Bill's question about finding balance as a teacher

Bill asked how I am able to balance full time work, graduate school, ARC, and family. I've posted my response below. You'll see that I mention Starbucks often. I, like you, am in the middle of a career change. I'm taking classes and moving into special education. I'm also challenged by Gabriel's autism which at times weighs heavily on me and our family. I feel your pain in many ways and hope this provides a little clarity.

First of all, I am NOT able to do everything thoughtfully as I should. You HAVE to pay a price if you put in long hours. I drink lots of coffee, sleep only 6 hours almost every night (often 5), and I do not do as good of a job as I could in my all of my work. I do not go to the gym right now and eat too much comfort food. My wife and I don't get enough time together alone. She bears the brunt of watching the kids as a homemaker. This is very challenging because of Gabriel. Until I get my master's in sped, we'll often face this challenge. My mother comes up every other month and helps out a great deal. Our house often is cluttered but we finally found a balance between some clutter but not enough to drive us nuts.

What you see at Milner and ARC is the end result of an ability to perform efficiently and effectively because of many years of experience. I accumulated the stuff in my room at Milner over months worth of effort. I have to introduce graphing tables of data tomorrow. I have a lot of experience with this and thought about it at different points of the day - a little planning here and there.

At school, you sometimes have to get the kids on task then work on various duties or tasks. I have to be careful not to do this too because I have to monitor the kids.

Here is my schedule. I make sure to make time for the family. I do not have any me time aside from working and keeping up with sports and politics a little each day. I persevere because I feel I am pursuing my calling.

Mon, Tue:
6AM get up
6:30 out the door with a stop at Starbucks
7:00 arrive at school
7:45 start 1st period
2:15ish prep period starts (I am usually having to do other stuff aside from planning)
3:05 school ends (we have extended day)
I usually leave between 3:30 and 4 to go home
4-7:30 is family time: play with kids, take Gabriel to the mall for socialization, watch Sesame Street with the boys, feed them, help put them to bed
7:30-10:00 work (often I have to go to Starbucks because Lucas will cry which makes Gabriel cry)
10-12 iron clothes, clean a little, watch my liberal programs on MSNBC

Wed (changes only):
3:30 go to class at Saint Joseph College (approx 7 minutes from home)
6:30 go home
6:45-7:30 family time

Thu (changes only):
3:15 ish go home
3:30-6:15 family time
6:30-9:00 class
9-12 work, iron, TV

Fri with ARC the next day:
7:30-12ish work on ARC and iron clothes - maybe watch some TV

Fri without ARC:
I'll put in a couple hours of work MAYBE and might stay up later

Sat (with ARC):
6:00 up and getting ready
7:00 off to Starbucks and ARC
Family time from when I get home to 7:30
If I'm not exhausted from ARC I'll put in a couple hours of work after kids go to bed

Sat (no ARC)
6:30ish wake up and work on computer
between 7 and 7:30 get Lucas when he wakes, make him breakfast
8-8:30 get Gabriel, make breakfast for him and Michelle
Family time almost all day with some chores
I may go to Starbucks for 2 hours to work sometime during the day
I'll work a couple hours at night

Sun:
Same as Sat with no ARC and I work a couple hours at night

Johneye's question about cultural differences

At the meeting with Mr. Richardson, Johneye asked an important question how we can relate to kids given our cultural differences. I wanted to share some thoughts about this.

First, the kids notice race and cultural differences just as most people do. This may shape their perception early on but eventually what matters is who we are and what we do for them in our daily interactions. If they see that we care about and want to help them, our background is minimized as a factor.

We have many commonalities as it is. I talk to my kids about being prepared for high school, doing the right thing, and about simple things like clothes or food. If a kid yells at another kid, I'll ask him if he's having a bad day because we all have bad days. If an 8th grader is choosing a certain high school, I'll ask why and tell them a little about high school life - e.g. some kids drive to school and you have a lot more choices for your schedule. If a kid grabs a pencil from another student, I'll talk to her about alternative choices for the behavior. One of my students always knows the score of the Clemson basketball games and tells me. I tell him how evil the Yankees are.

In short, the kids care more about how we interact with them on a daily basis than about race or culture.

Journals and Portfolios

Glen posed the following question: What do you require from your middle and high school students in terms of journals and portfolios and how do you implement them into the middle school and high school math class for students.

I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I have not made use of either of these. The main reason is that I have not taught a class for enough consecutive years to develop either as a component in my class.

Not to play my grandfather's role and tell his grandkids to "do as I say, not as I do" but both are an excellent idea. These are activities/products I need to make use of and likely will in special education. The following is my explanation of why they are very good ideas.

Words and language are means to communicate ideas. As I mentioned on Jan 23, by explaining a concept, a deeper understanding is required. By having students write explanations for concepts, they communicate by analyzing and justifying - higher Bloom's levels. A journal in math can be a collection of prompts requiring an explanation. For example, it could consist of different open-ended CAPT or CMT prompts in which students must write an explanation for their answer.

Similarly, a portfolio can be a collection of student artifacts like CAPT or CMT work. It can also include posters and other student generated work that you might post in your classroom. In AP Stats, there are a collection of experiments or investigations that involve a hypothesis, data collection, statistical calculations and graphs, discussion, and a conclusion. This collection of reports along with completed rubrics can be used as a portfolio.

This is more advanced stuff that is likely more long term activities for you.