The Introverted Educator

This week at Indian High School we were student-free on Monday as we had a scheduled professional workday. We spent the morning in our content-area departments in order to discuss best practices. After this, we were given time to work in our classrooms and plan for the week. For me, this was spent putting together the to-do lists that I share with students at the beginning of each unit and updating grades. It was a productive afternoon that I was grateful to have.  Mobile Move . Four years ago, in the 2017-2018 school year, the social studies department moved to mobile units outside the brick-and-mortar school. Our department volunteered as a whole to make the move with the understanding that our new school would be completed in the 2020-2021 school year. We expected three years in the mobiles and accepted the move with mild grumblings of packing and unpacking. The move to the new school has been delayed consistently, and is still undetermined.  The Challenges . Being in a mob...

This week at Indian Land High School was uneventful in my mobile. We watched our videos, conditioned ourselves to salivate at the sound of a bell, and learned about classical and operant conditioning. It was spirit week and we celebrated with two spirit days that included a Hawaiin day and a rock n' roll day. The football game was played and Homecoming festivities were carried out. I participated in the first Hawaiin day as best I could, but recently I have been listening to a podcast ( Disgraceland, linked here, good for long trips and dog walks ) about the debauchery of rock n' roll characters and I didn't have the extra headspace to contrive a costume. Either way, students choose these days and I am proud they got some plans together nonetheless. In the pandemic and with changing rules for club gatherings I am not sure how this was accomplished. Good job folks.  No Weekend Work, Continued.  Last week I posted about the need for readjusting expectations of ourselves. I re...

This week at Indian Land High School we had our first staff meeting of the school year. Among the topics of conversation was the possibility of bringing students back for 5 days a week. Teachers were surveyed to get their thoughts on how we felt about returning to full-time classes. I was reassured that I was not alone in feeling very apprehensive about having 27 students in a mobile classroom at one time. Let's face it. Social distancing would not be an option. We do not know how this would affect our health, and well, I don't think this is a risk we need to be taking. I don't get too fired up about policy decisions, surveys, and planning as I figure that whatever decision is made I can either conform or get out. Districts and administrators can put out all the surveys they want, but in the end, they are going to do what they are going to do. After this week's staff meeting I decided I would not let the things I cannot control bother me. Instead, I focused on the thing...

A memorable movie moment for me was a montage from the Disney movie, Miracle ( movie montage linked here) . I am a history teacher, and this particular montage includes the speech given by Jimmy Carter on July 15, 1979 (linked here ). The public was disappointed in the message that Carter delivered that night, but looking back at a speech with my twenty-first-century perspective, I see wisdom from a man that dedicated his life to public service as a Washington outsider but was hurt by the armchair quarterbacks of the day. This speech is known as the "Malaise" speech as it described Carter's feelings about America's lack of initiative to band together to solve the nation's energy crisis. Malaise is the most perfect word to describe how I feel about the school year up to this moment. Malaise is defined by dictionary.com as "a condition of general bodily weakness or discomfort, often the onset of disease"; or "a vague or unfocused feeling of mental une...