A bag of sugar on my chest

A couple of years ago I was lying in bed discussing with my husband if I needed to go to the urgent care near us. I was in my late 20's and I was having chest pain. Nothing severe. I told him it felt like someone had taken a 2 lbs bag of sugar and placed it on my chest. It's a bit bothersome but it wasn't alarming. I did some googling and thinking and decided that it was probably just an esophageal spasm (I have acid reflux) so it was best to just let it pass. Eventually it did pass and it took me a while to realize that my diagnosis was completely wrong. Apparently I get this pain in my chest when my anxiety is higher than usual and doesn't go back down. Lately I've had that pain in my chest for days at a time. I've made a super fancy graph for you to better understand what I'm talking about.

The green line is what I imagine a normal person's anxiety over the course of a day. The purple line is what my anxiety is going through the same events. The orange line is my base line anxiety currently. 

There is a silver lining here. I have found that doing video chats with my friends and watching really entertaining tv shows/movies make the pain in my chest go away for just a little while. I really hope that all of you have found things that keep that bag of sugar from taking residence on your chest.

This past week was interesting to say the least. A dear family friend has COVID-19 and I'm very worried for them because they are in their 70's. Their spouse is showing symptoms as well. I am hopeful for them because they have access to medical care and are not in a city that is currently overwhelmed by cases.

I "went back to work" as well last week. Since I'm an essential employee I was required to be on campus Tuesday and Thursday. The biggest part of my job now is enrolling students and getting paper packets of homework ready. All of our high school students have school-issued Chromebooks but many of our students do not have access to wifi at home. The school made a Google form that the parent could fill out requesting a paper packet. If they couldn't fill it out on their phone, they could call the school office and we would fill it out for them. Well, apparently we did not get the word out well enough because we had about 40 parents request packets but over 100 came to pick them up. We explained the system when they picked up the packet so hopefully next week will be easier. We gave families 3 pick-up times: 1.5 hours on Monday and a total of 7.5 hours on Tuesday. During that time the parent gave us the student's name and we handed them a packet. On Thursday last week the district announced that we have too much contact with the public; we are no longer allowed to physically pass the packet to people. Instead, we will have a table with the packets on it. The packets are clearly labeled with the students name. The parents will have to, one at a time, find their student's packet and take it home. Of course this solution is not perfect but I'm glad that I will be able to stay much farther away from people. During the packet pick-up I was careful to wear gloves and sanitize my hands before and after putting on the gloves so that I at least knew it was unlikely I would catch anything from the public.

I hope that you all are taking care of yourselves! Please remember that your new "normal" might not look like other people's "normal". During this time, different people need different things: a schedule helps me but maybe it overwhelms you, starting a project around the house increases my anxiety significantly but it really helps my husband during uncertain times, I don't care if what I'm eating is healthy or not because trying to plan a grocery run is overwhelming but it might give you a sense of peace to know that you are well nourished. You do you, boo.

-Clare G. S.

New Job

I finally have an update on my job situation. But before I tell you what it is, I have to tell you the weird journey that got me here.

For over a month now I have been checking my district's website to see what new jobs were available. Although I do not want to be a teacher, I still believe that I belong in the realm of education. Around mid-May a position as assistant registrar at the same high school I've been working at for seven years opened. I decided to apply. Even though it would be a steep pay cut I would be doing data entry and organizational things (which I LOVE), I already know and get along with my coworkers, and I know that I could do this job well. I mentioned in passing to my principal that I applied for the job and he asked me to meet with the head registrar for the school. I met with her and she seemed very excited about me possibly being her co-worker. Well, the next day the principal offered me the job! Unfortunately this was during final exams so I had to focus on finishing the school year before I could consider whether to accept the offer or not.

I then received an automatic e-mail from the district with a list of job openings. There was an opening as an instructional coach at one of the middle schools. The more I read about the position, the more I wanted it! I would help other teachers hone their craft, create assessments, and analyze data. I thought I was an excellent candidate because I have experience teaching Spanish (100% of my IB students passed the IB test the last year I taught Spanish) and math (my Algebra 1 students saw huge growth this past year: 64% passed their 8th grade state test but 85% passed their Algebra 1 state test). I got some advice from a personal coach and applied. I was contacted and informed that before they did in-person interviews there would be an online interview of sorts. They sent me a couple of questions and then I made a 2-minute video with my response. A few days later I was informed that I had not been chosen to be interviewed. It was a really big blow. I didn't realize how much I wanted that job until I was told I was no longer in the running.

That same day I was e-mailed by the assistant superintendent in charge of Human Resources at the district. He told me there was a possible job with ESL and would I like more information. Well, yeah! I met with him and found out that the idea would be to assist the high school ESL teacher for half of the day and spend the other half of the day at the administrative office to help with the head of ESL of the district. That would include testing incoming students, many of whom speak Spanish with limited English abilities. It sounded great to me! I would love the opportunity to use Spanish more because I really do miss it. Well, a couple of days later I was told that there were some hiccups and the job described would not actually work with what the district needs right now.

So all of that is to say that I will be the new assistant registrar at the high school! It was a bizarre road but in the end I am really excited for this opportunity. I think the best part is that I will still be able to work with people I love. (I'm looking at you, Brianna, Lacy, and Will!) Sure, I won't be seeing them everyday but it's good to know that I have friends just upstairs when I need an ear. I'm also hoping that the lower stress will translate into a happier me. That is worth all the money in the world!

-Clare G. S.

Fat B*tch

Today was an interesting day for one reason: a student called me a fat bitch. Yup, you read that correctly. I'm a fat bitch. You know what? If that had happened 5 years ago, I probably would have cried. Today? Today I'm going to embrace it.

Let me tell you how this came up. The grading period just ended. This student did not pass. She asked about her grade and I pointed out what caused her to not pass. She was not pleased with my response. When I walked away, she said "fat bitch". It's as simple as that.

I'm ok with it. Yes, I'm fat but I love these curves. Yes, I won't pass a student who hasn't earned that grade so I guess I'm a bitch.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  I think I've finally grown a thick enough skin that I just don't care. Or maybe I recognize that I have enough on my plate so worrying about what a teenager thinks about me is not a priority at all. Hate me. Love me. My job is to teach you math. You aren't going to learn if I just pass you along and pray that your next math teacher is able to reach you.

So to all my fellow teachers out there, keep on teaching and keep on being bitches.

-Clare G. S.

Just a Check In

Wow! How has it been 2 weeks since I last posted?! I guess life gets busy. Looking at my parent contact log, I've called/emailed/texted over 75 times to parents of my students. That's in just over a month. Yeah, that will definitely take up time. In fact, I've noticed that I spend 30 - 90 minutes each school night making sure I've done all of my parent contacts for disruptive students or students who are not following directions/school rules. It eats my time but it's required by the district. Luckily some of the parents have told me that they prefer text messages or emails so that saves time and allows me to send those messages later than I would call someone.

I've also been working on my flipped classroom. In a nutshell, I record the lesson for the day on a video and put it on a website called EdPuzzle. The students then watch the video, write the notes, and answer questions about it during class. I love it because it means students can always rewatch a video if they don't understand a concept and they can pause and ask questions without feeling like they are stopping the whole class. If they miss a day they aren't just copying a friend's notes; they are getting the same lesson that everyone else got. It's pretty sweet. It also frees me up to help students individually more often.

Outside of school I feel like my social life has blown up! Recently I spent a Friday night hanging out with some of my math department friends. We got a little bit of work done and spent a lot of time chatting and having a few drinks. It was really nice. I've also spent more time with friends just playing card games or board games. I actually planned my time really well this past weekend and got to go to a friend's kid's birthday party on Saturday afternoon, play cards with friends on Saturday night, and then spend Sunday at Wizard World  (it's a convention) in Austin. I went to bed just before midnight on Sunday so I think that was pretty good timing!

I really need to finish up some schoolwork before bed so I'm going to cut this short. Let's end with a photo, shall we? Here's my big purchase from yesterday's Wizard World:

It's a wand! It's purple and sparkly and it's so perfect. :D I now know exactly what I'll dress up as for Halloween. I hope you all are having a magical week!

-Clare G. S.

P.S. - I forgot something important! Today was the first Anime Club meeting with me (and my husband) as the advisor. The previous teacher is having some health issues and cannot teach right now. Her students told her that I like anime and here I am! I'm excited to get to know these kiddos. <3

Let's Talk Cake!

It was another rough day. Well, really the day was going alright until my last class period. There are about four students in there who do not know how to stop talking/singing/dancing/banging on their desks/etc. I've done all of my documentation for that and I've called a few parents. Hopefully they will decide to change their behavior before it causes them to fail my class and fail the state test. I will no longer be supplying glue sticks to that class because someone threw their glue stick onto the ceiling and someone glued another student's paper to his desk. Yup. These are 15 year olds. I "self-medicated" with a Five Guys burger and fries and a large piece of homemade carrot cake. Let me tell you about that cake.

As I mentioned in the last post, I baked my husband's birthday cake. He loves carrot cake so that's what he got. It is a bit odd to put fondant on carrot cake but I did it. The carrot cake sponge was a new recipe and it is awesome! The buttercream frosting was also new and just as great! I didn't make my own fondant but rather ordered some Wilton pre-made fondant. As far as fondant goes, it was pretty good. I didn't like it paired with the carrot cake but I think it would be pretty good with a different sponge. Do you want to see a photo? Of course you do!

I even made a little Erlenmeyer flask since Matthew teaches Chemistry

I'm so happy with how it came out! I WAAAAAAAAY overestimated how much fondant I would need but that's better than underestimating. I have carefully wrapped-up the unused fondant so it should be good for another cake. I'm going to be a bit obnoxious and show you a video of the cake. Again, I'm really proud of that fondant. There is one sizable place where I have wrinkles but I think that's pretty fantastic for my first time!

(Please excuse the background conversation; I was obsessing over my cake while my husband was talking to his sister and her husband.)

The BCCC party on Sunday was really fun but I didn't think to take any photos. I do have a photo of the caricature that we had made during the party.

I think Matthew is pretty darn good. I feel like mine looks a bit like my sister, Phyllis, when she was a teenager. Monday we got to play cards with our friends, Jo and Liz. That was a great way to start the day. We then spent the rest of the day working on school stuff. :(

As my mom would say, life keeps chugging along. If I remember to really stick to my discipline routine I think I can greatly help my classes. It will also be nice to go back to a flipped classroom but I need to wait until next week when all of the students should have their Chromebook. I'm sure many of you don't know what a flipped classroom is so I'll try to remember to write about it sometime soon. Tonight, I need to take a breather. My goal for the school year was to take care of myself and I think that means a long shower and a tasty drink for now. :D

-Clare G. S.

First Day of School, 2018

Good evening!
Today I finished my seventh "first day of school" as a high school teacher. It was exhausting but for the first time I still have my voice at the end of the day! I'm trying to focus on the positives of this school year:

• The math team in general and the Algebra 1 team in specific are awesome
• No, seriously, I'm so blessed to be working with people who are not only coworkers but also friends!
• I have ONE prep
• This is my third year teaching Algebra 1 so I feel pretty good about it. I don't have to stay up late figuring out what the crud to do the next day.

First day of school photo!

To help with accountability, the big buzzword this year at THS, I'm posting my two goals for the school year here.

Goal 1 - Take care of myself. I definitely have a tendency to want everything to be just so and I end up sacrificing my health and well being. It is not a healthy habit.

Goal 2 - Classroom Management. Freshman have a certain notoriety. I really want to stick to my discipline procedures. I like to give the students extra chances but it ends up causing a mess with students complaining that another student got a warning when the other student didn't and such.

I think I'm off to a good start. It's just after 10pm and I am ready to go to bed which means I'm at least taking care of myself when it comes to my sleep schedule!

Oh, before I go, you all should definitely watch this video that John Green posted back in 2012. I showed it to my students this year and I think it's just awesome.

-Clare G. S.

The Perfect Class Period

I officially had the perfect class period. It was brief but it was glorious.

Here's the set-up: I am in a group from my school that is doing blended learning. Blended learning means that some of the learning is in a traditional classroom and some of it has online aspects. Specifically, I am trying what is called the in-flip model. That means that my students watch a video of the lecture in class and then start the practice. (What they don't finish of the practice becomes homework) The reason I like this so much is that students who are absent aren't really missing the lecture and students who want to review a topic can easily hear the entire lecture again or even pause it and re-watch certain parts of it.

Our technology department asked those of us in this blended group to give them a time they could come by to see our blended classroom. (Side note: the two people who lead our technology department are awesome and I feel 100% comfortable around them so this was a really easy request for me) I told them that 2nd period on Thursday would be ideal. I have a really great Algebra I class at that time. So Thursday rolls around and between first and second period I see our tech people . . . along with our assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction! One of the tech people pulls me aside and tells me that he dropped by and she said that she hoped it was ok that he was going to observe my classroom. Well, it made me a little nervous but, eh, what's one more person? Second period has about 25 students in there so I had room for a few more people.

So class starts and my observers were kind enough to give me a few minutes to start class before they came in. My class were superstars! They were focused and on-task. When asked questions, they answered honestly and their answers were great! The three observers got to see how a student who was absent the previous day was able to easily catch up on his work. Another student said that he really liked the video lessons because he could go at his own pace. So this was all happening while I was walking around helping with technical problems, answering questions, etc. Then I noticed someone who was not doing the notes. I walked over and realized that it was the assistant principal of curriculum and instruction! I said hello to her and thought, "Oh goodness, that another person watching me. Ok, uh, at least it's an administrator with whom I have a very good relationship." Not ten minutes later I noticed that I had another visitor! It was the executive director of secondary education. So at this point I had five adults (other than myself) in my classroom ranging from my co-workers all the way to one-step from the superintendent. I was sweating bullets.

Then I had a moment where I really shone: I saw on my computer (via an awesome website called EdPuzzle) that a majority of my students were getting a comprehension question wrong from the video. I thought "Oh no. This is a major concept. I need to clarify this before we have a whole class of confused students" So I got all of my students' attention and pointed out what the correct answer was and why. Then the students went back to their individual work. One of the tech people asked me if I knew that I needed to address that topic because of the previous night's homework. I pointed out that it was actually from real-time data and I think she really liked that. :)

All of this is to say that thanks to my awesome students and the support of my wonderful family (especially my husband) and the admin team at my school, I feel like I am really stepping-up my game as a teacher. I also have classes (and let's be honest, whole school days) where I feel that I'm totally lost but I think those days are growing fewer. Here's to always moving forward!

-Clare G. S.

Bonus for reading this whole thing: a video of me from just before the school year started:

So many students!

That's my blog slung over the shoulder. 

A new school year has started. I'm teaching two classes of Algebra 1 and four classes of Pre-Calculus. The problem that has arisen is that I have 173 students. For those of you who are not teachers, let me put it this way: in my past five years teaching I have never had more than 140 students. I usually have 115 to 130 students. This is like teaching another class period. Also, I am used to having my conference period in the middle of the day but now it's the last period of the day.

These two big changes mean that my systems of organization don't work anymore. I can't pile things on my desk and then sort them during my conference & again at the end of the day. I can't do lunch tutorials because this introvert very much needs those 30 minutes of quiet time. Trying to keep track of 173 tests is more complicated. I'm revamping everything.

In a moment I'm going to go to the school to set up my new system for passing back papers, to sort my copies from the first unit of Algebra and Pre-Calculus, and to generally unclutter things. Hopefully this will give me time tomorrow to grade and input grades. I am avoiding doing hand grading so I am taking a page from my husband's book and having students submit their work via a Google Form. Then I have an add-on called Flubaroo that automatically grades it for me. This is saving me literally hours on the weekend. This won't work for tests and quizzes but those are rare enough that it shouldn't be a problem to grade those by hand.

I hope that all of you out there are doing well!

-Clare G. S.

Substitutes

This was a long week. There are a few things you will need to know about my life as a teacher for this post to make sense. 1) During my conference my room is used by another teacher, Ms. Cowell. She teaches English 4. 2) My last class of the day includes modified Algebra 1. That means that there are students in the room who take a modified version of the state test and it means that I have a wonderful co-teacher, Ms. Adams. 3) We had to collect two writing samples from our students this week. It is a bit complicated why we had to do this and all the rules involved but trust me that it was a high priority that it be done on time and correctly. We had a strict one-week window in which to do this.

Ms. Adams told me in advance that she would be out Wednesday and Thursday this week. I was not looking forward to those days because I really need the help in that class. The good news is that she would have a sub. Ms. Cowell let me know that she would be out Thursday and Friday. She asked me to help out a bit by collecting the papers for her class which is no problem at all. However, none of us counted on a stomach bug going around the school and thus the school being short many subs.

On Wednesday I was notified that Ms. Adams' sub had canceled and I would be by myself. I was worried but in the end the students were angels! I have no idea why they were so well behaved but I am very thankful. I was hopeful that Thursday would go smoothly since there would be a sub that day.

Thursday rolls around and no, there was no sub for Ms. Adams because we were so short staffed. The students were ok in that class. In Ms. Cowell's class I stuck around the entire class period because they were taking a test and there was a typo in it. I had to explain the typo and then I helped monitor because this test was being used for district data. There is a lot of pressure to make sure students do their best and that there is no cheating.

Friday took the cake for most exhausting day. I was told that during my conference I would need to cover a class. I was glad to hear that it was a class of Juniors. Just before school started I suddenly realized that Ms. Cowell would not have the same sub she had yesterday and her subs for Friday probably had no clue what the students were supposed to do. I printed off her lesson plan and ran to the different rooms she teaches in to leave the lesson plan and the copies of the work for the sub. After first and second period I went by her classes and picked up the work. Luckily she has third period off because I had to go cover a class. It took me a while to find a teacher with a key to open the room I was in. The great news is that the class went smoothly. Then I had to rush back downstairs to my fifth period class. During team time I tidied up the papers for Ms. Cowell and tried to breathe for a moment. My last class of the day was about what I expected: a little loud, a little crazy, and some students did not get any work done. Once again Ms. Adams was not present because she was covering another teacher's class. After school I had students in tutorials making up work because it was the last day of the grading period. Then my co-worker came in and asked if I wanted her to take my writing samples to our lead teacher. I completely forgot about them! They were due Friday! The students had written them but I had not yet put the papers in the correct order, labeled them, etc. I asked my co-worker to tell our lead teacher that I had the papers and just needed to organize them.

I ended Friday in tears simply because I was so tired. After dinner I took a nap and it helped my mood greatly. I'm hopeful that next week will be a little more calm because Monday is a work day (no students!) and my classes have a test on Wednesday which means less prep time for me.

I hope that your week was calmer than mine. As a bonus, below is a video of the coolest pillow ever. It's like a mermaid! At only $10, I just could not resist.

-Clare G. S.

Terrible Blogger

Ok, so I'm a terrible blogger. I haven't written in nearly a month. Life has been crazy. These Freshmen really know how to push my buttons. The good news is that we hired a new teacher so my class sizes are now 21-25 students instead of 21-32. My students scores are near the school average so I'm pretty happy.

I really want to update on my progress toward a healthier me. Here are the numbers. Remember, they are compared to where I started on August 1st of this year.

• Weight: -16 lbs
• Bust: -1"
• Band: -2"
• Natural waist: -4"
• Hips: -2"

To be frank I'm mostly losing weight because I don't eat much during lunch. In the past I've had conference during lunch so I basically had over an hour to eat. Now I have 30 minutes to eat but once you factor in a bathroom break, running to ISS for students who were just put in there, setting up for my next class, etc it's more like 15-20 minutes. I cannot eat much in that time because it upsets my stomach so I usually just eat an apple or a pear. I'm sure it's not the healthiest thing to do but I haven't found time to eat during my conference either (it's from 11:15-noon). There's just too much to do!

Speaking of too much to do, I have to run. I have plenty to do before I can go to bed tonight. I will try my best to post on Tuesday!

-Clare G. S.

Substitute Teachers

Let me start by saying that I hate having a sub. It is much easier to go to work sick than to deal with a sub. It was especially bad when I had multiple preps (I taught Spanish 3, advanced 3, 4, AP 4, IB 4, AP 5, and IB 5) because the sub had a tendency to give the handouts to the wrong classes. When I have a sub I have to deal with a messy classroom, writing up students for their behavior, trusting the sub required the students to follow my rules (must be in their assigned seat, no electronic devices, no food/drink/perfume, etc), and having no idea until later if the sub gave the correct directions (paper A is due before class ends, paper B is due tomorrow, etc).

Today and tomorrow I have required training all day so I had no choice but to get a sub. I returned to my classroom at the end of the day and I am NOT happy. Here's what went wrong while I was out:

• The sub did not leave any notes for me so that makes me assume all of my classes were little angels. I really don't think that's true.
• No one was marked tardy. Again, I don't think that's true.
• There were food wrappers littering my floor which means students were eating in class. That's not allowed in any classroom at my school.
• There was a pencil stuck in my ceiling which means my students definitely were not angelitos but the sub didn't tell me.
• A few of the tennis balls that were on the bottom of the chairs were scattered about the room. Again, the sub did not leave a note saying students were playing with the tennis balls.
• Some papers were paper clipped and on my desk and others were in the turn-in box. My instructions said the students should turn in everything to the turn-in tray. I have no clue why the papers were separated.

What tops this all off is that I have the same sub tomorrow. We are short subs so there is nothing I can do about it. That means that tomorrow I will once again find myself on my hands and knees cleaning the broken pencils, food wrappers, crumpled papers, etc from my floor. Also, the students have a quiz tomorrow. The good news is that they can use notes so I don't have to worry about the sub watching for much cheating. However, I have a strict no talking/whispering and no electronic device while any quizzes are out. I have the distinct feeling that the sub won't write down the names of those who talk or use electronic devices.

Well, as you might have noticed, I like to end on a happy note. I won $100 in school supplies from GoGuardian! They are a company that makes software that allows me to monitor my students' computer use while they are in my class. I entered a drawing about a month or two ago and I got the news today that I won! They will buy me $100 worth of school supplies from my Amazon wish list. I filled it with pencils and lines paper. Specifically I will receive 3 grosses of quality pencils and 150 sheets of paper. I ration my pencils; I add two pencils to my "borrow box" everyday and almost everyday by 4pm that box is empty. I'll still have that problem but at least it won't cost me anything. :)

Yay!

-Clare G. S.

Kermit Flail

How I feel on most days. :/

Life has been hectic. I am almost well again. I still have a cough and my sinuses are still bothering me a bit. I'm kind of sad because I can't sing in my normal range. I'm basically stuck as a tenor right now so that means no singing in the choir until my vocal chords heal.

I guess the biggest news I have is that my students took their first unit test . . . and it was awful. My overall average was 58%. That includes the student who made a 0 (yes, he filled in the entire multiple choice test and made a 0), the student who answered only one question out of 15, and the students who obviously filled in random bubbles or all C. On the bright side, the school-wide average when you take out my students was about 68% so my guys are not terribly far behind. What really bothers me is that we offer test corrections. The students had about 25 minutes on Wednesday to work on corrections and otherwise they had to come in after school. I made it very clear that Friday was the absolute last day for corrections (except those who have been absent). I had just over 1/3 of my students do the corrections. The test corrections walk you through what to do! They can use notes, calculators, and ask me questions while they work on it! There was no reason anyone should 1. pass up this opportunity to raise their grade and 2. get below a 50 on the test after corrections.

I am up-to-date on all of my grading so tomorrow I'm going to make calls home to all of my students who have below a 60 in my class. If I have time, I will also call those that have a 60-75 since that is failing (but close to passing) or borderline. I'm too ashamed to tell you how many phone calls I will need to make.

I need to update y'all on the retaining wall but it's a mess as well. The short story is that it looks like we will be taking our contractor to court for theft. We paid him for some jobs that he never did and now he refuses to do. The good news is that we are very good about keeping a "nest egg" so if we lose that money it will hurt but we will be able to make it.

Let's end on a positive note: I started to flip my classroom on Friday. Most of my students said that they liked video notes better than me lecturing because they can go at their own pace. I had one student complain that I talk too much in the videos. I pointed out that the videos are less than 15 minutes long. When I lecture, it's 20-25 minutes so I'm actually talking less in the videos. Another student said he didn't like the videos because then he couldn't ask questions. I pointed out that it's easier to ask questions because now he doesn't have to feel like he is stopping the whole class. Plus, I now have more class time to answer those questions in detail. Basically, for every "hater" I was able to explain why flipped learning was better. Here's hoping it's a success! :D

-Clare G. S.

I'm not quite dead yet

I feel a bit like the guy on the shoulders

I apologize for the hiatus. Life last week was crazy and then I caught a cold. I've decided that I need to change the days I post. Wednesday is too crazy; I have choir rehearsal and sometimes I have all-staff meeting which leaves very little time for writing. I'm going to try writing Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday since I don't have any regular commitments on those days.

The reason why last week was so nuts was partially because I had hall duty. That means that for 20 minutes before classes begin each morning I had to stand in the cafeteria and make sure none of the students acted like fools. It's boring but I understand the need for it. We have a rotating schedule so last week was it until the next grading period. Unfortunately, that took away 20 vital minutes in my day. That's when I make copies, take work to ISS, and answer e-mails.

Well, it wouldn't have been so bad if things didn't seem to pop up during my conference each day. Someone from Texas Instruments (they make the calculator we use) came by to talk and see if I needed help. She's a wonderful person but I just didn't have time that day for an in-person talk. However, that was the only day she was on our campus. Another day I walked work to ISS, came back to my room and found out that another student had just been sent to ISS and needed her work. I took her work over and then I had to go to a secretary to drop off work for a student who was out sick for the week. I got my exercise that day!

It all really came to a grinding halt on Friday when I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. By Saturday morning I was miserable. I definitely had caught a cold. Sunday was pretty bad but I decided to go to work today anyway. Looking back, it probably would have been wiser to stay home. I really hate having a sub because it usually means more work when I get back.

The good news is that tomorrow my students have a test so that means I can rest my voice a bit. Here's hoping they do well!

-Clare G. S.

P.S. - No walking recently because I wasn't feeling well. :(

3 Day Weekend Ahead!

Week two as a math teacher is over! It was definitely a roller coaster of a week. The good news is that it ended pretty well. I need to remember in the future to see if my students who are causing trouble are athletes. Those coaches know how to reach the kids! Sports are very important to many of the kids so if the coach says, "If you don't start behaving in class you won't play" the kids magically find a way to behave.

The real problem with dealing with disruptive students is that it is negatively affecting my health. :( I have a sensitive stomach and apparently I have been more anxious about this than I thought. I have woken up feeling sick to my stomach every day this week. What doesn't help is that I have these problem students near the end of the day so I spend the entire morning thinking, "Everything is fine now but in a few hours I have to be prepared." It's really hard to stop myself thinking that way! I need to enjoy my classes because really a majority of them are awesome! In the couple of classes where I have trouble it's just a few students who are causing the trouble and I'm working hard on finding what makes them tick so that I can motivate them to do their work and not bother others. If any of you have good ideas to reduce anxiety, let me know! Please don't suggest yoga. I've tried it a few times and I feel ridiculous and everyone else in the class seems to take it waaaaay too seriously.

I'm still not exercising as much as I would like but I'm hoping that this long weekend will help. My plan of attack is to take a nice long walk tomorrow morning and Monday morning. I want to use this weekend to get ahead in my work so that I have the time to exercise. I am still not finding much time to eat lunch which worries me a little. I didn't even realize how little I ate today until I sat down to dinner! My breakfast was just an apple, I had a granola bar for a mid-morning snack, and lunch was half of a Hot Pocket. That's got to be fewer than 500 Calories in total.

I almost forgot to talk about my husband's birthday! Yesterday he turned 30 and I had a funny little gift for him. I should preface this story by saying that my husband and I don't really buy each other gifts anymore because we like to save our money so that we can go on trips. We agree that we would rather spend money doing fun things together than on trinkets that we don't really need. If we happen to find something small that we think the other would especially enjoy we go ahead and purchase it. Well, my husband loves Fruit by the Foot. Specifically, he likes the flavor "Berry Tie Dye". Unfortunately the grocery store only sells variety packs so he ends up eating a bunch he doesn't really like just to get to the ones he enjoys. I thought he would get a kick out of receiving a few boxes of just his favorite flavor. After a lot of online shopping I found out that Walmart had the best price. About two weeks before his birthday I ordered the boxes. Well, the week before his birthday I picked up the shipment and they were all the variety packs. I contacted Walmart and they re-sent the correct items without charging me extra. It was cutting it close because it was supposed to come in the day before his birthday. On his birthday I ran up to Walmart and lo and behold they sent variety packs again. I was not happy. Luckily my husband and I have a good sense of humor because we are now stuck with 120 Fruit by the Foot (10 boxes of 12). I think we are set for after school snacks for the next couple of months.

9 of the 10 boxes we now own

-Clare G. S.

AMDG

In more modern language I would title this post #blessed

Today was a much better day. Before I can get to today, I have to talk about yesterday. Tuesday wasn't that great of a day. No, there was no fight but I still had students talking over me, making odd noises, etc for all of that one class period. I tried a tactic I have seen used by other teachers where we all go in the hall and then file back in the classroom with absolutely no talking. If they talk, we try again. We probably spent 10 or 15 minutes doing that. They failed to enter the classroom in silence each time. I was frustrated beyond belief. My last period of the day has been a bit challenging simply because I have 33 students and only 31 chairs (that includes my stool!). I e-mailed our principal in charge of discipline so that we could meet and talk about what I should do next.

Last night I talked to my husband and the only solution we could think of was to give the students one warning in class. If they keep acting up it would have to be a referral. I have changed seats, talked to the students one-on-one, and called home. I have used all of my options. My meeting today with the AP (assistant principal) arrived to the same conclusion.

Today went much more smoothly. I had a few students acting up so I took them out into the hallway for a short chat and made sure they understood that if I had to address their behavior again today that I would send them directly to the principal. Each student said he understood. Each student chose to act up again so they were sent to the office. Once the few who were causing a majority of the distractions were gone class was better. There was still some talking, poking other students, etc but I was able to teach and do small re-directions.

Here's where I have to bring in God. During my talk with my husband last night I told him that part of the reason I felt so horrible is because I have been praying to God everyday usually multiple times per day. I was asking for patience, for the Holy Spirit to guide me, and for the Holy Spirit to guide my students. I was feeling like God was just ignoring me because nothing was changing. Today, I have to admit that I was foolish and that God was there all along. He kept me calm and level headed and I made it through today with His help. I titled this post AMDG (Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam) because all thanks and glory belong to God. It made me think of that song I sang at Catholic camp as a kid: Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory! :)

Health

I'm still not going on walks around the neighborhood but it's mostly because I honestly think I walk more than a mile each day at school. I need to find my old pedometer to see if this is true. My husband and I have been better about eating at home even though many of our meals are frozen. It's still cheaper and at least a little better than eating out. At school I rarely have time to eat more than just my sandwich and a granola bar or two. I end up really hungry by dinner time but the weight is just dropping off now! (The scale says I'm down another pound) I'm realizing that I have been eating way more than my body needed. I was eating until I was full when really I ought to eat until I'm no longer hungry. It sounds like a small difference but I think it's an important one. I have little down time or a chance to be bored so I'm not filling that time with food. Any down time I earn is mostly used to chat with my husband and read.

Oh yeah, this is going to sound really random but I have other good news: my toe nail grew back! I accidentally ripped off most of one of them at the beginning of July but it is 100% fine now. 

Now that I've grossed you out, I think it's time to go. ;)

-Clare G. S.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Today was pretty darn awful. I don't feel like writing but I want to give an update so I'm doing bullet points today.

• We left the house nearly 20 minutes late. I hate being late. This meant I didn't have time to finish all my copies, etc.
• The dogs got tangled in their leads 3 times before we even left the house. (They are on a trolley system because we are missing a large chunk of our fence. That's a whole 'nother story)
• The dogs knocked over the water just as I was about to leave so I had to go refill their water. (Small annoyance, I know)
• There was a physical fight in one of my classes. I've never had a physical fight in my classroom.
• Because of the above some of my co-workers saw me cry with frustration during PLC (meeting with our teams and/or department)
• The usual student interruptions from talking and such.
• A student complaining so much about having to take notes that I had to talk to him outside because I couldn't continue my lesson.
• They added a new student to my largest class so I now have 34 students and only 28 desks. (Nutshell explanation: we had many more student enroll this year than projected. We need to hire more teachers)
• Gene Wilder died.

My husband pointed out that I did everything I could to try to prevent the fight from happening and that it had nothing to do with me nor my class. Still, I feel crappy about it. It took so long to get my class back on task afterward. They are already a "lively" group and this just killed the class period.

Happy Stuff

Because, darn it, I've got to look at the bright side.

• A student who would not stop talking (I moved his seat, talked to his parent/guardian, talked to him one-on-one) was a little better today.
• A student told my husband that I'm a very kind person.
• One of my co-workers (I called her K in a previous post) gave me a big hug after the whole fight ordeal.
• All of the parents I have talked to have been very level headed and want to help their students succeed.
• I let myself have a Dr Pepper and it was good.
• See below for my health update. It's really good!

I haven't been working out much because school has taken over. I couldn't walk my planned 2 miles on Saturday because my butt was sore. I forgot how much I walk during the day when I have class! I only walked 1 mile last week but I walked 2 miles on Sunday. Here are the numbers:

• Weight: -6 lbs
• Bust: 0"
• Band: -1"
• Waist: -2.5"
• Hips: -.5"

I have to run off. There is plenty of paperwork that I really need to do. If you are the praying type, I could really use some prayers. Thanks!

-Clare G. S.

End of the week

Or when you don't want yourself/your husband to starve to death

Well, I have made it through my first week of school as an Algebra teacher. It was not an easy week. I would say over 90% of my students are just fabulous. That <10% is tough. Today I almost had a physical fight break out in one class. I was definitely saved by the bell because it rang just when things were getting really bad. I'd rather not focus on the negative so let's talk about some positive topics.

First, it may help to know my team a bit. Our leader is K. She has been teaching for a couple of decades. In fact, she taught our lead teacher when our lead teacher was in high school! (I don't understand this because K does not look like she is old enough for that to be possible.) The other Algebra I teacher is O. She is new to the district but not new to teaching. She came from an, uh, interesting district. It sounds like the admin there were completely clueless.

Today we were chatting while picking up some supplies and we all agreed on something: it is really nice to work with each other. You see, I think that I can work with just about any reasonable person and maybe even a few unreasonable people. What's really nice about this year is that I actually enjoy working with K and O. (Side note: I just realized that I could totally call them OK. Can I call them OK? Haha.) We all agreed that it makes our day much easier when we get along well with our teammates. It's good to have one part of my day that I know won't be stressful because I'm working with good people.

Speaking of school, I realized that I have a lot of digital paperwork that I need to do because our school changed how we deal with those minor problems that tend to grow into big problems (using phones in class, talking back, purposefully bothering other students, etc). Hopefully I will get better at doing that daily instead of once a week.

My only other news is that I've only walked one mile this week. :( Trying to get back into the swing of things was hectic so I decided to not go on my morning walks so that I could get a little more sleep. My plan is to walk at least two miles tomorrow morning. I would really like to then do a two mile walk in the evening but I think that may be unwise. Oh yeah, I was a little bad. I had my first soda in about three weeks. I'm not too upset because I used to have a soda a day so one in three weeks is a HUGE improvement. :)

Until next time!
-Clare G. S.

New subject, new students

The only problem is that I feel like the one on the right

Yesterday was our first day of school with the students and my first day teaching Algebra! Overall, I think it went well. So far I work well with the other two teachers who teach Algebra 1. The first day of school went exceptionally well until after lunch. I then had a class with about six students who wanted to talk and disrupt class the entire time. I took each student to the hallway in turn to discuss how they were starting the year. Today I changed their seats so that they were separated. That got four of the students to change their behavior. I now just have two who would rather socialize than work. I have a couple more strategies to see if we can get them on the right path. I'm hopeful but very tired!

Tomorrow is when I really start to hit the math concepts so I'm a bit nervous. I talked to my team and have some great tips. You see, I know how to do this math but I'm not sure I know the best way to teach it. One of my teammates showed me how to explain solving polynomial equations with just four steps. That's much simpler than how I would have done it! I'm incredibly grateful for their help and I keep telling them so.

Along with a new subject, I am teaching a new demographic of students: freshmen! Whenever someone hears this they say something to the effect of "Oh my gosh, God bless you." In my experience, freshmen aren't really that different from sophomores. I'm more worried about having students with special needs & accommodations and probably not for the reason you are thinking. To follow state and federal laws, I must be certain that I am giving the students the accommodations they need and to give that consistently. I've created a spreadsheet to keep track of what they need because there is such a variety! I had no clue that these lists were so specific. Accommodations can include behavior (seated near the teacher, encourage class participation, private conferences, reminders of the class rules, etc) and academics (note outlines, extra time, oral administration, etc). I'm hoping that doing these things will quickly become a habit.

The only other thing that is worrying me about work right now is my class size. That is completely normal for the beginning of the year as the counselors work out schedules. Unfortunately I currently have 28 student desks (with chairs attached) in my classroom but I have one class with 32 students. I have a table I use for absent folders, turn-in boxes, etc that is currently my overflow area. I have lucked out because I only have two chairs for that desk but I've had enough students be absent that everyone has had a place to sit everyday. I'm hoping this is fixed soon because I like to have a seating chart and that's very difficult when there aren't enough seats.

On a very different note, I have solved a mystery. Last year my husband never finished the lunches I packed and I felt a little hurt about this because it takes some extra time to pack them. He always said he never had time to finish the lunch and I couldn't understand why. Last year I happened to have conference during the lunch period. That meant I could easily take my time during lunch since it blended with my conference. This year I have a class directly before and after lunch. I've found that those 30 minutes really aren't enough. The first six minutes are spent helping in the hallway during passing period. The next few minutes are spent taking a bathroom break, responding to urgent e-mails, and just sitting and breathing. The next thing I know I have 15 minutes to eat and prepare for my next class! Yesterday and today I had a sandwich and a yogurt. I've tried to have a snack during conference but I haven't yet found the time to do it.

Speaking of food, I've got to leave my blogging here for today. I really need to work on dinner. I'm a bit sad because I'm missing the first church choir rehearsal of the season because my throat is so sore but at least I don't have to bolt down my food.

¡Hasta luego!
-Clare G. S.

Be True to Your School

Over the summer there was a negative article published about my school district in our local paper. I don't often read the paper so I don't know exactly what it said but we received an e-mail from our superintendent that explained the circumstances. Since then more people than usual have been asking my opinion of our district when they find out where I work. I'll tell you what I tell them.

I truly enjoy where I work. This will be my 5th year teaching anywhere and my 5th year teaching at this particular high school. That means that I don't have any personal experiences with any other district against which to compare my current district. My husband is in a different boat. He worked for what I'll call "district A" for 5 years before coming to our current district. From my personal experiences and from seeing what happened with my husband years ago I am not only thankful that I work where I do but I'm proud.

You see, every school and every district has problems and there is such a wide variety of what those problems can be: lack of community/parent/admin support, old buildings, not enough money for basic supplies, drugs/sex/alcohol, poor pay for teachers, poor healthcare options, unruly students, unruly co-workers, etc. The list can go on and on. You know what problems I personally have with my district? I don't always agree with their decisions. I sometimes feel that my budget is too small or isn't flexible enough. There have been a few co-workers who rubbed me the wrong way. In the past I had too many preps for me to handle. That's it. Those problems are so tiny! I am never going to agree with every decision made. I don't work for a rich district so of course money feels tight. I can be as pleasant as the day is long but that doesn't mean I will be friends with everyone. I now have only one prep so that problem is solved. I truly do not understand why some people in our community think poorly of our district when they have no first-hand experience. They should come to my class! Yes there are days where I am frustrated but my co-workers support me, my students make me smile, and admin has my back. How many teachers can say that?

Recent Happenings
Yesterday was some more professional development and time to work in our teams and rooms. I saw this great TED talk about how we view stress affects how we react to it. I also got a refresher on brain development which explains (but does not excuse!) the behavior of teenagers.

Today we had all day to work in our rooms, meet in our teams, work on lesson plans, etc. My husband had a bad day but out of respect for his privacy (he doesn't like posting much on the internet) I won't go into it. It's tough hearing about his bad day but not being able to do much to help. :( I worked mostly on getting my room together. I'm really excited for what I did to one of my cork boards! It's filled with graduation announcements, thank you notes, and drawings from my former students. I have it right next to my desk as a reminder of why I do what I do.

I've got to run because my husband is trying to fix our leaking roof. I definitely don't want him going up and down a ladder without me to hold it!
-Clare G. S.

The falling wall

There have been a few adventures in my life in the past few days. Let's start with yesterday

     We had our district conference as I mentioned in my previous post. Well, in my last session of the morning (around 11:40am) the lights suddenly went out! We waited a couple of minutes to see if they would come back on but they didn't. I decided to find my husband and have lunch since no electricity = no hot food very quickly. We grabbed some food from the cafeteria and headed back to his room to eat since it's on a corner and has multiple windows. When we arrived at his room we saw exactly what happened.
     A little backstory first: There are electrical wires & poles that go through the edge of our parking lot. The wires hang oddly low; I would say about 10 ft. from the ground. There have been a couple of times when the soda truck for the vending machines has tried to turn around and has pulled one of the wires down. It results in one wing of the school losing electricity. Well, it seems that one of the vendors had a truck that tried to turn around but it yanked on nearly all of the electric wires. Now we have really low hanging wires but at least the school has electricity back.

Did I mention that it had been raining?

Today we mostly met with our departments and teams. We also talked about our LMS (Learner Management System). An LMS is software for creating and sending electronic assignments and such. Think of Facebook but for a school. When my husband and I came home for lunch we looked outside at our backyard. You see, we live on a hill and have started construction on a large retaining wall made of big blocks of limestone. Each block weighs about 1.5 tons. Construction had to be paused a couple of weeks ago for a couple of reasons I'd rather not go into. When it was paused, the workers had dug out near the base of the wall to work on the drainage system. Unfortunately they did not re-bury the base of the wall. Because it has been raining for at least 5 days, the wall is now starting to tilt. This is a big problem. If those blocks fall then the filler stones behind it are going to fall out. I have no clue how we would put the stones and the blocks back. We have contacted the construction crew and hopefully they will be able to solve this problem because the rain isn't due to stop for another week.

This is where construction halted. The bottom row of blocks was originally half buried.

The good news is that I am getting along well with my new team at school. The teachers who taught Algebra I last year saved everything! That means I have lots of resources, a pacing calendar, etc. I am very thankful for all of the work they did!

-Clare G. S.

P.S. - I walked in the rain today because I was determined to get at least a little exercise. YAY!