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2081. Ms. No - 12/14/2019 1:41:14 AM

In better news, I did go and talk to her. It was good, but less than satisfying. She's more than a little passive-aggressive and it's hard to know when she's saying something but really meaning something else that we're both supposed to understand, or when she's saying something that she actually means.


At least I'm not on her shit list, but she's just kind of......not bright. She's one of those people that can check all the boxes but not figure out whether something else actually needs to be done. She's not much of a critical thinker, but she's a rule follower because she comes from a corrections background.

So she went through her online programs or whatever and regurgitated what they made her read or lectured to her and they gave her a credential.

That's a lot what happens in this region with advanced certifications.

Seems like it should be a lot harder, but they keep churning out morons who weren't good enough to teach but are somehow now qualified to run schools.

2082. Ms. No - 12/14/2019 1:41:53 AM

Not that teachers necessarily make good administrators, but if you're going to be in charge of guiding instructional practice, you should have more experience than what somebody told you in an online course.

2083. arkymalarky - 12/14/2019 6:07:08 PM

Was going to say it tongue-in-cheek, but I think it's probably true at least here, administrative credentials and degrees in education are easy to get because so many coaches moved up into ministration because it is been so male-centric until fairly recently and coaches mostly the only male teachers on a school campus. Maybe a math or science teacher, but they didn't want to move them up because those positions were harder to fill. And unfortunately, even now a lot of women don't move it up because they're competent that because they schmooze like men have often done to get management positions. They just entered the Good Ol Boy system. Or were married someone who got their foot in the door which is what happened at the last job I worked.

2084. arkymalarky - 12/14/2019 6:10:41 PM

Mose and I have both worked with some great women administrators, but the system was so messed up before they got into it that the methods of moving up were never very good and in a lot of places they still aren't. Which means man or woman you're less likely to get a good administrator.

2085. Ms. No - 12/15/2019 11:33:36 PM

I think what causes the most problems is that district administration is so far removed from the classroom. This means they give ill-informed directives to site administrators, and if you don't have a really good one who's willing to ignore or countermand those directives, you get shitty ed policy.

And don't get me started again on state and national policy.


But tomorrow I get to go work with the good folks on vertical articulation to the local community and state colleges for English instruction. Amazing bunch of educators. It's almost better than a day off!

2086. arkymalarky - 12/25/2019 5:20:55 PM

I can imagine that's a real problem where you are. Where I am the superintendent lives pretty much on the campus.

2087. Ms. No - 1/10/2020 8:21:20 PM

Getting a new teacher to support for Induction with the new semester. English teacher at another site. It'll be cool to support someone in my primary content area again --- and someone at a different school site.

In other good news -- my student teacher is fast approaching the point when I have to vacate the room, so I'll have more time in my day for prep and grading. Even in just the last couple of days when I'm in the room but just sitting back, I've been able to get a lot done. It's made my 6th period class much better --- that's the one I always end up running out of time to plan better supplemental activities for.

2088. Ms. No - 2/4/2020 7:47:49 PM

Musing on Ed policy and standardized testing and had these rather less than coherent thoughts:

If Academics are going to drive Education, they must recognize that not all students desire or need to be academics.

Education Policy makers need to think of themselves as bus drivers. You drive the bus to all the stops for all the people. You don't tell them what stop to get off at. No stop is better or worse than any other stop. You just make sure to pick up everyone and safely, respectfully deliver them to their chosen destination without passing judgement on where they have decided they want to go.

2089. Ms. No - 2/17/2020 11:39:49 PM

Woot! Took the GRE yesterday. Won't know my writing scores for a couple of weeks, but I was pleasantly surprised with my score on the Math -- just north of average. That's the part that really worried me. Verbal was great, but now I'm sweating the written portion because I ran out of time on one of the prompts.

Keep your fingers crossed.

2090. arkymalarky - 2/21/2020 7:00:19 AM

Fingers are crossed! Good analogy with the bus. I always used to tell my kids that the main purpose of getting an Education was to help them find their place in the world

2091. Ms. No - 2/25/2020 7:36:13 PM

So, momentous decision: I'm waiting to apply to the EdD program until next year.

Got super-stressed with the application deadline, and the more I thought about things the more I wanted to focus on my own classroom practice for another year before I go in. I have two main areas of interest that so far I don't see a clear overlap for --- unless you want to get really existential and look at not just policy but theory.

2092. arkymalarky - 2/27/2020 5:41:00 PM

Good for you. Timing is everything when you're teaching. I'm glad I got my national board certification but one year earlier or one year later and I wouldn't have done it. I got it between the time I was fighting to keep my school from closing and when it closed. My mind had accepted that the school wasn't going to be here and I wasn't going to struggle with the divided attention.

2093. Ms. No - 3/4/2020 12:54:21 AM

uhg. I. am. so. tired.

Nothing even really truly awful, just tired of always having to work around or second guess our current admin. And now it looks like our biggest advocate at the district level has been fired. Grrr!

But I did get asked today to be a Berkeley Fellow for the coming year, so that's cool!

2094. arkymalarky - 3/4/2020 3:27:40 PM

yay!

Why can't the adults act more like the kids. Hope things improve, but once a district or the state sets its sights on your school it's never pretty and rarely ends well. summer may help. We survived the state efforts then jumped off the cliff ourselves. Beyond stupid.

2095. Ms. No - 5/9/2020 6:18:57 AM

Had an amazing day today delivering yard signs to our seniors to acknowledge their senior year. I delivered about 22 signs and had a great time seeing my kids face to face --- or face-mask to face-mask as it were.

They were so excited!

Our union printed signs for every senior in the district with school colors and logos and then teachers, admin, and staff picked them up at a central location today around noon. There were happy kids all over the city today.

2096. arkymalarky - 5/9/2020 2:38:47 PM

How fun! So glad you got to do that and so glad for your kids too.

2097. Ms. No - 9/10/2020 11:10:02 PM

Distance Ed is a bitch.

2098. Ms. No - 10/7/2021 7:41:12 PM

Aaaaand, we're back!

Okay, so we were mostly back last April, but this year is full time, full classrooms, all students every day.

And I'm working 120% because we have such a teacher shortage that we can't get anyone to fill our open science position. We've parceled out the classes to those who can teach them so we've got 3 teachers out of 10 who are teaching 120%.

2099. Ms. No - 2/11/2023 1:19:37 AM

Finally applied to the EdD program so that someday in the not too distant future someone like me can call me an overly-educated moron out of touch with the classroom.

Actually, I hope I never become that person, but I know that you start forgetting nearly immediately after you leave the classroom. I suppose it's like childbirth in that way. Like, if anyone accurately remembered how painful it was to give birth after the last two miserable months of being pregnant, no one other than twins would have siblings.

It's how we can be excited to go back in the fall even when we were sick unto death back in the start of summer. :-)

Anyway, it's a 3 year program, so I'm not leaving the classroom anytime soon, but I did want to start preparing for an exit strategy. Hell, if they shut our school down after next year, I probably won't go to another teaching job if I can get picked up at the CDE (California Dept. of Ed).

I don't know that I especially want to work there, but I know I could get hired and figure out what I wanted to do next without too much trouble. They're all still working remotely for the most part and may never go back -- which I'm not sure I'd be a fan of. I mean, sure, it would probably be awesome for about two weeks and then I'd start to feel super-isolated.

And I really hate Zoom. I like the convenience of it when it comes to meetings that I don't want to drive to, but it's pretty enervating.

okay. Packing up my stuff to head home --- I've got 6th period prep, so my last students of the day left about 45 minutes ago.

Bring on the 3-Day Weekend!!

2100. vonKreedon - 2/19/2023 8:58:05 PM

Did you apply and are waiting to hear if you're accepted or have you been accepted?

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