this is not a drill..... Lockdown

At eight something this morning my school went into lock down. The students go sit on the floor out of line of sight, the lights go off, and everyone goes quiet. I cover up the door window, check the hall for wanderers and lock the door. after about ten minutes the check in call comes and I report that I pulled a student into my room from the hall. Ten minutes later we get the resume class activities but keep doors locked and windows covered.
It seems that someone across the street in the apartments there was wielding a knife....some sort of domestic squabble. The police were called and finally someone was hauled off. One of my students coming to school VERY late had to sit in a police car during the lock down. My students were great about doing what they were told quickly and quietly.

life is not a drill

Five themes and other things

Today in my ELL Social Studies class I gave the students short oral quiz about the five themes of geography. F or the past week we have been defining and creating examples of the five themes (location, place, human/environmental interactions, movement, and regions). Some days were easier than others...the interactions day probably the hardest. So after going through regions (I cut up a map of the United States and then laminated the pieces) and that we can divide the earth into governmental, landforms, or directional regions; I I asked them about the different themes. They all seemed ready for the real quiz tomorrow. I don't expect their writing style to be very high, but since they have been learning note taking, maybe they will be fine on the written quiz.

My 8th graders are working on Point of View. They have a scenario and a character and must describe what happened in an accident in the first person point of view. Tomorrow all the different characters from the scenario will get together in a group to figure out what happened.The 7th graders had a free write today. Something I will be practicing with them every day. And then we will skim through the first couple of units in the text since some of them have already done units 1-3.

As for me....another busy weekend. I participated in a Radio Programming advisory panal ($50 for two hours!). Then went to the gym and worked out with my sister who was visiting (Happy Birthday, again) then more family stuff with brothers and sisters. I started to yawn by 7:00 and when i got home was falling asleep before 9:00. The typical teacher work day is still in effect for me on the weekends.

Lastly, a friend sent me this in one of those forwarding things (and no you do NOT have to send it on to twelve people while chanting)

St. Theresa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
Amen to that

Sit Tall!

So the "first week" of school is done and finally today i felt like I was teaching. My social studies class was looking into creating a definition of the word "citizen" and my other two classes were creating their own guiding principles for the class. My shortest 8th grade student thought a good class expectation would be "sit tall." After thinking about it we kept the rule. Sit tall like stand tall can be be proud of who you are and what you contribute to the class. You may be the joker, the athlete, the gamer, or the smart kid but each one of them can be proud of who they are. This 8th grade group are some of the same students who caused me a lot of stress as 7th graders, but we're all going to be sitting tall, me included.

blessed are those who are small but can sit tall.....

Day 1 and 179 to go...

School started today! Actually there wasn't a whole lot going on, going over school rules and the expectations and making positive choices. I have one class that will be a little challenging (some of the same students who provided interesting challenges last year) but the team that I am working with are in agreement about how we honor the school-wide discipline program.
My other two classes will be good not just because they are small, but because the curriculum will be fun for me.
I get to actually teach a social studies class! Yay! We'll start with the five themes of geography (location, place, human/environmental interactions, movement, regions) and then move on to a linked curriculum to grade level.
And my day ends at 12:30, how sweet is that?