Such a week!

9/23-9/27 This week just wasn’t designed for reflection. Rainy some days. Chilly some days. The big issue though was 3 days of the week were adjusted schedules. And 4 scheduled meetings for me. Two days we had block schedules, because the eighth grade had to be guinea pigs for a new test… Science, maybe. Then on Friday we had an early dismissal. Rather than 53 minute classes, as usual, they were 29 minutes. Then we spent the rest of the day working with our new SAT. (SAT= Student Achievement Team) My team is working on Writing goals. Another team is working on Reading and one on Math. The week actually went off well. Reading classes worked on both figurative language and point-of-view. The DHH (Deaf and Hard of Hearing) teacher did a demonstration, so that hearing students could see what it was like for DHH students.  Hear what it was like, I mean. I made plans to collaborate with the psychologist in finding ways for several of my 180 kids to be successful.  It feels great to have someone else trying to figure this out with me. Kind of takes the weight off.

View through my glasses>

Friday…

Feeling pretty good about the week, but not really full of focused thoughts. Reading classes will be doing a web quest activity. They will be wandering some fable websites to read a few fables and look at the morals. I think looking at morals is a way for them to understand the concept of ‘theme’. The idea that the author of a book or story has a message that he/she hopes the reader will remember long after the characters or details are forgotten – Well, that’s new thinking for a lot of students. Fables and morals make it a little more accessible. Other than reviewing plans in my head and thinking about homework I need to do before 10pm tonight, I’m just noticing random things,,, The gas station sign has no decimal point, so car washes are 150 dollars. But at least things are spelled correctly on the sign. That is often not the case. Also, noticed a really spooky looking tree. They get all kinds of weirdly shaped when branches are cut back and cut back again to protect power lines. Maybe I’ll make a collection of spooky trees for students to compare for Halloween. If I turn this one sideways, I can see a dragon… with a REALLY long front leg…or wing.

Kids walking to school

It makes me happy seeing kids walking to school. First, I’m happy because they are walking and not getting a ride. That’s a good thing. So many kids get rides from parents, even when they live very close. Let them get some healthy exercise, for goodness sake!Also, it makes me happy, because most of them are former or present students. I like living in the same community with my students. I see them growing up, playing, babysitting, skate-boarding. Some of the younger girls just get so excited to see a teacher outside of school…Funny. Where do they think we live? This group was ahead and I was trying to figure out who was who. The young man is a former student – in high school now. Two of the girls are current students. One girl is at my school, but not my student. The last, I’m not sure about. All of them said, “Hi, Ms Hahn!” at the corner and stopped at the corner store – for snacks, I’m sure. Just a nice way to start the day :)

Tired, cranky, and then…

I walked out the door feeling just WORN OUT. My toothache kept me awake. I stayed up late working on AIP homework. I hadn’t eaten much…tooth thing. Just not a good morning and then I looked up and WOW! How can I not feel refreshed and hopeful and excited about the day when the sky is shouting joy at me? It makes me just feel like running to school as fast as I can… Well, if I wasn’t carrying this ridiculously heavy backpack!

So, now, on the good side. I don’t have any meetings during planning today, so I will actually be able to grade and plan. I want to work on the Word Wall and start an anchor chart for ‘moods’ students identified for reading. I need to sit down with the CAP documents and work on goals….. Read my professional books… Woo!Hoo! Let’s get going!

Tuesday Refocus

9/17 Feeling good about the use of the Refocus Room. It really seems to be working with all but the most stubborn and least caring students. My student teacher is teaching the Reading classes today so I’ll be able to focus on getting organized. I just love the growth and collaborative work in those classes. I am not feeling good about the ridiculous tooth pain I’ve been having. The pain feels like an electric shock and I can’t talk or move or touch my face when it hits. Here is my dentist’s office where I stopped yesterday – Sadly, my dentist is in Germany so I can’t get any antibiotics until Thursday! Ugh! It is just so hard to focus and stay on track when it hurts so much. Not very reflective this morning – I’ll be better once I get in the classroom. 

Monday after the floods

9/16 - A lot of Colorado isn’t going to school this morning. Roads are washed out. Streams have completely changed their paths. Thousands of people are unable to go home, if they even have one left. The little creek I cross every morning has grass completely flattened on the right bank and a line on the concrete about 2 or 3 feet above the ground. I’m feeling prepared for classes and blessed that I seem to be in one of the few places not carried away by crashing, speeding water.

More Water

I’m only posting one picture for Thursday and Friday, because the world has looked the same for days and days. That’s good, because in a lot of Colorado, the water is getting deeper and deeper. And running faster and faster. I have a lousy cold and I NEVER get sick.

Thursday, September 12. Got a great lesson planned for Reading classes on setting. I found a couple pages from, “What I Saw and How I Lied” that have great description of driving into a Florida beach town on the off-season. Read 180 is again feeling like a battle, but today we start using the Refocus process. If a students behavior is stopping them or others from learning or the teacher from teaching; they get one warning and then are sent to another teacher’s classroom to reflect in writing on their behavior, the reason they were exhibiting the behavior, and how they can keep this from happening again. I truly hope this works.

Friday, September 13. Still raining – but today my team brings breakfast for the staff and that is a great way to start a Friday. Using the Refocus process in Read 180 was less successful that I hoped, but did lead to some progress. After I sent T and R each to the Refocus room and had no change in their behavior when they came back – I walked them to the office. Then I brought the class back together in their assigned seats, enforced silence, and had the students write an answer to “What can we do about this situation right now?” Those who chose not to write had to sit silently. I got some thoughtful answers and a calm and quiet class. We did the next rotation with some modifications. Then discussed the difference when the class was quiet and working vs trying to work with noise and wandering and trash basketball. T and R and the assistant principal came back for the final discussion. I think this will work!.

Sloppy Start Workday

Wet and drizzly, chilly. My internet wasn’t working at home this morning. My computer at school got fried in the hail storm.Staff meeting after school today But three of my five class periods will be in the library. Mrs. Fluitt  will do an introduction to the library and then they can check out books. Hopefully, I will have time to finish grading. I hope, I hope, I hope! .

Expect the Unexpected

So, I left school about 20 minutes early yesterday to walk across the street to the dentist. While I was in the chair getting my teeth cleaned a giant hail storm started and the dental tech started calling, “Hey, I’m seriously scared. Should we all go hide in the bathroom?” The dentist calmed her down. The storm stopped. All was fine and I walked home through 6 inch deep rushing water and little hail balls… in my high-heeled summer sandals. Some of the hail is still hanging on in yards this morning. Life is full of the unexpected. Probably one of the most important things I need to remember as a teacher. Seldom, really seldom, do things go just as expected - as planned. Our day is full of too many people with things going on in their lives that affect their day,,, and, therefore, ours. And they are emotional, very emotional, young people. I’m ready! What will happen today? I don’t know – but it will be fun!

Starting Early

I’m getting a really early start today, since I didn’t carry home stacks of notebooks and I NEED to get a first grading done. I’m really pumped. Feeling really good about my planning for my reading classes. Feeling confident about making sure they know what they need to do and why they are doing it…everyday. I’ve got my goal (Students will use a character chart to analyze characters) in line with their activity (use a new character chart in small groups with “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto) in line with our essential question (How does analyzing a text help me as a reader?). Woo! Read 180 went really well Friday, and that feels good, too. It feels especially good because we did a real class  – not team-building and games. And Mr-can’t-sit-still-or-ever-be-quiet, rock star!! He was a mentor, a leader in his group. Let’s keep up the momentum.

TGISaturday

My week got over-full at the end, so I’ll do Thursday’s and Friday’s posts now.

Thursday: So hard to put my energy in one place this morning. As I walk toward the bus stop that I pass each day, I start playing with perspective. Moving from side-to-side to see what happens to my view. When I look through the camera lens, it becomes more fun to play with movement and shapes. Maybe noticing my perspective… I have a very full day coming. I have a training for a new, fabulous discipline policy. I need to create a sub plan that will work for my end-of-the-day, two-period-long, still-can’t-use-the-computers Reading Intervention class. If I view this through the Ugh So Much Work lens, I am going to feel overworked and grumpy. If I remember that a lot of last years problems were because we didn’t have a consistent discipline policy AND this is an opportunity for my student teacher to take the reins with the support of a sub – Well, maybe this will be just fine. Maybe, better..

 

Friday: So yesterday evening, I discovered there was no water…Looked outside and there was a police car and a water company truck. A water main was broken directly in front of my house. It was opening night for the Broncos, so the guys who had to come dig  up the street and repair the water main were missing the game. Fast and efficient. That’s what I like!

I am thinking of (dang! my ‘ecks’ key is broken – can’t say fi-) repairing things that are broken. Today, I have my first PPP meeting – That means professional ..um..program…um – something. It is a meeting ALL Jeffco teachers (or all Jeffco Strategic Compensation teachers, I think) have - to plan how to build the skills that were not their strengths on their last year’s evaluation. I will meet with my new (yahoo!) peer evaluator, the assistant principal, the principal, my Master teacher, and the coach. For the first time in my life, my evaluation last year was… NOT GOOD. I was angry, mad, ready to throw a fit. Then, I got past that and said, “Well, ne-t year I will bust butt and be practically perfect.” So here goes – What if the evaluation last year was accurate? I will be working as hard as I can to build skills to be the best teacher for my students. What if the evaluation last year was NOT accurate? I will still be working as hard as I can to build skills to be the best teacher for my students. So either way, I’m ok. Whether my teaching was broken or not it will be fi-ed. (remember – no ecks key)

“Have you ever seen the Rain?” (CCR)

I’m thinking of rainy day songs this morning. The slight rain feels so good. Not even enough to even get me wet, but I know the garden will be happy! I guess the lesson here is that we don’t grow if all we have are sunny skies. Rainy days are absolutely necessary.  Students so often say, “Can’t learning be fun?” Certainly, learning can be fun, but it, also, must be hard work. We grow by doing work we didn’t even know we could do, not by doing what we already know how to do. This year I am going to get WAY better at structure in my daily lessons. I’m great at flying by the seat of my pants – but that is not what students need. They need routine, clarity, and a complete understanding of why we are doing what we are doing. I’m actually excited, but a little terrified, too. The stakes are just SO high!

Oh my, that sky!

How can a day not be perfect that starts with this sky? It is hard to walk, because I just keep snapping pictures. Feeling good, confident, ready for a new week. Reading classes will be beginning vocabulary work today. Vocabulary is SO important for building reading skills and critical thinking skills. September’s Education Leadership magazine had a great article, “Cognitive Verbs and the Common Core”( Marzano, 2013) that I want to use as an organizing tool for vocabulary and my word wall. Verbs are put in semantic categories that really make sense and help students deal with critical academic vocabulary and thinking skills.

Also, I’m feeling good about Read 180. Friday went VERY well! Keep it going!