Dear world,

In response to our never-ending difficulties w/ the edublogs site, we’ve decided to move. Posts will continue here:

supteach.blogspot.com

This works well since blogspot is our natural blogging habitat. Many contributors have pledged to update more frequently now that the switch is complete. We’ve appreciated your feedback, comments, subscriptions, and support; and we hope all those who fell in love w/ this site once before may do so again at our new home.

See you there!

Sincerely,

The ST? Crew.

Students cough death left and right. Left and right. Noses blown. Tissue containers (provided by my own budget) vanish daily.

But learning… must. go. on.

Aaaand, I think I should either eat more oranges or buy myself a box of emergen-c.

Or get more rest, or take less stress.

–

(Before 1st period)

Me: “N, I think you got me sick” (sneezes. blows nose)

N: “Well it ain’t my fault. I didn’t wanna come. Blame grandma.”

I’ve aged three for every night, my kids wallow in grammar worksheets and Science outlines
history texts and 8am wrecks
math problems and home problems
vocab activities and 2:20 revelries (unless you got detention, then it’s 3:20 ya dig?)
fractions and inverse reactions and shoes so poor they lack traction
SSR and two tone cars and “I wanna learn but it’s just, so , hard..”
Yet every morning they’re there
So Iam there…
and every morning their eyes are weak and their heads are meak
and my eyes are wide and my head is high
’cause I gotta get em going
even if Iam barely
and I gotta get ‘em learning
even if I am reaching
and who cares if their running
I still gotta be teaching.

OK so I am going to try to make this a more regular thing.

I teach 7th grade near downtown Oakland, all inclusive, 6 hours a day 5 days a week ( plus two hours a day tutoring) with 26 12-14 year olds…then 2-3 hours a night plus weekends…can ya dig? Ofcourse you can, did I forget where I was blogging? Thanks to Mr. G for getting me going, I swear this will not be the last of mistermaestro…  

I, Ms. R, am guilty of not blogging in a really long time. Thank you for the push, Mr. G! The biggest reason I haven’t written anything is because student-teaching and classes have been kicking my butt… with a steel toe boot. We’re all busy though, especially this time of year. (I’d just like to add that 70 degree weather in December doesn’t feel right. Boooo global warming. Booooo.)

I’m also guilty of wanting to post but deciding not to. Sometimes I start to feel that its not profound/inspiring/revolutionary enough. I’m very thankful for our readers (hi guys!), but sometimes I do feel the pressure to make every post AWESOME. I don’t know how that happened. Its not like people are saying “Hey, every post you write must change someone’s life.” I gotta throw that mindset out the door. I’m just here to share my adventure, so profound/inspiring/revolutionary or not, that’s what I’ll do

Speaking of Halloween…I think I may have found my costume for this year.

Student 1: No offense Miss S., but you really remind me of Velma from the Scooby Doo movie. You know, the really nerdy one who always wears an orange sweater?

Me: …Thanks…

Student 2: Shut up! Don’t say that to her!

Student 1: What?! She’s not mad!

Wow. What a character to be compared to. The sad thing is…he is so right.

Unfortunately, the New York City Department of Education FORBIDS dressing up on Halloween. So I’m just going to come in subtly dressed as Sarah Palin, AND I’m going to pass out candy. I wonder if anyone will notice the costume part.

Are you going to be festive this Friday and dress up for Halloween at school and pass out candy?

This is my first holiday during a school day. What other fun things can I do in class instead of teach a boring lesson on author’s purpose?

“She mad beastin’.”

Finally! I was starting to feel left out

a majority of my students were bombing their math diagnostics on fundamentals (adding, subtraction, multiplication, division) the first two weeks of class, despite being promoted from algebra into geometry.  i looked at their old grades and they all passed “algebra.”  initially i assumed, “damn it, their old teacher was passing them just to pass them along and get them out of her hair.”  however, i realized that during the summer a lot of information they learned last year was forgotten and replaced with things beyond their old teacher’s control.  i’m giving them the opportunity to review old material before moving into new concepts and it’s tough.  everyday for the past 3 weeks, i’ve had to juggle between “Mr. S, this stuff is way too _________ hard, ________!” and “this is stupidass baby work. why the ________ we doing this _________?! we did this ____ ______last year with such-and-such”  (feel free to mad-lib this with your own profanity, chances are, you’re right)

summer break is definitely a gift and a curse…a curse for classroom progress.  it’s like pressing reset on the old, memorycard-less Nintendo and having to start super mario bros. 1 all the way from the beginning before you can even think about messing with king koopa.

king koopa = the CAHSEE

Oh and this is beside the point, but eating in the teacher/staff room is so weird. I feel like I should be playing 4-square outside…

I knew these first few weeks would require sacrifice, and resolve to sacrifice my life to get this year started off right is precisely what I decided to do. But I didn’t expect this:

100+ teachers, members of the administrative team, support staff, custodians, 2000+ students step onto campus daily, yet for the past two, I’ve been the last to leave.