I was Tagged

As a newcomer to blogging, I was quite worried how the whole thing worked and was sure it would take me forever to “meet” people. Luckily, I’ve met several people and was happy to see  How a Second Year Teacher Lives  list me as a person to answer the Bowrag. 

So, I take this time to respond to a tag by Bowrag.

1: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves which others do not know about them.
2: People who are tagged need to write in their own blog and post these rules.
3: At the end of your 8 random facts post, you must select 8 more people and leave a message at their site that they have been
tagged….

8 facts about me:

1. Though I’m twenty-four, I just learned how to ride a bike last month.  Long story that boils down to a mother who was terrified of me getting hurt and an awesome husband who wanted us to have an active hobby together.
2. I’m currently writing my thesis on Film as Folklore, and I’m tired.  I don’t want to do it anymore and think at least 3 times a day about dropping out of grad school.
3. I lived in Budapest, Hungary the summer after my Freshman year of college.  I still believe the city is Europe’s best kept secret, and if I could find a way for me, my husband, and dog to happily live there, I’d move there in a heartbeat.
4. My husband and I are both only children, and we feel this may be one of the leading factors in our current decision to never have children.
5. My husband and I currently live next door to my parents and the house I great up in and not even a mile away from his parents, grandma, and the house he grew up in.
6. I am a Harry Potter fanatic and have my tickets to the midnight IMAX showing of the film.
7. Though I love to travel, I would often prefer to just stay at home and unplug the phones than go out anywhere.  My life is very busy and sometimes a quite night at home is pure heaven.
8. If I had a choice, I would make it so that my husband could stay home and take care of my house, and I would be the sole breadwinner for our household.

I also don’t like the idea of forcing someone to complete this activity. However, I will list people that I’d like to hear from.  I’m also not listing 8 people because several of the people I would list were either already listed here or have already completed this activity.

Tense Teacher
Are We Doing Anything Today?

Middle School Teacher

Friends at Work

So, I have a very important question for my fellow educators.  I am very blessed to work at a school where the average age of employees is around 27-30, and 90% of the staff is women.  Needless to say, I easily have a dozen friends from work I hang out with all the time.  The local happy hour establishments thrive off of our Friday afternoon visits.  My husband and I intend to move to another state in a year or two, so I’m wondering.  How many of you have friends from work with whom you hang out with outside of school?  I’d never thought about it before because this is all I’ve ever known, but my husband expressed concern that maybe I won’t find friends elsewhere….so tell me, do you have friends at work?

Summer Curriculum Work

So, the school year let out and the DO decided to have curriculum meetings the week immediately after graduation.  This due largely to the fact that representation from all of our schools was very poor over the past few years as everyone, surprise, goes on vacation during the summer.  As my husband and I are always desperately poor, I, of course, went.  I worked hard for MAYBE 10 of those hours creating a pacing guide, calendar, and benchmark exams.  We could have finished the entire project in about 2 days, but because someone somewhere was behind on something, we sat around and got paid to “co-lab” for 3 days and only worked for two.  Normally, this would be great.  3 days of paid collaboration is wonderful, but it was not met with great attitudes because it was the end of the year and not what we expected.  The extra money will definitely pay off the AC bill for the summer.  Do I think we wasted tax-payer dollars, you bet!  Oh the ways schools could better use money.

Principals

Today I see my principal discussing with a first year teacher out for wanting to show Donald in Mathemagicland in her math class.  He put it as “putting your teaching reputation on the line.”  Then he explained that he wanted all students working on challenging and meaningful activities until the last minute of school on Friday.  Now, I know I complained about this just yesterday, but it was even more evident today.  I intended to show this same video tomorrow and after seeing this exchange spent my entire planning period searching for something else for my students to do tomorrow.  Mind you, I’ve shown no videos all year, and this particular video’s content actually has foundation in some material we actually teach to the students.  I guess I’m just a little tired and frustrated.  3 more days…

The Last Week of School

Well, it’s the last week of school, and all of my “bad” children have simply decided that everyone hates them and they are going to be as bad as possible. That is currently being handled in my class with some semblance of organization and “fun” math activities. What is pushing me over the edge is my normally very pleasant principal stopping in my room every day to make sure I’m still “teaching.” Who is he kidding? It’s the last week of school. We all know it’s just glorified babysitting until the final bell on Friday. Tomorrow’s agenda: Fold a circle up a bunch of ways to identify different geometric shapes and write a letter to my students in next year’s classes. Highly academic goals for a highly academic time in the year.  However, I will give myself credit for implementing a project that does tie to standards and another which helps me to reflect on my teaching.