Blog Reflection

When I started this blog, I really didn't like it. I didn't see how it would really be beneficial to me as a teacher. But as we go along, I see where it benefits even me...even though I don't have time to get to it that often. At first I didn't really know where to go with it. It seemed like a good way to vent...but that's not a good idea. Now I look at it kind of like a diary or a journal, a way for me to look back on things I've done, learn from them, and see how much I've grown as a teacher. It also gives me insight into my fellow MAT students progress and let's me see that I'm not alone. Looking at other blogs also gives me new ideas and inspires me to try harder when I feel like I'm slacking off or feeling like it isn't worth it.

NO TOLERANCE!

Before Thanksgiving, the school instituted the 'No Tolerance' policy on insubordination. Well, so far it seems to have taken with most of the kids. They keep catching themselves opening their mouths to argue or spout words of disrespect, but its like there is some kind of magical barrier that makes them close them again! I even had one student come back and apologize because he was afraid I had taken the answer to a question I asked the wrong way! It's a long way to go until May and they have plenty of time to get comfortable, but as long as everyone follows through...it looks like things could be going alot smoother for everyone!

A Book for Me!

I have little time to read anything that doesn't have to do with school. And I actually did my first review on one that I didn't read for pleasure but more to relate to my students. So, this past weekend (after the Razorbacks beat LSU!) I read Sense and Sensibility. I love historical fiction and I really enjoy Jane Austen. After watching the biographical movie this summer, I decided to re-read Pride and Prejudice, but I had never read SS until now. This is a bit darker than PP, but I kind of like it that way. It is the story of three sisters and their mother who must adjust to a small income after the father dies and they are forced to leave their estate with their half-brother. Then, of course, comes some hard times, love, lovers scorned, and eventually everyone ends up happily ever after...except maybe for Willoughby. This is one of those that I could read over and over and never get tired of it, though not one that will continue to change for me each time I read it as so many others do. It's not overly inspirational...but it is a place to go and half the enjoyment of reading for me is the escape of the everyday world. It is one of those books that my grandmother used to call 'feel-goods': it makes you laugh, probably cry, but at the end you are probably smiling (and crying too!)

Thanksgiving!

It's so nice to have the full week out! I've never been out a whole week at Thanksgiving before and I must say it's wonderful. I even had two glorious days at home by myself before my daughter got out at Monticello. Things should be better when we go back to school too. They instituting a no tolerance policy at my school against insubordination and disrespect towards teachers. This has been a SERIOUS, SERIOUS PROBLEM...I cannot emphasize that enough. Most of the teachers are holding our breath because we really hope the administration follows through with this. We are tired of being treated like idiots by our 7th and 8th grade students and then NOTHING happening when we write them up. This pregnant woman has had it and I am way too hormonal to have to put up with it. So hopefully they will get it out of their systems before Monday and the rest of the year will go much more smoothly.

Twilight

I started out reading this book for a few reasons. First, I tend to be very ‘old school’ in my reading. When I find a book that I like, I tend to read it to pieces. For instance, I am on my fifth copy of Gone With the Wind, having read it for the first time when I was ten. I thought with the Twilight series I could launch myself into a fresh, new something that wasn’t terribly brain taxing. Another reason was to relate back to my students. As a 7th grade teacher, this is the only book, along with its successors, that my girls willingly open. Finally, I wanted something outside the box for me for my book review.

Honestly, I could hardly sit through it. I do not know if I started out with a mental block or if it is the material. I’ve never been into vampires but I had been told that the series doesn’t really pull it in that much until the later books, and it focuses on the love story. Well, there was more than enough of both for me.

Basically, this teenage girl, named Bella, moves from Arizona to live with her father in the rainiest city in the U.S., Forks, Washington. She wants to blend in, get through life, try not to be miserable…although that pretty much seems to be an oxymoron for her. Blending in doesn’t work so well because she meets this apparently fantastic, gorgeous, perfect teenage boy named Edward. But Edward is not exactly a teenager and he is far from normal. He is a vampire, as is his family, and they are basically what you would call ‘nice vampires’. They do not drink human blood. Edward and Bella become highly attracted to one another. It becomes a constant back and forth ‘I want to be with you, but not hurt you, get hurt, hurt someone else…’ ‘Oh, I long to become a vampire so we can be together forever.’ For me it is excruciatingly painful to go through this revolting love and pain relationship that the two have. It does knock some of the notions of vampires out of the park though…and the pun is intended. Vampires are supposed to be horrible, evil, vicious, bloodsucking creatures who want to drink the blood of every human being they see. Not Edward and the rest of the Cullen family. No, they are reasonably nice, polite, baseball playing vampires who drink the blood of camels. Probably the most refreshing part of it for me is that the vampires can do something so mortal and human as play baseball. They even have their very own vampire baseball league. Hysterical.

Can I say that I recommend it? Not really, but my opinion is pretty biased. However, I am glad to be able to use it as a relation tool with my students, which is really why I started the book in the first place. I don’t know if I’ll make it through the other three though.

Civil War Journals

My Arkansas History classes have been studying the Civil War. I don't have the time I need to do the subject justice, so to give them some 'hands-on' experience, I have assigned Civil War journals. They had to make up a character, decide what that character's role would be, where they live, which side they were on, etc. Each day, their bell work is a different writing prompt that they had to respond to. It was interesting to come up with something generic enough each day to suit everything from Abraham Lincoln to Confederate soldiers to a plantation owner's daughter. I had to change it up a little after I saw how creative the kids were in coming up with their characters! But I didn't mind at all...they got into this project more than anything this year. The funny part is I came up with this at the last minute to extend their thinking into the subject a little more and the things I have spent hours and days planning weren't nearly as productive.

By the way, my favorite one came from one of my pre-AP girls: she was a plantation owner's daughter who had two brothers fighting in the war. One brother got injured and a nurse had written to tell them he had died because they didn't have the medicine to help him. She became a spy and a smuggler for the Confederate Army to make sure that she could help others like her brother. All that came from my description of female smugglers who used to sew pockets in their petticoats to hide medicine!

Pregnancy and Teaching

Whatever made me think I could teach, do MAT, and be a wife and mom all at the same time...yeah, still haven't figured that one out. So to make my life easier...I'm throwing pregnancy into the mix. I'm almost 10 weeks, so I'm really hoping that the morning sickness and constant exhaustion slacks off a little soon. It didn't with Olivia, but, you know, I can dream. I have discovered two things that seem to make it easier to get through the day however. The first is Powerade-blue only. I drink one of the 32 oz. Powerades everyday between 1st period and lunch. Supposedly B6 helps, and it's in there...who knows? The second thing is my 6th period class...

Bless their precious little hearts-there are only 7 in that class so we are a little more relaxed anyways. But those 7-they are a handful when they get going. Since they found out I'm not alone, they are so protective! They jump on other students for misbehaving in my class- "Don't you know high blood pressure is bad for her baby!" It's hilarious! They have also learned that at 1:15 every single day I am going to yawn and stop talking for just a minute. It must be funny to see-I stop, yawn, take a couple of deep breaths, and seven heads turn to make sure I'm on schedule (it's also their half way shot-their class ends at 1:35). Most of my classes would be out of control in the one minute I need to recharge, but these kids are like my little protective guardian angels. They sit there good as gold, waiting for me, then at 1:36 I'm good for the rest of the day and we keep going. Anyone who walked in would think they had walked into the Twilight Zone (these kids usually spend a great deal of time with the principal). But it's all part of the day for my 6th period.

Symbols of Diversity

I know this one is blurry! Sorry! This is an African-American male student who is partially deaf. His mother is completely deaf. He wears hearing aids in both ears, which makes for a bad day if he doesn't put them in. He gets very frustrated and tends to have anger issues anyways. He is self concious about them and doesn't like attention to be called to them. I asked if he minded me taking the picture and his only request was that I do it after class (he is in my last class) so that no one would see.

This is one of several cheer/dance team members that I have. She is a caucasian girl in my Pre-AP class. She struggles some to keep up, but tries really hard to hide it. For the most part however, she is an average student who aims higher than where she is and usually pulls herself up eventually.

This student is a caucasian male in my Pre-AP Arkansas History class. The camo he is sporting is due to a football injury. He is very intelligent and a wonderful student. Right now, however, he is experiencing alot of difficulties with his assignments because of his cast--it is his writing hand. He did mention the other day, however, that he will never get frustrated with people who take notes slower than he (normally) does and ask for things to be repeated. Since he has had to slow down, he knows what it's like now.

These two hands belong to one of three sets of twins that I have spread out in my classes. These two girls are both in my Pre-AP class. One of them has a 504 plan for ADHD with medication. They are both very good students but you can always tell which one struggles. The one with ADHD takes longer on tests than her sister, gets frustrated easily, and has very messy handwriting. I have been told that in the classes she does not share with her sister, she is very unorganized and falls behind, so their schedules have been arranged so that they share classes or at least have the same teachers.

This belt buckle belongs to an African-American male student who is one of the greatest kids I have ever met. He has a lot of focus issues and receives special education, although he is in the gen. ed. classroom full time. He is very self motivated and very concerned with keeping up and staying on track. He makes my day whenever he comes to me and says "I'm sorry Mrs. Wilson, I didn't get that, could you go through it again?" He is one that TRIES, even when he is frustrated. He also has a stuttering problem, which is often present when he is struggling with something or didn't catch something the first time. He often relates things to rodeo terms (observe the belt buckle with the word CHAMPION at the top...he has tons of these, which just tickles me...you would have to know him to get why). Since he does this, I often try to use analogies or examples that will help him this way in class, and most of the rest get it to.

I put this one on here because this student reminds me of, well, me. This is an African-American male in my only World History class. Everyday he has an extra shirt with him-in case something happens to the other one-he lays it out on the desk next to him just like this so that it doesn't get creased. He goes through more Germ-X than any other student and often offers to help me with my twice weekly disinfecting of my classroom. We get each other. He is also very smart, but panics on tests and bombs them. I have started letting him take the test and then I go back through it with him to see if he does better orally. This has been a huge help for him.

This is another set of twins-African American boy and girl. Actually, they have a similar story as the other set. She is an overachiever and academics come easily (and she knows it), but he struggles a lot. He is also ADHD, with medication. Unlike the twin girls above, these two do not help each other that much. In fact, it practically took an act of Congress to get them to agree to the picture.

These glasses represent a young lady in my 1st period Pre-AP class. She is Hispanic American-her mother was born in Honduras and her father is American. She was born here in America. She is very intelligent, and often helps other Hispanic students who are not as proficient in English (this is in other classes, she is the only Hispanic student in this class of mine, but other teachers have mentioned it)

This is a group shot (from the back) of my 2nd period AR History class. Notice all the sweaty boys who just got out of football-thanks Coach Wright. I put this one on here because it is my most diverse class all around based on ethnicity, abilities, exceptionalities, etc.

This was probably my favorite one. This picture is of a Michael Jordan earring. It belongs to one of my African American male students. He wears this everyday and was tickled that I wanted a picture of it--which is an accomplishment in itself. He is low socioeconomic, low achieving, and recently was tested to see if he qualifies for special education. He also wears glasses, but refuses to wear them, which is where a lot of his problems come from.

Okay, so I had some technical issues with permission forms--my principal told me I would have to get a separate form signed because the one the parents signed from the handbook only covers the district website. I didn't get very many back yet, so I improvised-no faces, just symbols of some of my kids that makes them unique. This is just a sampling...my kids cross several barriers of diversity, but this is a pretty rounded out selection.

Drowning...

Okay. I went in knowing it would be rough. I still get that. But right now I am so overwhelmed. I was chewed out today because all of my PATHWISE forms weren't turned in with the rest of my initial observation stuff-well, sorry! I asked two weeks ago what was supposed to be turned in with it, and I didn't get an answer until 1:30 yesterday. My planning period is 3rd period, during which I worked on PATHWISE forms, but you need about a week to fill it all out and I can't just let my 7th graders chill out while I fill out forms. A fight breaks out in my class and the two boys get 1 day of detention--I am one day late turning in a stack of tedious forms, that they don't specify until the last minute and I end up in tears all the way home.

I almost didn't get out of bed this morning. My husband practically had to drag me out--finally, after pulling out clothes for me that didn't match, trying to 'help' did I get angry enough to get out of bed.

I've had it. I'm past drowning in paperwork and discipline-it has consumed my entire life. Talk about teacher burnout. I've got enough for a bonfire.

Unexpected....but I soooo needed it.

So, unexpected day off from school today. Gustav did a number on our whole state, and I really thought this morning "We were almost flooded out yesterday, it's not safe, they have to close school in Crossett." I didn't want to drive in that mess. It was bad enough yesterday and not flooded-much. But it was getting that way yesterday afternoon, so I knew this morning would be bad. Uh, yeah. I got almost into North Crossett, having passed three downed trees, two that had taken power lines with them, two trucks up to their mirrors in nastiness on dirt roads, and one car that had apparently ramped off the road into several feet of water---then the highway was blocked off, covered in water, and a police officer told me that Crossett schools had been closed ten minutes ago. Lovely. Not that it would have mattered any earlier-they didn't put it on the Little Rock stations, only Monroe, which I don't get here in Monticello. So now I'm back home, grading papers that have been waiting on me for days, and I'm going to have lunch with my daughter since she is still in school.

The First Week!

My name is Rachel Wilson and I am teaching 7th grade Arkansas History and World History at Norman Middle School in Crossett. This week has been...interesting. Let's just say that having no working computer or any other technology for the first week made it a challenge, and those 141 precious darling 7th graders that I see every day made certain that there wasn't a dull moment. But the computer works as of Thursday afternoon, I worked my way through attaching an Averkey to my laptop and television without assistance from anyone at the school, and tomorrow is another day.