Category Archives: teaching

Aug22

Summer flies by yet again.

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Summer flies by yet again.

I really don’t know where my summer went.

 Good things about the summer:

1. Went on a Caribbean cruise over my birthday and got to go to Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel, Mexico. Which, by the way, was fantastic.

2. Got an all-expense paid training in Dallas for a week that was a great learning opportunity.

3.  Set up my NEW classroom in my brand-new school.

4. Getting to work with some awesome faculty/staff members at the new school.

5. Got a lot of writing and planning done for this next school year.

6. Got a brand new, darling dog to compliment my other darling dog.

Some not so great things about summer-

1. I had nearly 4 weeks of trainings for school. While some of those trainings were good, it was just a lot.

2. I didn’t get to read any of the books on my want list (though, Mockingjay doesn’t come out quite yet, so that doesn’t count against me!)

3.  I didn’t get to do much housework, like painting or major yard work. And I had a big list of  “would likes”.

Over all, I would have to say it was a good and productive summer, even if there was still  a lot I would have liked to accomplish.  I did a lot of trainings and activities that I think will make me a better person and teacher.

Despite how the summer flew by, I am excited to greet this new school year and the new opportunities that will be coming with it. I also will be able to try my hand at being the Student Council Adviser, and I think that will be a lot of fun and a good new challenge. It’s going to be so much smaller (not the class sizes, but just the overall amount of people there at the school) and that will be fun to see how that goes.

Everything starts tomorrow…. Fare thee well, summer days.

Jul29

Writing and the ego boost

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Writing and the ego boost

Hey y’all.

First off, EIGHT comments on how cute my hair was? I have to tell you, that completely made my weekend.  Seriously. THANK YOU FOR THE EGO BOOST! We all need that, every once in a while. The validation made the price of getting the hair cut worth it… mostly!

I have spent the past two weeks  in a district writing program. All LA/English teachers are required to take this in the first 3-4 summers of their time in the district, so I just wanted to get it over with.

It was pretty good. I got some good ideas –not TWO WEEKS WORTH of ideas, mind you– that I could probably use here or there.

I also wrote a piece for our “anthology”, as we were sometimes playing the role of writing students. I will share pieces of it on here. It’s fairly long, so I’ll have to break it into parts. It is mostly true to life, BUT give me some lee-way, as I was only 8 or 9 when it happened and I wanted to make the flow work out.

Jun29

AVID

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AVID

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.

wha????

Actually, it’s a really cool theory or process. This was the training I was at in Dallas all last week. (By the way, let me start out by saying Jared survived my absence remarkably well…. the dogs kept him busy enough not to have time to even miss me!)

Basically, there’s the “School Game”. This is where some of us figure out when a teacher says, “This is important,” or, “This may be on the test,” we who know THE GAME take out a sheet of paper and start to write furiously. Most students don’t pick up on that. Or the fact that a textbook has subheadings, bold, italicized, underlined print, and/or pictures and figures for a reason–emphasizing (ideally)  the important information.

Many students just don’t get it. They think they are just dumb–especially kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds, kids that potentially are going to be the first generation to go to college, kids that are in the foster care system, etc. NOT TRUE! AVID is preparing them to:

1) Understand how to make it through high school through difficult classes (like AP classes);

2)  Find out ways to apply for colleges and find ways to fund it; and

3) Once in college, successfully stay there and graduate and be successful in their own careers.

It’s all about enabling these students.  Letting them know that we know they CAN do these classes, can make it to college, that it’s OKAY to be successful in school…. And lets face it- those of us who made it to college on our own still made lots of little mistakes that we wished we hadn’t, right? Did poorly in some classes- couldn’t figure out exactly what professors were after, etc. AVID gives them strategies to become successful (And really, everyone could really benefit from these strategies- I wish I had them when I was a young student…).

Anyways, I had a lot of fun. We got to stay in the very nice Hyatt Regency hotel.

Hyatt

when we got to break down into smaller groups for individual subject matter and levels of AVID knowledge, I got to go to the beautiful Adolphus hotel. It had a great, inspiring theme, perfect for the English teacher in me. It’s the kind of hotel you could write a ghost story about with it’s great antebellum south feel.

adolphus

And, while riding the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transportation system/subway) I noticed a lot of the trains had these awesome “Poetry in Motion” plaques on the inside, where you could read a variety of poems as you waited to get to your location.

Poetry in Motion

How awesome is that?! Okay, yes, I am a nerd, but you all knew that anyways because I chose to be a teacher (of literature/language arts/english) of all the other awesome professional options out there!

I made some really great friends on the trip, and hopefully I can get some of their much nicer pictures (ones NOT taken with my grainy little cell phone quality). I had a fabulous time and learned some great strategies and ways I can be a better teacher for my kids!

I’d write more, but the baby Bonnie lass has awoken and is  using one of my hands as a chew toy… so I better pay attention to here before i lose a finger to those sharp little teeth! Lets end with a pic of the puppies in a better, non-chewing moment:

Bonzors and the Stevie

Jun9

End of Year Two

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End of Year Two

I have now officially put two years of teaching under my belt. What a wonderful feeling!

Despite a few of my challenging kiddos, I enjoyed this year so much more than last year. The first year of teaching is THE PITS.  You just have to muddle through. There are a lot of uncertainties- even things not directly related to my teaching, like firedrills, are scary.

Year Two gave me more confidence and certainty of what I was doing. I was able to use several items from the first year, or improve on them, cutting back on stress time quite a bit.  I also had a better feel of what to expect from my students. I was able to maintain higher standards with them and challenge many of them better. Even the “rubric system” (a system created by Robert Marzano where all assignments are graded as 1-4 in place of 1-100 pt scale. 1 is below expectations, 2 is basic, 3 is expectation met, and 4 is advanced. Students receive these grades in relation to specific skills that match state standards or expectations ) was easier to adapt to this year, though I will admit I don’t agree 100% with Marzano on a few of the things he tries to suggest in his writing.

Preparing for year three is getting pretty exciting. I am looking forward to opening the new middle school and the training opportunities I will have this summer for it. I actually only have a few weeks of summer available because I have over 4 weeks of trainings that I will be doing, plus the last week before students return is dedicated to district stuff and meetings.  I’ll get to move into my new room August 4th, so that will be AWESOME!

Meanwhile I guess I will be trying to clean up the house and possibly read a couple of good books. I have several that I would like to try to get to. I am finishing up the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. if you HAVEN’T read it yet, make it a priority. It possibly is as awesome as Harry Potter. I’ve read it all through once, but I am working on it again.

Fablehaven

Bruce Coville FINALLY came out with the final installment of his Unicorn Chronicles series (years and years in the making). I am gonna have to read all of the books for that again too, though he is a fairly easy read. Start with Into the Land of the Unicorns. The last book is called The Last Hunt. 🙂

The Last Hunt

I also have heard from several students that The Maze Runner is a fabulous book, so I am making it a priority to read that sometime this summer too.

The Maze Runner

If you liked Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (like The Lightening Thief), Rick Riordan has just come out with a new series called The Kane Chronicles which has to do with Egyptian Mythology. Book 1 is called The Red Pyramid. I am hoping to check it out sometime this summer since I enjoyed his spin on Greek Mythology books so much .

The Red Pyramid

Last but not least, the third book of The Hunger Games series comes out late August. I am SO psyched for Mockingjay. If you haven’t read that book yet, you REALLY REALLY should. I got a lot of my kiddos into the series this  past year, and they really loved both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

Mockingjay

I had a few others that I wanted to read, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head. A couple of them are also professional development books for teaching, and since most of you AREN’T English teachers, they probably wouldn’t be that interesting for you.

I also have a lot to do with cleaning the house and yard projects this summer, so I definitely will be keeping busy. If you have any book suggestions for me as well, feel free to let me know! 🙂 I always enjoy a good book.

May17

I do like teaching, you know…*edit*

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I do like teaching, you know…*edit*

Though, I will be honest that I never grew up saying “My dream job is to be a seventh grade language arts teacher! WATCH OUT, WORLD!”

I kind of fell into teaching. Looking back, I think that part of me knew it a long, long time ago, probably when I started high school. I really saved so much of my English stuff- you know, that stuff you’ll NEVER SEE AGAIN but for whatever reason you can’t let it go?

Hey, look- there’s my project of a travel brochure for 8th grade that I made of southern France  for my French class- 8th grade! Throw it away? No, never? Why not?! BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE NEEDED SOMEDAY! Don’t try to argue with the logic of a packrat.

So, by process of elimination, I kind of realized that teaching was something that just felt… right.

It’s not easy. It’s not, heaven forbid, always fun.

But as things have happened, I have enjoyed teaching seventh grade immensely more than I thought could be possible. It truly is one of the most difficult times of our society, and I’d like to think I help kids make it through this trying period of their lives (I hope, at least… I’m sure some of them would disagree!).

To be honest, I would be thrilled to be in a high school. That’s what I’ve truly wanted since I decided to be a teacher. I’m one of those nuts that gets excited about Shakespeare and mythology. I love the ageless messages and questions about humanity posed by Shakespeare’s works, like Hamlet, Othello, The Tempest. I love how much of our society has founded itself based on the mythology of a culture nearly 3000 years ago, and how you can understand more about marketing and products, about themes and history, if you know your Greek/Roman/Norse/miscellaneous mythology. The Western Civilization culture is fascinating.

But I know that I am where I am for a reason. I’m going to the new school for a reason. It’s not always what I want, but it’s amazing to see how things like this, which originally feel like you are being held back from what you desire, end up being a good thing in the end.

I’ve learned a lot about the Texas education system. I’ve learned a lot about writing and the insane state testing here. I’ve learned more of the expectations for students this way that I would have missed before. I’ve met some neat and wonderful people because of this walk of life.

So it’s not always easy. I do get upset and frustrated. Students can be complete and utter morons sometimes. They can do stupid things that hurt us as teachers. But they can also be amazingly sweet, and impress you that somebody of that age is capable of that sort of maturity.

I may not get the positions I want any time soon. But all I can do is continue to do the best job humanly possible and hope that it proves my talents and capabilities.

***Edit: This is supposed to be a metaphor of my previous thoughts. I was informed how random it seemed, but it made sense in my head. Basically, life seems to give us the ugly cacti… but good things can come from seemingly worthless ones.***

The landscape in Texas can be ugly at times. I hate cactus (pural, cacti?). I think they are ugly, odd, and painful little plants. But even the ugliest things can become beautiful…

cacti     cacti Rose