Hedgetoad Teaching

This weekend I attended a workshop with Jim Burke . If you get the chance to go, definately go! Completely worth the $$$, lots of information and ideas... and he's hysterical! I can see why students would want to work for him!

It's strange - I actually feel like a more well-rounded person with all sorts of responsibilities and plans for my house. I don't even feel guilty for not doing anything to do with school for last 48 hours. I spent the weekend painting the kitchen walls and covering the hideousness that was the blue counter top from hell. At first the green wasn't quite... well, it wasn't working for me. But I forged on and it grew on me. I was really surprised how well the counters turned out, especially given their former state. As you can see from the photo below, it was stained, cracking and generally spending a lot of time as a bacteria factory. Removing the switch plates revealed much crusty-dirty something. I decided that it wasn't worth dwelling upon. Would you believe it's vinyl peel-n-stick tile? I've read about it being done a few places on HGTV and one of my cousins said his kitchen counters were vinyl tiled and it seemed to work. As soon as all the little awkwar...

A collegue described this activity to me... I'm still looking for the right moment to use it. Slide-Show In a group, students choose the key moments in a story that can be used to describe the story. The group then plans out a group "snap-shot" position to illustrate each key moment. The group then gets up in front of the class. The teacher instructs the rest of the class (audience) to close their eyes. The performing group gets into position to illustration the first key moment. The audience is then instructed to open their eyes for approx. 40 seconds and then close them again. The performing group then arranges themselves to illustrate the next key moment. The audience then opens their eyes to view the new position and so on, until the story is told. It sounds like great fun and something that could be the most hysterical event of the day.

As part of my quest to make Shakespeare the coolest thing since sliced bread... I taught my students how to do the Pavane . When Romeo first sees Juliet, they're at her family's annual fest. Everyone is dancing except for Romeo, until he sees Juliet. Then he rushes out to get near her. Usually, this scene is portrayed as Romeo and Juliet dancing, ultimately moving to dance with each other. However, this concept is a little hard to understand while reading the play, especially by today's students. They also have a hard time grasping the concept of dancing without a lot of touching or grinding. Dancing the Pavane, makes the concept a little more real to them. Plus it's not sitting and reading, which always a favorite of every student.

The kid who seems to delight in calling everyone "fag," "faggot" or "Queer" for 20 minutes straight or the kid who yells at "fuck you!" Me too. What was surprising was the number of students who were shocked as to which one went to office. In covering a class for another teacher, Mr. F-U wrote a 5 paragraph essay on why he was not participating in the class. The assignment for the class was to answer 6 questions out of the book... guess which one was more work? The essay was really entertaining though.

Earlier this year, a student tried to bribe me for a passing a grade. He did it front of a room full of witnesses, so I wasn't taking it all that seriously. I told him if he gave me an pack of Seattle's Best French Roast. Monday, he brought it to class - presenting it to me in front of the class. It's still sitting on my desk. Staring at me. Is it a bribe? Knowing that I wouldn't trade a grade for coffee... even for a favorite. Is it a gift, given under the guise of pretending to bribe the teacher? I have a feeling that this sack of coffee beans is going to be sitting on my desk for the rest of my teaching career. A silent warning to watch what I say, because you never know what the students will take seriously.

As promised, the completed cabinets full of dishes. One thing I hadn't thought about before putting stuff away was the color balance. How to balance the copper with silver and the lilac colored mugs. I ended up putting a antique tea tin between the white corian dishes - it was too much unbroken white. Not the ordinary thing one thinks about when arranging cupboards. Before taking off all the doors, this corner blocked out all the light from the sliding door and the view into the dining area. You felt clostrophobic standing in the kitchen, with your back to the open. Without even painting the cupboards a lighter color, it felt more open without the doors on - however, I'm still mulling over their complete removal. On this side, I arragned the clear crystal dishes and glasses I received from my Grandmother. No blocking of light, and keeps that open feeling. Now on to the next question... What to do with the counter tops? Not only are they ugly, blue and hiddeously stained, but th...

Finally sitting in my house, just hanging out. For the past 4 days I've been painting, unpacking, arranging and winding my way around a multitude of boxes. Before unpacking anything, it seemed more prudent to start all of the painting. ( for all those who said "paint is cheap!", it's not) . I removed the 1950's style cabinet doors. I like wood, but this is too yellow. Refinishing may come later, but for now it's too much work. After painting the insides, (make sure that Kilz is oil based!) we put away the dishes. I'm hoping to get the counter covered this weekend and will post a completed photo then. At some point, the walls will be painted a light green color to give some color to the room. The bedroom was light chocolate color - kinda like hot chocolate... but way to dark for a room with only small high windows. It definately had a cave like atmosphere. The focal wall is painted "Asparagus," the other three walls are painted "Wild Honey...

still moving - computer just hooked up. Now I just have to pay for it.

As with most homeless people... I'm at the library using their internet connection. It's possible that I might have one on the 8th, but then again, anything is possible. It's the probablity that gets to you. Even though all the papers were signed on Friday - after business hours by the sellers, thank you very much - they refused to let me in early. My reply could only be "fuck you very much." Needless to say, come Monday one employee of the school district will begin to gain the reputation as selfish bitch... and for once, it won't be me. When will I actually move in? No idea. I certainly can't believe anything that anyone tells me because as mentioned before, the entire financial business sector is apparently filled with vengeful, unprofessional children. And they wonder why no one will come to their birthday parties.

stolen from the reflective teacher , who in turn stole from posthipchick . What My Students Have Learned This Year 1. Housebuying takes a really long time. 2. Vinyl siding will take the fun out of egging a teacher's house. 3. Shakespeare tells lots of dirty jokes. 4. Censorship could lead to nuclear war. 5. You can change the meaning of what writing simply by changing the punctuation. 6. English teachers have a lot of grammar jokes 7. We can pass the WASL! 8. WASL writing is very simplistic. 9. Sometimes poems have dirty words in them, but I need a note from home to check out the book that contains those poems. 10. There are consequences for every action, no matter who I am. 11. I can't pass if I don't turn in the work. 12. Pre-writing is essential 13. Teacher just might have a myspace page. 14. If you tell your teacher how horrible your life is, she'll probably let you turn the assignment in late. 15. English teachers think grammar jokes are funny. 16. My english teach...

I think rule number one of buying a house should be "believe no one - they're all liars." As of Sunday night, I will be homeless because my Mortgage company has basically lied since day one. All month long I've heard it will be " done " by the end of the month... I'm not sure what they believe the word done means, but is not the dictionary definition . BTW, it will not be done before the end of the month and I doubt it will be done with in the next week. Stupid me believed these ejits ( National City Mortgage - YOU SUCK!) and scheduled my move out date for this weekend. I believed I had given myself a cushin of movement... after all, it will be the beginning of April... but alas it is not. These ejits ( National City Mortgage - YOU SUCK!) have given me every excuse known. Besides the usual, lost paper work and non-reply of various information sources, I was a victim of a fallen crane . Additionally, the entire banking system is populated with unprofe...

Assorted Stuff put up a post discussing the removal of electives for students who aren't passing their standardized tests. As happenstance, my meeting tomorrow is about designing the new "English Lab" courses for those students who didn't pass the WASL this year... or in 7th grade, if they haven't taken the 10th grade test yet. Not only will our students loose their summer for remedial classes, but it is very likely that we have sophomores who are only taking english, math and science courses next year. Basically, the student schedule would look something along the lines of: English 10 English Lab Math 10 Math Lab Biology English 9 or Math 9 make-up If it wasn't for the science WASL, that might be dropped as well. Some have advocated that students be given core credit for the lab classes - although others have said "what happens when the student is senior and has already recieved all of their english credits? Do they bail on Senior English?" Of co...

Now that the reading/writing testing is over, we're steaming full ahead for 2006-2007. Yes, I'm still trying to figure out how to cram everything I need to teach into the remaing school days and, yet, here we are planning for the coming year. Attending meetings that take me out of the classroom. To discuss what we're going to do with students who didn't seem to learn anything this year. Probably because of all the meetings I had to attend during the school day, while the world's most worthless sub sits reading her novel in my classroom. (Seriously - the building would burn down around this woman and she wouldn't have a clue) What a crock! On the housing side, I'll probably be homeless next weekend. Apparently, it was extremely hard to verify my employment. My guess is that our techno-phobic district office just couldn't figure out how to use those new fangled phones or fax machines. If I had known a paper needed to be filled out, I would have done it mys...

trying to take a nap , originally uploaded by Hedgetoad . I spoke with the mortgage company today about the progress of my loan. There isn't any. In fact, despite sitting on someone's desk since Monday morning, no one has bothered to even look at the paperwork until receiving a phone call this afternoon. Perhaps more information will be available tomorrow. It's taking all of my self control not to pull my hair out. Apparently, my students aren't the laziest people in the state. I'm calling again during MY lunch. (thanks to early start times, school lunch is at 11 am) Maybe being a nag IS the only way to get anything done these days.

Keavy , originally uploaded by Hedgetoad . Keavy. All that love and trust, asking "When are we going out?" All this week I've been very tired. Why? 5AM walks. 3PM runs. 7PM walks. 10PM walks. I'm good for about a walk a day - 4 mile long walks are killing me. For Bloomsday training, I'm right on schedule. On the plus side, I'm becoming more organized. You can't suddenly put a 4 walks into your day and not have to push something out. Like planning your day at 5AM. No more last minute searching for a cool activity. No more washing the previous nights dishes before school. Only a couple more days in the apartment. Then it's fenced backyard all the way!

In November, I was very focused on house hunting and felt that I was moving away from education in the blog... so I split into two blogs. This one was to remain focused on education and the other was more focused on personal things. What they evolved into was something that was only partially satisfying. For me, being a teacher involves my personal life. They overlap. My students have gotten the blow by blow story of house buying through my my purchase. It came as quite a shock that buying a house is not like buying a lamp or a car - one cannot walk in with a check and walk out with the keys, at least not if the buyer is an average citizen. My students remembered that I participate in Bloomsday ( 49 days to go !) and am some sort of marathan walker. Not really, but the fact that I would purposely walk 7.5 miles for an ugly T-shirt is something really intersting. At the same time, I can tell you who made their own prom dress and which kid will probably give you their really cool artwo...

While packing the kitchen, I've discovered that I currently own 18 wine glasses. I also have a large box in my trunk that may contain more (xmas gift that I never opened since I have no storage). For some reason, I keep getting wine glasses as gifts for every occassion. As a result, I either throw a large party or go on a wine drinking binge for a long time. First on the list to buy for the new house... shelving for all the glasses. After long discussions about choosing a moving date, I'm planning on April 1st, but hoping for an April Fool's joke and move the previous weekend. I'd really like to be out of my apartment before the first of the month... even though having Spring Break open to paint would be nice, I just want this move over with. Actually, I'd like the whole house buying thing over with.

One positive note about WASL testing - since I cannot talk to any of my students about the WASL or anything about reading and writing, I'm learning a lot of interesting things about my students... One of my students is engaged to Jessica Alba . We discovered this while discussing the merits of body shapers and how everyone wears them with formal dresses - except the Las Vegas hooker dresses, which (hot tip) no one should ever wear to a prom. Even Jessica Alba wears a body shaper, or probably does. None of us actually own X-ray glasses so really only her fiance knows... and he wouldn't comment. We also had a long discussion on the proper way to hem something and whether you could just use a serger along the edges. Quite a few students sew most of their formal wear! We ended the day with a discussion of the proper way to introduce a fish into it's new home, what kind of accessories are needed and how advice from Wal-Mart staff is not be trusted. (there was a side conversat...

I started reading Gap Creek today - it may become one of my new favorite books! Usually I'm not a huge fan of Orpah Book Club books. I know everyone is always proclaiming the book they read was life altering, hugely introspective and the greatest thing since sliced bread. Personally, I was raised on Trixie Belden and Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, so my tastes are a little off. The first chapter describes the death of the main character's young brother in horrifying, yet fascinating detail. There's no way to put the book down for that entire chapter, and after that the reader is hooked. I think I'll have to do a "book talk" when I'm finsihed.