Category: Teaching

Spirit Week 2012

This is my favorite week of school: Spirit Week.  Granted, I love celebrating Halloween; so this is almost the “warm up” to that. Monday was “Crazy Hair Day.” Most days, I fight with my hair to minimize its craziness.  On this particular day, I upped the ante. Several Halloween celebrations ago when I still lived in Monterrey, Mexico, I had enough time on my hands to design and assemble several snake headds out of felt in order to be Medusa. Although I took a huge creative license, I did a great job conveying “snakeness.” Medusa needed her snakes in order to turn people into stone.  I, on the other hand, with a close up of my morning face, can stop people cold in their tracks!

Tuesday was “Twins Day.” Last year, I wanted the other teachers in my academy to wear one of our academy Tshirts and I also asked if they would wear a dreadlock wig. I’m sure there was a collective laugh over that request.  Well, this year, I loosened my net and invited the entire school to wear their HS rockets club Tshirts and dreads. This time, one other teacher took me up on my offer; so I had a twin this year!

Wednesday was “Wear Your Class Color Wednesday.” Students were quite enthusiastic, dressed in their assigned class colors: black, pink, yellow or green, depending on if they were a senior, junior, sophomore or freshman.  I dug up on of my Class of 88 Westover Wolverines Tshirt.  None of my students seemed to noticed that I graduated from HS before they were born.

Thursday was 80s Day. As much as I’d like to forget the horrible fashion of the decade, people still love to dress up like clowns. About the only thing I had to contribute to my look were the black spandex pants. A friend lent me the chain belts and for some funny reason, she also lent me several banana clips.  As if I’d bother fighting with those things in my dreads.  Instead, I spent far too much time, putting my locks into a series of elastic bands to form a ponytail.  That was pretty authentic since I’d used to wear my hair like that in the 80s–predreadlock days.

Friday was School Spirit Day.  This was the least creative day for me. All I wore was a school Tshirt that I would have normally worn on a Friday. Yet, something miraculous occurred. One of my students had hinted earlier in the week that he had a gift for me. This morning, he brought the gift.  My jaw dropped when he handed me three Bob Marley LPs. Vinyl!  I didn’t even know my students knew about vinyl.  Over the years, thanks to technological advancements, my students barely know how to tell time, using an analog clock, the concepts of clockwise/counterclockwise and how to write in cursive. I hugged my student for gifting me the albums and said that I’ll now have to buy a record player at Goodwill. One thing’s for sure: I’ve now got more interesting art work for my walls at home.

Opening the Third Eye

Toward the end of teaching my most behaviorally challenging Physics class, I paused my explanation of how to use the kinematic equation, which displayed on the powerpoint, so students could jot down some notes. One of the biggest disrupters, both in size and “spiritedness,” took advantage of the silence and said, “Ms. Roberson, let me know when you’re ready to open your third eye.”

I was geniunely impressed by this particular off-topic statement, given the fact that not 10 minutes earlier, he’d grumbled under his breath, “I don’t wanna be in this f****** class,” presumably because he’d learned that after scrambling to turn in some last minute late work, he’d still fallen short of a passing grade for the first marking period.

I smiled at his invitation to help me open the portal to a deeper enlightenment. Later on, I wondered if he’d just heard about opening one’s third eye somewhere or if he actually knew the depth of what he’d said.  I would’ve loved to discuss spirituality with him and I’m sure the rest of the class would have enjoyed an off-topic discussion since that would’ve taken us off the apparent subject at hand.  Also, my students would have been pleasantly surprised to learn that there are theoretical physics concepts to explain consciousness; it’s just not on the curriculum so I don’t teach it.

Over the weekend, I did a little research to better understand the ramifications of opening my third eye. I’d already known that the third eye housed intuition, but I didn’t know that opening that particular chakra would cause me to have visions in vivid purple, gold and intense white. Some people with open third eyes can see the souls of people who have committed suicide and are ashamed of what they did, but are too afraid of being judged to move on. Others become more sensitive to the energy of the people around them. Often times, if someone with an opened third eye is in a crowd of mostly negative people, then the enlightened person feels drained.

One strategy for dealing with negative energy is to avoid negative people. Another suggestion is taking a cooler shower than one’s used to and visualizing the cool water washing away the negative energy. As soon as I read that, I better understood how lap swimming helped relaxed me.  I always visualized my stress dissolving into the water and in that relaxed state and in motion, I could usually come up with creative solutions to problems I was having, usually teaching-related.

I never associated this phenomenon with spirituality since it made so much sense corporally. As a matter of fact, I’ve developed such a thick skin, I don’t know if I can afford to shed it and become more sensitive to other people’s energies. I certainly don’t want to open myself up more of the tragic-draining energy that my students bring with them to class. I get enough of that when I call their parents when my students’ behavior gets  out of hand.

At the same time, if I better understood how to channel my students’ energy into something positive, then that would be well worth it. Even if the effect wasn’t assessed on one of those soulless standardized tests, in the long run, my students would benefit from learning how to discipline their energy constructively.

Bounce

The much-anticipated first day of school found me shedding a few tears and dropping many F-bombs, all before 9 am. I’d accepted a new teaching position as an English Language Learner science teacher, which means that I had to hustle during the sweet week of school without students and prep for 5 different science classes.  A nearly impossible feat, but I was ready for a complete change of teaching venue and had even figured out how to make juggling that many preps possible.

The woman (I hesitate to call someone so unprofessional a “teacher”) who had accepted my former position, broke contract  in less than 24 hours and sent my new ambition of teaching in a different capacity at my school down the toilet. With tears in my eyes, I explained to the teacher who I’d briefly replaced, what I’d planned for the 5 different ELL science classes. For her part, she was just as upset having to be absent from her new district job to cover her former position until another ELL science teacher was hired.

The original plan was that we’d teach in our former classrooms until my replacement was hired, then we could return to our new positions.  I put my foot down after greeting my first class of the school year. Since that woman had broken contract with the swiftness of a double-crossing pirate, there was no name listed on students’ schedules for the Physics classes that were taking place in room 216. As students who had me two years ago for Biology approached the room and saw me outside the door on hall duty, they excitedly asked me, “Ms. Roberson, are you teaching this class?” I tucked away my frustration and smiled at them, stating that I was their Physics teacher. Their enthusiasm about having me as their science teacher again was my silver lining.

So, even though my classroom walls were bare (one student even asked where was Bob Marley), I enjoyed seeing my former freshmen Biology students as mature juniors.  By day two, I had stapled up one of my Bob Marley wall hangings although the rest of my classroom remained sterile. At least my favorite eclectic internet radio station helped set the atmosphere as the students worked on their beginning tasks.

Two years ago, many teachers lost their jobs and classroom sizes swelled. The swelling continued this year and at one count, I had 205 students among 6 classes. So, this first week saw me making more copies of handouts and in a continual state of collecting, marking, passing back work. Yet, just in time for Labor Day weekend, I’d marked and entered the last grades. Not only that, I’d set a good tone in each class.

I figured I’d have a good weekend since there are so many happening things to do around Austin. Looking at the big picture, I knew that I’d have a good weekend just because, once I hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up.

After school on Friday, I went to bikram yoga, which is my new drug, followed by watching a good movie while eating dinner and sipping wine at home. I attended my usual 10 am capoeira class on Saturday. Later, I met some folks for lunch and conversation, then attended an art opening where I shamelessly plugged the Austin Writers Roulette. Lastly, I closed the night by going out to dance cumbia.

And I have two more glorious days! True to my Virgo nature, I’ve planned out my social calendar, the roulette line up, some character details for my WIP and cooking. As much as I enjoy eating, cooking  for the week is a time-consuming task that’s best accomplished when I block out at least three hours to accomplish. The pay off is that I have a delicious lunch during the week.

As hard as I hit in the last two weeks, I hope I can enjoy a much slower upward trajectory of success.

Graduation Day 2012

Usually I only attend a high school graduation if there are a significant number of seniors who I know are walking. After teaching at the same high school for the past three years, my advisory class has finally grown up and walked across the stage. For some seniors, they had one of my science classes for three years in a row, thanks to my ever-changing teaching schedule.

Since I was one of the sponsor teachers, I got to wear the cool black robe, but longed for the magic wand like the teachers at Hogwarts carry! Nonetheless, I was the first teacher to arrive at the Frank Erwin center, where we held the seniors in a holding pen as if they were bulls, waiting to be released. I took advantage of moment by taking pictures with the members of my advisory class who I could find.

If I thought being in that room was a long wait, sitting through the actual ceremony was mind-numbing as different people made speech after speech.

Finally, the ceremony got to the part we’d all been waiting for, the famed walk across the stage. I was so proud as I watched my students walk and I remembered all the times I had to call home just to get them back on track. As a matter of fact, some of the most notorious students I made hug me since, whether they knew it or not, my constant monitoring of their behavior was the only reason they even passed.

It’s almost going to be a brand new student body for me since most of the students I taught this past year were seniors. Of course I don’t know which classes that I’m teaching in the next school year and I’m certainly not curious enough to return to school to find out.  I figure that getting the email with the master schedule will be good enough for me later on in the summer.

Until then, I’m going to take the advice that I gave to the graduating seniors and make the best of what’s to come.

Vatican City Prostitutes

I can truly tell that spring break is a week away, given how challenging last week was. Due to two doctors’ appointments, I took Wednesday off, but I still felt just as drained on Friday as if I’d actually worked five days.

I noticed that one of my neighboring teachers, who is new to my high school, but not the teaching profession, also looked just as drained. I asked him how things were going and he said that he couldn’t believe how things were organized at our school. He’d moved from a high school in San Antonio and just figured that since we taught in the capital, things would be much more organized.

I laughed and said the first thing that came to mind. “That’s just like expecting Vatican City not to have prostitutes!” We shared a laugh and he said he really liked my analogy.

It’s wonderful how such a small, humorous comment can make life breathable…at least long enough to finish out the remaining class period of a draining week.

I did myself a favor on my day off by going grocery shopping after my doctors’ appointments, so I could cook for the upcoming week three days earlier. That little schedule shuffling came in handy, given the fun things that I’d planned to do on the weekend. Plus, I got to munch on my delicious black olive and eggplant quiche for a couple of days before dividing it up into individual lunch containers for the upcoming week.

I had organized for three capoeira girlfriends to join me to see the latest Cirque du Soleil show, Quidam. The tickets were a little pricey, but we splurged in order to treat ourselves to a wonderful show and hang with each other.

Our evening began at my place for a little happy hour. One friend abstained from drinking for Lent, which made her the designated driver for the night. Although our happy hour was BYOB only the teetotler actually brought her own drink. Boxed red wine to the rescue!

We hit the road to the Cedar Park Center, which was an easy, entertaining 30-minute drive since we had some good conversation going the whole ride north.

Once we hit our seats, the “ringmaster” began interacting with the crowd for a few minutes. The show officially began about ten minutes later. That was such perfect timing, given that three out of four of us were mothers who had to settle childcare obligations before going out.

I’d seen another Cirque du Soleil show called Alegria about ten years ago; so seeing another Cirque du Soleil show was long overdue. Just like the other show where I remember holding my breath and fearing that someone would get hurt or drop something, I loved the show and marveled at the physical strength and flexibility of the acrobats.

One of the clowns interacted a lot with the crowd while the acrobats set up for the next breathtaking feat to shame the rest of us stiff, overweight slobs. (I should be losing weight over the next 30 days though since I’ve joined in my capoeira school’s physical challenge!)

For all the contraptions that suspended the acrobats in the air and objects juggled too high for my comfort, my favorite acrobatic part was the couple who balanced in different positions, using only the strength and flexibility of their bodies.

Afterwards, we made the mad dash into the cold, crowded parking lot. Our designated driver had the forethought to park near the end of a row so we could get out in little time. We then rode back into Austin to a sweet little hole in the wall. Another capoeirista friend had invited the group to this place in order to celebrate a birthday and just hang out and have a good time in general.

For $5 a person, we danced to Brazilian and African music and had access to an all-you-can-eat buffet.  I was initially weary about that buffet, but it was absolutely delicious, consisting of mixed vegetables, a beef dish, and a chicken dish. Everything was seasoned so beautifully, I suspect it was all laced with pork. 

I’m so happy to train with such a diverse group of people who are interested in doing various cultural things in addition to capoeira. It truly helps to make the stress and illogicalness of school a more bearable situation.

Budding Cartoonist

I can hardly ever retrace the path of my creative ideas, but as far as my latest one, I know I was swimming. If I care to go back a little further, I had checked out two books the Saturday before I’d gone swimming. One was “A History of Mathematics” by Carl B. Boyer and the other was “How to Draw Comics” by Stan Lee. Strange mix?  Not really, if you know my main creative writing endeavor!

I’ve been working on my second novel, “The Adventures of Infinity and Negativa” for the past year.  The two title characters are mathematical characters who I visualize as two larger-than-life black female superhero types. They’re not superheroes in the sense of “saving” anyone, but I visualize them drawn in that superhero style.

Somehow, in the course of writing my second contemporary novel, these two fantasy characters entered the scene. Although my drawing abilities tell me that I will have to eventually hire a graphic artist to render Infinity and Negativa at a professional level, I’m still having fun with the newfound motivation to sketch.

I’d started taking a two-hour oil painting class when I lived in Honduras back in 2006.  I still continue the habit–at least when the weather is pleasant.  When it’s too cold, I don’t bother painting on my wonderful little balcony.  Instead, I sketch out things that I’ll eventually paint when the weather improves.

What makes this sketching season so special is that I’m bringing my characters to life, given my limited abilities! As I excitedly read Lee’s inviting, encouraging book, geared toward budding cartoonists, such as myself, I hit the golden tip that can catapult my dream into a reality even faster: there’s a free on-line program that will help me with the illustrative aspects of making my own cartoon strip or graphic novel form.

So, while I swam, my thoughts swirled around how I could use that program to insert graphic depictions of Infinity and Negativa then embed that directly into the manuscript. Then, my thoughts drifted back to my classroom situation.  I used to pour so much of my creative energy into my classroom because I had the freedom to do so. Now, it’s all I can do to assess, analyze data, create another assessment and keep on that tedious high-stakes testing gerbil wheel.

Then it happened. My creative writing/illustrative idea crossed with my challenge of being creative in the classroom.  First up, I thought about how my students would love the idea of doing a science research project, summarizing their results in and on-line comic strip format.  Then, another tantalizing idea came to me: I could use the program to help express some of the challenges that I have as a teacher. A comic strip based on the challenges of a public school classroom teacher! 

As usual, I have to somehow find the time to put the idea into action since I’m such a busybody that I scarcely have time to do every creative idea I can think of. At the same time, the writing aspect of this new endeavor will not be too difficult since I’d base it mostly on my teaching experiences since I hit the Lone Star State.

I finished up my swimming workout, feeling far more than physically energized. I have to get over the new technology hump and then see how far I get from there. As far as my manuscript is concerned, I’m still working on it every day until it’s ready for editing. Yet, I’m not a one-trick pony; so I have to keep my mind sharp on many creative aspects. 

Half Day Vacation

Christmas vacation has already started for me since we’ve been on half days since last Thursday.  For the first time in the three years that I’ve been teaching at my current high school, all four of the exam days are “early release,” which means my professional stress level has gone dramatically down.  Even with the students turning in the last of their make up work, I have time during the two-hour final to start planning for the upcoming semester, but at least it’s a leisurely, pleasurable experience to map it all out.

Of course, nature abhors a vaccum; so I do have things scheduled for all of the half days. Thursday, I had my dentist appt. Friday, my academy had its culminating secret santa pot luck, where I discovered that my secret santa and I pulled each other’s names. And my “award-winning” cornbread went deliciously well with a coworker’s chili. Afterwards, I went to a Christmas bazaar and bought all the gifts I needed for my family.

Monday morning, I’m joining my science colleagues at IHOP for our semester breakfast since none of us have third period exams.  Third period is when we’re scheduled to have our meetings.  I must admit, this is my absolute favorite one.  Even though we get around to shop talk, at least we’re eating!  Actually, I usually bring my lunch to the meetings since I don’t care to wolf down my lunch in the allotted 38 minutes that I’m scheduled.

And this Tuesday, my favorite day since it will be the last day of finals, I’m having lunch at one of my favorite sushi places to talk with another writer. Wednesday, I think we’re obligated to report to school to sign for our grades and attendance sheets, but I’ve already planned to go to yoga and the chiropractor afterwards. What a dream!

Then, the real vacation begins, five days of being with my family…all nine of us under one roof! For just one week.  That’s about the proper amount of time before I start sprouting more gray hair. Then it’s back to Austin to ring in the New Year.

Funny how this blog post still reads as if I’m plotting out lesson plans. Some things don’t take a holiday.

Work = mad

As the semester draws to an end, one would think that I would spend a great deal of my time preparing final exams and their accompanying study guides, but the school administration has geared up a final kick of its own. We’re now spending too much time in too many meetings “analyzing student data.” Once we finish analyzing that data, we have to drill and kill those objectives, assess the students again, then analyze that data.  The cycle never ends until the students take their standardized tests in late spring.

In the meantime, I’ve been wrapping up the last physics objectives, which deal with the scientific meanings of “work” and “power,” along with their equations. The basic work equation is work equals force times distance (W = Fd). Sometimes, depending on the given information, we have to calculate force, using  mass and acceleration; so work equals mass times acceleration times distance (W = mad).

And there it is: Work = mad. Very rarely does what I teach mirror how I feel about the bureacratic aspect of my career. I proudly told my students that the “mad” equation was my favorite work equation. I didn’t explain why. 

I wrote all the work and power equations on the whiteboard.  To help my students set up the practice problems, I read  each scenario and asked them to identify the given variables. Then, I asked them which equation was needed in order to answer the question. Everytime the scenario gave the mass, acceleration and distance, some students chorused that we had to use the “mad equation.” Hearing them correctly identify the needed equation scenario after scenario made me less mad about the behind the scenes BS involved.

I wonder how many of them will remember the mad equation long after graduation. I hope I can always find a silver lining in the classroom to counteract the horrors of standardized testing.

“Morticia Addams”

I believe in celebrating Halloween like a celebrate my birthday, over a period of time.  Anytime I get to dress up more than once in order to observe Halloween, I’m very happy.  I don’t know if there’s any deep, pyschological meaning behind dressing up as someone else for a period of time other than using another creative outlet, but since this past Halloween fell on a school day, I rose to the occasion.

Even though I’ve taught at my present high school for three years, I’m still not clear as to whether I’m actually allowed to dress up for Halloween.  Nonetheless, I’ve done it three times now and not once have I’ve been talked to about it.

This particular Halloween, two of the principals walked into my first period class in order to do an unannounced observation.  They had their laptops tucked under their arms, but seemed disoriented when they looked at me.

One of them whispered in my direction, “Oh, she’s not here.”

As I walked toward him, I whispered back, “Who’s not here?”

At that moment, I had come close enough for both administrators to see that I was indeed there, but just in disguise.  They laughed, looked around and noticed that the students were testing and walked back out without bothering to evaluate me.  Normally, if the students are taking a quiz or test, the administrators don’t bother to type up an evaluation since they want to observe teaching.

Yet, that was one of my favorite experiences of the day since most people don’t immediately recognize me if I wear a wig. Many of my students initially thought that I was a substitute teacher as well. In addition to the wig, which is slowly developing dreadlocks of its own since I don’t have a comb or brush, I wore a dress, make up and had my nails painted.

I usually don’t bother with getting my fingernails painted since I’m very active, but my manicurist convinced me to try gel polish, which dries with the help of UV light and lasts for two weeks.  I must admit that it is very impressive stuff, but with my busybody self, this polish has only lasted a week.  I’m going back to the salon to get it removed since regular nail polish remover isn’t strong enough to do the trick.  Nonetheless, this industrial-strength polish has been a far less frustrating experience than the usually cheap ass polish that chips mere hours after having it done.

Now that Halloween is officially over, I’ll just have to rely on my usual expressions of creativity through my writing, dancing, painting and whatever creative opportunities I can eek out of my teaching, given the district’s climate of pyschopathic testing.

Rhythm of Life

During the week, I hustle throughout the school day, juggling so many tasks that when I hit the weekend and only do 20 things during the weekend, I actually feel as if I’ve had a mini-vacation.

My weekend consisted of swimming, samba, flash mob practice, capoeira performance, salsa, painting, yoga, cooking for the week and a writers’ critique meeting–and those were just the big-ticket items I checked off the weekend to-do list.  Some people don’t do that much during the week and yet, it’s my typical weekend.

I believe in making the most of my life. I want to spend every moment pursuing happiness. I enjoy being a busybody since I truly rejuvenate through my activities.  The past three weeks have been the most intense at school and I’m attempting to turn things around so I can even out my stress level.  At the same time, I feel that the more connections I make with people here, the closer I’ll get to the next big thing in my life.

One thing about my adult life since graduating from college, I’ve not stayed in one place beyond three years. I purposely chose Austin since it looked a creative crucible where I could be happy.  The only thing I overlooked was how challenging teaching in its public school system was.    I’m not going to allow the hostile school system to drive me outta town, but I’ve not yet discovered my next career.

I’d love to transition into writing, but I don’t want to close off any other creative avenues.  Today, after I read the first chapter of my second novel, The Adventures of Infinity and Negativa, one of my critique partners suggested that I start a foundation for female mathematicians.  What a lighting bolt!  I’d never thought of starting my own foundation, but it gives me another realm of possibilities to explore.  If I’m driven out of the classroom because administrators would rather have obedient robots rather than creative teachers, then I may have to start my own creative outlet in addition to writing.

I’ll have to sleep on that and see what my subconcious dreams about the situation.