Getting Easy

I have actually been given another task by my principal - to read over the 8th grade interim assessment - because I'm so under control with my current tasks. I had a great meeting with the principal today. She observed my classroom, had good things to say, and then gave me suggestions. I think this year she will be a great resource at helping me achieve my personal professional development goals (i.e. building relationships with people) in the classroom. She suggested that I build relationships with the skills students in my classroom by engaging them on their own terms, such as telling a student during independent practice, "Pay extra attention to #3, so you can share your answer with the class." This makes sure every student is part of the "culture of achievement", without surprising students who can't necessarily handle the surprise.

Today, our first lab report was due. And I did a MUCH better job with it. First, I gave them almost everything they needed to write. All they had to do was aggregate the information and present it professionally. Next time, I'll let them do some of the work. Additionally, I made my expectations on presentation clear, and reinforced, and reinforced. A bunch of students surprised me with great Microsoft Word documents. (They could choose to type or write in ink.) Only 5 students ended up with homework detention from science! 2 didn't do it, 2 didn't finish it, and 1 wrote it in pencil. It only took about 12 phone calls from students last night. Next year's goal: 100% complete, 0 phone calls.

Last night I had a briefly heart-breaking moment, though. My last phone call of the evening (other than the 11:45 PM one, which was not answered) was from a student's mother, who had just lost her job, and couldn't afford internet, and could her son bring in her assignment on a flash drive? Of course he can!

I had an awesome tempo run last night; I managed a 3.3 mile run, with the middle 2 miles under 10 min/mi. I was pretty proud, and it felt great. It's that perfect time of year when it is cool when I get home, but not yet dark. I also reached an accomplishment today: I actually thought to myself, Oh, it's only a lifting day, that'll be easy. Yeah, I'm that cool, I can have workout days that are easy.