year 3, t-1

Although I'm just about halfway to veteran status, tomorrow is going to bring a lot of firsts: my first day at my new school, my first day as a co-teacher, and my first day teaching the 28 lovelies who will call our classroom home for the next year.

I am so calm that I am worried about how calm I am. I cannot believe what a difference it makes to have a school, a principal, and a whole team who supports you.

Here are what I presume to be my biggest challenges this year:

1. Co-teaching. My co-teacher, Mrs. B (you should know that our names rhyme and its totally cute), is amazing. If I could have picked anyone to teach with she would have been one of my first choices. But co-teaching, no matter who you are paired with, is really hard. I have a lot to learn about sharing my physical and mental space with another adult for 10 hours a day.
2. Management. Jokes? No, I'm serious. I am a master of what I would call Tier 2 management. Tier 1 is kiddos running wild, so Tier 2 is perfect order and organization, BUT it's entirely teacher directed. Kids know how to get in line because you assigned a line order so they don't even need to think to do it. Tier 3 is what my school (and I) are aiming for: children get in line because they understand social rules and they are caring enough to allow their friends to find a spot. No line spots. Hard work, big payoff. I'm going for growing good humans this year! 
3. Not losing myself. For the past two years, I've developed opinions. Now, I'm around a whole bunch of other smart people who also have opinions. My first instinct is to defer to the experts. I have to keep reminding myself that sometimes I am also the expert. Tricky. 
4. Going paperless. I traded in the SexyFlexy for an iPad. My goal is to keep my life organized on a tablet instead of a notebook. I actually think that it allows for more powerful organization. If you are at all interested in hearing about how I am managing, please hit me up!
5. Learning 250 names. 'Nough said. 

On Friday, a colleague said to me that he taught for 7 years before joining our team, and he learned more in one year at my new school that he had learned in all of the other years combined.

Get ready, Wellesley Waves!

updates are necessary

Let's start with the part where I work at a new school now. In New York. That I LOVE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ln8K3Lh1Iw

reasons why my new job is amazing

1. We have a nurse practitioner on site every day during school hours who will work out of a real exam room to diagnose and treat students. Once a week a pediatrician will also be in the building. 
2. Said NP and Pediatrician work out of a clinic committed to serving our kids through high school. 
3. Today when tech gave me a hard time about my laptop the woman in charge of tech went and fixed it for me and then made me swear that next time I would let her handle it so that I wouldn't have to deal with any of the stress. 
4. My health, dental, and vision is completely covered through benefits. And the company matches mt retirement contributions. 

Like so many other cities (New York City, Detroit, and Philadelphia to name a few) we have no teacher shortages.  We have teacher surpluses.  And yet, TFA is still placing first year novice corps members in places like Chicago. To put it bluntly, the last thing our students undergoing mass school closings, budget cuts, and chaotic school policy need is short-term, poorly-trained novices.  Teach for America is not needed in Chicago.  Teach for America is not needed in most places.

http://atthechalkface.com/2013/06/30/an-open-letter-to-new-teach-for-america-recruits/

Overcome any bitterness that may have come because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain that was entrusted to you. 

Sufi wisdom

8 days to go

Every once in a while I think that my school has finally revealed all of the ridiculousness that it has to offer and that is when I get completely caught off guard.

Two important pieces of information critical to understanding my rant:

1. A second grade teacher at my school is moving back to CA. Since her sister is graduating next weekend, she requested to leave early and not come back. This request was approved. 
2. My students graduate next Wednesday and do not come back for the last three days of school. 

Ok. So today I received an email saying that I would be responsible for substituting in that second grade class after my own class has graduated.

I see so many problems with that, but the first and most pressing is that I don't know the children. I don't even know their names, and frankly I don't have any desire to play the name game with students two days before summer vacation.

Second, I can't have my own students help me pack my class (which is what most higher level teachers do). Trust me, I've tried. It doesn't go well. I planned to wait to pack up my class until after the kids were gone.

More important than any of that, in my opinion: WE HAVE STAFF WHOSE JOB IT IS TO SUBSTITUTE. No one is willing to tell me what they will be doing those days.

In an attempt to be an adult about the situation, I emailed and asked about the designated substituting staff. My principal replied that they are "busy with end of year duties," and that this was her decision [tough] so I should see her with any further questions.

I saw her. It did nothing. I summarized my concerns and she said, "My problem with you is that you have ideas about what you want to do, and I'm the principal so I need to just tell you what to do and you need to deal with it." When I pushed harder, specifically stating that I don't think it is fair that another teacher is leaving early and I am being punished she began to repeat the same sentence over and over: "Ms. Q is not coming back next year." She must have said it 15 times in response to 15 different things I brought up before I finally walked away.

Resolution: I'm taking a sick day on the day that I was supposed to sub.

caught off guard

My rainbow child, DuckDuck, was absent on Monday. Since he isn't usually absent I noticed but didn't think too much of it. Tuesday during circle time he raised his hand. I called on him and he said, with all the monotone inherent in young children delivering bad news, "My uncle was shot yesterday. He might come home. He might not."

Ladies and gentleman, that is the third time that this has happened to one of my students in two years. And I'm not counting all the relatives who are shot before I meet my students.

My heart goes out to Duck's mom who showed up at dismissal physically frazzled and red-eyed, but still calm.