153 down, 34 to Go

I love blogging. I love reading other people's blogs and I love staying connected. There are sometimes when I read other blogs that I think my blog is so boring, and all I do is talk about my classroom. But when I really started thinking about it, people write about their passions. Currently in my life I don't have a husband; I don't have a child; I don't even have a dog. Currently in my life my passion is my career. This will be the only time in my life that I can devote 100% of myself to my students. So within all of this, I've come to the conclusion that I'm ok with the fact that I only write about my classroom.

 

Here is my newest project - my TAKS review unit!! I bribed Caroline to paint a racetrack for me with the Rangers "T" in the middle to create my TAKS Dot Race! I really wanted to challenge my accelerated students to be engaged during our TAKS review. I know my kids are smart and we're aiming for commended rather than just passing the test, so I knew they'd need a little more motivation than just good grades. So, I emailed  someone in PR for the Rangers and got them to send me whatever they could! If my students can complete 3 laps/12 packets/240 problems/writing 60 of their own problems all in two school weeks they will we receive a Ranger sticker!! That probably sounds like nothing, but they were so excited when I told them about everything today. They will receive a reward for each lap they complete: Lap 1 - candy, Lap 2 - homework pass, Lap 3 - sticker, homework pass #2, and candy! I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

 This weekend I was the faculty sponsor for my Math Team's state competition in San Antonio. These are seriously the best kids in the entire school. Friday night was a crazy night of silence; they completed practice tests for almost 2 hours. Then this was them in the hotel lobby Saturday morning playing scrabble!! It really was a fun experience getting to hang out with them outside of a school setting. It was a long weekend where I spent 10 hours on Saturday in one room grading, but it was still fun. If you have about an hour I can fill you in on more details like parking tickets, broken legs, car fires, coaley/cooleyville tx, elevators, new volume song, and bowling. The good thing is all of our students are back at home! 

The best part of the entire weekend though was getting to see my family in Waco! One thing I've discovered through high school and college is that there are not quite as many families who are as close as mine! Lunch at Food for Thought in Waco made my whole week!

 

This is why, this is why, this is why I teach...

I couldn't help but sing the "this is why I'm hot" song when I was typing my title.. So a couple more "this is why-s" got added. :) Hope that made some sense.

Anyway, I have figured out that there are some days throughout the school year where at the end of the day you literally want to ring someone's neck - nothing went right, the lesson was boring, and the kids were annoying. Then you have the exact opposite days, where one simple statement can remind you why you put up with the other 186 days of the year. Last week I got an email from a parent that did exactly this. One of my students, who has struggled all year, got a 96 on their last test. I put her in the optional TAKS tutoring hoping it would help her gain some strength in some areas. This last test really made me feel like my decision was the right one, so I emailed their parents to let them know how proud I was of the test score! The parents emailed me back with such encouraging words that I couldn't help but smile. 

"Let's keep on pushing her to her potential! She probably needs more music videos to inspire her.... your video was awesome and I am so thrilled that there are a few select teachers that will do amazing things to connect with the students. You make a HUGE impact and I appreciate you! More importantly, [the student] is very inspired by you!"

 All I need is a simple reminder that these kids look up to me and if I can make one difference in one student, then my year is successful. 

"So, are you gonna be laid off?"

I'm really tired of hearing this question. I don't know and I'm not going to worry about it. I am confident in my teaching ability and there's nothing I can do to change the 5 million dollars of debt, so I will be patient and see.

Well, that was my one moment of venting in this blog. The rest will be happy things! I had a wonderful spring break hanging out with my best friend! We watched a ton of basketball and never ran out of things to talk about, but none of that surprises me. It's the reason why she's my best friend.

The week back was not as crazy as I thought it might be. I had some interactive lessons planned and it kept the kids entertained (for the most part!). One of the lessons we did was called the "Human Bar Graph." I had the students complete a survey about my class, then so it was anonymous they folded their surveys into paper airplanes and flew them around the room for 2 minutes. When time was up they picked up the closest airplane to them and sat back in their desk. We then went outside to the track to make our bar graphs. They stood in front of the sign that correlated to the answer that was on their new sheet. From left to right their options were Never, Rarely, Often, and Always (use that when you're looking at the pictures below).I wasn't sure how the whole thing was going to go, but it worked very well and I'm excited to show them their pictures tomorrow. They will also be on my school website for parents to see. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week. This week includes one of my favorite days of the year: Opening Day of the Texas Rangers.

1st Period - "I ask questions when I do not understand something."

2nd Period - "I turn in my homework."

5th Period - "Ms. Lindstrom's class is my favorite class."

7th Period - "My words and actions create positive affects on my peers."

 

Teacher Spring Break 2011

My favorite quote from Friday was "I am JUST as excited about Spring Break as you are!!!" ha for real, the students were not as bad as I thought they were going to be! We ended the day with the faculty student basketball game! I was not going to play until they came to me 5th period and bombarded me!! :) They found me clothes and shoes and I acted like I could play basketball for 14 minutes. I actually almost made a basket!! ha I held my own, so I was proud of that!!

I'm going to enjoy my break and go visit my best friend in Lubbock. I am so excited to have time to spend with her. When Hannah was home for Spring Break we watched a home video, and there I was in kindergarten standing by her side in choir! :)

If you need a little bit of entertainment, check out the awesome way Hannah and I motivated Caroline while she was out for a run! Just go to Hannah's facebook page and it is on there titled, "Caroline's Tiger Blood."

Happy Spring Break!!!

Old-Fashioned Paper Chain

It has started. The countdown to the TAKS. I always have girls wanting to help me with things and today when I didn't have anything for them, I got a brilliant idea: make a paperchain!!! I know it's old-fashioned, but it's still just as much fun!!! So there it is, our class paper chain. There are 33 school days until math TAKS! Ah!!!

But like so many of my Blog Titles, this old-fashion trend is about a lot more than just our TAKS paper chain. I have made a discovery about myself and my teaching style: I am an old-fashioned teacher with new, modern tendencies. I have no idea if that sentence makes any sense, but I'm not really worried about it. The first thing my mom said to me before the school year was, "Mollie, this is the era of entitlement." Well, you're not entitled to anything. I've also learned I am not an enabler. I am not going to just hand you the answers because you get "special services." You still have to put work and effort into earning your grade. My one goal for this year was to just make it without stepping on any toes, and I don't know if I can do that anymore. I'm much more fed up with the special services department and the "help" that they're giving. I know I can't fix everything, and I'm honestly not trying to; I just want the kids to be successful. If we hand everything to them now, how are we preparing them for the future?

Onto happier topics: I've had my bridesmaid flowers in my room since my best friend's wedding in July and I took a picture with just my little camera phone and I love it. They were ivory roses that dried into an awesome rustic color. This picture is not in sepia tones or anything, just normal color. They are right by my bed and are a good reminder to see everyday when I come home after one of those more difficult days at school.

This paragraph is going to be anything BUT old-fashioned. One night when I couldn't sleep, I decided to write a song about area to Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never." The next day I went to Waco and sang my song for my cousins; they loved it. So obviously our next step was to make a music video!! It was so much fun to make and my kids have absolutely loved it. I haven't even played it for my on-level kids and they came in already knowing every word! Hopefully that makes our area unit that much easier! Area, area, area, area -a -a -a

Enjoy: Never Say Never: Area Remix

The last old-fashioned I'm going to talk about is my kind of old-fashioned. I love looking at pictures of my sisters and I growing up and the other night I came across a good one. Right before this picture, there was one where we were holding up our Easter presents. Hannah and Caroline were holding up candy; I was holding up a book on patterns. Go Math Nerds!!



I'm 7, Hannah - 5, Caroline - 3