A Day in my Life

I am linking up with Where the Wild Things Learn for a Day in my Life linky.

 

Mine is not as exciting or varied as an elementary teacher. As you can see, I teach the same thing a couple times a day.

We have to be there by 8; I usually stroll in around 7:30. I am most productive in the morning, and I love having first hour prep, so I can work from 7:30 to 9:10 with no interruptions (usually) or kids. It is marvelous.

Our periods are 50 min. long, which never seem long enough (I would love to teach block). I have the first lunch, which seems early, but I am starving by the time 11 rolls around. That's what happens when you eat breakfast at 6 AM!

After school, we have to hang around until 3:30. I sometimes stay longer. I use this time to make sure things are in order for the next day/tidy up and grade papers.

It's all in a day's work :)

 

A peek at my week {Jan 12-17}

I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin for a Peek at my Week.

Well I survived the first days back to work. I was so tired last night, I fell asleep on the couch around 10. On break I was staying up until 1 on the regular. 5:30 AM sure comes fast :/

I want to get back into some content-based posts once the semester gets more in full swing, but until then, just a quick peek at what's going on in my personal and school life this week.

Tomorrow we are meeting some friends for lunch at the winery. They have the BEST food and wine. And isn't it pretty? (Admittedly, it does not look this way in January. Womp womp).

But they have the absolute BEST homemade chili in a bread bowl and a raging fire to sit next to while drinking some vino and chatting. I am very excited. I'm also picking up a pair of boots I ordered two weeks ago because they weren't in my size. I hope they fit so I can wear them to school on Monday.

School-wise, we are kicking off our banned book project in English III. They are choosing a book to read this quarter that has been banned or challenged in the past. Then fourth quarter, we are reading Fahrenheit 451 and discussing government censorship, censorship in schools, and all that fun stuff. 

To cap it off, they'll have to write an argumentative essay arguing for or against banning the book they read third quarter. They just chose books yesterday and blogged about why they chose them.

Which leads me to something else--I am trying out a Weebly blog for all my classes this semester. Some classes have weekly blogs to post; others may be a little less frequent. But I am posting prompts related to what we're doing in class and having them respond to the prompt and to each other to get some online and out-of-class convos going on between students. So far, so good, but it's only been two days, so we'll see!

In College English, we're seeing if we can define what "good" writing is and covering some of the important basics quickly. I made up a game in Power Point called "Plagiarism or Not?" so we'll play that and then get started learning about how to write summaries of critical articles! Fun stuff!

Well, we are off to see Her tonight--that movie with Joaquin Phoenix where he basically falls in love with a Siri-like person. It looks kind of weird, but I love weird/off-beat/Indie movies, so I'm excited! Have a great rest of your weekend :)

Getting back to the grind

Well, our semester was supposed to begin yesterday, but we got two snow/cold weather days because of the horrible conditions here.

This is what it looked like on Sunday while it was blizzarding (I decided that can be a verb because I say so). I stayed warm inside with my coffee.

I am so glad they canceled because roads here are AWFUL, and I have to commute on country two-lane back roads. The wind chills also approached -45 in the morning. 45 BELOW ZERO. This is not real life, is it? I need spring.

What did I do over my break? A whole lot of relaxing, which was awesome.
I read 1.5 books on my brand new Kindle Paperwhite: I finished Where'd You Go, Bernadette? which was a fun and light-hearted read, and now I'm 30% done with Tell the Wolves I'm Home (and I am actually precisely 30% through because my Kindle tells you what percentage of the book you have read!)

My husband and I binge-watched the first two seasons of Homeland and now we're trying to find some place online that we can watch season 3.

I spent a few days at Barnes & Noble, drinking coffee and reading magazines/piddling around online.

I took down our indoor Christmas decorations (outdoor ones are still up because of the polar vortex that decided to visit this weekend).

I planned a trip to the Smoky Mountains for us this June! We haven't officially booked the cabin yet, becasue we have to make sure my husband can officially take that vacation week. But we found the one we want, and here's a picture of the awesomeness that is a secluded cabin in the Smokies:

Break has been awesome and exactly what I needed. But......we all have to go back to work sometime, am I right?


So that means I have to drag myself out of bed for the first time tomorrow at 5:30 AM, put on real clothes, actually do my make-up, and go be productive and actually do some work.

Being a grown-up is no fun sometimes.

My poor dog is going to be so sad because we have been buddies for the past two and a half weeks.

Because of the unexpected snow days, I had to re-finagle some of my plans this week, but that's OK. It's a lot easier to do when you haven't even started yet. We have semester-long classes, so I have mostly new students this semester and two classes I did not teach last semester. I have pretty much everything prepped for this week because I got it done before break; I just have to run some copies in the morning, which is why I LOVE having first hour prep!

Tomorrow is pretty much course overview day/talk about the syllabus, etc. Thursday I'm pre-testing in all my classes. So the real content doesn't get started until Friday. Then we are blessed with a weekend already!

Then next week is a four-day week with a half day inservice on Friday, then we are blessed with a 3.5 day weekend. So all in all, it should be a nice way of easing myself back into work mode.

How is the semester kicking off for all of you who have already gone back? Anyone else freezing like we are here?

January Currently

Happy 2014, everyone! We rang in the new year on the couch with some board games, cuddled up with our dog. Just the kind of low-key night I love.

I'm linking up with Farley for the January currently!

Listening...my dog is a great guard dog, but barks at everything! She has been my alarm clock over break.

Loving....I got a new Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas from my in-laws! I did have a Nook Tablet for awhile. I didn't like how it felt like I was staring at a computer screen, and the glare was so bad, that I could not read it on the beach on vacation last summer. So the Paperwhite it is, and I am loving how lightweight it is! I also got a blanket from Barnes & Noble that has book quotes on it and it is super soft.

Thinking....2013 was not a great year, and I am hoping 2014 brings us much more happiness and good times.

Wanting....They are forecasting 3-5" of snow for today. Frankly, I am over snow and winter weather once it's past Christmas. I am now ready for spring. K thanks.

Needing....Today the decorations start coming down. It is always a kind of sad day, but I am also looking forward to getting my house back and nice and clean.

Tradition....The last two years it's just been my husband and me for Christmas Eve/Day. On Christmas Eve night, we pack in the car (with the dog), bring coffee, listen to Christmas tunes and drive around the neighborhoods looking at all the Christmas lights. It is a favorite memory of mine.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours :)

Reindeer Roxie

Sorry it has been forever since I posted. The month of Dec. totally got away from me with prepping for the end of the semester plus buying Christmas gifts, etc.

My husband, dog and I spent Christmas just the three of us today and are visiting our families this weekend. Today consisted of lounging in our jammies and stuffing ourselves with delicious food. Right now, I am cuddled under a blanket, Roxie snoring next to me, while we re-watch the entire series of Dexter (or as far as we can get).

My Christmas break has been very relaxing so far, and I am getting a little stir crazy, so hopefully we don't have any more ice storms and I can get out of the house tomorrow.

I hope you and yours have a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Years.

Currently December

December is my second favorite month of the year, after October. The first semester is winding down, and everything is so magical and exciting leading up to the holidays.

So I am linking up with Farley for Currently December.

Listening: I am not personally a football fan. OK I hate it. But I decided to do some Interwebbing and read a book while my husband listens to the game. At least in an hour, I get to go see Catching Fire!

Loving: Today is sunny and 50º which is not normal Midwest December weather. It was so nice that we took Roxie for a long walk on the bike trail.

Thinking: I have a busy week coming up. Lots going on in my classes, a couple meetings, an SIP day and then a conference on Thursday about motivating students. I am excited to see what I come back with.

Wanting: I was saddened to realize last week that I lost my favorite sunglasses that I bought from the Coach Outlet store 5 years ago. And of course this was after Christmas lists had been distributed and purchased. I think I will get a cheaper stand-in pair for now.

Needing: I have to re-read (for the 4th time) the first four chapters of Gentlemen today, as well as chapters 4 and 5 of Gatsby for classes tomorrow.

Favorite tradition: I had many traditions with family growing up that I loved, even though I no longer do them now that I have my own little family. So I decided to list one of the traditions I have carried on into my adult life: On Christmas Eve evening, my husband I exchange one gift (and this year, Rox will get to open one up early too). It will probably go like this: "Hey, husband, I'd like to open up that new paisley scarf I know you got for me so I can wear it tomorrow. K Thanx."

Tried It Tuesday {Gatsby Party}

Holla for Thanksgiving break! So excited I have the rest of this week off, even if I do have some research papers to grade.

I have not done a Tried It Tuesday for awhile, so I decided to link up today.

As I've mentioned before, I am reading Gatsby with my juniors. We just finished chapter 3, which is the big party scene. Browsing TpT, I came across this awesome freebie to reenact that party scene AND work on textual evidence. Thanks to Hannah at Teach and Create for this great idea!

Each student receives a card with either a character name and quote or a description and quote. For instance, it may say "You are Jordan Baker" and give a quote that she said in that chapter. Or it might say "You know a fact about Gatsby" and state a fact from that chapter. Each student gets what I call a BINGO card with 12 squares that they need to fill in by mingling with guests at this party. So one box might say "Find Owl Eyes and ask him about Gatsby's library" and then you have to find the person who has the Owl Eyes card and record what they tell you.

It being the last day before break and all, I decided to turn it into a full-blown party. I gave a couple extra credit points if students brought refreshments. I went in with another teacher and bought a bunch of 1920s accessories that we wore, like fedoras, mustaches, bow ties, feather boas, etc. I stuck a picture of Leo on my door as Jay Gatsby and had him say, "Come on in, old sport," which my girls loved. I played the early jazz station on Pandora and we had ourselves a party!

I did take pics, but don't want to post their faces online. But they were having a great time! AND they actually all did the activity too and turned in their fully completed sheets by the end of class.

A couple of my classes were messier than others. I did have a lot of cleaning up to do, but that is expected when you throw a party with 30 teenagers. Overall, they handled it very well, and I would definitely do it again.