Tuesday

Today was much better than last Tuesday, but still a frustrating day. The kids were at their finest teenager-ness. It didn't help that my homeroom had 2 new students today. Really? Someone looked at my class and thought I needed MORE kids? Where are they coming from? We decided that somewhere out there is a classroom with only 10 kids left. It must be really quiet there.

This was the kind of day when you realize that the task at the top of your to-do list is to put something in the mail, and the only stamps you have are 1-cent short as of 9 days ago. I had to drive 3 miles to the post office, buy 8 cents worth of stamps, and drive home. I think gas cost me more. Fortunately, the post office decided that starting this year, they would only sell Forever stamps.

But, I ended my day in my recliner before it was completely dark out. I even did a little jogging outside today. I could use more 50-degree days. I am doing my 2nd load of laundry, and I have exciting plans for dinner: I'm going to bake some pre-seasoned Trader Joe's frozen flounder, cook some rice, and make some sushi hand rolls. Maybe I'll top it off with a side of miso soup. Sake, too. It's a gourmet dinner (and probably tomorrow's lunch) for just a few bucks. I'm looking forward to it.

I have a busy evening. I have to watch 2 episodes of House and a handful of episodes of How I Met Your Mother. I have to try not to think about the bunch of lesson plans that are due Friday that I set aside time tomorrow and Thursday to do. I also need to finish laundry, do dishes (i.e. load the dishwasher) and tidy up.

At last, I will end my busy evening by taking my pajamas out of the dryer as soon as the laundry is dry, and climb in bed with toasty warm PJs. What a difficult life.

Science!

I love science. Today, after a tough-but-good day at school that involved finally giving assigned seats to one of my tougher classes (staking my territory, you know), I got to talk about science for an hour with one of my colleagues (now friend). Evolutionary theory, cancer research. I love this stuff. I love talking about it. I forget that sometimes.

During yoga this evening, I came up with an alternate history for the origin of hot yoga. If you didn't know, hot yoga is yoga in a room that is heated to 105 degrees. I don't know why I do it. It's terrible in a somehow refreshing sort of way. It's like cleaning the apartment. It isn't so bad, but I'll put it off forever, and hate doing it, but feel really accomplished afterwards.

I imagine the history is as follows: Some old Indian yogi was teaching yoga to some American guys in the northeast, maybe Connecticut. Let's say it was Bridgeport. This was back when yoga was first coming to this country. At the end of the first lesson, the yogi was very unhappy. See, where he comes from, it is India. It is always blindingly hot and sweaty. Here in Bridgeport, it was cold. He was not used to it, and it made his muscles ache. So, he turns to the two tired, hot, and sweaty Americans and says, "Screw this, we need heat in here. Bridgeport is too cold for yoga." And the Americans, exhausted and with sweat dripping from their chins, stared at the yogi incredulously. Thus, hot yoga was born.

Nah, it's not really that bad.

Good Things

Today, I had some good things said to me. My assistant principal says she's seen some great things for me. She says it looks like I really know what I'm doing, I just have some difficulty executing it when things get tough in class. She loves the way I develop lessons that match the curriculum and make it interesting. I just need to work on managing the classroom. Last week, the principal took me aside to tell me that she is rooting for me. That she has high standards for me, and that's why she's so tough.

I'm working hard to get better. I'm getting better. I'm actually looking forward to this next round of quizzes. I think I've taught this unit, for both 7th and 8th grade, a lot better than any of my other ones. I'd like to see where this goes.

In other news, weekends are awesome. I got to hang out with a couple of teachers and post-TFA folks that I don't see a lot. I got to have a couple of drinks and watch TV. I got to play a lot of tower defense, which might just be my favorite video game genre. (Garden Panic on the iPad--check it out.)

I also ran 3 miles with almost no problem. It was on a treadmill, and I was watching Dr. Who, but I think I'll be ready for the 4-miler in March. I was even planning my triathlon season this year. I'm thinking about a sprint (.5 mile swim, 10-15 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) in June and an Olympic (.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) in August. I'll have plenty of time for training over the summer. And you know what? I have less than half a school year left.

Love

I have not been a good blogger this week. It has been an awful week, due to some school challenges and a sick day (which probably should have been 2 sick days).

I don't need to share all of my challenges, but suffice it to say that I will be working hard in the next few weeks to improve my classroom management and lesson planning. The biggest problem I need to address is converting good classroom management into well taught lessons; that is, I need to work on execution of my lesson plans.

Lunch detention has been working out pretty well.

But, above all, I love teaching. I love when kids are eager to answer questions. I love it when kids who have never done a single bit of work are taking notes in my class. I love when kids figure stuff out. I really enjoy this.

Nobody can take that away from me. This is my career, and I love it. I will work harder to become a better teacher, whatever it takes.

As my dad says, "illegitimi non carborundum".

Interesting

You know what I'm finding interesting? We have some short standardized benchmark tests that we have to give our homerooms. It takes some class time, but it's generally a short (3-4 min per section) math, reading, and writing test. And then we have to grade them on our own time. It's a pain, but you know what? I'm finding it interesting.

First of all, the kids have improved considerably since we gave them the same type of test in October. It's like a whole new class. On the math test, I can see which topics they haven't learned yet (add/subtract with negative numbers) compared to which topics they probably covered recently because 80% of the class got those questions correct (multiplying two- and three-digit numbers). Every student seems to have improved somewhat in math, as well as writing and reading. Every single student.

I can't promise I've taught them anything, but now I'm sure it's possible. These kids are learning. They are getting something out of their seventh grade year. It leaves me with hope I can teach them as well.

Also, kids keep coming up to me to practice reciting the steps of mitosis. YES!

Better

The difference between this job and my last job is that here, I know what I'm doing and why. I know I'm a good teacher and that I'm teaching kids to do, and enjoy, science.

Today, I had a terrible day. I'll share more details, after I've had some time to cool off. But, it's still better than that first time I had to dissect a mouse lymph node, and while cutting into its thigh, even though my boss assured me it was dead and killed humanely, the blood still flowed in spurts, because "the muscles spasm after death." Whatever hoops I have to jump through here, at least it's not that.

Actually, I can't wait to get back to school tomorrow, because I've realized that the kids love me. They (at least some of them) always make me feel appreciated.

90%

The numbers are in. 90% of my students completed a Science Fair project! I'm really proud of them and me. Next year, I hope to have 90% completion with less class time lost.

In class, I'm back to routine. It's wonderful. I've laid down the expectations, and kids are (mostly) following them. One of my classes decided to be super difficult, but I have a new weapon: lunch detention. Tomorrow, I will have 7 students during lunch. If they don't show up, they get in-school suspension.

I taught well today. I had all sorts of students volunteering answers, it was great. Today, we learned how to determine whether work is being performed on an object. Tomorrow, we learn to calculate work and what mitosis is.

This morning, one of my students walked up to my desk, and said sheepishly, "Miss, I have sticky fingers." And he handed me a small Gumby figurine that used to sit on my desk. At least the kids aren't all bad.

I have started tutoring again, now that I'm not completely overwhelmed (and could use a few more dollars). I found a high school junior who needs help in math. I met her last night. She understands the work, but needs reminding on some concepts before the midterm tomorrow. It's really fun working with students one-on-one again.

Yeah, I pretty much love my job, even when the kids are being difficult.

SCIENCE FAIR!!!

Science Fair will be over in one hour. And some time tomorrow for kids to finish up presenting. And some awards awarded on Monday.

I'm proud. The science chairperson is proud. My colleagues are proud. It's awesome.

Today was a whirlwind of scheduling challenges. I was told to request a sub, so we could have an extra adult around to help with the fair. I thought it was a great idea. I was planning to take my classes down to the library to view the boards and do some of their presentations during class time.

Unfortunately, the plans were different. The sub arrived during homeroom, and I was told my job was to stay at the fair all day. I could take four or five kids with me at a time, to help show classes and community members through. Cool! I can spend the whole day overseeing my best students teaching younger classes.

That wasn't exactly how it worked. First of all, it meant that other than a few kids, the 7th and 8th graders never got to walk through the fair and see all of the boards. The principal didn't want me taking my classes down so it wouldn't be too crowded if any parents or community members showed up. Unfortunately, there were classes scheduled for the library at several points during the day, so it was marginally chaotic anyway, and I couldn't do the small group presentations. Also, the younger classes were never given a schedule of when they should come down, so other than the time that the entire 2nd grade (2 classes) was called down over the loudspeaker, and that time a fifth grade class decided to show up, I never saw any other classes.

A few teachers stopped by on their own, including my mentor and my favorite science teacher in the school upstairs. The science chairperson even visited, and had wonderful things to say. I'm a pretty big fan of her. She is really supportive.

I spent the day generally being exhausted and getting a bunch of paperwork done. Overall, the day was a pleasant surprise, and I'm really freaking grateful that this thing is over. Until next year. [Cue scary music.]

Pre-Meds

Today I am tired in a way that can only be described as "The Day Before Science Fair". Although, as my grandmother pointed out, it seems like so recently that it was September and that Science Fair was ages away. Today I spent a lot of time setting up the library for the event. It'll go well, I think. I'll try to take lots of pictures.

This weekend, I had lunch with a college friend. We ate delicious, cheap Venezuelan food and complained about pre-meds.

Pre-meds. Pre-medical students. A rare breed of student that I interacted with A LOT as a biology major at Brown. See, at Brown, if you want to study biology, they assume you want to go into medicine. My course requirements were almost identical to any medical school entry requirements.

I don't want to go into medicine. There is too much politics involved, and not the kind I can handle. I don't want to spend the next 8 years training for a job. (Yeah, I know, I'm always learning, but this is different.) I don't want to sacrifice time spent interacting with patients so I can pay my high malpractice insurance. Most importantly, I don't want to spend any more time with pre-meds.

Brown offered an interesting program called the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). PLME students had applied right out of high school for an 8 year program, which is pretty much just undergraduate stacked under medical school consecutively. The advantage is that it allowed students to skip the whole medical school application process, which is the worst application process I've seen. This meant that of my peers, a certain number of them could fly through science courses with no concern over grades or competition.

The PLME program was created so students could explore other areas, and become more well-rounded. Unfortunately, that is not what happens. Students either keep the hyper-competitive, impossible-to-be-around attitude of other pre-meds, or they take the opposite route and spend four expensive years drinking cheap liquor.

My pre-med friend is one of the only PLMEs I know who took the third route. She joined EMS to get some patient care experience (although she was already an EMT at home). She double-majored in biology and Spanish. She spent her summers working as an ER tech/translator in a hospital. She took the opportunity she had to not worry about MCAT scores and GPAs, and made the world a better place. (She also was part of my other two favorite campus groups, the best ever co-ed literary fraternity and the coolest Jewish a cappella group.) I wish all pre-meds were like her.

I wanted to share that thought. In the mean time, I'm still keeping up with exercise and healthy(-ish) eating. Also, bar trivia. Tonight is bar trivia.

Presentations

After a nice, long weekend, today was the first day of Science Fair presentations. I was pretty nervous about keeping my kids in line.

There was some yelling, mostly getting the kids settled in the first place after a long weekend and coming within an inch of a delayed opening. After that, though, they were great. For the most part, they were really respectful of each other. My best class today was one of my most difficult, Blue. They were quiet for each other. When a particularly timid student stood up to speak, the entire class was SILENT. Not only that, but when the speakers had finished, they had very thoughtful and (mostly) respectful questions to ask.

There were a few jabs, such as "It looks like X did more work than Y, is that true?", but there was a lot more of, "Why did you try dissolving it in soda, rather than water?" or "Did it also work in this scenario?"

I am proud of myself for running through my expectations in my head while getting ready this morning, and then repeating them as excitedly as the first time for every class. It worked.

After school, I had the privilege of watching my blind student get through a couple of levels on a Super Mario Bros. emulator. Wow. That is pretty much the coolest thing I've seen here.

I'm still on track with exercise, believe it or not. The healthy eating is a little more challenging, what with weekends happening, but I'm working on it. This weekend I had some delicious food (and I discovered a new yummy, not-too-expensive Italian place at Mohegan).

In other news, some of my good friends in Boston are suddenly without an apartment. Fire is so much less cool when it happens to someone I know. Fortunately, everyone is okay and so is most of their stuff. Reminder to everyone: get renter's insurance. It's worth it.

I think I might register for my first SCSU Master's course today, for the summer. Their website made me come up with a new password because the old one "expired", lowercase letter, uppercase letter, number, symbol, and all. It reminds me of this comic.

Let's hope tomorrow's Science Fair presentations go as well as today.

Happy Birthday, MLK

First world problem of the day: I forgot to take my pedometer to the gym, so all the steps I took during my workout didn't "count".

As much as I never thought I'd say it, I'm really getting to love this Science Fair adventure. It's awful, and my feet hurt, and I don't have time to go to the bathroom during the day, but they kids are really getting into it. I just have to find a way to convince them to do their work when it wasn't due 2 days ago and they'll absolutely fail if they don't do it.

It's so much fun seeing them enthusiasm.

It's even more fun enjoying the weekend. I'm so far behind in my paperwork (although I did get a lot done), but I don't care. I'm enjoying myself this weekend. There will be lots of television, some jogging, some puzzle-doing, and some iPad games. Also, some drinking.

Acting 101

Today, we had a visit by some members of the new Bridgeport administration. So, although we were told to "do what you usually do", we all put on a show. I was worried, because I had to continue with the SF work time. Fortunately, the visitors showed up to my room during my prep, when I had about 6 kids working on their projects.

The students played along really well. One student explained her project (Coke + Mentos), and I showed them a Youtube demonstration. Needless to say, I had all the head honchos engaged. They had a lot of questions to ask about the curriculum, textbooks, and Science Fair. They don't have a lot of education experience (Bridgeport is trying something new - administraters with a financial background), so I was able to confidently explain things. I totally pretended I knew what I was doing. I even pointed them to the Bridgeport website to answer their specific questions about science curriculum pacing guides.

I was proud.

My day was generally good. I spent my two preps and an hour after school helping small groups of kids with their projects. Although I didn't get to sit down or relax all day, I really love the kids in small groups. They all really need personal attention, and they are a ton of fun when they get it. I'm not sure how much of that is because they are from less-than-ideal homes, or because they're twelve.

Fortunately and unfortunately, I realized today (after nearly 5 months of teaching) that I can refill my water bottle with the sink in my room. I can't believe it never occurred to me. I felt silly when I finally realized it. Now, when I teach three periods in a row, I won't run out of water. Unfortunately, my day without breaks led me to a really uncomfortable moment after school, when I sent two of my students to walk down the hallway and find a teacher who could watch my students for a couple of minutes. I'll plan better next time.

It was a good day in a thoroughly exhausting sort of way, but I even got to the gym for a good workout. I was worried that I lost my New Years' kick, after Monday's skipped workout (I gave blood!) and Tuesday's lame workout (stupid kids). But, I got my workout in today, a short but fast run on the treadmill.

I might actually feel confident enough to register for the race my friends are doing - a St. Patrick's Day 4-miler.

New Day

We care about out kids. Today, the seventh and eighth grade teachers met to figure out the numbers relating to the state tests, which are 28 school days away. Fortunately, I can't stress about them yet, because science fair is on my mind. But we talked for two hours about how we could push our kids a little harder. There was some teasing, and some comments about the new superintendent, and plenty of complaining, but it really shows that we love those kids.

Today, I saw so much enthusiasm about science fair. At times, I had 80% of the class working, with some even helping others! There was some other crap that went on, and I'm missing a few glue sticks, but they are taking pride in their projects.

I don't have a lot to write today. I'm tired and could really use a weekend. But, only one week until science fair, and it's shaping up really well.

Cranky Day!

Last night, as my head hit the pillow, I thought to myself: Oh s*&t. I forgot to lock up the money I had collected for science fair presentation boards. There was a pile of single-dollar bills in my unlocked desk drawer. I hurriedly sent an email to a colleague of mine, asking her to grab the cash for me. Then I forgot about it.

Today was a PD day. The program was about creating a multi-culturally aware classroom. Oh my goodness. It was exactly what we had seen many times from TFA. The speaker was enjoyable, but lacking additional information about the statistics on his slides. I had a nice Chinese food lunch special for lunch, and overall it wasn't too bad. I left a few minutes early so I could get back to school and meet my students for an after school SF work session.

I walked into the building, and was swarmed by kids who had to hug me and tell me how much they missed me. My heart melted.

Then I made my way upstairs, and the aforementioned emailed colleague said, "I'm so sorry, I just checked my email. I didn't get a chance all day to check it. I looked in your desk drawer, and didn't want to go fishing around, but saw a bag of quarters and figured if they didn't take that, they didn't take the money."

You mean the bag of quarters that also had $50 in dollar bills? Crap. And just like that, my stupidity lost me $50.

I futilely fished through my drawers, in the hopes that I misplaced the money somewhere. No luck. I'll never see that money again. It's not even worth pursuing, so I'll just have to cough up the money. The worst part is that some kid, likely one of my beloved homeroomers, will think that he can get away with crap like this.

I spent the next hour being cranky, and having kids comfort me with their SF enthusiasm.

Of course, a few of my kids refused to take the late bus home, so I had to wait for another half hour while we played the "my mother/father is on the way, I'm sure" game. Crankiness ensued.

In typical TFA fashion, I then learned an important lesson about getting over minor setbacks. I had dinner with my grandfather's friend. By that, I mean I had dinner with a man who attended school with my grandfather in a small, nearly unpronounceable town in Poland until they were kicked out of middle school, thrown into concentration camps, and then forced through myriad horrors for the next several years. They then (separately) sailed to the US and made their lives and families from scratch. I learned about his early experiences in this country, and his three sons and eight granddaughters (interesting statistical anomaly, right?). It was nice, and made my $50 much less significant in the Grand Scheme of Things.

I headed home, suitably fed, and stopped at the gym on the way. In my hurry to extinguish my crankiness, I didn't even change out of my work clothes. I figured an easy 30-minute weightlifting session in work clothes wouldn't be too bad. My sweater already needed washing and, as I learned in college, pants never get dirty.

On my way into the gym, I checked the rules list posted on the way, because some kids had been running around the gym this weekend while their mother walked slowly on the treadmill (like, .5 mph slow). As I thought, no children under 14 were allowed at any time. 10 minutes into my relaxing, but lazy-because-I-donated-blood-yesterday workout, about a half dozen 10-year-olds walked into the weight room. As I stood there holding weights, they dropped their bags around the floor, took out medicine balls, and took up every available square inch of the room tossing them around. I didn't even have room to do my own lifting. I looked around in amazement and their complete lack of consideration, and then stomped out of there.

Still cranky. I threw on some running shoes and did a couple of laps around the parking lot. I know my problems aren't bad compared to some stuff that's happening in the world, even in my kids' lives, but I still need to sit in my PJs for a couple of hours and have a beer.

Miss, You a Nigga

I just drove home to hang out at the fire house this evening. I got in early, so i stopped at a local fire department blood drive. Both of those things are the cause of my first day of skipped exercise.

These kids are getting pretty excited about Science Fair. Today, I had 4 kids stay after school to work on their projects (in addition to a couple of them working with me during my preps today). I made a comment to one of the students while he was working, and he responded with, "Nobody's getting offended. I'm a nigga. Miss, you a nigga." (I suddenly remember a moment in about fifth grade when I had to ask my mom how to spell "nigger". I can only imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for her. Because if there is anything that makes white people uncomfortable, it's that word.

My response was something along the lines of, "I don't think so. Have you seen me?" He proceeded to explain to me that I am a nigga because my ancestors must have been brought here on ships to work as slaves.

Does he really think that people didn't come to America voluntarily?

I explained to him that my ancestors did her voluntarily, some of them were slaves at one time. We then discussed how my personal story relates to that of some movies they'd seen, like Schindler's List. And, being the great teacher I am, I managed to turn this into a lesson on bullying. Hitler was a bully, after all. Yes. Teachable moment!

Now I'll save three lives by giving a pint of blood, then enjoy my PD day tomorrow.

First World Problems

Prior to today I had 2 major problems: first, I had recently downloaded the second part of the sixth season of Doctor Who onto iTunes, but since getting a Roku for Hanukkah, and being able to watch Netflix on my TV, I no longer feel satisfied watching TV on my computer. Second, the boredom of running makes it hard to do it regularly.

Voila, problem solved. I have discovered that the iPad sits perfectly on the treadmill, and the time just floats by as I watch Doctor Who.

If you are unfamiliar with the term "first world problem", I recommend looking into it. It's an internet meme describing complaints that can only be made by someone living in a privileged society like ours. An example would be something that bothers me every couple of days: the free gym in my apartment complex is 1/4 mile from my apartment, and I wish I had a closer apartment because I feel silly driving there.

On Friday, I had no school, so I decided to visit my middle school. My own middle school, where I grew up. I had a wonderful time, and it's a little schadenfreude-ly fun to see rich white Jewish middle schoolers having the same social problems as my kids. I also got to speak to some of my favorite teachers and mentors growing up. My middle school chorus teacher, who had been supporting my acting career since she taught an acting class I took at the local community center when I was five, showed such genuine pride in my career choices and successes that I was flattered to the ground. (Is that even a real expression? Can it be?) It reminded me how much confidence she gave to a quirky middle schooler to be herself, some years ago. I also saw my high school film and literature teacher, who has since become the chair of the English department in the district. In addition to having 18(?) years of experience teaching in an urban setting, and being able to sympathize with the fact that my students don't want to do work because they plan to grow up to become basketball players or rappers, is an incredible inspiration as an educator. He reminds me that even suburban education isn't perfect and that there are things that I can do personally to fix systems.

And then there was my sixth grade science teacher. I'm sure I've mentioned before that I want to grow up and be her. Walking into her classroom was like coming home. And in response to doing a little thing like mentioning a fraction of how much I admire her, she gave me things. Lots of things. Advice, enthusiasm, empathy, and most importantly, posters for my classroom, activity books, classroom demonstrations, and other goodies to share with my kids. Also, the promise of more. She also expressed pride in my attempts to carry on the torch. I hope to live up to her expectations.

At the very least, I know I'm working on it.

And besides, I've made it through a week of perfect workouts. 5 workouts, 2 rest days, 1 episode of Doctor Who.

Also, sweetest thing ever.

Weekend

On account of having made it through this tiring week, I would like to celebrate Three Kings Day with this song about mitosis. Yeah, I'm starting to plan for Post-SF. It's getting fun again.

Unfortunately, the post-vacation blues have made me kind of blah and unmotivated. It's fun seeing kids get excited about making their presentation boards, but I've hit a slump. I love the kids and I love the work, but the days feel too long. I'm hoping it'll pick up after Science Fair, when we can continue with the routine that works so well (er, slightly better) and I can teach the things I love. At least this week was short, and next week I have new teacher PD on Tuesday and a half day on Wednesday.

I had a good teacher moment, though. I recently got access to some textbook-aligned adapted reading worksheets. Basically, they summarize sections in the textbook in lower-level English and ask straightforward questions about the summary. One of my students didn't have her SF packet, so I gave her this to work on. She often asks questions for 10 minutes straight, clings to the class aide, and then slumps in a huff of frustration and doesn't finish her work. I gave her this assignment. I wasn't surprised when she raised her hand 10 minutes later. I was surprised when she handed me back the entire assignment completed. Correctly.

Yesterday I had a sad and frustrating look at Bridgeport. I was waiting on line at the Food Bazaar, an inexpensive ethnic supermarket. I like to go there to get the important staples in my diet: sushi rice, udon, and other international simple carbohydrates. In fact, I think my favorite food might be any combination of international simple carbs and salt.

The middle-aged couple in front of me in line looked like they had a month's worth of groceries for a family. When it came time to pay, their food stamps card was $3 short. So, they decided to put back the package of frozen hot dogs. I waited for 10 minutes while they sorted out the cash register in two different languages (English and Spanish). Meanwhile, I took stock of the items in their cart that may not have been the best deal. There were two cases of diet Snapple Iced Tea. Really? I can understand one bottle as a treat, but two cases of an overpriced bottle of water and chemicals? At least buy the ones with calories in it (although the couple didn't look like they were too short on calories, but you never know. I read somewhere on the internet that the US has an interesting epidemic of coinciding obesity and malnutrition. In the same people. I guess McDonald's doesn't do it for you after all.)

If the Snapple wasn't bad enough, they also had a case of Hi-C foil pouches. Not only can we teach our children to enjoy high-calorie, low-nutrient drinks, we can also teach them to make poor financial decisions by spending exceedingly more on single-serve pouches rather than buying the same drink powder in bulk and mixing it ourselves.

Gah. Not only did I have to wait in line, I also had to witness first-hand the downfall of our country. Not only our country, but my city. These are the parents of my students. I've gotta go grassroots to the max. Let's improve this city.

After the weekend.

$3

I didn't sleep well last night. It was awful. Every minute I was awake I spent dreading waking up at 7. I trudged into school. A colleague commented that I was dragging.

And then the kids came in. And they showed some enthusiasm for Science Fair. And I melted. I love them. They make me crazy, but I love them. It doesn't hurt that I get paid for it.

In addition to my paycheck, I'm selling presentation boards for Science Fair for $3 each. The money will be used to buy boards for next year: cheap, bulk, corrugated cardboard tri-fold boards. I've sold about 15 of them, and some students even bought their own over vacation. This thing is really moving!

I guess I'm delirious in my exhaustion. I'm also happy that some things went not-so-smoothly for other teachers for a change. I know that sounds mean, but I need to know I'm not the only one who gets in trouble for what the students do when given permission to leave the room.

I also noticed that the principal looked through my Science Fair lesson plans, and didn't make any comments. I'll take that as a compliment.

One of my classes was challenging today, but the rest were manageable. Only 1 referral today.

Another good part of today was the moment I discovered I could use kids' biases to make them work harder and learn to be nicer. For example, when I see two boys whispering and giggling in the corner, I can say, "Stop flirting, you two!" This will certainly get their attention, because no boy would want to be caught flirting with another boy. Then, inevitably, someone will shout out, "That's gay." And I'll respond, "Yes, I believe that fits the exact definition of gay. Which is fine to be. Just not in class." And then, with the class's attention, I'll teach them science.

Two days in, and two workouts down. Yesterday, I was running late at school, so I did some 5PM lunges and squats in the copy room before going to the gym. Today is a rest day. And I deserve it.

And, I have groceries and trivia to look forward to tonight.

Reflecting Outside the Lines

This afternoon, I spend SO MUCH TIME doing some typical TFA reflecting. My adviser reads this blog (Hi!) so I won't go into too much detail, but I think you know how much I love reflecting that is neatly formatted into a Microsoft Word table. I need to reflect outside the lines.

Some of it was really helpful. I thought I'd share my three specific goals for the immediate future (after Science Fair, of course):
1. For unit 4, put more emphasis on overarching themes and guiding questions for the unit as a whole. 2. For unit 4, I will give students more opportunities to take notes and use the notes to practice. 3. I will create a system to ensure that kids take good notes and bring them back to class on following days (with a notebook grade?)

While I'm complaining, I wanted to let you know about the school internet blocking. Certain websites are blocked. I understand why, but I think teachers should have override passwords. Facebook is blocked, okay. But they block all possible shopping sites. So, when I walk into my classroom, and it smells like 7th-graders, I can't log onto Peapod and order some Febreeze. I have to wait until I get home, an I never remember things when I get home.

Today I had the satisfaction of being correct. I thought the class would run better if I brought work for kids who couldn't/wouldn't work on Science Fair. It did! Kids even ASKED for the worksheet!

I know you're all eager to hear about my vacation. That's good, because I don't feel like doing any more work.

I started with a trip to San Francisco. I managed to eat some good Chinese food, sushi, and seafood. I visited some wineries in Sonoma. Most importantly, I RELAXED. It was wonderful. I made it an entire week without worrying about school. I read TWO WHOLE BOOKS. I felt so accomplished. There is nothing like a Christmas eating Chinese food and watching (sleeping through) a movie with some other Jews.

My New Years' was spent doing more relaxing. It was awesome. I also ate some gourmet cheese, drank strawberry champagne, and watched Twilight Zone with my boyfriend and his family.

For Hanukkah, my sister got me a fitness tracking device. So far today, I've walked 7212 steps, 3.01 miles, and 9 flights of stairs. When I get home, I get to track my food too!

I have some new exercise goals, too. I've decided that 5:00-6:00 PM is workout time, EVERY DAY, except for Wednesday and Saturday. The only exception is Monday, when I do yoga from 5:30-7. I'm working on a more specific schedule, but I'm thinking this: Sunday long run; Monday yoga; Tuesday weightlifting; Wednesday rest; Thursday run; Friday weightlifting and interval run; Saturday rest.

I'm not great at sticking to a workout plan, but let's see how it goes. Since Monday, I'm 1 for 1.

Welcome Back

Well, that was refreshing. I haven't made it back to my apartment yet, but I've already started thinking my new year, both in work and in life.

As far as work goes, I have a few new realizations and goals for this year. First, I've realized, with the help of a recent This American Life podcast about middle school, that middle school isn't about school. I will not optimize my impact by trying only to teach science. The kids are there to socialize, to go through puberty, and to find their place in the social pyramid. They aren't there to learn. My place is to ease their transition from whiny children to competent adults. I should focus on teaching them how to be students, how to think critically, and how to exploit their strengths and improve their weaknesses. Science is merely the medium in which I must teach these things. Once this Science Fair @&$))$& is done with, I'm going to get on that. I want to focus on two main things: taking responsible notes and making efficient use of work time. These I feel will help them make the most success in the coming years of school. And, it'll make the seventh graders much easier to teach next year.

I did a lot of thinking about this in the car. Long car rides are great for thinking about school in a big-picture sort of way. I even came up with a possible solution for insanity that Science Fair Work Week #2 promises to be; I'm going to find CMT review worksheets for those students who haven't done their experiment. So, rather than having them make trouble because they don't have anything to do while the rest of the class is writing results and conclusions, they can be learning. Or, at least kept busy.

My personal new year's resolutions are pretty bland. I want to take better care of myself, lose weight, blah blah blah. I even am planning on making it to yoga tonight, even though I recently learned that Netflix has the first eight seasons of Law and Order(original). Instead, I'll go sweat in a hot room with thinner, more flexible women. But until then, I'll sit in Starbucks and write my thoughts down.