Feeling Flexible

In the hopes of staying with my "grade 10 personal narratives a day" plan I sipped on coffee and got right to the first three on my list this morning. My break from grading included a quick trip to REI and a pedicure with my good friend Julie. 

The plan fell apart when Julie and I decided to go for an early afternoon margarita, queso...and a beer. 

We walked around Shirlington Village to counteract the effects of the tequila. One of us, Julie, made an impulse buy for her daughter's cats. 

Upon my return home, I went right to the cleaning of one more dresser drawer. However, when I opened up the next narrative to grade my brain said no thanks. 

So, I think that's a wrap for today, better luck tomorrow.

Clean Out

I made quick time of going through the socks, t-shirts, and shorts I'd pulled out of the overloaded dresser drawers.

It didn't take more than about 15 minutes to fill a garbage bag with clothes to dispose of. Tomorrow I will wrestle with too many shoes for one closet, as well as a spare closet of bags, board games, and old sheets. 

Spring break and spring cleaning go well together.

Cruising into Break

It was a quiet, controlled cruise into spring break today. Thanks to early vacationers and a run of Flu type A and Strep all classes were well below 100% occupied. I had already decided not to introduce anything new before the break, instead, I gave the students time to complete the personal narrative they'd been working on.

As of this morning, there were still about 5 students putting the finishing touches on their writing. Others were catching up on Lexia units, illustrating a storyboard of their narrative, and doing their own "Slice of Life" writing. I was offering support while quietly cleaning and organizing my desk. Every class worked diligently to complete what needed doing. 

Ninety-eight percent of my students left with everything accomplished for English. Their teacher left with about 90 personal narratives to grade. Here's hoping she gets at least half of them done.

A Well-Timed Break

My homeroom was eerily empty today. Sure, some students were there, but the kids who were always there without fail were oddly absent.

Out in the team area, teachers started talking about kids who went to the nurse and were sent home. The math teacher had a sub today after starting to feel achy yesterday. Yes, we're two days away from spring break but these absentees were not out to start vacation early. They were all sick.

I stopped upstairs and Tracey reported that something like 20 kids were sent home sick from the clinic. Hmmm, I thought, that is not good.

Around 1:30 this afternoon, I got a message from a parent. 

"I took Marley to the doctor this morning and she has type A flu. I wanted to let ya'll know because the doctor said this strain is very contagious and she may run a fever for 7 days."

It feels like spring break can't come soon enough.

What's For Dinner?

Somewhere out there on the World Wide Web, I ran across an interview with vocalist extraordinaire, Aretha Franklin. The reporter's question was something like,  "What do you find to be the most difficult thing to do?" 

I'm sure he was hoping for some kind of inside scoop about working with difficult producers or how to keep her voice in shape.

Aretha took a second to consider the options before responding, "The hardest thing is figuring out what to make for dinner every night."

I laughed when I heard her response because, after over 35 years of living on my own, I struggle with the same damn thing.

Respect.

They're Here!!

It's that time of year in the DC area. As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer the charter buses start appearing. The buses mean the kids aren't far behind. 

Large groups of teens are everywhere on their own annual trip to the nation's capital. I've already had my first spotting. A meandering line of teens moved toward white buses where smiling chaperones guided them toward the right chariot.

The kids were somewhat oblivious as they were busy looking at their phones while talking over one another. Just about every student was wearing a sweatshirt, no doubt recently purchased at one of the many vendors downtown. The more popular purchases read FBI, Lifeguard, Georgetown, and Washington, DC.

I stood outside the DSW at Pentagon Row shaking my head as I turned my attention to the chaperones. It really is something to take on such a trip. Being a teacher is hard enough when it's done for 7 hours in a classroom. Sure, I've done overnights to a local county-owned property, but the thought of doing it for 3 or 4 days at a time is something I can't conceive of. I felt like I should be passing mini bottles of spirits to each and every adult.

Really?

Today's SEL theme was resilience. I shouldn't be surprised that only 2 of my 16 homeroom students had heard of the word. No one knew exactly what it meant but we figured that out together. 

The lesson asked students to write 2 positive emotions and 1 negative emotion they've experienced recently on a piece of paper. Past lessons have taught me that my homeroom students have a limited vocabulary when it comes to explaining their emotions, so I found a resource to help them identify what they've been feeling.

The last part of the lesson asked them to take their paper and fold it up to make a paper airplane so we could fly it around to one part of the classroom. Then students would choose a paper that was not theirs to see if they felt similar emotions to the ones that flew to them.

It was then that I discovered that 95% of my homeroom students did not know how to make a paper airplane. I found that statistic to be even more shocking than when I realized they don't know what resilience means.