A Day in the Life...

Some of you may be wondering what a typical day looks like for a first year teacher. If you fit into this category, allow me to break a typical morning for you.

5:00 AM My first alarm usually goes off. I fumble around, and depending on how much I need to get done at school in the morning and my immediate need of a shower, I either get my butt up, or I set the snooze for 30 minutes.

5:15 AM Shower time, make up time, hair time

5:45 AM Breakfast? Yes.

6:00 AM Brush teeth, scramble to find keys, papers, throw a lunch together, find cell phone and shoes

6:15 AM Out the door! Time for my commute, which I lovingly think of as the reason I will someday have high blood pressure.

6:45 AM At school, and it is usually still dark out. Time to sign in, check my box, put my lunch in the faculty work room, and go unlock my door. Now I can clean my desk, which probably looks like a national disaster area, update my board for today's objectives, and print off any last-minute papers. If I'm really ambitious, I'll update my grades and/or get the rest of the week's lesson plans in order. Also a great time to check out celebrity gossip!

7:45 AM Students come in for homeroom, and my whirl-wind of a day starts!

Brrr

It's happened. I've officially become a wimp when it comes to cold weather. I've always ran a little cold, and have never had a high tolerance for chilly weather, but this morning, I was just ashamed of myself. When I stepped out of my car this morning, putting me out in the "elements" for the first time, it was SO COLD! When I came in and checked the current temperature, it was only 56 degrees!!!! That's nearly short weather in Portland! I swear it felt closer to 40. I wanted gloves and a hat. Thanks, Texas, for turning me into one of those people who will always complain about the cold weather in Portland. Great.

Last night I chaperoned the freshman movie night with three of my favorite co-workers. It was fun to watch the kids play soccer for a while, and then we ordered hamburgers and ate and watched The Unborn. Well, the kids watched and we talked. I was at school until 9:30, but I know the kids had a great time.

Fun KIPP Houston High School fact...

I've seen the word "Kerberos" on lots of KIPP things. Sweatshirts, emails and signs are all adorned with this Latin word, and until yesterday, I had no clue what it meant, or why it was such a big deal at KHHS.

Turns out, Kerberos is the name of our mascot. Kerberos is the Latin name for Cerberos, or the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hell. I'm not kidding. That is our mascot. And that is BAD ASS. Why is this our mascot? Well, the mascot of the middle school is the Big Dog, and a three-headed, gates of Hell guarding dog is the next logical step, right? OF COURSE!

But here is where things get really funny. Because we are a small charter school, we mostly play the other small, private, CHRISTIAN schools in sports. These small, private, CHRISTIAN schools don't look so kindly on our mascot, and really don't want their little darlings going up against the monster that guards the gates of Hades. So, when we play these schools, our mascot becomes either the Wolves, or the Kippsters (lame).

So for all of you who think your high school had the most bad-ass mascot, I dare you to try and up the KHHS Kerberos!

PICTURES!

So here are some of my students just being kids - It was a free day in advisory so we went outside to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather!
That giant pile of dirt was left over from the construction, and instead of paying someone to move it, they left it there and now call it The Mountain to College. You see, you have to climb a mountain to get to college, and it is hard, and difficult, and you often want to give up. But when you get to the top, you feel GREAT. I often see pre-k kids climbing the mountain from my window. It's pretty cute.
These lucky students were some of the 55 who didn't get a single fishbowl this quarter. You get a fishbowl for not turning in homework, and that means you must eat lunch in one of the teachers' rooms in SILENCE. And you can't do anything else. BORRRING!
These students were not posing - they were actually working. All of them were working!


I love my kiddos!!!!

End of the First Quarter, and Fall in Texas

Well, if this isn't a milestone, I don't know what is. I have officially finished my first quarter as a real, genuine, paid teacher. I made it through the first twelve weeks of school without crying, not sleep deprived, and without any major illness. No one has cussed me out, and I think most of my students like me and enjoy my class.

The end of the quarter leaves me in a reflective mood. There are some things that I can give myself kudos on, and some things I need to improve. Here are the lists:

Kudos:

5/6 periods have class averages at or above 84%.

No major discipline issues

Good relationships with my students

Lots of professional compliments from teachers, administrators and offices staff

Not falling in front of students

Getting a grade book and using it on a daily basis

Improvement list:

Tracking!

Passing back student work

Documenting modifications

Handing out discipline for habitually late students

Assessing FOR learning

Positive reinforcement

Calling and emailing parents on a more regular basis

Keeping up on TFA paperwork

Period 8's 74% class average. Ouch.

Keeping my head above the water!

Cheers,

Danielle

Literacy in World Geography - HELP!

Here's the deal, I'd LOVE to integrate a novel into one of my upcoming units (Russia, Asia, Africa, The Pacific), but I'm not sure what's out there. I've heard about books that are about apartheid, life in the Middle East, and so forth, but would love suggestions. Read any good books that would be appropriate for high school aged kids? Let me know!

Week VIII

Big, big news. I booked my airline tickets for Europe for this Christmas! I will fly into Spain, spend a few days there with Wyeth and then we will fly up to Sweden on Christmas eve and I'll stay there until the 1st! I am SO excited to see Wyeth and travel a bit. Unfortunately, this means I won't be home for Christmas. I'm trying to figure out if I can afford to go home for Thanksgiving so that I get a little family time before, oh say, next spring! I really miss home and need to get a dose of the North West.

My classes are going pretty well. I am working on getting their tests graded (I WILL have grades updated by Monday!) and hopefully all of my kiddos will pass this quarter. There are a handful of them that I am worried about, but I think I can work with them to get them to passing. I'm building in a lot of participation and "completion grades" into this next week. After looking at all of these test grades, I am a little worried that some grades are going to drop significantly. Ugh. It is easy to tell who studied and who didn't. I think that I am not going to require 5 paragraph essays on tests anymore, but I will have them do IDs. That will prepare them for AP classes, and will be easier to grade. I think I will also let them use a study sheet on the test, or a notecard. That way, they will study while they create their notecard, and hopefully do better on the test.

I have a lot to do in the next few weeks, but I'm keeping my head above the water. I've run into the problem lately that I just DO NOT want to work when I get home. When I get home, I am tired, hungry and just have no motivation. I try to stay and work here, but I'm always starving, or have a headache, or am just tired and so I'm not getting all of the work done that I need to get done. Time to start packing more snacks (HUMMUS!) and working more hours here.