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2051. arkymalarky - 9/27/2019 3:13:40 PM Keep me posted on what you end up doing. Might not be your thing, but Mose is ecstatic about being a public school librarian. She would not go back to teaching English for anything, not because of the classroom but because of the grading. She never could get a system that kept her OCD in check so that she didn't have to mark every little thing every kid did. 2052. arkymalarky - 9/27/2019 3:16:18 PM Problem with libraries is that they're disappearing in public schools and I hate that. It's not happening where she is and she's teaching in a high-poverty 95% Latino Middle School. 2053. arkymalarky - 9/27/2019 3:22:54 PM Here in Arkansas to do post-secondary requires Masters plus 15 in the subject area. 2054. arkymalarky - 9/28/2019 12:13:06 AM Some good jobs within the system for people who want to build up their retirement are esl, curriculum, reading specialist. I never had any interest in administration or really anything besides the classroom, but got my masters in ESL and did some of that with teaching. Where I am that's not a full-time job anywhere. Counseling and special ed are nightmares because of the paperwork. A good friend of mine went from English teaching to counseling and she hated it. She's retired now. She was a writing specialist for year and I think she hated that as well. Much too much grading 2055. arkymalarky - 9/28/2019 12:16:02 AM I don't know about California, but I think in Arkansas if you do post-secondary in a state system you get to continue your retirement. To me that's important because once you do have to do at whatever point it's a shock to the system the change in income. I make about $15,000 less than I did teaching. I have AR retirement Savings Program, but I really don't want to use it up before I get Social Security. 2056. arkymalarky - 9/28/2019 12:17:11 AM That last was a joke. I'm not anywhere close to even putting a dent in it that's because I paid off a lot of debt and did some things in preparation to retire that helped 2057. Ms. No - 10/7/2019 3:34:01 AM Yeah, I don't know half of what I need to know about retirement and wealth-building. I'm also thinking I should talk to a life-coach/head-hunter/career-coach sort of person.
What I really want is just to do whatever the hell I want to do and not have to worry about money. I want to spend all my time playing with my family and doing art stuff and traveling.
I'm sooooooo lazy. 2058. arkymalarky - 10/7/2019 7:39:18 AM lol. I never thought about it until my school was closing. 2059. Ms. No - 10/8/2019 8:41:00 AM Had a conversation with a colleague at Sac State and she's steering me toward an EdD --- which, much as I have railed against them in the past is actually probably the best road for me.
2060. arkymalarky - 10/8/2019 5:01:07 PM I think you could do a lot with it. Education departments are much improved over what they used to be and their research has much more validity since they quit trying to imitate other departments and are truly looking at research-based improvements. My dad used to say it they start with a small flick of Truth and lather it up using jargon and hoohaw. That's just not true anymore. 2061. Ms. No - 10/20/2019 8:49:06 PM Well, we did it to ourselves this time, but to be honest, we didn't have all the facts when we made our decision.
We are now into our 7th week with the new principal, and we're having some pretty serious misgivings.
I realized just now, that I'm having a lovely morning and I'd rather not get myself all worked up over this at the moment. ---Yesterday it woke me up two hours before I intended to get out of bed.
So, that said, I'll report back later.
2062. Ms. No - 11/15/2019 12:18:17 AM Why is it that four day weeks seem to last so much longer than regular weeks?
So. dang. tired.
And we've got another week before Thanksgiving break.
In other news, I've been looking into taking the test for the Admin credential -- rather than spending $8k and 18 mos of my life learning how to do something I have no desire to do.
I was looking over the sample questions and the first time through I only scored about 80%. When I saw which ones I'd missed, however, I think I got the angle: Any time a question can be answered with "implement benchmark testing" or "refer to state standards," that is the answer you should choose.
So, if I can psych myself up and do a little crash-course studying for the exam, I'll hopefully have my prelim Admin credential before long and be able to enroll in the EdD program at Sac State for next Fall.
Honestly, I don't have to get the admin credential before I enter the EdD program, but it would be nice to have it done if only because it gives me job options right away if I need them. 2063. Ms. No - 11/15/2019 12:23:18 AM When I started this journey 12 years ago (13?) I knew --- and Arky, you said -- it wouldn't be the kids or the classroom that burnt me out. It would be the administrative and bureaucratic bullshit.
Not that I ever doubted you, but fer cryin' out loud. So many people with no clue how do educate kids making all the decisions about how kids should be educated.
Great article by Alfie Kohn, if anyone is interested. I don't agree with him 100% on every item, but I'm pretty close. I don't think he goes far enough with the first item --- we need to quit looking at education as nothing but prep for the workforce.
It’s Time to Rethink Education Policy:
Advice for the Democratic Presidential Candidates 2064. arkymalarky - 11/16/2019 1:54:11 AM It's one of the main reasons I liked being in small schools. There are bad admins there too, but they don't dominate the dynamic like they can in larger schools and I always felt like I can run my own classroom and ignore the rest of it for the most part. What happened to your principal situation? Is the person going to be staying? 2065. arkymalarky - 11/17/2019 5:40:29 PM Should have said rural not small 2066. Ms. No - 11/18/2019 5:46:40 PM Our previous principal -- who'd been here since the school started in one capacity or another -- finally just got burnt out and took a position with the county overseeing curriculum for the Dept. of Corrections.
The new principal sort of snowed us in her interview. We knew she knew a couple of people affiliated with our school. What we didn't know was the extent to which she had been coached and given the "right" answers. Now we're trying to figure out if she's a liar, a district patsy, or just a moron intent on using us to further her own career.
I'm leaning toward all three.
She came into a Linked Learning Certified school -- a career pathway school that provides College Prep a-g instruction through the lens of the health and medical sciences AS WELL AS CTE. We get grant money for being a college prep that offers a legitimate CTE pathway.
And now she's trying to dump our CTE classes and offer a bunch of random electives as well as add AP in order to "attract students" and boost enrollment.
Except AP courses don't serve our student population very well. Dual Enrollment -- which we offer -- does.
And if students don't take the prescribed CTE electives in our catalogue, there isn't any reason for them to come to our school in the first place.
It's like if you took an Academy at one of the comprehensive high schools and put it on its own campus. Reverse that and look at us if we were on a comprehensive campus -- students in our pathway would be required to take specific electives to be in our pathway...or they wouldn't be in our pathway.
We know she's getting pressure from the District to push AP --- but we're already getting extra FTE just to graduate our kids. She's not going to get additional FTE on top of that just to offer electives that kids could get at the comprehensive school.
She's the principal at a school that has been developed and run by staff whose curriculum is being used nationally for health and medical sciences pathways. If there's a medical pathway school opened in the last 10 years, they use some form of the courses that we wrote.
And she's trying to figure out how to make that stuff optional so she can offer what the other general ed high schools offer.
What she doesn't understand is that our maximum physical capacity is 500 students. We don't have the facilities nor will we ever have enough students to run like a comprehensive. We won't have football ever. We won't have ROTC ever. We won't have band or color guard or engineering team or multiple different career academy paths because we are a SMALL SCHOOL.
It's just infuriating. And depressing as hell because the core group of teachers who built this school are ready to walk. If she takes even one of the CTE courses away, there isn't any reason for anyone to stay because we won't be a certified pathway anymore, and there's no use doing all of the extra work we do just to be told that we need to be like the other high schools.
2067. Ms. No - 11/18/2019 5:47:23 PM and I'm ranting again and my first class is starting so I've got to go.
I'm sure I've repeated myself, but I'll take a look later when I've got time and I've calmed down. 2068. arkymalarky - 11/18/2019 6:08:03 PM That's terrible. And it's terrible that a principal can single-handedly do that. Does she not have an authority over her that she has to get this approved through? 2069. Ms. No - 11/18/2019 9:41:30 PM She does --- and they both hate our school. Well, okay, not hate, but our Area Supe has always ranted against small schools ever since he was a principal at one of the comprehensives. He sees them as a waste of resources. Our District Supe thinks we're a vocational school and is trying to do away with CTE programs. He's also on the warpath to make sure every kid in our district is A-G eligible and on the way to a 4-year college --- Which is ridiculous and elitist and patently impossible. That's going to be his "legacy." Just another idiot trying to build a resume so he can run for higher office.
So, neither of the PTB above our principal want our school to exist as it does and so they've given her mandates or at least strong suggestions about what she needs to be doing to satisfy them. Since she's a brand new principal (she was a VP at a comprehensive in charge of student relations after being a counselor in juvie) she's going by the book.
Literally.
She formed a curriculum committee and the first thing she did was want to address the Mission and Vision of the school.
Uh, yeah, when you're creating a school from the ground up that's what you do --- or if you enter a school that doesn't have a clear mission or vision -- or if the curriculum doesn't support the mission and vision -- or if something about the mission and vision is detrimental to student success.
None of which is true at our school. She's not qualified to address changes to our mission and vision because she doesn't really know what they are --- nor has she ever bothered to ask. She just assumed we didn't have one.
Moronic. 2070. arkymalarky - 11/19/2019 7:48:02 AM Sounds like you're about to go to battle and I must say I do not envy you. Once PTBs decide to target your school it very rarely ends well. I absolutely loathe the attitude some education people have about small schools. Research Supports them but people talk about economies of scale which is idiotic. That May apply when you're talking about bolts but not people. But what they do is make their decisions, start implementing them, and when they get push back they have packaged arguments they toss out. You're pretty much defeated before you start. And being small or high poverty or high minority makes you very vulnerable. What's happening to the Little Rock schools is a case in point right now. They learned a long time ago not to target a certain type of school or District all at once so they pick them off one at a time now.
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