Overcoming Sadness When It Drags You Down

Unless you ignore the news completely, you are aware of all the shootings and violence happening in our world recently. Yesterday it finally got to me, and it grabbed hold of me tightly. I was finishing up tutorials where one of my boys had come in to work on his writing portfolio. I clicked on my Facebook app and saw the news about the shooting in California. He and I were both shocked, and I left school feeling like I needed to cry.


This morning I felt it even more heavily, especially since the news seems to have a constant stream of updates and new information. I am thankful for the news. I am also disgusted and saddened that this has happened yet again. I know something needs to be done, but I am not at all confident that anything will be done anytime soon.


That sadness has permeated my world today and I needed to do something about it. My students write in their journals every day to a specific prompt word, their journal writing is also supposed to be in a specific style. I decided that I needed my kids to help me see some light in this all too dark world. It has been my experience that when I am down or feeling the horrors of the world close in on my heart that my kids are most often the ones to help me through it and into the light of hope.


So, instead of writing a journal prompt today, here is what I put up on the board:

Like always, they came through. Here are just a few of the beautiful notes my kids wrote and will then spread to random people in the hallway today. I love that so many of them have added the phrase "pass it on" somewhere on their cards. I even had several who wanted to do more than one.

When you feel down, let your kids know. It's important they see you as real people, and they will usually take an extra few minutes to help bring you up.

Entering the World Wide Web

As a teacher, it is often incredibly hard and time consuming to create and build things to use in the classroom. Most of us have created things that we used once and didn't like how it worked so put it away to either fix later or never look at again. I try to adapt things quickly, and because of that I have things to put out into the world via the Internet.




I've also realized recently that I have to start repaying my student loans soon (ugh). I have almost $100,000 in student loans, BUT it has gotten me almost three degrees (I will be a doctor in 2016), and IT WAS WORTH IT!






When I discovered I'd have an additional bill soon, I freaked out some. I mean, come on, I'm a teacher and we don't make that much money...and I get paid once a month. Until I remembered the awesome site, teacherspayteachers.com. I've had a store on there since 2010 but never made very much money, so I went to one of my coworkers who is a superstar there and got some advice.




For the past week or so I've been working to make my store more appealing and increase my goods (something I'm still working on doing). I'm actually really pleased with how I've rebuilt things and have increased my followers some - but I'd like more (hint hint hint).






A teacher store like this is something I believe all teachers should have in their tooldbox, there is no reason for us to reinvent the wheel, sometimes we just need to change its color.






Please stop by my store and see if there is anything that would be useful to you, if not I'm happy to take suggestions and of course encourage you to visit other teacher stores!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Channeling-Ms-Frizzle

It Begins!

My 12th year in the classroom began today, and my feet are killing me! Like always, I choose a first day of school outfit that I think is adorable, this year it is one my husband picked out for me. The shoes I wore however tried to kill me (and they had never been uncomfortable before)! Tomorrow I will be wearing my trusty flats!

As my students from last year stopped by for hugs and to say hi, I got lots of compliments from them on the changes I've made to my room. They all noticed the additions of color and arm chairs, several were jealous I didn't have them last year. It thrilled me to have them appreciate the hard work I put into making my room more cheery. Many of my new kiddos also complimented my room and I'm sure they are ready to use the arm chairs on Friday when we read independent texts (thank you Donalyn Miller!).

Something that surprised me is how many of my new students feel like the charging station I've added is a total bonus for them. It is really just so I have an additional place to keep their cell phones, which I will take up each day. I discovered last year that if I collect phones during class, we have better discussions and an overall stronger learning experience.

I have also been working on making sure I eat well this year, including doing food preparation on Sundays so I don't just come home and eat popcorn (something my husband thinks is all I eat when he isn't here). So far so good! I bought a bento box style luck box and it has been working on really well. I am even finding that I can't finish my lunch (which gives me a snack for after school!).

As the week continues, I will have to get back on track and continue to work on my comps for my doctoral program. I have set several deadlines for myself this semester, and am hoping that the plans I have put into place will help me stay on top of things and meet all of my deadlines.

To my fellow teachers, have an outstanding year!

Preparing for the year (or an ode to Pinterest...and my mother)

I've had a busy summer, and have loved just about all of it. The only part I haven't enjoyed was starting the summer with a diagnosis of a gallstone that has been a part of my life for about 20 years! It has affected me so much this summer I even gave it a name, Hugo. Hugo will be coming out at the beginning of August, which means I'll be in recovery during my first week back at work (thankfully we won't have kids there yet). I am also in the proposal stage of my dissertation, which means I'll be doing lots of travel and research and writing this school year, so I'm trying to build everything I possibly can to make my life a little less stressful.

Because of all of those things, I have already begun redoing my classroom.

I decided last year that I wanted a couple of reading "nooks" in my room; I had several kids who loved sitting in the back of the room when I had desks there. I have also decided that Fridays will be independent reading days for my kids and have stolen Donalyn Miller's rule of books to read for the year (and adapted it for my skeptical darlings). My kids will have 30 texts to read this year, 15 of which are magazine articles (to make it less scary and harrowing).

Here is where Pinterest comes into play!

Once I decided I wanted my kids to read so much more on their own, because seriously the best way to become a better reader is to read like a fiend, I realized I wanted a way to display different genres at different times. So I started exploring Pinterest. I found several pins about using rain gutters for houses as small shelves in their children's rooms. I also found a way to make my own chalkboard paint. I put the two together and prayed it would work. I was able to find all the supplies I needed at my local Home Depot, and didn't need to buy whole gallons of paint. They have sample sizes you can buy for something like $3.00 (seriously the best way to paint things for the classroom).

  The beginning of my first project for the classroom this summer.

 

Add a tablespoon of unsanded grout to a cup of paint and stir well.

After roughing up the vinyl (it needs to be a little porous) and priming with plastic friendly spray paint, start painting!

I really enjoyed this project and so far they are hanging well in my classroom. I have the dreaded concrete walls that seem to hold nothing, but I found some heavy duty mounting tape by Scotch for outdoor use. According to its packaging, it will hold up to 20 pounds! I don't plan on putting 20 pounds of books in these, so it should be perfect!

The other big project I did this summer for my room was to re-cover four arm chairs to use in my reading "nooks". Thank goodness for my mother! She came up twice to help me strip, paint, recover, and move my chairs. We always have a great time together, and she is super crafty and has made just about everything! (Currently she is making t-shirt quilts for people, and they are awesome). When we had finished our chairs, we couldn't keep ourselves from admiring them and thinking how awesome we are.

The last time Mom was up, I was finally able to get into my room, so we went up and got started. I had also bought some adhesive cork boards from Oriental Trading (man I love that place) to use on a spot under the clock in my room that is just ugly. I figured I can use the little cork boards as a place to hang announcements and words of inspiration I find during the year. I also hung one of my rain gutter shelves there to use as a place for any extra handouts (I am horrible at just stacking things and then losing them - maybe this will help).

Above are a couple of pictures of what we did. I am all about color this year, probably because the concrete wall rooms often feel like cells (who wants to learn in a cell!). Mom also helped me make some scrabble letters (see them?) out of scrap material my dad had gotten from a site. I am pretty happy so far, only a few things left to do before I am not allowed to lift and move things for several weeks. None of these projects cost me much money, but they do take some time. When it comes to time for my room (a place I sort of live in during the school year), I have no problem spending it!

Authentic Learning

I started my summer with a trip to Peru with some friends and my husband, and I always forget how much of an authentic learning experience it is when I travel to foreign countries. Especially third world countries. I am also surprised at my ability to speak the language well enough to get us food, lodging, tours, gifts, and directions.

Make no mistake though, I am far from fluent.

We began in Lima and over the course of the first few days we worked our way to Parancas, Nasca, Abancay, and Puno. We spent lots of time crammed together in our RAV4. Those are the times you are thankful for several things: (a) You are not on a bus; (b) you know your travel partners well; and (c) being the smallest, and therefore least uncomfortable, person in the car.

As we travelled and were amazed by things constantly, I began to think about the experiences my students have in my classroom. I was also reading The Book Whisperer  by Donalyn Miller and The Dissertation Journey by Dr. Roberts, so thinking about my teaching was not far from my mind - regardless of the excite my of the Andes mountains and seeing llamas roaming free.

(South American penguins)

(The Nasca Lines formation called The Hummingbird)

(Late night roadblock in the mountains)

(Eating strange fruit)

Like my students, I got frustrated when trying to accomplish a task and had additional requests made by my travel companions. I was not angry, just felt I had to do it all at once and effectively. Needless to say, it was not always effective.

As I waited in a rotisserie chicken place in some little town in the mountains, I mused at the little boy who seemed to run the restaurant. I watched as he took orders and ran for change. When he asked me where we were from and where we going, I told him. Then I noticed him talking to his aunt excitedly. I can't be sure what he told her, but I think it was that he was excited to have met someone from Texas. That moment was purely authentic for him, and one we hope he will share with his classmates - assuming he has the opportunity to go to school.

That experience is something I hope I offer my students, and each summer I find myself reworking things to try and make my class more authentic.

Last year I had two sections of senior English students who had not yet passed the state assessment test or tests. After lots of hard work I was able to get almost all of them past it so they could graduate. What I noticed, however, was the ones who struggled most were primarily my native Spanish speakers. No matter what we did, they struggled with the test because of the reading. I should have read more stories with them, after all they clearly had not gotten what they needed from their previous English classes. 

So as I continue is to trek through Peru and be amazed at what I see, do, and know, I will continue to think about what my kids need for their learning to be more authentic next year. We will read more stories, some I will read with them and others I will have them read in class. They will have to reflect on those stories and think about them. My hope is that exposing them to more varieties of literature will help them not only pass the test but have authentic conversations about ideas and texts. 

Prepping for Next Year

I have begun prepping for next year, in addition to writing the proposal for my dissertation. As a part of my preparation, I have decided to try using interactive notebooks with my kids. I honestly had not even thought about them until I came across the blog eatwriteteach.com while searching for teacher blogs to use in my proposal. When I saw her Smash Books, I knew they were genius!

I have been taking writing breaks and building my book, which I'm calling the "Frame" of Reference (it makes me giggle every time). 

Today, as a part of my book, I decided to create a flip calendar for the year! I'm really pleased with how it came out.

I'll be posting the temate on my Teachers Pay Teachers store soon!

Testing after THE TEST?!

For many of us, especially in Texas, once the STAAR test is done we struggle to keep students interested in classroom activities. They have had so many years of standardized testing that for many of them it seems to be ingrained that the only important thing during spring semester is THE TEST. We teachers know differently. If you are like me, this is the time of year you have saved for the more creative and active lessons, like reading classical plays and pushing kids (in my case even further) to think and support their thoughts. The reality of the struggle is tough, especially when it comes time to give a unit test.


This time of year, I expect that my students have learned to think for themselves, question a text and are able to explain themselves. Since that is my expectation, I have been known to give them non-multiple choice tests. For instance, one of my favorites is called a Responsibility Pie Chart. I got this from one of my master's classes years ago and it has never disappointed me. The chart was created by the great Kelley Gallagher in his book Deeper Reading, and I have watched students sit and scratch their heads for the majority of a period to make a decision.


I used it with Oedipus Rex and my sophomores this week and it is always interesting to see who or what they feel is responsible for the outcome of the play. The best part is that they have to justify themselves too, so they are actually thinking about the play and not just which letter to choose!


If I could give every test all year long this way, I think I would. For an English class it is one of the best assessment tools I've ever seen!