Oct 31, 2011

165+ one-on-one interactions daily

Previous roommateships would have me awake and out the door by 7am, home by 6pm, grading and lesson planning until I'm burning the midnight oil while fellow roommate could easily sleep in til' 7:30 or 8, arrive home and relax with a beer, tv, video games and/or girlfriend. Damn you, roommate. Not fair.

Current roommate teaches at a middle school. It's convenient and it works. At this current moment, it is 9:58pm. I left campus around 6:30pm and still have a mini-mountain of quizzes to grade, but it feels ok since roomie is still at work too. I hear him disgruntled on his desk as I type.

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We like to argue about who has to work harder. So, this year, as one of the few teachers at my high school who's taken on three preps (typical is two), I feel I've got the inside track on that title - "dude, I got it way tougher than you do. Believe me."

The predictable response: "I been teaching FIVE separate subjects, homie! 7th grade." 

"Well, I grade 165 different assignments by 165 students on the daily. 165 quizzes during the weekends."

"30 • 5 subjects each is still 150. I'm down 15, I agree. But, still pretty much the same."

"Ok, ok, but I've got 165 personalities to manage. 165 parents and families to keep track of. 165 one-on-one conversations at the door to catch up on days and nights and lives and check-ins to see whether or not they're having a good day or not. 165 potential phone calls I could possibly make tonight to see if I can get a failing student back on track. 165 interactions daily is exhausting, my sweet sweet roomie."

".... Ok, you got me there."

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I guess I'm just venting. My parent log this school year has got me listed at interacting with 5 families on a nightly basis (through in-person conferences, phone calls, or e-mails). All extra interactions added to my day, but it still feels like I could do so, so much more. 



3 comments:

Dave Orphal said...

I miss advisory!

I miss sharing the 165+ students with my colleagues. I miss know that while I stay on top of calling my 35 families, that I can count
Fernando to stay on top of his, and Lydia to stay on top of hers and Matt to stay on top of his.

It was such a great system to promote more personalized relationships between teacher teams and our children and their families.

Good news, Ian. I heard Mr. Johnston talking about getting Math back into the Atlas teams next year!

Boolykhan said...

Dang Mr. G... Makin' us look bad! I'm tripping off my 50 kids. haha.

Eyawn said...

@Orphal,

I've been in discussion with Troy about it as well. I feel like advisory's been wiped out of our program. I see what we're trying to do with TBOLTZ, but what TBOLTZ does not do is replace the advisor/advisee relationship - which is a strength of Atlas. As a faculty councilperson, it's one of my hopes to push this to our school's agenda during this school year.

The silver lining to being "out of Atlas" is having the opportunity to teach kids I've taught before. This year, I've got about 30 and it's great! That's a post for a future time.

@Alykhan

I'm just trying to get that trophy, man.