First quarter down, Parent teacher conferences loom.....

Well with the schedule I have this year, something had to give.... in this case keeping a blog had to go.... I do have some time now - so here I go!!!

Had a program review by my state advisor. FCS is a vocational program, so added funding means added accountability. She had some great suggestions to make my program work better, but it means extra work for me. This is what we decided:
1. Get rid of the entrepreneurship class - each semester I only have 3-10 students enrolled, therefore having to keep combining the class with another- recipe for YIKES.
2. Start a Food Productions and Management class- this is an advanced class for students who have taken nutrition and foods, and want to take an advanced class
3. Start an educational assistant program - I actually suggested this, we all ready have a administrator who places, and monitors the students going into the elementary classrooms- I thought I could be in charge of an on line class portion

so the things I have to do besides lesson plans for these classes:
- write 10n forms for each program
-acquire tech prep agreements for each program
-renew my servesafe certificate
-renew my vigor for fccla ---- that will be another entry :)

One thing that has been bothering me just a little is last year I agreed to allow central district health to help me do the reduce the risk program in our high school. I did it in earnest last year, and agreed CONDITIONALLY to participate in a limited basis this year. Specifically I was not going to subject my students to the million page survey (or take extra class time) and I wasn't going to do all of the lessons= I do not have enough time. After all it isn't my grant..... The contact I work with in my town is incredible to work with, but her boss wants to meet with me. So it will be interesting what she says. Really, it won't change anything, short of if she has some funding to by things to bribe students to do those surveys outside of class time.....

This has been an incredible year so far, REALLY BUSY. Also it is natural to have cycles of professional confidence. However this year it seems like in the teaching arena my confidence levels have been volatile. One week up, one week down, it sometimes varies from day to day! I feel pretty good this week LOL. I am excited that parent teacher conferences are in our rooms this year = meaning I will get lots of grading, planning and other work done. I don't usually get too many parents- hey I am only "lllll" FAMILY and CONSUMER SCIENCES LOL

Fluffy bunnies and lofty clouds!

Juniper

Who do we work for?

After getting Mark to go to his clinical at 4:30, nodding off for a bit-I watched the morning news. They were talking about Obama's plan to put some money into fixing schools and rehiring teachers. Then they said "The republicans say it is nothing but a teacher union bail-out" Ummmmm we don't WORK for the teacher union. We work for the GOVERNMENT, so if implemented essentially we are bailing ourselves out? Any ways...

Today was really good! Kids- good. I have to say my teaching wasn't bad... I feel energetic after the day - which has been rare this year.


good times..... now I have to work so tomorrow will be good :)

Oh my goodness......

I am not sure that I have ever felt this tired, and deflated this early in the school year.... Yes, sometimes it is the norm in February.... I just am not feeling accomplished at the time.

My student's grades are slowly coming up. We have a mandatory study hall for students with d's and f's. I can't say for sure if all the kids who need to go- but having the extra student awareness of their grades by several teachers every week has had an impact.

I do have one concern that is weighing heavily on me this week. The communication between the special education staff and the rest of us. It seems to me that we have a bigger staff than ever. One administrator in the building mostly dedicated to students with special needs, 4 certified teachers, one dude that does the scheduling, several para professionals who help. (even though I don't think there are enough para pros. The system right now relies on us clicking on a student on our powerschool to see what the modifications are supposed to be. That is all fine and good - but I don't know what the student's level of skills are, I don't know what we are supposed to be looking out for behavior-wise. This level of communication is fine for the students who are higher functioning, but the students who are lower functioning - can not verbalize. They might not even be aware. It is just frustrating to say the least. Really the kiddos lose out.

Blech. Classes otherwise are going really well. Nutrition classes are coming upon their dreaded nutrition test. Teen living - we are starting to talk about "healthy" relationships. Parenting we are in the pregnancy/readiness chapter. Entrepreneurship will be learning about book keeping.
so that has been good.

happiness to all!

Three day weekends give rise to apathy

Which is just not right. I should be refreshed and peppy after a three day break. Tell you the truth the LAST thing I wanted to do was go to school. First hour was particularly harsh. I was scattered and rather inarticulate...... we got through somehow.The rest of the day went progressively better.

I have to admit it was totally my fault I did not prepare enough. The rest of the week is going a lot better as well.

One complaint that I do have is how fellow teachers minimize what I teach. Today a fellow colleague told me she couldn't believe how a student flunked my test. Looking her in the eye I told her maybe the test was hard for her. Then I gave her the test. I have been teaching for a long time, I certainly do not have the "easy a" classes. some classes are easier than others, but nutrition is difficult for some students. I guess I get mad because it implies that I don't teach anything. rude. That is kind of a pride thing that doesn't have anything to do with anything...

Went to a training this morning on a program for students to turn in their papers on line. It looked pretty cool. I shall try it this semester.

Pretty nice week

Very few things went wrong last week. Had some hiccups in planning. Most of the classes went well, one foods class in particular I sort of got behind. Ironically they are the ones that wanted to take their test on friday. Don't know how they did yet - I will know tomorrow. My intention was to bring the tests home to grade - right after school a student needed assistance and I looked up and needed to go get to my carpool.....so --- but I will get caught up. I am getting kinda paranoid though - the administrators are trying to observe every so often and every time they get to my classroom - I am getting ready to give a test, or they come the first or last few minutes- nothing is going on during those times. not cool :)

I do need to balance my life though - I am not going to worry too much it is the first whole week - but all I did was school and sleep I think last week. so diet, sleeping went out the window. I can't do that next week.

good times!

Adaptive Qualities

The first week was really a fun, positive good time. I love the new schedule so far. It is nice seeing the kids most every day. Lot easier and I am thinking more efficient use of class time to have them 50 minutes most days with a 90 minute block once a week. The assignments are a bit smaller and so far the kids seem to be more willing to get their work done.

The only negative is I have a student with some massive behavior issues. Well, this along with some cognitive things going on. I do think I need an aide with him in my class. Perhaps if the class were smaller then I could help him better. We will see how things shake up. I did come up with a plan for the student though just in case I can't get assistance for whatever reason. I probably need to be more forceful if I don't though.

As always I am in awe of my friend who has been going through chemo. This is her second year of fighting. She just gets done what needs to get done at school matter-the- fact like. Just knowing her has got me going on things I need to get done. Losing weight, getting my house in order, being a better teacher. Just getting stuff done. Basically cutting the crap. Who has time to deal with things that don't matter? Who has time to make excuses? None of us. I am a better person - or at least working on it :)

Other delights this week - my stepson turned 11 yesterday and we are having a birthday party for him this evening. His grandparents got him a kinect and he and his dad have been playing it all morning - pretty cool piece of hardware! Also it has been so cute seeing the little bugger smile and be sooooo excited for his birthday, and also I think he is excited for school here soon.

Back to teaching - well like I said the first three days were good. I am realizing that grading is going to be a bigger issue. I have been car pooling most days, but I think I am going to drive in on Mondays and Tuesdays to get all the planning and copying done for the week(without having to leave early), then I will grade on my prep period. We will see if that will be a good strategy. Also I would like to get my fccla up and running. Or an after school group of some sort. Yeah!!!

This sounds dorky but lots of love and fluffy clouds to everyone -

first day of school 2011

This is the first year that when I walked in - around 30 kids were at school all ready. There was genuine almost excitement in the air. It was fun.

Everything went really well. We had open house tonight - so I stayed at school and worked and got some more stuff set up for the semester. It just was cool.

Classes are really too early to tell - they are always quiet the first few days. So I will reserve judgement for a few weeks.

Yeah!!!!

Almost up to bat, detoured by inservice

Beginning of the semester, no matter how many hours you put in during the summer- it seems like there is not enough time to get what you want done - well .... done. Then in the interest of showing that our time is not "wasted" the powers that be throw in an inservice. Pretty much regardless of content, and regardless of presenter - there are two times inservices will NOT be useful and quite the contrary cause resentment (in the case of having one at the end of the school year) and resentment and PANIC(at the very beginning of the school year.)

the two ladies who presented did have good stuff to teach us. The basic content of the time together was about the national core standards: which emphasize using content, rather than solely focusing on the content itself. So using and showing a deeper understanding of content rather that spit out facts. Rote memory that kind of stuff. O.K. step in the right direction from the past ten years where multiple choice answers were the law. Really it is what good teachers use all the time. I probably will write about this later on. HOWEVER - this is how the morning went.

We were told to be in the gym from 8:00 to 8:30. The superintendent spoke and it lasted about 5 minutes. (He talked about being out of ayp jail- a very good thing, and kind of a beginning of the year pep talk.) Then told the secondary teachers that we have to be back at 8:45. So about 40 minutes wasted. We should have started our inservice then.

Then the presenters presented- and did two of my pet peeves- 1)READ us the information straight off of the overhead..... UMMMMM I can read and 2) gave us WAY too much time to do our "tasks" so basically what should have taken maybe 45 minutes to a little over an hour dragged on for close to 3 hours. YES I KNOW IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY --- but why should it?

Putting a positive spin on this however- I will always try not to do that to my students (yes sometimes I get long winded and im sure some students think I waste their time) but it does reinforce that concept of NOT doing something for the sheer sake of fillin up time.

Finally got into my classroom around noon. I definately don't have everything ready, but a good start tomorrow. I am excited for this new school year. I am excited about the new schedule. It will be a great year!

Things I am excited about

There are a few things I am planning this year that I think will be fun.

In the classroom: I plan on incorporating rewards and prizes every two weeks or so. I know this isn't new---but as a secondary teacher sometimes I forget high schoolers like prizes and recognition as well.
------want to record lectures and stuff-- be better about getting students that miss class their. Make it more meaningful than "copy notes off somebody"
-----going back to having students keep their notes

outside classroom-----Want to have a chili feed/with cinnamon rolls for parent/teacher conferences (with the entrepreneurship class)

----want to publish an on line newsletter

-----Play the game and have more fccla stuff ( I will write about that later. lol)


so those are a few of the things- oh I forgot this amazing teacher in boise has her teen living students do a cafe thing, I was thinking about doing it with my foods and nutrition kids as an intro to entrepreneurship / job skills stuff. Yep....

We will see if I continue to have ambition past next week lol.

I do have fairly full classes. I have 173 kids signed up now. Yeah!!!

Getting Ready for the new year

Went into the classroom yesterday. I have been working on curriculum at home. I do live 45 miles away from my school so tell you the truth I am not keen on prematurely commuting when I can do much of the set up work at home.

Unfortunately I ended up having to physically set up my room. It took just about 4 hours. I am talking setting up tables, and stuff. At the end of summer school I felt bad for the janitorial staff and folded my tables and stuff for them to shampoo and wash the floors. mistakenly thinking that they would put it back. It was kind of funny one lady was complaining all she did was shampoo carpets or something. My friend and fellow teacher said (not to the custodian by the way) "isn't that her job?" and that is true. We ALL have tons more to do with less people to do perform the tasks. As teachers we have more piled on our plates seemingly on a weekly basis! I don't ask custodial staff to help me put together packets or anything.... Just venting..... Anyways didn't get a whole lot done curriculum-wise yesterday.

This is bringing something up that has been on my mind a lot this past year. What should we expect from our educators? this is a short list of things I believe we should expect
1. They should genuinely like and respect students, and do their best to treat them in a caring, but professional manner....
-It is at times a difficult balance between being "teachery" and being a human being. I do think that as much as possible to make this possible teachers MUST have lives OUTSIDE of school. I shall discuss this aspect more later. Also I think that there should be more of a mentoring aspect for educators new to the profession.

2. Organized curriculum, keeping it relevant,

3. Keeping up with grading, constructive feedback for students

4. Consistent discipline


5. Creating connections with life outside of school as much as possible


----These are all no brainers- but day to day they are more difficult than many people imagine.


I did not watch the movie "waiting for superman" and on the whole I try not to watch teaching movies. I do know the basic gist of these flicks. I think anyways..... At least in the case of "Freedom Writers" the teacher is all -consumed with teaching students and her whole life and being was dedicated to them. How long did she teach? It seems like many of the teachers who do this teach a while, publish a program or something, and leaves active teaching behind. In my experience there ARE TIMES where you are spending most of your day on teaching matters. But that is not sustainable or healthy. When I was younger and single - it makes your students your life which makes #1 and 4 more difficult. As I got older and established my own life outside of school - and didn't go to all the games, and concerts and extra activities - I became a better teacher. Now that I have a husband, and child - that all or nothing mentality is not sustainable.

I remember watching the news when Bush Jr. was in office and he was presenting a teacher of the year award to this wonderful lady. He mentioned that she never missed her student's games and other litany of things she did for her students outside the classroom. Never once he mentioned what she did in the classroom, her techniques, her ....well you get the idea. I do believe in making connections with students outside the classroom at times, but shouldn't we focus on making connections in the classroom? (I am sure that teacher was amazing in the classroom by the sheer fact she was nationally recognized, and I applaud her)

When I started teaching 16 years ago I viewed education as a "calling" or a "mission" Ironically I think my framing what I do in this fashion had stunted my abilities to teach. It was deeply personal. Different students need different things at different times. I am not immune to the fact that many of them need someone who cares about them, or a parental like figure in their lives. BUT what they need far more, and what will help them find there way in their lives is information, and feeling empowered to use that information to achieve their goals.

Now have to say teaching is my career. A job that I can objectively look at my skills and improve upon them. I am human. I am going to have good days, bad days. But each day I can choose to strive to do better, and seek new ways to facilitate learning in my classroom.

Teaching Upstream

Last year was a rough year for educators in Idaho. I have been teaching for 16 years and it is the first time that I had a really good year teaching, but it was stomped upon by politics and daily negative rhetoric in the newspapers, and sometimes on the news. Compound that with upon meeting people outside of education, after telling them about my profession their reactions were akin to announcing that I have some dread disease or something. Honestly I am not the type of person that bases their well-being on outside forces, but to a certain extent it did create lots of worry and doubt about my future in education.

Not sure what this blog will be about specifically, but I know what I DON'T want is I don't want it to be a negative whine session. Don't want it to be a festival of what a great teacher I am.... well you get the idea. I do want it to be an honest portrayal of what it is like to be a fairly average teacher, in a fairly average school, trying to help extraordinary students learn various subjects in the realm of Family and Consumer Sciences.