Two science projects started this weekend.  One for me, and one for my seventh graders.  The one for me is a batch of mead.  This will be my second batch, and I'm hoping it comes out as tasty as my first.

The one for my students is a bucket of muck.  Literally.  The muck is from the Mystic River, and I was hoping to get a lot of microscopic life in there.  On the first day at home, it was teeming with life.  After another day of sitting in that polluted water in an enclosed space, looks like everything died.

I will try and get some more this evening.  I think I may need to get the bucket of muck from the river first thing in the morning, and bring it direct to school if we're really going to be able to see anything.

Glad I have a microscope at home to check these things out!

Tonight is the first meeting for the fall apprenticeships.  I am kind of not looking forward to this, but only because the schedule I'm already on is pretty crazy.  I have to be at the school by 7:05am, but I usually leave the house at 6 and arrive around 6:30am.  This gives me time to check emails, and talk to Kris about the upcoming day.

The school day goes until 2:30, and then we are supposed to be staying until 5:00pm every night, except for Friday, when we get to leave at dismissal (2:30).  How many hours is that?  50 hours.  And that would be OK, except Tuesday nights I'm in grad classes until 10pm.  So then there's study time for each of those two classes, which amounts to about ten hours a week each.  Suddenly I'm up at 70 hours a week.

On top of that schedule, tonight's meeting goes 5:30-7:30, and then tomorrow night's open house is 5:30-7:30.  I'm feeling pretty seriously run down just thinking about the upcoming year.  What the hell is going to happen when I have to be planning lessons next semester?

OK - Happy thoughts.  Happy thoughts.

My main apprenticeship is with NVBots, and is focused on 3D printing and design.  Should be pretty exciting.  Plus, my citizen teachers (CTs) have done this program a few times here, so I think it may go fairly smoothly.  The vast majority of what I'm supposed to be doing here is unclear to me at this time.  I think I'm supposed to be making sure the CTs know how to teach the material to middle schoolers.  I really wish we could have some of the 7th and 8th graders from the looping team participating in this class... it may be a bit much for 6th graders, but then again, the class seems to have a big focus on 3D design, and these kids probably have a lot of gaming experience that will help them with the design software.

Well.... here we go.

Happy thoughts....
Happy thoughts....

Yesterday was an awful day.  I hope there are very few days like that throughout this year, but I fear they may be plentiful.

Instead of focusing on yesterday, I'm not even going to talk about it.  Instead, I'm moving on, and talking about today's Vials of Life lab in 7th grade.  There were several behavior types I noticed today in the lab:

1) Fully participated - There were a good number of kids in each class (probably 35%) who really got into the lab, and were actively interested in examining what was happening in each vial.  They followed the directions, and took the activity seriously enough to be able to correlate the activity to the instruction from Mon and Tue.

2) Vicariously participated - The biggest part of the class in both periods (roughly 50%) participated reluctantly.  They did the work, but slowly.  The did not follow directions well, but eventually got their vials correct.  Their observations were poorly written or not done. etc  This group is at risk... they may fall behind, or they may pull it together.  I think this is the sweet spot for positive change and improvement.

3) Non-participants - There was a smaller number of kids in each class who simply refused to participate at all.  A couple were moved to other rooms, and/or moved to the focus desk.  It is hard for me to understand how a student is more interested in aggressive non-participation than to just get involved.  I mean, wtf?  There is no escape from the school environment - you might as well at least participate.  These students are already in trouble.  They have either failed in other classes, or are likely to fail this year.  What can I do to try and change this?  How can I get them engaged?

All in all, the lab went well, and today is off to a much better start than yesterday.

First Friday of the school year, and man, am I happy about that.  This waking up at 5am is not as bad as I was afraid it would be... but I sure am looking forward to no alarm clock waking me up tomorrow.

My mentor has expressed frustration about the behavior of our 7th grade homeroom.  For me, I was expecting a lot worse.  A whole lot worse.  However, as Kris has pointed out to them, some of these students are trying to give science a chance, and are being hindered by those students who would rather clown around and dig up some trouble.  There are so many little power struggles going on.

I have decided that one of my special focus students will be Duc Duong.  He is in 8th grade, and has been in the US for one year, after moving here with his parents from Vietnam.  He seems like a good kid, who is seriously trying, but I think he is missing about 90% of what is said in class.  He may be getting certain words, but the content is flying right over his head.  Regrettably, I don't know any vietnamese, however, I am planning to try my best to make sure he understands what his science homework is each night.  Also, I put an English to Vietnamese translator on my phone.  I think with what I'm doing in RETELL, I may be able to provide some support for him.

There is a girl named Evelyn in my 7th grade homeroom who I am working on as well.  She is shy and uncommunicative frequently, however, she often has correct or almost correct answers.  Whenever asked to share, she hides her answers, and won't say anything.  How does one get her to feel more confident.  Then again, today on her dwarf planet mini poster, she said the location of Makemake was in the Pacific Ocean.  I pointed this out to her, and she immediately recognized that this was incorrect.  I suspect she found something on the internet and just copied it verbatim... how do we teach her to be more skeptical of what she finds on the Internet?

We're out at 2:30 today.  I'm so happy about that!  Taking Carl to see Book of Mormon tonight, and will be so happy to sleep in tomorrow.  But... it's going to be a busy weekend, full of school work and assignments.  And this is just the beginning.  Yikes!

It's morning of the third day of school.  Yesterday was interesting.  A mixture of success and challenge that is likely to be representative of this year.

The challenge presented itself in the morning.  I was escorting the students to their specialty class, when one of the students, KR, told me she didn't know where she had to go because she didn't have a schedule.  I told her stick with me, and we'll head over to the office to get it as soon as I got everyone to the right place. She was unhappy she had to wait, but I didn't see any other option so that's what we did.  After dropping everyone in specialty, I took KR to the office, and unsurprisingly the office was packed with people needing something from the one person in there.  (The office here is incredibly inefficient) Ms. Brazil told us it was really busy and we would have to wait.  No surprise to me, but KR wasn't having it.  She stormed out of the office in a huff, and would not return, no matter how nicely or firmly I asked her to.  Multiple teachers tried to assist with no success.  Finally, exasperated, and unable to come up with a better solution, I left her in the hallway, and repiorted the incident to Yvonne Vest - 7th grade administrator.  The three of us met later, and KR was just as bratty to Yvonne as she was to me.

Takeaways:  It's not personal.  KR doesn't know me, and hasn't even given me a chance.  Each day needs to be a fresh start.  KR needs someone to connect with her.  IDK if that will be me, but I have to try.

The success came in period 6.  It was another sweltering day, with temps above 90 and high humidity.  It was the edn of the day, I had long ago sweat through all my clothes, which were damp and uncomfortable, and the kids were all tired and over it.  As we tried to go into the incredibly uninteresting topic of the first DMC common expectation, it became clear that the kids were uninterested, nonparticipative, and otherwise unengaged.  As we asked the kids to get involved, it became increasingly apparent that an intervention was required.  I was inspired to go into coaching mode, and talked to the kids about why the DMC expectations mattered.  I put it in context of growing into strong young men and women, and becoming successful in their careers.  I went really into coach-mode, that rhythmic, building pace of my motivational speeches among my crew, and IT WORKED!  Kids were commenting in agreement, cheering, and engaged in the class for the remainder of the day.  Maybe I can do this, after all!

Takeaways: It is worth taking the time to get kids excited and believing in themselves to build engagement when needed.

Also, I seriously can't wait for the heat to break.

Friday of Labor day weekend.  The school is pretty empty, a few teachers are here.  And, of course, Citizen Schools is here, bravely working away on the last weekday workday before school starts.  I'm not really clear why we had to be here today... We have free work time from 8-12.  I could have free worked at home, and been much more comfortable.  Nonetheless, as I was trying to get to sleep last night, I had the insane idea that I would finish painting the doors in the upstairs hallway at school.

A little background, Monday 8/23, there was a big school beautification day.  Everyone from Citizen Schools was there, about 40 people from Trinity church, and fewer than 10 teachers.  I don't even believe that anyone from City Year or Tenacity participated.  We got a lot done.  The Trinity volunteers spent all day, in three shifts, painting lockers.  Many of us from Citizen Schools were working on clearing and painting bulletin boards, and painting the fire doors in all the hallways and stairways.  It was a huge success.  The difference in appearance from Monday morning to Tuesday morning was really palpable.  But, I have to admit, I was very surprised at the lack of teacher turnout, though I am very pleased to say that two teachers from my team did participate, my mentor and Science dept head Kris Grymonpre, and David Hershey, our team leader in the 7/8 looping group.  The only problem is that we never made it up to the second floor in our door painting activities. It took us all day to finish what we did on the first floor.

So I came in today as Derek was walking up to the school, and mentioned that I had brought my painting clothes, and did he think it would be worthwhile to do a little more painting.  Derek is an all-in kinda guy, and thought it was a great idea, and sent me on my merry way.  After helping Thomas, the head of the custodian group, with a few tasks, I gathered all my materials and got to work.

As I was painting, a few teachers started working their way into the building, getting some last minute prep done, and almost every one of them tried to sympathize with me about being assigned to paint the doors.  It does cross my mind that they were simply trying to be gracious, but didn't know a more appropriate way to say so, nonetheless, I shared with most of them that I had volunteered to paint a few doors this morning.

Which gets me, finally, to my point.  How are more teachers not involved in trying to make the school a more beautiful, better place for learning.  When a school is run down and tattered, should we be surprised when kids treat it poorly?  Maybe it doesn't matter.  I mean, do kids learn better in a clean and organized environment?  I think so, but I have no data to support this claim.  Still, I wonder if the admin team was embarrassed to have so many volunteers show up on the cleanup day, while so few teachers bothered to do so.  I suspect the volunteers would have liked to see more teachers be present, if for no other reason than to acknowledge the investment of time on the part of the Trinity volunteers.  

I don't have the answers, but I do have an opinion:  

If some people show up to help you paint your house, then show up to help them.  

I think many teachers here are waiting for someone else to make the change that will cause this school to turn around.  We must all be the change we want.  I will continue to do what I can, when I can, to help make this school a better place.

Today begins the second day of our 2 professional development (PD) days.  Whenever I see PD, I think planning days... definitely did not turn out to be that.  We met in the cafeteria at the same table where the kids have breakfast and lunch.  They were definitely not designed for a middle-aged, 6'4 man to sit comfortably for several hours, so the morning did tend to drag.

Considering what I've heard about the problems at this school, I thought we spent a little bit too much time in "circles" and not enough time on the PBIS which stands for positive behavioral intervention and support.  I definitely understand the circles now - and it sounds like we've got more of that coming this morning. I just wish we could have talked more about the data collection and crunching for use in the PBIS.  Nikki is the admin responsible for the PBIS implementation, and I love her energy and vibe, so I have high hopes of learning more about this program from her, and implementing it effectively amongst the student body.

The afternoon was filled with department and team meetings.  It was great to participate in my first science department meeting.  Once again, the relevance of my New Lit class came into full focus.  Our department meeting was all about increasing depth of knowledge (DOK) in our classrooms - basically moving up the scale in Bloom's to get students thinking more critically and strategically using the knowledge gained from instruction.  I was reminded of the diagnostic assessment we did in New Lit.  That experience prepared me to contribute in this meeting, and I think my contribution, though small, was relevant and valuable.  Thanks Janna!

The team meeting was also enjoyable.  My team members are: Mentor and lead sience teacher: Kris, Math teacher: Ondrea, (yup, with an O), ELA: Pam, Geography/history/civics: David.  I am looking forward to working with all these fine teachers.  I hope over the year that I can earn their respect and trust.  They will make fantastic future contacts if I do... but it's time to focus on the moment, and not on the future.

After the PD time, I met with Kris to go over the first four days.  We went over his ppt slides, and discussed what we need to do to prep for the upcoming classes.  I am really looking forward to this year with him - he is a great instructor, he has a great relationship with the kids, and he makes it all appear effortless, but it is clear the level of work and detail he has done in the background.

Finally, I am growing a bit worried about how I'm going to get everything done this year.  It is a constant nagging in the back of my head...  two grad classes, plus full time/over time in McCormack with the student teaching and the CS apprenticeships.  I hope I can stay afloat without burning out.

Hu Rah!  I'm gonna make it a great year!  (crossing fingers!)

Here we go!  I'm starting my first year teaching science at the middle school level in just a few days.  I'm equally excited and nervous.  Excited because this is what I've been training to do for the last year and a half.  Nervous because I'll be working in the McCormack School in Dorchester, MA.

From all accounts, this is one of the toughest middle schools in BPS.  The kids all have high needs, and everyone I've talked to, from my direct managers, to the teachers at the school, and the administration has made a point of saying that anyone who can make it through a year here can make it anywhere.  I have heard that some teachers have been assaulted, and that the lunchroom is not considered a safe environment.  Yikes!  With that said though, this is why I'm here.  I think many of these kids have good reason to be angry.  I'm angry too.  Maybe what I'm doing here will help some of these kids learn to channel their anger into productive action that can help change our society one step at a time.

My goal with this blog is to document my experiences over this year to help me reflect on what I'm learning, how I'm doing with the kids, and what I can do better in future.  For now, I will keep this blog to myself... We'll see how it goes over time.

I wish myself luck and good journeys!