M-Dawg's Blog

Time flies . . .

2010-12-29T17:31:00.004-05:00

Hello All. Don't know who is even still reading this blog.

The past year has been a challenge personally and professionally.

Maybe because I'm turning 40 in Feb or maybe I'm just starting to realize that I need to stop sweating the small stuff. . . . life is too short.

For twelve years, my life has been education. Teaching. My students. I never put my needs before my students or even colleagues. As I approach the big 40 and being alone, I realized that as much as I love my job and love my students, I need to put myself first. I just don't know how to be the educator and personal human being that I need to be in my life.

My primary goal for 2011 is to start putting myself first and work on ME as a human. To be happy. Sounds so simple. But it's not simple. At least for me.

Stay tuned . . . . . . .

Goodness . . . is everyone else busy too???

2010-12-04T10:59:00.004-05:00

It's been forever since I've blogged on here. Sorry. School has been VERY busy this year. Between volleyball, NEASC, Harvard Model Congress, and teaching the new AP course, I've been running around my building all day (and sometimes night) long. :-(

Updates:

* AP Euro is going well. A lot more work than what I thought but it's been good. I've been told that the first year is always tough to teach. Sources on the Internet have been a god-send. It's been nice to teach the upper-level student as well.

*Finished up my JV volleyball season 9-11. Last season we only had two wins so to go from 2 wins to 9 wins is a HUGE improvement! I'm so proud of my girls! :=) It probably helped that I coached Junior Olympic volleyball last winter (I will be doing it again starting on Dec 5th - every Sunday between now and the beginning of May).

*NEASC (accreditation for my school) has been very dramatic and A LOT of work! I am a co-chair of the curriculum strand. The visitation committee arrives in April so I will be happy when this process is over.

*Harvard Model Congress has been keeping me busy too. Added a few more fundraisers and a lot of the kids are not using the fundraising to their advantage. It sucks but I don't want to hear it when their parents have to pay the full $450 for the conference when I've offered numerous opportunities for their kids to fund raise to bring that cost down. The students that have taken advantage of the fundraising have made out like bandits. A few of them will only have to pay $100 for a $450 trip (which is a huge savings!).

*I'm also a mentor to a new teacher in our dept. It's been interesting to say the least. :=)

Good news:

*I will going to Poland over April break. The local university and Holocaust Center are doing a trip to Poland for teachers with the focus to be on the Holocaust. I am so excited about this opportunity! I also convinced three of my colleagues at my school to go on the trip. There will be three Saturday classes prior to the trip to learn about the history of what we will be seeing when we are over there. We will be going to Warsaw, Kielce, Aushcwitz, and Krakow (the heart of the Holocaust). In grad school, my research was the Holocaust namely Auschwitz so I'm very excited to be going on this trip. My students are even excited for me and told me to take a million pictures! :=) And, I'm Polish so I get to go visit my homeland! :=)

*I will be getting a student teacher for the spring semester. It's a first so I'm excited about it. It's something that I haven't really felt like I'm ready to do in my career but after 12 years of teaching, maybe it's time? The student teacher did a lot of observation hours with me the past year so he really likes my teaching style and really pushed to do his student teaching with me. Nothing like a little boost to the self-esteem!

*My sister flew out for Thanksgiving this year. Thought we would start a new tradition. We had a lovely visit. Took her to a Bruins game (a first for both of us). Ate lots of yummy seafood.

*Will be going to Phoenix, AZ again for Christmas to be with my family. Hoping it will be warmer than last Christmas.

So, what is new with you? :=)

1st drama for AP Euro History class . . . don't ya just LOVE drama???

2010-09-04T12:13:00.003-04:00

Here's the scoop.

Last April after my new AP Euro History course was FINALLY approved by the school committee, I was asked to submit my request for new AP textbooks and whatever materials I needed to start up the course. So I completed the task by the first week in May. I submitted the paperwork into my head teacher who writes up a PO to the Principal who then submitted the PO to Asst. Super's office. Asst. Super's office signs off on the PO which then gets sent to the Business Office at City Hall. By the end of May, the PO is sent to the Business Office at City Hall. Are you all still with me? Good.

Fast forward to last week. I get a phone call from my head teacher. There has been a problem with the new textbooks. I ask what's the problem. He tells me that the PO for the new textbooks has been SITTING on somebodies desk at City Hall since the end of May so the order was never processed to the Publishing Company!!!!!!!! Lovely. The PO was sitting on a desk since the end of May over at City Hall????? Seriously people. What the $%*&#@?

Last week, my head teacher called the Publishing Company and asked where were the textbooks? Publishing company said they never received the PO. So, my head teacher makes a million phone calls to track down the PO. He discovers the PO is STILL at City Hall. The person at City Hall doesn't even apologize for it. No sorry I messed up. No oops . . . I just caused a major problem for your teachers. He signs off on the PO and faxes the PO to my head teacher and tells my head teacher to put the order into the Publishing Company!!! Like the business dept guy can't fax it himself? The info for the Publishing Company was on the PO so the guy could have faxed it himself.

And, it wasn't just my textbooks. The AP US History teacher isn't getting his new textbooks either. At least he can use his old textbooks. Since my course is brand spanking new, I have no old textbooks to rely on.

Sometimes . . . I hate people. Or should I just say I hate the city that I teach in bureaucracy :-(

So I have some options since I won't get my textbooks on time. Luckily I have one copy of the textbook already so I guess I get to waste tax payer money by photocopying the chapters until the textbooks arrive. I've already planned on giving my students a reading assignment in the textbook the first week of school. Since I'm planned all the way until November, I need to stay on my time schedule. Or I can just not give them any readings. I like my first option better. :=)

If there is an easy way or hard way (usually the least productive as well) to do things in my school system, they choose the hard way. Everything in the system is done this way. I just don't get it. I don't know if it's because it's a City. I don't know if it's because we hire incompetent people. I just don't get it. It's VERY frustrating. I don't want to waste paper and ink by photocopying materials. I'm very big on doing my job productively and efficiently.

On a more positive note: I am enjoying my last long weekend of freedom until school starts up on Tuesday. Teachers have professional days on Tuesday and Wednesday. Students arrive on Thursday.

Stay tuned for more drama . . . .

Knee deep in the land of planning for AP Euro History . . .

2010-08-18T16:21:00.003-04:00

So. The AP Institute training went well. I learned a lot. The instructor hooked us up with a ton of materials for setting up a new AP course such as PowerPoints, activities, DBQ's, etc. This is all good, right?

I've spent the last few days weeding out what I want to use or at least try out with my students. Also spent the past few days planning out the curriculum. I'm all planned up to November. Now, I can see some problems with my planning this far ahead. I'm hoping I'm not setting myself up for failure. I figure the more planning that I have for this new course, the better prepared I will be for my students. Also, since I coach JV volleyball until the beginning of November, I want to make sure I have my ducks in a row for the next few months. Coaching takes up a lot of "free" time. Yes, I get paid a small stipend for coaching but it's still time taken away from planning and working on AP stuff.

I'm glad that I teach History. At least I can plan chronologically. I know where I need to start and end regarding curriculum.

I'm still a little stressed about teaching this new course but I feel that if I at least prepare myself, I will be better off getting everything that needs to be taught. Most of the students will know how to write a DBQ since they've come from AP US History (APUSH). I do have a few students that are making the jump from College Prep to AP (which is sorta scary).

Calculated that I have 72 days to teach all the content for AP Euro History before the exam. I lose 16 hours because of early release days and assemblies (this only includes already PLANNED assemblies).

Ughy.

On a positive note:

There are also some great resources on the Internet for AP Euro History.

Ms. Pojer's Course web site from Horace Greeley HS in New York

Mr. Oberacker's Course web site from Los Amigos HS in California

Any AP teachers out there that have some words of advice or wisdom for a "newbie"??? :=)

Survived AP boot camp :=)

2010-08-07T11:49:00.003-04:00

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the AP Institute training at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont. It was intense! A lot of reading and processing. But, they also kept you busy with fun activities after classes such as hikes in the mountains, kayaking, tours of local wineries, etc. And the food . . . OH MY GOODNESS!!! Insanely good! They had a social hour every day before dinner and served free alcohol throughout the evening (whoever thought of an open bar for teachers was probably not a great idea!). :=)

The instructor rocked! Talk about a colleague that believes in sharing . . . he shared ALL of his Power Points, tests, quizzes, music, video clips, handouts, etc. We were given a 3 inch binder filled with materials plus a flash drive filled with stuff. He also passed out a pacing guide to help with the curriculum.

I also felt a little bit more confident in what I picked for the summer assignments. The reading I picked was a book that a lot of people use for AP Euro History. The instructor uses the same book. He also told me the map activity was good because it will take away from having to use class time to do a geography lesson. It was so difficult to come up with a summer assignment when I've never taught the course before. And, I was also told that the textbook I picked was a great choice as well. Yeah!!! I did something right. :-)

I'm feeling a little less stressed teaching this new course. Teaching AP students will be overwhelming but it will be a positive overwhelming. I'm a little concerned about the content and pacing but I'm sure the first year will be trial and error (at least this is what I'm telling myself). :-)

The fun part begins . . . I've started working on a calendar to work through the curriculum. Since we are on block scheduling (I will see my AP students every other day), I need to work through the pacing. As of the 1st day of school, I will have 72 days (84 minute block) to get the test taught before the AP exam in May.

I'm going to be using a new textbook for the 9th grade World History class. We are also starting a little bit later in the curriculum (we are going to start at the Enlightenment instead of the Middle Ages). The 8th grade teachers will be taking over the World History Part I curriculum this year so I won't have to teach two years of World History in one year anymore. Already started the process of going through the textbook materials and workbooks and figured out what I can use in the class.

This has been my excitement the past few weeks. I'm currently in Illinois visiting family and friends until the 13th of August. Once I get back to New England, I will have a week of "down time" but then volleyball starts up and the craziness of life begins again.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Some of my blog teacher friends that teach in other parts of the United States are already back in school. I'm thinking of ya's! :-)

Here is to an educational, fun, and exciting school year!!! :-)

AP Institute Training in Vermont

2010-07-24T09:52:00.002-04:00

Starting on Sunday, I will be attending a five day AP Institute Training at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont for my AP Euro History class. I have heard positive feedback from other teachers that have done the AP training in Vermont so I'm looking forward to a great experience.

I'm very excited about the training but also a little nervous too. As a student in high school, I never took an AP course. I wasn't even in Honors classes. I was that student that probably should've been in higher level courses but I never took high school serious enough to excel in my classes. Yes, I was a educators nightmare! :-)

Based on the intro letter that was sent by the instructor, it looks like there will be 16 teachers taking the training with me. We were even given a homework assignment: bring 16 copies of a teaching unit or teaching activity that we think would be useful with AP students. If we don't teach AP yet, we could bring an activity from our World History class. I photocopied an activity that I do with my freshman to introduce to them to Primary documents. It's a document based question (DBQ) about the causes of the French Revolution. Basically, I break the class into five groups and give each group a primary document to analyze. I give them a worksheet that helps them to analyze the document. I teach them APPARTS (The acronym APPARTS (Author, Place and Time, Prior Knowledge, Audience, Reason, The Main Idea, and Significance) provides prompts that assists students in gaining a fuller understanding of primary sources.). Each group then shares their document with the class. After Q & A, students individually will then respond to the DBQ using the documents and prior knowledge as support for their thesis.

We are also being asked to bring an extra flash drive with a lot of memory. The instructor will be sharing a lot of PowerPoints and helping us to start building our own AP program. Yeah! PowerPoints!!! :=) And, the instructor will be giving us free AP textbooks!!!

When I started this process a year ago of getting the AP course approved, I knew it would be a lot of reading, research, and work. Once the class goes "live" on September 9th (this is our 1st day of school), there is no turning back. I've never taught the "higher level" student before so professionally this is going to be a challenge. The students are excited - they've been emailing me over the summer with tons of questions about the summer assignments - so I hope that I make the class challenging, fun, yet an enriching experience for them.

I will try and post during the week (we will have access to WiFi) but I don't know how much downtime will be given to us. I've been told that the training is a lot of work and they keep you pretty busy with work and assignments.

I come home Friday evening, have the weekend to wash clothes and somewhat relax, and then I have to pack for IL (I leave on that Monday @ 6:00 am for Chicago). Visiting family and friends until August 13th.

So . . . let's go AP Euro History training!!!!!! :=)

Spring cleaning in July????

2010-07-12T10:02:00.004-04:00

Source of clip art:

http://www.picturesof.net/_images_300/Woman_Cleaning_Her_House_Royalty_Free_Clipart_Picture_090529-013874-489053.jpg

Over the weekend I decided to do a little cleaning of my curriculum binders. It amazed me of how much material I have accumulated over 11 years of teaching! You are constantly either "stealing" material from colleagues or sharing with colleagues so you tend to gain A LOT of worksheets, activities, or reading material on various topics of interest that MAY pertain to your unit on the Industrial Revolution or Imperialism. But, it gets to the point when a decision has to be made: to keep it or recycle it.

I have to admit that I am a pack rat by nature. I never throw anything away. Never. But, as I went through each binder, I realized that some of the material I've NEVER used nor will I EVER use it. So, out to the recycle bin!

I was also on the hunt for some material for my new AP European History class as well. Since I'm starting this program from the ground up, I figured that I could possibly use some stuff from my World History binders. I was able to find a few things that might work for AP level students.

Another thought: as I was looking through all the binders, I began to reflect and remember some of the activities I did with my students (I usually keep student samples with most activities I do in class so I have a lot of great student work) over the years. I remembered the positive lessons but also the negative lessons and questioned why the negative lessons didn't work. I have some wonderful memories of students having a lot of fun working on the Sistine Chapel activity or creating a modern day manor or going to war in the trenches (my stuffed animals represented the "dead" in No Man's Land).

I feel as educators we should have the time to reflect on what we did great and what we did not so great in the classroom. Unfortunately, we are not given that time during the school year. This school year was insanely busy with the transition program, freshman house dramas, NEASC accreditation, getting the new AP class approved, and just everyday craziness. How can we improve our teaching if we are not given that reflection time?

I still have more cleaning to do (I have A LOT of binders). :-) Plus, I need to go through my electronic stuff on my flash drive to see what is there that could be used.

But, I have to say that I feel cleaner and more organized to start out this new school year.

Happy late spring cleaning. :=)

Doing some SERIOUS reading this summer . . .

2010-06-30T09:05:00.003-04:00

I'd like to call this post: The Summer of Reading. Why? Because I'm reading a lot of AP European History materials. I'm also trying to get some "relaxing" reading thrown in as well. There wasn't much downtime this past school year for me to read for leisure and I missed it. Reading for me is the best feeling in the world. Relaxing. Serene. Peaceful.

A brand new spanking textbook for the AP Euro History Class (I'm talkin' a textbook with a copyright of 2011)! For History teacher geeks: You all know what I'm talking about . . . a new textbook is like Christmas! :-) I ended up choosing the Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, and Frank Turner text: The Western Heritage Since 1300. I've been spending the last few days reading through the textbook and getting familiar with it.

I'm also trying to read the book I gave out to students for the summer assignment: The World Lit Only by Fire (William Manchester). Manchester definitely portrays the Middle Ages in a realistic way: corruption of the Catholic Church and the violence of the survival of people (famous and everyday folks). I'll be curious to hear from my students if they enjoyed the book. If not, I may have to pick another book for next summer.

For a leisure read, I've been reading (and really enjoying) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I highly recommend this book! The movie starring Julia Roberts is coming out in August but I would recommend reading the book first.

What are you reading this summer?

Survival of the Fittest - gotta love the Darwin theory!

2010-06-27T21:01:00.003-04:00

The above title pretty much sums up my school year. What can I say? It's been stressful, emotional, scary, insane, unpredictable, and crazy all rolled into one school year. An emotional roller coaster ride is the best way to describe it.

Being apart of the transition program has pretty much burned me out. Working with 30 at risk 9th grade students had been anything but easy this year. There were some success. But mostly failure. I still can't believe that I survived this year and lived to tell the tale. :-)

It was decided that instead of placing all the at risk students in one class (and have them feed off of each other), they would be mixed again with the regular student population for next school year. In a sense, this program was a trial program. Everyone figured that this might be a way to educate these students. The major problem that we (the transition team) saw with these students was that there were no positive role models (behavior, good grades, etc) and the students basically didn't progress the way they should have in the classroom. For example, I spent the first three months teaching social and behavior skills (I was told my administration to not focus on curriculum) to these students. Add to it: the administration provided no support to the teachers. It was a program that was doomed to fail from the start. All four core education teachers (including myself) felt that we couldn't do this program on our own. We were given no training in dealing with this type of student population. So a few of these students will move on to 10th grade with hardly any skills they should've developed this past school year. I'm not saying that I didn't do some great stuff with these kids because I did. However, as a whole, the program was not a success.

Other news . . . this will be the last year that I teach the local history course. No one in my department wanted to teach it so they dumped the class on a colleague that really didn't want it or have the passion to teach it. I feel bad for the students because I've been building up that course and a lot of students sign up for it because I teach it. Plus, I had started doing some interdisciplinary field trips this past year. I can guarantee those field trips won't happen. I'm sadden that I won't be able to teach this course but I'm moving on to something bigger . . .

I will be teaching a new course - AP European History. The course is a 12th grade elective and I have 37 students signed up (enough for two sections). I'm very excited about it but also a little scared. I will now have to be held accountable and responsible for teaching to a test. It's time to be professionally challenged and I think this may be the course to allow me to become a stronger educator in the classroom. And, I've never taught the higher end students before. This will be a nice change.

So to go back to my original title of this post: only the strong survive. That would be MDawg the survivor (start singing the Destiny's Child song if you like)! :-)

ALMOST the end of the school year - can I do it?

2010-06-06T10:31:00.003-04:00

Yes. MDawg is still in school. We are in school until June 23rd (we had one snow day to make up). Ahhhh . . . the joy of living in New England and starting school after Labor Day. :=)

This school year has been one of the most exhausting and overwhelming to date. With all the Freshman House drama, transition program drama, and just plain every day kind of drama, I think everyone is ready for the year to end. I don't like wishing my life away but this school year really truly just needs to be officially O-V-E-R!

It probably doesn't help that it's been VERY hot and humid here. I have a classroom on the 3rd floor of our building (we call it the Penthouse) and it's an inside classroom (no windows) so there is supposed to be AC in the inside classrooms. The AC is broken so the classrooms have been reaching temps of 86-90 degrees. Even with my 2 fans strategically placed in room - it's not helping cool off the classroom. Even when it cools off outside the building, the heat stays trapped inside the building until at least October. Makes me feel real grateful after the school district spend millions and millions of dollars in a 3 year renovation project of the school and the AC doesn't work (the AC units are only two years old). Under warranty?????? Who knows since everything was done so cheap. Ugh. :-(

The class of 2010 is officially gone. Their first year was my first year at the high school. I was their class advisor freshman and sophomore years. I was invited to chaperon their Prom. They wanted their pictures taken with me. They invited me to all their Senior week activities: Six Flags (the roller coasters and I bonded), Improv Comedy Night, and the Senior Picnic. Graduation was on Friday. Again, a lot of pictures taken. There were a lot of tears and hugs and best wishes for the future. I will miss them but they are moving on to bigger and better things in the world. :=)

The big summer plans are quite simple: 1) Rest and relax, 2) do a lot of walking and exercising 3) get ready to teach AP European History in September (I have AP training in Vermont for a week), 4) Jury duty, and 5) Go to IL to visit family and friends.

I really need to recharge my creative battery this summer regarding my teaching. I think teaching in that Transition Program really messed me up creatively and professionally. The Program will not exist next school year (the administration FINALLY heard our cries of "it's not working") but these at-risk students will be mixed in again within the regular school population. I think if the administration provided our team with support and proper training to begin with it might have worked. But they didn't see the "bigger" picture with these kids and what the teachers had to work with in terms of social and behavior skills. No one else in the Freshman House wants (actually they all REFUSED) to teach those kids.

I'm looking forward to the AP training in July. I've heard wonderful things about the training but also it's a lot of work too. I've had to come up with a summer assignment for students that signed up for my course (which is hard to do since I've never taught the course or had the training yet) but I went online to see what other AP Euro teachers give their students for summer work and went by their requirements. But the way, I have enough students that signed up for TWO sections of AP Euro History! Not bad considering it's an elective course for 12th graders. Right now it looks like my schedule for next school year will consist of 3 sections of 9th grade World History and two sections of AP Euro History.

And, I'm looking forward to going to IL to see my family and friends. My parents are back in IL for the summer. They are staying at a campground near my sister. I haven't seen my family since Christmas out in Arizona. And, it's always great to see friends too. Thank goodness for email and Facebook! Both allow me to keep in touch with everyone. :=)

Volleyball season will start up the end of August and my life will go back to craziness once again.

For now, I just want to breath. Work on me physically and spiritually. And just smile. :=)

Updates: the life of a HS History teacher

2010-04-02T10:19:00.003-04:00

Let's see . . . . where to start with everything???

*The Holocaust unit with the transition students was a HUGE hit! They enjoyed the Maus books. The English teacher and I took the kids to hear survivors of the Holocaust and Sundanese genocide at a local synagogue. The kids asked some great questions and were so respectful. It was great!

*I had the students create a Museum of Tolerance for their final assessment for the Holocaust/Genocide unit. Overall, they did OK. They had to create a visual about one of the genocides that have occurred since the Holocaust (Cambodia, Rwanda, etc). The visual had to educate people about their genocide and to also make connections back to the Holocaust.

*The biology teacher on our team is doing a DNA project related to Holocaust survivors so the Holocaust unit has truly become interdisciplinary on every level.

*The behavior of MOST of the transition kids has improved. Some of the students have NOT improved at all. So, we are at the point of just removing them from our classes. It's at the point where the other kids now tell the misbehaving kids to knock it off. It's actually sorta cool to see the kids advocating for themselves.

*My AP European History course was FINALLY approved for next school year. After all the drama with the school committee, they approved it. I had to go into the meeting and defend it . . . can you imagine? I get trained over the summer. I'm excited and scared at the same time. Excited because of the professional challenge of teaching an AP course. Scared because what if I suck? :-)

*Because I will be teaching the AP course, I have to give up the local history course. There is a colleague in my department that wants to teach it so I will pass the torch to her. Our teaching styles are very similar so the kids will still gain the same experience.

*My school is in the middle of the accreditation process. I'm a co-chair of the curriculum committee. Of course the administration waited until the last minute to organize itself. I have some dingbat colleagues on my committee so it makes it hard to be productive. Our committee is supposed to be working with the HS curriculum coordinator during the process. We are really getting some insight of how she doesn't do her job. No one seems to know her job description as it is so the fact that she is in charge of curriculum and won't let our committee access it is ridiculous. For example, she is supposed to print out every single curriculum of every course taught in our building. In three different conservations, she made up three different excuses of why it wasn't printed out or deadlines of when she would print it out for us. We then asked if the curriculum was electronic and to either email it or put it in the shared folder on the server. She won't do it. I emailed her some curriculum I wrote last summer and she NEVER even opened the file (our school email has the ability to not only see when and if the person read the email but when they downloaded the attachment to that email). And, she is not familiar with any of the curriculum in the building. She's a former science teacher so she knows the science stuff. The district created this job for her three years ago since they were cutting dept heads. She makes $87,000 a year and no one knows what this woman does. . . ugh.

*Coaching Junior Olympic volleyball on Sundays. It's been a great experience. I'm learning a lot that will help out our vball program at my school next season.

*Since the new year, I've been trying to lose weight. Eating healthier. More exercise. So far it's working! I turn 40 next year and I would like to be healthy again regarding my weight.

So, there is so much going on right now at school and in my personal life (don't want to write about it on here).

Overall, things are good and busy.

Only a few more months until the summer break. We can do it teacher peeps!!! :=)

I've been a bad blogger :=)

2010-01-30T11:24:00.003-05:00

Goodness . . . where has the time gone? It's 2010 and I haven't posted once on this blog.

I went out to Arizona to be with my family over the Winter break. Mom and Dad are early retired and traveling around the country in a 5th wheel camper full-time. They are spending the winter in the Phoenix area and are LOVING it! :-) My sister and I flew out there to be with them for Christmas. We had a nice visit with them and seeing the sites around the Phoenix area. I also got to see some high school friends that settled out there and we had a mini-reunion one evening. :=)

The school year is VERY busy. I feel like I don't have time for anything anymore. The transition program is eating up whatever time I have in and out of the classroom. I'm somewhat ignoring my other classes because of the transition program. The behavior has improved tremendously in those classes (which is great for my mental health) but the emotional stuff these kids deal with on a daily basis is tough to deal with from a teacher side. I get too emotionally involved with these kids (I care too much). You may be saying that's a good thing but it can be a bad thing too. I take a lot of this emotion home with me at night. :=(

As mentioned above, I'm ignoring my other classes. I feel like I'm not doing a good job teaching my other classes. Luckily, the local history class sorta runs itself now. But my other World History courses including the Honors class, seem to be struggling. My midterm exam scores for the college prep class were bad. Only two out of 24 students passed the midterm exam. I gave them a study guide, reviewed with games prior to the exam day, and told them to study. I even went over ways to study for tests. When I asked them if any of them studied for the exam, only a few kids raised their hands. If they don't study and put the effort into the class, how are they going to pass for the year? I've tried to step up more the past week to put more energy and time into teaching better lessons.

The Freshman House teachers seem to be more divided and cliquey this year. We now have mostly young teachers (under the age of 30) in the house and there is a lot of immature behavior that happens during common planning meetings. I'm the oldest member in the House at 38 years old. I don't have the patience for the behavior anymore. Add to it, that some of the teachers are dating each other and bring their personal business to the meetings. I find it unprofessional and annoying. Those of us that are older find the behavior inappropriate. We are trying to figure out a way of confronting the behavior without having to go to the administration about it.

My school is starting up the accreditation process with NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges). I'm a co-chair for the curriculum committee. Didn't realize how much work running this committee entails. Wow! And, we have a few complainers and whiners that like to make it a "bitch session" every time we meet which is SO counter-productive. Luckily, my co-chair and I nip the behavior in the butt right away but it still makes for a stressful meeting.

I'm helping out with a Junior Olympic volleyball program on Sundays so this also takes up some time. I'm enjoying it and getting a lot out it in terms of learning new drills and tricks of how to break the game down to help the girls understand the game. The league is going to pay for me to get IMPACT trained too (it's a good thing to have on your resume).

Harvard Model Congress is coming up so I have to get the kids ready. My co-advisor isn't very helpful so it falls on me to do everything.

So, as you all can see (for those of you still reading this blog), it's been a very stressful and insanely busy time for me.

Positives:
*Transition kids LOVED the Holocaust unit! We are started a unit on Genocide in the 20th century. Kids are really getting into it. The final assessment will be with the students to create a Museum of Tolerance.
*The teachers on the transition team have been great! Very supportive! We all work together as a team. We've all been going through a lot together with this program but we've helped each other out and stood by each other the whole time.
*Looking forward to a Feb break with no HMC (this year, Harvard Model Congress is the week after Feb break so I will get an entire one off from school). :=)
*Hoping for my AP European History proposal to go through the School Committee on Wednesday (I have to present my proposal on Wed night). If I get the green light, I can sign up for AP training this summer. Yahoo!!!! :=)
*The Assistant Superintendent is finally forcing the Middle Schools to teach World History Part 1 in the 8th grade year so now we won't have to teach two years of World History in one year. I've been attending numerous meetings to help with the transition of this scope and sequence. The Middle School teachers want us to hand over all of our lessons, activities, and projects. I don't mind giving them some of our stuff but we had to take the time to create all of this work too. No one handed us all the work. I guess they are all "stressed" about having to teach new curriculum. Welcome to our world is all I have to say. I get so tired of the high school teachers being held accountable and responsible for teaching curriculum and not the middle school folks in my district. Why is that they get to teach whatever they want and we can't????? I'm thrilled that the district is finally holding them to a higher standard.

We are at the half way point of the school year. Hope all is well with all my teacher peeps out there! :=)

Interdisciplinary Unit on the Holocaust

2009-12-05T13:00:00.003-05:00

The English teacher and I started teaching the Holocaust unit to the transition students on Monday.

For the literature piece, students are reading the graphic novels Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman. I highly recommend these novels! Students that tend to not enjoy reading will usually read these novels. Spiegelman does an amazing job telling the story of his father ( a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz) and the struggling relationship between a father and a son.

There are so great teaching activities on these fantastic novels:
Maus in the Classroom
Random House Teaching Guide for Maus I
WebEnglish Teacher
ReadWriteThink Lesson

Teaching Activities on the Holocaust:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Education World: Teaching the Holocaust
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

Movies about the Holocaust:
The Pianist
Schindler's List
Life is Beautiful
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
And many more!

For the most part, most of the students are enjoying the books and the history that is being taught in this unit. They are asking a lot of questions and are VERY curious about this topic. The few that are not enjoying the unit are the kids that just don't buy into school anyway. Those kids have done nothing all school year and just don't want to be in school. The transition teachers have done everything possible to get the kids to buy into school. We've been working hard in working on the social and behavior issues with these kids. Most of the students are FINALLY "getting it" and behaving (almost) like high school students instead of elementary students.

We also have the adjustment counselor working with the students more during this unit since the topic can bring up some serious issues with this type of student population. So far, everyone seems to be doing OK with topic.

I know that we as educators can't save all of our students from dropping out of school or caring about their futures. It's just so frustrating at times that some students just don't seem to understand that education (at least their high school diploma) is their key to their future.

My final assessment for this unit will be for the students to create a Museum of Toleration based on what they learned from the Holocaust unit. They will look at the topic of genocide since 1945 and pick a topic, research it, and then present their findings in some visual way (poster, PowerPoint, collage, etc). We will have their projects on display either in the library or in the hallway. This is the plan anyway. I still have to work out the actual details of the assessment. The English teacher and I will be assessing the projects.

I will try and post throughout the unit how things are going and any concerns that begin to come up.

Happy belated Turkey Day!

2009-11-29T07:39:00.002-05:00

Hello All.

Don't know if anyone is bothering to read this blog anymore.

I have no time to post.

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful belated Thanksgiving. And, remember those folks that are serving overseas at this time that give up their lives for our freedom.

My cousin Danny and his wife was serving in Iraq and my friend Chad is serving in Afghanistan.

So, what am I grateful for in my life? These wonderful things in my life get me to stop and think of what I should be thankful for:
*Family. I'm so thankful for my mom, dad, and sister especially during this time of the year. We haven't been together for a Thanksgiving in years. Mom and Dad are in Arizona, my sister is in IL, and I'm here in New England. But, we always are with each other in our hearts. We've had a rough month of November (my aunt passed away suddenly a few weeks ago). I love my family with all my heart.
*Friends. I have a wonderful group of friends that adopt me for Thanksgiving. Thank you for being in my life.
*My job. I know there are some people out there that have lost their jobs and/or work in jobs that they don't enjoy. I can honestly say that most days I enjoy what I do for a living.
*The silly students in my life. Most days, they put a smile on my face. :=)
*Ellie the Cat. She's my baby girl and I love her!

What are you thankful for in your life?

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

2009-10-31T10:14:00.006-04:00

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 . . . .

2009-09-13T09:03:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-09-06T11:53:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-22T12:46:00.002-04:00

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" . . .

2009-07-26T12:31:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-07T10:18:00.007-04:00

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!

2009-07-04T09:14:00.003-04:00

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!

Make sure you recertify your teacher license(s)!

2009-06-29T10:25:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend, I was working on my recertification paperwork for NH (I taught for four years in the "Live free or die" state).

Even though I've been teaching for six plus years in another state, I always like to maintain my license in NH. You never know what may bring down the road regarding jobs. And, I worked very hard to get the license.

The fee is $130 for three years of certification in NH. Seems like a lot of money. But, luckily, I'm able to "double dip" for the PDP's for the state I currently teach in and NH. So, it's not really that bad.

In three years, I accumulated 136 hours in my content (History/Social Studies) and 100.5 hours in methodology, curriculum, and "other" areas. I technically have more hours for this past school year but my current school won't give us our hours (certificates) until the new school year. And, knowing my luck, I would get audited by the state of NH to show all my paperwork over the summer. NH only requires 30 hours in content and 45 hours in methodology, curriculum, etc.

Some tricks for keeping track of all those hours:
*My school gave us a binder for professional development. I keep all certificates and paperwork in that binder. After I attend a seminar or workshop, that certificate goes straight into that binder so I can keep track of everything. I also keep all paperwork in chronological order since the states like to have everything listed that way.
*I also created a spreadsheet in Excel years ago to keep track of my hours. I set up different categories (each state varies on their requirements in hours). Every time I attend a seminar, workshop, or receive a certificate, I enter all my info into the spreadsheet.
*I archive (spoken like a Historian) past certificates and certifications in a file cabinet at home. You never know what the state may require of us as professionals. For example, my current school requires ELL (English Language Learner) training. They were going to have me complete 50 hours of it last school year but I already completed the training at my previous school. All I had to do was show them the paperwork and certificate of completion and a transcript (I took it for grad credit too) and I was good to go! Trust me . . . you don't want to have to repeat stuff if you don't have to repeat it.

If anyone else has any tricks, please feel free to share in the comment section.

Summer vacation officially has started for MDawg!

2009-06-26T08:57:00.003-04:00

Hello All. It's been a VERY long school year. The Freshman, for the most part, didn't progress much this school year. Academically or emotionally. The failure rate was the highest it has ever been since before the Freshman House was established five years ago. I know that our stats will vary year by year based on what type of kids we get but it was a tough year. You know the movie, Ground Hound Day with Bill Murray? You know how he replays every day the same day? This is how it was for the Freshman this year. Every single day was the the first day of school. They just didn't "get it." They didn't get the academics, the social cues, the behavior, etc. I'm praying for a huge miracle of growth over the summer for those kids. Those 9th graders that are repeating 9th grade need a huge reality hit!

A few updates:
*Had a wonderful visit with my parents. I felt bad because the weather was not nice for their entire visit. I told them they need to come back in July instead of May. They spent a few days at this campground. It had full hook ups but was very pricey for them. They also stayed at Salisbury Beach at the campground which is right on the water. We took walks every day on the beach. Couldn't of asked for a better location. The only complaint was the campground didn't have sewage hookup for their camper. Dad cooked on the grill many times so I got my grill fix! And, Mom cooked all my favorite meals. We really had a lovely visit. I was sad to see them leave. They may come back out here next summer. Things are up in the air right now. They are currently back in IL staying near my sister for most of the summer. They plan on heading to Arizona for the winter.
*As far as I know, I'm coming back to my school next school year. There were some cuts at the end of the school year but it was mostly people that were not performing or doing their job. It's strange - my school doesn't give us a yearly contract (I signed a contract when I was first hired). And, they don't really come right out and say to you, "Congrats! You have profession status (tenure to everyone else in the education community)." Technically, I'm professionally statused the first day of school in my 4th year (Sept 8, 2009).
*I've been asked by my administrators to be part of a special transitional program within the Freshman House. The middle school has already red flagged 30 plus kids at risk next school year. So, my team (English, Science, Math, and myself the History person) will share these kids. Since I'm already part of the Freshman House and on a team already it seems to work somewhat. However, my transitional team will be doing a lot of experiments - such as interdisciplinary teaching. And, I will be trying to teach World History thematically instead of chronologically (this will be a new way of thinking for me). :=) I will try and update our progress throughout the school year.
*Will be coaching JV volleyball again in the fall. We had a meeting in the beginning of the month and had over 37 girls sign up to play next year (Varsity and JV). My JV's seem to think that since they played JV last year that they will automatically play on Varsity next year. They are SO wrong. The varsity coach needs to clarify that to them on the first day of tryouts. I told them to not assume anything but they don't believe me.

So, what are the big summer plans?
*Not working a second job! I'm going to have to budget like a crazy lady to do it but my mental health can't handle working a zillion hours this summer. I really need a break.
*I did apply for a five day grant seminar in July that will be paying me a $1000 stipend and three grad credits for free. However, there is a ton of reading and work so I will be busy.
*I also applied for another five day workshop at Harvard University about Oil and got in. That workshop is in August. I have to read a book and watch a video prior to the class.
*My sister and a friend of hers from work will be coming out here for a long weekend visit. I'm so excited! We are planning to do a night out in Boston and whatever else we can see and check out in the area.
*Working on curriculum for the transitional program. My team is getting paid for 10 hours of work.
*Planning on reorganizing my local History binder and curriculum. Needs to be updated and I need to come up with my Honors credit work. Students have the option of contracting for Honors credit and I did a half ass job this school year in trying to come up with work.
*Cleaning and reorganizing around the condo. There is always something to do around the house.
*May do a day trip or two around the area. I've never been to the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, MA so I would like to check it out. Also, I will be going down to Salem to take some photos to add to my Power Points for the local history class.

I will try and update throughout the summer of what I'm doing. I can't guarantee a post every day so keep checking back.

I did visit the Higgins Armory in Worcester the beginning of June so I took some crazy pictures that I need to get off of my camera. I will try and post those pictures over the weekend.

What are your plans for the summer?

Have a lot going on - will post after June 22nd.

2009-06-07T19:22:00.004-04:00

The end of the school year is always bitter sweet.

The end is near - we get out on June 22nd. But, I have way too much to do before I can even think about summer break.

Currently proofreading research papers, proofread research papers will turn into must correct papers (College Prep page requirement was 2-5 pages; Honors page requirement was 5-7 pages) - I have 90 9th graders doing this assignment, correcting WW I quizzes, final projects in my local history class, and trying to get the rest of the common final entered into Scantron for Final Exam week. Oh, and at some point, I will need to get grades calculated and entered into the school system for report cards.

Throw into this lovely equation that I have 2-3 days to teach World War II to my 9th graders. So, I'm coming up with a cliff note version PowerPoint of how to teach World War II in 2 days.

It's just too much.

And, we are going to have budget cuts. Still no news about who has a job for next school year.

Greetings from the depths of craziness . . . .

2009-05-16T09:10:00.010-04:00

I know . . . I know. It's been forever since I've blogged anything of particularly interest.

This time of the school year is overwhelming. Trying to teach the rest of the World History curriculum by June. State Testing that messes up teaching all that curriculum since it means that we have three hour delays and students that really don't want to be doing anything after taking a three hour exam every day. SPED meetings to make sure our students are where they need to be for next school year. End of year stuff like proms, senior week activities, getting final exams ready, correcting and grading, etc. Parents and guidance counselors that are NOW all of a sudden concerned that their kid will not be passing my ELECTIVE to graduate from high school even though I had called home, sent emails, commented on progress and report cards, and met with the parents months ago. They all seem to think the "let's just hand over my kid a high school diploma" fairy will magically give them their high school diploma. It just doesn't work that way in my class. The funny part: at my school, students only need three credits of History (World history - 9th grade, US History Part I - 10th grade, and US History Part II - 11th grade). The fact that they need an elective to graduate is a little insulting to me. The kid NEEDS to do work to pass. End of story.

And, I have something going on every weekend from now until the end of June for my personal life stuff on top of it.

My head is spinning just thinking about all the craziness. I just need to remind myself that I can make it to June 22nd and life will slow down.

Good news for my summer plans. I was accepted into a five-day summer institute on local history again (I did the institute last summer). I will receive a $1000 stipend, free books, 3 graduate credits, and 30 PDP's (for free). There is a ton of reading and prep involved before and after the institute but it is so worth it. I had put my name in for teaching summer school but decided that I needed a break from teaching. The pay isn't that great compared to the Institute. I also signed up for a week long workshop at Harvard University on the Impact of Oil around the World through an Historical perspective. Should be interesting.

I know that I said I would post some pictures from my trip to North Carolina over April break. I had an amazing time! We (my colleague and I) checked out almost all of the UNC universities and even a few private colleges. The schools there are much cheaper than they are up here in New England so I don't know what decision my colleague and her daughter will make regarding the big college decision. I didn't take any photos of the schools. I guess I was having a duh moment. All of the campuses were beautiful! All the pictures below are of the historical places we checked out on our "Thelma and Louise" road trip (minus driving the rental car off a cliff and no Brad Pitt). :-)

Knock yourselves out! :=)

Alamance Battleground - outside of Burlington, NC.

Presidents of North Carolina - statue in front of Capital building in Raleigh, NC.

Fort Raleigh - England's first New World settlements from 1584 to 1590.

Replica of Wright Brothers first airplane - Wright Brothers Memorial.

Memorial at Wright Brothers National Historic Site.

Made it to April break!

2009-04-19T09:09:00.004-04:00

Sorry that I've been so sporadic with my posts. Life at school has been very busy and overwhelming to the point that when I come home I don't want to even look at a computer.

Just a few updates:

*April break officially started on Friday. I don't have to go back to school until April 27th. This break couldn't have come at a better time.

*Finished the French Revolution unit with all my classes except the co-taught class. They are always behind due to the learning issues. Spent one day on Industrial Revolution. The plan is when I get back to complete imperialism, communism, nationalism, socialism, and capitalism in a few days. And, then on to World War I. I hate that we have no time to teach everything that needs to get taught in a proper way. I'm being told I need to get through World War II by the end of the school year (the end of June).

*Got invited to see a special viewing just for teachers at the New England Aquarium IMAX. Saw this. Amazing! If the film comes to your local IMAX, check it out.

*From now until the end of the school year, I won't be blogging as much. Once I'm out of school for the summer break, I will start writing more often with teaching ideas.

*I leave on Monday for North Carolina until Friday for a much needed vacation.

*On the 28th, I will be attending a workshop on the Conservative Right. Should be interesting. This workshop is a local history grant so they pay me $125 to attend the workshop. I've attended at least four of them this school year. The grant also pays for the substitute which is a nice feature. Plus, we are giving a ton of resources for our classroom - mostly primary documents that I can use in my local history course that I teach.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing April break. :=)

The Life of a High School Teacher in an Urban School . . . . . .

2009-04-10T08:32:00.004-04:00

It seems that the drama never ends at my school.

We've been dealing with all sorts of problems the last few weeks. I think partly because the bad economy impacts our kids (we have a high percentage of students that come from low socio-economic backgrounds) and partly because the few weeks before any school vacation our kids go into "crazy mode" - you see, we provide stability and safety for a lot of our students. When their usual schedule is disrupted in any way, they react to it by getting into a lot of fights or causing serious problems within the school community.

Example 1: Last week, there were three REALLY bad fights in the cafeteria. One of the fights involved one student using his keys to stab another student in the kidney (yes, the keys punctured the kidney). There was blood everywhere. :-(

Example 2: A freshman boy (one of my kids) is being accused of forcing a girl to perform oral sex on him by knife point (the incident didn't happen on school grounds but the school is involved). The boy is out of school for the rest of the school year pending the investigation.

Example 3: One of our students was beaten up by her 21 year old boyfriend in front of our school while holding their 1 year child while a lot of our students (and teachers) watched it (this happened in the morning while students were being dropped off at school so teachers and students were walking into the building and witnessed everything). The police were immediately called. The police were in the building on Thursday questioning everyone on what they saw.

Example 4: One of my freshman gals had a baby back in November (yes, if you do the math, she got pregnant in middle school). The father of the baby (17 years old) was just arrested for robbery (he tried to steal a safe from the local movie theatre and got caught).

Example 5: In one of my classes, at least half of the parents in that class are laid off from their jobs. I've noticed a significant difference in behavior like acting out, being disrespectful to me or other kids in the class, etc.

It's been a very tough few weeks having to deal with all of this AND try and teach these kids World History. All of these events are impacting the kids in some way. They bring it into the classroom every single day. And, as the adult, I try and provide a fun learning environment for the kids since they are dealing with all of this drama around them. I will admit that I do take a lot of this emotional stuff home with me since it is impacting me too. I worry about my students.

I am VERY grateful for the long weekend (we get Good Friday off from school). I will admit the past few weeks have been double stressful since 3rd quarter ended and I had to do grades. We have next week in school and then we get the following week off for April break. I have never been so excited to have a break in my life. I just hope that I (and the kids) can make it through the end of next week.

To end on a positive note: A colleague of mine asked me if I would go with her to North Carolina for April break (her daughter is looking at colleges down there and she wanted the adult company). I said yes! So, I think this will be a good break for me.

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! :=)

Very long week . . . . .

2009-03-28T11:06:00.004-04:00

This past week has been VERY long . . . . .

On Monday, I found out my cousin passed away. He had cancer.

On Tuesday, one of my students stole my ITouch off my computer desk. My Housemaster searched them but nothing came up. I feel violated and upset. I can no longer trust any of my students. In ten years of teaching, no student has EVER stolen from me. The kids are upset for me too since a lot of them know how much I sacrifice and give to them. On a positive note: kids can be "stupid thieves" - they will eventually talk and it will come out on who stole it. I will never see my ITouch again (kids usually steal them, delete the music, and then turn around and sell them to other students). I still have that Midwest too trusting thing going on and it officially was killed on Tuesday. :=(

Tried to end the week on a positive note: I chaperoned the Junior Prom. The kids looked wonderful. Sometimes, they can clean up good! :-) Us teacher folk had a fun time too. We kept requesting old school songs in the beginning of the evening. No one was dancing at first so we requested the Twist song and each of us grabbed a student from a different table to go out on the dance floor and dance. It worked! They started to dance at that point and we heard rap music for the rest of the evening.

So, this is why I've been a little more MIA than usual.

For those of you that sent me emails requested French Revolution materials, I did respond this past week. If ya didn't get the stuff from me, please let me know and I can use my school email account.

Just started Napoleon this week. Really trying to plug through all the curriculum that needs to get taught this year.

Grades for 3rd quarter close on Friday. I noticed in my grade book that a lot of my students are currently failing. Not good. This freshman class this year just doesn't seem to "get it" -

I am taking Monday off for a mental health day . . . . AND, U2 tickets are going on sale so I want to try and get tickets for the Sept 20th concert. :-)

Have a good week folks.

Plugging through the curriculum . . . and other random info

2009-03-15T12:10:00.005-04:00

Isn't this so true for so many of us teacher folk out there?

Still in the French Revolution. FYI: If anyone would like any more information about any of the activities that I do for the unit, please feel free to leave your email address in the comment section. I will send you (If I have the documents electronically) any materials that you may need or use for the French Revolution unit.

It seems like I will never get through all the curriculum that needs to get taught this school year. It doesn't help that my school lumped two years of World curriculum into ONE year! Goodness! And, it's a blessing (or is it?) that at least we are not state mandated tested for the graduation requirement.

My co-taught class is really behind compared to my other classes. Since we deal with attendance issues, learning disability issues, and behavior issues, it's quite amazing that I get any curriculum taught in this class at all. I currently have three kids in that class that are homeless right now (they are living in a shelter). So, learning about King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette is probably not a priority in their lives right now.

On a positive note: I attended some great professional development workshops the past few weeks on local history and primary documents. We received some great primary documents that I can incorporate into my local history class. So pumped! :-)

Still don't know anything about the potential cuts. There will be cuts; it's just a matter of how bad. Until the federal gov't figures things out, the state and local gov'ts can't figure out their budgets yet for next school year. Since this is my 3rd year, the administrators could get rid of me. If they go by seniority, I'm 5th in line. If they go by job performance, I should be good to go too (I've been told by my Principal and Asst. Principal that they don't want to lose me). So, the drama continues . . . . . .

My summer is up in the air right now. Don't know if I will be teaching summer school or going to Ghana for a travel study program. I applied for another travel grant (everything is paid for) to travel to Ghana for two weeks in July - the topic is the Transatlantic Slave Trade. I'm also going to apply for the same summer institute that I took last summer just in case too. I would get paid a $1000 stipend for the seminar (5 days of classes plus 3 grad credits).

Attended a Volleyball Coaches Clinic on Saturday & Daylight Savings Time

2009-03-08T09:52:00.002-04:00

Since I'm a member of our state volleyball coaches association, they had their annual coaches clinic at the Reebok International Headquarters on Saturday. Can I just say how nice it is to see how the other half lives? Their building was AMAZING! The facilities had a huge gym set up for volleyball and basketball, baseball fields, football field, soccer field, and a ton of work out rooms with all equipment that had cable TVs attached. Crazy! We were supposed to have access to the Reebok store and get a 50% discount on products but the employees didn't show up so no new clothes or shoes for me! I had my eye on a pair of $175 Reebok shoes so half of that price would've been a good deal. And, the store sells a lot of clothing that isn't being sold to the public yet so it would've been nice to purchase some stuff. Oh well. Maybe next year. :-)

The varsity coach and I drove down to attend the clinic and I have to say I was very impressed! The association brought in the head volleyball coach from Springfield College to do some sessions on setter training, training the middle hitters, and leadership training for high school athletes. He showed a ton of drills by using kids and coaches too. There was also the executive director from the American Volleyball Coaches Association to show us how to keep more accurate stats on our players. It was a very productive and useful day.

We also networked with some coaches from other schools and arranged for a few preseason scrimmages. And, we are in a new conference this year so we met some of the coaches from the new conference. Network, network, network! :-)

We were even given a free Reebok volleyball (they are worth around $40!).

I hope I can remember everything that I learned and implement stuff in August during pre-season. :-) The varsity coach and I talked a lot on the drive about how we want to make some changes to our program. Since next year will be the third year of the volleyball program at my school, we really want to step it up!

Hope everyone is having a restful weekend (don't forget to change your clocks - spring forward!). In case you want a quick history lesson on daylight savings time, check out this link here.

Busy week after Feb break

2009-02-28T09:44:00.003-05:00

What can I say? It's been a busy few weeks.

Feb break was good. Busy. Productive. Did some school work. Got my hair done. Did some cleaning around the condo. Visited my old school (their Feb break was the following week).

The last half of break (Thursday to Sunday): I was at Harvard Model Congress in Boston with 16 of my students. Oh. And 1400 students from all over the country including a school from the countries of Jordan and United Arab Emirates. Oh. Stayed at the Sheraton in Boston. I felt so bad for the maids and the rest of the hotel staff having to deal with us for those four days.

My kids did a great job! They were well-behaved (for the most part). It's always the other kids that I have to babysit. For example: who puts kids on one floor and the advisor on another floor? Didn't get much sleep.

On a positive note: one of my kids received an award. He was the chief foreign policy adviser to Obama. And, one of my kids was a ranking member of the Senate. So proud of them!

Had progress grades due this week so I was in a correcting frenzy! I always wait until the last minute to correct work. Bad teacher! :-)

This coming week is busy too. I'm out on Wednesday for a Professional Day - Using Essex History Seminar on the Cold War. Thursday after school are parent conferences. Thursday evening I'm at the National Archives for a teacher workshop. And Saturday I have a volleyball coaches clinic all day.

What is your inspiration?

2009-02-18T19:10:00.003-05:00

Who or what inspires you?

I have a few responses to this question.

1) My Mom inspires me as a woman every day. This woman is amazing! She's overcome breast cancer. She's a funny lady who sees the humor in life. She encourages both my sister and I to be who we want to be in life. She supports me now matter how much I mess up in my life. And, she inspires me to just be me and to love myself (which most days can be a difficult task).

2) My English and History teachers in High School. I had two amazing educators in my life in high school that believed in me and encouraged me to become a high school History teacher. My History teacher died ten years ago. But, my English teacher and I still email each other and keep in touch. Recently, he asked me if he could use me as a reference for a teaching position at a community college. How cool is that?

3) My students inspire me to become a better teacher every single day. They are the reason why I love what I do in my life. They encourage me to be creative and to be a life long learner and positive role model (hopefully!). :-)

4) My colleagues. I've been VERY blessed in all three school systems that I've worked in to have worked with incredible people. We support each other. We collaborate. We bitch and vent to each other. We share teaching ideas with each other. And, we have fun together.

What inspire you?

Having a great time teaching the French Revolution

2009-02-16T09:00:00.003-05:00

My freshman have been enjoying the French Revolution so far.

I've got them thinking of reasons why people would be willing to revolt. We did an activity on the political spectrum and the connection to the French Revolution. We've been discussing the causes of the French Revolution. And, I passed out a project . . . an ABC Book on the French Revolution. Normally I would do my children's picture book of the steps leading up to the storming of the Bastille project but decided to do something else.

What's up next? My class will "Storm the Bastille" - storm a neighboring classroom (with my colleagues prior permission of course!). A mock trial of King Louis XVI using my guillotine (I had a student at my previous school make me a real guillotine - the blade isn't sharp folks). The history of the guillotine video from the History Channel. Showing excerpts of the film, Marie Antoinette.

Anyone have any other teaching activities for the French Revolution?

Is 38 old?

2009-02-14T15:43:00.004-05:00

Apparently.

The word got around school that Feb 14th was my birthday. Joy.

So, my students were in class on Friday trying to guess how old I was.

They came up with unique answers. One student said I was 45 (he's failing the class - Ha!). One kid said I was 25! I told him he is getting an A for the class! (JK of course!) :=)

When I finally told them my age (38) they said I was really old but I don't look old.

I told them there are days when I feel old. Some days, I feel my age. I told them for the most part they keep me looking young.

Today, I went out to lunch with one of my friends. The plan is to just relax - no school work. I have some movies I checked out of the library this afternoon to watch this evening. Catching up reading blogs. Enjoying reading all the posts on my Facebook. Oh, and ignoring the fact that it is Valentine's Day.

I'm off this next week for Feb break so I may be posting more frequently.

Started the French Revolution this week!

2009-02-07T11:19:00.003-05:00

Can I just say how much I L-O-V-E teaching the French Revolution???????

I don't know what it is about this time period . . . the suffering of the middle class and poor (gee, sound familiar???) . . . the drama of a King and Queen . . . . the decapitation of a King and Queen . . . . the control freak that tries to conqueror the world (aka Napoleon).

I started the unit by asking the students to answer this question in their journals: "Is freedom really "free"? They wrote some great stuff. We talked about the definition of freedom and what does freedom mean to them. They also talked about how much freedom means to them and how they know that other people throughout history have risked their lives for their freedom. It was a great discussion.

I then played the Beatles song, Revolution. We talked about the lyrics of the song and what was the message in the song. I then asked the kids to define revolution. They were mixing up the difference between a revolution and war so I had to clarify the definition.

Then, I put them into groups and had them brainstorm and write out on big sheets of paper reasons why people revolt. Can I just say how great of a job my kids did on this activity! So smart! :-) We then discussed what each group wrote on their papers.

I had a quick PowerPoint on the Causes of the French Revolution. We discussed the Estate system. I did another activity where I asked for two volunteers to represent the 1st estate (clergy) and two volunteers for the 2nd estate (nobility). The rest of the class made up the 3rd estate (middle class/poor). I made signs for each estate and separated each group. I started to pass out pieces of Hershey's Miniature chocolates to only the 1st and 2nd estates. The 3rd estate was getting upset as I continued to talk up how unfair the estate system was in France and I passed out more and more chocolate to the 1st and 2nd estate. Finally I asked them what were they going to do about it and they yelled out, "Rebel and Revolt!" I think they got the general point of how unfair the estate was in France before the Revolution and a general idea of why there was a revolution. I will obviously build on from our discussions and activities for clarity and accuracy as we can continue the unit.

I then went back to the reasons why people revolt and asked them if any of the reasons listed on their sheets of paper related to what we just did and they replied yes. I asked how and they responded in various answers. I also brought them back to the journal question of freedom and they talked about how freedom is not free.

It always amazes me when my students "get it" and enjoy what we do in class. At the end of the class, I asked them what they learned and if they enjoyed the class. All of them blurted or yelled out YES!

Of course, a little bit of chocolate was probably helpful . . . . . . . :-)

Snow day in New England

2009-01-28T12:08:00.003-05:00

Received the call at 5:00 am that we had no school today due to the impending snow storm.

I'm sure it helped that I did the naked snow/must have a day off of school dance last night . . . . ha, ha, ha!!!! :-)

Not really much to report. Started the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution unit with my freshman last week. I'm looking forward to teaching the French Revolution (it's one of my favorite units to teach). My Honors will be starting a 3rd quarter research paper next week. Also have a new group of students for my local history class (it's an elective). I have 25 students in the class - mostly 11th and 12th graders. They seem to be a good group thus far.

So, what are my big plans for the snow day? Let's see . . . .

*Grocery shopping (I have NO food in the house).
*Catch up on reading blogs.
*Filing - the stack of papers in the to be filed pile is so high that Ellie the Cat can't see a thing over them.
*Periodically dig out car so plow guy can dig me out.
*Watch some movies.
*Probably should do some correcting but really just want to enjoy the day off. :-)

MLK Jr. Day and Barack Obama

2009-01-19T10:08:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow marks an historical event: the swearing in of the 1st African-American as President of the United States.

Barack Obama wouldn't be where he is today if it went not for individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other civil rights folks. The Civil Rights Movement worked hard - blood, sweat, and tears - for the rights of African-Americans in our nation.

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, we will be seeing the fruits of that labor with the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States.

In honor of MLK Day and the Inauguration, here are a few lesson plan/activities teachers can use in their classroom. I mixed it up with K-12 activities.

The city of Philadelphia provided this great site for their teachers (PDF files):

http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/curriculum/supports/08-09/Inaug.htm

Jointly Produced by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) (PDF Files)

http://www.pic2009.org/page/content/lessonplans

Education World does a nice job with some lessons on MLK.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson248.shtml

Teachable Moments web site is amazing; they have some great stuff on here.

http://www.teachablemoment.org/images/inauguration.pdf

Source of Picture:

http://benheine.deviantart.com/art/Obama-Luther-King-81753252

PS: My apologies for the messy appearance; blogger wasn't being nice to me. :-)

Happy 2009!

2009-01-10T09:56:00.003-05:00

Greetings and Happy New Year to all!

Just a few updates:

*Made it safe and sound to IL. Had a lovely time with my family. Stayed at my sister's new townhouse -it's gorgeous! My sister and I threw my parents a surprise retirement party and a great time was had by all that attended. My Mom, sister, and I shopped on one day at the outlets. Even spent an evening with some friends from high school. Overall, it was a nice break and felt awesome to just get away and relax.

*Mom, Dad, and Mia the Yorkie left IL on Jan 3rd for FL. They are taking their time getting down there with a stop in Alabama at a campground on the gulf coast. They are enjoying the warmer weather so far.

*Went back to school on Monday. We have midterm exams starting on Monday. 2nd quarter is shorter because of MCAS. My colleagues and I didn't get through all the World curriculum that needed to get taught for the midterm. We've been pushing our head teacher to talk to the Asst. Superintendent about changing the World curriculum (we teach two years worth of curriculum in one year due to the change in state testing). And, the state doesn't even test on World History - US History only. My dept (and I) are pushing that we eliminate the first part of World History (the kids are being taught this in the middle school anyway) and start with the Enlightenment and work our way to the present day.

*I'm debating on the direction of where this blog needs to go. It's time for a change. I've usually mixed it up with both. I either will keep it personal or keep it strictly professional. I'm leaning towards keeping it professional and talking only about teaching stuff. I'm feeling a bit burnt out after ten years of teaching and feel that maybe if I focus on positive teaching styles and activities and educational stuff that maybe I can get those creative juices flowing again. :-)

*The other main reason why I'm leaning towards keeping this blog professional is that I would like to keep the personal MDawg personal. I have a lot of issues (as does everyone else out there) and I find that I'm way too negative about my personal life.

So, I wish everyone a happy 2009!

Officially on Christmas break

2008-12-23T21:41:00.002-05:00

It's official. I am on Christmas break. No school until January 5th.

I leave for Chicago tomorrow to spend the break with my family and friends (weather pending - weather in New England is OK; it's Chicago that may be the problem). Just finished packing my suitcase. I can almost guarantee that I will get the fee for over 50 pounds in my luggage. Ugh.

Probably won't be blogging much over the break.

A very Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to all.

And, here is hoping that 2009 is a fabulous and happy new year . . . . . . . for everyone!

Snow day!

2008-12-19T16:12:00.003-05:00

My superintendent called off school for today. He actually made the call on Thursday. The weather reports are predicting at least 12-15 inches of snow here in New England for this first round of storms. We are supposed to get another storm on Sunday with an additional 12-15 inches of snow.

However, the snow didn't start until 3:00 today. So, maybe we should've had school today.

Don't get me wrong . . . I like a good snow day like any teacher or kid. Ha! :-)

It will suck in June when we have to make up this day.

I guess he was siding with caution since last year when we had a terrible winter storm, it took folks like me that live 45 minutes away from school over six hours to drive home. Even better, elementary kids were stuck on school buses for over 4 hours because my super claims that he can't issue an early release due to weather. Every school in the state did early release except for us that day. Parents called and emailed him for days complaining about how he handled the situation.

Don't get me wrong, you couldn't pay me enough to do his job. But, don't you need to think it out a little bit more and NOT overreact?????? Most of the teachers at my school were complaining because we have all this curriculum that needs to get taught before midterm exams so we are all panicking. And, because of MCAS in the spring, we lost two weeks 2nd quarter to get curriculum taught.

Oh, well. I got to sleep in and relax for the day. :-) I ran to the post office and bought some stamps so I can do my Christmas cards. Went to bank to deposit a check and get quarters to do laundry.

It's 4:15 pm and the storm is starting to get nasty. The wind is picking up and the snow is falling at a rate of about 2 inches an hour.

The joy of living in New England . . . . . .

Lots of excitement in the world of MDawg

2008-12-13T14:57:00.004-05:00

Let's see . . . . where do I start?

Busy week. Had a ton of meetings and lots of late nights at school this past week. School Council meeting, parent conferences, National Honor Society Induction Ceremony, etc.

The best part of my week: I come home after a long day at work to find the common hallway of my condo building flooded - with sewage and water. In front of my door. Ugh. A drain was clogged and a plumber had to be called in to fix the problem.

Luckily, my unit only received minimal damage. And, the condo association needs to pay for the clean up and fix the pipes. They had to tear up the carpeting in the main hallway. And, I had to stay in a hotel one night (the association is paying for it). Ellie the Cat had to be moved out for a day too.

The smell has been lovely to say the least. :-(

The good news: had all my rugs professionally cleaned and I didn't have to pay for it. Bad news: won't know until the summer on a hot day how "clean" my place really will be . . . .

Oh, and I didn't miss any school because of this drama. I've been getting pulled out of classes for mandated training a lot this month so I really couldn't afford to lose a day of curriculum.

The joy of teaching to a test - thanks No Child Left Behind!

Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

2008-12-08T19:20:00.004-05:00

No . . . I didn't forget about Pearl Harbor Day.

"A day that will live in infamy." These words would be spoken by Franklin D. Roosevelt about the historical event that would bring the United States into World War II.

I always think about the men and women that died on that day. And, the men and women that would die in World War II for my freedom.

To hear FDR's speech, check out the link here (scan to the bottom of the page and click on the media that best suits your computer).

To read/learn more about Pearl Harbor, I would suggest the following resources:
*National Park Service (Attention teachers: they have some great oral histories to use in the classroom with your students - even an oral history from a Japanese pilot and his interpretation of the attack).
*National Geographic - They have a great interactive map of the event.
*ERIC - Remembering Pearl Harbor Lesson Plan - you can download the teaching document in a PDF file. Some decent teaching activities.
*Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence - Some great teaching resources from the Library of Congress and National Archives.

Remember Pearl Harbor . . . . .

Happy Birthday Cheryl!

2008-12-07T13:17:00.002-05:00

A picture of Cheryl and her family - 2002.

Happy B-day Cheryl! I've been friends with Cheryl since high school. We had some amazing times together over the years. She's an amazing Mom and person.

Enjoy your day kiddo! Lots of hugs! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T11:05:00.003-05:00

Good day all -

I just wanted to wish you and your families a lovely, restful, and blessed Thanksgiving. There is so much to be grateful for this year:
*A job - on most days - I enjoy, love, and appreciate.
*A family that loves and supports me - no matter what decisions I make.
*Friends that love and support me.
*Ellie the Cat. :-)

Eat lots of turkey and enjoy the good company and conversations that go along with this fine day.

Crazy random thoughts by: MDawg

2008-11-22T09:09:00.006-05:00

*It's hard to believe that I've been blogging since November 2005. I enjoy blogging for many reasons but the best part is to just vent about life in general. I think we all go through those up and down spells in our life. A blog allows us to release those frustrations and good things in life through writing. So, happy blogiversary (if there is such a word) to MDawg! :-)

*Is there anyone else out there in the teaching world that is frustrated with all the state mandated testing and teaching to a test thing???? My school keeps putting more on us (curriculum) and it seems like we are just spinning our wheels. Ugh.

*I have a fab SPED co-teacher this year! She is amazing! She's so hands-on with the kids. And, the best part: for the first time in three years that I've been teaching at this school, my SPED kids all passed 1st quarter! I truly believe it's because they are finally getting all of their accommodations met by herself and me. We work together great!

*Had a rough start to the school year with this year's freshman but FINALLY . . . we might have worked all the bugs out of their system and the transition to high school is working. Yah! :-)

*Dad is officially retired as of Saturday. Mom will be retired on Wednesday. They both have worked so hard for their dream of traveling around the country in a camper. The house is sold. The car is sold. Most of their belongings are either sold, in storage, or given to my sister or I. Mom and Dad will move in with my sister over this next weekend (for the month of December). I fly out to Chicago on the 24th of December and will be out there until Jan 3rd. After the 3rd (Mom and Dad will drop me off at Midway Airport), Mom and Dad will take the camper out of storage and leave for FL. I'm excited for their new adventure!

*Shorten week at school: we are officially in Spirit Week. Monday is pajama day. Tuesday is dress as a class day. Wednesday is school spirit day with a pep rally and early release (we get out at 11:00 am). I'm soooo wearing PJ's tomorrow! :-) Oh, since I'm no longer a class advisor, I can now enjoy Spirit Week! :-)

*Spending Thanksgiving with friends and their families. I'm so blessed to have wonderful people in my life that adopt me over the holidays. :-)

Oh, list out one thing you are grateful for this year. (I'm grateful for my family and friends and the love and support they give me - and Ellie the Cat!) :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

2008-11-16T19:41:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Mom - you've been a fabulous Momma is me and Mandy. You always support us, love us, and accept us NO MATTER what we do or how we live our lives.

Hope you were able to enjoy your day -

Love ya lots!

PS Sorry about the old picture - I think we need some recent pictures! Maybe when I'm out in IL for Christmas we should take some photos. :-)

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

2008-11-15T12:21:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure to attend a showing of a documentary called Traces of the Trade at the House of Seven Gables. The documentary is about filmmaker Katrina Browne's discovery that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. From 1769 to 1820, the DeWolf family was involved in the slave trade (Interesting fact: In 1808, a law was passed prohibiting the importation of slaves and it wasn't until 1820 that participating in the slave trade was an act of piracy and punishable by death).

The film follows Browne and nine members of her family on a journey that retraces the steps of her ancestors and their involvement with the Triangle Trade. They start their journey in Bristol, Rhode Island, move on to slave forts in Ghana, and then onto Havana, Cuba to visit the ruins of a family plantation.

I found the film interesting since we have been taught to believe in our history that it was the Southern states that were the evil ones when it came to the topic of slavery. The film forces us to stop and think about our history and the damage that has been done to African-Americans and the involvement and the role of the Northerners during this time period.

After we viewed the film, we had a walking tour - compliments of the National Park Service - throughout Salem. As we walked through Salem, there was visual evidence of the role of historical "Salemites" and their involvement in the Triangle Trade. For example, the Derby family is a HUGE historical name in Salem. The Derby family made their wealth off of the slave trade. Again, makes you stop and think about our history and how we should be teaching it to our students.

This past week, I purchased this book. The book is about the unique story of Thomas Norman DeWolf's experiences during the making of the documentary feature film Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North. The book is a nice companion to go with the film. I highly recommend reading the book if you are interested in this topic.

One of the reasons why I enjoy History so much is that it makes you think and question our past. Attending this seminar last Saturday did just that - made me question and think about the involvement of North and South during the slave trade. The film also made me question what is the legacy of slavery and what history do we inherit as individuals and as citizens. Also, how does the Northern involvement make this topic much more complex? And, finally, the topic of reparations - should African-Americans receive some form of payment?

If there happens to be a screening of the film, please check it out. Also, check with PBS. They were showing the film throughout the summer.

Veteran's Day

2008-11-11T10:43:00.003-05:00

American Cemetery in Normandy, France. Personal Photo - July 2005.

This photo is what Veteran's Day is all about . . . men and women that gave up their lives for MY freedom.

Read more here and here about the history of Veteran's Day.

Don't forget to thank a Vet for what you have today!

Remember to get out there and VOTE on Tuesday!

2008-11-02T17:30:00.005-05:00

Hi folks!

Just want to do a quick reminder to those few of you that are still reading my blog. :-)

Please get out there and VOTE. It is so important to voice your opinion in this election. It has been a very long battle for the White House. Hopefully as of Tuesday, it will be all over. Educate yourself about all the candidates (I'm speaking of local elections and topics as well) and make an educated vote.

Spoken like a true History teacher . . . .

Etc, etc, etc. . . . . .

2008-10-26T16:19:00.002-04:00

It's been a productive yet insanely busy few weeks in the life of M-Dawg.

Where do I begin?

*Volleyball season officially ended on Friday with a rematch for varsity against our rival. We won! Life will settle down a bit for a while. No more riding on a school bus with 40 screaming teenage girls trying to sing the Barney song at the top of their lungs. Are you not just so jealous of me as you read this?

*Had a fund raiser for Harvard Model Congress on Saturday. A local business donates their parking lot to our school to charge tourists during the month of October that are visiting our lovely city. We made $880! All money raised will deter the costs of the conference over Feb break. It was a little chilly on Saturday - I sat outside 8-5 all day. I was so numb that I thought my fingers would break off.

*Still enjoying having my weekends off. I'm still doing stuff on the weekends - like proctoring SAT's or doing fund raising stuff for my groups that I advise but it's different. I'm not stressing out about it or getting annoyed which is a good thing.

*My former roommate from a few years ago is living with me until Jan 1st. She's looking for a place to live permanently. She sold her house to her son and daughter-in-law. Today, we went looking at places and I think she found a place that she likes and is reasonably priced.

*I signed up for a local history seminar on Wednesday that I'm excited about and they are paying $125! Bonus!

*The ecomony is soooo depressing . . . how's everyone holding up?

*Wish I had some news on the love front. If anyone has any suggestions on how to meet a nice guy, let me know.

OK, that's about it for updates. I somewhat have limited of computer access since my roommate is using the second bedroom (my computer is located in that room).

Here is Maddy!!!!

2008-10-13T11:05:00.002-04:00

This is Maddy!!!! My sister adopted her a few weeks ago. Maddy is half Yorkie and Havanese. Isn't my niece just the cutest thing you've ever seen?????????

Where do I begin with my crazy schedule and life?

2008-10-12T18:15:00.004-04:00

It's been a crazy few weeks at school and at home. Where do I begin?

*Volleyball season is almost over - I have two more games this week and my JV season will be over. Varsity will have to play in tournament so I'm expected to help out with varsity practices and games. It's been a wonderful yet exhausting experience. I will probably coach again next year (the varsity coach already told me he wants me back).

*It's been a weird school year thus far. The freshman this year are interesting - especially on my team. We have a lot of kids that can't read or write. Behavior is out of control (had one of my 14 year old boys' suspended out of school for carrying a huge bottle of vodka and bag of pot in his back pack). We have four students that "suck their thumbs" (they are 14 years old). Add to this that I was already formally evaluated, have had way too many meetings with parents, and administration is finally holding teachers accountable (I'm not knocking it but it creates for a more stressful working environment). Luckily, I'm a teacher that follows rules but I'm still afraid that I'm going to mess up.

*I now have a roommate in my condo. My former roommate sold her house to her oldest son and wife and needed a temporary place to live until she finds somewhere to live. The extra money will be nice but I didn't realize how small my place really is until you get another person in it.

*The economy has me (and everyone else in the world) all stressed out. I'm so afraid of looking at my 403B - I'm sure I lost a ton of money the past few weeks. Good thing I won't be needing my retirement money any time soon.

*Mom and Dad finally had the closing on their house last week. So they are officially living in the camper full time now. It just seems weird to me that they will be retired soon and traveling full time. This is their dream and I'm happy for them but I'm still having a tough time dealing with it.

*A lot of my friends at school are pregnant. Although I'm happy for them, makes me feel lonely and sad about my own relationship status. Sometimes, it still bothers me that I don't have a wonderful guy in my life. On a funny note: we think there may be something in the water at my school since everyone is getting pregnant. :-)

*Really miss my friends. I'm feeling isolated and lonely. It seems forever since I've chatted or seen a lot of them and I could really use a quality gal's night out soon.

*So far, I've been able to financially survive by not working on the weekends at the doggie store. I've been able to find other forms of income to help out. Proctoring SAT's and PSAT's, babysitting, and the coaching has been good. I was thinking maybe during the month of December working on Sundays only but I don't know if the owner would go for that or not. I'm concerned about having money for Christmas which is why I might work on Sundays. I've been looking for other jobs but there is not much out there since the economy is so bad.

My head spins just thinking about my schedule for the month of October!

2008-09-28T22:27:00.003-04:00

It's going to be a busy month. Volleyball, HMC stuff (Harvard Model Congress), and school stuff will keep me quite insane.

Progress grades are due this week (Wednesday). I have done NO correcting since the beginning of the school year. Ugh. And I have a volleyball game on Tuesday.

If you don't hear from me, it's because I'm officially changing my mailing address and sleeping at school. :-)

So, does anyone have any relaxation techniques they are willing to share with me? I may need something soon - the lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me.

Happy Birthday Lorie!

2008-09-24T05:20:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to wish my friend Lorie a very happy birthday today!

Lorie and I met at Western Illinois University and we lived in the dorms together. Our group used to call her Little Lorie (since I'm tall Lori and she was short Lorie).

We had some fun and amazing times in college. Too many memories to write down here but I will always remember how Lorie was (is) always a good friend to me.

Lorie has a great hubby and two kids (girls). She's been very blessed to have a great family.

Happy b-day kiddo! Lots of hugs!

I live for weekends! :-)

2008-09-20T09:48:00.003-04:00

I have to admit it's been nice having weekends off. No second job. Just relax. Enjoy time with friends. Enjoy time with Ellie the Cat. Enjoy time with me. :-)

Other news:

*My sister adopted a dog! A friend of hers had a friend who's boss just had a baby and they were having a tough time with the baby and the dog. The dog is two years old. It's a half Yorkie, half Havanese mix. She tells me Maddy is a cutie pie! My sis said she would email me a pic of her baby soon. My sister (like me) is a HUGE dog person so she's going to make a GREAT MOM! How cute is this: My sister Mandy now has a Maddy baby! :-)

*School is good but busy. My colleagues are amazing and so supportive (not that they were not supportive in past years). Being in the freshman house is such a great support for me. We all look out for each other. My school has a different feel this year - almost like we are a REAL school. It's a good thing since there have been a lot of issues that the school needed to work on regarding teachers, students, and administration. Here is hoping to a wonderful school year.

*Volleyball is good too. My girls are improving and getting better each day. Last night we had a match and actually played three games (we play best out of three at the JV level). They were SO excited that I can't begin to describe it. I'm proud of them. They are happy and so am I. :-)

*Lots of old friends are contacting me through my Facebook account. Especially my high school friends. I only started the Facebook account when my former students from my first school encouraged me to set up an account. It's been nice getting in touch again with old friends (even a few old boyfriends!) :-)

*Ellie the Cat is wearing her new Halloween collar and she looks boooeatiful! :-)

Plans for the weekend: Going to go yard sale shopping with my friend Aileen today and do some cleaning around the condo. Sunday: rest and relax. Do some school work. I'm behind in my correcting. Ugh.

What are your exciting plans for the weekend????

I know . . . . it's been a while since I've checked in.

2008-09-13T08:34:00.006-04:00

What can I say???? It's been a VERY busy few weeks between school and volleyball.

Life is good. Busy. It has been an exhausting few weeks getting back into the swing of things at school. The good news is that I no longer work on weekends so I can relax a bit. I still have tons of school work but at least I can sleep in on the weekends.

I have a normal teaching schedule again. No more 40 minute Preps (planning periods) on one day instead of the contractual 80 minutes per day like last year. The administration fixed all schedules so that the teachers have 80 minutes per day planning (at my school, we have block scheduling and by contract, we are supposed to have an 80 minute planning block every single day). I have A Block (first block of the day) as my planning block on red days and H Block (last block of the day) on white days. I'm teaching the same classes - World Studies (4 sections) and the local history class (one section per semester). We changed the curriculum a bit in World Studies so we hope to get further in the curriculum by the end of the school year. We cut five units out at the beginning of the year. We are now starting with the Middle Ages and hope to get to the end of the Cold War if not to the present day.

The freshman this year are VERY slow (academically and behaviorally) - even the Honors are not true Honor students. Reading and writing levels are terrible so we have our work cut out for us this year. My co-taught class is interesting . . . lots of behavior problems and serious learning disabilities. I have three students in that class that need a para (aka aide) with them plus there is a SPED teacher in the room with me. The good news about the co-teaching this year is that the social studies folks were given a new SPED co-teacher!!!!!! She's great!!!!!! VERY hands-on and from the looks of it, I think for the first time since my time at this school, my students will actually get their accommodations and the help they need to do well in the class!!! I'm so pumped that I can't contain my happiness! She's been working with the kids, helping me, and even doing discipline (remember my co-teacher from last year used to fall asleep in the back of the room and fart and did nothing but complain how horrible the kids were - in front of the kids).

I am having a tough time adjusting my time management during the school day. Since I'm coaching after school, I don't have all that time to get ready for the next day so I need to get better at being more productive during my Preps. It doesn't help that I spend my entire planning aka Prep at the one photocopier in the building that actually works trying to copy my stuff! We have five photocopiers for teacher use and only one has been working since the beginning of the school year. I need to point out that there are 160 teachers in my building and we all use the photocopiers. Ugh.

The building looks great! Most of the construction and renovations have been completed. The school looks like a real school! My classroom has a new LCD projector installed from the ceiling, new MAC computer, new teacher desk, new computer desk, new filing cabinet, and new student desks. On Thursday, my LCD decided to die on me so now I'm back to using my own LCD projector for my PowerPoints. I emailed the tech dept. about it so hopefully they can try and fix it. I think the projector might need to be sent back to the dealer to be fixed though. I tried to troubleshoot the problem online and the problem seems to be the cooling fan. It should be under warranty so it won't cost the school anything.

Volleyball has been fun. This is only the second year of the program so it's been a lot of working getting the girls ready to play. Varsity is doing well. My JV's are still learning to play the game and the skills. All of my girls have never played volleyball before (PE doesn't count since it's not real volleyball). So, I have my work cut out this season. They are having fun and working hard and that is all that I ask of them. The league we are playing in requires a lot of traveling for away games so I'm not coming back to school until late and then I have the 45 minute drive home afterwards. My days start at 5:00 am (I wake up at this time), get to school by 6:45 am, and I'm not getting home until after 9:00 pm! Of course since there is always stuff to do at home and getting ready for the next day (make lunch, school work, lay out clothes for school, reorganize my duffel bag for a practice or game, etc) I'm going to bed after 10:30 sometimes 11:00 pm. LONG day! And, since I'm exercising so much, I'm losing weight - which is a good thing. I went clothes shopping and I went down a size! Let's hope the weight loss continues and that I can maintain the loss after volleyball season ends. :-)

Since I'm not working on weekends, I've been trying to relax and enjoy myself a bit. Today, I'm going apple picking with my friend Michelle and her daughter.

To my teacher friends from the blog world: I hope you all had a great start and wishing you all a wonderful productive school year! :-)

I've been tagged! :-)

2008-08-30T11:19:00.003-04:00

I've been tagged by this silly girl. . . I am supposed to write 6 quirky things about me. Here we go!

1) I have major OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I'm a major neat freak and can't go to bed at night unless everything is where is needs to go and/completed (Ex: dishes done, lay out my clothes for the next day, make lunch for school night before, etc.). I can't leave at the end of the day at school unless my classroom is neat and organized for the next day too. Yes, I have issues! :-)

2) I hate it when drivers don't use their turn signals (Ex: switching lanes, exit ramps, right or left turns, etc). Drives me absolutely batty!!!!! I notice it more now that I'm commuting on the highway. Oh, the other thing is slow drivers in the fast lane. Another pet peeve of mine!

3) I listen to my Itouch at night in bed - it helps to relax me and helps me go to sleep.

4) Hate it when my students use inappropriate words in school (the "N" word, Jew, swearing, etc). Bugs me!

5) Since I adopted Ellie the Cat in 2001, I have this thing about buying collars for her that match the time of the year. For example, for the summer, she wore a watermelon collar. I already bought her a Halloween and Christmas collar. She is one stylin' kitty! :-)

6) I'm a huge movie fan so I'm always matching movies - I subscribe to Netflix. Huge fan of documentaries and foreign films. My dirty little secret: cheesy old TV series! Here is a list: Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Dallas, Love Boat, etc. You get the idea. Again, I have issues. My Queue in Netflix has a pretty wacky selection of films. I currently have 211 movies in my Queue.

I tag anyone that would like to comment. :-)

Almost time to go back to school . . .

2008-08-27T11:29:00.004-04:00

As I logged into my blog this morning, I looked over at my counter and realized that I have only seven days left until the first day of school. My goodness! Where did the summer go?

Since I've been coaching volleyball since last week, I've been able to have a little time getting my classroom ready (we've had double sessions so I usually have a two hour break in between practices to get stuff done). However, yesterday the workers started waxing the floors in the halls so I couldn't get into my room. I have a ton of boxes to unpack. The head guy of building and grounds (major control freak) refuses to give us (the teachers) our keys until the 1st official day of school so I can't get into my own desk or cabinets to organize them. Plus, the building is still in construction so they are hoping to finish everything up over the Labor Day weekend (I'll be VERY surprised if it happens). You can't use the main entrance of the school so it's a huge walk around the building to get into the building. I have a ton of stuff that needs to come back to school but I'm waiting until I can carry it through the front entrance. And, the poor custodians and construction guys . . . the elevator broke the other day so they've been having to carry heavy furniture up and down the stairs! They seriously don't get paid enough . . . .

This year, we only have one professional day until we get the kids. So, that means only one day to get everything ready if a teacher doesn't come in this week to get their room and office ready. I don't want to complain too much about the loss of a PD Day since I've been reading a lot of horror stories of other teachers across the country that have already started school and had to sit through pointless and waste of time type of meetings. Our union voted in a horrible contract last year and one of the "bonuses" was one less PD Day. Now, I'm hearing the teachers that voted that contract in complain about how little time they have to get their rooms ready! Did they not THINK about this when they were voting????? Duh! All they saw was one day off from school. Ugh.

The PD Day focus: all the new technology in the building. All the classrooms now have a LCD projector installed from the ceiling and a new MAC computer for the teachers. We are going to be doing attendance online now too. The faculty needs training on the technology. The majority of our faculty doesn't use any form of technology so it will be interesting to see how that PD Day works out. We also have three new computer labs (30 new MACS with LCD projector and SMART boards). A faculty of 160 - only 20 uses various forms of technology in our classes. Scary thought in 2008! Three years ago, I came from a school that did everything technology so I felt like I was going backwards in time by working at this school. I ended up going out and buying a lot of my own stuff (Ex: LCD Projector).

So my homework the past week: I've been trying to update and change the homework blogs for the kids and organized my curriculum binders. I need to work on my syllabus for my two courses (World History and the local History class). I already have a rough idea of the first two days of school - it tends to be all the administrative paperwork and getting to know you stuff anyway. A working photocopier would be nice so I can start copying stuff.

I think I'll feel better once my classroom is ready. With coaching volleyball this year, I won't have all the time like I normally would to set everything up.

I love my job . . . . I love my school . . . . . keep repeating until next June! :-)

Started volleyball on Thursday . . . . bump, set, spike!

2008-08-23T12:48:00.005-04:00

Started volleyball on Thursday. I'm the JV coach - my school started a volleyball program last year and they decided to build up the program by establishing a JV team this year. I was asked by the varsity coach since I used to play and coach. And, yes - it's a stipend position. :-)

It's been an interesting transition to be helping out with a program that is only in its second year compared to my 1st school that had an established program for over 30 years. We have a lot of work to do with the program.

We only had two freshman and three sophomores come out for the team. We have a total of 18 girls. Some girls will end up swinging between JV and varsity due to the fact we have small numbers for JV.

We started pre-season with double sessions (2 three hour practices). I've been trying to get into better shape over the summer to prepare myself physically for coaching again. I can't do the hands-on stuff like drills because of my shoulder. It's killing me to not spike that ball!!!! :-(

For pre-season, we've had to use the facilities at the local college since our high school gym is in construction until the end of September. College facilities are SO MUCH nicer than our facilities at the high school. Once school starts on September 2nd, our practices will be at one of the elementary schools. All our games for the month of September will be away.

We have a scrimmage next Friday against our rival school. The girls are VERY excited about it but I'm a little nervous. It's been so long since I've coached volleyball. I'm hoping to get into the swing of things soon. The varsity coach has been great. And, a lot of rules have changed since I've coached (I coached volleyball for four years in NH). It should be an interesting season to say the least!

Bump, set, spike!

Happy B-day Jacob!

2008-08-19T09:25:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Jacob is the son of my friend Cheryl from IL. Isn't he a cutie? He's grown up so quick! I remember when he was a little baby.

Jacob - Enjoy your extra special day and tell Mom and Dad to take you out to dinner to celebrate!

Lots of hugs! :-)

Off to the beach for the day . . . .

2008-08-15T10:13:00.005-04:00

Finally! Some rest and relaxation (at least for the day) for M-Dawg.

Getting a pedicure this morning. Major relaxation!

Then, I'm off to the beach! One of my friends from school is renting a house on the beach for the next two weeks and she invited me to spend the day with her and her family. I live 15 minutes from the ocean/beach and this is the first time all summer I've been there. Wow.

Have a great weekend everyone -

Happy belated B-day to Mark and Happy Anniversary to Mark and Traci!

2008-08-12T13:25:00.004-04:00

OK, I'm losing my mind. It's official. I think you all know this about me already. I'm late on b-day and anniversary greetings.

Happy belated birthday to Mark! Mark is married to my friend Traci from IL. Traci and I have been friends forever. It's so nice to know she has a great guy in her life. :-) Happy b-day Mark!

And, happy Anniversary to Mark and Traci! You guys rock! Hope you get to enjoy some quality YOU time with each other.

Lots of hugs and love!

Picture of Mark, Jeffrey, and Traci (missing is the new little guy, Joseph).

Busy week . . . .

2008-08-08T08:33:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy yet productive week.

Working at second job (30 hours). Appt's. Meeting at Witch House to incorporate service learning into my local history class. Planning first unit of World History. Getting stuff done around the condo. Oil change. Meeting with friends for quality time (included a lobster dinner - Yummy). :-)

I signed up for an organization class which I'm excited about taking next week. It's online and lasts for about four weeks. It cost $50 (normally $100). I have to pick one small project (I think I'm going to pick my closet in my bedroom) to organize. I'll try and remember to post before and after pictures. :-)

How was your week?

Check off the list . . . . one paper and lesson plan DONE!

2008-08-05T10:58:00.003-04:00

I did it!

The lesson plan for emailed on Friday and the 10 page thematic essay was emailed on Sunday evening.

Done.

FINALLY!

Now I wait for my grade.

My summer can officially begin . . . . . .

Two Birthday Wishes to Two Great Friends!

2008-08-04T08:00:00.005-04:00

Picture of Lauren and I taken at my condo.

Picture of Traci and I taken at her house in IL.

Happy B-day Ladies! :-)

Traci - We've been friends since high school. Lots of parties!!! We've been through a lot of ups and downs over the years but we've stuck through them together. You've been a wonderful friend to me. I've watched you over the years become an amazing wife and Mom to those handsome boys of yours and you are great!!!!!! Happy birthday and enjoy your extra special day! I love ya!!!!!! Hugs!!!!!!

Lauren - Remember our crazy days at Pagenet???? Seems like yesterday when we (you, Janet, and Me) used to eat lunch together and talk about TV programs. There has been a lot of drama in both of our lives (namely over men) over the years but we hung in there. You've found the love of your life (Mr. Rich) and have the "bestest" doggie eva' (hugs to Giz)!!!!! Happy B-day kiddo! I love ya!!!!!! Hugs!!!!!!!

I am so proud to call both of these gals my friends. Enjoy your day ladies!!! You both deserve it!!!!!!

PS Sorry about the old photos. I don't have any recent pictures of us together.:-)

Pressure (to quote David Bowie and Queen)!

2008-07-30T08:46:00.002-04:00

The pressure is on . . . . . . .

8-10 page thematic essay and 3-5 day lesson plan due on Sunday!

Ugh.

Blah!

(I know you have that song in your head now! Hah!) :-)

How do you like yourself?

2008-07-25T11:46:00.003-04:00

I promised myself that I would work on ME this summer. Getting myself into a better frame of mind: physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Here is the update.

The mental part has been difficult. It's been really hard to think positively about myself when I don't like myself. So I've been trying to work on liking myself (not that I ever did like myself). When I was younger, I used to "fake" being happy since that is what everyone in my life seemed to expect of me. I realize that people can't be happy 24/7 but I can be happy some of the time. I've felt like a hypocrite since I'm always telling my students to like and love themselves and accept themselves for who they are or are becoming in this world. How can I tell my students to like themselves when I don't even like me for me? There are a lot of reasons why I've felt like I was never good enough. Some of it stems from child hood crap which I don't want to get into on this blog. I've been doing a lot of soul searching and realized that there are some people in my life that bring me down as a person. I'm working on removing this folks out of my life. I also work in two jobs that don't appreciate me (being a teacher speaks for itself and the other job is a long story). Regarding the teaching aspect, I'm working on trying to be positive in a very negative environment. If it means that I have to isolate myself and not be around the negative people, that is what I will have to do. The best feeling I have in the world is being in the classroom with my students and teaching them World History. The other job scenario: I can no longer be trusted (according to the owner) due to an incident and she believes what she wants of me no matter what I say to her. I can't work for someone that doesn't trust me. So, I will be doing some soul searching (and looking for another job) to better that situation. I've worked there for almost four years and all that retail experience is down the drain (I don't think I could even use the owner as a reference since I can't trust her to say anything nice about me). Nothing I do (or anyone else that works in the store) is good enough and it gets old after a while. I've also become very resentful that I have to work a second job after teaching for ten years. I'm sick of always working and never getting ahead. I adore the dogs. They are the best part of the job. But I've felt like I've been in an emotional abused relationship the past few years working there. I completely acknowledge that I'm not always the easiest person to be around at times but either is the owner (we are both VERY MUCH alike when it comes to be moody which is why we clash - I see that - she does not). So I'm going back to being "fake happy" to please her and that is not the way I want to live my life. The soul searching continues . . . . . . . . . .

The physical part has been a struggle. My shoulder still bothers but I'm putting off getting the surgery. I'm hoping that if I lose some weight, it might help the pain in my shoulder. I'm eating better now and exercising. I figure that if I look better and healthier, maybe I will like myself too. Food has always been an addiction of mine and I'm an emotional eater. Hence, the weight issues. Since I start coaching volleyball the end of August, I figured that I better get back into shape again. Gotta be a positive role model to the girls on the team! :-)

The spiritual part is also a struggle for me. I've been trying mediation to help relax me. Formal/organized religion doesn't seem to work (I was brought up Catholic and I don't believe in what the church stands for anymore). I feel like I need some type of spirituality in my life to grow as a person.

It's been a struggle but I'm working on it . . . . one day at a time. I don't expect miracles. But being truly happy and content with my life would be a wonderful way to start out the school year.

Thank you to all my supportive friends and Blog buddies - you all rock! :-)

How did you spend your day off? Touching REALLY old letters!

2008-07-23T11:47:00.004-04:00

Greetings!

Yesterday, I spent the day reading through old documents at a historical society. By old I mean like around 1775! I read letters from a soldier to his wife during the American Revolution! How cool is that????? I even got to wear the white "Mickey Mouse" gloves to read through all the letters . . . . in case you are not aware of it - our hands (skin) have oils on them that can destroy the letters so you have to wear the protective gloves to preserve the letters. The handwriting was difficult to read since the ink had faded over the years and the spelling was quite "unique" - for example, they spelled "which" this way: WITCH. Reminded me of my students and their spelling habits. :-)

I then went to a public library to research old newspaper articles from the time period as well. Everything is on microfilm and I could make copies of the articles.

So far, I've come up with some good material and primary source information for my lesson plan for the Using Essex History class. And, I'm pumped about using the materials in my local History class that I teach at my school.

That due date is coming quick! :-)

Finished up the Using Essex History class and now it's time to write a thematic essay and lesson plan!

2008-07-21T08:19:00.003-04:00

The Using Essex History class that I took last week was great! I really enjoyed the various topics each day:
*Day 1 - American Revolution (The National Heritage Museum - Lexington)
*Day 2 - Civil War (Marblehead Historical Museum - Marblehead)
*Day 3 - Westward Expansion (St. Joseph's Hall - Salem)
*Day 4 - Civil Rights Movement (National Archives - Waltham)
*Day 5 - Nathaniel Hawthorne (The House of Seven Gables - Salem)

Each day was filled with lectures from professors on each topic, a field trip of the facility we were hanging out in, and time to look at primary sources and analyze them and brainstorm teaching ideas in groups with other teachers (there were 30 teachers that were chosen from Essex County). Our day started at 9:00 am and lasted until 4:00 pm. A long day but sooooo productive! My brain hurt at the end of the day! :-)

So, now the fun part begins! Prior to the class, I had to read four books and a packet of readings designed for each of the five days. We had to turn in one book review and three book note papers during the week. Due on August 3rd, I have to write a 8-10 page thematic essay and a 3-4 day lesson plan.

Between now and the due date - I have two days off from work and one of which I'm spending at the Beverly Historical Society to research letters from the American Revolution.

The bonus: I get 3 graduate credits (since it is a grant, I don't have to pay for the credits) and a $1,000 stipend. Yahoo! :-)

And, the race begins! I'll keep you posted. :-)

Bonding meeting was a success! :-)

2008-07-10T11:16:00.003-04:00

Last night, the Freshman House had a bonding meeting at a local restaurant to discuss the past school year and goals for next school year.

I have to say that almost every single teacher in the Freshman House came to the meeting. The fact that we attended this meeting during our time off is a huge deal.

Our house master (aka Asst. Principal) had some positive data to share with us. Our failure rate went down by 16% this year! Every single year the Freshman House has been in existence at my school, we have seen improvement. Some of the biggest goals of the House is to help with the transition from Middle to High School and the expectations of being in High School AND to decrease the drop out rate at my school. There has been a slight decrease but not as much as we would like to see. I guess we need to be patient and see what will happen . . . after sophomore year is when we see the drop out rate increase (in most classes).

One of the goals for next school year we discussed was to create a more community feel in the Freshman House. We also scheduled two more bonding meetings this summer for the teachers.

Oh, I'm on a new team and I LOVE IT! The English and Math teacher are great friends of mine (the Math teacher and I are co-advisers for the Class of 2010 so we are already used to working with each and get along great). We do have a new Science teacher - she's fresh out of college so she will probably need some support. She seems nice and willing to work as a team. Compared to this past school year, I'm looking forward to moving on and working with a group of people that are in this for the kids and the school community. :-)

And, the SPED teacher that I worked with for the past two years is no longer in the Freshman House. He's still working with the Social Studies teachers but from what I understand the administrators are working very hard to not schedule him with me. Yeah!!!! :-)

Working with the dogs . . . . .

2008-07-07T19:41:00.005-04:00

I'm here. Alive and kicking. Barely. :-)

Been working a ton of hours at the doggie store. Compared to last summer, the store hasn't been that busy. I'm sure the high gas prices is keeping a lot of people away from traveling and spending money. It is great to see all the dogs. They rock my world! :-)

I've been getting over food poisoning so I haven't been myself for a week. I'm feeling much better but my body doesn't want to be 100% yet.

I've also been doing a lot of the reading for my class that begins next week. I have a lot of work to do before next Monday - four books need to be read, one book review paper, and three note summaries need to be written. Unfortunately, the readings are boring so it's difficult to get through them at a fast pace. I don't mind reading historical books as long as they are interesting and to the point.

It's been hot and humid here in New England. I don't do well with humidity . . . I finally had to turn my A/C on today. I've been lucky most of the summer . . . . my condo is located on the first floor so it remains relatively cool during the day. However, today it got a little too warm for me so I turned on A/C.

Ellie the Cat has the right idea . . . . just hang out on the futon! :-)

Reflection of the school year

2008-06-24T08:36:00.003-04:00

Every educator should reflect about the previous school year. You think about what you did right, what you did wrong, what needs to be improved, what needs to stay in your curriculum or get rid of some boring activity or project, etc. Reflection helps you to grow as a teacher.

My school year has been rather dramatic as a whole. First we had no contract for two years and then the budget cuts/teacher lay offs in January. However, I still had to put a smile on my face every single day and continue to teach and do the best job that I knew how to do.

I taught two new courses this year. The local history class was a challenge since I'm not a native New Englander but my students were resilient and patient with me and stuck by me. The students helped to create new projects for the course which was fun. I even did one field trip. I'm hoping to increase the field trips for the course this next school year. And, the best part: I'm going to incorporate service learning into the curriculum so my students will be working with one of the local historical homes and doing some joint projects and activities.

The second course I taught this year I helped co-write the curriculum. Current World Affairs was definitely a work in progress but again the students were patient and understanding and worked through the curriculum with me. Next school year, I won't be teaching the CWA class but I feel that I left the curriculum in great shape.

I had my 9th grade World History classes fill out a teacher evaluation on the last day of school. I asked that they not put their name on the sheet and to be HONEST. Some of the comments were interesting:
*Loved the PowerPoints - short and to the point!
*Too many PowerPoints - too long and too much note taking!
*Loved the projects.
*Favorite unit: French Revolution.
*Favorite unit: World War I and II.
*Spent too much time in the Middle Ages.
*Suggestion: Prepare us more for the seven page research paper - like have mini papers prior to the big paper.
*Suggestion: Field trips
*More projects
*NO more projects
*Group projects
*More hands-on activities.
*End of year party??????
*You were my favorite teacher.
*I looked forward to coming to class every day - you are ONE crazy lady! :-)

Some students even thanked me for teaching them and wished they could have me next year. I didn't get one bad comment so I don't know if that's good or bad. I'd like to think they were being honest with me. And, I don't read the evaluations until after grades are submitted (this was stated to them and I typed it on the sheet).

Regarding World History curriculum, the other three History teachers and I decided that we will be eliminating the first quarter of curriculum. The middle school is supposed to be teaching it (they don't teach it - they teach whatever they want) so we decided that in order for us to get past World War II next year, we need to eliminate the first half of the World History curriculum. The good news (this is questionable good news) is that our state does not test on World History (I guess knowing World History isn't that important) but they do test on US History. And, considering the role of the United States in History during the 20th century, we figured it would be important to support the US History curriculum to get as far to the present day as possible.

We will start with the Middle Ages and work our way to the present day by the end of the school year. I would like us to start at the Enlightenment but baby steps shall be made with the curriculum. We shall see if we can handle this massive goal -

A goal of mine for next year is to continue to work on pacing. I'm terrible at it. I barely made it to World War II by the end of the school year so I know that I need to stay on task and pace my way through the curriculum. The other World History teachers and I struggle with the pacing so it's reassuring that I'm not the only one but we all agree that we need to make some changes for next school year.

And, we still have no formal/written World History curriculum. My colleague and I spent our duty block working on some of the curriculum units toward the end of the school year but we still need to get more completed. There was no money to actual pay us this summer to write curriculum so it looks like we may do the same thing next school year during our duty.

So, overall, the school year was dramatic, busy, stressful, and productive for the most part.

I would give myself a B+ for the school year. :-)

"School's Out for Summer . . . . " sing it with me!

2008-06-21T08:34:00.002-04:00

FINALLY!

School is officially done!

Visual: M-Dawg doing a dance all around her condo.

What are the big summer plans?

No, I'm not traveling this summer. A lot of folks have been asking me that question. I've grounded myself (financial stuff prohibits me from going anywhere this summer). Blah!

I'll be working at Paws all summer. So, if you are visiting the New England area, stop by and visit me. And, bring your doggie. I'll hook up your doggie with a nice treat!

I received a Using Essex History grant so I'll be attending an institute for five days in July. Get this: I get 3 graduate credits, 30 PDP's, and a $1,000 stipend. Nice! There is a TON of work to complete but it's a good ton of work. :-)

And, it looks like I'll be the new JV girl's volleyball coach at my school so the season starts on August 21st.

Of course, I'll be hanging out with friends too. Gotta throw in some crazy M-Dawg time too. :-)

What are your summer plans????

Happy Father's Day to my Dad and all the Dad's out there!

2008-06-15T08:53:00.003-04:00

This is a picture of Mom and Dad in front of their soon to be new home.

Dad - Happy Father's Day to my Daddy! I know we disagree on a lot (OK, almost everything) but you are my Daddy and I love you! You are always there to support me and be there for me through all my crazy dumb blond moves. :-) Who was it that showed me how to ride a bike (yes, through all my tears and crying) and drive a car (through your tears and crying)? My Daddy! :-)

Enjoy your Father's Day!

Love Ya!!!!!

7 more wake up days until school is OUT!

2008-06-11T21:32:00.002-04:00

Quick summary of the past week:

*Seven fire alarms in three days set off by students.

*We had our eighth fire alarm set off today by a kid.

*Autistic student had major melt down in my classroom over the Holocaust PowerPoint I showed the class. I warned him and asked him if he would leave the classroom since it would upset him. I was right. He was wrong. He freaked out.

*Seniors FINALLY graduated!

*I asked my SPED teacher to modify the final exam. He told me it didn't need to be modified. I showed it to two other SPED teachers and they said it NEEDS to be modified. Guess what history teacher will end up doing her SPED teacher's job AGAIN??????????

*Trying to get all my curriculum taught by Friday since final exams are next week. Yeah, try teaching World War II and the Holocaust in three 90 minute classes with fire alarms going off at the same time. :-(

*Sophomore class officers STILL haven't booked their Junior prom venue yet (they are supposed to book it by this Friday). SO not going to happen.

*I'm trying to correct country portfolio binders from the Current World Affairs classes. The kids didn't follow the directions so the grades are LOW. Oh, this portfolio binder counts as their final exam (two test grades) for 4th quarter.

*Did I mention 7 more wake up days until summer vacation???????????????????

Memorial Day

2008-05-26T09:05:00.006-04:00

This photo was taken in July 2005 at the American Cemetery in Normandy, France.

You can read about the history of Memorial Day here. It should be noted that the history goes back to at least the Civil War although there is some speculation that it goes back even further.

As a child growing up, I can remember every year on Memorial Day, my grandparents (on my Mom's side) and my family would go to the cemetery and place flowers on the graves of loved ones. And, the local cemetery would have a Memorial Day parade go right through the cemetery. The cemetery had all the American flags of vets that had died hanging on flag poles that lined the parade route. Once my grandpa died, his flag would be flown along the route as well. My grandfather fought in World War II (Battle of the Bulge).

Even back then, I remember feeling thankful and appreciative of what our veterans did to sacrifice MY freedom today. This also may be another reason why I enjoy History so much - that I would not be here today if not for the sacrifice of my relatives during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.

At 3:00 pm today, please remember to do a moment of silence. You can read more about it here.

Happy Birthday to my Sis - Mandy!!!!

2008-05-20T22:40:00.004-04:00

This is a picture of Mandy with her favorite band group - the Goo Goo Dolls! Mandy is the girl in the jean skirt and light greenish top. Yes, that is John Rzeznik (lead singer) in the middle! :-)

Mandy spent a few days down in Florida for a relaxing vacation. She returned to lovely Chicago weather . . . in the 60's.

Happy Birthday to my baby sis - you turn 33 years old today and you don't look a day over 30! Ha!

Seriously, I love ya and thank you for being a great sister.

Hugs!

It's been a long school year . . . .

2008-05-18T06:25:00.003-04:00

Thank you for all your comments and words of support on the last post.

My last day of school is June 20th and it can't come soon enough. I hate wishing my life away but it's been one hell of a school year.

Still don't know anything about the cuts. My principal is still going through cut process. The rumor mill claims that 19 teachers will be leaving on their own merit at the end of the school year anyway so maybe that will save some jobs.

Because of the horrible contract that was voted in and all the teacher cut drama that occurred in January, I think most people are fed up with my school system.

Not a lot of teaching jobs out there for History/Social Studies. And, when I do apply, I'm guessing the reason why they won't call me in for an interview is that I'm too expensive to hire. Why hire someone with 10 years teaching experience when you can hire someone under 3 years and pay them less money? I'd like to point out that you get what you pay for but school districts don't care in this day and age of saving money.

So, it's the waiting game. We shall see what happens over the next few weeks.

I'm not posting a lot because this time of the school year is very busy and rough with activities going on almost every single day after school or in the evenings. My calendar for school has no empty time after school or in the evenings. And throw in all the correcting, grades, and trying to finish up my World History curriculum (World War II come hell or high water!) by the end of the school year and my brain is on overload! It's crazy! And, I'm not able to read a lot of blogs until the weekend. I actually had Saturday off so I was able to catch up on my blog reading and comments.

I've also been thinking a lot about how negative this blog has been or gotten the past school year. Over the summer, I'll be doing some "housecleaning" of my life and my blog. :-) I'm going to work on trying to put myself in a better mind set, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Stay tuned . . . . .

So, be good. Be safe. And, I'll be writing soon. Just a break. :-)

Updates . . . . . . and Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T19:17:00.003-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!!!!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom - Joela. She's a rockin' lady!!! :-)

Updates:
*Budget cuts will occur at my school by the end of the school year. The stress and drama returns. Please be thinking happy thoughts . . . . I've been applying to schools but I'm too expensive to hire (It will be 10 years of teaching next school year for me).

*I applied for a Summer Institute for a week in July and got it. They are going to pay me $1000 stipend and 3 graduate credits for five days of work. Bonus! :-)

*It's been a rough school year. Between no contract, budget cut drama in January, rough students on my team, my team (teachers) not getting along, having an "illegal" teaching schedule (by contract, I'm supposed to get a 90 minute planning period every day; I'm getting a 40 minute planning period on the second day which is in violation of our teaching contract), and having the SPED teacher from hell, I'm really ready for the school year to be over. I'm exhausted. :-(

*A few weeks ago my colleagues and I were lucky enough to have a Professional day to write out our Common Assessment for final exams. The four of us were excited to be collaborating since we all get along and work well together. For the first hour, we were doing great. Then guess who decided to join us? That SPED teacher that I've been complaining about for the past two years! He invited himself to our common assessment day! He did nothing! I mean it! Nothing! Except sleep of course! I actually took a picture of him sleeping w/ one of my colleagues cell phone! I know . . . not the most professional thing to do but we all thought it might provide photo evidence of what is actually going on in our classrooms. We ended up deleting the photos but it was funny! Sad but funny. He would occasionally interrupt us and talk about stuff that had nothing to do with the Common Assessment. At one point, one of my colleagues got fed up. So, I went down to our Housemaster to tell him what was going on (The Housemaster is the one that arranged for us to meet to complete the Common Assessment). My Housemaster was annoyed that the SPED teacher was not doing what he was supposed to be doing and that the SPED teacher crashed the "party" so to speak. BUT, he still allowed the SPED teacher to stay with us for the entire day. I swear my administrators need to grow some balls and stop worrying about "hurting" feelings (this is how it was explained to me). Never mind that the SPED guy does nothing and doesn't accommodate the students needs.

*My co-advisor and I will be resigning at the end of the school as class advisers to the Class of 2010. The Sophomore Social stuff and all the drama from the past year is ridiculous so we've had enough. The Class President is difficult to work with and the rest of the class officers do nothing. And, I'm sick of it. And, I'm sick of the President telling me that I'm not doing everything when in reality I do a lot. It is not my job to do HIS job. I tell him what needs to be done because I'm trying to teach him responsibility. He doesn't see that so I'm the bitch and bad guy.

*Wish I could report more on my love life. The online dating just didn't work. I'm such a romantic and kept wishing for some great, nice guy to sweep me off my feet. True love is not meant for me. It's sad but it's the reality. I'm accepting that it's not meant for me to be married or have children. At 37 years old, slightly overweight, and not a catch . . . . it is what it is.

So, these are the updates in the life of M-Dawg.

36 more teaching days . . . . maybe NOT!

2008-04-29T21:26:00.004-04:00

Does the title of this post state it all? How much do I want the school year to be over? Let me count the ways!

I know it's not a good thing to wish your life away but in this case . . . . 36 days left of the school year baby!

Out of those 36 days, technically, there are 24 actual teaching days left. Why? MCAS (state testing), final exam week, Diversity Day, and I'm out of school tomorrow for a Professional Day.

And, my school is on block scheduling so to make this post even MORE fun I technically only have 12 teaching days with my classes. I see my students every other day. 12 days with my freshman World History kids to teach the following: Industrial Revolution, Imperialism, Nationalism, Unification of Germany and Italy, WW I, and WW II and the Holocaust.

OK, now I'm really stressed!

Blah! :-(

April Break - Part III

2008-04-26T06:01:00.003-04:00

What can I say? I live such an exciting life!

The hair-do on Thursday turned out nice. It's much lighter and a tad bit shorter too.

Hanging out at Barnes & Noble is my fav place in the world. Was productive! I was able to grade three classes of work! After all the grading I did at the end of 3rd quarter, I sorta went on strike and didn't want to grade for a while. Unfortunately, that meant that I had a ton of correcting to do!

I didn't end up making it to the beach. It was such a beautiful day and I spent it inside a bookstore. Oh well.

Worked at Paws on Friday. This economy is still not picking up so I wasn't that busy in the store. I hope it picks up soon.

I'm watching my neighbor's dog, Otto in the evenings for the next week. I have to feed him and walk him. Last night, I took him to Newburyport for an hour walk. Otto is a Schnauzer and such a cutie pie! He's my little buddy! I'll try and remember to take some pics of Otto.

The rest of the weekend plans: working at Paws on Saturday and Sunday. Hanging out w/ Otto in the evenings. Attending a poetry reading on Sunday afternoon here.

Back to school on Monday! Blah! When I get back, I'll have to unpack a few of my boxes and set up my classroom. Thank goodness I have the first two blocks off on Monday! :-)

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Anniversary to Cheryl and Brian - a day late!

2008-04-25T08:38:00.003-04:00

Happy Anniversary to Cheryl and Brian!

A belated post but I was thinking of you guys yesterday!!!

Hope you were able to have some alone time together and Brian took ya out for dinner!!!

Lots of hugs and love!!!!

April break - Part II

2008-04-24T08:23:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday, I was invited to one of my former colleagues home for lunch up in NH. It was a lovely weather day! Sunny. Bright. And, the company was nice too! :-)

Rest of the day: I cleaned my car. Paid the bills. Cleaned the condo. Productive yet busy.

Today, I have a hair appointment to get my hair highlighted and cut here. Oh, the eyebrows need a touch up too. The gal that does my hair always does such a nice job. Why can't I do my hair the same way????

After the hair, I'm planning on heading to Barnes & Noble and do some correcting for a few hours. Need to correct those French Revolution tests!

Tonight, I might try a drive out to the beach and take a walk. It's been forever since I've been to the beach. I only live 15 minutes away from the ocean!

The weather this week in New England has been amazing! Couldn't ask for a better weather week off from school.

Enjoy your day -

April vacation week - part I

2008-04-22T10:38:00.003-04:00

On Monday, I drove out to Northampton, MA (western MA) to meet some gals for Delta Kappa Gamma stuff. It was a two hour and 13 minute drive one way. The drive was long but incredibly scenic! I drove through the Berkshire Mountains and saw the Green Mountains of Vermont.

I got involved at the state level of DKG. I'm on the research committee and we had members fill out surveys. The committee met yesterday to go over the results. I have to put together a PowerPoint to present at the State Convention the weekend of May 2nd of our findings.

It was a very long drive and long day but productive. :-)

Today, I brought my car into Saturn to have it worked on (takes 8 hours). The head gasket has been leaking and I've been putting it off to get it fixed. I have a rental car - a PT Cruiser! I like it. Drives different than my Saturn. Not great on gas though . . . .

Well, I'm off to run some errands for the day (hence the rental car).

Enjoy your day!!! :-)

Four words!

2008-04-19T08:36:00.000-04:00

I am on vacation!

Enough said!

Update on life

2008-04-17T17:49:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to do an update on what is going on in M-Dawg's world (warning - VERY negative post!):

*I didn't get the teaching position at my first school. I received the phone call last night. The assistant principal (I'm friends with him) wanted to tell me over the phone instead of waiting for the letter. I'm upset and disappointed. For five years, all I've heard from administrators and other teachers was how they wanted me to come back. Nice.

*Survived the Sophomore Social (dance) for my class. My co-advisor and I have decided that we will resign at the end of the school year from being their class advisor. The officers do absolutely nothing and we are not paid enough to deal with the stress and bullshit.

*My classroom is currently in a modular trailer. I've been in the trailer for 1 1/2 year. The entire freshman house is moving out the trailers over April break. I filled out my request form over a month ago for boxes and moving supplies. When do I get my supplies and boxes: a week ago! I have a ton of shit to pack. Luckily, I have student leaders and a colleague of mine helped me pack most of it. It will be nice to be back in the main building again. Strange. They are moving us to a temporary classroom until June. Then they will move us to our permanent home which will be up on the third floor. I won't be unpacking anything except for two boxes of stuff I need to get me through the rest of the school year.

*My shoulder is still painful. I have an appt next week with an orthopedic surgeon.

*Good news: I'm on April break starting on Monday. A whole week off from school. I do have a busy week filled with appointments and working at Paws.

*I really need a break from school. I'm in such a bad mind set right now. Very negative and burnt out. Exhausted from working all the time and getting no financial rewards. And very poor! :-(

*And the best part of my life right now: my first mortgage is going up $250 a month. Got the letter last week notifying me of the increase. They won't even talk to me since I'm still paying my mortgage on time. Nice! I have two mortgages and the second one will go up too. I can't refinance since I owe more on my condo than it's worth right now. So, I'm screwed. Gotta love life. When you are down, you are DOWN! I am looking for a roommate to help defer the costs. If you know of anyone, let me know. I'm also posting an ad on Craig's List.

This is my life. Shitty right now. I think I need to go back into counseling again. I'm really having a hard time dealing with stuff. My personal life sucks. My professional life sucks. Trying to focus on what is good in my life and I just can't seem to do it.

End of vent/bitch/losing mind session. :-(

Happy b-day shout out to Brian!

2008-04-13T21:16:00.002-04:00

Look at the happy family! :-)

Happy birthday Brian!

Hope Cheryl and the boys take ya out for a nice steak dinner and wait on ya head and foot.

Lots of hugs! :-)

Joseph Murphy is here!!!!!

2008-04-05T12:30:00.004-04:00

Joseph Murphy - born March 31, 2008.

Congrats to the Eltrevoog-Milota family!!! Baby and family are all doing well.

Isn't he a cutie pie????? :-)

Is it OK to have nap time in High School????

2008-04-02T22:03:00.004-04:00

I'm so exhausted that I can't even think straight right now.

Things at school are very busy. No time for anything.

Just a few updates and shout outs:
*Congrats to my friend Traci and her husband Mark: they had a baby boy, Joseph Murphy a few days ago. I'm so happy for you both. Big bro Jeffrey is doing well too. :-)

*Got a phone call for a second job interview for next week. We shall see. . . . . .

*Book Club on Thursday evening. We read this book. I enjoyed it. Highly recommend it!

*Junior Prom at my high school last Friday night: 20 kids in a limo were drinking and got caught. A ton of other kids at the Prom were drunk too. The administration isn't doing much about it. Joy.

*I have the Sophomore Social dance next Friday. The rumor mill with the kids is that a group of kids will shop at the Social drunk. Double joy!

*I need to keep reminding myself that I'm splitting a $650 stipend to be a class advisor and all this added stress is SO not worth it. Triple Joy!

*Had an MRI on Tuesday night. I was scared shitless! :-)

*I'm working all this weekend, I have 23 Honors 5-page research papers to grade, 60 projects on Storming of the Bastille, and grades are due on Wednesday of next week. Can M-Dawg do it?

*I'm being formally evaluated next Thursday. Ugh.

*Have a retirement party for a former colleague at my first school next Thursday night. Oh, I'm interviewing for his job. How weird will that be?????????

*I haven't had a day off from school or the doggie store since Easter (March 23rd). I don't have a day off until April 12th.

OK, maybe this turned into more of a bitch fest. Sorry. This is what happens when you are tired. Oh, I had the 8th grade Open House tonight at my school and didn't get home until after 9:00 pm. I've been at school since 6:45 am. Long freaking day!

Tomorrow, instead of teaching, can I have nap time in all of my classes????????????????

Job Fair, Dr. Appt, and went to Jail! All in one week!

2008-03-27T20:32:00.004-04:00

Just an update of the week:

*Went to a Job Fair at the 1st high school I ever taught at on Tuesday night. I'm applying for the social studies position. One of the guys in the dept is retiring this year. Teaching in NH is sorta a mixed bag - it would provide stability for me which would be a welcomed change in my professional life. But the pay and retirement isn't that great. The guy that interviewed me is best friends with my current Principal. Oops! I wasn't planning on telling my current school that I was going to be looking for next year but due to all the drama that happened in Jan with the budget cuts, I decided that I would look for another job. My Principal received a phone call that evening from the guy at my 1st school that interviewed me. Joy! Where is the professionalism? Anyway, I guess the cat is out of the bag. The administration knows that I need to do what is best for ME. They said they don't want me to leave but they understand how unstable the school system is right now. And, my mortgage won't get paid on loyalty, I'll tell ya that much! :-(

*Had a Dr's appt on Wednesday. He finally decided to get the MRI done on the rotator cuff and make an appt with an orthopedic surgeon. It looks like surgery may be the way to go - ugh! The Dr's office called me today to say that my insurance company is being a pain about the MRI. They are questioning whether the MRI is "necessary" - nice! I'll update when I find out more info.

*Wednesday evening, I met my friend Aileen and we saw Juno here. Excellent movie! Check it out if you get a chance!

*Took my students to Middleton Jail today (Thursday) for a Scared Straight program. It was a huge eye-opening experience for me personally. It really got me to think about some of the choices I've made in life. It was a powerful program and I got the impression from most of my kids that the point hit home for them. The prison guards and prisoners stressed the role of family and teachers in their lives. And, that alcohol and drugs can really mess up your life and you could end up in prison. Middleton is a maximum security jail so it was pretty intense. I really hope the kids learned some important lessons as well.

Exciting plans for the weekend:
*Work at Paws on Saturday and Sunday.
*Correct student projects since grades close next Friday for 3rd quarter - where has the time flown by? One more quarter to go peeps! :-)

What are you doing this weekend??????

The History of Easter

2008-03-23T11:28:00.003-04:00

Believe it or not, Easter and Paganism have a connection.

To learn a little history about Easter, check out the following links:

History Channel

Religious Tolerance

Enjoying a weekend off! :-)

2008-03-22T09:02:00.005-04:00

It's a miracle! I actually have a FULL weekend off! Saturday and Sunday. No Paws. Nothing!

The big plan: Sleep in on both days! Something I rarely ever get to do anymore.

I also decided that I'm staying in for Easter. I'm not going out at all. There is always stuff to do around the condo but I'm just going to relax. I'm sooooo pumped you have NO idea! :-)

Happy Easter to those that celebrate it and here's to the Easter bunny! :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day and other stuff! :-)

2008-03-17T13:02:00.006-04:00

Wishing everyone a happy St. Patrick's Day and drink lots of green beer and Guinness! :-)

To my Irish friends - cheers! :-)

M-Dawg is enjoying a day off from school today. Just lounging around and watching DVD's - a true day off. Ellie the Cat is enjoying having me stay at home today. :-)

Worked all weekend at Paws. Sorta of a crappy weather weekend here in New England.

I'm getting ready to teach the Middle East unit in my Current World Affairs class. Should be interesting since I have a few students from Iraq and Lebanon. I'm trying to get this woman I met a few weekends ago from Afghanistan to come in and be a guest speaker to talk to the kids about living under the Taliban rule. She's a teacher too so I don't know how easy it would be to get her to school during the school day.

I'm still in the French Revolution unit in World History. The kids are currently storming the Bastille! :-)

That's about it for news here. Same old thing. School. No life. :-(

Have a good week peeps!

Doing a good thing for an animal! Or two! :-)

2008-03-15T17:02:00.003-04:00

My friend Lea is fostering these two puppies! How adorable are they????? They've had a rough start to life but she's taking great care of them. They have some physical and neurological damage so they need constant care.

She may end up adopting them. Which I hope she does since they will go to a great home. Thanks Fishy for taking care of these little cutie pies!

Personal Day on Friday and plans for the weekend

2008-03-08T08:18:00.004-05:00

A much need personal day was in the plan for me on Friday. I hadn't had a day off since the Wednesday of Feb break. For the most part, the day was rather relaxing. I slept in which is a HUGE deal for me. I had a doctor's appt in the early afternoon to check my rotator cuff. Since I've been doing physical therapy, my shoulder is doing much better. My Dr. wants to see me again in three weeks and to continue with the PT. The last appt for the day was PT. My PT has been using ultrasound and exercises to help the shoulder. This visit she tried this electric shock treatment with an ice pack on the shoulder. It felt weird but good. And, I have special exercises that I'm supposed to do at home to help the process. That's the update on the shoulder situation.

I also started the online application process for a job at my first high school that I taught and made an appointment for an interview at their job fair on March 25th on Friday. The application online took me hours to complete. The school is in NH and I'm sorta mixed on whether or not going back is a good idea. The commute is less which is good for my car and gasoline prices. It's good in the sense that NH provides stability - they don't do the budget cut thing or lay people off. I really need financial stability since I have a mortgage to pay. The negative is the pay and the retirement system. NH pay is less and the retirement is crap. Another plus is the health insurance (district pays 90% and employee pays 10%). This school system would acknowledge all my time in education so I could start at a step 10 (10 years teaching and they would recognize my 30 credits above the Masters which MA schools are not doing right now). To compensate the lose of income I could get involved in other activities to raise my salary to where it would be now. Although there are no guarantees of a job, the Principal and Assistant Principals told me they really want me back. I left there on a positive note back in 2003. This school had a lot of issues but I'm beginning to realize what school doesn't have issues. There is no such thing as a perfect environment and I just need to suck it up and deal. Lots of decisions! I'll update later.

I need to point out too that I will only looking for jobs in the area that I'm living in right now. I don't want the hellish commute that I currently have now so if a school is looking for someone in my area, I will apply. Otherwise, I'm staying at my current school. The financial stability at my current school is not good right now anyway so who knows if they will be letting me go?

An update on the condo parking space situation: I might have to go see a lawyer. What the association did might be against the law so I need to have a lawyer read/translate my documents. I have a deeded parking space which means there are marked documents at the courthouse that states that I own that parking space. My head teacher of my dept at school was a former lawyer so he said he would look at the papers for me. He said that if he can't help me, he could refer me to a good lawyer that could help me. And, another teacher at my school is on the board of her condo association and she said she might be able to help too. So that's the update so far on my parking space.

The plans for the weekend include:

*Today (Saturday), I have High Tea at the Concord Colonial Inn with Delta Kappa Gamma. My chapter and the chapter in Concord are having High Tea. Sounds very high class, doesn't it??? :-)

*We are supposed to get a ton of rain today - flooding type stuff. Let's cross our fingers that I don't have to build an ark!

*Working at Paws on Sunday. Hope to see lots of dogs! :-)

*School work. That never goes away! :-(

Any excitement in your lives?????

Happy Birthday Lea!

2008-03-04T21:42:00.002-05:00

This picture was taken last summer of Lea and I. I had a quick visit to IL to see family and friends after my Russia trip.

We were hanging out at Joann's house on her comfy desk. A silly picture of two old friends.

Lea - aka Fish. What can I say? I have to keep this post PG-13 regarding all the good times we had in the Illinois Valley. :-) I owe my best parties and memories to you kiddo - thanks for all the good times.

Most of all, thanks for the friendship. You always make me smile. :-)

Lots of hugs!

PS I mailed your card and a small gift today. Oops! :-)

You really didn't need that second parking space, did ya M-Dawg?

2008-03-03T19:12:00.003-05:00

When I bought my condo almost three years ago, it came with two parking spaces. I hemmed and hawed about whether or not I should sell the second space but I decided to keep the second space for the value that it might add when I go to sell the condo later on.

I currently rent out the second parking space to a couple on the other side of the building because their unit only came with one parking spot and they have two cars.

Tonight, I come home to find a garbage dumpster IN THE MIDDLE OF MY PARKING SPACE!!! And, five poles have been installed into the pavement to put up fencing around the dumpster. Nice!

So my concern in the beginning of this drama was the couple and where would they park their car? I called them and left a message explaining to them I don't know what is going on and when I find something out, I'll let them know. And then my concern was that this is MY PROPERTY and I PAY TAXES on it. The fact that my condo association never notified me started to piss me off.

Since we are run by an association, we don't have any contact info except an emergency pager number and email address. So, I contacted both to ask what was the deal? I have yet to get a response from either.

Meanwhile, the couple that rents my parking spot called me to tell them THEY were called today at work to let them know that the parking spot had been relocated and they still have a parking space. Nice. No phone call to me. I still have no idea where they moved the space. From what the couple told it's a temporary space until they (the association) can figure where to move the space permanently.

And the best part of the story: If there was any mentioning of this type of thing in the condo documents - I would have no clue. Why? Because I don't have the condo docs. I've been emailing the association since I moved in here almost three years ago and they keep promising they would get me a copy. I'm still waiting. The documents would have any restrictions, rules, fines, property info, etc. on not only my condo but whole building and grounds.

I'm so mad right now. Apparently, I'm asking too much from my association. Good thing I pay condo dues, heh?

Why is it that the first week back from a break is the longest week ever????

2008-03-02T08:10:00.003-05:00

The week was rough. Long. Insane. Exhausting.

Monday was a long day . . . we had an incident occur over the Feb break with five of our students. Four of our senior boys gang raped a junior girl at a party and another one of our senior boys watched it. The kids were all wound up and chatty about it. In my Current World Affairs class, one of the kids brought it up as a "Current Event" and I told them that the police reports were off limits for discussion for Current Events. All they wanted to do was gossip about what happened and I refused to discuss it with them. This isn't the only time they've done this in class. A few weeks ago, one of our bus drivers was arrested for domestic abuse - he beat the hell out of his son with a baseball bat. I have his son in one of my classes. The Current World Affairs class tried to "discuss it" and I shut they down and said NO! It's not appropriate. They just don't get it . . . . .

We had a dept meeting on Wednesday and it got a little nasty. We were discussing common assessments (midterm and final exams) and members of my dept are totally against it. I understand their perspective but this is the world of No Child Left Behind . . . . we have NO choice! We are being told by our Superintendent and Principal to accomplish this task. Just do it. Get over it. End of story. Most schools in this country have been doing common assessments for years. Every school I've ever worked at has common assessment for midterm and finals. People began turning against each other in this meeting. I just sat there and shook my head. Afterwards, my colleagues on the freshman team and I went downstairs and commented on how relieved we are that the four of us like working together and are open minded and willing to do what needs to get done for this common assessment stuff.

I had a melt down on my housemaster aka Asst. Principal on Friday about my SPED co-teacher. I have officially hit the wall with him. I got pulled out of class for a meeting on Thursday so they had a sub for me plus he's supposed to be in the room. When I returned at the end of the day, the sub wrote down all these horrible stuff about my kids and how some kids left the room and didn't come back, some were disruptive, etc. I was curious about where was my lovely SPED teacher so the next day, I confronted him and he told me two different stories. One story was he said he had a meeting. The other story was the sub told him that she didn't need him and he could leave - which story is it? And, since when does a sub tell a teacher what they should do? I need to point out that he's also under the assumption that when the regular ed teacher is out of the class, he doesn't have to be in the classroom - a few of the SPED teachers think this way but from what I'm told, it's NOT the RULE. The other huge issue I have is that every one of my students on an IEP in the co-taught class is failing my class. I do the best I can with the accommodations but this man does nothing. It's HIS JOB to follow all the IEP's too. He doesn't even know the kids or even their names! Sitting in the back of my classroom and falling asleep is the name of game for this teacher. My housemaster told me he's going to interview the other three history teachers in the freshman house to see if the SPED teacher does the same thing in their classes. Off the record, they tell me he sleeps and does nothing in their classes too. I'll be curious to see if they tell the truth about this guy. I understand that they don't want the guy to lose his job but this is about the kids not getting their legal rights. By law, these accommodations need to be met. Unfortunately, most of our parents don't understand the IEP (due to language issues) so these kids have no advocate for their education. So I guess the advocate would be me. I'll update soon.

And, I'm working all weekend at the doggie store. I really need a vacation!

So, that's the scoop on the past week. Makes ya want to run out and become a teacher, doesn't it???

Back to school . . . .blah! :-(

2008-02-26T20:00:00.003-05:00

It was an interesting Feb break.

Did all the Dr appts. Shoulder is feeling better. Meds and physical therapy is working. I still can't lift my arm or rotate the shoulder for the most part.

Harvard Mock Congress in Boston was interesting. We had a few issues with the three of the boys on the trip. They decided to blow off the first committee meeting. Little did they know that 1) my co-advisor and I were checking on them, and 2) The committee chairs were taking formal attendance. I sat in one of the committees and I heard two of the boys names being read out and of course, no boys anywhere! So, I call them on their cell phone and they didn't answer. I call their parents to let them know their sons are MIA (Missing in Action) and within five minutes I get a phone call from the boys telling me their cell phones were turned off. Gee - if their cell phones were turned off, how did their parents get a hold of them so quickly????? Yes, I left a message but one of the boys slipped and admitted they were "screening" their calls. Stupid kids. Another boy decided to smoke in their hotel bathroom and run the shower to try and cover the smoke. The room was a non-smoking room and they all signed an agreement that no smoking was allowed on the trip. Of course the fact they are only 16 and 17 years old means nothing. The girls were fine. Giggles and typical girly behavior. They were good about obeying the curfew at midnight which was good. It was the other students from other schools that tended to be a pain in the butt since their advisers were not watching them. I hate having to watch other kids when they are not my responsibility.

When I wasn't sitting in on meetings with the kids, I walked around the Prudential Center and Copley Place. The Sheraton is attached to these malls. EXPENSIVE!!!!! I ended up having to buy new shoes because my black dress shoes fell apart on me when I was walking around Harvard. I went to Aldo and bought a pair for $50! I tend to purchase really cheap shoes so the fact that I paid $50 for a pair of shoes was a huge deal for me.

I met teachers from all over the country at the conference. Some high schools from IL were there too - all suburb schools. Overall, it was a good and educational trip. Most of the kids got into their roles as congressmen(women) so it was a good experience. Only one of the kids wanted to take a tour of Harvard University on Friday so my co-advisor and I took him to the campus tour and we had a faculty luncheon on campus. Harvard Square and Cambridge is always a unique experience.

Came home on Sunday night exhausted. I need a break from my break! :-)

Hope everyone has a good week -

I'm on vacation! Yahoo!

2008-02-18T12:17:00.002-05:00

I'm officially on Feb break. Yeah!

I have Dr's appt's, hair appt, physical therapy appt, etc. Sorta busy. This is the week I tend to get all this crap done.

Rotator cuff is still a problem. I find that when I don't use my arm or shoulder a great deal it tends to feel OK. I can't lift my arm/shoulder very high. The pain is insane! The pain meds and antiflammatory works but I can only take them at night since they make me really sleepy. I suck up the pain during the day.

When I was working at Paws this weekend, I overdid it and the pain in my shoulder was killing me. I get very frustrated because it takes me more time to do things since I use my left arm more. And then I end up using the right arm and the pain kills! I know this is my own issue and I need to work on it. Ughy!

Today is the only day that I don't have any appointments so I plan on taking it somewhat easy and head over to Barnes and Noble at some point to get some correcting done.

It's raining here today. In the 50's. Sorta of a blah day. I guess the rain is better than snow! :-)

On Thursday, I head to Harvard Mock Congress with my co-advisor and 13 students in Boston. We will be staying at the Sheraton in Boston until Sunday. Schools from all over the country will be there so it will be a great opportunity for the kids to meet other kids from other schools and places. And, I like meeting teachers from all over the country too! :-)

So, it will be a busy week.

I won't have email access at the end of the week so if I don't respond to emails or blogs, please know it's because I have no access to the Internet. My co-advisor is going to bring her laptop but we don't know if we have to pay for Internet at the hotel or not. My laptop is not working right now and doesn't have wireless anyway.

Have a great week!!! :-0)