exciting week!

Third week of school is usually when the honeymoon period ends. On Tuesday and Wednesday, there were two different fights in the same area of the school. Both fights involved girls. The first involved one of my former students (she found out another girl was pregnant with her boyfriend's baby! Draaaamaaaa!) and the second involved a 'clan' of girls (all related), some of whom I taught last year. They jumped a new girl and tore out her hair! Poor girl was bleeding all over the place & her hair was all over the floor, I was told. Yep, honeymoon period over.
Students got a little more wild this week, but I still like them. I met quite a few parents on Wednesday night for our first semester Back to School night. They were all very nice & a majority of them brought their students with them!
All my classes took tests on Tuesday. For English 9 & 10, it was their first. They all did pretty great! I think out of all my students, only 3 failed (basically one per class), 5 got D's or C's, and the rest got high B's or A's! Some even got above 100 due to study guide extra credit or completing ALL of the short answer options. I am impressed! I've got a great group of kids this semester!
My student teacher (yes, MY student teacher--what? how?) had her first full day with my classes on Thursday. She came in for Back to School night and did a wonderful job of introducing herself. My English 9 students and student involvement worker met her last Friday when she was first visiting the school. She's not a 'real' student teacher just yet. This semester she will be coming in only on Thursdays and has little tasks that she must complete every week for the two classes she's taking. Next semester, she will be teaching for 10 weeks (yikes! Will I be able to give up my control of my classroom for that long?). She seems very nice, but nervous and/or uncomfortable. It's cool, though, cause I was pretty much the same way during my pre-internship.
The students don't really like her so far. My English 9 students call her the 'awkward lady'. My English 10 students were not pleased that she shh'd them when she was here (neither was I, to be honest. That's my job. haha!) and constantly told one of them to be quiet. My English 11 students didn't take much notice of her. All of them were disturbed that she never laughed or showed any emotion. Oh, and they all took notice of her make-up and a shoulder twitch she had going on (teenagers are so observant of the things you probably do NOT want them to notice at all). My 9th graders were planning on just staring at her next Thursday because they claimed that she just stared at them the whole time. I talked them out of that and explained to them what I explained to all of my classes who asked about her: she's probably just nervous and will loosen up as she becomes more comfortable in the classroom. Either that or she thinks we're all nutjobs. And that's okay.
At first, I was nervous about what she would say about me. Then I realized a few things.

1. She has never taught before. If she has, it definitely wasn't at a high school level.
2. My administrators and department chair know how I am, how I teach, how other teachers/students/parents feel about me. Their opinions matter more than hers because they determine if I have a contract.
3. Regardless of what she says, I will continue to teach the way that works for me. If she disagrees with it, that's fine since we are obviously different types of people.
4. My students are successful and retain a lot of the information I need them to. To me, this shows that I'm doing at least one thing right. :)
5. She's never taught before. Comparing myself to who I was when I was her age and place in my career to now shows how much you change when you actually have to teach.

Bless her heart, though, I do not envy her. I would not relive my pre-intership, student teaching or first year of teaching for any amount of money. The pure terror, panic and anxiety from those two years probably took at least a year off of my life. I no longer wake up with a nervous stomach, questioning why I didn't choose a career that didn't involve getting up in front of 20-30 teenagers and trying to teach them something. I am so glad that I'm in year five of my career, comfortable in front of my students, knowledgable about what I have to teach and learning more every year about becoming a better educator. By the way, I noticed that I wasn't nervous at all during Back to School night. My greatest weakness used to be addressing a whole classroom full of parents because I would get so nervous that I shut down, but now it barely phases me! Loving it!

One last note about this week: I found out one of my current (and technically former, she was in an English 10 class of mine two years ago) students is pregnant. Every year, there has to be one... I should really start warning my female students at the beginning of the year...

first week done, only... a lot more to go.

Have I ever said that pre-service week is my favorite? It is. During the school year, the faculty never seems to have as much time together to just hang out and discuss what we do/how we teach as we do during pre-service week. I love it because I remember why I love what I do, I love sharing ideas with other teachers and I love seeing everyone else before the stress of the school year and SOLs sets in.

Since we switched to the 4x4 block schedule, I only have three classes.
Those three classes are:
First block: English 9. 25 kids. All awesome & sweet. I love freshmen!
Second block: English 11. 25 kids. I knew most of them. Three are seniors trying to graduate (one showed up late last year, one had medical issues, and one got majorly screwed over by a long-term sub last year). I was a little worried about how this class would interact, but so far, it's been better than expected. We finished reading the first act of The Crucible already and actually had some fun getting through it. Even though this class will probably be my rowdiest of this semester, I have a few things on my side: the two SOLs (the writing one is in October! OCTOBER!! One month from now! AHH!) for this year, maturity, and football season (most of the boys in the class are on the varsity football team, so they have to behave in order to play). Also, most of these kids have a very good sense of humor and are very bright, so this has the potential to be my rowdiest, yet most fun class. Thank god it's during the start of my day, though. I don't think I could teach this class at the end of the day.
Third block: Study hall/planning. Our study hall is paired with AP classes that meet every other day. We have about 5-7 students that are in study hall every day, then the rest of the 28 total students enrolled come to us every other day. Math Teacher Next Door & I share this study hall duty in order to give us both a break as this is our only planning period for the day. So far, we've decided on a 2 day on, 2 day off schedule. The kids are nice, I taught most of them in the last two years.
Fourth block: English 10. 26 kids. I knew a few of them and a few of them coming in were very excited to be in my class---that's a nice feeling. A few of the kids I have this this class that I taught last year said they missed me over the summer! How sweet, right?? So far, this has been my best behaved class I've EVER had at the end of the day. They are smart, chatty, and creative. We already finished one short story--the longest one we reading English 10--and they actually got into it! That was great! This class has great potential.

So far, I love all my classes, but I realize that we are in the "honeymoon" period that happens at the beginning of every year (or semester). We'll see how things change over the next month. I hope they don't change much because I really like all of my students and classes so far. I'm also already pretty used to the 4x4 schedule and seeing the same students every day. It was a lot easier to learn their names & quicker to grade their stuff and makes copies since I have a LOT less students now than I ever had before. I hope next week is as good as this week was!

favorite first lines

I finally got a chance to go to one of my favorite places ever: the library. Between summer school, family visits and classes, I never got a chance to go & check out a few books I've been meaning to read. Plus, I already had a stack of four books that I already own to finish reading and I bought the six Scott Pilgrim graphic novels to read before the movie (and to possibly add to the classroom library).

For some reason, going to the library got me thinking about the first lines of a book. Then I thought about my favorite first lines of books I've read.
Here are a few that I love. What are yours?

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men." -Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (I really hope I get to teach this novel again some day)

"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love" -Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Beundia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." -One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." -The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (I also hope that one day I'll be able to teach this again.)

Do you have any favorite first lines? Am I the only one that is slightly obsessed with the first lines of books? I mean, if they're really good, doesn't that just make the rest of the book better?

By the way, I went into the library to choose only two books, but ended up getting more than that. Typical. What I checked out: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (they FINALLY had it!), All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy and The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.

the fifth year

"Update your blog" has been on my to do list since the last time I posted. There wasn't a whole lot that I had to say, so it never felt that important or urgent to do.

Let's talk about summer school. It was better than I expected. I had ten students: one for English 10, two for English 11 and the rest were for English 9. All the kids were awesome. Two of them were former students of mine. The English 9 kids were pretty awesome. I also got compliments from two of the parents/grandparents involved. If I was to do summer school again, I would prefer not to teach three sections in one classroom. It's not that it was difficult, it just felt like the kids were being cheated out of a full summer school education. I had to cut a few ideas and assignments I had because there was no way I could do them with three different levels in one class. It went more smoothly than I expected, though, and I made enough money in the month of July (summer school only went from July 1-29) to cover my summer class tuition and buy a new laptop. Teaching summer school also made one of my class projects--a pretend observation as an administrator--easier to complete. The major bummer of teaching summer school was that  I missed the opportunity to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. I got to see them around my birthday in June, at least, but it would've been nice to surprise him on his birthday.

My grad program is off to a good start. Two classes down and... a few more to go. I know for a fact I (barely) earned an A in my School & Community Relations class. It was so difficult to do! She kept taking one or two points off of papers that she didn't really explain in the first place (so frustrating), and then wouldn't really explain why she took off points. I only got full credit on one paper, and that's only because it was the second of its kind, so I knew exactly what she was looking for (plus, it was on an issue I really cared about). The other class I took this summer had a professor that was a little absent, so I can only assume I (and the group I worked with on 3 of the 4 assignments) got an A. I know that one of our projects he really loved, and I'm going to assume I did okay on the others? If not, I definitely got a B. Either way, I'm happy. I was really intimidated and not really into these two classes at the beginning, but ended up pretty happy with what I did.

I finally started working (seriously working. as in: actually writing stuff down instead of just thinking) on thinking about new things I want to do this new school year. Did you realize it's the fifth year I've taught? I mean, that's kind of crazy. I realized the other day that I don't feel nervous at all about this year. First, every year has brought less anxiety and nerves. Second, this is my third year at this school, so I'm pretty comfortable in the school. I have a good group of teacher buddies in the school, an awesome carpool buddy and I know most of the students. This is a good feeling. Third, I'M NOT TEACHING A NEW PREP THIS YEAR! YES!! This is probably the best feeling. Every year, I've had a new grade to learn. This will be the 5th time I've taught English 10 and the second time for English 9 and 11. I'm glad the English 11 textbook we offer isn't much different from the one I used before, that will make it much easier. I feel pretty good about my English 9 course, I think I did pretty great (better than I expected, that's for sure) the first time around, so the second (and third? since we'll have two semesters? haha) will be even better.

The only change I'm slightly worried about is changing to the 4x4 schedule. It shouldn't be too bad, though, because we already teach on a block schedule and I taught an every-day schedule for summer school (and that was a 4 hour class! so much more time!). The first semester will probably be rough, but it'll work. I've got three preps, a new co-teacher, and a new class of freshmen (who I've heard are pretty wild). The mantra I'll probably be repeating to myself throughout that first semester will probably be "take it day by day". I'm actually not too worried and not planning too much since I'm not quite sure how this all is gonna go down--just like everyone else in the school. (Plus, I'll actually have a planning period EVERY DAY! No more four-class-in-a-row days!) It should all work out by the second semester (well, hopefully earlier than that, but the second semester should be when everyone fully adjusts and knows what to expect).

If you are a teacher (or really good at lying)

One of the perks of being a teacher is the conversations you have with people you just met about what's it like to be a teacher and their thoughts about teaching/schools AND the discounts those people sometimes give you. It's a nice perk, especially if those people really appreciate all the hard work you do.
This summer, the school let us keep our ID badges so we could save money buying from certain businesses that will give discounts with proof of school employment. That was very nice of them to do, but I've found that just mentioning the fact that you're a teacher will sometimes get you freebies, extras, and discounts. For example: I had to go get the first oil change for our new car, typed in my information and the mechanic mentioned that I type really fast. I replied that I was a teacher, so I type a lot throughout the day. We then had a 5 minute discussion where he told me that teachers had the most difficult and most important job in the world and he knew this because he was originally from Liberia and saw how much they did there and here. He said he was a product of the Peace Corps and missionaries there, who taught him the importance of teachers. It was actually one of my most interesting conversations with someone about teaching. Then he gave me $15 in coupons to use. Awesome, right?
I don't usually drop the fact that I'm a teacher into conversation, but when I have, it's usually been a positive experience. I once got a free gallon of sweet tea as well as a percentage off of the cost of food from Hardee's when I was celebrating with my students who passed their English 11 SOLs. Kazoo Books in Kalamazoo has usually given me anywhere from 10-20% off when I buy books that are going to be used in my classroom. Office Max has one of the best programs for teachers where you earn rewards based off of the amount you spend. A lot of people will go out of their way to help you, either through discounts or freebies or helping you find the best quality for the least amount of money. I love when these things happen because it helps me feel supported as a teacher and recognized for doing such a demanding job.

In other news:

• Summer school is happening (sort of?). Nine students signed up for English courses, so I guess they're letting that happen with one less than the requirement for a class. Here's the challenge: it will be three different levels in one class. English 9=4, English 10=3, English 11=2. English 9 and 10 are pretty easy to combine. English 11? Not so much. At least it'll prepare me for teaching English 11 at this new school the first semester (they use a different textbook than the one at GHS, where I taught Eng 11 before). It'll be interesting and enough money to pay my tuition to VCU for two semesters.
• My parents just came for a visit and Virginia gave them a wonderful gift: hot, dry days with temperatures up to 100° and above! I think they had a nice time anyway.
• David's parents are heading down this week and it's still hot out, so they get to enjoy it, too!
• My classes this summer are going along. I'm not procrastinating and turning everything in on time. My group in one of the classes presenting a pretty awesome logic model that we barely have to revise for the second presentation. Also: I was barely nervous presenting. Such a difference from before I taught full time. 
• I'm looking for good book suggestions to read the rest of the summer. Please suggest some!

last day

Today was the last day I had to report to school.

Here's a whole bunch of stuff in a list because I'm lazy and do not want to put it in paragraphs right now:

• I sold my moped this week.. difficult. but at the same time, I know the guy we sold it to was SO EXCITED for it and LOVED it the moment he saw it, so I have faith that he will love it as much as I did.
• I'm 27? Really? Already? Wow.
• Next year will be my 5th year teaching! FIVE! How? What? Who? Feels like just yesterday...
• Two weeks in our new place and I LOVE IT. LOVE!
• My parents will be here on Tuesday!!
• This school year was better than I could have expected
• The last two days of school were way too dramatic.
• I still don't know if I'm in the right grad program
• I got a beautiful painted martini glass from a parent (who thanked me in the main office for the note I wrote her daughter) and student as a birthday gift! it was so sweet!
• I also received two emails from parents thanking me for a wonderful job and writing my nice end of the year notes to my students. That's the first time that happened! It was really nice!
• my students wrote so many nice notes on my board and all yelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY at me at various times on Wednesday
• Got an email from one of the first students I ever taught at GHS (seriously, he was in my first class as a teacher). He told me about his first year at ODU (did pretty well) and how he was really getting into literature (YAY!). I love that I get yearly/semester updates from my former students!
• I loved teaching 9th graders this year! LOVED!
• I am teaching 9, 10 and 11 next year. I'm excited to see a lot of my students from this year again next year. Seriously! I loved them!
• I love my department and the teachers in them. They are amazing.
• I might have a student teacher next year.
• Had to say goodbye to a really amazing special ed teacher who was laid off. As the principal talked about how much they appreciated her, I almost cried along with 3/4 of the faculty present. This woman was absolutely amazing but unfortunately was the last one hired, therefore, laid off due to budget problems. Heartbreaking.
• Have I told you I love living in Richmond? 'Cause I do. It's beautiful.
• I might have to do summer school this summer, but it's uncertain right now. Pros of doing summer school: Money to pay for my summer classes and a new laptop. Pros of NOT doing summer school: Free time, more time to visit friends & family, etc. Either way, I win.

Not sure what this summer will bring and I'm not sure what the first semester of school will bring (we're switching from an every-other-day block schedule to a 4x4 schedule). All I know is that I am determined to ace my two summer classes and return next year ready to take on the 4x4 schedule change. The first semester will be rough, but I know that I have other teachers to rely on to help as well as a principal who is very supportive and understanding. No matter what, my fifth year of teaching will be exciting! :)

What I've been up to

Teaching:

English 10 goes on as usual. This is my fourth year teaching it, so it just... goes. My only hope is that in the next year or two, I can convince the school to let me buy a class set of The Catcher in the Rye and move Lord of the Flies to English 9 because I really miss teaching Catcher and definitely think LOTF is way too easy for English 10 (I read it in 8th grade, most of them could easily get it in 8th or 9th). We're heading into the last essay of the year, same topic as last year (quite a few kids enjoy it): Has the world gotten better, worse or stayed the same since the Second World War? They enjoy debating it and thinking about it, which means: easy to write about! Oh! I almost forgot: I made them write persuasive letters and send them--DEFINITELY a good idea! The writing in those letters was definitely an improvement over other essays.

English 9, on the other hand, was the last grade I had not taught between 7th and 12th, so English 9 has been full of work. My classes were slightly different than the other 9s and my style different from the other teachers, so even though I used some of their materials, I mostly made my own. We successfully got through Romeo & Juliet, with one class making their own version of it (it turned out awesome). We are now through The Odyssey because the textbook we use cut the ever-loving crap out of it. They read about a quarter of the real thing, which makes it quick and easy to get through. We've really been focusing on the lessons children were supposed to learn from the epic and comparing it to modern American society (that's actually the topic of their last essay of the year). Two of our three 9th grade classes (the two that did not make their own R&J) are making puppet shows for The Odyssey. They're all split up into groups of 2 or 3, writing their own script, and making their own puppets. We're going to film it and put it together for each class. They were actually pretty into the whole idea. Kids in our 2nd period class kept asking if one group could have a Sassy Gay Friend for Odysseus or Penelope, hah!

Did I say yet that I love teaching English 9? Cause I do.

Remember when I was afraid of teaching 9th grade? I ended up really liking it.

Oh, and remember how I used to play Apples to Apples with students? We played that twice as a WHOLE CLASS. I'm talking 20 people playing in a huge circle. They did GREAT! I also introduced my two English 10 classes to Catch Phrase and they became kind of obsessed with it. There was a lot of screaming, stomping and laughter involved in those games. They got into it way more than I expected!

Altogether, I really enjoyed my group of students this year. So many of them were not afraid to get into the literature, get nerdy/geeky, and be enthusiastic and so many of them have a similar sense of humor, it was a really good year. I love having students who aren't afraid to react to the reading out loud, like one of my gentlemen the other day who kept saying, "Ooh! This is getting SO GOOD! I can't STAND IT! What's gonna happen? Is he gonna kill them? I would KILL THOSE DUDES for trying to touch my wife!!" while we were reading The Odyssey, during the part when Odysseus was disguised as a beggar and planning to kill Penelope's suitors. I only had one class that was a bit iffy--there were a lot of students with low self-esteem/negative attitudes, so it was very difficult to get them to open up. (It was even difficult to get them to play a game with each other! They mostly just wanted to sit there, be quiet and make fun of each other if other people were wrong. There were many times were it would be DEAD quiet in the classroom as if they were taking a test, but they'd just be sitting there... possibly writing, possibly doing nothing. It was... awkward. And the quietest class I've ever taught.)

Even though I love all my classes and students, I'm still happy that the end of the year is coming up. I'm starting to finish up all the end-of-year notes I usually do, which makes it a reality that the end of school is SO CLOSE! I only get a few weeks off before I do summer school (if there are enough students that sign up for it).

Other school news: Our school is switching in 4x4 next year. Should be interesting. Pros: Only 3 classes of students instead of 5, I'm already used to 90 minute classes, more electives. Cons: It's different--teaching every day vs. every other day. That's really the only change I'm worried about, but it won't be too bad--no matter what I teach next year, I've already taught it. I now have materials for 9-12 grade, so I told my department chair to schedule me wherever I was needed.

Literary magazine:

Our literary magazine finally came together and was printed! It ended up being 30 pages long with 3 pages of color and my principal herself stepped forward to cover the cost! It was so exciting! We printed 30 copies (we weren't sure how many people would want one) and have sold 16 so far. This is a very good thing because we need to pay back our loan. :) Next year, it will be even better! Now that it's out, a lot of new kids have become interested in submitting and/or being involved next year, which is about what I expected to happen.

Personal:

David and I are moving! We're just moving a few blocks south of where we live now, into a nicer, slightly larger apartment and closer to a few things, but still in the quieter part of the neighborhood. I'm really excited to move into a nicer apartment, I just hope it ends up being as nice as it looked!

I was also accepted into VCU's Administration & Supervision grad program. I'm starting two classes next week for the summer, then another class & pre-internship class in the fall. I'm pretty excited to get back to class, but a little nervous about how it's going to affect the amount of time I have for school. Since the school is changing to 4x4 and my student load will be smaller each semester, it shouldn't be too bad.

Other small things: I saw Megan graduate from MSU, we're going to Canada this summer and I'm 98% sure I'm selling my moped in the next month.