All in all, I would say that this year was a success...
Next year... Let's turn it up.
Monday 31 December 2007
Saturday 29 December 2007
Reading Outstanding Unusual Stories (ROUS’s):
I am reading my kids another book for our read aloud. There are literally dozens of (and probably hundreds of if I REALLY tried) great books that I want to read my kids. Having no experience to draw on, and a stubborn penchant for doing things my way, I settled on a personal favorite of mine. I wanted to choose a book that I doubted any other teacher they would have would have them read. I wanted to use literature to teach my kids lessons while also offering the blissful escapism of a fairytale fantasy into imagination. I chose a book that was made into not just a movie, but one of the greatest kids’ movies of all time.
After hours of searching, I could not find Crossroads (starring Britney Spears) the book. So I had to go with my second choice.
My kids and I are reading the Mr. B abridged and “translated” version of The Princess Bride. It would be Inconceivable to read that book to my class without a fair amount of translating and over explanation due to their vocabularies (which have very little exposure to archaic tounge in cheeck old english) . However, If you can read at a sixth grade level or above and need/want a book to read that will make easy smiles, then I cannot recommend this book enough. My kids often BEG me to keep reading, and the more time one spends with Dread Pirates, Beautifullest Women, Inego and Fezzik the better life will be. It might not change your life in a big way, but it will make your life happier for awhile, and you never know, it might give you ideas for finding your own slices of long term happiness and taking lessons on taking life urgently, while not taking one’s self too seriously.
After all there may be rocks ahead.
And if there are, we’ll all be dead.
After hours of searching, I could not find Crossroads (starring Britney Spears) the book. So I had to go with my second choice.
My kids and I are reading the Mr. B abridged and “translated” version of The Princess Bride. It would be Inconceivable to read that book to my class without a fair amount of translating and over explanation due to their vocabularies (which have very little exposure to archaic tounge in cheeck old english) . However, If you can read at a sixth grade level or above and need/want a book to read that will make easy smiles, then I cannot recommend this book enough. My kids often BEG me to keep reading, and the more time one spends with Dread Pirates, Beautifullest Women, Inego and Fezzik the better life will be. It might not change your life in a big way, but it will make your life happier for awhile, and you never know, it might give you ideas for finding your own slices of long term happiness and taking lessons on taking life urgently, while not taking one’s self too seriously.
After all there may be rocks ahead.
And if there are, we’ll all be dead.
Barely (self) contained insanity.
Teaching all of the subjects really exposes one’s weaknesses as a teacher and the lessons I teach by. It also allows one to find deeper hidden strengths that they are unaware of. Regardless of my status as self contained or departmentalized I have no problem from prepositions nor ending sentences them with.
I am now a self contained teacher. I am far from veteran, but I have earned my stripes. Albeit a first year self contained teacher. But regardless of my experience level, or ability level, I have completed a full 9 week grading period as a self contained teacher, and could hardly see switching back at this point. Despite my parents’ and teachers’ best efforts, I never got very good at sharing things that are important to me. And few things are more important to me than the 28 hilarious, frustrating, draining, inspiring, inexplicable, wonderful 5th graders that now wake me up virtually every night with fearful dreams that they are getting into even worse trouble, getting pregnant, getting nowhere, or even worse getting set back because of the bumbling nature of my first year teaching style. Their smiles, hopes and dreams stay with me as my conscious and sub conscious grade my daily progress and reflect in weird ways on what has been going on in my classroom. A couple weeks ago after making my first totally me based decision in weeks and going to a Ben Lee concert on a Thursday night, I dreamt I was trying to teach all of my students who were now 16 to drive trucks. They kept crashing into each other because I had taught them to use the radio before I taught them where the break was. Sometimes in retrospect Mr. B’s priorities are not where they maybe should be. But when I woke up and reflected in the shower (easy ladies…) about the dream, I realized that no one had gotten seriously hurt, and maybe music is worth a few dings and bumps. Or maybe I am as good at justifying my actions as my kids are at doing the Crank dat Soulja Boy dance. Well accept Sara and Oscar, I can justify way better than that.
For the few people that read this that aren’t fully versed in teacher lingo- self contained means that I have my kids all day accept for 50 minutes a day when they are at ancillary (music, gym, library, or computer lab).
This means I start with 20 minutes for morning math warm ups, and homework checking, then I go to science lab where I co-teach lab on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. After that we go the bathroom then have math from 9:15-10:25. This, for a few weeks was a disaster of Spears family proportions. At 10:25 I take my kids to ancillary. This is supposed to be my planning period. Hopefully soon I will use it to tutor and plan. But now I am generally running around cursing my lack of materials, going Office Space on the copier, and attending asinine meetings with various members of the staff that don’t have anything to do with me. (example one: I “got to” attend a meeting between the bus company and the police office. Generally not connected to what a homeroom teacher does. But arguably useful to know. However, HISD busses do not service my school. If I was the type of teacher that wore panties, this meeting would have had them in a bundle. However, since I do not, I was just crabby for awhile. My afternoon lesson did not have copies of the poem I wanted to look at with my kids because I had to learn about what the cops do with high schoolers that ride the bus with guns.
The hardest part of switching to self contained was not rocking at what I do. For the first 4 weeks I would generally give 5 lessons a day plus 2 different lessons at tutorials. This means that on average I would have time to plan one really good lesson, 3 decent ones, and 2 boring but decent ones, and 1 real bad lesson. Then I would have the energy to merely poorly execute them all. Every week has gotten better since then, I am becoming more efficient, I had the chance to observe at a really good school (with the same student population- My second observation was at a very rich, well funded suburban school and it was hardly useful since the students didn’t have any of the same management problems that my students have, and came in on average on grade levels with larger vocabularies… that is not saying teaching there is easy, but their management and lessons and strategies were less appropriate. I just HAVE to cover more material each year. And have to figure out ways to give students without safe homes or educated parents ways to get homework and be able to do it even though they have so much to worry about.) This school gave me lots of ideas, and slowly my students have been crawling towards progress, and slowly their teacher has been crawling towards becoming a teacher and Christmas break. Equally excited about each of them.
I am now a self contained teacher. I am far from veteran, but I have earned my stripes. Albeit a first year self contained teacher. But regardless of my experience level, or ability level, I have completed a full 9 week grading period as a self contained teacher, and could hardly see switching back at this point. Despite my parents’ and teachers’ best efforts, I never got very good at sharing things that are important to me. And few things are more important to me than the 28 hilarious, frustrating, draining, inspiring, inexplicable, wonderful 5th graders that now wake me up virtually every night with fearful dreams that they are getting into even worse trouble, getting pregnant, getting nowhere, or even worse getting set back because of the bumbling nature of my first year teaching style. Their smiles, hopes and dreams stay with me as my conscious and sub conscious grade my daily progress and reflect in weird ways on what has been going on in my classroom. A couple weeks ago after making my first totally me based decision in weeks and going to a Ben Lee concert on a Thursday night, I dreamt I was trying to teach all of my students who were now 16 to drive trucks. They kept crashing into each other because I had taught them to use the radio before I taught them where the break was. Sometimes in retrospect Mr. B’s priorities are not where they maybe should be. But when I woke up and reflected in the shower (easy ladies…) about the dream, I realized that no one had gotten seriously hurt, and maybe music is worth a few dings and bumps. Or maybe I am as good at justifying my actions as my kids are at doing the Crank dat Soulja Boy dance. Well accept Sara and Oscar, I can justify way better than that.
For the few people that read this that aren’t fully versed in teacher lingo- self contained means that I have my kids all day accept for 50 minutes a day when they are at ancillary (music, gym, library, or computer lab).
This means I start with 20 minutes for morning math warm ups, and homework checking, then I go to science lab where I co-teach lab on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. After that we go the bathroom then have math from 9:15-10:25. This, for a few weeks was a disaster of Spears family proportions. At 10:25 I take my kids to ancillary. This is supposed to be my planning period. Hopefully soon I will use it to tutor and plan. But now I am generally running around cursing my lack of materials, going Office Space on the copier, and attending asinine meetings with various members of the staff that don’t have anything to do with me. (example one: I “got to” attend a meeting between the bus company and the police office. Generally not connected to what a homeroom teacher does. But arguably useful to know. However, HISD busses do not service my school. If I was the type of teacher that wore panties, this meeting would have had them in a bundle. However, since I do not, I was just crabby for awhile. My afternoon lesson did not have copies of the poem I wanted to look at with my kids because I had to learn about what the cops do with high schoolers that ride the bus with guns.
The hardest part of switching to self contained was not rocking at what I do. For the first 4 weeks I would generally give 5 lessons a day plus 2 different lessons at tutorials. This means that on average I would have time to plan one really good lesson, 3 decent ones, and 2 boring but decent ones, and 1 real bad lesson. Then I would have the energy to merely poorly execute them all. Every week has gotten better since then, I am becoming more efficient, I had the chance to observe at a really good school (with the same student population- My second observation was at a very rich, well funded suburban school and it was hardly useful since the students didn’t have any of the same management problems that my students have, and came in on average on grade levels with larger vocabularies… that is not saying teaching there is easy, but their management and lessons and strategies were less appropriate. I just HAVE to cover more material each year. And have to figure out ways to give students without safe homes or educated parents ways to get homework and be able to do it even though they have so much to worry about.) This school gave me lots of ideas, and slowly my students have been crawling towards progress, and slowly their teacher has been crawling towards becoming a teacher and Christmas break. Equally excited about each of them.
Closing the experience gap.
This is the Texas I imagined. For the first time since getting to Texas, I whittled yesterday.
It was great. I got to turn a bigger stick into a smaller stick that had less bark and was all chipped up. While wood peels in tiny curls and chips at my feet, clouds ambled past in the light blue December afternoon sky. Front porch sitting, whittling, listening to the birds sing and the Whipsaws play on the stereo: this is the Texas I imagined- December 18th brought 65 degrees and a slight breeze.
This is the Texas I imagined. Well, minus the six shooters, dancing girls, swinging doors, cacti, high school football (“I don’t wan tchyorelife!”), and whisky that flows like wine. But it is pretty close. Close enough to have a permanent smile permeate back into the deeper places of my soul that had been leased out to stress, others’ needs, inexperience, lack of sleep, and heartache: you know- life.
I am with my class at Camp Olympia, HISD’s Outdoor Education Center. I could not think of a better way to segue into break. It is a 3 day long camp about 2.5 hours outside of Houston where my kids get the chance to meet other schools, go canoeing, orienteer, horseback ride, shoot arrows, play night games, look at stars (which have been erased from the skies as effectively as the fifth ward has erased innocence from most of my kids’ lives), clean up after themselves, find bugs in water, and become kids again surrounded by nature.
We arrived at camp and pulled up a long wooded driveway and parked in a clearing- 20 seconds later the counselors ambled onto the busses introduced themselves and told us teachers to wander off. This week, we- the 5th grade staff- have had NO responsibility other than chaperone the bus rides at the beginning and end of the week. So, my team has had campfires, watched the kids, planned science collaboration for next year: Science is a major weak point for our kids, and just taken in the wonder of it all. We have smiled more, and gotten the chance to follow our kids around, falling back in love with them as people. Also, Danielle, Johnnie and I have realized how awesome our kids really are and the exhausted smiles and wonderment when we see them in the dining hall or when we join them for a moment is so filled with love, that it totally invigorates me to plan over break and return from break closer to the teacher the kids deserve. Due to this week, I am actually going to be going into a vacation not MASSIVLEY sleep deprived for the first time since probably eighth grade. Neat.
The kids learning to canoe might have been the funniest thing I have seen ever. They were given a 20 minute land course on the basics, and then a 10 minute safety quiz and then broken into pairs and put into boats. What ensued was pure chaos. Kids holding paddles backwards, going in circles, bumping into each other, paddling the wrong direction, only getting the hang of reverse, losing paddles, getting blown against the shore by the wind, and many other little emergencies signal by screams, giggles, and blushing. Then after about 40% of the kids had communicated and adapted enough to be able to generally move forward within 90 degrees of where they were aiming the safety row boat counselor Captain Wood started throwing nerf footballs for them to fetch. This reduced even the good canoes back to the original state of ineffectiveness. But several kids adapted. JJ and Peloca gave up on paddles and used hands. Oscar and Miko perfected the crab-noe which goes straight sideways. And one canoe I didn’t know only went backwards, but they were the fastest canoe out there. The high point though came with about 5 minutes left. The students were to stay within a large buoyed in swimming area with their 10 canoes and were told many times to stay in the buoys. One canoe with a pair of boys in it (unfortunately I didn’t know them either) lost control and went past the buoys and panicked as their canoe drifted at a 45 degree angels outside they start paddling frantically which only made them spin and go a little bit further out and so they did the only logical thing in 50 degree water in December. They screamed and jumped back towards the buoys. I thought I was never going to stop laughing. The rescue boat had his hands full for a bit, but in the end it all worked out, we got the boys some cocoa and I have a memory that will plant smiles in me for a long time.
There are 3 schools here and the kids are broken up into groups by the camp, and removed from their cliques and junior gangs and close friends and dumped into a loving environment. It was like slowly over the time here the fresh air, nature, and lack of people holding them in preconceived roles chipped away at scared adolescent chrysalises and most of our kids have ruddy (though dark) faces glowing like a diverse rainbow of monarchs flying outside of a greenhouse for the first time.
I only hope that after Christmas Break I can hold onto these memories and channel some of this energy back into the classroom. My kids have been learning so much and don’t even know it yet. If I can create that in my classroom even once a week, I will be taking baby steps towards being the teacher I want to be. And even if after break the energy is all gone and the kids won’t bring it break- they fro 3 days got to experience something that they otherwise never would have- the type of childhood that has summer camp, the wonder of nature, and the realization that we are a small and valuable part of something much larger than ourselves. This is demonstrated by wide exausted eyes, and a new found voulonteering to help clean up FOR OTHERS (J) after meals. Wow.
I reckon I gotta run meet the chilluns’ we is packin’ up and we might could leave soon! Y’all come back now ya hear! This is the Texas I imagined.
Ps- As I am publishing this ( a couple weeks after writing it), an Atmosphere song came on and here is a lyric that resonated with me:
“Surrounding are gonna dictate the need. I’m out I wanna live around lakes and trees.”
When I am done in Houston- I need to get back to be surrounded by nature.
It was great. I got to turn a bigger stick into a smaller stick that had less bark and was all chipped up. While wood peels in tiny curls and chips at my feet, clouds ambled past in the light blue December afternoon sky. Front porch sitting, whittling, listening to the birds sing and the Whipsaws play on the stereo: this is the Texas I imagined- December 18th brought 65 degrees and a slight breeze.
This is the Texas I imagined. Well, minus the six shooters, dancing girls, swinging doors, cacti, high school football (“I don’t wan tchyorelife!”), and whisky that flows like wine. But it is pretty close. Close enough to have a permanent smile permeate back into the deeper places of my soul that had been leased out to stress, others’ needs, inexperience, lack of sleep, and heartache: you know- life.
I am with my class at Camp Olympia, HISD’s Outdoor Education Center. I could not think of a better way to segue into break. It is a 3 day long camp about 2.5 hours outside of Houston where my kids get the chance to meet other schools, go canoeing, orienteer, horseback ride, shoot arrows, play night games, look at stars (which have been erased from the skies as effectively as the fifth ward has erased innocence from most of my kids’ lives), clean up after themselves, find bugs in water, and become kids again surrounded by nature.
We arrived at camp and pulled up a long wooded driveway and parked in a clearing- 20 seconds later the counselors ambled onto the busses introduced themselves and told us teachers to wander off. This week, we- the 5th grade staff- have had NO responsibility other than chaperone the bus rides at the beginning and end of the week. So, my team has had campfires, watched the kids, planned science collaboration for next year: Science is a major weak point for our kids, and just taken in the wonder of it all. We have smiled more, and gotten the chance to follow our kids around, falling back in love with them as people. Also, Danielle, Johnnie and I have realized how awesome our kids really are and the exhausted smiles and wonderment when we see them in the dining hall or when we join them for a moment is so filled with love, that it totally invigorates me to plan over break and return from break closer to the teacher the kids deserve. Due to this week, I am actually going to be going into a vacation not MASSIVLEY sleep deprived for the first time since probably eighth grade. Neat.
The kids learning to canoe might have been the funniest thing I have seen ever. They were given a 20 minute land course on the basics, and then a 10 minute safety quiz and then broken into pairs and put into boats. What ensued was pure chaos. Kids holding paddles backwards, going in circles, bumping into each other, paddling the wrong direction, only getting the hang of reverse, losing paddles, getting blown against the shore by the wind, and many other little emergencies signal by screams, giggles, and blushing. Then after about 40% of the kids had communicated and adapted enough to be able to generally move forward within 90 degrees of where they were aiming the safety row boat counselor Captain Wood started throwing nerf footballs for them to fetch. This reduced even the good canoes back to the original state of ineffectiveness. But several kids adapted. JJ and Peloca gave up on paddles and used hands. Oscar and Miko perfected the crab-noe which goes straight sideways. And one canoe I didn’t know only went backwards, but they were the fastest canoe out there. The high point though came with about 5 minutes left. The students were to stay within a large buoyed in swimming area with their 10 canoes and were told many times to stay in the buoys. One canoe with a pair of boys in it (unfortunately I didn’t know them either) lost control and went past the buoys and panicked as their canoe drifted at a 45 degree angels outside they start paddling frantically which only made them spin and go a little bit further out and so they did the only logical thing in 50 degree water in December. They screamed and jumped back towards the buoys. I thought I was never going to stop laughing. The rescue boat had his hands full for a bit, but in the end it all worked out, we got the boys some cocoa and I have a memory that will plant smiles in me for a long time.
There are 3 schools here and the kids are broken up into groups by the camp, and removed from their cliques and junior gangs and close friends and dumped into a loving environment. It was like slowly over the time here the fresh air, nature, and lack of people holding them in preconceived roles chipped away at scared adolescent chrysalises and most of our kids have ruddy (though dark) faces glowing like a diverse rainbow of monarchs flying outside of a greenhouse for the first time.
I only hope that after Christmas Break I can hold onto these memories and channel some of this energy back into the classroom. My kids have been learning so much and don’t even know it yet. If I can create that in my classroom even once a week, I will be taking baby steps towards being the teacher I want to be. And even if after break the energy is all gone and the kids won’t bring it break- they fro 3 days got to experience something that they otherwise never would have- the type of childhood that has summer camp, the wonder of nature, and the realization that we are a small and valuable part of something much larger than ourselves. This is demonstrated by wide exausted eyes, and a new found voulonteering to help clean up FOR OTHERS (J) after meals. Wow.
I reckon I gotta run meet the chilluns’ we is packin’ up and we might could leave soon! Y’all come back now ya hear! This is the Texas I imagined.
Ps- As I am publishing this ( a couple weeks after writing it), an Atmosphere song came on and here is a lyric that resonated with me:
“Surrounding are gonna dictate the need. I’m out I wanna live around lakes and trees.”
When I am done in Houston- I need to get back to be surrounded by nature.
Saturday 8 December 2007
Holy Crap!
It has been one month and one week and one day since I have written here.
In that time my whole life has been taken, shaken up, and poured out on its head. In retrospect, (he said in the middle of the experience), it has been quite a ride! And though stress would be my main food group, I have taken bits and pieces of my life back and am doing my best to live up to my promise that, "I'll be better when I'm older."
Soon, and very soon, it will be Christmas Break. My promise to myself is to chonical the crazy adventure that has been the last month before that.
I hope anyone that takes the time to swing here still understands how much I Love them.
Peace,
Love,
and Pop Rocks.
In that time my whole life has been taken, shaken up, and poured out on its head. In retrospect, (he said in the middle of the experience), it has been quite a ride! And though stress would be my main food group, I have taken bits and pieces of my life back and am doing my best to live up to my promise that, "I'll be better when I'm older."
Soon, and very soon, it will be Christmas Break. My promise to myself is to chonical the crazy adventure that has been the last month before that.
I hope anyone that takes the time to swing here still understands how much I Love them.
Peace,
Love,
and Pop Rocks.
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