As some of you know, my best friend Maggie lost her mom last month. You may also know that Maggie works for the Boys & Girls Club of Wausau, Wisconsin. In honor of her mom, and in remembrance of her mom's volunteer work with the club, Maggie is hoping to raise at least $1000 to sponsor 50 (!) annual memberships for children whose families cannot afford the $20/year fee. I think this is a wonderful way not only to honor Sue's memory, but to continue her legacy of helping others.
If you're interested in helping out, you can easily donate (any amount) at the site below:
http://www.firstgiving.com/maggiebrown
Thanks and much love to each of you!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Always a new day
The last two days, one of my independent reading students has been driving me crazy. He is off-task, loud, silly, and completely unrepentant. And, truthfully, he is one of my favorites. But not this week. As of the end of class yesterday I was out of patience for him. Imagine then, the look on my face as he came barrelling towards my car at 8am this morning, basketball in hand, iPod headphones flying behind him, shirt untucked, shoes untied. He was a mess. But he had the goofiest grin on his face so I composed my own face and greeted him. With no small amount of pride in his voice he declared that he studied last night for today's quiz on Seedfolks, our current novel. As the smile threatened to take over his face, he told me he felt very confident about this quiz and, as if to emphasize the point, bounced the basketball along with each word. I told him I was glad to hear it and he nodded enthusiastically and ran off for the basketball court without another word.
Sometimes my job makes me scream. And sometimes, like this morning, it makes me laugh. In a good way. Because....really?
Sometimes my job makes me scream. And sometimes, like this morning, it makes me laugh. In a good way. Because....really?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A night just for me
Since Brian is down at the beach for the week, I thought I would dedicate this Tuesday night to all of the things I like. I spent an hour at Target, have an Amy's spinach pizza in the oven, and I'm going to watch "Say Yes to the Dress" while I eat dinner. I also have laundry going and just downloaded photos to update here and on FB. And I plan on being asleep by 10pm. I miss Brian and never like it when he is gone, but I must admit that I'm pretty excited with my night as I have planned it.
So...what have I been up to in the last month? Read on, dear readers...
The 2008-2009 school year officially ended on June 19th. Hooray! The week of June 22nd we welcomed our incoming students, including rising sixth graders for the very first time. I taught generic social studies to four groups of sixth grade girls for the week and mostly loved it. No real attitude at that age...one of my girls turned eleven during our week of classes. Eleven. On our last day together, we toured Bowie State University. Below is a picture of some of the girls as they listen to the tour guide (and I promise that I did not pose them).
That Sunday, my parents arrived for a week of vacation in the DC area. We had a great time visiting the Capital Hill area (below, the Capitol and a banner at the Library of Congress)...
...eating local specialties (my dad's platter at a crab shack on the Delaware River)
...and enjoying the great weather (no explanation needed for this photo).
We also got rained out of an Orioles game, toured the wedding location, and caught the local 4th of July fireworks. But my parents have all of those photos.
The day after my parents headed back to Chicago, I started my job teaching summer school to middle school students. From 9am until 12pm, I teach an independent reading course to eleven 7th and 8th grade boys and girls; we read The House on Mango Street for the first 90 minutes and then they read and reflect on a book of their choosing for the last 90 minutes. After lunch, I teach life sciences to two 7th grade boys. Below are the boys posing with the cell cakes we made last week (I made the cakes, they "decorated" them with the correct organelles).
Last Thursday, Brian and I celebrated the fact that there was exactly one year until our wedding. Brian took to calling it our "reverse-ary" and since it was a special occasion, I convinced him to take a photo. See below.
This past weekend we had a crazy chaotic trip to Wisconsin to visit some of my friends. It was a much more complicated journey than I anticipated, but the time with my friends made me feel a million times more like myself. And that is always great. The rest of the summer will fly by, I'm sure. There's 2.5 weeks of summer school left and then I have a weekend before heading back for leadership training and the start of 2009-2010. This coming weekend there is a very quick trip to the Outer Banks to share the end of Brian's beach time. I can hardly believe it is mid-July already.
Hope each of you is enjoying your summer as well.
So...what have I been up to in the last month? Read on, dear readers...
The 2008-2009 school year officially ended on June 19th. Hooray! The week of June 22nd we welcomed our incoming students, including rising sixth graders for the very first time. I taught generic social studies to four groups of sixth grade girls for the week and mostly loved it. No real attitude at that age...one of my girls turned eleven during our week of classes. Eleven. On our last day together, we toured Bowie State University. Below is a picture of some of the girls as they listen to the tour guide (and I promise that I did not pose them).
That Sunday, my parents arrived for a week of vacation in the DC area. We had a great time visiting the Capital Hill area (below, the Capitol and a banner at the Library of Congress)...
...eating local specialties (my dad's platter at a crab shack on the Delaware River)
...and enjoying the great weather (no explanation needed for this photo).
We also got rained out of an Orioles game, toured the wedding location, and caught the local 4th of July fireworks. But my parents have all of those photos.The day after my parents headed back to Chicago, I started my job teaching summer school to middle school students. From 9am until 12pm, I teach an independent reading course to eleven 7th and 8th grade boys and girls; we read The House on Mango Street for the first 90 minutes and then they read and reflect on a book of their choosing for the last 90 minutes. After lunch, I teach life sciences to two 7th grade boys. Below are the boys posing with the cell cakes we made last week (I made the cakes, they "decorated" them with the correct organelles).
Last Thursday, Brian and I celebrated the fact that there was exactly one year until our wedding. Brian took to calling it our "reverse-ary" and since it was a special occasion, I convinced him to take a photo. See below.
This past weekend we had a crazy chaotic trip to Wisconsin to visit some of my friends. It was a much more complicated journey than I anticipated, but the time with my friends made me feel a million times more like myself. And that is always great. The rest of the summer will fly by, I'm sure. There's 2.5 weeks of summer school left and then I have a weekend before heading back for leadership training and the start of 2009-2010. This coming weekend there is a very quick trip to the Outer Banks to share the end of Brian's beach time. I can hardly believe it is mid-July already.Hope each of you is enjoying your summer as well.
Monday, June 15, 2009
End of day update
As I get ready to leave work (and yes, it is closing in on 6pm), I thought I'd make a list of all I've done today. Try to make myself feel better about how long I was at work today.
- grades are posted
- textbook inventories are complete
- facilities request is turned in
- IEP summaries are submitted
- Economics & American government curriculum maps reflection are complete
- self-evaluation is complete
- faculty survey is submitted
- tomorrow's department meeting is prepped
Left to do Tuesday-Thursday:
- AP curriculum map reflection
- individual goals reflection with each department team member (5)
- budget proposal
- department goals reflection
- department philosophy/mission statement revised
- 2009-2010 initiatives frameworks compiled and distributed
Not so bad, I suppose. Happy Monday, all!
Teacher work week
Last Friday was the final day for our students. Saturday morning was graduation. For all intents and purposes, the 2008-2009 school year has ended. Except that I am at work. And have been since 8:15 this morning. And will be from 8:15am-3:30pm tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday. On tap? Today it was a lot of meetings, moving forward it is one to two meetings a day and time to complete this exit checklist (anything in blue is added on to my list because I run the Social Studies department and anything in green is because I co-run the 10th-12th grade team):
- input and post grades and grade comments (mandatory for any grade below an 80%)
- compile textbook inventories for each class
- compile and submit facilities request for classroom
- write performance summaries for any students with IEPs that you taught this year
- complete a curriculum map reflection for each course taught (I taught 3 this year)
- complete self evaluation
- complete individual goals reflection
- complete staff survey
- update department philosophy and mission statement
- compile and submit 2009-2010 department budget proposal
- complete department goal reflection
- create goal/rationale/implementation frameworks for 2009-2010 team initiatives (of which there are seven)
- provide feedback for proposed student presentations of learning
If I can finish by Thursday afternoon I can have Friday off. Which would be really nice since I will be teaching rising 6th grade girls at our new candidate orientation all of next week. If anyone mentions to me in the next few weeks that being a teacher must be nice because of all of the time off, I cannot be held responsible for my response.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Also...
Brian and I get married in 400 days. Because...you know...that's a useful bit of trivia.
Clearly, I have not made a lot of progress on my paper. But I promise to buckle down and write during the basketball game tonight. Honest.
Clearly, I have not made a lot of progress on my paper. But I promise to buckle down and write during the basketball game tonight. Honest.
This is random, but...
It really bothers me when teachers ask students to do work for them. I don't know why. I don't think the kids care. In fact, I'm sure that many of the students are glad to be helpers. Still, something about making students file papers, grade tests, assemble packets, etc doesn't sit right with me. Especially if it is a teacher who I know spends a good portion of the day on Gchat or some such thing.
Also, my friend Keith mentioned to me on FB yesterday that his "teacher tank" was running on empty. Mine too. I am so exhausted this week and so ready for the kids to go home. Everything seems a little louder, a little more offensive, a little less amusing than it did a week ago. And that makes me anxious because we are at work until the last Friday in June and then I have one week off (during which my parents are visiting) before I start summer school. ::sigh::
At least we have a fun trip to Philly planned for this weekend. That will be a nice break. Provided, of course, I finish this week's grad school paper before we leave. Which probably means I should stop wasting time here.
Also, my friend Keith mentioned to me on FB yesterday that his "teacher tank" was running on empty. Mine too. I am so exhausted this week and so ready for the kids to go home. Everything seems a little louder, a little more offensive, a little less amusing than it did a week ago. And that makes me anxious because we are at work until the last Friday in June and then I have one week off (during which my parents are visiting) before I start summer school. ::sigh::
At least we have a fun trip to Philly planned for this weekend. That will be a nice break. Provided, of course, I finish this week's grad school paper before we leave. Which probably means I should stop wasting time here.
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