It's About Time

It’s conference day. I have a love/hate relationship with conference days. Typically, they provide a solid chunk of time to be productive in my classroom for more than 10 minutes at a time, which otherwise only happens if I stay late. Today, I’ve got conferences scheduled sporadically, which means my work time keeps getting interrupted. These inevitable interruptions are deterring me from actually working, so I’m looking for brilliant ideas on Pintrest. 

The last few weeks have been hard. I’m exhausted, and either the sun keeps trying to come out, which is making the kids crazy, or the snow is falling, which makes the kids cranky, and apparently my room has an uncanny ability to “make the kids sleepy” in the afternoon regardless of what activity we are doing. I leave work exhausted, often to fall into my couch and only awaken when Sam steals all of my blankets, which is the only way to rouse me from the couch and get me to my bed. I haven’t been cooking, reading, or doing anything. I’ve been purposefully avoiding making plans because I’d rather be a bump on a log. My brain feels better when I’m a bump on a log. 

I’ve doubted my ability to make it to spring break for the last three weeks. I kept trying to find a day so I could take off and catch a break, but it couldn’t happen. I was proctoring the HSPE, starting new units, attending meetings, and now I’m holding conferences. It’s so hard to find a day to take off as a teacher. And when I do take a day off, I’m at my desk and the copy machine until six o’clock the night before I’m gone. 

Clearly, I’m READY for a week off. My brain needs a break, and I need to read mindless novels. I mean really mindless. I’m thinking embarrassingly cheesy romances and young adult books are on next week’s agenda. I’ll intertwine reading bad books, playing with my new sewing machine, and hanging out with those I love for the next week. I’ll cook. I’ll laze. I’ll get my oil changed and my tires rotated. I’ll work SOME, but not all. And because I’m halfway through units and actually know what I’m doing after break, I think I’ll be able to escape the inevitable guilt that comes with dodging teacher stuff for too long. 

I’m tired, I’m cranky, and my classroom looks like a three year old terrorized my papers that were, once upon a time, carefully organized. It’s a good thing they give us a spring break. If they didn’t, there’d be some kids flying out my very tempting second story window, which opens plenty wide enough.

Printable Word Art

I just discovered Picasa. Thanks to my new best friend Pinterest, I stumbled across this blog and a turtorial on how to create your own word art. You see, I have been wanting to make quote posters to hang in my classroom for quite some time. I like quotes. They have a special place in my heart because they resonate with different people for different reasons, they shed light, and they clarify life. Plus, Pinterest is full of good quotes, so I keep finding more and more that I like.

Thanks to the aforementioned blog, I made these this morning.

Aren't they cool? Once I figured the program out, these took 5 minutes apiece. Go check out Centsational Girl's blog for more info on how to make your own. I hope my kids are ready for some word inspiration because my walls will be full of these by the end of the week.

Tracking Outs

"Miss Thompson! Miss Thompson! Can I go to the bathroom?"

I don't know about you, but I'm encountering a bathroom breaks epidemic in my classroom. My syllabus says three breaks per semester, but in the busy whirlwind that was the beginning of the year, I sort of abandoned tracking outs. Well, now I'm regretting abandoning it and trying to fix my laissez-faire attitude toward bathroom breaks. My problem is that I know what it's like to be a student who really needs to go, so I try to be sympathetic and let them take an out, but some kids area asking to go two times a day nearly every day in my class. No high schooler should need to pee that many times in one hour. And if they do, then they should probably visit the school nurse.

So now I'm trying to secretly fix the problem without nixing all breaks. For now, I've created an Outs Tracker where students have to sign out and in EVERY time they leave the classroom. This will work for now until I get the permanent solution made up and handed out.

This will be hanging on a clipboard right by the door.

What's the permanent solution, you ask? Well, lucky you, I just created it. I am going to print out and laminate business-type cards. Each card has the student's name and five outs listed on it. I've noticed that clearly three isn't enough for a semester, so I've upped it to five. Plus, I like the way five sounds better. Each time a student wants to leave the room, they'll have to give me their card, which I will hole punch on the appropriate out that they are on. This way THEY are responsible for tracking their outs and not me. If they don't have their card, they can't go. Liberty High School used this type of system when I was student teaching, and it had lots of potential to work. Another thing I like about this system is that if the student forgets their card, it's their fault they can't go to the bathroom and I don't have to suffer through their angry wrath that I said no. I'll collect the cards at the end of the semester for extra credit or a homework pass or something. I made cards for girls and boys, and I'll get them printed out, laminated, and distributed at the beginning of next semester.

All I have to do now is have my TA type in names, print, cut, laminate, and put into class piles

I am perpetually annoyed that I cannot link word documents on here. If you want the word versions of these so you can steal them, leave me a comment and I'll email them to you. 

 

Homonyms

     In an effort to revamp my bulletin board and be semi-productive without actually planning lessons like I should be, I'm putting my pinteresting to work! I recently discovered this wonderful time-sucker, and unlike reading celebrity gossip or playing Tetris,which is what I usually do on my phone, I've been finding inspiring ideas and pin-pin-pinning away. The idea for my homonyms posters came from a Grammar Guide Wall display that originally came from this website. Because my kids struggle A LOT with homonyms, I chose to focus on only homonyms with this display. I'll add in the other stuff along the way.
     If you too (homonym!) would like these handy-dandy little gems, you can find them in GoogleDoc form, which didn't keep all of my formatting, here. Open the link and download the original in order to see my formatting and add in your very own homonyms .I'm going to print them out on bright paper, laminate them with my shiny new laminating machine, and really wow my students next week.

Deliciously-Delectable Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I made these yesterday. They are amazing, and if you like chocolate, then you need to get out the mixer and get to work. This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies, depending on the size you prefer.

What you need: 

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 3/4 cups all-purpose or unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

How you make 'em: 

1. Heat oven to 350°F.

2. In large bowl, beat brown sugar and butter with a mixer until blended. 

3. Add in vanilla and egg and beat on low-medium until light and fluffy (about a minute). 

4. Add in oats, flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low until blended. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour and oatmeal.

5. Stir in chocolate chips. 

6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet. 

7.  Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Don't be afraid to take them out a when they aren't quite done in the middle. They will continue to cook after they come out, and you will have deliciously gooey cookies that stay soft for days! 

8. Cool slightly on the baking sheet, and then transfer to paper towels on the counter to cool. My cookies are always softer if I cool them on paper towels instead of cooling racks. I don't even think I own cooling racks anymore. After they are cool (if you have any left!) store them in a giant ziploc or airtight container.  

You. Are. Welcome. 

An Overdue Update

So I think I am finally in the right state of mind to write again. I have sat down a few times since school started waaaay back in August to write an update on my blog, but my mindset was never right. I was either exhausted and cynical, too tired to type, or I just couldn’t articulate what I wanted to say in less than 5,000 words. But my life has settled, my sleep schedule has regulated, and I think I’m good to write again, so I’ll give you the short-sweet-and-much-condensed version of the last few months of my life.

I began my first year as a teacher by accepting my first real coaching position. Can you say crazy? No one at EWU told me not to commute and coach my first year, but I’ve never been one to jump in half-heatedly, so for the first EIGHT weeks of school, I coached middle school volleyball. Did I love it? Yes. Did I love the time commitment? No. I was leaving my house at 6:30 after hastily dragging my butt out of bed at about 6:10 and not walking in my door again until 7:30 on a night that I didn’t have a game. Game nights were hours later. However, I had fun, my girls were great, and I decided that I’ll probably do it again. When I had hard days at school with cranky students, my volleyball girls were ALWAYS excited for practice. It was also nice to have them tell me how much they loved me and how great I was all the time. J Before I graduated from high school, I told everyone I know that I wanted to graduate from Eastern in four years, teach English at a small rural school, and coach volleyball. Well, guess who did just that? THIS GIRL.

I am teaching one period of 7^th grade (thank goodness because I couldn’t handle two!), two periods of 10^th grade, and two periods of 11^th grade. I generally have good kids. Even though I do things differently than their other teachers and have them do a lot of work in class, they tell me they still like it and they are learning. One day after I passed back the monstrous stack of papers I was accidently hording, a 10^th grade girl made the comment, “We have done A LOT in this class this year!” I replied with, “Yep. But do you feel like you are learning?” To which she responded, “Yeah, I am. We do a lot, but this is the best English class I have ever had and I’m actually learning things.” Notice the DIRECT QUOTES. I was so ecstatic at that compliment that I remember it verbatim. It’s good to know I’m doing something right at least some of the time.

So it’s Thanksgiving week, I am done with my work week at 3:30, and I get to go home and spend FIVE glorious days without driving an hour to work, seeing 100 kids, or answering 1,000 questions. I love my job, but I am ready for some time to laze around, cook some good food, and spend time with the people that I love. I think I’ll “accidently” forget the stack of papers waiting for me to grade on my desk and give myself a real break. Or I’ll just take them home and leave them in the car all weekend….We’ll see how I feel when my 6^th period leaves.

Happy Almost Turkey Day!

My very own classroom!

I want to share the story of how I got position with Dayton School District, so here goes nothing:

The Background:

The story actually begins back in July when I interviewed at with Columbia School District in Burbank. It was a really great interview, and I must have really impressed the superintendent. While I didn’t get that position, the connections I made at that interview brought the Dayton School District position to me.

On August 2^nd, Dayton found out that their high school teacher had accepted a position in Walla Walla and wouldn’t be returning. This left the administration more than a little nervous because they had less than a month to post the position, interview, and hire a new teacher. Doug Johnson, the superintendent, sent out emails to his superintendent friends asking if they knew of any good candidates for the position. Lou Gates, the superintended of Columbia SD, responded to Doug’s email and gave him my contact information.

The Call:

I had gotten two emails from EWU that day advertising the position, and I ignored them both because Dayton wasn’t on my job hunt radar. Well, Doug called and left me a message that night while I was in the shower. When I listened to the message, I realized that I had to consider my options. Lou Gates, who had only met me for an hour in an interview, was giving my contact information to another superintendent; that is kind of a big deal. I’m a first year teacher, fresh out of school, and my first thought was that if a superintendent is calling me because he got my name from another superintendent, the least I could do was call him back to see what he had to say. So I called.

Within five minutes of talking to him, I knew I liked him. He is from Odessa, his wife works at a grain elevator, and he knows a lot of people I worked with while student teaching, including both of my master teachers. Can you say fate? Here I was two months from being jobless, hating my desk job, and wishing that I had a classroom so I could do what I love to do, and all of a sudden, the perfect district (minus the 63 miles and hour in the car) is calling me and asking if I still need a job. Can you say, YES! After talking to him, I knew I had to give it a shot. The only thing stopping me was the distance, but what is an hour in the car to do what I love to do? It’s nothing. So I applied the next morning.

I sent him an email on Wednesday with my application packet, and he responded with a thank you and an offer for a district visit. I wanted to try out the drive anyways, so I called him the next day and left a message asking him to call me back if I could come out for a district visit. The next day, Andy Maheras, the High School Principal, called and asked if I was still interested in visiting. I said I still was, and we scheduled a visit for Tuesday, August 9^th.

The District Visit:

Tuesday, I headed out to Dayton. I got there in about an hour, and I met with Andy. We sat down in his office first, and he asked me to tell him a little about myself. All of a sudden, I felt like I had showed up unprepared to an interview. I started at the beginning  and explained that I was from Connell, a small town like Dayton, played volleyball, drove wheat truck during harvest for three years, went to Eastern, student taught at Liberty High School, a district similar to Dayton School District, and was tired of my desk job and so excited about this opportunity. When I finished my spiel, he looked pretty happy about what I’d had to say. We talked about my thoughts on honors classes (took them, taught them, love them), the demographic of the school, how I felt about the fact that it is small and rural (perfect for this farm girl!), and the types of classes the new teacher would be teaching. Needless to say, the more we talked, the more excited I was. He told me that there were five candidates, and I had already been selected for an interview (yes!). After our short chat, he walked me around the entire district, introduced me to the teachers and administrators who were there, and after a total of 45 minutes, I left. The good thing was that Andy didn’t conjure up an imaginary meeting to escape me, so I had that going for me.

I got in the car and felt odd. I was excited about the opportunity, but the whole thing was too weird. A week and a day ago I’d accepted that I was stuck with desk job for the next year. Then I’d gotten a phone call, and here I was leaving the school that I might be teaching at in two weeks and trying really hard not to picture myself in the classroom I’d just seen. So I drove home, went grocery shopping, and tried to distract myself. I woke up on Wednesday morning and got in the car to drive to work. Half way through the drive, I got the best feeling. I just felt like everything was working out, the stars were aligning, and I was destined for this job. I know, bold thought for a first timer. He called on Friday to schedule my Tuesday interview, and I spent the next few days trying to figure out if I should start planning or not, go car shopping or not, go teacher clothes shopping or not, blah, blah, blah for a week. I probably drove poor Sam crazy. I would up just doing nothing. I slept a lot, and tried really hard not to think about what might happen. Then Tuesday came.

The Morning Of:

I woke up Tuesday morning, and I set right to work tweaking my portfolio, which was the best thing I could have done before that interview. (I’ll post a portfolio blog later because I’m realizing that this one is wayyyy too long!) I was so excited about all the stuff I did while I was student teaching. I was re-inspired by the stuff I kept finding. And, most importantly, those feelings and thoughts re-convinced me that I am a good teacher with great ideas who is ready for her first job. I was so excited after an hour of sorting through stuff that I knew I would go into my interview with all of the confidence to convince them that I was ready for this position.  So I finished my portfolio, showered, got ready, and headed out to convince a group of people that I was the BEST candidate for their open position.

The Interview:

I showed up early because my daddy taught me right. Doug Johnson was in his office, and my promptness gave me about 15 minutes to chat with him about Odessa, common friends, the wheat business, and how excited I was that he had called me. He wasn’t on the interview committee, but that was ok because he was just nice to talk to.

Andy came to get me, and asked me if I was ready. I replied yes. Then he asked me if I was nervous, and I said yes, but a good nervous and I just wanted to do well and I hoped that I could convince them that I was the right person for the job. He said he hoped so too. HELLO, IN! The principal was rooting for me, and now all I had to do was talk with a group of people about why I love teaching and am the best and most qualified person for their open position. I walked into a room of eight people all facing “The Hot Seat” as I called it when I walked in the room.

I set my bag down, Andy introduced me, and I walked around to each person, looked them in their eyes, and offered a firm handshake. Success tip for an interview: Shake their hands. I offered up my resume to everyone, which they accepted, and they sat and read over it for a few minutes. At about this point, I was really hoping there weren’t any typos! They did a round robin style questioning, and I did my best to answer each one and offer up an example for my portfolio. The progress went like this: They asked a question, I answered their question as completely as possible and then offered up something from my portfolio to show them that I wasn’t just making it all up. I think I probably passed around something for every question.

They asked about: standards-based lessons (thank you, EWU and all those dang PPAs!), plagiarism, student late work, lessons that actively involve all students, parent interactions, literature units, how to improve reading and writing, and a few more that I can’t remember. I’ll be honest: some of their questions didn’t make a lot of sense. I’m pretty sure there were at least two that I wasn’t quite sure what they were asking, but I made it work. I took what I thought the question was getting at, answered it, explained a situation or lesson, and offered up an example for my portfolio. I don’t know how people survive interviews without a portfolio. Seriously, it rocks! I had real things to show these people, and they looked like they were enjoying the interview. I passed around so much stuff that I apologized and asked if they wanted me to stop passing stuff around. They said no, keep passing it around, so I did. At the end, they asked me if there was anything I didn’t get to share that I wanted to. Uh..yes! I wrote a grant for new curriculum, which I have right here; I believe in data-driven instruction, and by the way, I have these spreadsheets that show I actually do it in class; I think education can be fun and challenging at the same time, here is a tabloid that my students created based on Romeo & Juliet; I believe in high expectations and that all students can learn; I have great ideas, I’m excited, and I really want this job because it is in a small, rural district that I would fit into perfectly. I passed around anything that I thought would help them make the decision, and, most importantly, I was candid, honest, and excited. I asked them a few questions about first year teacher success plans, how they track what students learn at each grade level, and what the next step in the hiring process was.

At the end, Andy thanked me for all the work and preparation I put in to the interview, said that that spoke volumes alone, and he told me they would have their decision made by Wednesday. I walked out of that room knowing that I told them everything I wanted to, that I was candid and honest throughout, and that if they didn’t chose me, then the person they picked was pretty kick-ass and totally deserved it.

After:

I left the interview room, talked to Doug Johnson in the office again, thanking him for the phone call, telling him how excited I was at the opportunity, and telling him that even if it didn’t work out it, it was great to meet him and interview at his district. Then I sat in my car and called people for half an hour…and saw the next candidate (a small, squirly, frizzy haired girl who the students would eat up) walk out, and I knew I at least had her beat. I drove the hour home, sat on the couch to tell Sam all about it, and then at 5:15 my phone rang. It was Andy, who said that my interview went really well and he wanted to offer me the position!! Can you say the best feeling in the ENTIRE world? He said that I did a really great job in my interview and they were all really excited about me. It is so nice to know that people want you to do what you love to do. I later learned that I was the only candidate one of the teachers who was on my interview committee had ever interviewed where the parents, teachers, board members, and administrators all unanimously agreed on who to hire without debate. 

The stars aligned, all my hard work paid off, and I am officially an educator. I decorated my first bulletin board last Saturday, wrote my first syllabus on Sunday, and I’ll face my first group of students (as a REAL teacher!) TOMORROW. I can’t get over how excited I am to be in this field, how perfectly everything worked out, and how grateful I am for this opportunity. It is so nice to go into my first job knowing that everyone is excited to have me, and I truly think that I am part of the perfect district.

Just one more thing: 

I am also coaching the 7^th grade volleyball team! When I graduated high school, I told everyone my goals were to teach high school English and coach volleyball. It is four short years later, and I can check them both off my list. It just keeps getting better, and I feel like I’m living the dream. Let’s hope the feeling is still there after my first week of teaching, coaching, and commuting!

Trying to Find the Love

I begin student teaching on March 22nd! While I am very excited, I am also a little terrified. One source of anxiety is Shakespeare. I am not sure about the rest of you, but I rely heavily (or completely) on SparkNotes to understand his plays. I took an entire class on his plays and spent countless hours in the library reading the side by side translations to get through it. While I love the concepts and ideas of some of his plays, I can't understand his language. But as an English teacher, I will inevitable have to find some Shakespearean love before I can teach it. Well, the time has come to find my love. I will have two 9th grade classes at Liberty, and I have to teach them Romeo and Juliet. While I don't think I will fall in love with Shakespeare or his language, I hope I can inspire myself to find the love within interesting, exciting, and creative lessons. In an effort to let my freshly painted fingernails dry, I set off to do some low-key research. My efforts were rewarded with some great websites!

The Fogler Shakespeare Library
This site is dedicated to advancing knowledge and the arts, and they have entire sections dedicated to teaching various Shakespeare plays. The above link is to their Romeo and Juliet section, and it includes two standards-based lesson plans, an audio recording of the play, some video clips, and a short blip about the language of the play. These aren't stellar ideas, but they are something to build on! There are also teaching ideas for the other plays, and most ideas can be adapted to work with many plays.

Romeo and Juliet on Web English Teacher
This website is a new discovery, and I have fallen in love. It is an entire site dedicated to making the job of the English teacher easier. It has multiple sections on everything from young adult literature to grammar and journalism. It is essentially a collection of links that lead you to resources. Their Romeo and Juliet section has TONS of great ideas, many of which are creative and a little outside the box, which is right up my teaching alley!

How to READ Shakespeare!
Apparently, it is possible. This is a guide on how to effectively read Shakespeare play. Great tool for teachers and students, so I might make copies and spend a day explaining how to read him. Everyone needs to be reminded how to be an effective reader, especially with such confusing stuff!

 How to Make the Magic Happen
This is a document designed for a drama class, but it has objectives aligned with interesting activities! I don't want to just read and discuss, and this resource provides a more varied plan. And it is FREE! Nothing with objectives is ever free. Also within this 24 page document are vocab words, and an examination of verse and prose in Romeo and Juliet.

Teaching Shakespeare
This is a PowerPoint presentation that looks like it was assembled by a pre-service teacher. But boy, does it have some good stuff in it! It asks me, the teacher, to examine why I am teaching this play and how I am teaching it before it gives some great activities! Very insightful, and it is even research based!

Teaching Romeo and Juliet
This site has some really great discussion questions and a few teaching ideas.


There they are: Some helpful resources for teaching Romeo and Juliet that are now archived forever. You will probably see quite a few of these posts concerning this play and The Importance of Being Earnest (which I am WAY excited to teach to my AP Juniors!) over the next few weeks. This blog is a great way for me to keep track of my resources so when I am frantically planning over spring break I don't have to do as much searching. Happy hump day!

Beg, Borrow, and Steal

As every teacher knows, the motto "beg, borrow, and steal" is one to live by. More and more I have felt frustrated with all of the sites that claim to have great teaching resources but don't. More than once have I found the seemingly perfect lesson plan only to have my excitement squelched by a request for $29.99 and a credit card number. The motto is "beg, borrow, and steal", not "spend fun money on a maybe great resource." So when I come across a GREAT website that actually has FREE stuff, it is like finding a real gold nugget in a sea of pyrite. One reason I started this blog is to archive my resources. A fringe benefit is that any of you who also happen to be of the nerdy-English-teacher variety will benefit as well. 

So....Gold Nugget Number One. 

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/

Read Write Think. The good people who give us thousands of free rubrics also give us hundreds of free lesson plans! You can search by grade level, lesson plan type, theme, or learning objective. Possibly the coolest thing about this site is that they have resources for grades 9-12. I don't know about you, but I think elementary teachers have an easier time finding resources online. It seems that most sites are geared toward grade k-6 and maybe, if we are lucky, have a few 9-12 plans that sneaked in under the cloak of darkness. Thanks, Read Write Think for recognizing that we need some help too! 

Gold Nugget Number Two:

http://thinkfinity.org/in-the-classroom

That's right, ladies and gentleman, two gold nuggets in ONE day. It feels like Christmas. Now, I have to point out that this site does a lot of redirecting to Read Write Think, but some of their links guide you other places too. I haven't done a lot of exploring here, but it does have a great search tool and lessons for grades 9-12. It also has a Professional Development tab which may be helpful down the road.

One unique element of this site is their "Today in History" section. It contains a calender with things that happened on each day in history throughout the year. Want to know why it is really cool? Click on the event and it takes you to a collection of lessons and activities relating to that event.

There they are. Two helpful resources with FREE stuff! If you have gotten this far, you are probably of the nerdy-English-teacher variety too, and I am glad we can share in this excitement together.