November Currently

I feel like, once November begins, the holiday season is officially underway! Starbucks already had holiday cups out yesterday :)

Linking up with Farley.

Currently October

Linking up for Currently with Farley

Currently September

Linking up with Farley!

Listening...My husband and I love this show. We are catching up on the DVR from last night.

Loving....We both have the entire 3-day weekend off, which rarely happens. He usually has to work either Saturday, Monday, or both. It's going to be SUPER hot here, but we still plan to hit up a local wine festival and take the pup hiking at a state park in the shade.

Thinking....Open House/Meet the Teacher night is tomorrow. It makes for a late night for me, especially since I commute to work.

Wanting...It was so gorgeous last week, but now the high is 94 again.

Needing...We have a wedding to attend next weekend, and I found a dress and shoes, but now I need jewelry!

My 3 goals are pretty self-explanatory :)

Start of the School Year

Well the 2015 school year is underway. I hope to blog more this year than last school year, but of course, I said that last year as well ha! And I hope to have more content-rich posts instead of only linking up for Currently once a month (which is actually right around the corner!)

Here is a pic of the back half of my classroom this year that I posted on Instagram and FB. I moved my desk to the back of the room instead of the front, since we went 1:1 and I want to be able to monitor what is on students' computers during study hall or when they are quietly working/writing and I don't need to be at the front of the room.

A lot of my friends commented on liking my purple walls lol. Our only choices were purple, gold, or white. We aren't allowed to paint them anything other than those, and gold seemed too bright for me, yet white was blah. So purple it is!

On my bulletin board, I typed up a bunch of job titles and how English skills were going to be necessary in those positions. I titled the board "English in the Real World."

To the right of the bulletin board are keyboard short cuts, like Ctrl+P for print and so forth. I printed them on pretty paper and took them to Kinko's to get laminated. Since all kids have laptops now, they hopefully will come in handy.

The posters around/behind my desk are mostly from Amazon, but a couple are from other sites like RedBubble. Thank you, Amazon Prime, for getting them here before school started!

So, since we all have devices, I decided to try out Google Classroom this year. It has been a change, but I am LOVING it so far. I find it pretty user-friendly on both my end and my students' end. The hardest thing for them has been getting used to using Google Drive instead of Microsoft Office and learning how to turn in assignments in Classroom. But all classes have turned in at least a couple assignments so far, and I hardly have any problems now. If Google Classroom is an option at your school and your kids have devices, I'd really suggest checking it out. I am no expert, by any means, but I can try and answer questions you've got. I just taught myself how to navigate it, with a little help from Google Help, as well as a friend who's a librarian and knows how to use it well.

Positives to using an LMS like Classroom:

1) Easy for days I have subs! I can post all my assignments and instructions online, and students can't claim they turned something in to the sub, who lost it. They submit directly online.

2) Less paper! No lines at the copy machine!

3) Students can easily get absent work when they are gone.

4) With Drive specifically--kids can share documents with each other, for instance to peer edit papers or what not.

5) I have found grading faster so far. Now, I will say, I plan on having them turn in major essays still in hard copy because I think I will prefer that, but for short assignments or writing samples, I have liked being able to type my comments instead of writing them.

I teach mainly seniors and am loving my sections so far. We've had some great discussions and all my classes are very well-behaved and respectful. Fingers crossed that it lasts! :)

August Currently

Holy cow! The first of the month snuck by me. I can't believe it's already the month I go back to school. Womp womp.

Linking up with Farley for this month's currently.

Most of mine are self-explanatory. On the squirt gun one--my husband and I decided to throw it back to our youth this summer and purchased some water guns at Toys 'R Us last month. We've been having water gun fights in our backyard when it's been particularly hot and sticky, like today. My dog loves playing too haha!

For my RAK, I think I'm going to try and get birthday cards/little goodies for the co-workers I'm closest to this year. I am friends with them on Facebook, so I can find out their birthdays and just drop a little something in their mailbox. I know I love getting birthday goodies at work!

July Currently!

Wow! I totally forgot July even began today. Where the heck is my summer vacation going?!

Link up with Farley!

Listening: It is cool enough today to have the windows open! I love hearing the sounds of my neighborhood in summer.

Loving: See above! I adore that it is only in the low 70s right now.

Thinking: I always get a little blue after July 4 because it means my summer is about half over. How did June go by so fast?

Wanting: We just got back from our vacation up north! It was incredible. I fell in love with Mackinac Island and the Leelanau Peninsula. A couple pics from our trip.

Mackinac Island

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

We hiked, we biked, we drank lots of wine and ate lots of good food, and I am sad it's over.

Needing: But now it's money-saving time. We have two weddings coming up for which we have to travel, plus house projects we need to do.

All star: I have always been the go-to paper editor. Obviously, now that I teach English, that is part of my job when grading essays. But even in college, girls on my floor would come to me and ask if I could edit their papers for them. I should have charged money!

Summer Vacation: Time for Relaxation, Work, or a Bit of Both?

Well it's been almost two full weeks of summer vacation so far, and hopefully most of you are done or at least wrapping up the year now, too.

I have spent my summer vacation thus far with a variety of activities: two work meetings, house projects, hiking as much as I can, spending time with my dog and planning my husband's 30th birthday party, which is Saturday.

I know some teachers who spend their entire summer (almost) doing work-related things and/or prepping for the next school year. I have never been one of those people.

Two summers, I did do our credit recovery/summer school program for the month of June to earn some extra money. There are also sometimes committee meetings or department meetings I have to attend. But I really try hard to make my summer as relaxing as possible.

It's always a frustrating time of year to be a teacher, I think. There are a lot of negative feelings from the public about teachers getting summers off. But on the other side of that coin, I think *some* teachers try to be martyrs about the summer thing, too, and boast about how their summer isn't really time off because all they do all summer long is work anyway.

So frankly, both sides of this issue annoy me. Here is how I typically address anyone in the first camp that are upset about teachers getting summers off:

You want summers off too? Go back to school and earn a teaching degree. Then you, too, can have summers off.

Having 2.5 months off every year is a perk of teaching. Most jobs have perks. For some corporate jobs, that may be use of a luxury company car, fancy parties, dinners out, year-end bonuses in the five figures or the ability to work from home all or part-time. Teaching does not have those perks, but we do get ample vacation time. Going into your career, you knew this would not be a perk of your job and were obviously OK with it if you followed that career choice. It is not my fault you did not choose the job that has summers off as a job perk.

To the teacher martyrs I say: Give it a rest. It is OK if you DON'T spend the entire summer working. Relax. Enjoy yourself. Spend some time with family and friends doing fun things. If working and prepping for next year make you happy and less stressed, great. But your argument will fall on deaf ears anyway, so don't do it to try and prove a point to people. 

I enjoy my summer guilt-free. I start prepping for work in early August and do attend a few work meetings if I have to, but I have every intention of relaxing, doing things I don't have time for from Sept-May and kicking up my feet. I don't feel one iota of guilt about that and neither should you.

So how do you typically spend your summers?