Six Word Saturday

Now entering the back-end of Summer.



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(If you can't get six words any other way, hyphenate!!)

News from Captain Obvious

Here is some news from the AJC. Wow, did you know that charter schools accept fewer kids with disabilities than public schools?

Six Word Saturday

Zombies can't swim. Buy a boat! (Posted by a facebook friend)



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You don't lose by planning ahead.

Hey, school! You start in a month. To know what we were teaching would be bliss.

Planning for the new year

Well, I know what I WON'T be teaching but I don't know what I am going to be teaching - so planning is difficult.

I did come up with a structure I plan to use.

1. Curriculum map and pacing guide
a. calendar [pacing out how it needs to be taught]
2. Big ideas [what are the main concepts of the course]
a. EQs {come up with a list of the essential questions so they are deeper than something I come up with on the fly]
3. Each Unit
a. Background [what information should the students come to the table with]
b. Benchmark or pretest [testing what they know]
c. What is covered {list all the concepts that are included in the unit and determine how to teach them]
d. Handouts [no book, so what worksheets and graphic organizers will help them the most]
e. Summary [need a better way to summarize the material to help the students retain the information. This is in addition to any study guide]
f. mastery [when they fail the test and I have to reteach it - how can I do this by putting the work back on them]
g. test
4. Midterm review
a. midterm

Still have to come up with all the other components they want us to include: openings, closing, group work, projects, engaging activities.

It occurred to me yesterday, when I listed what I will not be teaching to see if I could narrow down what I WILL be teaching, at most I will teach one subject that I have taught before. (OK, it be might be 2, but I doubt it) So, in addition to trying to be brilliant, I will have to refresh on 1 or 2 topics that I haven't seen in awhile.

We were supposed to know a month and a half ago. If I gave them the same response (turning something in this late and telling them "Well, I am doing the best I can") I would be hung out to dry. I am not unique - there are dozens of us in the same boat.

I read a blog this past year (I think it was Coach Brown that stuck with me. You have to have time to think about what you are doing. If you put something off to the last minute, you lose the thinking time.

I need the thinking time.

Instead, I will go clean house.

Teach what you know, regardless of when you have learned it - teach what you learned yesterday, sagely, as if you have known it all your life, and teach what you have known for decades with enthusiasm, as if you learned it only yesterday.

Mercedes Lackey in Owlknight

SMH

. . . . what do you think of a teacher who has a student for 180 days (ok, minus a few) but cannot spell the names correctly?

. . . . or doesn't know the last name when a student only put the first name on an exam?

. . . . or so complete screws up the gradebook that another teacher comes to fix it (so we can all go home)

. . . . and then it turns out that 4 days after grades were to be completed some finals weren't even graded?

. . . . or a teacher who writes passes from academic classes for students without talking to the other teacher (so they can "hang" rather than go to a class they are barely passing)

. . . . and then give the excuse to the academic teacher that it isn't your fault, you couldn't get the kids to leave.

Yeah, the teaching profession is full of professionals.

Six Word Saturday

A week without school. Ah, bliss!!



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Cleaning, tossing, reading, sleeping in.

Another week - no idea what next year brings

We have a short summer this year - and another week has passed with no clue as to what we will be teaching - as well as no communication.

Can we say organized. Not.

OK I am not done complaining.

Six Word Saturday

You just can not fix stupid.




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A teacher thought this was an appropriate thing to do. On what planet?