Thursday, June 19, 2014

Summer Vacation

I spent the first two weeks of my summer hanging out with my kid sister. We had two nephews getting married in back-to-back weeks, so she came and stayed for both of them. We had a great time hanging out.  Then I went home with her to California for a week. I met her grand babies, saw her daughters' homes, met boyfriends, went to wineries, visited Tahoe, and sat on her back patio.

Arriving home on Tuesday night, I was grateful to get off the plane.  (Storms made flying nerve-racking.) I couldn't wait to see my grand kids, husband, and dog.  Yesterday, I did a lot of laundry.  And today...??

Lord, help me.
*I am going through new textbooks for next fall.
*I am hunting ideas for my lesson plan book that I get to design with the help of our Tech teacher.
*I am looking into interactive notebooks to improve the organizational skills of my students.
*And I am trying to figure out how to challenge my upper level students to exceed what they are used to achieving. (A track, B track, C track????)

To top it off:
*I am teaching a new class next fall, so I am looking for resources before our curriculum planning meeting.  The class is for students who struggle with reading and writing.  (Kind of one last charge before they take the State Assessment.)  All ideas are welcome.

Yes, I should be working on the house.  There are rooms that need painting, closets that need cleaned, and one dreadful ex-bedroom that needs some serious attention. And I can't think about anything but school.

Three months off?  Yeah, right.  My mind never strays far from the classroom.


2 comments:

  1. I used interactive notebooks with my biology students this last school year. My students tend to be struggling readers and learners, including quite a few with learning disabilities (ESE). The notebooks were a complete WIN for organizational skills. EVERYTHING got glued in the notebook - class notes, warmups, diagrams, graphic organizers. It may not have been a "textbook" interactive notebook because I didn't have students do as much of the "output" exercises. But it surely kept them organized. No more frustrating searches for missing notes or handouts, because they were all in the notebook. I highly recommend using them.

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    1. I am so glad to hear that. I think I am going to use them with a small class this year, with the hopes of using them with all my students this year. I can see it being so useful to the organization, but I also think that I need to be very certain of exactly how I want them to be put together for English class. I guess I will be jumping in cautiously!

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