I was at school at 6:35am this morning and by the time gardening club was over and I was finished in my classroom I was lucky to get out of the building at 6:30pm. I walked out the parking lot, where there was literally only my car and one other. I am guessing it belonged to the janitor who asked me, "Maestro, Cuando sale?" (basically, "teacher, when are you leaving?" - I think). I think he was trying to close down the building for the evening so I took the hint and packed it up for the evening. I have found myself working about 10-12 hour days for probably the last month. When I started I worked long hours too, but since I was new, it didn't seem to be as tiring. For awhile I was averaging around 8-9 hour days which now would be really nice, but during TAKS season, I don't think that would be possible. My students have the science TAKS on Thursday of the upcoming week. I cannot wait to see how they do.
Here are two of the gardens the gardening club has made. Gardening club consists of three third grade girls, two fifth grade girls, and one fifth grade boy who is special needs so most days it is "watch Mr. Swartz gardening club" because I cannot get them to do anything (but they love watering everything).
Both gardens are located by my classroom. The top one includes all recycled plants/flower from around the campus. The bottom two pictures are of a vegetable garden I recently started to get the students more excited and teach the plant life cycle as well. The school couldn't give me any money so hopefully the purchases pay off. Everything but the plants and a couple of bags of soil is recycled from around the school campus as well.
This week has been interesting. After getting my math test results back my Principal told me that I would no longer be teaching math in my classroom. I was very surprised to find out that I will now be teaching ONLY science all day. Now when my students come to class for math I teach science and when they come to class for science, more science. Combined with science lab my students schedule looks like this: Science 1.5 hours, Science Lab 1 hour, Science 1 hour, and then English/Language Arts in the afternoon... that is a lot of science for a 5th grade student. I understand that the science TAKS is coming up, but I feel this is a little ridiculous.
The amount that teachers are forced to teach to the test (only teach what is on the TAKS) is unreal, and potentially really hurting the educational system in Texas (and I mean literally having students practice released TAKS questions over and over). It is very hard to keep a room full of 11-13 year old students engaged in that much science. On top of that, I definitely do not think that this is the best way to produce students who are going to be making positive contributions to society. They seem to be missing so much of what school, in my mind, should offer (no: art, physical education, computer, band, choir, industrial technology/shop, ect...). How are we to expect the students to continue to grow in math and be ready for next year when they take two weeks off? It is very frustrating... but something I have been dictated to do so I will do my best.
Hopefully, with all of this science practice, my students will be ready for the test on Thursday.
Tomorrow is my last day of teaching Saturday school. I am excited to be getting my Saturday back. I really haven't had much of a life outside of school since Spring Break. Friday night is usually spent preparing for Saturday school and then Saturday I teach from 8:00am-12:30pm and then usually come home, do laundry, and take a nap. Saturday night would be my opportunity to do something, but it has been spent doing my homework for the two night classes I am currently in at the University of St. Thomas. Sunday, is spent getting ready for another busy week... usually planning.
I also just started raising chickens in my classroom for my students to observe. I was able to receive the eggs from my students (interestingly enough about 50% of them raise chickens - inside one of the largest cities in the nation!). Hopefully some of them will hatch - I will let you know in 21 days (or who knows... I don't know how old they were when I got them). This could be a very interesting experience. I found the incubator in the storage room and figured, "why not" after finding out so many students had chickens... (my students are still bringing in eggs when they find them or remember to bring them haha)
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