perspicacious.org

Yesterday I taught music, which is an iffy thing to do in the best of circumstances, and doubly scary at the end of the year. The music teacher gave me a number of options for the different classes, and it being the end of the year I opted for the video option in most cases. For the 6th grade class this turned out to be a poor choice– I really need to preview these videos ahead of time.

The 6th grade video option was a film about how electronic music is made and how music is recorded in studios. It was from the 80's, and was narrated by a pseudo Max Headroom character. Max Headroom is pretty strange even if you grew up in the 80's, and even more so if you were born in 1994. That's not the best part, though. The video profiled a band in the recording studio, and that band was… The Hooters. ("And we danced, like a wave on the ocean, romanced. We were liars in love and we danced…" Those guys.) The Max Headroom character kept coming on screen and saying things like, "How about those hooters!"and "Aren't those Hooters great!" I mean, really. Not the best choice for a bunch of 11 year olds.

I also told a girl not to pole dance yesterday. (Not really, I said, "Please stop danching with the pole." Lots of giggles at that all the same.) I need to watch what I say around the preteens.

tags: music class, embarrassing moments, teaching

Here in Alaska, there are no quaint pictures of little girls in flowered dresses leaning over to smell the daffodils. It wasn't all that cold out yesterday (maybe 25 or so), but it was windy as heck. The kids came in from the egg hunt with pink cheeks and noses. The adults called it off before all of the eggs were claimed– we needed to warm up! Still, nothing can quell children's enthusiasm for competitions (it is!) where everyone comes back copious amounts of candy. Not even snow and wind and huge sheets of ice.

I think it should be spring soon(ish).

tags: easter, easter eggs, alaska

We went on Saturday to see a Beatles cover band perform with the Fairbanks Symphony, and it was fabulous. The symphony had practiced a whole slew of middle and older Beatles songs– ones with orchestral backgrounds and arrangements. The symphony was wonderful– the arrangements were exact copies of the original recordings, down to very specific solos and chords. The singers themselves were..well, it was just uncanny. They looked and acted and sounded like the Beatles. There was a point near the end where one was dressed as John Lennon with the long hair and glasses and white suit, and he was at the piano singing "Imagine." R told me after that she forgot that it was a cover band and really believed that she was listening to John Lennon. It was that good.

The tour is called the "Classical Mystry Tour," and involves them playing with symphony orchestras all over the country. Their website is here. I would strongly encourage you to check them out if they ever come your way.

In other news, how was your Easter? Mine, chocolatey and windy and bitterly cold. I froze my cheeks and fingers hiding the eggs in the snow. (Note: white eggs not good for Alaskan landscape– too hard to see in the snow!) We had a spiral ham that was to die for, and I ate more candy than anyone should consume in a year's time. Blegh. I'm having sushi for lunch and trying to purge my system of additives and processed sugar. No wonder I was so tired this morning– my system is full of junk. Yummy junk, but junk all the same.

Have a lovely week full of sunshine and the promise of summer– I know I will.

tags: the beatles, classical mystery tour, cover band, concert, easter

My school lost Title 1 funding this year, which is a federal grant program that provides extra funding to schools that have a certain percentage of low income students. This was obviously a huge bummer for the school– 3 reading tutor positions and 2 math tutor positions were cut due to lack of funding, and classes for reading and math were consequently much larger this year. I felt it quite a bit during our 3 mandated reading test times, when there were 5 fewer people to test each child in the school. Testing took at least a week longer, and required a lot more work to keep track of and organize papers. All around, the lack of Title 1 funding has definitely been felt at the school this year.

We found out at our staff meeting yesterday that the school will be redesignated as Title 1 next year. Obviously there was much rejoicing, but I am not sure what it means for me. I have been hearing rumors lately that someone from the school is planning to retire next year, and I believe that I could very likely be hired to fill a position here.

However, at Title 1 schools all teachers must meet "federally highly qualified status" under the No Child Left Behind Act (aka Every Child Left Behind/No Child Escapes Testing). Highly qualified status is met by having 100 or more "points," with teachers earning points for years of service, committee memberships, inservice attendance and the like. Try as I might to fudge it, I just don't have enough experience to recieve more than 70 points at the most. I think this means that even if there is a vacancy here I won't be able to fill it. I need to talk with my principal about exactly what that means, but I am pretty saddened by all of this.

I have been working hard to get my permanent licensure done, and I feel like I have basically given the last two years of my life to the district as a substitute in the hopes that I will get a permanent teaching position. My goal is not to be a substitute with no benefits and no chance of advancement forever. *sigh* I hope that things work out better than it looks at this point. We do have the house sitting job for the summer, and we will be able to come back to our house in the fall and keep paying low rent, so that much is good. I guess I can afford to keep subbing, I just hope I don't have to.

Update: I have been on the horn trying to get some clarification on all of this "highly qualified" business, and it looks like I can achieve it by taking the PRAXIS 2 test instead of doing all of the point silliness. I was already planning to take the test, but didn't realize it could be substituted for the points. So I may sill be OK. I just need a job offer.

tags: title I, no child left behind, highly qualified, praxis