How many posts can I have called "Update"?

So, I realized recently I haven't been blogging.

Well, I didn't JUST notice it...  I have known I wasn't doing it for a while.  But it was recently that I had the thought "Geez, I need to write something!"   Earlier today I did a quickie, just to share my email, and maybe light a fire?

But anyway...  What have I been up to?

It's the end of the school year.  I have 10 1/2 more days left with kids at school.  This week I've been testing the Extend II 3rd and 4th graders.  Next week it's the "Ready EOG" exams.  The Pep Rally is Tuesday, then we test Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday is the makeup day for absences.  The following week will consist of field day, fun day, inflatable city day, the school barbeque, and 4th grade graduation.  And yes, they all "pass," whether they deserve to or not.  Next year the EOG will be catching about 40% of our kids and forcing retention and we'll be MAJORLY overcrowded.

Honestly, this year hasn't been as hard or stressful as the past few.  I worked my bootie off to get my inventory done.  I'm down to about 21 missing items.  Not bad considering my lack of walls to keep people from taking things.  My annual AMTR report is done -- other than all the changes they keep giving us.  For YEARS now it's been "Don't count things central office issues -- central office records those..." and "Don't count the TRI laptops and iPads, they aren't ours until the program ends..."  Then, after I'm finished with my report and I get my principal to sign off my boss emails that we are now going to start counting all this stuff -- and more!  UGH!!

Of course at the rate my tech person "loses" our computers...  There aren't all that many to count anymore.  How do you lose 60 some-odd desktop computers??  Really???   And all the laptops we've had?  Gone.  Over the summer she somehow lost all of their power cords, so none were given out this year.  Now they're gone entirely.  Um...  is someone making some cash on the side pawning this stuff or what?

But anyway...  I had science classes added to my list of things to do...  I had to teach biomes and animal adaptations to 4th graders.  Not all, just the ones on grade-level while they did remediation with the other kids.  I put a Media twist on it, though.  They were researching the biomes, and the plants and animals in them so they could decide for themselves about the interdependencies and adaptations.  It was a nice little project I found on pinterest.

Speaking of pinterest...  I'd discovered this a while ago...  I got sucked in right away and noticed how it, like a vacuum, just sucked my day away.  I don't know where the time goes, as I sit and scroll...  But anyway, I haven't been sitting myself down at my computer at all much lately -- opting instead to hang with my daughter and do any surfing or whatnot on my iPhone.  Well, then I noticed there's a pinterest app and that got me re-hooked.  Now I'm back to using my computer to scroll through pinterest when I can't see stuff big enough on my phone.  But I'm LOVING it!!

For dinner so far this week...  Monday I just grilled chicken.  Tuesday we made very unhealthy pepperoni rollups I found on pinterest, and then today it was funeral sandwiches...  Easy, simple, delish...

Other than all this, I guess life is still the same.  I work 7 days a week for a few more weeks...  Then SUMMER!!  I've been working on my lessons for next year.  I'm ASSUMING I'll still be stuck teaching guided reading and acceleration, wasting half my day...  The problems with this are:
1.  I hate it.
2.  I feel it's a HUGE waste of time.
3.  I haaaaaaate it.
4.  I can't teach as many classes because half my day is devoted to this 4 days/ week.  Plus character ed...
5.  I miss almost all my grade levels PLC meetings because I'm stuck with a reading group half the day when they're having their meetings so it's hard to collaborate, let alone get them signed up or even know what it is they're working on.
6.  Did I mention that I haaaaate it and think it's a huge waste of time??

But anyway, I figured if I had a weekly plan, I could let my teachers know in advance that this is what skill I'll be working on.  If they want to partake, sign up.  If they don't, it's their responsibility to teach their kids that skill.  So I've been working on a weekly plan.  Not actual lesson plans, but more of a scope and sequence timeline.  I'll probably post the link when I have it done.  If I think of it.  Maybe I'll actually have time once summer comes around.  :)

OH!  And Battle of the Books!  I've been working on reading the books and writing questions.  I just finished Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs.  The kids are going to LOVE it!!  Here's a cute glogster about it:



Well, it's late and I need to start thinking about bed...  My dog's already passed out and hogging it.  I take that back -- I just glanced over and he's abandoned me.  So I should probably get while the getting's good.  Good night, all!  I'll try to be better about posting.  :)

Venting to my local State Senator

My principal shot us a couple emails this week.  The first one was to sign a petition against a new voucher system "the powers that be" would like to initiate here in North Carolina.  They want to make private schools available to everyone -- not just those who can afford them.  Great, right?  Sure.  Unless you take into consideration that they are going to take the money away from the public schools in order to fund this program.  So the public/free schools are going to basically pay to fund private schools?  Are these people insane??

The second one was asking us to email Senator Pate, advocating for our Instructional Assistants.  They want to increase our class sizes here and take away our support.  This is in addition to freezing our pay for how many years now, cutting our financial support (teachers at my school are issued a whopping 2 reams of paper a YEAR here!), changing our curriculum, giving us furlough days...  The list of kicks to the teeth goes on and on....

Anyway, I thought I'd share my email I sent.  I did a little venting in it:


Senator Pate,

 

As a public school educator I am writing to inform you of the fact that I, like my colleagues, do not want to lose our instructional assistants.  They are a truly necessary part of our schools.  Especially at the rate that class sizes have increased.  We don't have seating, supplies, or materials for our children, now you want to take away our support, too?

 

I realize you are not, and have never been, an educator.  I further realize that you have no idea what it is like to be a teacher.  You have not spent time trying to reach, teach, and inspire young minds.  You haven't dealt with the ramifications of what goes on in these children's home lives.  You haven't dedicated years of your life to finding ways to make learning inviting and meaningful to children who would rather be at home playing on their Xboxes.  I know you haven't an iota how much extraneous paperwork is required of us, let alone how overly assessed our students are.  You don't see them come off the bus and throw up from nerves as they take a single test that will make or break their success for the entire school year.  You don't have to try to teach the child who found a man shot in the head on their front doorstep on their way out to the school bus.  You don't have to work with the child who spent the night trying to sleep on their floor because there were people shooting into houses overnight.  But I do.

 

I am well aware of the fact that my school isn't like most others.  I teach at a central-attendance school comprised of children who live in the projects -- if they have a home at all.  I've had students who lived in their cars over the years.  I've had a student who came to school after watching his father gunned down in the street the night before.  We've dealt with children trading pot for PopTarts in the restrooms.  Not every school deals with these issues, but mine does.  And school is the one safe place for many of these children.  The meals they are given here are, for many, the only meals they will get each day.  The hugs they get from their teachers and instructional assistants may be the only hugs they get today.  We make a far greater impact than you give us credit for, and the cuts you're making to their education is much more profound than you, perhaps, comprehend.

 

But I digress...  My point in writing today is to suggest to you that at times when you are making decisions about education, a topic you are NOT an expert in, you should be looking to those of us who ARE for guidance.  We DO know what schools need.  We DO know what our children need.  We DO see the big picture, and what all of the cuts to our education system are doing to our children and to the future.

How can you, as a representative of our state, be proud of the job you are doing when NC constantly comes up at the bottom of the barrel?  We are currently 46th in teacher pay.  How do you expect to lure in the best and brightest teachers, or to keep them?  They will go where they are valued, where education is valued, where they feel they can do the best for themselves in a place where they matter.  It's been made more than clear that educators, and education itself, are not valued in the great state of North Carolina.  And we are 49th in student spending?  You should be ashamed of yourself!  If you're going to pay us so little that I (as a single mother who doesn't get any other form of support besides what I earn through my own blood, sweat, and tears) have to work a second job just to make ends meet, should be expected to buy my own paper, pencils, crayons, and other supplies that I need for my students?  It's not fair!  When my options are to pay my bills and feed my own children, or provide for my students, I have to choose my own children.  It breaks my heart, however, knowing that my students go without on a day to day basis, and now they're going without at school because neither I, nor my school, can afford to provide for them.

 

Please be more conscientious of the decisions you make, and try listening to those of us who actually know about the educational system.  Make better-informed decisions by listening to what your educators have to say.

Thank you for all you do,

 

"BiblioTechGal"

Update!!

I hadn't realized I haven't posted since December! Life has been busy. Having a second job will be the death of me at this rate. I'm tired all the time!

As for my library... Things have been busy. After returning from Christmas break, we focused on cyber-safety. There are 2 required lessons per grade level that have to be taught and reported every year. I try to do them myself so I know they were done. I created prezis for them, and I just follow the prezis in which I revamped the worksheets into whole class activities for shared discussion instead of paper/pencil assignments to make things easier.

We also focused on MLK in January, which then led us into Black History Month. Being that I teach at a school in which 97% of the students are African-American, this is a big deal and a major focus.

My book fair is coming soon, along with Read Across America, so I have a lot of work left to do! Now that the weather is going to start warming up, I need to get busy on recreating the My Favorite Book project, as well.

I've also been trying to figure out a better way to do my library program. Having a flex schedule means the teachers pick and choose when to come. There are some who NEVER come. This means their kids aren't checking out books, aren't researching in the library, and aren't having lessons with me. My school is very program-based and teachers have their time stretched. They have very little time for teaching because their kids are constantly being pulled for things: Sonday, guided reading (this isn't done with the teachers here!), acceleration, math lab, literacy lab, Fast ForWord, math matinee, Character Ed... All this in addition to specials (music, art, PE twice a week, and guidance), plus regular pull-outs like speech, EC, and what-not. And my time is limited because I'm one of the teachers pulled to work with this. I have a group of kids for guided reading and acceleration classes every morning, so I'm not available until about 10 am. Then I teach half-hour Character Ed to kindergarten classes in the afternoons. In between I also have to be the web master, do the school newsletter, do computer , copier, and other equipment repairs, attend grade-level planning meetings, work with library aides, and I get put on every committee known to man because I have a flex schedule. Oh, plus my Battle of the Books team I coach!! This year has proven to be overwhelming. There has to be a better way. Mondays no one wants to come, but they all fight over my Friday times and come one on top of another all day long, scheduled or not. I just don't see a 100% flex schedule as being the best way to do things at this level -- or at least not at this school.

Ideas? Condolences? Suggestions?

Lately... in a nutshell

I just realized I hadn't posted anything in about 3 weeks, and I can't imagine why...  LOL, life's just as busy and chaotic as usual, so why can't I squeeze in one more thing?

We've been busy gearing up for the holidays at school.  All my winter and Christmas books are out and being snatched up by the staff and students.  I've got pics to snap and a K-2 and 3-4 video to put together on Animoto for our upcoming Christmas sing-alongs.  We've got a Christmas program to finish putting together...

My just day-to-day activities have been overwhelming.  Guided Reading, Acceleration, Character Education, Mentoring, the school website...  Plus lessons, stories, check-outs, material gatherings...  About half the staff at my school followed suit and ordered the free glofish.  As soon as they arrive they want me to go set up their tanks.  Hello?  I'm the only person in the whole school whose fish died??  You sure you want ME to do it?

On a side note, I must say I'm actually a little irritated that my fish died.  You get the tank and are supposed to set it up and get it ready for the fish which come about a week and a half later.  We had a teacher who got her tank and set it aside and forgot about it.  When her fish came, she set them aside too because her tank wasn't ready.  TWO WEEKS LATER the fish (which had been over-nighted and are clearly labeled as being "live animals" which you need to "open immediately") were still sealed in the bag, enclosed in the box.  Clearly they're dead, right?  Nope.  When I mentioned mine had gone on to that great big goldfish bowl in the sky it dawned on her that she'd forgotten all about hers.  We opened them.  They were fine.  We filled her tank with ice water out of her Culligan bubbler (mind you, they're supposed to be in water that's about 70 degrees), floated the fish, eased them in, and the suckers lived happily ever after.  Blah.  Color me bright green with the worst kinda glofish-envy.  She says her fish are a "Christmas Miracle."  Bah Humbug!

At any rate...  I've also had to rearrange the library's computer lab so I could do away with a mini-drop which we were about to lose support of.  I've created 7 of the 10 cybersafety prezis I want to use to go along with the commonsensemedia lessons our county requires we teach.  I've worked on some of my NC Falcon modules...

Oh, and I wrecked my car so I spent quite a few afternoons taking care of that...  meeting with the body shop, the insurance adjuster, getting a rental car...  Another great, big BLAH!!!

On the upside...  The kids are so much fun!!  We've been reading Christmas stories online at We Give Books which is currently donating a book to a school library recovering from Hurricane Sandy for every story read.  I got my free Elf on the Shelf out at the library keeping an eye on the kids.  We named him Dewey.

At home, I had my dog and cat both fixed.  My cat is back to being her evil self, so we know she's feeling better.  My dog had to wear one of those Elizabethan collars which he was BEYOND thrilled to get off after a week.  Now all our bruises will heal where the big lug would run into us at full speed with that thing and knock us over.

Unfortunately he's apparently not a fan of Christmas.  He began by first destroying every Santa in the house and clearing all the ornaments from the bottom half of the tree.  Now he's moved on to snowmen, angels, and candycanes.  Every day I come home to a new pile of what used to be merry Christmas paraphernalia in the middle of my living room floor with Dexter laying in the middle of it.  Here he is laying on his blanket (he drags it around like a toddler) playing with an ornament he removed from the tree.

My evil cat also likes Christmas -- though she prefers hiding in the tree.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time -- I was especially thankful for Wednesday and Thursday since I didn't have to work.  I'm anxious for Christmas to come so I can enjoy a couple more days off.  And that, I suppose, has been my crazy life in a nutshell...  See, ya haven't missed much, huh?  :)

Sister Library Project

Yesterday I received this book from a librarian in Paris who organizes the Sister Library program I joined a couple years ago:

My Favorite Book by Amy Reggio

It's an absolutely gorgeous book, filled with amazing pictures.  Not only can you see these beautiful young people with their favorite books, but you can see the world they live in.  In the background you can see the other villagers, their homes, children farming, their library of books we would have long-since weeded...

At any rate, this books is the inspiration for a Sister Library activity I agreed to do with another library in Malawi.  We are going to recreate this book with our students, and they will recreate it with theirs.  Then we will exchange copies of our books.  I'm so excited!!

For anyone interested, you can read more about the program HERE.

Just Google It!

I've been introduced recently to two great resources, both of which harness the power of Google Earth and can be used in our classrooms.  The Google Cultural Institute and Real World Math are both wonderful resources for our teachers, to make learning meaningful and to give our children a greater world view.

If you haven't played with it before, you might be interested in spending a few minutes at the Google Cultural Institute (if it's not blocked at school!).  From the front page, if you hit "explore" you end up on their contents page where you can see what they have available.  You can view resources by decade, partner, channel, or project.  Your kids can take a virtual 3-D field trip all through Versailles!   The World Wonders Project is an incredible way to take your kids around the world -- you can see the locations on a globe and then go explore places like the Great Barrier Reef, a scientists' research station in Antarctica, Pompeii...  They used Google Earth to put these together so it's like you're standing right there and you can turn and look all around you, zoom in and out, etc.  There are also things like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nelson Mandela Memory Centre.  The Art Project is a link to THOUSANDS of art museums from all around the world.  This is an amazing, free resource we can use to give our kids a lot of the culture they miss growing up in little ol' Goldsboro, or wherever your hometown may be.

Another very cool website (especially for the higher grades) is Real World Math which also incorporates the power of Google Earth.  The lessons here involve things like learning to apply math concepts through studying crop circles, tracking whales, figuring out who needs tsunami warnings, lunar sports, oil spill estimations, racing in the Iditarod...  These real-world and project based learning plans are a great way to bring the common core to life in your classroom.  It's worth some time, even if you only look to get an idea of things you can try in your own classroom that tie in which places/events you study and the math skills you teach.

Elf on the Shelf

He arrived today!  This is the free Elf on the Shelf doll, poster, and storybook I sent for.  You can follow the directions for your own free elf and book in my Freebies post from last week.  Hurry, though!  They were only giving away 5,000!