Start Anew

It's about 8:20 on Monday January 4th, 2010. I'm back at KHHS, and professional development begins in about a half hour. So here I am, looking around my empty classroom and trying to decide how to make it look new for my students. New seating arrangements? New bulletin boards? I think I need to make a trip to the giant teacher store that's near by and buy some new borders.

How else am I going to mark the beginning of the end of the year for my students? How about an updated syllabus? That might be useful... and I do have a class website now. That's pretty awesome in and of itself. Maybe I need to work on some reinvestment with my students. What is/are their goal(s)? What are my goals? Sounds like it's time to go over all of this again, beginning with my goals.

So what are my goals? Have they changed? I still want my students at an 80% average on their exams, which so far is working out for most classes. I want to be better at passing back and entering grades and I think that I'll assign students jobs to help me with that.

This is starting to sound a lot like New Year's resolutions, which I try to avoid. Oops.

Ugh. Time to make a few to-do lists and get some things done.

Music Thievery

I took so much music from Wyeth before I left. I went to Europe with about 8 GB of music, and now I have ... 14.38. Yowza. 


New additions (or re-additions, if you think about me losing all of my music at the end of summer), include:
- 2 Alicia Keys albums
- Amadan
- 227 Beatles songs (my kids are going to LOVE this)
- Bee Gees greatest hits
- more Coldplay
- more Dispatch
- 92 Eric Clapton songs
- Five for Fighting
- more George Strait
- James Taylor
- Josh Turner
- more Kenny Chesney
- more Lifehouse
- Matchbox Twenty
- Nickel Creek
- completed my Pink Martini albums!!!
- the Police
- the Postal Service
- Queen
- R.E.M.
- lots of Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Sheryl Crow
- The Shins "You gotta hear this one song, it'll change your life I swear". 
- Stevie Ray Vaughan
- Sugar Ray
- Sum 41
- More, older Train
- U2
- Usher
- Van Morrison


Now I feel complete, at least musically. 

Barcelona Photos

It's been a week of review/tests

A year ago I was student teaching at Aloha High School. Now I've made it through my first semester of full-time teaching. REALLY teaching. REALLY dealing with discipline and rewards and school politics and moody teenagers.  Me a year ago would be proud of me today. Me when I was a freshmen would be proud of me today.


And it's strange to think that I won't be seeing my Houston family for two whole weeks. Sadness.


And it's surreal that I'll be spending two weeks with Wyeth. Thank God.


And it's sad that I won't be with my family this Christmas. First time in 23 years.


TIme for a New Years resolution? I think about my New Years resolution last year (and I think only Wyeth will laugh at that one), and it probably isn't practical to reinstate it for this year. Next in line... get organized. And walk more. And have MORE FUN (or just continue to have as much fun as I've had in the past few months!!!)


Ciao, loves. Happy Holidays and feliz navidad! 

Why KIPP Works

Today at our grade level meeting, I witnessed and took part in one of the many traditions at KIPP: the Pinning Ceremony. The Pinning Ceremony takes place when the freshmen are nearly done with their first semester of high school as a symbol of their recommitment to college. The seniors apply a pin to their dress uniform and tell them that they commit to being role models. The freshmen commit to working their hardest to get to and through college; teachers commit to helping all of them do this. As much as I say that the kids at KIPP are brainwashed (and many are), it is amazing the impact these types of rituals have. When they happen often enough, it reminds students of why they are here: to get to and through college.

After the pinning ceremony, I witnessed another tradition: the esse quam vederi award. This award can be given to any student or faculty member, and is awarded by the last recipient. The newest recipient is a senior student who I do not teach, but who always greets me with a "Hey Ms. Redman. How you doin?" (Not in a Joey from Friends way, but in the most sincere way possible.) It turns out this student has wanted to be an astronaut since he was a little boy, and all of the faculty and his classmates believe he will someday get there due to his relentless pursuit of excellence. He is always studying and emailing teachers and trying his best. The teacher who nominated him started to choke up just talking about him, saying she believes someone will someday make a movie based on his inspirational life.  Even I began to get teary-eyed!

This kid, to the chants from his classmates, made a short speech and thanked everyone at KIPP for believing in him and pushing him constantly. He said he did not know where he would be without KIPP and is so thankful for the opportunities he has been given.

And that's what KIPP does. It gives students opportunities and support that they might not receive elsewhere.  And that's why I love it here. Despite the fact that my workdays are often 12 hours long, these kids need me to put in the hours, and they need me to care, and they need me to push them. It will all pay off in four years when I see the class of 2013 walk across the stage and receive their diploma.

Music

I often play music for my students if they are working on a group or individual project and are working quietly. I've played LFO, Pink Martini, Billy Joel (Pronounced Billy Joe-Elle when requested by one of my students), Elton John, John Mayer, Bob Marley... A mix of music. Today, as I was choosing the music for my students, my Beatles-obsessed student pulled out a book of CDs. I told students earlier that I am always looking to expand my music selection ever since I lost my hard drive at the beginning of the school year (and have since learned what Time Machine is for, and why my dad bought me my external years ago...). A.R. jumped all over this and brought a few discs in. I flipped through them and pulled out his John Lennon CD, and the CD we didn't recognize: Bobby Darin. Lennon is wonderful, and Darin is the guy who recorded "Splish Splash". Surprise!

I was hoping for more Beatles, but I'm sure I'll stumble across that at some point. Now that 3rd period knows that I'm serious about this quest for new music, I'm sure I'll get some more! I really can't wait!

And looking at the music I've played, it looks like I need to integrate more female artists. Whoops.

NOT teaching my class

There is another teacher in my classroom right now, teaching my kids. It is such an odd feeling, sitting back and letting someone else do the work.

I am pretty proud, though. My kids are answering questions and showing that I've taught them something in the past few weeks!!

On a completely different note, it's snowing right now. Umm.... I moved away from Portland to what I thought was a warmer climate. The temperature should be dropping today, and the snow should pick up around noon, and then freeze overnight. It's going to be on hell of a drive home.