A Tough Day

It has been a ridiculously long time since I wrote.

I'm sorry if this is just an explosion of words and emotions. I have a lot to get out.

At the same time, I'm holding in a lot that I don't feel would be professionally appropriate to divulge.

Let it be said that I have been having an INCREDIBLY difficult time this year. I know last year was tough because I was new and everything was an experiment. This year, I'm in a new school again,  everything is still and experiment, and now, to top it all off, I'm having some difficulties working with my grade level team.

It really is amazing how important a common understanding of something is. I have my definition of collaboration and what is expected of a team; they have a completely different understanding of what we should be doing as a team. So, needless to say, it has made my job sooooo much harder.

Today was an especially terrible day because of this. We had a meeting this morning and I honestly said my opinion and felt attacked afterwards. :( I wanted to cry. Instead, I went to the bathroom, gave myself a little peptalk in the mirror, and went into my classroom to start teaching. It was a tough day, no doubt about that. Some of my other coworkers (the ones in my interdisciplinary team; the ones I have really connected with; the ones who give me the encouragement and support I need).. yeah, those ones, they knew I was having a rough time. During 7th period, my last class of the day, all of a sudden both the History teacher's class and the Science teacher's class come in with all the kids I teach in the afternoon. They sang me "Happy Birthday" and (I can't believe I am admitting this) I totally teared up. I know my kids saw my tears, but I think that's ok for them to see me emotional sometimes over a good things. I was just so touched. As they left, the history teacher hugged me and whispered, "This is what we do it for." Oh man, I'm crying right now as I write this. It was such an incredible way to end a day that really could have gotten me down.

Yes, I still have plenty of battles to face with my 8th grade English team. Oh boy, I don't even want to think about all the things I am going to have to deal with in the next few months with them. But I know if I keep it in perspective, it I remember the real "why" of why I chose this profession, if I keep the supportive administrators and teachers close by, then I will be able to survive this year and feel successful at the end of it all.

One thing's for sure, I am NOT going to back down on what I know is right!

Caught Ya!

Alright people, I'll be honest. I didn't write a blog post last week because I just felt like there was nothing to write about. My week was boring, just filled with pretests and boring beyond boring lessons. You know it's bad when the teacher says those things; I can't imagine how those students felt. But....this week...now there is a different story.

This week I warned my students that they would have a quiz on all of things we have learned up to this point. We didn't have time for a review before the quiz, but I wrote down everything that they would see on the test and made them write it down. I told them day after day to study.  Yeah...well I think teens are really great at hearing something in one ear and then letting it go straight through to exit through the other ear. Well, hopefully they will study from now on since they have seen the kinds of quizes we give in 8th grade English. 50 points, fill-in, no multiple choice. If they studied (and I could definitely tell when they did), they did a perfectly fine job on the quiz.

While they were taking the quiz, I walked around and made sure students read directions clearly and did all that the quiz required. One girl raised her hand to ask a question and I walked over to help her out. The boy sitting next to her had his quiz turned over to show that he was finished and he was drawing. While I bent over to help the girl, I see this boy look at her test, flip over his paper, and write in an answer. "No you don't," I said loudly. "I just saw you take an answer from her paper. That is cheating and you will get no points for that question." He looked at me in stunned silence. "Turn your test over. You are done." And I walked away.  

Rule number one of common sense:  "If you are going to cheat, DON'T DO IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TEACHER!" Seriously!?!? I couldn't believe it. This is only the second time I have caught someone in straight out cheating mode. (The other time was when I graded two papers on Huck Finn that were exactly,word-for-word the same. It was my first year in the English Teaching program and I was observing a high school class. The teacher had me grading essays, and the only reason I caught them was because the essay was memorably terrible. For being in an honors class, these sophomore girls were not terribly smart.) Anyway, I could see this boy crying softly after I caught him. When he regained composure, he raised his hand to call me over.
     "I'm really sorry, Ms. Mayans," he apologized softly.
     "Alright, thank you for the apology. We will talk about this later." I then informed him that I would be calling his mom during lunch to tell her about the incident.
     "Don't call my mom," he pleaded. "I'll get grounded!"
     This almost made me laugh out loud. Haha...that's not my fault, kid.  
     The phone call with mom went well, and I was happy to hear her support. In the moment this all happened, I definitely reacted instictually, so I'm happy to report that my instinct was fair and showed strictness with boundaries while also being kind. I could have given him a zero on the test, but I felt like that would be over kill in this situation so I only took the points off of that one questions. It all ended well, and I think the kid learned a lesson.

Well, the stories continue for this week. On Friday we went to the computer lab so that my students could take the SRI (it is a reading test that tells them their lexile level). There were these three boys sitting in the front who I had my eye on. One of them, near the end of the test, looked at his two friends to get their attention. He then proceeded to flip off the computer screen in a display of annoyance to the test. I was standing one row back looking at this whole thing, and so I just said, " 'student'. Not appropriate." He just slunk down in his seat and mumbled, "Sorry."   haha. The truth is, I laughed at how ridiculous these teens were. (I didn't laugh in front of them, of course.) I am actually shocked that I caught all these kids doing this stuff because usually I am oblivious to those things.

I, myself, was also caught doing something. I have tried teaching vocabulary, commonly confused words, and affixes they way the other 8th grade English teachers do, but I have found that it is sooo boring and not very interactive. I talked with my co-teacher, Lindsay, and we brainstormed some ideas for how to better teach the material. We came up with a great idea to do centers on Monday to teach all three things (vocab, commonly confused words, and affixes) with more student-centered strategies. This would also help us remember to reinforce throughout the week instead of just teaching in once and then forgetting about it. Well, this was all great, but I wasn't sure how to tell the rest of my team about my change. In the end, I chickened out and decided I would just do it without telling them. That was a great idea until one of them saw me at the printer with the worksheets for the learning centers and asked me to explain to her what I was planning. I quickly gave her the condensed version of my idea and she said, "That sounds really interesting. Print out 3 more copies to bring to the meeting, and we can discuss it then." I was scared...but it all turned out fine. Come to find out that these other teachers had also talked about some of the weaknesses in the way they were currently teaching the material. They liked my idea (some more than others) and helped me smooth out some of the rougher ideas. I was so happy to receive their support and ideas. Now all three of us are trying it out on Monday and hopefully it will work out well. For the first few weeks, I think it will be a lot of work on our part, but hopefully after a few weeks of practice our students will be able to self-monitor their learning a bit more.

When I told my mom about this weekend, she simply said, "You had a very adult week." There were lots of fears and uncomfortable situations to face, but I feel stronger and better prepared after all of it.

First Week at Sunset Ridge

Well folks, I'm back after a much-too-short summer break, and this time I'm at Sunset Ridge Middle School in West Jordan. We are going to keep this "First Year Blog" because I figure, I'm experiencing a new "first year" at a new school. This school is so different from my last one, and with both experiences there are pros and cons.  Let me tell you about some of them:

You might remember that last year I didn't get the support I was expecting as an intern. I bounced ideas off of other teachers at my school, but I felt like I really didn't get any concrete help from the people in my school. This of course forced me to be resourceful and I was able to pick and choose great ideas from other schools, the internet, and my own creative mind. In case you are thinking it was perfect, let me just tell you how stressful it was. I of course have to teach the core standards and see my students' test scores at the end of the year to tell me how much they did or didn't learn. I worried that I wasn't teaching the tested standards. Well, even with all that stress, I survived and LOVED teaching. It was so fun and I really enjoyed coming up with creative and meaningful unit plans and projects.

This year, I am at a school that believes strongly in collaboration, PLC (professional learning communities), and teams. I basically have planned out every day from now until January, and I have supportive teachers who help me know what I need to teach and how I should do it. It's very helpful. It also, unfortunately, makes me feel like I'm being stripped of my creativity as a teacher. I'm not going to lie, my first cry of the school year was after a planning meeting, before school had even started, when I felt so overwhelmed and so uninvolved in my own classroom planning. I yearned to feel some sort of ownership over my classroom and the things I would be teaching. This first week has been alright and I already really my students (most of them, anyway. haha), but I am going to have to once again be creative and find a way to include my style/personality into my classroom teaching.

So, every school year brings new challenges. I am excited to face those challenges and to see myself, as well as my students, grow and progress. I will keep you updated weekly on this blog, so please visit often :)

NCTE

Are we ready for some good news yet?

Well, here it is. A few months ago, my BYU professor, Dr. Dawan Coombs, invited me to send in a proposal (along with a few other new teachers) to present at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference. The conference is in Boston in November 2013...and guess who will be going to the east coast this year?... Yup, ME!!!

I am still in awe that we were chosen to present. Here is a part of the email we received:

Dear Maichael Mayans:

Congratulations! As President-Elect and Program Chair, I am pleased to invite you to participate in the 2013 Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English to be held November 21-24 in Boston, Massachusetts. Your proposal was selected from more than 2,000 submitted for this year’s convention.

It's official. :)  

It's also daunting..and nerve-wrecking...and an honor...and so many other emotions that I can't even name.

Now I need to apply to their diversity grant. The provide a few grants of up to $500 to first-time multicultural presenters. (Thanks Dad for that Cuban blood!). I'm also going to try and see if my district and/or school will help pay for some of the expenses. I have the flight, hotel, food, and frivolities to think about.


And if you want some more information on what exactly I will be presenting, here is our proposal write-up for you to enjoy:

Description:

What can new teachers contribute to the teaching of classical texts? This presentation highlights ways four new career teachers have re-invented traditional approaches to texts that are classroom staples in most schools. These teachers explore how pop culture, simulations, technology, and real-life connections to controversy help students see why these texts matter so much to us and why these texts should matter to them.

Kate Goodwin, a high school teacher in an urban district in Virginia, will explore how applying Web 2.0 principles makes studying Julius Caesar and Othello dynamic, interactive, and accessible to students fluent in new technologies. By demonstrating strategies used in her own classroom, such as remediation of the texts through social media and interactive reenactments, Kate shows how ideas behind the latest technology can guide and transform the way students read and interact with classic texts. 

Kristen Lofton, a second-year teacher at a growing suburban high school in Georgia, will showcase strategies she used to make the plot of Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird relevant to students over 50 years after its first publication.  By making connections between the modern world of her students and the world of this text, both the plot and the themes of took on new life in her classroom.

Maichael Mayans, a first-year middle school teacher in a rural district in Utah, will showcase how simulations and experiential learning helped her bring The Outsiders to life for another generation of tweens.  She will demonstrate and discuss how these hands-on experiences helped her students consider what it means to be an "outsider" and an "insider," as well as what happened when students pushed social norms in their community.

Lea Rackley, a high school teacher at an alternative school in Tennessee, exposes thematic connections between Romeo & Juliet and The Hunger Games that hooked her most disengaged students.  By teaching Romeo & Juliet alongside portions of the Hunger Games film, as well as through the use of theme-tracking charts, her class discuss the theme of star-crossed lovers, made connections between these stories, and analyzed the tools each medium used to communicate this theme. 

The presentation will involve audience participation and hands-on experience with the activities. Participants will leave with specific lesson ideas and handouts to help them apply these ideas in their own classrooms as well as new ways of thinking about the teaching of classical texts. 

Payson teen dies after weekend auto-pedestrian crash

News report: Teen hit by car in rural area

Yesterday was a really hard day to be at school. The halls have never been so silent.

As my students walked into my classroom, I invited them to write in their writer's notebooks about their feelings/experiences. Whenever I am going through hard times, I know that I am able to order my thoughts a little more and calm down as I write. Similarly, I think my students appreciated the time just to reflect privately and unload all their emotions onto the blank page. Those who wanted to share afterwards were given that opportunity to do so.

Unfortunately, even though our world seems to stop when we experience tragedy, the world and people around us keep going. I explained to my students that it seemed like a cruel joke that we still had to do state testing, but that is simply the truth. So, today we have testing...and who knows how that will go.

During this whole things, I have shed many tears. I hurt for my students. Some of them were at the party that night and one of my students did CPR on the girl while waiting for help to arrive. I can't even imagine how horrific that experience would be, and I hope that I can be a caring and understanding adult in their lives right now.

Sad News

I opened up my email tonight to find a message from the principal. She grievously informed us that 4 students had been in a car accident over the weekend. One student died; the others went to the hospital. I knew that girl who died. She worked as my teacher's assistant in first period and was a lovely girl. Honestly, when I first heard the news I was in shock and couldn't react. Afterwards, I shed some tears in thinking of her and her family. My heart is truly broken for them. It is hard to now think of this young lady and know that she will no longer light up my classroom during first period.

I am struck with how much love I have for my students. I really didn't know this girl for very long, only a few months. Still, I see every one of my students and imagine a long and beautiful future for all of them. I imagine friends, high school dance, college acceptance letters, jobs, dates, marriages, families, and futures where the things they have learned in my class will impact how they see the world and how they communicate their opinions and values. I see happiness when I look at my students. I see hardships as well as victories when I look at my students.

This news of the accident will obviously effect us for the rest of the school year. This week we have state testing (whelp, I'm thinking quite a few students aren't going to do very well because they will be mentally preoccupied with other emotions). I just pray that I can be a caring and understanding teacher to those students who were especially close to this girl. I want to be able to discern how to best help them through this time of sadness and mourning. I guess we will all just take it one day at a time.

Laughter Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

What a roller coaster of a week. There have been so many tragedies this week, what with the Boston Marathon bombing and a few people who have gone missing in the last few days. Scary times.

Luckily, I laughed a lot this week. I actually find this pretty ironic since this week was actually very boring as far as lesson plans and assignments go. We are currently preparing for the end of year testing, and this means we have a lot of boring reviews and practices. But, amidst all the annoyed students and national tragedies, I found plenty of things to bring a smile to my face.

First of all, it's amusing to hear what students think of you as a teach. As I passed out another review worksheet, one student commented, "Sheesh, teachers have it easy. All they do is make worksheets and then watch other people do them." HAHAHA. So that's what I've been doing with all those early and late hours at school...just making worksheets, eh?

Then we have the kids who are falling asleep in my class because they can't seem to practice self discipline at home and go to bed early. When I saw one of my students at the back of the class obviously asleep, I told another student to smack him awake. He lifted his head and I saw that the whole left side of his face was bright red and dented with imprints of his jacket. I had to work really hard to keep in my laughter. He just looked so out of it, and I felt his pain. By that time of day, I just want a nap too!

And then of course there are funny/cute things that I see on students' assignments. Every week I give them an article to read and answer questions. During this, I have also taught them how to anotate a text (and can I just brag for a second? They are doing so so so well at annotating! They really get it! At the beginning, I think they were confused why anyone would write their comments, questions, and connections in the margins, but now they are actually writing thoughtful things and coming to really good conclusions. I love it!). Anyway, so this article talks about tips some of the most successful college students suggest. On the section entitled "Pursue passion, not A's", one hard-working-straight-A student wrote, "My whole life is a lie!" I laughed.
On another paper, I found a very sweet note from a student. What a perfect way to bring a smile. I think this is one of the perks of teaching junior high. Do you honestly think I would get notes like this from high schoolers? Here it is.

Then there are always those annoying, talkative, happiness-sucking classes that just turn me into a Disney witch. Yeah, I told my 5th and 6th period classes at the beginning of the week that they were on probation. If they got 5 tallies in the week, they would have to do "Behavior Bootcamp" (what I did with my 7th and 8th period class last semester). The kids who experienced Behavior Bootcamp from before urgently told the other students that they DID NOT want to experience it. I also arranged with them a reward system. If they get 10 positive points, they get to watch a movie (yes, I plan to strategically time that movie to be the last week of school). The best day was Thursday. Students started filing into the classroom. Some students decided to take an active role in reminding their peers to be quiet; they would shush the people walking in the door and then tell them to start working. I was so please to see them all come in, start the bell work quietly and on their own, and continue being attentive as I called out for people to share what they had written. Honestly, it was such a simple pleasure, but it was exactly what I needed for the day. They were working so hard to impress me. I realized that it is important to find the right type of motivation for each class. Finally I have found it for this period! :)

And lastly there is the ever-crazy, ever-worrisom job search. I wont go into all the craziness, but I am happy to report that I have two job interviews lined up for next Wednesday. I can only hope and pray for the best. Surprisingly, I am confident that everything really will turn out fine and that I should just be myself. While I am far from a perfect teacher, I feel like I have worked really had this year to be a good, fun, effective teacher. And I think, for the most part, that I have succeeded in that endeavor. It is so wonderful to have so many friends and family rooting for me and helping me along the way. Thank you!

Spring Break is upon us

This last week I wanted to do something that would be student led and not cause me a ton of stress. To finish off our persuasion/argument unit, I had my students create a unique product and then make a power point to advertise it. When I was gone for the teacher fair, they made prototype They spent all week writing their power points and inlcuded the following sections:

• Celebrity Endorsements
• Product Description 
• Target Audience 
• History of the Company 
• 3 Reasons why someone should buy their product

 Yesterday they all presented, and it was a huge success. Here are a few pictures of their very creative projects:

Here we see the Bender Binder (a binder that shrinks so as to fit in your pocket), the iPhone 7 (see-through so as to allow you not to trip as you walk and text), the robo-hat and a futuristic TV.

This is the Money Tree. Their slogan was "Grow, Harvest, Invest." :)  

Purposeful Pocket Purse and a fashion shovel. The ladies who created the fashion shovel had Luke Bryan (country singer) as their celebrity endorser and quoted him as saying, "I'm so glad I can still look sexy while diggin it."   :)

The Everything Kit (stores everything you need for school). YES PLEASE!

Animal deodorant. Here you see Creamy Kitty and Dogxibo for your lovable pets.

I was impressed with the creativity, but I was also pleased with their persuasive abilities. I think it was a job well done.

Now its time to relax and enjoy spring break (Oh, and yes I still have Outsider essays to grade over vacation....grrrr.....)

BYU Teacher Fair

Ok people, yesterday was INSANE! I requested a substitute teacher for Friday because I had to go to the teacher fair at BYU. Wow, teacher fairs area crazy!

 First, let me tell you about Thursday. When I told my students that I wouldn't be at school on Friday, they naturally asked why. This was the conversation that followed:
Me: Well, I have to go to this fair so that I can have a job next year.
Students: WHAT!?!? You aren't going to be here next year!?!?!? You can't leave. You are such a great teacher!!!
Me: (Sighs because I know that I've told them this before) No, I wont be here. This is only an intern spot. They don't have a position open for me for next year.
 Students: So, if another English teacher leaves, then you will be able to stay?
Me: Yeah, I guess so.
Students: OK, who can we sabotage???
:)

 I'm flattered that my kids want to keep me around.

 Anyway, onto the teacher fair. I got there right as it started, 9:00am baby! It was already packed and I had no idea where to go. The days before the fair, I had made plans of the top districts I wanted to visit and a few I wanted to interview with.

Well, with all the madness I didn't get to interview with all of them, but in the end I did have 6 interviews total at the following schools/districts:
-ALA (its a charter school in Arizona)
-Davis county School District (Farmington/Kaysville area)
-Granite School District (Salt Lake area)
-Box Elder School District (semi-rural Utah)
-Duchesne School District (in rural Utah)
- Jefferson School District (Rexburg, Idaho area)

 The only other district that I was sad to not interview with was Salt Lake School District. Others, like Alpine and Jordan School Districts, weren't interviewing at the teacher fair.

 I wont go into a ton of detail about the interviews. Really there was only one that I felt I didn't do well in because it was so stiff-feeling. I do better in a more natural, conversational interview. Really, I rocked the other interviews, and I had 3 interviewers specifically tell me that I did a fantastic job on the screening interview. :) Yay!

 I had to be honest with some of the districts. Duchesne, for example, I explained my hesitation because I need to be somewhere where I can be social. The woman I interviewed with was awesome and she was able to convince me a little more to keep that district open as an option. In fact, she wants me to come out some time in the next few weeks to see the schools and meet principals who are looking for English teachers (yeah, I guess I made a pretty great impression on her). But...still, we are talking about rural Utah here. Probably not my first choice, but I am keeping my options open. Who knows where the Lord has planned for me to end up.

 More than anything, this experience helped me gain confidence that I will be able to get a job for this next year. People enjoy talking to me in interviews, and I think I give them a positive yet honest reflection of myself. The job hunt is still going on, but at least now I have a few more good contacts.

The "Outsider"/"Insider" Experiences

For our final project for The Outsiders, I wanted my students to think deeply about what it feels like to be an "insider" (accepted, feeling of belonging, a part of a group, etc.) and an "outsider" (unwanted, awkward, alone, etc.)  I had them write about a time when they felt like an "insider" and think about why they felt that way and how others saw them. Then (the fun part) I told them that they had to go be an "outsider" some time during that next week. I gave them ideas about how they could break social norms and then analyze how people reacted towards them and how they felt.

Well, the project isn't over yet, but I have already had some interesting stories come from this. On Friday one of my students came to class wearing his clothes backwards (both shirt and pants) and walking backwards to class. He told me that he had already been called a "freak" 3 times in the school hallways. Another kid told me that he had gotten flipped off when he had done his outsider activity (woops, I wasn't really expecting that to happen).

Today I was very touched when a young woman in my class shared with me what she did. She started out by saying that her dad helped her think of her outsider experience. She is a very danty and pretty girl, and her father had her put on a very large shirt and stuff it with pillows so that she looked very much overweight. He then had her return movies to the Walmart Redbox and do some other errands. She seemed very somber as she told the class about how people stared at her or she heard some of them laugh or say mean things. She told us about how she felt embarrassed. I was so impressed with her story, and I could tell that the experience had made an impression on her.

After school I called her dad to personally thank him for his help in this assingment. He said to me, "well, I wanted her to really feel it. My daughter has had a blessed life. She is blessed with beauty and she knows it. She always has had good friends and family. When she was originally coming up with ideas for your assignment, I told her, 'Those ideas are too fun. You can't do something with your friends because the point is to feel alone and awkward. You have always had that support. You need to actually do something that allows you to feel what the other side feels.' " Needless to say, I was very impressed with dad. I thanked him again for his support.

So hopefully this assignment is able to make a difference in at least a few students' lives. I know that not everyone will let the lesson sink in, but I think it will touch the hearts or a few students. Hopefully they will be able to remember their experience when they are faced with a choice of how to treat someone whom they see as different and as an "outsider".

Bullying the Outsider

Today we had another assembly on bullying. The Utah governor actually said that every school needed to watch this assembly. The speaker was Nick Vujicic, a man born with no arms and no legs. It was a very powerful assembly.




For the rest of the day I talked to my students about the effect this assembly had on them. At first when I would ask them what they thought about it, I would get only a few reluctant hands and weak responses.

So I decided to relate it to what we are doing in class.

We just finished reading The Outsiders. My students have fallen in love with the characters, especially Ponyboy and Johnny. I asked them, "Now that we have finished the book, who would like to be Ponyboy's friend?" All hands went up. I then related to them how we see Ponyboy as he really is: his likes and dislikes, his personality, his relationships with his friends and brothers, his hopes and fears, and his failures as well as his successes. We love him with all of it. But if we saw him on the street, what would we think? To be honest, we would probably look at his greased back, long hard and his tough-looking friends and think, "No way. I wouldn't be friends with him. We are nothing alike." How many times do we do that at school and not give people a chance just because of their appearance.

I told them how the assembly and the book and their insider/outsider project all go together to help them apply what they have learned.When you have acted the part of the outsider, some of you did experience teasing or name calling. Since you knew it wasn't real and it was only for a project, it might not have affected you very much. But I want you to think of people who experience that every day.

It breaks my heart, but I have had some students who have come up to me and said, "Ms. Mayans, do I have to do a made-up outsider project? Because I already feel that." They tell me about having to sit alone on the bus because no one likes to talk to them. Or about how people say they smell and stay away from them because they live in a home with people who smoke. Do we notice the outsiders in our classes, our hallways, and our communities?

To be honest I actually cried.

They seemed to be much more attentive after all that.

I feel so blessed to have gotten to know each of these kids. Some are shy, some are crazy outgoing, some goofy, some are surrounded by friends, some stay by themselves. No matter how they act, I personally know of their worth, and it hurts me to see other kids belittle them because of the things that make them unique. Hopefully the books we have read this year will inspire a little more acceptance and love in each of them.

I love my students.

March- supposedly the hardest month

Happy March everybody!

Well, I have heard from all of the teachers at my school that March is the hardest month to get through. February has a few Mondays off and April gives us spring break, but March is long and unforgiving (so they tell me). But, I have to say that this last few week have been  AWESOME and I feel like March will be good for me.

Mind you, March will definitely be tough. And here are a few reasons why:

Tough Month Reason #1:
This is the month I get to really start looking for jobs. At the end of March, there will be a Teacher Fair at BYU and, boy, am I nervous! I am getting my letters of recommendation from key people and finalizing my resume, but it is so scary thinking that I am going to have to sell my skills and convince schools that they really do want me. Then there is always the fear of the unknown. Will I have to move? Will I have to move out of Utah? Will I be happy where I get a job? Will I love another grade like I have loved my 7th graders this year? Will I like the school and the English team? Ahhhh! So many questions.

Tough Month Reason #2:
I have my final interview with my college professor this month to review this year as an intern. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my supervising professor. She has helped me sooo much and I don't know if I would have been able to survive this intern year without her. But, I still get nerves having to have this final interview. We will go over my lesson plans (yes, I have an overflowing binder with all of my lesson plans from the year), we'll see the evaluaitons I received from my mentor teacher and my students (I'll come back to talking about those evaluations later), and we'll

Tough Month Reason #3:
Term 3 ends and the last term begins. I dont know why, but the start and end of a term is just hard. It's hard to look at grades at the end of the term and self-evaluate what I could have done, should have done, will eventually do better in my teaching. This term seems to have flown by, and it has been difficult to implement some of the things I thought about at the end of last term. I have last minutes assignments to grade and next (and last) term to plan. Wow, I am a busy woman!

Word Play Day

I learned at the UCTE conference in November that word play is important for our students. For years I have loved words. I remember calling my mom after classes where we talked about British poetry and telling her how I could TASTE the words. Taste!? I'm sure she thought I was going crazy, but it is an experience I will never forget.

You dont have to wait until college literature courses to fall in love with words and the way the fall onto your tongue. So today we played word games and watched some fun videos that helped my students understand the musicality of ordinary words. Here are a few of the clips we watched:

haha, I may be an English nerd, but I feel that these are fun to watch. They make you want to say funny words. I had my students write down words that they found fun to say. I gave them a challenge to say at least one of those words 5 times throughout the day. They found the official definition of the word and practiced saying it. Really, they already knew what the word meant, but this helped solidify the word in their minds. (Plus, often times big, unknown words are the most fun to say).  Some of the classes had extra time to work with a group to make a song using their favorite fun words.

I loved it!!

Here is my list of fun words:

• bubbly
• superfluous
• befuddled
• meanderer
• pompous (especially fun to say when you relax your lips and cheeks)
• 
  

What words are on your list?

Funny moments

Seventh grade really is an awkward stage. Now that i'm not the one experiencing it, this age is so much more enjoyable to observe. I think my favorite has been when one of my boys came in and said, "Ms. Mayans, do you know what is the worst? It's so embarrassing when you are talking to a cute girl and your voice cracks."  Hahaha, yup, I guess that would be kind of awkward. 

Well, another great moment came with the end of  our comma unit. After weeks of comma lessons and days of review and test preparation, I gave my student an overview test. To commemorate the memorable day in which they would prove their comma mastery, I wore my roommate's comma shirt to school (yes, I have a roommate who clearly is an English lover as well).  My students loved it!  I even had one student draw a picture of me (in my "normal" clothes that day, and in my "comma girl" superhero clothes). Oh, I love it. They then took the test and most of them did a pretty good job on it. I was pleased with most of the grades. Yay for commas!!!!

So here is another moment of seventh-grader-greatness. I was having a bit of a downer day, but this little jewel made me laugh out loud. Here is an email I received from a student. Besides the fact that it is slightly inappropriate to tell your teacher that she is hot, this grammar fatality is priceless.

Being Creative Takes Work!

This week I realized some of the differences between fun/creative/active lesson plans and some of the more hum-drum lessons....fun lesson plans require a whole lot more work. Work before. Work during. Some work after. I pushed my creativity during this week and it seriously wore me out. The hard part is this: I'm not even sure it was all worth it. I saw some students engaged and excited to learn, but I also saw plenty who remained unengaged and seemingly uninterested in the lesson I was teaching. Boo! :(

We started talking about argument and persuasion this week. To introduce it, I showed Super Bowl commercials and other persuasive ads and had the students analyze which ads they found most convincing and why. It was a pretty fun lesson. Yesterday we talked about the use of ethos, logos, and pathos in persuasion and argument. I'm not sure all of my studnets completely understood those terms, but we will use them a lot more this week and hopefully that helps. I have learned the power of repetition in the classroom. Whatever you want to stick in the students' mind, you just have to repeat about 4 bazillion times.

Speaking of repeating things, next week my students will take a test on the use of commas. This week we did so many comma review activities, I could almost see the commas coming out of my students' ears. I don't know why, but I love commas....I even plan on wearing my roommates shirt that has commas all over it for the test day (yes, I have a roommate who is basically as comma crazy as I am). I hope all this repetition has paid off and I can see how they have mastered these concepts.

We are also fully in motion in our Outsiders unit plan. I love coming to school and hearing my kids say, "Ms. Mayans, are we reading today!?!?" They groan when I say no. I'm hoping they love it more than just because they get to draw as they listen to the audio book. (One of the activities I discovered from a fellow teacher is a graffiti wall where the students draw symbols they find in the book. It has been a great assignment so far).  Next week we will read some more and talk about some more symbolism from Robert Frost's poem, "Nothing gold can stay" (which is in chapter 5 of the book).

Speaking of teaching next week, I have been assigned a practicum student to come observe my class and teach some lessons. Weird! It seems like forever ago that I was a practicum student walking into Mt. Nebo Junior High for the first time. This guy will probably be my replacement intern next year, so this is a great opportunity for him to see the dynamics of the school. I've given him a few lessons to teach this week, and I am excited to see what he is able to do in my classroom. That will be next week's adventure.

An Incredibly Long, Short Week

You may look at the title of this post and think, "What does she mean by 'a long, short week'? Has the girl gone nuts?" Well, sickness will do that to you. Teaching while you have a runny or stuffy nose is the pits, and this week I experienced both. I had to put away my pride and blow my nose in front of my students (usually I like to keep my nose-blowing to myself), and they looked at me with sad puppy-dog eyes and asked incredulously, "Ms. Mayans, are you STILL sick!?!?" Yup, my dears. I am most certainly sick. And that makes for a very long week.

To add to it, my mentor teacher came to observe my class on one of those sickness + headache days. Lets just say, I wasn't my most chipper self. Just last week we had a meeting about using positive reenforcement to get a students to change and obey, but I was feeling way past the point of using round-about techniques to get what I want. Ironically, when we met after for a post-conference about the lesson, she complimented me on my positivity while speaking to the students. REALLY?! I felt that I hadn't been too kinda that day, but I guess I managed to still be civil. What a surprise!

Anyway, so those are the reasons the week felt so long, but in all actuality I only taught 3 out of the 5 days. Maybe it was a good thing I was sick this week.

On Tuesday I had a substitute teacher while I went to a conference put on by the district for new English teachers. They focused on engagement in the classroom, and I re-learned a lot of strategies to implement into my lessons. Even though I haven't been teaching for very long, I can already feel how easy it would be to allow myself to get into ruts with teaching. Once a strategy has worked once, it is so easy just to run with that for a while. But honestly, I know my students will learn better if I always mix it up and try to get engagement from all of my students. All in all, the conference was successful in allowing me to re-imagine possibilities in my classroom. I am excited to try out my new ideas.

Friday also turned out to be a free day for me as well. The 7th graders had "Job Shadow Day" and didn't come to school, so I had the whole day to myself for planning and grading. I caught up on all my grading and planned my next few units. It feels so wonderful to have all my days planned up until mid-March. With me being sick, I am actually very pleased that I was so productive.

So at the end of the week, I have survived my sickness and am starting to get a little better (I hope). I have taught about commas and appositives. I have discussed stereotyping with my students in anticipation for The Outsiders. I have bought an audio book to do the reading for me in class (also a great idea I came up with while being sick and not wanting to lose my voice), and I have graded, planned, and prepared for the months ahead. Not a bad week, but I do hope next week is better.

A fresh start

This week was the first week of the new semester. What doest that mean?  Well, it means that, although I still teach the same kids, they have all moved to be in different class periods. I'm still trying to get used to the new dynamics (especially when you put "loud-student-from-period-1", "loud-student-from-period-5", and "loud-student-from-period-7" into the same class period. Yup, my new crazy class is 5th and 6th period because all my yapper students are condensed into those 2 class periods. I actually feel really bad once again for the good students. I had one girl come up to me and say, "Ms. Mayans, this class is so talkative. I don't know if I like it." It is so frustrating for me to see students robbing their peers of their opportunities to really learn and enjoy learning just because they can't seem to find the self control to stop talking.

Well, the change isn't all bad, and I love seeing my students interact with each other in new ways as they get comfortable with these new classes. This week we went over rules and procedures again, introduced prefixes and suffixes, and talked about the difference between fact an opinion in anticipation for our unit on persuasive/argumentative writing. I think it will be a very busy (and hopefully fun) term.

So another surprise came my way this week. My BYU professor, Dr. Coombs, sent me an email this week asking me if I would like to work with her and a few other new teachers on a proposal for NCTE. NCTE is the "National Council of Teachers of English" and they have a conference every year where teachers from across the country meet and teach each other the great things they have done in education. This year's theme is "(Re)Inventing the Future of English." Basically, my professor wanted us to talk about how we have taken a classic text that has been taught in classrooms for years and changed the way we have taught it so that it relates to our students better. Let me tell you, it was an exciting yet intimidating invitation to work on this proposal. Once again, I will admit that I went to Dr. Coombs' office and shed some tears as I told her how to felt like an impostor teacher and inadequate to the task. But I will also admit that I have an awesome mentor in Dr. Coombs and she helped calm my nerves and remember all of the good qualities I have as a new teacher. It is so hard for me, but I need to stop comparing my weaknesses to the strengths of others. Anyway, we brainstormed some ideas and wrote up the proposal with the other ladies who are participating. If our proposal is accepted, we will be presenting in the national conference in November in BOSTON! Woo hoo! It would be such a great experience. We will just have to wait and see what comes of it.

Finding Support Through My Many Freak-outs

I wrote the following on January 12th... and then I forgot about it. Sorry I didn't post it earlier

Yesterday was a tough day for me. I still had to come into work although none of the students came. It was an in-service preparation day because we have just finished term 2. I was comforted by the thought that I could come to school in sweats, but I was horrified by the fact that I had to drive in a Utah blizzard to get there.

Freak-out #1: So, leaving my house around 7:05, I began the perilous trek. There was so much snow on ground, snow on the roads, snow still falling from the sky, snow everywhere. The snow plows had yet to come clear the streets. I drove so slowly, yet I still could feel my car sliding from time to time. The freeway was especially scary since cars around me expected me to go faster than I was actually willing. The scariest moment of the whole thing was when I tapped my breaks while on the freeway and my car freaked out on me. I lost control and spun around a full 360 degrees before coming to a stop in the middle of the freeway. IT WAS SOOO SCARY! Luckily, there weren't any cars around me, and I spent the rest of the car ride to the school thanking Heavenly Father for protecting me. ....and then I got stuck in the snow right in front of the school parking lot. A few helpful souls helped push me out, but I didn't appreciate their judging scoffs at my not-made-for-snow car. Well, to end the morning, I finally parked my car, got inside the school, and burst into tears. :( What a stressful morning.

Freak-out #2: End of term means grades go out. Grades going out means that I look at a multitude of Ds and think, "What am I doing wrong!?" (I swear I had this exact same experience at the end of 1st term. Will I ever learn?). I had one class that had 13 Ds (I'm not even exaggerating here). It is hard to balance grades so that they reflect what students have truly learned and not just what they have or have not turned in. For example, most of these Ds were the cause of missing Articles of the Week and monthly Reading Logs. So, with tears gathering in my eyes, I rushed to a neighboring teacher to ask for advice. The tears did come as I told her of my predicament and asked her for advice. She suggested that I lower the worth of those assignments so that they not monopolize my grades so much. Instead of having a Reading Log be worth 50 points, she suggested that I lower it to 25 and see what that did to my grades. Her argument was that the students who turned in the Reading Log on time and got 50 out of 50 in the first place were probably already A students and the extra credit they would receive from getting 50 out of 25 points now wouldn't change the high grades very much. Well, I tried it out....AND IT WORKED! Yay! So, what did I learn? I learned that you need to make sure the points you assign your assignments balance each other out. A reading log should not be an unseemly amount of points compared to assignments you do in class where you see your students learning in the moment. It is a hard concept to actually put in practice, but at least that is one more freak-out that I can put behind me.

Starting a New Year!

I wasn't excited to come back to work, but my day was made so much better when I heard this:

Student: "I decided to write in Biblical language, Ms. Mayans." (then he begins to read his bell work about winter break, which was supposed to be written in 3rd person) "It came to pass that on the fourth hour of the 20th day of the 12th month of the 2012th year, there was a 13 year old boy named Jarom. Having a tummy ache, (and great was the ache thereof), he ran to the bathroom and spat food into the toilet. Nevertheless, Jarom did brush his teeth and went back unto his rest, and good was the rest thereof."

hahahahahah. I usually don't want to know about my students being sick, but this seriously made me cry, it was soooo funny!

To be honest, today wasn't the greatest day. It seemed that all of my classes were chatty and off task. We did some goal setting for the new year and upcoming new term, and we finished off the class period by reviewing some old stuff and reading a short story. I really didn't think my students would be in the correct mindset to learn something new, so we will wait a few days for that.

The final project for The Devil's Arithmetic is due on Friday, but some of my kids have already turned them in. THEY LOOK AMAZING!!!! Oh my gosh, I am so impressed and so proud!  Everyone who turned it in today got an A. I could tell they had really spent a lot of time and effort on these projects and they learned a lot. 

I now have to worry about planning my next unit plans. I need to teach argument writing, essay writing (5 paragraph essays), how to have discussions, The Outsiders, words for the spelling bee competition (coming up on February 7th), prefixes and suffixes,.... um, and I think that's it. That will last us a few months. I hope I survive! In addition to that, I also need to think about what I can do to prepare my students for the state testing in March. Even though I will never see the results, I want to help my kids do their best (and of course also demonstrate through their test scores that I am a decent teacher). So much to do, and the time just whizzes past.