got a new kid today. he walked in, just as we were getting settled in to take a mock state assessment.
i had no idea he would be coming.
i never do.
i'm sure he's a lovely kid. i haven't gotten a chance to really interact with him, but i felt angry that upon his arrival i felt shock and frustration, rather than welcoming. unfortunately, this is how it always is.
i checked my email, and sure enough, 4 minutes before he walked through my door, THIS little gem popped into my inbox:
Good morning,
We have a new student.
i've got so many reasons WHY.
but this is just one more reason WHY NOT.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
why is this my life?
let me set the scene:
i've just finished an hour long TELPAS training that i found out about at the last minute and is due tomorrow. i get through the online training with no problems because it's easy, i'm competent, and i did it last year and most things stick with me.
L walks into the room with a resource binder for me, just as i'm finishing up.
i look up briefly to greet her and then look back down at the computer screen...only to realize that my certificate (proving i've successfully finished the training) has disappeared. and i didn't print it. or save it. or anything it.
"NO!"
thankfully, L has already done the training as well. with her help, i find a way to retrieve the certificate.
unfortunately, it pops up in PDF format, opened by Adobe Acrobat.
"just save it and send it to him," L says (HIM being our administrator).
"i can't! i don't have enough time to save it!" i say, immediately hitting CTR-P to print the document.
why don't i have time to save it? well, that would be because my computer doesn't appropriately support Adobe Acrobat, and so any document i open using it immediately closes after just 5 seconds. so all i have time for is hitting CTR-P as quickly as possible.
i am successful! the document is sent to the printer just as Adobe Acrobat shuts down, taking my certificate with it.
i look up at L. "why is this my life?"
"seriously. i want a CTR-Z. ON MY LIFE."
"more like a CTR-ALT-DEL." that's our social studies teacher, walking by at the most opportune moment.
and you know what? he's right. a CTR-ALT-DEL sounds AWESOME. this program is no longer responding. it's time to abandon ship. (please excuse my mixed metaphors.) i love the kids, but the last two years have been HELL.
days like these remind me i need to be moving on to greener pastures. especially when our fearless leader sends us emails like this:
Dear All,
With my apology we need to postpone our training to next week.
I feel myself very tired and exhausted , because of this week’s test schedules and preparing materials.
yep. this is my life.
i've just finished an hour long TELPAS training that i found out about at the last minute and is due tomorrow. i get through the online training with no problems because it's easy, i'm competent, and i did it last year and most things stick with me.
L walks into the room with a resource binder for me, just as i'm finishing up.
i look up briefly to greet her and then look back down at the computer screen...only to realize that my certificate (proving i've successfully finished the training) has disappeared. and i didn't print it. or save it. or anything it.
"NO!"
thankfully, L has already done the training as well. with her help, i find a way to retrieve the certificate.
unfortunately, it pops up in PDF format, opened by Adobe Acrobat.
"just save it and send it to him," L says (HIM being our administrator).
"i can't! i don't have enough time to save it!" i say, immediately hitting CTR-P to print the document.
why don't i have time to save it? well, that would be because my computer doesn't appropriately support Adobe Acrobat, and so any document i open using it immediately closes after just 5 seconds. so all i have time for is hitting CTR-P as quickly as possible.
i am successful! the document is sent to the printer just as Adobe Acrobat shuts down, taking my certificate with it.
i look up at L. "why is this my life?"
"seriously. i want a CTR-Z. ON MY LIFE."
"more like a CTR-ALT-DEL." that's our social studies teacher, walking by at the most opportune moment.
and you know what? he's right. a CTR-ALT-DEL sounds AWESOME. this program is no longer responding. it's time to abandon ship. (please excuse my mixed metaphors.) i love the kids, but the last two years have been HELL.
days like these remind me i need to be moving on to greener pastures. especially when our fearless leader sends us emails like this:
Dear All,
With my apology we need to postpone our training to next week.
I feel myself very tired and exhausted , because of this week’s test schedules and preparing materials.
yep. this is my life.
Friday, February 24, 2012
"You're only young once,
they say, but doesn't it go on for a long time?
More years than you can bear."
More years than you can bear."
Hilary Mantel, An Experiment in Love
recent readings.
about a month ago, our charter school's headquarters (that sounds so secret agency, and it's so, so far from it...) sent us lucky middle school English teachers a huge shipment of fiction and non-fiction books for our classroom libraries.
needless to say, we were pretty stoked.
we got so many books that i haven't really had time to sift through most of them, so i've been relying on student recommendations.
on Tuesday, one of my 8th graders had this book lying on her desk:
A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness
inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd
one glance at the cover, and i was intrigued.
a look inside revealed to me that there were GORGEOUS illustrations on almost every other page. i immediately knew i had to read this book. i asked my student about it, and she assured me that even though she was only a little ways in, it was already fantastic. she had finished it up by Thursday morning, and turned it back in so that i could read it.
i devoured it in a day, and it was MAGNIFICENT.
i've never read anything by Patrick Ness before, but he's definitely on my radar now.
it's about a teenage boy whose mother is dying from cancer. the boy, Conor, has a recurring nightmare that he is afraid to admit, even to himself. he also has hallucinations where he talks to a giant monster made out of a yew tree. it's bizarre, but in the most wonderful way. it's also incredibly touching. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. at our in-service meeting last Friday, another book was brought to my attention:
The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
now, i have long been a fan of John Green.
it was a couple of years ago that i read An Abundance of Katherines, but i'll never forget how zany and brilliant the main character was. in fact, all of the characters were fantastically written. i couldn't put it down.
and then i read Looking for Alaska.
Looking for Alaska changed the way i think about Young Adult Fiction, because for the first time, i knew that YA fiction had the ability to be witty and exhilarating and devastating all at the same time. John Green was all of these things and so much more.
i'd been steeped in sappy YA novels for so long that Alaska was a breath of much needed fresh air. again, the main character was brilliant. again, the other characters were fantastic. but it was just so...raw. and i hate when people throw that word around...but there's really no other way to describe it. Alaska made me feel as though my heart had been ripped open and exposed to the world, and no realistic fiction YA book had made me feel that way in quite some time. not since Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, which is more historical fiction anyway.
so when i heard that John Green's NEW BOOK was stupendous, i made it a mission to read it immediately.
that same evening, it was purchased and sitting on my bedroom dresser.
i just started reading it today, but it's already making me laugh aloud (i'm sure the cashier at Jason's Deli thinks i'm a little insane, because i was reading and giggling hysterically while waiting for my sandwich...) and sigh with romantic notions.
i'm already anticipating a hurricane of tears to come.
needless to say, we were pretty stoked.
we got so many books that i haven't really had time to sift through most of them, so i've been relying on student recommendations.
on Tuesday, one of my 8th graders had this book lying on her desk:
A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness
inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd
one glance at the cover, and i was intrigued.
a look inside revealed to me that there were GORGEOUS illustrations on almost every other page. i immediately knew i had to read this book. i asked my student about it, and she assured me that even though she was only a little ways in, it was already fantastic. she had finished it up by Thursday morning, and turned it back in so that i could read it.
i devoured it in a day, and it was MAGNIFICENT.
i've never read anything by Patrick Ness before, but he's definitely on my radar now.
it's about a teenage boy whose mother is dying from cancer. the boy, Conor, has a recurring nightmare that he is afraid to admit, even to himself. he also has hallucinations where he talks to a giant monster made out of a yew tree. it's bizarre, but in the most wonderful way. it's also incredibly touching. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. at our in-service meeting last Friday, another book was brought to my attention:
The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
now, i have long been a fan of John Green.
it was a couple of years ago that i read An Abundance of Katherines, but i'll never forget how zany and brilliant the main character was. in fact, all of the characters were fantastically written. i couldn't put it down.
and then i read Looking for Alaska.
Looking for Alaska changed the way i think about Young Adult Fiction, because for the first time, i knew that YA fiction had the ability to be witty and exhilarating and devastating all at the same time. John Green was all of these things and so much more.
i'd been steeped in sappy YA novels for so long that Alaska was a breath of much needed fresh air. again, the main character was brilliant. again, the other characters were fantastic. but it was just so...raw. and i hate when people throw that word around...but there's really no other way to describe it. Alaska made me feel as though my heart had been ripped open and exposed to the world, and no realistic fiction YA book had made me feel that way in quite some time. not since Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, which is more historical fiction anyway.
so when i heard that John Green's NEW BOOK was stupendous, i made it a mission to read it immediately.
that same evening, it was purchased and sitting on my bedroom dresser.
i just started reading it today, but it's already making me laugh aloud (i'm sure the cashier at Jason's Deli thinks i'm a little insane, because i was reading and giggling hysterically while waiting for my sandwich...) and sigh with romantic notions.
i'm already anticipating a hurricane of tears to come.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
this is what i want to do with my life.
on writing for a living...
"My dad, a janitor all of his life, once asked me what I did for a living, since he had noticed that I didn't go out to work. I gave him a long story about characterization, plot, outlining, etc. I just didn't feel right saying that all I did was write down my daydreams."
-walter dean myers
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
reason #2:
today, while grading a student's reading response to To Kill a Mockingbird, i found this little gem:
"Everybody in this book is kinda racist. Actually, pretty much everybody today is racist.
My whole group told me that it would get better eventually if I keep reading. To be honest, I wasn't gonna read it; I was gonna sparknotes it. But no I didn't! I knew that doing that is cheating and that Ms. Salinas wouldn't be proud!
...Atticus is defending a black guy named Tom Robinson. Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. In the beginning of the court, everything wasn't too exciting or interesting.
Later on as I keep reading, Atticus was like PWNING Mayella by asking a series of questions."
that's right. that's why Atticus is my favorite literary character of ALL TIME.
because he PWNS.
and also, because i can't resist:
"Everybody in this book is kinda racist. Actually, pretty much everybody today is racist.
My whole group told me that it would get better eventually if I keep reading. To be honest, I wasn't gonna read it; I was gonna sparknotes it. But no I didn't! I knew that doing that is cheating and that Ms. Salinas wouldn't be proud!
...Atticus is defending a black guy named Tom Robinson. Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. In the beginning of the court, everything wasn't too exciting or interesting.
Later on as I keep reading, Atticus was like PWNING Mayella by asking a series of questions."
that's right. that's why Atticus is my favorite literary character of ALL TIME.
because he PWNS.
and also, because i can't resist: 
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