weird week
Mar. 17th, 2007 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
barnabas_trumanSo first the computer crashed. It's been running pretty slowly for the last couple of months, and freezing up more often than usual for the last week or two, but Thursday morning it just wouldn't start up at all. Press button, get the usual startup chime, it shows the usual grey Apple logo startup screen... and nothing beyond that. Restarting doesn't improve things. Took it into a nearby Apple store yestereve to get some help; they took a look at it, decided the directory file was probably corrupted, and recommended DiskWarrior. Bought a copy of same, tried it out, didn't help. Called Apple store back, explained results, they're now thinking directory corruption is a symptom of hard drive mechanical failure. Will be going back to Apple store this evening for them to take another look. Will probably need to replace hard drive; could possibly lose all files. Arg.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, I had an awesome lesson planned out for the Geometry classes--take class outside, distribute clinometers, measure angles and distances of various windows, drainpipes, etc., go back inside, and calculate their heights. Worked really well for one period, mediocre for another period, and the other period was so rowdy and talkative that I couldn't even explain the directions to them, so I just kept them inside and gave them a worksheet.
Also on Thursday, the assistant principal called me in for a meeting. Said she has been getting numerous complaints from parents and students in my geometry classes that I'm not following the curriculum, my lessons are confusing and disconnected from the textbook, and my tests are not reflecting the material they learned from the homework. In my opinion most of this is nonsense--I am using the textbook as a guide for what material to present in what order; I do add supplementary material because this textbook is, in my professional opinion as a mathematician, horrible, and, in my professional opinion as a teacher, does not cover the standards. My tests are challenging but never have anything that wasn't covered in class; anyone who was paying attention should be able to do fine on them.
She didn't buy it. I am now under strict orders for the rest of the year to teach exclusively from the textbook without adding anything at all. I am to explain the new material as it is explained in the textbook, demonstrate examples from the textbook, assign homework problems from the textbook, and give tests from the textbook. With emphasis on review so that my many failing students can catch up. Looks like my geometry class is going to be boring, lifeless, and non-standard-covering for the rest of the year.
With all this talk of parent complaints, I really wasn't looking forward to Open House that very night. It turned out to be much better than I expected, though. I think 20 or 30 parents came in altogether, and overall had very positive comments. There were parents of low-scoring students asking for advice on how their students could do better in class, and parents of high-scoring students thanking me and encouraging me and letting me know how much their children appreciate the fact that they're actually being challenged and learning in my class. So that was very good to hear. Also, another geometry teacher told me later that evening that she suspects that the "numerous parent complaints" business was primarily the result of three of my failing students who happen to be from rather influential local families; they're supposed to be on the fast track to college, so naturally if they're failing it's my fault, and nothing makes administration bring down the hammer on teachers like parent complaints, especially influential parent complaints. Knowing that it's political rather than personal makes me feel a little better, but it still sucks.
Needless to say I won't be working at this school next year. I'm really hoping that it's just this district that's so badly corrupted, and not the whole public education system. It'd be really nice if I could find a better place to teach next year. Long-term, I'm thinking of teaching community college instead, but I'm willing to give public high school at least one more year.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, I had an awesome lesson planned out for the Geometry classes--take class outside, distribute clinometers, measure angles and distances of various windows, drainpipes, etc., go back inside, and calculate their heights. Worked really well for one period, mediocre for another period, and the other period was so rowdy and talkative that I couldn't even explain the directions to them, so I just kept them inside and gave them a worksheet.
Also on Thursday, the assistant principal called me in for a meeting. Said she has been getting numerous complaints from parents and students in my geometry classes that I'm not following the curriculum, my lessons are confusing and disconnected from the textbook, and my tests are not reflecting the material they learned from the homework. In my opinion most of this is nonsense--I am using the textbook as a guide for what material to present in what order; I do add supplementary material because this textbook is, in my professional opinion as a mathematician, horrible, and, in my professional opinion as a teacher, does not cover the standards. My tests are challenging but never have anything that wasn't covered in class; anyone who was paying attention should be able to do fine on them.
She didn't buy it. I am now under strict orders for the rest of the year to teach exclusively from the textbook without adding anything at all. I am to explain the new material as it is explained in the textbook, demonstrate examples from the textbook, assign homework problems from the textbook, and give tests from the textbook. With emphasis on review so that my many failing students can catch up. Looks like my geometry class is going to be boring, lifeless, and non-standard-covering for the rest of the year.
With all this talk of parent complaints, I really wasn't looking forward to Open House that very night. It turned out to be much better than I expected, though. I think 20 or 30 parents came in altogether, and overall had very positive comments. There were parents of low-scoring students asking for advice on how their students could do better in class, and parents of high-scoring students thanking me and encouraging me and letting me know how much their children appreciate the fact that they're actually being challenged and learning in my class. So that was very good to hear. Also, another geometry teacher told me later that evening that she suspects that the "numerous parent complaints" business was primarily the result of three of my failing students who happen to be from rather influential local families; they're supposed to be on the fast track to college, so naturally if they're failing it's my fault, and nothing makes administration bring down the hammer on teachers like parent complaints, especially influential parent complaints. Knowing that it's political rather than personal makes me feel a little better, but it still sucks.
Needless to say I won't be working at this school next year. I'm really hoping that it's just this district that's so badly corrupted, and not the whole public education system. It'd be really nice if I could find a better place to teach next year. Long-term, I'm thinking of teaching community college instead, but I'm willing to give public high school at least one more year.
