Conference Night

I hate parent-teacher conference night. Not necessarily because of the conferences. I dislike these nights because they are very long evenings. I had two scheduled meetings and one that stopped by and they went quite well.

After mine were finished I met with my mentor for the resident educator program. That turned into an hour long conversation. Then my mom and brother stopped by the school to get a ticket for a basketball game and I walked them to the athletic office and talked to them for a few minutes. Then I finalized some things for tomorrow. I'm trying something new tomorrow so I had to make some modifications to my PowerPoint. After that I printed some materials for preparing for the OGT. Then I finished the PowerPoint that I had been distracted from earlier.

During my prep period today I took inventory of our Pepsi products and placed my final order.

Point of all of this? I typed this on my way home (I walk) and now I'm at my front door at 8:55 pm and those papers that needed graded wont be returned tomorrow because they're not even close to being done. *sigh*

*Sigh*

It's been a tough couple of days. One of my coworkers had her baby this weekend (exciting!) but that means I am now teaching her calculus class. (We can't let just anyone teach calculus!) So, needless to say, the last few days have been crazy. I know how to do calculus... I'm good at it and I even think it's fun (I know, you think I'm nuts)! But it's not easy to give up my class once a day to someone else. So far he (the sub/my ex) hasn't had a chance to teach them anything new, since we had a test today and all this craziness just started yesterday, but it's still weird. I don't like leaving them. I like the calculus class a lot, but I don't know them yet, so we'll see how things go.

I do have a funny anecdote about the first day though! (Yep, that's anecdotes are kind of my thing.)
As I checked the homework the first day, I walked around and looked at the students, and as I got to each one I said, "name?" and then marked their 5/5 on the correct spot. Well, one of the calculus students is the son of another one of our math teachers. So when I got to him, I said "Oh, so you're [insert his name here]..." The kid next to him blurts out, "It's never good when the teachers say it like that!" (You have to imagine the tone of voice.)

Anyway, I gave a test in Algebra I yesterday, a test in Geometry today, and an Algebra II quiz today. And yesterday I didn't finish grading because I was buried under the weight of the calculus and everything else going on. I had started one class yesterday, so I finished those during night school tonight, then brought home the whole pile of the rest of my papers (it's huge!)... I finished the other class of Algebra I but I think the rest are going to have to wait.

I am, however, caught up and even a little ahead with the calculus! I'm really enjoying it, even though its' a lot of work. I like the challenge.

Oh, and I was observed both of the periods I taught Algebra I today, if there wasn't enough going on already! One period by my vice principal and the other by my mentor.

Organizational Nightmare!

Did you notice? I changed the title of the blog! It's a little more accurate now, even though the URL is the same. I don't have any amazing or funny stories to tell, I just thought I'd give you a little info on what this year has been like and how it's been different.

First of all, if I haven't said it already, year TWO is WAY easier than year ONE!!! I hardly ever bring work home, I don't have to spend hours planning, I have a really nicely organized planning book, my lessons are pretty much always ready to go, I'm caught up on Geometry copies for probably the next two weeks, I have nothing to grade but a couple of make-up tests, and things are just going pretty smoothly all around. 

But not everything is perfect. My desk is a colossal mess at the moment. Granted, it was typically messy last year, but I feel like I cleaned it up a lot more often! The thing is, I've decided to start organizing some of my papers differently. I really like the new system, but the transition means a lot of stuff everywhere. I've arranged all of my geometry keys into one nice 3-ring binder, so when someone is absent and wants to know what went in the blanks on the notes or whether they did their homework correctly, they can just check the binder. And if someone misses several days, I don't have to dig through 3 different folders to find every single last thing. I also have a separate folder for the originals so I know what to copy. I think I need to get rid of most of my little file folders now that I'm organized this way, except maybe one per chapter for tests, quizzes, and other various things I don't want it to be easy for kids to get their hands on.

I also want to put together a binder of all the Algebra I homework. That way they can do the same thing... look in the binder if they want to see the steps for a particular problem. One of my cooperating teachers in student teaching did this, but she had a spiral notebook. I like the 2-ring binder idea better because I can add, remove, and change assignments more easily. I'll probably do this with Algebra II eventually too, but for now I'm still using my notes from 10th grade for that class. (Yep, that's right, teaching it from my own high school notes! We're still using the same book, and the teacher I had is right next door!)

Anyway, this means my desk is COVERED in binders. I have 2 binders for Geometry, 1 for the class of 2015 (I'm their advisor), and the one I think I'm going to put the Algebra homework in. And until I shoved them in a drawer some recent morning, I had my sub binder and my teacher handbook. I really need a better organizational system for storing these binders. Maybe if I ever get that bottom desk drawer organized again...

So anyway, I had originally titled this post "Musings About Year Two," but I think the new title is better, don't you?!