Coincidence?

Today we had our last English methods class of the year, and our professor decided to try out a few surrealist experiments on us. One of them involved writing conditional statements (If..., then...) to create a poem. The trick was, one person wrote the if part of the statement, and then folded the paper over. The next person wrote the "then" statement without looking at the "if" part- and of course, in a room full of young 20 somethings, double entendres and hilarity ensued. However, the best statement was one that, completely randomly, possibly made the most sense to any of us:

"If I made my choice again....I'd quit my job and move to Mexico."

If only...

In all seriousness, I do like my job a lot of the time though...and with that swine flu, Mexico isn't looking like a good choice anyway.

Middle Schoolers Say the Darndest Things...

In the middle of our guided reading group meeting during my second period class, as we were discussing the Holocaust and how Jews tried to escape to free countries, one of my male students leans over and starts sniffing. I looked over at him with a quizzical look on my face and he says, quite seriously,

"What deodorant are you wearing Ms. D? It smells really good!"

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Too Busy To Blog

Matt Gruskin yelled (and by yelled I mean mentioned via gchat) at me for not blogging recently.  Sorry.  I am ridiculously busy.  Here's a quick rundown of what my week this week has looked like, so perhaps you can get an idea of what a busy week in the life of me entails:

Monday: teaching 7-3:09, organizing my classroom/finishing a bulletin board until 5, ran downtown, got Starbucks, TFA focus group meeting 6-7:30, home to lesson plan, shower, and pass out

Tuesday: teaching 7-3:09, boys volleyball game (which I have to go to- the school teams know I am their number ONE fan), quick break to meet with one of my favorite groups of TFA girls, class until 7:30, home to lesson plan, shower, and pass out (and catch Adam Lambert on American Idol...)

Wednesday: half day, professional development, run home to grab a few things I forgot, training for TFA summer position until 7, meeting with my Program Director to organize some things that were supposed to be dealt with by other people but have now fallen on me if I want to get them done right- which lasted until 8:30, then home to lesson plan and prepare for my observation tomorrow.

I'm lucky I have time to breathe.  And this is only Wednesday.  Tomorrow I have to write my grad paper which is due on Friday, do all the reading for my weekend classes, and begin to think about a) my new summer job, b) revising a test I have to give, and c) organizing my room, which is threatening to swallow me whole.  So my apologies on the lack of updates, but the end of the year is apparently not nearly as relaxing as I expected it to be.

On the plus side...there's only about 40 days left of school :)

A Historical Event in Room 222

My 7th graders were truly amazing today, and showed me the kind of teacher I want to be.  It was incredible.  I spent 2 hours after school on Monday in my classroom with my Penn mentor (an unheard of amount of time for me, since I have last period prep and am usually out by 4, at the latest) cleaning and throwing out the forest's-worth of papers that I had accumulated in my classroom.  All of this was in preparation to start the much talked of and rather scary Writer's Workshop,when kids get to produce their own writing at their own pace without me hovering as I always have to when I announce that it's time to write. 

While ideally I would have wanted to spend my night prepping for my first foray into this teaching method, I had to spend it instead worrying over the massive unit plan due for my English methods class.  Thus, this morning found me running around my classroom frantically trying to get posters made, get the supplies set up, and to prep myself for giving my first writing mini-lesson that could be mildly successful.

When my 7th graders came in, I was mildly panicky- I literally had nothing else to teach this morning if this failed somehow, and on top of that, the Learning Support teacher was out this morning, so all of the special ed kids I normally do not have to worry about management-wise were in my room for what I considered to be a slightly dangerous activity.  I explained the writer's workshop after our daily edit, and the kids actually seemed mildly interested.  We talked about ideas for writing and how to set up their writing materials, and then I gave them the challenge: write for 15 minutes without anyone in the class talking or being disruptive.  15 minutes of silence is probably some that has never been achieved in my classroom, so it was with trepidation that I sat down to write myself, as my students chose their topics and began their own writing.....

...and magically, it was silent in my room.  I made silent bets with myself about how long this could last...3 minutes? 5?  do i hear 10?  I kept glancing at the clock and to my complete and utter amazement, every kid in my classroom WROTE about something for 15 MINUTES.  On top of that, almost every kid then volunteered to share out one interesting word, phrase, or sentence from their writing- and it was all really good! 

Not only that, but with some mild chaos (but very mild, compared to the norm) we moved into silent reading, with even one of my toughest students stretching out on the reading rug and reading his book about the Titanic in a way that, if he wasn't engaged the whole time with it, at least was a very convincing act.

I was so shocked at the end of class I almost cried for joy, and compromised by promising to buy them donuts for Thursday.  The way to a student's heart is almost always through his or her stomach... and today, apparently, it was also through writing.  

Back to School, Back to School...

Happy Easter!  But, not so happy is the fact that I have to go back to school tomorrow :(  Going back is so tough after breaks.  The kids have forgotten everything you taught them, and you have forgotten what you were trying to teach them before the break.  I'm not sure what state I left my classroom in, and I really have no desire to wake up at 6am tomorrow.  At least there are only 10 weeks left, and with a lot of field trips, assemblies, and other fun stuff planned, they should (theoretically) go quickly.

Death by Unit Plan

This unit plan may actually kill me... if I don't return to school on Monday, you all know why.

Spring Break

How is it fair that I have so much more work to do over spring break than my students?  While I did go to New York and had a blast seeing people there (and eating far too much food...), I am now home in CT and rather than being able to lazily relax, I've had doctor's appointments, errands to run, and a ridiculously large project for my methods class.  Ugh.  So much for having free time...

Teachers Gone Wild!

I am officially on prep which means I am therefore thisclose to being on spring break for a week!  Here's to heading off to happy hour after work with my roommates!

Everybody Dance!

We had a middle-school dance today, for kids whose behavior has been consistently good, especially during PSSAs, and to my surprise, it was actually a total blast. I got to be the awkward white teacher out on the dance floor, who didn't know any of the moves or the dances (except the cupid shuffle...that one is easy since they tell you want to do), and I think my kids were more embarrassed than I was :)

All the K-5 teachers told us we were crazy to be having a dance, especially with the lights off (GASP!), and I have to admit, I had apprehensions myself. But the kids really rose to the occasion, with only a few students having to be separated for grinding (by an NTA with a yardstick...hilarious!) and as far as I know, nothing awful went down in the shadowy corners of the cafetorium (a mix between cafeteria and auditorium). It was nice to see the kids prove the rest of the school wrong for once and not live up to the low expectations the rest of the school sets for them as the unruly middle schoolers. All the teachers and kids left with smiles on their faces, which is always a nice way to end things right before break :)