It Can't Get Any Worse

These are word we can never say at our school, because, unfortunately, they absolutely can get worse, and more often than not, they do. 


I have no answers and can not handle any more questions. I can make statements.


CST review for 4 weeks is stupid and not who I am as a teacher.
My students are burned out.
They happily ate oranges today. I happily cut and served the oranges.
I need to bring more oranges (or other items) tomorrow too.
We had fun in computer lab this week. (mostly)
Faculty meetings are not my strong suit.
I love a lot of the teachers I work with.
I have an awesome plan for next year.
I am going to be department chair next year.
I am finally losing a bit more weight.
Blueberry Banana Oatmeal is a revelation.
Friday is going to be Figurative Language Day in my classroom.
D is incredibly noisy, but has the most infectious laugh!
Yoda has all the wisdom I need to motivate my students.
Drama class is almost awesome.
I am a good teacher.
I am an extremely hard worker.
People like me. Some even respect me. 
My mom makes the best chicken soup and she makes it without noodles for me.
Markham has some pretty fantastic murals created by our City Year staff.
City Year is AWESOME.


Do you think they will eat celery and peanut butter?


Onward towards Thursday. 3 more days until CSTs.


I <3 my job.

What I wasn't expecting

I found the following in my draft folder and it has been over two years since I posted anything here.

Teaching during this time of year can be extra exhausting and challenging and yet so rewarding.

My students have been acting crazy. They have spring fever! And I am so so tired and the week was busy with grades and meetings and weird schedules. So, yesterday I decided to show a bit more of West Side Story and use it to review plot, characterization, recurring themes, etc. We came to the part where Maria is singing "I feel pretty . . ." She gets to the part where she says 'gay" and every period snickered and I reminded them of what gay means in our classroom. But when it happened in 5th period the least likely child did it for me. ". . . and gay" is sung, the class snickers and this boy who is always bored and who acts out and I am surprised he has heard anything I have said all year speaks, "geez, grow up, she just means she is happy and there is nothing wrong with being gay!"

At that moment a smile found its way to my face and I thanked him. It was so priceless.

Today we were working on creating arguments for issues in the world as part of our persuasive unit. They really seemed to want to talk so I introduced them to debate. I explained they had to be active listeners and speak when it was there turn and I would only ask clarifying questions. They chose the topics. When we discussed immigration one of my least productive students announced she had watched the news about the Arizona immigration law and she wanted to understand it better.

Okay so that is the end of that day back in April of 2010. And now it is 2012 and I am still exhausted. CSTs start a week from Tuesday. I feel done and oddly enough I went looking for my blog in order to clear my head and also get back in the game tomorrow morning.

I did have the realization last week that this is not the way I had decided to teach. Reviewing for CST for 4 weeks is ridiculous. Of course, the moved the date back after we already started. Now I am faced with keeping my students ready, relaxed and rigorous. Tomorrow will be about goal setting for each of them, plus independent reading, sentence correction, and dealing with informational texts. UGH it sounds as boring as it is. I better did deeper and think of something to get them thinking.