At last, the end!
J'ai oublie trop de francais; donc il n'ya pas beaucoup je peux ecrire ici. Mais aujourd'hui, c'est la dernier jour d'ecole! Je suis tres heureuse et pourtant, je suis peur d'ennui de l'ete.
I have forgotten too much French; alas, there's not much I can write here. But today is the last day of school! I am very happy and yet, I fear the boredom of summer.
It is such a relief for this year to be over. That one class fairly ruined my experience this year; the last few months have felt like a daily battle. Or at least I lived in anxiety of a possible battle, which is just as bad.
Thanks be to the school gods, I did not have to see that class today. Except, amazingly, for most of the students who had borrowed books many moons ago either returned them or paid for them (I make them pay $5 and then I will use that for buying new books for the class, as well as to make them accountable).
I saw the good class today. We played some games and they goofed around. Some of the boys were interested in watching Indiana Jones. I also visited the afternoon class, the sweet but low and noisy bunch. I took pictures of both classes and generally there was no point to today.
Some of the students did give me hugs. One of my favorite girls from the afternoon class gave me a big hug and said, "Aw, I'll miss you a lot!" I said, "I'll miss you too!" This one boy came to say goodbye, a kid who switched from the bad class to the afternoon class, a kid who can be sweet but too often falls into the the badboy attitudes, yet when I scold him he gives a big grin and says, "I love you, miss!" Even some of the sweeter kids from the bad class said an excited goodbye with hugs before leaving, which was a nice way to leave it. A few of our favorite girls from last year came to visit and say hi/bye too.
I did not cry this year. Of course, I am still in denial/surprise/shock that the year is over, so it's possible that later I may shed some tears of happiness. But last year, I had a good year and a lot of really wonderful kids. This year, I had a tough year and not as many wonderful kids. More pain in my ass kids and more crazy parents, more unreachable parents, and, it felt like, more unreachable students. The year ends with me feeling unsure of my management, not to mention frazzled and afraid for next year, when the level of kids will go down (according to test score, at least)(this year I had one real high level class and one class that was supposed to be high level, but oh my GOD there is no way)(next year I will have some resource-level classes, oh my goodness).
Anyway, back to the here and now. After the kids were all gone, Mr Principal announced and awarded those who are leaving and/or retiring, as well as those of us who earned our tenure. There was a catered lunch after that, but I didn't stay. There are lots of friendly people on the staff, but for some reason, I never have a real place to sit with friends. So instead of feeling lonely and/or headbutting into other people's conversations, I said quick goodbyes to a few people and took off.
Oh, and then I went to the DMV and registered my car! It went quickly and easily, and I got new plates right on the spot. Sweet! Now I just need to get the car inspected, which I'll do tomorrow, and I'm all set.
So now I'm an official New York resident, an official New York driver, and an officially certified and tenured New York City teacher.
I sound way too much like a grown up.
Um, PS? This thunder keeps suddenly cracking REALLY loudly RIGHT over my head and startling the crap out of me. How's that for grown up?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
It's a Miracle!
We were watching a movie last night, and y'all, I fell asleep! All by myself! Before 11pm! And I stayed asleep all night!
In case you have forgotten, this hasn't happened for nearly three weeks, so it was pretty damn cool. :)
In case you have forgotten, this hasn't happened for nearly three weeks, so it was pretty damn cool. :)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Good news
1--In one week from today, I (and all you other NYC teachers out there) will be FREEEEEE for two whole months. Hallefreakinglujah.
2--I slept well for the second night in a row! Let's celebrate...with pajamas.
3--Thursdays are always good (well, decent, at least) days with the Evil class, because I get them the two periods before lunch.
4--Today I kicked this one asshole out of the Evil class (for the first time all year!) and it made such a difference. (Don't judge. The rest of the troublesome kids are pretty sweet at heart and as individuals, and even though I don't bother remembering it often, I do know it. This one, however, is NOT a nice person, is a liar and an instigator. His crazy parent is also a liar and not a nice person, so even if technically it's not the child's fault, I still cannot stand him. And the math teacher feels the same way, and she's so much nicer than I am and he's not as bad in her class.)
5--I taught an actual lesson today, and it went well. I handed out sentence strips (they always love using those, so it was a clever ploy on my part to get them participating and interested) and dictated dialogue. They had to punctuate it correctly. I gave several examples of each type (speaker tags before and after), verifying as they held up the sentence strips, and having a student tell me how to write it correctly on the board. They did very well and I was proud of them. Even the Evil class got into it and did well. Still a bit loud and rowdy, but participating.
6--Thanks again for the supportive comments, guys. :)
7--The other day I remembered that it was the time for awards, so last night I made some certificates on PrintShop (it cost fifty bucks back in 2004! I still lived in Brooklyn and I hadn't even started teaching yet! Weird.) Today I made the lists of who will get what. There are several 'good job' ones I will hand out so that all the hardworking kids will get some validation and have something to bring home to parents. I'm also giving out a Most Improved and a Most Potential, for the students who have worked hard but aren't necessarily on grade level, and the kids who are smart but aren't applying themselves, respectively. This is in hope to give them all some positive reinforcement for this year and next year.
Last night I printed out three copies of each certificate on my own printer, but my lists are more than ten each. After school, I drove to a nearby Office Max and made some color copies, so I feel all prepared and satisfied now. Also, for eight freaking dollars, I bought a ream of 100% recycled copy paper. Made me feel proud for another moment. :)
8--Three and a half school days, y'all. God.
9--The itinerary for our Aussie trip is out now and I'm still not positive I'll get to go. But it's exciting to see the places on the list. For now I'm pretending it's not happening (denial is always fun, people), so that I won't be too disappointed when it doesn't happen. It's kind of an unreal thing anyway, flying for an entire day to the other side of the planet. Think good thoughts for me.
10--On my last trip to the neighborhood C-Town I randomly got an Entenmenn's cinnamon danish, heated it for twenty seconds, and holy CRAP it was heavenly. This afternoon I picked up another one and I'm going to eat it soon and I'm really excited.
Hey look, ten things on my lame list. Nice even numbers are our friends!
PS--Three and a half days!
2--I slept well for the second night in a row! Let's celebrate...with pajamas.
3--Thursdays are always good (well, decent, at least) days with the Evil class, because I get them the two periods before lunch.
4--Today I kicked this one asshole out of the Evil class (for the first time all year!) and it made such a difference. (Don't judge. The rest of the troublesome kids are pretty sweet at heart and as individuals, and even though I don't bother remembering it often, I do know it. This one, however, is NOT a nice person, is a liar and an instigator. His crazy parent is also a liar and not a nice person, so even if technically it's not the child's fault, I still cannot stand him. And the math teacher feels the same way, and she's so much nicer than I am and he's not as bad in her class.)
5--I taught an actual lesson today, and it went well. I handed out sentence strips (they always love using those, so it was a clever ploy on my part to get them participating and interested) and dictated dialogue. They had to punctuate it correctly. I gave several examples of each type (speaker tags before and after), verifying as they held up the sentence strips, and having a student tell me how to write it correctly on the board. They did very well and I was proud of them. Even the Evil class got into it and did well. Still a bit loud and rowdy, but participating.
6--Thanks again for the supportive comments, guys. :)
7--The other day I remembered that it was the time for awards, so last night I made some certificates on PrintShop (it cost fifty bucks back in 2004! I still lived in Brooklyn and I hadn't even started teaching yet! Weird.) Today I made the lists of who will get what. There are several 'good job' ones I will hand out so that all the hardworking kids will get some validation and have something to bring home to parents. I'm also giving out a Most Improved and a Most Potential, for the students who have worked hard but aren't necessarily on grade level, and the kids who are smart but aren't applying themselves, respectively. This is in hope to give them all some positive reinforcement for this year and next year.
Last night I printed out three copies of each certificate on my own printer, but my lists are more than ten each. After school, I drove to a nearby Office Max and made some color copies, so I feel all prepared and satisfied now. Also, for eight freaking dollars, I bought a ream of 100% recycled copy paper. Made me feel proud for another moment. :)
8--Three and a half school days, y'all. God.
9--The itinerary for our Aussie trip is out now and I'm still not positive I'll get to go. But it's exciting to see the places on the list. For now I'm pretending it's not happening (denial is always fun, people), so that I won't be too disappointed when it doesn't happen. It's kind of an unreal thing anyway, flying for an entire day to the other side of the planet. Think good thoughts for me.
10--On my last trip to the neighborhood C-Town I randomly got an Entenmenn's cinnamon danish, heated it for twenty seconds, and holy CRAP it was heavenly. This afternoon I picked up another one and I'm going to eat it soon and I'm really excited.
Hey look, ten things on my lame list. Nice even numbers are our friends!
PS--Three and a half days!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
I hate today
and there's one, two, three, four, five todays left.
Oh, god.
By the end of the day today, I hated my job. I felt incompetent, sick to my stomach (though that was not from the teaching or students), irritated and beyond frustrated.
It's not only today, either. All week I've been dreading two of my classes. I've sort of lucked out; I had the extra-bad class for one instead of two periods the last two days. But tomorrow is another double and I just can't stand them. They can't stand me, either.
My good teacher friend is moving to Texas. My other good teacher friend is moving to New Orleans. My one other school friend will be at home with her baby. We're getting an AP who is...not as awesome as our current one (but at least the good one will still be our EL @ supervisor).
Is it me or does it sound like I need a new job? If I had the energy, I'd cry.
Oh, god.
By the end of the day today, I hated my job. I felt incompetent, sick to my stomach (though that was not from the teaching or students), irritated and beyond frustrated.
It's not only today, either. All week I've been dreading two of my classes. I've sort of lucked out; I had the extra-bad class for one instead of two periods the last two days. But tomorrow is another double and I just can't stand them. They can't stand me, either.
My good teacher friend is moving to Texas. My other good teacher friend is moving to New Orleans. My one other school friend will be at home with her baby. We're getting an AP who is...not as awesome as our current one (but at least the good one will still be our EL @ supervisor).
Is it me or does it sound like I need a new job? If I had the energy, I'd cry.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Double vision
Kooky!
After the long doctor visit on Saturday, I walked a couple blocks to a CVS to get my new prescriptions: Claritex or something, plus an antibiotic, and, finally, Ambien. The antibiotics will kill off bad guys living in my sinus passages, and the Ambien (well, the five dollar generic version) will make me fall asleep and stay asleep.
Except that it DOESN'T! I took it on Saturday night to see how I would react to it. It didn't make me tired and I didn't sleep very much.
Regardless, on Sunday, I felt pretty good--closest to normal that I've felt in awhile. That's good, right?
I took the fambien at 9pm, giving it time to kick in and knock me out. At 10.30, feeling no different, I went to bed anyway.
And I'm not sure if I slept at all.
The alarm went at 6.30 and I groaned, "FUUUUUCCKK MEEEEEE."
But of course I made it to school. This time my body's feeling pretty normal and strongish, rather than weak. But my head is just gone.
I made it through the day pretty fine, though I teetered over once or twice. Made it home to relax and rest. Felt ready to crash around 6, but I didn't. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me.
Half an hour ago, I took all three pills at once: decongestant/allergy med, antibiotic, and sleeping pill. I began watching Friends, which took on a much more interesting twist when I saw two of everyone.
I lurched up and wobbled to the computer, where my arms don't seem to work too well and my tummy feels icky.
I need to brush my teeth. I hope I can do it without falling over and knocking myself unconscious on something porcelain. Pray for me, people,
After the long doctor visit on Saturday, I walked a couple blocks to a CVS to get my new prescriptions: Claritex or something, plus an antibiotic, and, finally, Ambien. The antibiotics will kill off bad guys living in my sinus passages, and the Ambien (well, the five dollar generic version) will make me fall asleep and stay asleep.
Except that it DOESN'T! I took it on Saturday night to see how I would react to it. It didn't make me tired and I didn't sleep very much.
Regardless, on Sunday, I felt pretty good--closest to normal that I've felt in awhile. That's good, right?
I took the fambien at 9pm, giving it time to kick in and knock me out. At 10.30, feeling no different, I went to bed anyway.
And I'm not sure if I slept at all.
The alarm went at 6.30 and I groaned, "FUUUUUCCKK MEEEEEE."
But of course I made it to school. This time my body's feeling pretty normal and strongish, rather than weak. But my head is just gone.
I made it through the day pretty fine, though I teetered over once or twice. Made it home to relax and rest. Felt ready to crash around 6, but I didn't. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me.
Half an hour ago, I took all three pills at once: decongestant/allergy med, antibiotic, and sleeping pill. I began watching Friends, which took on a much more interesting twist when I saw two of everyone.
I lurched up and wobbled to the computer, where my arms don't seem to work too well and my tummy feels icky.
I need to brush my teeth. I hope I can do it without falling over and knocking myself unconscious on something porcelain. Pray for me, people,
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Worn
Well folks, I'm glad I'm not the only one who wrestles with the calling-in dilemma.
On Thursday night, I went to bed at 10pm, after reading in bed for an hour. I felt tired and hoped for some good rest. I began to drift off, but was jolted back to awareness by a fucking police siren.
I continued to lie there, begging my brain to rest. My eyes hurt and I was so frustrated. At 3am I got up, wide awake, and went online for half an hour looking at symptoms and such.
I went back to bed and pretended to sleep. I must have actually drifted off to sleep around 5.30 or 6, because when the alarm went off at 6.30, I was dreaming.
I hit the snooze four times but got up, moaning to myself. I felt sick to my stomach and woozy. Along with the week-old headache, of course.
Thank goodness all I had to do was give a final, which meant that all my classes sat quietly while they worked on the test. Gave me a chance to rest by sitting at my desk and working on papers two weeks old.
In the afternoon, my body perked up and I felt mostly normal for awhile. The headache faded and my energy was closer to normal than it's been for the last week. I even made it to my travel meeting for Australia.
By about nine, though, the headache was creeping back in and my body and energy were fading. I got home at ten, took one tablet of Tylenol PM just in case at eleven, and went to bed at twelve (again, I'm such a nightowl whore, it's ridiculous that even when I'm exhausted and weak, I'll stay up late).
I slept very well all night. The alarm went off at ten thirty and it was a struggle to wake myself. Later I had an appointment for the doctor, and after 'only' waiting an hour I saw him. He told me I had a sinus infection and that was what was causing the headaches. Though I don't have much congestion, my head has feeling lots of pressure, and my ears have been tweaking. So I got some prescriptions for congestion and antibiotics, as well as Ambien.
Oh, and he had someone draw blood for a Lyme titer (sp?) just to be safe. I think the combination of that plus the Tylenol explains why it's now after 2pm and I'm still feeling very sleepy and lightheaded.
I would have loved to stay home yesterday, but with having the final, and already being gone for one day this week, I really couldn't bring myself to call in. Certainly some of it is guilt, and part of it is hoarding--I hate giving things away, even sick days and personal time. Also, sometimes I feel afraid that I'm some kind of hypochondriac and nothing's really wrong with me, I'm just being lazy and whiny. It turned out well this time, because somehow I made it through the day pretty well.
On Thursday night, I went to bed at 10pm, after reading in bed for an hour. I felt tired and hoped for some good rest. I began to drift off, but was jolted back to awareness by a fucking police siren.
I continued to lie there, begging my brain to rest. My eyes hurt and I was so frustrated. At 3am I got up, wide awake, and went online for half an hour looking at symptoms and such.
I went back to bed and pretended to sleep. I must have actually drifted off to sleep around 5.30 or 6, because when the alarm went off at 6.30, I was dreaming.
I hit the snooze four times but got up, moaning to myself. I felt sick to my stomach and woozy. Along with the week-old headache, of course.
Thank goodness all I had to do was give a final, which meant that all my classes sat quietly while they worked on the test. Gave me a chance to rest by sitting at my desk and working on papers two weeks old.
In the afternoon, my body perked up and I felt mostly normal for awhile. The headache faded and my energy was closer to normal than it's been for the last week. I even made it to my travel meeting for Australia.
By about nine, though, the headache was creeping back in and my body and energy were fading. I got home at ten, took one tablet of Tylenol PM just in case at eleven, and went to bed at twelve (again, I'm such a nightowl whore, it's ridiculous that even when I'm exhausted and weak, I'll stay up late).
I slept very well all night. The alarm went off at ten thirty and it was a struggle to wake myself. Later I had an appointment for the doctor, and after 'only' waiting an hour I saw him. He told me I had a sinus infection and that was what was causing the headaches. Though I don't have much congestion, my head has feeling lots of pressure, and my ears have been tweaking. So I got some prescriptions for congestion and antibiotics, as well as Ambien.
Oh, and he had someone draw blood for a Lyme titer (sp?) just to be safe. I think the combination of that plus the Tylenol explains why it's now after 2pm and I'm still feeling very sleepy and lightheaded.
I would have loved to stay home yesterday, but with having the final, and already being gone for one day this week, I really couldn't bring myself to call in. Certainly some of it is guilt, and part of it is hoarding--I hate giving things away, even sick days and personal time. Also, sometimes I feel afraid that I'm some kind of hypochondriac and nothing's really wrong with me, I'm just being lazy and whiny. It turned out well this time, because somehow I made it through the day pretty well.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
I can't take it anymore
I feel like a zombie. The walking dead. The restless sleep has struck again, and the weeklong headache is still firmly encamped in my cranium. Yesterday I think I forgot to eat much and I haven't been drinking water, and last night it felt like my brain was actively withering inside my skull. So today I ate a little bit more at school (meaning not just a cup of dry cheerios but also cheese and crackers) and drank a half-liter bottle of water. This afternoon the headache has increased, even though I took some migraine medicine about an hour ago.
It's a good thing the final is tomorrow; I won't be good for much else. I've arrived at Desperation and could shortly visit CryingFromFatigueLand. I don't know what to do.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Game Day
Today two classes played Review Jeopardy!
It actually went very well, and I am excited about it. The kids were really excited about answering questions and using their knowledge! I spiced it up by having them using the erasable sentence strips (which they always love to play with).
Second class had some trouble answering the higher-point questions, partly because they didn't listen to the directions. Gah.
Plan for tomorrow--did I talk about this yesterday?--is to give them the questions and have them quiz each other. It won't be as fun, and they most certainly will not be as engaged...oh dear. Maybe we'll just 'play' the whole damn thing over again. Certain questions could be redone fairly easily.
...Wish I remembered some of those questions right now to make this post a little more lively. Yeah, sorry about that.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
So So, Meh, Whatever
The Tylenol PM was effective in that it made me sleepy enough to get some real rest last night, which was a huge relief. Unfortunately, I continued feeling drugged and foggy until ten or eleven this morning. And this afternoon and evening, the headache returned.
The return to school was an easy one, much to my relief. My room wasn't messed up, the boards weren't even erased. That's good. It was a half day, which obviously is a great way to come back feeling only half-human.
Upon entering for homeroom this morning, one girl cried out, "Miss! We missed you!"
"Aw," I smiled, then cocked an eyebrow. "Are you lying?"
"No!"
"Oh, okay. Then thank you, I missed you too." :) Heh.
I decided to give my final on Friday, and to do some review in class. I've heard many teachers who played games with classes to review, but I've never wanted to put in the big effort for it, truthfully. Until this week, that is!
So this morning I simply announced that we would be reviewing for the final by playing Jeopardy; they brainstormed a list of categories (big topics/units that we've covered this year); I gave each table one or two categories and then they got to work creating questions of different monetary values.
Then this afternoon, I spent a couple hours making a rough game 'board' consisted of construction paper folded in half and taped to make a crude envelope, and then writing the questions. Many of them were questions I'd already had in mind, but the groups did come up with some good tasks and questions that I incorporated.
The plan is to play the game in groups tomorrow, and if there is any time left, do some play reading. I'm toying with the idea of giving them the questions on Thursday and let them quiz each other in tables to see how they do. Who knows, though.
Next week, the students will do some portfolio and reflection/evaluation work, but not a lot, and then get to work on plays. Not sure if there's time for them to write and rehearse their own, so I'll get some ready for them just in case.
Two weeks from tomorrow, baby! Getting down to the small numbers is very exciting!
The return to school was an easy one, much to my relief. My room wasn't messed up, the boards weren't even erased. That's good. It was a half day, which obviously is a great way to come back feeling only half-human.
Upon entering for homeroom this morning, one girl cried out, "Miss! We missed you!"
"Aw," I smiled, then cocked an eyebrow. "Are you lying?"
"No!"
"Oh, okay. Then thank you, I missed you too." :) Heh.
I decided to give my final on Friday, and to do some review in class. I've heard many teachers who played games with classes to review, but I've never wanted to put in the big effort for it, truthfully. Until this week, that is!
So this morning I simply announced that we would be reviewing for the final by playing Jeopardy; they brainstormed a list of categories (big topics/units that we've covered this year); I gave each table one or two categories and then they got to work creating questions of different monetary values.
Then this afternoon, I spent a couple hours making a rough game 'board' consisted of construction paper folded in half and taped to make a crude envelope, and then writing the questions. Many of them were questions I'd already had in mind, but the groups did come up with some good tasks and questions that I incorporated.
The plan is to play the game in groups tomorrow, and if there is any time left, do some play reading. I'm toying with the idea of giving them the questions on Thursday and let them quiz each other in tables to see how they do. Who knows, though.
Next week, the students will do some portfolio and reflection/evaluation work, but not a lot, and then get to work on plays. Not sure if there's time for them to write and rehearse their own, so I'll get some ready for them just in case.
Two weeks from tomorrow, baby! Getting down to the small numbers is very exciting!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Exhausted
For a solid WEEK, I have not gotten sufficient sleep. Mostly, I'll be in bed for the normal amount of time, but not staying asleep. A couple days last week, with the field trip, I didn't get nearly enough time to be asleep.
As a result of this sleep lack, I've had a headache for five DAYS now. I stayed home from school today in order to rest a little. I did sleep pretty well, and woke up headache-free, but alas, it returned as the day wore on. I did get some needed errands done (such as five hundred dollar brake repairs), but it's nine pm and I'm going to take some Tylenol PM in hopes that it will quiet my mind and allow mind and body to relax, rest, and sleep.
As a result of this sleep lack, I've had a headache for five DAYS now. I stayed home from school today in order to rest a little. I did sleep pretty well, and woke up headache-free, but alas, it returned as the day wore on. I did get some needed errands done (such as five hundred dollar brake repairs), but it's nine pm and I'm going to take some Tylenol PM in hopes that it will quiet my mind and allow mind and body to relax, rest, and sleep.
Mwah! Birthday shout outs
Many happy wishes to family and friends:
--my teammate Seth on Thursday
--my boyfriend A. on Saturday
--my birthmom Kelleigh on Sunday
--my good teacher friend Nicola on Monday
Love to you all!
Edit: It was Kelly's birthday yesterday too! Very happy birthday to you out in Turkey!
--my teammate Seth on Thursday
--my boyfriend A. on Saturday
--my birthmom Kelleigh on Sunday
--my good teacher friend Nicola on Monday
Love to you all!
Edit: It was Kelly's birthday yesterday too! Very happy birthday to you out in Turkey!
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
"Dude, you're not in charge of us!"
This was part of my brief explanation wind-up American Revolution to my students today, and how the colonists felt about unfair British rule.
(It was related to the play we were reading; it was set just before the Revolution. This play is in the one textbook we're 'allowed' to use, and this is really the only time we're 'supposed' to use it, and the intro includes a blurb about the setting, so I wanted to explain it to the kids really quickly.)
Many students have trouble reading fluently and correctly, so 'casting' a read-aloud play is a little difficult, and the read-throughs go a little slowly (especially when all the students are not closely paying attention to where we are on the page). I think I want to do more read-aloud plays, to help with this issue. Good thing, too, because I have like five class sets. We may run out of time for everything, but eh, who cares. I really want to have them read Fools--a word-funny play by Neil Simon that we did in drama class in high school.
In home news, this afternoon I did laundry AND worked out (while laundry was going)! Go me!
(It was related to the play we were reading; it was set just before the Revolution. This play is in the one textbook we're 'allowed' to use, and this is really the only time we're 'supposed' to use it, and the intro includes a blurb about the setting, so I wanted to explain it to the kids really quickly.)
Many students have trouble reading fluently and correctly, so 'casting' a read-aloud play is a little difficult, and the read-throughs go a little slowly (especially when all the students are not closely paying attention to where we are on the page). I think I want to do more read-aloud plays, to help with this issue. Good thing, too, because I have like five class sets. We may run out of time for everything, but eh, who cares. I really want to have them read Fools--a word-funny play by Neil Simon that we did in drama class in high school.
In home news, this afternoon I did laundry AND worked out (while laundry was going)! Go me!
Monday, June 04, 2007
Dude, long time no posting.
Sigh. I'm not motivated lately, for much of anything, really. Except, as you guessed, pictures.
We have less than one month of school. This is terribly exciting and strange and quite a relief.
Our big trip, that I have been planning ALL.YEAR.LONG is at the end of this week. I am very proud to announce that EVERYTHING is all lined up and ready to go. Again, such a relief. I'm now looking forward to reaping the benefits of my labor and worry--FUN with students and colleagues in a different city.
Today was a half-day. ROCK. That means I only saw one class, and I let them watch Indiana Jones, because they've never even HEARD of it. Can you imagine? On the bright side, many students did vote for the Princess Bride, because they enjoyed it when the grade watched it earlier in the year. Hurrah for giving them 80s movie cultural knowledge! I realized that next on the list must be Goonies, which I don't think I own.
I have owned my new pretty camera for just over two weeks, and I have taken over seven hundred photos already. I showed it off today during a baby shower, and people were very impressed with it, and I got to gush about it. Man, do I love this camera. I bought a spare battery this weekend so I won't have to worry on the field trip. I really do miss the ease of AA batteries and stowability of the old camera, but the niftiness and skill of the new one are worth it.
It's JUNE, people! How did that happen?
This morning one of my students suddenly called out, "Miss! You put 2004!" I looked over at the "Today is" part of my board, and sure enough, I had written, June 4, 2004. I suppose because I have no subconscious and I'd already written a 4. Oops.
This date in 2004, I had not even quit my temp jobs to move to NYC. Weird. And now I've been here three years (officially next Saturday) and am a real teacher and, like, I'm an actual adult and stuff. How time does fly.
Erm. Is it summer yet?
God, I hope the next few weeks aren't too difficult to get through. Give me strength to deal with hyper and obnoxious children.
We have less than one month of school. This is terribly exciting and strange and quite a relief.
Our big trip, that I have been planning ALL.YEAR.LONG is at the end of this week. I am very proud to announce that EVERYTHING is all lined up and ready to go. Again, such a relief. I'm now looking forward to reaping the benefits of my labor and worry--FUN with students and colleagues in a different city.
Today was a half-day. ROCK. That means I only saw one class, and I let them watch Indiana Jones, because they've never even HEARD of it. Can you imagine? On the bright side, many students did vote for the Princess Bride, because they enjoyed it when the grade watched it earlier in the year. Hurrah for giving them 80s movie cultural knowledge! I realized that next on the list must be Goonies, which I don't think I own.
I have owned my new pretty camera for just over two weeks, and I have taken over seven hundred photos already. I showed it off today during a baby shower, and people were very impressed with it, and I got to gush about it. Man, do I love this camera. I bought a spare battery this weekend so I won't have to worry on the field trip. I really do miss the ease of AA batteries and stowability of the old camera, but the niftiness and skill of the new one are worth it.
It's JUNE, people! How did that happen?
This morning one of my students suddenly called out, "Miss! You put 2004!" I looked over at the "Today is" part of my board, and sure enough, I had written, June 4, 2004. I suppose because I have no subconscious and I'd already written a 4. Oops.
This date in 2004, I had not even quit my temp jobs to move to NYC. Weird. And now I've been here three years (officially next Saturday) and am a real teacher and, like, I'm an actual adult and stuff. How time does fly.
Erm. Is it summer yet?
God, I hope the next few weeks aren't too difficult to get through. Give me strength to deal with hyper and obnoxious children.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Oh, the drama
Tee hee, that's a double entendre, see, because today we just barely began our drama unit.
Ha ha, I'm so funny.
We began with a free write so they could get their own ideas out and I could suss out their existing knowledge. They already knew a lot, so we came up with a paragraph describing and defining what a play is and has and involves. I taught them the word "playwright." Well, I told them that the person who writes a play is called a playwright. Not sure if that counts as "teaching," but whatever. None of them knew that before, so there's that.
After the defining, I asked them about their own experiences seeing and being in plays. They brought up memorizing lines and acting like what you're supposed to be. So then I got to play. I asked, "Okay, so watch me, I'm a good actor, look, I memorized my line. 'I'm so angry.'" (while standing with a slight slouch and a dead face and a quiet voice)
The kids were all, "No way! Boo!"
I said, "What? I knew my line!" More amused cries of protest. "Okay, okay, so what do I need to do for you to believe me?"
"You have to change your face!"
"Aha! Facial expression is really important in acting. If I say "I'm so angry" like this (happy face), does that make sense?" Hysterical laughter. "Everyone make an angry face." (they growl and grimace and scowl)(which is funny, because I bet you five bucks they don't know those last two words AT ALL even though they can do them)
"Okay, so now, do you believe me? 'I'm so angry.'" (now with an angry face but still with a slack posture and dead voice)
"NO!"
"So what else do I need to do?"
"Make your voice angry!"
"Right--intonation! Make your voice sound like what you're feeling. Also, you have to be able to project your voice--stand up straight and use your diaphragm to use all your breath (I'm such an awesome bullshitter!). All right, so now how's this? 'I'm so angry.' (now with scowl and deep, angry voice) Is there anything else I need to do so you believe me?"
"You've got to move your arms or something!"
"Okay--body language! If I say 'I'm so angry' while moving like this (growling and hopping about like a happy leprechaun), does it match?"
More hysterical laughter.
"Of course not! I have to show the audience that I mean what I say, since maybe they can't see my face, and move like an angry person would. So how's this? 'I'm so angry!'" (finally with the voice, the face, and the body)
Phew.
I like to play with my classes like this. I did more when we reviewed our verbs. In fact, and I meant to write about this last weekend, we had a good time doing verbs on Friday. For the warm up, they had to replace the boring verbs in "I walked to school" "I ran home" and "I got out of bed."
After a couple minutes, I told them, "Okay, we're going to share what you came up with, but in a different way. You'll come up here to this makeshift catwalk, and act out your verb, then the class will guess what verb you're using."
I demonstrated with a stomp, a tiptoe, a skip, and later a trudge (because they don't know that word and it's such an evocative one). And I totally exaggerated my face during each, asking them to tell me what mood I was in based on what I was doing. Explained that interesting verbs not only tell you how the person moved but also can tell you how they might be feeling.
Then it was their turn. They were so excited that a couple students wanted to go again. A couple were shy at first, but then completed their run. Many students couldn't help themselves calling out their guesses, and then a couple students did their verb and SAID what they did. Sillies.
After a litte bit of that, we got into the text and looked at action verbs versus linking verbs. Today we (tried to) review it, and I asked them for sentence examples. For each, I asked them, "And is it something I can do?" jogging exaggeratedly across the front of the room. The kids rolled their eyes but mostly seemed to get it. In fact, they even seem to mostly understand the purpose of linking verbs, which is so exciting and relieving for me. This kind of stuff is where I know I am TEACHING and they are LEARNING.
Do you know, because I keep harping on the parts of speech, bringing it up every couple months and throwing them onto poetry quizzes, just about all the students can name seven or all eight? Not necessarily define them, and they definitely can't identify them (I put application tasks on the quizzes too--identify the part of speech of each word in this sentence--they did very poorly). But! Knowledge comes first, it is the basis of everything else. I am thrilled that they are making improvements in at least this. After tomorrow we will tackle adjectives and adverbs, and that will be tricky. And actually, based on those quizzes, we'll need to do more pronoun review. Ack. Not enough time!
Anyway, back to drama. My next activity for introduction is to have them discover the elements of a script. I've done this all three years, actually. I have a class set of an old play anthology, and they work in partners to examine one of the plays and see what's there. Today each class only had like five minutes to start on that, so we'll continue more tomorrow, and they'll need heavy guidance and note-taking. The good news is that the longish play we're all supposed to read in the lit anthology (by the way, this is the ONLY sanctioned activity we can officially do with the anthologies) also makes note of these structural elements, so we can reinforce it with another example.
School's over in one month from tomorrow. Our two-day trip is next WEEK. JUNE is on FRIDAY. Holy crap! We may not have time for performing and writing and performing skits, but I'd much rather run out of time than be scrambling. Regardless, how in the world has the time gone so fast? And how in the world will we all make it for another month, since the students and teachers will just get more squirrelly from here?
Ha ha, I'm so funny.
We began with a free write so they could get their own ideas out and I could suss out their existing knowledge. They already knew a lot, so we came up with a paragraph describing and defining what a play is and has and involves. I taught them the word "playwright." Well, I told them that the person who writes a play is called a playwright. Not sure if that counts as "teaching," but whatever. None of them knew that before, so there's that.
After the defining, I asked them about their own experiences seeing and being in plays. They brought up memorizing lines and acting like what you're supposed to be. So then I got to play. I asked, "Okay, so watch me, I'm a good actor, look, I memorized my line. 'I'm so angry.'" (while standing with a slight slouch and a dead face and a quiet voice)
The kids were all, "No way! Boo!"
I said, "What? I knew my line!" More amused cries of protest. "Okay, okay, so what do I need to do for you to believe me?"
"You have to change your face!"
"Aha! Facial expression is really important in acting. If I say "I'm so angry" like this (happy face), does that make sense?" Hysterical laughter. "Everyone make an angry face." (they growl and grimace and scowl)(which is funny, because I bet you five bucks they don't know those last two words AT ALL even though they can do them)
"Okay, so now, do you believe me? 'I'm so angry.'" (now with an angry face but still with a slack posture and dead voice)
"NO!"
"So what else do I need to do?"
"Make your voice angry!"
"Right--intonation! Make your voice sound like what you're feeling. Also, you have to be able to project your voice--stand up straight and use your diaphragm to use all your breath (I'm such an awesome bullshitter!). All right, so now how's this? 'I'm so angry.' (now with scowl and deep, angry voice) Is there anything else I need to do so you believe me?"
"You've got to move your arms or something!"
"Okay--body language! If I say 'I'm so angry' while moving like this (growling and hopping about like a happy leprechaun), does it match?"
More hysterical laughter.
"Of course not! I have to show the audience that I mean what I say, since maybe they can't see my face, and move like an angry person would. So how's this? 'I'm so angry!'" (finally with the voice, the face, and the body)
Phew.
I like to play with my classes like this. I did more when we reviewed our verbs. In fact, and I meant to write about this last weekend, we had a good time doing verbs on Friday. For the warm up, they had to replace the boring verbs in "I walked to school" "I ran home" and "I got out of bed."
After a couple minutes, I told them, "Okay, we're going to share what you came up with, but in a different way. You'll come up here to this makeshift catwalk, and act out your verb, then the class will guess what verb you're using."
I demonstrated with a stomp, a tiptoe, a skip, and later a trudge (because they don't know that word and it's such an evocative one). And I totally exaggerated my face during each, asking them to tell me what mood I was in based on what I was doing. Explained that interesting verbs not only tell you how the person moved but also can tell you how they might be feeling.
Then it was their turn. They were so excited that a couple students wanted to go again. A couple were shy at first, but then completed their run. Many students couldn't help themselves calling out their guesses, and then a couple students did their verb and SAID what they did. Sillies.
After a litte bit of that, we got into the text and looked at action verbs versus linking verbs. Today we (tried to) review it, and I asked them for sentence examples. For each, I asked them, "And is it something I can do?" jogging exaggeratedly across the front of the room. The kids rolled their eyes but mostly seemed to get it. In fact, they even seem to mostly understand the purpose of linking verbs, which is so exciting and relieving for me. This kind of stuff is where I know I am TEACHING and they are LEARNING.
Do you know, because I keep harping on the parts of speech, bringing it up every couple months and throwing them onto poetry quizzes, just about all the students can name seven or all eight? Not necessarily define them, and they definitely can't identify them (I put application tasks on the quizzes too--identify the part of speech of each word in this sentence--they did very poorly). But! Knowledge comes first, it is the basis of everything else. I am thrilled that they are making improvements in at least this. After tomorrow we will tackle adjectives and adverbs, and that will be tricky. And actually, based on those quizzes, we'll need to do more pronoun review. Ack. Not enough time!
Anyway, back to drama. My next activity for introduction is to have them discover the elements of a script. I've done this all three years, actually. I have a class set of an old play anthology, and they work in partners to examine one of the plays and see what's there. Today each class only had like five minutes to start on that, so we'll continue more tomorrow, and they'll need heavy guidance and note-taking. The good news is that the longish play we're all supposed to read in the lit anthology (by the way, this is the ONLY sanctioned activity we can officially do with the anthologies) also makes note of these structural elements, so we can reinforce it with another example.
School's over in one month from tomorrow. Our two-day trip is next WEEK. JUNE is on FRIDAY. Holy crap! We may not have time for performing and writing and performing skits, but I'd much rather run out of time than be scrambling. Regardless, how in the world has the time gone so fast? And how in the world will we all make it for another month, since the students and teachers will just get more squirrelly from here?
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Update: Congrats, Me!
Woo! It is now twelve noon, and GUESS WHAT?
I FINISHED the poetry books!
I graded THREE sets of quizzes! (that's all I'm gonna do, folks.)
I updated and finished inputting grades, and have printouts for them!
WHEE! I did it!
Still to come: the bubbling, oh, the bubbling...
I FINISHED the poetry books!
I graded THREE sets of quizzes! (that's all I'm gonna do, folks.)
I updated and finished inputting grades, and have printouts for them!
WHEE! I did it!
Still to come: the bubbling, oh, the bubbling...
I love long weekends, but...
this time of year ALWAYS means that I have to worry about and do grading, because they're due on Wednesday. Dammit.
Right now it's 8.41, and I've been up for approximately forty minutes, reading blogs (as you do). This is not normally a bad thing (though it's probably a little sad), but actually it is, because what kept me from further slumber was the thought of all the grading I still have to do. So I decided to actually get up and start working on it...
Oops.
Add to the fact that it's been a long time since I updated, which means if I have something more important to do, I'll post first, and I might have a problem for the next day and a half.
The weekend at camp was a lot of fun, and relaxing. I took a LOT of pictures. Shocker, right? And they're all with my old camera, since I bought the new one right after coming back to the city.
And now I just spent ten minutes on gmail replying to incoming fellows who want to visit. See how well I can while away the day while doing nothing of substance?
Anyway, here's the link to my camp weekend photos. That old little camera takes pretty decent pictures, but now I'm firmly in love with my gorgeous Sony, and can't think about going back. As with all big purchases, I was debating whether to keep it. (I bought a shiny new laptop two Christmases ago but took it back because it was so much money. Which it actually wasn't, for a laptop, but I talked myself out of it. Because I'm just that frugal.) But it's just so awesome, and I'm excited about learning the manual settings (the biggest reason for springing the extra money as opposed to the tiny and lovely Canon SD1000), and plus it's a great new toy. I'll have it for years, I'm sure, and it should take me many beautiful photos.
So now it's 9am and I still haven't done any work. By the way, Boyfriend helped me yesterday by inputting some of my grades! Isn't that the sweetest? I made some mojitos for us and then I worked on grading poetry projects (I've been working on them all week--I completed the first two classes' work in just two days! But the last class is the biggest and with the most actually turned in, and I also had to work on grading the three quizzes I gave to each class this week, so right now I've got fourteen more poetry things to grade, and then several quizzes for each class, and then I need to finish inputting, and then begin the bubbling. EGADS.).
So...sorry for the not posting, sorry for the lame update.
Oh, I'll leave you with an amusing anecdote. On the third day of getting a quiz, a student in my top class said, "Man, I've got to get a pop-up blocker for these!"
Right now it's 8.41, and I've been up for approximately forty minutes, reading blogs (as you do). This is not normally a bad thing (though it's probably a little sad), but actually it is, because what kept me from further slumber was the thought of all the grading I still have to do. So I decided to actually get up and start working on it...
Oops.
Add to the fact that it's been a long time since I updated, which means if I have something more important to do, I'll post first, and I might have a problem for the next day and a half.
The weekend at camp was a lot of fun, and relaxing. I took a LOT of pictures. Shocker, right? And they're all with my old camera, since I bought the new one right after coming back to the city.
And now I just spent ten minutes on gmail replying to incoming fellows who want to visit. See how well I can while away the day while doing nothing of substance?
Anyway, here's the link to my camp weekend photos. That old little camera takes pretty decent pictures, but now I'm firmly in love with my gorgeous Sony, and can't think about going back. As with all big purchases, I was debating whether to keep it. (I bought a shiny new laptop two Christmases ago but took it back because it was so much money. Which it actually wasn't, for a laptop, but I talked myself out of it. Because I'm just that frugal.) But it's just so awesome, and I'm excited about learning the manual settings (the biggest reason for springing the extra money as opposed to the tiny and lovely Canon SD1000), and plus it's a great new toy. I'll have it for years, I'm sure, and it should take me many beautiful photos.
So now it's 9am and I still haven't done any work. By the way, Boyfriend helped me yesterday by inputting some of my grades! Isn't that the sweetest? I made some mojitos for us and then I worked on grading poetry projects (I've been working on them all week--I completed the first two classes' work in just two days! But the last class is the biggest and with the most actually turned in, and I also had to work on grading the three quizzes I gave to each class this week, so right now I've got fourteen more poetry things to grade, and then several quizzes for each class, and then I need to finish inputting, and then begin the bubbling. EGADS.).
So...sorry for the not posting, sorry for the lame update.
Oh, I'll leave you with an amusing anecdote. On the third day of getting a quiz, a student in my top class said, "Man, I've got to get a pop-up blocker for these!"
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
My new Significant Other
Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to the lovely and talented Sony H7. Isn't it just gorgeous?Squee!
Look what I bought yesterday! 
Whee! This camera has a remote control, so I can do jumping pictures much easier now! 
Check this out: the top two photos are from the new camera (8.1 megapixels and 15x zoom!). The bottom two are the same angle from my old camera (3.2 megapixels and 3x zoom). What an incredible difference, eh?
The camera was twice as much as the small Canon I was considering, but I decided to get this one so I can start learning how to manipulate aperture, shutter, and exposure manually. Plus, did I mention the remote control?
Check this out: the top two photos are from the new camera (8.1 megapixels and 15x zoom!). The bottom two are the same angle from my old camera (3.2 megapixels and 3x zoom). What an incredible difference, eh?
The camera was twice as much as the small Canon I was considering, but I decided to get this one so I can start learning how to manipulate aperture, shutter, and exposure manually. Plus, did I mention the remote control?
Monday, May 21, 2007
Back.
I'm back from the woods and the driving around. I'm very tired and not very excited about returning to school tomorrow. I AM excited about the new toy I bought today! I will upload photos and descriptions tomorrow!
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