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? :=)

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.

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

The new school year has officially kicked my butt!


Here is the scoop on the past few months:


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

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! :=)

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????

Summer vacation officially has started for MDawg!

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.

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.

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! :=)

Busy week after Feb break

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.

Having a great time teaching the French Revolution

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?

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

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!

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! :-(

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

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???

Whew! It's been forever since I've posted anything on this blog!

Sorry folks! I know it's been a long time since I've written on the blog. The life of M-Dawg continues to be busy and crazy. I am alive. I am kicking. I am exhausted! :-)

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

*Survived midterm exam week and finished grades. I was extremely disappointed in my freshman co-taught class grades. Over half the class failed for 2nd quarter. Part of the problem is that the SPED teacher in the room with me does not do his job and help the students (please note that I've vented about this guy many times on this blog). I follow the accomodations according to their IEP (Individual Education Plans) as best as I can. By law, I have to follow their IEP's. I have 25 kids in the class and 16 of them are on IEP's. The SPED teacher is supposed to be in the room to help these kids. He doesn't help the kids. He sits in the back of the classroom and falls asleep. In the rare occassion when I do ask him to do something, he gives me an attitude. And yes, I've already went to his head teacher and administration to complain about him and the response was not supportive nor good. He does the same thing in the other four classes that he's supposed to be co-teaching in as well. So I know it's not just me. He's riding out his time until he retires so until then we all have to suffer - including the kids. The thing that makes me so angry . . . he makes the same salary that I make! I bust my ass to do my job and he does nothing. And they (government, media, public, etc.) wonders why public eduation is failing in this country???? This guy doesn't have the same case load of SPED kids that other SPED teachers have because "he can't handle anymore kids on his case load." (per an administrator). So the administration is aware that the guy doesn't do his job. The man falls asleep in his own SPED meetings with parents and kids! I've witnessed it folks! Scary! I feel bad for my kids not doing well but there isn't anything I can do.

*The school system I work in ended up getting a loan from the state government to try and save all the teacher positions. We ended up losing 5 paraprofessionals and two custodians and 1 secretary in the end of the budget crisis. The numbers were going to be higher. Plus, the community rallied and donated over $400,000 to save jobs as well. FYI: The auditors finished their investigation and turned everything over the police to investigate the Business Manager that did all this craziness. Let's hope they fry the guy! Good news out of this experience: the city is looking to consolidate the city and school budgets. Read about it here.

*I starting teaching a new course called Current World Affairs. 10th-12th graders can take the class. I am very excited to be teaching this class because over the summer, I helped write the curriculum for it. The kids seem to be enjoying it too. The first week was interesting because a lot of seniors thought it was going to be a blow off class and I made it quite clear that it was an academic class that required work to be completed. I even assigned a two page typed essay on the first day! Kids started dropping out like flies! :-) I even have some kids contracting for honors credit for the course. The other teacher that helped write the curriculum over the summer is also teaching a section of it so her and I have been meeting once a week to plan together. She taught a section of it last semester but she found that it was tough on her own. She told me that I've been helping her stay focused and more on task. And, I guess I'm the creative one when it comes to activities so she loves that too.

*On the personal homefront, had a funny experience on Match.com. Yes, I went back to trying the online dating thing. I'm having a really hard time meeting guys so I figured, what the hell??? So, I post my profile and a few pictures of me on the site. I get an email from a 72 year old man. Yes, 72 years old. It gets better people. In this email, he asks me, "Would I like to play with his 'two Irish pototoes'"!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear God . . . he's a dirty old man! And, I check out his profile and his age requirement is 18-38 only! My age requirement was 32-48 (I'm going to be 37 next week). So that's my funny story of the week. At least I can laugh about it????

*Have school this week and then I'm off for a week for Feb break. Half of my break will be with Harvard Mock Congress and 13 students in Boston. Really could use a bit of a break.

*Yes, I will be 37 on the 14th of this month. I'm trying to grasp the idea that I'm getting old! :-)

Oh, sorry about the mispellings in this post. Blogger won't let me spellcheck for some reason???

Any news with you folks out there????

I needed this at a time when all was icky in the world!

During the week of the cuts at my school, I received an invitation from a student to attend her National Honor Society Induction Ceremony (students pick one teacher to invite that has made a difference or impact in their life). I had this student last year in my US History Honors class. In the inside of the invitation, this is what she wrote (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

"Dear M-Dawg:
I would like to thank you for your immense effort in helping me academically in the past year or so by inviting you to my National Honors Society Induction Ceremony. In US History Honors, you helped me to enjoy and value history more deeply and I am grateful for all that I have taken with me into my junior year from that class. I enjoyed the Civil War Scrapbook project that we did and the current events at the beginning of class. These, among other aspects of our class, made me see history in a new light, as one of my favorite subjects. I am also appreciative of the fact that you challenged and encouraged me to take AP US History. I am benefiting greatly from that class. I look forward to our Harvard Model Congress trip and having you as a teacher for Current World Affairs in the 2nd semester. You are a kindhearted, down to earth teacher who knows how to make students feel welcome. I feel that you have made an influential contribution to my academic excellence and getting me to where I am today. Sincerely, M-Dawg's Student"

Words can't even begin to describe how I felt when I read this note. I received it at a time when all was dark in my world and I thought I might lose my job. I was very emotional all week because none of us knew if we were going to be cut.

I've received a few of these kind of notes in my nine years of teaching. As educators, we don't get this type of recognition very often. There are so many times when I want to give up teaching because I feel ungrateful and underpaid. And then ya get one of these notes or emails. Brings tears to my eyes!

I just received a nice payment in that note - it may not be monetary but it's the payment to know that I made a difference in a life.