Articles for Laurie D

and anyone else who would like to read them!

This is continuing the conversation from Laurie's blog and Tim's blog.

Continuing on the argument that there would be less desire for abortions if we reduced the number of unwanted pregnancies... through, duh! sex education that actually talks about sex! and starting a new conversation about sex with youth who, duh! want to have sex!

Here is where I first heard of the article and here is the article itself.

Math Warm-up

I start every math class that I teach with a warm-up. When the kids are working on the warm-up, I have the opportunity to take attendance and check-in with each kid about their homework. I get a sense of how the class is doing and I know what to give more attention to as we check our homework together.

Here is the warm-up for Monday for my Advanced Algebra students. It ties in directly to what we are going to be working on for the day... finding the the roots of parabolas.

Warm-up: Write the following sentences as an equation. (HINT: only one equation and you've seen it before!) X is the sum of the opposite of b plus or minus the square root of the sum b squared minus the product of four, a, and c. All of this is then divided by 2 times a.

You can leave your guess as a comment and I will post the answer in a couple days. (give the name or the equation)

First Day Back...

I am not your typical yoga student who has fancy yoga gear. I have not purchased the special props that you see in the yoga studios. My "block" that I use at home is some left over mini cell foam from when Grant and I carved out seats for our kayaks. I don't have special yoga blankets, instead I carefully fold some camping mats and some rugs we don't use anymore. I use a belt as a strap, and pillows serve as bolsters. Even my yoga mat is strange. I got it at a Long's Drug Store on a whim because I thought it was required to go to a public class. (did I really want to use a mat that had other people's feet on it?) and it is a pink-purple color and says "Bally's" in one corner. I have never seen another student's yoga mat the same color as mine.

I definitiely do not have any specifically designed for yoga yoga clothes or a cute strapy bag the perfect size for a rolled up yoga mat. I don't even roll up my mat anymore. A rolled up mat, when bungeed to my bike rack, sticks out too far and flops down over my red flashy light that hopefully keeps cars from running me over in the dark. So my mat gets folded into eighths and squished into a firm pile of stickiness and strapped down to my rack.

On Thursday when I got home from my yummy 2.25 hour Thanksgiving class, the mat stayed in its position, on my bike, ready for me today to go to my Monday night inversion class.

I felt slightly disappointed in myself for letting my mat just stay on my bike all weekend. (I mean for not practicing yoga all weekend... well, I was camping for most of the time) As expected, when I unfolded it at class, there were a ton of wrinkles in the mat from the folds and the bungee. I tried to smooth them out and all I could do was smile at my mat and acknowledge that this is just the way I am. Never quite fitting in with the other students and all of their cute yoga gear... and then not really wanting to anyways. Wanting to have a consistent yoga home practice, but then never quite able to keep it together for more than a couple of days at a time.

But yoga (and my mat) are forgiving. After a few downward facing dogs, my mat was stretched out and the wrinkles had all but disappeared. My body was happy again after feeling tight during the day. I smiled and welcomed myself back to yoga, just happy that I got myself to class tonight and it was a great class. After several warm-up type poses, we worked on headstand and shoulderstand variations as well as plow pose (which usually scares me). Yeah for using chairs as props to make things a little easier. (the explanation of this will have to come in another post)

This was also my first day back to school after a week long Thanksgiving break. By lunch my head was cloudy from too much energy usage. The kids were nice enough... if not relieved to be back to a structured routine. It will take me a couple of days to get back into the groove. 4 school weeks until Winter Break!

This Week I will be...

No teaching services will be provided until Monday November 26, 2007.

(picture was taken inside the bathroom of the "CPE on call room" at St. Francis Memorial Hospital where Grant works and has to spend the night about once a week)

Thursday Thank You's

Thank you to Oakland Unified School District for giving us a whole week off for Thanksgiving.

In previous years I have thought about how ridiculous it is to have a whole week off. Why not give us a long weekend and then let us out a week earlier in June?

Oh yeah, you're right. We have been in school for 12 weeks straight with only 1 3-day weekend. That is a long time with out a break. I guess we do need a whole week off.

Slump

Last week was my first slump of the school year.

I'm going to change it up and explain this in swimming terms.

By the end of high school, my favorite event to swim was the 500. This was the longest event at the high school level, lasting 20 lengths of the pool, and up to 10 minutes, depending on the swimmer. I wasn't that fast and I usually averaged around 6:40.

The gun fires and you leave the starting block, entering the cool crisp water, heart racing with excitement and anticipation, glad that your goggles didn't fall off, checking out where the other girls are in the pool, hoping that your counter buddy at the end of the pool remembers to flash you the right number. You hit the first turn hard, legs are still fresh, blood still racing. At the end of the second/third length, you quickly remember that you are not a sprinter and that your race is not over yet, you pull up. At the end of length 6, you start to feel the excitement wear off. Your heart settles down, you acknowledge that you still have 14 lengths to go, you buckle down and make the decision to stay with it until the end, you pace yourself, you breathe, you stay focused, you find your groove and you go.

We just finished week 9 of 36 for the school year. I'm about to make the turn into lap 6. My initial excitement and energy about this school year has worn off. I am no longer running on the buzz of hearing the starting gun. The jitters are gone. I know my kids. They know me. The first report card has already come. Reality has set in. We're settling down, we've got a long way to go, we're getting into the groove.

It was just a challenging transition week for me. I'm starting to feel the pressure of a busy schedule. I slept for 9 hours last night and woke up feeling like I could have slept for a couple more. I love what I get to do. But because I get to do it so much, it starts to feel like a chore. So when I woke up this morning, I got all ready to go to a yoga class but I was running late. I was torn. I was looking forward to a class with my favorite teacher, someone I don't get to see that often since my advanced studies program started. But, I didn't want to walk into the class after it already started so I just stayed home. I did my own practice for ~75 minutes and decided I would work on some inversions. To my surprise and great relief, I put myself into a handstand all by myself for the first time ever. I was never the gymnastic type as a girl. I hated even the easy things like cartwheels or forward rolls! As soon as I was up, I yelled for Grant to come see me, hoping he'd get there before I lost my balance (even though I was against the wall). He was proud and also relieved because after today he won't have to help me anymore.

So it was a drag of a week. I could tell I needed a change of pace. So I will now regularly add unassisted hand stands to my home practice and the world will look different.

New pictures from this week... HERE

Another Chance to Graduate

In the state of California, recent laws have stated that in order for a student to graduate from high school, they have to pass a test called the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). Students get 6 chances to pass the test while in high school. The first in February of 10th grade. The next two are October and March of 11th grade. Then October, February, and March of 12th grade. The last ditch test is July after 12th grade, but then you don't get to "cross the stage" with your classmates at graduation. There are two sections of the test: English and Math. Once you pass one of them, you never have to take it again. You just keep retaking the test that you failed.

I'm not sure what is on the English test, but the math test is not hard. Basically, you have to know math up until Algebra 1. A quick list would be converting and working with decimals, fractions, and percents, solving basic equations, slope/intercept/graphing, area/perimeter/volume/measurement/unit conversions, basic probability and statistics. I have tons of released questions and several books that have been created to help me help students pass this test.

This year, I am teaching two sections of "CAHSEE Math" for junior and senior students who have not passed the math test. In all I have about 20 students, although there are others out there who just didn't have time in their schedule to take my class. The pressure is on because they take the test on Wednesday. On Tuesday, most of them are taking the English test. So that leaves one more school day to help them prepare.

I'm worried for them. I would hate to see them get all of the required credits they need to graduate, yet not graduate just because they didn't pass a test. Yet, I also think that it is ridiculous that some of them have not passed the test already... it's not that hard. What's even worse is that some of them have just been sitting in my class for the past month doing little to no work or thinking about this test. How many times can a teacher say, "this is your test, your graduation!" to a student before giving up and thinking that the student really doesn't want to graduate? But, when it is so easy to drop out of school, and the student is actually in the classroom, how can you not think that they want to graduate? Some would say laziness (which we do have alot of!!) others would say test anxiety. I think both and a bit of ego. They can't get over the fact that they don't know stuff and they can't admit that they need help, so they just sit. Perhaps some of them think that they will just magically guess all of the right answers and just squeak by the minimum number of points to pass. I'm praying that they are using this weekend wisely and are gearing themselves up for the test.

A bonus for them is that if they pass the test, they could transfer out of my class and into something else that they need to graduate. Unfortunately, the test results will not come until late December or early January. So the class changes will have to take place at the start of the spring semester.

The test is on Wednesday and that means we still have 12 weeks left of the semester. What will we do? That's a really good question. I want to focus on real world situations where a person needs math skills. I have some ideas, but I need more. So I'm asking you, those few of you who read this blog, where do you actually use math in real life? What is this math thing good for, anyways?

School Update

Life's speed has definitely increased fro us this week. First, this was Grant's first week at his CPE internship. CPE stands for "clinical pastoral experience" and Grant's CPE is taking place at St. Francis hospital in SF for the next 53 weeks. This week was all orientation-- getting to know his crew and learning about hospital procedures. I'm sure he'll be writing about his experiences... when he has the time! (ha, ha, welcome to the working world my beloved husband!)

In my world, I'm am just loving my job right now. Right before spring break each year, the school district asks us to fill out a form with our tentative plans for the next school year (are we returning?). Last year, one of my math colleagues was unsure of his situation. He is older and has some health concerns. He loves teaching the students but didn't know if he could survive another year at the castle. (we have a tough school in a very impoverished part of Oakland... lots of teachers burn out here real quick). So I approached him and asked him what he thought about us splitting one math position for the next year. We each thought about it over spring break and then asked our principal about it, explaining our situation. She was very willing to work with us (one of the perks of my job... a great principal).

So a normal school day is teaching 5 periods and having 1 period as a conference/planning time. This will get you 100% pay (which is dependent on your education and working experience). This year, according to the deal that I worked out, I am teaching 4 periods and have 1 conference/planning period, so I only receive 80% of my salary. The other teacher is at 40%, teaching 2 classes. We know this adds up to more than one position, but again, we are very lucky to have a principal willing to work with us. And both of us are very, very happy with the situation.

Because of my new deal, here is a typical day...
5:45 alarm, Grant wakes and takes shower, Robin snoozes until 6:20.
7:10-7:20 we leave the house and Robin drives Grant to "casual carpool" pick-up on her way to school, Grant goes to the city and you'll have to read his blog from here...
7:30 Robin arrives at school, students may or may not come in to say hi or get some help
8:10 official starting time of school... no students for Ms. Kinney, because she doesn't actually exist until 9-ish. Instead she just sits at her desk and works. Did you hear that? NO one can ask me to sub for a class 1st period because I don't exist.
9:14 2nd Period = 19 eager and well mannered advanced algebra students
10:18 3rd Period = 13 hopeful CAHSEE Prep (students who still need to pass the CA high school exit exam)
11:22 4th Period = 23 more high energy but still enjoyable advanced algebra students
12:22 = LUNCH
1:06 5th Period = 9 tired after lunch CAHSEE Prep students
2:06 6th Period = Conference time and collaboration with the math department
3:10 official end of the school day, but I work as I need and then go home, leaving school at school where it belongs.
4:00 and after = various evening activities depending on the night, then we try to get to bed by 10pm. Yes, various evening activities that don't include school work. None. I only bring home my computer. No books! No papers to grade!

Can it get any better than this? I only have 64 students, compared to 120 for some of my colleagues. Sometimes I'm sad that I won't be getting my full paycheck since I'm at school the same amount of time as usual. Then I remember that I now have my Sundays and evenings back. I am happy in the classroom. I can give my students the attention that they need. I have energy. I have a life after school (which you'll hear about in the next post). It is worth the trade and I highly recommend this alternative schedule for teachers in high-risk, stressful, urban schools.

Yeah for Yoga!

I just finished day 3 of the new school year. Only 177 more to go!

No, I'm actually feeling pretty good about this year so far. I decided to go "part time" this year. I'm only teaching 4 classes instead of 5. I still have two preps, advanced algebra and CAHSEE prep*, so it feels like the same amount of prep work, but I have fewer students overall and my load will get lighter as the school year goes on.

(* CAHSEE stands for California High School Exit Exam, a big test that the students have to take in order to graduate from high school. They have 6 opportunities to take it, starting in the 10th grade. My class is full of seniors that are down to their last 3 tries. Once they pass, they'll probably drop my class, making my load easier as the year goes on!)

So I cut back on my teaching load but I'm still going to be plenty busy this year. Starting next Tuesday, I will be co-leading a yoga after school club for our students. Some students will be able to take it for PE credit, some will just drop in for fun when they can.

In preparation for this class, my co-leader and I have been studying BKS Iyengar's "Light on Yoga" this summer and practicing teaching each other poses. We're going to have sooooo much fun together, even if no students show up. We're hoping they'll come, especially since they can take the class for credit! (and some of them really want the credit for graduation) I'll be sure to update on how the club is progressing.

Also to make sure I was ready for this class, I took a quiz about my yoga snob style. It was written by another Bay Area Yogi who loves sharing yoga with her teens. Here are my results!

I'm a Balanced Yogi!

A Balanced Yogi You love your friends unconditionally and accept them for who they are no matter what their yoga style preference, religious beliefs, or spending habits. You focus on the good in people and would never try to change them. Almost everyone feels comfortable in your presence. You live your yoga. You are an inspiration to yoga students everywhere!

Take the Yoga Journal Yoga Snob Quiz!

Quite a nice message to hear before starting my teaching practice! Let's hope they're right.

Deliciously Tempting

School (with students) starts in one week. Staff meetings start this week.

Back from Seattle-- Summer is SO over!

Here's a quick run down of our last week...

On Sunday, Grant preached in church. It was his second time in front of this crowd and it was great. You can listen to it here.

Summer officially ended on Monday August 6th when I went to my first PD of the month. On Mon/Tues I learned about how to be a coach for a new teacher. I haven't been paired up with a teacher yet, but as soon as someone is available at my school site or near by, I will be. Then I'll spend about 1 hour a week meeting with this new teacher and mentoring them through their first 2 years at the Castle.

On Tuesday night, Grant and I flew to Seattle for my second PD of the month. This time a 3.5 day conference about building a Professional Learning Community at my school. I was there with my principal and one other staff member and we learned many tools to help us come together as a staff by leaving our independent classroom kingdoms for some collaboration time, focus on learning (rather than teaching), use student data wisely, common assessments, and overall just being happier in our profession. (why do most teachers quit within the first 5 years of teaching?). In the evenings, Grant and I toured all around the city. We are officially undecided about whether Seattle will be the next place we want to live.

After the conference was done on Saturday, Grant and I rented a car and drove south to Tacoma for the night. We swung by an REI to get some fuel for our stove. We couldn't bring the fuel from home with us because 1) It wasn't in a container that was 3 oz or less and 2) It didn't fit into a quart size ziplock bag. (never mind the fact that it is flammable-- oh and did anyone really notice that Grant forgot to even take his quart sized ziplock bag full of less than 3 oz items out of his carry on bag? Nope!) We then drove to the Olympic National Park and spent a night in a rain forest. And get this, while we were there, it actually rained. I haven't seen rain in a few months so I was super excited. On Tuesday morning, we drove back the airport, returned the car and flew back home to Oakland.

On Tuesday night we had LIFE group at our house (a small group of folks from our church who get together weekly to check-in about current challenges and graces and then participate in a bible study on the weekly lectionary).

Wednesday our God son, Aaron, came over and the went shopping and finished teaching him to ride his bike. He is almost a pro now.

Thursday (today) brought me PD #3. This time I'm working with a group of Math Teachers who want to learn together about how to teach their students literacy skills. We've come together because we're tired of people teaching us techniques that work really well in English and Social Studies classes! Tomorrow will be more of the same.

Weekend... breathe... going to a wedding...

Next week I will be getting back into my classroom and arranging everything, spending time with my staff and finally getting my act together on all of those summer goals I wanted to accomplish.

In other non-professional development news, I recently got accepted into an Advanced Yoga Studies program at a local yoga studio. About 2 months ago, this was something I really wanted to do. Now I'm not so sure. I'll go to the first couple of classes and then decide.

That's that. Pictures will be coming soon. Grant and I shared a few memory cards in Seattle so we're currently trying to sort things out and then start processing them.