Robbie - Day 5 (3/10)

A week in the life of a teacher... the grand finale!

Day 5 - Friday 3/10/17

7:36-8:55 I stop by the Media Center to pick up my laminated Africa map. I will use it next week for review games (flyswatter, BINGO) before the students are quizzed on it. On the way back, I see another teacher wearing jeans and we discuss whether or not we were supposed to dress up for the "committee" today. We are both glad that we are both wearing jeans. Rebels. The A key on my keyboard is sticky (I think from the day when we had 15 king cakes in class) and I try to unstick it, but I think I make it worse. I respond to a parent email about her daughter and whether she has made up her missing work - she has not, so I'm sure the parent won't be happy. I met with this student last week, and we set deadlines together for when the work would be completed, but she didn't turn it in. I check over my lesson plans for next week, as I do each Friday, and check for any special materials that are needed. I see that I am doing the "will it float" fruits/vegetables demonstration with French 3 (to introduce the future) next Friday, so I'll need to make sure I have several large bowls to fill with water and all the example fruits/vegetables I want to use. I schedule some Remind messages for the beginning of next week. Another teacher comes and asks me to use my extra microphone. We are supposed to use our microphones for the "committee" today. Part of me wants to rebel and not wear it, but since it was a direct request from the principal, I decide I should comply. I hate the microphone and there is supposedly research showing it "enhances student engagement and learning", but I was unable to find any evidence of such research. I want to evaluate the research for myself. Just because there is "research" does not mean it is true. I hurry to finish grading these French 3 tests before class starts because it's now been 4 days since they took the test. A French 1 student comes in to make up a test. A 4th period student who will be on a field trip comes to get her makeup work. A student in 1st period comes in early to find out what he missed when he was absent on Wednesday. I set my lesson plan out prominently on my desk so the "committee" can see it when they (don't) come.

8:55-10:25 French 3H. Class starts, and they are REALLY LOUD during journal time. One girl is sitting on another girl's desk (a very well-behaved student who is just being a little silly in this moment). I (somewhat jokingly) tell them that the committee is coming and that they need to all CALM DOWN. They laugh, and then they do. Luckily this is a French 3 class. One student throws away his Starbucks drink and I ask him why. He says another teacher got in trouble when a student had a drink on his desk. I ask him who the teacher got in trouble with, and he can't remember. I go on a tirade about how students need to be allowed to eat, drink, and use the bathroom. I just don't understand why teachers forbid those things. If a student is hungry, thirsty, or has to go to the bathroom, the student can't learn French. We have to take care of lower level needs before we can take care of higher level ones. When it's time for them to start the group projects, I also let them choose groups since the class yesterday did. There are a few groups of 3 and several groups of 2 that don't want to split up. I allow them to work in 2 but tell them that there will still be the same amount of work. They seem to be okay with this. That means there will be 8 groups presenting instead of 6, though, which means the presentations will take longer, and I may have to adjust my plans. Class ends, and I realize the committee never came by. What a surprise.

10:25-11:56 Planning. During class change, I talk to colleagues in the hall. It seems no one in my department has had any visitors to their classroom yet. I finish grading French 4/5 tests. While I am grading, I hear a student yelling in the stairwell. I go down to investigate and see than an EC assistant has come to figure out what's going on. I enter the transfer grades for my new student that the data manager sends via email. I go down to the workroom and make copies for French 2 and French 1 for next week. A teacher who never speaks to me is standing there. I say hello to him and he grunts. More teachers come in, and one tells me to follow her back to her classroom where she tells me how she talked to some French 4 students about how they are learning a lot this year and are very pleased. That's good to hear. Two other teachers are discussing the weight they give to test grades because a parent has apparently complained about how much one teacher's tests are worth (in an AP class). I return to my room, and there are 2 more emails to deal with regarding the new student. In the remaining moments of my planning, I post the rite of passage notes on Haiku so students will have them for reference. I feel like I've accomplished a lot so I go down to the workroom for lunch a few minutes early.

11:56-12:35 Lunch. I have sushi today from Harris Teeter, and it's pretty good, even though I claim I don't like fish. I guess I like raw fish just fine. Especially dipped in soy sauce. We discuss the learning walks that happened this morning. One teacher was observed for 35 minutes, and the people flipped through her entire lesson plan book, commenting that some of her objectives weren't fully written out. This is a ridiculous expectation. I don't see how writing out our objectives fully benefits our students at all. Ugh. Several teachers are discussing words they don't like, like "moist" and "juicy" and "panties". I don't want to say my least favorite word because I don't want people to use it around me. I agree to a Hangman-style game where each person gets to guess one letter of my word. There are 7 people playing. The first 5 letters are wrong. The 6th letter is right, and then someone guesses it.

12:35-2:05 French 4/5H. As students are coming in, one student says she thinks she saw a dead person on the side of the road on the way from the Career Center. Then they discuss whether they've seen a dead body before. A student is late to class because she was helping to sell prom tickets and no one came to relieve her. While students are journaling, I grade makeup work from another class. Someone asks me the word for "seahorse", and I can't remember, but I know it's a cool word. We look it up and it's "hippocampe", like a hippocampus! It's a part of the brain shaped like a seahorse! We discuss a variety of cultural issues that I'm a bit surprised they don't know about: the 35 hour workweek, school schedules in France, Francophonie, l'Académie française. This class works in partners instead of groups of 3 on the group project, and they have a "more difficult" rubric. While students are working, I grade the French 1 classwork from yesterday. They get a completion grade for this. 3 students didn't do it, and 3 students only completed half of it, even though we went over all the answers afterwards.

2:10-3:40 French 2. During the class change, the media coordinator calls to ask me for a PowerSchool parent code. As I am talking to her on the phone, a line of 3 students forms. When I get off the phone, I ask what they need. 1 wants to use the restroom - he should have just gone. 1 tells me she and another student are leaving at 3:15 for a sporting event. The last student asks me to go to the band room to get something she forgot. The bell rings, and I haven't put up the warmup yet. I scold the traveling French teacher for wearing a shirt from another school. I hand out the warmup and explain it twice. Less than a minute later, a student shouts out "What are we supposed to do?" I ask someone else to explain it because if I have to again, I may scream. It's hard to keep this class focused on a Friday afternoon. I take a student's phone and put it in my pocket. Two minutes later, I take another phone. It's taking them 10 minutes to do what yesterday's French 2 class did in 5 minutes. I have to keep walking from my solutions cart to a group in the back that can't seem to stay on task. I'm annoyed with this class, so I don't show them the #foldablefailure. I guess they'll never know. Miraculously, there are still 30 minutes left when we start practicing the conversation and they actually seem to be working now. One student whose phone I took asks me for it back. I tell her to wait until the end of class. She says she wants to use WordReference, and I give her a French-English dictionary. A few students are writing down the conversations word for word, and I remind them that they won't be able to read a script and won't know their role or partner until the day of the conversation. One student says it makes her feel better to just write everything out, so I don't want to tell her not to do something that works for her.

3:40-3:44 I return the Chromebooks I borrowed earlier in the week, gather some papers to grade (which I try not to do over the weekend, but this weekend, I have to), turn off my computer, and GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!