Cheating ruins last few weeks

My last few weeks of school were ruined by confrontations with my principal over student cheating incidents and his interference in our union vote.  We had 4 of our students cheat in 2 separate incidents--all were officers in CSF of which I am co-advisor.    A couple of months earlier a teacher had had an incident where students had been working on a homework assignment which involved test corrections.  One girl gave her paper to the other one who copied the work and problems--not even realizing they were different versions of the test.  the parents of the girl who gave her work claimed they had worked together and that she had't intended to cheat.  Our CSF policy states that both parties are equally guilty and lose their membership for the semester.  Eventually the parents threatened court, the district and principal backed down but maintained that the teacher had not done anything wrong.   Consequently, the principal changed policy without announcing it--he no longer allowed the deans to give the CSF advisors any academic code referrals--but the teachers for the last incidents came directly to us.  In one instance, the girls copied each other and worked together--later claiming they thought it was a group project.  In the 2nd instance, one girl copied the other completely and when the teacher ran it through "turnitin.com", it came back 100% plagiarized!  All 4 girls were officers in  CSF and knew better than most students what the academic code meant.  The girl that copied the statistics project 100% went to my co-advisor and confessed.  they were all good people that did a stupid thing.  The principal said that after his investigation, none of the girls had the intent to cheat and that we needed to reinstate them.  I asked him about the students whose parents hadn't called ---wasn't that an inequity?  He told me to reinstate them and I refused...told him he could. The final straw was at graduation when he gave the principal's award to the one girl who confessed to cheating--out of 33 other valedictorians!

2nd Week--Monday August 29th

My last period class turned out to be one of "those" days. A student asked to go the restroom and gave me one of his two blue passes (they get two per 6 weeks and can use them for extra credit if they don't go to the restroom). After 15 minutes he hadn't returned so I e-mailed the dean and attendance office. When the attendance clerk called me I told her he hadn't returned and to please let the dean know as he was out on campus somewhere. She said she'd mark him truant. Next, we were doing introductions. Since my classes are 9-12th grade the students don't know each other. I wait til the 2nd week of school so most late entrants and transfers have happened by then. I ask them to work with a partner, preferably someone they don't know, and find out three things about them to share with the class. They do the intros right from their seats and so it's pretty non-threatening. I go first and introduce myself using 3 random facts about myself: I have a son that graduated from Westmont in 2006, I play indoor soccer (yes to the amazed group--I still play), and this is my 40th year of being a teacher..and my last. Things were going well until I got to one student. When I called on him to introduce his partner, he put his head back and closed his eyes. I waited a minute went on to someone else and when his eyes were open, I asked if he was ready--he said no. Afterward, I told him to see me after class. The period ended and my lost student returned. When asked where he'd been, he said out on the grass with his friends!!! (I stifled my response) I told him he'd missed more than 45 minutes of class and been marked truant. He said he didn't care. He wanted his backpack and I asked for my hall pass. It was missing the lanyard I'd just put on it. When I queried him, he said his friend had taken it. (Incredulous--me) I said he'd better get it back and he said he'd bring it next class---I told him no, that I wanted it the next morning. Then the student that wouldn't introduce shrugged when I asked him why--and then explained the difference in his shrugs??? I just told him he had a zero then on the assignment and he said okay. At that point I noticed a little girl still sitting in her seat. When I asked her what she needed she told me that her period had started and she hadn't been prepared. There was blood everywhere. I went and locked the door and we got her cleaned up and on her way. At that point, I had to run to get to the faculty meeting....what a day!

My last year--after 40 years of being a teacher

August 2011---The year started on a bittersweet note for me. For the last 40 years I have always called my mother after the first day of school. She passed away in June and while I miss her daily some events are more affected. Not many people still buy first day of school outfits after the age of....what? ....unless they are teachers. I have always sent my school photos to my mom...after all who else would want one now? So school started without Mom to talk to so it was a little more poignant. I have good classes: 3 trig/ pre calc and 2 regular Geometry---I gave up my SDAIE Geometry this year so I could help another teacher transition and then she didn't get it...oh well.
As always we are expected to come in early to set up our rooms before school starts and I refuse to do that on principle---if we aren't paid we shouldn't be there. I do drop off xeroxing so I'm ready but then it's a long afternoon after a 3 hour back to school "informational" staff meeting. One of the advantages of having taught for so long is that I am prepared...things will get unpacked and sorted eventually.

Because I am a teacher

Because I am a teacher

• · I will not receive my husband’s social security if he predeceases me
• · I earn substantially less than other professionals with commensurate degrees
• · I have to work to support myself during those “summers off”
• · My tenure is under attack because administrators don’t have the courage to follow the due process necessary to fire incompetent teachers
• · And my husband was laid off, we are in danger of losing our home because we can’t live on my salary alone
• · I am fortunate to do something that I love: teaching and working with teenagers
• · When I am in the room with my students all of the above fades away for the moment.

Week 4--Friday at Last

What a week! I think administrators really don't look at the calendar in terms of classroom teachers. We had a faculty meeting on Monday, collaboration (meeting-late start for kids) days on Wednesday and Thursday, and Back to School Night on Wednesday night! Any change in schedule is exhausting and all of these meetings were draining! There were two highlights of my week this week: First I met with all of my SDAIE students individually about their grades and really felt I connected with them as we discussed what they could do to improve or celebrated how well they were doing. Often in class they collectively have a negative impact on each other but individually each of them really does care about their grade. Second, a student that I only had for two days before he got transferred out, asked if I would wear his football jersey today. It's a new tradition at Westmont for varsity players to ask teachers to wear them. I was especially honored as he happens to be our star quarterback :) Frustrations continue with inequity in schedules and class sizes but inside my room with the door closed, my students and I are doing fine.

First Week Almost Done

Large classes, nice kids, too much staff drama--mark this first week. Several of my SDAIE kids from two years ago in Geometry have me again in Trig and I was as excited to have them again as they were to be there. (I had requested them since they need a little extra nurturing.) One of my outstanding girls from that group is going to be a Peer Tutor in this year's SDAIE class :)
They opened a 7th trig class to reduce class sizes and yet students aren't being moved to level the load. It will be harder as the days go on because the students are settling in and bonding where they are. It isn't fair that because they have parent complaints about the other teacher that I should have classes of 36 and 37 vs 28 and 18, etc.
Had a young man crying today in trig and after he went outside to sit at a table, I joined him to talk while the class worked. Fortunately I had read what he'd written on his info form and I knew that he didn't have any parents. Evidently he lost his mom, his aunt, his grandfather, and I guess his dad all around the same time a couple of years ago. He was feeling overwhelmed and unable to work and felt that no one cared. (I talked with him for quite a while.) Finally I told him that I would be the person at Westmont who cared and that I wanted him to come to see me in the morning and any time that he felt he needed to talk to someone. We'll see how it goes.
A few humorous moments this week. In checking roll, I was missing one girl so I asked if anyone was Karina. One girl raised her hand. I said but your name is Seongyoung (similar)? She said " I am Korean". I was a little slow on the uptake but then realized that Karina and Korean do sound similar.
In my SDAIE class, I have a senior that had passed my class last year so I told him that he could take Algebra 2 or another class that he might need--and added that there was no need to suffer through another year with me. His reply "But I want to suffer...." :)

Friday 8/20/10 1st Day Back--Meetings....

8AM--breakfast which was scones, yogurt, trail mix, fruit bars.... We were given--for the first time ever--red polo shirts that say Westmont Staff and a goodie bag to welcome us. On the screen at the front there was a loop of the summer photos we'd been asked to send in. Our new principal greeted everyone with a handshake. We heard the usual opening info from deans, guidance counselors, activities director and the principal. We had a brief look at our CST test score data. We then met as departments to discuss our goals and the support we would need as well as when we would meet to work on these items. At 11:15 we took a department photo in our red shirts and then went out to the quad for a staff photo in our red shirts in front of the new WHS Warriors sign. We then had a working lunch and the principal sent us off at 12:30 to our rooms with a brief inspirational speech about what he expects of us as a united staff. I worked til about 4:30 setting up my room--bulletin boards, overhead projectors, putting things away in my desk, moving boxes off the counters, putting desks into groups, etc. When our class lists were available on Aeries I was able to download rosters--my trig classes are 34, 35, 36, & 37 and my SDAIE Geometry is at 34...which was better than the original which had the trig classes at 38 and 39! (I'd gotten an e-mail saying they opened a new trig class period 7 and numbers would go down--I hope they go down a little more!) I have more things to put up but am ready for the kids on Monday!