March 27, 2009

  • Parent Conferences, Last Day

    Friday...It's about time!  I'm hoping those parent conferences will jet by.  I scheduled all the Spanish conferences for today.  There's no budget for Spanish translators, so I've asked my TA to work for me under-the-table. He agreed to do it.  Now I have to figure which giftcard to get him.  Maybe iTunes?  I don't know yet.

Comments (5)

  • target is always good...

  • a giftcard would be nice. maybe to a book store or target or best buy? you're like THE cool teacher.

  • you could also get a visa prepaid giftcards?  then he can use it anywhere that accepts visa.

    ryc: i'll check that site out.  i'm always interested in seeing what people do with cake.  that cake was MUCH too cute to dismantle, cut ans serve.  the plastic baby is still in my office looking at me.

  • I ended up getting a giftcard for my TA.  He received a giftcard to Target.  I'll wait for the Visa prepaid card to be given in June since he's graduating from college and can use it towards anything.

  • @NvyBlu789:

    well, for math at my high school...the block scheduling is one of the biggest reasons for our low scores.  every half year we complete a year of material.  they go through algebra1, geometry, etc in 4 months...then some have a 10 month break between the math classes.
    you miss one day, it's like two.  you miss 5 days...it's like missing 2 weeks of instruction.
    also, someone put together a compare/contrast chart of how much instructional time we have versus other high schools in our district.  it's shocking that the biggest discreptancy is that we get 30 hrs less instructional time than one of our other schools!!  yes, i said THIRTY!!!  all i would really want to actually complete the curriculum is 6 hrs more.  no wonder we have trouble..
    as for mastery...i'd say that i break things down well enough that a kid could master the material.  however it doesn't account for laziness, absent days, etc.  you could ask my good students.  i have kids come up to me to tell me (just out of the blue)...that they never learned algebra in middle school or high school until they came to my class.  it is CLEAR.  and the whole time i was thinking that they had good algebra skills already...that i wasn't doing anything.  HA!!
    my theory (among other things) is that some of the teachers don't know the material that well.  you can't teach and have students master something one hasn't mastered themself.  it's one thing to know the material, to know how to do the problem but to teach it, you have to REALLY KNOW what's going on.. 
    unfortunately, not all teachers are created equally.  and of course liz,  YOU ARE WONDERFUL!!  just thought i would remind you. =)

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