Seating Arrangement #237

The title of this post is an exaggeration, but I do rearrange my desks frequently. I keep playing with arrangements and discover some that work well for some activities, and others help me separate some problem areas. (OK! The talkers!)

I am trying this for the week.

This is a huge open rectangle. I should be able to see every face from my desk. When we are using the board or the document reader, one row will have to have chairs moved to the opposite side of their desk.

Is this going to work? Stay tuned.

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?

Goals for 2016-2017

I always encourage my sophomores to make goals for the coming school year. I remind them that every school year is a chance to change. It is true for me, too. Even after 37 years, I still have changes that need to be made and many skills that need improvement.

My two main goals for this year:

1. Every afternoon when I leave school, I will have my room ready to go for the next day.
         In the past, I have left quite a few things undone, making it necessary to arrive at school at
7:00 the next morning. I'm a morning person, and I like being in the building before students arrive, but one little disruption can throw off my prepping for the day.

         This year when I leave, I will have the date and quote for for the day on the board. Bell work
         will be posted, and I will have any materials I need for classes organized and ready to go.

2. I will brainstorm, write, and revise with my students.
          I used to do this all the time. Last year, it dawned on me that my students dreaded writing more than they have in the past. We have concentrated mainly on the writing evaluated on State Testing for the past few years.

         This year, I am going to discover ways to make writing fun again. Writing with them and all
         of us sharing writing is one step in the right direction.

Other things that need improvement: developing stronger relationships with students, creating lesson plans that require student movement out of seats, and actually using my classroom blog again.

I figure I have a maximum of eight years left. I plan to enjoy every one of them!

Daughters in Education

I think I have written before about being the 4th generation in a family of teachers. Well, that makes my daughters 5th generation educators. Both of them are now in the administrative end of education.

Daughter #1 is my assistant principal at Tiny Town High. She, along with the head principal, have implemented quite a few changes in our curriculum and even our teaching schedule. It has been interesting working with her--and I am always quite proud of the work she does. (Even when I don't agree 100%.) She does a great job of letting teachers know she appreciates the extra effort we put in. She has even added a bit of fun into our days.

Daughter #2 is leaving her elementary classroom and becoming an Instructional Coach in another elementary school in the same district. She has excellent classroom management skills that she needs to pass on. (She puts me to shame.) I know she will be working with a new discipline plan that the school has adopted. She has already been trained in the plan and used it several years in her own classroom. I am eager to hear how her year goes.

So that leaves me... still in the classroom. And frankly, I would hate what my daughters are doing. I love putting my room together, learning about my students, and dealing with the challenges. My classroom is where the fun is. I don't plan on leaving it.

I'm guessing you can figure out what we talk about when we are all together.

Oh, and I won't be at all surprised someday if they find an educator gene. I'm pretty sure it runs deep in my family.

That Time of Year When Back-To-School Nightmares Begin

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold..."
When Back-To-School nightmares haunt my dreaming
And from few or none do anything I expect

William Shakespeare didn't know how I could make his lovely sonnet into something entirely different than he intended. Sorry, Will! Took a few liberties.

Officially, I had my first back-to-school nightmare. I have one every year. Here is a post of nightmares of the past. They are usually a bit frantic and always pretty darn funny.

This year, my principal (not to be confused with my daughter who is my assistant principal) had 30+ students enrolled in my 6th hour drama class. (There are really 23 or so.) As the hour progressed, more and more kids kept showing up. I finally had someone count, and we were over 50. To top it off, the librarian was also teaching a class that hour, and the principal had decided that we needed to share my room. She could take half, and I could take the other half-- or use the auditorium.

I woke up laughing. It was a bit like herding cats. Every plan made for the first day went straight out the window. This was the authentic me-- flying by the seat of my pants.

And once again, I sure am glad it was just a nightmare.

Of course, if I don't get busy planning for the 23 drama students, I might feel like I am herding cats...! This is just the kick in the pants I needed to start planning 2016-2017.

Yep. That time of year again.

Well, July 4th is Over

Every year I get a shock on the day or two after July 4th when all the back to school lists and supplies are displayed in the stores. What???!!!! You'd think I would be used to it by now. Nope.

Don't get me wrong. I love new school supplies. And I mean LOVE. I search out pencil erasers, cool storage containers, my favorite pens and markers, colorful paper clips, and composition notebooks. (Ah...the smell of brand new notebooks and newly sharpened pencils!) After almost 55 years of buying back-to-school supplies, it never gets old.

That being said, I hate thinking that my summer is almost over every July 4th. It has come to signal the end of summer fun, when it is actually just a halfway point. Summer fun does continue, but it seems the 2nd half of summer goes too fast. I blame the darn school supplies already being in the stores. They distract my attention from fun to planning for the coming year. (Or at least they are responsible for the panic that I'm not planning. Panic really detracts from my fun.)

Does that mean I'll ignore those aisles for awhile? Heck no! I want to shop before all the good stuff is gone.

And this is the split personality that I deal with daily!

Last Day of School Activity

Beginnings and Endings are important to me. (Who am I kidding? So is every day in between.)

This year, I wanted a closing goodbye that reminded my students of our year and all that we had studied and learned.

First, they wrote a reflection writing that would not be returned to them. They were to reflect on their favorite unit or activity and why they liked it.  They did the same for their least favorite. Finally, they were to give next year's sophomores some advice on surviving the class with Mrs. E. They were honest and gave me some activities to think about changing for next year. They also made me laugh with their advice.  ("Don't tick her off, and you will be fine." "Do your work. It will bite you in the butt if you don't.") I totally forgot two other questions I included: What is the first thing you think of when you think of English class, and what is the first thing you think when you walk in this classroom? I loved reading those answers. Consider adding those to a test or a quick write.

For the rest of the hour, we played a game.

I created colored card stock "game" pieces. Each table would have a different color of the exact same game pieces. Each playing piece listed a piece of literature (novels, plays, poems, lyrics, essays, letters, articles, and short stories) that we had studied this year.

When the students walked in, they saw the desks in this order. (And yes, this is another desk arrangement.) There were four groups with five students in a group, and they had to work together.

So the game (and I use that term loosely) involved me reading a line from a piece of literature. Then students in each group would shuffle through their titles, and once they thought they had the correct piece, one person from the group would bring (run, leap, elbow others, you name it!) the piece/title to me.

The first group to bring me the correct title would earn two points. If another group was correct but not first, they would earn one point. Incorrect meant no points. I kept score on the whiteboard. It was easy to keep track of who was first because each group had a different color of game pieces.

Since this was a comprehensive assignment, quotes had to be pretty obvious if the stories were from the first of the year. It challenged them to remember and work together.

And oh, the racing! ( I feared for my safety a couple of times. yikes!) There was quite a bit of scrambling.  If everyone had the wrong answer, they were all given a 2nd chance.

The students were amazed at just how much we had covered in 180 days.

The prize was cans of pop or individual bags of chips for the winners, and Airhead candy for all. Sophomores are so competitive that even if prizes are pathetic, they still will kill themselves trying to win.

Finally, we ended the hour with a group photo.

I reminded them that I would always be watching for signs of them in the world.

Them: "So basically you mean you will be stalking us?"

Me:  "Well, I guess you would call it that. I call it caring about who you are and what you do with your life. Feel free to stay in touch, so I don't have to 'stalk' you!"

And with that, the class of 2018 exited Room 502. What a fun, reflective way to end a great year.