Jenny - Day 4 (3/23)

Day 4

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Before School 7:20 – 8:00

As most mornings, I finish, print, and copy today’s handouts.

First Period English 2 Inclusion 8:00 – 9:30

Today was really great in this class! Three students absent. I found out one has the flu and will be out until tomorrow. The kids are in a pretty good mood, and I am not going to lie…I love smaller classes because you do really get to know all the kids. I know something about all the students in this class and it makes a difference. When you have 32 kids crammed in, then, it’s all about management, but with smaller groups like this one, you can be more relaxed. It’s nice. We start class by quietly reading in our SSR books for 15 minutes or so. A few kids comment, “I only have seventy pages left!” “I think I do want to read the last book of this set even if we aren’t doing SSR every day when we get back from spring break.” Though it does take time, I have had AMAZING SSR success this semester with my sophomores. I love when they love to read.

We are beginning an essay today on the story we just finished. Kids gather supplies (glue sticks, scissors, highlighters…all provided by me) and we get to work. We block off two pages in their interactive notebooks for work I haven’t handed back. (I am the world’s worst grader!) We paste in the prompt and essay checklist and get to work. We analyze and annotate the prompt and discuss what we need to do. We begin brainstorming for each character (this is a compare/contrast essay). I model my thinking as we set up a chart in our notebooks. Kids write a bit on their own and then we share as a class. Students add to their notes as we discuss. I am big on “collective thinking” which to me is when we all write something on our own, but then we share and write down all ideas on our papers that come from discussion. Our papers are way more complete when we record and we have all the awesome info we need. After students and whole class work through the first characters, personality, motivations, and point of view regarding her family’s heritage (all parts of the prompt), they go back into the story find quotes they will use in their essay to support their claims. Some work alone, others together. After about 15 minutes we share and put all our quotes on the board. I give them a little preview of where we are headed tomorrow and next week and they are off. We were productive and focused today.

2nd Period AP Literature 9:40 – 11:10

We review the fever chart assignment and brainstorm possibilities as a whole class. Students form their own groups and move to different places to get to work. They need to let me know this class who is in their group and what character they are tracking for the project. All groups report and there are a variety of different characters chosen, which is good. We’ll have some variety when we present these later. Their main job is to review ALL of Act 1, Act 2 and half of Act 3 for quotes from their character that will go on the chart. They work and talk and most groups locate and organize 20-30 quotes. Three groups are working in the teacher workroom at the open tables. One group is on a hallway bench and two groups are in the classroom with me. They are mature and responsible young people and they work and I don’t worry about them at all. I check in about twice with each group during the class period, and the rest of the time, I try to clean up my desk, organize papers, and respond to a few emails. The groups in my room and I spend the last 15 minutes or so talking about college, poets we love, tattoos, Hamlet, etc…These conversations are fun and important. You, know it’s business most days, but sometimes, it’s nice to just talk and be humans. Kids are cool and amazing and these conversations, though maybe not linked to a curriculum standard help build and maintain positive teacher/student relationships and positive learning environments.

3rd Period English 2 Inclusion 11:15 – 12:45

This class does same lesson as 1st. They read SSR and are way more sluggish than the other group. We have LAST lunch, and so some days people are just tired and hungry…Ug..me too. But once we get going, we accomplish the same goals as first, but this class wasn’t really as fun. A few kids are just not that into it, but they do their work. I do, however, have to tell this class they must find and record three quotes (including line and page numbers) before they can leave for lunch. Most work super hard and get it done. A few finish right at the bell. And one of my special friends from the other day tries to sneak out. He HAS written three quotes, but not line or page numbers. I make him sit down and do it. His buddy waits for him. He does. It’s fine. We accomplish our targets and they are set to continue.

Lunch 12:45 – 1:25

We have a nice lunch. Since we had the new principal meeting with the superintendent, we do talk a lot about who we think we will get and what it will be like….EEK! At the end of lunch my colleague comes in and says, “Did you get the email about BHB???” OH No! These aren’t words you want to hear….I go into his room.

Planning 1:30 – 3:00

So, as part of school climate/spirit, my colleague, Wil and I have decided to try to get our school’s old news show Black Hawk Broadcasting back up and running. We have three kids enrolled during our planning periods who are working on BHB, as we call it. We trust the kids and they’ve made one video that was pretty good for 8th grade orientation and are working on, like, weekly news shows to show during homeroom. We cannot get this as a class because there’s not room or money, but Wil and I both really believe in it as a way to enhance school spirit and communication, so we are doing our best. BUT, we haven’t been monitoring the kids like we should. They’ve been using a small studio room in the media center and we got an email from the librarians saying they weren’t on task and had messed up the room. So….we call them in and give them a good old fashion talking-to, a come-to-Jesus, what have you…It’s not fun but necessary, and they are good kids, but they need to pull themselves together. We go over new ground rules and they seem sorry and say they will get back to work. We plan to meet them at 2:45 to see what they have of the first BHB episode.

I chat in another teacher’s classroom for most of the rest of planning about a variety of things. Three of us are in there. We talk about changes we’d like to see next year and about ideas for “selling” our school more to the local community. We now have a STEM school in our district and kids think that because it’s STEM and a new building that it’s better. BUT we have AP classes and super instruction and lots to offer kids. We have a robotics club and drama and academic rigor…so we sort of just throw out ideas that might come up as we look ahead to next year’s vision…we’ll see. There are about 4 on my hall (English/Social Studies) who have 4th planning. We are all big thinkers, too…some we do a lot of thinking and talking sometimes during planning. It’s hard to buckle down and grade after three straight classes. Just a fact of end of day planning time.

At 2:45 we go see the kids and the video is pretty good. I have some concerns about the tone of a few parts…we make some notes and plan to meet first thing tomorrow to give the kids the changes they need to make. We have no idea how or if we can even keep this going for next year, but we are determined to try. We need to make an appointment to meet with an administrator to go over the possibilities. Who knows. I wish we could hire another English teacher and offer journalism, debate, creative writing, but…not going to happen. So, we’ll make it work.

After School 3:00 – 4:00.
I pack up my stuff and type this blog!! Time to go punch things at 9 Round, which also, is very important for teachers and any one in a stressful career…find a way to exercise and blow off steam because it makes you feel better and helps me work off some of the stress I feel. I HAVE TO GRADE THINGS TONIGHT!!!!!! LIKE A TON OF THINGS. THINGS THAT I HAVE HAD FOR WAY TOO LONG. THINGS THE KIDS NEED TO GLUE IN THEIR NOTEBOOKS!! So, I will be up grading during the basketball games tonight!! I’ll edit and share my time and what I actually accomplish this evening.