The Honeymoon Phase

...is what the first couple weeks of school have been referred to as by a fellow teacher at my school. While I do thoroughly enjoy my kids, I get the feeling that the math department doesn't get quite the honeymoon experience as do other departments at RHS. Today I talked to my students about how test scores from last year show that only 8% of all students at the school meet the "proficient" level for algebra after a year of instruction (and only 1% for geometry). My students suggest that these appalling results are because they don't care about the California Standards Test. Today I made a mental note that this issue would be my biggest to deal with over the course of the year, since our departmental goal is to drastically improve those numbers. Meanwhile, the administration wants us to start curriculum asap so we can close that gap, meaning overnight I had to fix my lesson planning so that the first lesson is tomorrow. I guess they don't believe a diagnostic test is that important for my 160 students.

Apparently though, I have it pretty good. A fellow TFA apartment-complex-mate works at nearby DeAnza High School as a Biology teacher and she has 190 students total, with at least one class over 50 students (in a lab set up for 24 students). She assures me that they are definitely breaking fire codes at that school, and with that many students, keeping authority is impossible: today she had three students call her a bitch, and the f-word is all too common. Thankfully I don't have that to deal with.

Still, teachers at my school have called this one the worst year yet when it comes to scheduling, because even with the frequent ridiculous class sizes, there are others with rosters of only seven or eight students. But don't worry - we have been informed that these problems will be fixed by the third week...

...By then I will have already given a unit test in my class, so I fear for those changes and I pity the students that have to go through that. Teachers in the meantime are furious, so needless to say, the strike authorization vote last week resulted in a 93% yes vote from the United Teachers of Richmond. Tomorrow we make picketing signs before school. Still haven't decided how I'm going to approach that scenario... All this just seems like unnecessary grief when I am up to my ears just trying to finish my algebra and geometry lesson plans for tomorrow. I already promised my kids I wouldn't be boring.

First Day of School!

West Contra Costa Unified School District is a difficult place for a new teacher. Not because of the students, not because of the area, and not even because of the other teachers. It's difficult because everything is organized so last-minute. I had to learn everything about my school in one day - very overwhelming to say the least - and set up my classroom in one day (I should have taken before and after pictures). Still, my classroom is a little depressing next to those of other more established teachers.

Let me just say that today was an awesome day. Especially considering the nervousness I had approaching the school this morning, and the lack of preparedness I had for the sheer number of students attending Richmond High. That being said, I learned a few things today:

1. Teachers (more than just me) get nervous on the first day of school too - perhaps even more so than students.

2. Teachers spend all lunch period gossiping about their students, already deciding which one their favorite is.

3. Teaching the same thing five periods in a row really messes with your mind.

4. To teach five periods in a row, you must equip yourself with throat lozenges - I hope this sore throat goes away by tomorrow (otherwise not only will I look young, but I will sound young too when my voice cracks all over the place).

5. Replacing a well-liked teacher like Ms. Seawright makes kids give you a hard time and have immediately higher expectations.

6. In the evening, the janitor throws away anything and everything in the hallways. Including textbooks. I found mine in the dumpster this morning (I salvaged them). The silver lining is that now I have a good relationship with the librarian (I hear this is nothing but a good thing).

In the grand scheme of things, besides demographics, RHS is not much different than any other high school. Okay, what I mean is that it feels like any other high school. The kids act like normal teenagers and apparently our soccer team got second in state. However, the structure of the school is really not like anything I've ever seen (no windows in my classroom) and the math test scores from the school are downright awful. There is a daycare in school for teenage mothers and an office for the on-site police officers, which is weird to me, not to mention the fact that the nearly 2000 students all have lunch period at once. Chaos.

The classroom walls are paper thin and every announcement on the intercom is read in both English and Spanish, so there's a few things I have to get used to. Luckily the teachers offer an amazing support system, so I'm not too worried. Only exhausted. Now I just have to figure out what I'm teaching tomorrow...

Iminent Disaster

I spent forever trying to make a clever play on words for the two impending strikes soon to take place in the Bay, but I gave up on baseball inuendos. Both the BART strike and the Union Teachers of Richmond strike have been called off for a while, but the possibilities of each are doing all to make my life more stressful than it needs to be right now.

Tomorrow I go to new teacher orientation, in hopes of finding someone at my school who could help me out in the event that rapid transit chooses to shut down; I also meet all the people making up the future picket line that I may have to cross in order to make money this September. The good news is that the UTR strike is called off for now; the bad news is that most veterans to the district expect it to go on after school starts - and after I have met all my students. The district has slashed its funds going to employee benefits, only pinching people like me but devastating people whose entire household is reliant on those benefits. I see a rock and the hard place approaching. The Bay Bridge is closing all Labor Day week too, so let's just hope the planets aren't aligned - otherwise it may all happen at the same time.

Today was a session for our "Academies" at Richmond High School, something like interest groups or career paths in high school where a chunk of the student body learns under the direction of a group of teachers. I can see it being a good thing, guiding students to college and career interests. Although, I'm in the Law Academy, so apparently no prior knowledge is required... Agh! Disorganization!

Getting these Posts Back on Track

School doesn't start until August 25, but we all had to get settled in the Bay earlier so that we could get a headstart (or just a start...) on lesson planning for the school year. During the summer, pretty much everyone was lesson planning night by night and I guess the lesson we were supposed to learn was that working night by night is not sustainable. Before school starts we're supposed to have a structure of units, learning goals, and lesson plans for the year, with specifics weighted towards the beginning of the year. Oh, and I suppose I should tell you that I'll be teaching 3 periods of geometry and 2 periods of algebra 1 during the year...

The remaining weeks mark the final stretch for taking care of teaching and credentialing logistics so everything runs smoothly for us in the fall. I've found that "smoothly" can be interpreted in many ways with Teach For America. For instance, I would say that things do not always run "smoothly" when all of our correspondence to our school and teacher credentialing program must be done through TFA. It wastes time and causes confusion, among other things. And I seriously doubt I'll be using the word "smoothly" to describe how my teaching experience is going this fall when I have to attend classes of my own after school 3-5 hours at a time once and sometimes twice a week. We attended two additional days of course planning training earlier this week, with a specific session devoted to mental health. Luckily, I think I have a great support system around me in Oakland - six other TFA people live in my building and a good number more live nearby.

I'm living in an apartment complex just outside of downtown with a slight view of the lake. It's basically your typical apartment with mostly good things: a large, nice layout, huge windows, a pool; but then of course it has its quirks, like a sleazy assistant apartment manager, light switches on the wall that do not turn anything on - not even any of the outlets, and no ceiling lights at all actually. With no furniture of our own and the need for ample floor lamps, our place is beginning to look like an IKEA showroom, but I suppose I can live with that. And by the way I think our apartment is actually quite nice - nice enough to willingly show it to my parents I mean.

Other than our mattresses finally getting in, the only big news is that Nicole, one of our TFA building-mates got her car stolen literally the first day we were here. Strangely enough, it wasn't stolen from the apartment or in Oakland. The TFA sessions earlier this week brought us to the Berkeley Marina each day, and her car was taken in broad daylight from the hotel parking lot. Since then, the police found it, completely totaled. I think Nicole has proven that this support system we've got going will work out just fine.

Oh, and I've already figured out my first real world example of algebra for my math class: would a sane person choose a U-Haul or a Penske truck for picking up a craigslist couch? U-Haul is cheap but charges by the mile and Penske offers a flat rate. I'm sure the high schoolers will enjoy hearing that their own math teacher got suckered by the prices and got fooled into thinking that U-Haul was cheaper. Or maybe I should tell the story to them as strictly hypothetical...

Transitioning

Oh, where to start... We only recently got internet set up in our apartment, so I know my updates have been lacking. The four weeks of teaching summer school at Hamilton High are long gone now and today marked the end of the additional two weeks of class my students had after I left. The good news: one of my students messaged me on Facebook that he received two B grades from my class; the bad news: I have multiple students that have found me on Facebook.

Amidst the mess of my room right now (no surprise there) I uncovered the exit surveys we gave to our students on our last day of teaching this summer, asking questions like how they think we did as teachers. Needless to say, the secret that we were new teachers was uncovered a long time ago by our students. The stack of papers is definitely a self-esteem booster, but I find it strange that even the handful of failing students said I was a clear and effective teacher and ranked me a 9 out of 10 as a teacher. Still, there's a handful of responses that I think I'll put up on a self-motivation bulletin board that I'll probably create:

"10 - Mr. Bretl is cool and looks alot like Tom Cruise..."

"I would want him to teach my friends because he's a wonderful, and great teacher, he can brighten a dull room."

"He is really chill and he explain things with time I'll give him a 9."

"It would be great if he could teach here, Because he is calm and patient, thats always good in a teacher; because you'll confront alot of hard-head stundents. But on the other hand I think your a great instructor. Thanks for all the help. 10."

The week at home following that experience was nice, staying for a friend's wedding (first close friend to get married) made the transition brutal once again. I made the drive from Seattle to Oakland - 14 hours - the morning after the wedding in my buddy Mitch's car. I didn't really have a plan as to how to get back down to the Bay with all my stuff, so long story short, I learned how to drive a manual transmission car in less than a week and packed the convertible the tightest it has probably ever been packed. And still, I forgot things. One thing I did learn from the experience, however, is that 5 Hour Energy really does work. The trip was a breeze, all things considering.

So anyway, home is where the crapload of belongings are - which is Oakland right now, and will be for a while. My beautiful* apartment is located a few blocks from both Lake Merritt and the nearest BART station, though I haven't ridden it yet. More on this to come!

*beauty is in the eye of the beholder