May 2013
17 posts
3 tags
Dear student from 2nd period,
When you’ve spent all six weeks not paying attention in class and not doing your assignments — in spite of all my warnings and re-directing, you’re already lucky that I accepted your late work. And when you turn in work that is 3 weeks late and incomplete, do not copy from your classmate, turn it in again, and expect me to re-grade it. It will not happen.
1 tag
31 Signs You've Been A Teacher Too Long →
Spit out your gum, please. Inside voices. IS THAT A CELL PHONE I SEE?!
Tornado Survivor Finds Dog During TV Interview →
Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD →
In the United States, at least 9% of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and are taking pharmaceutical medications. In France, the percentage of kids diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than .5%. How come the epidemic of ADHD—which has become firmly established in the United States—has almost completely passed over children in France?
Still need to pack:
Clothes — how did I accumulate all this clothes?
Kitchen — this will be a nightmare
Food in my pantry & fridge — some of them probably need to be thrown out
Appliances
My dog’s stuff
Random, miscellaneous junk
1 tag
Made quite a bit of progress with packing in the...
4 tags
Busy Weeks Ahead...
Now til next Friday:
Pack apartment
Transfer all services to new house
Donate/sell/throw away stuff
Start new graduate course
Grade a bunch of make-up work
Next Saturday:
Move in to new house
Unpack everything
Week after next:
Last week of school
Pack classroom
Finalize grades
Move classroom on Thursday
Teacher work day on Friday
Graduation on Saturday
It is official. I am teaching IB chemistry next...
3 tags
Just got the new dongle for my airslate today. Yay! My airslate works again! I can work problems away from the board again! Students beware. Miss H. can now monitor you by proximity and work on problems on the board at the same time.
1 tag
Tomes Away: Wishful thinking →
tomesaway:
If I found a magical lamp and a genie issued forth in a cloud of gauzy smoke and offered to grant me three educational wishes, the first thing I’d wish for is that parents and students (and teachers and administrators) would finally understand that
Grades learning.
The misconception that…
Couldn’t have said this better myself
1 tag
Jen Hatmaker - Dear Teachers Everywhere →
Jen Hatmaker
This is a much needed message at this time of the year.
The amount of work and energy you pour into your work and our children is so astonishing, it is a crime that you don’t all make 150K a year. Since you couldn’t possibly do it for the money, we can only assume you love your job and love our kids. Can you understand how much we appreciate you?
April 2013
11 posts
1 tag
1 month left
2 tags
I am so over this year. When is summer?
tomesaway asked: I know it's none of my business, but may I put in a plug for IB chemistry? I teach IB English and though it's a lot of work, it's totally worth it. I don't know how established your school's IB programme is, but it's an honor to be asked, and I hope you'll try it. Good luck!
Countdown to moving to new house = 4 weeks
I’m a little panicky — overwhelmed. The more I think about how much I have to move, the more I freak out. So I’m writing down my plans for this week — okay, tomorrow.
This week — tomorrow — I’m going to move some of the unneeded stuff from my bathroom and non-perishable food items from the pantry. While...
So I watched the Hallmark movie “Remember Sunday” tonight. I normally don’t watch these made-for-TV movies. Hallmark movies, in particular, are way too cheesy and sentimental, but I simply couldn’t help it with this one. Who could resist the combination of Alexis Bledel and Zachary Levi?
And I have to say it was very cute. This girl is satisfied.
I did not grade anything at all this weekend. I hope I don’t come to regret this.
2 tags
Fatigue
It’s been a long week, to say the least, and I’ve been more than a little stressed. One may say that this is just the time of the year when teachers burn out, but I am more stressed than I was at this time last year and the year before. This year, in general, has been particularly stressful for those of us who teach chemistry. I’m frustrated with my administration’s...
2 tags
So sick and tired of being sick!
It is the 4th time I’ve been sick this school year. I saw this one coming: my coworker next door started feeling sick on Wednesday and took a day off on Friday. I am determined not to take a day off for this, so I’m drowning myself in citrus and fluids right now. Crossing my fingers that I’ll be feeling okay tomorrow.
3 tags
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Texas Leads in Tests But Not in Education →
With the introduction of House Bill 5, I am hopeful that Texas education will take a step in the right direction. Our students deserve an education that is more than unrelenting testing. The bill has passed in the House, and it now has to pass in the Senate. Meanwhile, this article provides insights into why this bill (and other bills like it) needs to pass.
We have over-invested in testing (as...
March 2013
24 posts
Republicans Introduce Racist and Xenophobic... →
stillpptingit:
justinspoliticalcorner:
Republicans are continuing their minority outreach efforts this month by introducing a bill outlawing Spanish and other non-English languages from being used in federal documents.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), most recently in the headlines after attacking President Obama’s young daughters for going on vacation, introduced the English Language Unity Act in...
3 tags
Student: Miss H, did you know that sausage spelled backwards is Jesus?
Me: *puzzled look*... There's no J in sausage.
Student: Like if you say it.
Me: ......
1 tag
I have been asked by several coworkers this week if I want to teach IB chem next year. The current IB teacher doesn’t want to teach it after this year. My first response was a definite no: the workload is too much. And the current teacher does such a great job with the students that it’s a little intimidating to follow her. Yet, the more I think about it, the more I’m open to the...
3 tags
It is 11:30.
And I’m done prepping for the next four days — most of them. I’m going to bed.
2 tags
How are our children doing in Math? →
This is an interesting article. It brought up several points on why American students lag behind their peers from other countries, particularly Asian countries.
“The longer our children are in school, the further behind they fall from their counterparts in other nations,” announced Dr. Steven G. Feifer last week to a group of Temple University faculty and graduate students, as well as area...
3 tags
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edrethink: 10 Things We Need to Fight to Save in... →
edrethink:
Sometimes I get on a rant against homework or standardized testing or whatever it is that bothers me at the moment and I forget that there are things that I want to advocate for; things that I see slipping away in the midst of testing culture:
Social studies: When I visit elementary schools, I…
THIS!!! Anyone who cares about education or have a stake in it (which, by the way,...
1 tag
Joe/Joey/Procyon/Vulpecula/Feyn/your mum: One... →
procyonvulpecula:
Which I’ve seen a lot of elsewhere, too, but it’s especially bad on Tumblr: you guys are a fairly intellectual community. You can talk easily about politics and morality and philosophy and social issues and literature and art and even science, but a lot of you seem proud of mathematical…
I couldn’t have said this better myself. It frustrates me that, in our...
2 tags
I hate testing days.
Today was a testing day. I proctored the juniors during their English Language Arts test. The test took the entire school day to finish. After 2 hours, my mind had run through the million other things that I could be doing, and I reflected on how slow time was passing. By lunch time, I was dying of boredom. And by the end of the day, I was struggling to keep my eyes open.
Seriously, I could have...
