Thank you, Netflix. Thanks for asking if I'm still watching Parks and Recreation so that I don't have to manually pause it to take a much needed bathroom break.
Saturdays full of grading and planning. And Netflix.
#teacherlife
Saturday, February 4, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
January Blues
Pretty much.
I have been so exhausted lately. I think it's just January. It has been so snowy. And pretty cold. And snowy. Did I mention that there's been snow? Lots of it.
Most adults I talk to in Utah talk about how much they hate the snow. Driving in it is the worst. Sure, sure, whatever. (I really don't even know what the problem is...there's only ever like 2 mornings a year where there's actually scary snow on the roads that haven't been plowed or salted. Otherwise it's just like rain people!) It definitely sucks having to scrape your windows and brush the snow off your car, but these people don't really have room to be complaining. They're not elementary school teachers.
I know when I was a kid, a snow day was a dream. A day that school was cancelled and you got to go play in the snow! It was the best! But here in Utah, there is no such thing as a snow day. In my 4 years of teaching there hasn't even been a whisper of such a thing existing here. So instead, kids just dream about playing in the snow all day long while they're in class. Except they don't know what they're doing. Strangely, dreaming about playing in the freshly fallen snow manifests itself in extremely chatter. Talking to each other, talking to themselves, talking out in lessons, trying to get me to talk about anything except the lesson that needs to be taught, talking to each other again. No stopping.
Thankfully we've been pretty lucky and the school I'm at is fairly lenient about outside recess. It has to be below 22 degrees or precipitating enough to get the kids wet for it to be an inside day. So most of the time they get to go outside and get a little bit of their snow energy out. But it's still not enough. Especially since we're in a portable and have to walk through the freshly falling snow and the iced over snow on the ground and be reminded of the snow at least 3 times a day. And on the days that it is an inside lunch recess...good luck getting anything done for the rest of the afternoon.
Now, I should clarify that I'm not saying my class is horrible or wild or out of control. None of that. It just takes more effort to wrangle them in, and it has to be done much more often. The snow just has some sort of crazy, strange effect on them.
Anyways, I started this post just to say I'm crazy tired and I blame it on the blah January weather.
On a good note: the days are getting longer:)
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Can you hear me now?
Sorry it's been a while. I've been off track going on three weeks, and the week before that was parent/teacher conferences, and the week before that was the lead up to conferences (just as busy, if not more, trying to get report cards and everything all ready). Anyways, enough with the excuses. I've a funny story to share.
Before we went off track, there was a school fund raiser going on, collecting spare change for a Thanksgiving drive. There was a school goal to reach $200 by a certain date and then we would have a PJ day. So I guess we hit the goal and the student council advisor just emailed the teachers to tell us to tell our students that Friday would be PJ day. Well, the first thing my students would tell you if you asked them to describe me in one word would be "forgetful" (it's kind of a running joke in our classroom that I forget EVERYTHING).
So the email came on Tuesday. That meant I had 3 days to let the kids know. Really, that meant I had 3 days to forget to tell them. Because that's what happened. I only ever remembered when I was not with them, and I failed to be smart enough to write myself a reminder on the whiteboard so that someone else could see my note and remind me. Thursday night rolled around and I was like "CRAP! I totally forgot to tell my students about PJ day, but there's no way that I'm gonna miss this day to wear my PJs to school!" And then my husband gave me the best idea. "You've been complaining a lot about the fact that your students never listen to you...."
The next morning, I wore my pajamas to school like a boss. The bell rang and I stepped out onto my lovely portable porch to say good morning and I was immediately attacked, as I thought I would be. "Mrs. Lawrence, you didn't tell us it was pajama day!" they all cried. I looked at them sadly and shrugged, saying, "You mean you didn't hear when I told you that it was today?" As they all shuffled inside with puzzled and disappointed looks on their faces I added with another shrug, "I guess you guys really need to pay better attention to everything I say, huh?" Not another word about it all day long. Ha!
Okay yeah, I'm probably gonna have to pay someday for that white lie that I told them, but seriously, they don't listen to like 60% of what I say. Maybe that will serve as a little lesson so they'll remember to listen more carefully to the things that I say!
Before we went off track, there was a school fund raiser going on, collecting spare change for a Thanksgiving drive. There was a school goal to reach $200 by a certain date and then we would have a PJ day. So I guess we hit the goal and the student council advisor just emailed the teachers to tell us to tell our students that Friday would be PJ day. Well, the first thing my students would tell you if you asked them to describe me in one word would be "forgetful" (it's kind of a running joke in our classroom that I forget EVERYTHING).
So the email came on Tuesday. That meant I had 3 days to let the kids know. Really, that meant I had 3 days to forget to tell them. Because that's what happened. I only ever remembered when I was not with them, and I failed to be smart enough to write myself a reminder on the whiteboard so that someone else could see my note and remind me. Thursday night rolled around and I was like "CRAP! I totally forgot to tell my students about PJ day, but there's no way that I'm gonna miss this day to wear my PJs to school!" And then my husband gave me the best idea. "You've been complaining a lot about the fact that your students never listen to you...."
The next morning, I wore my pajamas to school like a boss. The bell rang and I stepped out onto my lovely portable porch to say good morning and I was immediately attacked, as I thought I would be. "Mrs. Lawrence, you didn't tell us it was pajama day!" they all cried. I looked at them sadly and shrugged, saying, "You mean you didn't hear when I told you that it was today?" As they all shuffled inside with puzzled and disappointed looks on their faces I added with another shrug, "I guess you guys really need to pay better attention to everything I say, huh?" Not another word about it all day long. Ha!
Okay yeah, I'm probably gonna have to pay someday for that white lie that I told them, but seriously, they don't listen to like 60% of what I say. Maybe that will serve as a little lesson so they'll remember to listen more carefully to the things that I say!
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
And the Crowd Goes Wild
It's so late and I should have been asleep an hour ago, especially because I have a meeting at 7:45 in the morning, but I have to write this so I don't forget.
I was having a horrible day today. I got a new student yesterday who speaks little to no English. I already have one student who can speak decent English, but can't read or write. I went to bed last night and woke up this morning feeling stressed and overwhelmed about how I'm supposed to teach them and reach all of my other students on their various levels. Then I had printer problems all day and missed my entire lunch trying to get any printer in the school to print what I needed for that afternoon. (Long story short: I didn't.)
So I walked in the faculty room for the last 5 minutes of lunch, just long enough to warm up my ramen and take a bathroom break. I then let loose complaining to my team about how frustrated and overwhelmed I was. They helped me carry my armfuls of stuff and our team leader offered to go with me to talk to the principal after school. I was very grateful for their support and help, and we walked outside to go to our portables.
And then we saw my students.
As soon as they saw us come out the doors, they started just cheering and clapping and going crazy. Then they ran to make a bridge with their arms for me to run through. It was possibly one of the sweetest moments of my teaching career and almost brought me to tears right then and there.
My kids have actually been doing this most days for the past couple of weeks because one of the other classes would sometimes clap when their teacher came out after lunch and I teased my class by saying, "Come on guys, don't I deserve a warm welcome like that?" And then they decided to one up the other class by doing the bridge.
But today it was something I really needed. I needed to know that I'm loved and appreciated and that my kids think I'm a great teacher, even when I feel like I'm not.
Who cares if they all make proficiency on the end of year tests? (I mean, sure it would be awesome, but does it really matter?) As long as I can help them enjoy school, like learning, and be decent people, then I can rest well at the end of the year.
I was having a horrible day today. I got a new student yesterday who speaks little to no English. I already have one student who can speak decent English, but can't read or write. I went to bed last night and woke up this morning feeling stressed and overwhelmed about how I'm supposed to teach them and reach all of my other students on their various levels. Then I had printer problems all day and missed my entire lunch trying to get any printer in the school to print what I needed for that afternoon. (Long story short: I didn't.)
So I walked in the faculty room for the last 5 minutes of lunch, just long enough to warm up my ramen and take a bathroom break. I then let loose complaining to my team about how frustrated and overwhelmed I was. They helped me carry my armfuls of stuff and our team leader offered to go with me to talk to the principal after school. I was very grateful for their support and help, and we walked outside to go to our portables.
And then we saw my students.
As soon as they saw us come out the doors, they started just cheering and clapping and going crazy. Then they ran to make a bridge with their arms for me to run through. It was possibly one of the sweetest moments of my teaching career and almost brought me to tears right then and there.
My kids have actually been doing this most days for the past couple of weeks because one of the other classes would sometimes clap when their teacher came out after lunch and I teased my class by saying, "Come on guys, don't I deserve a warm welcome like that?" And then they decided to one up the other class by doing the bridge.
But today it was something I really needed. I needed to know that I'm loved and appreciated and that my kids think I'm a great teacher, even when I feel like I'm not.
Who cares if they all make proficiency on the end of year tests? (I mean, sure it would be awesome, but does it really matter?) As long as I can help them enjoy school, like learning, and be decent people, then I can rest well at the end of the year.
Monday, October 24, 2016
A Teacher's Worst Nightmare
Alright, I've got a double complaint for today. *I just finished typing the first complaint and decided that's more than enough for today. The other complaint won't go away, so you'll get to hear about it another day.
My complaint: Sub plans.
That's enough to make any teacher shudder. But I wish that people who aren't teachers could really understand how incredibly it sucks to not go to work. In most jobs if you call in sick or have a training or whatever the reason is that you're not going to be at work, it's not a big deal. Someone can easily cover for you, or the work just waits to get done until you're back. Not so for a teacher.
Yes, someone covers for you, but not until after you've done all the work planning and preparing what they're going to do all day for you.
That's a screenshot of my sub plans for tomorrow. Almost 3 whole pages. I'm going to a training because next year they're changing our science curriculum and also altering the way they want us to teach science. It's not exactly a mandatory training, but it seemed like a really good idea to have an idea of what I'm supposed to teach next year, plus as a teacher you do have to go to enough "professional development" classes and trainings to add up to a certain number of points/credits to renew your license every few years. (That's another topic for another day.) Anyways, my point is I don't have to go, but I feel like to be a good teacher I should.
But do I get any paid time to come up with these sub plans? Nope. Not really. I worked on them a bit over my break, meaning I filled in each subject box with the general idea of what they were going to do.
Math: dividing fraction review
Reading: story
Social Studies: Greek mythology
Then today I worked on actually typing in the detailed instructions that I feel like a sub needs and deserves in order to do what I expect. But did I have time to do that during my contract time? Not really. It was an inside morning because of rain, meaning I had kids in my room like almost as soon as I got there, plus I had a couple quick things I needed to get ready for the day. I didn't have a moment of rest all day either. It was one of those days where my kids were especially needy, even when I didn't think they would be. So it wasn't until 3:30 that I was able to fill all of this in. Although, that meant I had to actually decide what I meant by "Greek mythology" and "dividing fraction review." I had to find worksheets and activities and then go make copies of all of them too.
So 5:10 rolls around (the building closes at 5:30) and I'm not quite ready. I've got everything printed and copied, but I need probably another 20-30 minutes to finish getting it all organized and adding finishing touch instructions. So I have to go in tomorrow morning. My training isn't until 8:30 and it's only 10 minutes away from my house. But I have to go in to school (25 minutes away from my house) at like 7:30 to make sure I have my 20-30 minutes to get everything ready and get back to my training in time.
Okay, I know this is my fault because I could have been more organized and planned a little further ahead, but I really thought I'd have time during the day today. And honestly I was just tired over the past several days. I took 3 hour naps like almost every day of my break. I really needed a break from work, so I didn't do anything. And now I'm reaping the consequences. It just sucks that that's the nature of a teacher's job.
Then there's the times when you're sick. You feel like crap, but you know that if you decide to take a day off to stay home and sleep, you have to do a ton of work to get ready for that. All the plans you have to type up, all the activities and worksheets you have to find then print and copy, not to mention the cleaning you have to do because your classroom is probably a mess. At that point it often seems easier to just suck it up and come to work sick the next day. Then again, any good teacher has some emergency sub plans tucked away in the cabinet, ready to go with easy review worksheets and activities that can be done in a moment's notice. But no teacher ever really wants to have to use those emergency plans because 1) that means they have to make new emergency sub plans (which again is a lot of planning and copying); 2) it is pretty much all busy work and review, meaning a waste of a day; 3) if you don't get to teach those lessons that you had planned for that day, your whole week that you have planned is going to be off a day, which could be a big deal. Long story short, don't get sick unless you want more work.
And of course I won't even go into how much you stress about how your class is behaving for a substitute. About how it's in the back of your mind all day, and you dread coming back the next day to find the report about how horrible they were and then having to come up with a fulfilling punishment. No need to mention that.
Well, that's my rant for today. It really sucks for teachers when they have to miss work, no matter the reason. It's always just as much (if not more!) work than if they were just able to go to work. So next time you're able to call in sick, be thankful you're not a teacher.
My complaint: Sub plans.
That's enough to make any teacher shudder. But I wish that people who aren't teachers could really understand how incredibly it sucks to not go to work. In most jobs if you call in sick or have a training or whatever the reason is that you're not going to be at work, it's not a big deal. Someone can easily cover for you, or the work just waits to get done until you're back. Not so for a teacher.
Yes, someone covers for you, but not until after you've done all the work planning and preparing what they're going to do all day for you.
That's a screenshot of my sub plans for tomorrow. Almost 3 whole pages. I'm going to a training because next year they're changing our science curriculum and also altering the way they want us to teach science. It's not exactly a mandatory training, but it seemed like a really good idea to have an idea of what I'm supposed to teach next year, plus as a teacher you do have to go to enough "professional development" classes and trainings to add up to a certain number of points/credits to renew your license every few years. (That's another topic for another day.) Anyways, my point is I don't have to go, but I feel like to be a good teacher I should.
But do I get any paid time to come up with these sub plans? Nope. Not really. I worked on them a bit over my break, meaning I filled in each subject box with the general idea of what they were going to do.
Math: dividing fraction review
Reading: story
Social Studies: Greek mythology
Then today I worked on actually typing in the detailed instructions that I feel like a sub needs and deserves in order to do what I expect. But did I have time to do that during my contract time? Not really. It was an inside morning because of rain, meaning I had kids in my room like almost as soon as I got there, plus I had a couple quick things I needed to get ready for the day. I didn't have a moment of rest all day either. It was one of those days where my kids were especially needy, even when I didn't think they would be. So it wasn't until 3:30 that I was able to fill all of this in. Although, that meant I had to actually decide what I meant by "Greek mythology" and "dividing fraction review." I had to find worksheets and activities and then go make copies of all of them too.
So 5:10 rolls around (the building closes at 5:30) and I'm not quite ready. I've got everything printed and copied, but I need probably another 20-30 minutes to finish getting it all organized and adding finishing touch instructions. So I have to go in tomorrow morning. My training isn't until 8:30 and it's only 10 minutes away from my house. But I have to go in to school (25 minutes away from my house) at like 7:30 to make sure I have my 20-30 minutes to get everything ready and get back to my training in time.
Okay, I know this is my fault because I could have been more organized and planned a little further ahead, but I really thought I'd have time during the day today. And honestly I was just tired over the past several days. I took 3 hour naps like almost every day of my break. I really needed a break from work, so I didn't do anything. And now I'm reaping the consequences. It just sucks that that's the nature of a teacher's job.
Then there's the times when you're sick. You feel like crap, but you know that if you decide to take a day off to stay home and sleep, you have to do a ton of work to get ready for that. All the plans you have to type up, all the activities and worksheets you have to find then print and copy, not to mention the cleaning you have to do because your classroom is probably a mess. At that point it often seems easier to just suck it up and come to work sick the next day. Then again, any good teacher has some emergency sub plans tucked away in the cabinet, ready to go with easy review worksheets and activities that can be done in a moment's notice. But no teacher ever really wants to have to use those emergency plans because 1) that means they have to make new emergency sub plans (which again is a lot of planning and copying); 2) it is pretty much all busy work and review, meaning a waste of a day; 3) if you don't get to teach those lessons that you had planned for that day, your whole week that you have planned is going to be off a day, which could be a big deal. Long story short, don't get sick unless you want more work.
And of course I won't even go into how much you stress about how your class is behaving for a substitute. About how it's in the back of your mind all day, and you dread coming back the next day to find the report about how horrible they were and then having to come up with a fulfilling punishment. No need to mention that.
Well, that's my rant for today. It really sucks for teachers when they have to miss work, no matter the reason. It's always just as much (if not more!) work than if they were just able to go to work. So next time you're able to call in sick, be thankful you're not a teacher.
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