A Teacher's Best Investment

I am not a big fan of shopping. At all. My mother will be the first to tell you that taking me shopping is not a really pleasant experience. I tend to get bored and cranky very quickly. I hate trying on clothes. Hanging out at a mall is not something I do. In fact, about the only place I enjoy shopping are bookstores and places like Home Depot or Lowes and hardware stores.

I guess I inherited my grandmother's practical side. She raised three kids during the Great Depression and the Dustbowl in Kansas and that woman brought frugality to an art. She also taught me to knit, but that's another story for another day.

In any case, one thing I have learned is that although I may buy my clothes at Good Will I will spend big money on shoes. (Good Will is the place to shop if you're in the weight loss mode and need clothes but aren't where you want to be size-wise yet. Why spend money when they hopefully won't fit in a few more pounds?)

One of the biggest revelations I had when I started teaching was that you are on your feet nearly all day long. I had moved from the corporate world where I sat all day long at a keyboard or in meetings, and all of a sudden I was on my feet constantly. From the looks of the footwear I've seen on the various education majors that have observed in my room, no one has told these kids about the standing on your feet all day thing either. It rapidly occurred on me that if I was going to be standing all day long, I was going to have to spend money on really good shoes.

Because when it comes to shoes, you get what you pay for. You buy cheap shoes and your feet will hurt all day long. If your feet hurt all day you will have a very bad day and the kids will seem even worse than they are. Your back hurts, you're cranky, and your spouse starts walking on eggshells. Spend some money and not only will your shoes be more comfortable, but they'll last longer and people will fear you less. Although I spend a lot of money on shoes, I don't do it very often. I take care of the ones I have and I don't have a lot of variety in styles. Truth be told, when it comes to school I have three pairs of Birkies (brown, black and blue), plus a pair of Noat sandals (brown).

For those of you who have never heard of Noat shoes, they are heaven. They are made in Israel and are some of the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn in my life. Fortunately I live where you can wear sandals nearly eight months out of the year and I wear these things a lot.

But I really needed a black sandal.

So, since I needed to go to the Big City Mall to pick up my replacement iPod, (another long story) I asked Mrs. Eagle if she'd like to go with me and we'd check out some shoes and do lunch. Like me, Mrs. Eagle knows the value of good shoes, and unlike me, she has to wear inserts (due to her 20 years in Army boots she says). Good shoes are really, really important to her.

We ended up at this store I discovered, The Walking Company, and had a great time. I love a nice, knowledgable sales rep who isn't pushy but who really works to find you the most comfortable shoe for your particular feet. Mrs. Eagle and I both ended up buying the same pair of shoes, some black Dansko sandals, and Mrs. Eagle even added in a pair of inserts which she said were more comfortable than the ones her doctor prescribed for her. We spent some money but we got a wonderful, quality product. (I have heard great things about Danskos from some friends who wear nothing else - I can see why.)

The fact that we bought the same shoes will surprise no one at The School. They already call us The Twins.

We are now ready to stand for hours on tile floors with our feet comfy and our smiles intact.

My most important advice for a new teacher? Buy really, really, really good shoes.

Excuse Me While I Catch My Breath...

We've had a huge change at The School this year with an implementation of a new schedule.

There were several reasons behind the change. To start with, the State has implemented a requirement that all middle school students receive 90 minutes of physical activity a week. This means that more kids need to be taking gym, but at the same time we didn't want them to lose out on their arts, computers, and other classes that are necessary as well. In addition, those of us who've slogged it out trying to do the GPA (Greater Potential for Achievement) binders without time dedicated to it were really hoping we'd get a modified study hall or advisory so we could work with the kids on their binders, study skills and what not. Trust me, if you don't work daily with middle school kids on organizational skills, they just aren't going to get organized.

So The Principal, Guidance Goober, and a few others went to a conference on scheduling and came up with a really kick-butt schedule. We moved from six periods a day to seven, with no split lunch, and 25 minutes of organizational and skills training. We also ended up with a personal planning time and a team/department planning time every day.

Split lunch, by the way, was this creation from the depths of hell where you taught about 20-25 minutes of your fourth period class, then went to lunch, only to have them return to finish up the remaining 30 minutes or so of class. This meant labs were interrupted, tests were interrupted, and you lost time just getting the little ninnies back on track. We despised it.

In order to accomplish this seven period schedule, we went from a 55 minute class period down to a 45 minute class period. This means that Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Robin and I, when we have our meeting every Thursday to do our plans - yes, we finally have actual time blocked out and set aside to collaborate! - are sitting there asking each other, "so, how are we going to cut out ten minutes every day?" We're cutting out some things (no more journals, we're adding writing into our tests and no more day long test reviews which didn't help anyway), and speeding up other things. The end result is that so far, we feel like we're on warp speed getting through the day. Amazingly enough, after three weeks we haven't slipped too far off the pacing guide, so I guess we're getting it done.

Honestly, I love this schedule...I just wished it allowed me time to breathe!

I'm Baaaaack!

I made it back from summer camp around 1:00 in the morning yesterday. So now I'm back, doing laundry, cleaning house, and generally getting back to normal before I have to worry about going back to school in a few weeks.

Camp was fun. The first week's group of kids seemed to be a bit more mature and seemed to "get it" a bit more, but overall they were a good group of kids. I did have one little guy who had already made a name for himself within the first two hours - this is rare in a camp for gifted kids. He was a terror. He did pretty good in my class until the last two days when he decided he wanted to play in the bathrooms (not a good thing to do at a University) and run in the halls. The last day he didn't want to go outside to fly the kites they'd made that week because he wanted his parents to bring a purchased kite from home. When they didn't, he got MAD. So, after I told him that he was coming with us regardless, he sat and screamed and threw rocks and generally pitched a fit because his "dad ruins everything" and "I don't want to fly a stupid homemade kite." The other kids gave him "what the hell is wrong with you" looks and proceeded to have a blast running around flying their kites and ignoring him. His folks showed up to pick him up and apologized up and down for his behavior, went on about how he has attitude problems, doesn't deal with disappointments well (really, you think?) and so forth and so on. Truth be told, after seeing how his dad got mad and lost patience with him I can see where the anger management issues come from. He was the first kid in eight years of camp that ever pitched a fit in my room, so that's saying something.

My favorite comment from him during the crying and rock throwing episode was, "I don't want to come stand by you because the other kids will think I'm a baby!". Well, hon, they already think that.

Mrs. Cardinal, who I stayed with, and I had a blast. We took her oldest daughter to Dayton, along with one of her teen friends, to see the Harry Potter movie and just loved it. Really dark, but a good film. I'm ready to see it again so perhaps Mrs. Eagle and I will do that before school starts. We did lots of walks with the baby Cardinal (going on 2) and just had a fun time. The baby is adorable, although she's getting into the terrible two's and can have her moments. One thing that staying with the Cardinals and the four kids does is make me appreciate how quiet my own home is. Let's just say the two oldest kids, 15 1/2 and 13, are masters at driving each other crazy and do it at every opportunity.

I did get to see a lot of my old college friends, and despite our 2001 graduations, at least three of them still can't find teaching jobs in Ohio. They just aren't there. People aren't retiring and when they do, they aren't replaced. This community is very family oriented, with large families, and many of these gals just can't bring themselves to leave and move somewhere to get a teaching job (like I did), especially if they have husbands who have decent jobs in the area. I can understand that, and am thankful that we didn't have the family ties and were able to leave like we did. My one friend's daughter ended up getting hired in Dodge City, Kansas, along with her fiance, so many of the best and brightest are leaving the state. It's sad, really.

So now I'm home, sleeping in my own bed, snuggling with my cats and just enjoying being home. Mr. Bluebird is out of town on business so he'll be home late tomorrow - can't wait as I miss him tons when we're apart. My new Harry Potter book arrived yesterday so I'm going to sit and try to get it read as soon as I can although part of me doesn't want the saga to end and I certainly don't want a favorite character to die.

On the down side, I have, for the first time in at least 20 years, had a reaction to some food or something. Woke up in the middle of the night and my upper lip felt swollen and this morning it's huge...so something I ate (perhaps the new flavored decaf coffee I tried for the first time last night?) caused an allergic reaction and I look like I've been in a fight, but without the bruising. It's not painful, just hideous and uncomfortable, so I'm laying low today. Hopefully it will be down by tomorrow as I have a two-day in-service to attend and I'd rather not go looking like this.

Sigh.

Rain at Last!

It's finally, finally, finally starting to rain here. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, we're still in an extreme drought, but it's getting better. We're getting afternoon thunderstorms most days, and this morning it's already booming and pouring. Our area is still ten inches short, in terms of rainfall, but we'll take what we can get. Hopefully it will keep raining so that the morons and their fireworks don't burn down entire neighborhoods beginning July 1st, when you can legally set off fireworks here in town.

Granted, some of these thunderstorms are more of a tease than anything. The sky gets black, the thunder rumbles and then.....nothing. It blows right through.

I actually mowed the lawn yesterday, for the first time in three or four weeks. It's been so long since we mowed, we can't even remember when we last did it. The weeds, not the grass, were getting really tall so I decided it had to be done. It annoys me that the grass barely grows but every variety of pasture weed (most of which I am apparently allergic to according to my recent scratch test) will grow like no body's business.

I actually enjoy mowing to a certain extent, although with my allergies I usually pay for it later that night and the next day. However, I wore a mask, took a supplemental allergy pill, used my new nose spray and I'm actually allergy free this morning - amazing. Wearing that dorky mask probably did more good than anything.

Uffda!

Hubby and I have just returned from a quick trip up North to Minnesota and Wisconsin. Hubby had to go up there on business and I tagged along. I don't normally tag along on these trips with him, but I'm out of school and since I leave tomorrow for a week to visit Momma Bluebird in California, I figured it was good quality time with Hubby.

We had a lot of fun, actually.

The drive through Wisconsin to Minneapolis was absolutely gorgeous. It was green, lush, and a tad bit rainy, but even so, it was delightful. It was nice seeing rain, since we're suffering through a drought at the moment here at home. I almost forgot what wet looked like.

While we were there I had a chance to go to the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul and do some historical research. What a wonderful place that is! The building is new, and beautiful, the staff is helpful, and it was a great way to spend the day while Hubby worked. Above you'll see a picture I took from the History Center looking towards the St. Paul Cathedral which was celebrating its centennial this past weekend.

Hubby did decide that traveling with me can be like traveling with, well, a 7th grader. (He thinks I've spent so much time with them that I've become one.) I am fine as long as it's daylight and I can either look at the scenery (lots to do on this trip), read, do sudoko, or knit. However, once it's dark and there's nothing to keep me busy, I become a squirmy, wiggly mess. I get bored. BORED. I can't just drive and listen to the radio for hours on end. I did turn on my reading light for a bit to do some puzzles, but truth be told, those lights aren't that bright and that got old after a while. I told Hubby that before I travel with him again, we're getting some audiobooks to listen to.

Now it's back to laundry, watering what's left of my yard, and getting ready to leave tomorrow for California.

Of Dances, Broken Chairs, Victory for the Non-Losers, and a Walk In the Sunshine

Daddy is visiting and that means I've been busy helping him with house and garden projects. We've painted the deck, deck swings, the shutters, planted tomatoes and marigolds, washed the house, and stuff I can't even remember. At least we're getting stuff done and I'm not cooking. He loves to eat out!

As you can tell from my ticker, there's not many days left so it's a crazy time at school. However, I'm so tired by the time the day is over, I haven't had much of a chance to blog, so here are some tidbits, here and there...or, as it says in the title, this, that and the other thing.

1. As usual, I chaperoned the 8th grade dance. I never heard of such a thing until I moved down here, but it's like a younger version of the prom. Well, sort of. We try to discourage the big elaborate spending of money for dresses, and all that and basically said, "wear your Sunday go to meeting clothes", and most of them did. I'm not sure if the clothing manufacturers are not pushing the Britney Spears Slutwear or what, but the girls looked a lot less trashy this year than in previous years. They looked, quite honestly, like cute 8th grade girls should look. Then again, the girls who'd be dressing slutty were the ones who couldn't come to the dance anyway because of the number of discipline points they'd earned this year.

2. Stoopid Boy made it to the dance (with a little help from Mrs. Partridge who decided that 35 points was a HUGE improvement and he'd earned the right to go). I'm glad he was there. We had our picture taken together and you can bet that one will be a keeper. I'll miss that kid.

3. Remember how Rude Boy and Cast Boy had a run in earlier in the year? Well, Rude Boy was in ISS most of last week when the kids were doing their Severe Weather PowerPoint Project. He lied to me (what a shock) and said he wasn't allowed to do his work up there, and then when I said that I'd talked with the ISS teachers, and yes he was, he informed me that the computer broke every time he got on it. Amazing. In any case, he turned in a project last week. Turned out it was Cast Boy's project which he copied and did nothing more than change his name. I about died laughing when I saw that because I'd actually helped Cast Boy with some of the graphics so I knew his project pretty well. (This is what happens at the end of the year when the server folders are a mess and the best I could do is have the kids store their projects on the desktop and hope they didn't mess with each other's work and or do something stupid - like copy). I sent Rude Boy's dad an email, along with the assignment attached which specifically spells out that any student who passed off someone's work as his or her own would earn a zero and a behavior note. Which is what he got. So he earned a whopping 48% for the year in my class. His Dad signed the note and was very apologetic in the email. He'd be better off putting his kid in therapy.

4. I mentioned to The Enforcer about Rude Boy's cheating incident in my room. His response? "Whatever you do, don't write a referral. I'm running out of furniture." Apparently the last time Rude Boy was called to the Enforcer's office for his latest incident, he flopped all of his 400 pounds down into one of Mr. Enforcer's chairs and it went crashing to the floor, along with Rude Boy. It's amazing that Rude Boy was actually able to get up off the floor after that one.

5. We cleaned out lockers which, in itself, is a scary thing. I don't ever want to see these kids bedrooms. One kids had eight - yes eight! - jackets in his locker. One wonders if his mother noticed that he was missing that many articles of clothing.

6. Due to the lockers being cleaned out, they've shortened the time between classes from five minutes to three. Hey, the kids don't need to go to the lockers, so why do they need five minuted? It gives them two fewer minutes to cause drama in the hallways and get into fights and trouble. Of course Brick Boy, who's never moved faster than a very slow stroll, is incensed as it is impossible for him to get to the bathroom and to class on time. Considering that he claims he needs to go to the bathroom during every class and between every class (his ploy to get out of the room and wander aimlessly), this was no shock. What will surprise him is that next year the kids will only have four minutes, not five.

7. We raised over $2,000 for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Someone got the brilliant idea that we could charge the kids a dollar for the chance to wear a hat, flip flops, and sunglasses and they could go outside and walk around a makeshift track for a designated hour. I know middle schoolers will pay a dollar to do almost anything, but we were amazed at the turn out for Relay. Of course, they got to walk with their friends, buy snow cones and water, and wear hats and sunglasses - anything beats being in class. The weather was perfect, and Mrs. Math and I walked the route several times and enjoyed the break.

8. Cast Boy is in ISS for the rest of the year - and it was for something he did in another team area that got him written up. Of course, he found a cell phone and called mom/grandmother (Biological mom apparently has a drug problem so Grandma adopted him a birth and is raising him) who came down and pitched a fit because it's obvious that everyone in the whole school is picking on him. She demanded that every piece of paper in his discipline file be copied for her, which the Guidance Goddess did. Of course, considering the amount of paper in that folder, it took some time. Hope she has fun at the school board - she's lucky he didn't earn a ticket to alternative school.

9. The Non-Losers in the Third Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself noticed the other day that all the Losers were - gasp! - pretty much gone from the class. They had managed to earn themselves stints in ISS or were suspended (one moved, we celebrated). I told them that their wish had come true but now they had to prove it was just the Losers causing all the problems in their class. They were a delight. We're making kites and they accomplished more than any other class. I think they've learned a pretty valuable lesson this year.

Finding time to sleep...

Last weekend our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Buckeye, came down from Ohio to visit, go to a civil war conference, and attend a hockey game. It was wonderful seeing them, catching up on stuff, and generally enjoying ourselves. Mrs. Buckeye and I were out shopping for a bit and got to talking about things and she mentioned an on-line "spat" she had with someone on one of her listserves who kept bagging on teachers because "they leave every day at 2:30 and don't really work." Bless her heart, she stood up for us.

But it got me to thinking.

Which can be a very dangerous thing.

And I started to wonder just how much time I really do spend as a teacher. So I decided to spend a few days keeping a tally, because I don't recall the last time I left at 2:30.

Friday:

Arrive at school at 6:15 - put together daily PowerPoint Agenda, make sure all supplies are set out and ready, check mail box, go through mail from the day before (just how many forms do we need to send out every week?) and get Mrs. Language caught up on the day before as she was out sick (and brought me a steak biscuit from Hardee's to thank me for doing her lessons, bless her heart).

7:05 - 7:30 - Homeroom. It's Green Day at school, which means candy grams and all sorts of silly stuff. Kids are wild. Take attendance, check agendas, fix a locker, get make-up work for kids who've been absent.

7:30 - 8:25 - First Period. Have kids turn in homework, science dictionaries, and finish element projects. Help kids with computer issues, glue stick issues, scissor issues, and boyfriend/girlfriend issues.

8:25-8:30 - Run to the bathroom

8:30 - 9:25 - Second Period. See First Period Above

9:25-9:30 - Watch hallways for potential problems. More and more kids with green hair due to PTO fundraiser where kids can pay to have their hair sprayed green or gelled.

9:30 - 10:25 - Third Period. My Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself. Two kids turn in behavior notes for horseplay. See First Period above.

10:25 - 10:30 - Watch hall again. More kids with green hair and now, green tattoos on faces.

10:30 - 11:05 - Fourth Period. See First Period Above.

11:05 - 11:40 - Line kids up for lunch, walk them down once they get settled, eat my lunch, check mailbox, go to bathroom, pick up kids, walk back to class.

11:40 - 12:05 - Finish Fourth Period.

12:10 - 1:05 - Fifth Period - See First Period Above. Hand out a behavior note to a kid who is flicking other kids' ears and who can't, for the life of him, keep his hands to himself. "I don't know," is his answer to everything. Show Flicker his file with previous behavior notes and emails to mom in it. Inform Flicker that next incident will most likely be a referral.

1:05 - 1:50 - 6th period planning!!! And for once, no parent meeting!!! Run to bathroom. Get mail. Meet with Mrs. Eagle and do our plans for next week. Realize that we forgot to type up a vocabulary test which I will do over the weekend. Electronically drop the plans to Mr. Enforcer, and make copies for our binders. Make copies of unit test, both regular and modified. Send email to Mrs. Sweet, letting her know we have a test scheduled for Wed and it would be great if she was available to read to our special ed kids. Return mobile computer labs to lab room.

1:50 -2:05 Kids are sent back to homerooms to get their report cards stapled into their agendas. Much wailing and worrying about what the results will be when the report cards arrive home. Some are happy, others are not so thrilled.

2:05 -4:50- Kids are dismissed! Grade workbooks from kids who've been absent. Grade homework. Put grades in computer. Export grades to website where parents can see what their darlings are doing (or not doing). Write and send my weekly parent email. Update my website and add my homework and messages to grades website. Clean whiteboards, and one of the tables which has had interesting graffiti on it lately. Comet and bleach works pretty well, but I'm going to try to catch the offender...I have my suspicions. Water plants. Look at clock and realize I need to get home.

Saturday - 1:15 - 3:00 - Grade element projects

5:15 - 8:00 - Grade the remaining element projects. Goal was to have all projects graded before hockey game, but alas, that did not happen. Put together picture cards of lab equipment and measurement tools to use in a review game.

Sunday - 12:15 - 2:15 Mrs. Eagle arrives. We put together a purchase requisition for supplies needed in order to do our review for Our Very Big Government Mandated Tests. Go over the cards I made the night before to make sure they're what we're looking for. Work on fine-tuning our lessons for the next few weeks. Discuss the fact that we can't believe we're down to the last nine weeks of the year. Go over some of my NSTA magazines with some ideas on weather projects we may try if we can get money to pay for supplies

Hum...that's it. I suppose it's a good thing that I don't have any kids of my own to worry about and that Mr. Bluebird works most weekends out of town. I couldn't imagine how I'd get it all done with people underfoot.

Now I know there are teachers that leave the second the bell rings - I work with some of them. If I did that I wouldn't feel like I'm doing the best job I can for my kids. My kids need me to be prepared, they need me to be organized, and they need me to give them prompt feedback on their assignments (I rarely take more than a day to get something graded).

I just wish some people would respect that.