About this Blog
A small town person with big world dreams
There is rarely a day that has gone by during this school year that hasn’t left me completely shocked by SOMETHING. Sometimes it is a student’s misbehavior. Sometimes it is something an administrator says or does. But, sometimes it just the greatness that is teaching.
We took our summative assessment on Tuesday and Wednesday – our Spanish 1 end of level exam. I used the NY Second Language Proficiency Exam. In NY, many students will get two years of solid foreign language instruction before taking the test. My students and I got one year because of the structure of our program, and this left me afraid as to how the students would score. After the kids finished their tests, I sent samples of student speaking and writing off to teachers in various places to get their feedback on grades to make sure that I was grading my students as fairly as…
It seems crazy, my entire first year of teaching is almost over. My summative is on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since I teach foreign language, we did the speaking portion of the summative last week. One of my classes scored above 90%. The lowest was around 78%. So, we are on track to do pretty well!…
read more »It’s weird. I got up this morning in a fine mood and have been productive all day. Today is the last day of Spring Break, and I did no work over break. Therefore, naturally, I have to pay the price and do it today. But, that really hasn’t been the problem. At least until now.…
read more »It was once said to me teaching is worth it for the handful of students who you really get to impact. In my Pre-teacher life I thought this sounded naive. In my current teaching life I’d say you’re not kidding. I’m not sure how many of those kids I have for sure, but there is…
read more »On the toughest days (which let me tell you – there have been plenty), I sometimes can’t help but just laugh with/at my kids and the things they say. First off, let me just say I have the best kids. The best kids in the Delta. And in America. My kids love me, and I…
read more »I’ll be the first to say that lately, I’ve been down in the dumps. I don’t know why but I hit a jut. It’s effected my teaching. I vow to fix my problem and increase the “joy factor” in my room – aka make myself happy with myself and my life. I think I re-found…
read more »It seems as though I probably should have written sooner, but I haven’t. Forgive me. Since the semester started, things have been a little crazy. I have decided to fully commit myself to the TPRS teaching method which means that at least 50% and pushing upwards of more is in the foreign language. It takes…
read more »Here’s the truth of the matter: I miss my kids. I miss my school. And I miss my job. Now, don’t get me wrong – I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my break thus far, and plan to enjoy the last few days as well. But, this break has made me realize how much I really do love…
read more »Yet again, I haven’t posted in a very long time. I apologize, kind of. I don’t post every day because by the end of some days – simply existing seems to be a gift from above and I go to sleep and get up and do it again. Many times things happen and I think…
read more »Another day of my life has come and gone. Sometimes I wonder: did I actually accomplish anything today? Sure, I went to work. Sure, I tried teaching. But did that actually amount to ANYTHING? Let me just re-cap yesterday. The day ended. It was less than great. I knew I was getting observed today and…
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