Hedgetoad Teaching

Nine days left for Seniors! This year I finally remembered that I don't like grading final papers or extensive projects that require a lot of reading. It's only taken five years, but I did learn! Instead, my sophomores are creating newspapers devoted to Julius Casear. News articles are short and easy to read. Also, those who are creative (or desperately need an A) can be quite entertaining and fun to read. I've done this project before with Romeo and Juliet - some of the want-ads the students came up with were quite amusing and showed that they had picked up more details that I had thought.   AP Language students are creating games based on Catcher in the Rye. This is a class that will be very creative. Previously, I had done this with the Crucible and ended up with a CandyLand version of the going through the play, complete with "evil fungal bread" trying to over power "Wonder Bread" and cards that stopped players for a turn by saying that they had ...

By the end of the week, I should know what will happen with RtI next year. Whether or not we will be having reading and math intervention classes, whether or not we will have money for materials and hopefully, who will be teaching the courses. Hopefully, this year we will have someone before school starts so that we can come up with a curriculum before school starts rather than when school starts. (always a good idea) Cross your fingers for us. My AP students took their tests and AP Lang reported that it was "easy" and they "knew a lot more than they thought they knew"... I'm hoping that means I've found a sweet spot for getting the information into their brains and helped them find ways to process. The proof will be the scores. Who knows about the AP Lit? They were all thrilled that the Heart of Darkness was on the open prompt as we had just finished reading it. But they all felt weak on Literary terminology. If you're going to an AP conference this sum...

Ever sign up to do a project (perhaps even be responsible for it...) and then find out who you would be working with? And think "oh shit!"? Yah. And how diplomatic can you be as you back-peddle away real fast because the handwriting on the wall says the only way it will end up is FUBAR for you? Lord-luv-a-duck, summer cannot come soon enough.

I have to make a decision as to whether I should go on with the National Boards process. I did not receive a scholarship from the state to pay for a portion of the cost and I really DO NOT want to take out the proffered loan from the state to pay the tuition fee. I could take the money from my emergency fund and hope that I don't actually have an emergency over the next year or so. My other option is complete the pro-cert program in the fall. My certificate is due to expire next June, so I have to do something and the pro-cert program has changed to where I can simply take the culminating seminar and be done with it. Although it takes some work, it isn't nearly as taxing as doing National Boards and I would virtually be guaranteed to pass. There are so many things outside of teaching going on in my life, perhaps a break may be something to get me back on track. National Board certification has around a 40%(?) passing rate. Did I mention it would cost a fourth of National Board...

The deadline for RIF notifcation passed on Friday without any notices for me. At least I don't think there were any... I spent the day at a RtI training in Olympia, so I suppose that there could be a notice sitting in my school mailbox. But collegues at the training told me that teachers were notified on Thursday at their school, I'm assuming that I'm in the clear for the moment. There are exactly 6 weeks of school left. Next Friday is the first AP test. The WASL is over. I don't think I've ever been more ready to be done with school than this year. It's been a very reflective year for me, which I haven't really written about here (or any where, for that matter). There are a lot things that I need to change for myself, my sanity and my students, but I'm not sure if there is enough time to really make an effective change this year. It does look like my summer of planning is going to be a reality as summer school seems not have made the budget. I really wo...