Another relapse. The night before was a regular (irregular) sleep night. I left school about 6:45PM. The schedule for Wednesday is an in-house half-day training for the new literacy program. Yes, the same program that required teachers to report two days earlier at the beginning of the school year (instead of getting classrooms ready). The program that started about a month and a half after school started. And yes, the same program that we are currently using older versions of the materials because the new materials have not arrived yet. Training will be on the new materials.

At first, I wasn't sure how the training day was scheduled (plus the irregular sleep routine turned my mind to mush. By three, I was both mentally and physically drained, so I kind of drifted and wandered, until I could finally focus, by then it was about 6:00PM. There were a few things going through my mind at the same time (the training [did I need to plan activities for the teacher(s) covering my class], student behavior, portfolio development, portfolio components, social studies, writing rubrics, etc...). In the end, I just threw a few books and materials into the granny cart with the (false) plan of getting it organized when I got home.

When I got home, I had planned to call a couple of parents about behavior, but after dinner, I fell asleep. For dinner I ate a Weight Watchers "Smart Ones" meal. I added a cup of microwavable rice to the meal to help fill me up. For dessert, I ate a couple of cups of Blueberry Morning cereal. I use the same disposable drinking cup, so that I don't have to wash dishes.

Oh, a quick comment about the microwavable rice. By now, you know that I like the microwavable mini cups. They are quick, convenient, and until recently, a healthier choice than some of the other possible food choices. Success Rice (an instant rice making company) was bought by Minute Rice.

What was the first thing Minute Rice did?

They added salt to the white and brown rice. There were favored rices that I usually avoided because of the sodium content. For example, Success Rice Long Grain and Wild Rice Mix has 390mg of sodium. I was satisfied with the white and brown rice. White rice had 0mg of sodium, and brown rice had about 5mg of sodium. Now, both have 175mg of sodium (about 7% of the recommended daily allowance of sodium intake).

Well, I better go. Above, I have attached photos of my recent bulletin board.


Post Date - Wednesday, December 5, 2007 2:46AM

Okay, quick chat. Yes, yes I know, but I will try. I just woke up from a crash and burn sleep in my chair. Quick summary...I hope. Today, my after-school goal is to get a gripe on the mounds of paper cluttering my classroom, mounds of books cluttering corners, and repositioning my furniture. I can no longer take having my "teacher's space" split in half. Remember, I have my teacher's desk by the windows, but my "baby" is in the corner in the back of the room(copy machine). For the past couple of months, I have been alternating between the two areas, however, I spend most of my "off time" in the back. Too many times this year, I've not been able to find something that should have been readily available. No sooner have I gotten a grip on my space, something has been thrown at me, so that I end up making another mound of this or that. If given an opportunity, I think things to have a place, and everything in its place. Uh...so much for quick.\

This morning (really yesterday since it is now after midnight), with about an hour of sleep, I pulled myself out of bed. With about 30 minutes to go, I had to pull myself to together. With a quick "morning rest", I did not have much time to do anything else. I did manage to shave with my new Gillette "fusion" razor. A quick sponge off, I was out of the door to catch my train. I had wanted to try the new organic oatmeal, but I didn't have enough time, not even the 3 minutes it would have taken to boil water.

Once I arrived to the Bronx, I bought a Nutriment drink and iced honey bun.

The kids were a bit hyper today. During my "literacy grouping", a couple of kids had a fight. AP1 called for something, while I was on the phone, the boy threatened to slap the girl. The girl dared him, so he did. Both were 5th graders. Wait. You are saying, "don't you teach 3rd graders?" The "new program" requires me to spend 2 periods teaching a "literacy blocked program" to another completely different group of kids. So, I was assigned to be one of the teachers to teacher students reading at the approx. 2.2 reading level. So, my group of 16 students all 4th and 5th graders are reading at a second grade level (I have one 3rd grader). The kicker, is that I still have to provide the same level of accountability for my regular kids in terms of reading, writing and test prep, without any real knowledge of what they are doing for the "literacy block". The same applies for the kids that I have. Sorry, sidetrack.

I thought I would like this program better than the other, but I guess I was wrong to wish that "anything would be better than the what we have now" wish from last year.

After the literacy block, was to be my prep, but AP1 called at last minute to let me (and the other 3rd grade teachers) know that she wanted us to plan together the homework packet for the Thanksgiving recess. I was annoyed. I did not mind collaborating, but not at the last minute. The nicely put together packet that I had used last year was no longer good enough. We were called together to look through free samples of test prep materials that she picked up at a last admin conference. None of the materials were photocopiable. Unfortunately, I do sometimes photocopy unphotocopiable materials, but I try not to. I rationalize that most materials allow a classroom teacher to copy for the good of his or her students when the motive is not profit related. However, I felt a little bit uncomfortable with admin having us sit down a "white out" some company that took the time to stamp do not photocopy across each page of the test prep book. "Down the hall" 3rd grade teacher noticed that since the copy came out gray and barely noticeable, then we would not need to "white out" much. I really did not want to sit and white out materials, so I went to my class to get some materials that could be photocopied. Strange, I do it alone, but in a group, I have a problem with it. Strange.

When I got back from my "prep", I had about 40 minutes before lunch, I used that time for my students to finish up their "bulletin board" writing. My original bulletin board topic was character sketches. Since I had a couple of students who did not have the teacher's once over, and several students who did not type their report, I did this last minute changed. The plan was that since the "original" idea (writing) was almost finished, then I could use that for next bulletin board which would be the first time, my bulletin board would be completed on time. However, things are not going as planned. The last few days has been trying to get my students to do a decent piece of writing. What I've gotten has been anything but great, but with all of the other things that have to be done, I don't have time to really do a job that I would like to do.

Today after 3PM, after my brief crash and burn recuperation, I put up my "November" bulletin board. It is now Nov. 21st. I read two books:

All About Turkeys by Jim Arnosky
Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey by by Joy Cowley and Joe Cepeda

My students then had to complete a couple of worksheets (one facts about turkeys and the other a story map). Having my students do rough drafts before doing the worksheets really didn't help very much. The worksheets still came out crappy. Half ignored my corrections. I am going to have to learn to stop accepting crappy work!!!

Afterwards, my students had to make paper turkeys. The worksheets look sloppy, but since I waited until the last minute, I really can't have the kids do it over. After this recess, I really am going to have to work on my organization and classroom management. I have to learn to not accept crap from my students. I did have my camera with me, but I will take a photo today. So my opinion is that I basically put crap up on the wall. However, since a lot of teachers don't really do hands on art activities, I think I might get a few "ooo" and ahhhs".


Post Date - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 1:32AM