Saturday, October 18, 2008

My Day


Today marks the end of the first quarter. I managed to get all my grades uploaded last night, so this weekend is FREE!!! That means Monday morning will smell of clean laundry, freshly vacuumed carpet, and baked apple muffins. Yay!

Next week we will embark on a tour of persuasive essays, complete with transcripts of presidential speeches and political cartoons. I found this really cool site with tons of lessons on cartoons and literature, so I'm excited to see how the kids react...






Here's an outline of my day as a teacher:



6:00 - my cell phone/alarm clock goes off
6:03 - turn on the coffee pot

6:04 - take a shower

6:12 - get dressed

7:00 - eat breakfast

7:12 - leave for school
7:20 - arrive at school, sign in at the workroom, and head up to class
8:00-9:40 - English classes
9:45-10:30 - run around making copies and grading work during planning period

10:30-12:10 - classes
12:15-12:40 - twenty-five whole minutes to eat lunch!!!
12:45-3:10 - classes
3:15 - grade, check mail, clean chalkboard, etc.

5:00 - leave school with more work
5:07 - open the front door, drop my bags, and run to the bathroom (high school bathrooms...I don't think so)
5:09 - change clothes, turn on the tv, start preparing for tomorrow
7:30 - find something to eat for dinner (usually a can of soup and some crackers)

7:40 - eat dinner while grading/checking e-mail/researching for tomorrow's lesson
9:30 - fall into bed, grab a book
10:15 - asleep




Sunday, October 5, 2008

Week Seven

It's week seven here at my school. Everyone walks by chanting, "Can you believe it? Time flies so fast!!!" while I'm secretly thinking ONLY WEEK SEVEN?!?!

After our initial assessments, it's clear my students need some serious help with writing. Even though William Faulkner made stream-of-consciousness famous in the 1930s, kids today are making it infamous with the words "like," "so," "then," and "cuz" strung along the lines of paper without any hint of punctuation. I know that they have amazing ideas, and that they are capable of articulation; however, it will be a definite challenge to bring those ideas to life without stifling the students' enthusiasm.