Really....still around!

I really do still read and write with 7th graders. I promise! Apparently things got a little overwhelming after February though.

Last year, my 15th year teaching 7th grade, was probably my most hard-working yet gratifying. 

We are making huge strides in our curriculum re-purposing and overhaul. We are seeing awesome things from our kids. So we know it's worth it!  And yeah, I gotta say WE, not I, because I work with an AWESOME team. Love my ladies.

My hiatus from school blogging at the end of February quite possibly is the direct result of me getting really interested in essential oils at the same time. It was the last thing I ever should have taken on, but you know when you put some dessert on your plate even when you have enough other things to fill you twice over? I needed something else to focus on other than the immediate stress of school. I needed some dessert :)

And now I have a lot of it and am a distributor for Young Living, which I absolutely love. And because it was such a hectic year (and the kids were  really tough...probably my second toughest group of kids ever) I didn't spend any of June (once we FINALLY got out of school on the 13th) thinking about teaching. I was just a mom. An oily mom, but just a mom :) (Seriously...do you know how awesome essential oils are? I have a diffuser for my classroom, too!)

At the end of July I had two days of work at our district office. One was a half day the 8th grade ELA Lead Teacher for our district and I (the 7th grade ELA Lead Teacher for the district) offered our colleagues as paid work time on inquiry units of study. Carly, Robin, and I spend our time reworking our first unit of the year, which we had totally repurposed last year, too. I am working on pieces of it right now, and I think it flows MUCH better than last year. It's so nice to see the bigger picture, the WHY, and then plan from there. I'll update y'all on the planning and activities as we get further into August and into September. My goal this year is to share past February 27th ha ha! We also have totally revamped our independent reading program, taking inspiration from colleagues from one of the other middle schools in our district (I truly love the 7th grade team in our district...we have six middle schools.) I'm excited about that and will write about it as I get my school brain back on, too.

The second day was a full day meeting for our ELA Lead Teacher team, which is made up of one representative from each grade 6-12, plus special education reps from MS and HS, and now reps from ESL and district social studies. It rocks. It's a team I LOVE. More on that in the days to come, too.

Speaking of school brains...I have a few weeks at least, but my sister and one of my sister-in-laws both start back in two weeks. It's only a week before me, but somehow it seems like an eternity. Have I ever told you that in every sibling and sibling-in-law family that my husband and I have (which would be 9 couples/families in all...7 on his side, 2 on mine) there is at least one teacher in each family?? And all of our parents are teachers. And since it is 10:20pm and my husband is editing photos, I'll give you the run down.

My parents:
Mom was a 1st grade teacher for her whole career (well, except for her first year when she was a speech pathologist.)
Dad was a 7th grade English teacher for most of his career. He had an elementary degree so he also taught a little math, social studies, and science here and there. I still have his overheads with Holocaust information. It was one of his favorite units and now is one of my favorite units well. Apple...tree.

My siblings:
Lisa, my sister, was a high school Spanish teacher for a long time. She is five years older than me, so she must have hit her 20th year of teaching. Now she is the World Languages Coordinator in her district, which is in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
My brother's wife, Cindy, is an ESL teacher in Minneapolis. She's transitioning from elementary to HS this year!

Stephen's parents:
His mom was a FACS teacher. Then she stayed home with the kiddos!
His dad has a doctorate in Music and has been a band director, an education professor, a psychology professor, in charge of student teachers. He's now a chaplain. 

Stephen's oldest brother, Brian, teaches HS Latin (and usually English), in Fargo, ND.
His oldest sister, Leanne, has an ed degree and teaches some early childhood classes.
His second oldest sister, Tricia, has five kiddos and has home schooled all of them at some point. They are currently stationed in Ankara, Turkey.
I teach 7th grade English, and Stephen teaches photography classes at St. Paul College. He is currently getting his master's so he can teach college full time. He's a photographer by day, soon to be art welder/sculptor!
His younger brother, Paul, is married to Anna who taught 2nd and 5th grade and now is a LUCKY elementary librarian in a northern suburb of Mpls.
His younger sister, Bethany, home schools her boys...she has four of them, but only three are school age right now.
Then comes his sister, Jessica, who is a 7th grade Special Education teacher in North Dakota. We will be comparing notes lots this year!
His youngest brother, Marcus, is in med school, and his wife, Stephanie, just graduated with an Art Education degree and then had our newest nephew, Sully!!

What did I tell you? It runs in the blood!! Sam, my 6 year old has been saying for the last three years that he wants to be a teacher...a science teacher currently! And this summer when we were back in Minot, ND, for my 20 yr high school reunion, we went to my mom's old school and were able to get in thanks to some awesome new teachers who were there already working in their classrooms! We went down to my mom's old room, where I spent many a day in the summer helping her (and using her construction paper and stamps, which I loved!!), and took some photos. I'll see if I can link some.

Anyway, I suppose I should stop jabbering. I do want to mention the TpT back to school sale, although for me it's not QUITE back to school yet :) 

All the best to those of you in school already, and let's talk soon! I'm getting the creative flow back and am almost ready to roll!

Happy teaching!

Michelle

And hot dog....I just realized that I can link photos from my phone! Here's a bit of my summer...

Penultimate

You know that anxious feeling...the one before the day of school???  Yep. I knew you did! 

Tomorrow most of Minnesota goes back to school.  The Great Minnesota Get Together (State Fair) has wrapped up, and autumn is on. 

Here are some photos from my room before we launch!

Happy teaching, Michelle :)

Thrifted comic books...can never have too many!

Some monster signs I made to put into the IKEA Tolsby frames :)

My new welcome white board!  6.50 thrifted frame + white board

from Home Depot.  Thanks to my husband!!

My room from the entry

Home Depot aprons as book holders & Tolsby monster signs, too.

Treats at Izzy's in St. Paul before bed time.

Any my 5 yr old starts Kindergarten tomorrow... :)

Hot, Hot, Hot!

So it's crazily hot here in Minneapolis right now. I have to admit I'm in a newer building (built in 1996) that has air, but one of my sisters-in-law teaches elementary ESL in Minneapolis, and they have no air conditioning. "I'm sure it will be an urban fiesta of confusion and heat." She continued, "Enjoy your kid free AC meeting :)."  And I did, but whew...brain overload when you are used to hearing Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom every day instead of tech changes, AVID information, WEB information, union information, and on and on.  Even with the mental shift, it was great to be back!

We got to head to our rooms about 11am, and it was go, go, go of course :)  I missed lunch completely (I think a lot of us did today) and printed out all the things I've been working on.  I'll include it in the photos below.  I also am trying to settle some new pieces of furniture found at either the thrift store or yard sales. Gotta make it welcoming and comfy when you won't be retiring any time soon :)

Here are some of the photos from the day. Thinking of you if you are with kids...I will be soon enough!

Happy teaching!

Michelle

Thomas dancing on the table during one of our last week day lunches together for a while. 

Yes, he was ready to go back to day care ha ha!

All set the night before. Diapers, check!
Final things I had brought home over the summer, check!

A new-to-me side table and ottoman (two of those) from a near-by yard sale. $5 together!

A WHOLE lot of planning, creating, and now teaching :)
The bounty of summer...

Proof that I'm still smiling after my first day back 

and after my husband's and my
5th day of C25K. Remember, it was

upwards of 99 degrees here today

and BALMY!!!

Sticks in the Fire

You ever feel like you have too many sticks in the fire, and it's not even the start of the school year yet?  Do I know who I'm asking?? Of course you do.

The past few days I have found myself jumping around from planning, to creating visuals, to working on our OLWEUS anti-bullying curriculum, to trying to sort files I brought home, to trying to get out the door with my boys before the summer is over, to trying not to feel guilty for working so much right now...and it feels like too many sticks in the fire.  Well, maybe not too many, but a whole lot. 

I keep telling myself that the more I plan and prepare right now, the more smoothly the school year will run, the less stress and anxiety I'll have, the better my students will understand what we are doing.

I've also been trying to finish some visuals and activities because my 7th grade English colleague, Carly (well, she teaches 8th grade English, too), is coming over tomorrow afternoon for a paid half-day of inquiry-based planning.

Which reminds me...we got an email about job openings for ELA: one lead teacher per grade, 6-12, to get extra professional development on inquiry-based teaching and lead the district at pertinent grade level in inquiry-based planning, meetings, etc.

I'm applying!  

It's a stipended position, at about $5000 a year.  Kind of like coaching as I'd have my regular teaching duties (if I were to be hired for it, that is!)  

I'm excited to (apply to) do something for the district.  I'll be starting my 15th year, and I know the 7th grade ELA teachers pretty well--a great group overall. And I've always felt strongly about strengthening the profession, so I think this is a pretty cool opportunity.

Anyway, I am in the midst of working on some more visuals before Carly comes over tomorrow (and during time I can...when the boys are tucked into bed!)  I thought I'd share some posters I just made (well, designed...we will get them printed and laminated at school.) I've also been working to improve the "Seventh Grade" and "Names/Nombres" vocabulary activities as well as create some for a Navy SEALs article we read around September 11th.

To those of you back in workshops or starting with kids this week, I hope all is going well!!  Sorry I missed the blog hop that a lot of you are doing...my room isn't together yet, and I'm still trying to be a mom (mostly!) so I missed the memo and didn't post until today.  I'll try to hop on some of those weekly things (which I love to read about!) sooner than later!

Happy teaching!

Michelle

Below are the new posters I worked on in the last hour.  There is another "Our Purpose" that has "Skills We Are Learning" but it wouldn't load...working on getting Picasa set up as I type :)

 

The Land of...

I live in Minnesota.  The land of 10,000 lakes. The land of 10,000 mosquitoes. The land of 10,000 Target stores!!

My five year old and I ran to Target this morning to grab some milk for breakfast, but of course you can never leave Target without buying more than you came for.  Did you find everything?  Did I find everything?? Need you ask?!  

Sam and I took a little jaunt past the school supplies (after looking at school supplies...), past the home goods, past the clothes, and landed in our destination: The Dollar Spot.  To be fair, he was hungry and getting cranky, and he just wanted to get the remaining things on our list, apples and bananas, and leave.  It was I, horrible shopping Mom, who made him linger in such a tempting place.  He got stickers; I got school stuff.  

I had seen PVC holders for small pocket charts on Pinterest (BTW, I haven't figured out how to do the code right so people can pin photos from my blog.  Any tech help would be welcome!!  I'll Google it, though, too.) But I had never seen the small charts in the Dollar Spot before, and of course I left with a few and maybe have plans to get some more.  At $1, you really can't go wrong. I'm thinking of using them with some sort of connotation/denotation/shades of meaning work for the kids.  I like Jen Jones's ideas here, but I think I may make my own. Any of you have good middle grade uses for mini-pocket charts?

Well, I'll leave you with a photo of my loot from the Dollar Spot.  We did eventually go home, but only after picking up the bananas, apples, and a chocolate cake donut for Sam :) He was happy with that. 

Off to finish cleaning the garage :)

Happy teaching!

Michelle

My "Getting Ready" List

Now is the time of year when my brain starts to flutter.  I think all teacher's brains start to flutter in August.  I told my husband the other day that August is like one big Sunday for me, and he smiled.  Sunday has never been my favorite day.  So much to do...so little time...will I get it all done...will my alarm clock work?

After I thought about it some more, though, I decided that it is really a matter of perspective.  I can either look at August as the last gasp, the last bit of freedom for a long while, the last few weeks of being a full time mama (this one is probably the hardest for me...I LOVE my time with my boys) or I can look at it as a gift.  We still have three full weeks of break left (see....in my head I'm still lamenting that it's oooonly threeeee!) and know what??  In January, three weeks of break would seem like a gift. So there, brain. Please, please, please stay with that thought!

I need to also remember that I love my job, and I love my colleagues.  The beginning of the school year is a gift of new beginnings and a welcomed time to reconnect with colleagues I haven't seen over the summer (I am getting good, however, at playdates with fellow teacher-mamas!) This past school year was the first one ever (in 14 years) where I really, truly heart-missed the ladies I work with.  I mean I've missed colleagues before, but not like this summer. This past year, there was a trio of us who did the main planning for 7th grade English and then my special education co-teacher who I work closely with as well.  One of the trio moved back to Florida, and it was like I had a grade-school friend moving away.  Really.  I'll write a different day about collegial work, though, and about how awesome it is to work on a solid team when you haven't had people to plan with before.  So I also need to remember that I'll have my school support system back, too.

Anyway, when I was out at school the other day, I came across a list that I made several years back re: what I need to do before workshop week.  It looks like this:

At this point I am able to delete a few things, like "ask for wall to be closed" since I'm no longer in Room 250 where we had a collapsible wall between 250 and 251, or "agenda for department meeting" and "make sure tech is set up for department meeting" since I haven't been a department chair in two years, but I'll definitely be adding a few things, too.

I thought I'd write out my list here so I can internalize it and maybe try to get some of these things done before they should be.  It would also be interesting to see what you, lovely blog readers, have on your "super-to-do lists" pre-work!

My giant list of "to do:" 

• Prepare room if possible
• Desk/chair numbers
• Clean up and prepare Moodle page
• Class lists and #s
• MCA score files
• Q Comp goals & meet with peer leader
• Emergency lesson plan
• When is hall duty
• Essential learning poster (purpose poster)
• Find dates of MAP and MCA testing
• Update parent homework
• Update self and class ppt if I am going to use them
• Print homeroom roster
• Print schedule template for homeroom kids
• Print class rosters
• Make seating chart
• Rosters and seating for Robin and for subs
• Copy room sign-outs
• Copy book check-out
• Copy mid-day passes for all months
• Get extra pencils ready
• Get book shelves and displays ready
• Copy out-of-class passes and make sure lanyards are hung up
• Any ELA prof. dev. dates to get subs for?
• Any co-taught prof. dev. dates to get subs for?
• Scholastic online ordering: get ready online
• Scholastic online ordering: make sure to locate catalogs & make parent letter
•  Check on relicensure and how I'm doing on CEUs (good for a while, though!)
• Added: when will Anti-bullying committee meet?
• Added: make packet for 7th grade teachers/students for OLWEUS meetings
• Added: prepare for skit for a-b committee time during workshop week
• Added: get the 17 Chrome Books organized, etc.

The list doesn't include what we need to do (7th grade English teachers) to get ready for the first few days...plans, any supplies, copies, etc. but we have that on a shared doc on Collab, which is our district's Google Docs.

Internalizing......start.  Actually I'm feeling a little overwhelmed after typing that out, but at least I'm overwhelmed at the beginning of August with this list instead of realizing I had the list in October and scrambling to do these things randomly the the last week in August during workshop week. :)

Any tips or things that you get ready in the calm before the storm??

Happy teaching!

Michelle