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!