Seriousness

This past year I had a pottery reading from a mimic poem that they wrote. A mimic poem is when students are influence by a previously written poem. The goal is to match the rhythm and general tone of the selected poem.  We were using Julio Noboa Palanco's Identity poem. This poem focuses on a positive and negative image from beginning to end. Students had to pick their own positive and negative image to incorporate into their poem. They also had to provide an illustration for their poem. For their final grade they were required to present their poem to the class. I was impressed by how professional they took this poetry reading. Some of the poems were serious and others were humorous in nature. And to top it all off they were respectful when their peers were reading. Snaps all around.

Multitasking

The day that Apple rolled out the new emoji keyboard created quiet a buzz in the classroom. 🐝So much so that we may have downloaded the new keyboard while we worked on writing stories. Some teachers might have flipped out with allowing this activity to occur, but lets face it you can either allow them to download the new improvement or they will do it behind your back. Plus you can teach them how to multitask. There is no need to stare at the screen while it downloads, it will not make it go faster. So while you wait let us get to finishing your stories. I may have downloaded the new emojis while they did too. Why not?

Cell phone meeting

This past year was the year the cell phone invaded the classroom. I have never had so much cell phone activity than this past year. One thing is for sure is that students are absolutely horrible when it comes to hiding their phones. 

Umm hello, your face is glowing.

 I tried to give them tips and pointers as to how to better conceal their phones, but they still were lousy at hiding cell phone activity.

 Someone needs to teach these kids cell phone manners. 

A majority of the time I just ignored them "trying" to not be seen using their phone. I picked my battles with cell phones. One such battle is when a parent is texting their child during school. I understand if it's an emergency, but you should probably call the office and not text your child when they are in class. Is this too much to ask for?

Surviving tests

I really do not like tests. I did not like taking tests when I was in school. I do not like proctoring tests. I do not like grading tests. In fact, I hardly give traditional tests in my classroom. A little piece of me dies whenever standardized state test season rolls around. Two months of on again off again testing is not much fun and drains every ounce of energy from everyone on campus. It's the worst. After a three hour tests students are spent and have no desire to accomplish anything academic. For the math test we actually pulled out I SPY books in order to unwind and relax our brain. 

I really do not think people outside of education realize how dreadful these tests are. Has anyone watched a plant actually grow for hours upon hours? Well this is similar to watching students take multiple tests. Pure entertainment I tell ya. John Oliver did a brilliant job explaining the joy of standardized testing. It's all too true and I encourage you to watch his clip. 

My corner

I tend to be a little OCD by nature. Everything has a place. My classroom is neat and orderly. I find that when you have ESE students in your classroom it helps to have a place for everything. Now this being said things do get messy. Papers may not be in a neat pile all the time. A bin of markers may look a mess. But for the most part everything has a place in the classroom.

 Thankfully my students appreciate my neatness. Although some do find it amusing. I have this corner on my desk that is student free. No student is allowed to touch any aspect of this corner. I realize this may be a bit odd. But in order to stay healthy I prefer not to use the same supplies the students use. Oddly enough students gravitate towards this corner and ask to use such and such colored marker. My response is always no. They have hundreds upon hundreds of crayons, colored pencils, markers, glue sticks and scissors at their disposal. All I have is this little bin on the corner of my desk. 

{YES}

I do enlist students to clean everything  that students may have touched at the end of the year in order to prepare the supplies for the upcoming year. It only makes sense

Overflowing decor

Classroom decor took a back seat this past school year. Documenting the classroom decor barely happened. These few pictures are all that I have for what the classroom looked like and I am okay with that. The attention that is put on how a classroom looks is a tad bit much...it's a classroom people. Desk, chairs, books, people, not much has changed unless you factor in technology. 

As you can see in the picture I do not keep my lights on, but light my classroom with lamps placed around the room. Lights make a major difference. Lower lights create a calm and welcoming environment. 

If I am going to focus on one aspect of classroom decor I will focus on organization and words of advice. Since I spend so much time in my classroom I want it to feel like home. The words of encouragement are a nice reminder for students as well as myself to be kind and take risks. The bulletin boards were covered using a geographical dictionary pages and that's it. 

The unbelievable

Students often question why I take pictures of what happens in the classroom and my response is because no one will believe these types of things happen in a classroom. Therefore I need to gather evidence to prove that such shenanigans occur in today's classroom. Case in point. A student did not have a normal size pencil so he decided to pull out this jumbo pencil and complete his work with. Might I add that this pencil required him to use a pair of scissors to sharpen. You see these are the things that people outside of school will not believe.  Here I am teaching a normal lesson about the Dust Bowl and what do I see from the corner of my eye but an enormous pencil being used. For those that are wondering the student did proceed to use this larger than life pencil to complete this assignment even though he was offered multiple normal size pencils. In fact, he continued to use this jumbo pencil for the next few weeks. I do not blame him, this pencil will most likely see him through high school. 

A year in review

Year six is in the books. This year was a nice change from the first five years of teaching. I taught two 8th grade English classes filled with a mix of gen. ed. and ESE students. I was given the opportunity to co-teach 7th grade English this year which was a wonderful experience. Co-teaching is a lot like parenting. Instead of two parents you have two teachers in the classroom. Students are interesting when they are trying to figure out this way of teaching. They often ask who is the actual teacher. For some odd reason they find it strange that there needs to be two teachers instead of one. We never really told them the real reason for why there must be two teachers. One is for the general education students and the other one is for the special education students. A couple students take having two teachers as an advantage. For example, if I say you cannot use the restroom they will wait two minutes (or two seconds) to ask Ms. C if they can use the restroom. Both of our responses are the same. This scenario is depicted in the picture. I just told a student no for getting a drink and then once I turn around he decides to ask Ms. C for a drink...the response was also no. 

Pass the papers

My least favorite classroom chore is passing back student papers. It's time consuming and half the contents get thrown in the trash once they reach the owner's hands. I devised a system that is working quite well, much to my delight. It's simple and quick. 

Here is the breakdown to painless paper pass out

1. assign each student a number

2. collect student's graded work in a bin (not pictured)

3. when a student is done early have them sort through graded papers 

4. student uses chart that goes with the numbers

5. student files paper in bin

6. presto student's work are neatly filed for them to look at

Know your audience

The time is approaching when black square hats will fly through the air. Numerous countdowns have surely begun. For graduation day is sooner than it appears. Oh what nerves and excitement emerge on this glorious day. Whether you are about to enter the Ivy League or step foot down a career path here is one piece of advice I would offer you: 

Know your audience. 

Being aware of your potential employer's or professor's take on life  will come in handy. Be an observer and a listener. Notice the words and actions that occur regularly. If you pick up that they are a positive person and stay away from criticism; perhaps you should lower your dosage of negativity. Even if you are complaining about who got kicked off of American Idol. I guess you can say starting a new career or education is like dating. Ease into the relationship. Get to know who you will now start to spend the majority of your time with. Do you have to become their clone? Absolutely not. Be your own person. Just be aware of your new surrounding and watch your Ps & Qs. I will leave you with something I tell my students on repeat: Act like a decent human being.

The outcomes of no change

I came across this quote a while ago and it made me stop and think. 
"If you focus on outcomes you will never change. If you focus on change you will get outcomes." 

Outcomes come slowly to begin with. But they will never come if we do not change. As a teacher I wait for those numbers to start pouring in over the summer. Ah standardized test scores. How glorious and nerve wrecking at the same time. Will the outcomes be what we aimed for all year? There are always let downs and surprises that come out of this discovery.

What I have been wrestling with this year is the quote above. The outcomes of these new common core state test scores seem to be a mystery not to mention how they will affect teachers and students is relatively unknown. Because these two factors are not chiseled out in stone the outcomes are taking a back seat this year. It's not that I'm ignoring potential outcomes; I just do not know what these outcomes are nor how they will affect others.

 Change has played a major role in teaching this year. The old test has retired and a new kid is on the block. Hello Florida State Assessment. Our song and dance for the FCAT is out dated. Causing us to develop new tricks in order to impress Mr. FSA.

 It's like going on a blind date. I am unaware what this person will find admirable. So what do you do in this type of situation? You change because quite frankly there is nothing else you can do. Change your clothes, jewelry and slap on a fresh color of polish because you have a boy to impress. Unfortunately this so called boy comes in the form of a test and could care less what you look like. Unless you are clumsy and some how mess up this computer based test by exiting before you were told to. So here's to the year of change. May the outcomes be ever in our favor. 

The correct way to say NO

This is the exact response I received from a student when asked to complete a classroom assignment. I believe the typical teacher would of been irritated by this refusal. I on the other hand was impressed by their creativity. There is a part of me that should of been annoyed that they misused paper and tape, but all I could do was sit back and be amazed. 

For the love of smart phones

Allow or not to allow that is the question when cell phones enter the classroom. Until recently I was not a huge fan of using cell phones in the classroom. Perhaps it was the group of students I was teaching, but this year these little devices have come in handy in more ways than one. 

Every student has access to a free agenda at the beginning of the year to record important tests, projects and assignments. I have yet to come across a student who actually uses their agenda for the purpose they were designed for. At the end of the day they are a glorified hall pass. Teaching students to use their agenda appropriately can be compared to teaching them a foreign language. 

Part of each classes routine is to fill in the lessons objective in their agenda for the day. To be honest having them write the lessons objective is insurance on my behalf. First of all I can skip the silly lesson objective opener that educators are supposed to include each day. "Now today students the objective is to comprehend the stories theme..." Second of all I can go back and show them that they were in fact taught figurative language even though they claim they were not taught this concept. Sure they grumble about filling in their agendas, but it is part of the education game so we play along. 

I do not make them write their homework in their agenda because I know and they know that they will not remember to complete their homework by writing in their agendas. Instead I have resorted to them taking a picture of their homework and making it their lock screen on their phone or tablet. And you want to know something. They remember to complete their homework when it is plastered to the front of their phone compared to hidden in their agenda. I believe the good ole' fashioned agenda days are numbered. 

Not only do smart phones ease the pain of remembering homework, but writing essays as well. It was only a matter of time before a student turned in their essay on a phone and not an actual piece of paper. To make this even better this argumentative essay was on if cell phones should be allowed in the classroom. Oh the irony. 

Fearless fighter

A classroom consists of two main objects: teacher(s) and students

Day in and day out these two objects work hand in hand

Monday through Friday

 The schedule rarely changes

Students walk through a doorway on an hourly basis

Papers shuffle

Dull pencils are replaced with sharp points

The fearless fighter takes the stage 

 A performance is about to begin that their audience must comprehend

Hiding all worries and stress the fearless fighter lays out what is before them

Throughout the performance it is clear that things aren't going according to the plan 

The projector stops working

There's not enough copies

The amount of blank stares indicates there needs to be a swift change

Forever fearless the fighter marches on 

With an untrained eye this might go unnoticed for the fearless fighter is a master 

Not wavering with what their audience brings into the classroom 

They stay true to the course for they know what is at stake

Futures are built and molded within these walls

The fearless fighter will never give up

Defeat is not an option

Fighting for their audience is where their passion lies

For they are fearless

These daily performances are rarely seen by a majority of the world and yet we have all sat in these seats. No stage is needed and adoring fans do not ask for our autographs. There will be no write up in the local newspaper about how marvelous the act was. 

A small handful of individuals are its daily audience. 

Day in and day out the routine is nearly the same. 

Teachers and students working hand in hand. 

For they too are fearless fighters.

Looking in the mirror

I've always been perplexed by the double standard of being a teacher. There seems to be a microscope that pops out and examines various aspects of our lives at any given moment. If we say or do something that is less than teacherish we get our hand slapped. There is very little room for errors because we live our lives in the spotlight whether we like to admit it or not. I've been told on numerous occasions to not be seen in local bars or to be walking into a certain movie at a theater, looking at a type of book in a bookstore and even watch what I write about. You never know how people will interpret words, what eyes will see or what ears will hear.

To make matters worse we are expected to act like good little soldiers. New mandates and latest trends in education flood our classrooms on a yearly basis with little input from educators regarding these changes. You will hear very few teacher complain about these new standards as a whole, but behind closed doors eyes are rolling.

For the most part I don't mind being held to higher standards. I'm a rule follower. I put my students first and know what is best for them. Sometimes I just wish I was treated like an adult and not a student.

Know that I write my post in an honest manner. I am not here to offend anyone or any institution. I am just exercising my freedom of speech. After all that's the beauty of teaching in America.