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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? 2101. Ms. No - 2/28/2023 6:39:59 PM Waiting to hear back whether I even get to the interview process. Should know in the next two weeks. After interviews, I don't know what the timeline is for acceptance. I suppose it depends on how many people applied this year.
I have a colleague who started the same program just this past fall who has offered to help me prep if I get an interview.
It's been a big couple of months for applications and document collection. I'm also putting in my bid to get CTE certified in Public Health. Over the last 10 years I've done a lot of work around public health and city planning and the CTE certificate would allow me to teach our Public Health course -- which I'm already doing this year on an emergency credential anyway.
If that goes through, next year I'd be teaching 4 CTE classes and just one Gov/Econ. Weird, but welcome. I'd have two Public Health and two Behavioral Health (which is basically psychology which I'm certified to teach under my Social Science credential.)
2102. Ms. No - 3/16/2023 10:45:51 PM Interview is scheduled for next Wednesday!
CTE preliminary credential is granted and the class to complete it begins April 3. Whew! 2103. vonKreedon - 3/18/2023 2:11:47 AM Best of fortune, Ms. No.
Also, Happy Saint Paddy's Day to all the Moties!
2104. Ms. No - 3/21/2023 2:59:39 AM Thanks! I celebrated the patron saint of cats which also occurs on March 17. That means I got to stay home, curled up on the couch with a cozy blanket drinking tea and reading a book. It was green tea, at least. ;-) 2105. Ms. No - 3/21/2023 3:00:18 AM I feel I should mention that I did all of that without actually having a cat. 2106. Ms. No - 5/4/2023 7:37:36 PM Update: I'm first on the waiting list for the EdD program.
I'm feeling oddly ambivalent about it. I think part of it is the time of year --- just burnt out at this point. Also, I've been completing a course for my CTE credential which isn't hard, just time-consuming.
I know what I want to be involved in: how we educate and support new teachers, writing curriculum, and overhauling standardized assessments. I want to de-industrialize the way we approach public education, but I don't know if that's even possible when we're looking at such a massive bureaucracy.
And then I think about if I were to win the lottery, what would I do?
Oddly, I think I might still teach for another couple of years. I'm excited about my program here and moving into teaching Public Health and Mental & Behavioral Health, and I want to really cement that part of our program.
More likely would be that I spend the rest of my days traveling, reading, making art, and hanging with folks I enjoy. Hell, I'd probably even try to find a band to sing with again. :->
How obvious is it that I'm six weeks from the end of the school year?
2107. vonKreedon - 5/6/2023 10:23:30 PM Sounds like you'll get in to the EdD program, yay!
End of year burn out is something my mother, a HS english teacher, often/usually exhibited.
Yeah, If I won the lottery I'd be travelling places and reading there with friends.
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