Soooooooo Much Planning……….

I feel like I’m finally conquering my biggest problem. PLANNING. I have never really had the time, nor did I know what I was doing. Although I do not claim to be an expert, I am so much better. I have to. I’m teaching a combination 4/5 split. So, I have really been a stickler for MAY DO’s & MUST DO’s. I started the first week of school. I made them practice & practice.

The one thing about this school are the interruptions. There are no protected times like I had @ L.A.U.S.D. during the Open Court block. There are liable to be a couple of interruptions. This is where MAY DO & MUST DO work comes in handy. For MAY DOs, they are allowed to read a book, write in their writing journal, & draw in their art journal. While, for MUST DOs, they must complete the morning’s writing, what if writings, & incomplete class work. As long as they are finished with all their MUST DOs, they are allowed to work on MAY DOs. Most of the choose reading. YAY!

I will continue to practice with them, but so far, they’re on target. I had to have an emergency conference with one of the students & most of them automatically went to the MUST DO basket & began working on their MUST DO work. YAY!

I Have Readers!

Although teaching General Education is exhausting, I am slowly getting the hang of it. The one thing that’s soooooooooo great is that almost all of my students are readers. I have this one 4th grade student, who I will name Lisa, who reads 199 w.p.m. before mistakes. She read “If You’re Reading This, It’s Not Good for You” in 4 days. The book is about 400 pages. Plus, she did it while she was stick. In bed. While throwing up. With a stuffy nose.

One of my other students whose dad told me that he did not read prior to this, has already read four 100+ page books since the first week of school.

It’s really refreshing. I’d still like to get back to teaching Special Education. For now, though, I will teach General Education & see where it takes me. It’s a loooooooooot of work, but I’m enjoying it.

So Swamped!

I have been so swamped. I have to say that teaching General Education is soooooooooo different than teaching Special Education. For one thing, I have to teach more subjects. For my special education students, I only taught Reading (Phonics, Intervention, etc…) all day long. Here, I actually have to switch & teach all the required subjects:

1. Reading,
2. English
3. Spelling/Phonics
4. Math
5. Religion
6. Social Studies.

Since I teach at a Religious school, I also teach Religion. Next week, the newest Priest will come around & help with Religion. I’ll be happy to have the help.

HERE’S TO 2010!

What We Read Today…

I let my students vote on which book to read today. They picked Unlovable by Dan Yaccarino. They really loved it. I love picture books. They house such a large concept in a simple format.

Had Forgotten About…

Since I wanted to get back to teaching so badly, I guess I romanticized it. I still love teaching, but I forgot how tiring it is. Especially repeating yourself. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy I have a job. I am looking forward to working with my students. I love them already.

One of my little girls, who I’ll call Princess, is the cutest thing. She was kinda’ standoffish the first half of the first day, but I quickly got to know her & broke through her wall. It’s only been a week, but she won’t leave my side.

I cannot wait until I get used to working again so I can stop being so tired. BA DAH BAH BAH BAH! I’m loving it!!!

Books We Read This Week!

The first day of school I read I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont. They liked it. On the second day I read the tried & true, Thank You Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. I tried to read it the first day but ran out of time. We made up for that today as we read Things That Are Most in the World by Judi Barrett, The Greedy Apostrophe by Jan Carr & Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver.

The Greedy Apostrophe & Punctuation Takes a Vacation were part of the lesson. Things That Are Most in the World was a bonus. They wanted me to read it since I pumped it up on the first day. It’s a fun book to read when teaching superlative & comparative adjectives. In the back of the book is a page to photocopy. This is what it looks like:

The _______________est thing in the world is ________________________!

I didn’t photocopy it, so the students verbally told me what the ______est thing in the world was. They had a lot of fun doing it. They had even more fun completing the worksheet from Punctuation Takes a Vacation. They really loved the Punctuation Game we played with The Greedy Apostrophe.

I had a really great first week! Here’s to many more!

I Brought the Captain Underpants Books Today!

Yesterday I was talking to my students and trying to gauge their reading interests. Captain Underpants, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, Sponge Bob, & Stink were the most popular. So today I brought the Captain Underpants & the other books. For the girls I brought Amber Brown & Junie B. Jones. They were so excited. They couldn’t stop reading. They even asked to take them home. I had them sign a paper & let them take them home.

Most of them are readers. NICE!!!!!!!!

I Had Them At Hello!

So, I started my new job but have been too tired to post. It’s not like the job is super hard, it’s just that I’ve been a couch potato for a whole year. So, it’s going to take a little while to get used to working again. Anywho, this is how the day went. I got to work early (I was happy that my dream didn’t come true. I wasn’t late and so far, I have not been micro-managed by the Principal.) to finish up some last minute details.

I talked to my new students before the bell rang while they were lining up. Once the bell rang, I made sure they were in a straight line & we went up to the class. As we were climbing the stairs, I instructed them to wait until I gave them permission to enter the class. They complied.

Once we were in the classroom, I introduced myself & told them a little bit about myself. We then completed a Getting To Know You Inventory. It has two parts. One is for the student to list their answers. The second part is for the students to get signatures from their classmates. This made them talk to each other. The one glitch in the day came when two students wouldn’t stop talking.

“Are you serious,” I asked. You agreed to the rules & now you’re breaking them. You are on the honor system but you are not acting very honorably right now. Is that fair to me to be talking while I’m talking?

“No,” he answered. And he stopped talking. END OF STORY!!! There was no back talk or rolling of eyes.

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say that this class is SO different from my last job. At my last job it took me about three weeks to get the class under control. With this class, I had them @ hello!

Write My Own Ticket!

I have a very diverse resume. This came up as I was, once again, having a discussion with my husband about writing my own ticket. First I was working with low performing students in a low income area. I am now working with a high performing general education class in a private school in a much better neighborhood.

I don’t really feel qualified. Nor do I think I can do it, but I am going to give it my all. I’m not sure where I’m going from here, but I’m looking forward to it.

Mangling Songs!

I am not one to be very afraid of making mistakes. How could I be when I am the Karaoke Queen! I am nearly fearless when I at Karaoke with my sisters. Oftentimes I will get up & sing a song I haven’t sung or heard in years. That’s when I learn that the song has more words than I remember. Sometimes even whole verses. This could be very embarrassing, or it could be very funny. I make light of it & laugh as I mangle the song.

That’s how life is. You can be fearful of making mistakes and become very embarrassed when it does happen or you can make light of situations that could be potentially embarrassing. Which one is going to be your song???

I Accept My Fate!

Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula (B.K.A. Captain Archer from Star Trek Enterprise), ran from 1989-1994. This, along with Sliders & Babylon 5 are my favoritest Sci-fi shows ever. Why? It’s because I love the time travel element of this show. However, surprisingly I’m not going to talk about time travel today. For this post I want to focus on the last episode which dealt with .

The show revolves around Dr. Samuel Beckett, a quantum physicist who wants to experience time travel in his own lifetime. Well, he gets his wish as he “leaps” around in time into other people’s bodies correcting history’s mistakes. When he looks in the mirror he sees the face of the person whose body he is inhabiting, while the person inhabits his body in the “waiting room” in the future. So, needless to say, he leaped around for 5 years. During that time he did not see his reflection. That is, until the final episode. He leaps into himself @ some unknown location & finally sees his reflection. He can’t believe it. He’s aged. He’s graying. But, that is not the most important part. The most important part is that he sees his reflection.

Sam believes there’s a higher power “leaping” him around. The person he encounters, Al, tells him there is no higher power leaping him around; that he’s leaping himself around. Al tells Sam that if he could just accept that he’s the one leaping himself around, he could return home. Sam cannot. That would mean, to him, that there is no higher power. Sam does not accept it, so he does not return home. Al also tells him that the leaps are going to get harder. Sam cries, but accepts his fate.

That, my dear reader, is me. Today, I simply closed my eyes & accepted my fate. This is the second time I’m coming into a situation where I have to clean up someone else’s mess. The teacher I’m replacing was on her way out because, well, basically she was lazy & not doing her job. It is my belief that I am going to spend the next couple of years cleaning up & fixing the messes of other teachers. I am not purposely “leaping” myself into these situations. I keep finding myself in situations where I have to keep starting over. I’m tired. I want some type of stability, but fear that will not happen.

I’m tired, but I have closed my eyes & accepted my fate!

Did You See The L.A. Times Article (Value-Added Analysis) on Teacher Effectiveness? (Yes, That L.A. Times Article!)

I recently came across the L.A. Times article that’s been causing quite a stir. It’s a collaboration (of sorts) with The L.A. Times & L.A.U.S.D. I’m trying to be objective, but it’s really hard when I see teachers on there, that I know are good teachers, being maligned & publicly embarrassed.

This “system” is very, very, very flawed. The scores, which range from Least Effective (the worst) to Most Effective, are wholly based on the CSTs.

What job do you know that is based on ONE test. I understand the CSTs are important, but not important enough to publicly embarrass good teachers the way L.A.US.D. & The L.A. Times are doing.

*** Let me start from the CST categories from the beginning. Firstly, there are 600 points possible. There’s the Far Below Basic (FBB) category (150-258 points), Below Basic (BB) category (259-299), Basic (B) category (300-349), Proficient (P) category (350-401), Advance (A) category (402-600).

*** The numbers above are from a 3rd grade STAR Student Report. The numbers differ from grade to grade.***

Most, if not all Special Education students, fall into the FBB & BB category. So, the Special Education teachers will always score in the Least Effective-Less Effective category. This is unfair since there are many factors that are not taken into consideration. What about students who have made significant progress? One of my students had a major, major leap of +96 points and went from FBB to B in Math. In English/Language Arts, he had a gain of +61 points. That is unheard of. One of my other students had a +41 point gain (Which is also incredible), but he stayed in the same category of FBB. If I were “graded” according to the article, I would rank in the Least Effective Category even though my student made substantial gains. Not everyone has such phenomenal success like that, but that is not the point that I’m trying to make. The point I’m trying to make is that none of my student’s successes would be taken into account if they stayed in the same category. Great strides like those my students made should be taken into account, as well as many other factors.

There were so many teachers in the Least Effective Category who should not have been. My husband & I were talking about “bad” teachers & “good” teachers & how to tell the difference! That, however, is a post for tomorrow. See you then!

If you would like to know more, here are some links here, here, here, here, and here.