Thursday, January 24, 2013

Upcoming....


I made it to the first click today. WOW. I know it is just a temp thing. But that is okay. Today was neat as my students began to work on their “Home Remedy” booklets. They have 12 remedies to create and collect from parents, grandparents, and great-grand-parents. Should be a cool next Wednesday.


Monday is our school wide Social Studies and Science fair. Means I won’t have students next Monday after church. They will be tired up all day. I will be finishing the day with an asmbly on Mardi Gras and how things came to be – 12th night – Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday - Ash Wednesday – Lent – Easter etc.


 I am starting a movie next week. After they watch they will have a sequel to write about what happened next since there is “no next” after the movie. They will write plus draw a story that they make up covering all the main characters in the movie.

 
They have loved this each year and I am looking forward to seem the outcome again this year. They will also be doing my Cellphone from the Past activity from here on TpT. It worked great last year.

 
The week after we will be watching the second movie based on the time period. From there they will be creating their own Instagram photos from one of the lead characters. There is so much going on.


That will take us to the Civil War and the project (TpT) and their computer work for it. After that we move on to my student’s “Guess who is coming to dinner” computer project which is so cool. They have to invite six people, give me info on each, give topics to talk about that the dinner guests will take part in, create a meal to serve, look up and figure the cost of the meal, and so forth. That will take 5 -7 days. Then it is on to Huey P. Long and his story. And the quarter will be over.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Yearbook


Today I spent all day – with the exception of the two classes I taught – working on the yearbook. I have over ten years working on yearbooks but this one is really beating me up. It is not the normal middle school book where I know all the teachers. It is book that covers everything from Pre-K 2 to eighth grade. It has been fun taking copies of their pages around and getting them checked for spelling, missing kids, and other ‘problems’.

I saw everyone today which was a bit strange but got it all covered. Next week I have the yearbook advisor coming by to see me for a bit. She is as new at this as I am with this company. I have done yearbook with another company for the last dozen years. It is unusual but I am getting the hang of it.

The book will be my normal overkill has I have a TON of photos. I have always believed that middle school is all about photos. High School is different but for me it is pictures, pictures, and pictures. Right now I have space for over 2500 photos in a 68 page book. I want the boss to understand that I know how to put together a really great book. Right now she is telling me over and over to not be taking photos of girl’s teams. I have shot pictures of girl’s teams for years and years with no one getting upset. I have coached my on softball team for over 30 years. I have coached my own basketball team for over a dozen years. Let me do the job you asked me to do.

I love my job even though I would love it better if I taught a few more classes each day. I don’t like ebing a PART-TIME teacher.

Monday, January 21, 2013

The post no will read


Welcome! You made it through 166 other blogs to find me. If you did, you probably read through several other blogs and coming to this spot you hope to find something useful. I guess not. I read through several of them every day but tend not to find much new material. It seems most people do not blog on a regular bases. Teachers just do not have time to sit a blog when they are trying to get ready for another day, another conference, another student, another lesson, another dollar.

I don’t have that worry anymore. Oh I am still teaching but only part time. I left my high pressure, full time job of 167 students a day for a more LOW pressure private school with only 30 students a day. Most of them are a handful each day but there are a few that I will really miss come May. I have taught these students for the last two years – as 7th graders in a weekly Art in Literature and now in history class. Some of them have been angels and some have become the devil.

I try to love them and give them everything I have but some just don’t want to become ‘students’. Many of them have attitudes that the world owes them everything. They are in a private school and their parents have PAID for their education so they want an “A” no matter how much or how little they do. I am tired of that. I saw it last year with a girl how should have failed but the administration wanted her to pass – they even changed one of her history grades so she would pass. This year she is struggling big time in high school and can’t even change school because she didn’t take the LEAP test to get into public school.

She has to stay at the local Catholic school and just make what she makes. I could have worked with her last year but was told NO….. and off she went to fail somewhere else. At the Catholic high school she no longer has ‘helicopter’ parents who can force the school to GIVE her the grades. She was ‘babied’ through our campus for 8 years I am told.

I want to help students since I HAVE been in public middle schools for the past 23 years. I know what is expected and I know what they need to learn but the administration tells me to just get them through school.

The administration is a little bit better this year than last year and I am a little bit better by not failing anyone due to the administration’s push. I just “go with the flow” and earn my check. I hate this bit “it is what it is”.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Another day another post


Do you really believe how many people you have to scroll through just to get “HERE”? It is crazy and getting worse. I understand the fact that this site gets no comments. The middle school section of blogs is over-crowded if you want to find the one area you need. Most of us are subject dependent and we are not like the elementary teachers.

I don’t have a problem with the fact that I am so stuck on my own subject and I have gotten over the fact that no one really comes to see me. It is just a fact of the job. I teach a ‘no name subject’ in a very little ‘cared for state’ in a ‘little bitty school’ on the south end of the state where we don’t even get much notice from our own state let alone the rest of the country.

I blog on another site when I want comments and fee back but even then, I tend not to blog on a regular basis. I like – no LOVE to read other peoples blogs and I love looking through the blogs here almost daily but I have a tendency to not post nearly as often as I should.

I have found my blog on the first 20 or 30 and then sometime I have to scroll through everyone before I can find mine. Maybe Paul needs to create “sections” so we can find ourselves faster. Oh well, that’s today’s comments. Guess I better get ready for school.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Happy to be here


It is so funny to find people who can actually find me in this mass of blogs. Even I have a hard time finding my own blog. Sometime I have to scroll through hundreds of blogs in the middle school range to find this old man. I am happy to see everyone else here but I am still looking for that middle school person that teaches state history.

It may still be a long while before anyone else gets the idea that someone is looking. IT’s okay, but I will keep looking. At least I have found a couple of high school teachers who do what I do, just not in a poor state, or in Louisiana. It is funny that I may be practicing alone but I am making a “little” bit of money which I plow back into this site.

Over the last two quarters I have made over $200.00 which I am reusing to buy other teacher’s items. Those items get redesigned and reformatted into something I can use with my own students. I will never ‘re-sell’ those items here but I get to use them and see just effect they have on my eighth graders.

Most of my friends can’t understand why I do what I do. They can’t even understand Why I work early in the morning before school and before most other people even get up. Right now it is dark outside and cold – I mean really COLD. Well for south Louisiana standards it is cold. HE it is 35 degrees outside. BURRRRR.

I am happy with TpT and love the fact that other people are getting wealthy or should I say” wealthyer”.

Here’s to TpT.
Now I have to start getting ready for another school day. "Off to see my students!"

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