Year Two, Week 8: Planning matters.

(Eighth grade AVID students engrossed in a “silent Jigsaw puzzle competition” as a “Fun Friday” teambuilder activity. Happy campers, I might add…)
I can’t believe the first quarter is almost over. It ends in one more week. Recently the subject of discipline has come up in some teacher meetings, with some colleagues questioning [...]

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Year Two, Week five, or is it six: It’s a jumble.

We’ve made it through the first six weeks of school. Just like last year, my classes seem so loud and jumbly. If one side is quiet the other side is noisy, and if I get them quieted down the other side bursts out. I know it has to do with engagement and [...]

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Here’s a tidbit, a tiny bite of my day:

Today my class came in quite noisily. I’d been out for a couple of days and they were behaving in a predictably squirrely manner. Donaldo kind of topped it off when he announced in a booming voice, “I’m a Phillipenis” Me: “You’re a what??” “A Philipenis.” Me: “Now your name is [...]

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New Posts? Where? When?

Well, it appears that I have not posted anything at all for a while, and I haven’t. Except last week when I was really frustrated and made the post private. And this week is difficult. I have a very painful leg, injured at work, and haven’t been there yet. But I [...]

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Okay, maybe it’s not so bad…

Okay, today was better. Up until the moment they walked in I wanted to throw in the towel and quit teaching. But their little faces won me over again. It’s just so hard. There is so much to balance, so many personalities to fit into the mix. So, that’s all [...]

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Year Two, Week 1: Love at first sight. Maybe.

Well, year two of teaching middle school has begun. Just like last year I teach 7th grade ELD and 8th grade AVID. My fingers are crossed that these kids are really as nice as they seem. They are loud at times, but also quite polite. I know it’s only been a [...]

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It’s here!

I just spent the last week getting my classroom and the new ELD office/resource center ready for the new school year. It was a big job, but in the end quite rewarding. I was able to move a lot of resources out of my room that I’d been storing there, and will be [...]

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Glory, glory hallelujah!

That’s it. I’ve finished my first year of teaching middle school. Even though it was my seventeenth year of teaching, it felt more like the very first one. I’ve learned a lot and have lots of ideas for how to make it better next year, I think. At least I have [...]

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Almost the next to the last week…

Oh my goodness, the kids are wired. Today we did some word games on the little whiteboards. That is such a cool thing – everyone is engaged and I can tell who’s not quite getting it and who is way smarter than I knew because they are usually really quiet and don’t volunteer [...]

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Is this blog one of those?

“alicemercerRT @pepepacha: Many teacher blogs are rants against stdt behaviors or families or systems. Let’s veer towards the positive & self reflective”
I found the above tweet this evening and thought, “Has she been reading my blog? Is that how my blog is?”
I’m going to read this whole thing and let you know what I [...]

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