Time Management

I complained recently (me? complain?) about the amount of non-instructional time science teachers spend on both the regular teaching duties that all teachers struggle with (such as planning lessons and grading papers) plus all the extra work associated with getting materials together for labs. Keep in mind that most of these labs involve consumable materials that have to be re-organized and replenished after each section goes through the lab plus there's always some clean-up, even if you successfully complete the lab in time for students to participate in the cleaning.

The first marking period ended last Wednesday - I am totally unaccustomed to the 5 week marking period. So of course I had a ton of projects and lab reports due on or before Wednesday not to mention a last minute quiz, so I've spent now the last part of the school week working those 12-14 hour days trying to catch up with all the paper and all day today getting grades entered into those awful new report card scan sheets with over 500 bubbles to fill in for my 110 students, not to mention agonizing over the standardized comments (2 per student) that have to be entered along with the actual grades. At least now I have the computer do all the grade calculations - I can't imagine how I did it all with paper & calculator just a of couple years ago.

It's also Sunday night and next week is the real start of the new marking period and I would like to be ahead of the game, but I'm just a little too burned out right now to think more than a day ahead. I have a lab period first thing Monday mornings, and I think I may have to start making Saturday mornings at the school a regular part of my routine just to get the labs ready for the following week. This Saturday (yesterday) was my twins' birthday party, so I was pretty occupied all day. Otherwise I would probably have been at the school yesterday.

I'm looking at ways of streamlining some of the paperwork - including assigning less of it, having homework monitors at each station just check to see if the work is done or not for the minor stuff, and getting some peer assessment going - not sure yet how I will do it, but when we get more into the meaty content and regents practice questions it should be a lot simpler. I do know that when faced with mountains of work to correct, I start looking for quick, easily recognizable criteria for grading.

For example, I had students write reports about scientists and asked them to write in their introductions about their motivation for choosing the scientist and in conclusion to write about the qualities that made the scientists successful (usually hard work, determination, imagination, etc.) and whether those qualities might also be important for the student's own personal goals in life. In between they were to discuss the biographical information and a summary of the scientific work. Most of the student's papers were plagiarized in the middle sections (copy & paste with various degrees of editing from one or more sources), so I found myself focusing on the intro and conclusion. Their grades depended on the extent to which they made those personal connections. I might be more explicit about those things in the future, or better yet, warn them that I will focus only a particular point as a sort of "spot check" without telling them ahead of time which particular point I will "spot check." Yeah, I like that idea. Here's a perfect example of why I blog - I get to think through what I've done and sometimes ideas just crystallize.

I've got a few ideas kicking around, but not much time to flesh them out or write about them now. I discovered a nice 3-tier "GroLab" that was about to be given away and quickly claimed it for the biology department (me). So I'll be looking for some ways of using it, maybe with some Wisconsin Fast Plants if I can get any. I have a small allowance to spend on biology materials, but it won't go very far.

A New Living Environment Blog

Check out Living Environment Blog by Chris. It's new, looks promising, and obviously a welcome edition to the biology teacher blog world.

Working on a Response

I've been trying to draft a coherent response to the teachers' contract now under consideration in NYC, and I just can't get all my thoughts untangled and presentable in blog format. So I'll give the readers' digest version and maybe post the unabridged account later. Frankly, I haven't the time to polish it up, and lack of time is one of my major points!

Anyway, I'm leaning strongly against the contract. I've been complaining almost since I began my career that teaching conditions in NYC need to IMPROVE, and if that means compromising on salary increases, then so be it. I would rather have the 11% salary increase with improved working conditions. Why wasn't that feasible instead of 15% plus deteriorating working conditions that we are faced with now? Yes, 15% sounds great, but hey, 11% sounds pretty good too, over a shorter period of time with the likelihood of making up most or all of the remaining % points in the next contract. Improve working conditions by lowering class size and incorporating more time in the school day for planning, marking papers, and individualized/small group instruction, interacting with parents. I don't expect these things to happen overnight, but I've been teaching 13 years and there's been not one single improvement or even a plan for improving the class size problem. Can't anyone even outline a 10 year plan to get class sizes down to 22 or so? That gives you 2 years to start building schools and 8 years to reduce, one student per year, down to 22. That reduces by almost a third the number of student papers I have to grade, and increases the amount of time I can spend actually reading and responding to each child's work. It also means my science lab will actually conform to the safety recommendations of the NSTA and other science organizations - yes, the currently allowed 30 students in a science lab is an unsafe situation for the students.

So instead, I am now faced with teaching not fewer students but more students. In the short run, the union position may be honored and I will only get students I already teach in a more or less tutorial capacity, but I agree with union critics that the writing is on the wall and we are headed toward a 30 period per week teaching load in the near future. I'm sorry, but I just don't have any more time to give. If the contract passes I will do what I have to do, but I can only see my family life suffering even more than it already is. I guess at least I will have more money to buy stuff for my kids in place of spending time with them - one day they will understand, right?

My Classroom

I just love the look of these gas valves. Hopefully we will get the bunsen burners to go with them some day.

Terrible fluorescent light color in this picture that I can't correct because of problems with my computer that I won't bore you with. It's a decent angle, however, from which to view the room. Facing front, we have one of those cool whiteboards with sliding panels, so I can hide things, or save things since I share the room with one other teacher. To the right I have a smartboard, and if you look closely you can see the projector - unfortunately it is placed on one of those long student rows, and that's a little cumbersome, but I'm not complaining! Hey, I've got 11 freaking sinks in the room. The only legitimate complaint I have is the size of the room - there's little or no room to move around, so students will be pretty stationary and I have trouble circulating during group work. Also not much room for all the fun biology stuff like places to grow plants, a place for the aquarium, etc - very tight space. I'm going to have to look for some wall shelves or something, there's practically no floor space for tables or cabinets other than what's there already, which isn't enough. But I'm not complaining!