Good press and help

It's so nice to have some positive press about teacher surpluses and smaller class sizes in the Baltimore City Public Schools.

I have not agreed with everything I have heard or seen from Dr. Alonso, but he sure seems to be steering things in the right direction in a lot of ways.

I sure hope those smaller class sizes make their way to me. I have averaged 33-36 in the last few years, making for a very difficult grading load and a cramped classroom. According to the article, there is now a 25.2:1 student:teacher ratio in the high schools in the BCPSS. These numbers are often skewed by who is counted as a teacher and other factors that I don't understand (somehow, a webpage published our school's ratio as 18:1 last year, which, as far as I could tell, was just a little more than half as big as it actually was). Still, the fact that the ratio is decreasing has got to be considered a major step in the right direction.

Heck, I even got a return email about my certification question from last week. I have never received a return email from someone at North Avenue before. The website is still pretty unmanageable and I had to ask around to find the correct email address for certification, but, once I did, it took less than a week for a reply.

(Not that it was good news, by the way. It looks like I have to take both of those dumb reading classes, unless - and I'm hoping this happens - one of my Towson MAT courses will double as one of them. Please, Towson, come through for me. They're reviewing my transcript as we speak. Or, rather, I handed it to a harried receptionist at North Avenue in the very busy Human Resources office about an hour ago, so it'll at least be on someone's desk in the next couple of days.)

Certification and Aspiring Leaders

My Standard Professional Certificate I expires in June of 2009.

According to all the confusing websites I've been reading, and according to what I understand of it all, I have to take a Reading course sometime before 90 days past that date to get a new certificate.

However, a letter sent from the certification office to a colleague has gotten my hopes up. See, while I haven't taken any Reading classes in the last five years, I've taken lots of classes - including getting my MAT in Secondary Education at Towson University this past May. According to my colleague's letter, she needs four things to get her Advanced Professional Certificate - a conferred Master's Degree (check), a Professional Development Plan (a rubber stamp check), Verification of 3 years of satisfactory school related experience (check), and a letter requesting advancement to the next certificate (check). No mention of a reading course.

I'm really hopeful that I won't have to spend time this fall taking a silly Reading class, which, by all accounts, are kind of jokes. I've had several colleagues take them, and everyone's attitude is that they're jokes, including the professors. I'm sure I gained more about teaching reading in just a week of the Teaching Shakespeare Institute as I will from these reading classes.

My other current dilemma is whether to get involved in the Aspiring Leaders Program through Hopkins. In this program, BCPSS will pay half of your tuition to JHU to get an administration certificate. I have no interest in being a principal or assistant principal, but perhaps would like the chance to be a department head or curriculum leader of some sort sometime. It's a three-semester program of 18 credits. Would probably be tough and I probably deserve a year just to work on my teaching after five years with a second job and three years working on an MAT, but I'm still tempted...

Anyhow, some of the decision hinges on whether I have to take this Reading class this year, and hopefully that question will be answered in the email to the Certification office I sent this evening. I wonder what the chances are that the email will be answered? I'll keep you updated. The folks at North Avenue are not known for replying to requests for help. I've had horrible experiences with the Certification folks at North Avenue, and was pleasantly surprised to be emailing a different name this time - the other lady must have left.