Waiting

Oh what you learn while you wait. There are times in life you have no choice but to wait. Just wait. There isn't much else you can accomplish while you wait. I used to be better at waiting. I was great at waiting. I could read a book, doze, people watch and just be content in the wait. Now I think of all the things I could and should accomplish while I wait. The more tired I get the less  patiently I wait.  Sometimes we have to wait on the phone and the automated voice says, "Enjoy the music while you wait." Magazines of all types are left in waiting rooms to read and flip through while we wait. While our body is physically waiting our minds are not. There is soooo much in life we must wait for. So I had better get more patient with the wait and figure out what I can learn from the wait.

Math Lesson

I had my Dad read the Teacher's Guide for one of my upcoming math lessons. He said " I think this is over-complicating things."  It does seem so sometimes. Thinking it is over-complicating things is why you hear a lot of criticism of  Common Core. So my curriculum is not a "Common Core" Curriculum it is just high quality. I tried to explain to him what the goal was in the lesson. People who are natural Mathematicians see connections and relationships between numbers. They are able to compose and decompose in ways they are unaware that they do it comes so automatically to them. So we try to teach all students how to use those strategies to more efficiently compose and decompose numbers. I told my Dad  "you were probably taught the standard algorithm." He was and luckily for him he had a natural mathematical ability. He said I don't think anyone I went to school with didn't see those relationships between numbers.  Sigh. Maybe they did maybe they didn't. When Dad was in school more things were done hands on at home. They would be measuring in the kitchen, cutting fabric, building, and may other things that parents would have shown their children how to do things mathematically.  That doesn't happen as much now. My students rarely see even coins and dollars. This is the nature of where we live and the time we live in. Those every day tasks that use number sense have gone by the wayside. So now we must teach it. The students that gain that ability to compose and decompose numbers are far more successful in mathematics than those who struggle. So it is something we work on the entire year.  Place value and number sense. Everything builds off of those important skills.

So despite my Dad thinking we are over complicating things I plan on teaching it anyway. I know it works :). I know how important it is for students to have that foundation before they go on to the next grade level.  annd.....NO I HAD NOOO Idea how passionate I would become about Mathematics education.

Plans HA!

I am the poster child for "the best laid plans go awry" lately. I planned to go into work early and get sooo much done. So I was up early. Out to my car early. Loading my car early. Not starting my car early. Turn the key click, click, click, click, and again. A really big sigh. Now who can I call to take me to work NOT early. Neighbor is home with sick kids. Colleague is home sick. Call the school? Wait the person subbing for my colleague is there.  I called her and she was at school EARLY and very willing to pick me up. Oh good. Now the stress of waiting all day to handle this. I have had a bad alternator before and I new what that did. I was pretty sure it wasn't that. It was a warm 10 degrees when I was trying to start it this a.m. So as soon as I got home my neighbor jump started me. We let it run for a bit then she followed me to NAPA just in case. They put in my battery for me and my neighbor drove back by just to make sure that was the issue. Got home with a sigh of relief and ordered a pizza. A full of gluten Pizza. I will pay a price for that but no kind of cooking is going to occur. So this winter has made my car ask for a few new things. It is good to have people around you can call on when  the best laid plans go sideways.

A meeting and end of quarter.

The first two weeks back to school have been hectic. I actually can't believe  it has only been two weeks.  We didn't start off the new year on a positive note at work. The last two years the Special Education Staff has done a presentation for us. It has basically been all of the reasons they can't help students. Even why students shouldn't be in intervention. I am so fed up with this. Maybe that wasn't the message they intended to send. I had to talk to a couple of others to see if we were all receiving the same message and  I wasn't just being sensitive on my students behalf. No we all had the same feelings. What was very painful is one of my students parents is also a staff member. This student really needs to be on an an IEP and receive some accommodations. The parent felt the same way. It was very emotional for her. Another thing that was said was we don't want to put students on an IEP because it can give them a stigma for the rest of their life. It was the whole "victim" mentality.  If you approach it that way then yes it will be a stigma. If you approach it as that extra help needed to have success students can go on to college with accommodations for their learning disabilities. I was thoroughly disgusted. These people serve our neediest population and they gave the impression that they really don't want to help them. I don't know why they are in this profession.

Our trainer for our reading curriculum came and observed me a long with our administrator. I did really well. I totally brain farted one part. It's what happens when  you get nervous lol. They said they could tell I usually did that w/ my students. Overall it was a very successful observation. My administrator did one of my informal observations as she had to be in there anyway. That went well also. So that was good. I have had a lot of training and learned some quality strategies the last couple of years.

I am attempting to get all my grading done and lesson plans complete as it is the end of the quarter. It is always busy and I feel about 20 steps behind as usual. It was predicted we would get snow this weekend but so far we have not. We had a few more inches on Thursday. They are predicting a little Monday and Tuesday so we shall see. The snow pack will be good this year. I may  have to invest in a snowblower though :)! It has been hard on my back. Hopefully those muscles are getting stronger.

This is just a few of my work highlights.  

I don't wanna!!!!

Okay.... It might end up being Valentine's Day Cards lol! That is probably a realistic and achievable goal!  Yikes time flies by so quickly.  I stopped on my way back to get my bumper fixed. Since there isn't a local place that can do that kind of work I had to spend a little time explaining to the Insurance Adjuster why I needed to stop someplace. Once we had the discussion of where the nearest cities with services were I had no more trouble. The side bonus was I had time to visit with a friend there and see her month old baby.

Vacations seem to just fly by so quickly. I feel like I packed a lot in but didn't quite achieve all of my to do list. So it goes. The snowy roads didn't help. I did what I could do with the time I had. It was tough to come back to work today. The following cartoon sums it up pretty well.


I came back to school to really well behaved students and it made it easier. I also arrived back to administrative nonsense. Some decisions or lack of decisions just make you shake your head. I would love to have an experienced administrator that really was on top of things that could give quality feedback. It might not be easy but I know I would grow in my profession. So in that aspect it was welcome back to chaos. Yay. ahem.

I have been lucky to have a lot of good people in my life. People who don't lower their standard and walk a narrow way. People who try hard and do their best. People who stand strong in their commitments. I think because I did have a lot of people in my life who held the standard high it makes it more disappointing when one drops that standard. As a teacher I realize I am being observed all the time by children. It is a huge responsibility. That really never goes away you always have "children" of all ages learning from you. Why I know people are fallible I am grateful to those who keep trying to do better.  What I have observed is that evil can slowly and inconspicuously insinuate itself in your life. It can slowly drag that standard down. Evil doesn't just burn it's own house down, it wants your house, the neighborhoods,  and so on. It doesn't take much to achieve that goal once it has its foothold in your life.  Stopping the ripple effect of evil can be done.  Thank you to those who continue to hold the standard.