Ready for a Change

Today I talked to my principal about getting my own class next year (as opposed to the K-5 pull out that I do right now). I think the exact words that I used were "If there's any way possible, I desperately want my own class next year." (I think I even clasped my hands for emphasis.) I'd already mentioned this to her once and put it on my preference sheet but I wanted to really make my case for why I wanted it. Luckily she said that she wanted to know my reasoning and we sat down for a conversation on her office sofa to talk about it. I told her that while I do like ESL (the kids, the strategies, the philosophies, etc.) it wasn't my choice to teach ESL, TFA placed me there. What I've always wanted to to is have my own class of kids, particularly the lower grades, K-2. Some of the reasons for wanting to have my own class are, 1) having a group of teachers to work with as a team, plan together, etc., 2) to get to really know a group of kids (now I have 40 kids and some of them I barely know even at the end of the year), 3) to focus my instruction on one grade (right now with 6 grades I'm all over the place). I'd like to become really proficient in teaching one grade and be able to improve upon it each year. And, 4) to be able to have some routines and consistency with the kids. Now, I never know if I am going to have a coverage, not be able to pick up the kids due to a special event or trip, etc.

I also told her that I know that being a classroom teacher is not easy. There are different responsibilities like report cards, cumulative folders, testing, etc. If the kids are driving you crazy one day you are stuck with them for the entire day you can't just send them back to their class after 45 minutes. Now, I am lucky to have a lot of freedom to plan my own schedule, move around the building, to go outside the building for workshops and PD, skip a teaching period to work on the yearbook, etc. There are many teachers that would kill to have an out of the classroom position. Considering all of this I still really want my own classroom.

We had a really good conversation and the principal agreed with all of my pros and cons for each position. She said I had good reasoning for wanting to make a switch. Having said that, however, she said there were considerations such as my license area (ESL, not common branch), if there would be a vacancy, and one other thing . . . my classroom management. She said that she has seen me briefly (never for extended times) with my small groups and I am good with them but the few time she has seen me doing a coverage I'm not as good with the larger groups. I said that it's hard when you are covering and you don't know the kids and they know they're not going to see you again. She agreed but said that there was a certain (positive) aggression that a teacher needs to have. I tried to assure her that starting at the beginning of the year with a group of kids I'd have time to teach them routines and procedures so that everything would run smoothly. She also suggested that maybe I do some reading on the subject over the summer. At the end of the conversation I kind of got the feeling that she was saying, not for sure that I wouldn't be able to handle it, but maybe.

I also told her that whoever the new ESL teacher was (if I got my own class) I'd be happy to help them with things such as reports, compliance issues, testing, reports, and all of the other administrative tasks that can be so daunting when you don't know how the system works.

Overall, I think the conversation went well. I'm glad that she at least sat down to hear my thoughts on the matter. Still, I give it about a 10% chance I'll actually get my own class. In the meantime, I busy with June Planning trying to map out a long term plan for next year.

The last few weeks . . .

I am finally back at school after a week of test scoring. Add that to the two weeks of testing and it's been a whole three weeks since I've taught anything. And, man, it is so hard to get back into the swing of things. Especially after the three day weekend and all of the kids acting like summer break starts next week. I am looking forward to next week's half day. My school is doing a dance festival outside on the playground and the weather is supposed to be great so it should be a wonderful day.

* * *

The school drama I mentioned in the last two posts ended with the petition to recall our chapter leader being sent in to the UFT office. It had the required 1/3 of the staff signatures so a rep was sent to hold a vote to determine if our chapter leader would be recalled. There weren't enough votes so our chapter leader stays. End of that drama for now.

* * *

Our principal gave out copies of our school's quality review. It is such a joke. We scored proficient. Reading through all of the comments written about our school I just kept thinking "Seriously? How can you know that after just a day and a half at our school?" It seems like most of the things written had to have been based on the comments of one or two people. It really made our school look much better than it is. What is the point of going through this whole review process if the schools are not going to be accurately evaluated?

* * *

I have my Masters!! I graduated on Wednesday. I'm so glad to be done with it all.

Real ELLs

Thee last two days I started the process of identifying an testing the new students at my school to see if they are eligible for ESL. Luckily the school secretary is very nice and helpful since I rely on her for a lot of reports and paper work. I am surprised to find that there really weren't very many new students and most of them won't be getting ESL. I guess that most of my population will come from students that have been at the school for a while. I do know of at least three students that enrolled that speak no English at all. One in first grade and two in fifth. I really should know what to do with these students since I *am* the ESL teacher but last year all of my students spoke English. I'm thinking to myself so this is what teaching ESL is all about. I'm excited to start working with these students. I'm now trying to recall all of the lessons that I taught to my English 1 students who didn't speak any English when I taught in Italy. We had to speak only in English for instruction and they learned. By the end of the semester they were getting along in English. Of course they only had to worry about speaking conversational English twice a week. These kids have to learn how to speak English and learn in the content areas AND prepapre for the ELA in just one year (that is craziness).

Today I was coming out of my room and a student asked me if I was the new ESL teacher. I said yes and he said "I'm going to be with you." I asked what grade he was in and he said fifth. I asked if he had met the two new girls who don't speak any English. He said they were in his class. I asked if he was helping them and he smiled really big and said yes. Later when the students were being dismissed I saw him again in line with his class. He came up to me and said "these are the girls" as he pointed one finger on each of them. I said hi to them and then whispered in his ear that it was rude to point. He seems like a sweet kid and very eager to help his new classmates. The girls seem in good spirits. I want to talk to their teacher and see how they are doing in class so far. And then I want to hurry up and get this administrative stuff out of the way so I can start seeing my kids!

New School, New Situation

So far my new school is a dream compared to my old one. Things are so much more organized. For example last Thursday the administration handed out the prep schedule, a rotation for AIS, they introduced a new system for managing the 37.5 minutes, and they have a plan for helping classroom teachers get the e-class done. Seriously? Is this place for real? Then the best part. We were told the supply room would be open that day and to go down and get whatever we needed. This place was unreal. It was fully stocked with composition books, folders, paper, markers, chart paper (even the post-it kind), sentence strips, calendars, butcher paper, staplers, electric pencil sharpeners, dry erase markers . . . and on and on. I couldn't believe it. I didn't have to buy anything! (Well, apart from some indulgence stuff from Barclay's). Also in the supply room were some enormous boxes. I inquired as to what was in them. The supply lady said, "Book shelves. Do you need any?" I said, "Sure." She asked how many I wanted. "Can I have two?" "Sure." In less than five minutes a janitor delivered them to my room. Wow.

Now, I'm sure that there are plenty of problems that will make themselves apparent at a later time but so far, so good. I have heard a few teachers grumble here and there but I just keep thinking that it is nothing compared to my old school.

As for the first two days (I feel like it has been so much longer) they have pretty much been the usual ESL routine. I've been going through cumulative folders, pulling up reports and fixing up my room in between. Tomorrow I will start testing. Friday I have a meeting. Meetings are generally pretty boring but there is good news. The meeting is at a school just one block from my house! Yeah!

Now I have to pour over the new "Student Achievement Toolkit" from TFA because there are "Big Goals" to be written and "Significant Academic Gains" to be achieved.

Starting to Plan a Yearbook

Wednesday my yearbook co-adviser and I met with the rep from Herf Jones to discuss getting our yearbook started. One of our AP's (previously mentioned in testing posts) insisted on being in on the meeting. She came late and interrupted what we were discussing. She started asking about prices and telling the rep that the prices he was giving us weren't as good as they got with the previous company. She then told him "Well, these ladies will be entertaining other companies as well so they'll get back to you and let you know." She then stood up and shook his hand and basically pushed him out the door. We weren't done talking to him but she decided the meeting was over. Luckily I had warned him in advance that she was a bit abrasive (to put it lightly) so hopefully he didn't take it personally.

After the rep left she went through the yearbook that she advised in 2003 and told us exactly what she wanted us to do in this year's book. She kept saying that things were a "tradition" when to us they looked more like page fillers to waste space. When we offered up ideas she said "Oh, no that just won't work." One particular suggestion was to take individual pictures for "Senior Superlatives" (rather than a group photo with no names attached) so that "in twenty years they can look back and remember who was who." Her comment was "THESE kids won't keep the books for twenty years. They have them for a couple years and then they'll get rid of them." That really irked me. When you created a yearbook you're supposed to go into it with the mind set that you are capturing memories to be treasured for a life time.

I didn't know that I was signing up to recreate the exact book that our AP made two years ago. I think I'm going to be pretty frustrated at times having to work with her (she's not my immediate supervisor so I usually don't speak to her) but we're still planning on implementing most of our ideas and in the end our book will be a hundred times better than anything they've had in the past.

Day two wasn't much better

Today was so disorganized.

It's hard to believe that things can get so confused when our AP has been talking about this test and how she has been making plans for it since the first day of school. Really what she's all about is not having to take the blame for anything. The biggest take away from the info session on Monday was that we better not go calling the region about any problems during the test. She told us the two phone extensions that she could be reached at during the test and made sure that we knew letters would be in our files in no time if we did anything wrong.

So back to today. There was a lot of confusion with what I was supposed to be doing with my group of 4th and 5th graders this morning before the test. First, the teacher that I was proctoring with said I was to read to the 5th graders in my room and then bring them down to the testing room (as per our AP). Then, another teacher with 3rd/4th special ed said that (as per our AP) we were to take her 4th graders down to our testing room so that she wouldn't had to read for two grades. We scrambled to find enough chairs and desks for all the kids. When I finally saw the AP she had changed her mind yet again and told me to take the 5th graders to my room and keep them there. So then I had to run up to my room and cover up all of my posters before the kids got there and then tell my co-proctor that chairs and desks were no longer a problem.

Of course, the plan that I presented to the AP yesterday was well thought out (and at least one day in advance). But she said no and so caused all this confusion this morning moving people around (which is exactly what she said she didn't want to do). This is just a prime example how, with her, nothing is a good idea unless it comes from her. The good news is that our kids didn't have to take their tests with two simultaneous read alouds which was the most important thing.

As if this sounds bad enough, there was still more chaos to come.

When we finally had all the kids where we needed to be we had no answer sheets. The testing gong went off at 9:15. I asked our hall monitor if I was supposed to wait to start until we had them and she said yes. She made a call to the AP who hung up on her when she asked where they were. Our monitor sent people looking for the answer sheets. As it turned out, NONE of the kids had them.

Finally, at 9:40 the AP comes by my room and yells at me for not having started the test yet. A few minutes later I'm told by someone else to start the test with out the answer sheets and they can record later. Ten minutes before time is up I tell our hall monitor that I still don't have our answer sheets. She leaves and comes right back with them.

Still no one knows why the answer sheets went missing for so long.

Testing Day

I have heard that there were schools that had the logistics of administering the EL*A all worked out. I heard that these schools had a plan for how kids entitled to extra time would leave their classrooms and where they would go. I heard that they worked all this out at the beginning of the year and have practiced it every time they took a practice test. I heard that all the kids and all the teachers knew just what to do.

Here's how it happened at my school.

Two days before the test:
*Our AP/testing coordinator asked that a master list of kids entitled to extra time (special needs, ELLs, 50*4s) be compiled.

One day before the test:
*We had a meeting about the procedures for administering the test in which little mention was given as to how these extra time kids would get to where they were going. *We had to rework the entire pull out schedule because the AP scheduled all grades 3,4 and 5 to take the test in the same room even though there were over 50 kids.
*We had to rework the schedule again because no one took into consideration that some kids getting pulled out for extra time would already be getting extra time in their inclusion classes and therefore didn't need to be pulled out.

The day of the test:
*We scrambled to get all kids where they needed to go.
*Somehow, one teacher's kids didn't get picked up (or he didn't send them-no one is exactly sure what the procedure was supposed to be). Those kids missed out on an extra 15 minutes to answer questions.

All of these things could have been taken care of had we planned this just a little bit in advance. It is very unfortunate that those kids missed out on extra time that they are entitled to.

Looking at the schedule for tomorrow another teacher and I foresaw a problem with the grouping of the extra time kids. I have the 4th and 5th grade ELLs in one room and she has the 4th and 5th grade resource room kids in another. We were concerned about this because tomorrow is the listening section and each grade has a different read aloud passage. We wondered why we couldn't split it up so that I take all the 4th graders and she takes all the 5th graders. I went to the AP and proposed this to her and she told me no. She said she didn't want to make more changes to the schedule and move so many people around. I told her about our concerns. How are the kids supposed to concentrate on a read aloud when there is another being read on the opposite side of the room? She said she didn't understand how "two adults couldn't read to a small group of kids so that their voices don't project to the other kids." I told her that we are just thinking about giving the kids every chance to succeed on this test and we didn't want to take any chances that they may get distracted. Her final answer-No. She doesn't want to make changes to the schedule.

Why is she willing to sacrifice the success of the students? Would she rather take the chance that they don't hear the read aloud than let anyone know that she didn't think through her planning for the test.

I gave my fourth graders their reading comprehension diagnostic today. I had planned to go through the diagnostic question by question alligning each one to the standard that it was testing. From there I would make a mastery chart and start focusing my instruction on the questions that they got wrong. Then I graded them . . .

Three fourth graders took the diagnostic. One only answered eight out of twenty eight questions and got none right. The second answered all of them and got six correct (But I know that he must have guessed on at least most if not all of them because the diagnostic was really long and I didn't expect any of them to finish today and he finished early). The last student refused to answer any questions because he was rebelling in response to my not letting him go to the bathroom after we clearly discussed my bathroom poilicy last week and I let him use his emergency "pass" already).

So basically, all the tracking of questions that I was going to do is useless now as I just need to teach them everything.

One step closer to having kids in my classroom

I finished testing the last students today.

Students get into the ESL program though a series of steps. First, their parents fill out a Home Language Identification Survey (HLIS) when they register their children for the first time. If they answer a certain combination of questions (such as "Which language does the child write?" "Which language does the child speak with friends?") with an answer other than English the student then takes a English language test called the LAB-R. If they student scores below a certain number on that test, he/she goes into the ESL program (or bilingual or dual language if they are available). Today I finished the last of the LAB-R testing. Of the six kids I tested, only one will be in the ESL program.

Now I have my final count (pretty much) for my classes: 14 students. I made some tentative groups by grade level. There are four groups: 4 eighth graders, 3 fifth graders and a fourth grader, 4 third graders and a second grader, and one kindergartener. Now I have to work on making a schedule. I started talking with some teachers today about how I might schedule this. For now I'm thinking that I'll take the eight graders during their writing block and work with them on that since one of their teachers expressed a need in that area. For the third/second graders I'm thinking about taking them during their morning literacy block and doing pretty much them same thing their teacher is doing with the class but modified for ESL. I talked to the kindergarten teacher today about pulling her student out for some periods (he needs work on English vocabulary) and for other periods pushing into his regular class. I haven't had time the chat with the fourth/fifth grade teachers yet so I'm not sure what the focus there will be. Hopefully I can make a final schedule tomorrow and then start meeting with the kids on Monday. Yea!

Not getting any better

I've already broken down into tears several times and it's only the third day of school. (And I haven't even started teaching yet!)

Today I went into school ready to talk with the teachers sharing my room so that I could finally get my space organized. One was really understanding and was ready to move everything around. She also agreed with me that I should take the back of the room so that when the teachers come into the room to talk to them they will not be crossing through my lessons. Then the second teacher got there and flat out refused to move any of her stuff. She said that she was already set up and she wasn't moving and that she had to be by the window and she didn't have to explain her reasoning to me. I finally said, OK, so I'll take the front of the room but you still have to move your stuff so that the other teacher can move her stuff over. She said that I and the other teacher could figure it out but she was going downstairs to do whatever. She came back ten minutes later and demanded "Well, did you figure out what you two are doing?" I should have had nothing to do with it. They were the two sharing half the space and therefore had to decide how to move their furniture. I just left the room (and that was the first time I started crying today).

It finally took the Principal to come in and help mediate and help me and the one cooperative teacher figure out a plan for THEIR stuff. The other teacher never came to help. So finally (!) I had my half of the room to myself. Then the cooperative teacher argued about my placement of my filing cabinet. She said that if I didn't move it she would. I just wanted to wait until I had my desk to see if there would be room to move it. She shoved the filing cabinet across the room and into the tiny corner that was meant to house my desk. I just couldn't take it anymore and started crying once again. I just don't deserve to be treated this way. I haven't done anything to make them so awful to me. As I was trying to eat my lunch (and still balling) I was seriously thinking of calling my Program Director and telling him that there is no way that I can do this. How am I supposed to get through this year sharing a room with these two ladies who are so nasty to me. I really don't know how I'm going to do it but I know that I'm not going to call him either. It's only the third day and I haven't even seen any kids yet.

I can already see that this room situation is going to be terrible. There are teachers coming in every five minutes to talk to the math and literacy coaches. Every time they will have to cross my chalk board. Every time the other teachers need supplies they will have to come to my side (and possible move the desks) to get to the cabinets. Whenever they decide to eat lunch we are going to smell their food since they have a fridge and microwave in the room. It really sucks. The only thing that I can think to be thankful for is that I have a permanent spot to be in and I don't have to travel to random classrooms or work on the stage in the auditorium.

I hope things get better. I finally got started on the Home Language Identification Surveys so that I can start to figure out testing and scheduling and start teaching.

Not what I'd expected for the first days of school.

I've been wanting to write a post since Tuesday night but I haven't had internet access. Sooo much has gone on in the past two days that I couldn't even recount it all now so I thought I'd go with the brief recap . . .

Tuesday I got to school armed with my fun decorations. I tried to start setting up my classroom but it was nearly impossible because the math and literacy coaches still hadn't moved out of my room. I only put up one border and then spent the rest of the day helping them move their stuff so that I could get to my classroom which was buried in books and furniture. Rather than being super grateful to me for all of the free manual labor that I was doing for them, they would yell at me for putting a box a books in the math area and not the literacy corner. The day ended with the custodians putting all the furniture I moved into the hallway (which belonged to the coaches) BACK in my room. Then I was forced to leave at 4pm because they were waxing the hall outside my room. I left feeling sooo frustrated.

Wednesday was a MUCH better day. I finally decorated my room, got all of the coaches' stuff out of my room, set up my filing system and worked on all of the little details. I put up paper and borders on almost every inch of wall space. I especially liked how I decorated the door and space above the chalk board with "Welcome" in 20 languages. I took quite a lot of work to find a rug and tables and chairs but by 730pm I left school with my room looking great and totally in order for the first day of school.

The first day of school was kind of a weird day. I didn't have any students so I worked on some more details for my room. Later I took a field trip to the school across the street and met with the ESL teacher who has been there for eight years. She was so helpful. I finally had someone sit down with me and explain exactly what I have to do as far as figuring out what kids I have, testing and forming pull-out groups. My administration told me nothing. Everything was going great until 2 o'clock. That's when they called me into the Principal's office (along with seven other teachers) and told me that they were taking away my room. My beautiful room that I loved so much and spent so much time on. They decided that due to space issues they were moving me into the room with the coaches. (I should mention that the room with the coaches is the exact same size as the classroom I'd previously had to myself. Small and cozy. I'd say a third of the size of a regular classroom.) They said that I'd get half the room and they would put up a partition and the coaches would share the other half. They said "Sorry about the inconvenience but it's not about you. It's about the kids. Just remember that." Can you believe they tried to use "It's about the kids" in this situation? Needless to say I was really upset. I walked out of the building at 3pm because I just couldn't deal with taking down all of my hard work just then.


Today I just worked on moving all of my stuff up to the first floor. So many teachers passed by my room today giving me sympathy for having to move and telling me how great my room looked. (and then telling me about the year they had to move four times). Every time I wanted to break into tears. When I finally got all my stuff moved the AP came and told me that I had to cover two periods of social studies. When I asked her what I was supposed to do with them she handed me a huge American History book and said "Is there anything in this book that you're more familiar with than another? You have an hour to prepare." I did get something prepared for them to do on the fly (not American history) but both classes were so wild and out of control that we never got past the "Do Now." I got back to my new room at three o'clock and the coaches STILL hadn't cleared out a space for me. It seems like the might be trying to renegotiate the half/half arrangement. Basically the last two days have sucked. And all this is not to mention the absurd bureaucracy that I'm just now starting to understand and the rumors that if my ESL case load isn't big enough I'll be sent to a second school.

It's hard to believe that I'm wasting so much school time with all this moving and BS. I haven't even had time to go through the cumulative records and figure out which kids are mine and start testing them so that EVENTUALLY I can form classes and start teaching.

I hope things get better next week . . .