Status Report

Well, I hate to jinx myself, but I noticed I haven’t vented about my class in a few weeks. I’m going to take that as a sign that things are getting better. That, or else I’m getting used to them. Most days do seem to go okay lately, though there’s still at least one rough [...]

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Time Card 11/17 to 11/23

We started fall conferences this week, including our night conferences. (Each school stays open til 7:30 for evening conferences, and then we get to choose another day to leave at 1 p.m. It’s fair, though I don’t understand why we need five days of conferences. Seriously.)
Monday: 11H 10 – school, union meeting, copying grades onto [...]

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Time Card 11/10 to 11/16

Report cards are due soon so I spent a lot of time figuring grades.  Of course, it’s not as easy as it used to be because we don’t use letter grades, we use standards-based report cards.  That means you don’t get an A or a B, you get “grades” like what’s on the PSSA (Advanced, [...]

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Kid-Free Free Time

One of the reasons I became a teacher is because I like kids. But over the years, I find I have less and less tolerance for them outside of school. I guess after dealing with them all day at work, I don’t want misbehaving children infringing on my personal time. Some years are worse than [...]

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My ears are ringing

My ears have that steady bzzzzzzzzz noise going on like I just got home from a really loud party (like the wedding on Saturday).  Except that I wasn’t at a party, I was at school all day.  The only time there was any quiet was during the reading test, which they actually finished in 30 [...]

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Top 10 Germiest Jobs Revealed

Are we really surprised that teachers are NUMBER ONE on the list?
Read “The 10 Germiest Jobs in America: Is Yours on the List?” for more details!
Thanks for helping to prove my point why teachers deserve good health insurance!

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Time Card 11/3 to 11/9

I wrote four posts last week. I don’t really feel like saying any more here!
Monday 11/3: 9H 40
Tuesday 11/4: 6H 30
Wednesday 11/5: 10H 50 (2 hours grading tests, ugh)
Thursday 11/6: 9H 10
Friday 11/7: 8H 10
Sunday 11/8: 2H 45 (grading more tests – report cards are coming up soon!)
Total: 47H 05

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Partyin’ with the Peeps

It’s always interesting to hang out with people from work outside of work. Over the years you make friends with a few people and you go to Happy Hour or the movies, or visit each other’s houses to plan in the summer. You start out calling and texting just about school til you find yourselves [...]

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Do your homework already!

“President Obama says you have to read.”
You should’ve seen the look on the girl’s face to whom I said this. Jaw-dropping disbelief. The whole room got quiet. (Extremely unusual for this class. Especially when you consider I didn’t say it very loudly.) I said, “Didn’t you see his commercial about education?” Silence. “Oh, it’s great. [...]

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Election Day 2008: Vote for Change

The kids are really excited for this election.  This is only my third election as a teacher, but I haven’t had a class this interested in politics since my second graders in 2000.  They were pretty much the only kids in a school of 500 who voted for Al Gore in our mock election.  (Probably [...]

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