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Why so long?

I have been on summer break for 2 weeks now, and without a post since February!  What happened? All I can say is, do not wait for the perfect time.  My plan was to write again over our spring break in March, when our campus was devastated by the sudden death of one of our Assistant Principals.  A coronary aneurysm burst the Friday we started spring break, and he died the next Friday.  He put up a valiant fight.  He surprised his doctors, his family, but in the end the damage was too great and he could not go on.  I could not write, and it is still hard.  I cannot imagine what it has been like for his family. Once, year 2 in my career (over 30 years ago), a coworker told me to take time when I needed to take it, that I (nor anyone for that matter) was not that singularly important to the running of the school.  She had me imagine a bucket of water, put my fist in, pull it out, and tell her about the hole that remained.  Of course, there is none.  The idea was to take time when neede
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Teacher or Facilitator

One of the things that has really changed for me this year is that each day,  after teaching one class of Spanish 1 and 2, I am no longer in charge of the educational objectives or work for my students.  I am a Transition and KAPE teacher/facilitator. What is that? It is a long story.  I worked all last week on this post, only to reread it and find it nothing more than a complaint, and that is not my intention!  So, I saved it, I may want to revisit it, but this is going to be different. Transition is a program where I facilitate the reintegration of students into the "regular" Discipline Alternative Education Program (DAEP) when they have been assigned a second time in a single school year.  I am responsible for ensuring that they are working on their classwork, while also giving them some new skills so that they do not return again.  The program is everything I could have imagined, but my time has been needed elsewhere as well, so I feel like I have let my students do
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Back in the Swing

It's hard to write.  Voices in my head (not the crazy ones) keep telling me to wait a day, who reads anyway.  And besides, you reflect just fine on your own .... humm. A few years ago, the great state of Texas decided that all students in alternative placements must keep their regular campus classes.  With that in mind, I added Spanish to my certifications.  When it all took effect it was hard to offer, let's say, all the math classes with a staff of 3 HS math teachers for about 16 different math classes in an alternative setting.  The Adaptive Behavior Center (ABC) housed with my campus also started to offer Spanish, and needed a Spanish teacher.  I started teaching a class period of Spanish to students with emotional/behavioral disorders 4 years ago along with middle and high school math classes AND Spanish at the alternative/discipline school.  Last year, my part of the DAEP was phased out, but I continued teaching Spanish to the students at the ABC and math at the alterna
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THE TROUBLE WITH FRUSTRATION

It has been 11 months since my last post.  Last year I really wanted to blog weekly:  let other educators know that they are not alone, that others have the same frustrations, and the same joys.  Even more, that out of those frustrations may COME joy.  It did not happen. I don't know.  Maybe I felt intimidated when I started reading the blogs of others, good blogs, with important things to say, and started to tell myself, "You are not that good.  Your message is not that important." Maybe more than intimidated, I just wanted to be perfect, like others are perfect, and say the exact right thing in the exact right way to make ALL my readers go WOW! Maybe I was afraid no one would read, so why bother. Then I went to a great EdCamp, and a session about blogging and podcasts and I remembered my why! (Oh, if you get a chance, find an EdCamp!  It could change your Teacher life!)  I blog to reflect for myself on what is and is not working.  I blog to allow other to see
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Doing What I Know, And Then Some

As a learner, learning in and of itself gave me joy.  I admit, I do not understand how it could not!  But, I do understand that, at least for the majority of the students that I see each year, it does not. Well, not at least the learning in the way it comes from the curriculum. SmartBoard presentations, Power Points or Slide presentations, even with bells and whistles, is just the same old same old, with noise. I know that challenge works, my students tell me.  But not the challenge of another long math problem out of context.  In some ways, my students are very savvy.  They want to know why, like we all do, and they want to SEE it, in action, in some real world application where they can work together to come up with an answer. And yes, they would LOVE for me to do the work, at the beginning. I taught a group of students how to juggle this year.  Some did not quite get it, and could only toss and catch two scarves.  Marvelous!  They did not know they could do that before the
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Success, Failure, and Books

I started this year with an idea, an idea that learning was going to be fun.  Even bigger, learning MATH was going to be fun.  We built towers and houses, even a website and a game.  Students asked questions, worked together, shared ideas, laughed, and learned math.  We used math vocabulary to describe what we were doing, and my students had fun.  It was first semester. Second semester came, and with it, major changes.  I had to let go of some content and embrace a different paradigm for DAEP school.  I now supervise independent learning for some students, while teaching others.  I may have less content, but I have more record keeping (have I mentioned that I am not very good at record keeping?)  My days seem longer and I have noticed that I have fallen into the trap of "direct teaching" for an entire class period.  This new group of students gives an appearance of not wanting to fall behind, but grades for the previous semester suggest many already have.  I have caved (for
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A WEEK IN REVIEW

A STEM activity and student hands.  Ok, it may not be a TRUE STEM activity, but he is building a house that he is designing.  We get to talk about math concepts like balance, parallel and perpendicular lines, slope and intercepts.  We get to build a relationship and rapport.  He gets to ask for help and I get to give it.  It is fun and afer 15-20 minutes he is ready for Algebra 1.  A once reluctant learner, he is open to instruction and willing to try.   We may be behind the curriculum, but he is ahead of himself in new understandings! A game for brain breaks.  I pull a category card and give each student 2 cards.  They pick their best fit and present it and someone else has to explain WHY it is a good fit.  We think outside of the box.  We put ourselves in someone else's place.  Eventually, we may laugh.  We come back ready to work on a challenging topic again.  This time with more energy. This week I experienced a bit of silence in my classes.  Not because I did not teach
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