what might have been...

I posted my biography and resume on a website for Lutheran teachers, and I've been getting lots of e-mails and phone calls over the past few months. I've responded politely to all of them that I've looked at their websites, bookmarked them, and already accepted a call back to Concordia in Shanghai. But here's the list so far:

Sekolah Pelita Harapan Lippo Cikaranga
in Indonesia.

Grace Lutheran School
in Jacksonville, FL.

Grace Lutheran School
in Pocatello, ID.

Grace Lutheran School
in San Mateo, CA.

Mount Calvary Evangelical Lutheran School
in Milwaukee, WI.

Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran School
in Eagan, MN.

Trinity Lutheran School
in Delray Beach, FL.

Trinity Lutheran School
in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Trinity Lutheran School
in Racine, WI.

Zion Lutheran School
in Beecher, IL.

And, in case you haven't seen where I'm headed to, it's Concordia International School
in Shanghai, China!

algebra

Do you remember how to do algebra? I subbed for seventh grade pre-algebra and eighth grade algebra last week. On Friday the eighth graders had a test. Can you solve the extra credit problem? It's good for your brain! ;-)

In six years Bill will be five times as old as he was 26 years ago. How old is Bill now?

While the kids were taking the test I had nothing to do, so I spent the hour looking at their math book. I discovered they're using the same algebra book I used! And get this: It was published in 1979. That's a bit scary.

Also, in an article I read for my Theories and Techniques of Reading Assessment and Intervention course:

* Frequently, secondary school content-area textbooks readability levels are even higher than the assigned grade levels. For example, Kinder, Buruck and Epstein (1992) reported readability levels ranging from ninth grade to third year of college, with a mean of a tenth grade level, for social studies textbooks adopted at the eighth grade level.
* Armbruster and Anderson (1988) reported that textbooks frequently lack "considerateness," in that they are inconsistently organized from chapter to chapter, lack good structure, provide insufficient definitions of essential vocabulary, and require inappropriate skill demands of learners.
* Yager (1983) analyzed the amount of vocabulary introduced in science textbooks and concluded that more vocabulary words were introduced in a single year of science than in the first year of a foreign language class.
* Compounding the issue of text density and complexity is the fact that a single paragraph occupies about 15% of the space of one page in an 848 page textbook.

No wonder kids struggle and are overwhelmed!

keep teaching

Last week one of my professors gave us a list of teaching activities. We were supposed to check the ones we thought represented a certain type of teaching, and I didn't check any of them. While I was doing my reading for the class this week, I discovered she took the list from one of the articles she assigned. There were 12 activities on the list, and the author says if you marked between:

9 and 12 -- Don't waste another minute; read and study the rest of the book as quickly as possible.
4 and 8 -- Look closely at the issues, and read the chapters that address the issues you agreed with.
3 or less (that's me!) -- Please don't leave education. Students need you.

It's nice to get unexpected affirmation!

not the best

Today was not the best day I've had in New York so far. It might have been the worst. Although, not all parts of it were bad.

I substitute taught today on 57th Street, and last week I got there before any of the other teachers. So today I left 15 minutes later. And ended up waiting ten minutes for the subway at 116th. When I finally got on the subway (I barely managed to squeeze in with the crowd), it stopped in the middle of the tunnel before the next stop, and we sat there for about 10 minutes. Then we stopped at 110th, the next stop after I got on, and sat there for FOREVER. The conductor kept making an announcement for people to step in so she could close the door. Not that there was anywhere to step in to... Finally, she came out of her little booth, made half of my car get off so she could get out, and went to investigate the situation. When she came back, she said our train was now going to be out of service. Well, no one believed her (honestly, I thought it was just a threat in punishment of people who wouldn't get out of the way of the closing doors), so we all stood there for about five more minutes before she came over the loudspeaker and told everyone to get off the train. I dug out my map right away to try to find a bus route from 110th to 59th. The M4 runs along the route I needed, so I raced upstairs and looked for the nearest stop. There must have been 20 people waiting, and I joined them for a couple of minutes and then started walking toward the next subway stop at 103rd. When I got there, I discovered the train was no longer running at all. Ahh!! So I kept walking. I arrived at the next bus stop at the same time the M4 bus did, and I tried to get on, but the driver told me to get off because there wasn't enough room. I decided to try the taxi route, but then I realized that the hundreds of other people who had been on the subway were all trying to catch cabs, too. So I just kept walking. I was supposed to be at school at 7:50, and it was already 7:45, so I started calling to let them know I'd be late. (Real professional, eh?) Of course no one answered. Walking, walking, calling, calling, and stopping every time a bus approached in an effort to get on. I finally got hold of the secretary and told her what was going on. Then I half ran all the way down to 72nd Street before I finally managed to squeeze on a subway shuttle bus, which was only stopping at streets where the subway would have stopped. The traffic was horrible, and when I got off the bus at 59th Street, I still had to walk four more blocks to school. I'd say I got my workout for the day! And, after all that, I managed to arrive in the classroom at 8:35, only five minutes after the kids got there!

As if there hadn't been enough chaos already, there was more going on in the classroom. The first grade room is used as the church nursery on Sunday, and the teacher usually gets there early on Mondays to put it back together. So the kids were running around playing with the baby toys and looking for their school chairs and supplies (supervised all the while by the kindergarten aide). I finally managed to calm them down, and the rest of the school day went smoothly. I even managed to forget the trials of the morning!

Then, on the way home, I had another public transportation adventure! It was the first time I really felt scared on the subway. Sure, I'm scared of the big, noisy high schoolers who usually go home at the same time I do, but this was different. I ended up sitting next to an empty spot, and on the other side was a guy who was either crazy, drunk, or both. At first I didn't realize it, because the car was so full. But he kept talking unintelligibly and staring at me. Then he started punching the pole next to him, as if he thought someone was hitting him. In between spurts, he seemed to doze off. And his pants were undone, too. I kept my head turned the opposite direction so he wouldn't decided to interact with me. I really felt quite uncomfortable. We stopped at one stop, several people got off, and a lady across the way motioned for me to move over by her. She said she noticed he kept looking at me, and that you never know what these crazy people will do. There was a lot of tension in the whole car, but it was nice to see people looking out for each other. One lady got on and sat next to the crazy guy, and the woman across from her motioned for her to move over. Eventually crazy guy stumbled off the car, and there was an audible sigh of relief. Although I have to admit I was a bit worried that he'd fall into the track or something...

And then tonight was the class with the professor who's lost her mind. What more can I say about that? Argh! I'm over the other incidents, but I'm feeling very, very frustrated with this woman! And I'm more than a little stressed about her ridiculous assignments, on top of all my real work that needs to get done. Like I said, not the BEST day I've ever had in New York, but good for some stories. Now I'm going to go to bed so I can wake up to a better day tomorrow! :-)

substitute

I substitute taught today for a first grade class at a Christian school in Manhattan. It was a great day! We went on a field trip to the National Museum of the American Indian, where we saw lots of ceramics and different types of clothing, as well as some modern art by Native Americans. When we got back to school, we had lunch, the kids went to art, we did a little math, I read two books, and the kids went home. I sure don't mind getting paid for days like this! The kids were really well-behaved, too. On our way back to the bus, we stopped for a picture next to this globe, which used to be in the World Trade Center. It's now on display in Battery Park.The weather started out cold and rainy this morning, but it turned into a beautiful, sunny day. On my way home, I stopped for this picture of a cathedral on the block next to Teachers College. I'm inspired to visit Central Park this weekend to see the fall foliage!