Miss (and Mister) Manners

So many kids in my class are so polite. Some say good morning (first) when I greet them at the door, but a good half of them make a point to say good-bye when they leave in the afternoon. Some, like Professor, will actually stop and come back in the room to say, “Good-bye, Ms. [...]

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Rockin’ around the Christmas tree

I’ve been making fun of people for listening to Christmas music already. (Sorry, SunSpray. ) It’s just too early. But I really did not want to come into work today. I had my last conference at 1:30 yesterday and spent the rest of the afternoon prepping and talking. When I went home, it really [...]

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What Work Ethic?

A few years ago we started having one day of night conferences during conference week. In exchange for staying til eight at night, we are allowed to leave with the students on one (ONE) of the other early dismissal days. We can choose whatever day we want, and don’t need approval from the principal. What [...]

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Nice Kids Come From Nice Parents

You know I’ve been really pleased with my class this year. All the same, I was nervous about conferences. Needlessly. All the parents were so pleasant, the conferences were actually enjoyable. I can’t remember ever leaning back in the chair, laughing and chatting. Well, maybe with a parent or two, but not with so many. [...]

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new backdated posts

There’s a bunch of posts I started but never published. I want to put them in the right order, so I’ll list them here. Enjoy!
Grading Tests on November 15, 2009
Seating Charts on November 14, 2009
Obdurate on October 28, 2009 (Though this one was done, so why didn’t I post it?)
Brrrrrrrr on October 23, 2009

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Free Speech on Facebook?

The Speech Teacher and I had an interesting conversation today about Facebook. She’s worried someone’s going to hack into our FB pages and get us fired. She saw a commercial for a news report about it (but then forgot to watch). She’s talked to other people who say that even if we make our profiles [...]

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I could get used to this

Had my first six conferences today, and they went swimmingly well. I am not accustomed to receiving compliments. (And not just because of last year.) Professor’s mom is thrilled about the penpals with SunSpray’s students. Historian’s mom went on and on about how much they both loved the Veterans’ Day project. (They had to interview/research [...]

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P.M.S.

I think they’re all getting their periods.
Even the boys.
They were some cranky children today! Snow White was sniping at Asthmatic who gave it right back, and all over stupid stuff like, “You’re not writing fast enough!” during math groups. Gentle Giant stormed out of gym because he thought he was going to get [...]

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Report Cards are DONE

I’m done report cards two whole days before conferences. YAY! Don’t know how that happened. Usually I am scrambling to finish and get just the ones needed for each day copied in time. (We stopped using the NCR paper kind, and there are rumors of computer-based ones coming in the near future. One can dream…) [...]

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Grading Tests

I have to be in the right mood to grade tests.  When I don’t want to, I don’t, and just put it off.  Then one day, like today, I’ll sit and grade for hours.  I get in a zone and don’t seem to mind.  Surely it would be better to do them a little at [...]

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