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This blog bost continues my "Year 6 Teaching Journals" post.
Year 7
[Fourth year at the same high school. For the first time, the journals are mostly focused on teaching instead of total emotional meltdowns. I have a regular, run-of-the-mill year.]
It’s hard to believe that I am starting my 7th year of teaching. I am in a new room, and I am teaching a new class. The boxes are piled up everywhere, but I can’t focus on that now: I need to plan. Grad school kicked my ass this summer, but I learned a lot. I have to focus on implementing what I’ve learned. Over the summer, I learned that a balanced lesson diet is important and every minute of class counts. I need to plan time to move around, and most of all I need to make class fun. Some of these things I am already doing and other things I need to keep working on.
And so the year begins.
September 5, 2011
Tomorrow is the first day I will have students. It’s always interesting to meet the new batch.
September 10, 2011
I have been thinking about planning and how to make my lessons stronger. For one, it is important for kids to know the meanings of a lot of Greek and Latin roots.
For the juniors I can offer practice SAT prompts during writing time.
Kids pay attention when they understand.
September 20, 2011
I am on home stretch of my master’s degree but there is still room for me to move up on the pay scale. Do I just get 30 credits in anything? Do I pursue another degree? Do I shoot for a doctorate? My grad program has made me a better teacher, but I felt ambivalent about the program the whole time, mostly because of the inconvenient class times or heavy workloads…but I am a different person in the classroom now. I like teaching, and I hope to do it for a long time. I would like to keep improving, but I would like to learn about other stuff. I feel torn.
October 3, 2011
“Block 1” days are crazy but fun, but I am especially behind this year because of grad school. Whenever I look at my lesson plans from last year, they feel subpar and I want to redo them. I’m also teaching a new class so the planning is crazy.
October 5, 2011
When I read Jim Burke’s The English Teachers Companion, I feel stupid and overwhelmed because there’s always a better way to do things. There’s always more to learn. I am having trouble trying to keep track of all the great stuff I have learned over the last few years. I am thinking I can keep various lists on my hard drive and implement them as I go. [One time I emailed Jim Burke to say "thank you" for all of the support via his book and he emailed me back with MORE FREE LESSONS that he had been working on with another teacher. I was very appreciative.]
October 18, 2011
I am tired. I have one grad class, I am studying for my comprehensive exam preparation, and I have a new prep. In a month comps will be over, ready or not, but I want to at least feel ready.
October 25, 2011
I am learning not to judge my 11th graders by their cover. Danny’s smart even though he says, “I don’t know” all the time instead of answering my questions.
November 9, 2011
…still crunch time. Feeling like a zombie/robot.
November 10, 2011
If I want to have a life, I can’t do anything else on top of teaching or I turn into a zombie and a shell of my formal self. I wanted to get my masters degree because I wanted to move up on the pay scale. I also wanted to be a good teacher with a “toolbox” of strategies. I have achieved both of these things, so now I would like to finish and move on with my life.
November 16, 2011
I am taking a break from studying. There is an endless amount of material I need to study for my comprehensive exam, but nothing is going in my head anymore.
November 10, 2011
I took my comprehensive exam yesterday. My headache is just starting to die away now. I am not sure I did enough to pass, but I hope I did. I find out in a few weeks.
I am totally drained. I just sat on the couch all last night and I plan on doing it for the rest of the week.
November 21, 2011
The school year is interesting and I am enjoying having juniors, but I think they make me appreciate freshmen more. I also think there are always things I can do to be a better teacher.
December 4, 2011
I don’t even know if I am officially done with grad school yet, but if I am not I only have a test to retake…no more papers…no more reading…no more class…The last three years have been a blur.
December 9, 2011
Still no word on if I passed my comps….
December 12, 2011
I used to hate being around people all day, but I’ve been teaching for six years now and I think I would be really lonely if I had to deal with fewer people in a day. People are starting to grow on me, I guess.
December 18, 2011
I AM DONE WITH GRAD SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found out on Thursday. I can’t tell you how happy I am. Three years of classes and money and I am DONE.
January 7, 2012
I am working Saturday school to make some cash but I am retiring from it after this year. I need to get a life. It’s not bad because it goes fast and I can get some of my work done; it’s fulfilling, and I make about 140 dollars. It’s not really something to do all the time, though, since it doesn’t give me time to relax.
January 11, 2012
I think the state tests have value because they give us goals and road maps. The problem is that they are not flexible and do not take into account the ridiculous amounts of variability in the abilities of our students.
I know I am not asking my morning class to do every single little thing correctly for their research papers, but most of them have never even attempted to write one…so I am just trying to find that balance but it is slow going. It’s one thing to assign and paper, and it’s a whole different issue to get the students to attempt it…just trying to find that balance between pushing and scaffolding.
January 24, 2012
3rd quarter. Second quarter felt like hanging on to a run away train. I hate that feeling. But yesterday I got all my grading done and I am trying to breathe.
I also pushed my morning class too hard this semester so I am looking to strike a balance this quarter.
January 30, 2012
I think I am going to do AP training this summer. I would like to teach freshmen for one more year, but I am not sure that will be an option because my department chair needs more people to teach AP next year.
I want to be a team player, but I am not really being one.
Teaching is really hard. I wonder if I’ll ever feel good at it.
A lot of kids want to stop by and chat this year, which I take to be a positive sign. The thing is, I don’t have the first clue what caused it.
January 31, 2012
Grammar: what a bitch! I am taking an online class about grammar right now. No wonder I haven’t tried to figure this out before; it is confusing. I did not know what half the words on the state curriculum were…let alone how to teach them. So this class is good in a torturous sort of way because I am learning a lot and applying it to my teaching.
February 1, 2012
Grammar=hard. I hate it. But it’s good for me….
February 15, 2012
Worked Saturday school so didn’t really get a break. Feeling cranky.
February 7, 2012
Shocking realization today: I miss teaching reading. [I had to tutor a lot of young, struggling readers as part of earning my master’s degree.] Now that all the chaos of the comprehensive exam has passed, I miss being on the cutting edge of reading education. I do not miss it enough to go back and earn a doctorate, but enough that I’d want to take some of the new classes coming out. I don’t want to lose everything I have learned.
March 3, 2012
I am taking this grammar class online and I am hardly engaged. Blah.
March 21, 2012
At this point in the year, it is a little hectic having 3 different classes. It is mostly crazy because my morning class is doing a brand new unit and my honors classes are doing The Odyssey, which is getting a second year make- over.
[Here are some of the materials I used as part of this Odyssey "make-over.]
I almost have a research paper from every student in 4th period and we are working on getting Rebecca to finish hers now. Getting the kids to finish these papers was a group effort: SPED, assistant AP, counseling, history teacher…It was a ridiculous effort…in a good way…but just ridiculous in the required manpower.
March 29, 2012
You wouldn’t believe how much reading my morning class is doing. I don’t want to jinx it, but I think the participation grade as well as the book on tape option has helped. I am excited to see them making progress with a piece of literature. [The students were reading Their Eyes Were Watching God and then completing independent projects.]
April 14, 2012
I’ve been puzzling nonstop the last few weeks about how to get the 27 graduate credits I need to get to move up to the last tier on the pay scale. The most important thing to me is finding classes that will be useful. If it’s useful, then it needs to be affordable, too. Literature degrees, even at a low cost school, are expensive. SPED although very useful, is still expensive as well.
May 8, 2012
I can’t believe it is May. The school year has a way of going quickly.
Even though I am another year older, there are some benefits. I have way more experience with my job, so that’s a plus. I guess I know what I am doing. I like that if we ever get out step increase that I will make a decent salary. My salary has gone up a lot since I first got hired, but I was only paying 500 dollars a month in rent. Now we have a mortgage and car repairs and GRAD school, so I often feel that it’s the same as it’s been.
In my morning class we are finishing up Their Eyes Were Watching God. We started way before spring break but most kids actually finished. I was shocked at their endurance and how much work they produced when given the choice in their projects and assessments. Today I also found out that they all passed their state writing test. Devon passed by a hair. I was worried about him, Aaron, and Christina. It was mostly luck this year; there are still some changes I want to make. Mostly I want to differentiate more.
May 10, 2012
I am about to start an end-of-the-year novel unit with my honors students. They are not doing literature circles or anything formal…the point of the unit is really just for the honors kids to remember why they love reading. I guess I need some objectives, and I guess I should teach something like “how to choose vocabulary” or “how to make connections.”
With my morning class, we just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God, so I am going to move on to reviewing for the state reading test. My goals are to play games and make flashcards. I am not very good at coming up with games, but I should make an effort.
I have a lot of lesson planning to do after school today. I wonder if I have the review I did with the 8th graders a million year ago…?
May 16, 2012
I have finally done something right in terms of grammar. I’ve been trying to figure it out for the last 6 years. This year I finally made it my own professional development group and took a class (key!).
With my kids, I now teach the rules consecutively over a few weeks, and then I have them pull out pieces from their writing portfolio and fix the mistakes in their actual writing. This was the magical part because they were having good conversations about editing and sentence structure.
May 20, 2012
I started my online classes. They are definitely intense and now I remember why I am tired of taking classes.
May 24, 2012
I am going to have all juniors next year. I am sad because I enjoy the freshman, but I am glad that I can be useful to the department. I can always go back to teaching freshmen another time.
June 5, 2012
I am a little excited for my schedule for next year because I know I will have these classes for a few years so I will be able to work on making them good. I have a lot to change for my grade level classes, but I have some good ideas.
June 23, 2012
For my AP training I had to read the book Columbine by Dave Cullen. I had been putting it off, but I finally picked it up today. It’s emotionally intense. I don’t know if I would have 11th graders read it.
July 1, 2012
AP Training was actually really interesting; it took so much brainpower I really didn’t have time to reflect during the training. To start, I really had to brush-up on my critical reading skills. We started the training by reading a piece and discussing it. I remembered why I became an English teacher in the first place.
When I teach AP, I am not allowed to dumb things down. We have to read hard stuff and we need to figure it out.
I hope you have enjoyed these fairly normal and uneventful "Year 7 Teaching Journals"
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