Sunday blog

Received in the mail Saturday my "contract" letter, the annual communication from the superintendant indicating our salary, our level, our step. In addition, it listed me as "masters plus 30." I set my eyes on this first salary goal early on, religiously taking grad credits each fall, winter, spring and summer semesters, plus whatever in-service credits were available.Initially, it was for salary only, figuring that since I didn't start my career until my 40's, I'd need to move up the salary ladder as quick as possible since 20-odd years goes quickly in many ways. But, as I moved on through the credits, and when I chose classes wisely, I found that I was learning from them as well. After my first year in this position, I also realized that I needed to raise my learning curve quickly. I've done what I've heard my colleagues do; to try to take away one or two things from each teacher course and put it into practice some way. But, I'm also thinking that all those Saturday and Sunday mornings I'd get up early to go to those all day classes, was worth it, when I see my salary increase beyond just the small percentage increase that we all get.

Back in the Saddle Again

Glad I went in yesterday. The school, which was a mess with furniture in all the halls when I was there in July, is all back to together. Joanie and I re-organized the books in her classroom library and as she said, it was a good thing for me to do since now I know what books are there so I can help the kids. Looked over her class list, a good group. Even though my 4th grade colleagues and I made up the class lists in June, we didn't know which teacher would be assigned to which group, the principal has final say, and besides, who remembers who we put with who? June seems a long time ago. Joanie will have 4 of my classified kids which means Fatima will have about 5 plus the two of the"504" kids. I wish the numbers were more balanced between the two classes, but I have limited say. I spent about 3 hours there. Saw one of my students and her mom at the copy machine, saw both of my 4th grade colleagues from last yr who each gave me warm greetings, said hello to the principal, had a chance to hang out with Joanie and talk. We didn't do much "kid" talk, her priority was getting the library in order, so we just talked about "stuff," getting to know eachother a little better than we generally do since I haven't worked that much with her since I got there in 2005. This will be the first time I'm with her as a "real teacher" not a TA. Couldn't stay longer than the 3 hours since I had a doctors appointment. Maybe it was a good thing. My legs were killing me last night, after only 3 hours on my feet, and I even had sneakers on! I better make sure the new shoes I referanced in an earlier blog are comfortable!

Back in the Saddle

Spent today at curriculum planning for the reading/writing program that the district has contracted with for the last 2-3 years. I participitated in it last summer, too, for three days. Luckily, it was only for today since it is a little monotonous. It was planning the first couple of weeks of units, mainly conventions for picking books, how to figure out a "just right" book, what's expected during reading conferances with the teacher. It's really nothing new to the kids, but it of course is aimed to start the year off right. I worked with two of the teachers from my school, one of whom I will be co-teaching with, a "old" pro with 40 years of teaching experience. I had a little trouble at first adding anything of value to the lesson templates we were using, but gradually, as usual, I caught on, and made some decent contributions. Whenever I do something like this, like participating in mentor training last week, it shows me that I have made a lot of progress, and am pulling things together. Joanie asked me if I wanted to meet her at school to help her set things up in the classroom, and of course I want to. It felt good to be asked, maybe I should have asked her?

Took out most of what I had in my credit union account to get me through until pay day. I was hoping I wouldn't have to touch it all, but oh well. That's why I put it aside all these months. Makes me feel good, almost like any pay day (although what I took out is less than half of what my pay check will be), knowing that there's sojme money in the bank, and that there's more money again in just two weeks. And it will be that way, barring any catastrophe, for the next ten months.

All in all a good day. It gave me a chance to see the first month of the reading units, helped Joanie see that I'm not a total idiot, got paid for the days work, and put money in the bank. I'm now at that point, I'm ready for school to begin.

Conspicuous consumer blog

Things I want to buy once the paychecks start coming in again, in no particular order:

a new mattress-current one is at least 10 years old and is shaped like a canoe. Actually, this is my #1 need, but will wait until around Veteran's Day sales

a digital voice recorder- no real reason why, other than my old one uses a tape that is wearing out.

a new answering machine- the one I have isn't old, but it's cheap and it acts that way

high speed internet connection- my dial up has been fine for the last 10 years, but it's time to upgrade

healthy food- down to my "hot dog" budget this late in the summer. Last year at this time, it was the PB&J budget. Equally cheap and equally unhealthy

new clothes- my other clothes are kind of cheap and I've been wearing them over and over

new shoes- see above

September 11 isn't a happy date, but the paychecks resume then.

Planning...finally

I finally today typed out some student rubrics I made up late in June. They are 4-6 questions aimed at helping my students think about how they are doing. It was a goal of mine last year to do more "metacognition" with them, but I hadn't figured out how to put it into practice beyond posing the stated goal at the start of lessons and at the lesson wrap-up. Late in the year (that's the weird and wonderful part of being a new teacher; wisdom evolves at its own time) I tried a rubric with some of my students in the last couple of weeks of school that was about their preparedness for learning and they seemed to like it. The great thing about this upcoming year is that I will be "looping" with my 4th grade students, that is being the inclusion teacher for them in the 5th grade. This works out great since I know them so well and so can hit the ground running. Since I did half day in the 5th grade two years ago, I know the curriculum so I know what they will need to know. I also know that as learning disabled students, they often are too passive, just waiting for the information to come at them, much of which does not stick easily. So, if they are thinking about whether or not they are ready to learn--do I have the materials I need, am I focused on the person talking, are my hands, feet and mouth quiet (yes or I can do better at this). The other rubric I will use after the first couple of weeks of school is "how can I show that I understand?"-my practice work is correct, my teacher said/wrote that my work is good, I could answer questions even if my teacher didn't call on me. I think all kids need to be more involved in their own learning, but this approach is especially true for LD kids, especially now that they are in 5th grade and more and more, they will need to be self problem solvers in and out of class.
I will also use "incentive pads" this year. They will earn stickers leading up to a prize for things like thinking outside the box, making connections between what they're being taught to something they already know, etc. Not for behavior though, which is often how incentive pads are used. When they are in small group instruction with me, good behavior is expected. Are they always good, "nah," but that will still be the expected norm and it can be acknowledged, but not rewarded.

No Swag for Teacher

The swag bag will have to remain a mystery. I figured that there would be a required amount that I would need to spend to get the Staples gift bag, and I was right--it was $25. Much of the stuff I'd need from office stores, I already ordered through the money that was budgeted to me for the upcoming year. I suppose that I could have rounded up $25 bucks worth of stuff to get the gift bag, but it's that tough part of the summer when most of the money I'd put aside in two dedicated "summer survival" bank accounts is down pretty low. As it is, the rent will have to wait until the first paycheck on the 11th, ten days late. So many people think that teachers get paid all year, but why would we, we only work 10 months. Some teachers have their paychecks re-budgeted so that they get a large lump sum at the end of June, I decided to have money taken out of each paycheck automatically, and I did pretty well with that. Next year, I'll have more money for the summer since I only had two survival accounts going since November, and did not increase the amount taken out for the credit union account until March. This year, they will both be up and running from the first paycheck on. I'll also be making a good amount more this year, having reached 30 post master's credits. So, it's all good, it's just hard and annoying watching every buck like a miser. Good for the character, I guess, and all in all, it beats those bad years of unemployment by far. So I'll be ok, swag bag or not.

Staples

What is it about free stuff that you might not even need? Why, it's free of course. Today is teacher appreciation day at Staples, apparently they have one every year. I'm assuming there's a discount, or just what they advertise as a "gift bag" for the first 100 teachers who show up. We know that all those worthless Hollywood stars get gift bags full of ridiculously expensive stuff. What would be in teachers' "swag bags?" Pencils, post-it notes, and who can ever have enough of those? Still, I'm curious (not to mention a hypocrite) and well, I am out of printer paper, and could use an 11 X 17 white board since I will be in two classes this year and don't want to carry the one I have from one classroom to the other, and they're selling it for $5. So, I'll show my teacher ID badge, and post-it notes, you're all mine.

Why this blog?

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the movie, "Julie and Julia." The reviews are correct, I would have been happier with just the "Julia" part, but so be it. The "Julie" part was a about a woman who blogged about doing all the recipes in a Julia Child cookbook in one year's time. A part of me thinks that blogging is dumb---who really cares what anyone has to say? Isn't it just 21st century self-absorbtion? The other part of me is this: I keep a non-online journal about nothing specific-just thoughts, books I've read, etc, so why not try on an on-line journal about something specific, in this case, the upcoming school year? Who knows, maybe I'll get some feedback for this blog, which I don't get (or need or desire) for my off-line journal. But that goes back to my original thought about blogging--who really cares what I have to say?

Blog#1

I think a lot of teachers feel as I do--that there's a point in August when we're ready to go back. That point hasn't hit me yet. I did go to Laskeshore today (the "teacher store")to pick up a lesson plan book and while doing so, another teacher came up to me to do the same, she asked, "it's sad isn't?" meaning that summer's almost over. Yes and no. I always look forward to September 1st even though it's still summer-time hot in the suburbs of NY where I live and work. I think it's a throw back to when I was a school loving kid. Anyway, I'm not excited to go back in a couple of weeks, but I will be. It will be an interesting year--the big tenure year for me. This excites me not so much that it means more job security, but rather, after a mid-life career change, two years underemployed and underpaid as a teaching assistant, and my disasterous first year in my master's level position, the one I'm in now, it will feel like a proud accomplishment. A lot to get through the next ten months, it's a long way off, but the journey begins with a single blogging step.