Feedback & Confidence

One of my goals this summer was to rid my home of all the “paper” laying around. . . .you know:  bills, stuff from college, notes to self, xerox copies of random stuff.  Tonight, I was cleaning out another stack of paper–this stack was from my college days. . . it brought back sooo many memories.

• all nighters
• writers block (absolutely terrible for a History or English major)
• READING, READING & MORE READING
• party allnighters–well, for me it wasn’t much partying.  I had a group of friends that I’d play cards or board games with until 3 or 4  in the morning
• dorm life (not that I really miss it, just the people who were there.)

Anyway, as I began to look through the papers, I began to smile and laugh and remember the “good ole days.”  As I picked up sheet after sheet, I’d squeal and say, “I remember this. . . .I stayed up all night to write this.. . . I loved this class. . . uh, that professor was narcissistic.”  My college days were good.  Yes, there were times that I didn’t have money for food or to go out with my friends AND I worked my entire college career. I remember a friend and I gave blood to buy groceries.  Her dad found out and it brought the man to tears.  The next day, her parents showed up with groceries for both of us and cash.  (They knew I didn’t have a father I could rely on and my mother didn’t have any money.  She wasn’t even paying my tuition)  Yes, those were the good ole days!

I remember my biggest issue in college was a problem of confidence.  I did the work and I got As & Bs.  But I was never really confident about the work.  I never felt “smart.”  It was like should have known more than I did.  I made up for this with hard work (Today, I make up for it with internet. You mention something I don’t know. . . I google it.)  The history department at my university was relatively small, I took the same professors over and over again.  And had classes with the same students.  I think a few of my professors got to know me pretty well.  I participated in class, but I sure lacked confidence in what I was saying.  In most classes, I was quiet until someone called on me. . . and when they did, my professors offered feedback that gave me confidence. . . made my words seem insightful.

I was NEVER confident about my writing.  (I believe this stems from a teacher in high school who told me I really needed to work on my writing.  I had wanted to be a writer someday. . . you know writing books.  I don’t believe this teacher intentionally tried to discourage me, she just didn’t encourage me to continue writing.)  Tonight, as I browsed through the papers  and read my teachers feedback, I began to feel better about my work ALL OVER AGAIN!

From my favorite professor:  ”As usual, excellent work,. . . once you realize how bright you are, you will be dangerous.”

“Brilliant.  Excellent job weaving the lives of these women together.”

“thoughtful. . . well wrought . . . meticulous”  This professor gave me an A- for this essay.  This man was INSANE . . .he had a reputation for never giving As and my paper BLED with his marginal comments.  I was EXCEPTIONALLY proud of this essay at the time.  I remember the SLEEPLESS nights pouring over this paper about More, Menocchio, Martin Luther & Machiavelli.  And back then, wikipedia was available to help when I was stuck!  It was an assessment of my reading those works that semester.

Today as I look back over these papers, I am overwhelmed and excited by the comments my professors left.  I can’t believe how much my professors believed in me and celebrated the work I had given them.

Feedback is soooo important to our students.  Grades are not feedback!  Unfortunately, I must admit, I take so many grades, it is difficult to offer a true assessment of students’ learning.  As I move into this school year, I will make it a point to offer “meaningful” evaluations of their learning.  If these comments give me a sense of pride and meaning today, imagine what my words of esteem could do for the teenagers I teach today.

Miss Teacha the Artist!

I had planned to visit my mother this summer, but when I couldn’t get a plane ticket price to match a good time for me to go.  I decided that I would stay home this summer season.  I would truly rest and do some touristy things in my city.   Remember, boredom is good motivation for teachers that pays off during the school year.

So, yesterday, I facebooked that I was bored.   I wrote that I was tired of tv, movies and starbucks-I needed something NEW to do.   A friend wrote back about this paint class.  Basically in 2 – 3 hours, she teaches you to paint a masterpiece.  I watched some of the news clips of her and you she keep saying no art skills were required at all!  And I have none- my students laugh at my map drawing, so I know I’m not any good.  On her website, it said that all of her seats for last night were booked.  I told her to email me in case of any last minute cancelations.  About an hour before the class, she emailed me and said I could come.

I had a FABULOUS time.  I have never painted anything in my life outside of kindergarten scribbles and that was over 25 years ago!  Here is my work.  It is titled “My City Music”

So afterward, I had an idea.  My kids would love to do something like this.  How could I incorporate painting into my classroom?  Into history?  What if I could write a grant and she could come do this at my school with my students?  We have art teachers at my school.  How could I collaborate with them to do something like this?  What unit would it go with? the Renaissance era?  How would I make connections?   On their own, my students would never be exposed to something like this-remember I am the grown version of them.   This would be an awesome adventure and cultural awakening for them.

Blog Roll update

Today, I am going to update my blog roll.  There are sooo many new great blogs, I’d like to link.   To remain on my list, you should have updated your blog in the last 90 days.  To be ADDED to my list, leave a comment.

Confession

Last week was a really really hard week.  We had a bit of school violence. . . fighting among girls has gotten out of hand.  I had made the decision to leave.  It was final.  This would be my last year in My District.  But I keep thinking, is it the wrong time?  Looking at the economy?  What if I make the move and get surplus or “reduced” within months of taking a new job?  I worry about my skills not fitting that of an suburban or private school climate.  Am I too bold?  To hood?  *sigh*  When I think about it all an the comfort (knowing the ropes & the city & friends) I’d be giving up here, I get a little anxious. Although, I’m still submitting applications and getting my resume/portfolio in order . . .I’m scared & insecure.

Graduate School Money

Is there money available for graduate school in education?  I don’t want to take anymore student loans.  I don’t want to quit my job to complete the degree.   However, the only thing that I have run into are loans and fellowships.  The fellowships want someone full time and pay with a stipend that would not support me unless I moved to the dorms and got rid of ALL of my amenities.  Any suggestions for how to pay for graduate school?

A compliment of sorts

I was out of school on Thursday of last week for Professional Development.  I decided to make it into a long weekend and made an appointment with a specialist/surgeon on Friday.  I returned to school with a note from the sub saying that my students were well behaved-made me VERY happ-and the following conversation:

“Miss Teacha, what was that work you left us on Thursday?”  Student O was referring to the guided reading I have left behind.  “It was really hard . . . It was just busy work, wasn’t it?”

“No, it wasn’t busy work.  It was actually reading that you needed to complete.  You will be using the information to do an assignment later this week.”

“It was long and it was a whole chapter.  It was hard.”

After class was over, there was another student staying after to make up an assignment from earlier in the semester.

I prompted her, “Tell me, what was it really like?  Was there a lot of conversation and noise?”

“Naw, Miss Teacha, everybody was working really hard on the assignment. Really, the only thing you heard was, ‘I can’t find number 22.  Can somebody help me with 15.’ Outside of that everyone was really quiet.”

“Wow, was the assignment that difficult?”

“It wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t easy either.  It wasn’t one of the readings where you just copy the information from the textbook.  We actually had to read the text, comprehend it and then answer.”

“Oh, good!  Ya’ll read the textbook!  Exactly, what I wanted!”  I beamed.  She gave me a quizzical look.

Poor thing, she just didn’t understand why I was so excited.

People are so against book work because it requires students to regurgitate or copy information  Nope, not my book work. My questions require students to demonstrate they comprehend and can apply the information.  I don’t give many bookwork assignments in my AAH class-actually, this was the first!  I am really excited about how successful it was.  The goal was to prep them with the content needed to complete a foldable later this week.  The foldable will demonstrate everything we have been discussing & seeing (through the film, Roots)  about the Middle Passage and the Atlantic Slave Trade.

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A student of mine was telling me about a documentary he saw on the discovery channel a few weeks ago about Hindu funerals /widow burnings.  He said the show had something to do with human sacrifices.  I have looked everywhere to find the title of the program so that I could see it and possibly use it in my class.  Did anyone see this back in January?  If so, do you remember the title of the program?  Thanks for your help.

Going After It

A few weeks ago, I had a long conversation with my mother  . . .she has notice somethings (mood, behaviors) and they were causing her to worry.  During this conversation, she told me that she had always admired me.

“What?”  I responded.

“I’ve always admired you!  The way you go after things.  You decide what you want and then you pursue it.”

I was really surprised to hear this from my mother.  She talked about how head strong I was growing up.  If I wanted something, I went after it.  I devoted all of my energy toward it.  I pursued it with great tenacity.   I went against the grain.  I challenged the status quo.

If you had asked me prior to this conversation, if I was that girl, I would have denied it.  I had not seen myself as being THAT strong.  Or strong willed.  I have always magnified my weaknesses. . . maybe, in my mind’s eye, I saw my weaknesses and it manifested itself in hardwork to overcome them.  As I look back, I was that way with many things, I wanted desperately to be a cheerleader, I worked hard at learning to cartwheel and split. . . I wanted to be in the choir, I worked hard at singing on pitch and learning the music and let’s not even discuss show choir and the many hours I spent in the mirror dancing and practicing.    When it came time for me to apply to college, I was methodical about it, I spent time writing schools for information, making lists and comparing (the internet had not taken root back then).  So, I guess I was very much a go getter!

She brought this into the conversation because she was confused at my recent moodiness (and here).  I was saying I wanted to do somethings, but the reality was that I was doing NOTHING to get them.  What had happened to my fire?  Who knows?  What I do know is that anything I have ever wanted to do, I have pursued it with everything that was in me.  Yes, there were many, many crushing moments, but they never kept me down.  I picked myself up, set a new goal and went after it.

I keep thinking, when we become adults, do we get caught up in the mundaness of paying the bills and working, that we forget to dream? Or even abandon our dreams?  Or do we let life’s issues and other people kill our dreams.  Whatever it is, I will not let it happen to me anymore.  In my last years of college, my dream was to become a teacher.  A great teacher.  I had dreams of traveling overseas, seeing the world. . .It’s time to breathe new life into these dreams. . . I remember these dreams . . .my bff remembers me making them . . .

• Go overseas to teach
• Complete an Ed.S. or Ph.D.
• Write a book

So, the first part of this journey is to broaden my teaching experience, i.e. GET A NEW JOB.  For the last few hours, I’ve been working on my resume. I’ll begin applying to jobs in the next few weeks, specifically to the Department of Defense because they have schools all over the world.  No matter the what, I have to leave my city in order for my journey to begin.

If you’re a reader of this, here is how you can help me (yep, I’m telling you what I need from you).

• Any job postings that you see, especially for things overseas, forward them to me.
• Review my resume*and digital portfolio (not up yet, but coming in the next week).
• Remind me of my goals when I start to whine and complain and vent.

*My you can click on my the link  to read my resume.  However, it is password protected.  The password is my real name-first name only.  I’m sorry that I can’t give it to everyone, but ya’ll know how that goes.  You may email me privately for access, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll give it.    Secondly, this is the condensed version of my resume.  It was over two pages long with all of my previous work experiences and all of that, but upon the suggestion of a friend, I condensed it  and will have a separate CV with all of those specific details in my online portfolio.  Thanks in advance for suggestions, comments and constructive feedback.

Departmentals

We had a departmental meeting today, half mentioned that returning to my school was iffy!  We were trying to take a survey of teachers interested in a trip and many said that they could not honestly make any plans-proof of hour dire things are here.   I have been dragging my feet in sending out resumes and job searching.  I think I’m scared.  What if no one wants me?  That is my inner fear.  But it has got to happen.  I’d like to line up a job by the end of April.

At the same time,  I was thinking today, you really don’t know how good you’ve got it until you hear someone else’s story.  I really do have a great relationship with Principal.  During departmentals, I listened to other conversations and run ins  . . .and I’m shocked.  Some of the things said to others has never been said to me.   I get the feeling Principal respects me and the work that I do in the classroom.  So, yaaah, me!

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As far as lessons go this week, it’s all really boring. . . .however, we did discuss Haiti!  My kids always surprise me with their compassion, the “hardest” kids at my school  has so much compassion for others.  (As a side note, my kids really don’t pick on the special needs students at my school.  They really do try to help them.  They really are amazing students!)  It was emotional as we watched clips from CNN .

One student who survived Katrina spoke up during our conversation.  She said it bothered her that we were trying to help people in another country and Louisiana is still in crisis–she felt like we had forgotten them.  According to Student T, America still has a lot of problems that it needs to fix.  I had no answer for her.  But she brought an interesting dynamic to the conversation.  When students asked about the looting and rioting.  She provided her classmates with her firsthand accounts of her time in the dome.  I still have chills, just thinking about it.

I’m back!!!

Seriously, I think think I’ll be back in the bloggin world for a while.  I realize that it really helping me work through my issues in the classroom and personally.  I get to share my day.  Seriously, I think the root of my funk lied in the fact that I had stop communicating–with my friends, colleagues and family and blogging world.  I was having such a bad time at work and my friends didn’t want to hear my complaints and so I just stopped talking about it.  It was festering like a nasty sore. . . .oh, boy, I was not a nice person and was becoming one of those teachers.   I went back to therapy because I knew things were not right and they wanted to give me pills and the conversation with the therapist did not go well. A bunch of malarkey. . . another post, on another day.

This morning as I was reading through my comments, I realized Margaret is like the best friend on the planet.  She is ALWAYS sooo supportive and reads every single word–most of the time, I’ve barely posted and she’s responded with caring words. I know there are other readers who are amazingly supportive of  me, too.  Together ya’ll are like a good bra, keeping me from sagging, LOL.   So, thank you everyone being such good “therapists.”  I feel so terrible that I have not reciprocated the way I should!  But I am working on it!  Promise!  I have made a vow to read through SOME of the blogs in my feeder every night.  No, I won’t clear it out right away.  And that’s not the point!  The encouragement received through reading others work experiences and lesson ideas,  far outweighs  any of the therapy I have ever received-although, I am still looking for a decent therapist to teach me how to manage stress and deal with my personal life.  The last one, ugghhh . . . again, for another post.   Nevertheless, those of you reading my blog regularly, I WILL be reciprocating more frequently now.

I look forward to having you guys around for the journey.

Low motivation

Tidbits. . ..

• I wait until the last, absolute last minute to prep for my classes.  Why?  Quite simply, I just don’t feel like it.  I’d rather watch a movie or some tv, instead.  Last year, I’d get excited and work on each class trying to add  new spice.  This year, I’m just reusing the old stuff and swinging by the seat of my paints except for with APWH.
• I never EVER want to teach APWH again.  It is the hardest class I’ve ever taught in my life.  One class requires 5 hours of prep–if I do it right, with all the reading and researching resources.  The AP coordinator says that they flip flop year to year between APWH and APEuro . . .my hope is that I will be outie and somebody else will be flip flopping
• I was discouraged by a veteran teacher today:  “Miss A, sorry to tell you,  you are here for the long haul.  You can’t go anywhere.  You’re sucked into this district and it is impossible to get out.”  This teacher made it seem like that after teaching in My School District,  teachers aren’t qualified or good enough to teach anywhere else.  Or that we have such a bad reputation that no one else wants us!  Lord, give me strength!
• AAH energizes me.  Its the only class in which students seem interested in the content (although, we had a VERY good discussion on religion today in WH).    The students are very interested in learning the history and they ask thoughtful question.  I guess they really can relate to the information.
• Another teacher sent me grant info for a tour of Germany this summer.  He really thinks I should do it.  I’ll apply. *sigh* But honestly, I don’t want to do anything this summer, but deep clean my apartment and swim.  I keep thinking, I’ll never reach my goal of Greece, if I don’t start somewhere, so Germany, here I come!

Part 1: Do you want me to TEACH your child OR raise him?

So my mother called me today. She was recounting recent babysitting tales and as I listened,  I was rolling over laughing, but at the same time I was boiling with anger.   My mother is a grandmother. All of her children a grown.  She is enjoying the empty nest.  She raised us well. . . she did a good job. For the most part, we were well behaved at school. My brother got into a few fights because he was not going to be known as punk or someone who backed down. For the most part, we went to school, we learned. We stayed out of trouble. . . . but I digressed, back to my point.

So, my mother tells me she went to dinner a friend’s house with two small children. One of the children picks up my mother’s purse and proceeds to go through it. When the mother realizes what she has done, she chases the child around the house, attempting to reclaim my mother’s items. The mother CHASED THE CHILD AROUND!!! After it was all over and my mother’s purse was back together, there was no apology or embarrassment from the parents, no discipline or reprimand to the child. According to my mother, these parents have a “new school” approach to raising their children. They don’t use the word “no” and they simply encourage good behavior. The home is the child’s home. Therefore, NOTHING is off limits, including a guest’s purse. There are no boundaries.

A few weeks ago, she babysat these same children. She had to take them to work with her because she had to go in expectantly to handle a problem briefly. Just like when she raised my brother and me, she said she gave the children expectations. “You will not run around. You have a choice, you may sit here or here. Make a decision. If you disobey, there will be consequences and trouble.” My mother said there were NO incidents of misbehavior. She said the children behaved beautifully. And they had a great day. My mother learned from this experience that these children could be well behaved, but they don’t because their parents do not enforce it and have a willy-nilly approach to parenting. These parents are creating monsters and when they attend elementary school this fall, they will be the type that blame everyone but themselves.

This morning I got angry after reading this article about parents wanting to jail teachers of a failing school district. Now, I’ll admit the following:  This school district’s failure and graduation rates are abysmal and there are definitely some systematic issues of poor quality teachers and administrators. But I was still infuriated by the implication that teachers and administrators are totally to blame.   I posted comments on twitter:    This is insane. Shouldn’t the parents take some of the blame?  Tired of reading stories of teachers being blamed for child’s failure. I really am SICK of it. An open invitation into my classroom 2 experience:  student apathy & poor parental involvement. I teach EVERYDAY. EVERY STINKING DAY. I’m inventive, but children failing a state exam is NOT solely the teacher’s fault.

After hearing my mom’s experience, I got all fired up again. And started ranting. . . .I told her about my tweet. She says, “you need to write it out.”  Of course, I did, besides she didn’t want to listen to me rant about the public education battlefield.  She gets tired of those stories.

With all of that said, I’m going to start a new series, “Do you want me to raise your child or teach them?”    Why? Because I need to vent and get my anger and frustration out. This has been the hardest stinking year of my teaching career. There are sooo many changes under this new supe. New paperwork. Less teaching time and miracles are expected. All of the changes are focus on ME, the teacher. So little of it is focused on what is going on at home.   Or focused on student responsibility. Why are students not held accountable for their part in all of this? It is all teacher-based.   And it bothers me. This is just part 1- an introduction.

side note:  So much more will follow.  I have never felt so attacked, blamed and unappreciated like the way that I have been this school year.

So, I’ve been thinking . . .

I want desperately to get out of my city . . .desperately!  I feel almost “stuck” here.  It is my plan in the spring to search for a job and hopefully, move overseas or just out of the state to start over.  But, here is what I’ve been thinking:

• Things are comfortable here AND I have a good reputation.  I have a reputation for being a tough, but good teacher.  I can’t believe Freshman students think I am mean, the funny thing is they come back next year asking to repeat.  WEIRD.  KIDS!
• No where else in this country except for maybe, Philadelphia or Detroit or maybe LA, would I get to teach an African American History elective for an ENTIRE semester.  That is right, I teach 4 SECTIONS of African American Heritage/History every spring.  I will surely miss that. *sigh*  Maybe, when I’m job hunting, I could negotiate that???  Not likely if I got to district with a small minority population.

I have resolved that if I don’t find a job out of state/country, then I will stay at my school.  It is the better of all evils in this city.  (I am really intrigued by TX, everyone I chat with LOVES it there, even the people I met at the conference)    It is just a hard, hard, hard year–full of districtwide growing pains.  But the great thing is:  I am LEFT alone.  I do my thing.  I teach.  Problem:  I take it much too seriously.  I want to do it right and that is a problem.  I have to give up on doing it “right.”   Many of our older teachers have announced that they will be retiring at the end of the year.  One told me, “It has just become too much.  And I’m too old for all of this.”  I thought, “I’m too young for all of this.”  Needless to say, teachers have NOT adjusted to the changes well.

Laptop Cart

This morning I was chatting with HappyChyck . . . some how we started talking about technology out our schools. Our conversation went a little something like this:

HappyChyck: does your school have open labs?
Me: no
HappyChyck: or carts for teachers to check out
Me: no, we have NOTHING.  We have a library that has about 35 old computers.  You reserve the library for a class period, but good luck b/c english and testing and everything else trumps whether or not you get the time in the library
HappyChyck: that’s not right
Me: I got a time there and wanted to do moviemaker movies with my history classes.  The computers in the library are so old that moviemaker is not on them
HappyChyck:  you need to scope out a school that has technology

Happy helped me realize that technology is not a priority at my school.  So, I’ve decided something better.  I want to write a grant (not that I have the time) to get my classes a laptop cart.  I decided to google grants to see if I could find anything.  Maybe, I’m not using the right search words. . . Has anyone ever done this before?

Sidenote:  There are 3 labs at my school (only 20 computers in each lab).  The labs are for the technology teachers’ classes.  They are not for other classes/other students use.  If you do use them, it is a special arrangement between you and that teacher.  So, I went to one of the tech teachers and made some arrangements.  While yearbook pictures were being taken, I got her classroom for 2 whole days!!!  Even though my kids had to share computers, it was a good lesson.  I don’t know if this will happen again, getting that lab. . . .but I felt sooo lucky.  Need to send a thank you card, ASAP!

The thing is . . .

I know I have a flair for the melodramatic. . . even in my “dreams.”  So, everything about this year makes me cry (it doesn’t help that I’m a cry baby).  I appreciate everyone’s support as I adjust.  We are going through new leadership here in “my city” and “my school” and these are just growing pains.   I’m trying not to complain about all of the growing pains, but its like its like I have these tipping points every week where I have to just get them out!  So this morning’s post:  I’m sorry folks, I didn’t mean to alarm you.  (Unless, some of you are reading things in the paper, then you were already alarmed!  ROFL!)

• I had a good day today.  Honestly, I  had good discussions, productive learning and well behaved students ALL DAY.  I even taught my AP class. . . although most of them did not want to be there!  They were receptive and we had some fun.   I don’t know where this class is going.  Nobody does.  Today, I discovered that one of the students in the class was a special needs.  That means we are down to 5 students.  3 of which want out!  LOL

• Co-Teacher and I facilitated PD on kinesthetic strategies in faculty meeting yesterday.  Surprisingly, the faculty was very receptive and Principal grinned from ear to ear throughout the presentation.

Nothing much else is going on around here!

Protected: VENT: The Real Block

The Block

It feels like I’ve fallen off the edublogging planet.  In the past few weeks, I haven’t posted . . . it seems like the 1st few weeks of school have been a whirlwind.  Our school, and district, has been adjusting to block scheduling.  You know, I don’t mind it much.  I actually like that I accomplish more in a class period.  However, it seems like a see my students less.  I know very few names and we’ve been in school two weeks.  This weekend I have a whole list of things that I need to do.  . .

• Finish my orientation video.  Why?  Well, I had given up on doing one b/c I was so exhausted from the move and redoing a whole new room.  However, my classes have transitioned sooo much because of scheduling problems. My AP class will be canceled and replaced with a regular World History.  So, with all of the transition, there are a bunch of students who were not there for my 1st day introduction.  Therefore, a video will do it again for me.  On Day 2 of this week, I’ll have the students do a scavenger hunt during bellwork to further discover how things work in my classroom.  Hopefully, by the end of this week, I’ll give my rules and procedures quiz.
• Lesson Planning.  Honestly, it feels like I haven’t really gotten started this year.  It is a rough school year for the students and the district.  There is so much adjustment and I don’t feel like anyone has a had chance to get used to it.  Students have taken this as an opportunity to milk the system.  Especially with Freshman Academy. None of my classes are true Academy.  The move for me was pointless.  I’ll save the details for a private post.  This week, I’ll actually start teaching content.  In my WH, we will begin discussing culture & human origins.  We will do the simulation of acquiring resources for a civilization.  I’ve just got to locate my reflection questions.  David does this rock art project that I think I want to duplicate. . .

Things I’ve been thinking about.. . .

• Just dumping my feeder and starting all over again.  And eliminating blogs from my feeder that don’t really contribute to my professional growth.  Its hard to let go.  I think the reason that I don’t keep up is because I’m overwhelmed.
• I need to find a picture hosting service or place online for classroom pictures for my classroom site.  The problem:  most of the major picture services like picasa, photobucket, smugmug, have ALL been blocked from school.  I’d like for my students to be able to access it from school as well as home.
• Am I asking my students to do too much computer work at home?  Typically, they are doing one paper a week. . . or bi-weekly (current events, random acts of kindness, reflections).  I make them type them.  Last year, one parent kept complaining about my requirements for computer generated work.  She said, “you don’t even know what resources we have at home.  I don’t got the internet.  Why you keep asking for this kind of stuff?  Are all your projects like this?”  My response, “Yes, I’m preparing them for college.  College requires type written papers and work and computer research.”  Privately, I *sigh*  heavily.  The funny thing, parents either love me or hate me. Why is there such an extreme?
• Interestingly, we haven’t had that any fights since school started.  This is a record year.  When I mentioned it to the guidance counselor, she said “Sshhhh, you going to jinx us.”  Someone suggested that the kids are too tired from the extended class time to have “beef” with anyone.  Who knows?  But, its been pretty sweet!  Although, I heard that a student attacked our new AP.  He’s VERY confrontational. . .students do NOT like this.  I’ve heard them say, “Man, I miss old AP, he was cool.”

Well, hopefully, I can get my act together and start blogging. . . and discussing again.  Thanks, faithful readers for putting up with me the last few weeks.

Meeting after Meeting

There has been a lack of posting on my end. However, things have been CRAZY since I got back into town.  Here is a quick rundown of my week.

• Monday–meeting with Principal & co-teacher.   Co-teacher is NO LONGER a co-teacher.  I’m alone.  Boo hoo!!!   On the real, going to Freshman Academy has changed my world.  I have had to move classrooms.   In the meeting, I will have 4 preps for the year. Three per semester.  However, principal has made my life a little easier by assigning me all Honors World History.  I consider it an honor that Principal would do that.  Basically, I will to treat it as a pre-APesque course.  The courses won’t be perfectly aligned, but I will get the opportunity to teach skills that kids will need for AP classes.  Afterward, I met alone with co-teacher and we discussed strategies we had learned over the summer and traded resources.
• Tuesday–went to training for teachers new to “the block.”  It was stupid.  I didn’t like it.   Didn’t really learn anything new. You can tell it was something thrown together by the district at the last minute.  (I heard the that news had said the district had provided the teachers with training and all of sudden they realized that they really had not). But I LOVE MY DISTRICT SUPERVISOR, she is so awesome.  I love the confidence she has in her teachers.  Always encouraging.  And it helped that she let us go 3 hours early.  LOL.  But afterward, it was meeting after meeting. . .met with AP Coordinator to wrap up the details of Houston, met with the district supervisor about my presentation our in-service. . . .
• Wednesday–went to the second day of training for teaching in “the block.”  Again, stupid.  Nothing new.  A royal waste of my time.   However, we will get a check for it.  I like the idea of a check.  But on the way home, my car was acting funny, loud noise, wasn’t accelerating as usual.  So, I immediately took it to the repair shop.   They told me I needed new brakes.  HONEY, I had to get all NAE, NAE on them (my ghetto alter ego).  I must have cut up b/c when I was done, they said nothing was wrong.   I didn’t need new brakes/pads b/c I had gotten them a little over a year ago.  All I know is my car sounds funny.  Something is NOT right.  But, they did say when it breaks, there is no diagnostic fee (thanks Nae, Nae!).   Sadly, I don’t want to wait until it breaks.  That will leave me high and dry especially as I start getting ready for a new year.
• Today–Meeting w/ Freshman Academy team.  I was the only person who was on time. Attendance: the guidance counselor, me!    AP was furious.  However, it was partly AP’s fault, we received notification late Tuesday afternoon.  I told her that Biology teacher was not coming b/c she was not feeling well.  That made her even more angry.  However, I got all of the answers I needed to start my prep for the new year.   After that, I came home and took a much needed nap.  I don’t think I’ll get any work done tonight.  I’m tired and want to go back to bed.

A very long week!  I wanted to share a picture of me with David from my trip to Houston.  I LOVE BLOGGING!  I’m telling you, I’ve made friends with the best people in the world blogging.  I will talk more about my trip to Houston, tomorrow.  Houston was awesome and I think I see Texas in my future.   If anything, this week combined with my trip to Houston has reassured me of my decision to leave my city! I’m ready for change and something new, a new adventure.

Blogiversary

This is my 2nd year of blogging here.  I had planned to celebrate this day with a bang. . . .display a new layout, roll out some additional pages, get plugins that would make the site more functional. . . what have I done? NOTHING!  It is kind of sad!  You know when it hit?  I was sitting in AP Training this morning and realized the date.

Maybe, I’ll work on it more next week.  However, it doesn’t seem like much of a priority with pressure of new coursework, facilitating PD, attending PD and Freshman Academy.   I am definitely feeling like I bit off more than I can chew.  At this point, I feel so overwhelmed I just don’t know where to start.  However, I know it won’t be this blog.

BTW, the funny thing, hearing about news of what your school/district is doing from the TV and NOT from your Principal.

Happy Blogiversary to me!

A different teacher emerging . . .

So, I’ve just completed Day 3 of AP training for World History.  Here is what I’m thinking:

• I feel excited b/c I have so many more resources/strategies for teaching primary sources in my classroom.  Why hasn’t anyone shown me this stuff before?  After being here, I am sorely disappointed in the PD provided by my district for Social Studies.  Nothing compares to what I’ve experienced here.   After this, thinking about our district motto just makes me angry.  Now, I realize how much we don’t fulfill the portion that emphasizes college prep. *sigh*  Maybe I will this year.
• Even more adamant that I will not lecture for more than 20 minutes at a time.  This afternoon, the trainer demonstrated how he lays the foundation for his class.  It was a 90 minute powerpoint presentation that I tuned out after 30 minutes.  The lady beside me whispered, “Why is he going over this with us?  I would never give my students this much information.”  I couldn’t agree more.  While he was entertaining (at points), it was too much to digest in one sitting.  If it was hard for me, it would be torture for my kids.
• Thinking that World History is about more about teaching critical thinking skills than the content. Based on everything I’ve seen and heard, the history content actually seems to be the by-product.  Definitely a new perspective on how to approach learning in my classroom.  It means I will do a lot less talking and students will do a lot more talking and figuring out for themselves. . . I’ve never been much of a lecturer anyway.  I learned that my first year.  I like giving students projects and watching them use the content to demonstrate their understanding.   AP WH seems to be focused on a Socratic approach to teaching content. . . this will definitely be a challenge for me.
• Disappointed that I didn’t see an Astros game.  Sadly, it our trip was canceled.  The game we thought was at 7 was really at 1.  Boohoo.
• Thinking about having BBQ tonight @ The Goode Company

A Quickie Before Bed!

Awesome day.  Awesome training.  Awesome David, Norma and Aidan!  Amazing city and people!  So much to, do so little time. . . yikes.  After 1 day, Houston is looking to be a contender on my “Get out of My City” List.

David is really cool and knowledgeable about Houston. He and his family is amazing.  Aidan, a 4 year old knows and understands the word “Responsibility.”  He’s sooo smart.  Norma casually said, “Well, he IS four.”  I don’t know a 4 year old that uses the word responsibility and knows what it means.  So, he’s exceptional to me.  Maybe I need more exposure to little kids, then I’d know!

Didn’t think about it until I got into bed, I should have taken a pic with him for the record.  But maybe, I’ll get a chance later.

Yawning so hard, I can barely type.  Need sleep now.  Goodnight.