Time for Poetry

Maybe it's because I've been reading Romantic poetry for the past month and I find these guys (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats and Shelley) fascinating or maybe it's because I can relate to this poem. Or it could be that I like it because I understand it and its inspiration--he saw a storm approaching, watched it, and finally wrote again, marking the end of his grieving period for his 3 year old son that had recently died. No matter what, I like these two sections of this poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  

from "Ode to the West Wind"

IV.

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;

If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;

A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

 

The impulse of thy strength, only less free

Than thou, O uncontrollable! if even

I were as in my boyhood, and could be

 

The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,

As then, when to outstrip thy skyey speed

Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven

 

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

 

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

 

V. 

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is;

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

 

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,

Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,

My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

 

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse,

 

Scatter, as from an extinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unwakened earth

 

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

Friday, LOTF, and kid games

Some weeks drag on. And on and on. That was last week. I took this picture last week trying to capture how much I hate progress reports, grading, and long weeks. I was so tired all week, I had a ton of stuff to get ready for progress reports and I had lunch duty (ughhh). By Friday, I didn't want anything to do with school. 

This week was better. Even though I had the GRE on Saturday looming over me the whole week, it went okay. We're almost done with Lord of the Flies in the 10th grade and a few more kids are getting into it. My seniors have turned in some research rough drafts and we're almost done with the literature part of the course. Everything is wrapping up nicely. I ended up ahead of myself and not behind, for once. It felt strange. I kept feeling unproductive. It'll pass with the upcoming weeks due to SOLs, papers, projects, and exams. I'm looking forward to when the seniors leave so I can finally make the room more of my own and start setting up for next year. Speaking of next year, I told my administrators and department chair that I'd be willing to help with a literary magazine, if they would like one started up again. I think it'd be really great for the school. Hopefully, if I get it, it'll be fun to do and not a huge chore. Ha.

Since I've had this whole quarter to teach Lord of the Flies, I've been able to do more with it, even though we're reading it in class (due to lack of books available for all Eng 10 classes).

I had them draw pictures:

I've had them do small writing assignments and journals on just about every aspect of the book, from why we like stories involving characters on the island to writing letters to the characters giving them advice to why Simon is so weird. They've done pretty well on it all.

So I threw them a challenge. I made a twitter for Simon (http://twitter.com/thebeastwthin), two of the three classes got to vote on who they wanted to do: Jack (http://twitter.com/CSharpHero), Piggy (http://twitter.com/notpiggy), or Ralph (http://twitter.com/want2BRescued). They had to come up with the suggestions and so far, they've done pretty well. What's  on the twitters are a combination of their suggestions, since a lot of them suggested similar ideas. We haven't finished them since we haven't finished the novel. They seemed to enjoy it and some of the suggestions made me laugh. 

Another thing I did with my 5th period, since they meet every day and thus get farther ahead quicker, was have a funeral for Simon. Yesterday we read the chapter where Simon is killed, so today I had them get into groups and write poems or paragraphs eulogizing him. They did a great job, I was really surprised! Some of them took on the voice of a character from the book (mostly Jack, since it's easier to write from his POV), but I had two great poems. 

After we did that, we had extra time, so I let them have free time. It was a plus for me since it allowed me to grade a little more (I was trying to grade as much as possible so I wouldn't have to worry about that while taking the GRE tomorrow). 

My 5th period is definitely one of my best classes. They're creative, they're productive, they're absolutely hilarious and they get along the best out of all of the classes, probably due to them meeting every day. During free time, I asked them to be quiet, so Kaitlyn decided to teach her friends a game she learned before. It was so strange and distracting that everyone in the class started watching them. Finally, I asked them to either stop what they were doing in 2 minutes (giving them time for one last game) or to include everyone. They were totally cool with that (I love them for that! In my other classes, they'd probably just give up their game) and decided to sit on the floor and teach others:

They changed the game after a few tries of the normal version and started trying to make weird faces or weird voices when it was their turn. When Garrett got to start it, he decided to do something a little different...

am I cursed?!

I keep meaning to sit down and write something meaningful. Or share some stories. Or something... else. It never happens. I get all these ideas, then I go home and read, laze about, play silly games, watch movies... you know. Lazy stuff.

I will be so glad when I'm done taking the GRE on Saturday. 

Also, I will be glad when I'm done teaching seniors. They're great kids, but good night, do they complain and whine a lot! I've never taught seniors before, so I don't know if it's the grade or just them. I like them as people, but I will be glad when I am no longer their teacher! That reminds me, I need to get started on their notes...

Anywho. The title of this post is about how every year I must, without fail, have at least one pregnancy in one class.

First year: two girls in the same class.

Second year: three girls, all in Eng 11, two different classes.

I thought I could avoid it this year, but I was so wrong! Oh, how wrong I was! 

O, God! O, mighty forces! why do you curse me so? Must I, every year, without fail, have a pregnant girl in my class?! 

There's nothing wrong with them. The problem is with the other students. You know, the ones who like to talk. I didn't have a problem before, mostly because most of them knew someone before like that. But here... at New School... oh my. 

When I told David I had a pregnant student, he asked "What is their policy on those cases?" I said, "point and laugh seems to work...?". I feel for this girl. I know her and her boyfriend/fiance pretty well since I have them both in two different Eng 10 classes. She's going through this in an environment that is so small that everyone knows everything, but unfortunately is not forgiving to those who are outsiders and those who do not do what they're supposed to do... Plus, the girl has been cursed with the most horrible morning sickness someone can have, has been hospitalized a few times due to that sickness, and has been told by her doctor that she will deliver way too early due to age and the placement/structure of her uterus. Could this be any more shitty for her? I mean, really.

too much drama

This weekend I swear I'll write something in here. Something interesting like how some of my students are magnets for drama. I'll also include how some of that drama has leaked into my classroom and involved me way too much in a few different ways. Exciting, new adventures in teaching! 

I keep promising myself I'll get better at this, but I never really know what to put. I'm not sure if I should put stories, updates on what I'm doing, more teaching or more personal, etc. etc.

I haven't had that much time to figure that out, either. Spring break was last week and my parents were here. I dragged them all around Richmond and then took them to D.C. Doing all of that meant I didn't get a lot of school work done, so this week's planning time has been mostly dedicated to grading persuasive essays. I haven't stayed after school much this week because of meetings, appointments, tornado watches or beautiful spring weather. Coming back from spring break is always difficult, but this first week flew by. I'm not really stressed about the papers because I only have about 10-14 left (out of ~80!). After those papers, I have to catch up on the little bit of grading I've accumulated from this week already. I can handle it though. Beyond family visits and grading, my GRE test date is coming up in 2 weeks, so I've been preparing for that. 

It's the time of year where I'm looking forward to summer and next year. I've got a notebook that I've started writing ideas down in, and I hope to get some work done over the summer in terms of a sketch of the year's pacing. I say that every year and it barely happens, but I'm hoping to actually do it this year to prevent more work for myself next year! 

This summer will hopefully be filled with travel and new places. There's no moving and no internships, we both have jobs, so why not? So far, we have a birthday trip (for me), my trip out west, my possible trip to Michigan (still figuring that out) and a possible camping trip out to the western border of VA. I'm not making a list (even a mental one) of things I want to do this summer because I always end up only doing a few things. This summer, I'm just going where it takes me. Hopefully, it'll be fun, interesting, relaxing, adventurous and amazing! ha!

surprise!observation

Since I'm new at my school, I have to be observed. This year, I've already had two finished, and I knew there were two more coming up. About two weeks ago, I had a lot of school-related nightmares. In those nightmares, not only would the class be completely bonkers, but my AP would walk in, ready to observe me in action. 

Last week he actually did walk in. He didn't let me know before that he was planning on it. I'm okay with observation, but I really dislike surprise ones. I ended up surprising myself though because I wasn't half as nervous as I used to be. It was a great day for him to be there, though, since I was making my seniors draw pictures as they listened to "Kubla Khan", then we started reading Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 

This week he put the observation report in my mailbox and discussed it with me. He had no recommendations for improvement, I scored above average on 4 different categories (proficient on the rest, which is the norm and where I should be), and he told me two things that made me embarrassed and speechless, but really happy: they are really looking forward to having me back next year and my classroom environment (where students feel safe enough to share when called on) is exactly what they're looking for.  

Why is this so awesome?

If you knew me during my student teaching, you might already know. It's mostly because of that whole experience that I'm always so happy to hear positive things about what they observed in my class. I told my former department chair about this, but that internship about killed any chances I had at a career. I was told by two people who decided my fate as a teacher that I would never make it, I would never be respected and I would never amount to much as a teacher, basically. One of them said I didn't have the voice for teaching, that I was too soft spoken (my students would probably laugh at that). Basically, they didn't think I had what it took.

Since I've started teaching, I have never once had a negative observation. In my first year of teaching, I had suggestions, but they always came with "It took me years to get the hang of that, so that's something that will come in time." I don't want to brag because I don't want anyone to think I believe I'm perfect at my job (I am definitely not even close!). But what they said really stuck with me and I've always wanted to send all of my observations, my letters of recommendation, and all of my letters and emails from students to those two people that never believed in me with a big "IN YOUR FACE!", "How you like me now?" or something equally ridiculous on it.

one more

I'm thinking of changing the title of this thing. Any ideas?

did he just say "pshew pshew"?

Uhh, it's been a while. 

It's been one of those times were I've had a lot happen that I could talk about, I've been busy (mostly with school), but then again, when I take a step back from it all, I realize that wow--that is really boring. Who wants to hear about how much grading I've had to do? About me getting ahead in planning? Those of you that are teachers understand and live (or lived) it every day, those of you that aren't teachers probably don't really need to know that (or want to know that), you just want the stories, right? :) It's okay, I understand.

Okay, so. Stories. 

• Today I had two boys jump up and start doing the "Jump On It" dance. I don't know if there's a name for it, but they did it perfectly in sync with each other and the song, the kids were going crazy for it. Then they sat down and continued their work like nothing happened.
  
• My 5th period is the best with listening to music and not being afraid to sing along and/or dance. Today was Michael Jackson radio station day on Pandora. There were a few kids dancing to "Thriller" and other classics.
  
• I have one student, JM, who cracks me up constantly. He'll ask me a question, I'll respond, and he'll go "THAT'S why I love you!" (in a very appropriate student-teacher manner)
• Had to give my first serious talking to to a girl who barely does anything in class. She had a 30%. Passing is 69.5%. Last Friday was the end of the 3rd nine weeks and she asks me on Tuesday, "How can I pass? I want to pass." On Friday, she had brought herself up to a 66% by finally coughing up some assignments she had partially completed and finally passing a test. She asks me, "Can you just give me the 3%?" and I snapped. Seriously. I didn't yell, but I was the most serious I've been all year in talking to a student.
• I have one kid that is seriously losing it. He's a great kid, but he's going through some troubles. It's not cool. When it's all over with, I might be able to write more about it.
• Most of my study hall kids have seen Kevin Hart's "I'm a Grown Little Man". It is hilarious and is now quoted all the time throughout their time in my classroom. Seriously, look this dude up, especially if you are a teacher and have ever witnessed a girl fight.

Enough teaching stories. You want to know about the non-teaching me, right? 

...right?

• Only a few more days until spring break! I'm looking forward to seeing my parents! When it's not 90 degrees outside! And in Richmond instead of Williamsburg! AHH!
  
• Spring break also means being able to read my own books!
• David quit smoking!
• The weather is finally staying consistently warm! This means two things: Planting and riding. We planted a few different things outside and I hope they all survive. It's been a while since I've planted/grown any sort of garden, so this is kind of experimental. As for riding, I'm getting new wheels for my Varsity so I can actually ride it. I need to fix up my moped soon so I can start riding that again, too. 
• We are going to see Mates of State tomorrow night! We were supposed to go see Matt & Kim on Friday night, but it was postponed/canceled. Bummer.
• I am going to San Francisco and Eugene this summer! I'm excited, but I kinda hate planning things so far in advance cause then I'm all excited NOW to go, so I want to go NOW instead of months from now, you know what I mean? But anyway, I'm excited to see friends, meet new additions to their lives, to see Oregon for the first time, and to see SF! It's nice to have a vacation to look forward to during the long stretch of summer. 
• I registered for the GRE. I'm still not sure what I want to do though.
• I've been listening to some new music and realized this always seems to happen during the spring. Strange.

Wow. That was more than I planned to write when I remembered I had a blog. Anyway, it's almost time for Lost. I actually stay awake during most Lost episodes now since it's finally gone back to being interesting enough to keep up with.

If you feel up to it, leave me some suggestions:

1. Something funny I should watch/listen to

2. A book to read

3. A band to listen to

4. Something to take a picture of

5. Have you read Lord of the Flies before? If so, suggest some activities that would be fun for my 10th graders (I have from April 20th to the beginning of June to teach the novel. I've got time.)