Many Points

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...

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...

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...

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 ex...