Post Thanksgiving Reflections

Thanksgiving dinner with the family went exceptionally well. Everyone had a great time, the food was outstanding, and the conversation was satisfying. Thanksgiving break is winding down and I am spending Sunday afternoon finishing up my semester exam for AP Chemistry. After I finish posting, I plan to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things we need. My wife worked last night and has to go in again tonight. I promised to make dinner for her to take. Pasta and meat balls is on my list; being already sick of turkey leftovers.
Normally, on a Sunday afternoon in November, any red-blooded American male is in front of the TV watching football. Unfortunately I am a Bears fan and I would rather beat myself over the head with a hammer than waste my afternoon watching them suck again. I guess I am not really that much a fan of football, just a fan of the Bears. Other games don’t interest me—and now, neither do the Bears. I have become one of the growing segment of fans who wish they would lose every game they have left this year. After that, if the ownership still doesn’t fire everyone in management, we hope they lose every game next year as well.
My rejection of football is caused by my general disillusionment with professional sports. As I have written before, the Cubs have ruined enough summers for me that I no longer watch—even when they make the playoffs. The Bulls give me no compelling reason to watch them either, and I have never been a hockey fan to speak of. I guess you could say that, unless my team is reasonable good, I find them uninteresting to watch. Being from Chicago, and not being a Sox fan, I have little to look forward to.
The local paper today had another article about the Rich Township High School District. I wrote about the shocking news that they were playing fast and loose with the rules for mandatory testing of Juniors; making it appear their standardized test scores were improving. The article told of how the scandal has caused significant problems within the communities served—to the point that one feeder K-8 district wants to open its own high school. At a faculty lunch recently I asked a colleague who used to teach in that district what he thought about the testing revelations; he indicated that he agreed with what the district had done. Probing further, I found that he was unaware that most of the students “exempted” from the mandatory testing were never tested, skipping form sophomore directly into senior year. He didn’t agree with that.
Tomorrow school resumes with fifteen class days till Christmas break; four of those semester exam days. I will not be going in tomorrow; having scheduled a technology conference to attend that day. My Honors Chemistry students will get their Semester Exam Review, while my AP Chemistry students will get Assignment #10 to work on. With both semester exams finished, I am not as rushed as many of my colleagues.
My wife and I have planned to have my department over for a Christmas party on the 11th. I emailed everyone yesterday to let them know of the date. Already someone has replied back that he can’t come. I asked that everyone be able to let me know by our next department meeting on the 7th.

Happy Thanksgiving

Once a month I schedule a voluntary A.P. Chemistry review session for Sunday morning. Today was our November meeting and 32 of my 39 A.P. students showed up to do chemistry problems with me for 90 minutes. While the sessions are voluntary, I do give 5 points extra credit for showing up—15 points if you come to both each quarter. I stopped and picked up 100 Dunkin Donuts Munchkins before arriving at school; all of which were eaten by the students in the first 20 minutes of the review. At the review sessions we go over questions from old AP exams. The idea has worked out well for the past 6 years, and I think it has improved the chances of my students on the exam. Today we worked gas phase equilibrium problems from old exams. Several years ago I attended a workshop where we were all given a CD with sets of AP test questions organized by topic. I have found these files invaluable as a source of actual AP problems to review.
After the students left I made student copies of several things I need for class next week; two work sheets, an exam for Wednesday, and the Semester I Exam review. I am going to be at a technology conference Monday after Thanksgiving and my students will be given copies of the semester exam review to begin working on; three weeks before exams begin. To make the review I had to write the exam first. Since we got a new text book this year I needed to write a new semester exam and review. Both tasks were finished last week. Wednesday, both the Honors Chemistry and AP Chemistry students have an exam; the idea being that they can take the Thanksgiving break off from Chemistry.
My wife and I host Thanksgiving dinner for the family; a total of 19 people this year—though it can be as many as 25 some years. Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays—possibly because I associate it with family. My family does Holidays together whenever possible. My wife and I do Thanksgiving, my brother Christmas Eve, and my youngest sister Easter. Christmas day is usually spent at my cousins with my mother’s side of the family, about 30 strong, but this year they will be in Memphis with in-laws so my other sister is having everyone. Sometimes someone is missing because of out of town in-laws, but that won’t be the case this Thanksgiving. The only one missing will be my nephew who lives on the east coast and is spending the holiday with cousins in New York; though he will be home for Christmas.
Except for children, my family has never been one that spends extensively on gifts at Christmas. We always spend time together but we have stopped exchanging gifts. I know this may be unpatriotic, but gifts have never been the focus of our holiday festivities. I will buy for my wife and daughter, and for my younger nieces and nephews, but that is the extent of our holiday shopping. Our money will go for lavish holiday meals we share together as we continue to resist the commercialization of our holiday season. Because we do not focus on shopping, our holidays are more relaxed and pleasant—unless you enjoy shopping in crowds.
In terms of my job, semester exams are given before Christmas break so the two weeks off are a real break from school. At this point in the school year I find myself counting down the days till my time off begins.

Give Me a Break.....Please!

Except for the usually large number of parents requesting to meet, parent-teacher conferences went without anything special happening. I am finally caught up with my grading and have updated my online schedule, uploaded files to my page for students to download, and caught up on paperwork left sitting for weeks.
There are eight class days till Thanksgiving vacation and I have scheduled exams for the Wednesday before in each class. I will be taking Monday the 30th off to go to a technology conference and have planned ahead for class assignments. Needless to say, I am looking forward to some time off to relax—Christmas vacation and the end of the semester are only a month away!
During step-up-day last week many 7th graders from local grade schools visited during the class day. While this activity had a disruptive effect on my teaching, I know it is vital to our recruitment efforts. The first Sunday in December we will have an ‘Open House” for 8th graders from 10:00 to 2:00. It is vital that we get grade school students to visit and see the facilities. Teachers are expected to be present for at least two hours that day. At the Department meeting this week my staff already began complaining about having to be her for it. They don’t seem to understand how important it is to market the school to the community; they only think about how it will interfere with their off time, some even argue that they should get a day off for showing up. Thankfully I have several teachers who are dedicated to our mission and will be here for all four hours greeting, meeting, and talking with prospective students. Most of the bitching that comes from teachers about activities like this is because they feel underappreciated and over worked.
I am underappreciated and over worked; what else is new? I also have better things to do than spend all day Sunday in my classroom making happy talk with grade school students and organizing a “dog and pony show” for their entertainment. I also understand that the continued success of my school and my future employment depends on my cooperation in such matters—so I do this enthusiastically and remember I am fortunate to work at a school that is worth the money parents spend on tuition. It would be much harder to sell another school with much less to offer.

Necessity, the Mother of Invention

I am recovering nicely from my injuries, even though my side still hurts. I can’t sleep while laying down in any position for more than an hour or two before the pain wakes me up. I spend most of the night in a recliner in the bedroom.
This is the week of parent/teacher conferences and I have twenty two scheduled as of last Friday. I should schedule a few more next week, but that is only a fraction of the 137 students I teach. As usual most of my appointments are with the parents of excellent students. They only want to meet so I can tell them how wonderful their kids are. The few problem students I have—mostly low grades—have not bothered to schedule a meeting. This is the way it always goes. Right now my appointments are scheduled Thursday between 12:30 and 7:30 pm at 10 minute intervals with a three hour gap between 3:00 and 6:00. Thankfully we have Friday off.
In what must have been a shocking newspaper story—at least to everyone not involved in education—the Chicago Tribune exposed the practice of falsifying test scores in public schools to avoid looking bad. The article, Case of the Missing Juniors, (Nov. 1, 2009), appeared on the front page and outlines how Rich East High School in suburban Chicago managed to make it look like their mandated state test scores had increased by more than 30% in one year. The naive people at the state board of education assumed the administration and staff of the school had discovered some new and highly effective way of educating students and wanted the district to run in-service for other schools. It was then discovered that the school had accomplished this incredible feat by simply redefining what a junior was, eliminating their lowest 40% (academically) from being tested. While the administration at Rich East High School got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, the Tribune reported that across the state about 20% of the sophomore class disappeared from 2007 to 2008. These “missing juniors” reappeared again as seniors after another year; and yes you guessed it, seniors are not officially tested.
Maybe schools should pre-test students and redefine a junior as only those who already score high enough to pass the state tests. This would result in a 100% success rate, and prove just how effective our public schools are, and how effectively our tax dollars are being spent.