Workin It

Morgan and Nick reminded me that they don't actually know what a teacher does when they aren't teaching. I'm not assuming people care or anything, but I have been really busy this week and its pretty much the only thing going on in my life right now so...

Here are some things I have done since I started.

Daily meetings (for hours)

Class planning -personal, I am teaching 4 classes on my own, 3 social studies (Elections, US History and World History) and an english/homeroom style class called "Righting Your Writing." Which was one of my fav classes this summer. Planning consists of developing ideas and content. Searching for movies, videos, songs, art, pictures and readings that would be helpful to explain historical concepts. Much of my plan for this trimester is to try out alternative sources for readings, (activist accounts of history, Radical historians) and graphic novels. I am excited about this project because it includes social studies and artistic expression. I am also intending to use poetry and music to show students how history can be part of our personal expression. Mainly this has been a challenge to remind myself of numerous parts of history without a comprehensive text book.

Class planning -group, I also will be teaching two group classes on a rotating schedule one titled "the end" which has to do with education, social and race issues, and one called "People" which is a sex ed/health/social awareness class dealing with all types of human sexuality, ideas of gender norming and expectations of gender and sex, as well as birth control, STIs, pregnancy,abortion, adoption etc. Planning for this class means reading through materials and preparing for discussions, as well as updating the material (with group concensus).

Contracts are what we make to help students stay on a specific (productive) schedule. The majority of them are targeting problem areas like not showing up for the first hour class, or not staying at school all day. But some include check-in meetings with teachers to force students to keep up in class.

Test Prep I have been asked to be the test person at the school. We all have duties and no secretary or real administration, so teachers take on jobs like this. This has meant I had to go to special meetings with other alternative school teachers to learn about how to prepare for tests and other graduation requirements. In the future this will mean pulling students out of classes to have them take tests online.

PPL Duties Our school is part of a larger non profit organization that has millions of dollars and hundreds of projects going on at any one time. This has meant our ragtag-relaxed-do it as you go approach has to be adjusted to meet the needs of the larger organization. Staff and individual "goals" (monthly?), e mail and online paper work using unfamiliar programs, a new benefits plan that increases the costs and lowers the benefits.
-we were also asked to participate in a introduction/award ceremony, take a half day tour of PPL facilities, and participate in a personality survey/profile in service.
-I don't mean to give the impression that these things were awful, or that PPL is. Many of them were great, and I am really proud to work for an organization such as PPL, but its hard when the training and duties for PPL are so different than our own needs, -and their attitudes and practices are VERY different. Lots of adjustment... probably great in the long run though.
And I can't say enough about how nice everyone in the company is... they are amazing.

Teacher in-service Every year teachers are required to take a certain amount of training/keeping up on education. We also have staff needs for training. So along with me going to the testing thing, the staff also had to attend some meetings, including one on the topic of suicide in teens.

School Prep Along with normal paper work, registration, rules, mission statements, supplies, budgets, food/travel issues, schedules for the trimester/year, class schedules for the day, etc etc.. we also have to rearange and repair the school. Many of the walls were painted over the summer, and many of the carpets were replaced. The computer lab isnt hooked up yet, all the posters were taken down... furniture needed to be moved and replaced....Hanging 50 posters takes a long time!!!

Screenings, leadership meetings We had several students come in to discuss issues and prepare for the school year. We also had new students come in, they were asked questions and we answered any questions they had.



SO UM..... thats what I did this week.
Also I discovered that the Jimmy Johns across the street will sell me bread for 50 cents whenever I forget to bring lunch. So thats tremendously exciting. Maybe Pho will deliver.
Oh, and the staff all seems to get along really well, so we talk a lot and have a lot of fun on the job... which can be distracting and wonderful. I sort of love my job right now... I am extremely excited for school to start... I guess its just a new trip everyday.

Also the convention stuff all starts this weekend and that will be really exciting as well.... so we shall see if our cities still exist when the shit is over.
Good luck everyone... I love you.