Rude Ramsay & The Roaring Radishes by Margaret Atwood

Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes (2004), written by Margaret Atwood and illustrated by Dušan Petricic.

Taken directly from the book jacket: Ramsay has reached the end of his rope. He is sick of dining on rockhard rice, rubbery ribs, wrinkled ravioli, and raw rhinoceros. So he and Ralph the red-nosed rat resolve to leave their rectangular residence. Along the way, they encounter the raven-haired Rillah, a romantic rectory, and a patch of roaring radishes. Together Ramsay, Ralph, and Rillah reveal that sometimes the grass truly is greener on the other side of the rampart.

Notice any kind of pattern here?

The book is riddled with “r” words.

No Summer School For Me!

I got into an argument with a parent on Friday, had a family pow-wow that could have gone pretty badly, but ended up working out pretty good on Monday. I was sick yesterday, and so I missed work as a result. Needless to say, I need a break.

My doctor agreed!

That’s why I decided no summer school for me.

One of the reasons why is that the professor of the first class was so not understanding. If I hadn’t stopped going, I would be taking my 2nd quiz today. The 2nd in two weeks. With 4 more to go.

The teacher of the 2nd class was very nice and understanding. She’s even coming up to my class to help me get things into better working order. I’m kinda’ mad that I won’t be taking the class with her. However, I was just not up to the challenge of an accelerated summer session.

Things will work out though. At least now, I can get some rest!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

Happy Memorial Day to the widows and children of the veterans. Thank you for fighting for this country. Even though it’s not much, this day’s for you.

If you would like to know the origin of Memorial Day, here is a link to Wikipedia that explains it all:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_day

A Homegoing Celebration! ( A Life Well Lived!)

Yesterday was a great day. Instead of having a funeral, we had a homegoing celebration. Besides missing Mama Josie, there is no reason to be sad. She was 91 years old, she wasn’t sick, and she was still in her right mind. She went in such a peaceful way, that there was no reason to mourn.

That’s why the family and the whole church chose to celebrate a homegoing; to celebrate a life well lived.

You know how when some people die, there’s only good things said about them, and it’s a load of hooey. Well, it wasn’t that way with Mama Josie. Good things were said about her when she was alive, and they were not a load of hooey. They were all true.

She was a beautiful person. She still looked like she was in her 70′s. Everyone loved her and sang her praise. I’d definitely say that that’s a cause for celebration.

The One Where I Flew Off The Handle!

** Warning, this post is kinda’ long!**

Okay, this one’s a doozy. This is the one where I flew off the handle! This post is such a doozy because today the sh** hit the fan! The student that I was talking about, Robin, his mother came up to the class yelling and screaming.

Things were wrong from the beginning. Firstly, she came up screaming with a mean look on her face. I could see that she was in a mood to argue. The truth of the matter is that she is feeling so angry and helpless at his behaviors. She doesn’t know how to deal with him, but she expects me to know how. What she was looking for was someone to blame.

While I do feel for her, I will not bear the brunt of her anger because she has lost control of a 9 year old child. She knows perfectly well how he behaves. Everything he does at school, he does at home. Nothing was a surprise for her. She knows how he acts. She was just trying to make excuses for him.

“Hold on!” I said. We are not going to do this in front of the class. You can meet me outside.

Batman, Where’s Robin?

Batman’s, where’s Robin? Well, although I didn’t ask Batman, I did ask my assistants that question about one of my students, Robin, who walked out of the class and was M.I.A. as I was in the process of suspending him from my classroom for the day at 8:30 (yes a.m.)

I didn’t let him in the classroom because for the past week (not an exaggeration), I have had to send him out of the classroom before recess (9:50 a.m.)

Since I had to finish testing the third graders, I did not want any disruptions. He had already told my new assistant that he wasn’t going to be good today. Whenever he doesn’t want to do work, he’ll tell me and my assistants that he’s not going to do it and he won’t.

So when he decides that he wants to do no work, I decide that he can do that somewhere else because not only does he not do work, he disrupts the class to the point where no one else can do anything. If he’s not getting the attention he feels he deserves, he will get it anyway he can; whichever way he can.

I spoke with the school psychologist who advised me to let him do whatever he wants to do to calm him down.

Are you serious????

That is sooo not my style. That was such bad advice. I think that that defeats the whole purpose of having rules. It cuts into my authority and it is just not my way of thinking. So, of course I chose to ignore that little piece of advice.

Yesterday I sent him to the teacher next door. He lasted 10 minutes before she had to send him out because he was doing the same thing. She told me that he was so disruptive that her children couldn’t even hear her because he was demanding all the attention.

I am sick of this situation. In my opinion, he is not in the right setting; in his least restrictive environment (LRE). When I have to send him out everyday (not an exaggeration), there’s definitely a serious problem.

Whenever I send him down to the office, he’s right back up twenty minutes (not an exaggeration) later doing the same thing. One time he decided that he wanted to walk on the desk. So he did. Of course, he was sent home.

I am tired of this situation. Even though there is less than a month left in school, I am not going to put up with foolishness. I want a peaceful last month of school.

Let me just mention that this behavior is not part of his disability. He just wants to do what he wants to do. If it was part of his disability, I would definitely be more gracious and patient with him. Since this is just a problem of lack of discipline and home training, I choose not to let him do it.

I will continue to do so until there is a change. If I let him run the class, who will be the next? These kinds of things have to be dealt with. So, I am dealing with it.

Thank God there is only about a month left in school!

The One With The Magnifying Glass…

I was talking to my Assistant Principal about one of my students, Mannish, who works my last, and I mean last nerve. I was telling the A.P. how difficult he is, and that I was having a hard time liking him as a person. She told me that I needed to find something about him that was good, even if I had to look with a magnifying glass.

Okay, well, I’m through with the magnifying glass and I’m on to a microscope. I am looking so hard with the most powerful microscope in the world and it is soooo hard to see the good in him. I know there has to be some good there. I just can’t seem to find it at the moment.

I am taking into account that he’s a kid. It would be fine if he acted like one. He acts like a little man. He thinks he’s a man. He does not think that he is a kid. If I tell all the other kids to do something, he will stand there and look at them like, “Okay, move it!,” to the other kids, while I’m looking at him. I have to tell him, “I’m talking to you too.”

He is always trying to get away with something. One of his favorite phrases is, “I was just…” (whatever the excuse of the moment happens to be). I have told him and the rest of the class that those words a gauge of how you’re doing; if you’re doing right or wrong. It’s also the beginning of an excuse. So now, whenever he says that I just look at him, because he knows and I know that he is starting to make an excuse.

I gotta’ go now. I need to see if there’s something stronger than the strongest microscope in the world!

So Proud, So Proud!

I am so, so, so, so, so proud of myself. I did not raise my voice at all today. This is a major accomplishment because my class can become pretty unruly. However, I noticed that the more I yell, the more I had to yell. It turns out they respond better to a lower voice.

I am so happy because it was no small task to keep from raising my voice today, as there were at least 4 fights before the end of the day. I mean real fights. The kids in my class don’t just throw baby punches. They “put their dukes up” and really fight. You can hear when the hits land. Lips get busted, eyes swell up, and people fall on the ground and get stomped. This is all in a matter of seconds.

I made a promise to myself on Thursday of last week that I was not going to raise my voice while talking to my class or disciplining them. Initially, I began doing it so I could get control and thought that I would be able to stop. However, it didn’t end up that way. As it turned out, I had to get loudeR, loudER, louDER, loUDER, lOUDER, and LOUDER.

Well, after posting and reading Mathew’s blog, as well as a couple of other articles dealing with classroom management, I decided that I was not going to yell anymore and I haven’t since then.

How To Teach Reading Series

I will have more time to blog again since the summer is coming up (Yahoo!!!!!). I am going to start a series on teaching to read. I don’t know how many posts it will be. It will be as long as it needs to be.

It will be a combination of my personal experience and journal articles/articles from reputable journals, magazines, and/or websites.

I will begin in about a month. So if you’re interested in this, look for it either in the middle or the end of June.

It Went Great!

I had a great Stull. I listened to the Principal’s suggestion, put them into practice and as a result she was very pleased with the lesson.

So Sad, part II

I feel so sad in a way, but in another way, I’m not because I know that she’s in a better place. The way she went was so peaceful. She simply took her last breath and slept away.

It was like God said, “It’s your time. Come home”.

Just like that, she was gone. One minute she was here. The next she wasn’t. It was so sudden and unexpected. I’m just glad that she did not suffer.

Even at 91 years old, she was still spry and active. Up until a couple of years ago, I would joke to my husband that she used to turn backflips when his mother wasn’t around.

Mama Josie, you will be missed!

So Much Help!

Ever since Monday, I have had so much help. Earlier in the week, I explained about the situation regarding the CSTs (click here). Not only do I have two extra male teachers in the classroom, but I just got a new male assistant (My other one is out on maternity leave).

He is so good with the children. He doesn’t raise his voice or get noticeably upset with them. He is a great addition to my class. I wish that I would have had him earlier in the year when I was really having a hard time with some of the unruly one. Everything in its own time though. Thank God I have him now.

Yep, Really Smart!

This is a guess how smart I am. Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead! Guess!

The punchline: I am so smart that I submitted the wrong lesson plan to Livetext (an online portfolio). As a result I ended up getting only half credit. So I got a B- instead of an A when I did the work.

What? Not laughing? No, I wasn’t either. I really felt like crying. However, there is a good side to this. I am able to see the silver lining, so here it goes: I passed with an 81%. Had it been 2% less, I would have had to take the class over. So, that’s definitely a good thing that I don’t have to take the class over.
Even though I know this, I still had to calm myself down because I was at work when I saw my grade. I will keep telling myself that there’s a reason.
Once I think about it, ya’ know what? In the grand scheme of things, I will survive. A grade of B- is still passing, so I will be okay.

I didn’t think I would make it through the semester. I thought I was going to have to withdraw, take an emergency leave of absence, and/or have a nervous breakdown. But I didn’t.

I made it through and so will you.

Five Fat Folders!

I want five fat folders. Well, what does this mean? Why do I want five fat folders?

It’s quite a nice concept actually. I got this term from Mrs. Elizabeth George’s “A Woman After God’s Own Heart”. It is a wonderful book. .

Again, I ask the questions, “What does five fat folders mean?”

Well, it all comes from her book (George, 203).

In the book, Mrs. George explains that we should purposefully seek knowledge and guard against spending precious time on things that have no value. For me, that would be reading gossip sites for hours on end.

One way she says she guards her mind is by following the advice of a special woman who told her, “Elizabeth, you’ve got to have five fat files!”

Note: This book is of a religious nature, so Mrs. George advises that the subject area be spiritual in nature. I am going to do that first, but this can also work for any area of your life.

Sounds crazy, but bear with me. For this to work, you need to round up five folders.

Next, select five areas that you would like to become an expert in and label them.
Aim at expertise- Ask yourself what you would like to be known for.

Fill the files- Next, start putting stuff in the files. They will become fat as you read everything you can get your hands on.

Increase in knowledge- READ, READ, READ! ASK, ASK, ASK! Read books by the experts. Ask those you consider knowledgeable about the subject.

Have a plan- Sit down in a certain place at a certain time with a certain thing (pen, paper, whatever you need). Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Do something- Something is better than nothing. When you do it, keep a record of it

Lastly, mind your mouth, your mind, and your manners.

Rules to live by!

(Happy 500th post!) Cutting Off Your Nose…

HAPPY 500th post to me! I was trying to reach it before my 1-year anniversary, May 11, but I had so much to do I just did not make it then. But I’ve made it now.

When I was younger, I would cut off my nose to spite my face. It was so silly. When I think back on it, I wonder how I could have ever been like that. Needless to say, I don’t do that anymore. What I do do is try to smooth things over. I always try being nice first. Once nice doesn’t work, I resort to my old ways. (Not good, I know.) However, that doesn’t happen until much much later.

I have learned that I need this nose, as well as other parts (my brain). When I was younger I always believed in giving someone a piece of my mind until I saw an e-mail or some article beggin the question: If you are always giving someone a piece of your mind, how much do you have left.

The author wrote the article/e-mail/whatever it was, in such descriptive terms that I actually imagined giving away little pieces of my mind. With the sassy attitude, hands on hips person that I was, I did not stop to consider that I was giving away my own sanity. No one was taking it away. I was giving it away.

Just a little something to think about for the next time you’re giving someone a piece of your mind! How ’bout that?

See ya’ next time! Hasta la bye-bye!

The Funniest Thing!

The funniest thing has been happening all day. I have been bombarded with a constant stream of children in and out of my classroom all day long. The word got out that I’d given a couple of students some treats (chips, stickers, etc.) for helping, and now everyone wants to help; they’re suddenly so helpful.

It reminded me of that episode from “I Love Lucy” that I wrote about last year (click here). Although it wasn’t really quite the same thing, it almost was.

I wasn’t offended. They’re kids. It’s expected. If I were a kid I’d probably try the same thing. I don’t blame them one bit.

A New Approach To It All

I have good classroom management skills (i.e., I have control over the kids). I am always complimented on them. I have a problem though. My problem is obviously not that. What my problem is is how I got control. I got control over my formerly unruly classroom with coercion, punishment, and a raised voice.

At the time I thought that it would be a temporary thing; that I would eventually be able to speak at a normal level and not use coercion, and/or punishment. No! No! not so. The only thing that has really changed is that it is not chaotic all the time. However, I still have to raise my voice, use coercion, and or threat of punishment.

That is such a big problem for me. The fact that I have to raise my voice bothers me. I don’t like using coercion, and/or threat of punishment. I am looking for a new approach to it all. I want to quietly discipline. I want to save my voice. Does anyone have any suggestions or programs that can help me do this?

Help!!!

They Told Me So!

My husband and my mother-in-law told gave me really great advice, but of course I didn’t listen. I stubbornly held on to my old, outdated way of doing things.

“What was it?,” you ask.

Well, they advised me to seek out the help of my Principal in regard to my lesson plans. They told me to ask for her input; that this would open up lines of communication between the two of us.

“Do it and watch what happens,” they said.

Did I? Of course I didn’t, and of course I regret it because I went through so much unnecessary turmoil thinking that she hated me.

We had a great heart to heart the other day where she presented herself to me as a real person. I see her in a different light now. I don’t feel like she’s my enemy anymore. It feels so good to not have that feeling in the pit of my stomach. The one where you just have that sinking feeling.

I hate to tell my husband and his mother that they were right. My husband’s pulling up in the driveway right now. I’ll tell him later. I’m not telling his mother that she was right though. Why would I invite that kind of I told you so? Who needs a mother-in-law “I told you so”. That would just be stupid!!!

Finally…

One of my students, Lil Man, had a problem getting the concept and recognizing the symbols for addition and subtraction. I tried and tried to get the concept across to him without success. This frustrated me so, I even cried on a couple of occasions.

Well, yesterday, he finally got it. Since the previous approaches I was using weren’t working, I decided that I had to try a different one. So this is what I did: I explained to him what a symbol was. I told him that it was a thing that stands for something else. I then made the connection to the concepts of addition and subtraction. I told him that whenever he sees that particular symbol (- & +), that he would know what to do. I showed him the symbol over and over, asking questions and making sure that he really understood. I then went over and over what the symbol was. Finally, I then showed him different ways to write the problem.

3 + 4 = 7 and

3
+ 4
____
7

“Is this the same problem?” I asked.
Why?

I told him that as long as the same numbers are used in addition, it doesn’t matter which way we write it. I also told him that when adding, the numbers get bigger; and while subtracting, the numbers get smaller.

Finally, I wrote the problem 3 + 3 on the board. I asked for 3 volunteers. The next question I posed to him and the rest of the group was:

Is this problem going to get bigger or smaller?

Lil Man said bigger, so I called up three more people, then we counted. Of course, we came up with 6. I asked Mannie if 6 was bigger than 3. Blah, blah, blah… Long story short (too late), he and the rest of the group got it.

It Wasn’t Half Bad…

As it turns out, administering the CST’s wasn’t half bad. It was a bit complicated, but not bad.

What was so complicated about it you ask?

Well, as you know if you’ve been reading this blog, I have four grade levels in my classroom: 2nd- 5th grade, 7 years old through 12 years old. What that means when it comes to administering the test is that up to four people will be in my classroom administering the test. Even though I have two assistants, they are only allowed to proctor the test, not administer it. So, two subs had to be hired to administer the other grade levels.

I administered the CAPA (more about that later), while Mr. I administered the test for 3rd and 5th grade, while Mr. O administered the test for 4th grade. There would have been a separate administrator for 2nd grade, but one of my 2nd graders took the CAPA, while another was taken to another class to have the test administered in Spanish (I think???).

Yeah! Confusing. I know. Imagine the pandemonium in my class before things settled down.

Imagine if I had to try to administer all grade levels!!!
Thank goodness I didn’t have to.

So It Begins…

Today marks the first day of testing. I feel like I just did not do enough. I have always hated the thought of teaching to the test, but it looks like that is the way to go. I feel like I did my students a disservice by being their teacher. Maybe someone else would have been better for them. Maybe they would have been able to teach more stuff because they know more stuff.

I don’t know. What I do know though is that my students are really not prepared. I did what I could, but in this case, it just wasn’t enough.

At least next year, I will know better.

Kinda’ Creepy! How Odd Is That?

Talk about creepy!!! My husband just told me this a couple of hours ago. It happened to my oldest son yesterday when he was at work.

This older man, who my son didn’t know, who seemed kinda’ senile, came up to my son and expressed his condolences on the loss of his mother.

Of course my son told him that his mother hadn’t died.

The old man then expressed his condolences on the loss of his grandmother. To which my son replied again that his grandmother was not dead. Little did he know that those condolonces would be needed the very next morning for his great-grandmother.

How odd is that? Who was this man and how did he know that my son’s great-grandmother was going to die?

A Sad Occasion!

This is a sad occasion indeed. My husband’s grandmother, who I also consider(ed) my grandmother suddenly passed away @ 8:49 a.m. this morning. She passed out and never revived. Her heart just stopped beating. I am so sad that I will never see her again, but I am happy that she had such a peaceful passing.

I will miss her so much. Even though she was 91 years old, I expected her to live for at least 5 more years because in my husband’s family, they have long life. There’s nothing I or anyone can do about it. It was simply her time to go.

Good-bye Mama Josie. I love you. You will be missed!

I Feel So Alive!

I taught Saturday school again yesterday, and I feel so alive! It is such a refreshing change of pace. I still had the children who need resource services, but I had a nice time. I had only six students. I had so much time to spend with each child. One thing that I was particularly happy about was teaching three of the students how to solve multiplication problems. I gave them a pre-test and the results were dismal. Some of them were only able to complete 2 or 3 of the 20 problems.

I showed them how to solve them using an array. For example, if the problem is 2 x 2, they would draw two boxes with two dots or whatever they wanted to draw in each. I also showed them briefly about math fact families. I explained to them that if they know 5 x 2, then they know 2 x 5. I had them come up to the white board and work it out. I gave each student a problem. Since there were only six students, they all got the concept.

This made me so happy because the CST’s start on Tuesday. This is such a simple skill to teach and learn, but it makes such a big difference. This could possibly make the difference in the number of problems they get right on the CST’s.

Happy to help! I really want to continue to teach Saturday school. It is such a good thing. It makes me feel so alive; like I’m actually making a difference.

So, until next time! Hasta la bye-bye!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

I just wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to everyone mother out there. Have yourselves a great day!

Happy 1st Year Anniversary! (My Acceptance Speech)

I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. I can’t believe I won. I don’t have anything prepared (I say as I whip out an acceptance speech). Okay, snap back to reality. Snap back to my 1year anniversary of blogging.

Happy Anniversary to me. It’s been a year. I am so glad that I started this blog. It has been such a fantastic outlet for me to vent my frustrations, and to share my success as well as my failures. I can see how I’ve grown over this past year. When I read back on my posts, I can’t believe that some of that stuff happened.

In the immortal words of Will Ferrell’s character Ricky Bobby from “Talladega Nights“, Can you believe that happened to you?

The answer is no I cannot. Some of the things that I’ve conquered and suffered through over this past year have been traumatic, eye-opening, humbling, jarring, you-name-it. I am so happy that I have a record of what I’ve been going through. I wish that I’d known about this thing called a blog sooner.

So, what am I going to do for this anniversary of mine? I think I’ll do what I do best- write about it like I’m doing now. I would also like to send some shout-outs to some people. Like to hear about it, here it goes:

First and foremost, I would like to thank my husband, Phillip, who, along with The Fashionista encouraged me to do what I loved doing- writing and talking. I would also like to thank all the people who have been loyal readers, as well as the those who have been fair weather readers. I want to thank those of you who stopped reading when I stopped having the passion that I had in the beginning. Thank you for opening my eyes. Last but not least, I would like to thank you for reading this right now.

Here’s to many more years of writing/running my big mouth, venting, expressing my feelings, connecting readers to useful information, and just rambling. Cheers!

Until next time people! Hasta la bye-bye!

Guess How Smart I Am…

Guess how smart I am???

(I am laughing so hard as I type this!)

I am so smart that I thought it was Saturday. Let me begin my story by saying that I came home from work and took a nap. Okay, that being said, now I shouldn’t sound so crazy as I tell this story.

My little boy and girl came in my room and woke me up to talk to me. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 7:00. Since I was still in a sleepy haze, I thought that it was 7:00 a.m. and that I was running late.

“David, get dressed”, I said.

Mom, it’s Friday. We don’t have to go anywhere.

“Okay”, I said sarcastically. If you want it to be Friday, you let it be Friday, but for me it’s Saturday!

He and Phillise tried in vain to convince me that it was still Friday, but I just wouldn’t hear it. As they left the room, I began to wonder if I’d slept for twelve straight hours. Had I?

No, I hadn’t. I’d only slept for about three hours.

Yeah, that’s how smart I am!!!

More Students?

In the past week, I got two new students. In the next two weeks I will be getting two more. All boys!!!!
Did I really need any more students? Especially at the end of the school year?

One of my newest one is so angry that he is being transferred to Special ed. He was probably one of the ones that made fun of special ed kids because he was afraid that everyone would notice that he was only one step away from being in here.

I am trying to be patient with him but it is so difficult because everyone is looking at what he’s doing. If he gets away with it, then they will try it also. I have to nip this problem in the bud as gently as possible. I know that he’s feeling inadequate, angry, and betrayed because no one told him that he was staying in here, but he still needs to follow directions.

Breathe….

Breathe… This is what my friend Susan told me as I was driving to school. I was telling her how I was so stressed out because I didn’t even have time to complete my take home final. I was so mad at myself. Well, there were so many other things I was mad at as well.
First and foremost, I am mad at the hand I’m being dealt. To tell you the truth, I was having my own private little party- a pity party.
“Why does my life have to be so hard?” I asked myself. I thought that things were getting better and turning around when I got a job, only to have the job become a constant source of stress.
I wanted to concentrate my energy on being a student instead of having to teach full-time and attend school at the end of a hard day when I am so drained that I’m really not paying attention anyway. Instead, I have to work because I have four little people depending on me. I cannot afford, quite literally and figuratively, to drop the ball. So, I just won’t.
I will survive and thrive though, because failure is simply not an option!

Saturday School

I taught Satuday today. The Assistant Principal came to me and asked me if I wanted to sub today. Initially I said no, then I thought about it. I had been wanting to teach on Saturday to get more experience and I love Mrs. M. to boot. So I figured that this was my chance. I quickly changed my no to a yes.

Although I did not want to get out of bed, I did. I had a great time. Since I’ve only been with general ed. one year of my seven years of experience. I liked it. It was a refreshing change of pace. However, I loive my special ed class. I won’t be leaving anytime soon.

A Renewed Sense Of Purpose!

Eleven years ago when I was a tutor for the Crenshaw Chapter of the World Literacy Crusade, I went through a six-month long training where we were given many strategies on our quest to combat illiteracy.

One of the key concepts that I was taught and will always remember and use is this: If you get to the end of a paragraph and don’t know what you just read, there were only one or two words (or concepts) that you didn’t understand.

To make sure that an understanding is reached, you have to go back and clear (i.e., make sure they’re clear to you) those words by defining them. After you’ve defined them, you then go back and re-read the paragraph. Voila! Now you should have an understanding.

This reminds me of my current situation. I know that there are only one or two things that I am not getting. However, once I get ‘em, I know there will be no stopping me.

It’s funny when your brain is so cluttered and your mind is so bogged down with all the minutiae of every day life that you can’t think straight. For weeks, I have been in a funk, nay, a rut. I knew that I was in one, but I didn’t know how to get out of it. That is such a horrible feeling. I knew that I could do better but didn’t have the slightest idea how to.

I’m trying not to be too hard on myself, but I know that somehow I could have done a better job. I could have gone to one more website; read the OCR book for one more clue; something!

Even though I wonder to myself if there was something else I could have done, I guess I have to ask myself, “How could I have known?”

I wanted to do better but I just didn’t know how. I thought that if I could conquer my lack of planning skills that I could be the teacher that I know I can be.

Well, I am on track to do just that. I just had a meeting with the Principal that was quite productive.
Well, after the meeting, I now know what some of the pieces are. I haven’t been teaching it in a systematic way. My students have made so much progress. Just think if I had been teaching systematically how much progress they could have made.

I am on a mission again. I have a renewed sense of purpose. It turns out the only thing standing in my way was me.

I have to succeed because as always failure is not an option!

What I Like About Me:

These are things that I like about myself that I consider strong assets.
I like my ability to:
Bounce back
Make something from nothing
Take something bad and turn it around

My bounce-back-ability: I’m referring to my life. After having my first child @ 19 and my second one three days before my 21st birthday, I have still been able to continue my education and am now working on my Master’s degree in Special Education.

There have been many times in my life where I have just thought that I would not make it through. I just wanted to give up and die. However, since I had two little people depending on my, I did what I had to do and pulled myself up by my bootstrap.

Making something from nothing: When Phillise was born, I was on a tight budget. I mean tight. However, I knew that I had to make it work. The biggest concern was food for a husband, myself, three sons, and buying necessities for a new baby. I solved the baby food problem by breastfeeding. However, that still left four other people to feed. It helped that my children were in school, so I only needed to worry about a small snack when they returned from school and dinner. I managed to make it work for $40-$50/week. How ’bout that?

Taking something bad and turning it around: I was under a particularly controlling supervisor who thought that it was her job to break me. I knew that it was my job not to let her. That’s how I am. Just because I know that someone or something is trying to break me, I won’t let it. I managed to take that situation and turn it around.
How: She decided that she was going to fuss at me one day in front of everyone. I told her to hold on (actually I shouted), that we would talk privately later. We talked, I told her that she was too controlling and that I came back from my breaks on time, I was good with the kids, etc. I asked her what her problem was with me. She told me that she thought that I was being defiant.
“Defiant?” I said.
J, you’re not my mother. Blah, blah, blah.
By the end of the year, we were actually on pretty good terms. Nobody thought it would happen. Thank God it did.

That’s three of the reasons and three of the things I like about me.

What’s The Problem?

As I was to another teacher in the teacher’s workroom, I mentioned that I was overwhelmed. She also related a story of when she was overwhelmed when she first started. She said that she’d only recently come across some information from about 7-8 years ago from a Staff meeting. It was all new to her because she didn’t ever remember seeing that information.

She said that she wasn’t ready to process that information at that point in time because she was so overwhelmed. I can definitely attest to this. Since beginning teaching and my combined Master’s/credential program, I have not been able to process information like I used to, I cannot hold information like I used to either. So this made me begin to think about the various disabilities of my students. Is the same thing happening with them? Are they dealing with so much information they simply shut down and stop processing the information?

This opens up a whole new door for me. Just like when I spoke with another teacher and she mentioned that one of my students was defeated. This is something that I need to investigate. I think that I could actually make some headway with my students faster if I know what the answer(s) to these questions are.

Until next time people!

Guess How Smart I Am?

Guess how smart I am? I am. I locked my keys in the classroom today. I’m pretty proud of myself. This is good for me. This is only the second time. I thought that it would have been more than that.

Until next time people!