Why Teaching in NC is Starting To Feel Like I'm Married to an Abuser.

'Cause I am.

Year 21. Yet another year of not getting the step - forget a raise, just the step - that was promised me when I signed my contract. I'm losing $3,000 in pay, this year alone. While it won't affect me personally, Master's pay is being eliminated. The school board for which I work is suing the county for underfunding both the operating and capital budgets, while the county sits on millions beyond the required Rainy Day money.

 I can almost deal with that. Seriously.

Charlotte's a banking town, and the 2008 mess hit particularly hard around here. People who still had jobs held their collective breath as Wachovia was swept away, Wells Fargo swept in, and B of A held on. The real estate market here still hasn't recovered. It's been a rough few years. Believe me; I get it.

Here's what I can't deal with - the attitude. Why the smear? Why the attack?

I could live with, "Y'all, we know this sucks. We know we're doing you wrong. If you just hang in there, it will get better, eventually. Promise. Until then, thank you for putting up with it"

Instead what we get is - and I'm not putting words in someone's mouth - this was said - "If they don't like it, they can leave."

Got that right, buddy. Market economies work both ways, and I live near the border. Driving 15 minutes in the other direction will net me $12,000 more annually. I'll be taking my metaphorical ball and going home. Next year.

What?

I know. I know. I know.

I applied late to said county, and haven't got it in me to pursue a job which would leave kids in a community I love in a lurch. Can't do it. Which, of course, is how we are kept in line. If we pitch a fit and stand up for ourselves in a way that will force the media and the public to deal with us, and so, put real pressure on the state, kids will suffer. So we don't.

Instead, I'll focus on all of the things, and there are many, I love about my job, my colleagues, and my children. I will teach my tail off, and the public will not get what it pays for; it'll get a helluva lot more. And, though I'll hate myself for it, I'll forgive, yet again, the fact that I'm not just undervalued, I'm reviled, and my abuser doesn't mind crowing out to the world that I continue to sit there and take it,  because, surely, I deserve it.

So, NC and I will stay together, just one more year, for the sake of the kids.

I'll Be Less of a Loser Thanks to Remind 101

I'm a high-strung hot mess, a trait that has actually worked for me in the classroom, but it tends to get in the way of one thing, in particular. Parent communication. I am not good at finding time to sit down, write a cogent newsletter, get it to the copier, and finally, into folders. Too bloody many steps, so it doesn't happen. I can cut out a couple of said steps by sending emails; and I'm better at that, but I still need something for those quickie reminders that I always mean to give, but don't quite.

Enter Remind101.

I can text from my computer, and I can even schedule texts ahead of time, While my dumbphone gets texts just fine, it won't run the app, but my tablet will. That means that I can compose texts wherever I am when I think of it. In my untreated-adult ADHD world, that's useful. Useful and free. Good combo.

There are several lengthy tutorials on YouTube to help  you get started. I didn't think it was all that complicated, so I slapped together another of my odd stream-of-consciousness overviews

Click here to visit the Remind101 website.

Why Sophia Is My New Bestie

I've worked pretty hard this summer putting together math (and a few science) video lessons to flip the instruction in those subjects. No, I'm not the Khan, but I'm reasonably pleased, at least for now, with how they turned out.

Now what?

They're cool and all, but how do I know who did and didn't watch? Don't tell me to get the parents to sign for it. I sign for stuff A.J. says he did pretty regularly, without backchecking it. Every once in a great while, when he was in elementary school, I'd sign for reading that never happened. We were busy; we'll make up for it this weekend. Really.

I've solved most of that by requiring examples and notes in the math notebook, but that doesn't mean the kid didn't just copy from someone else, and while that's not the end of the world, copying a notebook and missing a whole lesson is a bigger deal than copying the answers for a random worksheet.

Compound that with this - Video lessons aren't meant to teach to mastery; they're to prepare kids for the doing that will get them to mastery. Still, how will I know when I've left them completely clueless? Shouldn't I know that before the math session starts? I'd think so...

So I was in a bit of a quandry. Then I went to camp.

At EdCamp Forth Worth, Texas, Todd Nesloney, @TechNinjaTodd on Twitter and his sidekick @TechNinjaStacey (Yes, you should follow them.) taught a session on flipped classrooms. They introduced us to the platform they use, Sophia. (Cue sunshine parting the clouds and angels' singing.)

You will find this free tool here at sophia.org  It allows me to integrate my video lesson, links to more practice, more audio or video files, a multiple-question quiz, and more on one screen. It also gives me a stats page so I know who watched, for how long, and how he or she did on the attached quiz, if I made one. It also runs on a Sophia screen, so even though the video is on YouTube, a kid isn't technically on YouTube while watching, which may make parents less scared of the whole thing.

I couldn't find a video about Sophia's teacher features, so I slapped this one together:

I'm relieved! I was starting to feel like I was pulling at straws, but now everything feels tied together. 

An Aura-gasm, or How I'm Jazzing Up Open House with Augmented Reality

At the end of a session at EdCamp Forth Worth, TX, a young, attractive teacher burst in to find a friend of hers, all in a dither and going on about something called Aurasma and Augmented Reality. At the time, she wasn't really making sense, but now I get it.

She was having an Aura-gasm.

Poor young thing couldn't handle it.  Now, I haven't been a twenty-something for a good twenty-something years, but I know a revolutionary thing when I see it, and figured this was worth checking out. I wasn't disappointed.

Cool, right? But does it have practical applications?

Imagine a worksheet that can be self-, peer-, or parent-checked by hovering a tablet over it. Take that same worksheet and imagine a tutorial linked in by hovering a smartphone. Got some difficult words (or words from another language) on a page of text? Link in an audio file to pronounce those words or a pic with a definition. How about video vocabulary? A.gif that pops up over an unfamiliar word to add meaning? Maybe some kind of mnemonic? That'll stick in their heads even better. Lower grades, can you say, 'Sight Words' and 'Place value blocks'?

Of course, there's always going for the gimmick, which I'll do with Open House. I'm going to hang some pictures of last year's kids working and place QR codes next to them so that parents can see their online projects. Some will also have auras added, and I'll post a sign inviting families to come in, grab a tablet, and explore. That should space out the entries into the room and the competition for my attention. Better yet, it should create some buzz and excitement for what goes on in my room.

I'd set you up with a tutorial on getting started with Aurasma, but the gentlemen at Two Guys and Some iPads have already done a bang-up job with that. You'll find it here.

Then get others on the bandwagon. Everyone knows that Aura-gasms are best when they're shared. ;)

The One-Rule Classroom

An interesting thought, huh? Yesterday, @mattBgomez, a Texas kindergarten teacher and EdCamp organizer, posted "Be Brave: The Only Rule in My Kindergarten Class" (You can read it here.) and after I got past, 'that's probably a good rule for kindergarten teachers', I started thinking. There are layers of school and district rules. How many classroom rules do you really need? If I adopted just one rule, what would I choose?

 I think this is it: Live By Questions.

 It comes from Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi, in which Bear claims that to live by questions will keep you living, but living by answers is a form of death. Later in the chapter Crispin asks, "If I were to live by questions, what questions would they be?"  The philosopher Voltaire charges us to judge people by their questions, rather than their answers, and in the upper grades, the questions a kid asks is what separates a bright kid from a gifted one.

I'm still a firm believer in the Eight Great Habits, and will continue to incorporate them into classroom life. One rule doesn't mean no-holds-barred, but it gives light to what I think is most important.

Question Everything.