22 November 2009 Sunday, Nov 22 2009 

holidays godsweigh 11:40 am

What a weird week last week was!  Monday, my classes reviewed for the test we were having on Tuesday, and of course on Tuesday we took the test.  Wednesday was the 7th grade writing benchmark.  Thursday and Friday I actually taught, but the stuff we’re teaching right now is a little piecemeal.  Thursday was graphing ordered pairs on 2-d coordinate planes and Friday was tables, charts, and graphs.  I didn’t even bother with a lesson plan for Monday through Wednesday (even though that’s a big no-no in my education teachers’ minds) and by the time Thursday got there, I wasn’t really sure what I needed to be doing.  It was like the first three days of the week had put my mind in a fog. I had to do a bit of scrambling to put together warm ups for both days and work through the assignments so that I would know what I was doing.  I didn’t like it! 

This week isn’t much better.  We only have school on Monday and Tuesday, then we’re out for Thanksgiving holiday.  I’m not going to be there Monday, though, because I have my PPR exam to take.  I have all my sub plans done and set out.  That only took forever and a day last Friday!  Hah!  So, I really only teach on Tuesday, but somehow I need to try to fit in Monday’s stuff AND Tuesday’s stuff.  I don’t know that I’m really going to try to cram two day’s worth of curriculum into one, though.  I can always pick back up when we get back from holiday.  Especially since we’re supposed to cover sequences and nth terms on Monday.  Some of my kids don’t have very good number sense and they just don’t see patterns, so sequences will actually be a bit tough for them to get.  There’s no way on this Earth that I would let an unknown sub teach new material, so I set my lesson plan up so that the kids will be finishing what we started on Friday.  That means Monday gets pushed back to Tuesday, and Tuesday gets pushed back to…sometime next week, I guess.  Oh well!

What I’m really thinking about is whether I’ll be able to get and hold the kids’ attention on Tuesday to even teach, what with us all going on holiday the next day.  I really need to spend some time thinking about how to engage the students in learning about sequences and patterns.  An activity of some sort that will entertain them.  I haven’t shown a video in a while, so I may look for something along those lines.  Is it wrong for me to hope I’ll have a bunch of absentees?

In other parts of my life (believe it or not, I do do other things besides teach!), Mom and I have been planning Thanksgiving dinner.  We’re not going anywhere and we’re not having anyone over.  We’re all a bit strapped for cash this year and we really can’t afford it.  We have a simple menu: Smoked turkey, southern dressing, cranberry sauce, salad, devilled eggs, rolls, homemade apple pie a la mode.  We’re saving the sweet potatoes for Christmas, when we’ll probably fix a ham of some sort (more likely, it’ll be a turkey ham).  I also think I’m going to make sausage-cheese balls for snacking on during the day.  We have a family friend who’d never had sausage-cheese balls before, until I made them about two years ago when he was over.  He was very skeptical, but the boy likes his food so he was game to try one.  They have now been renamed “crack balls.”  I’ve never seen these things disappear like they did that year!  He even scolded his mother for never making them when he was a kid!  HAH!  I’m not sure I should tell him that I’m making them again this year.  He may camp out on our porch Wednesday night if I do. 

If you’ve never made sausage-cheese balls and you’re looking for a mighty tasty hors d’oeuvres, here’s the directions:

Ingredients:

  • 1 tube (1 lb) of ground sausage (like Jimmy Dean, but it can be whatever brand you prefer), spiciness is your preference. 
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
  • 2 cups of Bisquick, Pioneer Biscuit Mix, or other brand of all-purpose baking mix (not straight flour! Biscuit/pancake mix ONLY!)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients VERY WELL.  I often mix this by hand, but if you have a professional-grade mixer with a dough hook, you can use it.  Be aware that even professional-grade mixers will not mix this stuff quite as well as needed and the final kneading will need to be by hand.  The resulting dough will be very stiff. 

Pull off tablespoon-ish sized portions and roll into balls.  Place about 1 inch apart on greased or non-stick cookie sheets.  Bake for about 10 minutes at 350F.  You’ll know they’re done when they are golden brown all over.  Be careful not to over-bake because the cheese will start to scorch very quickly on the bottoms. 

Let cool for at least 5 minutes before removing.  Can be enjoyed hot or cold. 

Refrigerate uneaten portions.

And there’s my Thanksgiving contribution to your table!

 

5 November 2009 Thursday, Nov 5 2009 

certification and teaching godsweigh 9:54 pm

I am SO tired.  I’ve gotten to school every day this week by 7:30 and haven’t left before 6pm yet.  However, I’ve been getting a lot done, and I’ve finished a big organization project that I started over last weekend.

Oh, and I’ve been teaching a little, too. *snort*

Teaching this week has been really fun, actually.  I’ve gotten to introduce the kids to square roots, to why squaring a number is called “squaring a number” (and cubing numbers, too!), to translating from English to “Mathanese,” and to basic one-step algebra problems.  I love algebra (never thought I’d hear myself say that!) and had a really good teacher for it in college, and I find myself using her way of putting things to teach my kids the same concepts.  They’re getting it so far.  And, my most difficult class to control has been mostly on-task this week with few discipline problems.  Have they been perfect?  Oh, no.  But I’ve gotten SO much work done with them that for the first time since the beginning of the year, they’re not behind my other two classes.  I’m getting kids to come in before school for tutoring, and they’re starting to take their own education seriously.  I love the improvements I’m seeing!

As I was driving home last night, I made a decision that I would stop procrastinating with the ACP stuff, and get my butt in gear to finish.  I said, self, you’re going to go on-line and FINISH that PPR review so that Texas Teachers will approve you for the PPR exam.  And then you’re going to plan and prepare to register for the PPR exam by the 15th, when I get paid again, so that maybe I’ll have it taken before the end of December.  And I did it!  I finally finished the on-line review and passed it.  I didn’t use any of their study materials; I just logged into the review and started taking it.  I was able to save my place when I got interrupted, which was often, until last night when I decided that I was going to finish regardless of what happened.  I got a 253 out of 300, and I needed a 240 for a passing “score”.  It’s really not a score that I give a damn about because it’s just the review.  It’s the actual exam score that I’m concerning myself over now.  The review…I could have bombed it and just gone back in to retake it with the correct answers in my hand the second time.  But I didn’t want to have to take the time.  This is just a stepping stone to the next part and I wanted it over with.  Anyway, I got an email saying that I’ve been approved to take the EC-12 PPR exam, and there are several places in the Houston area that are offering it many times before the end of December.  The only problem I’m seeing is that most of them are being offered during the day, during the week.  And I don’t know if the school district or my administrators would frown on my taking a day to take care of it.  I would like to find somewhere that’s offering it on a Saturday, but taking the time to find a place is more time than I have tonight.

So, I’m off to bed.  I have a short planning segment in the morning because I’m on duty for another teacher.  In the cafeteria.  I can’t wait.

Remind me that I need to buy stamps for the huge stack of birthday cards sitting on my desk.

Good night!

 

1 November 2009 Sunday, Nov 1 2009 

teaching godsweigh 8:06 pm

I am so proud of myself!  I have all my lesson plans for next week ready, PLUS I’ve worked out all my keys and scanned them into the PowerPoint.  Of course, it took an act of God to make it happen, but God’s good that way!

I started getting ready to leave for the day during 5th period on Friday.  The kids had started a test the day before, but due to my bad planning (you live and learn, folks!), they only had half the period to take the test.  So, since so many of them didn’t finish, I let them have the class period on Friday to work on it as well.  It worked out really well because the kids that were absent on Thursday were there on Friday to take the test, and now they don’t have to come in before school to make it up!  Giving the kids a chance to finish the test gave me an hour and a half to start getting my crap together to go home.  Before I can do anything, I have to file away the stuff I used for this week, except for answer keys I need over the weekend.  Then I have to go to my stash of worksheets (already copied for the grading period) and pull out what I know I’ll use, plus a few extras for just in case we get through faster than I thought.  I have to pull out the various resources I pull activities from, gather my binders of information for lesson planning, and make sure I have copies plus originals for key-making.  I need to dig out my scope and sequence, and check to see if I need the C-Scope for next week.  And somewhere in there, I need to check my email, because by that point in the day, people have become email happy and I probably have a couple dozen waiting for me to deal with.  I also have to double check my calendar to make sure I’m taking into account any observations that are going to be done of me and special events that might cut class periods short.

By the time 5th period had left, I had my briefcase mostly packed and just needed to run to the office to check my box one last time and make copies of just a couple of forms that I had run out of.  Back in my room, I had to fill out a couple of those freshly copied forms before I forgot what happened to make me need to fill them out.  Then I had to check my outbox to make sure I had filed everything that pertained to my students, along with the forms I’d just filled out.  And of course the stuff in my box created a few more tasks that needed to be completed.  Is that the call for car-riders and walkers already?!?  Aaaand now I’m on duty to make sure kids don’t run through the halls when their bus is called, and to remind them they are still in school and YES you still have to have your shirt tucked in.  Why are you in the hall?  You need to go back to your class before I find a reason to give you detention, sir.  They have not called your bus yet!  Aaaaand 30 minutes later I can finally get back to my room and finish what I started.

Normally, on a Friday, I leave the building after 7pm.  This past Friday, I was out of there by 5:15.  It.Was.Unbelievable.  It only took me starting 2 hours earlier than normal and not being interrupted by other teachers whining for me to babysit their class so they can leave early (that crap right there is going to STOP this week!).

Not only was I able to get out of there earlier than ever before on a Friday, but I was able to start working on building my answer keys.  And, since the Kiddo didn’t have band competition on Saturday, I was able to spend a good portion of the day grading those tests.  I didn’t finish, but I only have 1 class left to grade.  I finished my lesson plan warm ups and notes by noon and was able to take the Kiddo into Baytown for a haircut and to Wal-Mart in town for groceries and yet more classroom supplies.  THEN, I sat down and finished my answer keys, scanned them into my computer and copied them into the PowerPoint for next week.  AND I finished my laundry (except for putting away, but that’s a 2 minutes job).  And cleaned up the kitchen after dinner.  And it’s only 8pm.

Man, I love it when we set the clocks back!

This month is crazy-busy with stuff at school.  Next week is the last week of the grading period, so grades will be due again and I have kids with more missing work than actual grades.  Dumbassery at work.  I have at least one observation, a planning day that I have to make sub plans for, an early dismissal day that will require me to sit through an afternoon of staff meetings that will be mostly meaningless to me.  (I do realize that most of the information given during these meetings will someday be useful, but as a first year teacher, I have no clue what to do with TAKS stats.  I put them in a file and forget about them.  My mentor says that’s more than what she does with them, so I don’t feel too bad.)  I have double duty one week because I’m covering for another first-year who has a “walk-and-talk” session to attend.  I’ve been to one for my subject…yawn. There was more that I couldn’t use than I could.  But…the stuff I could use was awesome, so I guess I shouldn’t knock those meetings too hard for now.

On top of all the schedule interruptions, we have Thanksgiving holidays this month, which involves at least one more early dismissal day, plus several days off during which I need to FINISH THE ON-LINE REVIEW FOR MY PPR.  I have absolutely everything done to be fully certified EXCEPT for finishing that damned review so that my ACP will approve me to take the real thing.  Of course, even if I had the review finished, I’m not entirely sure when I’d have time to go take the test.  So, whatever.  December 30th is quickly approaching, and I am getting very scared that I will not have time to get everything done.

And here I sit updating my blog.  People!  I have too much to do!