Life Lesson Plans: Clothes for a Week?

That question mark is intentional!

I have been thinking recently about planning my clothing choices on Sundays like I plan my lessons for the week.  I am NOT a natural plan-ahead kind of gal, but I have a much stronger attachment to sleep than to spontaneity.
Too much of an attachment, in fact.
I work at a parochial school, so there are no official "rules" about my start time, but I do need to arrive before my kids come at 7:30.  My personal preferred start time is 6:50.

I tend to get up at 6:05.  Oops.

So this week, I am going to try picking out all 5 of my work outfits over the weekend, and eliminate 10 minutes of hemming and hawing each morning.

Tools to accomplish the task:
- A big back-of-door hanger to hold 5 outfits
- A weather-prediction app that is fairly reliable
- Clean laundry

Lucky me, I have all three of those (thanks Mom, free app from iTunes, and Mr. H, respectively) so I'm ready!  Wish me luck!

About Bulletin Boards

I bet you're all terribly intrigued.  =)

Bulletin boards are both a great love of mine, and a great pain.  They are the one part of my prep that is making large art that I get to try at (not a whipped-together sample of an art project for my kids) but they are so large and I get so wrapped up that they usualy take me an entire Saturday.  Or an entire night, from after school until 8 pm.

I have one simple tip I learned from the 2nd grade teacher at my school (who is also an art fanatic!)
We cover the board with large backing paper (like one would anyway...), then either
1) draw the entire bulletin board directly onto the paper   or
2) GLUE the bullein board pieces onto the large paper.   or
3) Some combination of those.

This is slightly more time-consuming than stapling each piece up quickly, and does not work if you are the sort who keeps and re-uses letters or borders.  But I tend to make all of the pieces of my bulletin boards by hand, so there is nothing I need to particularly re-use.

When the bulletin board needs to be changed, I simply remove the staples from the large paper, take down the whole board in one piece, and roll it up to store in a labeled poster tube.  The next time I want that bulletin board (I intend to rotate them every couple of years) I can just unfurl it and staple it back up in 30 seconds.

This method reduces take-down time with fewer staples to pull and pieces to stack, and, after 2 or 3 years of bulletin board making, should prevent me from needing to make bulletin boards anymore!

Have you had any great bulletin board revelations?

Busy Work vs. Self-Guided Learning

I'm not a fan of "busy work."
I hope that most teachers who are up-to-date on best practce are not, as well.

I used to think "busy work" was any time a teacher was sitting down and students were filling in worksheets and nobody was speaking or making anything.  Then I gave my students a 26-page English grammar packet and felt very disturbed about myself for a while.
The more I think about that packet, the more I am convinced there is such a thing as self-guided learning that can be achieved through worksheets.  This unit of grammar is filled with review - I have eighth graders learning (yet again) what to capitalize, how to use commas, how to abbreviate, etc.  I know they have had this at least 4 years in a row, and at some point standing at the board telling them <i>yet again</i> would only serve to make them hate grammar.

So I chose all of the most interesting, varied-level activities from all of my reproducable workbooks, put them in order according to the grammar book, and inserted a few helpful examples or "rules" before each new topic.  I ran them off, showed my kids where to find help (i.e. the grammar book and which pages, the dictionary for abbreviations, etc.)  and set them to it.

They've been working away for two days now, rediscovering the "rules" on their own, finding any help they need, and working at their own pace.  Until next Friday.

What are your thoughts on worksheets as self-guided learning rather than "busy work?"

"Getting" Poetry

I have been having a great time with my kids lately working on a poetry unit.  This is technically happening in Literature class, but my teaching counterpart (henceforth Mr. S!) does not teach poem writing in his English course, so we are reading AND writing poems.

My kids have really been getting into poems!  I'm not sure they realize it, but they are actually feeling some emotional connection with many of the poems, which is amazing me every day.  Some of them are really turning out fantastic poems, themselves, as well.

They had a STRONG response to this poem today.

Traveling through the Dark – William Stafford

Traveling through the dark I found a deer

dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.

It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:

that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car  

and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;  

she had stiffened already, almost cold.

I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—

her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,  

alive, still, never to be born.

Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;  

under the hood purred the steady engine.

I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;  

around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—,  

then pushed her over the edge into the river.

We were able to talk about the parallalels between the beginning and the end, as well as the imagery and how it led to an emotional tone. 

I can't seem to gush enough about some of my kids' poems!  I may add some examples to the blog after tomorrow - I should really ask their permission to publish their poetry online.



As good a day as any

This is as good a day as any to start a blog!
This blog is partially for you, and partially for me.  (I'm a teacher; in order to eat and sleep, I need to multitask.)
For you:  Advice.  Inspiration.  Laughs.
For me:  Reflection.  Creativity.  Laughs.
Onward!