snow days

Today is snow day number 5.

We had school yesterday, but woke up this morning with snow falling hard again. At first, 98% of the schools in the area tried to start with a 2 hour delay. About half an hour ago, they called saying it was cancelled and a majority of those 2 hour delay schools switched to cancel the day. The snow is supposed to stop, but not until after students would have to be transported to school. So far, I've had one Odd day and one Even day with my classes this semester.

Yesterday my classes surprised me by being a little more focused than I expected. We got through the intro work for both plays and actually ended up reading a good chunk of Act I of both Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. That was a load off of my back. Plus, as I look back on last year, this is about where I was already in the second week of Midsummer because there were interruptions and I did a lot more activities with the terminology and themes before we started reading. Once I realized that, I relaxed a bit. Another positive is that my English 9 kids already have a general idea about R&J, liked discussing the true/false statements and actually seemed excited and ready to read. Also: they seemed to understand it already (more than I expected, I mean-- it is Shakespeare, always a challenge for HS kids) and a few of them even got the humor in the first scene. As for Midsummer, that play introduces so many characters to begin with that the students were at first confused. Shakespeare throws out a lot of names and conflicts at the very start, so I can understand their confusion, especially after days of not having class. 7th period was pretty chatty and hyper, but less rowdy than I expected and it seemed like a few of them were catching on. That play gets easier as it goes on, so I'm still looking forward to teaching it for a second year. My English 10 kids are awesome and I think this play is definitely their style, if the snow could stop interrupting the schedule.

This weekend and the snow day on Monday led to me finishing my part of my application to grad school. That's a great feeling. All I'm waiting on is transcripts to be sent from WMU to VCU and two references (they've been held up by the snow days, but both say they can get it to me by the end of the week). I have everything I need to work on Romeo & Juliet, lesson plans and updating my classroom site, so I'll use this day to work on anything I would've worked on during my planning period. The only thing I don't have here that I had to do today was the failure letters teachers were responsible for sending out, but that can be done tomorrow.

Just remembered something

We have another day off, which means another day to make up. It's just as well cause it just started snowing like crazy here.

David and I were talking and I remembered a conversation I had with a student yesterday (my only day this week with students, and a day when I only have two classes)

Student: I have a question, not related to Shakespeare, but I was thinking...

Me: ....yes?

Student: They're getting rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell right? How many people do you think got dishonorable discharges because they were found out as being gay? Hundreds of thousands? Thousands?

Me: I don't know, thousands?

Student: How do you think they're going to feel when DADT is gone? And it's okay to be gay in the military?

Me: I'm not sure, probably pretty crappy.

Man, sometimes I am blown away by students and their minds.

an early spring break?

It snowed here last weekend. It started very early Saturday and didn't end all day. We got about a foot of snow, which is a lot for this area.

We weren't in school for three days. Three. days. They had us come in yesterday for a teacher work day, so I finished quite a bit of work. This morning was a two hour delay for students, but not for us, so even more time to work. Monday was just a teacher work day, so whatev, but the other two? I had stuff to do. Lots of stuff. The start of the second semester. At least I'm not like other teachers who missed benchmark testing, but still. It was nice to have days off, but also shifts everything around.

Also: they didn't build in any snow/weather days. February 15th was supposed to be a day off, but is now scheduled to make up a day we had off in November due to a power outage. Now we have two days to make up if they count the work day Wednesday as a normal day, three days if they don't. When will we make them up? Spring break? Memorial day? The end of the year?

Oh, did I mention that we'll be getting more snow this weekend? We might get out early for that. Who knows.

I would love it if I never saw another snow flake this winter. Or next year. Or the year after. I love(d) living in a state that didn't see more than a dusting of snow.

In happier news, today was the first day for Shakespeare and it went smoothly. Second period (English 9) had a great conversation to introduce Romeo & Juliet and 5th period (English 10) got through everything we had to and seemed intrigued by A Midsummer Night's Dream. A lot of the students mentioned that they were happy to be back in school, mostly because it beat being stuck in the house for days on end or facing driving in snow in the country. At lunch, a lot of my former students were reminiscing about how much they loved Midsummer last year, especially the parts that had Pyramus & Thisbe and the Mechanicals. That's good to hear! I was expecting today to be rough, full of rowdy kids and nonsense; instead, today turned out nicely. Whew!

goodbye January! goodbye first semester!

I kept meaning to get around to updating this, but it never happened. I've debated just giving up, but a lot of this is to remind me of the good times I have being a teacher, so I don't think that'll happen.

Highlights of the last week or so:

• While students were working on their exam review, someone asked me if I read Watership Down. This led to a conversation where we bonded over the book about bunnies and how sad and boring it was. We all didn't like it for various reasons. I was surprised that they still had kids in 6th grade read it. It's funny that most of the kids didn't really remember the title of it, but once you mentioned it was the book with the bunnies, they knew exactly which one it was and all had the same basic reaction: "Ohh, the book with the bunnies--I hated that book!"
• My grandma on my mom's side passed away--the same day we got the car fixed, of course--and a few students found out when they noticed I wasn't my normal self. A few stopped by the classroom to give me hugs and tried to cheer me up.
• We got a new car and have a possible buyer for the Jetta. Nice.
• I'm getting ready to teach A Midsummer Night's Dream again and Romeo & Juliet for the first time. I'm looking forward to both, but I am a little nervous. Anyone that's ever taught Shakespeare and had to deal with the difficulty of students who just don't get it would understand. I'm hoping that everyone comes through in one piece and actually understands the play in the end. Oh, and it would be great if the amount of whining about how Shakespeare writes was at a minimum, but that never happens.
• I've been carpooling with another teacher and it's been awesome!
• Last Monday, we had an event for freshmen that helped them study for their exams. They had snacks, lemonade, and hot chocolate as well as teachers wandering around to help them out if they were stuck. I didn't go to last year's, but I went this year. It was great seeing all those kids hanging out and studying. It's a good habit to introduce them to and I hope it sticks.
• It snowed again this weekend. I was supposed to be in school today for a teacher work day since the first semester ended on Friday, but that didn't happen. I'm not even sure if we'll have school tomorrow since the snow is sticking around and there's another storm possibly coming in tomorrow with more snow. What state do I live in again??

what just happened?

Nothing good ever comes from a week that starts off with an almost fight in your classroom. Never.

Tuesday, my car stopped working. The ignition switch stopped working, has to be replaced and won't be fixed until the middle of this week.

Wednesday was overwhelming because everyone had an opinion on my car, but none of them were the correct one. Shannon saved us by giving us a ride out to the school so we could try something. It didn't end up working, but it did reveal the real problem with the car.

Thursday was a faculty meeting with the addition of a budget of doom meeting. Salaries are getting cut, days off without pay and possible teacher cuts. Geez.

Friday was wrapped up the week with two girls quitting the step team, a long, awkward meeting at the end of a long day and no answer at the car place, which meant no car for the weekend.

In all negatives, there are positives:

+Carpooling with Jen will become more frequent, saving us both miles and gas. I also now have numbers of a few people who will help me get to school and back if I'm ever stranded again.

+Shannon helping us out so much! We couldn't have gotten through this week without her help!

+Lots of laughter, especially from 7th period. Nothing beats a kid waiting for everyone to get back to working, then drop a bomb like "So-n-so picks his zits and then eats them!" into the silence. I laughed so hard I almost cried. Good comedic timing, kid.

+Playing Rock Band and watching Doctor Who

+We are now more serious about looking for a new car. I'm really leaning towards the Ford Fusion or Focus, but it all depends on how it feels when I drive the car.

+I now know who to call if my car ever dies out in the country.

I would usually do the list of books I read this year, but I don't feel like it. I didn't get to 50, but David claims I read more pages than previous years. That may be true.

Yesterday I set up an Amazon wish list for my classroom. I've heard of other teachers doing this and with the school facing another $1.5 million to be cut, I figured it'd be a way I could help cover the supply cost and books for my classroom library (a success, btw). I put a link in the side bar and I'm putting on up on my digital gradebook and classroom website.

I finally uploaded pictures off of my camera AND a few videos from when we first got our Flip camera. They're up on my flickr account.

Daaaaang.

It's been a while since I've posted here. Uh, oops.

There's just been a lot of things to write about, but dealing with all of those things has been so tiring that I haen't wanted to sit down and write them.

I also don't really know what to say. Still trying to figure the purpose of this blog and what I should focus on posting here. Also: trying to figure out my purpose in being a teacher. It's probably just that time of year: when I start asking "Why did I choose to become a teacher again?" more & more. It'll pass, as always.

I had a great holiday break, though. We went to Michigan for a week, which was awesome, then came back to Richmond with Megan and had some fun down here. There was snow, cold winds, and games. Couldn't ask for a better winter break.

I'll post again soon, I swear it!

surprise day off!

My school is closed today due to having no power thanks to a massive amount of rain. It's a good thing I'm home, too, since the doors to our front porch really like to let in all the rain. I've gone through almost 5 towels now. Oy.

Anyway, I've hit one of the times in the year that I hate. It's the first time in the year that the kids stop being your great new students and you start seeing their bad side. It's also the first time I start to doubt myself as a teacher because grades start sliding downward. Kids start getting sick of school, start disappearing more, and I start getting more annoyed.

Thankfully this week hasn't been too bad. Usually by this time in the school year, my initial motivation has really disappeared and I get behind, causing me lots of stress. I've been pretty consistently productive, even today when I had no school! This is a good feeling.

My 10th graders are really something else. Their personalities are really starting to show up to class, in a good way. There were many times I laughed really hard this week at something they said or did (not at them, but with them, mind you...). I can't really remember exactly why or can't quite put any of those examples into words--they are more the kind of moments that make me wish I had a video camera on to capture. You-had-to-be-there kind of moments. Retelling them and trying to explain to you wouldn't be the same, unfortunately.

There is one thing that sticks out from this week. As you may know, every year I've taught, I've had at least one pregnant student or student parent. It's my curse. I joked with Math Teacher Next Door about how I should warn any female student I get next year. I have two rumored pregnancies this year, in the same class. I overheard one conversation (I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, they were right next to my desk) where the PG girl was answering questions of one of her classmates. Her classmate asked her "How does your BF feel? Does he want it?" PG says, "He did at first, but now... no. What does he care? His life doesn't have to change. It's my life that's the one that will change." I broke in and said "Ain't that the truth." She kind of laughed, which is the reaction I was hoping for. On the one hand, it's sad that her boyfriend isn't supportive. On the other, I was glad that she realized exactly what she was getting into, had no delusions about what would happen, and wasn't letting him slide by with that attitude. I hope everything goes smoothly for her, she is really sweet.