June Currently

I am one week out until summer break and I am dog tired. I've never used that expression before but I'm pretty sure it means what I'm feeling. Everything is just go, go, go! and I'm definitely ready to start yelling stop, stop, stop! I have zero energy for just about anything but I did find time to plop myself down on the couch and link up with Farley for the June Currently. I wish my brain was functioning enough to write about the fun stuff we are up to in class, but just thinking about my day today makes me want to take a nap. One more week... I think I can, I think I can...

 

Thankfully there is almost always a light at the end of the tunnel and I will definitely be sitting poolside with a cold drink in my hand, most likely with an umbrella in it, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in FIVE WEEKS!! We had to wait for the summer to go on our honeymoon, such is the life of a teacher, and the hubby surprised me with a trip to DR. 10 days of beach side nothingness, sprinkled with ziplining, exotic snorkeling, and catamaran cruise. SO worth the wait.

Update! & 99 Reasons Teachers Rock!

In fear of breaking the law, we asked the student to bring the bird eggs back home and return them to their nest in the backyard. We told him to have his parents help him because we couldn't do anything for him. I hope that they make it!

Funny story... we were working in class yesterday and we heard birds chirping very loudly. I stopped and looked towards the windows because it almost sounded like they were in the room with us and the kids said, "It must be the baby birds!! They made it! They made it!" Too sweet!



ps. I just have to share this... 99 Reasons Teachers Rock!

Teacher Appreciation Day gift? It's for the birds.

Ok, ok. I know it has been forever since I posted. The sheer craziness that has been my life has left no time to blog. It's really the saddest darn thing. I LOVE blogging and I LOVE my new friends made through blogging. I feel like a part of me has been missing! I swear I have lots to update you on and that is coming soon, but for now.. I need your help!

On this fine morning of Teacher Appreciation Day, in the midst of pre-MCAS chaos, one of my darlings handed me a tupperware container. What surprise could be in this container, you are wondering. That would be this...

Those are five baby bird eggs, from God knows where. He told me that his house was having renovations done and the nest was pulled apart and abandoned and he took the eggs in. Apparently, he thought his science teacher would know what to do. Well, she doesn't.

Not only do I have no idea what to do with these eggs, I have no idea what kind of eggs they are, where to put them, how to keep them warm, and what the heck I will do if they really hatch. I have already researched if there is somewhere I can bring them and I'm not having much luck. I know that you aren't even supposed to have wild eggs without a permit but I really have no clue what to do. I teach in the city and bringing the container out to the recess yard on a cold, rainy morning just feels worse than trying to keep them warm while I figure out what to do next.

Right now I have tissues covering them because we tried a heat lamp from the iguana in sixth grade and that was too hot. What would you do??? Where do I bring them??? Help!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm linking up with Jamie at This Kind of Love  for one of my favorite link-ups... What I'm Loving Wednesday! Teacher Edition! (I made up the Teacher Edition part. Although, sweet Jamie is a teacher, too!)

Here's what I'm loving today...

I should first say that I'm loving that I am updating my blog today!!! I've missed you all! I definitely have a poor track record of blogging when I'm super busy but I'm loving that you're still blogging when I'm not and that leaves me with an abundance of spring things on everyone's blogs!

I'm loving that today was the final day for state-testing and I have had 100% attendance both days and my kiddos worked SO very hard!

{via}

I am loving this spring  summer weather!! 80 in BOSTON in MARCH! Bring. it. on.

I am loving my professor, and that she has decided that the majority of our work should be completed in class! Such a different vibe than my last two classes. I can breathe again!

I'm loving that we will begin working in small groups next week! It is so hard to teach in leveled groups with only one teacher, but I need to bring it back!

I'm loving my sweet class! They are hard-working, motivated, kind, funny, caring... the list just goes on. I just love them all too much for words and I am already dreading having to say goodbye to them in just a few months.

What are you loving today? Go link up with Jamie to share!

A Day in My Shoes

I am linking up with one of my favorites, Katie from Adventures in Sixth Grade, for her first linky party! You know I can't turn down a good linky! This one is to share what a day in our classrooms look like. I can't wait to see what everybody else is doing when they're not blog-stalking!

Here is how it works...
1. Right click and save the button below to put in your post.
2. Share a typical day in your classroom. You can share as little or as much as you would like.
3. Go back to Katie's blog and link up.
4. Visit the other links to see what a day is like in their class!

A couple things you should know about my day:

1.) I teach at an extended day school and our teaching time is extended by 1.5 hours, which means the actual school day is from 7:45-3:30.

2.) We are on a 4-day rotating schedule but this is kind of a blend of days because our schedule was changed this week for Grades 6-8 midterms. We had 8am exploratory every day this week and were with kids from 9-3:30, with only lunch to break up our day; exhausting!

5:00am - My alarms (I set two on my alarm clock & two on my phone because for some reason, I never hit snooze, I just shut them off) go off. Those are my warnings. I turn them off until the last one.

5:20/5:30-6:15am - Shower, get ready, check the traffic, make lunch, etc.

6:15am - I head out the door and pray for no traffic.

7:00-7:15am - I arrive to school. There's always traffic.

7:15-7:45am - My cafeteria duty begins. I had the crazy idea over the summer to take a position as a morning monitor (part of our extended day funding). The extra money will be nice in July, when I'm not getting paid, but I didn't realize how noisy and smelly it gets in there, especially when it's raining or snowing. I really don't mind it too much because I like interacting with the kids and work with a fab colleague in there, but it is a loud way to start my day.

7:45am - I pick up my students outside in their line and head to our homeroom.

7:50-8:05 - Homeroom - The kids settle in, do their lunch count, I take attendance and make my coffee, greet my kiddos, listen to their stories they want to share, and get them ready to be out the door for our first class.

8:05 - 9:05- First period Math - The students come in, get out their homework, copy the objective from the board, and begin their Headline Story, which is their "Do Now" or warmup activity, in their binders. My homework checker (a student) goes around and checks the homework - this is a lifesaver because SOMETHING always needs my attention when they first arrive. I'm usually checking emails and finishing what didn't get finished during homeroom. We then review homework, review the Headline Story, and get started on the lesson. Our lessons are very scripted and I have to follow the outline in the book. This week, we are graphing coordinates on a grid. Once the lesson is completed, the students work independently in their workbooks and I circulate to help out. At the end of the period, which is always dangerously close to the time that we start independent work, the students write down their homework, pack up, and switch classes.

9:10 - 10:10 - Second period Math - Same as first period. Whichever group ends up not being my homeroom group, is way chattier and lessons always feel more rushed.

10:15-10:30 - Recess - I have duty on Thursday, Friday, and every other Wednesday.

10:35-11:20 - "Reading Workshop" - This is our middle school intervention block. It isn't actually a workshop format but the school calls it this. 10 of my students leave for ELL and 2-3 for reading/math intervention. This leaves me with 12 kids, so there is "no teaching allowed" during this block. The students remaining read independently and track their reading in their library logs. This is the runner-up for least favorite block of the day.

11:20 - 11:50 - Math/ELA Enrichment - After reducing our Math/ELA time to make more time for Social Studies and Science, we ended up with the same amount of weekly SS & Sci, and extra Math & ELA. No idea how that worked out because my schedule proposal wasn't considered. I alternate classes (the block happens twice a week, so I see each group once) and we usually play the math games that go along with the chapter I am teaching at the time. This week we were working on our 2012 resolution maps, which I will have up here sometime this week.

11:55-12:25 - Lunch. By the time I drop the kids off to the caf, check my mail, and get back to my room, it is never enough time.

12:30-1:00 - Writing Workshop - I don't teach writing so my students get a mini-lesson during their ELA block and the independent portion happens back in their homerooms. We rotate during this block so that the ELA teacher can check in with both groups and not just the homeroom all the time. This is my least favorite block of the day and when Diet Coke starts flowing.

1:05-2:05 - Exploratory - For the first twenty minutes (again.. drop off, check mailbox, nonsense) I barely have enough time to check my emails, forget planning or sitting down to grade papers. I have 50 students and the curriculum is too much in fifth grade to get anything accomplished in this amount of time. I usually try, though. I also photocopy, set up for science, return emails, drink diet coke, make phone calls, blah, blah, blah. The second half is a mandatory team meeting with my grade level team. 98% of the time this is a major waste of a prep period. We mostly complain, listen to others complain, go to endless data meetings then never have time to look at the data again, or hear about students that we don't see. The fifth grade is split up so that each teacher has 50 students, so sometimes when names are brought up at meetings, it's not even your own student. I do like being able to check in with my colleagues but this doesn't seem like the most efficient way to do it. We have one day to ourselves, which usually means that I can get a set of tests corrected during the school day. If I'm lucky.

2:10-3:10 - Science - I teach two science blocks and the kids rotate. Two days they have SS & two days they have Sci. We start with the objective and then go right into two-column interactive notes. Sometimes they partner read and make their own, sometimes I give them a starter question or prompt and they finish it, sometimes we do a lab in a two-column format, sometimes it's just whole group teaching with activities to break it up. I should probably do a post on my interactive notebook format. I love science at this age!

3:10-3:30 - Write down HW, pack up, check agenda books (& checklists for some), kids go home at 3:30.

3:30-4:30 - I'm usually here until at LEAST 4:30 doing the usual - prep, plan, copy, email, repeat. Sometimes I get to pee for the first time all day but usually wait until I get home. This time is making up for my missed prep.

5:30 - I get home & finally get to pee. Then I make dinner & Mr. P cleans up :), hang with Mr. P, snuggle with my cat, blog-stalk, wedding plan, correct papers, read for grad classes, repeat. Depending on the night, I either have Weight Watchers (that reminds me I need to check in for my 2012 resolutions!) or our small group bible study.

I try to get to bed at a decent hour, but I am such a night owl.




I hope I'm not too "complainy". I DESPISE my schedule this year because it just doesn't work. There is too much time where kids are working independently on something that doesn't correleate to what I teach and not enough time spent on what I do teach. I am only actively teaching for 3 hours a day (anyone notice that?) and no one seemed to be too concerned with that when I brought it up to admin. We've already changed our schedule once this year and I think it's worse than what we started with. 

I am SO excited to see what everyone's day looks like!! Maybe I can use it to help me convince the powers to change our schedule!

Currently January

I'm linking up with Farley for Currently January & you should too!



Fun for Fifth, too!

Y'all know how I feel about the lack of upper/middle school blogs and resources. Let's not go there again.

With that said, I was literally jumping up out of my seat to grab my debit card when I saw these cuties from Ginger Snaps. Super adorable, yet cool enough for fifth grade math vocabulary cards AND they line up with the Common Core?? Shut the front door! Seriously, they are so fun. You've got to get over to Ginger's store and get some of these! She's already done second, third, and fifth. It's like she knew I was getting bored with my Word Wall. I can't wait to set mine up this week!