Covered

My room is filled to the brim with posters and projects. There are Macbeth projects and then there is 2 full walls of Black history month projects. The kids did a great job on them. There are pictures up on my flickr, you should check them out. A lot of the students have commented that they really like the room this way, that it gives it character. I agree with them.
I'm hoping that next year, my room will look better as a whole, seeing as how I'll A) be hired before school starts, and B) have more time, since I won't be teaching a whole new curriculum and course. Whew.
I've been trying really hard to get ahead. Last week, I kinda slacked off, there were after school meetings, and just not enough time, so everything caught up with me and I almost got behind again. This week, I was determined to remedy that.Monday and Tuesday I was at school until 5PM (Monday I had students with me, though), yesterday I left at 4:40, and today I finally left at 4:10. I hope tomorrow to be able to leave between 3:30 and 4 feeling like I've accomplished something. I've never stayed this late before.
Coming up are Midsummer projects, new plays, the Romantic era, research papers and novels. Wow.

By the way, ever checked out wordle.net?
For example, my 12th graders read "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" by Mary Wollstonecraft, and will read Defoe's essay on the education of women tomorrow. Both on similar topics but different at the same time. I was playing around with wordle.net, and put in both pieces. We'll do an activity tomorrow where they have to guess which one is which based on the frequent words.

lemme brag a sec...

My seniors have finally finished Macbeth, which is a joy for all of us involved. It took way too long to get through, due to the timing: Start before winter break, go through semester change, etc. Seriously awkward timing for trying to teach a play. But it's all done! Tests are finished, projects and essays are done and we move on to the time period of 1660-1800. That's right-- trying to teach almost 200 years of literature before moving on to the Romantic period. There is a plus though: language is more modern. No more whining about "Why isn't this in English?!"
We started off by reading Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal". If you haven't read this, do it. It's hilarious. Read Gulliver's Travels, too, while you're at it. We've talked about satire throughout the year, it seems, so now was a good time to bring it up again and finally assign a writing assignment for the whole class (others that could've been satirical were optional, they could also be honest/serious) that involved satire. So, the students had to write their own "modest" proposal. Let me tell you, this was genius. There have only been a few times I've enjoyed reading every writing assignment, and this is one of those times. Some of these are absolutely hilarious! I'm very proud of my seniors right now, which is great since the last few weeks, they've been infuriatingly lazy and whiny.
Also, my 10th graders are actually enjoying A Midsummer Night's Dream, especially Act III (also my favorite act). A few of them are understanding it without me translating Shakespearean English into more modern English (!!!). Plus, they liked the Royal Shakespeare Company's version of it (so far) when I showed them Acts I and II. I'm going to show them the version made a few years ago when we're all done with the play.
I've decided on the second play we'll read in that class, too: The Glass Menagerie. I figured it worked because of family/parent issues. I don't want to do Julius Caesar, even though it'd be really easy for me to teach. No need to do 2 Shakespeare plays, some of those kids would probably try and poison my coffee. Another 10th grade teacher suggested that I not do Antigone because the version we have is a "bad" one and causing her a lot of trouble. The third other choice we have is one I'm not even remotely into and couldn't tell you the title of it to save my life. The one I chose seems to be modern enough and has a few things I could connect to Midsummer, so it'll work just fine.

been one of those weeks...

This week has had amazing days and incredibly irritating days. Today, the amount of grading I have to do, whining I had to listen to about projects and essays and tests, and the amount I feel I haven't accomplished really weighed heavy on me. I had a few moments where I asked myself, "Really? I wanted to be a teacher?". I put so much pressure on myself to accomplish so much and do so much, and always feel like I could do more, that it ends up with days like this. Today, I had to completely reorganize everything on my desk and accomplish small tasks to stop freaking out during my plan period at the end of the day. It worked, though. I'm feeling a lot better and I'm hanging in there-- especially because this weekend is a three day weekend. Phew. Stuff will get done, and I know that, I just allowed myself to get overwhelmed and to give in to all the pressure I put on myself to do a good job.

One thing I've been thinking a lot about this week is the difference between urban and rural schools. Some of the problems and irritations are the same, which makes sense. No matter what, you are teaching teenagers. But there are some differences. I really miss teaching in an more urban school. I don't really know why, and I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it comes down to that that environment is what I'm used to, it's what I know, it's what I love, and the rural school just can't quite make it to that level. I have a real love/hate relationship with the rural school I teach at. Some things are great, other things about it are completely mind-boggling and infuriating. Maybe that will change, but as of right now, I don't see that happening.