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

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???

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 . . . .

Survived AP boot camp :=)

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

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????

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 . . .

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!

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?

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

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 :=)

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

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.

One week down . . . .

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

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

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

Stay positive and have a wonderful week! :=)

Officially back to school on Tuesday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's almost time to go back to school

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How's your summer????

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

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 . . . .

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!

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 . . . . . .

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 . . . . .

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.