Away We Go!

Where did the week go?  Normally the first week takes its time but it's been going so fast that I still think I have two more days.  Perhaps it is my schedule but the day is over faster than it normally goes.  I have also for the most part been pleasantly surprised by some of my students.  Especially my new third graders who were terrors in second grade.  The usual suspects in 4th and 5th grade are beginning to stir the pot but I'm so hoping that the good ones get a bit braver and don't let those few derail their fun in my class

For the moment my goal of being calm has been going well.  Moving the kids towards being independent musicians is one that has to happen for my sanity and so they can feel like they are accomplishing something.

My favorite group is one of my third grade groups which I was not expecting at all.  A few of the boys are actually trying really hard this time and the girls remain awesome.  They are all willing to work together and laugh when I give them a hard time about not wanting to hold hands and then proceed to hold hands as if to show me they aren't that grossed out by it.  Even the wiggliest child I have ever encountered ever is behaving.  They just seem excited to be there which makes me happy.  And they come right in the middle of my day and it gives me enough energy to finish the day.

On a planning note, my store has been blowing up which still leaves me completely humbled that I plan good stuff for my kids and it's helpful to others.  TpT had a great back to school sale and will be putting on another sale next week! My store is 20% off that day plus extra savings using the promo code BOOST

Happy Back to School!

TpT Sale

Sorry for the late post on this.

I had my first development day today and it was a busy one.

I have a 20% off sale going on now and then take an additional 10% off by using the code BTS14

Some New Things

This will be a quick one today:

Check out my TpT store for new anchor charts for the classroom, with more on the way as I get them together

The End of Summer: Reflection

Where did the time go?  I hate that even with a longer break it still feels like I need more time.

I spent most of June resting after delivering my son and coming to terms with losing him. There is a lot that will remain unanswered but the confidence of my doctors that something like this will not happen again has calmed my mind.  My body has healed and the rest of it will come together eventually.

A lot of my mentality at the beginning of the summer has remained.  Call it a delayed 7-year itch as I start year 8 of teaching.  It just wasn't the best experience I could have had with my students last year...all personal things aside, I've lost a lot of inspiration.  Somehow I'll find a way but I don't know how.  Building a music program isn't easy, and I'm beginning to wonder how long it will actually take to do so.

This is the first year that I'll not have to do any drastic revisions to make to my planning which takes a ton of stress off of me.  I want to be calmer this year and be able to get my students working at an independent level on just about everything.  That is going to take a lot on my end but I'm determined to make it happen.

Definitely one of my more disjointed posts.  I think with so much to prep for and so much that I have been absorbing over the summer my mind is definitely thinking about too much all at once. I have one week of freedom left and I hope as the year starts up I can maintain calmer composure for the sake of my own health in making decisions on where my future in education lies and the challenges I will face in my personal life.

Start of Summer: Reflection

I try to keep my posts strictly focused on my teaching and the ups and down of teaching "at risk" kids in a poor urban environment. But in the two weeks since the kids left for summer vacation so much has happened to me personally that I never imagined would impact my teaching so much.

My husband and I through the entire second half of the school year were nervously waiting out the outcome of my pregnancy that we kept fairly quiet because of all the risks involved with my infertility. We made it to 21 weeks with no alarming problems and getting ready to share the news with our friends and family. But we had to share it in the most devastating way. On the last day of school as I was getting ready for my classes my water broke. When I got to the ER the doctors discovered all my fluid was gone and there was not much they could do to help my son. Saturday night our son was born after I developed an infection and labor started on its own. At 21 weeks he was not viable and died very quickly.  I'll probably never know why this happened and that is the hardest part for me.

It has been a week since we lost our son and I find myself in a strange place as a teacher.

Unmotivated.

I was on a roll getting everything ready for a long-term sub and an easy-going two months when school started up again. It was important for me to go back for our professional development last week just to keep my mind occupied and not pine over the why's of losing my son. But even around my coworkers who have been so supportive my mindset remained the same.

Unmotivated.

It does not just come from losing my baby, from the let down after so much excitement, it comes from my last experiences with my students. They did not know I was pregnant and even if they did I did not tell them because it's not their business, but regardless, I struggled in teaching them well and their lack of motivation to try their best and demonstrate things independently drained me. I push them to be successful but when I had to step back and have them show me they could do things independently they shut down. From the little kids to the 8th graders,  it was completely ridiculous. Having to step away and say they were on their own was hard for me because surprisingly I do care about their learning even when it doesn't seem that way. But after the last 5 months of school I was mentally and physically drained; I think that would have happened pregnant or not.

So here is my summer drastically disrupted and here I am a teacher forever changed by personal tragedy.  The planning still needs to get done, but I am not as excited about it. No sense of urgency.  Before my mindset was "I have to get this done so I have less to worry about" and it should still be that way  but for some reason it isn't.

I don't know what to do with myself personally or professionally. My jobs demands a lot of me and I've always held some guilt about taking days off but there is a new amount of apathy in me that first tells me to take care of myself.  Also, coming up on my 4th year teaching in the same school it's time for the kids to be more independent in performing music. I haven't always done the best I could but just as they continue to learn, so do I.

After everything that has happened in the last two weeks I've been forced to reevaluate my career. More so, what else could I do? That is my big conflict after almost 8 years teaching, going back to school is not an option and I don't know what my other options are.

I hope that as I continue to heal mentally and physically more will become clear to me as to what I'm supposed to be doing. Until then, I sit in silent contemplation staring at my unit plans.....

I tried...

With all my best intentions to document my experience teaching my 8th graders Hip-Hop history, the chaos of the end of the year has come upon us.  My students were in Chicago last week and even knowing that I though I'd have enough time to get through everything and then some.

Enter spring weather in Colorado:  Two tornado warnings over the last two days.  We were in shelter in place for 45 minutes max which lost me time with both 8th grade classes.  And an awards ceremony at the end of the day so I lose my class time with both classes again!  ::headdesk::.  Today I forgot about their health classes so that leaves me two days to cram in a lesson that normally takes two days plus review.  I'm so overwhelmed and sad that this was a great class to teach Hip-Hop to and they didn't get the full benefit. I think they have the core of what I was trying to get across but just not the full effect.

To add to the chaos, our testing days were changed which cut my unit down and instead of testing my kids at the beginning of the final week they have to take their summatives next week!  Which means for my 8th graders, cutting out some of the artists I wanted to talk about and that they were eager to learn about, and also their final collage will have to just be an essay so I can get their grades in on time.  OMG!!!

And overall some of the kids' disinterest in doing anything these last 3 weeks has been incredibly tedious and frustrating, to the point I have been telling them that if they're not asking questions, making an effort, or participating in class, then there isn't much I can do to help them do well on their summatives or have more musical success.  I hate saying that but what else can I do?  Every person in this building wants to be done with the year but it seems that only the teachers get that the work continues.  I can't fix a lack of effort.

We all are feeling it now as we are now down to 9 days left.

Tired of Being Sick, Sick of Being Tired

I've dropped the ball on documenting the progress the 8th graders are making in their Hip-Hop studies and almost missed a TpT sale going on right now thanks to a weird virus / upper respiratory infection / plague the kids gave me

I hate when I can't do anything which is what's been going on the last few days.  Hopefully I'll get everything back on track soon.

On the TpT side of things, it's teacher appreciation week and there is a special sale going on and I've discounted my store an additional 20%!  Go check it out!

Hip-Hop: Day 1

My 8th graders have been waiting to have this unit with me since they were in 6th grade.  I'm sure some have forgotten and some have been indifferent about the whole thing.

This year they will definitely need to be more involved.  I finally got a decent workbook put together with hopefully some challenging

The first step to teaching Hip-Hop is to be transparent.  I let the kids know that this unit goes beyond just listening to current music and talking about how it sounds.  When diving into where Hip-Hop came from and what life was like for the people who created it.  This is the side of Hip-Hop that most people don't know about.  Even my husband, who was very into Hip-Hop as a teenager had no clue what I was talking about.

So I pose a simple question to my students:

Their answer lets me know it's a blank slate.  Most of them said that Hip-Hop is music, a genre of music and they are not wrong, and it is probably how most people think of it.  

I then posed another question:  what is Hip-Hop music about?

And again they all agreed that yes, Hip-Hop was about a lot of those things.  Why? Because this is what they hear from the music on the radio.  We then proceeded to fill out a K-W-L chart on their ideas about Hip-Hop and what they hope to learn in this unit.  Like typical 8th graders they have a million questions and class can derail quite easily even with just 15 of them in each class

The only setback I have for them is their think project, to create a visual representation about what Hip-Hop is to them.  Because of our schedule I have to fit 6 weeks of material into 5 weeks...well actually 4 because they have a week-long trip to Chicago, but it's all do-able.  They will have to learn how to complete an assignment that can't be worked on in class because they will encounter that in high school.

My hope as we get into the details of the world surrounding Hip-Hop, the kids will begin to realize there is a lot more to this music than they ever imagined.

Ready, Set....Hip-Hop!

It has finally begun! The books are ready, PowerPoints almost set, and videos cued up; I've been looking forward to this unit all year.

This is the most prepared and informed about Hip-Hop music I've been since my 5th graders (now 11th graders) asked to learn about the genre 7 years ago.  But even so I'm always nervous to start the unit because as much as I think I know how my kids will react to the content.  Some are ready for the more adult content while some are still very immature.

I'm fighting a weird head cold so I wish I was more on my game but the first week into the kids rotating electives is always a bit shaky and the kids know to give me this first week to ease into having them back and from then on it's easy to get through each day.