A new year begins—midyear

As I mentioned, my school runs a block semester schedule—we cover a year in a semester, four classes each semester. So Monday starts the new year.

I will be teaching Geometry and Algebra II again, although the geometry class will be 10-12 instead of the freshmen of my first semester. One Geometry, two Algebra IIs and, for the first time, pre-calculus.

Note that I am teaching four classes, which means no prep period, and 33% more pay. I am pumped. Okay, a little bit because of the pay, but mostly for two reasons.

First: Admins don’t give a teacher extra work unless they are happy with the teacher. I have now had two observations with notes so glowing that I keep checking back to see if the name is mine. I know I’m a good teacher. I’m just not used to the principal agreeing with me. More importantly, the administrators seem to like me for the right reasons. Both the principal, who did my observations, and the AVP of the master schedule (the one who reawakened my algebra terrors ) came to see me teach before making the decision.  They liked my explanations.  They like the fact that I pass most of my students. They like the fact that I engage kids with low abilities or incentives, a skill that that all previous administrators have used for their own purposes, but never acknowledged as rare or useful. It’s very nice, if unusual, to be appreciated.

Second: In my state, a math credential has two levels, basic and advanced. Advanced math teachers are much thinner on the ground. Yet in my first three years of teaching, administrators have on several occasions given advanced math classes colleagues who had not yet passed the tests necessary for advanced math, despite several attempts. They made this decision despite the fact a penalty is attached to using unqualified teachers, requiring  a letter home to the students’ parents alerting them to the unqualified teacher.  The administrators took this penalty instead of giving me classes that I was actually qualified to teach.  Such madness as this is pretty normal, and it’s why teachers laugh hysterically when education reformers yammer on about giving principals complete control over hiring and firing.

As a result of these previous administrator decisions, I have never taught an advanced math class. Not once. Ever. I have no idea how to teach pre-calc. I have no idea how to talk to students who are taking a math class for some other reason than “I need it to graduate”. I have even less idea how to teach an entire class of people who–please, please, PLEASE god—know a positive slope from a negative one. I can’t wait.

I have a friend who is a professor at an elite public university, in a field that requires a lot of math. Back when I was first tutoring and learning math on the job, and got hired to teach a student pre-calc, I asked him “What topics are in pre-calc?” He sniffed, snootily, and said “Precalc isn’t a subject. It’s an administrative category.” I must have learned a lot of math in the intervening years, because I get the joke now.

I’ve got a book, so I’ll figure it out. But if any pre-calc teachers have broad topics to organize around, I’d love to hear about them.

In addition to teaching a full-schedule, no prep period, I start my yearly ACT class on Monday, and in a month I begin my AP US History review classes, two of them. I dropped my English enrichment class, though, so for the first time in seven years, my Saturday mornings are free. I love late winter/spring. But with all this extra money I may just take the summer off for the first time ever.