A New Side Job…sort of

Well, as you all know, I signed up to go on this trip to Rwanda.  Along with signing up comes a commitment to somehow raise about $3000.  Now, as you all know, teachers don’t always get the most wonderful salary, and I am currently putting my husband through his last semester of school.  Needless to say, money is tight.  However, I recently got wind that the university with which I am going to Rwanda is short on adjunct English and math faculty, both of which I can teach.  So, presto, I have the money for the trip.  God has a funny sense of humor.  Of course, all of this was my own brilliant plan, and I didn’t really check with Him on it first.  My interview went quite well, the head of the department and dean of the college think I’m great and hired me on the spot.  I then go to the person in charge of scheduling the professors, and every class has already been assigned.  So congratulate me, I am now a non-working member of the adjunct faculty pool at a local university.  I told my husband I got a new job that has no responsibility or paycheck, but I did get a cool new title   Oh well, we shall see how all of this goes.

Helping the New Teacher

My principal has directed the new teacher to buddy up with me, and I am having the great experience of helping the new math teacher on our campus.  She worked as a long-term sub at a high school before she was here at our little middle school and it seems as though she learned everything there is to know about teaching in that experience.  Now, she does have the unlucky teaching assignment of two double-blocked classes with all the remedial students, and only one mainstream, 1-hour class with the grade-level students, and I constantly remind her that it is not her fault students are failing and she is struggling with management and discipline.  The problem with all of this  is while she’s happy to accept all of the “great jobs” and “you’re doing that well,” she does not seem to actively accept any form of “help.”  I’ve tried numerous times to offer constructive criticism, to point out things that she’s doing that are good ideas but may just not work with the group of kids she’s got etc.  Unfortunately, for every idea I suggest, she has a counter suggestion of what she already does.  Great!  I’m glad she has ideas.  However, when she tells me that she consistently has to spend over half of the time in a two hour class working on discipline rather than content, I see a problem.  When she tells me that she’s spent nearly 30 minutes lining the kids up outside and practicing coming back in her classroom twice this week, it seems as though this corrective is not quite working.  Did I mention we’re in our 7th-week of school?  I tried to explain that these disciplinarian actions don’t seem to be working alone and suggested a positive reinforcement as well.  I gave her an idea, she told me she already used one, but the kids weren’t always motivated by it.  Sometimes I want to grab her and say, if you can tell it isn’t working, maybe you should try something else!  But, I smile and nod, and try to offer her another alternative.  The poor girl is also very influenced by what parents say to her.  She shared an e-mail from a parent with me.  The parent was a little snippy but no big deal.  Basically, there was a student who had been acting up in class and the students was given an after-school detention.  New teacher e-mailed to inform the parent and the response was something like…”you should deal with the behavior immediately in class rather than expecting me to take care of it at home.”  New Teacher was really upset by this response.  I pointed out to her that giving the student the detention was dealing with the behavior in class and she had implemented an appropriate consequence.   I told her not to engage the parent but to simply explain her discipline plan, how it was enforced in this situation, and how it will continue to be enforced.  She was still stuck on “I don’t want a parent talking to me like that.”  Poor girl.   Wait until her first parent curses her out…

Technology

In an ever attempt to move my teaching into the age of technology, I’m calling in for reinforcements.  Sadly, I am the most tech savvy person on my campus.  I say savvy because I am (gasp) willing to open more than one program at a time, I (GASP) maintain a classroom website on teacherweb that allows parents to access their child’s grades, and (oh my) I use a distribution list to send a mass informational e-mail to all of my parents at least once a month.  I know you are impressed by my amazing technology skills.  So, since I have no one on my campus or at nearby campuses with whom to confer, I am relying on all of you.  Could you point me in the direction of a book or website to read about Web 2.0, using a wiki in my classroom, or any other more advanced teacher tech kind of thing?  I’m interested, but not really sure where to look.  Thanks

More on Rwanda

Alright, my thoughts are a bit more coherent here.  I will travel to Rwanda with a team from a local Christian university.  The focus of the trip is specifically to provide teacher training to teachers who are required to work with tri-lingual students.  We will be there for three weeks implementing this training for teachers and then helping those teachers implement the ideas in their classrooms.  I don’t really know anymore details than that at this time, but I will keep you all updated.

Sort of about teaching

Um…so I sort of applied to be a missionary to Rwanda for three weeks over the summer.  There are many words I could use to describe what I’m feeling, not the least of which include terrified and ecstatic.  The reason I was convicted (suckered?) into applying was because the trip is specifically to go and train teachers in Rwanda.  We’re essentially supposed to cram a credentialing program into 2-3 weeks for these teachers who have been told to educate students in a foreign language and have no idea how to do it.  Essentially, they need training in how to teach English within the content area.  This is right up my alley and calls for my strengths, but I can’t say that I’m not just a little bit nervous about several things.  I know this post is a little random and not very focused.  I’m dealing with a lot of feelings right now.  Look for more posts to follow.