Updating

Okay, since last post in February the school I was at closed because of a brand new school being opened down the street. My school district mixed my paperwork with someone else's making it impossible for me to get a contract this year, but I did pick up a long-term sub job only to be offered a contract at that spankin' new school. I took the contract with great guilt over the students who I had promised I would be there for the entire year.

I teach ESL this year and feel overwhelmed by a group of beginners who lack the motivation to try and learn English. I am used to thinking about the impact of the CAHSEE on students and am wondering how are these students going to be able to pass it.

On the upside I am going to have technology to rival that of any school in CA. The only thing i'm currently missing is my class set of laptops, but i've been told i'll have them by second semester. I have only been at my new assignment for three weeks and have already had to go to professional development. Two days were for QTEL which is encouraging. The other day was for a text reader product by Kurzweil.

The little technogeek in me got excited with the Kurzweil product, Bernie if you still read this you should check it out if you haven't. It's cool because you can scan text in and the program reads it to students. It highlights the sentences and lowlights the actual word being read. If you don't know what a word means you can highlight and click on the dictionary icon for a definition. It also has the ability to allow the teacher to go in and add things to the reading. If you want your students to pause at a certain point to answer a question or any other thing you insert a sticky or have the ability to insert a question that has to be answere before the text will continue to read. The teacher can also highlight what you think is important. The students is also able to do all of these things. The great thing is that you can block some of the things that a student does while reading the text. The other cool thing is the text extractor. If you want students to high light main ideas they can and then all the highlighted points can be extracted and submitted. Or the text can be extracted and used as a study guide. Teaching made easy.

Another great thing about this program is the text writer. As students type they can hear what they are typing and hopefully it will help them to notice misspellings or any other errors.

The voices are not monotone robotic. There are two voices that sound more human than normal. I sound like a salesperson for this program, but I have to admit I can see it helping some of my most beginning students.

Tired and Overwhelmed

Okay for the last few weeks I have been doing the Master's program at a local university. Everything has been fine. Nothing has conflicted with my teaching life, until this past week. Teaching AVID sometimes requires me to go to training. This week I began tutor training and I was under the impression I had to only go to one session. I have to go to all three sessions which are on Tuesdays, the day I have class. I make it to class about 15 minutes late. The professor says it's okay. The kicker is I have homework from training and school tacked on with some BTSA work. Can we say give me a day off? Sure it's a three day weekend. But I started it by going to a different training on a new book that we will be using in the CAHSEE class, in which i'm the only teacher who teachers it. I have to update my resume. Begin posting for next school year and summer school. Get some grading done. Spend quality time with my daughter. Can we say overwhelmed. I'm already looking forward to the next three day weekend. I also have to plan for this school week.
On the plus side the AVID training will look good on my resume as will the masters degree. Hopefully this new text will be better than our current one. So long as I survive this week, i'll be fine. I think i'll just have to break up the next two days into chunks so i'll feel like i'm managing.

Keeping up

Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed. With no classroom in site it is becoming harder to keep up with what I need to do and easier to procrastinate. One problem with no classroom is feeling like an intruder. I often feel like I am invading someone's space. While I feel bad for myself, I also feel bad for the other teachers who do not get their classroom to themselves. Nearly all the teachers have been supportive, but I can't shake the feeling that i'm a guest. There is a saying that my mom has told me in spanish, but here it is in English "Guests like the dead begin to smell after a few days." I like the saying that is how i'm beginning to feel.
I start the masters program soon, and while i'm excited i'm also wondering what in the world i'm doing. I let my friend/colleague talk me into doing the program. The program is supposed to work in conjunction with BTSA, but as i'm already behind in BTSA i'm wondering what i'm doing.
Kids they're great. Most of my kids are wonderful. I laughingly call them heathens, but realisticly it is a heather world that they live in. They are great. Many of them offer to help me when they see me trucking along with my cart. Some don't even ask. Instead they grab my cart and ask where i'm going. I do have the exception of having a few kids that I just shake my head at and think I won't have them next year. But the other kids make the day enjoyable. I have realized I have a good day if someone makes me laugh. So long as I can laugh I don't get discouraged of all the issues surrounding this education business.
I keep telling me self to hang in there for the long haul and I know I will but traveling is difficul.