Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Screaming

Screaming at kids is never fun. I've been told many, many times by my mentor that I can't scream at the kids because they will stop listening to you once you start screaming. I understand that. However, if I have a bunch of kids doing the wrong thing, a simple, "Stop doing that," in a calm voice will do nothing to stop them. Screaming will get their attention. I screamed about 5 times today... BEFORE THE BELL RANG AT 7:45!!! My kids do not know when enough is enough. They do not care about incentives, rewards, or punishments. It has no affect on them. It's depressing and beyond frustrating. It clearly shows I'm a terrible classroom manager no matter what anyone else says to me. I hate hearing excuses like, "It's ok, you're a new teacher. You will learn the tricks and get better. It's because their home life isn't good and their parents don't discipline them." Kids need to know how to behave and when to turn off their voices and bitterness towards everyone and everything. I understand the horrible saying, "Kids will be kids", but my class is off the chain. I almost feel like they are worse than last years class. It's nuts! Deeeeeeeep breaths. Tomorrow is a new day. Deeeeeeeep breaths!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Kid Tricked Me

Because of my heightened alert of cockroaches, especially after one almost landed on my head last night in my house, one of my kids easily tricked me. She had no idea how much I despise cockroaches. So today, she had a pack of gum just sitting on her desk with one stick left. I said, "You know you're now allowed to have gum." She said, "It's not gum." I picked it up and pulled out the piece that was in the pack and out came a fake cockroach attached to the fake stick of gum. I jumped 10 feet in the air! I'm lucky I didn't swear or scream. She got me good and I'm not afraid to admit it. That was after seeing a cockroach crawling on the floor at school near the girls bathroom. We weren't able to kill it before it kept going wherever it went. I have no idea if anyone found that roach or not. Knowing my luck, it's in my classroom waiting for me and producing more roaches. Ugh! I can never get away from those stupid things!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Reason number 43940 why I need to Move back to New York

I found out the most ridiculous thing the other day. While doing my first quarter grades tonight, I cringed while doing this. We are not allowed to give lower than a 60% for the quarter. You read that correctly. I have to bump up grades that are lower than a 60. I had a kid with a 35%, but I nearly doubled his grade to a 60. Does a 60 look better on the report card? Of course it does. It probably makes the parent feel like their kid isn't doing that bad. I felt morally wrong changing kids grade to a better grade, even though a 60 is still failing. Parents need to know the exact grade their child has so that they can help him/her improve. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about that!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Sonic

My friends and I went to the Sonic less than a mile from my school on Friday night and it was closed. We had no idea why it would be closed at 7:30PM on a Friday night. Yesterday, we went back to the same Sonic for ice cream because we are fat. This time it was open. We asked them why they were closed the day before and what they said was the last answer we were expecting. The employee casually said that a sex offender had been shot by police officers at that Sonic. That's scary! Like I said, that Sonic is a mile away from my school. I'm surprised my school didn't have a lock down. It's scary to know that there are so many bad people still out there!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Haunted Hayride

The haunted hayride wasn't as exciting as we were hoping it would be. There were times when it was a little startling. However, there was a lot of talking about the history of the cemetery. Near Halloween, that's not what we were looking for. We went back to Festival Park today and checked out the food trucks and other festivities. As expected, it was packed. I loved being out on October 25th and it was 70 degrees. That doesn't happen in New York!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Halloween Festivities

We are celebrating Halloween a week early. We are doing a haunted hayride downtown tonight. I've actually never done anything like this before. It should be fun. Short post tonight. I have nothing exciting to say. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you how the hayride was.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Dollar Store

There's only 1 true dollar store left, Dollar Tree. Everything else is much more than a dollar. Dollar General is where everything is generally much more than a dollar. Family Dollar is expensive too. Yes, normally most of the stuff in any dollar store is garbage. But I've been getting a lot of stuff from the Dollar Tree lately. Today, I bought some Halloween pencils for my kids and some other useful things. I have no shame buying things from the dollar store because I'm cheap and try to save money any way I can.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Late Nights

These late nights really need to stop! This is the 3rd night in a row that I have stayed up well past my "bed time". I'm normally in bed before 10 most nights. It's now 11:04. I am definitely going to pay the price tomorrow morning. Yesterday morning, I looked like a zombie when my kids walked in and I told them not to go to bed late. All of them told me they go to bed past 12. I know they are all lying, but that's insane. I had a great night though with my Wednesday night dinner crew! I'm greatly looking forward to the weekend!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Double Planning

Each day, the kids have a 40 minute resource. They go to either art, gym, computer lab, library, or music. We have a 6-day rotation. On day 5, my 4th graders have double resource while teachers have double planning. They go to 2 resources back to back so we can try to plan next week's lessons. It's not fun! I wish those 80 minutes could be used to keep organizing things and getting stuff together. It's good to work on plans for next week, but in a group it gets chaotic. Last week, we spent half the time talking about some virus in our school and the other teacher tried to get us back on task. Let's see what tomorrow's planning brings...

Monday, October 20, 2014

Past My Bedtime

It is waaaaaaaay past my bedtime. It's 11:30PM on a "school" night. I know I'm going to do this next Monday as well because the Dallas Cowboys will be playing. I didn't expect to stay up this late tonight though. It's okay because I have a friend visiting from New York. She came in at about 8:45. We just went out to dinner and now I'm back. I'm going to be more exhausted than usual tomorrow at school. There's no such thing as catching up on sleep anyway.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Is it January yet?

When I moved to North Carolina in January, assuming teaching went well, I fully planned on living in this apartment for more than a year. I had the option of signing a lease for this apartment for two years. If I did, my rent would be even cheaper. I didn't because I had no idea where I would be in a year. So I signed for a year. Boy am I glad I did that! I cannot wait to move. There have been so many problems in this apartment that it's insane. The Internet works when it feels like it, the dryer died, my garbage disposal never worked, the water stopped working randomly, and oh yeah, my roach problem hasn't gone away even though I had an exterminator come. To top it all off, the company in charge of the apartments in this development never respond to things. Oh yeah, we also had a hole in the roof where squirrels lived for a few weeks. It's gross. I don't want to deal with the stress of moving again, but I gotta get out of this place!

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Birdie

I can't tell you how long it's been since I hit a birdie in golf. No, I don't mean I actually hit a bird. A birdie is if the par on the hole is 3 shots, you hit it in 2. This was I think my 6th time golfing since July. I haven't gone golfing 6 times in the past 6 years! My game is pathetic. But today, I hit a birdie! I hit my drive on a par 3 to about 20 feet away. The put was impossible. It was downhill and very fast. If you hit it just a bit too hard, it would go 20 feet past. I just tapped the ball and it stayed on line and sunk right into the hole! The rest of the holes I played abysmally as usual. But it was all good because I made my first birdie in many, many years!

Friday, October 17, 2014

Hamburgers

I'm trying to put different things in my hamburgers to enhance flavor. Today, I mixed the burger with BBQ sauce. Last time I did that, I put way too much in and it fell apart while cooking in the Foreman. This time, I didn't out as much BBQ in and it still fell apart. Very disappointing but still good. Any suggestions on how to make the perfect burger?

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Beard

I tried growing a mustache and a beard for a few weeks. No one liked it besides me. It's just hair, people. What's the big deal? I got bored of the itchy and messy look today. I decided to shave it and now I feel clean and have a smooth face. Everyone will be happy to see that I look 10 years younger again.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

What I wish I Knew Before I Started Teaching

While I was working out today (finally), a thought came into my head. I always do my best thinking when I don't have pen, paper, or a phone around me. Funny how that works. My next book should be titled something like, What I wish I knew Before I Started Teaching. I could list so many things such as the things kids do that you don't expect, the way parents act, the way other adults act, administrators, how to deal with certain situations, and on and on. They need to have a book that tells teachers what to do if such and such happens. The such and such needs to be the most unexpected thing that no one would think of, because that's what happens every day in a school! Teachers have to be spontaneous, expect the unexpected, and react the appropriate way without a millisecond of thought. This book could sell millions of copies! Oh wait, I don't have time to write a book. I'll be busy writing lesson plans and grading papers.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Almost Time

Unfortunately, I think it's almost time for a new laptop. I've had this one for over 5 years. My Internet is awful, but I think that's the wiring in my apartment. As I was trying to write this blog, my screen went black two or three times randomly, then went back to the screen it should be at. Naturally right after I finished my car payment last month another big payment approaches. I'm going to hold off as long as possible because Macs are supposed to last forever. One thing is for sure, I will not be replacing this Mac with a Windows computer. I will spend hundreds more to get a Mac because they are 39472304203 times better than any Windows computer. Once you go Mac, you never go back.

Monday, October 13, 2014

4-Day Weeks Every Week

We had this discussion at Myrtle Beach the other day. Would teachers rather work 4 10 hour days and have a three day weekend every week or would we rather work 5 regular days and have a 2 day weekend? The answer was unanimous. We all would love three day weekends all of the time, even if it means longer school days. We also decided that Monday would be the day off to have, not Friday. No one likes Mondays for whatever reason. Haha. It doesn't matter anyway because obviously this would never happen.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Myrtle Beach 3.0

I went back to Myrtle Beach yesterday for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. It was my third time since mid July. Yesterday was about 90 degrees. I was out in the sun for over 4 hours and I'm not burned at all. Last week, we said that would probably be our last time going to Myrtle in 2014. We said the same thing yesterday. Who knows? I really do need a Saturday to myself to catch up on school work. I am very behind on grading and putting grades in the online grade book. Oh well. It will get done eventually. If only I had tomorrow off like most schools do! I'm only going to live once, so I might as well have as much fun as I can.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Catching Up

I was just on video chat with one of my best friends from home for over 3 hours! We both live very busy lives so we only get to talk to each other every so often. It was nice to finally tell him everything crazy that's been going on in my life and vice versa. The two things I miss most from New York are my family and friends and New York teacher pay (even though I was never a teacher there). I'm just glad I still stay connected with all of my friends from New York.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Columbus Day

Ever since I was a kid in school, I've had Columbus Day off. Columbus Day is this Monday. This will be my first year as a student or educator that I have to work on that day. It's a federal holiday, yet for whatever reason, this county doesn't honor it. I could really use a 3-day weekend too. I need me time so that I can catch up on things and slow down. I've been going nonstop the last few weeks. I had a meeting every day after school this week. It's been draining. Oh well. Such is life.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Lesson Plans

I cannot believe that in over 800 blog posts I have not once written about the joys of lesson plans. They take many, many hours. They are tedious. It requires a lot of creativity, time, and patience. You have to make sure you include everything. You have to make sure there is enough work for the block of time you'll be teaching. You have to make sure other teachers understand what you're talking about. It's not an easy or fun process. I just completed my social studies plans for next week and I'm on to science. They were due this morning at 9AM. Oops. I see that no one else in my grade has uploaded their subjects either so I don't feel bad. I'm determined to upload mine tonight though!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Full Moon

One day last week, my kids were a little off. Whenever that happens, I assume it's because there was a full moon. That's the term we always use in education. "It must be a full moon." Every day seems like it's a full moon at school. Well I actually looked it up last week and found out that tomorrow is really full moon. I even told my kids, "Guys, today's not the full moon. Save your ridiculous behavior for next Wednesday (tomorrow)". I'm not sure why a full moon causes everyone to act strange. They were very off today. So this must have been a precursor for what's to come tomorrow. Oh boy!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Pumpkin Pie Blizzard

Is there anything about that that sounds bad? No! I got the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen tonight. It was amazing! Every bite tasted of pumpkin goodness. I had been craving one for a very long time. What made me go get it tonight? I have no idea. I just hope I don't get motivated to get one again because if I keep getting them, I will be fat soon!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Shake it Off

This weekends theme song was "Shake it Off" by Taylor Swift. I cannot tell you how many times I heard this song play on my trip to Myrtle Beach and back. I'm not kidding when I say it probably played 6 times in the 4 hour round trip. Not only that, it played many times at the restaurant and bars we went to last night. The water was a little chilly yesterday at the beach, but once you got in, it was nice. The wind was what made us so cold when we got out of the water. But it was awesome to go in the water in October! This was my second trip to Myrtle and it was so much fun. I know that last sentence was really elementary but I'm tried. We might be going next weekend too. I want to but then I don't. I really need to catch up on school work. We will see what happens!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Beach

The goal was to do some work tonight so that I could go to Myrtle Beach tomorrow with friends. Typically, Friday is my, "I don't do a thing related to work" night. It's only 8:29 and I'm incredibly tired. I don't see myself doing much work tonight. I see myself going to bed within the hour. I'm so lame for going to bed so early, especially on a Friday but whatever.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Drama!

I have never witnessed so much drama in my life from 9 year olds. It all took place today. The buckets we created and words of encouragement we made for each other meant absolutely nothing. The kids seemed to enjoy writing kind words towards each other in the morning, then recess came around and it was as if they completely forgot how to behave. Girls were saying mean things to each other. They were giving each other dirty looks. They weren't friends anymore. There were more tears today from both boys and girls than I ever dealt with last year in my 1st grade classroom. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the beginning and starting all over again with rules, expectations, and positive conversations between everyone. Yes, math first thing in the morning is important, but I can't teach when I have kids hating each other and not focusing on what they need to do. Let's hope tomorrow is better than today!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

How Full is Your Bucket?

I read a book today to the kids called How Full is Your Bucket? It's about a boy who says hurtful things to his sister in the beginning. His grandfather tells him he is taking away from his sisters bucket. He thought his grandpa was joking. The next day, he had a dream about a bucket over his head. Then in the morning, his mom was yelling at him before school and kids were making fun of him at school. That bucket was emptying out. Then he was called to make a presentation and the kids loved it and his bucket filled up. The moral of the story was that we all have feelings and an invisible bucket. We made "buckets" today and tomorrow we will be filling it up with positive things. I still have something I did in 6th grade that was similar to that. Kids wrote positive things about me and my teacher put them together and gave it to me.  I will be showing my kids that tomorrow. My bucket was filled up this afternoon when a teacher who has been there for 9 years told me that I was one of the best first year teachers this early in the year that she has ever seen! She said that I take constructive criticism and make changes right away, show passion in my teaching, and keep pushing the kids for success. I told the kids that adults have buckets and need positive feedback too. It makes us all happy inside! Corny, I know, but we seriously do all need positive feedback in our lives.