Stargate Loving Teachers

[gater62]

Hi! I'm a geography teacher from Texas and I was wondering how many teachers out there loved Stargate? I thought it would be cool to have a thread where maybe we teachers could get together to share some of our joys in the job, and if need be, have a place to vent with other teachers who understand the ups and downs of teaching. What do you all think?

[TheXym]

Music teacher in Pennsylvania and fellow Stargate addict!

[scifithinker]

You'd be surprised at the number of teachers on the forum. I taught high school history for a while and am now in the Media Center of a middle school.

[e7of7]

Hey, do former teachers count? I taught 1st grade in NJ for six years (pre-school & substitute before that). Now I stay home with the kids. None of my teacher friends are Stargate people.

[gater62]

Hey, do former teachers count? I taught 1st grade in NJ for six years (pre-school & substitute before that). Now I stay home with the kids. None of my teacher friends are Stargate people.

Of course it counts! Btw, my mom taught 2nd grade for over 30 years!

I didn't mention it in my previous post, but geography is taught at the 9th grade in my district. Even though 9th is high school, I still feel as if I were teaching junior high.

[Nolamom]

I actually *use* Stargate videos in my sociology classes - now that's an addict. (For example Emancipation to illustrate feminism)

[dipsofjazz]

I'm a high school music teacher.

[gater62]

So are music and science fiction genetically related?

I've been wanting to teach sociology Nolamom, but the coaches get to do it as a tutorial. They won't take away a section of geography to have me teach an elective.

[Nolamom]

I'm the department head, so I get to teach a couple of things I want like sociology and AP Economics.

[gater62]

I've asked to teach AP Psycology. We don't even offer it, but I'm working on the scheduling principal. *Sigh* But my department head tries very hard to get everyone to teach their preference, so I'm generally happy! And she especially works to reduce our number of preparations.

[scifithinker]

I didn't mention it in my previous post, but geography is taught at the 9th grade in my district. Even though 9th is high school, I still feel as if I were teaching junior high.

I've asked to teach AP Psycology. We don't even offer it, but I'm working on the scheduling principal. *Sigh* But my department head tries very hard to get everyone to teach their preference, so I'm generally happy! And she especially works to reduce our number of preparations.

My former school teaches geography in the ninth grade also. While I like the middle school cluster model, I do think that ninth graders belong in middle school and sixth graders belong in elementary school. I see such an increase in maturity between the sixth and seventh grades and between the ninth and tenth grades. Now that our school system only uses clusters in the sixth grade, there doesn't seem to be much use in retaining middle schools as opposed to high schools. It would also help to relieve the overcrowding in the high schools as well.

I would have loved teaching AP Psych. I even like the biological psychology, but teaching abnormal psychology to kids just has so many possibilities.

[gater62]

My former school teaches geography in the ninth grade also. While I like the middle school cluster model, I do think that ninth graders belong in middle school and sixth graders belong in elementary school. I see such an increase in maturity between the sixth and seventh grades and between the ninth and tenth grades. Now that our school system only uses clusters in the sixth grade, there doesn't seem to be much use in retaining middle schools as opposed to high schools. It would also help to relieve the overcrowding in the high schools as well.

I quite agree with you on 9th belong in junior high. A few years back our district moved sixth up to "middle schoool" and I argued against it. Sometimes I think we are trying to make our kids grow up too fast.

[Nolamom]

Well, I *try* to get everyone's preference in, however, I can only make recommendations to our scheduling VP. Sometimes my recommendations of teacher preferences go right out the window.

We have 6-8 in middle school too. At our high school we tryto have a sort of separate academy for 9th - their classes are pretty much all in one wing.

[scifithinker]

Well, I *try* to get everyone's preference in, however, I can only make recommendations to our scheduling VP. Sometimes my recommendations of teacher preferences go right out the window.

We have 6-8 in middle school too. At our high school we try to have a sort of separate academy for 9th - their classes are pretty much all in one wing.

We did a pilot program for ninth graders. It was supposed to eliminate students who were serious discipline problems and had been failing multiple classes in middle school. It was also supposed to limit class sizes to 25 students.

It didn't last. My last bell class had 32 students; it was supposed to have been the team's planning period. A student who had been expelled for carrying a gun at school in another school system was let in. I spent three weeks riding him about his behavior and academics because I didn't know before he was transferred to the proper school. We did have one remarkable success; all of our special ed kids passed their standardized tests. At the end of the year, two of the four teachers, me included, asked to go back to what we had been teaching previously. The program was later abolished when the system went to citywide block schedules.

[gater62]

We are going to try a 9th grade academy this year at my high school, but it's only for a certain number of students (and is not for Pre-AP). I don't know who they got to teach it because most of the history department teachers do not want 9th graders. Myself and my friend Sylvia are the only ones who seem to like having them, but since no Pre-AP, we were not included. I'll let you all know in the future how it goes!

Nolamom, Annie says the same thing about scheduling! But mostly it seems to be working out the way she plans!

[tsaxlady]

My current class load has me teaching Band, Choir, Guitar, Jazz Band, Skills for Success and CJSF advisor at the middle school level.

[TheXym]

I'm also a dept. chair, and I have a jr. high choir, a sr. high choir, music theory (alternating years with music literature, this is a theory year), and intro to music technology. Plus a study hall, which stinks, but at least it's in my room so I can work with choir kids during that lunch mod if needed and it keeps me from having lunch duty. 7 times is about 7 too many.

I have 2 lesson periods which are usually pretty packed, although my lunch period is given up to work with kids for district/regional/state chorus or college auditions about 4 of 5 days each week, and my prep is usually bass practice time (depending on their schedules, some of my students come down and I help them).

[gater62]

I'm seeing a pattern of music teachers with a lot on their plates! I see the same at my school as well. While our band teachers may not have a lot in terms of classes, they do quite a bit with extracurricular activities. Our band has been out this week in the parking lot practicing marching. My daughter is in choir, and she has been up at the high school this week for a choir camp. Several other school districts have brought their students to participate as well.

Well today and tomorrow I'm working on recruiting freshmen for UIL Acadeimics. I coach spelling by default (no one else would do it) and assist with CX debate, speaking events, and drama. We're having a camp tomorrow to introduce kids to the different types of events. Our school has not been very successful in academic competitions of late and we're trying to turn it around. I'm being expected to give up my conference period (planning period) a couple of times a week to help with the coaching. I don't mind, but I need to adjust!

[Nolamom]

I feel pretty good about having just 4 preps for the last year and this year - Sociology, AP Economics, Honors Economics and regular Economics. That with two newbie teachers to mentor ought to keep me busy, hehehe.

[tsaxlady]

Today was our first day with students and it was a crazy day. My schedule changed three times earlier this week and I had to have the office print me off a schedule yesterday to make sure I was at the correct class each block today. My "Skills for Success" class is in a different room from all my music classes. Well you can imagine if I had to work to make sure I was in the correct place all day how confused some of the students were. The schedules for the "Skills' class had been printed with 3 different rooms listed so it took almost 20 minutes to find all the students and get them in the correct room.

Tomorrow will be a fun day for me because it all the class are band classes which are my favorite to teach. So I have 3 band classes tomorrow and then I head to Vegas for the Trek Convention