“That little bird has chosen his shelter. Above it are the stars and the deep heaven of worlds. Yet he is rocking himself to sleep without caring for tomorrow’s lodging, calmly clinging to his little twig, and leaving God to think for him.” – Martin Luther
read more »I need more ideas for individual consequences that aren’t disruptive, don’t disrupt the flow of the class, and, most importantly, WORK! What do you do that works?
read more »I don’t know what my deal is. I’ve been in a funk all week, and I’m trying to figure out why. I feel like I’m going through the same cycle of emotions that I went through first semester, and this is the equivalent of September. I’m going through the whole I’m-jealous-of-every-single-person-on-my-facebook-newsfeed thing, and it’s easy…
read more »For the first time, I’ve begun to think of my job from my students’ perspective. This shift in perspective happened yesterday when I was working at school. It was Sunday morning, and the hallways were pitch black because there was nobody at school except for me. I know those hallways backwards and forwards, so I…
read more »Because I’m in a quote-y mood. And yes, that is a word. “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” -Victor Hugo “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” -e.e. Cummings “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day…
read more »It’s time to actually write a substantial post, but I will share a quote that is going to become my mantra. “People constantly tell you to choose your battles in teaching. What they don’t tell you is that some of the battles not worth fighting are with yourself. Being harder on yourself is not the…
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read more »I was just flipping though the Art and Science of Teaching by Robert Marzano, and it talked about effective teachers having emotional objectivity. Marzano describes a teacher who has developed emotional objectivity as one who “implements and enforces rules and procedures, executes disciplinary actions, and (even) cultivates effective relationships with students without interpreting violations of…
read more »“God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you who He is.” -Oswald Chambers I can’t accurately/objectively assess my life right now, and it’s bedtime, so I’m not going to write a long post, but I will share. Today was the first day back, and it wasn’t really that…
read more »I love this poem this time of year! “Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going,…
read more »Well, here I stand, 4 days before the beginning of spring semester and recently returned from 9 glorious days in California. The time with my family was glorious, as always, and I didn’t really do much. I had a head cold the entire time, so it was a nice excuse to lay around as much…
read more »How do you arrange your desks, and why?
read more »I only do exit tickets when I’m feeling really ambitious (read: almost never), but if TFA asked me to write an exit ticket showing what I’ve learned so far, this is what it would look like: You will spend money on your kids. This is a very expensive job. I’ve bought everything from Twizzlers to…
read more »First of all, my favorite quote from the day: One of T’s classmates is bugging him. T: QUIT!!! Me: Never raise your voice to a lady – P: — or you won’t get one! Me: It’s good that you’ve realized that at a young age. My babies crack me up sometimes. Anyway, the current issue…
read more »I think I’ve hit the wall. I’ve never been a snooze button kind of girl, but lately I’ve been doing the whole “just five more minutes” thing. I get to school on average 25 minutes later than I have been. The kids are done, and I’m done. I still enjoy my day-to-day classroom life, but…
read more »I’m going to echo all of the recent posts and say that Thanksgiving break was GLORIOUS. It was so nice to be home in sunny California and see my family for the first time since the end of May. Coming back was very difficult, though. It’s amazing how in one week you can forget all…
read more »One of the things I dislike about TFA is that it ALWAYS makes you feel like you’re not good enough. I know I still suck as a teacher in many ways, but I am making progress and my administration keeps telling me how great of a job I’m doing. And every time I have an interaction…
read more »Kids get crazy the week before holidays. Even the kids that are normally angelic have been bickering, and some of my more difficult students have been well-behaved. One week from today, I’ll be in California!! I don’t know how I’ll react to seeing my friends and family, honestly. I left my first-name self in California,…
read more »If I could go back and give my pre-TFA self some advice, this is what it would be: 1. read as many teaching books as you can get your hands on 2. observe as many classrooms as you can, just to get the feel for what day-to-day life is like in the classroom 3. see…
read more »We had Character Day at school today! It was basically like a nerdy second Halloween, where everybody dressed up like a character from a book. I dressed up as Susan Pevensie from the Chronicles of Narnia (bringing in the C.S. Lewis of course), and the responses I got from my kids were – ahem –…
read more »I thought that it’d be easier to go to work every day as Thanksgiving got closer. Nope. It’s harder.
read more »One year ago today, I said yes. To TFA, that is. And what a year it has been. I already wrote a post about November 9, 2010, but I’ll copy-paste it here: November 9th, 2010. I had it colored in in pink in my planner, and I had written DAY OF RECKONING in huge letters…
read more »Things just got better, I think. As I was driving home from school on Friday (at 6:45 pm, mind you), I had a lucid realization that things had gotten better. I was reminded of this quote from the Screwtape Letters: It always was like this. All horrors have followed the same course, getting worse and…
read more »One of the most wearying things about this year so far has been feeling like A. I have no idea what’s expected of me and B. I have no idea how to do my job. I find myself walking around being jealous of almost everyone else I come across, from the secretaries at school to…
read more »I’m going to be incredibly tacky and write about money. This is for all of you potential future TFAers out there. I expected/was prepared for a lot of things about this whole TFA experience, but I really had a misconception about money. I thought that once I was making a teacher’s salary and living in…
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