Uncategorized 8:40 pm
My mug shot is now famous…well not really, but I did have an above-the-fold picture in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on Friday
Until I can figure out how the scanner works, there wont be a picture…but read this link—good things are happening at ATA
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-26/1200033034119080.xml&coll=1
note the line about English teachers!!!! how cool is that
Uncategorized 11:32 pm
In honor of my sweet sixteen cousin – I remembered that I have been back from a nice two week vacation for two days and have yet to post on the new semester beginning at school.
I should say that making it through the last semester was an experience – as a first year school we had our bumps, but we survived and I think are in a position to really make a dramatic difference with these children
A two week break left me a bit rejuvenated and ready to tackle the world again…but i was quickly reminded that with the break, exams and review…these kids had not had direct instruction in 5 weeks….additionally they had new schedules and that meant some of them were in different classes than their friends and that was just tragic
The exciting news is that I took on the only English I class I did not teach last semester…and at school we integrated English I and World Geography = so I am now team-teaching/co-teaching Global Communications with Mr. Brumer (another first year TFA who I have taught close to in Houston and next to for a semester here)…we are really excited about the opportunity and I will have a more in-depth look at it after its first week (the class meets 5 days a week for 2 hours a day – so we will get real close)…ha (there are also two sections of the class)
Regardless – I have more to write about – but things have been kinda smooth (knock on wood) so wait till tomorrow
Hope all is well – Go LSU (i guess)
J-nasty
Uncategorized 9:50 pm
Well, just got back from Starbucks where my Christmas music and I were for two plus hours grading period 1 and period 4 midterms…here is the breakdown
Period 1 C,F, F,F,C,F, B,B,F,F,F,C,B
high – 89
low – 32 (but this particular student wants to get me fired he said and that was why he tried to fail…)
Period 4 B,F,F,F,F,D,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,A,A,A,F,F,F
high – 98, 96.5, 91.5
low – 4, 4.5, 7, 9, 9.25
So I dont know if I am a terrible teacher or what…but at least three students got A’s….
Uncategorized 9:57 pm
a short post today to try and keep up with my update promises…
-first, we had a relatively large ALMOST fight today…it seems that tuesdays are the crazy days at ATA…those and sometimes every other day that ends in Y
-review for my exam was extensive and a real solid preparation for a pretty long and difficult exam as it is…now only if they listened….
-one bright spot today though…period 4 (juniors) finally clicked into the essential questions and enduring understandings for the crucible (albeit 9 weeks after we read it) and they were EXCITED ABOUT IT….
-ill update tomorrow if i can grade the first batch of exams
Uncategorized 11:26 pm
i know…believe it or not i am aware that this is another failure of me to update as often as i say i would….i swear to you its not malicious – but when you fall asleep everynight in your computer chair out of sheer exhaustion, you often leave a few things unchecked on the daily list
this was a long and short weekend…mainly because we had professional development as a staff all day friday and all day saturday…i made both my exams, my answer keys, and review sheets this weekend and am feeling good that these drafts are rigorous and fair assessments of all we have been able to accomplish this semester
also…M and T this week and review days, with W, R , F are exam days….that leaves a whole week of classes that I have been put in charge of developing a high engaging plan for so that the students dont go crazy…ultimately this is not an easy task, but I certainly have a lot of help….we will spend a lot of this preping the kids for the transition into the New Tech Foundation model that will occur on January 7th (a full post on the details of the model will come)
also found out i will be team teaching with mr. brumer for 4 periods next semester – GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS will be our course title…and i will also be teaching 1, but not 2, sections of English III …. this is bitter sweet
more to come but this is the first night since i have been down here that I think I can get to bed before 1130 almost guilt-free so i think we can all appreciate the importance of that…
btw…it was like 80 degrees in NOLA today…its beginning to look a lot like christmas?!?! yea right
Uncategorized 11:01 pm
what a title…
just a brief note…we almost made it the whole day…
usually the fights happen outside my classroom, albeit it in the doorway usually, but it always gave me the peace of mind that it was “outside of my locus on control”…that changed today when i had two young ladies “threw down” 15 minutes before the end of the school day
these two ladies were arguing over….and I kid you not…who was paying more (or better) attention to me as I tried to get the advisory class back on track…
as flattering as that though is…and it is flattering…neither were actually paying attention to me because they were screaming about this ones mother or that ones “fugly” face…
next thing you know (and it escalated quickly enough where it really was the next thing) I had five desks on the floor and Mr. Brumer running over to cover my back…
on the bright side, one of my students (C) was very helpful in cleaning up and we had a long discussion afterwards about how needless it was…
15 minutes….are you kidding me?
Uncategorized 8:16 pm
Saturday was a glorious day…well in fact this whole weekend, weather wise, has been unbelievable…like 75 and stunningly beautiful each day
saturday morning I had to go to TFA professional development on classroom management…after that it was my intention to go get a christmas tree..but i was in shorts and was fundamentally opposed to picking out my tree in shorts…so after going home i made it to lowes (i know…straight from hallmark…) and picked a lovely little 6′ spruce…great smell and fantastic shape…
it is in my bedroom…and looks amazing…when its decorated ill post pictures…no big deal
the rest of the day proved to be noteworthy as well…
-i volunteered to help chaperone a friend’s field trip to go see Beowulf. This friend was rewarding her top performing students in the beowulf unit with a trip to the movies and so I volunteered to drive a few of the students and watch the movie
—the movie was interesting…semi-animated and deviating greatly from what I remembered of the story…but the kids loved it and because there was no one in the theatre we were able to discuss the deviations and our opinions (for example, the creative interpretation of beowulf fighting Grendel without clothes was interesting….or him “laying with” Grendel’s mother and having a son with her….I had a tough time justifying those changes to the students but we had a blast
the noteworthy story was..however…that during the movie my phone kept going off and it was a 504 (new orleans area code) … i figured i would let whoever leave a message and return an angry parent phone call later…instead…the phone just kept ringing and so by the 4th time i bolted out of the movie and answered it….
—it was one of my freshman who I drive home 3 times a week…such an amazing kid and an inspiring student given his background…he was calling to see if I had graded his news article and biography that he handed in on friday…i chuckled and told him no, not yet….his next response was “well, do yo think if i call you later tonight you will have it done…” I was laughing really hard at this point as I asked for his patience…then he starts asking me “whats up” and about my weekend….finally I told him that I was in a movie and had to go…as we were about to hang up he reminded me that I told him I would bring a nickelback CD for him to listen to after tutoring this week…
i sort of took a moment to reflect on how cool that was before I walked back into the movie
and that coupled with the great experience with julie’s students made me really realize that I need to focus some attention on the amazing students in my classes…with some positive behavior and academic rewards…so, along with a teacher in a neighboring school, we are preparing a BBQ for our students…ill write more about the logistics of this when I flesh them out in my head
for now I am off to watch ELF and grade feedback folders…stay warm
Uncategorized 7:52 pm
I should probably start this post with an apology to my cousin Alexandria…my promise to post at least every other day was broken this week…and for that i am both embarassed and committed to resolving my deficiency…
friday was a bizarre day for sure but we made it through…
some highights were….
-sitting italian dressing in the faculty lounge and being relentlessly made fun of by the children for the rest of the day
-SAT and ACT tutoring instead of a planning period
-taking a student to a job interview…this particular student missed the bus because he needed to pick up his CD player from the office because the school no longer allows students to bring music players….he has a long bus ride and brought his CD player in order to listen to music on the bus … regardless he was politely waiting for his CD player and by the time he got it back he missed the bus…he graciously helped me get my stuff together and we rushed him out to the EAST to winn dixie for a job interview…he was very appreciative and it felt good to have provided a tangible help to a student
the rest of the weekend up next…
Uncategorized 10:41 pm
I was bombarded with this question after Mr. Brumer thought it would be funny to whistle Happy Birthday everytime he saw me yesterday. That question, of course, is really asking me how old I was – to which I univerally responded – 87!!!! …. The kids didn’t believe me but were shocked when they asked me what year I was born and I responded with 1920….(so wait…maybe he is that old?!?!!?)
Birthdays at work are not like birthdays in college or even high school for that matter and that was to be expected – but still, the kids were no more cooperative for my birthday than before – so it was just your average run-of-the-mill day
After school I worked for close to an hour with one of Adam’s students on writing complete sentences. I don’t have this particular student but we have a good relationship nonetheless and it was nice that he felt comfortable with me. We were able to make progress and Adam left his class today to run over and give me the student’s paragraph warm-up which was ALL COMPLETE SENTENCES!!!! the two of us stood there in awe, smiled and then turned back to our respective classes. A small two seconds of appreciation was all we needed.
Today, the students took silly pills and my 4th period (the period TFA is observing on friday) was OUT OF CONTROL. snapping at the kids in this period has unfortunately become too common and it is no longer an effective tool. That being said, I just get so frustrated with their inability to just be quiet. Honestly, I am not all that offended by them being disrespectful to me, I am more offended by them disrespecting themselves, their learning and their classmates and their learning. I want so badly for them to see the importance of what we are doing…I have to go back to the drawing board.
Finally…during my planning period today I was sifting through the internet procrastinating and stumbled upon Mike Wilbon’s article on MSNBC.com about Sean Taylor (Washington Redskins Safety) and his tragic death. My advisory students were particularly interested in talking about this yesterday and so I printed out the article and we read it together as an advisory and had a discussion. It went SO well. The article was controversial but hit close to home and really got the students talking about what it means to make decisions, and how our decisions always have a way of coming back to us.
The article, entitled “Dying young, and black, in America” link is right here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22008724/
some days you just dont know
Uncategorized 10:32 pm
first of all…i think we should all take a moment to contemplate this…today was/is my last day as a 21 year old….what the hell am I doing having been teaching for like 17 weeks or how ever long it has been…
My students think I am anywhere from 24-42, and have come to the conclusion that I am either hopelessly single or married with a multitude of children…it is worth mentioning that I have never lied to my students and thus this is all their creative conjecturing…which excites me – I just wish they would be this creative with homework
Getting the kids to focus today was a freakshow…
Also, sat in on the interviews of the two finalists for our disciplinarian/assistant principal internship…see we lost our A. Principal a few days before schools starts, then our Curriculum Specialist Mrs. Wible took over, but that left us without a CS which we really needed so when she moved back we still had a whole…We posted the job apparently as a one semester internship with the option to reapply for the full position for the next school year – bottom line – a) it was exciting to be part of the hiring process and b) it will be exciting to gain another staff member.
Upcoming this week:
-22nd birthday
-meetings EVERYDAY after school this week
-TFA observation on Friday
-TFA Professional Saturday
-getting a Christmas tree
peace
