There just are not enough hours in the day this year.
As part of the new STEM initiative in our district, we have to do at least four STEM challenges per year. The challenges have a lot of value as they are really good exercises in problem-solving learning. They are, however, completely built from scratch and are a lot of work, both in creating them, having the kids do them, and then grading them. We worked for about two months to get the last one designed and created, even including meeting over fall break.
Anyhow in the midst of all this (and the regular teaching stuff we do) we were informed that the school district was sponsoring a STEM open house and we were supposed to put together an exhibit for the big event. It was at the local high school that our school feeds into and would feature the schools on our side of town - elementary, us, and the high school.
Oh yeah. One more thing to do.
So we spent several weeks on this, getting the student presenters picked out, coached and trained. Mr. Math had his wife, who is working as a sub, put together three science fair boards for our exhibit which was HUGE as we were swamped with parent meetings and some of us were also working on the Veterans Day Assembly that, of course, was scheduled for the morning after our big event. We had a lab for the visitors to do, plus the kids brought their engineering notebooks to show off. Is it any wonder that we were all getting frazzled and some of us hadn't seen our spouses or family for supper for weeks as we've been so busy doing all our regular teaching stuff and then THIS?
Sigh.
When the evening finally arrived, the kids were great. They got there on time - hey, free pizza - were dressed nicely, and were well-spoken. The crowd, which was huge, seemed to really enjoy it and our Director of Schools gave us a thumbs up.
The really amazing thing is that Mrs, Standard, who is now in charge of STEM, actually said we did a good job. This from a woman who never, ever can say anything nice about anything we do. It's to the point that we hate to see her show up anywhere because we know it will be nothing but criticism and complaints. We couldn't believe it. (She did scare our kids when she showed up to watch them practice. They wanted to know who the mean, grumpy lady was.)
So the dog and pony show is done. Let us hope there isn't another one for a few more years.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
The Magic Number is?
Mrs. Eagle and I often get concerned that we obsess too much over school and tend to let it take over our lives. It's hard to escape. School doesn't end when the bell rings, but often continues after supper and until we go to bed in the form of grading papers, updating grades, working on ideas for projects, researching labs, whatever. And to make it worse, Mrs. Eagle and I spend a lot of non-school time together and even then we tend to start "talking shop' when we should really just let it go.
The challenge is finding something that will force us to stop thinking about school and starting relaxing a bit. I'm back trying to run (or plod as the case may be) and that's helping some. And I'm trying not to take too much home in the evenings, but that's a challenge as well.
In any case, Mrs. Eagle, back in September, calls me up and asks if I'd like be the fourth person on her bowling team for a winter league. She bowls along with her daughter and son-in-law, both delightful young people, in the Old-Timers League at one of the local bowling alleys. (I guess as long as you have someone over the age of 50 on your team, you can be an Old-Timer.) For them, it's kind of a date-night where they drop the little one off with her grandfather and go out and have some fun.
"You do realize," I said, "that I haven't bowled in 35 years?"
"Yes," she said.
"And I sucked then," I said.
"That's okay," she said. "Come on, it would be fun, and besides the kids suggested you."
Fine. She talked me into it. Well, maybe I should have said she bribed me into it when she went and bought me an early Christmas present in the form of bowling shoes.
So anyhow, I'm now in a bowling league on Monday nights. And yes, I still suck. But gosh, I'm having fun. And Mrs. Eagle's daughter is enjoying it because, as she said, "I'm no longer the worst one on the team." What's neat is that everyone, all the other players, are so nice and helpful and it's just a fun atmosphere. We get out there, we play, we talk, we relax. It's awesome.
And my average is 74.
Really.
Told you I sucked.
But I'm hoping to break 100 one of these days. And I want a bowling ball for Christmas.
The challenge is finding something that will force us to stop thinking about school and starting relaxing a bit. I'm back trying to run (or plod as the case may be) and that's helping some. And I'm trying not to take too much home in the evenings, but that's a challenge as well.
In any case, Mrs. Eagle, back in September, calls me up and asks if I'd like be the fourth person on her bowling team for a winter league. She bowls along with her daughter and son-in-law, both delightful young people, in the Old-Timers League at one of the local bowling alleys. (I guess as long as you have someone over the age of 50 on your team, you can be an Old-Timer.) For them, it's kind of a date-night where they drop the little one off with her grandfather and go out and have some fun.
"You do realize," I said, "that I haven't bowled in 35 years?"
"Yes," she said.
"And I sucked then," I said.
"That's okay," she said. "Come on, it would be fun, and besides the kids suggested you."
Fine. She talked me into it. Well, maybe I should have said she bribed me into it when she went and bought me an early Christmas present in the form of bowling shoes.
So anyhow, I'm now in a bowling league on Monday nights. And yes, I still suck. But gosh, I'm having fun. And Mrs. Eagle's daughter is enjoying it because, as she said, "I'm no longer the worst one on the team." What's neat is that everyone, all the other players, are so nice and helpful and it's just a fun atmosphere. We get out there, we play, we talk, we relax. It's awesome.
And my average is 74.
Really.
Told you I sucked.
But I'm hoping to break 100 one of these days. And I want a bowling ball for Christmas.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Motor Skills? String? What?
There are days when I think of something amusing, or witty, or interesting to write about but then, I get home, I grade papers, I work on stuff for school and I'm just so damn tired, I don't even bother to turn on the computer and blog.
I hang my head in shame. I have become a slacker blogger.
Things are chaotic, mainly due to STEM and having 152 students this year. This week, for the first time since school started, I actually had a complete planning period. And I almost didn't know what to do with myself. It was amazing. It was surreal. And it won't happen again for a while.
We're embarking on our second STEM challenge next week. The same challenge that we worked on over fall break (we being the 7th grade math and science teachers), that we've spent time shopping and scrounging for supplies, and that we've been preparing the kids for for ages.
I hope the kids are ready.
We do have a concern. One thing we've noticed, and actually have been noticing for a few years now, is that there is an amazing number of kids who have very little common sense when it comes to building or doing things with their hands. It's like they can do a whole lot of texting with their thumbs, but give them a chance to actually do something with all ten digits and they're lost.
We did a scaffolding activity called balloon racers a few weeks ago which is a lesson on Newton's third law (for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction). Basically the kids had to design a balloon racer which is a balloon, which has fins and a straw taped to it. You put the balloon on a long piece of string stretched across the room, let it go, and off it goes.
Our kids had a dickens of a time figuring out how to get the string through the straw.
Really.
You would have thought we'd asked them to do brain surgery. Fortunately, most of them figured out which direction they had to put it on so it didn't blow up in their faces (although some did have the balloon take off towards them which was a scene of my hilarity for all).
And it wasn't just my kids. Mrs. Eagle, and Mrs. Angora had the same problem. And Mr. Math said the kids in the Lego Robotics club actually were having issues putting the pieces together. And it got us to thinking. These kids play differently than we did. We used to play outside, tear apart things, build things, make go-carts, and boats, and fortresses out of boxes and gosh knows what else. These kids play with a controller or a mouse or they text, text, text. They don't get the experience of going, "hum, wonder what would happen if I did this?" to a real object.
Now, I do have kids who do have this kind of experiences - mostly my kids from the more rural area of my zone. But the numbers are getting smaller and smaller every year.
Are we creating a generation of kids who can't do things with their hands?
I hang my head in shame. I have become a slacker blogger.
Things are chaotic, mainly due to STEM and having 152 students this year. This week, for the first time since school started, I actually had a complete planning period. And I almost didn't know what to do with myself. It was amazing. It was surreal. And it won't happen again for a while.
We're embarking on our second STEM challenge next week. The same challenge that we worked on over fall break (we being the 7th grade math and science teachers), that we've spent time shopping and scrounging for supplies, and that we've been preparing the kids for for ages.
I hope the kids are ready.
We do have a concern. One thing we've noticed, and actually have been noticing for a few years now, is that there is an amazing number of kids who have very little common sense when it comes to building or doing things with their hands. It's like they can do a whole lot of texting with their thumbs, but give them a chance to actually do something with all ten digits and they're lost.
We did a scaffolding activity called balloon racers a few weeks ago which is a lesson on Newton's third law (for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction). Basically the kids had to design a balloon racer which is a balloon, which has fins and a straw taped to it. You put the balloon on a long piece of string stretched across the room, let it go, and off it goes.
Our kids had a dickens of a time figuring out how to get the string through the straw.
Really.
You would have thought we'd asked them to do brain surgery. Fortunately, most of them figured out which direction they had to put it on so it didn't blow up in their faces (although some did have the balloon take off towards them which was a scene of my hilarity for all).
And it wasn't just my kids. Mrs. Eagle, and Mrs. Angora had the same problem. And Mr. Math said the kids in the Lego Robotics club actually were having issues putting the pieces together. And it got us to thinking. These kids play differently than we did. We used to play outside, tear apart things, build things, make go-carts, and boats, and fortresses out of boxes and gosh knows what else. These kids play with a controller or a mouse or they text, text, text. They don't get the experience of going, "hum, wonder what would happen if I did this?" to a real object.
Now, I do have kids who do have this kind of experiences - mostly my kids from the more rural area of my zone. But the numbers are getting smaller and smaller every year.
Are we creating a generation of kids who can't do things with their hands?
Friday, October 19, 2012
These Aren't Yearbook Photos...
I've been teaching at The School for ten (10! Can you freaking believe it!?) years now, so it's safe to say that some of the kids I had during my first few years are now adults. I do run into them quite a bit when I'm out and about, to the point that my father teases me when we don't run into a former student.
For the record, the girls are easier to recognize - their facial features don't change as much. Boys, however, are a different story. They get way taller, talk differently and their facial features change dramatically. Believe me, there is a big difference from a 4'6" twelve year old and a twenty-two year old who's 6'2" and has a beard. I get a kick out of talking with them and finding out what they're doing. Fortunately, the ones I tend to run into are working and usually going to college. (They must be employed at every restaurant in town.)
Lately, however, I've been spotting quite a few of my former students on-line courtesy of the local law enforcement's collection of mug shots. The Guidance Goddess used to check the bookings log to see if any of our parents or caregivers had been arrested - obviously something like that affects are kids and, in fact, causes many of them to want to visit the guidance department in the first place. Believe me, when a kid is worried or embarrassed about the fact that dad got picked up for drunk driving and is sitting in jail, doing science homework is not a priority.
In any case, these booking photos got so much traffic that they are now featured on not one, but two, on line newspaper websites. And, not surprisingly, they are even more popular. We're just a bunch of nosy folks at heart.
Sad to say, however, that the past week I have seen not one, not two, but three former students picked up and arrested. One, in fact, made the local news (which is where I saw it first) and I about fell out of my chair when his name and face splashed across the screen. Then Mr. Social Studies (who taught on my team for a few years before he got moved to Mrs. Eagle's team) ran into me and mentioned two other students of ours that had shown up on the website.
Sad. Of the three, two of them didn't surprise me. They didn't make good choices in seventh grade and they obviously aren't making good choices now. (Running over a police officer is not a good thing.) The other one...well, he was a bit scatter-brained, but smart, and had potential. However, it looks like he took a wrong turn somewhere.
So sad.
Update: As luck would have it, another one showed up this weekend as an accessory to murder. Can't say I'm even remotely surprised.
In any case, these booking photos got so much traffic that they are now featured on not one, but two, on line newspaper websites. And, not surprisingly, they are even more popular. We're just a bunch of nosy folks at heart.
Sad to say, however, that the past week I have seen not one, not two, but three former students picked up and arrested. One, in fact, made the local news (which is where I saw it first) and I about fell out of my chair when his name and face splashed across the screen. Then Mr. Social Studies (who taught on my team for a few years before he got moved to Mrs. Eagle's team) ran into me and mentioned two other students of ours that had shown up on the website.
Sad. Of the three, two of them didn't surprise me. They didn't make good choices in seventh grade and they obviously aren't making good choices now. (Running over a police officer is not a good thing.) The other one...well, he was a bit scatter-brained, but smart, and had potential. However, it looks like he took a wrong turn somewhere.
So sad.
Update: As luck would have it, another one showed up this weekend as an accessory to murder. Can't say I'm even remotely surprised.
Monday, October 08, 2012
When All Else Fails...Punt
I'm the first to admit that I really enjoy, and utilize heavily, all the technology in my room. I know some teachers do a lot of PowerPoints (I don't) and they love that, but my favorite is my document reader. It's amazing what you can do with that thing. I've dissected a flower on there, zoomed in to look at the different parts, and gosh knows what else. It's easy and convenient to slap up an example of something and work through it so the kids can see what's going on (talk about modeling). I probably use that thing more than anything else in my room.
So, when it blinked on and off orange three times and then went off completely IN THE MIDDLE OF A LESSON on Friday I knew I was in for an interesting afternoon. No matter what I tried to do, it would not come back on. Tested wires, turned things on and off, rebooted my ancient computer. No luck.
Darn.
My lesson was about doing formulas for speed, distance and time. Let's be honest, our kids feel that they can't do math without a calculator and really have no clue what they are doing when they press buttons on the stupid things. So this was one lesson where they really needed to see examples. Except now they weren't going to see them.
So, I grabbed the bottle of white board cleaner, my cleaning mitt, a basket of markers and proceeded to do the lesson by moving from the three little (and I mean little) white boards scattered across the room. I'd write some notes and examples on one board, explain it, the kids would work on it, and I'd move to another board and repeat.
I forgot how short I am compared to these boards. And I was having to write REALLY BIG because it seems that half my kids can't see anything if it's not in really big letters.
Thank goodness we only had two periods left. By the end of the day a tech guy had shown up, found a problem with a wire in the wall, and fixed it. Yeah.
What a way to kick off fall break, eh?
So, when it blinked on and off orange three times and then went off completely IN THE MIDDLE OF A LESSON on Friday I knew I was in for an interesting afternoon. No matter what I tried to do, it would not come back on. Tested wires, turned things on and off, rebooted my ancient computer. No luck.
Darn.
My lesson was about doing formulas for speed, distance and time. Let's be honest, our kids feel that they can't do math without a calculator and really have no clue what they are doing when they press buttons on the stupid things. So this was one lesson where they really needed to see examples. Except now they weren't going to see them.
So, I grabbed the bottle of white board cleaner, my cleaning mitt, a basket of markers and proceeded to do the lesson by moving from the three little (and I mean little) white boards scattered across the room. I'd write some notes and examples on one board, explain it, the kids would work on it, and I'd move to another board and repeat.
I forgot how short I am compared to these boards. And I was having to write REALLY BIG because it seems that half my kids can't see anything if it's not in really big letters.
Thank goodness we only had two periods left. By the end of the day a tech guy had shown up, found a problem with a wire in the wall, and fixed it. Yeah.
What a way to kick off fall break, eh?
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Fixing Other People's Kids
As I've mentioned earlier, we're getting a lot of new kids in the building this year, including a lot from out of state. The Guidance Goddess has been swamped with new registrations, contacting previous schools for records, and just processing all these new kids.
Busy as she is, she knew something was amiss when she called a school in a Northern State to request records for two girls who had landed in our building and they laughed at her. "Oh dear!" was the hysterical response, "They ended up with you! Good Luck!! You'll need it!" Hysterical laughing all around in the background.
This is not a good sign.
The younger sister was on Mrs. Eagle's team and on the first full Monday of school, essentially our 3rd day, she asked permission to go to the bathroom and then didn't come back. Her teacher did an APB (we send out these emails all day long to the school at large looking for kids who should be with us but aren't, and aren't on the absence list) and she was found in one of the bathrooms with her sister, an 8th grader. Back to class she was sent where she stomped in, threw her notebook on the ground, and shoved a kid. When her teacher picked up the notebook to give it back, she realized that it was full of a lot of really inappropriate comments and writing and turned that over to the administration along with the write up for the skipping, and shoving.
Giving the young lady, who we'll call Skipper Girl, the benefit of a doubt, I was informed by Mrs. Sparrow that they wanted to give her a fresh start so she was moving to my team and my homeroom. She had to, however, finish a stint in in-school suspension first.
To make a really long story short, she and her sister (because they are joined at the hip and if one gets in trouble the other one does as well) got suspended from ISS for attempting to flee the building and the school grounds (which sent our Sheriff Reserve Officer and administrators running across the parking lot to catch them). Then mom said they were both going to be out for ten days due to chicken pox (although their records, which arrived a day later, indicated they'd both already had chicken pox). Then mom said, no, she didn't say they had chicken pox, but that we'd said they couldn't enroll until their records come. (Which is funny because I have an email from mom about the chicken pox and we always enroll kids without their records, and when these girl's records came, they were huge!) Then they came back, had to go to ISS, got suspended again for trying to leave the building and swearing at The Principal, then came back. In addition for their trying to leave the building and roaming the halls trying to locate each other, Skipper Girl and her sister like to curse and insult the adults, including the administrators, in our building. The situation is so nuts with these two that the front office has radio codes for each girl so they can let people know when they're on the lose.
Now, keep in mind. This kid is in my homeroom and I haven't even SEEN her.
After about 4 weeks of this on and off suspension thing I get a call from the front office asking if Skipper Girl is in my classroom. "Uh, no, I haven't seen her," I said. "I don't even know what she looks like. Isn't she supposed to be in in-school suspension?"
"No, they don't want her out there anymore, and she needs to be in class, so she's supposed to be with you," said the Front Office.
At this time, I look at my door and see a skinny little blonde in the hallway. "Are you Skipper Girl?" I ask her. She nods, and I wave into the room and sit her down. "She's here," I tell them.
I get her seated, get her my new student paperwork, and get her caught up, best I can, on the assignment the kids are working on. She sits down, doesn't make a peep, and gets to work. A few minutes later the phone rings. It's the Front Office. The Attendance Lady from Central Office wants to talk with Skipper Girl. So, off she goes. Except she doesn't come back. She takes herself out to the in-school suspension building. Mrs. Saint, the teacher out there, calls me and asks me to open my back door and make sure Skipper Girl comes back to class. (Apparently Skipper Girl doesn't want to be in a classroom with the other kids.) She comes back, class ends and off she goes.
That day she made it through 3rd period, 4th period, and in 5th had a blow up with another girl and threatened to beat her up. The other girl is mystified by this because She Was Just Sitting There Minding Her Own Business (for once.) Mrs. Social Studies called the office, they said to hang on to Skipper Girl until the class change (since Mrs. Social Studies had moved her into a corner away from everyone which seemed to make her happy) and they'd deal with her then. Off she goes to 6th period except she just kept walking on out of the building, with Mrs. Sparrow and Officer Cool chasing after her.
Suspended. Again.
At this point, the kid has been here for four weeks and had racked up 110 discipline points. She was on the fast track to alternative school.
So. A parent meeting is set up to decide on Skipper Girl's placement. The entire team is there. The administrators are there. The school psychologist is there and there's even a psychologist from Central Office there. Mom is there, along with her sister and her sister's baby (why, I have no idea except mom wanted them there). We have people from guidance. Mom has a government advocate from social services or something. In short, we have about 20 people at this meeting to decide if Skipper Girl is going to go to alternative school.
The meeting starts late because Mom doesn't show up on time. Apparently she was downtown enrolling another child, a high school student, in our school for severely emotionally disturbed children, after she had been expelled from the high school.
Really. You can't make this stuff up.
So we have the meeting. Mom basically says that Skipper Girl is really bright, has no problems academically, but she needs a special placement due to emotional issues. It is, after all, OUR job, according to mom, to "fix my daughter." Problem is, we don't have a single piece of documentation from a doctor that says the kid actually has something going on with her emotionally, so we have to treat her as we would any other child. Mom says that she doesn't understand why her daughter doesn't want to go to school, but school is obviously a trigger, and she also doesn't like the fact that we get our Sheriff to track her down. At this point the principal makes a comment that mom is lucky that we haven't called 911 and had the kids arrested for disturbing the peace based on their behavior.
That shuts mom up for a minute.
The psychologists asks for input from the teachers. Now keep in mind, this is about 5 weeks into the school year. We go around the table. I start. I mention that I've had Skipper Girl in my room for 20 minutes total so I can't really tell them anything. Mrs. Social Studies and Mrs. Reading mention that they've had her for one period. Mr. Math and Mrs. Grammar say they haven't even met the child.
The lady from Central Office, the Psychologist, and the government advocate all seem a bit taken aback by that. I honestly don't think they really realized how little this kid has been in our classrooms until they actually heard it from us.
At this point, I look at the clock and ask if they really need us anymore as we have classes starting. The Principal sends us on our way. Thank Goodness. Because that meeting lasted for three hours!
I got word later that many of the folks in the meeting felt that mom wasn't being honest with us about her situation and her kids. She was really vague in areas, kept mentioning that the kids had PTSD, but never would say why, then would claim that all these problems just happened since they'd moved Down South (but the files from the other schools say otherwise.) The end result was that Skipper Girl got sent to alternative school, and surprisingly, she's actually showed up and registered down there. Although truth be told, she probably won't last and will get expelled considering her fondness for threatening other kids and skipping out. She'll threaten the wrong kid.
The older sister was withdrawn from school and mom is going to home school her.
What's really scary is that out of the three kids we know about (there are more, believe it or not), not one of them is a typical, normal kid. One is obviously very emotionally disturbed to the point that she's in a special school (Skipper Girl and her sister did tell the guidance staff that they had an older sister who was crazy). The other two can't/won't stay in school.
And mom thinks it's OUR job to fix her kids.
Busy as she is, she knew something was amiss when she called a school in a Northern State to request records for two girls who had landed in our building and they laughed at her. "Oh dear!" was the hysterical response, "They ended up with you! Good Luck!! You'll need it!" Hysterical laughing all around in the background.
This is not a good sign.
The younger sister was on Mrs. Eagle's team and on the first full Monday of school, essentially our 3rd day, she asked permission to go to the bathroom and then didn't come back. Her teacher did an APB (we send out these emails all day long to the school at large looking for kids who should be with us but aren't, and aren't on the absence list) and she was found in one of the bathrooms with her sister, an 8th grader. Back to class she was sent where she stomped in, threw her notebook on the ground, and shoved a kid. When her teacher picked up the notebook to give it back, she realized that it was full of a lot of really inappropriate comments and writing and turned that over to the administration along with the write up for the skipping, and shoving.
Giving the young lady, who we'll call Skipper Girl, the benefit of a doubt, I was informed by Mrs. Sparrow that they wanted to give her a fresh start so she was moving to my team and my homeroom. She had to, however, finish a stint in in-school suspension first.
To make a really long story short, she and her sister (because they are joined at the hip and if one gets in trouble the other one does as well) got suspended from ISS for attempting to flee the building and the school grounds (which sent our Sheriff Reserve Officer and administrators running across the parking lot to catch them). Then mom said they were both going to be out for ten days due to chicken pox (although their records, which arrived a day later, indicated they'd both already had chicken pox). Then mom said, no, she didn't say they had chicken pox, but that we'd said they couldn't enroll until their records come. (Which is funny because I have an email from mom about the chicken pox and we always enroll kids without their records, and when these girl's records came, they were huge!) Then they came back, had to go to ISS, got suspended again for trying to leave the building and swearing at The Principal, then came back. In addition for their trying to leave the building and roaming the halls trying to locate each other, Skipper Girl and her sister like to curse and insult the adults, including the administrators, in our building. The situation is so nuts with these two that the front office has radio codes for each girl so they can let people know when they're on the lose.
Now, keep in mind. This kid is in my homeroom and I haven't even SEEN her.
After about 4 weeks of this on and off suspension thing I get a call from the front office asking if Skipper Girl is in my classroom. "Uh, no, I haven't seen her," I said. "I don't even know what she looks like. Isn't she supposed to be in in-school suspension?"
"No, they don't want her out there anymore, and she needs to be in class, so she's supposed to be with you," said the Front Office.
At this time, I look at my door and see a skinny little blonde in the hallway. "Are you Skipper Girl?" I ask her. She nods, and I wave into the room and sit her down. "She's here," I tell them.
I get her seated, get her my new student paperwork, and get her caught up, best I can, on the assignment the kids are working on. She sits down, doesn't make a peep, and gets to work. A few minutes later the phone rings. It's the Front Office. The Attendance Lady from Central Office wants to talk with Skipper Girl. So, off she goes. Except she doesn't come back. She takes herself out to the in-school suspension building. Mrs. Saint, the teacher out there, calls me and asks me to open my back door and make sure Skipper Girl comes back to class. (Apparently Skipper Girl doesn't want to be in a classroom with the other kids.) She comes back, class ends and off she goes.
That day she made it through 3rd period, 4th period, and in 5th had a blow up with another girl and threatened to beat her up. The other girl is mystified by this because She Was Just Sitting There Minding Her Own Business (for once.) Mrs. Social Studies called the office, they said to hang on to Skipper Girl until the class change (since Mrs. Social Studies had moved her into a corner away from everyone which seemed to make her happy) and they'd deal with her then. Off she goes to 6th period except she just kept walking on out of the building, with Mrs. Sparrow and Officer Cool chasing after her.
Suspended. Again.
At this point, the kid has been here for four weeks and had racked up 110 discipline points. She was on the fast track to alternative school.
So. A parent meeting is set up to decide on Skipper Girl's placement. The entire team is there. The administrators are there. The school psychologist is there and there's even a psychologist from Central Office there. Mom is there, along with her sister and her sister's baby (why, I have no idea except mom wanted them there). We have people from guidance. Mom has a government advocate from social services or something. In short, we have about 20 people at this meeting to decide if Skipper Girl is going to go to alternative school.
The meeting starts late because Mom doesn't show up on time. Apparently she was downtown enrolling another child, a high school student, in our school for severely emotionally disturbed children, after she had been expelled from the high school.
Really. You can't make this stuff up.
So we have the meeting. Mom basically says that Skipper Girl is really bright, has no problems academically, but she needs a special placement due to emotional issues. It is, after all, OUR job, according to mom, to "fix my daughter." Problem is, we don't have a single piece of documentation from a doctor that says the kid actually has something going on with her emotionally, so we have to treat her as we would any other child. Mom says that she doesn't understand why her daughter doesn't want to go to school, but school is obviously a trigger, and she also doesn't like the fact that we get our Sheriff to track her down. At this point the principal makes a comment that mom is lucky that we haven't called 911 and had the kids arrested for disturbing the peace based on their behavior.
That shuts mom up for a minute.
The psychologists asks for input from the teachers. Now keep in mind, this is about 5 weeks into the school year. We go around the table. I start. I mention that I've had Skipper Girl in my room for 20 minutes total so I can't really tell them anything. Mrs. Social Studies and Mrs. Reading mention that they've had her for one period. Mr. Math and Mrs. Grammar say they haven't even met the child.
The lady from Central Office, the Psychologist, and the government advocate all seem a bit taken aback by that. I honestly don't think they really realized how little this kid has been in our classrooms until they actually heard it from us.
At this point, I look at the clock and ask if they really need us anymore as we have classes starting. The Principal sends us on our way. Thank Goodness. Because that meeting lasted for three hours!
I got word later that many of the folks in the meeting felt that mom wasn't being honest with us about her situation and her kids. She was really vague in areas, kept mentioning that the kids had PTSD, but never would say why, then would claim that all these problems just happened since they'd moved Down South (but the files from the other schools say otherwise.) The end result was that Skipper Girl got sent to alternative school, and surprisingly, she's actually showed up and registered down there. Although truth be told, she probably won't last and will get expelled considering her fondness for threatening other kids and skipping out. She'll threaten the wrong kid.
The older sister was withdrawn from school and mom is going to home school her.
What's really scary is that out of the three kids we know about (there are more, believe it or not), not one of them is a typical, normal kid. One is obviously very emotionally disturbed to the point that she's in a special school (Skipper Girl and her sister did tell the guidance staff that they had an older sister who was crazy). The other two can't/won't stay in school.
And mom thinks it's OUR job to fix her kids.
Holy Cow! Where'd The Time Go?
Yesterday Mrs. Eagle and I were working after school getting our lessons done when we looked at the calendar and realized that Fall Break was in TWO FREAKING WEEKS!
We were stunned. Honestly, it seems as if we've been on a high speed treadmill since the beginning of school in August, and it hasn't let up yet. With over 400 seventh graders this year, all the seventh grade teachers are exhausted. Planning time has been chewed up by meetings, meetings, and more meetings, and if we don't have a meeting, we're doing interventions for kids who aren't doing well in school.
For those of us teaching science and math, STEM has been a real kick in the butt. Don't get me wrong, I think the idea behind STEM is great and actually a better way to teach science and math, but it's a heck of a lot of work. Basically everything we used to do, we're tweaking and changing. Throw in the mandatory STEM challenges, and you have a lot of time being spent just prepping for units and grading projects. And with about 30 more kids than normal, it just takes a lot more time.
So, my house hasn't been really cleaned since school started. Truly. And I'm a bit of a neat freak in some respects, so this is making me slightly crazy. Knitting? Only managing to get that out for knitting club and when I'm waiting for an allergy shot. Walking/running? Trying, trying, trying, to get a walk or a run in about 3 times a week and that's a real challenge. The ankle I messed up in June is better, not 100%, but I'm thinking it never will be 100%. And of course, just getting enough sleep isn't happening.
So my plans for Fall Break? Sleep, knit, clean house, sleep.
We were stunned. Honestly, it seems as if we've been on a high speed treadmill since the beginning of school in August, and it hasn't let up yet. With over 400 seventh graders this year, all the seventh grade teachers are exhausted. Planning time has been chewed up by meetings, meetings, and more meetings, and if we don't have a meeting, we're doing interventions for kids who aren't doing well in school.
For those of us teaching science and math, STEM has been a real kick in the butt. Don't get me wrong, I think the idea behind STEM is great and actually a better way to teach science and math, but it's a heck of a lot of work. Basically everything we used to do, we're tweaking and changing. Throw in the mandatory STEM challenges, and you have a lot of time being spent just prepping for units and grading projects. And with about 30 more kids than normal, it just takes a lot more time.
So, my house hasn't been really cleaned since school started. Truly. And I'm a bit of a neat freak in some respects, so this is making me slightly crazy. Knitting? Only managing to get that out for knitting club and when I'm waiting for an allergy shot. Walking/running? Trying, trying, trying, to get a walk or a run in about 3 times a week and that's a real challenge. The ankle I messed up in June is better, not 100%, but I'm thinking it never will be 100%. And of course, just getting enough sleep isn't happening.
So my plans for Fall Break? Sleep, knit, clean house, sleep.
Monday, September 10, 2012
And They Think I'll Never Call
It just cracks me up that my students honestly don't think I'll be calling their parents when they're missing, say, a 100 point writing prompt that we worked on in class for four days.
I graded 3rd period's Pet Rock Projects today (combining an assessment to see if they can explain rocks to me with one of our mandatory writing assignments for their portfolio). We worked on this in class for four days. That's FOUR. So when I had eight kids who hadn't bothered to turn anything in, and it was due Friday, I got on the phone.
One dad was incredulous.
"He worked on this in class?"
"Yes," I replied.
"For four days?"
"Yes, from last Tuesday and it was due Friday."
"And you didn't get it turned in?"
"Nope, nothing as of this afternoon."
"That's ridiculous. There's no reason he shouldn't have turned it in."
"Oh, I agree," I said.
"You'll have it tomorrow."
That one was fun. However, it wasn't as fun as when I called one of my darlings, who answered the phone and politely asked who should he say was calling, and about choked when he found out it was me. Mom got on the phone and I informed her of the missing assignment.
"Young man, where on earth is this assignment that you didn't turn in?" she asked. Then a pause. "He's holding up his finger asking me to wait a minute."....pause...."He's digging in his backpack."....pause...."He has it and he's turning it in tomorrow and if he doesn't You Call Me and we'll get things fixed."
I wish all my parents were this awesome.
I graded 3rd period's Pet Rock Projects today (combining an assessment to see if they can explain rocks to me with one of our mandatory writing assignments for their portfolio). We worked on this in class for four days. That's FOUR. So when I had eight kids who hadn't bothered to turn anything in, and it was due Friday, I got on the phone.
One dad was incredulous.
"He worked on this in class?"
"Yes," I replied.
"For four days?"
"Yes, from last Tuesday and it was due Friday."
"And you didn't get it turned in?"
"Nope, nothing as of this afternoon."
"That's ridiculous. There's no reason he shouldn't have turned it in."
"Oh, I agree," I said.
"You'll have it tomorrow."
That one was fun. However, it wasn't as fun as when I called one of my darlings, who answered the phone and politely asked who should he say was calling, and about choked when he found out it was me. Mom got on the phone and I informed her of the missing assignment.
"Young man, where on earth is this assignment that you didn't turn in?" she asked. Then a pause. "He's holding up his finger asking me to wait a minute."....pause...."He's digging in his backpack."....pause...."He has it and he's turning it in tomorrow and if he doesn't You Call Me and we'll get things fixed."
I wish all my parents were this awesome.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
The School of Misfit Toys
Last week Mrs. Eagle and I had our first fundraiser for our Knitting (and now Crochet) Club. We needed some money to buy more yarn and needles, as well as crochet hooks for our new crocheters. (One of our fabulous special ed teachers volunteered to teach them how to crochet, bless her, since neither one of us knows how.)
In any case, we were having a hat day which is The Easiest Fundraiser Ever because basically the kids give you a dollar (or in some cases, handfuls of coins) and you give them a sticker to wear on their hat which says that yes, they can wear a hat all day. It's awesome. Twenty minutes of work usually nets around $150 which is about all the money we'll need all year. All we have to do is provide a bunch of stickers, a box to put the money in, and then set up a desk right outside guidance that All The Kids have to funnel through and that's it.
I love simple fundraisers.
In any case, The Enforcer was there right before the kids came in and we got to talking about some of the rather, well, unique, children we have this year. It's weird, but it's like we have had a huge influx of kids with some serious issues with behavior and emotions and goodness knows what else. A lot of these kids are coming from out of the area - many from out of state - and that was another thing we noticed.
The Enforcer, who has worked at a number of buildings in our town, commented that he thought it was as if word had got out that we do our best to help these types of kids. "It's like we're the school of misfit toys," he said. "We're getting all the kids the other schools don't want."
Are we ever.
In any case, we were having a hat day which is The Easiest Fundraiser Ever because basically the kids give you a dollar (or in some cases, handfuls of coins) and you give them a sticker to wear on their hat which says that yes, they can wear a hat all day. It's awesome. Twenty minutes of work usually nets around $150 which is about all the money we'll need all year. All we have to do is provide a bunch of stickers, a box to put the money in, and then set up a desk right outside guidance that All The Kids have to funnel through and that's it.
I love simple fundraisers.
In any case, The Enforcer was there right before the kids came in and we got to talking about some of the rather, well, unique, children we have this year. It's weird, but it's like we have had a huge influx of kids with some serious issues with behavior and emotions and goodness knows what else. A lot of these kids are coming from out of the area - many from out of state - and that was another thing we noticed.
The Enforcer, who has worked at a number of buildings in our town, commented that he thought it was as if word had got out that we do our best to help these types of kids. "It's like we're the school of misfit toys," he said. "We're getting all the kids the other schools don't want."
Are we ever.
Monday, September 03, 2012
Just Not Enough of Me to Go Around
Ah, dear reader, I really had much better intentions.
I truly was going to post at least several times a week. I really was. But, unfortunately, the beginning of the year reality has pretty much changed that.
With 151 students, a significant increase over previous years, I'm spending a lot more time grading papers. Consider that it's like having an additional complete class of kids, it's taking way more time than it has in the past.
As for planning...what planning? We've had this mandatory meeting and that mandatory meeting, and mandatory STEM meetings every Tuesday, and this IEP meeting, and that IEP meeting, and that means that we are doing work after school (or at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am) because that's the only time we have free.
And so, to be honest, I'm just beat. At school at 6:30, home by 5:00, run or walk after I get home, cook supper, eat, clean up, grade papers, fall into bed by, we hope, 9:30...
I'm truly going to try to be better, I truly am...you're just going to have to be patient.
I truly was going to post at least several times a week. I really was. But, unfortunately, the beginning of the year reality has pretty much changed that.
With 151 students, a significant increase over previous years, I'm spending a lot more time grading papers. Consider that it's like having an additional complete class of kids, it's taking way more time than it has in the past.
As for planning...what planning? We've had this mandatory meeting and that mandatory meeting, and mandatory STEM meetings every Tuesday, and this IEP meeting, and that IEP meeting, and that means that we are doing work after school (or at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am) because that's the only time we have free.
And so, to be honest, I'm just beat. At school at 6:30, home by 5:00, run or walk after I get home, cook supper, eat, clean up, grade papers, fall into bed by, we hope, 9:30...
I'm truly going to try to be better, I truly am...you're just going to have to be patient.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Piggies Beware!
Some of these new seventh graders are starting to show their true colors lately, and truth be told, some of them are pretty amusing kids.
For example, the second or third day of school the kids at the table in front of my teacher station were having a conversation about their favorite foods before the bell rang. One of the girls, a thin, pretty little thing mentioned that her absolute favorite food in the world was pork chops. Now, I've heard kids rhapsodize about pizza, and chocolate, and ice cream, and candy, but never pork chops. And she doesn't just love pork chops...she LOVES pork chops. Absolutely adores them. Would probably be happy if she ate them for every single meal, every single day.
Now, I wouldn't have thought much of it, but a few days later the topic of pork chops comes up again and she begins telling the kids at the table about the great dinner she had the other night with her momma's pork chops. They are all seriously listening to her, which is funny in and of itself.
Okay, this is getting amusing now. And it wouldn't be nearly so funny but she's not a big kid. She doesn't look like she could manage one pork chop, let alone two, at a meal, but apparently she polishes them off quite handily.
Yesterday, she asked me how my weekend was after she walked into class. (This kid, by the way, has apparently adopted me and considers me her school momma, and is checking in every morning to make sure I'm here and it's not a sub. I'm not sure why this is, but every morning I get a bearhug from her - she's strong for such a tiny kid - and off she goes.)
"I had a pretty good weekend," I tell her.
"Did you have pork chops?" she asks. Really. I thought I was going to crack up laughing right then and there.
"No, but I think I'll have to have some this week," I told her.
So last night, I tell Mr. Bluebird this story about my Pork Chop Girl and he thought it was great. However, he did have something to add. "You need to ask her how her momma cooks her pork chops. If they are that awesome, I want the recipe."
So I did. I pulled her aside this afternoon, and asked her how her momma made her pork chops.
"Well, I honestly don't know," she said. "Momma gets mad at me for wanting to eat them out of the pan and not waiting to sit at the table so I stay in my room until supper is ready."
Okay, by this point, I'm picturing this girl standing by the stove with a fork in hand reading to spear those chops from the pan into her mouth. In one bite.
"Well, Mr. Bluebird would really like to know how your momma cooks them, so can you bring me her recipe tomorrow?" I asked.
"Okay," she said, "I'll ask her. But you know, you're making me hungry."
We'd finished lunch only and hour earlier.
So, we'll see if she shows up with a recipe tomorrow. Truth be told, I'm intrigued. Maybe we'll do pork chops this weekend.
For example, the second or third day of school the kids at the table in front of my teacher station were having a conversation about their favorite foods before the bell rang. One of the girls, a thin, pretty little thing mentioned that her absolute favorite food in the world was pork chops. Now, I've heard kids rhapsodize about pizza, and chocolate, and ice cream, and candy, but never pork chops. And she doesn't just love pork chops...she LOVES pork chops. Absolutely adores them. Would probably be happy if she ate them for every single meal, every single day.
Now, I wouldn't have thought much of it, but a few days later the topic of pork chops comes up again and she begins telling the kids at the table about the great dinner she had the other night with her momma's pork chops. They are all seriously listening to her, which is funny in and of itself.
Okay, this is getting amusing now. And it wouldn't be nearly so funny but she's not a big kid. She doesn't look like she could manage one pork chop, let alone two, at a meal, but apparently she polishes them off quite handily.
Yesterday, she asked me how my weekend was after she walked into class. (This kid, by the way, has apparently adopted me and considers me her school momma, and is checking in every morning to make sure I'm here and it's not a sub. I'm not sure why this is, but every morning I get a bearhug from her - she's strong for such a tiny kid - and off she goes.)
"I had a pretty good weekend," I tell her.
"Did you have pork chops?" she asks. Really. I thought I was going to crack up laughing right then and there.
"No, but I think I'll have to have some this week," I told her.
So last night, I tell Mr. Bluebird this story about my Pork Chop Girl and he thought it was great. However, he did have something to add. "You need to ask her how her momma cooks her pork chops. If they are that awesome, I want the recipe."
So I did. I pulled her aside this afternoon, and asked her how her momma made her pork chops.
"Well, I honestly don't know," she said. "Momma gets mad at me for wanting to eat them out of the pan and not waiting to sit at the table so I stay in my room until supper is ready."
Okay, by this point, I'm picturing this girl standing by the stove with a fork in hand reading to spear those chops from the pan into her mouth. In one bite.
"Well, Mr. Bluebird would really like to know how your momma cooks them, so can you bring me her recipe tomorrow?" I asked.
"Okay," she said, "I'll ask her. But you know, you're making me hungry."
We'd finished lunch only and hour earlier.
So, we'll see if she shows up with a recipe tomorrow. Truth be told, I'm intrigued. Maybe we'll do pork chops this weekend.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Really? A Week Already?
I'm not even remotely surprised that I have not posted this week. I'm actually wondering just where the week went. To say it flew by was putting it mildly.
The first full week of school is always like that but this year, in between STEM and the fact that we're bursting at the seams with kids, seems to make it a bit more chaotic. It's one thing to learn 22 names for a class. It's quite another to learn 34. Now multiply that by five class periods and you get a clue how frazzled we all are this year.
Our numbers aren't going down. The kids are showing up, very few are withdrawing and heading elsewhere and even more new kids are showing up. If it keeps up like this we'll probably get another teacher or two, but where they'll put them is anybody's guess. The PE classes are already so large that the gym can't hold all the kids so some of the kids are walking across the parking lot to the city-owned community center to use the gym there. The electives teachers - music, band, art, PE, and so on - have classes inching up towards 40 in size. Seventh grade doesn't fit in the lunch room so a few groups of kids are eating in what we call the Large Group Instruction classroom right down the hall from the cafeteria. The Head Janitor put in a request with downtown to provide us with 80 student desks from the warehouse because we'd ran out.
All of which makes me wonder...what were the people that got paid the big bucks thinking when they redrew the zoning maps and said we'd be down - way, way, way down - in enrollment this year? Last year's sixth grade was big, and all you had to do was drive by our feeder elementaries and see all the portable classrooms they had to realize that there was a population bubble heading our way. I'm wondering if these people even got into the neighborhoods.
So the attendance secretary from the middle school that we rezoned with (we took, supposedly 85 of their kids, but the real number is over 100) is having a freak out because they may lose teachers because their numbers dropped and our attendance secretary is telling her to send them our way because we're about 200 over predictions. (Some of us have suggested we just send the kids back to their old school, but that would really cause some community melt-downs.)
It's nuts.
The first full week of school is always like that but this year, in between STEM and the fact that we're bursting at the seams with kids, seems to make it a bit more chaotic. It's one thing to learn 22 names for a class. It's quite another to learn 34. Now multiply that by five class periods and you get a clue how frazzled we all are this year.
Our numbers aren't going down. The kids are showing up, very few are withdrawing and heading elsewhere and even more new kids are showing up. If it keeps up like this we'll probably get another teacher or two, but where they'll put them is anybody's guess. The PE classes are already so large that the gym can't hold all the kids so some of the kids are walking across the parking lot to the city-owned community center to use the gym there. The electives teachers - music, band, art, PE, and so on - have classes inching up towards 40 in size. Seventh grade doesn't fit in the lunch room so a few groups of kids are eating in what we call the Large Group Instruction classroom right down the hall from the cafeteria. The Head Janitor put in a request with downtown to provide us with 80 student desks from the warehouse because we'd ran out.
All of which makes me wonder...what were the people that got paid the big bucks thinking when they redrew the zoning maps and said we'd be down - way, way, way down - in enrollment this year? Last year's sixth grade was big, and all you had to do was drive by our feeder elementaries and see all the portable classrooms they had to realize that there was a population bubble heading our way. I'm wondering if these people even got into the neighborhoods.
So the attendance secretary from the middle school that we rezoned with (we took, supposedly 85 of their kids, but the real number is over 100) is having a freak out because they may lose teachers because their numbers dropped and our attendance secretary is telling her to send them our way because we're about 200 over predictions. (Some of us have suggested we just send the kids back to their old school, but that would really cause some community melt-downs.)
It's nuts.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
The Honeymoon
That first day or so of school is sort of a honeymoon period where the kids, for the most part, act pretty well until they figure things out. After that, it's anyone's guess how it will go.
The first full day went off pretty well. One of the downsides was that PowerSchool was off line for repairs so we had to use a back up to get kids copies of their schedules because - surprise! - half of them had left them at home. Yet, for the most part, it went fine.
For the first three days we have a two hour block in the morning where we do "getting the year started" stuff. So, you get to keep your homeroom, and get to know them pretty well, for quite a bit of time during these days. Part of that time is used to go over our SWPBS program (School Wide Positive Behavior Support) which isn't too bad because by now most of the kids know the drill and those that are new quickly get filled in my the old-timers. It's also nice because we're given lessons that we can use to help them re-lean the program. All in all, pretty easy.
The rest of the time is used to issue text books and do the "boy/girl" talk. Friday was the seventh graders day for the "boy/girl" talk.
Actually it's a talk about what you can and can't do at The School, but we separate the boys and girls because there's some conversation in there about sexual harassment and dress code that wouldn't go over too well if the opposite sex was in the room. So, I went with the boys to the theater, where The Enforcer was doing the presentation. It includes things like bullying, lunch room expectations, write-ups, sagging, etc. and of course, cell phones. The school board has a policy that the kids can have their phones but they must be off (not just silent) and away. (Yeah, right). This is one of the areas where the administrators have no leeway in consequences for being caught with a cell phone - the first offense is two days in ISS.
So any guess on what happened with cell phones in seventh grade on Friday?
First, Mr. Math managed to catch a kid with a cell phone out, googling away, right after The Enforcer finished his presentation (that included the whole "off and put away" message.) We didn't even leave the room and he had his first cell phone violation of the year! The second violation was a seventh grade girl later in the day who had her's out during a class.
You have to wonder...the grade level that had the talk about no cell phones was the grade level that got busted for the first two cell phone violations.
Makes you wonder.
The first full day went off pretty well. One of the downsides was that PowerSchool was off line for repairs so we had to use a back up to get kids copies of their schedules because - surprise! - half of them had left them at home. Yet, for the most part, it went fine.
For the first three days we have a two hour block in the morning where we do "getting the year started" stuff. So, you get to keep your homeroom, and get to know them pretty well, for quite a bit of time during these days. Part of that time is used to go over our SWPBS program (School Wide Positive Behavior Support) which isn't too bad because by now most of the kids know the drill and those that are new quickly get filled in my the old-timers. It's also nice because we're given lessons that we can use to help them re-lean the program. All in all, pretty easy.
The rest of the time is used to issue text books and do the "boy/girl" talk. Friday was the seventh graders day for the "boy/girl" talk.
Actually it's a talk about what you can and can't do at The School, but we separate the boys and girls because there's some conversation in there about sexual harassment and dress code that wouldn't go over too well if the opposite sex was in the room. So, I went with the boys to the theater, where The Enforcer was doing the presentation. It includes things like bullying, lunch room expectations, write-ups, sagging, etc. and of course, cell phones. The school board has a policy that the kids can have their phones but they must be off (not just silent) and away. (Yeah, right). This is one of the areas where the administrators have no leeway in consequences for being caught with a cell phone - the first offense is two days in ISS.
So any guess on what happened with cell phones in seventh grade on Friday?
First, Mr. Math managed to catch a kid with a cell phone out, googling away, right after The Enforcer finished his presentation (that included the whole "off and put away" message.) We didn't even leave the room and he had his first cell phone violation of the year! The second violation was a seventh grade girl later in the day who had her's out during a class.
You have to wonder...the grade level that had the talk about no cell phones was the grade level that got busted for the first two cell phone violations.
Makes you wonder.
Thursday, August 09, 2012
And We're Off!
The first day is over and done with. And here's the amazing part.
The computers worked.
PowerSchool worked.
The phones worked.
The kids were well-behaved.
They all got on the right bus and went home.
And if you don't work in a school, you don't know how amazing this is. It went so well, so very well, that some of us were wondering if we'd entered some alternate universe or something. Even the Goddesses in Guidance were freaking out because no one was there freaking out.
We have had years where the network went down, the phones went down, kids got on the wrong bus, there was no way to print schedules, and any number of minor crises.
But this year...smooth as silk. Kind of makes you nervous.
Enrollment is another story. We have to count kids who don't show up for about 20 days before we officially drop them off our roll. We figure if they haven't showed up by then, they probably weren't going to. Other kids we can drop off because we get requests for records from another school, or the parents actually take the time to notify us. So, we usually figure that out of every class on the first day we'll have a chunk of kids who aren't going to be here this year because they've moved. Some years it's been as much as a third of my class. The past few years, it's been a lot smaller.
Yesterday, out of 30 kids, 27 were there. And most of us had this experience, so it appears that we have a lot of kids who aren't dropping off our enrollment but who are actually showing up. And our numbers are a lot higher than forecast, so that's going to be a challenge. Seventh grade has officially hit 396 last I heard, which is a lot bigger than any grade we've ever had before. There were so many seventh graders that we ran out of seats for them in the theater on Wednesday morning (where they go to find out what homeroom they are in.) We have lunch for the first time tomorrow and there are some concerns that we may not have enough room for them in the cafeteria. It will be interesting to say the least.
As for my homeroom...seems like a fairly decent bunch of kids but we're still in the honeymoon phase. They have big shoes to fill because last year's kids were absolutely the best homeroom I've ever had. But they have potential.
And then there's poor Mrs. Eagle and her homeroom...21 boys and 3 girls. She's considering seeing if she could trade those poor little girls for three more boys and just do an all-boy homeroom. That might be interesting.
Regardless, it's seventh grade, it's bound to be, at least, entertaining.
Tomorrow - first full day. Wish me luck!
The computers worked.
PowerSchool worked.
The phones worked.
The kids were well-behaved.
They all got on the right bus and went home.
And if you don't work in a school, you don't know how amazing this is. It went so well, so very well, that some of us were wondering if we'd entered some alternate universe or something. Even the Goddesses in Guidance were freaking out because no one was there freaking out.
We have had years where the network went down, the phones went down, kids got on the wrong bus, there was no way to print schedules, and any number of minor crises.
But this year...smooth as silk. Kind of makes you nervous.
Enrollment is another story. We have to count kids who don't show up for about 20 days before we officially drop them off our roll. We figure if they haven't showed up by then, they probably weren't going to. Other kids we can drop off because we get requests for records from another school, or the parents actually take the time to notify us. So, we usually figure that out of every class on the first day we'll have a chunk of kids who aren't going to be here this year because they've moved. Some years it's been as much as a third of my class. The past few years, it's been a lot smaller.
Yesterday, out of 30 kids, 27 were there. And most of us had this experience, so it appears that we have a lot of kids who aren't dropping off our enrollment but who are actually showing up. And our numbers are a lot higher than forecast, so that's going to be a challenge. Seventh grade has officially hit 396 last I heard, which is a lot bigger than any grade we've ever had before. There were so many seventh graders that we ran out of seats for them in the theater on Wednesday morning (where they go to find out what homeroom they are in.) We have lunch for the first time tomorrow and there are some concerns that we may not have enough room for them in the cafeteria. It will be interesting to say the least.
As for my homeroom...seems like a fairly decent bunch of kids but we're still in the honeymoon phase. They have big shoes to fill because last year's kids were absolutely the best homeroom I've ever had. But they have potential.
And then there's poor Mrs. Eagle and her homeroom...21 boys and 3 girls. She's considering seeing if she could trade those poor little girls for three more boys and just do an all-boy homeroom. That might be interesting.
Regardless, it's seventh grade, it's bound to be, at least, entertaining.
Tomorrow - first full day. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
On Your Marks, Get Set, Go!
Tomorrow will be the first day of school we have with the kids.
I've actually been back in my room, on and off, for about two weeks now, getting it set up, going through files on my homeroom, in-service on STEM, and so on. We actually didn't have to report until yesterday, but I already feel like I've been there for a while. It really does get easier after you've done it about ten times.
The big news is enrollment. Remember the big sixth grade class we had last year? Well, they've rolled into seventh grade. And, as the Principal put it, it seems as if every seventh grader in town wants to enroll at the school. Which means that as of this afternoon, we have 400 seventh graders. So not only did the sixth grade roll up, they brought along a lot more kids with them.
Where we are going to put them all will be interesting.
My classes are all in the low 30's, which is tolerable. Barely. Depending on behavior.
But we'll see how many don't show because they've moved and didn't bother to let anyone know. Could be a bunch, or it could be few.
Wish me luck!
I've actually been back in my room, on and off, for about two weeks now, getting it set up, going through files on my homeroom, in-service on STEM, and so on. We actually didn't have to report until yesterday, but I already feel like I've been there for a while. It really does get easier after you've done it about ten times.
The big news is enrollment. Remember the big sixth grade class we had last year? Well, they've rolled into seventh grade. And, as the Principal put it, it seems as if every seventh grader in town wants to enroll at the school. Which means that as of this afternoon, we have 400 seventh graders. So not only did the sixth grade roll up, they brought along a lot more kids with them.
Where we are going to put them all will be interesting.
My classes are all in the low 30's, which is tolerable. Barely. Depending on behavior.
But we'll see how many don't show because they've moved and didn't bother to let anyone know. Could be a bunch, or it could be few.
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
At Last...Rain!
Yeah! After four weeks we finally got some rain, 1.75" to date. I can't believe the difference it already made in my yard.
The first storm rolled in on Sunday night. We had a good two hours of thunder and lightning before it finally let loose and rained. It had been so long since we'd had a gusher like this that we went out on the front porch to watch it rain - and noticed nearly every neighbor on the street was doing the same thing.
Let's hope this continues. Not only for the farmers, but for Hubby. It's killing him that we're under a burn ban and he can't use his grill (he refuses to get a gas one.)
The first storm rolled in on Sunday night. We had a good two hours of thunder and lightning before it finally let loose and rained. It had been so long since we'd had a gusher like this that we went out on the front porch to watch it rain - and noticed nearly every neighbor on the street was doing the same thing.
Let's hope this continues. Not only for the farmers, but for Hubby. It's killing him that we're under a burn ban and he can't use his grill (he refuses to get a gas one.)
Saturday, July 07, 2012
Toasty, Toast, Nice and Roasty!
If the local news station is correct, we're heading into day ten of temperatures at 100 or above.
The good news is that it isn't humid. The bad news is that it's not raining, at least on my little piece of heaven. We've had pop up thunderstorms for the past few days, which have dropped some rain, but not in my neighborhood. We had a sprinkle yesterday, but it didn't even make the rain gauge damp. Some parts of town have had awful winds and damage from fallen trees and power lines (and no power), but I've been lucky.
This, however, is my lawn:
My friend mentioned that her lawn is now the same color as the siding of her house (her house is brown). Considering that August is usually the hottest and driest month, and we're only in the beginning of July, I hate to imagine what it may look like by then.
The good news is that it isn't humid. The bad news is that it's not raining, at least on my little piece of heaven. We've had pop up thunderstorms for the past few days, which have dropped some rain, but not in my neighborhood. We had a sprinkle yesterday, but it didn't even make the rain gauge damp. Some parts of town have had awful winds and damage from fallen trees and power lines (and no power), but I've been lucky.
This, however, is my lawn:
My friend mentioned that her lawn is now the same color as the siding of her house (her house is brown). Considering that August is usually the hottest and driest month, and we're only in the beginning of July, I hate to imagine what it may look like by then.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Toasty?
We are here, in my Beloved South, and in particular, in The Volunteer State, suffering through some rather astonishing heat the past few days. So just how hot is it?
Check out this link from one of the Nashville news stations about a mailbox - yes, a mailbox - that melted in the heat yesterday.
Our average temperatures for this time of year are, oh, 88-89 degrees. It hit 109 in Nashville yesterday, and here in My Town, there were some reports of 111. Really.
Hubby and I attended a birthday party for a delightful little two-year-old (granddaughter and daughter of some of our best friends, people we celebrate holidays with) yesterday. The party was a cook out - at 2:00 pm, easily the hottest part of the day. Truth be told, it wasn't too bad. Lots of big umbrellas, one of those temporary canvas canopy things over the little kids' pool, fans, and misters. As long as you were in the shade, with a cold beverage, and a mister, it was bearable. The little ones didn't seem to mind as long as they were able to play in the pool.
The birthday cake, however, melted. Even in the house. But it still tasted wonderful.
We are also suffering through a drought. We haven't had rain for several weeks now, the corn in the fields is starting to twist and suffer, the soybeans are limping along, and my lawn looks like it's been scorched. The county I live in has declared a burn ban - no fireworks, no grills, no open fires, nothing, until further notice. I'm actually good with this (although the no grill thing has Hubby in a snit), because all it takes is one moron with a firework to set our neighborhood on fire as dry as everyone's lawn is.
We are now on mandatory water restrictions. I've never watered my lawn - it's just too big and I'm too cheap and lazy - but I do water my flowers and vegetables. Hubby and I are doing most of our watering at night, and I'm sure the neighbors would be amused watching us water by flashlight if they weren't doing the same thing themselves! Since I grew up in Southern California where there seems to be a perpetual water shortage, conserving water is something I do out of habit anyway, so the water restrictions at this point aren't an inconvenience for me at all. I am a bit concerned about some of my trees as they're starting to lose leaves, and my apple tree has a huge crop of apples on it that I don't want to dry up, so I am watering those.
We've even had some brush fires in the area - but nothing like my home state of Colorado. That is tragic beyond words.
About the only good thing in all of this is that our usual summer humidity is, well, gone. Today, we only have 29% humidity which makes it feel a lot like out West. Usually our humidity is up in the 80% and you feel like you're getting smacked by a wet wash cloth when you walk outside. Granted as soon as we get rain, the humidity will most likely come roaring back, but in the meantime, it's really, really arid.
I'll have to remember this the next time we have a snow day.
Check out this link from one of the Nashville news stations about a mailbox - yes, a mailbox - that melted in the heat yesterday.
Our average temperatures for this time of year are, oh, 88-89 degrees. It hit 109 in Nashville yesterday, and here in My Town, there were some reports of 111. Really.
Hubby and I attended a birthday party for a delightful little two-year-old (granddaughter and daughter of some of our best friends, people we celebrate holidays with) yesterday. The party was a cook out - at 2:00 pm, easily the hottest part of the day. Truth be told, it wasn't too bad. Lots of big umbrellas, one of those temporary canvas canopy things over the little kids' pool, fans, and misters. As long as you were in the shade, with a cold beverage, and a mister, it was bearable. The little ones didn't seem to mind as long as they were able to play in the pool.
The birthday cake, however, melted. Even in the house. But it still tasted wonderful.
We are also suffering through a drought. We haven't had rain for several weeks now, the corn in the fields is starting to twist and suffer, the soybeans are limping along, and my lawn looks like it's been scorched. The county I live in has declared a burn ban - no fireworks, no grills, no open fires, nothing, until further notice. I'm actually good with this (although the no grill thing has Hubby in a snit), because all it takes is one moron with a firework to set our neighborhood on fire as dry as everyone's lawn is.
We are now on mandatory water restrictions. I've never watered my lawn - it's just too big and I'm too cheap and lazy - but I do water my flowers and vegetables. Hubby and I are doing most of our watering at night, and I'm sure the neighbors would be amused watching us water by flashlight if they weren't doing the same thing themselves! Since I grew up in Southern California where there seems to be a perpetual water shortage, conserving water is something I do out of habit anyway, so the water restrictions at this point aren't an inconvenience for me at all. I am a bit concerned about some of my trees as they're starting to lose leaves, and my apple tree has a huge crop of apples on it that I don't want to dry up, so I am watering those.
We've even had some brush fires in the area - but nothing like my home state of Colorado. That is tragic beyond words.
About the only good thing in all of this is that our usual summer humidity is, well, gone. Today, we only have 29% humidity which makes it feel a lot like out West. Usually our humidity is up in the 80% and you feel like you're getting smacked by a wet wash cloth when you walk outside. Granted as soon as we get rain, the humidity will most likely come roaring back, but in the meantime, it's really, really arid.
I'll have to remember this the next time we have a snow day.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Hobble, Hobble, Hobble
So, it's been an interesting couple of weeks.
First, right after school was out, I promptly went with Mr. Math to a nine-day in service on STEM at the local University. It was, truth be told, better than most and I'm glad I went. I didn't get much else accomplished during those two weeks however. (Gardening? Weeding? Cleaning my house? Nope...)
Then as soon as that was done, Hubby and I headed to Virginia to do some battlefield stomping and had a mini vacation - we did touristy things in the morning and he talked to Civil War groups in the evening. We went to the new Museum of the Confederacy Museum at Appomattox, then on to Fredricksburg, Mannassas, and the Seven Days Battles around Richmond. Malvern Hill is a gem. I got my National Park Passport Book stamped quite a few times and saw some Civil War sites I hadn't seen before.
One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico. Go. Whatever you do, just go. Plan on at least 4 hours, 6 if you can. It is stunning. I've been to a lot - and I mean A LOT - of museums in my day (that's what we do - other folks go to theme parks, we go to museums) and this has got to be the BEST museum I've ever been to. Period.
On the way home, we stopped at Daddy Bird's (just in time for him to get his #1 Dad Cubs t-shirt for Father's Day). The only down side was I managed to slip somehow and fell off his front step, skinning my left knee and rolling my right ankle. I did get to my doctor and had it x-rayed - nothing is broken, it's just a bad, bad sprain. So it's ice, some anti-inflammatory meds, and an ankle wrap. It hurts but I'm walking better. The thing that aggravates me the most is I've been actually running (okay, it's more like plodding, but for me, it's running) since this spring with the goal of running a 5K during the year I turn 50. Now that's obviously going to be on the backburner until this ankle heals and I can start training again. And I was making huge progress!
Now Momma Bird is here from California so we're running here and there and having some fun. The weather is better than expected and we're able to spend some time outside. It's nice having her here.
But I still feel like actually haven't had much of a chance to just chill yet this summer.
First, right after school was out, I promptly went with Mr. Math to a nine-day in service on STEM at the local University. It was, truth be told, better than most and I'm glad I went. I didn't get much else accomplished during those two weeks however. (Gardening? Weeding? Cleaning my house? Nope...)
Then as soon as that was done, Hubby and I headed to Virginia to do some battlefield stomping and had a mini vacation - we did touristy things in the morning and he talked to Civil War groups in the evening. We went to the new Museum of the Confederacy Museum at Appomattox, then on to Fredricksburg, Mannassas, and the Seven Days Battles around Richmond. Malvern Hill is a gem. I got my National Park Passport Book stamped quite a few times and saw some Civil War sites I hadn't seen before.
One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico. Go. Whatever you do, just go. Plan on at least 4 hours, 6 if you can. It is stunning. I've been to a lot - and I mean A LOT - of museums in my day (that's what we do - other folks go to theme parks, we go to museums) and this has got to be the BEST museum I've ever been to. Period.
On the way home, we stopped at Daddy Bird's (just in time for him to get his #1 Dad Cubs t-shirt for Father's Day). The only down side was I managed to slip somehow and fell off his front step, skinning my left knee and rolling my right ankle. I did get to my doctor and had it x-rayed - nothing is broken, it's just a bad, bad sprain. So it's ice, some anti-inflammatory meds, and an ankle wrap. It hurts but I'm walking better. The thing that aggravates me the most is I've been actually running (okay, it's more like plodding, but for me, it's running) since this spring with the goal of running a 5K during the year I turn 50. Now that's obviously going to be on the backburner until this ankle heals and I can start training again. And I was making huge progress!
Now Momma Bird is here from California so we're running here and there and having some fun. The weather is better than expected and we're able to spend some time outside. It's nice having her here.
But I still feel like actually haven't had much of a chance to just chill yet this summer.
Sunday, June 03, 2012
The Myth of Summers Off
For those of you in the general public who believe that teachers "get three months off every summer!" I have this to say to you.
PHOOEY!
I have had, counting Memorial Day, three days "off" this summer (I'm not counting weekends). Tomorrow starts week two of the two week intensive STEM training at the local University. Now mind you, it's been worth it, but gosh, I haven't been able to catch up on my sleep yet. I usually end up sleeping about the first week trying to catch up from all the sleep deprivation I've suffered over the past year.
I am tired.
Still.
PHOOEY!
I have had, counting Memorial Day, three days "off" this summer (I'm not counting weekends). Tomorrow starts week two of the two week intensive STEM training at the local University. Now mind you, it's been worth it, but gosh, I haven't been able to catch up on my sleep yet. I usually end up sleeping about the first week trying to catch up from all the sleep deprivation I've suffered over the past year.
I am tired.
Still.
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