Summer Experiences - Teachers Do Work in the Summer

Theory Presentations: LaPrincia, Me, and Destiny 

Each summer seems to offer me a new experience.  Lets see...when I came to this district in 2006, I spent the summer, before I ever started teaching here, writing benchmarks.  I had no idea what a benchmark test was really for or how they would be used in the district.  During my first year, I taught 91 benchmarks (standards) with the options of 4 tests for each standard.  So if the student didn't pass the  FOUR QUESTION benchmark test, they were to be retaught and retested up to three additional times.  Imagine what class time could turn into under that system.....not good.   We've moved on after 3 or 4 years of that.

In subsequent summers, I taught two years of summer school, I taught one summer of enrichment with 7th graders from Northwest Middle (detailed in this blog somewhere), and I spent a summer of rewriting standards and collecting resources as we transitioned to Common Core.   Last summer, I spent the summer with the Greater Kansas Writer's Project.   This summer, I fell into the opportunity to work with PrepKC and the Teaching Academy.   I never imagined the experience would be so enjoyable.  I love teaching students about teaching.   For four weeks we've taught students about the theories of development and classroom management,  the importance of our words, he issues of equity, and the challenges of the first year.   They have observed and taught in classes from preschool to middle school.   I have been impressed with many of them.  I think they have developed a strong sense of how much work it takes to be an excellent teacher.  Some will choose not to teach after this, but they will do so with awareness that good teachers offer an important contribution to society, even if teaching isn't for them.

I finished my reading specialist this past semester.  More and more I find I really want to contribute to helping others reach adolescent struggling readers.  This experience only re-enforced that desire.  I will work more with students and teachers in the coming year.  It is my sincere desire,  my prayer even, that my work will improve the lives of students who've been lost in the system for too long.  We've let too many kids down in this system.  I want to do my part to change that for the students in my little corner of the system.   I also hope to see some of these young people from the Teaching Academy come back and impact their communities with integrity and hard work.

Still Living The Dream...but at Harmon in Year 2

Block 2 English, Harmon Year 1 

I am in my last quarter of my second year at Harmon.  At the same time, I am in my last semester of work for my Reading Specialist.  I am exhausted and overwhelmed, but happy to be in the place....near the end.

I was determined to finish my specialist (and not complete a doctorate now) because Emily is headed to high school and Sam is headed to middle school.  I am headed on the short track toward the empty nest and I don't want to miss a minute of the time I have left to be involved in their lives in a consistent meaningful way.   I am a total failure this year.  I have too many work related responsibilities, three graduate classes while serving in two ministries.  I love working, and I love serving, but I truly love parenting more than anything else.  I often forget that because I am so overwhelmed with the have-to stuff, that I neglect the, often more important, want-to stuff.  I think this may be a common problems for teachers with my obsessive personality.

So as I finish this school year, I am looking to set very different priorities for next school year.  If I narrow it down to the areas that really matter, my family and my students, then my community will benefit more form the focus.

Long Time Gone

I spent my summer as part of the Great Kansas City Writer's Project in the Summer Institute of 2012.  I put this experience off for many years because I didn't want to take from my family's coveted summer adventures.  My babies are now 11 and 13.  My oldest daughter is now 23.  I decided they might like me to be gone some this summer.  Sam and Em spent most of those days with  Ashley at the "All Things Small"" Daycare (you can follow them on Twitter).  Indeed, they were okay with my working through the summer institute while they hung with the cutest kids in the Metro.  We still did hang out quite a bit, but it was time for me to take this opportunity to explore this professional development and make writing instruction better from my freshmen.

When you have an intensive six hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks experience, it seems essential that any new beliefs you have about writing and writing instruction be embedded in your action right away.  One of the things I have always believed, and believe even more strongly now, is that the more you read the better you read and the more you write the better you write.  I already read a whole heck of a lot.  I decided I needed to get back to the practice of writing a whole heck of a lot more.  I started out strong.  I got a flash drive where I intended to record my writing as I committed to writing about 30 minutes a day.  One of the things I wanted to do is to get on to paper all those crazy stories I tell my students.  So for one, okay maybe two days,  I wrote down some of those stories.    That was about 2 months ago.   

I got back to my classroom and all the responsibilities I tend to accept, and the writing returned to it's location in the basement of my priority structure.   I do write with my students, and I love doing that.  I may even start to post those shaky efforts here, but I've rejected the practice of sitting in the quiet of my personal space and writing my stories in honest and authentic ways.  

I have four blogs.  Yes, FOUR blogs.  It occurred to me that each as a purpose I can use as a way to motivate my writing.  The intention behind this blog has always been to work out the thoughts and feeling, successes and failures of mixing urban education with passionate parenting.  So I asked Emily to join me here.  She will be the new manager of this site.  She will post pictures and the occasional post.  Mostly, I am hoping this collaboration will help remind me to write and be reflective about those two things I love most...teaching and parenting.   

Emily, Ashley, Sam and Mom - Memorial Day 2011.  We all still miss Grandpa. 

Summer's End

I have one week of summer vacation.  Sam and Emily have a bit over two weeks.  I was looking at my list from the beginning of the summer and, miracle of all miracles, we got it all done.  We've also managed to get a few friends over, played some games, and seen a few summer blockbusters.  Our faves:  Mr. Poppers Penguins and Captain America.

We are now all feeling a little flu-ish. We're hanging around the house more lately anyway because it is so hot and it costs money to interact with the world.   I am  working my way through "The Kennedys," an 8 part series over the presidential years of JFK.  I am also getting last minute things done for school that will make things a little easier once classes get started.  Next Friday, I will meet with my new administration for the first time.  I am a bit nervous, but mostly anxious to understand the expectations and schedule.

Emily will be in middle school and she is crazy nervous about it.  I know she will be amazing in middle school, but I can't keep her from experiencing the required anxieties over each rite of passage moment. Sam is looking forward to 5th grade, but is not necessarily in a hurry to start school again.  He is enjoying this sleeping late thing. He is deeply struggling to get to sleep at night.  That makes his morning wake time later and later.  I hope we can all get back on track smoothly in a couple weeks.  

Mid-Way

Can you believe summer is more than half over?  On Monday, I stayed up all night finishing a project for a class. I might be too old to be doing that.  I finished my first two classes for my reading specialist work.   Now I have moved on to prep for the new job.

It has been a busy summer.  First, Emily and I went to girl scout day camp where she was a teen helper.  I stayed the night with the girls from our troop.  That was the first opportunity I have had to get to spend time with her new school friends since she started at Merriam Park this year.  Next, she and I went on a canoe trip with more new friends.  The junior high youth group at our "new" church situation takes the 7th graders on a canoe trip so they get that chance to gracefully transition in to junior high ministry.  I have join the junior high youth staff.  The kids are very different than those I teach, but they were pretty normal pre-teens and they warmed up to Emily and I nicely.   Once we returned, we went to Iowa for our family reunion.  There were some concerns, because this portion of my family can be sensitive and anger-driven sometimes.  However, nearly all of us have grown up in lots of ways.  We had a fabulous weekend of fishing, playing, cooking, etc.  I received a trophy for a sheet cake recipe I made for my mom's 60th birthday.  There is a lot of irony in  that, but I will not elaborate on why.

The whole family came home.  Ashley, Kreisa and Emily helped reface the cabinets. A few days later,  Emily left for church camp.  Sam and I ate out a lot and had one of his friends over a couple times.   We purchased school shoes, lost a couple teeth, and slept late.  Meanwhile,  while Em was at camp, we had a crazy brief storm that did some water damage to Emily's room (siding issue, I guess) and pushed down two LARGE pieces of trees.  One fell on the back fence.  The other fell into the neighbors yard and made it all the way to her house.  We, mostly Michael, have been cleaning it up since (for about 10 days).  This week we have visited the vet, dentist, orthodontist, and pediatrician.  Next week we visit the optometrist.   All that to say, we have made use of the time off.

I have 15 more days off and the kids have 25 more days off.  It goes by so fast.  All of us will be in different places each day once school starts.  I will be praying for what happens and what we bring back to each other at the end of each day.

GS Day Camp 2011

Summer is in Full Swing

One class down.  One district project down.  Two more of each  to go.  
Most of my list is done or scheduled to be done.   Now I thinking toward two weeks of movement.  Em and I will go on a canoe trip for the 7th graders in youth group.  We will come back to KC only to repack and head to an Iowa-based family reunion.  We will return to a short girls-trip somewhere (details not final).  I will then settle in to finishing my second specialist class and prepping for my new adventure at Harmon, while Emily heads off to her last year at camp with elementary kids.

So far this has been the most relaxing, pressure-free summer since I went back to the classroom.  The kids are hanging with friends.  Emily is playing softball.  Both are working on some keeping-the-brain-sharp summer lessons.  Emily also has the summer work for her advanced science and English classes.  Ashley, my beloved grown girl, is recovering slowly, but consistently, from her broken ankle.  She is also re-taking that terrible philosophy class.  I wonder if anyone likes their college philosophy class?

Worries?
__ Sam being at Merriam Park without Emily.
__ Emily beginning middle school.
__ Starting a completely new job with many unknowns.
__ Helping mom work through the grief of losing our dad.
__ Keeping my kids active in church when we are all going through a weird stage with that.

When you look at the world and all that humankind is forced to endure,  I have no true worries, but how to make a bigger dent in the problems and worries of those in so much suffering.  I should make that list.  That will have to be another post.  

Note: Blog needs more pics.  Working on that!

What Must Be Done

Ominous title for a general summer to-do list.   Ever get to that place where you have so many things to do and you know you are going to forget something important?  I'm there.  I eliminate, or at least reduce, that stress with lists.  I make daily, weekly, monthly, even seasonal lists. Yes, I admit I am an obsessive list maker.  One of those that puts little boxes in front of each item so I can see all the check-marked boxes at the end of the day.  Obsessive, but effective.  As I watch my son, I see that I passed him my own ADHD.  Instead of medication, I used my own types of behavior management (which I am teaching him to do, too).  My two most successful:  making lists and never procrastinating.  Today, I am making a list so I won't procrastinate.

 This is my summer list:

PERSONAL  (Sadly, there are no little boxes to check.)
Girl Scout day camp (check)
Garage Sale
Hair cuts: Em and Mom
Em and Mom to eye doctor
Sam/Emily/Mom to dentist (July)
Family Reunion
Trip to Branson
Em to 5-6th grade church camp
Emily needs tetanus shot b4 school
Raymond to vet
Locate piano teacher - double check Em still wants to start again
School clothes and supplies, school fees
Submit application for volunteering at Wayside Waifs
Walking/Biking training for events
Organize the basement covered in stuff from my NW classroom.

PROFESSIONAL
30 hours of iPad lesson development
15 hours of resource development for literacy
2  specialist classes finished by mid-July
Unit development for English (Harmon)
Tech idea development for high school English

Okay.  I already feel better just seeing this.  I looks a bit less overwhelming laid out like this.
I feel a more unsettled than usual this summer because I am transitioning from middle school literacy to high school English.  I don't yet know if I will be teaching just freshmen or both sophomores and juniors.  A few years ago the idea of teaching junior would have made me crazy anxious, but not now.  I am ready for whatever they offer.  I am ready to just get rocking through my first year in high school.  I know a lot of growth will be involved.

I didn't get that TL (teacher leader/instructional coach) position, but other than a little pride pain, I am so cool with staying in the classroom.  It is where I belong.  I don't read the politics well enough to be successful at that level, and I hope I never do.   Every time I thought about not teaching or I thought of a good idea I wouldn't be able to use as a TL, I would regret even applying for TL.  I am meant for the classroom.  This culture often makes you feel like you should be seeking bigger, higher, better positions of authority (power, if you will), but what's bigger or better than working with students.  I let myself get sucked into the thinking that teaching wasn't good enough.  I don't even know how it happened.  I used to know better, but I bought into the things people say about what I would be good at and what I should do.  It is all a lie.  I am ashamed of myself for not seeing it.  I am embarrassed that I thought I could fit into organization politics, when others could see I clearly can not.  Lesson learned.  A little humbling is essential sometimes.  Now that the process is passed, I am so excited about my next adventure with high schoolers.   One day I will make a fine instructional coach, but I am not called to it now.  Students still just jazz me too much and most adults just don't.  Enough said.

Okay...now on to conquering this list........