20 days until summer vacation….then what?!
Ok, I guess I am a bit excited for summer vacation to get here. We have the count down figured out 3 more Mondays wake up….4 more Tuesdays….and so on…however, the only things my summer has going for it is an amazing trip to Portugal (soooo excited) and being able to spend a ton more time with my little man. Other than those thing what is it all about? So I guess I am a bit of a workaholic…if I am not busy doing something then I go out of my mind!! I need to be kept busy. Some may be saying, “but Alison, isn’t having an infant son going to keep you very busy?” and while the answer is indeed “YES” ,he will be attending daycare through out the summer (ok, Moms don’t go getting all mad and upset at me for putting him in daycare while I will be home, I have my reasons). So while Cole is at daycare, playing with his little friends and flirting with the girls (lol) I will be at home, cleaning, looking for something,anything, to keep me busy. One problem with me not being busy is if I get bored I will go shopping! Again, some may say why is that such a bad thing. Well, for those of you who know me well you all know that finance is not my strong suit. If I get a buck I find a way to spend it. Thus, this is my difficulty…if I am busy I will not spend $$, but it is my summer vacation so do I really want to work, but on the flip side if I work I will have extra $$ to spend if I want to shop…see the vicious cycle? So I will do like I do each year…I will clean the house, play with my little love (new this year), perhaps start looking for letterboxes with Matt (I’m in, if your in, buddy ole’ pal). So I guess the “then what” really isn’t a question to be answered but just one to keep me on track and realize that I am one of the few lucky people who get a summer off and have to worry about the “then what’s”!
A
Frustration!!!!
Ok, so being a teacher is everything I thought it would be and more however….one problem I have is the ever loved (previous 2 words dripping with sarcasm) MCAS Test! This is one of the few things in my life that make me feel helpless! I feel like a rotten teacher when a students asks for help with a word or problem and I have to outright refuse them for fear of losing my job! For those of you who are reading this and don’t know what the MCAS is it is a standardized test that all students grades 3-10 must take. It is supposed to be an accurate measure of what the students have learned in the year however, if you get to see the test like I do, you will notice that it has many flaws, from how the questions are worded to how they determine what material is on the test. This gets me thinking of another frustrating thing for me but I will save that nugget for another blog! This year I am currently working with 3rd graders with varying learning disabilities so it is my nature to want to help these kids and take advantage of any possible teachable moment. Well along comes the MCAS and and this year I happen to be working 1:1 with a youngster who gets the test (Math this round) read aloud to her as well a scribed for her, on any question requiring her to write and not just fill in bubbles. So she is taking the test and along the way she asks me to explain a question, this is how the conversation went…
Student: ” Ms. Martins what do they mean? I don’t get what they want me to do!”
Me: ” I’m sorry I can’t help you. All I can do is read you the question again.”
Student: ” How come you can’t help me? You help me in class. I don’t need the answer I just don’t get the question.”
Me: I’m sorry I can’t help you. All I can do is read the question to you again.”
Sooo… do you see my frustration? I am in the business of helping kids. The whole fiber of my being wanted to help her. All she was seeking was a clarification of the question not the answer. But NOOOOOO ( again dripping with sarcasm) I had to sound like a broken record and refuse her. The look of defeat on her face was one to break my heart a thousand times. Why is it that when kids need their teachers most is the moment we are deemed by DOE law that we can’t help them? Why is that people say our schools are failing our students when perhaps it is that our hands are tied so often that we can only do what we can? I know this blog i going nowhere really, and that it is turning into a rant but I can’t help it! I hate to see my students struggle…they try so hard to get the right answer but all because they couldn’t understand one word or phrase they are 1 point off in the answer. GRRRRRRR…..ok, ok, deep breaths, in….out….in….out…..
Ok, sorry folks I lost the whole point of where I was going with this but what it all comes down to it I guess I just want to be able to teach my students as best as I can, I will continue to say “I am sorry I can’t help you”, and I hope that they don’t hold it against me, and when the test is through maybe I will sit with them to do a question like the one they didn’t understand and hope that too little isn’t too
late.
:~ A
Bubbler Fish??
So ok I like a good story just about as much as the next person but this one made my day…..
In an attempt to get a group of Kindergarten students to return to class, and not gather around the bubbler, a teacher tells them to “save some water for the fish”. The children stop almost at once and look at the teacher with wonder, “what fish?”, the students ask. The teacher prpceeds to tell them that fish live in the bubbler and need to have water too. The students ask how she knows this and he tells them that is where she got her fish from. The children ask to see the “bubbler fish” which the teacher shows them immediatly. Since that day this group of students continues to look in the bubblers around the school hoping to see and catch their own “bubbler fish”. Each day they are unsuccessful or have had a “sighting” they go to see the teacher at the end of the day and to see her “bubbler fish”.
Today when I saw this group of students enter her class and ask about the “bubbler fish” and to say they alomst caught one, I must have had a look of confusion on my face and the teacher proceded to tell me the above story of the “bubble fish”. No sooner had I left her room did I come upon the group of students standing at a bubble letting the cool water run down the drain. When I asked them what they were doing they told me they were giving the “bubbler fish” enough water for the weekend so he didn’t get hungry.
Oh to be a child again and to have that sense and belief that a fish can appear out of a bubbler!
Good luck to you all in your quest for your “bubbler fish” what ever you make it out to be! A
