thebriefsmellofhope

Wow,

it's been awhile....

Highlights

• Feeling less overwhelmed about this teaching process.
• Everyday is a battle, but I am surviving
• I loved watching my students scream the words 'Obama' on Nov. 5th after the election. I let them joyously cheer for 10 seconds before we got back to our math work.
  
• I am spear-heading a field trip for our girls to go to Washington during Inauguration Day. I hope it works, I would love to go.
  
• Math is going well. We are engaged in a project right now involving profit, money, and graphing using a prompt on selling t-shirts. So far the girls are doing all right, but are having a tough time understanding the concept of profit.
  
• I am tweaking, honing, cutting, expanding every day to make this fabric called teaching fit me a little better. It really will never end

Lowlights

• Having a hard time valuing student work. (what a surprise...This was predicted last year thanks to UTEP). I really need to figure out a way where grading/paperwork happens despite my own antipathy towards it.
  
• Discipline is still hard, but I have a somewhat effective system that works to varying degrees. Basically, it involves a clipboard in which students write their names if they are misbehaving. If the behavior continues, subsequent checks are added with the highest being a lunch detention.
  
• I am getting better at organization, with my proudest moment being the creation of a job role "HW Recorder" and the HW binder, in which students can check what the HW was from the previous day thanks to the recorder. I'll try to post a picture of this sometime soon....I need to do a better job of explaining to the kids how this works, but I have a feeling that this will work well if I give it the time it needs.
  
• Not feeling well, and it's still 7 weeks till winter break. Let's just say I am looking forward to resting!

Oh! and I won the VAN award at my school. Not quite sure what it stands for, but I got a neat little trophy the science teacher fished out of a bin, and a nice award saying nice things about my hard work, so I was pleased, flattered, and a little surprised. =)

Here's what the award said below:

"Ms. Sara

Oct ‘08

She is an extremely hard worker, and adds her own spice to everything that she does. She's a breath of fresh air.

Sara has been a great community member. She is eager to listen and share with other staff. She spends countless hours of her free time working at school. She does a great job of following through, asking for help when she needs it and adding her own wisdom to the pool. Sara is a very committed teacher.

One specific thing that I appreciate about Sara is that she is extremely conscientious about each and every one of her students, and determined not to let any fall through the cracks. Whether she is staying late to make calls home, spending half her lunch break helping a student, or working hard to create engaging lessons for the students as a group, she is always working hard for our community. She has already proven herself to be a real asset to our team.

Sara's sincerity and compassion towards her students and colleagues extends far beyond the call of duty. Whadda gal!"

Hope all is well with the rest of you,

Sara