Holy cow! It has been way too long since I last posted something about my life. So much has happened, but it has also drained me a little bit (hence, I haven't even found the strength or motivation to write briefly about it).
Lets start with today and move backwards, shall we?
The end of term is almost upon us. October 29th, grades are due and October 19th is the last day for my students to turn in any late/missing/redone/extra credit work. Yes, you heard right, that is THIS Friday. Are people freaking out? You bet your boots they are! Just last week I tried to give one "catch-up" class period. I was thinking, "Oh, this will be easy for me. I will just give them the class period to work on whatever they are missing and maybe a few people will ask for some help during the hour." No! Once again, I was terribly mistaken to think that an activity I planned would turn out simple. I had students coming up the entire time: asking what they were missing, wanting to see their grade, checking how much an assignment was worth, asking questions about how to do something. By the end of the day, I had a head ache. But, I can honestly say, that I am glad I gave them that time. I feel like many of the students appreciated it and used the time wisely.
With grades coming out soon, I am supposed to notify all the parents of students who are currently earning a D or an F. For most of the parents, I have sent an email. Generic. Simple. Clear. "Your son/daughter is earning a
. They are missing the following big-point assignments:
." The end. It hasn't been too bad (besides the fact that I have more students failing that I would like to admit). There are, however, some parents that don't have emails. These ones are usually the hispanic families. So, yesterday afternoon, I called the house of one of my students and began to have a painfully un-understandable conversation with his mom. I soon realized that this was going to get me nowhere, so I admitted to her that I spoke Spanish and that we could probably try to communicate in her language instead of pretending to communicate in mine. It was tough, but also rewarding to communicate with her. I was so grateful at the end for my mission and the opportunity to learn Spanish. I can tell it will truly be a blessing to me for the rest of my life.
Yesterday was also fun because I realized how important metacognition (the act of thinking about thinking ) is. We were reading "The Landlady", a scary short story, as a class. I didn't even realize how much you have to infer about the story until the very end when I was all pumped and my students were like, "Huh?! That's it? That wasn't scary at all!?" What a bust! Here I was, all excited and literature-nerdy, and my kids couldn't even understand how cool the story was. (Feel free to read/listen to it
here). Anyway, after first period's less-than-stellar reaction, I realized that I needed to scaffold the inferencing better. The rest of the day went better, but it all taught me a lot about what I can expect from students this age.
A few weeks ago, I went to an English teacher conference (UCTE). I'm not going to write a lot about it, but I will say that it was very fun and gave me a lot of good ideas. I feel like I am brimming with good ideas but am not sure exactly how to implement them. That, or I once again dont have time because I am juggling so many things. Some of the speakers included: Shannon Hale (author of Goose Girl...which I LOVE and read in one night a few years ago) and Taylor Mali (author of "What Teachers Make"....read it
here or watch it on YouTube).
Last weekend we had Fall Break. No school on Thursday or Friday and it was definitely a needed break. Yay!
Ok, so a few weeks ago, I broke up a fight at school. A girl fight. Oh man, it was intense. The adrenalin kicked in when I saw these two girls punching and pulling hair in front of my classroom during passing period. I pulled one girl off of the other, and then luckily another teacher came who knew the girls and could tell the administration who they were. I was fine until the crowd dispersed and I saw the clumps of long, brown hair in the hallway. Yuck! I almost gagged. I was then the talk of the school for the next few days. Kids would seriously walk past my door, look at me, and whisper to their friends, "That's the teacher that told on so-and-so." Haha, while it was kinda funny, I am happy that the fame was fleeting and things are now back to normal.
Well, I'm sure there is probably more that I missed, but I can't recall anything else for the moment. I promise I will do better from here on out.
