Crunch Time - Deadlines - YIKES

The past week I have been under a deadline in so many different ways. 

First - I had to get all my consignment items priced and hanged up. Next, I placed all items in tubs to tote them to the Puyallup Fairgrounds on October 14th. I had almost 400 items that I delivered for the sale. It came to 17 tubs of clothes, shoes, books and a few miscellaneous stuff (remember all those Christmas dresses and winter coats I bought throughout the year). I made about $560.00, I donated 92 items and brought home 160 items for next year.

Second - I had to exercise 20 minutes, drink 100 oz. of water, work on my good habit (decluttering) and my bad habit (not watch tv until 8:00 pm) every day. The Game On Diet is now in the last week - end is in sight. But I probably won't quit - it seems I eat much better on this way of eating - it's just getting everything done within the time frame.

Third - I kicked out 5 IEP (Individualized Education Program) for the special education English students that I am subbing at the high school in the next week. No word yet on how long I will be here at the high school (isn't this weird they have to hire subs to take over my IAES/tutoring job - while I am subbing at the high school - go figure).

Fourth - I am finally all caught up at the high school. Clean up class work into file folders. I am trying to come up with a solution for mixing work. Continue to create lesson plans and move towards classroom management strategies. 

Fifth – Decluttering is harder than it looks – I took a carload to Value Village today – they gave me a $3 coupon after spending $10 or more just for donating.

Sixth – Erika and I went couch shopping today and I bought a couch, + 5 year protection plan, + delivery, + taxes. It came to a little more than I wanted to spend, but I need the couch yesterday and it will work (keeping my fingers crossed). Now all we need to do is clean and purge and rearrange by next week when delivery is scheduled.


So that wraps up my last 2 weeks in a nutshell.

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Cement Form Plant Holder

A couple of years ago, I bought a plant holder from Value Village that was made from a cement form. These forms are made from sturdy cardboard and they can be cut into a variety of sizes with a hack saw. 

So this was the year I was going to create some new plant holders for plants in my classroom. I started off with a rrrreally tall form and then cut it into 2 pieces using a hack saw.

 Next I decided what colors I was going to spray paint each one. One planter was going to be yellow and the other I decided was going to be orange. Then I painted one with a base coat of white and it sorta covered the writing.

The other one I painted black and I thought this one would have a really nice coverage. 

Boy was I wrong. The one painted black had to have many coats to finally reach the coverage I was satisfied with. 

I actually went out and bought different spray paint that would cover twice as much: Rustoleum did the trick. I am much happier with the coverage using this brand of paint. 
                                 
 Don't you think these turned out a nice color. See below for the final results.

 Final results in the classroom.

The duck planter has a purple daisy in it (not sure it will last inside). The blue metal shelving and the bird house on the wall were all Goodwill finds.

update on school change

I now have been at the English classroom for 1 week. Yes - I am still there! I noticed online today that the job posting has been extended until October 6th - so it looks like I will be there probably through most of October.

I feel that the students are ignoring me since they feel that I won't be around forever.  Why should they give me their best work. I keep telling them that the work they are working on will be graded and needs to be turned in today. Quite a few ignore the rules and expectations.

Even though these students are in high school and special ed they are lacking in sentence structure (capitalization and periods). A few students just sit there looking bored and not completing or for that matter not even starting their classwork. I am not sure how to reach them to let them know this will affect there education. Maybe they don't care. Well I care.

Here is an example: Yesterday I began the day with a writing prompt. All I was asking was 5 complete sentences - some students gave me that and even more. The majority gave me 3 incomplete sentences - maybe. Then we moved onto a spelling list (taken directly off of their school work) - students complained that it was elementary and yet this is what they are needed. I wanted students to alphabetize their spelling. From experience I decided to put the alphabet on the board - I saw every student that was following the directions look at the alphabet on the board. Next was a sheet of handwriting (do you know that some districts aren't teaching cursive any more - what a shame - what are students going to do when they need to sign a legal document).

If students would spend less time complaining about their work and just get started, they would finish it much faster. 

Today I decided to ask another special education teacher who also teaches English what she does in her class. She gave me some reading material and then I created questions to go along. Of course some students did this, but most did not. 

Tomorrow I am going to try another approach and see if I can grab their attention. Luckily I am grabbing some materials from my own classroom (the one I am finally getting students in- which is a whole another issue).

Job Change after school has started

I went to work on Tuesday and boy I got a surprise. One of our special ed directors came by and asked if he could talk to me. Of course, my heart dropped and I felt that awful feeling that I was being sent to the principal’s office- yikes! He wanted to tell me that I was needed somewhere else in a teaching job since I didn't have any students. A high school was in dire need of a special education teacher who could do Individual Educational program (IEP's). So I said what would happen when I got students within my program and he said that I would stay at the high school until they could hire someone full time. When I get students the district would get a tutor or a sub for my position

So I head over to the high school to observe and get a feel of the land. I never thought I would ever teach in an English class but that is exactly what I am doing - wow! Of course, after observing the class I realized that I needed some material from my class. After work I went to my program and picked up writing prompts, logic puzzles, finding facts- most of my Do it Now worksheets. I think these will be a life saver.

Wednesday we used one of the writing prompts and it gave me an assessment on how students can write a complete sentence. Quite a few students start their sentences without a capital and all I's in lower case - EECK! So now I need to find some worksheets regarding capitalization and the importance of the capital I.

I am hoping that this job will be short lived so I can get back to my original job. Now in the present I plan to get curriculum for at least a couple of weeks. This way I will at least know what is happening daily. I really don’t like the unknown- but I do my best teaching by the fly of my pants.

Have any of you been thrown into a situation that was out of your control?

School started Wednesday, September 3rd - so FALL is just around the corner

The school district where I work officially starts tomorrow. So that meant that today I spent rearranging my classroom to accommodate students. I never know how many students I will be getting, since my program houses the students who got expelled for weapons, drugs and serious bodily injury. This year I have created seating for 15 in 2 separate rooms, it will be tight but it is what it is. 

Today I also started hanging motivational posters on the wall. I found a few websites that have FREE downloadable printables which I love. It's really easy to do, just bring up the poster you want and then print off your printer. Motivational quotes for women or Activity Village or even Poster-street is where I have found some of the motivational posters. Activity Village has free printables for a variety of resources. I have printed their book markers, they are colorful and cute. 

I moved in the bookcase I bought at the Goodwill over Labor Day weekend and started weeding out the books I no longer use. 

This is the year that I start looking at my curriculum and see what I need and use every day and what I have only opened once or twice. My problem is that I never know what I might need for my students to be successful, I teach students from 2 - 12 grade in all subjects, so I have to be prepared for anything.

I also would like to use most of the printable consumables that are hiding in file cabinets and bring them out into the light for students to use - maybe I won't need to print so many worksheets up. Last year I had the daunting pile of worksheets that I had students help stack - I will re-use those for this year and save a tree or two. 

If anyone teaches - how do you prepare for the school year?

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