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? :=)

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

The new school year has officially kicked my butt!


Here is the scoop on the past few months:


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

One week down . . . .

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

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

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

Stay positive and have a wonderful week! :=)

Officially back to school on Tuesday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's almost time to go back to school

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attended a Volleyball Coaches Clinic on Saturday & Daylight Savings Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

Etc, etc, etc. . . . . .

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

Where do I begin?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where do I begin with my crazy schedule and life?

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bump, set, spike!