weekend update

This weekend, it actually felt like fall. The temps have cooled down, the trees are starting to change, and I am super excited. Autumn in Virginia is simply amazing, equal to a Michigan autumn (which is probably why I like it). Virginia has Michigan beat during springtime, though. That's due to VA having beautiful, fragrant flowering trees and bushes, and Michigan does not.
But VA kinda has Michigan beat this fall, seeing as how VA's state government isn't shutting down on Monday. David told me about it last night and I hope that everyone we know and love in MI comes through this okay. As much as it has the possibly to seriously suck, maybe it's exactly what Michigan needs? A wake up call, rock bottom, etc. etc. Where else can you go, you know? That's only a guess; my wishful thinking. Anyway, like I said, I hope everyone comes through it okay and it doesn't go to the point of many, many people losing jobs (like MI needs any more of that). What a crappy situation.

But, anyway, due to the beautiful weather and having extra time and energy, we headed downtown. We even went early enough to catch some of the famer's market! I love walking through the downtown/CW area in fall. We found some nice gummy candy, as well as some lambic, a Shakespeare stout (pretty delish) and a sparkling sake that knocked our socks off. We watched some movies, did the laundry, lazed around--all the good stuff weekends have.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off from school. I've felt really rushed and disorganized and used our dentist appointment tomorrow afternoon to take the whole day off, rather than a half day. Our first grades our due by mid-day Tuesday, so tomorrow will give me a lot of time to plan both of the next units and get those grades it. I'm a little worried though: it's the first time my students will have a sub. Hopefully, they do a good job.

I'm sad I missed this epsiode live last night, cause I missed this.

Oh, Kanye. I love your music, your big mouth (that always gets you into trouble), and your great sense of humor about it all. Way to show them how to be a celebrity.

i curse you, full moon!

Ugh. Today was more tiring than the usual A day. The kids were more whiny and childish than usual, especially my 11th graders. My 10th graders did pretty good, besides having a more-than-usual surly attitude not caused by the First Test of the Year. I'm glad it's over.
I'm taking Monday off due to a dentist appointment. It's my four class day (well, 3 classes and a Study Hall) and I've felt behind and exhausted. Well, I take that back. This week, I've felt like I'm finally catching up. My first bell did so good today during their test that I finally finished up the first batch of essays from all three 10th grade classes. Yesss! I love having only three 10th grade classes, it makes the essay grading so much easier. Tomorrow should help out in the whole organizing the filing cabinet (I have soooo much paper piled up there, whewww!). Monday will help in getting my head together about what to do next. It seemed like I had an endless to do list and everything that could happen to interrupt finishing things did happen. I hate that.

I had my third dance class this week, but Megan (Senior, haha) joined me! When I registered, I got a "buddy pass" (or whatever cutesy name they called it) that I could give to a friend for a free class. I gave it to Megan, because she said she always wanted to try a dance class. I told her that there was another girl who had no dance class experience in my class, so I invited her along. She did really well and everyone in the class and the teacher told her she should come back! I'm really enjoying having a class again, even if it's not quite as challenging as I expected. This will be useful so I can get my strength, endurance and technique back. Plus, the teacher modifies things for me so I can kinda do my own thing while those without experience learn something easier for them.

this is why i don't teach 9th grade

At my school, the morning annoucement routine starts in the beginning of 3rd/4th bell (when we take daily attendance). This is a change from last year, but a nice change, seeing as how we start off with a moment of silence. It's hard to make 25+ kids be silent when half of them are straggling in from a late bus or late parent/caregiver dropping them off. Third and fourth bell are much more put together and I usually only have one student straggle in late (and 85% of the time with a pass).
But this morning was different. Before I get to how this morning was different, I need to explain something:
This year, our school is trying out a new system. All of the first time 9th graders are downstairs. Anyone 10-12th grade stay upstairs for all classes. Even those repeating 9th grade classes don't take classes with first time 9th graders. The only time you see a 9th grader upstairs is if they are in a high-level science class or they have a foreign language class. The freshmen even have their own lunch period. The first one. The point behind giving them lunch first is not just because those youngsters get cranky when they haven't eaten, but so they can see a perfectly clean cafeteria and then re-create it at the end of lunch. The amazing thing about this is that upstairs is quiet. Silent, at times. Everytime I was in the hallway up until Friday and today, I couldn't quite put my finger on what was different. Now I know what it is: a lot less freshmen wandering around the hallways and being jackasses.
In the past week, there were not one, but two food fights during the freshmen lunch period. The week before that, there was another one. Not only that, but someone has been pulling the fire alarm four out of the five days in the week at the end of the day. This has been going on for the past two weeks.
This morning, Mr. D (the principal himself, ooooh!) gets on the mic after the bell for the first class of the day rings. He addresses the freshmen and freshmen teachers. I have no first class on "B" days, so I was in the workroom with other teachers. Mr. D starts off thanking the 95% of the freshmen who are doing good and trying to adjust to high school. Then he points out that he needs to speak with the other 5%. He comments on their behavior and their extreme lack of respect. Then he mentions to teachers that we all need to be watching the fire alarms for the culprit that keeps pulling them at the end of the day. He mentions that the law has been brought in to bring an end to it.
When he's finished, the other teachers discuss it. It's been mentioned recently that people are thinking we should go back to the older system of Elementary being K-6, Junior High being 7-9 and Senior High being 10-12. I definitely agree that 6th graders don't belong in middle/junior high. The 9th grade problem is one I'm not sure on. They're kind of in between both schools. Plus, it's only the beginning of the year. Other teachers didn't really point that out, but it was pointed out many times that these freshmen are still very much in the mentality of "middle school".
As some of you know, there are two grade levels I would never want to teach: 6th and 9th. Sixth grade is so... ugh. The attitude of teenagers, the uberenergy of children. No, no, no. I hated subbing 6th grade. The only 6th graders I liked were the ones in the after-school program, and that took a looong time for me to be able to handle them. Ninth grade... ugh. Now that I have tenth and eleventh, I'm used to kids that are already used to high school. I don't think I could enjoy teaching kids who need to be told again and again that they're in HS and need to act like it. I don't want to train them, I want them to already be trained.
Oh, and the best thing about all of this? The fire alarm goes off at the end of the day. Now, whoever's doing it is just rubbing it in our face, all "Oh yeah? You're watching, huh? Well, take that!". I think it'd be really funny if no one has been pulling it, but the system's just gone haywire. Especially now that there's been a special announcement all about it. Ha! That'd be just perfect, wouldn't it?

catching up

It's the end of the third week, and it's been a long one.
Monday was the Open House. Every school has one. Last year, I had a lot more parents. This year, I stay in town, buy dinner, come back to school, see 4 parents and then get home at 9. I don't usually say or think this about school-related things, but this was definitely a waste of my time.
This week, the honeymoon has ended. Two students skipped, so I wrote my first referral. I had to have a chat with a child I removed from the classroom into the hallway, as well. Ahh well. The school year has truly started.
Today was our first Early Release day. It was pretty awesome, but only because it was a "B" day, which means I only had 1 of my 2 classes since the last class of the day was removed. After the kids went home, we had our first meeting in our small groups for the professional development that will be going on year-round. It went well, we laughed so hard we almost cried, but didn't get much else done, hah! Oh well. No one has any clue what we're supposed to be doing, exactly.
I used two different strategies in the past two weeks to get students into pairs and groups. Both worked wonderfully! I had notecards with famous pairs on them and cut them in two. Each student gets one and must find their other half. That one worked great. I used the postcards (and thank you to everyone who sent some so far!!) to get my 11th graders into groups and that also worked wonderfully! It was so awesome to see. So, again, thanks to those of you who sent along postcards. They helped a lot!
My 10th graders essays are due tomorrow and Monday, which means no more talking about essays for a while! Yayyyy! My 11th graders have listened to two different parts of This American Life episodes and I'm using a curriculum built around This I Believe essays to help them learn how to write personal essays and they seem to be enjoying both! I was surprised how many kids actually liked the TAL episodes! It was very exciting.
This weekend is the first Ladies Night. I'm looking forward to it! That and sleeping in, reading my own book, getting ahead a little bit (the open house night totally ruined my routine! Plus, it made me really tired for Tuesday, uggh).
Some of you know already, but I've started going to a dance class again. It's a very small class, the other ladies don't have as much experience, but I am very out of shape. It's slow enough for me to really focus on getting my technique back as well as strength and endurance. So far, after two classes, I've enjoyed it. It's a nice addition to my week, it feels fantastic (and almost... comforting?) to be dancing again.
I'm going to try and get more in the habit of writing and blogging more. The last few weeks, I've been getting back in the habit of school: getting up early, getting things done quickly, following more of a routine, etc. But, at least I finally found pants that fit! I sucked it up and tried on about 14 different pairs of pants. Some of them were huge! Have I shrunk?! What happened? I guess that's better than the flipside...? Still, I hate trying on that many clothes and not finding anything.
One of the new people in our complex plays harmonica on their porch. Every now and then we'll hear harmonica floating along in the air. Right now it's "Home on the Range". It's pretty awesome.

the face of a 12 year old, snot-nosed angel

While we were in the frozen section of Food-Lion-soon-to-be-yuppy-looking-store-called-Bloom, a woman told me I had the "Face of an angel! A 12 year old angel!". I could only giggle and shuffle off to sneeze some more because today is the start of the downswing of what was the First Weekend of Allergies/Sinus Crap. Hurray! Fall (and cooler weather) must be coming if I spent a weekend with snot machine for a nose, a horribly dry throat and ears that pop and plug (arrrrg! I hate that part the most!).
Yesterday was definitely the worst, today was much better except I couldn't hear anything, sneezed in twos and threes and sounded funny at times (you know: my bnosth ith stuffed up. bleerrggghh). Oh! And I was wonderfullly together and ready and early heading to school--I even stopped to get gas and coffee in good time!-- only to be stopped for 30 minutes at the HRBT. Oh, Hampton Roads, I love you, but for Christ's sake, I hope I am never the "disabled vehicle" in the tunnel. I always curse the jerk whose car breaks down in the tunnel, but I try to stop myself early, because one day: that will be me. Thankfully, I have no 2nd bell, so I didn't have to worry. The down side was that there were no spaces in the lot I usually park in, so I parked on the street. I opened my car door, pulled out a plastic tub (to be used for... stuff.) that had shapes in it for an activity today. The lid was secured tight when I put it in there, but the lid popped off and a few triangles and squares went everywhere! Way to go, coordinated teacherlady! I pulled it together, had a pretty good, but uncoordinated, day and realized the up side to being late and having to park on the street: My car was in shade! It wasn't half as hot as it usually is, sitting on the asphalt! Why didn't I think of this before?!

Oh yeah, and this weekend we got: a laptop (for me), another iPod nano (for David), and a Jeep. This means we own 2 cars (because this weekend I also paid off my car!! Yayyyy!), 2 iPod nanos, and 2 laptops. Yes, we are finally up to date and even a little more "adult" than before.
OH! AND DID ANY OF YOU SEE BRITTANY SPEARS LOOK LIKE ONE SAD LITTLE LIP SYNCER LAST NIGHT ON MTV?! HOLY CRAP!

whew, glad that's over.

Can I just say that I don't really like the first day of classes? Or, in my case, the two first day of classes I have? I just don't. It's so awkward feeling at times, so I'm glad it's over. This "first day" thing went much better than last year's first day(s). And now we're going on to actual work.
My classes are overall pretty awesome. So far. My first bell (10th grade) is really, really into uncomfortable silence. Like, seriously. It's... strange. I've never had such a silent class. The other classes are pretty great. Can I just state right here and now that I love 11th graders? I do. It's a great age. I hope they continue to be fantastic.
I'm glad the first week is over. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things and the classes getting into their daily routine. I did get an amazing amount of hugs, one was even from a kid who I struggled with at least once a week! This week he's stopped by to say hi more than once (this rarely happened last year). A few students (Billy, for example, for those of you who I've told about Billy) ran down the hall, yelling, "Mrs. Pushie! Mrs. Pushie!" I feel very successful. I missed them, and it feels great knowing that a few of them missed me. Hurraaaay
Now, I will relax, watch a movie, play some games, read a book of my choosing and probably take a nap. Or two.

what i did with pre-service week:

Desk area complete with ink-leaking printer (it'll be replaced in the next week, there were many other computer problems and many other available printers, so it's pretty low priority)

I get a podium! Yesssss! It can't go higher than that-- the screw doesn't stick. That's okay, though, I don't need it much higher up than that.

Quotes by the door. It's a beginning of the year activity I'm doing, where they pick two quotes and tell me why they like them (it ties in with the essay we're doing in 10th grade).

Bulletin Board. Not quite done because one part has to be filled out by the kids, mostly. I'm having them put their names & titles of books they're reading (and they can put a small summary on it, if they want) on one part. The calender actually is somewhat filled now, mostly with 10th grade due dates. I'll put the 11th grade stuff up there on Tuesday or Wednesday

Front of the room.

Back of the room. The bookshelf in the corner of the counter is now filled with workbooks that are actually good enough to use! (Well, one of them is SOL prep books... I figured I should teach them some of the tricks of that tricky, slippery test in 10th AND 11th grade) The notebooks in the crates were bought by my amaaaazing co-teacher, Portia, for the two classes we teach together. I'm so glad I'm with her again this year (but I'll miss working with Sue, too!), we work together well and I like having her in the classroom.

Close up of what's on the wall between the counter and the shelves. It's a bunch of book suggestions! I have "If you liked Harry Potter, try...", "If you like nature, hiking, adventure or you watch 'Man vs. Wild', check these out...", "If you like 'Law & Order', 'CSI', etc, take a stab (har har) at..." and a few others, plus a general list of good books that didn't fit in. I'll be posting more that have novels, plays and stories we read throughout the year and suggestions for those that enjoyed them.

These three questions are what my 11th graders will try to answer throughout the year while we read and examine the literature and writing and whatnot. There is now blue bulletin board paper in the big space between the questions. Hopefully, this idea works out...

I looked through another English 11 teacher's class lists and I told her I was so jealous of the kids she got! She has some of my crazy (in a good way), creative, hilarious, sarcastic, good hearted kids and she's doing an amazing curriculum with them this year. I'm excited for her to have them and for them to have her. There were a few kids where I told her if she ever had problems with them, tell me and I'd try to talk some sense into 'em. Her and I are going to use some of the same materials--some of which are from This American Life and This I Believe (I had a feeling she was the other Ira Glass, David Sedaris, Public Radio fan... and I was soo right). Hopefully she has a great time with the kids of mine she has this year, otherwise I will be very disappointed in them. I, unfortunately, didn't get a lot of good, gushing comments about my incoming 10th graders, but I've mostly forgotten who they pointed out and what they said. It's good to know so that I don't have any wonderful surprises, but, at the same time, kids change quite a bit over the summer... hopefully. :)
My first day of school is pretty easy. It's an even day, which means I only have 4th and 8th bell. 4th is 11th grade, with quite a few kids I had last year. One of them, SP, is one that came into my class last year swearing she hated English with all her heart and that thinking about writing an essay made her sick to her stomach. She made a complete about-face throughout the year and I'm going to make sure to tell her once I see her how excited and happy I am that she's in my class again. In that class, I also have a lot of my 5th bell kids, so I'm excited to see them again. Let's hope it all goes smoothly...