December 2011
38 posts
New Year's Eve? Already?
I’m not feeling too reflective this year. It’s been great at times, and miserable at times. But isn’t that just life?
I’ve been in a list-making mood lately though, so here goes.
Things that were at once amazing and humbling:
1. First full-time teaching gig
2. Working with hubby on personal issues
3. Adopting a dog from the Humane Society
Things I’m...
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Trader Joe's peppermint bark
is high on the Things That Make Grading Essays While on Break Bearable list.
Nom.
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You can tell we're all on holiday break. ...
iamlittlei:
world-shaker:
girlwithalessonplan:
YUP.
Who spent four hours yesterday grading and isn’t done yet?
THIS GIRL.
I still have about 50 essays to grade …
“New research shows that adolescents who quickly backed down during an argument...”
– Arguing with Mom Helps Teens Fend Off Peer Pressure | Healthland | TIME.com
GWALP adds: I don’t know about you guys, but my adolescence suddenly makes more sense. :P (via girlwithalessonplan)
Interesting!
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This time last year ...
… I had just told all of my 8th graders that I would not be returning for the second semester of the year. They were shocked. We were all devastated. It was a weird situation in which I wasn’t sure what was happening until the week before the end of the semester. I wasn’t fired. The possibility of not working the second semester was there from the beginning. But it was awful. For everyone.
I left...
Oh, and I found my first gray hair.
ohmuffins:
jbizzle329:
adiemtocarpe:
I have been expecting you.
Welcome to teaching.
Seriously: I have a ton of gray hair. It’s getting serious.
I’m noticing more too! Soon I’ll have to pay hundreds for all-over color instead of less for the fun purple and blue chunks I’ve had for 5 years now. Getting old and being stressed SUCKS.
Semester Grades Posted!
JEALOUS. I have four periods of freshman essays to grade. I started one period today and got 6 done in an hour. OUCH. I was hoping to get mine posted by Thursday night, but now I’m not so sure.
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Husband: Dude, we should do Christmas karaoke! But people can only sing Chipmunks songs.
Me: Oh really?
Husband: Yeah, we would have to get a lot of helium.
Me: Wow.
Husband: And we'd have to invite a lot of people because you really shouldn't do that much helium.
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The problem with a great book that I don't want to...
the fact that I have a mountain of papers to grade.
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to start reading The Giver, but I find that new books and music, even when they’re actually several years old, find me at the perfect times. The times I appreciate them the most and realize if I had found them any earlier, I probably wouldn’t appreciate them as much.
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Bittersweet
Graded the first part of my 9th graders’ finals and I’m pretty pleased. With a few exceptions, most scores were in the B range, which is great for a bunch of classes in which the class averages are at 70 percent.
That said, there are a few students who I don’t think will pass and get their credits this semester. Some I expected, others I did not. The ones I didn’t expect...
1 tag
Almost there
We have three days of finals next week.
Today I had a student who’s been a huge pain in my neck this year tell me that he talks so much in class because I won’t let my students write notes to each other.
He was in hot water with the counselor and principal yesterday, so with one email detailing our conversation, he’s out of my class after finals.
Also, I had a great time...
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sucky day
novicephoenix:
Days like this make me wonder why I suck so much at this…sigh…
Oh my Science, YES. My sixth period defeated me today. DEFEATED. ME. Usually I can sit and unwind for 20 minutes and get over a bad day with my last class. Not today. Took an hour and then venting to the hubby to really get it out, and even then I was just over it because I was drained. Tomorrow will be better.
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Like real people?
Husband, who is also a teacher: What I'd really like to do for dinner is go out. To a restaurant.
Me: Go out to a restaurant? Like real people?
Husband: Like real people. Depends on how much work you have when you get home.
“Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your...”
– Lawrence Krauss (via venula)
OMG, praise Science. And praise physicists who see poetry in the stardust. This is beautiful.
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Long weekend and chaperoning a dance
Friday = Work. Happy hour with department. Free dinner. Chaperone winter formal. (More on that later. Talk about burning my retinas.)
Saturday = Huge charity event that involved lots of people (850 volunteers) working together to build 2,500 bikes for local kids charities. It’s just as amazing and huge as it sounds. And exhausting. I got there at 6:30 a.m. to help set up, and finally left...
“I wouldn’t mind paying more taxes if it went to the things that really...”
– Jay-Z says President Obama can raise taxes as Congress debates over extending payroll-tax cut (via world-shaker)
I love Jay-Z.
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“You have a license to screw with your kids.”
– My assistant principal today as she explained how she used to keep her obnoxious classes in check by mixing things up so they never knew what to expect.
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Things I never thought I'd say at work and other...
“No pictures of genitals in the school paper, please.”
The joys of teaching Journalism!
Positive: I was in a great mood today, despite being sleepy.
Negative: a student got suspended for having vodka in her backpack.
Positive: I adore my administrators.
Negative: one colleague has indirectly discouraged me from teaching an AP course next year. Her attitude is so bad, I...
Cathedral Building: Social Justice is not a trend. →
shapefutures:
It is not a way to be fashionable, hip, or internet famous.
It is not the new handbag or the designer jeans.
It is not something one reblogs and tacks onto in order to make one’s self look aware of the world.
It is not a semantics game.
It is not a way to one-up other people. Lately I’ve been…
Yes.
20 minutes early
… for a day at the district office sitting through a training instead of teaching my students.
I’d rather be with my students.
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Never sleep well on Sunday nights
Even when I go to bed relaxed and ready for Monday, I still toss and turn. I don’t get it.
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VICTORY!
First semester of my second year of BTSA is DONE.
For non-California teachers, BTSA = Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment.
BTSA is what we have to do to clear our credentials. BTSA is the bureaucratic BS that takes beginning teachers’ time away from creating materials for stuff we’ve never taught before.
The best thing I can say about BTSA is that my district’s BTSA...
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Into the Strenuous Briefness: Scrutiny →
iamlittlei:
I’ve been procrastinating my lesson planning very deliberately this weekend.
Tomorrow I am being observed by the district science curriculum supervisor. Until now I have not been too nervous about this; she already likes me, she’s heard nothing but good things about my classroom, and she’s…
We’re all flying by the seat of our pants, girl. That’s the name of the...
“If you’re gonna have pizza with someone else, what do you have to do? You gotta...”
– NY Times: Teaching Good Sex (via ffolkthepainaway)
A metaphor about pizza and sex? Perfect!
(via dreadhawkedmuckaround)
so much perfect in this. i was just re-reading it [i read it before when i was giving a few of my friends a crash course in sex edu. a bit ago] and he is just filled with so...
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Harry Potter marathon prevents teacher...
That’s the news in my house today.
I slept for 11 hours last night and still felt tired this morning though, so I think my body needed a day.
Grading tomorrow indeed.
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Win of the week
Students begging me to read Of Mice and Men. Arguing over the character parts (we do reader’s theater). Comprehending the story like literature bosses.
I love my job.
