Apples to Apples

Blog.com has made some upgrades - YAY!

In the process they’ve managed to wipe out my profile - BOO!

I am being patient, I am being patient.

I just finished watching a documentary on TLC. It was about a young child born with an undeveloped twin attached causing her to look like a two headed child, because…well, she was. They removed the head, though it sucked and smiled and cried. The little girl survived! But she had some water on the brain because of the surgery and was sure to be a special needs child (and adult).

It was a reminder to me that the students in my class are the way they are for reasons beyond their control. And they are as frustrated as I am that they are having a hard time learning to read.

I’m likely be muster up those last bits of patience tomorrow.

I used to have a picture up of myself on this blog. It was just a regular picture. Then, I got back my school pictures and thought other educators would find the humor in it if I used that one. Because really, what do we do with them? I know personally, I sign smart-ass stuff to the back like we did in high school ( you know, K.I.T., have a kick ass summer, I’m so glad I’ve gotten to know you, etc) and I mail them off to my closest friends. Then, I obnoxiously mail my parents the 5 x 7 with some sort of sarcastic note about how I want to see it up next time I’m over (which now that I live across the country may be a while). Anyway, I thought it would be funny to me, if no one else, to have my lame school pic posted on my teacher blog.

Instead, I redirected one of my students who was wandering the room last week to draw a picture of me on the board. I know, I was asking for it. She could have done a number to my self-esteem. Instead she came up with what you now see on the sidebar. Not bad! I was impressed and have found one talented artist in my group of 6^th graders!

Oh and simply for amusement, here’s my fall school picture.

KIT!
LYLAS!

BFF!

Friends 4 Eva!

A coworker sent me the following link this week. It’s a survey about No Child Left Behind. I found it difficult to answer because there are no options to answer “this is impossible”, “this is a utopian concept with many flaws”, or even “none of the above”. Hopefully you will have better luck expressing yourself than I did. Make sure to pass this on to anyone you know who would have an opinion about NCLB.

 www.GiveKidsGoodSchools.org

I wanted to add this post a while ago - the second week of school acutally (now it’s the 8th).

At my interview I was asked about what I would do if a student didn’t call me by name. I was stumped and explained that I would probably remind them of my name, correct them, and ask for it to be said correctly in the future.

It was then explained to me that in this city/culture that would be the wrong thing to do. Apparently, the students in this community call you “Miss” or “Mister” when they really like you and you are “in” with them. It is something you don’t WANT to correct.

So the school year started, I introduced myself, and they called me by name. Early in the second week, a student touched my arm and said “Miss”, I took the breath to turn and remind him of my last name, but as I turned to look at him, I quickly remembered my interview conversation and smiled.

If felt so great to be in the midst of the chaos that was my life, and be accepted like that. I did a little “Yes!” on the inside.

The school year started out rough. It was just a lot of change and demands on me all at once. Today was ok. I didn’t get the chance to implement as many new things in my room as I wanted, but I made an effort to follow my rules and the day flowed well. I’m looking forward to the weekend to start thinking about the changes I’m going to make for the second quarter.

It dawned on my today that I have ZERO parent issues. In the past years of teaching I’ve had tons of parent involvement which sometimes led to parent issues. I also always had volunteers in my room. So strange not to have anyone in my room, emailing me, or calling regularly. I call them, but no one calls back. Just another different I guess. Not like last year when my principal had to get a restraining order on one of my student’s parents. Yuck. That was not fun at all.

Hoping tomorrow is a good as today!

At my In-Service day on Friday, the presenter showed a clip from Dead Poets Society. It was a great clip and showed exactly what he was talking about (applying learning to the student, stepping outside the traditional classroom). I am such a sappy geek that I got embarrassingly teary-eyed just quickly replaying the movie in my mind and remembering how much I sobbed at the end that last time I watched it. I haven’t seen it since I’ve become a teacher though. I wonder how I would look at it now. With teacher eyes? Probably. It’s on my list of videos to rent now. I decided I would also like to see other teacher-based movies I’ve never seen. Some that I know of are:

          Dangerous Minds

          Red Hot Ballroom

          Lean on Me  - ? Is that what it’s called. The one when the black principal reforms the school? What is that one called? I’ve only seen like 20 minutes of it (a clip of it in a grad class).

Are there others I should check out?

All teachers new to my district have to attend new teacher meetings once a month. We just had ours for October last week. I was not looking forward to it. In all honesty, who ever is? The meetings thus far have been really good. I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas and I’m happy when I leave. It’s the getting there that’s hard. Also my biggest complaint is that I feel like they are always past the fact.  It’s October and we reviewed classroom management.

          This weeks meeting broke us down by grade level. Thank you, thank you, thank you! The worst way for me to spend my time is learning about how to deal with Kindergarten students when I teach junior high. I think it is important to understand children at all levels, but at an evening meeting in the middle of the week, I’m not up for it. I was glad to be surrounded by all junior high teachers and have a speaker who could focus on helping us specifically.

          From this meeting I walked away with the following:

§        Junior High students are at a transition in life, and much like a toddler, regress slightly before jumping into the next stage of life.  This reminder about the 12 & 13 yr old psyche was all I needed to hear to help me be able to tolerate my class until June. I was pulling my hair out and constantly saying to myself “Ohmigosh! It’s like he’s 3 years old”. Well, yes in fact it is. And thank you Mr. Presenter for reminding me.

• I need to make rules for myself again, so that I can have control of my classroom. This one is a little weird to some maybe, but I often challenge myself with certain things in life like “No fried food until you’ve lost 5 pounds” or something silly like that. And thankfully, I have the willpower to do that. I make rules for myself in the classroom, too. This year’s first rule was “No personal email from work” That one lasted about a week, and then I rationalized that my email is my sanity and what principal would want an insane teacher? After my meeting I’ve decided on two new rules. Both a big challenge to me.    
  1. No personal email, unless it’s my lunch break or after school.

This rule will keep me focused and make me use my personal plan time for school, so I can have a life on the weekends.

I am a culprit for teaching and giving work, doing a once over to make sure they all understand and then feeling unneeded and not wanting to waste time go to my desk to work. BAD BAD BAD TEACHER! That is totally on the list of becoming one of those teachers that I said I would never be. Plus, staying away from my desk, will keep me away from my email, which helps me follow my other rule.

I used my rules on Thursday and Friday and already I enjoy my class more.

Do you have personal rules? What are they?

I’ve been real negative about my school year so far. I’m just having a very hard time adjusting to my new life as a junior high special ed teacher in the ghetto. It is so vastly different from my cozy 4^th grade position in an affluent community. I had finally felt like I was getting my feet under me at this whole teaching thing and now I find myself with the same “first year” thoughts I had in 2002.

          I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to remember the multitude of things that are important when running a classroom and planning lessons. Then, when I can’t, I feel worthless and doubt that I should even be a teacher. It is usually then, that like earlier this week, I will receive an email or phone call from an unknowing friend that changes my perspective and motivates me to give it my all.

          I am happy to say that my first experience in a public school district is also as encouraging. In my district, teachers meet in a team everyday. They also have a personal plan period. On top of that, I am required to be in Special Ed meetings with the coordinator once a month PLUS I have to attend a meeting for all new teachers in the district once a month. Add in to that the mentoring program and in service presentations and I am feeling completely supported at my new job. It sounds like a lot. Veteran teachers hate all of the meetings and would probably like the time just to catch up on classroom stuff. And while I would love that time, I am finding it unbelievably helpful to have reminders every so often to help me push through to the next week. I really believe that my district (not necessarily my school) is doing all that it can to make better teachers out of each of us. I respect the people in charge and feel comfortable going to any of them if I need anything – even the superintendent.

          I am not entirely pleased with my position, the school, or some of the teachers, but I really do like the whole image of public school that I am getting. I think my district is on the right path and I’m happy to be able to help achieve their goals – because I think they are dedicated to helping me achieve mine.