Day 72: Wrap It Up

When you woke up this morning, you were wishing that you could watch a rap video that incorporates vocabulary pertaining to the inner solar system.

Since it's almost Christmas, here you are!

I have a ton of work to do over break, not the least of which is getting my head on straight.  I always have difficulty around the holiday season and I'm not sure why.  I know this is a fairly common issue for people, but I can only worry about me.

I've prepared my assignments and resources for the next chapter, sent them to the printer and uploaded them to my class site.  For all intents and purposes, I'm ready to be back in January.

Mentally, I'm exhausted.  The past few weeks have seen huge swings in mood and confidence both in my abilities as a teacher and as a father/husband.

Rather than trying to recap everything, I'm going to link to the post I wrote last year, which still applies.

I wish all of you a pleasant holiday season, complete with all of the love and comfort that you want.

Day 71: Create An Alien

I did work today!!

"You guys have assignments to work on and discussions to complete.  We will be in the library tomorrow if you need to type or research anything.  Go to it!"

Then I sat down and worked on the Powerpoint and guided notes for the next section.  I updated the assignment list, updated grades and looked through many of the assignments that have been turned in so far.

I had/have high hopes for the "create an alien" project that some of the students elected to take on.  A few came in that were a bit lackluster, but one young woman in particular submitted one that was pretty fantastic and I started using it as an example of what I wanted.

One of the chemistry teachers was out, so some of the other science teachers and I decided to troll his classes with fake Star Wars spoilers.

"I truly loved the way that Abrams managed to work in the 'Han Solo was a droid' plotline so smoothly!"
"Me too! I was worried how they would tie it in with Ren being the genetic clone of Anakin Skywalker, since Han was Kylo Ren's son, but it was done very well!"

Only about half of my student were in school today, except for Physics where they were all present.  I expect tomorrow's attendance will be even more sparse.  The Astronomy classes will be in the library to work on their contracts and I will count the tiles on the ceiling.

Day 70: Force the Joy

If you think my title is a Star Wars reference, you're looking for puns in Alderaan places.

I started today not feeling all that great.  This was a tiring week, with my emotions swinging back and forth.  On Tuesday, I was still recovering from illness, Wednesday, I was feeling great.  Yesterday started off well and then my confidence was shattered.

Honestly, I was dreading today.

Then I remembered that it was #HighFiveFriday.

Last week, I talked about school culture and the little thing that can be done to change it for the better.  What I didn't realize was how that also works on the micro scale.  Withing 5 minutes of students entering the building, I was standing in the hallway with my hand up.

It's impossible to remain glum when you are giving and receiving hundreds of high fives.

It was also evident that the culture is already changing.  Several students walked by and said "High five Friday" as they gave me one.

During my prep period, I had some errands to run and, in walking through the school, came across several group of students, only some of whom I knew, all of whom received high fives.

One of the students commented that my high five made his day.

How could you ask for anything more than that?

I told him to feel free to continue it on his own and he didn't have to wait for me.

Culture change is free and can be so simple.

Day 69: Perpetual Fear

Once again, I'm having tremendous difficulty with a balance of responsibility.

I feel very good about the resources and supports that I provide for my students until someone questions it.  The first complaint seems to shatter the thin veneer of "I'm a teacher and I know what I'm doing."

I can't seem to put my finger on why this is.  I have several theories, including lack of confidence in the supports that I have in place, lack of confidence in my own abilities as an educator and an assessor.

I DO believe in what I am doing, but I question whether or not I'm doing it right, or at the least the way I want to do it.  I know that I have tons of room for growth and, intellectually, I recognize that it will take me a lifetime to get where I want to be.

Emotionally however, I see the students in front of me and I deeply fear that I am failing them.

I also recognize that with so many students over so many years, I am bound to get complaints and push-back.  Parents only ever want the best for their children and I never begrudge them that desire.  The issue for me, and I suspect the system in general is that we don't have a deep enough conversation about what that is, or what it should look like.

On top of this, we only casually acknowledge that it may look different for every student.  With 130 students, it's impossible to meet the individual needs of each one.  We do our best, usually, but we often fall short.  Some students fall through the cracks and it's devastating when that happens.

There are some students where I feel no responsibility.  I have provided them with multiple resources and allowed work to be turned in later.  When the students put no effort into their own education, I can talk to them, but I can't do the work for them.

There are several students, however, who are putting in incredible amount of effort and simply not performing where they would prefer.  This doesn't mean failing.  It means less than 100%.  I feel as though I am providing appropriate resources and support but not everyone agrees and that erodes my confidence.

I asked some other teacher about it and they all put on a solid and confident face, whether or not it's real.  "I've done what I can to help this child."

I put this face on as well and I believe it until I'm confronted.  I don't know how to balance the compassion that I feel for these students and my believe that mistakes are necessary for growth.

On the surface, I know which complaints and push-back are irrational and which have a solid basis, but emotionally, I can't square it.

As a result, I'm trying to take a step back, examine what I've done and what I haven't.  I'm speaking to students whose judgement I trust and asking them how I can improve.  Part of this means recognizing that whether my students are appropriately placed in my class or not, I still have a responsibility to help them.

Today's step was about organization.  Two-dimensional physics problems with Newton's Laws are very complicated. Color-coding can help...

Why are you not doing everything you possibly can for my child?

I think that in many cases, I am.  No matter what, someone is bound to disagree.


I hope that I remember this when my own children start having difficulty in school.

Day 68: Work!

As we approach winter break, I'm slowing down what I cover in class.  This is partially because I'm near the end of the current chapter and rather than starting a new one, I'd rather give the students time in class to work on their various projects.

This seems to be paying off.

When they came in today, I give the astronomy kids a list of due dates for the remainder of the assignments and time in class to work on what they needed to accomplish.  Most of the students used this time wisely and I was suitably impressed.

One pair of young women wrote a rap song about the vocabulary words.  As soon as they finish recording it, I'll be posting it here.  It's pretty awesome.

The other assignment that has me VERY excited is "Using specific planetary information, describe in detail what life on that planet would look like and why?"  For example: Mars has about of a third of the gravity of Earth, so the creatures there would likely be taller with less dense bone structure.  Since It's an arid planet, they would probably also be covered in scales.

The discussions that I've had with students about this one gives me hope for the outcomes.  I pointed them in the direction Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, a book written in 1979 where the author did anthropological studies of aliens from science fiction books.

In the book, he has drawings, many of them anatomical of the aliens as well as description of their habitats, physical characteristics, culture, etc.

I truly love this project because it allows students to be creative while still grounding their work in reality, which the difference between science fiction and fantasy.

As is expected, some of the students are doing bare minimum, or less than that, but several are getting seriously into the assignments, using their creativity to demonstrate their knowledge.

I don't believe that there will ever be an assignment, or even a group, that will grab the attention of every student, but this collection seems to be coming close.  While making up the menu for the next chapter, I'm learning a considerable amount about wording of the assignments and respective point values.

I do a good amount of reflection on my attitudes and thoughts, but not nearly enough on my assignments.  I like this one and will be working to improve it.

Day 67: Tuned Out

I probably should have stayed home again today.  I took yesterday off as I had some sort of allergic reaction and couldn't bend my fingers.  When I came back in today, I discovered that something got screwed up with our district network and I was unable to access any of the videos that I was planning to show.

Instead, the astronomy classes talked about Earth.

It was boring and with my low level of energy from not feeling well, I did an awesome job of making it MORE boring.

I got better as the day went on, but it never really became interesting.  We did talk about the greenhouse tipping point in terms of the polar ice caps and how their melting would send us into a spiral from which we could not recover.

The possible inevitable death of all humanity always seems to grab the attention of teenagers.


Tomorrow, progress reports are due.  This means that, even though we have an online gradebook, students are suddenly realizing that not having done any work means they are failing.  Simple lack of participation in weekly discussions means that almost 80% of my astronomy students have F's.  From the differentiated assignments, the student who have done it have demonstrated good work, but almost half of my students simply haven't done the assignments.

As I've said before, historically, the students who take astronomy do so either because they genuinely care about astronomy, or because they have failed other science classes and need the science credit to graduate.  It's not a hard course, but it's not possible to pass if you refuse to do work.

I hate blaming the kid, but there comes a time when that's inevitable.  If, after repeated reminders, allowing late work to be turned in and constant ability to access grade information, a student still doesn't turn in assignments, it's very hard for me to see how I could be doing something differently.

I've been having this conversation with one of my colleagues recently.  He developed a multi-modal lab from his chemistry students that involved spectroscopes and light diffraction.  He even told them that if they did well, they would do a lab after where they set things on fire to determine chemical composition.

More than half of his students opted to take the zero and just not do the lab.  He and I are both have tremendous difficulty figuring out how to combat these attitudes. There are deep seated systemic issues that he and I are unable to tackle on a grand scale.  So we do what we can to combat it on the scale of our classrooms, but we are at a loss.

I try to make my class interesting.  Most days, I succeed.  I cannot hold myself responsible for the choices of my students.

I recognize that school isn't a priority for many of my students and many of their families.  Many of them are preoccupied with keeping food on the table and keeping the lights on.

There are much deeper issues at work in communities of poverty than can't be cured by just asking teachers to "be more engaging."

Day 65: #HighFiveFriday

There are tons of major things that you can do to change the culture of a school.  Professional development is FULL of them:

• Set up a token economy
• Feature a "Student of the Week"
• Feature a "Teacher of the Week"
• Cover your walls in student work
• Mandate a single lesson format for all lessons
• Have regular assemblies or pep rallies

There are also tons of little things you can do.

Most of my students don't want to be at school.  When I see kids walking down the hallway, so many of them look angry, sad, tired or just spaced out.  This wasn't a great week for me either and I was very glad that today was Friday, but when I came in this morning, I had an interaction with one of my coworkers.

She told me that my students have told her that they really enjoy my class and that they are learning a ton.  I'm not writing this because I want my readers to agree or disagree with it or with my view of my own abilities.  I'm writing it because it reminded me that our perceptions of ourselves are skewed.

I'm not the greatest teacher in the world,m but I am by no means the worst.

I want my students to enjoy my class AND I want them to learn.  If they are doing both, how could I be upset.

Even if they aren't, school still should be a place where they don't hate to be.

To that end, I'm trying to do little things to change the culture, such as #HighFiveFriday.


I stood in the hallway between classes actively giving out high fives to every student who passed me.  If they refused, I followed them down the hallway with an expectant smile, gesturing to my own hand telling them not to leave me hanging.

Students who came passed me multiple times over the day asked what was up.

"HIGH FIVE FRIDAY!!"

I already gave you one.

"EVERY TIME YOU COME BY ME! HIGH FIVE FRIDAY!"

Halfway through the day, the teacher across the hall made the observation that every single kid left with a smile.  Even the ones who refused to high five had the "HAH! I got away with something" smirk.

At the end of 6th period, I was at my spot in the hall, handing out high velocity, high altitude palm presses when a student I hadn't seen before asked me what I was doing.  Before I could answer, one of my 1st period students who was at her locker replied with "It's high five Friday, duh."

No one is too cool for a high five.

I dare you to resist the urge to high five your computer screen.

C'mon! Do it!!  HIGH FIVE FRIDAY!

What small things do/can you do to improve culture of your school?