The First Days of School

We have completed the first two full weeks of school, and I am exhausted:

Rosters
Seating Charts
Pre-testing
Computer assignments
Setting up Google Classrooms
First faculty meetings
First PLC's
Grading
Last year's State Assessment results to analyze**

And my feet are killing me. (My Apple Watch thinks I am a rock star in the "Activity" app.)

If you think I'm complaining, you should know that I'm pretty sure I have the best of the sophomores in English and incredibly talented students in Drama and Forensics. I really like my classes.

Friday's footwear. My feet deserved a break.

**Analyzing meant going back to see if their grade in my English class was an indication of their success on the State Test.  Ideally, since we use Standards Based Grading, it should be an exact match. It wasn't. About 12% of the lower scoring students did not have scores that were reflected in their grades.  Another 4% of the higher scoring students scored higher on the test than would have been expected by looking at their class grade. I know there are quite a few factors that figure into this, but it serves as reminder to be very vigilant when grading.

**I also marked the areas that were our weakest overall. I will use that information in planning and teaching for this school year. 

So, how is your year going?

Weekly Schedule Board

I live four blocks from school. When I have a couple of free hours and I am tired of reading (rarely!), I run down to school to work for a couple of hours. Yesterday, I worked on a place to put the schedule for the three new preps I am teaching next year. (Washi tape and letters taped with double-sided tape to the non-magnetic board. With a magnetic board, I use the same tape but then the adhesive-backed magnets for the letters.)

This negates the need for the students to ask, "What are we doing today?" They always know.  (This board still needs the days of the week added along the side. I'm working on that.)

Maybe a bigger problem than students asking that question was that after I answered it 10 times, my smart mouth would start making up "creative" answers: swinging from the lights, nothing, just looking at each other, taking naps, coloring, etc. 

Lesson #1 Sophomores

Tomorrow is our first day of school.  We're on a short schedule, but there is just enough time for one quick lesson.

Lesson # 1-

The word sophomore comes from the Greek: sophos which means wise and moros which means????   Someone always answers with moron.  I accept that answer.  (Actually, it is foolish, but close enough!)  

So, I teach wise morons?  Why yes, yes I do.  

Three definitions of the word sophomore:

1.  a person in their 2nd year

2.  a know-it-all whose thinking is really immature or foolish 

3.  a wise foolish person

We extend this to include sophomoric:  marked by shallow or immature thinking.

If you teach sophomores, you know these definitions fit.

I will spend the rest of the year struggling to pull mature answers and wise reflections from my classes.  And with any luck, by next spring I'll see more wisdom than foolishness.

Wish me luck with that!

Back-To-School Nightmares

Every year I have a Back-To-School nightmare.  I wake in a panic, and then am relieved I've got a bit of summer left.  (Those darn nightmares can start in July!)

I have to share a couple of funny ones from the past.

1.  One year, I dreamed I lost the class rosters.  It was a year we were low on paper and challenged to make fewer copies.  In my dream, the principal had given us the rosters, and I didn't dare ask for another copy of all my classes.  Soooo....I took out a piece of notebook paper and told the students that I was taking roll by having them write their names on the paper.  I did this every hour, and they created my new rosters.  Genius!

The other part of this dream is that my room was a wreck and no bulletin boards were done.  Lesson plans for the 1st day:  I had my students create my bulletin boards and put up my posters!
(True teacher-- fly by the seat of your pants and wing it!)

2.  I teach English.  My math skills are lousy.  Another year, I dreamed I was teaching math to sophomores. (Some cross-curricular thing.)  If that wasn't enough of a nightmare (math!), my lesson plan was teaching them to measure and figure bra sizes and cup sizes.  I had measuring tapes and teams of students working together.  No shocker that all my sophomore boys were completely engaged and on task.

In my dream, the principals showed up, knocked on the door (good news travels fast), and in typical administrative tact asked, "Mrs. E, do you think there is any other way you could teach this skill?  Maybe something a little more school appropriate?"  Darn it. Even in my dream, they kill all my fantastic ideas!!  (I did notice the Assistant Principal stifling his giggles.)

Now if I had been the principal, I probably would have asked, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"  (And that's why they are the principals...even in my dreams I'd be a terrible principal!)

I woke up from this dream laughing out loud.


Nothing like being a teacher!  No nightmare yet this year. Stay tuned.

Back-To-School Supplies

Our district puts out a flyer for enrollment.  They include lists for classroom supplies needed at the elementary level.

High School is pretty much left out of this picture.  We tell the students on the first day, and then it takes a week or so for them to purchase what they need.

I'm using my classroom blog to cover the supplies they need this year.  I linked it to Facebook, and hopefully parents and students will be able to get the word out.

Click here to see the supply list on my classroom blog.

The Sun Goes Down On Summer

For the past fifteen years or so, I have been sharing this poem with the sophomores on the first day of school. I think the author was a junior in high school when he wrote it.

The Sun Goes Down on Summer
 by Steve Lawhead

I come to the water one last time as the sun goes down on summer.
It's going; I can feel it slip away, and it leaves a cold empty spot
a hole in my warm memories of endless golden days
and dreams as ripe as watermelons.
I'd give the world to make the summer stay.

The water is calm around me.
It's a warm, silent sea of thought dyed in the rich blues of night and memory.
Why can't things just stay the way they are?

Instead, the days rush headlong into change
and I feel like nothing's ever going to be the same.
Soon school will start again.
And all the things I thought I'd left behind will come back,
and it won't be gentle water I'll be swimming in---

It'll be noise and people and schedules and passes
 and teachers telling everyone what to do.
One more year of homework, tests and grades.
Of daily popularity contests and pressure-cooker competition
 and heaps of frustration.

The first day is the worst.
Not knowing who your friends are,
or what's changed since last year.
Trying to pick it up where you left off.
I'll look real hard for a last-year's friend
to get me from one scrambled class to another,
through halls crawling with people.
I wonder if I'll fit in.

Football practice started last week. It started without me.
I had to make a choice and football lost.
Two years on the team and it struck me--who am I doing this for?
It's just another thing people expect you to do, so you do it.
School is full of these kinds of things---
things that sap your freedom, and keep you from being yourself.

That's what I want most, to be myself. But that's hard.
Here's what I dread most: when summer goes, I go with it.
I go back to school and I change as soon as I walk through those doors.
I have to be someone everyone will like--that's a law of survival.

What would happen if I just stayed the real me?
Would they turn me off? Label me "weird"?
Would I ever get another date?
It seems like so much to risk.
But growing is a risk. Change is a risk.
And who knows, I might discover something of myself
in the coming year.
I might get closer to the person I am---what a discovery that would be!

When the doors open on Monday morning, I’ll have a fresh start,
a fresh opportunity to find myself.
I want to be ready.
________________
 
The first homework assignment of the year is for students to write about lines that resonate with them.  They agree or disagree with the author.  Some students can't wait for school to start.  They get to see their friends and have a social life again.  (That would have been me at their age.)  Others totally understand exactly what the author is saying. 
 
I am never really sure whether what we do in class stays with them or not, but I can't tell you how many students mention this poem in their end of the year writings.  I like that. 
 
No, this poem will never be considered a great poem or even a classic, but it is a great opener for the first day of school.  I'll soon find out what the class of 2015 thinks of the sun going down on their summer and how they really feel about the first days of school.

Textbook Treasure Hunt

Want a great way to make sure your student knows how to use their textbook?  (Good readers probably don't need this, but your kids who are poor readers have no idea!) 

Create a treasure hunt.  Give them 10-20 questions, asking them to search for a variety of information in their textbooks. Questions should make it so students have to use the Table of Contents, Index, Glossary, and any other additional information your textbook might include.  

Here is a sample of some questions you could ask.

1.  What is the title of Chapter 9?

2.  On what page does Chapter 6 begin?

3.  How does the glossary define abolition?

4.  List all the pages in our text where abolition is mentioned.  

5. What is the graph on page 536 showing?

6. On page 23, what word is in italics?  Why is it in italics?

Etc.  

Let the students work in pairs.  They fly through the textbooks, trying to find the information.  They are learning the shortcuts to use when they seek answers or information. This is especially helpful for your poorer readers. BUT... all students are familiarizing themselves with the material the course will cover.  (You might pick out some things from your text that are high interest for students and make sure that is part of the treasure hunt.)

Have some gum or a mint for the first pair to finish.  (Sometimes, I give a little bigger prize to the first pair to finish and something smaller for everyone who finishes.  The goal is, after all, to have everyone familiarize themselves with the textbook.)

This is a great activity for the first days of school.