Slice of Life: Dog Snuggles 3/5

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

This morning, my dog was extra cuddly. I have been home sick from school for 4 days now, and she seems to know that I am still not feeling well. I love how pets are so intuitive about how you are feeling. Carmela draped herself over me and snuggled right up to me all day.  It made me feel so much more positive.

I love having a dog. Even though there are sometimes situations like this:

It is worth the extra clean up to have the doggie snuggles every day.

Slice of Life: Visits 3/4

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.


Tonight was night two of conferences. I love the conversations, I love the opportunity to connect with parents and highlight the individuality of my students. I love the self-reflection that the conversations cause, even when they cause me to question my practices. But most of all, I love the visits.

Every year, without fail, Rigo comes to visit. This young man, who is now an adult, is one of the reasons I keep teaching. When he was in my fifth grade class, I worked hard with him. He was struggling to keep up, he needed encouragement and he needed to strengthen his skills. We worked hard and he knew I cared about his success. The class that he was in was one of those active and challenging groups of kids. I had recently moved up to fifth grade from first grade, and some of those kids sure made me work hard. Rigo played around a bit, but always tried to remove himself from those shenanigans. He had better things to do. He wanted to get an education. He knew that I was going to do everything that I could do to help every one of those students succeed and he worked hard. Then they all moved on to other schools for middle school. For many of my students, this is where my story with them ended. Not so with Rigo.

I look forward each year to checking in with this young man. He started visiting right away in sixth grade. He came to report how he was and what was happening with him. I have heard reports all through middle school and high school, until he graduated last year. It helped that his younger siblings have continued to go to my school so he has come along each year to come say hi. He makes a point to seek me out and say hello.

Tonight, I spoke for fifteen minutes with a kind and polite young man who is working part-time as a security guard and going to community college. He is planning to transfer to a local university and to study criminal justice. He wants to be a firefighter or a police officer. I am so proud of the young man that Rigo has become, and I am happy that he continues to want to share this with me.

I hope every teacher has at least one Rigo in her life to help her remember why she became a teacher.

Slice of Life: Conferences 3/3

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

     Tonight, I had parent teacher conferences. It was really weird for me because I have been out sick from school most of the last two weeks. I will be out again tomorrow. I just made it there for conferences today and will make it there for conferences tomorrow. I don't love it that my students are having to deal with having a substitute for so much time, but I can't help it. I hope I will get better soon. Most people are understanding about it. I try not to go into too much detail, but I am straightforward if they ask what is wrong.
     I like this time of year because I like talking to parents about their child. I love every one of my students and I like the chance to celebrate each of their accomplishments and to share strategies with parents. I like building relationships with families.
     This year, now that I am home from a first night of successful conversations, I am finding myself reflecting on the incredibly ridiculous workload that we face in this era of education. I had some great conversations tonight, but they are tinged with a few questions that make me feel like I need to defend myself. There are so many things that we could be doing right and so many things that most likely need improvement. There are so many people that we answer to and so much that we have to prove. When something has to give, where does that happen? Is it the visible things that matter most or the invisible ones?
     Am I doing a perfect job with this group of students this year? No, I am human. But I can promise that I am doing the best job that I can and giving the most of myself that I can give. I think that should be enough. Shouldn't it?

Slice of Life: Sick Teacher 3/2

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.


I am sick.
I feel unwell.
I miss my students.
I just want to lie here.
I want the medicine to work.
I have to do lesson plans.
I don't want to give the sub too much to do.
I can't believe my (un)luck.
I need to rest.
I need to drink plenty of fluids.
I might need surgery.
I wish the antibiotics had kicked it last week.
I am tired all the time.
I have parent conferences this week.
I just want the world to stop for a few days.
I wish I had never heard of Diverticulitis.
I want to whine for a few moments more.
When will it get better?

As I was writing this list, which is shaped like a poem, but not really poetry, I had to smile. It made me think of the poem "Sick" by Shel Silverstein from my all-time favorite poetry anthology, Where the Sidewalk Ends. How I wish it were in that whimsical spirit that I were writing. "What's that you say? You say today is Saturday? Goodbye, I'm going out to play." If only.

Slice of Life: Positive Thinking

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.


It has been a long while since I have written on this blog.  Coming back here to get started with my Slice of Life challenge, I stumbled across the beginning of a post that was started in August and never finished. It seems appropriate to revise my words and add my perspective at this point in the school year. I am glad for the reminder to celebrate!


     I forgot what it feels like to be excited about my job. I have spent the last few years working to make the best of my situation rather than working to have an awesome situation. I worked hard in the last two years to find fun and engaging activities and to inspire readers and writers. I think I did okay at it. I can think of at least five students who started the year hating reading and writing and ended the year loving both. That is success when you are talking about changing mindsets of 8th grade students. The majority of the students became better readers and realized that reading can be fun. My students all wrote novels for NaNoWriMo and maintained blogs. They all figured out how to write better and how to find enjoyment in that writing. These were also successes.
      However, I didn't take the time to celebrate these things. I focused on the negative. The students who continued to fake read and barely write. I let them get to me. I went against my nature and fell down the rabbit hole of excuses for their behaviors. I let myself be influenced into complaining about that which I could not change and not focusing on the good things happening and the ways that I could change some things. This had to do with internal and external factors alike: some toxic influences, a negative pattern in my thoughts, a boss who tended to be negative, etc.
   
     This year, I am surrounded by positive thinking and good attitudes. I am conscious of the need to find celebrations even in the weeks that seem impossible to get through. I have changed my perspective and I enjoy my work again. Part of the issue is the ability to work with the age group that I most enjoy working with. After working at many different levels, I am convinced that every teacher has an age group that is the most natural fit for him/her. Mine is middle grades. I am so much more myself when working with 4th graders than I was when working with 1st graders or with 8th graders. I can be myself and love my students and get hugs and drawings and notes that make me smile. There is so much more energy in my step, and I have so much more energy to give.
     Does that make my workplace perfect? No. I still struggle this year with students who are incredibly chatty and some that are just not very nice to their peers. I still have a few students who choose not to be convinced that reading is a good thing to do. I have a lot of students who don't really know how to be polite...they need my guidance to help them learn what is respectful and what is not. I have a hard time getting through my whole lesson because there is little impulse control in this group and I get interrupted. Every. Single. Lesson. However, my ability to continue to plug away and to try to make this year a great one for my class is directly related to my change in attitude. I have lifted a weight of negativity off my shoulders and this makes it easier to persevere.

The power of positive thinking is mind-blowing and I am so glad I have rediscovered this power.

Slice of Life: Hectic days

Every Tuesday, a number of amazing bloggers write a Slice of Life. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

This school year, I am happier than I have been in a long time. I was given the opportunity to move out of middle school and back into fourth grade. I jumped at the chance. I went into education to be an elementary school teacher. I love being able to teach all the subjects. I love to read, I love to write, I love math, I love science, I love history, I love teaching it all.  I also think that there is a definite comfort zone for every teacher. Yes, I am certified to teach grades 1-8, but I am most comfortable with 4th and 5th grade. This year I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I am invigorated and working hard again.

That being said, I have one of those crazy active classes that drive me bonkers some days. I get hugs and pictures to make up for my patience being tried, but I do reach the end of my patience some days. We are working hard to establish a safe and caring environment. We do things in the Responsive Classroom way, we have morning meetings, and we work to be sure everyone is accepted as part of our collaborative community. This is really hard to do when there are a few kids that struggle with empathy. We are getting there. We will get there, we will.

This school year has been especially full of new things for teachers in my district. There is a new student information system and online gradebook to learn to use, a new evaluation system that requires an in-depth plan, and more mandates from the central office than we can keep track of.

I am working hard to plant my two feet firmly on the ground and to get us all on track. It feels like we take two steps forward and one step back. Part of the problem is the ridiculous amount of fabulous ideas out there. Taking a step back and evaluating my goals will go far in helping to make the decisions I must make. It is mighty overwhelming at times, but I know I will succeed in providing what my students need and giving them a classroom in which they can feel safe and loved.  It will all work out, it will.

This is a message I need to give myself today because the day was crazy. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn there was a full moon today. It must be something else in the air. Now, I need to take a deep breath and repeat to myself: it will work out, it will.

Slice of Life: Meetings 8/5

Every Tuesday, a number of amazing bloggers write a Slice of Life. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Allow me a few seconds of your time to rant about my last two days.  I went to a district meeting with my school team in order to write our school improvement plan.  However, the district in its infinite wisdom decided to fill our days with presentations that gave overviews of initiatives that we have been implementing for at least two years.  I get that there is a possibility that a lot of schools had not been doing these things, but why do the rest of us have to sit through presentations that do not increase our understanding about anything and suck up the time that we should be spending on analyzing data and writing our plan?  It is so frustrating to be there for one thing and to end up actually receiving something far inferior and completely different from what you signed up for.  I think our team will come up with a good plan, but we would have been much better served having the time to work on it rather than having to sit through presentations that did not move us forward in our understanding.  I know many people bring this up all the time, but why are we expected to differentiate our instruction if the powers that be do not see the need or make the effort to differentiate theirs?  AAaaaaannnd, Breathe.  Okay, rant over.  

Now that I have calmed down a bit, I have started thinking about the way this day affected me.  How awful that the people planning this day did not respect our time as educators.  How awful that these people did not consider our prior knowledge in their lessons for us.  How awful that they did not recognize that there were many different levels of understanding in the room and that some of us were hearing this for the third time.  As a learner, I felt powerless and without a voice. I was not engaged and lost a lot of the motivation that I came with.  I came to work and expected to be given the opportunity to show what I could do.  Unfortunately, the people organizing this event did not give us that opportunity.  

This experience served as another reminder to be careful about the power structure in my classroom.  When students feel powerless and do not have a voice, they will become disengaged with the lesson.  I need to make sure I plan for the many levels of understanding that I have in the classroom, and I need to make sure that students are given enough time to work when there is a task that needs to be accomplished.  I also know that I need to make sure I have things organized. Wasting everyone's time by not being ready to present is so disrespectful.  

I will always strive to respect the learners in my classroom by making sure I know about their understandings and working to not waste their time.  I hope the next time I go to a district training I am able to feel more engaged and productive.