Snowy rain falling and still I managed to make it in to work on a Sunday to get my copying and prepping for the week started.
The new trimester begins Monday, but I'm still finishing the grading for the last one. The "big" projects were an "Ancient Greek Times" newspaper page for my ELL social studies group, A Cultural comparison (home country and the US) for the 8th graders, and the 7th graders a summary comprehension test on a reading excerpt from the story "My side of the Mountain." only the 7th graders are being their typical butt-y selves and complaining, "I don't get it." Seriously, we've being working for two weeks on looking at one story and you don't get it?! They need a lot of hand holding.
Right now I'm in the midst of baking a from scratch chocolate cake. Of course, the baking powder is old and I had to fiddle with the baking chocolate (didn't have any so did a cocoa powder conversion), and almost didn't add enough sugar (recipe said one and a half cups...initially I read 1/2 cup) but a quick taste test got the sugar close. Ran out of sugar as well. It's not like I use it very often! Five more minutes, till I get to check on it.
and now for a little stream of consciousness writing. man it is raining, yay Seahawks managed not to lose, Hanukkah starts this week so I got out my menorah and candles did you know they sell Hanukkah candles? i bought Christmas cards and have addressed most of them but of course have manged to lose Gaia and Tyler's, Alli and Brett's and Laurel's address. No you might not know these people! oh, look time to check on the cake just a sec......okay the cake rose so the baking powder still had some action.
New walking challenge...4 person teams to "walk" to Mexico for spring break. Each person needs an average of 7000 steps. Totally do-able. I decided to do laps around the school on 3-4 day a week...gives me time to pray and adjust my attitutde for classes. Very Jericho.
Sunday, December 2
Wednesday, November 21
I am so looking forward to days off
started the day by opening up the e-mail for school and the first thing I read is from the principal thanking staff members who had helped with the school improvement plan and ending the email with "ponies and zebras frolicking in the meadow....."
My principal is a burly guy with a very deep voice
I laughed out loud as i got ready for my walk before school. my it was cold
four and a half days off...oh the lap of luxury!
going to the island for T-day tomorrow, the island is fine, ferry traffic not so much.
plan to watch hockey on friday (no not at five a.m. with all the sales!)
My principal is a burly guy with a very deep voice
I laughed out loud as i got ready for my walk before school. my it was cold
four and a half days off...oh the lap of luxury!
going to the island for T-day tomorrow, the island is fine, ferry traffic not so much.
plan to watch hockey on friday (no not at five a.m. with all the sales!)
Sunday, November 18
Praxis update
praxis test was...well not easy...actually there were a few questions I guessed on...mostly related to things poetry. Quite a few questions on metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, alliteration and at one point a run of the letter D being the answer (which started to freak me out around the third one, but I checked my answers and still liked them so oh well). The guy sitting a few seats away getting shaking his foot and I was in that state of kind of needing to pee, so really didn't appreciate being jiggled. I finished in around 90 minutes, finally went to the bathroom, then came back in to check my answers. the worst part was my needing to cough during the first 15 minutes....I took a couple swigs of juice, and tried sucking on a cough drop, finally stopped with only a few mild barky interruptions. I'll find out the result in about a month.
Friday, November 16
Stepping and democracy
The students are doing a health and fitness challenge through the PE department. During their PE class each student wears a pedometer and tracks how much they moved/walked/ran during the class. Their goal each day is increased but it's around 4000 steps. To help the students the staff are also recording steps throughout the school day for two week periods. The first two week period I averaged 10200 steps per day. Now here's the challenge, increase the steps/activity by 10 % for the next two weeks.
What?! That means I'm trying to find an additional 1020 steps each day! I need a little rat wheel, a treadmill, anything. I am creating jobs to do in the work room and going up and down the stairs three or four times each morning before school starts. A lap around the building is just over a quarter mile. Walked 4 laps one morning and then four more after my day ended. Those extra steps are hard to find...mostly I guess due to efficiency. I mean, really aren't we supposed to conserve energy? I was about 1000 steps in the red for the new goal after three days. On the bright side overall, I have increased my stepping output.
My social studies group are studying Ancient Greece. About half of them met the quotation challenge: "Ours is a democracy because power is in the hands not of the minority, but of all the people." (Pericles, 431BC) The class has chosen topics for research to create the "Greek Times" newspaper pages for class. 8th graders are writing a comparative essay on their home culture and the United States and the 7th graders are working on descriptive adjectives and looking for Cause and Effect reasoning.
less stress this week, have caught a cold and am taking a PRAXIS test tomorrow.
What?! That means I'm trying to find an additional 1020 steps each day! I need a little rat wheel, a treadmill, anything. I am creating jobs to do in the work room and going up and down the stairs three or four times each morning before school starts. A lap around the building is just over a quarter mile. Walked 4 laps one morning and then four more after my day ended. Those extra steps are hard to find...mostly I guess due to efficiency. I mean, really aren't we supposed to conserve energy? I was about 1000 steps in the red for the new goal after three days. On the bright side overall, I have increased my stepping output.
My social studies group are studying Ancient Greece. About half of them met the quotation challenge: "Ours is a democracy because power is in the hands not of the minority, but of all the people." (Pericles, 431BC) The class has chosen topics for research to create the "Greek Times" newspaper pages for class. 8th graders are writing a comparative essay on their home culture and the United States and the 7th graders are working on descriptive adjectives and looking for Cause and Effect reasoning.
less stress this week, have caught a cold and am taking a PRAXIS test tomorrow.
Saturday, November 3
too , too, too
Too much excitement with another lock down. Too many days subbing in the afternoon when I had plans to do the mundane. Too tired. Too much stress. This time I am being a wimp and complaining. I think, but i can't really remember but Monday might have been normal.
Tuesday, had to remember to bring cookies for the soup and salad type lunch in the staff room. Oh yeah, and remember the book club book to read after i got finished with my classes, look forward to a call from my friend on the east coast, and put my kid who skips my class on a truancy non-compliance thing so I could talk to the parents rather than have the vice-principal down-play the seriousness. So lunch is over, and i decide I'm going to walk for a while before reading. I leave the school and walk out toward the nearby high school. Round the corner and see a guy sitting there. He turns away and seems to be hiding something. Knowing that he is on school property, I say, "you know you are on school property, don't you." Thinking this might be some kid or some kid's older sibling smoking or toking away. He responds something to the effect that he knew and then mumbled something else about security. Weird but oh well. continue walking, get a too short call from the friend (WAY TOO Short!). Walk for another 45 minutes or so finishing up with a mile on the school track. Get back into the building and 4 minutes later we are in lockdown. This one lasts for about 45 minutes. The buses had to stay away until a few minutes after school. Find out later that the police were chasing down and apprehending a suspect who was wearing a read sweatshirt wanted for murder (?). Wait a minute red sweatshirt...that guy on the corner, yep red sweat shirt.
Wednesday, got to work and sat in the car for five minutes and just prayed. Already knew a colleague whose mother is going through chemo had asked that i sub in the afternoon. Okay fine, but of course it was Halloween so kids hyped on sugar and lots of noise during the school assembly. Note to self do not sub on assembly days if possible. Finally had the discussion with student and parent (and other adults) about the truancy issue (ten minutes out of covering class. thank God for para-educators who are flexible. After school I helped out with the diversity club's Dia de Los Muertos. More noise, more headachey stress. Got home later than usual but had to prepare cornbread for a meeting/ discussion/dinner for Thursday.
Thursday morning, one of my team teacher's came into "my" room and asked if I could cover his classes in the afternoon. With my 8th grade ELL students (and if you have ever heard me complain about a specific class last year as seventh graders? well these are the same students). the plan had been to grade papers and get some of the boring school work done, but okay, he's my team. Told the 8th graders during my regular time and some of them cheered when i said i would be subbing in the afternoon! Who are these kids?! took over for the teacher around noon and tried to keep the kids focused on their reading....and all did except one. She kept chatting. So she chose steps. Once she was off she asked to use the rest room and came back with a cell phone. i ask her for the phone, she gives it up and says, "No one is going to like you if you act so mean." My response, "My job is not to get you to like me , but to give you an opportunity to learn." After lunch had my ELL group for math and some asked if i could sub for the other teacher on our team as well. I sort of laughed it off since I knew that although she would be out the next day it was a full day assignment so I wouldn't be subbing for her. After school the round-table discussion thing. All good until the end, when the mentoring teacher says something to the effect, "Remember, you are all still on a provisional contract so you can be fired for any reason." Not what anyone wanted to hear. Got home late, thought, okay Friday, I'm not subbing in the afternoon, so I can go home do some laundry, and get that grading done.
Friday morning...the secretary comes down the hall in the morning with a devious gleam in her eyes. I knew she was going to ask me to sub and I really was going to say, "no," but this time it was the other half of the 8th grade team! No one had picked up the assignment. So again, I would be working with my ELL students in the afternoon only this time it would be for social studies /language arts. The day could not end soon enough. Went home changed and then went out to meet with some of the other teachers from school at a nearby slightly yuppyish place. loud but fun. got home not late but crashed fairly early
just too much of too much this week
Tuesday, had to remember to bring cookies for the soup and salad type lunch in the staff room. Oh yeah, and remember the book club book to read after i got finished with my classes, look forward to a call from my friend on the east coast, and put my kid who skips my class on a truancy non-compliance thing so I could talk to the parents rather than have the vice-principal down-play the seriousness. So lunch is over, and i decide I'm going to walk for a while before reading. I leave the school and walk out toward the nearby high school. Round the corner and see a guy sitting there. He turns away and seems to be hiding something. Knowing that he is on school property, I say, "you know you are on school property, don't you." Thinking this might be some kid or some kid's older sibling smoking or toking away. He responds something to the effect that he knew and then mumbled something else about security. Weird but oh well. continue walking, get a too short call from the friend (WAY TOO Short!). Walk for another 45 minutes or so finishing up with a mile on the school track. Get back into the building and 4 minutes later we are in lockdown. This one lasts for about 45 minutes. The buses had to stay away until a few minutes after school. Find out later that the police were chasing down and apprehending a suspect who was wearing a read sweatshirt wanted for murder (?). Wait a minute red sweatshirt...that guy on the corner, yep red sweat shirt.
Wednesday, got to work and sat in the car for five minutes and just prayed. Already knew a colleague whose mother is going through chemo had asked that i sub in the afternoon. Okay fine, but of course it was Halloween so kids hyped on sugar and lots of noise during the school assembly. Note to self do not sub on assembly days if possible. Finally had the discussion with student and parent (and other adults) about the truancy issue (ten minutes out of covering class. thank God for para-educators who are flexible. After school I helped out with the diversity club's Dia de Los Muertos. More noise, more headachey stress. Got home later than usual but had to prepare cornbread for a meeting/ discussion/dinner for Thursday.
Thursday morning, one of my team teacher's came into "my" room and asked if I could cover his classes in the afternoon. With my 8th grade ELL students (and if you have ever heard me complain about a specific class last year as seventh graders? well these are the same students). the plan had been to grade papers and get some of the boring school work done, but okay, he's my team. Told the 8th graders during my regular time and some of them cheered when i said i would be subbing in the afternoon! Who are these kids?! took over for the teacher around noon and tried to keep the kids focused on their reading....and all did except one. She kept chatting. So she chose steps. Once she was off she asked to use the rest room and came back with a cell phone. i ask her for the phone, she gives it up and says, "No one is going to like you if you act so mean." My response, "My job is not to get you to like me , but to give you an opportunity to learn." After lunch had my ELL group for math and some asked if i could sub for the other teacher on our team as well. I sort of laughed it off since I knew that although she would be out the next day it was a full day assignment so I wouldn't be subbing for her. After school the round-table discussion thing. All good until the end, when the mentoring teacher says something to the effect, "Remember, you are all still on a provisional contract so you can be fired for any reason." Not what anyone wanted to hear. Got home late, thought, okay Friday, I'm not subbing in the afternoon, so I can go home do some laundry, and get that grading done.
Friday morning...the secretary comes down the hall in the morning with a devious gleam in her eyes. I knew she was going to ask me to sub and I really was going to say, "no," but this time it was the other half of the 8th grade team! No one had picked up the assignment. So again, I would be working with my ELL students in the afternoon only this time it would be for social studies /language arts. The day could not end soon enough. Went home changed and then went out to meet with some of the other teachers from school at a nearby slightly yuppyish place. loud but fun. got home not late but crashed fairly early
just too much of too much this week
Thursday, October 25
observation
The weirdest thing happened toward the end of the observation...the class started working I was getting some student edits in, different people had moved around to get supplies and then suddenly, like the seven minute lull, everyone was in their seat, working independently, and just doing. I looked at my class, looked at the principal, looked back at my class and said, " This doesn't happen very often. They are acting like the stepford classroom." He, in turn said, that he had poked his head into several classes this week, and each time the students were also at work. Weird!
Oh, and team t-shirts got a lot of positive feed back from other teachers and students. Part of the discussions for citizenship week included a Nickelback video (on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-QfLJbEN3k )
started crying while watching...i'm such a wimp
Oh, and team t-shirts got a lot of positive feed back from other teachers and students. Part of the discussions for citizenship week included a Nickelback video (on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-QfLJbEN3k )
started crying while watching...i'm such a wimp
Tuesday, October 23
GO Team!
Tomorrow I get to be observed by the principal again. He's coming into my E.L.L. Social Studies class. This is the group I get to have the best connection with(and not only because I see them for more than 30 minutes each day). Every morning these kids are asking me to sing. I'll admit, I started it. The morning announcement end with : Have a _________ day. And some of the days have been "zippity do dah," "supercalifragilistic," "groovy," or "snappy." And to help explain the word I have sung snippets of songs that have the word. some days, I draw a total blank. Snappy had me demonstrating snapping my fingers and singing a bit of "Fever." (From a PBS pseudo-commercial). So tomorrow, we'll be dressed in our team t-shirts (team international) finishing up the discussion on citizenship week video of the day, and then working on the "This land is my Land" project.
The project has the students studying about their home countries using the five themes of geography (location,place, regions, movement, and human and environmental interactions). So there will be some chaos and only minimal teaching. The best kind of day for me! But not too sure how observable it is. oh well, this was on the schedule, so not changing it now.
The project has the students studying about their home countries using the five themes of geography (location,place, regions, movement, and human and environmental interactions). So there will be some chaos and only minimal teaching. The best kind of day for me! But not too sure how observable it is. oh well, this was on the schedule, so not changing it now.
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