Volleyball

I am now doing the official scoring for the girls volley ball team. Tournament scoring is a little different from my days as a high school v-ball player. The main thing that is hard for me to score mentally is a net serve (hitting the net on the serve but the ball goes over) is played and not re-served. Only one mishap and that's when one of the teams served out of order. I had to figure out what to do and they started before I had a chance to check that they had the right person in....much of the game my head is down. We caught the mistake and it didn't affect the outcome of the game....sadly my school's teams (7th and 8th) lost their matches...but it was fun. The next home game is not until January.

may all who compete be blessed with the ability to lose gracefully

ughhh!

1. just started working out at a new gym....with a trainer (two free sessions included in cost of membership) and decided to buy more trainer time to get me more motivated and focused.
2. started new trimester and already have students not turning in homework on time and instead choosing to fail.
3. was observed for the first time by the principal...the students were pretty good and there were some suggestions
4. christmas break begins friday afternooon.

feeling blessed is just that, a feeling, the blessings are always there....

Reading

a friend of mine had this in her post so I am passing it along:

From Paul's Thinking Place: "I have no clue what a "meme" is, but I saw this one on Mark Ostreicher's blog, and thought it was pretty cool. Most of the time, I find reading other people's "memes" somewhat interesting at the best, silly at worst, but this one actually struck my fancy for what it might say about what people are reading... and authors are writing. So here are the rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest!"

My nearest book with more than 123 pages happens to be the teacher's edition of one of my text books. Unfortunately, there's not much there, but here it is.

Discuss in pairs or small groups.
1. How are the two science experiments similar to a mystery story? how are they different?
2. would you prefer to be a detective or a scientist?

I know not great reading. On the other hand the closet non-text book is Kokoro by Natsume Soseki :

"All I wanted to know at that moment was that Sensei was still alive. Sensei's past, his dark past that he promised to tell me about, held no interest for me then. But I could not find what I was seeking, and I refolded the letter in exasperation. I returned to the doorway of my father's room to see how he was doing."

I think I will send this to the staff; see what we as a school come up with.

Honesty and Middle schoolers

kind of a weird day at schoool today. I was supposed to be observed by the principal today but with so many other things going on he couldn't come in....all the computers and phone lines outside the school were down son attendence was out of wack as were any notifications about things that were happening...and one of my students decided to write on my apple with a marker. I kind of know who it was but instead took the time to make it a "teachable moment" about honesty and self responsibility tied in with the make your day program. Hope something takes. Tomorrow the principal should be in, i have a meeting with the trainer at the new gym i just joined, and there's one more week until the christmas break.....

oh, and the school....just a picture of the one my grandmother went to back in 1917

may I be blessed with patience.......

the new trimester begins

Finally getting a feeling that I know what I am doing and I know how I want to be doing it. Yesterday my 7th grade team met and talked for about an hour about the goals for our students and some of the across the board expectations. I kind of needed to be in more contact since my schedule barely allows me the time to meet with them. I think I will write up a trimester plan.

Pretty sure there will be students who don't understand their schedules or who want to make changes in their electives on Monday. Fortunately there isn't much of a change for my students. Some groups, same books, better design. My level 2 students are starting a new section on growth. We'll start with units of measurement and then move on to comparisons. For grammar we will still be using adjectives but also going further and making comparisons using " ~er than" . We'll also be working on sequencing and some conjunctions.

My level 3 students three students will be reading a fictional account of Lewis and Clark with Sacagawea and then learning about maps...relief maps in particular and measurement. We'll also be doing some sequencing and the reading strategy of visualizing. I don't think we will have a project for this section because my goal is to begin new units after the Winter Holidays.

feeling blessed with an abundance of little things to take care of....

Finally back at school

Snow day parts one, two and three are finally over. Today we had a 2 hour late start (which totally does not affect my schedule since I start after 12 noon. About 1/3 of my students were absent...Either they hadn't heard that school was back in session, or they couldn't make it.
The trimester ends tomorrow, so I was printing up individual progress reports so my students could see what they were missing and could turn in things at the last minute. Most of them did fine, except the five who never turn in anything and the one who goofs off ALWAYS! I have done what I could to get them doing the work, but to no avail. This afternoon after school let out I took the first part of the tech competency with the school district. I'm not sure why it is necessary but there are 6 levels in total.....I'm going to check out when I can get in for the next one.
Next week I have my first observation from the principal. I already let the student know that he will be coming in.

Snow Day

I got a call at 5:28 this morning say "two hours late start." Yep, yesterday's snow day was going to be just a late start for today. I got up and made the call to the next person on the phone tree, and then went back to bed. Phone rang at 6:24, "they've come to their senses, no school today, either." I called the next person again to pass on the new message. It's a lot faster than waiting for the school's name to come around on the news. Yesterday was pretty murky looking, but I went out to the lake. Today is sunnier but a lot colder. I might just have to walk around the lake, at least to go to the store to get some milk and tea. It's too cold to drink anything other than something like tea or cocoa. So time to get out and explore.

blessing can be as small as a cup of hot tea....

checking in

Snow drops keep falling on my head....really! There's a Japanese children's' song that is loosely translated, " the the snow is falling thud, thud..." and today was it. The driving rain/snow fell most of the day and I have been snug in my apartment going over my lesson plan for the upcoming week. There is a possibility of a snow day tomorrow, but I have to admit, I don't want one.
I hope you all had an enjoyable thanksgiving...mine was very low-key and selfishly relaxed.

I am thankful for all the blessings of each day.

Not so glad

whimper,
not so glad today
just want to be done training
low blood sugar makes me nasty

GLAD

All week long I'm doing something called GLAD training. Not just me but several teachers in my building and district are doing this training. It is a designed style of teaching that incorporates strategies of metacognition and participation. Guided language acquisition design it is rather a mouthful but so far there are some interesting teaching styles that i will be able to incorporate in my unit/lesson planning. Saturday and Monday were all day affairs of the trainers training us in their various styles. Today through Friday we observe a class from 8:30-12:00 learning a unit from the trainers and then in the afternoon we work on unit planning of our own. I'm working with one of the others ELL teachers using our text, but trying to meet academic standards of our grade levels. She teaches 6th grade and her writing is more narrative based, while my 7th graders are more expository writing in preparation for the state standardized testing. i started flagging and getting snappish around three o'clock. Partly just tired, partly in need of food and fresh air. All this rain is driving me indoors and I haven't been for a walk in a few days. Tomorrow will be another long day, and there are a few things i want to check on the web before tomorrow so....

I am looking for the blessings of sleep and energy for tomorrow

high watermarks

This morning, when I went online to check for sub opening, there was a notice that one of my district was closed due to flooding. Only two of the schools are actually in the possible flood plain, but the roads through my old hometown, and out to the highways are threatened and some are closed. Closed roads, closed schools. It doesn't happen that often but at least the kids and buses are not getting stuck in the middle. Smart decision. By the way the plural of school bus is buses, not busses. Busses is to kiss in old English.
I have been participating in the schools "diversity club". Each week there is a project about a different county or culture. The last two weeks have had huge student turnout. Two weeks ago we celebrated "day of the dead" for Mexican Culture. The students painted sugar skulls for the school display case. Last week we made beaded bracelets for Native American cultures. Unfortunately the student who was also going to demonstrate some Native American dances was unable to attend. Still over thirty students showed up for the club.
My 7th graders are still working on a cultural project of their own called "This land is My Land". We have spent the last two class periods in the computer lab getting information from www.culturegrams.com , the CIA factbook, and www.worldatlas.com. I had one student cut and paste and thought he was ready to turn in the work.....NOT! Today they have the day in the library and then the real work begins....Mostly for my substitute.

blessings on those who serve their communities in highwater

a little bit of this a little bit of that

Wow, it has been busy! This past week I have been subbing in the morning with 5th graders and then dashing over to my school for the afternoon. The fifth graders were "challenging." They have a science kit (FOSS science kits for anyone who might have heard of them) that takes a bit of prep and more teaching time than the kits advise. Last week they were learning about mountains and contour maps, elevation, and topography. All fun things, but I think the curriculum was a little difficult to follow so in a few places I re-arranged and re-ordered to give the students a better understanding of the work.
My classes have been working on adjectives and starting a project called "This Land is My Land." Adjectives...well they are pretty self-explanatory of describing words of emotions, size,shape, or speed, and colors. Of course, they are other things, too; but I didn't want to overload my level twos. The "This Land" project started with singing woody guthrie in class and identifying the adjectives and nouns that are used in the song. The project will be creating a poster project of each student's home country. My level threes are mostly Ukraine and Mexico, but we also have Egyptian, Peruvian, Philippines, and South Korea. They will be researching and writing a paragraph about the environment, education, and climate and then two other paragraphs of their own choice. The project reemphasizes what they are learning in their social studies and a little of what they are learning in their science class.
And then i will be doing a training from next Saturday (the 11th) through the following week. So I need clear expectations for the students and manageable lessons for the sub.

blessings on all who labour......

Yay!

I am starting to catch up. Ms. S, the teacher I share class and student's with, commented that it didn't feel so much this week that she had a roommate. Yay! I also started writing up plans, goals for the weeks ahead rather than just trying to make it through the next day. Also, yay me! This upcoming week I hope to have my students working with grammar, practicing paragraph building, and throw in a little testing on the content they have read and the week breezes by.

on another note, i just saw the house my friend and her fiance are buying, another yay for them and praise God.

blessings sometimes are found in the oddest of places

Expectations and Step Olympics

Today, I am not feeling as light-hearted as I want to feel. Please feel free to ignore this blog while i vent a little.
At my school, there is a behavior plan called"make your day." No it is not some Clint Eastwood inspired spaghetti western version of classroom rules, it is a plan that is supposed to create an atmosphere of respect for the learning, well-being, and safety of all students. Notice the catch phrases?....Any way when a student "interferes" with one of these area of concern they are sent on steps. Step one is to go sit facing away from the class (for about five minutes for first offenses, twenty minutes for the second offence...Or basically the whole class period in my class), step two to stand up, three to concentrate on the rules and figure out if you wish to move to step four, step four to be sent to the office to call home for an immediate conference with parents, teacher, student and an administrator. So far okay, at each step the teacher conferences with the student before they can move back down the steps. (no conference on the way up). I have a few students who have started to excel in the step Olympics. ... Going to step one, misbehaving on step one and moving to step 2, conferencing going back to one, conferencing and then returning to the learning environment. Then a few minutes later doing something that again interfered with learning (usually that is another name for talking....These are middle school students). In my larger class, there are about five students who choose steps as the alternative to doing class work. At the end of the hour, the student is then supposed to self-evaluate on a scale of 1-4 on whether they have made their day. Four is high 1 is low. It's difficult to get a lesson started because the "expectations" aren't being heard, and the concern is that students are choosing to fail rather than do work. My other concern is that with a large class and no where to go while on steps, steps becomes part of the problem. I feel that I am loosing control of this class, and it's driving me a little batty this week.

may i be blessed with the wisdom of compassion and the strength to meet expectations

Not school at all

This week, my family has been having a long email discussion on crew and rowing. On of my nieces is starting to row in college and she innocently asked for family info on who had rowed. Although there are those in my family who have rowed all through college and masters, my rowing experience was limited to fall and winter of my freshman year in college.
There is a sleekness in the design of the crew shell that is sexy. The camaraderie of the boat as you tie in and count down your seat. The leap of excitement at the start and the pull through the middle of the race in the power strokes. And then crossing the finish line into a glide.
One of my favorite memories in a freshman four with cox was finishing a glide at the north end of Lake Samish in a early autumn morning. The mist on the lake and steam from sweating bodies rising, the perfect stillness broken only by the ripples of the shell and the drip from the oars, and watching a bald eagle dive for a lake trout and take to flight.

may your memories bring you blessing

bits and pieces

The weekend...short summary, drove to the eastern part of the state to visit with one of my sisters. We worked out most of Saturday, went home after church on Sunday. Twelve hours of driving (about 620 miles). For the last two days I have been subbing in the morning and doing my regular job in the afternoon. The morning job is as the music teacher at an elementary school. This week the students have the "dance dude" teaching dance during a combined P.E./music class. Throughout the day the grade level classes come in and learn dances for about 35 minutes. For me that means 2 and 1/2 hours of electric slide, west coast swing, and the Virginia reel ( and a few others I can't remember the name of....oh yeah, kindies are learning the macarena)' I am beat! Yesterday, when i got home I got something to eat and then the low blood sugar kicked in and I needed to doze for about half an hour. Today i was smarter and actually brought lunch, so I'm fine.

My regular kids in the afternoon were pills. Talking while getting started, talking while lining up, talking during points. They had had a sub for the two hours before they met with me and were wound up. We practiced lining up three times before they got it right. And it's mid-terms already so I'm meeting with kids who are behind and giving them until Friday to turn in missing work. One assignment can raise a grade from an F to a C, hopefully they will have the missing work. I need to do some real lesson planning today, one of my classes switched books so i need to see what it's all about.

be blessed even in the busy-ness of the day

Soup Day!

I didn't know that today was going to be quite as long as it turned out. So technically i have been working for a week now, but there are a lot of things that I haven't learned or have never seen.

I went in early because i needed to get some books ready, finish entering in some grades before mid-term comes and goes (only really important for the student who has a "D"or "F"), and then catch up on copying things now that I have a copier code. I wasn't planning on being in at 7:30 and not taking off after a couple hours, I wasn't planning on staying at school until a little after four in the afternoon, wasn't planning on working quite as hard as today.

When 11:30 and first lunch rolled around I realized that carrot sticks and a nectarine were not going to do it. But what I hadn't remembered is that today was soup day. Big pots of hearty beef barley and chicken noodle were in the staff room with rolls and some cookies for desert. Exactly what a rainy Monday needed. I had my lunch and enjoyed not doing something for all of 20 minutes before I was off and running again. I was able to get so much done today that tomorrow subbing as a music teacher in the morning should be pretty easy.

I feel blessed by soup, today

Because I do not hope to turn again

My mom died ten years ago, so in her honor I borrow from

Ash Wednesday (excerpts) T.S. Eliot

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And I pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer…

Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain,
spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated
And let my cry come unto to Thee.

blessed are those who mourn

An every day job!

I was finishing up for the day, one of my students was checking the points that the students do daily, when the principal walked in. First thought, this better not be bad news or I don't think I will be able to regain my composure with students still in the classroom. Instead he tells me that the district office had just called and they were offering me the .4 ELL position that I had been subbing for the last three weeks. I have an every day job!

And now you're wondering what .4 means. exactly like the math tells you 4/10 of a full time job. Full time would be a 1.0. the job is only in the afternoon, so i will still be subbing half days in the morning (hopefully 2-3 times a week). I will be teaching two classes of middle school students in sheltered English Language Acquisition. One class is 7th graders, mostly boys, mostly Hispanic. The other class is sixth, seventh and eighth graders, almost evenly split girls and boys, and almost evenly split Russian/Ukraine and Hispanic.

The cool thing is I will be teaching at a school within walking distance from where i live. I'm already thinking that it will be nice to walk to work a couple of days a week. So I have to wait for the rest of the paperwork stuff to get completed, I have informed my other district that i can only work mornings and re-arranged my schedule so that I won't be stepping on anyone's toes. That means some of my math assignments will have to be cancelled...sadness.

I am blessed

Best Practices? Huh?

Today i had planned to have leisurely morning of a walk, then going into work after a small lunch, to be followed by an interview for an ESL job.

WRONG! The leisurely part was only beginning because i slept in to 6:45 and I was ready to go for the walk all I needed was to put the shoes on and grab my keys when the phone rang. I almost let it go but noticed it was one of my school districts so i answered. Could i come in as soon as possible to cover for a special ed. class. I thought for maybe ten seconds before answering I would be there in ten or fifteen minutes. Now you think I am some kind of wonderful to change, get out the door, and drive to a school. First off the school is only a mile and a half away. I had already figured out what I would wear to the interview and made only a minor adjustment since i wouldn't be coming back home to freshen up. Then thought about image (it is everything isn't it? i mean that's what all the commercials are trying to sell us) and grabbed a little warpaint and the travel toothbrush and headed out.....forgetting a hairbrush, by the way.

School. I was glad that I had wonderful para-educators for the special ed. The kids were fairly well-behaved (it helps when they recognize you) but by lunch I was starting to wilt. Did I mention the small headcold (yes, I did.) I stayed with the morning group until a replacement could be brought in and I could go to my semi-regular classes. I had prepared while babysitting last night (not that I had the materials, only that I had done the prep work mentally) and had even corrected homework that I could discuss with them before starting a writing assignment. Made it through the rest of the afternoon and am getting ready to leave and go to the interview when the secretary stops me and ask, "What do you know about 'best practices'?" Huh? I'm thinking she's talking in some new anagram and literally stop in my tracks. We call a few teachers, talk to some others before i figure out she's talking about teaching practices/styles for optimal student performance. So with a few crib notes I rush to fix my hair and check my face before driving on the interview.

I'm on time. And strangely the interview team are not district higher ups but the principal and vice-principal of the school where I have been working. The job is the one I have been subbing the past three weeks (long/short someone else hired quit after meeting people first day) but i had been told that the hiring/interviewing would be done by someone else, so this was not meeting my expectations. This school is very big on stating and meeting expectations. The interview was over in ten minutes (thankfully, I did not start hacking and coughing) and now the real wait begins. Until then, I'm subbing for the same afternoon classes that might be mine in the future.

blessing on those who persevere.

head in the clouds or a cold in the head?

I don't know about you, but when the weather is changeable I get very restless. Can't sleep, feel slightly congested, my ears get clogged....that was yesterday. I had the sinking suspicion that this wasn't my normal night of no sleep...no I was fearing the first of the dreaded student contact head cold.
The week ended well with me being called to interview for a job that i have been for which I have been subbing since the second week of school (perhaps the call would have come earlier in the week if the person who reviews the files had been in). Yes, that's right I may have a regular job...well not too regular it's not full time, but before I digress into a different story, the weekend begins and I am feeling sluggish. I get out for a walk on one of the local trails but I am not feeling the usual energy boost after I finish. I feel congested, like I have been drinking red wine, like being on an international flight with recycled air, like i have been trimming ivy (I have a slight allergic reaction to cut ivy, go figure)....and then I sneeze.
I have a friend who sneezes when she walks out into sunlight, but that's not me. This seemed to be the kind of sneeze that might require some thing a little more than a back swipe with the sleeve (I know, gross). So i start thinking about where I put the extra box of tissues, do I have any day time cold medicine and why is it i got into a profession where there are hundreds of kids who haven't thought the least about bringing their own tissues to school or washing their hands after hacking away. Oh, and one of the teachers I work with was complaining on Friday how she was feeling the malaise...I am doomed, doomed i tell you.
Today, went to church, came home and crashed on the couch with a blanket around me. Maybe i should get that chicken soup ready.

blessed is he who has regard for the weak

I blame it on the internal alarm clock

Both my schools are on what's called an "in-service" teacher's day and I did not need to get up early, did not need to hop on the computer looking for a job on the substitute online website, and did not need to be awake at all at 6:30 in the morning....but I am. I blame it on the internal alarm clock. It's not that I set it each night to wake me at a certain hour; I don't try to wake up early on weekends and holidays; but I do.

And so here I am stretched, awake, wondering if I want to make coffee (I sort of gave up coffee over the summer, so this is a strange thing to be thinking) and waiting for it to get light enough to go walk around the lake. This summer I started on an exercise program of sorts. The American Heart Association has a couple different things you can do that are pseudo-online. One, Justmove.org, allows you to choose and track your exercise routine online, will create a calendar of your workouts, and it gives short encouragements on the sign-in page. Totally private....no way for others to view your record. The other one I check is Choose To Move. It's more encouraging and geared toward women. Both of these sites can be found through the American Heart Association. But what I was really saying is take a walk around the Lake. I live near a very small lake and the distance around it from my home is about 2 1/2 miles. Not a daunting work out, but calming and just enough to get started on the day.

I think I have another twenty minutes before i can go out....now what about that coffee....

be blessed in the small things

First time caller long time listener

Okay that's not really true, but this is my first time publishing on the web for the interested, indifferent or just plain bored person scoping out the lives and insights of others. I have never been much at journaling, keeping a diary, or other forms of written self expression even though I like writing...Bear with me while I figure out who I want to be on this blog.

Could you figure out the teacher thing? I love teaching, it's almost as much fun as "hanging out with friends" but there are also challenges in each day. Take yesterday, I was at a high school in my home town working for a teacher that I have subbed for before. Five classes of high school math.

You think your life is difficult? Try being a student with a graphing calculator in one hand and a book asking you to figure out the angles of a parallelogram that has been bisected through the opposite corners and all the information you have is two angles and one side. SOHCAHTOAH ! That is code for how to figure out various angles and length of sides of a right triangle. Please don't ask me when you will ever need to know that outside your trigonometry class! First time I saw this mnemonic device, I wondered why the students were studying about some obscure native American tribe. Go figure ~

Blessings on your day!