Manicures > Grading Papers

This makes me want to CRY

Happy Wednesday :)  Wednesdays are normally my LOOONGEST day: school, staff development, tutoring, Girls on the Run...oh my!!  So it was wonderful today to enjoy a quieter (albeit productive) Wednesday, complete with a nap.  Have I mentioned that I love spring break?  I'm so glad I decided to stay home this year and just relax...although I REALLY should start working on this pile o' grading I lugged home with me...

Ahh, that's better!

Yesterday I was majorly bumming out about my sore IT Band and in general feeling sorry for myself.  Sorry about that--I'm the youngest child and the only girl in my family.  Wallowing happens.  So does whining.  I'm better now. :)  What perked me up?  Why, mani/pedis with fabulous Miss R of course!  (Check out her new blog, The Wanna Be!)  We even kept teacher-talk to a minimum and enjoyed sharing silly stories from back in the day before we were friends.  When you get together with other teachers, do you find yourself CONSTANTLY talking about school??  As much as I wish I didn't, it's what ALWAYS seems to happen!!

Okay guys, work your magic!!

As far as the IT band goes, I picked up some supplements last night that another fabulous friend and marathoner extraordinaire recommended to me: Cal-Mag-Zinc and Iron.  Combine those and my good old friends Advil and Biofreeze, plus my buddies ice pack and foam roller, and hopefully I will be good as new in a few weeks!!  Do you take any supplements that you LOVE?


BTW, in case you were wondering, I gave the vegetarian thing a lot of thought the past two days since my post on the subject and decided that for now I am going to stop eating gelatin.  That means buh bye gummy vitamins... :(  I am going to continue eating cheese and dairy, although when I am grocery shopping I am planning to read labels more often and NOT buy cheese that lists rennet as an ingredient.  I will also try buying more vegan friendly cheeses and soy dairy products at the grocery store, but will not be eliminating dairy from my diet.  I figure if I buy less dairy, though, even if I still eat it from time to time when I'm out, I'm still making a difference.  Like I said before, there are no rules to being a vegetarian--just what feels good for YOU! :)

Thank you, Snow Gods.

I love kids.  I love my students.

There, now that we've gotten THAT out of the way, let me tell you how much I LOVED being at school today WITHOUT the little darlings...let's recap first, shall we?  Wednesday was a snow day, and a much needed break.  Seriously, with the high-tension these days, I think the blizzard was a gift from GOD to all of us teachers who needed a day at home in jammies.  I was ultra productive Wednesday, getting several lessons planned that I had been working on in the back of my mind, and grading a tremendous pile of papers that had been mocking me for the past few weeks from the "To Grade" folder I had been carrying to and from school.  It felt fabulous to cross those two things off of my list.

Then, as you know, I got a huge surprise around 3pm--school was cancelled for Snow Day #2 Thursday!  At the time, I wasn't sure what this meant for our parent conferences that had been scheduled for Thursday afternoon and evening, but I later found out that they were cancelled as well.  The district decided not to schedule a conference make up day, and to instead instruct parents "interested in rescheduling their conferences" to contact their child's teacher.  Translation: we don't have to make up every single conference.  I can think of a handful of parents who will still want to come in/who I still want to meet with, but the amount of time and effort that will be involved in these make-ups does not hold a candle to the marathon afternoon/evening that is typical conferences.  Amazing.

FINALLY, because Thursday was scheduled for conferences, today was also a no-kids day, which they did not take away from us!  We are required to put in 1 1/2 hours the day after conference to balance out the late night.  I had two families make up their conferences this morning, and used the rest of the time to GET STUFF DONE.  I felt like Super Teacher checking things off my to-do list!  (Obv I stayed for 5+ hours instead of 1 1/2...I do not regret it and could have stayed longer.  Why did I leave?  I was starving, of course.)  I got lots of copies made (hooray for reading ISAT practice tests... :-P), plans ready for next week and outlined for the following week, materials prepared for Tuesday's science lesson, vocab words and objectives updated on the board for next week's literacy theme, chart paper started with different mini-lesson topics, etc.  It is a wonderful feeling to leave school with things actually in order and WITHOUT a gigantic bag of grading over your shoulder.

Of course, there is still a tiny bit to do this weekend...I've got my math and science manuals home with me to continue planning, but this is all advance prep at this point...I am good to go for next week!  Looking forward to a low-stress weekend and *hopefully* all of this prep work will pay off with a low(er)-stress next week or two.  Thank you snow gods.  I am eternally grateful.

Dirty Little Teacher Secret:

By the time we get to the bottom of the grading pile, we are really just "glancing" at the work and assigning a grade...

I have been at starbucks grading papers for an hour and a half.  The workers may think I've moved in.  And I have to say, the bottom papers in my pile are averaging much higher grades than the ones I graded when I first arrived.  Coincidence?  Or just a side effect of the loss of the will to care once my caffine and sugar buzz wore off?  You be the judge.

^tonight's mountain of papers and journals.  

Okay, i realize to the untrained eye it might not look that bad, but after hours of copying, it was just too much!!!  

thank goodness it's an office/grey's night :)

Sweet Saturday

It seems that fall has FINALLY arrived!  This week we had two days of 90 degree weather and a whole bunch of humidity.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a summer girl at heart, but this was a bit ridiculous.  This morning I was happy to put on jeans, a tshirt, and a light jacket, and to step outside without my hair immediately frizzing and sweat ruining my makeup (the little of it that I bother putting on in the first place). While I would have liked nothing more than to sleep in, I dragged my sleepy booty outta bed bright and early to meet teacher buddy and basically soul sister teacher Miss R for a yummy breakfast at Corner Bakery.

Okay folks, here it is.  As much as sometimes it bugs the heck outta me to talk about school on the weekends with friends, sometimes it is just SO WONDERFUL to compare notes with someone who COMPLETELY understands what you are going through at your job.  Miss R and I teach in two very different schools with two very different sets of challenges, yet we just GET each other.  A bowl of swiss oatmeal & fruit, hazelnut coffee, and good conversation was the perfect start to this fall day.  Then, since I was already up I figured I might as well be productive, and did a Trader Joe's run, stopped at the library, dropped off dry cleaning, got my car washed at one of the local elementary schools, stopped in walgreens, and got a pedicure.  Phew!

Now, I'm about to curl up with a brand new playlist on my ipod, a plate of soy nugs and bbq sauce from Trader Joe's (because even vegetarians need chicken nuggets sometimes!), and a big ol' pile of grading.  tje former two make the later one just barely tolerable. ;)

Other projects for the weekend: figure out some revising lessons to teach next week in Writing Workshop (something that should be somewhat of a challenge since I forgot my writing mini-lesson books at school...oops!), respond to my students' journal entries, and begin thinking about some expository mini-lessons for October.  I just ordered Ralph Fletcher's Craft: Nonfiction book from amazon, and I've got my fingers crossed that it will bring me lots of ideas and information!!

Happy Saturday!

Does the grading ever stop?

While I haven't had the pleasure of enjoying a COMPLETELY school-free winter break (see previous posts about what has kept me busy), I had up until now almost completely avoided the bin o' grading sitting on the floor in my office.  Every now and then I'd glance at it or rifle through the papers as if to check if they had miraculously graded themselves, but no such luck.  Today my very good friend Miss R and I spent a happy afternoon of grading, movies, and cookies on my family room floor.  (is it sad that the only time we can spend together must involve grading multi-tasking?)  Anyways, I actually made a huge dent in the grading bin, not to mention had a great time catching up with Miss R and sharing all sorts of ideas for school.  You know what they say...you can take a teacher outta school, but can't take the school outta the teacher... sad, but oh. so. true.

Well, one of the big items I had to grade were my Heroes expository essays.  Yes, those expositories I had them start on in November.  How did I manage to drag them out until winter break?  I have no idea, but somehow it happened.  With them being written over such a looong period of time, I was really dreading grading them, expecting them to be pretty "interesting."  In fact, I was pleasantly surprised!!  Many of even my generally average writers really bared their souls sharing why these special people are their heroes.  Some of their reasons again reminded me of the realities of these children's lives: admiration for parents who manage to get food on the table, gratitude for parents who risked losing their jobs waiting tables to stay home with their sick child, love for fathers who love their child even though their mothers left with the kids years ago...beautiful, and more than one left me with absolute chills. 

Today was one time when I was absolutely proud and just awestruck at more than one of my students.  One described the way his dad cares for those around him, and makes him want to be a good person and care for his family too, just like dad.  So often when I look at these children, I think about how they are all in such a hurry to grow up as fast as possible.  It is refreshing to know that they are still kids who idolize their parents.  And it is even more refreshing to realize that they see how hard their families work for them, and that they value things like integrity, character, and values (though none used QUITE those words... ;)

Well, that was the bright spot in my day of epic grading.  Even though those essays were still a pain, between navigating my rubric and writing a note of comments to each child, many of them reminded me why I teach, and why I love children.  Even fifth graders :)

note to self: do not say at school until the custodians close the building EVER AGAIN

This has been QUITE the week!!!  Tuesday Mrs. J and I stayed EMBARRASSINGLY late at school...so late, I don't even want to say what time I made it home.  There are always just so many things to do.  I stayed at school forever and was literally constantly working, but did not even get ahead.  I feel like so much of the time I am just barely staying above water.  This is NOT what I'm used to--I am a planner big time and like being on top of things.  So it's a little unnerving for me to feel disorganized.  Anyways, after that marathon and a half day, Wednesday felt even worse: full day at school, autism therapy, then back to school for celebrate reading and writing night.  Thankfully, my team would not allow me to stay after that and continue working.  One even threatened to pull me out by my hair if I tried to stay. :)  I believe she would, too...  Anyways, it's been a long week.  You'd think if I put in that many hours, I'd have the next MONTH of school planned.  But I feel like so much of my time is just spent staying organized.  So many papers being turned in all the time, I've started just recycling the morning work and random hw pages. It's not even worth the time to check some of it.

Well, after that incredibly long week of early mornings and late nights, by yesterday, I had about lost my mind.  I was crabby all day and very sarcastic with my kids.  And, by the afternoon, I wasn't even feeling like myself.  I think I literally was just completely overworked.  I'm going to try not to put in another week like that again, because it just really screwed me up.  This weekend, I am planning on having some fun to recover.  However, I also want to get a lot of work done this weekend so I'm not left with it next week. catch 22 really.

Hmm what else to update on...well, my challenging student's behavior has been improving.  He still goes off about things and can be disruptive in class, but he's made a big improvement.  I also find that when I am well-rested and calm in general, I can handle him so much more easily.  I know we are headed in the right direction, though. 

I started a unit in science about water on Earth and did a cool experiment about density of salt and fresh water.  I'm hoping to pull some other experiments and activities from Project WET, and am excited about actually teaching my favorite subject.  finally.  I also had this epiphany last night and decided to start a writing unit on Heroes this week.  I'd been planning on starting an expository essay and didn't really know how to approach it in terms of topic.  So I settled on heroes.  I think I'm going to connect it to Veterans Day initially, then we'll right about heroes we know personally for the essay.  Finally, as a social studies tie-in, because god knows I don't teach it enough, maybe we'll do a little research of heroes in history.  Anyways, I still have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I like when I get excited about planning things.  So often school just feels hard or stressful or frustrating that I really need some of these little happy things to keep me going.

Anyways, here's just one small thing that made me smile last night:  I was grading my math quizzes while watching Say Yes to the Dress (for someone who has anything but weddings on the brain, I'm not sure why I even like that show!), and the quiz was on angles.  I had them label points on the angles and they could choose which letters to use.  5th graders are hilarious.  I loved seeing the different words they would make with them: RAT, DOG, OMG, BED, CAT, their initials, etc.  I know that's just a tiny little thing, but it reminded me that, yeah, they drive me crazy, but they really are still kids and they really are cute sometimes.  (I especially liked the OMG). 

Well, in the spirit of productivity, I think I'm going to get out of bed and start my day...