TGIF! Today is officially my first day of summer, and I’m ready for it.
As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.
Well, I’m keeping it short and sweet this week!
We haven’t had a ton going on besides wrapping up the school year, so today I’m sharing the last day of school pics.
It was raining on Wednesday morning, so the traditional last day of school pics were taken on the front porch. Wednesday afternoon and evening turned out to be lovely, but Hadley had track practice and Hayden went and played golf with a friend. I’m glad I snagged the pics when I could that morning.
Ready to wrap up the school year:
I hopped in a pic since we never got a Mother’s Day pic a couple of weeks ago. Then, I had to rush off to school and they went in the house to have breakfast.
We all had a really good school year. The kids did a great job navigating a new school, keeping up with their classwork, earning good grades and juggling their schedules with academics and athletics. I think they learned a lot this year, both in the classroom and in regards to how high school works, in general! It’s tough being a freshman…and they made it! haha
I had a really good year overall. Of course, I had a couple of classes this year which I hadn’t had in a while, and I had to get used to having some of my kids’ friends in my classes. The class of 2028 will always hold a special place in my heart for quite a few reasons!
I’m thankful for a great freshman year for my kids and the same can be said for year 23 for me!
Besides the last day of school, I have a driving update….riding in the car with them has been a bit easier lately. Obviously, they’re still getting the hang of driving, but each drive has gotten better. Hadley drove us to Starbucks on Sunday, and that was quite the treat! Hayden drove me to get ice cream the other day, and did just fine on quite a busy road.
I’m glad we have some down time in the summer to keep working on their driving skills.
Favorite Mom Meme:
Isn’t this one so true? haha
Weekly Recap:
I had a few posts this week in case you missed one:
I hope your week has started off on the right foot! Today, we don’t have school as we typically have election days off…but I don’t know that there are any primary elections today?
As the school year wraps up, I feel like my to do list is a mile long, and my brain is in overdrive, but that’s just how it is every year.
Today’s post is a Teacher Talk Tuesday post all about end of the school year things you might not know teachers deal with as the school year wraps up.
Ten things you might not know about end of the school year.
One. Testing!
Testing, testing and more testing. All of our 10th and 11th graders take the ACT the second Tuesday in March. The juniors’ scores are a part of our accountability, and the sophomores get a good (and free) practice run before their junior year.
We have KSA (Kentucky Summative Assessment) within the last two weeks of the school year. Again, it’s the sophomores and juniors that test. This year, we did two tests on Tuesday and two on Thursday last week. It was kind of nice to have a day in between of testing for a little break and to have a normal Wednesday schedule for the school.
Two. Schedules.
As the school year wraps up, we anxiously await hearing what our schedules will be for the next school year. Yep…high school teachers don’t necessarily teach the same thing from year to year.
Love that for us.
Some years we’ve gone into the summer not knowing what we will be teaching the next year. Last year, we found out right after spring break which was unprecedented! This year’s timeline was very fair and we found out last week what we will be teaching…but not necessarily the schedule with class periods and planning periods. I think we will know that soon.
This year, I teach English 1 (Adv. and co-teach). Next year, I will have the same, but with two English 2 classes. At the moment, I don’t know that I’m thrilled to have three preps, none of which are any kind of elective. Nothing is set in stone, so we’ll see how it shakes out.
Three.Classrooms.
Our classrooms can change year to year, but it’s not usually something that’s mandatory. More than likely, if a “better” room opens up, based on seniority, a teacher can request to move to a different room for the next year.
That being said, there have been times where admin has requested certain teachers move to be closer to their department or maybe a first year teacher is moved next to a veteran teacher.
If you do move rooms, it’s probably quicker and more efficient to move what you can yourself. Of course, custodians will move heavy things like filing cabinets, but anything that’s manageable, it’s best to do yourself (and/or with help, of course).
Before the end of the school year, we always have to label our desks, bookshelves, filing cabinets, etc with our room #, so that when things get moved out so the custodians can wax our classroom floors, everything *hopefully* gets put back where it belongs. We often even draw a “map” on our board where certain tables and bookshelves should go.
Four.Purging and freebies.
Teachers love to give things away. At the end of the year, there’s usually a good pile in the workrooms with “free to a good home” note stuck on whatever…anything from bookshelves to books to lamps and more.
I try to throw away/recycle/organize every day in May…thinking my future self will thank me later!
Five.Meetings.
We have after school trainings before testing, and our weekly PLC (professional learning community), department and faculty meetings continue every week after school.
That being said, for teacher appreciation week a couple of weeks ago, we received “the gift of time” with our weekly meeting canceled.
The day after the students’ last day, we have a faculty meeting and wrap up the school year.
Six. Planning for next year.
In late April/early May, we start receiving emails about professional development plans, dates to save, etc. for the next school year. Sometimes, this info is overwhelming as we’re just trying to wrap up this year and now we’re being told to think about the next year.
We have to do “safety trainings” every year, and they are typically due by Labor Day. These trainings can be started after our last teacher work day, and most of us knock those out in the summer. These trainings are over anything from blood borne pathogens to how to safely climb a ladder to school safety. I swear that they add more and more of these every year, and we probably watch 12-15 hours of trainings that don’t count as professional development…Just another part of our glamorous job!
Seven. Technology.
Students turn in their Chromebooks with three days left in the school year. That means that their final exam has to be on paper which is actually my preference anyway. I’m always happy when they turn in their Chromebooks and have one less distraction.
Eight. Final exams.
For the English 1 final, students are taking our unit test which is multiple choice, so that will be easy to grade which I appreciate as well.
At my school, final exams are worth 10% of the students’ overall grade.
Also, the last three days are a different kind of schedule as we see some classes for an hour and then two classes for two hours for them to complete their finals. It’s a weird schedule, and I wish we’d just do two days of three finals each and let students go home early. That would be way less hectic for sure!
Nine. Teacher work day/flex time.
The day after the students’ last day is always a teacher work day. We start with a faculty meeting that typically lasts a couple of hours. During the meeting, the admin talk about end of the year things and we always celebrate retirees. (Lucky them!) I do appreciate that we aren’t “just meeting just to meet” and when we are finished we get the rest of the time in our rooms. Typically, there’s an end of the year check list that we get a few signatures on like that we submitted grades, technology is accounted for and more.
I’m really grateful that my district does “flex time” because that means we don’t always have to make up all of our contract days. We account for our hours missed for snow days, for example, and submit a form with hours we worked outside of our contracted school day. Some years, we don’t have any hours, and this year, I had to submit a form documenting 30 hours. For example, if I didn’t turn in hours for today, I’d be at school without the students. This was an odd year where we did have four traditional snow days rather than NTI online days. So, those four days at 7.5 hours a day equals 30 hours we document. If I didn’t submit the form, my last day of school would be June 3 instead of May 29.
Ten.Graduation.
All of the high schools in my district graduate at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. While teachers have always been expected to attend, this is the first year that it’s required. I’m always surprised that it hasn’t been required in the past. This is also the first year that teachers will have the black graduation gowns with the hoods from our colleges. I always love graduation, but I do feel like the bigger schools rush through and it’s not as personal as graduation is in smaller schools.
Well, we’re officially down to five more days of school. I can’t believe I’m wrapping up my 23rd year in education, and the kids only have three more years left of high school! I’ll try not to think too much about that and enjoy my summer with them…the last summer with them relying on me to drive them where they need to be!
I hope you are having a great week. Today, I’m sharing a Thursday Thoughts post.
On the WordPress app, they usually post a daily prompt and this one struck a chord with me the second I saw it:
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
I immediately thought of the kids’ elementary years. Starting in kindergarten, I knew from the start to treasure that phase of life for them. While I know I’m blessed with two kids, having two at once just makes it feel like time moves that much quicker. And…I feel like I don’t get to experience certain phases of life and milestones again since we don’t have a third. There was one first day of kindergarten. There was one 3rd grade zoo field trip. There was one Dr. Seuss “Cat in the Hat” performance. So, I always made it a priority to help with the class parties, take a personal day to go on the field trip, buy them too many books at the book fair and more.
After elementary school, the “magic” of school and learning seems to slip away a little bit more every year. Also, there just aren’t field trips, field day, chorus concerts, class parties and all the other special events that elementary school provides.
The kids made so many memories during those years, formed friendships, learned so much and had so much fun. So many of their core values and experiences that shaped them as learners and little humans happened in the classrooms in that building.
Covid put an end to that. They went home on Friday, March 13, 2020, finished their 4th grade year on Zoom/Google Classroom, spent most of 5th grade doing work at home or at the neighborhood “pod” of classmates. They went back to school wearing masks on March 3, 2021 but with plexi-glass around their desks as an attempt to minimize germs. Their 5th grade graduation was held in the gym, but no family could attend. Instead, we watched at home via the live stream.
I’m so thankful the kids were celebrated and were together with their classes, but it would have been nice to have the option of an outdoor ceremony or even a limit of two family members per student.
I know the administrators were making the best decision at the time, and I’m grateful for technology to still “be there” for the special milestone.
Registering for Kindergarten:
First day of K:
Last day of 5th grade:
{I must admit that I did love being at home with them during the online school days. I’m blessed that I could be home with them thanks to my job as a teacher too. I was never a stay at home mom (besides in the summer), and (mostly) loved helping them with their school work and having some extra free time with them…but I do think we were out of school for entirely too long! We all should have headed back to the classroom sooner.}
I will always look back fondly on their elementary school years.
We owe a lot to those teachers and that school. It’s bittersweet that we didn’t have the proper goodbye.
Well, we’re on week two of two actual full weeks of school which means I’m back to packing my lunch. I’m sharing what I’ve been packing in my new Bento boxes.
While packing my lunch is still a dreaded task, I’ve been enjoying it a bit more lately and trying to find new lunch ideas. I’ve shared time and time again that I love a “snack plate” for lunch when I’m at home. The Bento Boxes are a way to take my snack plate to school!
I always save gift ideas on a few Amazon lists because I know when the holidays roll around, I need to share ideas with family members. I’d requested some Bento Boxes, but this set didn’t work out because the lids wouldn’t stay snapped on.
My first lunch was Dill, Sea Salt, and Olive Oil Triscuits (my fave!), cheese, grapes, prosciutto, rosemary almonds (my fave!) from Trader Joe’s, and some cottage cheese.
Once I realized those containers weren’t going to work, I ordered myself this set, and they’ve been perfect. The layout is a bit different, but they’ve been working out just fine.
Another lunch: Triscuits, cheese, a hard boiled egg, carrots and Ranch (the Ranch didn’t fit in the box), and my favorite sweet treat…a “Snack Select” from Aldi that has little bites of chocolate, dried cranberries, and graham cracker bites. Little squares of cheese also come in the pack, but I had those later.
On this day, I had a peanut butter roll up (tortilla), Babybel cheese, and cucumbers and Fritos (Trader Joe’s edition) to dip in Trader Joe’s Buffalo dip. I also packed a pudding for dessert in my lunch bag.
One day, I had salami, cheese and crackers from an Olli pack…adult lunchable. I put those things in the Bento box and then added in carrots, Chex Mix, and trail mix.
One day this week, I packed two turkey sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls, cottage cheese and carrots. Then, I packed some Girl Scout cookies…two Thin Mints and two Peanut Butter Patties. Did I need four Girl Scout cookies? No. Was it necessary? Yes…because otherwise, my family hogs the cookies, and they hardly last a couple of days in our cabinet! That being said, Hayden stopped by my room and ate one of the Thin Mints. See what I’m talking about?! haha
I’m loving my new lunch bag. I’d had the same lunch bag for eight years, and the time was past due for me to get a new one. Again, I had this one saved on a list as a gift idea, and it’s perfect. It holds so much, and I love that there’s a small zip pocket on one side and then a larger pocket on the other side.
Just this past weekend, I packed this full of snacks for our weekend in Gatlinburg for Hadley’s volleyball tournament, and it held so many snacks!
It comes in quite a few colors and patterns…and it has a 15% off coupon right now. (Just FYI!)
So, those are a few of my lunches lately. This week has been a bit different because we had a little chili pot luck yesterday with the teachers in my hall, and then we’re having a SOUPer Bowl soup/chili pot luck on Friday. So, I only have to pack a few lunches this week!
‘Tis the season for winter weather! In the past few weeks, we’ve had a little bit of everything – ice, sleet, snow, and frigid temps. Today and tomorrow are to be the coldest days of winter so far.
All of the snow days got me thinking about snow days through the years!
When I was a kid I don’t really remember having tons of snow days, and I also don’t remember how we were notified. My mom was a teacher, so I’m sure she would find out and let us know. I assume those snow days were reported on the news and would run across the bottom of the screen….I do remember that in high school.
My first year teaching, there was a school phone tree, and I did get a few phone calls for snow days, and then I’d call the next number on the list!
When I moved to Kentucky, my first year here was the 2004-2005 school year, and we didn’t have a snow day until late February or early March. I remember asking Travis if it snowed here! haha
For most of my earlier years in Kentucky, we’d get an automated phone call and probably an email. For twelve years, I taught in a more rural county, and we would miss more days than the city schools like Lexington where we live. I do remember waking up some mornings and checking the local news to see if we had school or not.
We would also rarely have those days forgiven and would have to make them up. In 2014, we had probably fifteen snow days. To alleviate some of the time we’d have to make up, we added twenty minutes to the school day after spring break. The students made up a couple of days at the end, but the teachers were in school until mid-June! No ma’am! I remember being so annoyed…making up our time for two weeks after the students got out.
The following year, my district applied for NTI (non-traditional instruction) days. This was kind of a new idea although there were even more rural/mountain towns who had been using NTI. For NTI, we gave out packets with ten days worth of work. At this time, students didn’t have Chromebooks. So, students knew to complete the assignment(s) on the days we had off. Once we returned to school, students had three days to complete and turn in the assignment for their attendance to be counted for those NTI days. Honestly, it worked fairly well, and even like what I do now, I incorporated grammar, short reading comprehension passages, etc. So, it was work we would have done in class anyway, but I saved it for NTI. On those NTI days, we were expected to work from home, and we’d fill out a time sheet with what we worked on.
It’s crazy to think out “antiquated” this process seems compared to what we do now although there are still some similarities.
In my county, NTI days started after Covid. We truly never thought we’d ever be 1:1 with technology with the number of students we have in our district and the various demographics that we have of our student populations. During Covid, our county was out for almost a year, so we all became very acclimated with Zoom and online assignments.
Not only do these kids not have to wait for the school name to scroll on the bottom of the TV screen (although it still does when we don’t have school), they can also find out via social media, sometimes quicker than I know!
As parents, we get a text message and an email…sometimes, we receive a phone call. I hate the phone calls at 5 am! As teachers, we get an email and a text.
For NTI now, we post assignments to Canvas, and have two hours where we are expected to be on Zoom in case a student has a question or needs help with their work. The district assigned the time frames and elementary have earlier Zoom hours, middle school is around lunch and high school have the later afternoon shift.
I take attendance based on who has completed the assignment by the end of the day. If a student turns in the assignment the following day, I will change their attendance from absent to present. Once we get back to school, students have three days to turn in the assignment just like how we did at my former district.
I assign work similarly to how I did when students had packets, but now I use IXL to assign grammar and Newsela to assign reading passages. I will also assign videos that have to do with what we’re learning and have students complete a 3-2-1 (which varies)assignment. For example, they will submit three facts from the videos, two questions they have and make one connection.
Last week, when we finally went back to school on Thursday, I did start class as if it was the first day of the semester. We went over classroom expectations, but then I gave them a work day on the three NTI assignments. I found that about 90% of my students completed their first NTI assignment the day it was assigned, but then that dwindled to about 50% of students completing the third NTI assignment. Since we hadn’t had in person school in almost a month, I figured we could all ease into the semester.
That being said, I did tell my classes now that we’ve discussed NTI expectations, if we’re out one day, then I’m not giving them a work day when we return. If we’re out an extended amount of time, that’s different.
I also told my students if we’re out this week, we have to wrap up To Kill a Mockingbird, so I’ll upload the PDF of the chapters we need to read and give them an assignment.
I feel like what we make up year to year is different. I do think my district goes five days more than we need to, so students don’t always have to make up every day. We have a day in March that’s always marked as a day to use if needed. Before NTI, we also would add days to the end of the school year, but I hope that’s not the case this year.
If the governor declares a state of emergency, which he did after our recent snow/ice storm, we can apply for up to ten days to forgive.
That being said, of course, teachers have to make up their work days. Often times, we’re able to “flex” our time if it’s just a few days. We fill out the flex form with any work/meetings that we do outside of our contract hours. My former district didn’t do that, but I appreciate that my district does have that as an option for at least a few days.
Once winter is over, the school board makes these decisions for students and for teachers.
Unpopular opinion — but I love a snow day…but I also love to get back into a routine…which has proven hard to do lately! There hasn’t been a school year in my teaching career that we haven’t had a least one snow day.
One day down and four to go until break! But who’s counting?!
People often ask me what I teach/what we read in English 1.
Since I’ve “survived” the first semester, this post is a good reflection of the first half of the school year.
Since this is my first year back teaching in over four years, the start of the school year was quite an adjustment.
I have three classes (one Advanced English 1 and two co-teach English 1), a planning period, and two hours for academic help. It’s a nice balance from what I’ve done the past few years as well as teaching full time the years before that.
I’ve really enjoyed my co-teach classes. In almost 23 years as a teacher, I’d never had a co-teach class before. Co-teach classes have about twenty students in the class and about half of them have IEP (individualized education plans) and there’s a special ed teacher in my class during those times.
My Advanced class is a bigger class of 28, and they are a good group of kids. It took me a few weeks to get over the fact that quite a few of them are my kids’ good friends. Joking with them that I can “call their mom” brought on a whole new meaning for them. haha
First things first, I had to familiarize myself with Canvas which is the online platform we use for posting assignments and grading. I’ve had a Canvas page in the past, but it wasn’t as extensive as what I need to keep up with currently.
Once I figured it out, I really enjoy it. I don’t love students being on the computer, but this is just a spot for them to always know what’s going on in class.
I started the year with my students mostly doing paper assignments as I tried to figure out the online platform. Now, my students do about 75% of assignments on the computer and then submit on Canvas. The other 25% of their work is paper assignments, but I still enter the grade on Canvas. I really keep up with grading better with the online platform.
So, again, students aren’t on their computers 75% of the time, it just means that’s where they submit their work. We read in the textbook or use other materials and then they submit the work on Canvas.
This year, our district purchased a new English curriculum. I was very familiar with the previous one, so this was yet another thing to figure out. Students do have a consumable textbook –which I actually think is a waste. It’s so much paper! I can have students write in their textbooks, highlight and annotate, so I do like that. I usually just type the questions on a Google doc and that’s what they submit online for their assignment.
Y’all – AI is a problem. To curtail that, I just had my Advanced class write a three paragraph response last week and had them write on paper. You should have seen the looks on their faces! With my co-teach classes, I had them type their response but gave them a framework that I wanted them to follow. I can typically spot AI responses in a heartbeat — usually because they use vocabulary words that I know they don’t know…or they aren’t answering a specific part of the prompt that I give them.
The textbook has five units, but the district re-structured the pacing plan to four units which we all appreciate.
Each unit has “whole class learning,” “small group learning” and “individual learning.”
I’m still figuring out the textbook’s online platform. I do like that we can listen to texts, but I haven’t assigned much from that platform to Canvas.
Unit 1 was “Journeys of Transformation,” and I really enjoyed teaching it. The main text we read was The Odyssey which students always enjoy…especially when the Cyclops gets his eye poked out! haha
At the end of that unit, the students wrote an explanatory essay on how Odysseus was an epic hero.
To plan for that paper, I did a gallery walk with paper for each characteristics. Students jotted down ideas, drew pictures, and found quotes for each characteristic at their time at each station. Then, those hung around the room and were ideas for them to use in their paper.
Screenshot
Unit 2 is “Promise and Progress.” The main two texts are Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” For “Letter from Birmingham Jail” we read the “bridge” text from the online textbook in my co-teach class. For my Advanced class, I purchased a “jigsaw” activity from Teacher Pay Teachers. It’s such a long text that I assigned each student one of four sections. They read their section, took notes, and completed the worksheet for the assigned section. Then, they got into groups with three others students who had the other sections to discuss and finish the activity.
“Promise and Progress” unit is the perfect time to read To Kill a Mockingbird. My school has both the original and graphic novel versions. My Advanced class is reading the original while the graphic novel is perfect for my co-teach class.
Since we’re about two-thirds of the way through the book, we ran out of time for students to write a paper before the end of the semester. Last week, I had my Advanced class write a few paragraphs analyzing the unit’s essential question “How do words inspire change?” as it applies to “I Have a Dream” and one of the characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” For my co-teach, they just chose one of the texts to write about, and I gave them a frame work to structure their paragraph.
Even though I was overwhelmed about having classes again, I’ve really enjoyed having students again. It’s been nice building relationships and getting to know them.
I can’t believe this is final’s week! First semester always flies by!
Are you superstitious? I am…about the number 13! That being said…fun fact: this is my 1,113th post that I’ve shared.
How was your week? We’ve had a really good full week, but I’m definitely ready for the weekend.
As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.
Here are some favorites from the week.
Taking it back to last weekend, I went with Hadley to Sevierville, TN for the team’s volleyball tournament.
Usually, the varsity team goes to Chicago in October, but this year, the boosters and coaches decided to pay for all three teams to go to this tournament. The girls left from school on Friday morning, rode a charter bus, received goody bags, and had all their meals paid for….and…bonus – they stayed at The Wilderness at the Smokies Lodge which has an indoor water park.
It was so fun to watch all three teams all weekend. The freshmen team played in the JV tournament, and had three games Friday night. We didn’t get back to the hotel until around 10:30. They won all three games.
Since the girls won all their games, they didn’t have to be up super early as their first game wasn’t until 11:00. They won their first game that morning which was the last pool play game. They grabbed some lunch, and played a couple of hours later. Since they were 4-0, they made it to the gold (best) bracket of the JV tournament. Unfortunately, they lost the first tournament game in three sets…and the last set’s score was 14-16! It was a nail biter.
They played their hearts out and ended up 6th/22 teams in the gold bracket.
We made our way back to the hotel, and the girls had time at the water park, hanging out in their rooms, and playing games in the arcade. They had a team dinner and ran around a bit more until time for bed.
The moms almost didn’t know what to do with ourselves since we didn’t have to be in charge of our daughters. haha
Another mom and I rode one of the water slides, and then we all met another friend at the roof top bar for a drink.
We had dinner and then went back to the room for a bit. That night, we hung out by the fire and enjoyed a glass of wine.
The next morning, we left and the girls traveled home on the coach bus. I got home and had a couple of hours to get chores and errands finished before picking Hadley up.
They had such a great time, and I was glad to be able to see her games and have some downtime.
Once we got started with the week, we got the proofs for their school pictures.
I swear, it costs an arm and a leg to purchase photos. I prefer the download option because then I can order picture sizes that I want. Anyway, I think they turned out great.
One day at school, two students came up to me with these cute signs. Now, of course, they were buttering me up to let them switch seats and sit by one another. haha!
I still appreciated the effort!!
I haven’t been to Trader Joe’s in a couple of weeks, but last time I was there, I picked up these “Apple Blossoms.” I finally had one this week with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top…they are so delish!
What are your weekend plans? For once, we don’t have much on tap! I hope to put out my fall decorations. If I don’t get to it this weekend, then I don’t know when I will.
As the school year is under way and a little different for me this year, I’m sharing my schedule for the year.
Amy shared her schedule last week, and I always enjoy seeing other teachers’ schedules, routines, and lessons.
My school’s hours are 8:25-3:15. We are to be in our classroom by 7:55, and we can leave by 3:25.
I’ve been in this district for eight years, and this time frame works for me. I don’t have to start my day too early, but I can also get to a 3:45 or 4:00 appointment if I have one. At my previous school, I had to be there by 8:25 (but I lived 30 minutes away), and school was out at 3:50 (and we had to stay until 4:05). It was usually 5:00 before I got home after staying for a bit after school, driving the 30 minutes and then picking up my kids).
Anyway, I appreciate the 8:00-3:30 schedule.
My Schedule:
Here is my schedule for the year:
1st hour – co-teach – English 1. This means I have a smaller class of around twenty and half of them have IEPs (individual education plans). My co-teacher is a special education teacher who helps me provide those students their accommodations. Ironically, this is my first time in 23 years having a co-teach class. So far, I’m really enjoying it!
2nd hour – MTSS (multi-tiered system of support). The past few years, my whole day was MTSS. This is where I help in other English teachers’ classrooms, work with small group or individual students. Tier 1 instruction is what happens in the classroom. Tiers 2 and 3 are the help that I provide re-teaching and providing more direct instruction with smaller groups.
Hall duty – After second hour, I head to my designated spot in the building and then have “tardy cart” duty. After the bell rings, I scan student IDs and print out a tardy slip to class.
3rd hour – Planning (The past few years, with the MTSS hours, I didn’t have a designated planning period. I’m happy to have a scheduled time to plan, prep, and grade)
Advisory – Advisory is 30 minutes long, and I share an Advisory with another teacher. He’s the math version of me with co-teach Algebra 1 classes and then a couple of MTSS hours. In Advisory, we cover financial literacy, social emotional learning and other odds and ends.
4th -This is my other MTSS hour. This is also a common hour I have with other MTSS teachers, so we can meet, look at data, plan small groups and more. We also have lunch during 4th hour.
5th – Advanced English 1. I teach the same curriculum as with my co-teach classes, but in a more rigorous way and we usually move at a quicker pace. This is my biggest class with 30 students. (This is the class I have quite a few of my kids’ friends in it…so far, that’s only a little bit weird! haha)
6th- co-teach – English 1 – same as my 1st hour and with the same co-teacher.
The Kids:
The kids have had a great first few days of school. They’ve navigated their schedule, the lunchroom and the halls with 2,000 students with great success.
Our school has six classes, plus Advisory. So, freshmen take four core classes and then have two electives.
This year:
They are both taking Advanced English 1 (they are in the same class again this year), Advanced Biology and Government.
Hadley is taking Spanish 1 and Life Essentials as her electives.
Hayden is taking Spanish 2 and Weight Management as his electives.
For math, Hayden is in Algebra 1 and Hadley is taking Advanced Geometry.
I’ve seen them a couple of times in the hall and love hearing, “Hi, Hadley’s (or Hayden’s) mom!” when I see their friends out and about too.
I’m grateful we’ve all had a great start to the school year.
Well, we made it to the end of the first week of school! The first morning was easy breezy (but filled with excitement and nerves), but then I forgot to set my alarm Wednesday night. Yesterday morning, Travis and I both woke up at 7:00…and I am supposed to leave for school at 7:30. I was in a mad dash to get out the door, but I made it in time. That being said, it just sets my whole day off in the wrong direction when I don’t get to ease into the day. I felt “off” and frazzled all day!
Anyway, as always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.
Today’s favorites include back to school pics and a few fun things the kids did before going back to school on Wednesday.
Open House was a great success on Monday night. I met about fifteen students, and enjoyed the evening at school.
Since I have a few classes this year, I did have to set up my room a bit differently, but I think it’s good to go for the year.
At the end of Open House, Hadley came to my room after volleyball practice, and then we went home and picked up Travis and Hayden. We went to IHOP for our “back to school breakfast.” Through the years, I’ve tried to make such a big deal about going back to school in order to get the kids excited (myself, too) about going back to school.
I loved the back to school breakfasts in elementary and then the back to school “brinner” in middle school, but I was ok with throwing this “curve ball” and suggesting IHOP. The kids ask to go there all the time, and we don’t go often, so I thought it would be a good decision for dinner.
It was just us and one other lady in the restaurant. Who can beat that?
I got the French toast, and it was delicious.
The kids had one more day to enjoy summer on Tuesday. Hadley slept until noon, Hayden had early cross country practice, and then they just hung out most of the day.
Wednesday morning we were all up and at ’em pretty early. They let me snap their pics, per tradition, before I left. If they can catch a ride with a friend, they gain an extra thirty minutes, so I understand if they don’t want to ride with me. (I’m sure they will some mornings). So, Hadley has been riding with a friend, and Travis has dropped Hayden off. The bus is an option, but it leaves pretty early, and I’m sure Hadley will avoid it at all costs! 😉
The morning light was hitting just right!
My freshmen:
One more for good measure!
…well, one more with mom too. Year 23 sure looks different for me!
Truly, so far the best part of the past two days, besides meeting my students, has been seeing my own kids enter my classroom at the end of the day. They are mostly tired and in need of a snack, but I love ending my school day seeing them (and giving them a ride home)!
End of summer fun:
Hadley has had such a wonderful Young Life leader during her middle school years. The leader’s name is also Hadley, and she organized a back to school send off for this great group of girls! A few of them are headed to another school, but most of them are at school with Hadley. That being said, the leader stays with the next group of middle school girls. I know they will still see her, and she’s made quite the impact on them.
Meanwhile…Hayden and friends went to Kings Island and rode all the rides.
On Saturday morning, Hayden ran his first high school race. It was just a 5k fundraiser for the cross country team, but he ran a great race!
Favorite Kid Quote(s):
It’s been a bit since I’ve shared a favorite kid quote, and both kids said something funny this week:
On Saturday, Travis and Hayden went to Louisville for the afternoon. As Hayden told me goodbye, he hugged me and said, “Maybe you can go to the spa and get your toes done.” 😂
Not sure where that came from!
Then, Tuesday night, Hadley caught me with a few tears and asked what was wrong. I said I couldn’t believe they were going to high school, and without missing a beat, she said, “Girl, I can’t believe it either.” haha!
Favorite Mom Meme:
Homer is always happy to see me!
Weekly Recap:
It was hard finding a blogging groove this week with all the back to school things, but I did write a couple of posts:
Well, first on my agenda is to not set an alarm for Saturday and sleep in a bit. We are going to the Reds/Royals game in Cinci, and I’m looking forward to that.
I hope to have one more “Summer Sunday” post on Sunday sharing the highlights over our summer.
Since the start of the school year has been a bit different the past couple of years, I thought it would be fun to capture what I’ve been up to as a teacher leading up to the first day of school. I’m always curious what others do at work and how they spend their time.
*Warning* this post did turn into more of a *long* diary of sorts! The English teacher in me loves to write.
Anyway…summer break is over…
To start the school year, we have professional development. We are required to get 24 hours of PD in a school year.
Before 2022, we always met with our departments for six hours one day the week before school started. Then, the Monday before school starts, we have six hours of professional development at school. The Tuesday before students arrive, we have a long faculty meeting and a couple of hours to work in our rooms. That meant, we had to do the other twelve hours of the required 24 hours of PD on our own either in the summer or throughout the year which is my preferred method.
I like choosing my PD in the summer rather than being told which sessions I have to go to. Also, we’ve moved to coming in seven school days before the students to get contract days in as well as 24 hours of PD. Some of this shift did happen because a couple of years ago, we moved to a week long fall break, so that’s three days teachers have to now work ahead of time. Of course, I understand having to work our contract days, but I would prefer for those to be sprinkled in throughout the year. I feel like I lose a week of summer now.
So – here’s how I’ve spent the past seven school days…before the students have arrived:
Monday, August 5th:
We did six hours of professional development at my school. Typically, we’re in groups, and we rotate through six hours of sessions. We do get an hour for lunch. This year, the English department is getting new textbooks, so instead of rotating through sessions in the morning, we met as a department with two district instructional coaches who led us through the new curriculum. We did end up having about an hour in our PLCs (professional learning communities) to start planning. I met with my English 1 people to map out unit 1.
After an hour for lunch, we did rotate through three sessions in the afternoon. We were finished at 3:30. I did go work in my room for about thirty minutes, and then left at 4:00 to go home.
Tuesday, August 6th:
We were supposed to have a convocation at Rupp Arena, but a couple of weeks ago we found out that it was cancelled.
A little back story – We had a convocation a couple of years ago, and that’s not my favorite way to start the year. We had to meet at school, ride buses to Rupp, and sit through the three hour convocation. Then, we got back on the buses, ate lunch at school, and had three hours of PD at school.
Last year, they did three days of district PD at the Central Bank Convention Center which is connected to Rupp. I will spare you the details, but it came with a lot of issues too. Parking was a disaster, sessions were over-crowded, and more.
Anyway, because of the previous two years when we wished we’d just been given a work day in our classrooms, teachers in our district have been up in arms after seeing this convocation on the calendar. Eventually, the news did a report after an open records request, and the findings included the fact that the district was spending over $25,000 on the speaker and it also costs to rent Rupp. The district instead gave us a work day in our rooms. (Sorry – that was a long back story)
So, last Tuesday, we worked in our rooms from 8:30-3:30. With no meetings scheduled, it was amazing! I got my room in order and started working on things like my syllabus. I also had time to meet with the district technology person for help with Canvas which is our platform for assigning work.
And…our principals grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, and teachers brought sides and dessert. We all got to hang out for an hour during lunch. It was a really thoughtful idea, and it was a great work day.
*Look at the charcuterie board our foods teacher made:
So cute!
We do still have to make up six hours of professional development since we had a work day instead of PD. Our admin has planned to add PD to our faculty meetings throughout the year.
Wednesday, August 7th:
This day was another professional development day at school. BUT…our school was being used as a “hub” for professional development sessions for para educators in our district. So, our admin had to “pivot” and we had three different PD sessions via Zoom. It felt like 2020 all over again, but I appreciated being at home in the morning.
Then, after lunch, we were to find somewhere to meet with our PLCs to work for three hours. My group met at the public library from 1:00-4:00. We pretty much finished planning out all of unit 1 which was a huge accomplishment.
Thursday, August 8th:
This was another professional development day, and this time, everyone in the district went to different hubs. We signed up for sessions online at our assigned hub. All elementary teachers went to one school, middle school to another, and so on. Some hubs were even more specific for intervention or world language. I did go to the intervention hub. We had five sessions with an hour and a half for lunch in the middle of the day. I actually got a lot out of this day, and now have 18 of the 24 hours that are required for the year.
Once I got home, I took the kids and a couple of their friends to school to walk their schedules. It was neat seeing them find their way.
Friday, August 9th:
We had a work day in our classrooms with no meetings scheduled. Yay!
It was the new teacher orientation in the morning, and I had to stop by at my assigned time to share about academic resources and intervention opportunities for students.
Then, I used the rest of the day to continue working on curriculum, figuring out Canvas, printing things like our bell schedule and phone list. I also just continued to get organized and get a handle on my emails. I had almost 100 unread…& now I’m down to five. 😂
Monday, August 12th:
We always have Open House after Labor Day, but this year we have a new principal this year. He scheduled Open House for last night. Since we were going to be at school until 7:30, he scheduled our day to start at 11! So, we arrived at school, had catered lunch, and then had a faculty meeting that lasted a couple of hours. The rest of the time, we could work in our room, and then Open House was from 5:30-7:30. I really liked having our day structured like this, and I was able to meet quite a few students last night.
Tuesday, August 13th:
Today, is one more work day in our rooms. I am meeting with my PLC for an hour just to keep working on lessons for the new units using our new textbooks, and then I’m meeting with my co-teacher to take a look at what we will have the students work on this week, I definitely plan on leaving by 3:30, and soaking in the last little bit of free time before school starts tomorrow!
We always start the school year on a Wednesday which means we have a three day week with students. Then, the following week, the students don’t have school on Friday, so it’s a four day week. I always think this is such a great way to ease into the school year.
We did find out that we can use “flex” time on that Friday which means as long as we fill out the form with what we work on outside of our contract hours, we can stay home that day. Usually we don’t have that option, so I appreciate that opportunity.
I will say with working all these days before the students arrive, I’m always ready for the students to walk through the door!
This year will look different for me. I will have a few classes this year which I haven’t had since 2019. I have two co-teach classes, one advanced class, and then two hours of intervention. I’m excited to have students again, but it will be interesting to navigate as I have some of my kids’ friends in my classes!
With tomorrow being the first day of school, I doubt I will have time for a blog post. Hopefully, I will be back on Thursday.
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