The Continent Cake

I did not utilize my usual care and patience with this cake, to my shame. This is my last cake to rewards my students for being excellent during the 8th grade testing.

Due to other commitments, I had to do this cake in one night. I was up until 12:30 am. Thank goodness it's Friday. I hope it is a semi-reasonable facsimile of Asia.

The Taj Mahal

My 5th period class rose to my challenge of staying quiet while the 8th graders tested, and it was a challenge for them. They also earned a cake. They chose triple chocolate cake and asked me to make the Taj Mahal, so with icing and my limited skills I did.

An Update

Sometimes is stinks to only have a camera phone. Hard to adjust to the natural lighting of a room. I'm finally able to work on the finishing touches such as the outlines and French Knots. I have to go get some more of color #3371, I ran out yesterday. Then I can match a fabric to make the back out of and use my machine to sew it up.

School is going well, both work and studying. I finished my GRE last week, now I don't have to worry about getting kicked out of grad school. I've almost successfully given up soda. They re-shingled our roof over the break as well, by the end of this week, there will be no more blue tarps on the top of the apartment complex.

Overall, the last couple of weeks have been good.

A General Update

As you may have noticed, I've not been good about updating my stocking progress every Saturday. I think I'm going to have to be less ambitious with that. Life has been very busy. I am still teaching full time, tutoring online on the weekends, taking the kid to horseback riding lessons. I'm also running a book discussion group and maintaining web groups for it.

Starting on the 24th, I will be returning to school as a student. I will begin working for my masters in Educational Technology. It will take 18 months to complete the program. I am excited and a little nervous as well. It's been a long time since I was in school, and I was only working part time before. This will also be the first time I'm taking an online class. There is a test that I have to take before I'm done with 6 hours of course work, as well.

I guess this will be a situation that will force me to get organized and not procrastinate. It will offer me the opportunity to improve my education and give me an opportunity for self-improvement. This degree will help my family be more financially stable, make me more marketable at a teacher, and allow me more career choices in the future. So if my infrequent posts become more erratic than normal, do not despair.

A Reward for My Class

I've found that positive reinforcement, aka bribery, is often very effective when it comes to classroom management, especially when food is involved. Even more so when it's done in the form of a competition. So I put forth a challenge to my 5 different classes, which ever class could spell "CAKE!" first got one. My fourth period was the first class to do so. I love this class, by the way. So I made them a cake of the choice, with homemade butter cream icing too. Since the holiday started today, I made it a Christmas cake.

I got a surprising cake-related request today. One of my co-workers, that I could have sworn hated my guts, said she had been meaning to talk to me about making a cake for her daughter's birthday. I am very excited and happy, also a little nervous. I'm not sure what to charge, I'll have to think about it.

Hurricane Ike, Things are Beginning to Return to Normal

Today was the first day back to class for both students and teachers since Hurricane Ike struck the area two weeks ago, at least in our town. Some places started a few days ago, while others still can not return to the routine of school. There were mixed feelings about being back, on both the teacher and the student side of things. Glad because it's a sign that things are getting back to normal, sad because the break was kind of nice (once the terror was over anyway). The unexpected time off is much harder to return from because of all the uncertainty involved. There is no way to get yourself mentally ready for the return, because you aren't sure when that will be. Not to mention, many of the teachers have many repairs waiting for them at home and young children to worry about. A number of daycares don't have power and are not open yet, so parents are having difficulty returning to their jobs since they have no one to watch their children.

The older school buildings fared better overall. Our building had some water leak in from the internal courtyard areas, causing minor flooding in some of the hallways. The worst spot was the library, since it is right by the large courtyard next to the cafeteria. The carpet had to be ripped out, but none of the books were truly ruined. A few minor cases of mildew. The bookcases, which have been there for at least 20 years, got some water damage on the bottom. They are plywood and will probably have to be replaced, as they are trying to split now. Any roof damage that we sustained is so minor that it won't be visible until the next good rain (except on the new gym). One of the brand new junior highs lost enough of its roof to lose the use of 21 classrooms, these classes are going to be meeting in the halls, etc. until the rooms can be fixed.

Today and tomorrow, while teaching content, we are letting the students vent about their experiences during Ike. Today was mostly talk about what they went through. Tomorrow, in my class at least, we will be trying to come up with solutions to the problems caused by hurricanes.

In our town, 25% still do not have power. They are saying, as of this morning, that it will be November before 100% of the area has power back. In Galveston, it may be even longer. They are getting debris from Galveston in Corpus Christi, they know it's from Galveston because it's things like personal computers and such that can be traced back to the owners. For those of you not familiar with the area, I'm including this map to show the distance between the two cities. Sadly, I couldn't find one with a scale on it, but the latitude and longitude should help give an idea of the distance. Some of the houses on Galveston island were so completely destroyed, not even the foundation remains.

I'd like to thank, on behalf of our whole community, all the police men, electrical workers, phone men, tree cutters, and everyone else from other states and countries that have come down here to help us. It is really appreciated, even if we do not say thank you to your face. I truly hope that you never need us to return the favor.

Reflections on The Beginning of the School Year

It's that time of year again, school is about to start up again. Teachers in my district officially started back to work yesterday. Most of us have been back for at least two weeks, moving everything into their rooms and getting them ready for the first day of classes.

This year there are many, many changes occurring within my school and district. We have a new principal and assistant principal. There is a new Superintendent. We have three new elementary schools and two new junior highs. Sixth grade has moved up to junior high with the seventh and eighth grade. On our campus half the staff is new or teaching a different subject or grade level, or both. I am personally switching from 8th grade Language Arts to 6th grade Social Studies, World Cultures. I know several teachers spent the summer getting familiar with their new subject through the curriculum and the textbook. I read the textbook and got my word wall together all summer, it took 2 ink cartridges.

I am excited about the new year, grade, subject area, and group of students. I am also a bit nervous. I like to challenges, but find it disconcerting to be heading blindly into the unknown. I know that strictly speaking, it's not the unknown. I have always been one that prefers having guidelines and rules, and they have scrapped the curriculum for my subject. I am eager for the mental stimulation of work, yet am already missing the days of lazying around (though I am suffering from slight boredom). Each summer vacation reaffirms that I am not cut out to be a housewife. Despite this, I'm having a hard time shifting my brain to work speed. I've also enjoyed the time I've had to pursue my other interests to any extent I want. I must now relearn how to balance my time between the have-tos and want-tos of life; and shift my focus to the have-tos parts of life.

I am looking forward to the look on students' eyes when they make a mental connection about what I'm teaching. I also love it when kids gets excited about something they are learning. I am not looking forward to the bureaucracy or parent phone calls. Look forward to work related conversations.

I am also making a change in my transportation to work. I will be riding a bicycle to work unless the weather is bad. I began to do so last week on a regular basis. It still takes under 20 minutes to get there. My left knee hurts a bit when I ride, but no other side effects. I still have an old knee brace, I think I'll use it next time I go riding.

This year will teach me a lot about my job and myself.

Summer is Here

Yesterday was my final work day for the school year. It was the clean up your room and turn in all the teacher stuff to the principal day. As with most such things, it's a bunch of hurry up and wait. We had our celebration at the high school in the morning, honoring the people with many years of service, the retirees, and the paraprofessional and teacher of the year. Then it was back to school, it was really kind of boring since I had most everything done already. There is summer school at our campus, so everything had to come home. Not to mention that everyone is changing rooms, so might as well have it all organized and packed.

Now I'm feeling a bit reflective. It was a very interesting and challenging year for me. I was part of three academic teams, yet part of none. A part of the Language Arts Department, yet not. I felt very accomplished as all my students were successful and passed their standardized test. I felt very sad as some children were lost due to situations in their own lives. I felt pity for those students that never seemed to learn from their mistakes, partially due to the limits put upon school discipline, sometimes due to lack of parenting, usually both.

Frustration with administration for lack of communication with staff about major issues in students' lives that being aware of would have helped us be better teachers. Frustration at being told how important my class was, but being pulled from it to cover other classes, which told me exactly how important they considered it and my students. It was an emotionally trying year in many ways and I'm glad to have two and a half months to recover mentally and emotionally.

Next year will bring its own challenges as I will be changing grade levels and subject areas. We will have a new principal and assistant principal. This summer I will be familiarizing myself with a new curriculum, writing lesson plans for a new subject, and preparing materials for the class. I am hoping this experience will enable me to return to Minnesota in a year and a half with my family.

I look forward to going swimming with the family this summer, Eddie Izzard on the 10th, watching some movies in the theater, and hopefully getting a new bike to ride to work next year.

More Crafting on My Part

Here I go, showing myself as a craft geek again.

I taught what our district calls "Acceleration" this year, it's a TAKS (state standardized test) tutorial class for kids that didn't pass last year. I actually really enjoy teaching this class. My largest class was 7 students. I got to know most of them very well, and will also actually miss most of them. There is a certain freedom teaching this course, as there is no curriculum provided, though I was given resources to use. I took the approach this year, as I had learned from teaching it last year, that most of the students to not lack the thinking skills needed to do well on the test. They lack the desire to use higher level thinking skills for the purposes adults wish them to be put to and often they lack the background knowledge needed to make the connections in a test designed my upper-middle class and rich people. How often have you assumed that someone else has read a book as a child simply because you have fond memories of it, or it's a classic? The test makers do the same thing. We did a lot of worksheets, Mad Libs, picture puzzles, and read some classic fairy tales.

Since I had such a small set of students this year, I made them their own personalized bookmarks. Many of these kids aren't much into reading, but that's ok. Here are most of them, I passed out a few today. I tried to make them unique by doing a different font for each student and a picture of something they like.

A Cake for 4th Period

I promised my kids a party if they improved their TAKS scores. Well, they all passed. Each class gets a party. We had 4th period's on Friday and we'll have 2nd's next Friday. They'll get their own cake too.

Flabbergasted

I am flabbergasted by events at work yesterday. Why are teenagers so stupid sometimes? Why do they deliberately do stuff that they know is against the rules and do it in front of you?

As most of you know, I work in a junior high. My students range in age from 11 to 15. I have one particular young lady that has been a special challenge this year. The first time she got in trouble and was put in "In School Suspension", or The Hole as its more commonly called, I was shocked. She had been nothing but sweetness and cherry pie in my class. Over the year, I have seen her attitude increase. I had to write her up for walking out of my class and truancy, from then on she didn't like me because "I had it in for her."

Part of my teaching assignment this year has been to help out in the Hole during first period everyday. Most of the kids in there are basically good kids that did something incredibly stupid, and a few are repeat visitors. Well, over the holidays our full-time teacher for the Hole quit, he had found a better job. I wish him the best, supervising the Hole is a shit job for shit pay. Since he left I have been covering during first and third (when I usually have lunch duty).

Now this young lady winds up back in the Hole, this time for taking someone's backpack and running off campus with it during school hours. She is headed for Adapt, an alternative placement school, and is in the Hole until that goes through. This young lady is very lovely and always dresses very nicely. She can be wonderfully sweet, but she hates taking directions from grownups, or suggestions for that matter.

On Thursday, another girl in the Hole makes a comment that she is "waiting for a nigger" and she's not in any rush. Now she used this word to mean boyfriend, not in the racial slur sense. This is a new usage for me, I begin calmly explaining to her that this isn't a good word to use as it originally meant trash. The young lady then chooses to get upset trying to make it sound as if I was calling all African Americans trash. She then utters the word "cracker", a racial slur for whites in case you are not familiar. I request that no one uses any racial slurs in my presence and she begins repeatedly saying "crackers" and claiming she is talking about food, all the while with a sly grin on her face. I send her to the office and have to write the incident up.

Now, Friday morning, I have to escort all the kids in the Hole to breakfast. They aren't suppose to talk, however during breakfast they get a little chatty, though its usually uneventful. This morning is slightly different. Now, its been school policy for years that all medication must be kept in the nurses office, its in the handbook, gone over the first two days of school, etc. This fact is common knowledge. So our young lady is sitting at the breakfast table, holding two pills between her fingers in plain sight, facing them to me, in fact it seemed quite deliberate. I ask her what she has, she says Tylenol. I remind her that the nurse should have them and that the nurse needs a note from her parents to give her the medication. She says she has a note from her parents in her backpack. I have learned enough about this young lady to know that if I ask for the pills she will refuse, and I know she holds me responsible for some of the trouble she has gotten into. I have another teacher stay with them and go to get an administrator, on the way I meet the school police officer and ask him to come down.

The officer asks for the pills, she refuses. He then tries to take them out of her hand, she puts up a fight and ends up with her face on the table and in handcuffs. She proceeds to say "Thank you, stupid-ass Ms. Campbell." It's all my fault, you see. I take the rest of the students back to the Hole and look for the wrapper for the pills and collect her things together. Apparently, it goes downhill from there and she gets arrested and suspended.

Now, as all this happens more information comes to light. We have been trying to get mom in for a conference, but she never shows. It turns out that she has several outstanding warrants. The man they are living with, not sure if he's dad, step-dad or simply mom's boyfriend, is under investigation for drug dealing.

If all this is going on at home, of course her stress level is going to be huge. I'm sure that some of her actions at school have been as a result of this. She probably doesn't get much direction at home either, so is use to making most of her own decisions. I truly hope that her experience at Adapt will wake her up to the path that she is on. Mostly likely this incident will get mom in jail too. She will likely end up in the foster care system. Though I truly hope that she can moved past her current circumstances, I know that it is likely she will end up in the drug world trading her body for drugs, because that is what she has been shown is normal.

Film Class

My principle approved my film class, with some conditions. I must walk them through the final project with an example, and they have to choose a book and movie from a list she pre-approves. I'm really excited about this project, but I have lots of work to do over the next few weeks. I hope I don't burn myself out before the class even starts.

A side note, I have my first cake for pay, they want it Wednesday. I'll be up all night tomorrow baking and decorating. So lots of cramped hands for me on Thursday.

An Attempt to Maintain My Sanity

At the beginning of the school year I was asked to take a block of the Theater Arts class, I love movies and theater (and wasn't really given a choice) so I agreed. Now I have no training in theater arts, though I took a year of tech theater and regular theater in high school, over a decade ago. I was excited, but what I didn't count on was that most of the kids wouldn't want to be in the class and were stuck there. This is probably the most stressful semester I've had since my first year of teaching.

So I am redesigning the class, I gave my boss, aka the principal, a verbal proposal before the holiday. I want to change it to a film history/analysis class. I am looking for resources and curriculum ideas, any help is appreciated. I must include higher level thinking skills and presentations. I am looking for resources to find old movies or lists of influential films, subject matter or technological, to show segments of. I'm also looking for activity ideas. I have two major projects planned, one as the final exam. I'm going to emphasize analysis and literary devices in film. We will also be looking at film adaptations of books.

Thanks in advance for your help fellow movie buffs.

NMSA

For those of you who aren't teachers, or are teachers and not from the US, NMSA stands for the National Middle School Association. I was lucky enough to get to go to my first teacher's conference on Friday and Saturday of last week. I really enjoyed it, it was sort of like having a three day weekend.

Our keynote speaker on Friday was Cal Ripkin, Jr. I hear he was very inspiring, as I am not a baseball fan and my A/C had died at home, I skipped his speech. I had to call maintenance to get it fixed, it turned out the motor had completely burned out and had to be replaced. (Might explain, at least partially, the higher than normal electric bills lately.) Once I was out of the assembly I ran down to check out the vendors, soooo much fun stuff. (Lots of freebies too.)I admit to geeking out. I think I am overusing parentheses.

I got to hear several good workshops, including Ruby Payne. Her speciality is working with poverty stricken kids. I had gotten a completely different picture of her message from the people that had raved about her approach. I quite enjoyed her ideas and she was a very good public speaker.

Some other things that I got to explore were diversifying instruction with multiple intelligences, increasing literacy using graphic novels, and educating students on free trade and sweatshops.

The speaker that I really wanted to see was Mae Jamison, the first African-American female to head a shuttle mission. While we waited for the speech to begin, they had the choral choir from Conroe (I believe) sing for us. These young ladies were immensely talented. She was well spoken and had a great sense of humor. She encouraged us to push kids while supporting them. I am really hoping that they put a video or transcript of her speech on the NMSA website. I did get to shake her hand and take her picture at the end.