Math CSET: Algebra, Number Theory, Geometry, Statistics

Oh dear friends, the luxury of knowing you for the sake of knowing you is sometimes hard to afford.

Holy stinking poohcow, that was one difficult test. It was NOTHING like the practice tests in the study guide - both from the book by REA and the ones from the CSET exam site itself. It took me an average of 2.5 hours to do each test (I did four total in preparation for this), and I squeaked by with a low passing grade on all of them.

The real thing: 5 hours given, 5 hours used. And I still ended up rushing the final long answer problems, not even completing one of them. I think I did ok on subtest II (the geo and stats). However, subtest I revealed my blatant ignorance in numerical analysis in very uncomfortable ways. It would be a miracle if I passed that - and purely because I did ok on the number theory problems.

In any case, I'm not holding my breath. Good thing my position in the fall isn't contingent on me passing the math CSET. The signs weren't in my favor at all leading up to this test:

- The proctors took FREAKING FOREVER to get everyone situated. You would think after decades of giving this test there would be a more efficient way of signing in. The cellphone-nazi lady who kept rotated through the rooms every five minutes for the first forty-five minutes didn't help much.....

- ....Which contributed to the bad mood I was already in due to the heat, dehydration from crying so much, sad thoughts of Momo, and the hundred people chattering away giddily, speaking fast enough to rival clucking chickens, about "subbing" or "applications" or "credential programs" or....hold up. That was ME not too long ago. Whoa. Did I sound that annoying too? I'll keep that in mind.

- My last two remaining Muji pencils broke. My lucky pencils! They brought me through so many math exams - the ones where I was so sure I had failed but didn't.

- The lady who was clearing all the calculator memories kept making people's calculators do weird things. She even broke one of them. Good thing my trusty TI-86 has been through worse than errant button punching.

Well, glad it's over with at any rate. I did learn one thing, or was reminded of it more like: passing the test and saving a whole bunch of tuition money is sweet, but in the end, I think I prefer taking the courses. All this cram-studying is exactly the type of learning I hold in much less priority than really learning the material and understanding it deeply. You get to meet people, and collaborate, and argue math logic with your professor until they are so exasperated with you that they kick you out their office. What? That's never happened to you? Um, well, me neither! ::cough::

In less than a week

I'm taking this in less than a week. Not feeling nervous about it - I think I should be. By all accounts, this is an extremely difficult test. But this study book I've been working on isn't too difficult. Why? Is there a disconnect between the test and the available prep books? I really should take a look at the online sample questions.

I'm sure the long answer questions are going to be more difficult. Ack. Ok, more nervous now. Study, study, study!

The BTSA

Rabbit says, "Dude, why are you putting yourself through all that trouble and stress when you can just relax and munch greens?"

Now you've officially graduated with a teaching credential, you're on your way to becoming the best that schools have ever seen!

Sure. Only after you've finished another two years of being monitored by a master teacher, your colleagues, your principal, your district, and the All-Powerful CCTC. Because all you've got in your green little teacher hands is a Preliminary California Credential To Teach Whatever Subject(s) Your Degree And Your CSET(s) Say You Can And Nothing Else.

Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment is what awaits once you leave the protective gates of the Ivory Tower. It involves meetings, observations, writing papers and lesson plans, critiquing yourself/others, reading, case studies....basically your entire credential program packed into any spare time you have outside of your normal teaching responsibilities, instead of it actually BEING your normal teaching responsibilities as in your student teaching days. Some people call it an extended PACT, which makes sense: The Formative Assessment for California Teachers is done during the BTSA as well. FACT and PACT. Yep, only a teacher could have made up an acronym like that.

It typically takes two years to accomplish, although I've heard it can be done in one.

Well, that is assuming you've got a full-time teaching job. Subbing does not count. Apparently, you have to sign a contract with the district before they'll sponsor you into the local BSTA cluster. And you can't get into a local BTSA cluster without the sponsor ship of your workplace.

Thinking about the BTSA makes me question why I got into teaching in the first place. It can't be all that bad, right? RIGHT??

The PACT

Seeing double.
PACT stands for Performance Assessment for California Teachers, aka "How to Lose Your Mind In Four Months." Some other people refer to it as Teacher Performance Evaluation (TPEs).

There are several versions of this thing: one for every single subject credential, and two at the elementary level, for math and language arts (language arts requires an additional case study).

Here's what you're supposed to do:

1) Write a unit's worth of lesson plans. That's about 4-8 full, formal LPs. PLUS, a unit plan, which tells you what the lesson plans are about. As if the lesson plans themselves don't tell you what they are about. The plans can be based on district mandated curricula, outside resources, or you can make it up yourself.

2) Teach the unit. Technically, you're supposed to teach the entire unit. However, the PACT is supposed to be done during your student teaching, and you don't actually get to teach everything until closer to the end of the semester. Thus, in reality, you will probably only get to teach 1-2 of the lessons in the unit. I know of no one who has taught more than 2 lessons from their unit.

3) Record a video of yourself teaching. The clip has to be at least 15 minutes long. It can be edited, but it has to be from the same lesson, same day.

4) Write a super long paper discussing your unit, your lessons, your teaching, your students, your classroom environment, what happened before the lesson, what happened after the lesson, how and why you would change the way you taught the lesson and a bunch of other stuff. With references to research, and other resources. There are prompts to guide you through this part.

5) Take copies of three samples of student work - one low performer, one high, and one middle. Analyze, critique, and reflect upon student work as it pertains to the unit/lesson/your teaching/their performance. The samples don't have to be from the exact lesson you video taped yourself teaching, but it should be related in some way. Add this part to your paper from #4.

6) Submit the whole thing to the CCTC.

7) Wait two months.

8) Get your results back. If you passed, congrats! If you didn't, go back to #1 OR add more stuff to your old PACT. The CCTC will tell you what went wrong, but they won't tell you how to fix it.

There are six different sections to the PACT, including the video. Each will be given an individual score between 0-5. You need to get a score of 3 in at least four, and a 2 in the other two sections, to pass. That's a minimum average score of 2.66. Apparently, it's super tough to get an overall score of 4 - it rarely happens. Or so my PACT instructor said.

Yep. There is a course, with an instructor, to help you get through the PACT. If there isn't, and your teaching credential program requires you to do the PACT, then there really should be. This thing is a hay bale maze of craziness.

The craziest thing of all? NOT EVERYONE IS REQUIRED TO DO IT. Yep. It depends on your program, once again. Most likely, the programs that only require six weeks of student teaching don't make you do the PACT. Which makes no sense to me. Why have all these high standards for teachers and then NOT enforce them for everyone? Sure, you'll get some really well-trained teachers out there. But you're going to end up with some really poorly trained teachers too. Which is exactly what you would have without all these standards in place anyway.

Despite the headaches, I found the PACT pretty useful in developing my teaching skills. I still use some of those reflection criteria to evaluate my teaching now. There are lots of things learn from, just in the act of planning, teaching, reflecting, re-planning, and re-teaching. I'm lucky right now because I teach the same lesson multiple times each week with art and tutoring. For classroom teachers, this cycle usually happens over a period of two years.

The RICA

Screen cap taken from RICA homepage.

NOTE: Apparently, I already wrote about the RICA. But I like the writing of this entry better, and there's a little more information that the other post didn't have, so I'm keeping this post anyway. Two posts on the same credential topic? Goes to show how important it is.

Welcome to part 20 of Ms. B's Explanation Of How To Get A California Teaching Credential! In this section I will talk about how I learned more about reading and writing the English language than I ever thought was possible to know!

The RICA is as assessment taken sometime before, or during the early part, of the student teaching component. Supposedly a test to show how well you know how to teach reading, it actually tests more on the pedagogical language associated with reading instruction.

Not that the RICA isn't useful, because it is. However, I took this thing more than a year ago and I've forgotten, or jumbled up the definitions in my head, many of the terms the RICA requires that you know. Yet, I was still able to teach my NCLB tutee so that she raised her language arts grades from an F to a C- in 1.5 months.

So yeah, not exactly the most accurate measurement of how well a teacher can teach reading. Still, I suppose I should do an independent refresher course on schwas, reading diagnostics, phonics, phonemic awareness, et. al. It wouldn't hurt to keep up the language behind teaching language.

The RICA (plus the multicultural/bilingual course) is the newer, younger, more streamlined version of the CLAD. All California teachers are required to have certification to teach EL students, for obvious reasons. The sooner it gets done, the less stress experienced, I say.

There IS a lot of stress surrounding the RICA. If you don't pass it, you don't get your credential, since it's a built in component - an "all or nothing" situation. The passing rate is notoriously low as well. I've heard anywhere up to half of all test takers fail on the first try. Do you have to pay the $130 again for a second try? You betcha!

The good news: any decent language and literacy course (plus some studying on your own) will get you well above the minimum passing score of 60%.

I didn't have to do the video performance section of the RICA (another $60, and then $300 for decent video capture equipment) because my language and literacy course incorporated a case study assignment PLUS I was doing the PACT in math anyway (more on the PACT next time). I have no idea how difficult it is to pass the video assessment. Any tips for those who took it?

The student teaching component

Some people call it an extended job interview. Others call it the best learning experience of their lives. Still others consider it to be a time of painful out-growing of naive, idealistic hopes and dreams.

I call it all of the above.

Everybody's student teaching experiences are going to be different, even if the requirements (set by the university where the credential program is held) are different.

Which leads to the most frequently asked question on student teaching that I've heard yet: why do the requirements differ from university to university? I don't know, although I can guess. Some places only require four weeks of shadowing a classroom teacher. Others, like CSUS, requires two full semesters - one at part-time (i.e. half of each week), and the other at full-time (basically all day everyday). I did all my student teaching at Title I schools, and even though they had a lot in common, they had even more differences.

Room 10, first iteration.
My first student teaching experience was in a first grade classroom at a Title I school. It is my favorite out of the three. It was difficult, exhausting, fun, frustrating. I grew the most, as a teacher, here, in large part due to the highly hands-on, guidance my CT gave me. I walked in apprehensive of 5-7 year olds, and walked out armed with skills, knowledge, and confidence for the next step. I also learned to love teaching first graders. They are hilarious.

Room 14 - ominous, since "14" in Chinese means "certain death." The woman in this photo was a fellow student teacher. I got a lot of support from my fellow student teachers while at this school. Thank you!
My next student teaching assignment was at a school that had recently undergone various administrative changes. They had four different principals in as many years before the one that was there (still is, I think) when I was there. The students were pretty much like most students I've seen. They all have their own individual baggage of course, but I never viewed that as a handicap, or an excuse. Still don't.

I never really fitted in at this school. Never really understood the reason why, but I guess "why?" is a moot question. I just didn't make it. Period. There were many subtle undercurrents within the intermediate teaching staff that I grasped not at all - and liked even less. While I was there, I got the feeling that the primary teaching staff - in general a much more uniformly formal group, at least on school grounds - looked down upon the intermediate teachers. Including me, a person they had just met. A lot of this occurred, a lot of "inside jokes" and clichishness. A lot of rumors. A type of casualness with the students I didn't feel comfortable with.

I learned a lot in the short seven-and-a-half weeks I was here. A lot in terms of depth AND breadth AND intensity. This experience is listed on my resume, despite some people telling me that isn't a good idea. I am not ashamed of what I did here. I was prepared. I worked hard. I gave my excellence at this place, for these students. It wasn't enough to get on any where near the medal podium. Sometimes your best is not enough. So goes life.

Room 10, second iteration.
My phase-3-take-2 was at an incredible rare school - winner of various awards, including the Title I Academic Achievement School for nearly a decade. Straight. The students here were the sweetest I've ever met. The staff here actually enjoyed teaching nearly all the time - and they enjoyed working with each other. The front office people are the nicest. Ever. And I've seen a lot of front office people through teaching after school art.

I had it easy at this school, not just in comparison to the previous semester, but relative to the entire realm of classroom teaching. Thus, I became a bit complascent and fell into some difficult to correct bad teaching habits. My CT had to lay it down pretty hard before I even began to get out of that rut.

Towards the end of my student teaching here, I got the opportunity to observe 3/4 of the entire staff at work. Most of them were excellent. There were a few who were good, but were given the short end of the stick and were struggling to corret it (one teacher entered in the middle of the semester because of staff changes, and another had to deal with a class that the student teacher ruined). Watching them, and their classes, was eye-opening. There were a small handful that were horrible - even I, n00b and green, could see that. My CT had advised me to watch these people. He didn't tell me why, he was just pretty adamant about it, so I went. Afterwards, he told me he wanted me to see some really bad teaching in action from these teachers - I wasn't the only one who thought they could improve much.

And there you have it: my 2.5 semesters worth of student teaching summarized, and yet there is so much more that occured than in just this summary. So goes teaching in general. I can summarize my thoughts in reflection until my fingers fall off, but it still doesn't say it all.

Then again, some things are more powerful unsaid.

Bilingual/Multicultural education

When I was taking these courses, I didn't really see such an enormous need for them in teacher preparation. I, and everyone else in my class, were so culturally savvy. We quickly understood how important home languages and home cultures were to the cognitive development of children. I still experience code-switching now. I still see and experience gender and ethnic inequality on a daily basis. Not that these things will change anytime soon, but if I'm aware of it, I can teach in a more "equity conscious" manner. Whatever that means. I just do it because I'll know my students better, which helps me to teach them better.

It wasn't when I began my field work that I realized how important this part of teacher education is. How many times have I encountered an educator, a teacher, an office staff member who was completely ignorant of non-western cultural norms.

Nay, non-white bread American cultural norms. Greece is a western country, yet I've observed a teacher being completely insensitive and downright offensive to a student of Greek Orthodox tradition.

Of course multicultural education is way more than just not offending someone. That's just the first step. And many teachers pretty much fail at it - including some of my own CTs.

Apparently, at CSUS, there used to be an entire regiment of courses pre-service teachers needed before they could graduate. Now, there is basically only one. So much of the rest is up to each individual teacher to learn for themselves.

That is, if they even realize they need to learn it in the first place.

Health sciences in education or, "How to break a CPR dummy"

Can you identify the high fructose corn syrup?
This marks the round dozen-th in official posts describing the process of becoming certified by the California Commission on Teacher Credentials (the CCTC, or what I like to call, "The Great Wise Board of Educators Not Actually Teaching Anybody Anything," TGWBENATAA).

Hold on to your hats, folks, there's going to be another dozen to go before I'm done with this tag. At least.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's first recap. You've now:

~ obtained a BA (or BS) in something. If you've long known you wanted to teach, the something is probably child development. If you decided to teach half-way into your undergrad years, it's communications or economics, or more likely both. If you knew from the very beginning in the womb that you wanted to teach, you probably already have your credential along with a major in education. Possibly you are on your way to an M.Ed. Which makes me wonder why you are reading this in the first place.

If you were (and are probably still) waffling around, changing your mind from law to accounting to architecture to the medical field to ::insert occupation here::, you would have a math degree. That's me. Go mathies!

If teaching is only a stepping stone to what your eventual goal will be, you would have studied the fine arts. Or English.

People with engineering backgrounds won't become teachers for another 15-30 years. By then, this guide will be obsolete. However, you are used to things going obsolete, so don't worry. You'll be able to wing it.

In any case, whatever your own education background is, you have one, which is really all that matters in this part of the process anyway.

~ You've taken the CBEST and CSET.

~ You've worked with kids. And liked it enough to consider spending 3/4 of each year with them.

~ The FBI and DOJ has deemed you a non-pedophile.

~ You've applied and been accepted to an accredited university's teacher preparation program for pre-service training.

~ You're now taking this series of courses, and these courses, and then there's this one, as well as this, oh and don't forget this lovely pair of courses either.

~ You've passed that damn RICA.

Congratulations! You are now ready to.....no, wait. Actually, if I remember correctly, you should have done the following step somewhere between getting an undergraduate degree and passing the damn RICA. It doesn't really matter when, although some programs will make it a mandatory pre-requisite before entering the field work component.

Because it's useful to know CPR and emergency first aid when, say, one of your students is having an asthma attack and he doesn't have his inhaler on him.

Or if something goes wrong during a lock-down.

Or when a student insists on eating thirteen hamburgers because he was traumatized by a year of homelessness and is taking the Scarlett thing too far, and you have to explain to him why eating so much is actually just as bad as not eating at all (note: see Educating Esme).

Not to mention the fact that 4th/5th/6th grade teachers are in charge of explaining sex ed.

So take that health science for educators class. Mine was mainly about cancer, nutrition, car accidents, and sitting through 40 presentations on healthy living.

It will probably require you to become adult and child CPR certified, which can be done through your local American Heart Association or Red Cross.

I got mine at a fire station in the seedier part of my town. I got yelled at by a fireman because I wasn't compressing hard enough. That it's better to break a rib than to have the rubber torso die of asphyxiation. So I pumped that dummy with ten times the energy of my tennis kill shot.

And made the head pop off its hinge.

I turned to the fireman and said, "Is this any better?"

You too, can have a teaching credential for only $29.50!

The sad thing is, this isn't the final step. Note that this is a "preliminary" credential, rather than the clear credential. Also, the fee is for the CCTC to send someone out to CSUS to check that all the paperwork is in order. THAT process takes anywhere from 3-6 months.

I lied, there are many sad things about it. Eh. At least I finished what I had to do. I'm in control of everything except for the things outside my control. Waiting for the CCTC to do their thing is outside my control.

CA credentialing: the RICA

It's true that people don't read for fun anymore. Nope, they read for "literacy."
The Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (aka RICA) is a huge exam all California teachers need to take in order to get their credentials. It is one sick test - difficult too.

I took two semesters worth of language and literacy classes to prepare for the RICA, in addition to my own independent studying. But really, most of what I learned about teaching reading came from actually teaching reading, especially all the word knowledge and phonics work done in the first grade.

One of the major things I worked on in preparation for this exam was just understanding the definitions of all the wacky terms used in literacy. Homophones, the "schwa," what it means to be an "independent" reader (there is an actual number that goes with this definition!), and my favorite term to say: the dipthong! Even student interest in reading was analyzed down to a science.

You only need a 60% to pass. Which is a D, and a D is a passing grade. Barely. And here I thought teachers were being held to a higher standard?

Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with a 60% passing grade. I probably got something in the 60's or 70's (they don't tell you exactly - like the CSET, you've either passed or not passed). The policy just seems inconsistent to me. But then, the CCTC never really directly claims they are consistent.

But the craziest thing of all? Students themselves are learning these literacy terms that adults still have to look up. Honestly, never in my adult life have I cared about knowing the difference between superlatives and comparatives. Actually, to this day, I still pronounce "superlatives" wrong (I say, "SU-per-LA-tives" and then have to correct myself with "su-PER-la-TIVES").

Yep, students are tested on whether they know what the official definition of an adjunct is, more so than on how to use an adjunct effectively in writing. Some people think this is a waste of brain space, and I tend to agree.

Solo done!

Where can I find these little lights of hope when my confidence is broke?
Yesterday was my last day of solo. Overall, the two weeks went decently. The entire semester was productive too.

All I have left before I get my preliminary credential is the final evaluation, and filing for graduation with the university and the CCTC.

Yet, I still have this nagging fear that they will fail me. Because CSUS has been known to guide a student teacher through the entire semester and then say at the very end, "You are not good enough."

Although they didn't tell me at the very end, they did make me waste a good six months of my life.

In my eyes, I passed. But I can't shake off that nagging fear.

Courses: P.E. and VAPA

The art of calligraphy - I really admire the dude who drew this one, it looked really nice.
My credential has many things built into it to comply with NCLB regulations. Two of these many things include the fact that I can teach elementary physical education AND visual and performing arts (VAPA).

What does this mean? Nothing really for a typical self-contained classroom teacher. We don't exactly have the time for P.E. or VAPA. But I am qualified to apply for P.E. and art teacher positions in the K-6 grades.

As if the typical schools I work at have the resources to hire an additional art teacher. We barely have P.E. once a week, since we share our P.E. teacher with another school.

Yep. We have to SHARE teachers. Like we share nurses, guidance counselors (which are pretty much non-existent at the elementary level), reading coaches, speech instructors, and resource teachers (i.e. special ed).

If you are boggling at the sheer number of support staff that today's schools need to run itself, well, I was in your shoes not too long ago. You'll get over it.

Anyway, I find it incredibly funny, in the sarcastic way, that I'm qualified to teach P.E. after a one-day seminar on games and sports. I find it equally sarcastically funny that I'm qualified to teach VAPA after a two-day seminar on making pulp paper, Taiko drumming, and interpretative dance.

As a professional, I'm also responsible for developing my content knowledge as well as pedagogy in these areas throughout my career. Which I'm ok with, even if my school can't reimburse me for my efforts. I whole-heartedly believe in life-long learning, and modeling this skill does help me be a better teacher.

All I'm saying is, those are low standards yo. Low standards indeed.

I also have to be honest that I wouldn't be so vocal about it if it significantly increased my chances of getting a job in December.

Courses: technology

I always feel a little sorry for people who have extreme frustrations struggling with technology. But I also have no mercy for them either. It's their job to figure it out for themselves as teachers. And if they are a little older, or a little less familiar with tech in general, then they have to work that much harder to get it.

They are the same people who are nearly the only ones actually following the instructor. You know everyone else is on instant messaging or facebook, or doing the homework assignment so they don't have to do it outside of class time. And it's really sad, because these non-tech savvy people are trying so hard to follow along, but they keep getting behind because the instructor is clicking through the screens WAY too fast for anyone to keep up with. Because the instructor also knows that most people aren't listening and he just wants to get through the university prescribed lesson and return to his own instant messaging or facebook.

Ok, that's not true all the time. But it's true enough of the time, no?

All of CSUS' credential centers (i.e. Twin Rivers, Folsom, Elk Grove, and my own UTEC) require a technology course. This is where we learn how to record digital videos (or convert analog to digital videos) and upload them, upload photos, scan and print, use Powerpoint for teaching, and a variety of other things.

We were also given a demonstration of the interactive whiteboards. Which are cool and awesome and l33t. But the type of schools I teach at will never see one until they become obsolete, so I'm not going to talk too much about this.

The main thing we focused on in that tech class was how to use Taskstream. Which, IMO, is completely useless. One of their problems is that you have to pay to use it, and there is no free version like flickr and youtube does. Another problem is that only other Taskstream users can see your work, it isn't viewable to the general public like a blog. Taskstream also does not have the internet's most user-friendly platform - all the color choices and screen layouts are pretty distracting too.

I did enjoy reading academic articles on tech in teaching. That part was really helpful. And I enjoyed the project and presentation on said articles. My group did our project on how sensory overload through technology can hinder learning rather than aide it.

Now that I've listed what we did in tech class, I'm surprised we didn't do more demonstrations of actual lessons involving technology. Showing photos and video and powerpoint are all well and good, but there has to be more than that. I think we should have created a lesson plan teaching students to use technology themselves (my fifth graders last semester were still typing with one finger - painfully slowly, they were not even familiar with the layout of a keyboard) rather than have the teacher throw tech at them. Something to remember in my own teaching.

In both my MA seminars this semester, we have papers that require research. And a lot of research journals are available online through the university library site. I spent an hour and a half Saturday afternoon after class to do my research. I found 22 articles to possibly use for three different papers in that short time. Great efficiency yeah? Well, several of my classmates were pretty stressed and had to have a lot of help from me to just figure out how to print articles out.

Which was why I was a little taken aback when I asked another classmate to point me in the direction of the theses shelves, since I saw her holding some of those green covered books as I headed downstairs to that part of the library. She snapped back at me and essentially told me to find them myself.

This is another word I don't use very often but here is a time that warrants it: MEOWRAR much?

I understand that she was probably stressed about all our individual workloads and didn't want to take much time to help someone else when she could barely handle her own stuff, but what was that? It wasn't like I was asking her give up an hour to help me. Just a point in the right direction of a place that she just came from would suffice. The university library is a very large place, with very few signs indicating what shelves hold what books. It is easy to get lost in there.

Well, in this case, technology brought people together while the old-fashioned way created more tension than it was worth.

Courses: language and literacy

I like L&L. Not only does it involve a lot of reading and writing, it reminds me of Hawaiian barbeque.

No, seriously. Beef BBQ with spam sushi, come to me!

Anyway. Although L&L methods courses differ in different programs, mine was pretty sweet. We did a case study, learned various methods of assessment (some of which were VERY scientific and research-ified), studied a lot of flow charts/activities/poetry scaffolds/etc, and became familiar with the world of children's literature. We also became bonafide Scholastic book order whores. 50 cent book deals, come to me!

Most of all - or perhaps it seemed like a "most of all" since it was at the top of everyone's minds - we prepared for the RICA. The Reading Instruction Competence exam which, when passed, gives the "English Language Authorization" part to the Multiple Subject 2042 credential. Which is what I'll get in December.

Side note: I better pass this semester of student teaching, damn it!

*Ahem*

Well, more details on the RICA later. I'm mentioning it now because it and my two semesters worth of L&L were so closely tied together that it's hard to tell them apart sometimes.

We also created original lesson plans, which we implemented in student teaching, as well. Although I think my cohort had grown a little teacher-whine by the second semester. Our professor had mercy on us and shortened the assignment from a minimum 5-lesson unit to a 2-lesson collaboration done with a partner.

In hindsight, I still don't think I'm completely prepared for the rigors of teaching ELA and ELD on a daily basis. A handful of teaching ideas per week for two semesters does not a perfect ELA program make. I own these three resources, plus another binder full of activity ideas, and still it won't be enough for a full school year's worth of lessons. I kinda wish I had more - although this will come with more time and experience too.

But then, what is a "perfect" program? Who knows.

In which I'm a flaming retard

As dumb and floppy as this crocheted bag
Today, for the first time in my academic career, I went to the wrong class. I went to the wrong class and sat through nearly all of it before I realized my mistake.

Let's start from the beginning shall we? Well, I supposed the beginning beginning, as with many other problems today, boils down to the economy.

Deep slump in the economy => less taxes => budget cuts => The Great Teacher Pink-Slip and Non-Hiring Extravaganza of '09 => more teachers going back to school => more people enrolling in the same masters classes that I'm in => the university suddenly creating another section of the course to accommodate the influx => me not realizing that I had been booted to a different section => me running clear across campus at 7 PM after getting happy and excited for 2.5 hours to get to my actual class.

They did send out a notification email about the change to me, and I did read it. However, I had checked my course schedule online the same day, probably not even an hour prior to reading that email, and I was complacent and didn't think I had to check my registration again.

And thus, another episode of when the gods of communications are not on my side.

But both the professors were really nice about it, and they both let me choose which section I wanted to stay in. And the one I was supposed to be in had a student add at the last minute anyway, so if I stayed in the one I'm not supposed to be in it would balance out the class size. I also like the assignments and the layout of the course a smidgen better in the section that I'm not supposed to be in.

So it worked out in the end. I am really excited about this course, and I anticipate a lot of learning and professional growth from it. I didn't know graduate course class sizes are supposed to be 10 students. In each section of this class I'm taking, there are now 16. Well, this is what teachers do I guess. When there is no work to be had, we go back to school ourselves.

Courses - a thought

Stand alone is important.
Hm, why ISN'T there a stand alone course on classroom management when it is such a huge part of teaching?

Courses: science, math, and history/social studies methods

So far on the steps towards becoming a certified teacher in California, I've talked about regular college, the CBEST and CSET exams, experience working with children, the nightmare joy of fingerprinting, choosing a teacher preparation program, and pedagogy courses.

That's a lot right? Oh, there is still so far to go.

Besides pedagogy, most teacher preparation programs make the follow methods courses mandatory (all are one semester worth, unless otherwise stated):

~ Language and Literacy (2 semesters)
~ Science
~ Math
~ History/Social Studies
~ Technology
~ Visual and Performing Arts
~ Physical Education
~ Health Sciences (including CPR certification)

I was going to lump them all in this one post, but now that I think about it, the first item and the latter four items on this list need to be addressed separately. Which I will do at a later date.

Although I didn't take these classes first, I'm going to address them here first because they are the most straight forward to explain. My science, math, and history/social studies methods courses all followed pretty much the same formula:

A) Get acquainted with K-6 CA standards as well as educational law/policy that specifically pertain to each subject.
B) Get acquainted with various resources and curricula materials.
C) Get acquainted with various past and present research on teaching these subjects.
D) Get field experience teaching these subjects - mainly done through student teaching, but we also held fairs at our teaching school for science and social studies.
E) Pick a topic in each subject and create a unit's worth of lesson plans - this is done in groups for the purpose of the fairs mostly. In math, our units were for the PACT.

Note: I've mentioned the PACT before, but I'll explain that in depth later. Coincidentally, now is a good time to comment on how much more stuff pre-service teachers get embroiled into the further they travel on this road to being credentialed. It doesn't end, it truly doesn't end.

But my methods courses were fun. I'm biased, but I did enjoy the math methods course a smidgen more than the others. These courses really ignited a determination to make my lessons fun and exciting for my students. Certainly not all the time - I don't have that kind of stamina yet. But I'll start with at least one fun lesson each week for each subject and add on from there.

Courses: Pedagogy

Little known fact: when I was young and ignorant like that, I used to pronounce Pedagogy as "Ped-a-gog-gee." I later learned that it is actually, "Ped-a-go-gee," almost like the "golgi" in Golgi bodies.

Bunny trail over.

Pedagogy (specifically for me, EDTE 310A, B, and C) are the main courses that tie in with student teaching. It is the base of most of the other teaching methods courses. It consists of a lot of reading about:

- lesson planning
- how to use the given curriculum as decreed for use by CA school districts
- how to set up a classroom (as in the furniture, wall decor, etc)
- how to set up routines (i.e. lining up, entering the room, procedures for pencils/papers, etc)
- other inner workings of a logistical nature that a teacher has to deal with, in any situation, on any given day
- a bunch of other things that I'm sure I learned but for some reason am having trouble recalling right now

But the biggest thing, at least in my pedagogy classes, was the D-word. D.I.S.C.I.P.L.I.N.E. Isn't that an annoying way to write something?

Ah, discipline. It ties in with your classroom philosophy - which must be part of that bunch of other things I didn't recall just now. This ever evolving thing called classroom management. The thing that, no matter how much thought and planning you put into it, sometimes just goes clear out the window in favor of beating the little booger-snots with the nearest handy object.

I kid, I kid. I have never once beat a kid.

But that doesn't mean I don't have it in my power to make a kid cry. Or be so disappointed in them that they start being disappointed in themselves.

This was my Waterloo last semester. No matter what I did - and I pulled out ALL the stops that I had learned up to that point - I couldn't get the students to respect me as their teacher. When I finally got out of my Great Depression Over My Lack of Teacher Finesse 2009 (the first half - who knows, there might be a reprise later in the year) I planned on re-evaluating my discipline plan.

The verdict? I've ceased to plan on planning any discipline plan. Don't get me wrong, I do still need to think about routines and procedures and the consequences for breaking the classroom peace - I still am thinking of these things. But other than that, nope. I've grown tired of studying books with titles like "How to Manage Your Rowdy Child," or "Why Students Misbehave and How to Fix Them." By the way, what is with that latter type of book title? It's as if students are pound animals that need to be neutered.

Which is also, sometimes, how what I think about certain students.

But really, nothing I've learned in pedagogy class, or from pedagogy readings, can match the effectiveness of just being in front of the classroom myself. I am a kinesthetic learner after all. It seems really negligent to say that teaching is just a pile of trial-and-error. It isn't all the time. But it is just enough of the time to make it feel like that's all I can do, sometimes.

EDIT: Ok, so I say I don't plan on doing any more discipline planning for now, but in reality I probably will. Because I'm just like that, I plan, it's what I do. But not today, and probably not tomorrow either. I'm just a little brain-tired of thinking about discipline right now. I have been thinking about it every day for the past four months now. Classroom management and I need a break from each other.

This post was supposed to be about the pedagogy courses, and in a way it is, but it doesn't really tell you much about what occurs in said course.....or does it?

How to choose the right teacher preparation program

Not as advertised.
Ok, so the title is a little misleading, since I do not claim to know how to make the right choice for other people. I barely know how to make the right choice for myself - actually, of late, I'm kind of thinking I didn't make the right choice in terms of teacher preparation programs. But then, this area is a learning experience in and of itself.

The CSU and UC system has some sort of college of education at nearly all of their campuses. UOP, a local private college in my town, is one of the few 4-year universities (that I know of, in California) that has a teaching credential integrated into their education major. National University, I hear, has a ten month program that churns out credentialed teachers.

Of these choices, if I were able to do the whole thing again, I would do an integrated credential with an education major. The down side is that I wouldn't have had as much time to study math. And I owe a lot of learning to math, so maybe I wouldn't after all. It's just in retrospect, knowing the direction I want to go, it would have saved a lot of time and money. However, I didn't actually know the direction I wanted to go when I was just a little 17-year-old, so I guess this regret is a moot point. Plus, I actually DID want to study math.

CSUS offers several cohorts that in effect do the same thing: you graduate with a post-bac degree which includes your CA teaching credential. It can be done in two-, 3-, and 4- semester programs. I'm currently in the 3-semester program called Urban Teacher Education Center. Of course, my three semesters is turning out to be four, but that's a whole different story.

Or maybe not. A teacher friend entered her program later than me, and came out with a credential before me. She's found a job now, and everything, which is a good and happy thing. She went through a situation a little like mine, where she didn't feel like she was learning anything from her CT. She, being smarter than me, was more forceful about getting a placement change.

She did tell me one thing: that it is MY education and career, and I'm spending MY money on it. And if I don't feel like I'm getting what it's worth, then I'll have something to say about it.

In that sense, I was spoiled at UCD, where everything is done for you. At least for undergrads. I had an awesome academic counselor (another thing I wish I had done more: see the academic counselor more often!), the career center was very helpful, all the forms were easy to find online and in person at the offices, and when it came time to pay up, the school made sure it was all straightforward and above board. None of this "pay by the fees deadline or else you get dropped, and by the way we constantly change the fee deadlines so that even our financial services people don't know when you have to pay up!"

Come to think of it, I came across these administrative snaffus at HKU too, where departments didn't communicate with each other and you had to go from office to office telling the same people the same information just to make sure you are enrolled in the right class. Sure, these things are my responsibility. Bu that doesn't mean you need to make it so very not customer friendly. And after all, students are the customers of universities.

UTEC won the "Quality Education Partnership Award for Distinguished Service to Children and the Preparation of Teachers" which was given by the California Council on Teacher Education (CCTC) last year. Apparently, this is a pretty prestigious award. I can put this in my cover letters when applying to jobs. Prestige is nice, but to be honest, I don't know what to make of it, or how to put being a part of an award-winning teacher preparation program to good use. Other than do what I do, like I do now. Maybe that's enough. Although often, it doesn't seem so. I sometimes wonder if Harvard graduates think they are living up to their ivy league education as well as they should. Ultimately though, to each his or her own, and the choices I make must first and foremost satisfy myself before bringing any laudable news for my alma mater, or any one else for that matter.

Wow, I'm writing more about this than I thought I would. All I can say is beware and be careful when choosing a credential program. And when you get into a program, still keep up with university policies, because apparently they can change like one of those girls from The Hills changes their mind about each other.

Fingerprinting

This step belongs in the top five most annoying things one must do to get a teaching credential in California. But it must be done, there is no other way around it.

Fingerprinting can be done through multiple outlets, but I've found the cheapest and most reliable place is your country office of education. Be aware that not all COEs accept cash or personal checks to pay for these things. The total cost is about $55. Out of your own pocket usually, unless you are doing it through an employer. But even then, sometimes the employer will only reimburse a partial fee.

There are two parts to the fingerprinting process. First is what is called "LiveScan" which basically puts your fingerprints on record, plus a background check by both the Department of Justice and the FBI. Because nobody wants a convicted child molester or something working in schools. Well, maybe the child molester would want to, but that's a whole different story.

Another whole different story is the fact that people get cleared to work in schools and then later turn out to be child molesters. Mary Kay Letourneau anyone? There was a case in Lodi not too long ago of a teacher-student affair too. It's pretty scary stuff, although many other things are more likely to happen to a student at school than this. Just teach your kid what is appropriate teacher/student relationships and what is not, and they'll be fine.

The second part is called the "Certificate of Clearance" which is done through the almighty California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. To be honest, even though I've read all the fine print and explanations, I'm still not 100% certain what this second part is all about. My thoughts: it's a heads up to the CCTC on who is applying for a teacher credential (because, yes, you have to officially apply later near the end of the program), and giving them proof that you've been through the LiveScan process. There may be more to it than this, of course.

Or perhaps there is less and it's all just a conspiracy to make you pay more money to the Golden State. Whatevs.

Now I come to the annoying part. For every single separate contributing agency (i.e. teaching program school, elementary school you are looking to work for, after-school program job, any other job/volunteer work involving working with children in an official status) you must get fingerprinted again. For each agency. Each time. No joke.

I've been through LiveScan about half a dozen times, paying the fees each time of course. The Certificate of Clearance only needed to be done for CSUS, so there's that at least. But the COC expires, and I did a little timing misstep in deciding to go to China to teach English after I had applied and been accepted to a teacher preparation program. So I had to do it again when I came back from China. w00t.

The reason LiveScans are done so often is that the state doesn't share FBI or DOJ information to anyone else other than the contributing agency that is requesting this information. The lack of communication between everyone and everybody else gets on my nerves a little, but I must remind myself that it is set up this way to protect my privacy. I think.