them, and slide the parchment out. Cut into 16 bars.

The bars came out super delicious!

Note to the co-founder of PLOC and the entire ELSD: I will bake for you soon, I promise!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Heaven

I love hugs. Some days, I really need to receive them. Some days, I want nothing more than to give them. Most of time, though, I'm not fulfilled unless I can do both. Little can compare to the cheer, empathy, and love that is shared through a hug.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

I Need a Life

It's nearly 2 AM on a Saturday night, and I'm lesson planning. Oh man. My kids ought to love me so much more than they do.

Friday, December 4, 2009

It's the Most Wonderful Time of Week!

I now understand the true meaning of Friday: peace, relaxation, the absence of the word "Miss" shouted across the room 74 times a day, true friendship, genuine laughter...

In actuality, I did have a good day at school today. Environmental science went well, as always. I love how I can joke around with them and seize teachable moments, knowing that they are mature and will remain attentive and engaged. In environmental, some of my most open, inquisitive minds do not perform well academically, but they never fail to actively contribute to class discussions. It's really wonderful.

My 6th period class was a bit out of control, but, for the first time in about a month, my 7th period class was quiet and focused! I was blown away! Furthermore, nearly the entire class gradually became engaged in the guided practice. 'Twas the stuff teachers dream about.

On the downside, their algebra skills are nonexistent. I asked an algebra teacher about this today, and she shrugged. Oh, the joys of system-wide failure!

Happy Friday!! :)

Seriously?

My 10th graders cannot calculate percent change. As in, they have no clue how. They also cannot follow a formula.

Wow.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Candles and Color

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"



Also, A Mad Russian's Christmas never fails to cheer me up.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Making Sure They Are Safe and Sound

Why do I feel this way about most of my students? And how long until the enthusiasm wears off, until I become yet another disillusioned teacher? Argghhh.

>>Even though I'll never need her,
even though she's only giving me pain,
I'll be on my knees to feed her,
spend a day to make her smile again<<
from "Winning the Battle, Losing the War" by Kings of Convenience -- what an apt title!

(Yes, this is in response to grading assignments and seeing class averages drop from the 50s to the 20s.)

You May Case the Grounds From the Cascades to Puget Sound


According the the Bureau of Justice, 2.4% of Hispanic children and 6.7% of black children had a parent in prison in 2008. I hadn't really thought about having incarcerated parents until I saw this graph today, and I feel a little negligent for not being more mindful of this issue. It scares me, for it is just another item among the litany of factors that plague my students and undermine their potential to succeed.

And yet, I wish I hadn't seen the data. I've never experienced anything like this; I can only empathize. And the thought of having an incarcerated parent is so profoundly sad to me, but it is another thing I cannot change. I am starting to feel like an opaque window to an increasingly bleak future.

from the Bureau of Justice (via Chris Uggen)