More than somewhat

We’ve made a decision based upon my estimation–after spending three months there–that I am more than somewhat likely (as Damon Runyon would put it) to stay at Starfleet Academy for at least the next nine years.  The decision is to keep the Snork Maiden at her public elementary school for fourth grade (and almost certainly fifth) instead of sending her to an extremely nifty magnet school at which–against enormous odds–she has been offered a place.  The thing that makes this easier is probably not my infatuation with Starfleet Academy as much as it is our reluctance to have her change schools at this point.  She changed schools two years in a row when I taught at an out-of-state SLAC for a year, and though she did fine with it, we are now unwilling to move her for what will likely be just two years.  Most kids who go to this magnet will stay there through high school, and we would feel it was worth one more disruption if that meant it would probably be the last change.  But now that I’m teaching at Starfleet Academy, there’s every chance that we’ll move her over there in a couple of years…

…unless, unless, unless.  Unless it doesn’t work out.  Unless I get a job offer I can’t refuse.  (What would I do if New RU offered me an FTE there?)  Unless her academics take a nosedive.  Well, you can’t build your plans on such possibilities.  Also, it’s not as if the magnet school is our only public option for middle and high school–it’s just a very, very good one.  The other parents I’ve talked to at the Snork Maiden’s school are all “You’re turning down a place at Nifty Magnet School?”  Her current teacher, though, agrees that it would be a difficult move for the Snork Maiden and says she would urge it for the long term, but not necessarily for just two years.  The Snork Maiden is really thriving academically and socially where she is, and what’s more, I know she absolutely doesn’t want to change schools.  So there it is.  At least some other family will be thrilled to get the place–or maybe they’ll be just as conflicted as Stubb and I are? 

Julie of the wolves

As the school year skids to a close, I’m recognizing ways in which next year will be different–I really will have joined the pack instead of being a sort of outlier (coming in late, leaving early, grading papers for another institution’s course in the faculty lounge, and being largely unaware of the politics of the place).  Now it seems to be pretty much set what I’m teaching next year–three sections of one grade (two of which are honors sections), one elective that’s right up my alley, and a course that’s part literature, part preparation for the Advanced Placement test (the comp/reading one, not the lit one). 

I was a little disappointed when they added the AP one, because I’ve taught so damned much comp.  But now I’m getting sort of psyched up for it.  For one thing, the other sections are taught by the cool girls in the department, two teachers who share a classroom and whom I’d like to get to know better.  And one of them is essentially the lead teacher for the course, and we’re preparing all of them for the same test, so I can piggyback on what she does.  I might go to an AP teacher training session of some sort this summer, though unfortunately I can’t go at the same time as the cool girls (it conflicts with other plans). 

I’ll be sharing a classroom, too, with another English teacher who teaches the same grade, and that will give us more opportunity to standardize what we do and learn from each other.  It also means, of course, that I won’t have any more free periods in my room (since the room will be in constant use) and will probably have to float to a different classroom for one or two of my classes.  I’ll have less privacy; I’ll have to cede control of half the bulletin boards; if I’m having a bad day, or an issue with a student, my “roommate” will know.  On balance, I think it’ll be a good thing having more regular and frequent contact with the other teachers, but it will take some getting used to.  Still, it’ll be nice (much of the time) to be part of a pack.  Woof.

Field guide to the slug

Having a little trouble getting going today.  Nice visit with Stubb, then back full tilt into the week–until this morning.  It was as much as I could do to get the Snork Maiden to school on time.  But I do have to go and teach shortly, first at SA, then at NCC.  And a meeting at the Snork Maiden’s school tonight.  I think part of the sluggishness is that I strained my shoulder and it’s very stiff in the mornings–and somehow I’ve also hurt my wrist a bit.  So I’m moving around gingerly, not feeling very gung-ho about things.

Also, like the Angry Professor, I am feeling the pain of having the school year drag on and on.  My actual classroom time right now is pretty lively and interesting to me–pitching the material to my new, younger students is still a challenge and a pleasure.  Still, I’ve been teaching since September 2006 without a really significant break–usually just about enough to finish grading the previous term and get ready for a new one.  It’s great to see that coming to an end and to know that I will have two months away from the classroom this summer.  But first I have to get through another month or so.

I think I need something this week to look forward to.  A massage, maybe?  If I can squeeze one in somewhere.  Or a baseball game this weekend.  I’ll give it some thought.

Wombat goes walkabout

Back in love with my job.  I’ve been meaning to write about how interesting it is to be able to talk about one’s students with one’s colleagues, sometimes ad nauseam, but usually just enjoyably ad libitum (and ad misericordiam, depending on the student!).  Possibly the students would faint if they knew how much we talked about them–heck, I have nearly fainted at some of the faculty-room revelations I’ve heard so far.  Seriously, though, I rather like having a teaching job where part of the avowed purpose is to help the students toward social competence, good citizenship, compassion for others, and so on, as well as academic excellence.  (Also, I admit, it’s just fun knowing other people’s business.)

So the Snork Maiden and I are heading off this weekend to see Stubb.  It’s only going to be about a 24-hour visit, but I think it will be good for all of us.  The Snork Maiden seems to have settled down after a few days of the new regime and went quite cheerfully to school with my brother-in-law this morning.  I am doing okay, too, which I attribute to getting enough sleep–I’ve made that a priority this week!  It means that the Snork Maiden and I go to bed at about the same time, then I get up early to do any remaining prep and make sure all is ready for a smoothly running morning.  So far, so good.  And the end-of-school-year countdown has definitely begun! 

One weary wombat

Just a few days after What Now? had her rough day that still made her reflect on how much she likes her job, I had one of those myself.  Mine didn’t involve an annoying colleague, just a stressful day that included realizing that I had read an ambiguous memo the wrong way and gotten hip-deep in a complicated administrative task 90% of which I didn’t have to do.  And such was my frame of mind that when I went, memo in hand, to one of my colleagues to ask her to interpret it for me, my reaction to finding out that I didn’t have to do the work was not “Yay, I only have to do 10% of this!” but “Damnit, does no one around here remember that I have only been here for eleven weeks?”  I mean, did it not occur to my department head, or one of my colleagues, or my division head, to pop in on me and say “You haven’t done [complicated administrative task] before–are you all clear on it?”  Well, of course it didn’t, for one or more of the following reasons:

• they have all done it multiple times a year and take how it works for granted
• the memo doesn’t seem ambiguously worded to them because they have done it so many times that they barely look at it anymore
• I appear so competent that obviously this administrative task is well within my powers
• we’ve passed the stage in which they think I am amazing for stepping in and shouldering all these courses two-thirds of the way through the year, and entered the stage in which I am just another teacher–except that I never got formally oriented or trained in the institution’s policies and procedures, and have just been picking all this stuff up as I go along
• and don’t forget: everyone is busy, and who seeks out problems when problems are usually happy to come to you?

And actually, since I am a J on the Meyers-Briggs scale, realizing that there are rules about things, but I just don’t know what they are, is stressful to me.  The other day someone mentioned AP exams, which started this week, and how complicated it is to set up alternate administrations for students who get extended time and other accommodations, and I realized that I have NO IDEA which, if any, of my students qualify for accommodations.  Maybe none–but who knows?  Presumably my predecessor got a list way back in September.  That’s just an example.  

Add to that the fact that both the Snork Maiden and I are feeling unsettled with Stubb away (and what she said to me this morning, as we got ready to leave the house to meet my brother-in-law so that he could take the Snork Maiden to school, was not “I wish Dad were a stay-at-home dad,” or “I wish Dad didn’t have to work out of state and could take me to school like usual,” but “I wish you didn’t have to work.  I wish you were a stay-at-home mom,” which, believe me, is exactly what I want to hear at 6:35AM.  I think she said it in part because it was 6:35 AM, but still).  And to that, add the first aggrieved email from a parent of a student.  (Although I have to say that I’m very pleased about the way the relevant administrators backed me up.  I think they have the Right Stuff when it comes to dealing with such things.  Also, it helps that they have apparently had extensive experience with this parent before.  I like the parent’s kid, although I confess I am looking at her a little more carefully now.)

So it’s been one of those days.  I also think it’s that time of the school year.  Fortunately, I am enjoying a very pleasant evening.  The Snork Maiden is off at a soccer event and will be dropped off at home shortly.  I talked with a friend, ate exactly the dinner I felt like eating (microwaved taquitos, Granny Smith apple, and ice cream), caught up on my favorite light-reading blogs and Websites (like this and this and this and this) as well as a little of the Indiana and North Carolina primary coverage, and now I’m going to stretch out on the sofa and read something else.  And I really do like my job.

The right stuff

Cake with the neighbors was just what the Snork Maiden and I both needed.  C.Mom brought out a bottle of champagne and we toasted C.Dad’s health.  The twice-baked cake was perfect.  We reconnected with a couple of neighbors we hadn’t seen lately, including the lovely 13-year-old up the street who will be attending one of Starfleet Academy’s peer institutions in the fall.  Her mom pleased me by telling me what a great school Starfleet Academy is and how she never hears a bad word about it and the very brightest kids from her daughter’s middle-school class are headed there in the fall.  (They wanted a Catholic school, so she didn’t apply there.) 

Now I have to get my ducks in a row–fold laundry, wash dishes, pack lunches for Monday.  I’ve got the Snork Maiden’s two morning dropoffs arranged and am closing in on a plan for the day I need a pickup.  I have to say, problems that can be solved with organization are the best kind of problems to have… 

The best-laid plans

Stubb left this morning.  I was awake when he left but then drifted back to sleep and had a very vivid dream in which the electrical system in my car failed and I drove it into a drainage ditch that had suddenly mysteriously appeared on a familiar street.  Then later this morning I was baking a cake and for some reason turned off the oven about halfway through the baking and didn’t realize until the timer went off and I opened the oven to find it almost cold and the cake half-baked.  (I turned the oven back on, figuring it couldn’t hurt to try, and the cake actually looks okay.)  So clearly I am a little addled, but the Snork Maiden and I are doing fine.  We are having the cake in a little while with some of our neighbors, to celebrate C.Dad’s first year of cancer survival.  Young’un C. came over and helped us frost and decorate both the first cake and a cupcake cake that I made as a backup:

 Now I’m thinking about logistics for the week ahead.  On Tuesday and Friday, I need someone–probably my brother-in-law–to take the Snork Maiden to school.  On Thursday, I need someone to pick her up–probably Stubb’s parents, unless she goes home with a friend.  Other than that, we are in pretty good shape, I think.  Starfleet Academy is still letting me come and go, in recognition of the fact that I am still employed elsewhere, so I don’t have to be there first thing in the morning unless I have a class. 

Now to reread the novel I’m teaching on Tuesday at NCC.  I have a very strong feeling that most of the students will not have gotten very far in it even though I told them ages ago that they should start early and plan to have it finished by May 1.  It’s a little demoralizing to prepare for a class in which you’re pretty sure most students will be unprepared.  (How to get around this?  Close reading, of course!)

Goodbye without leaving

Stubb is getting ready to go away for an extended absence for work.  (I wish I could tell you what he’s doing, but if I told you, I’d have to kill you.)  He will be two states away, doing something worthwhile that he’s interested in and excited about.  So I’m happy for him that he gets to go, and this sort of absence is fairly typical for his job, so we’ve dealt with these before, though this is definitely a long one (expected to be almost four months) compared to others.  The Snork Maiden, though, seems to be anticipating his absence far more than she has with previous ones, and it seems to hit her hard at bedtime.  At this point, I am almost anxious for him to go so that we can be launched upon the project of living with his absence instead of hung up on the SM fretting about it.  At the same time, though, I’m not eager for him to leave.

It’s possible for us to visit him, and I think we’ll do that either the first or second weekend he’s gone.  We’re also thinking about a rendezvous in Las Vegas, where he has to go one weekend (and which is a pretty good rendezvous city since you can usually find a decent airfare).  The Snork Maiden hasn’t really seen Vegas–we were there with her once for a wedding, but she was two years old.  Once school is out, we’ll be able to spend some chunks of time with him, but understandably, to the SM, the end of school still seems unbearably far away.

The big logistical challenge for me, on which I find myself dwelling at odd moments, is that on days when I have a first-period class (two or three days a week), I need to get someone else to take the SM to school.  Fortunately, I have neighbors, relatives and friends who are willing to help, and enough of them so that I shouldn’t have to hit up any one person too often.  But this does require that I get the SM used to getting up a bit earlier than usual, so that we can be out the door early enough for me to drop her off with whomever’s taking her.  And doing this is making her, in the short term, a little bit more cranky and tired at the end of the day–which is not helping her frame of mind at bedtime, either.  Ah well, this too shall pass…

A big ol’ helping of stupid

Am I missing something here?  Is there really a danger that your kid is going to see the naked back of Miley Cyrus while reading Vanity Fair?   Is there a big crossover between Hannah Montana and the four-pound, tiny-print magazine with RFK on the cover? 

All together now!

A question for you:

I am thinking about having each class collaborate on a class paper on Big Greek Epic.  (I’ve done collaborative papers only in a very small way, at 2YC, in groups of three or four, but I had a colleague who did it regularly with great success and I’ve always wanted to try his approach.)  The paper would be largely brainstormed, planned and assembled in class, with research, writing, and proofreading tasks outsourced to small groups within the class (e.g., “Group 4, your task for tomorrow is to discover what role X character plays in Books 5 and 6.”  They could then break that up in any way they liked).  The final grade would be something like 70% final paper (everyone gets the same), 10% assigned by me based on my sense of their contributions, 10% assigned by their groupmates and 5% assigned by the rest of the class.  (I need to play with these percentages.)

I realize that good planning is probably the determining factor in how well this works, so I’m asking for advice–from my fellow teachers and from you.  Have you done collaborative papers before?  What made them work or not work?  I think most people do these in small groups–how do you think it would work in a group of 15-20, with subgroups as described above?  I’d appreciate any thoughts you have!