First Currently of 2015!

Well, it's technically still 2014 here, but close enough. Linking up with Farley.

Listening...Our obsession over the past week has been House of Cards. Amazing! We are halfway through season 2 with plans to finish it tonight.

Loving...My husband got me a beautiful right hand ring for Christmas that I'm in love with.

Thinking....2014 wasn't that awesome of a year; I hope 2015 is better.

Wanting...Today was bitterly cold, but I'm hoping it makes it to the thirties tomorrow so I can hike.

Needing...Five days until school starts again. So not ready, but I need to get back in that frame of mind.

Yes: I plan to hike at least once a week in 2015. Yes, even in the winter.

Maybe: As long as vacation time can work out for my husband and my parents (who dog-sit), we hope to plan a trip to northern MI this summer.

I wish: My dream trip right now is actually a cruise to Alaska. Sadly, not in the budget.

I hope you all have a fantastic start to 2015!

14 in '14

This is a fun link-up! And most likely, my last post of 2014. Linking up with A Teeny Tiny Teacher, et.al. for this one.

14. Favorite Quote

I have always loved this quote.

13. Favorite article of clothing

This year I succumbed to the blanket scarf trend and loved it!

12. Favorite movie you watched

Honestly, it may be the movie I just saw last night. I read the book this year, too, and loved it. The whole journey of this woman just really spoke to me. We can find ourselves by losing ourselves in nature.

11. Favorite TV series

I have many, but one I really got into this year was Homeland, so I'll go with that.

10. Favorite restaurant

We ate at Frontera Grill in Chicago for the first time ever this year (a Rick Bayless restaurant) and it was fantastic.

9. Favorite new thing that you tried

Not totally new, but I acquired a renewed love for hiking after our trip to the Smokies and now we go almost every weekend.

8. Favorite gift you received

Tough question. Probably money for our new leather sofa from my parents. I love this thing.

7. Favorite thing you've pinned

It's always clothes:

This is from the blog Franish.

6. Favorite blog post

I found this blog from Secondary Solutions about plagiarism to be helpful and informative.

5. Favorite accomplishment

Doing all the landscaping in our front yard by ourselves.

4. Favorite photo

The view from Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Smoky Mountain National Park

3. Favorite memory

Probably our aforementioned trip to the Smokies.

2. 2015 Goal

Save more money!

1. One little word

Wanderlust

Christmas Questionnaire

I thought it would be fun to link up for a little Christmas Questionnaire this year.

1. When do you decorate?

We put our tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving this year, but waited to do the outdoor decorations until the weekend after. My husband has to work Black Friday and the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so it's hard to do all decorations that weekend. Here's our tree:

2 Elf or no elf?

No elf; I don't have kids and I teach high school, so I really have no use for one.

3. Christmas cookies or no baking for you?

I think we're baking cookies next weekend--likely just some sugar cookies that we decorate with icing and sprinkles. What I REALLY love is when other people bake Christmas cookies and I eat them.

4. Favorite holiday tradition?

Ever since we've been married, my husband and I (and now our dog) pack up in the car Christmas Eve night with some coffee or hot cocoa and drive around listening to Christmas tunes while looking at the neighborhood lights all around our city.

5. Favorite Christmas movie?

Hard question, but I think it's gotta be:

6. Snow or no snow?

I don't mind a little snow on Christmas Day, but otherwise, no snow!

7. Favorite Christmas song?

("Christmas Eve Sarajevo" by TSO)

8. Favorite gifts to give and get?

On my list this year was a right hand ring from my husband, a Tory Burch purse, and gift cards for clothes.

I am horrible at buying for other people! And my husband reads here, so I don't want to spoil his gifts :)

December Currently

Wow! How is it already December? I think Thanksgiving helped November fly right by. Hopefully these next three weeks do the same :)

Linking up for this month's Currently.

Listening...Last month, I was listening to Songza too! But this time, it's the Christmas tunes I'm crankin'.

Loving...We put up all our outside and inside lights over the weekend. It looks so purty :)

Thinking...My husband is hard to buy for. Or should I say surprise. He ordered a few things himself that I am giving him as presents lol, but I also want to surprise him with at least one gift he isn't expecting.

Wanting....We have pretty much planned out our vacation for next summer, minus actually booking our lodging. We're headed up to Mackinac Island and the Traverse City area of MI, and I could not be more excited. I want it to be here nooooooow.

Needing...Our Christmas cards came in, and I have a bunch I need to address.

Giving....If you know me, you know animals are near and dear to my heart, so we always drop off a bunch of supplies around the holidays to the animal shelter where we got our dog. I hope I can make their stay at the shelter a little more comfy until they find their forever home.

Grading Student Sample Essays

Whoa--I'm actually writing a content-based blog post! I finally have a lazy Saturday morning with nothing planned (our scheduled vet visit got rescheduled, otherwise I would have had to be out the door at 730 this morning!). I feel a cold coming on (boo), and it's a cold, gray day. What I have to look forward to is grading a stack of essays I brought home.

But for now, there's coffee and sweats and Christmas music (shhhh....don't tell on me! I do wait until after Turkey Day to put up decorations).

I wanted to write briefly about something I've started doing primarily with my College English writing course, but that I hope to do with all classes when they write an essay going forward. 

Each year, I set aside some student essays that I could use as samples the following year. For us, it's even easier because we have access to our students' file on the network, so I can just go back in and print their essay off the computer, which I like best, because that way I can change the name and make it anonymous, rather than whiting it out on a hard copy.

I don't just find examples of "A" papers, but rather a variety of ability levels and grades. Before passing them out, I hand out the essay rubric I am using to grade the students' essays and we go over it and what it means to earn a certain score in a category. Then I pass out the anonymous student sample essays. Sometimes, the whole class gets the same one at a time; sometimes, I put them in groups and each group gets a different one. The key is, you DON'T tell them what grade the paper earned ahead of time.

Students (either alone or with partners) read and then analyze the essay. They "grade" it using the rubric you will use to grade their own essays. They come up with a final score, and then I typically have them write a brief paragraph explaining/defending the grade they assigned.

Here is what I have found after doing this probably 15+ times with different groups of kids: They can be BRUTAL graders! I have had student essays that earned a "B" for me failing some of my students' assessments! I usually ask them to sit in groups based on how they graded an essay and then each letter grade group defends their grade. Then I tell them what the essay earned for me and why and we talk about it.

I like doing this for a few reasons:
1) It lets them see MY thought process when assigning a grade to an essay, and they realize a lot of work actually goes into it.
2) They can see an actual student sample essay, rather than just the model essays we read in our textbook.
3) They can start to think critically about writing, pointing out strengths and weaknesses.
4) I always use this to segue into peer response. What usually happens in peer response, is that they don't want to give constructive criticism because they know the person, but they are not afraid to be honest when it's an anonymous essay. This has also made me consider doing anonymous peer review going forward. (Of course, I don't want them being brutally honest/harsh with peers, but too often the responses I see are "looks good" or the like).

It usually takes a couple class periods to do 2-3 student samples, and sometimes I assign it for homework if we're short on time. But I do feel like it helps students grasp what an "A" paper or "B" paper might look like, and they can better understand their own grades when they get papers back.

Do any of you do something similar in your classes? How so?

November Currently

Holy smokes, it's been a whole month since I posted last. Yikes :/ I need to be better about getting on here and writing; school has just been so hectic lately with week after week of essays to grade. Once one class is done, another class has essays coming in.

But for now, linking up with Farley for the Currently.

Listening...Songza is my new Pandora. I love it. It classifies music according to activities you are doing, moods you are in, etc. It's awesome. If you love Pandora, you should check out Songza.

Loving...We just got home from a weekend visiting family, and he is taking care of getting the stuff unloaded from the car, going to the store, etc., while I snuggle up on the couch in my sweats and play on my computer. He is awesome.

Thinking....It felt more like winter than fall this weekend with lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s. Too soon, winter. Too soon.

Wanting...Though the weekend was fun, it was busy, and I wish I had one more day to just lay around and do nothing before the work week starts again.

Needing...Whenever we take a weekend trip, I usually live out of my suitcase for an embarrassing amount of time. So, you know, I should probably unpack tonight.

Reading....Two things. I am re-reading Gatsby as I am about to start teaching it again. For fun, I'm reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, since I liked her other two books.

October Currently

October is one of my favorite months of the year! The temps drop, fall clothes come out, pumpkin everything is in store, and lots and lots of spooky movies are on TV.

This month's Currently.

Listening....I looooove Criminal Minds (and the new show, Stalker! So good). If you love creepy movies/TV/books, you should check them both out.

Loving...I love that I can wear my new fall boots, sweaters, and scarves finally.

Thinking...Homecoming week is always completely exhausting and the kids are crazy. We are over halfway through! Just gotta keep it together for two more school days.

Wanting...I used to try and get a massage every 4 months. I haven't had one in a year and a half. It is such a stress reliever for me.

Needing...My parents are visiting this weekend, and the house is kind of a mess :/ Cleaning has been neglected in lieu of grading, lesson planning, and doing yard work.

Trick....OK, not a scary trick. A life hack kind of trick that probably everyone else figured out before me ha. Do you have a thousand different cords for all your devices, plugged in right next to each other? I could never keep them straight. So we got a $20 label maker from Target and made labels for each of our cords (Mrs. L cell phone, husband cell phone, Mrs. L Kindle, etc) and wrapped them around the cord. Now we never have to try three different cords to find the right one! And I have been able to use my label maker in all sorts of ways in my classroom, too!

A Peek at my Week {Sept 8-12}

I am linking up with Mrs. Laffin today for a Peek at my Week.

Why do the weekends have to go so much quicker than two days during the work week?

It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend weather-wise. It got cool enough I could wear my new boots and a scarf! My parents were in town to help out for our garage sale, and it was also my mom's birthday.

Today my husband and I went for a hike after they left, and it was gorgeous.

 

We are so lucky to have many awesome hiking trails right in our own town.

Then we took the pup for a walk with her new leash that matches her harness. She is one stylish dog.



But, it's time to think about the work week again. I have been really struggling to come up with content-based posts to write on here. I think part of it is I haven't been feeling the greatest with my horrible allergies as of late. I also am so busy and just trying to keep my head above water with planning, grading, and trying to get all my pre-test data recorded that I have no energy to sit down and blog at night about what's going on in my room. I will try to be better about writing content posts. Anything in particular you want to read about?

So this week my juniors are going to wrap up the Turn of the Century unit in American Lit. We read some Twain last week and this week we're reading some epitaphs from Spoon River Anthology, as well as the poem 'Richard Cory." We're going to work more on our annotating skills.

In College English, we are peer editing our first big essay, then during revision in the lab, they will get a chance to conference with me before turning in their essays. This means I have a bunch of essays coming in on Thurs that will need grading next weekend.

In non-school plans, the weather finally feels like fall, so we are cooking some crockpot meals and trying to get out hiking as much as possible. Pretty sure an apple orchard trip is in our future next weekend.

Hope you all have a great week!

September Currently

Linking up with Farley for the monthly currently!

  

Listening....Gotta catch up on the old DVR. Rookie Blue is one of my favorite summer shows, and we are watching the season finale. Excited for all my regular season shows to return soon.

Loving...My brother-in-law and future sister-in-law announced their engagement today! We are so excited for them. And I am extra excited to have another female in the family :)

Thinking....We are redoing half of our living room. We purchased a black leather sofa, new end tables, new coffee table, and new lamps. I'll post pictures once everything is delivered and the room is finished.

Wanting...Why is it NOW getting hot as Hades outside? Over 90 and 85% humidity Uh, no thanks. It's now September (in about 30 min). So, uh, move along summer weather.

Needing...We have a huge garage sale coming up on Saturday. We have tons of things to get put together and priced before then. Not sure how it will all get done.

3 Trips...This one was super hard for me. I am constantly filled with wanderlust and traveling is a passion of mine. These three locales are as different as can be, but three places I have to go before I die.

A Peek At My Week {First Week Back}

Linking up with A Peek at my Week for my first week back to school.

Alas, the kiddos come back tomorrow, and another school year begins. I think I am all ready to go, at least for the first few days.

I spent part of my Saturday night making these little signs for my window ledge. This is about as crafty as I get.

 

Since students can still switch classes through Wednesday, no one really jumps into content until after that. So the first couple days I spend going over procedures/the syllabus, and I have students fill in a chart as I go over rules/procedures so they can use it to study for my rules quiz. We also came up with a department plagiarism policy this year, since it has become a large issue, so I am introducing that, having students sign, and then doing a mini unit on plagiarism with some games I found.

The second half of the week, I will get into more specific content with my different classes. This semester I teach English III (American Lit), Senior Lit, and College English 101. I have taught all classes before, but we did totally revamp our ENG III curriculum, so it's pretty much like teaching a new class.

English III starts out with defining the American Dream and discussing students' definitions of what it is. In Senior Lit, we are jumping right into our first novel, Nineteen Minutes. LOVE this one and the students end up loving it, too. I re-read it every year and have read the whole book at least 8 times, but I love it more each time I read it. In College English, they are writing literacy stories and blogging this week.

So we're back to 5:30 AM wake-up calls,, 50 minute commutes, grading, planning, and not having a lot of free time for the next 9 months. Not sure if I'm ready, but ready or not, it starts tomorrow.

Classroom Pics

My husband and I (yes, I drag him along for this too!) spent FIVE HOURS working in my classroom today. And the A/C wasn't going because it was summer and the weekend so it was literally 80º in my room. And there were boxes everywhere and everything was in the wrong spot. PLUS I wanted to totally redo my bulletin boards and a bunch of other things this year. So we had our work cut off for us.

I took a few photos that probably turned out dimly lit and blurry, so I apologize, but it's all I have right now.

 

This is one half of my big bulletin board. All those "memes" I bought from Mrs. Orman's TpT store and they are awesome! Go get you some. I also have a few other ones sprinkled throughout my room. I hope my kids will get a kick out of them.

 

This is the second half of the bulletin board. I am trying something new this year. I'm going to put any handouts for absent students in the folder that corresponds with their hour. It is their responsibility to check the folder when they return AND still speak to me for explanations/things they missed that were not in handout form. But this makes my life a little easier because if students are out for awhile, I will sometimes forget which handouts they didn't get, I might already have recycled my extras, etc.

 

This is the whole bulletin board zoomed out.

 

On the laminated looseleaf are the directions for my daily bell work. I think I might wrote a separate post on how I want to incorporate bell work this year. I also have my Office Space reminder that turning homework in on time would be great, again compliments of Mrs. Orman.

 

 

This is the homework turn in area. This is the first year I have separated it by hour and I think it'll be a lot easier. The back right tray label says "Make up and late work," as I've decided to separate that out from on-time work. And of course we have Beyonce reminding you, "If ya wanted a grade, ya shoulda put your name on it."

 This will be my homework area. I found the paisley purple washi tape at Target and the arrow masking tape (around the date) at Office Max. Those little circles that you can see if you click on the pic to make it bigger are zebra magnets with the days of the week on them, next to which I will write what's due that day for my three classes, plus there is an area for important dates/events. This area is behind my desk.

I used the washi tape to "frame" all my bell schedules and grading scales on my closet this year. The sign below the clock is also from Mrs. Orman and says "What if I told you that lining up at the door doesn't make the bell ring faster." LOL I laugh to myself each time I see it.

So that's all I have. My room isn't as cute as all the elementary classrooms I see but it is cuter this year than in the past. I still have some posters to hang in the back of the room and all the textbooks to be handed out to students are lining my window ledge, so no pics of that side yet.

And now that my room is prettified, I guess I actually need to work on syllabi and lesson planning and the sort, huh?

August currently

Well, it's that time of year. Back to school time. And like every year, I absolutely dread it.

Linking up with Farley for this month's currently.

 

Most of my answers are self-explanatory. We got our backyard landscaping completed this week-yay!

This weekend, we are painting our concrete patio, so that looks to be a lot of work and hopefully it turns out! Other than that, I just need to start getting stuff ready for school to start in less than 2 weeks. Trying to enjoy every last drop of summer while I can.

Quick update

Well, I thought I'd hop on and do a quick post, since I realized I have only posted about twice this summer, and it has been a link-up both times.

The main reason I haven't posted is because I have done nothing for school so far. Zero. Zip. Nada. My summer has been busy, but it has been with other non-school things.

Teachers go back the 14th here, so I really only have two weeks left of summer and need to get my butt in gear. I did get some stuff done at the very end of this last school year--my syllabi are pretty much ready to go. I have all three classes mapped out and know what I want to do. It's just getting the nitty gritty details of the first week planned, copies made, etc. This has been the shortest summer I've had since I started teaching, and I wanted to truly take some time off from school, which I think we all need.

So what HAVE I been doing? Well, we finished our front yard landscaping!











We also went on our vacation to the Smoky Mountains. Oh my gosh-so gorgeous! Then 10+ hour car ride was all worth it. We had a private and secluded cabin that had this amazing view from all our windows.

We did so many fun things in the national park. Went on a few hikes, hiked up to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park, drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and also spent time enjoying our cabin and escaping from life for a bit.

Today we are getting some landscaping installed in our back yard. We have one more house project to complete before school time--paint our patio. We have an ugly concrete slab for a patio, and we plan to use Rustoleum Restore paint to liven it up a bit. Hopefully we get that done this weekend.

Next week, I have a couple meetings for work. I probably need to go into my classroom and get things straightened up for the new year and start buckling down and getting back into school mode. But for now, I'm going to go relax with some coffee and my dog :)

July Currently

Linking up with Farley.

 

Listening....It'll be the last hot day this week! Tomorrow the high is only 70. Wahoo!

Loving...The Husband and I have been redoing all our front landscaping ourselves. Take a peek at a couple before/afters.

We still have the whole area in front of our house to do this week.



Thinking....We leave for TN in six days, so I need to make a packing list and get moving.

Wanting...My dog is at my parents' house because we had a ton of work done at the house yesterday. I can't wait to see her sweet little face today!

Needing...To clean. I always need to clean.

4th plans....Working on the front landscaping and then having a low-key night at home, since my pup is scared of fireworks!

Have a great holiday weekend and a happy July!

June Currently

Well this is the first year I've still been in school in June. Stupid snow days. But only FOUR MORE DAYS.

1. I love Pandora and this is my new favorite station. Perfect summer music.

2. Like I said, I wish I was already on summer break, but four more days ain't too shabby.

3. Yesterday we went to a wine and beer fest all day. FUN. But hot. Even though I parked myself under a shade tree, I obviously still got some UV rays because my upper arms are super burned today :( Yikes.

4. I have a ton of cute maxi dresses that I can wear to work or on weekends, but now I'm on the hunt for some shorter, more casual sundresses I can just throw on to beat the heat in 100 degree weather that still make me look put together.

5. We had grand plans to deep clean the house today. But then the dog needed a walk, we HAD to go out for brunch, I wanted to run to Target....yeah. House still hasn't been cleaned.

6. Last one is pretty self-explanatory and I wrote a more detailed summer bucket list last week. VERY excited for it to almost be summer.

Top 10 Things I Want To Do This Summer

Memorial Day weekend is always the unofficial start of summer. Unfortunately my summer break doesn't start for another 10 days this year because of all our snow days. Usually, I'm also off work by the time Memorial Day rolls around.

But nevertheless, it has been an absolutely gorgeous weekend here with lovely weather and we are visiting family this weekend. It has been a good time. And no work tomorrow!

So I am linking up with Mrs. Jump's class for her linky about the top ten things I want to do this summer.

 

1. Trip to Tennessee:  We are headed to the Smoky Mtns. in July, and I cannot wait! We're staying in a nice cabin in the mountains and have plenty of exploring already planned.

2. Projects around the house: We have some small (and bigger) projects in store, like landscaping, paining our fence, redecorating and possibly looking at new living room furniture.

3. Save money: Unfortunately summer is the time we seem to spend the most because I'm not working and have all the time in the world to shop, go out to eat, and do other activities that cost a lot of money. So we hope to put a lot in the bank this time instead.

4. See friends more: We want to make a conscious effort to hang out with our friends as much as we can and really enjoy time together.

5. Outdoor concerts: Our city has outside concerts by the river every weekend during the summer, and it's a favorite activity of ours. We hope to make it to many concerts this year.

6. Be more active: My husband and I are trying to do brisk walks around our neighborhood at least 4-5 times a week to get in a little better shape.

7. Read more: Summer is the season of reading for pleasure on my patio. I've already downloaded a few books on my Kindle I have yet to read.

7. Upload more to my TpT store: I've sold a lot of one of my products but only have about 6 products total. I really want to build it up this summer when I have more time.

8. Attend some professional development: There is already a workshop I plan to attend at the end of June, and I hope to get more knowledge on 1:1 programs, since we are going 1:1 next year.

9. Plan for next year: I always end up waiting until August (or late July) to think about next year's classes. I hope to work on them more throughout the summer instead of procrastinating it.

10. More quality time with my husband: I really should put this at #1. So often, at night or on weekends, we both sit in the same room not even talking: I'm reading, he's on the computer, etc. I want to make it a point to really BE together when we are together and do more fun things outside the house together, like going for hikes, trying new restaurants, etc.

May Currently

Wow, can't believe it is already May. Sure doesn't feel like it, what with our 45º weather and rain.

Linking up with Farley.

 

Listening....My husband is wonderful and ran to get me Starbucks this morning before work. It's so quiet in the house right now, except for the birds right outside my window.

Loving...Oh my gosh, such a long week! Even though my weekend is filled with grading, I'm glad it's the weekend.

Thinking....I have 40 essays to grade by next Thursday...because next Thurs, 40 more come in that have to be graded by that Monday. So yeah....my next 10 days will really suck.

Wanting...We got a glimpse of spring a couple weeks ago, but now it's crappy and cold again.

Needing....We're having a big garage sale May 17, and I have done exactly zero to prepare for it.

Surprise....I love Mrs. Orman's blog for secondary English ideas. She has a lot of neat lesson plans and good ideas. Check her out!

Conducting mock interviews with students

It's been awhile since I did a content-heavy post. It was a long first week back at work after Spring Break and then a whole week off for my father-in-law's death/funeral. I had a lot of catch-up to do last week, but I survived.

One of the things I did this past week was mock interviews with my English IV/Technical Writing students. There are a few ways to give students an interview experience in class, and I have done all three of these. It really depends on the resources you have available and how much time you want to spend/put into doing them.

1. Mock interviews with professionals from the area. This is my favorite, and in my opinion, is the most beneficial. I have gotten into contact with area professionals from all fields--preferably people who do interviewing and hiring as part of their job. I have gotten a manager from the bank, a worker from one of the area labor unions, a fire chief, librarian, the superintendent of our district, and many others to come in and actually conduct practice interviews with my students. I provide a list of questions they can ask, but they can, of course, ask their own.

The students each have about 7-8 minutes for their practice interview (I have about 6 professionals per class period). Students are asked to dress nicely that day, come with a copy of their resume, and take the mock interview seriously. Afterward, each interviewer fills out a quick survey on each student's interviewing skills.

I love doing it this way because it's as close to a real interview as you can get without actually interviewing for a job. I've even had a couple of the interviewers offer my students jobs they had open because they did so well! The downside to this method is that you obviously need to spend a lot of time calling people and finding those who would be willing and have time to do this. The nice thing is, once you've done it once, you can keep those same contacts for next year.

2. Another method is to interview students yourself at the front of the room and have their peers write down suggestions as they watch the mock interview. I set up two chairs at the front of the room and introduce myself, shake hands, etc as if it was a real interview. I keep it to 3-4 questions per student. This usually takes two class periods.

Students at their desk have a slip of paper with each student's name on it. They write down positives and suggestions during the mock interview, then pass them forward. I always read through them before giving them to the students to make sure nothing is inappropriate or mean. This way, a student gets 20+ pieces of constructive criticism from peers.

The plus to this method is that there isn't as much time and effort to planning it. The downside is that it isn't as authentic as having other people interview them. They are more comfortable with you as their teacher.

3. Finally, if you are short on time and just want to give them a quick glimpse at possible questions, I have used myinterviewsimulator.com before. It is free to use and requires no signing up.

Students should have ear buds or head phones while going through this website. They can click on different categories of questions and hear the computer ask them the questions, as well as show what some good responses to that question would look like. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a free service that allows students to type or speak responses and then give feedback. I think some college career centers have something like this, but you must be a student to use it.

This is obviously the least realistic option, but it is good for a one-day activity or for a class where you just want to give them a brief introduction to interviewing skills. If your class is doing a whole interviewing unit, I'd recommend options 1 or 2.

Have you conducted mock interviews with your classes? How did you do them?