Field (Trip) of Dreams

A few months ago, I got a series of emails about a field trip grant funded by Fidelity Investments. I mentioned it in passing to our AVID elective teacher when we were at the conference in Florida, but let’s face it, life happened, as it always does, and I forgot about it. Until I got an email about a week before the grant application was due, sweetly reminding me about the opportunity, and cluing me in to the fact that no one had applied yet. The AVID teacher had already been working on the grant, per the recommendation of another TFA teacher at our school, so we were able to get our application in the day of the deadline.

After over a month of waiting, we finally got the email last week that we had been awarded a fully-funded field trip to visit two universities with 40 of our top seventh grade students! Our trip will take us to North Carolina Central University, a Historically Black University in Durham (and the alma mater of several of the staff members at our school), as well as UNC Chapel Hill. It may not sound like a big deal, but these kids do NOT go on field trips, and many of them will have very few opportunities to go to a major college campus without an opportunity like this. We are beyond excited, and although the planning process adds one (or two or five) more things to our plates, it will be worth it. We haven’t told the kids yet because we have to get the trip approved by Central Office, but we are hoping there won’t be any objections since it is fully-funded and is an amazing opportunity for our kids. Fingers crossed, I’ll update as soon as we know (well, probably not as soon as we know, considering my track record).

What's Next?

As hard as it is to get up before the sun comes up, many mornings I am blessed with a beautiful sunrise along Highway 481.




I've grown to love the 25 minute commute, at least most days. It's the perfect amount of time to get my thoughts together in the morning, to run through whatever last minute tasks I need to do when I get to my classroom, and to get in a few good songs to set the mood for the day. On the way home, it's enough time to make sense of the day and think about things less immediate than running copies and preparing for a lesson. Over the past few days, I've used that time to seriously think about something I wasn't even considering a month or two ago: where I'll be next year.

If you had asked me in December, and maybe even just last month in January, I would have surely said that I"ll be right back here for the 2012 - 2013 school year. I've said a million times how much I love the women I work with, and that even though my job is incredibly difficult, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. And for right now, that is still the case. I still know that this is exactly where God intended me to be...right now. But I find myself thinking more and more about whether I can do another year of this.

By "this", I mean all of the extra crap our district and the state make us do. Submitting weekly lesson plans. Submitting plans for our lesson plans. Documentation of how we are implementing this and that in our classrooms. Testing our kids every other week. Replacing our planning periods with meeting after meeting. All the while telling us how bad we are at our jobs. And that our school is unsafe. And that nothing good is happening in our classrooms. It gets old very quickly.

There's not much more to say right now. Or maybe there's just entirely too much to say, so I'll stop before I get going. Nothing is set in stone yet, either way. I've got a lot of soul-searching to do.

Picture Post

I need to write. Badly. So many thoughts are swirling around in my head about school, the education system, and my babies. But I can't. It's too hard. I don't know where to start, how to say it without offending anyone or losing my job, or how to make my jumble of thoughts make sense. So for now, I'll just give you a picture update of my life. The words will come eventually (and soon, hopefully).

One of my best friends from high school, Jenna, came to visit a few weekends ago and we had ourselves a crafty weekend. She's here with one part of her creation, a three-frame series of shadowboxes that highlight the places she has lived and loved (I'm stealing her idea as soon as I get to Michael's again). We are trying to get permission to have Jenna come visit my classroom and help me out this Friday, which would be WONDERFUL for many reasons: to see her face, to have help in my classroom, and to finally have someone meet my beloved babies.


I made a version of this picture frame while Jen was here, and I have to say I was pretty proud of the finished product, considering I have zero patience when it comes to crafts mixed with a frustrating need for perfection. It's not nearly as sophisticated or fancy, but it is a craft, and it is mine. I finally hung it above my bed this weekend.



I've made a few additions to my classroom in the way of bulletin boards, including a tracking system for homework, "missions" (quizzes), and class points, as well as a new "Wall of Fame" board. I'm working on a "Facts & Formulas" board where I can post all of the strategies we've talked about this year, and the upcoming geometry formulas that the kids will need to memorize. I HATE bulletin boards, but mine were looking pretty raggedy, so I felt like I needed to step up my game.




And last but most certainly not least, a picture of my wonderful team at the homecoming game. I cannot say it enough, I love these ladies. From left to right: EC inclusion teacher, me, language arts teacher, social studies teacher, science teacher. My life is a million times better because I work with them.



Enough from me. The Super Bowl is on, and while I confess I am really just a bandwagon fan, it's still fun to root for the Pats. And the beautiful Tom Brady.

Polar Bears and Holes

Another quote from the student who always keeps me laughing:

"Miss H, pull up a picture of an all-white polar bear."

"Honey, all polar bears are all white."

"No, I mean the ones that eat fish and walk."

"Honey, ALL polar bears eat fish and walk."

"No, but not the ones that are black and white and brown."

"Those are pandas and brown bears. That's different than a polar bear."


Why are kids saying these things in seventh grade?
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The seventh grade team has decided to read the book "Holes" during our daily 30 minute literacy period, since we ordered a grade level set last year with all the teacher resources and never used them. I am SO excited to get to switch gears for a bit. I have always loved reading, and my kids and I are already having tons of fun.

My literacy block is with my last period of the day. They are my lowest class, and many of them do not enjoy reading because they struggle with it so much. I knew I would have to break out the bells and whistles to get them excited about the book, especially since it's going to be a lengthy unit. So I hyped it up real big. It's all about modeling, right? I acted ridiculously excited so that they would have no choice but to follow my example.

I awed them with the "brand-spankin'-new" copies of the books, holding them up Vanna White style and hyping up the fact that each of them was assigned a book that would become theirs for the unit. I called them up to receive their new book in a tone that rivaled the announcer of the Price Is Right...."Number 19...Johhhhnnnnnyyyyyy!!! COME GET YOUR BOOK!" The kids were just staring at me, not quite sure of what to make of me. I mean, I've been silly before, but this was just pure crazy. One of the kids said it felt like winning the lottery. BINGO.

When each student had their book, I made them smell the pages, then open them very slowly close to their ears to hear them "sing" to them (I, of course, was making the sound effects as we cautiously opened the books, then shut them quickly so as not to let too much of the book's soul out at once). We held the books with both hands above our heads, and on the count of three, we raised the roof and yelled, "WHAT WHAT!" And then, finally, we started reading. I have the audio version, so we listened to the first 2 chapters and followed along with the book. I could see the kids watching me for my reactions as we read, and I totally overdid it. Then, lo and behold, one of my most disruptive students shouted out, "HEY! There's a vocabulary word!" as the Male Voice was in the middle of a sentence in chapter 1. We devised a new system so that whenever they heard a vocabulary word, which we had studied leading up to the book, they would give me a thumbs up. Every single kid in the classroom was following along with the book. It was nothing short of amazing. When Chapter 2 was over and we still had 10 minutes left of class, they wanted to keep going. So we read Chapter 3.

And here is my favorite part of the literacy block. Normally, after we've finished whatever we're working on, we do this little stomp-stomp-clap-clap-"PANTHERS!" routine that the kids love. On Fridays, we switch it up to yell "FRIDAY!" And some days, when I'm feeling extra sassy, we say "YOU KNOW!". But today, one of the girls raised her hand and said, "Miss H, can we do stomp-stomp-clap-clap-HOLES!" instead?

Um, YES WE CAN.

I am so stinkin' excited for literacy period tomorrow. I made the kids color-coded bookmarks so they could tell which book was theirs, and I've created a sacred space in my cabinet to store our class set of books. I am praying that they will bother me about reading before literacy begins, and that we can harness as much excitement for the book as we did today. I felt such a sense of accomplishment and success after those kids left the classroom today, and even though it had nothing to do with math, I couldn't be happier.

If any reading teachers have advice on activities you do with book studies, how you read the books together, etc., please share! I'm new to this!