I'd rather be teaching and sick...than find a substitute

I'm bold enough to say that teaching is one of the worst fields to be "absent" from. Time off? It's called: holiday breaks and the summer -- but you'd better be there every other day of the year.

I've had to have three full-day subs already this school year --- and that's more than I had in my last 2 years teaching combined. Personal career decisions for my husband applying for residency -- and me wanting to "check out places" with him...and his upcoming graduation are the reasons for the "planned absences" - but BOY do I seriously dread those "absent days." (And also -- really wanting to know why medical schools plan graduation celebrations in the middle of the afternoon -- over several afternoons -- least convenient occasions for teachers....)

Let's just recap the issues a teacher has in finding a substitute:

1) It's humbling -- you find out what subs really think of your class...while you're pleading with them that your need to be absent is legit  -- and that they (the subs) will not even have to THINK that day...because the students will be SO BUSY...(and it's true...my students hate it when I'm gone -- they know it's going to be a killer day)

Worse: when you get past #2 on the sub list...and you've already had 2 strikes in hoping to find an available sub....don't even TELL me that your palms don't start sweating and your heart rate doesn't go up -- because I'm already in the "Am I really going to have to cancel plans...." mode after strike 2....

2) It's nerve-wracking -- once you make the "busy" promise to the sub, you have to uphold it! That means you're planning ALL WEEK for the assignments for the DAY "OFF"

3) It's time consuming -- you are doing double-time at the copier, writing step-by-step instructions for every second of every hour for the sub to follow. (Sub plans literally take me at least 2 days to write out -- my average is about 5 pages long)

4) It's blood-pressure raising -- I sit by my phone waiting for an email, call, or text (ON THE DAY OFF) that something has gone wrong....and I have to be prepared to give a split second decision: "Mrs. T...you didn't copy this assignment....Mrs. T so-and-so is refusing to do his work....what should I do?"

My husband and I got on the flight yesterday -- and I was looking at my watch every thirty minutes:

Before boarding 8:30 --- "Ok, good, the sub should be getting them to homeroom now..."

10:00 -- before boarding 2nd plane -- "Ok, so the classes are transitioning soon....the 6th graders are finishing their test...."

1:00pm -- mid-flight -- "4th graders are finishing their Valentine's Day contest/project."

2:30pm -- getting to rental car -- "YESSSS. The sub is on her final break. The students are in afternoon electives -- NO PHONE CALL TODAY!!!!"

Hubby just shakes his head at me the whole day...laughing and saying, "Let it go! They will be ok! You did the best you could do with the plans. Let her figure them out."

And then of course I turn to him and say, "Listen, when you have a practice and patients someday...you'll get it too..."

I don't have children of my own, but I sure do know to an extent to how mothers feel when they leave their kids to go on a couple's vacation. My students are my kids. I worry about them -- ALWAYS -- when I'm not with them...

And I finally breathe again at 3:30 when I say, "Ok...carline is done. It's the weekend. The kids are gone. Nothing else to do."

And I put my phone away....

FIRST GIVEAWAY: EZ Grader

Another purpose for this blog is to also SUPPLY educators with free teaching tricks for their classroom. So here we go with the first giveaway!

One of the best pieces of "supply advise" that I received during my first year of teaching was to invest in an EZ grader. Allow me to introduce you:

EZ grader is a thin slice of maneuverable cardboard that spits out grades based on the amount of questions missed. (Bye bye, Calculator!) You simply align your total quiz/test points at the top, and look down the line to how many questions missed, and assign the grade given. EZ grader will literally cut your calculation time in HALF.

HOW TO WIN:


1) Educators: Tell me about your most embarrassing/learning experience from your first year of teaching. We ALL have them! 


2) Soon-to-be or Wanna-be educators: Tell me about your most embarrassing/learning experience from MIDDLE SCHOOL. Oh, we DEFINITELY all have them. 

All entries must be made in the comment box below this post. Please provide an email address!

DEADLINE: Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 11:59pm EST. 

I will draw an entry using a random generator and notify the winner VIA EMAIL.

Happy commenting -- and even happier grading to the winner!!!

Archaic Art of Diagramming

It's not necessary. It's not relevant to real life. We have spell check and grammar check. Society talks incorrectly now anyways; haven't you heard the news recently?

I've heard it all when it comes to teaching grammar. I've also heard what the state standards say (or don't say in all reality) about grammar.

What I do know from my learning and teaching experience is that grammar diagrams should be counted as differentiated learning -- a phrase heavily beat into the vocabulary of new teachers during the certification process.

Students must be able to identify their own writing in order to justify and defend their work. I believe that grammar diagramming is the first step in higher order writing process. Students are no longer composing sentences, but they are learning to proofread and defend the writing process.

What is even more fascinating to me in teaching language arts is that diagramming appeals to my learners who are least likely to love language arts. More specifically, my strongest diagrammers are usually the strongest math students. Why the inverse correlation? I haven't the slightest proof, but I have some ideas.

1) Diagramming stands for more than just a word placement. It's a logical coordination between words and a dependency on the "place value" of a word in a sentence. If one word is out of place, all the other words following will topple over too.

2) Diagramming is "check-able". Students must not only link words in progressive order, but they must be able to explain their work by checking -- as in math. I constantly encourage students to read their diagrams back to themselves to see that there were no "careless errors" in forgetting an easy article. Many students will get on a roll when they understand the general framework of the sentence diagram; however, I remind them mastery is in the detail.

3) Diagramming is order and allows the abstract to become concrete. Students often feel that language is subjective. Diagramming allows them to follow rules of placement.

I tell my students that I expect the strong math students to have the highest grades on their diagramming assessments. The typically strong language arts students feel an ego pinch, and they will do well regardless. The strong math students look at me with panic every time I mention this at the beginning of the year. So far, the pattern is still true: the strongest math students are my strongest diagrammers.

Another boost for diagramming:

Students are forced to get down and dirty with their English language. I lay on the diagramming thick between grades 6-8 -- or just before students go on to study a second language. From my learning experience mastering the English sentence began with the basics of diagramming but truly peaked with the study of a second language. How can you begin another language without knowing the parts of your own? In upper middle school, my strongest grammar students were also those who began a second language in the 8th grade.

This year my 4th graders are able to diagram: Subjects, Verbs (Action, Linking, Helping), compound subjects and verbs, compound sentences, adjectives, article, adverbs, direct objects, predicate nouns and adjectives.

The 6th graders are able to diagram all of the above in longer, complex forms with the addition of indirect objects and prepositional phrases.

I still hope in schools there will be a diagramming revival for students and teachers alike.

Units clarified .... Assumptions ceased

Today in 4th grade I had a couple of pause moments....in terms of linking language to learning....or not.

We are wrapping up an informational narrative piece about the timeline of a wolf pup to adult wolf. The students have enjoyed analyzing a single animal's growth and development.

Today as part of the assessment, I asked them to pick any two development stages and summarize the progress that the wolf demonstrated. (Of course...I asked this in much more simple vocabulary.)

One student had a question that seemed silly at first, and in fact it actually irritated me. As I paused and reflected on the student's question -- I realized a much more serious lack of understanding.

Student A: "Mrs. T, is the stage of 10 days old the same as 10 1/2 months old?"

Now upon hearing the question, I gave the student a puzzled look, "Student, how could 10 days be the same as 10 1/2 months?"

Student A: "I don't know. That's what I don't understand."

What dawned on me at this point is that the student was seeing the numbers and words as separate identities instead of whole units. The student's mind immediately fixated on the numeral 10. Yes, those were nearly the same, minus the 1/2 issue. The student did NOT connect the units, days and months, as the unique labels for the numerals.

Upon realizing the disconnect between units and numbers, I immediately backed down from my irritation and prompted the student to read me the units (words) after the numerals. Were those the same? Which one was longer? So could they be the same stage?

What seems so obvious for us --- is not yet realized for them....how often I catch myself needing this reminder.

Secondly, during a vocabulary sentence review, the class read the word "cattle".

Student B: "What is cattle?"

Now, I guess we can jump all over this and think that students should understand the word cattle by 9-10 years old, but last time I checked our society hasn't been agrarian since the 1800's. Should we expect all students to know this word now? My students have no contact what so ever with farm animals. My students are all from urban environments.

As teachers, we cannot assume that the home has taught students on agrarian life or terminology. Is it fair to assume that it has come up as a part of nightly dinner conversations? Hardly! I do know that my students saw my new phone early this year and said, "Oh, Mrs. T! My mama has an iphone like that!" Oh yes, now technology is a much fairer assumption for dinner table conversation and classroom application.

I'm still waiting for Apple iPods to be used within example sentences in vocabulary curriculum.

I know now it's my duty to insist that my 4th graders do not go on before understanding farm lifestyles this year.

Learning never ends after the last bell

All good teachers know that teaching and learning do not end after the final bell. Students and teachers alike must continue to be invigorated with new and inspiring ideas on any given day, at any hour.

Join me in posting and commentating on any ideas you have for students inside and outside the classroom.

I will also post articles going on in the teaching world at large. Educators know that learning NEVER ends for us. We must make every effort to be aware of the progress and challenges students face everywhere.