187 Days of Teaching

It's a state law that all high school graduates have to pass the 128-question version of the US Citizenship test with a 70% or higher. Students can retake it multiple times, but eventually they have to pass. Our students start taking the test during sophomore American Studies, and we try to make sure they all pass before moving onto junior year, but there are always a handful who don't. There are also transfer students, etc... And that means I have to make sure they get it done before graduation.

Our seniors' last day of classes is tomorrow. And one of them just passed the test today. He was so, so happy to have done it, and I was happy for him!

That happened while my APGOV students were in the middle of wrapping up an assignment on local government and/or revising the papers they'd submitted on Friday (argument papers on the efficacy of a state legislator of their choosing). Before that? My Global Studies student started their multigenre projects. Longtime readers will know that I always start by asking them what's going on in the world that we should be concerned about. It can be things we've studies, things they've learned elsewhere, it's all fair game.

I filled one entire side of my whiteboard with their answers.

Then I had them choose a topic, went over the project instructions, and had them get to work. And it's already brilliant. I love ending the year with this because it's always so cool to see what students decide to do.

After school, I had a union board meeting- final one of the year!- and then had to dash back to the high school for spring sports awards. It was a successful season for a lot of teams, including mine, so it was nice to celebrate that. And, of course, it was nice to celebrate the team's seniors one more time.

It's June, it's Friday, and I was at work until 5PM. But I did it to myself.

I had one more set of on-demand essays (the ones my Global Studies students wrote yesterday) to grade after conducting an interview for a potential social studies teacher, and I decided to sit and grade them rather than leaving them for Monday.

That interview was actually the second of two I had today. The first was during my third section of Global Studies, so I had sub coverage for that, which meant all my students had a relatively easy assignment. I had them look up one of the organizations helping provide aid in the conflict zones we've studied, tell me about it, cite their sources- so they were looking up UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, the WFP, Red Cross/Red Crescent, stuff like that. It's good because I never like to close out the study of something serious and tragic without, as Mr. Rogers would say, looking for the helpers. I want kids realizing that it's possible to make a difference even in dire situations.

I ended up missing lunch and the first part of APGOV (Mr. O covered for me), but then I got back upstairs and rejoined my students. They were just working on an assignment about local government- examining the school's warrant, their town's warrant, finding out more about particular articles and/or suggesting other ones to be added- so it was a chill class. I mostly graded those aforementioned on-demand essays. I just didn't get them all done before I was due back to the office.

Ohhh, today was so ridiculous.

A wasp got into my classroom during my first section of Global Studies and caused a solid eight minutes of chaos because it would not leave, and it would not die. I finally took care of it, but that was nuts. And it happened while my students were trying to write an on-demand essay (I let them stay a few minutes past the bell, if needed, because of that distraction). Then, during the second section, there was a medical lockdown, so no one could leave the room. Thankfully, it was lifted before the bell rang and students were able to go to their next classes on time.

The third section was blessedly uneventful.

But, in APGOV, the boys in the class were bonkers. I know it's June and all, but it was beyond that. They could not sit still, keep their hands to themselves, resist taking each other's stuff. I actually threatened them with detention to get them to be even remotely on task. It was so silly.

I had too much to do during my prep time this morning- poor planning on my part, I wasn't taking into account that it was an early dismissal day today- and I needed about ten minutes at the start of each section of Global Studies to mark in their essay outlines. So what did I do? Had students go online and find news updates on any of the conflicts (DR Congo, Iran, Ukraine, Gaza) that we'd been studying, then I had everyone share something they'd learned. That actually teed up my planned lesson- reading and discussing an article about how these conflicts impact one another- perfectly.

Winging it? Yes. Expertly? Also yes.

Meantime, my APGOV lesson was meticulously planned. Students read an article about the historical development of our local region, which primed them to be thinking about the things shaping local policy-making. Then they got a copy of our school district's warrant, and the town warrant for whichever town they live in, and I did a brief lesson on how to read warrant articles, why certain things are included, etc... They have to choose three articles to research further, be able to explain their importance and determine whether or not they'd have voted for them. Or they can propose their own warrant articles and explain why. Or they can do a mix of the two. They'll put all this into some form of presentation for class on Tuesday.

Do they need that much time? No. But tomorrow's senior skip day, there are some sports dismissals coming up, etc, etc... So I'm giving them that much time because I'm anticipating that many of them won't actually be here for all of it.

See? Planning. I do it sometimes.

After students left, we all went to our PLC groups for our final session of the year. The outside facilitators who have joined us on Zoom for most of our meetings were actually there in person, which was very cool. We started with a quick icebreaker game called Follow the Leader, which, if you know how to play, you should know I crushed because of my martial arts training. Heh. Then we did the real work of examining spring testing data and our course roadmaps, discussing what to do to address deficits, and coming up with actual action steps. After that, we had some time for reflection and celebration. Mrs. R and I thanked our departments for supporting us as leaders through this process.

The leadership team is considering a change in our schedule model, and we want to see what students, families, and staff are thinking on that subject, so we've been designing some surveys to gather information. The Principal, The Career Tech Director, and I drafted the survey to send home to parents, and then I made it into a Google form. This morning, I did the same thing to the survey another small group within the team had drafted to send to students because The Principal asked me to.

Pretty sure he still thinks it's spooky that I'm as fast as I am (and he's so done with my jokes about how I don't need AI with this kind of natural speed), but it does come in handy.

I also rewrote my APGOV lesson to add more detail about how town meetings and deliberative sessions work here in NH, found a relevant video to use as a hook at the start of the block, and also pulled up some articles about the school budget votes in Croydon in 2022 because that's a great example of how participation matters.

That lesson ended up going super well in spite of the June squirreliness students are experiencing, so that's a win.

Global Studies was fine, too, but it was just a continuation of what they'd been doing: research and essay outlining about the effects of the Gaza War. Outlines were due at the end of class today, and while some of my students didn't need all three days I'd given them for this task, I think it was the right call because other students definitely did need that time. This ensures everyone is well-prepared to write on Thursday.

After school, I went down to the district's professional development center, which is housed in our district office, for the kick-off to some paid summer work on CBE and student engagement involving teachers from all grade levels. We did have to do one of those icebreakers at the beginning and share something we love, and I absolutely answered that my brain is full of kpop and I love having BTS concert tix, which earned me some laughs and cheers.

It's June and our students collectively went crazy.

It was so loud in the building all day. Kids were just shouting stuff at one another for no reason. Even in my APGOV class, some of the boys were just... making noises. I finally was like, "Why, though?!"

Elsewhere in the building, students were pushing all kinds of buttons, and there were a handful of Serious Incidents (none that I saw, but The Principal said so).

There are still too many days left for it to be like this.

My classes went alright, though. My Global Studies students are continuing the essay outlines- on effects of the Gaza War- that they started on Friday. I changed up my APGOV lesson half a dozen times, then settled on having them read an article about the structure and function of local governments in the US, then watch a video on the establishment of NH's cities and towns. then I did a jigsaw lesson with some short articles about five very different cities: Manchester, Nashua, Keene, Portsmouth, Berlin. We discussed what they'd learned as a class, and that took us almost right up to the bell.

What else?

I used my prep time to send emails to parents, schedule some more interviews for prospective social studies teachers, and talk to Mr. SF about the end of the year. Then, in the afternoon, I had a leadership team meeting to go to. It's actually our last one of the year, though we will do stipended summer work, too.

We took our athletes to the state divisional championships today in absolutely horrid weather (rainy, low 40s, windy). The meet was actually delayed in hopes that the rain would stop before the running events started. It didn't really help much, but not having to get up so early to get there on time was nice, at least.

Coach G and I hit up the concession stand selling hot chocolate before the line got long, then promptly went and found Coach O at triple jump to taunt him with it. The look of betrayal on his face was priceless. He got his own after that, though.

Meantime, our athletes huddled under our team tent in a pile with blankets, venturing out only to warm up and compete. They stayed in high spirits, making silly jokes and goofing around with each other. And, around the time the 300h was going on, the wind died down and the sun came out. By the end of the meet, everything was beautiful.

The uneasy feeling that's been present since the conference championship wasn't totally gone, but it wasn't overpowering, which I'm very glad about. And our athletes came away with several ribbons, a handful of PRs, one event title, and- on the boys' side- a top ten finish overall.

There's a running joke amongst my freshman that I'm actually AI because I'm "really fast and no everything," which I will take as a compliment even though I don't actually like AI. This morning, The Principal got in on the joke because of how quickly I did a bit of work. I had a 7:30 meeting with him and The Career Tech Director because we're developing a survey to send home to families about our schedule model (other members of the leadership team are in groups, as well, developing similar surveys for students and staff). I took his series of proposed survey questions, read through them, and made a couple revision suggestions at my usual pace. Then, since I'm the least busy person in our group, I offered to put the finalized questions into a Google form. I had it done before the block ended.

This, of course, is not because I'm AI... but because I AM A WIZARD!

Obviously.

After that, I had my Global Studies students begin creating essay outlines about the Gaza War, using what they'd learned in past classes and conducting further research to add detail. There was also a hilarious conversation about castles (when you have a vacant hilltop, you should always construct a castle upon it, duh) during my second section. In general, that particular group of students was fun to teach today. They were working hard, but the silly conversations were also ongoing.

I did have two students skip half the block, and I wanted to ask them what on earth they were thinking, but, of course, they weren't thinking. That's why they did it. So I wrote them up and got on with teaching. We were having too good of a class for that to mess with it, you know? It's important for students to see that: even when I have to reprimand someone, it doesn't ruin the entire block or impact my mood towards anyone else.

I spent most of lunch chatting with Mr. O about American Studies, then taught APGOV. Students had a vocab quiz- the last one!- and then I had them read over each other's work on major political issues here in NH. We discussed what they'd learned, and also discussed some recent news from the House: the censure of a member.

And then, of course, the class devolved into AP Hacky Sack.

It was at that time Dean 1 came by to say goodbye. They're restructuring the admin team here, and he's taking a position as head of school at one of the local charters. I'd written him a note to thank him for being a mentor to me while he was here. He came by to say thanks, wish me luck, and tell me he's appreciated working with me.

I spent my prep time revising my Global Studies lesson on the Gaza War because it needed to be updated with the most recent news and I wanted to change how the information was delivered. The original lesson had a timeline for students to take notes on, but I've done lessons about other content that way already, so I wanted to change it up. I transformed the timeline into an article and added information up through yesterday morning. Then, during class, I read while they listened and highlighted major effects of the war thus far, which we then discussed as a whole class.

I had no idea how that was going to go, but it actually went super well. The timing was good, too. I finished maybe 45 seconds before the bell in each section, which shows my wizardly ways even when I'm winging it. And now there's a list of topics on my board that students can choose to research tomorrow (for the purposes of constructing an essay outline).

In APGOV, students finished the research assignment they'd started yesterday. After that, some of them studied for the vocab quiz they have tomorrow, some worked on the argument papers they have due next week (on the efficacy of one of their state legislators), or... played hacky sack. It is inevitable.

Mr. CS stopped by shortly after the bell to ask for my advice about a student who is failing one of his courses, so we talked through that. And it's probably because we've been interviewing prospective teachers, and because Mr. CS and I graduated from the same college, but I had a flashback moment to sitting in my advisor's office after two younger students had come to observe me while I was student-teaching. My advisor wanted to impress upon the importance of mentoring the folks coming after me.

I hadn't thought about that conversation in a while, but it's in so much of what I do now.

Some of my athletes came to talk to me this morning about yesterday's practice (some also went and talked to Dean 2, but I didn't find that out till the afternoon). I listened to how they felt, acknowledged their feelings were valid, and did my best to assure them that today would be better- and it was, but I'll get to that later- and I hope I did alright.

It still doesn't feel like a great situation, so I really don't know.

Anyways.

Today was kind of like yesterday in that I taught my three sections of Global Studies (lectured on some of the major events in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict between 1995 and 2023, then showed a video explaining the Oct. 7th Hamas attack) and then left my APGOV students to work on a little research assignment (on major political issues in our state) with another teacher- Mrs. R this time- while I was on an interview panel.

We've conducted enough interviews now that we're starting to rank candidates and discuss making job offers. We're not quite there yet, but getting close.

Did I also spend some time after today's interview convincing The Principal to cancel this afternoon's leadership team meeting? Yes. We have nothing pressing to discuss, and he's exhausted, so this did not actually take much convincing. I'm still calling it a win on my part, though.

It meant I got to go out to track practice on time instead of being late. And, like I said, it was better. Traditionally, we have a team celebration on this day: pizza, other snacks and drinks, and recognition for the athletes going to States. In the past, it was the day we'd do the obstacle course, but the coach who set that up is long retired and couldn't do it this season, so we played capture the flag instead. It's fun, and it's enough of a workout.

And we're back after a long weekend! The students in my first section of Global Studies admitted to needing to "wake up and lock in" when I started going over the assignment they'd done last class on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. I got a lot of silence when I asked them to tell me what they'd learned, but I'm stubborn and I waited them out. And once the conversation got rolling, it kept rolling. After that? Solid class. I showed the famous news clips of the signing of the Oslo Accords, then gave an assignment about the issues that couldn't be resolved by the two sides following Oslo.

The other two sections were solid, too, and that's actually all the teaching I got to do today. Mr. O covered my APGOV class (they were reading about some of the proposed bills to deal with the housing crisis, then doing a recap assignment covering the past several lessons on state government) while I was interviewing a prospective social studies teacher. I was supposed to head to an IEP meeting afterwards, but the interview ran long, so I just went to practice.

And practice was... rough.

Something went down before I got out there, which resulted in one of the boys leaving, but I don't know what that was about. I do know The Head Coach was still upset about the weekend, and frustrated because The Athletic Director had told him the lacrosse team wants to hold a game in the stadium (instead of their usual field) tomorrow, which would force us to cut practice short (note: this happens every year). He had to leave to go to the meeting all head coaches go to for seeding athletes before the divisional meets, and, honestly, that was probably a good thing because the vibes were not good.

Today was not our day.

The track team competed at the conference championships, and, unfortunately, most of our athletes underperformed. The distance runners didn't- there were tons of PRs and a handful of medals- but everyone else did. So we fell out of title contention early on and never rallied.

There are a lot of reasons why it happened.

Some things were out of our control, like two of our athletes getting sick, but other things were definitely on us. And, y'know, it's a lesson learned, and we'll do better preparing for the divisional meet. But it's disappointing.

It would've been alright if that's all it was. Unfortunately, we also got a complaint about some unsportsmanlike conduct. It's tricky, though, because none of us saw it happen (an athlete told their coach, who told The Head Coach), so we're not sure who was responsible. I really want it to be a case of mistaken identity- lots of teams wear similar colors, we get mixed up all the time- but, if it's not, I want our athletes to come clean and apologize because that's not who we are. We pride ourselves on our sportsmanship.

Today was not a usual day for me. Mostly, it was a lot of fun, though.

I had to interview a prospective teacher in the morning, so I got sub coverage for two of my sections of Global Studies. Mr. CS, Dean 2, and The Principal were on the interview committee, as well. It was a virtual interview, so, of course, we had technical difficulties. But once that got sorted it was fine.

Amusingly, my students saw me walking back to my classroom afterwards and were very dramatic about the fact that I hadn't been there. I did get to fully teach the third section, though (an intro lesson on the Gaza War), and my APGOV class (all about the affordable housing crisis here in NH). Both were short because admin and student council had planned a fun afternoon to celebrate the fact that NWEA/SAS/AP testing is all done, and spring is here, etc, etc...

We had a pep rally in the stadium, followed by ice cream and open campus for games: frisbee, kickball, the ever-present hacky sack, and more. I do wish the student council kids had been a liiiiittle better about organizing that part, but it was fun.

Four boys in Global Studies kept ripping the corners of each other's essay outlines and telling me a hungry ghost was feeding on their knowledge. In case you were wondering how my day went.

Heh.

Actually, the day went pretty well.

One of my athletes caught me in the hall before Block 2 to tell me he'd gone to a specialist about an injury he'd been dealing with- one his usual doctor thought could've been scary serious- and was told it's a minor thing. All he needs is a bit of PT. He was so relieved, and I was happy to hear it, too.

(He had to go to PT today, and Coach O told me he probably wouldn't come to practice after, but I said he would... Relentless optimism over here, and I was right!)

And there was solid work being done in my classes in and around the silliness. My Global Studies students learned a lot about the war in Ukraine by doing this assignment. Anytime I checked an outline and asked them to add detail, they would conduct further research and then absolutely have to share it with me. I mean, they were so eager to tell me what else they'd discovered. That was really cool.

I admittedly did not get the same level of engagement out of my APGOV students. I mean, it was fine. We tackled the issue of school vouchers, and discussed the specific debates happening here in our state. There were enough questions and comments for it to be decent, not enough to last the whole block the way discussions might have before the AP exam. The urge to hacky sack for the last five minutes was just too strong.

I don't mind it, though.

I stole conference room by The Principal's office again today.

Longtime readers will know I tend to do this on hot days because it's air conditioned. I used to just sneak down because, y'know, forgiveness and permission. Today, though, I actually asked the secretary to book it for my department for our afternoon PLC meetings. I wasn't sure I'd actually get it, but I did, and our department group chat exploded with happy emojis.

It was 90 degrees and humid, so this is a valid reaction.

I'm glad it was a PLC meeting day because that meant it was an early dismissal day, so the kids weren't in class for the worst of the heat. It was warm and all, but it was manageable. My ninth graders continued working on essay outlines, my APGOV students and I chatted about education policy in NH- and, specifically, about the debates over what constitutes an adequate education, how much does it cost, and who needs to fund it. So we covered the ConVal case, the ED306 revisions, and I fielded a bunch of questions. When we got into how these things (and other policies, too, because a good tangent never hurt anyone) affect life at our high school, they really got engaged. So I'm happy about how that went!

And the PLC meetings went well, too. The Principal didn't even look surprised to see me setting up the smartboard in the conference room for a Zoom with the middle school social studies teachers. We spent an hour and change taking a look at our learning progressions, which we'd spent time earlier this year revising, and highlighting the work that still needs to be done. After that, we wrapped up our department's curriculum roadmapping, the teachers of different courses did a bit of planning, it was all super productive.

There was an issue with gas in one of the science labs today, which meant we had to evacuate the building until the fire department could give the all-clear. It was the hottest day of the year so far, and state testing was going on, so... another day with some mild chaos.

There was no chaos in my classroom, though. My Global Studies students began developing essay outlines to write about the war in Ukraine by recapping the causes of the war with me (intro paragraph details). Then I had them pull up the assignment they'd just completed using CNN's interactive timeline, and identify some of the effects of the war based on what they'd learned. I listed what they told me on the board (war crimes, high casualties, sanctions, disinformation, a refugee crisis, etc...), and told each student to pick three things to learn more about, and use that information to fill in the body paragraph sections of their essay outlines.

The timeline assignment had given them some basic knowledge, but the deeper they dove into their chosen topics, the stronger their reactions were to what they were learning. Some students rightly pointed out that this war has fallen out of the news coverage, for the most part, so there's a lot they hadn't known.

That's what makes this assignment such a good one, of course.

In APGOV, I started getting into one of the major issues in state politics- public education- because it's one the FSP, which they just learned about, has impacted tremendously, and it's obviously relevant to my students. I had them define for me what they thought an adequate education was, then showed them the actual statute, which led to some great conversation. After that, I showed a quick video explaining how education is funded in this state.

The fire alarm went off just as I finished that, so I just said, "Hey, know what's another example of state government policy? How many fire drills we're required to have" and led my class out.

If we hadn't been interrupted, I'd have had them read about the ConVal court case, but we'll just do that tomorrow instead.

Practice was hot, but by then the clouds had moved in a bit, so it wasn't unbearable. The sprinters did 100m repeats, block starts, and baton passes. I had just enough time afterwards to go home, eat dinner, shower and change. Then I had to go back up to the school for Academic Awards Night.

Today was mildly chaotic because it was the start of NWEA testing and we had a shortage of substitute teachers. More than a few things went wrong and sent the folks above my paygrade scrambling.

I'd have helped out and covered a class during my prep time, but I had an IEP meeting. I had a feeling the meeting was going to run long, so I asked Ms. A to cover my advisory for me- no need to add to the chaos- and it's a good thing, too, because I was right. I didn't get back to my classroom until about ten minutes after the bell. Ms. A didn't mind keeping my students for the remainder of the time, so that gave me time to get squared away for my teaching day, which was nice.

My ninth graders were finishing up the assignment they'd started on Friday: taking notes on CNN's interactive timeline of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So that didn't require much planning on my part. In APGOV, though, I had to put together materials for a lesson on state government. I started with a recap of things I'd taught last week, and then we discussed the NH state constitution (particularly the bill of rights, and Art. 83). After that, we read an article about increasing polarization in the general court and what various lawmakers say has contributed to it. One of the things mentioned in the article is the FSP and how it's realigning the Republican party, so I wrapped the lesson by having students read or listen to NHPR's deep dive on that.

Is it difficult keeping an AP class engaged after the exam? A bit, but I'm doing my best!

At practice there were shenanigans. Coach O has been made at our cold, rainy New England spring weather all season, but today's beautiful, so the athletes decided to tell him about black flies. And then really exaggerating about them. Did I stop this? Nope. Did I contribute? Maaaaybe.