The End is Here!

School's out.  By some incredible grace of the Almighty, I made it through my first year.  And to celebrate, I'm changing the format of my blog.  I really like this equation in the background, it reminds that at one point in my life I was actually doing some awesome math.  It seems a little distracting though, so let me know what you think..  It's still in flux...

The last week of my life was spent decompressing in Lake Powell with my family.  It was a week that I have been looking forward to since I was first invited to Powell, which I think was back in January or February.  I cannot possibly conceive of two more opposite environments than a classroom at my school, and staying on a houseboat at Lake Powell.  There were literally days during the week that I didn't look at a clock once, which was a huge contrast compared with the classroom environment, where I was literally checking my watch every 5 minutes or less.  I opened every single day not having a single thing that I expected or was expected to accomplish.  The demands of my time/attention were absolutely minimal, and the hardest decision I think I faced the entire week was whether I wanted to go wake boarding or finish reading a book I had.  Literally.  And if there is a better way to recover from the most grueling experience of my entire life, I don't want to hear about it because for me - this was heaven.

There are a number of blog entries forthcoming in the next few days, including, but not limited to my reflections from the year, highlights, takeaways, and my plans for the upcoming school year.  However, I wanted to dedicate this blog entry to one of the last epic, dysfunctional failures at my school to top off the school year.

Evidently our school has a tradition of having an end-of-the-year picnic.  People started talking about the picnic back in December, and was continually reaffirmed via various comments from other faculty members and administrators about the picnic the last week of school.  A week or two before the end of the school year, I find out that the picnic is going to be on Tuesday of the last week.  And that, my friends, was as much information as was conveyed to me about the picnic.

Have you ever planned a large event for groups of people?  I want you to take a moment and consider the essential information that is needed when planning an event.

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Now that you've had a moment to consider to think about it, allow me to share my thoughts.  In my mind, the essential information that you need to tell people is 1. When (not just the date, but the time as well) 2. Where 3. What (what is happening/what can I bring?) 4. Who and 5. How (as in "How are we going to get all 200 of our students to the picnic since it's at some undisclosed-location-that-is-not-at-our-school").  Does any of this seem irrational or out of place?  Am I missing anything here?

Now that I have outlined these thoughts, allow me to paint the picture of what happened.  Tuesday morning, I show up at school.  I know that we have the picnic, but I don't know what time we are supposed to be there.  And come to think of it, I had no idea where "there" was.  Someone had said that it was near Candlestick Field.  Since I'm from the area, I know exactly the park that was mentioned, and so I'm not worried about this at all, especially since I figured that the transportation method that was arranged would get us to wherever we needed to go.  We start homeroom for the day, and I'm hopefully assuming that during homeroom, which is the time we usually get our announcements, someone will kindly inform me of the details of this picnic that is supposedly taking place today.  Homeroom ends, and I'm no further enlightened than when I started the period.  So I send my students to first period.

Since it's Tuesday, the periods are shorter and I only have my kids for about 35 minutes.  I hadn't planned a lesson or anything since I figured that the picnic would last all day, so I improvise (I've gotten much better at this since working at my school).  Throughout the entire period, my students are continually asking me when we're leaving for the picnic, and I maintain my standard response - as soon as they release us.  The period ends, and I still haven't received any word as to what will be happening so I send my kids off to second period.  This is my prep period and I decide to do a little investigating and see what information I can scrounge up.

I stop by the office to see our secretary, Chris, and ask her if she knows what time we are supposed to leave for the park, how we're going to get there, and where exactly it is I'm going.   Unfortunately, Chris has been about as informed as I have, but she does have the benefit of being able to monitor the movement of staff/students/administrators in and out of the building, and she tells me that a number of the administrators have already left.  I'm slightly confused, and so I ask Chris how they got over there.  She told me they drove their cars, and so I ask her what I'm' supposed to do.  She told me that I needed to figure that out, and I needed to take my homeroom students with me.

Thanks for the heads up admin!  So, in case this isn't a clear picture yet - let me clarify the current situation.  I am supposed to get all of my homeroom students to a picnic that is taking place at some park in the vicinity of Candlestick Field, which is approximately 1.5 miles from my school, at SOME TIME TODAY.

Does anyone else see anything completely WRONG with this situation?  That's because there are a plethora of issues about this, but to be completely honest - I can't say that I'm surprised.  This is the exact type of circumstance that I have come to expect from my school.  This is just how we roll at my school.  Time to formulate a plan of action.

I hustle down to Masharika's classroom, and ask her what her plan is.  She tells me that she was just planning on walking to the park with her homeroom as soon as second period is over.  I tell her that sounds great, and ask if we can tag along.  Of course she says yes, because Masharika is just awesome like that, and I'm feeling much better about life at this point.

Second period ends, I intercept all of my homeroom students, and tell them that we are now leaving.  Once I get a visual on all of my students, I meet up with Masharika in the front of the school, and we head out.  The reason that I say "a visual" on my students is because I communicated to them that we were leaving and that they needed to come with me, but in the mass chaos that ensues between classes, trying to gather them all together would have been akin to trying to strain weavils from what.  Just not really worth the time...

Like a herd of cats, we're off to the picnic, me, Masharika, and 16 of our 6th grade students, walking down Silver Avenue.  This isn't the first time that we have conducted a walking field trip, and once you get comfortable with how incredibly independent these kids are, and that although it may seem at every turn like they're all about to run screaming into the middle of the street at any given moment, they won't, and you're set.  Actually, I was very impressed with our little crew - they ran around, they teased each other, played tag, jumped up to touch every hanging tree or street sign, a small group adopted a turtles pace and lagged far behind the main body, but overall, they were very responsive to Masharika and I.  They waited at every street corner like we asked them before crossing, they remained on the same side of the street that we were on, and some of them stayed near by and played games like "20 questions" and "Eye Spy".  It was a perfect example of riding the organized chaos that I have come to master over my year at my school.

About 30 minutes later, we were getting off the MUNI train that runs down Third Street.  The road we got off on was the road that would lead us to the park where the picnic was.  As we were walking down this street, I started seeing a number of the faculty members of my school driving down the road, waving as they passed by.  Sometimes they'd have 3 or 4 students in the car with them, but a number of them didn't have any students at all.  I recall passing a fleeting thought of "Strange, I wonder where all of their students are?..." but failed to give it further attention.  The thought was gone.

We finally arrived at the park.  At the final head count, we were only missing 4 students.  I jokingly mentioned that only losing 25% of our students was within my range of acceptable losses - anything over 30% and we'd probably have to go back and look for them.  It turned out that 1 of them had been picked up by his Grandmother, and the other three had been in the turtle group and been picked up by one of the other faculty members.

There were probably a million other things that I could write about concerning this event, but for fear of making this mammoth entry last until the next ice age, there is just one more thing that I wanted to touch on to share the ridiculousness of this entire situation that so perfectly encapsulates my year at my school.

About 45 minutes after Masharika and I arrived at the park, Sylvia comes storming in, cussing like a sailor and obviously upset.  I mean, she was seriously radiating fury.  Now, Sylvia is usually one of the happiest, most genuinely fun people that I've met in my life, but in that moment, she was wrath incarnate.   I was almost afraid to ask her what happened, but I really couldn't just let it pass, so I did and she spewed forth her story.

Due to the fanatical planning that went into this event, Sylvia had no idea what time she was supposed to leave for the field trip.  So she just kept going through the periods like the champion that she is, waiting for some kind of announcement to release us.  Well, it wasn't until about 1/2 way through third period that students started showing up at her door (during class) asking her what was going on with the picnic, and telling her that none of their teachers were in class.  It just so happened that in that moment, the only other adult in the school was Chris, the secretary in the front office.  So Sylvia was the last teacher in the school, with 46 students.

46.  That is literally the ENTIRE 7th grade class.  So Sylvia, by herself, drove her herd of students to the picnic.  And when I say "drove", I don't mean in her car, or in a bus, or any other type of mass transportation, I mean it in the sense like a cowboy drives home the cattle, or a shepherd drives his sheep.  I honestly don't know if any other teacher in the school could have done it - Sylvia commands the respect of the 7th graders like no other adult in the school.  But even still, she was left with the monumental task of making sure all 46 of those students arrived, in tact and unharmed.

I would have loved to see how she did it.  I can only imagine, and thank the heavens that it didn't happen to me, but it would have been quite the feat to see.  And what a way to wrap up the school year - a fantastic memory for me to hold onto over the summer, and anticipate for next year.

Dysfunctional failure?  Perhaps.  Can I wait to see what next year holds in store for me?  Hardly.  All I know is that it's going to be epic.

I need your opinion!

Greetings faithful readers.  I apologize for the lack of recent entries - I have a juicy one currently in the works that will be a solid read, I assure you.  Look forward to it with great anticipation.  Until then...

I need some input.  I am seriously considering writing a book that documents my experiences as a TFA member working in possibly one of the worst school environments in all of California, but I don't want to waste my time with it if there isn't a "market" for it.

The book would be targeted to be in the range of ~3-400 pages, written in the same, awesome style that I have written these blog posts.  The book would share my experience with TFA, my perspectives from the front lines, my experiences inside the classroom, and my take on the educational system with which I was thrust in to.  Basically, it would be very similar to the posts that I have written on this blog.  If you have enjoyed it, and you would enjoy to read more about it, or think that other people would enjoy reading more about me/my experience, please let me know in the comment section below.  So, for those of you who saw this block of text and jumped to the line below:

Please comment: (Yes/No) Should I write a book about my experience as a TFA corp member?  I'd love to hear your input, especially if it's a "no", because I want to know why.

Revenge of the Technology Test

This last weekend I woke up and made my way down to San Jose yet again to retake the San Jose State Elementary Education Technology Test.  If you haven't read my previous post about the technology test, I would suggest that you get caught up here.

When I arrived at the testing site, they admitted me right away and I got to work without any instruction.  It's as if they could read my mind in knowing that I didn't want anything to do with this test, so get me out of here ASAP.  Literally, I said less than 5 words to the woman administering the test, who turned out to be the same woman from last time.  I was actually pretty surprised that she didn't remember me after the fuss that I made during my previous test, but on second thought I figured it's probably a good thing.

Turns out there were two specific parts of the test that I failed - the "gradebook" portion that I wrote about, and an online quiz, with the most epically difficult questions I have ever had to answer on an online technology test in my entire life.  More on that later.  So I decided to tackle the gradebook part of the test first.  I take my seat at the computer, boot up Excel, and crack out the new gradebook.  It was the EXACT same assignment as the previous test, with the minor difference that the students names had been changed.  This time, however, I made a small, semi-insignificant-to-two-decimal-point-change to my assignment.  I contemplated adding a column where I carried out the calculations to 20 decimal points, titling the column "Actual Score" and then putting the column next to it with 2 decimal points and titling it "Actual Score".  I thought, you know, maybe they'd find it helpful if I plotted the student's scores on a dot plot, and calculate a linear regression line that would demonstrate the correlation in the student's scores versus their grades before and after truncating the extra digits in their calculated scores.  Then I thought, I could push this even further and calculate the variance of their scores before and after decimal adjustment, and then use this to create a normalized distribution of grades which could then in turn be used to extrapolate future students' scores in the class, and predict what type of course averages could be expected when converting the student's actual scores to two decimal points.

However, by this time I think I had spent a cumulative time of 46 seconds creating the workbook and considering the various possibilities, and I figured I had wasted sufficient time on this problem already by even having to show up to take the test again anyhow, so I might as well just do the absolute minimum skill level demonstration that assessment requires and move on.

Then I had to move on to the online quiz portion of this TECHNOLOGY test.  I failed this section previously the first time because I thought way too hard about a number of the questions, plus I mostly failed it because a number of the questions on the original test are incorrect or unclear.  So I had to take it again.  I committed a number of the questions to memory and have listed them below.  Try your best to see if you can answer them - no cheating!

1.  Which of the following can be used to enter information into a computer?
   A.  A cup of coffee
   B.  A gas pump
   C.  3 fluffy bunnies
   D.  A keyboard

2.  Which of the following displays the information from the computer?
   A.  A puddle of mud
   B.  The bathroom mirror
   C.  Your library card
   D.  An LCD monitor

3.  Which of the following websites can be used to search the internet?
   A.  Google
   B.  The refrigerator door
   C.  A car tire
   D.  Jet fuel

4.  If you had questions about your school's computer lab, who would you contact?
   A.  An Anasazi tribal leader
   B.  The governor
   C.  Your school/district IT department
   D.  An outer Mongolian nomad

Answers:  D, D, A, C

How'd you do?  Rough stuff huh?  Coming from an IT professional - that test was BRUTAL.  It TRULY tested my technology competence, and helped me learn how to make technology relevant in my classroom.

In all honesty, this entire program is a joke.  I'd place the blame with San Jose State for coming up with such a pathetic test, but it's the state of California that requires us to take the test, and they're the ones who have authorized the test.  So I suppose I can thank the state of California for setting such a high bar.

Thanks California - glad I can be part of helping you get your state together.

The Home Stretch

We're into the home stretch of the school year.  We only have four weeks left, but honestly, in my mind it's as if we only have a few days.  I think part of this is due to the fact that I have come to the brutal realization that these last weeks of classes are going to be pure insanity at my school.  I don't know this for certain, but I have an inkling.

For instance, on Friday of this last week, I found out that the coming week (this week) is going to be Spirit Week.  Now, why we would have Spirit Week the fourth week before school lets out is completely beyond me.  The idea of Spirit Week, and investing our kids in getting school spirit seems like something that we should have done, oh say, back near the start of the school year.  Second, as part of Spirit Week, we're having a modified schedule all week with short classes every day so that we can be let out early to PARTY.  What the heck?!?

This is what I'm talking about.  And this is just one week - I have a feeling things like this are going to pop up every day until that last day of school.  It's like we have state testing out of the way, and so now our school can REALLY let loose.  Like we've been holding it in or something...

I realize it's been about two weeks since my last entry.  Part of that is I was without a computer for some of that time, part of it was because I was really busy with state testing, and part of it was because I am just plain tired.  Any one of those things I could probably write a good amount about, but I'm only going to choose one.

After much research and looking into the current computer market, I finally decided on a computer that I wanted to buy.  I got a Mac.

I'll give you a moment to collect your thoughts before I continue.

Those of you who know me have probably heard me express a word or two about Macs - especially those who worked with me in the IT days.  Now, at BYU, Macs were a cuss word for me.  I hated the fact that our college had to specially implement the infrastructure to support the professors who wanted to use Macs, computers that were only introduced to our department due to a fanboy supervisor.  It was frustrating.  My opinions from those days haven't changed one bit, I still think it's a waste.  But the important difference to note is that my feelings weren't towards the machines, but the institution.

My rationale for getting the Mac can be summed up in 7 distinct points.

1.  9 hours of battery life.  Do I really need to say more?  A 15 inch powerhouse that gets 9 hours of battery life is a huge motivator.  Also, this part of the Apple website was fascinating, and there's a video around there somewhere that helped influence my decision.

2.  The technical specifications of the machine are fantastic, especially since they just released the line with the Core i5/i7 processors.  320 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, nVidia discreet video card, slot loading DVD, etc. etc. etc.  I could have gotten a machine with similar specs for less, but that brings me to my next point.

3.  District compensation.  The district is going to assist in funding my new computer, and since it'll be getting partially subsidized, it expanded the range of my budget a bit more than I would have had otherwise.

4.  I may be teaching school right now, but I am (and will likely always be) an engineer at heart.  And to be completely honest - the Macbook Pro is an engineering work of art.  The precision manufacturing that took place to create this thing is honestly awe-inspiring, which made the computer difficult for me to ignore.

5.  Educators discount.  I was able to get an education discount from Apple in purchasing this computer.  I checked the BYU website, and I think I could have gotten it for less as a student, but the way I see it - any discount is better than retail.

6.  Technical support.  I've never been very comfortable assisting people who use Macs, and so I figure the best way for me to learn how to help others is to get as much first hand experience as I can - and this will do it.  Already since I've had it, I've learned more than I did in the entire time of working at the IT support center at BYU.  

7.  Bootcamp.  The very first thing that I did when I got home with my MacBook was boot it up, and figure out how to install Bootcamp on it.  Literally.  I started the computer up, did a spotlight search for Bootcamp, and installed Windows.  And it runs flawlessly on it, which is amazing.  I figure I get the best of both worlds here - the amazing engineering of the Apple hardware running my dear-to-the-heart Windows OS.

Overall, I've been pleased with this computer.  But that isn't to say that there aren't things that I dislike, or that don't drive me nuts - because there are.  For instance, the lack of a "Page Up/Down" and "Home/End" keys has been driving me crazy.  Also, there is a "Delete" button on the keyboard, but it doesn't work like the Delete that I'm used to, it's more like a Backspace.  Although it's growing on me, the trackpad is somewhat of an annoyance as well - not having distinct buttons to click is an adjustment, and trying to get to the right click is a matter of luck every time I click it.  They say "Once you go Mac, you don't go back."  I don't know who "they" are, but as for me, the jury is still out.

Slippery Possessions

My laptop was stolen today at school.  According to the police report that was filed, the theft occurred sometime between 12:15 and 1:06, which is during my 5th period.  

I'm full of mixed feelings.  My original thought was that someone was playing a joke on me and had hidden the laptop, and that at any moment someone was going to return it to me.  Then while I was teaching 6th period, I was pretty angry, and had a hard time focusing on what I was supposed to be teaching them.  And finally, by the end of the day, I realized that the computer was gone and the odds of me getting it back are about the same as getting all of my students completely ready for the CST by next week.  Not going to happen, but I'll sure keep trying my best.

Anyhow, I was able to rapidly go through those stages of grief.  I'm not totally familiar with them, but I know that disbelief, anger, and acceptance are all different stages of it.  After school I was talking with another teacher, and she asked me how I was feeling about it (her laptop also was stolen just over 2 months ago), and could completely empathize with how I was feeling.  I told her emotionally, I'm doing just fine.  She was taken a bit aback by that statement, and I told her that in the grand scheme of things - it's not that big of a deal.  It sucks, but I will easily survive this and move on.

At one point, I actually had to laugh about the situation, because I know what's going to happen when whoever stole my laptop turns it on. It's not going to work.

My laptop has been failing now for about three months, ever since one of my students dropped it on the floor as they threw my laptop bag out of my chair.  The computer presents a white screen with not visuals unless it is positioned EXACTLY correctly.  It is a position that I alone know, and I am certain that whoever turns that machine on for the first time will get the white screen, thus rendering the machine unusable.  And knowing the caliber of people who stole my machine, I'm sure the next stop for the machine will be the dumpster.  Suckers, joke's on you.  Even still, it was a wonderful machine and I was looking forward to many more months/years with it. 

Every time I've had something stolen over the past few years (which unfortunately seems to keep happening more and more as of late) I always think of this scripture - it seems fitting.

Blowing off Steam

3rd period ended 10 minutes ago.  We finished abouuuuuut 10 minutes of material?  Maybe?  In my 54 minute period.

I don't know what caused it (does anyone ever?) but I had two students who decided they were going to start fighting in the middle of the period.  I looked up, and all of a sudden they were just going at it.  So I rush to the back of the room, pull them apart, and try to maintain what semblance of control over the situation that I could muster.  After I finally get them apart, I call the office (busy, of course), the counseling center (no answer), their parents (1 disconnected, the other no answer) and then back to the office.  They finally answered this time, and they send down a security guard who pulls my students out of class, and takes their referrals to the office.  But of course, my class was all excited over what had just happened, and getting them to focus again was nearly impossible.  In fact, due to how excited they all were about the fight, I ended up having to write 3 more referrals to get specific students out of class.  If you count the one student I had removed before the fight began - that's 6 referrals in one period.  6.

Each referral takes about 2 minutes to write, which totals 12 minutes, and if you add the 10 minutes to sort out the fight itself, and the 5 minutes of trying to get a hold of SOMEBODY, that's already 27 minutes (1/2!) of my class.

And then to make matters better, one of the students left in the classroom tells me "This is why I hate this class - you spend so much time writing referrals, calling parents and giving warnings that we never get anything done."  In my head I'm thinking "I completely agree with you."

She continues to say "This is what you get for breaking that fight up."

Are you for real?  This is what I get for breaking the fight up? And the alternative is...?  Let them keep fighting?  These kids absolutely LIVE for the fight!  I don't understand it at all!  They LOVE it for some reason, and I KNOW that I'm going to hear about it all day, and kids are going to tell me that I should have let them keep fighting.  Maybe next time I'll just join in the fray - I sure feel like it right now.

Reality check.

Tomorrow is Wednesday.  Guess what I'm looking forward to?