Long Week . . . . . already!

It's only Wednesday and it already feels sooooo long!

That first week back from a break is always a toughie - why? Because not only are you still in vacation mode but so is the student population that you work with is in that same mode.

Situations that have already "popped up" this week: (Negative stuff first)
*A student cuts my class after I had seen AND talked to him earlier in the day. I also want to point out that his girlfriend GUARANTEED that she would make sure "her boy" would show up for my class on that day.
*Two of my Honor students decided to cut my class. One of the students has a parent that works in my building. I spoke to her today about her son cutting my class and her response was, "How would you handle him?" The other student has a psychotic mother and I'm deathly afraid to call her to let her know that her daughter cut my class.
*Two parent meetings this week - first meeting was good. Second meeting, bad! Their child is failing all of his classes (including his electives) and the parents are blaming us (his Freshman team).
*My school has this tendency to start professional development workshops and then not finish them. First point - the infamous ELL training. The district pulls us out for four classes for this workshop and then decides to pull it and stops it. Reason given: scheduling conflict with the instructors. We are encouraged to meet for three hours once a month after school to finish the training until the end of the school year. Oh, I need to point out that I've already completed the hours for ELL and the district still made me take the workshop. Second point - I signed up for a Co-teaching Workshop back in October. We are supposed to meet every other month. The instructor has met with us once and has cancelled all the other meetings.
*I was chosen to participate in a seminar in Boston through the Bill of Rights Institute. It's free and they give us free curriculum. I emailed my Principal to get permission to attend and I have yet to hear back from him. Cost to him: the cost of a substitute teacher.

Positive Stuff:
*I have a student that has severe dyslexia. He really struggles and it's so upsetting to watch this kid. He NEVER reads aloud in class. It's a huge drama. One on one, he'll read with me. Why? He tells me that I don't make him feel like a dummy. Get this - we were doing popcorn reading (kids read a paragraph of a handout out loud and then they pick someone else in the class to read where they left off). Someone picks this student to read. He gets very upset and refuses. I say fine and let's move on. A few more kids read and this kid gets asked to read aloud again. This time, he READS! He struggled but HE DID IT!!!!!!!! I almost cried because I knew what a huge deal this was for him. He stayed after school with me and we had a nice chat about what happened and I told him how proud I was of him. We did discuss his reaction to the situation and how can he work on his feelings of anger too. He's the bravest 15 year old I know! :-)
*Chosen to participate in the seminar.
*Great colleagues on my freshman team that support me and the kids.

The moral of this post - take what you can get in the game of teaching! You will have good and bad days. Sometimes, it feels like I have more bad than good days. I give 110% of myself to my students and the profession. I need to stop taking it all so personally and seriously. However, I know that this is the way that I am and I won't change that. As much as it is a negative character trait, it's also a positive.

"Effective teaching may be the hardest job there is."
William Glasser

Last day of Feb break

A Quote from the film Billy Madison:

Billy Madison: "Back to school! Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool! I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight! Ohhhh, back to school! Back to school! Back to school! Well, here goes nothing!"

It's back to school for me on Monday. It's been a relaxing break.

We might get a snow storm tomorrow so who knows if we will have a delay or day off.

Am I bad for saying that I would like another day off?????

Winding down my Feb break

It has been a very good week. I'm relaxed. I'm content. I was incredibly productive. Life is good.

I work at Paws today, Saturday, and Sunday. I hope to see my favorite puppies! :-)

Tonight, I'm meeting Janet and Lauren at the Cheesecake Factory for a belated b-day dinner at the Burlington Mall. I enjoy spending time my girl pals! :-)

Got my federal tax and state refund checks (gotta love direct deposit!) this week. Added bonus!

Not much to complain about . . . until next week! :-)

Have a good weekend all!

Happy Birthday Susie!

A very Happy Birthday to my college friend, Susie! This picture was taken on my 21st birthday at Western Illinois University. What a great time we had that night!

This picture was taken on the day of Susie and Wayne's wedding. I was one of her bridesmaids. Again, another fun time!

Susie - thanks for the good times. Thanks for the friendship! My wish for you is much happiness this year. . . . enjoy those handsome boys in your life.

Hugs and love! :-)

PS Sorry about the old pictures - I don't have any recent pictures of you and I.

Plugging along during my Feb break . . . . .

The week has been pretty good so far. Productive yet relaxing.

On Saturday, I worked at Paws. It was sorta busy in the sense of high maintenance customers. Lots of hand holding. I usually don't mind but some customers are more high maintenance than others and it can be a little frustrating.

Saturday night, I met Carla in downtown Portsmouth for a belated b-day dinner here. Very yummy! Afterwards, we went here for drinks and dessert. Again, yummy! I've never had a bad meal at any of the restaurants in Portsmouth! Amazing food! Thanks Carla for a nice evening of great food and company! And, I loved my b-day gifts too! :-)

Sunday, I totally vegged out on the couch and watched videos. I have Netflix and I'm working my way through The Golden Girls series. I used to LOVE that show!

Monday, I went to my old school to visit. It's been a while since I've been back. It was so nice to see all my former colleagues. I had a select few that I really wanted to see and visit. NH has their Feb break next week so I figured that this would be a nice time to go. Somethings never change in that school. The "old boys network/club" is still hot and heavy.

Today, I have to run a few errands and then I have some work to do around the condo. Mostly organization and cleaning type of stuff. I find during the school year that certain things don't get done or are pushed aside. I like to use my breaks to get that stuff completed. It's not stressful type of stuff just things that tend to get pushed aside that at some point needs to get done.

Hope everyone has a nice day - :-)

Almost on Feb break!

As of today at 2:02 pm, I will be officially on Feb vacation!

I'm looking forward to some much needed time off. Of course, I do have a list of stuff that must get done over the break. And, I picked up some extra hours at Paws. Some quality time with friends is scheduled too.

It's still a break from school and student drama!

I'll be checking in throughout the week - I'm here but not here. :-)

Ellie the Cat and I will be enjoying each other's company too! :-)

Have a great weekend all!

It's my Birthday!

I turned 36 today. I already got a ton of emails, phone calls, cards in the mail, etc. from family and friends.

I am so blessed to have such wonderful folks in my life. :-)

Yesterday, one of my students made me a birthday cake and we shared it with the class. It was very sweet!

I always have mixed feelings about my birthday. Since my birthday is on Valentine's Day, I've always felt like it was this jinx on my love life. Unfortunately, I've never had a great love life. As I am getting older, I tend to focus on what I don't have in my life (Ex: husband and children). If these things are meant to happen to me, it will happen. I feel my "clock" ticking because I really want to have children some day. It's an ongoing struggle in my life and I let it consume me and that's not the most healthy thing in the world.

I need to realize all the positive things in my life: a supportive and loving family, wonderful friends, a job that I love, Ellie the Cat, and most importantly, good health.

As my Mom would say, "Age is all in your mind and what you make of it." Mom, you are correct. I vow to try and work harder at being more positive and not let my age get me depressed or down.

Thank you everyone for your love and support on my extra special day!

Lots of hugs and love! :-)

Snow Dance Worked! :-)

It's 6:05 AM and I just got the call. No School!!!! Snow Day!

I get a day of sleeping in and relaxing!

And, it's my birthday. :-)

I'll post more later. I'm going back to bed! :-)

Happy B-day to Corey!

Corey is on the right. Jacob - the younger brother is on the left. My friend Cheryl (she's the Mom) sent this picture to me - it was taken on the first day of school.

Happy Birthday Kiddo! You are such an amazing young man! Enjoy your extra special day!

Lots of hugs and love! :-)

I'm doing the snow dance!

Crossing my fingers for a snow day on Wednesday - we are supposed to get a nasty storm starting tonight and lasting until Wednesday evening.

All of my teacher friends at my school are doing the snow dance!

I hope my school makes the call to cancel tonight verses in the morning. It's sorta nice to be able to get a good night rest and not toss and turn thinking you "might" get that phone call of no school due to snow the day of.

I really could use one day of nothing. One day of sleep. One day of vegging out.

It will suck to have to make up that snow day in June but it will be worth it.

Happy Birthday to Abe Lincoln!

Growing up in "The Land of Lincoln" (IL), Honest Abe's b-day was acknowledged as a state holiday. Unfortunately today, his b-day is lumped in with G. Washington and everyone know calls it President's Day.

Lincoln has always been a president that I've looked up to for his beliefs and character. He led our country during one of it's most difficult and trying times. I've always been fascinated with him as a person. I own and have read quite a few books about Mr. Lincoln.

We have been hearing some mentioning of Abe lately in the news. The connection: IL State Senator Barack Obama. As of Saturday, Obama announced his candidacy for president. You can read the article here.

To learn more about our 16th President, you can check out the following web sites:
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html
http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html

Update on parent meeting

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

The parent made up excuses for her child the entire 1 1/2 hour! The lawyer is trying to get me to excuse all the missing work the kid missed (even when the student cut my class). I stood firm and said no. All of this missing work is past the two weeks allowed to makeup work even with excused absences.

The best part of the meeting was this conversation with the mother afterwards:
*The mother admits to me that she wrote a paper for the student (Middle Ages Project back in December).
*The accommodation was instead of the student writing the required two pages for the paper, the student could write one page.
*1/2 page was turned into me - with no bibliography.
*The entire 1/2 page paper was plagiarized off of Wikipedia.com!
*Words were left bolded and underlined so I Googled the paper and sure enough, it pops up on Wikipedia!
*So, the mother plagiarized the paper for the student.
*The mother was insulted that I criticized the paper because the mother thought SHE did a great job on the paper!

How do I respond to that????? I was so horrified that I said nothing. And, the mother wants me to change the grade. I responded to her - NO!

Can it get any more horrific????????

Yup! The mother had another meeting that afternoon with the son and the son is a senior and won't be graduating because he doesn't have enough credits. The mother admits in the meeting that SHE will make sure her son does all of THEIR work in THEIR classes so THEY will graduate!!!!!

I swear this whole drama sounds like an episode from Jerry Springer!

It's going to be a longgggggg rest of the school year with this student - I can feel it!

Today is the day . . . . .

I have that parent meeting this morning regarding the problem student - see below post.

We shall see what happens . . . .

I'll keep ya posted!

Why am I repeating myself????

Had an incident today.

During Homeroom, one of my students came in listening to an IPod. School policy states that students are not to have any electronic devices (IPods, cell phones, PDA's etc.) in their possession. I'm not naive enough to know that most of these kids carry this stuff around but most teachers believe in the theory, "Out of sight, out of mind." I also believe in this theory. What I find so interesting about this particular student is that they have been a problem since the beginning of the school year. Discipline issues, not doing school work, failing all of their classes, attendance issues, etc. I have never once allowed any of my students to listen to their IPods during class. So, what makes this student think that they can get away with it today with me? I asked the student politely to put the IPod away and to not take it out for the rest of the day. I think they thought since it was homeroom that they could get away with listening to the IPod. Nope! Not on my watch! :-)

Well, guess what? I have this student later on in the day (last block) and what does the student do? Strolls into my classroom wearing the IPod! Meanwhile, one of the other teachers was in the process of following the student to confiscate the IPod. That teacher asks the student to hand over the IPod. The student refuses and walks away from the teacher. I ask the student to step out into the hallway. The student refuses. I ask again. Finally, the student steps out into the hallway to talk to the other teacher. The student told the teacher that she had no business taking the IPod away. The teacher pointed out the school policy in the student handbook. The teacher told the student to put the IPod away and that the teacher was giving the student "a gift" by not reporting the incident. My student sits down in their seat and begins to complain and rant and disrupting the rest of the class. I walk over to the student to calm them down and tell them to knock off the inappropriate comments. The student tells me to "go to hell!" I ask the student to leave my classroom and go sit in the Asst. Principal's office. They leave the room. The friend sitting next to the student starts up and I ask them if they want to go join the student that left. That student shuts their month.

All of the teachers and administrators have talked to the kids over and over again about the no IPod rule. This is not a new rule. This particular student always seems to think they are exempt from all the rules and I'm sick of it.

My team and I have a meeting on Thursday with this student and the parent. The student is on an IEP and the mother is claiming that we (the teachers) are not following the IEP. The parent has hired a lawyer to sit in on our meeting. The mother always makes up excuses for her kid. I sat in another meeting two months ago and the mother sat there and made up excuses of why thier child couldn't do anything. Trust me - her kid is perfectly capable of doing work. This kid chooses not to do the work. I have followed the IEP since the beginning of the year. No where in the IEP does it say that this student doesn't have to take notes, complete homework, or do projects. I refuse to do the work for this student. That is what the parent wants all the teachers to do - why? Because at the middle school, this is what they did for that student . . . did the work for them. The parent expects the high school to do the same thing - ain't happening sista'!

I've been documenting everything on this student - stuff like how they don't use class time to work on projects, if they bother to turn in assignments, they are usually late, cut my class, etc. I have tried over and over again to help this student and everytime I get a slap in my face. I'm done repeating myself for this student.

Let it snow!

Finally! We got some snow here in New England. It's actually very pretty!

For the most part, we've had a pretty dry winter. I'm really not complaining. I don't mind snow as long is it doesn't prevent me from driving.

I have to admit that I could use a snow day at school! :-)

Plans for the weekend are pretty calm. I worked today at Paws. I have cleaning and school work to do for the rest of the day. I'm supposed to meet with some friends on Sunday for lunch.

Saw Les Miserables at my school on Friday. The kids did a magnificent job! Very impressed with the talent at my school.

What are your plans for the weekend????

Finished correcting Midterm Exams . . . Finally!

I'm really disappointed in my students. Mainly my freshman.

They didn't study for their midterm exams. At all. Failed. Tanked. Either way you look at it, they did horribly.

I'm trying not to take it personal. One of the math teachers had 40 students fail for 2nd quarter. 40 students! Everyone I talked to on the freshman team told me they had huge numbers of failures for 2nd quarter. I had a total of 15 (which is down from my 23 from 1st quarter). Do you know how hard you have to work to fail my class? Pretty damn hard!

What are we doing wrong in education? I know I'm opening a huge can of worms here but I'm really frustrated and troubled by the fact that the majority of my students simply don't care about their education. Is it because of MCAS (the comprehensive test here in MA that doesn't allow students to graduate unless they pass this test)? Is it because we are expecting too much from them? Is it because of all the problems going on in the home/parents? Is it my teaching?

I'm jumping hoops to hook the kids in my classes. Interactive, hands-on, and group work. I do simulations, games, mock trials, etc. They are working on their writing and analysis skills since they need to know how to write in the real world. I try and make connections to them on everything we study in class.

I just don't know anymore. I love teaching history and I'm trying to keep a positive attitude but it's difficult when the majority of your students are not doing well in your class.

How do I teach them to care about their education????????