It's been forever since I've posted . . . here is the explanation.

The new school year has officially kicked my butt!


Here is the scoop on the past few months:


*The transition team has been more blood, sweat, and tears than any of us realized. The administration finally heard our cries for help. They were not being very supportive to us so after a threat from a group of students (the students threatened to gang up on one of our teachers in the program and "beat the shit out of that teacher"), administration finally stepped up and acknowledged that they were not being supportive to the teachers or students. Some changes have been made so we shall see if there is a change in the classroom as well. It has become a safety issue now. One of my students decided to take a lighter out of another student book bag and try and light a desk on fire in my classroom. The incident wasn't handled appropriately from the administration side. These students were not the students that were described to us last school year when the administration told us about this program so the teachers are very frustrated and stressed. I spend most of the classes dealing with behavior, social, and discipline issues. It's getting harder to teach curriculum. Only time will tell if this program is really working. It's only October and it feels like March. I really don't want to teach in the Freshman House anymore. These kids are burning me out! :-(


*Because I'm focusing all my time and energy on the transition program (2 sections of World History transition students - 28 students total), I'm neglecting my other three classes. I still don't know all my student names in the other classes. I get pulled out of those classes for meetings with transition kids. On a positive note: my favorite class to teach right now is the local history course with upperclassmen. They are my saving grace! :=)


*I'm teaching a different curriculum with the transition classes so it requires more work. I'm teaching thematically instead of chronologically in World History with the transition kids. I'm working with the English teacher in creating interdisciplinary units so we are trying to get the students to see connections between literature and History. It's working so far. :=)


*Currently working on a proposal to teach AP European History next school year for Seniors. I really need the challenge professionally. My dept and Principal supports the new class but I have to get the Superintendent and School Committee approval. The AP US History teacher told me that he could easily recommend 15-20 students from his class. He's currently already doing AP European History independent studies with students their senior year already so it makes sense to have a real class offered for Seniors. The Guidance Director also supports the idea since he claims there is a need for the course.


*My school is starting the accreditation process again. I'm a co-chair for the Curriculum committee. So, there will be a lot of work for the next school year getting our self-study report completed. Every faculty member is involved in the process. I have about 15 teachers on my committee. A few of them are the "ding bats of the faculty" (don't do their duties or professional responsibilities, complains about the kids in a negative way, etc). I don't have a high tolerance for people like this so it will be a challenge for me.


*Ended the volleyball season this past week. My JV team won two matches this year. Since the program is new (we are only in year 2), this is an accomplishment. Last year, we didn't win any games. We moved leagues to a more competitive league (this league has had volleyball in their athletic programs for years) so the fact that we won two games is a big deal. Varsity only won one game this year. My girls are getting better and better. And, they have developed a love for a wonderful new sport. :=)


*Proctored SAT's, PSAT's, and ACT's every Saturday during the month of October. Made some extra money and got a ton of my correcting completed! :=)


*Have 17 students for Harvard Model Congress this year. We've already had two fund raisers and are currently working on a few more. Since the economy is so bad this year, I figured I would lose a lot of students (HMC costs $350 to attend plus the cost of food for the four days). But, the kids and parents are being great and supportive. I should be receiving their roles in the next few weeks. 16 of them will be members in the House or Senate and I have one student that applied for the Presidential Cabinet.


So, that is the scoop of what has been going on the past few months. Hope this explains why I haven't really been posting a lot. I haven't even been updating my homework blogs regularly either since I've been so busy. Now that volleyball season has ended, I'm hoping for a little bit more time to write on the blog and read other blogs. I miss reading all of your blogs! :=)

Judy - Hi! Glad that you commented on my blog. I've never heard of Funnel Brain before so I can't comment on it. I checked it out and seems like a great site to use. Try it and see if it works for your needs. Keep me posted. :=)

One week down . . . .

Survived the first week of school. Though it was only three days with the students. :=)

Just a few notes:
*The Transitional program is going to be a lot of work. These students are tough! Very needy. Don't listen. Never been taught any proper behavior and life skills (reminder: I teach 9th grade). I have two sections of this program and at the end of the day, I'm so mentally, emotionally, and physically drained! Most of these kids were in self-contained classrooms at the middle school (no - they are not all SPED kids). The main goal of this program is to make sure these kids don't drop out of high school. On the second day of school, there was a BAD fight in the math class between two boys: one kid had his nose broken and three bones in his face broken. Both boys are suspended out for ten days. So, as you can see, we have our work cut out for us!
*Enjoying my local history class. A lot of the students had me their freshman year and they like my crazy teaching style so much they wanted to take me again. They are a fun, smart, and just nice group of kids.
*Volleyball has been a challenge for me. I now have 20 girls on my JV team and I'm expected to play all of them during games. Over half the team has never played the sport before so I have a lot of work cut out for me this season. Most of the girls are nice. Got a few that live in the drama and create plenty of it. I find it very difficult to work with all the girls and get their skill level to where it needs to be so they can play the sport better. I tried dividing them up into groups but it's still to much. One of the varsity players said I need an assistant! I agree! It's just too many girls on one team. We should have had cuts but the varsity coach didn't want to discourage anyone. He only has 12 girls so his job is much easier than mine. And, varsity doesn't have to play everyone in a game like JV. At our first game on Friday night, I had so many substitutions that the girls had a tough time figuring out the rotation and we got into trouble with the ref. We lost our game but at least all the girls played and tried hard. We are playing schools that have had a volleyball program for a long time. This is only our third year.

On a fun note:
*I'm going to the U2 concert on Sunday, September 20th! My sister is flying out for the weekend too. I'm sooo pumped! I LOVE U2!

Stay positive and have a wonderful week! :=)

Officially back to school on Tuesday!

Enjoying my last weekend of freedom before I head back to school on Tuesday for a professional day. We get the students on Wednesday.

Actually, I've been back in school since August 27th. I coach JV volleyball so I've been in the building since that day. For the first three days, we had double practices so in between practices, I would go up to my classroom to unpack and get it ready. We then switched to afternoon practices so I would go into school in the morning to do work.

Even though I'm a high school teacher, I work very hard to create a very comfortable classroom environment for my students. Most of my colleagues don't decorate their classrooms and make their rooms feel "homey." Every school year, the kids tell how warm and welcoming my classroom feels to them. I hate bare white walls so I will hang up student work. I don't care how old you are but kids still love to see their work hanging up on a bulletin board or wall. Currently, I hung up posters and projects from last years' students. Once I get going, I will hang up work from the kids this year. I always keep student work as samples to show students what I expect for a final project.

So, my classroom is all ready and waiting for the students to arrive on Wednesday.

My teaching schedule will pretty much be the same. Still in the freshman house. Still have four classes of World History (3 college preps and 1 honors) and the local history class elective for upperclassmen. The only difference will be that two of my college prep World History classes will be part of the new transitional team (one of the college prep transition classes will be co-taught with a special ed teacher in the room). The administration has already "red flagged" 30 freshman students at risk for dropping out of high school due to emotional and behavioral issues (some related to horrific home lives). Those 30 students will be in smaller classes (15 students per class) and share the same major content teachers (History, English, Science, and Math) in the freshman house. English and History classes will be taught in the middle of the day and back to back. Math and Science will be the same (we teach on a 4 x4 block). For example, this will allow English and History to do more interdisciplinary units - when I'm teaching about Ancient Greece in History, the English teacher has the kids reading The Odyssey. The transitional team came up with themes per quarter: 1st quarter -The Ideal Individual, 2nd quarter - Tolerance, 3rd quarter - Freedom, and 4th quarter - Service. All of our curriculum will be taught around these themes. I will not be teaching World History chronologically but thematically with these kids - this is a first for me. I thought I would try it and see what happens. My school has a 60% graduation rate so we are trying to increase the number of students graduating. Since the implementation of the freshman house, our numbers have gone up 10% (five years ago, our graduation rate was 50%). So, we have our work cut out!

We have a professional day on Tuesday. The day will be filled with meetings and small presentations from faculty and administration. I've been asked to do a short presentation to the faculty on explaining the use of the library and web site. The librarian and I will be running double sessions and she thought of me to help her since I take my students down to the library all the time and teach my students how to properly use the library. My principal told me that I will receiving a small stipend and PDP's for the presentations. Cool! :=)

We are starting school late compared to other schools in this area and even the country. Since I read a lot of teacher blogs from all over the country, I know some schools have already been in school for at least six weeks! Sometimes I wish that we would start earlier and then get out earlier but our buildings here are not equipped to handle the warmer weather (aka no A/C). Since I have an inside classroom (no windows), my classroom is VERY WARM right now - temps in my classroom during the past week have been around the high 80's. I have two fans running but all the fans do is circulate the warm air around the room. Thankfully, the weather here in New England has cooled off somewhat so hopefully the classrooms will eventually cool off as well.

The summer is coming to a close. It was a real nice and relaxing summer for M-Dawg! A very much needed mental health summer. :-)

So, here we go and wishing everyone a productive and invigorating school year! :=)

It's almost time to go back to school

The summer has cruised by for me. Seems like yesterday I just got out of school for the summer.

It's definitely been a restful yet productive summer. Since I didn't work this summer, I surprisingly kept pretty busy this summer with workshops, meetings with colleagues, a visit from my sister, and just hanging out with wonderful friends. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least since I'm so used to running around all the time. At first, I thought I would be bored. That SO didn't happen. I feel well rested and ready for a new school year. And, that is a good thing. :=)

The workshop at Harvard on Oil was great! So informative! The organizers brought in many lecturers and experts that were knowledgeable about the topic of Oil. During the morning sessions, we would have lectures. In the afternoon sessions, teachers would do workshops on how to implement the topic of oil and materials in the classroom. I also met some wonderful teachers from all over New England. The end of every day, I walked out feeling intellectually exhausted. Of course the best part was leaving with some wonderful resources to use in my classroom.

I had an inspiration during the workshop: I would like to propose to my transitional team that we do something around the topic of oil for 4th quarter this year. Our theme for 4th quarter is service. I thought that each content teacher could do the following: 1) History teacher - go over the role of Oil since 1900 in the world (History background), 2) English teacher - read current event articles about Oil and design informational posters about the pros and cons of oil usage in the United States and World to be hung up all over the building, 3) Science teacher - research the science about Oil, do a energy efficiency inventory of our high school, 4) Math teacher - research stats on oil usage, make charts and record the information they are learning. I also was thinking that the kids could have public service announcements read at the end of the day during announcements about various stats and trivia questions about the use of Oil. We could even have the students go to other schools in the district to educate the younger kids and even the community. The whole point of this project would be to educate students (both in our classes and around the district) and the community about energy efficiency and how we need to do something NOW to stop our addiction to Oil. Obviously, I'm just thinking and planning at the top of my head. My team was looking to do something for service learning and this topic might be a great way to tie all of our disciplines together and do a great thing for the environment at the same time.

Volleyball starts on Thursday so the life of M-Dawg gets turned upside down and crazy busy again. We will have double sessions (8:30-11:00 and 2:30-4:30) so in between practices, I will start getting my classroom ready. I've already been to Wal-Mart and Staples to load up on supplies. Going to be heading to my favorite teacher store on Monday to get some curriculum books and materials.

I don't go back until September 8th for a professional day and the students arrive on the 9th for their 1st full day of school (we end our school year the end of June). Some of you teacher folks are already in school. :=)

Wishing everyone a wonderful, productive, and drama free school year!! :=)

Busy trying to finish up the work for my Summer Institute and other "stuff" . . .

I know it's been a while since I've posted. Believe it or not, I guess I can remain busy even when I'm not at school. :+)

I was accepted into a Summer Institute through the Using Essex History grant. For followers of this blog, this is the same Institute that I did last summer. It's a wonderful professional development opportunity. When completed, I will get a $1,000 stipend, three graduate credits, 45 PDP's, and the textbooks for free.

Prior to the Institute, I had to read three books and a huge packet of readings. During the week of the seminar, each day you turn in work. I had to complete one book review paper and three "note papers" on the books. I completed all this work a few days prior to the start of the Seminar. I knew that everyday when I would come home that my brain would be fried! :=)

To finish up the Institute, I have to write a 10 page thematic essay and a five day lesson plan on the topics discussed during the Institute. This work is due on August 1st. I need to get the work completed earlier since my sister is coming out for a long weekend visit. The good news is that I email all my work to my professor.

And, I was accepted into a five day workshop at Harvard on Oil and the Contemporary World in August so I have work to do for that workshop as well.

So, this is what I've been working on since I got out of school.

On top of it, I've also been preparing and getting ready for the next school year. Sometimes I laugh when people tell me how great it is to be teacher since we "have our summers off." Yeah, right. Not this teacher.

This is what I've been working on for next school year:
1) I'm part of a transitional program in the Freshman House so the English teacher and I are working on doing interdisciplinary units with various themes. One unit we are working on is related to the Holocaust and the graphic novels Maus I and Maus II. I wrote a grant that enabled us to purchase the books for the students.
2) Since I'm on the transitional team, our team wants to incorporate a new grading policy called Success Orientated Classroom. Basically students will contract for their grade. It's a new way of thinking and planning so there is a lot to learn. Our team wants to be consistent with our students regarding grades and discipline as well.
3) There are three World History teachers in the Freshman House. We've made an executive decision to start our curriculum at the Renaissance this year. We can't continue to barely make it to World War II by the end of the school year. We need to get to the present day as much as possible. Since our state doesn't test on World History knowledge (I guess US History is more important), we can pretty much do what we want to some degree.
4) I'm always working on expanding and improving the local history class curriculum (which is where the Summer Institute comes in). The Summer Institute incorporates primary documents into local history so it's a win-win situation. I've also been working on "tweaking" the Honors credit option contract for next year. I felt that the Honors credit this school year so TOO easy for the kids.
5) One of my goals is to have most of the 1st quarter planned out by the end of August. We don't go back to school until September 8th.
6) I'm working on trying to get AP European History approved at my school for next school year. So, I need to submit a curriculum for approval. What does this mean? That hopefully my school will not only approve it but will pay for me next summer to get trained!

Why do I need to get all this stuff done? Volleyball season officially starts on August 27th so I need to have all my ducks in a row to be organized for the new school year. I hate being unorganized for a new school year. :=)

I have allowed myself some down time as well. I've been watching a lot of movies thanks to Netflix. I'm currently watching The Tudors - season 2. Highly recommend it!

So, that has been my summer thus far. Luckily the weather here hasn't been that great so it's allowed me to be more productive than in past summers. When it's raining outside, I get more work done.

How's your summer????

Higgins Armory in Worcester, MA

I had a few visitors staying with me the beginning of June. So, one day we were looking for a place to go (the weather was rainy and cold so that limited our activities).

I had always wanted to visit the Higgins Armory in Worcester, MA. So, off we went!

We had a lovely visit! The Armory contains one of the largest collections of armor in North America! There are 5,000 objects to view from various time periods (Ancient Greek to Medieval and the Renaissance). The Museum has a rare Roman gladiator's helmet and a great exhibit on the development of hunting weapons. They even had a chastity belt! I would highly recommend this museum. They had a great introduction video that included the history of the founder of the Museum, John Woodman Higgins and how he established the Museum. The exhibits are fascinating . . .from the weapons to the actual armor for men (and a few for women) and even horses.

The museum is VERY kid friendly! They had a room with interactive stuff like trying on helmets and clothing (see photos below) and even a massive chess set on the floor to play with. On Saturdays, they even have demonstrations like jousting.

Here are a few pictures that I took of the visit.

Look . . . it's my knight and shining armor! :=)

I'm wearing a medieval helmet!

Trying to be a princess!

If you are in the Worcester area, check it out.

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing everyone a happy 4th of July!

Enjoy your cookouts but remember the real reason why we celebrate this day.

Read here. Here. And, if you want to check out this event in person . . . go for it!