Last Weekend!

This is the last weekend before school is finished! I'm very excited to have an entire summer ahead of me to travel, sew and plan for next school year.

My husband was gone this weekend, so I watched some television he won't watch like the Real Housewives of New York City (love it!) and shopped. I am also proud to say I bought zero school clothes! I did buy a metal crate for work handed in late though. One of by biggest pet peeves is when students hand me their late work in the middle of class. With all the other stuff I do, I invariably put it on my desk (a sea of papers) or on top of my overhead cart (a sea of papers). I haven't yet lost a student's work, but I have definitely, temporarily misplaced it. I have a big basket for student's work now, but they seem to think it's a "catch-all" because of it's size. I saw this one at Target and it reminded me of an old shopping cart, plus it's smaller and will fit there work much more neatly than the other basket.
I also purchased a three ring binder to help me organize all the recipes I tear out of magazines. I made Real Simple's Leek and Corn Fettucini this week and the Potato Bacon Salad this weekend. Both were great, with very subtle, but fantastic flavors!

Finally, I finished a book called "Why Don't Student's Like School" by Daniel T. Willingham. He is a cognitive psychologist, so his work was based more on the thought processes of students. I found myself wanting more practical application to his theories, but it was still very interesting. He argues that students need questions about a lesson to be interested in a lesson. It makes complete sense, but pushing students to ask these questions or creating a question for the students was not fully addressed. I try to ask questions to students in their daily Bellwork, but they do not always push the student to be interested in the topic, something I will definitely need to continue to improve on next year.

One of the other chapters that captivated me was about Gardner's multiple intelligences. He argues Gardner's original intention was to target students' multiple talents. Teachers should not be expected to appeal to all multiple intelligences, but focus more on the cognitive aspect of the material and the meta-cognitive process within students. If we help students master their thought process their natural talents/intelligence will emerge.

The last chapter encouraged teachers to observe one another which I have been pushing all year. I will definitely try to implement a department wide program next year if possible.
Anyways, I look forward to next week and will try to keep the blog updated!

New Changes

I decided to start a new blog because I was not keeping up with my first try, "Camino Luz." When I started the blog I was traveling around the United States and the world while my husband was stationed in Korea for a year. I had time to sew, time to read, time to shop...too much time on my hands. I left Korea in August to move to Shreveport, Louisiana (our next Air Force assignment) to find a job teaching. I was hired two days before the school year started and began teaching American and World History full time. That has been my life this year. I wake up at 5:42 a.m., get to school by 7:15 a.m. and work until 4:30 p.m. on average. I typically bring assignments home to grade or lessons to plan each night, usually adding an additional two hours to my workday. This is the catch though: I love it. I love my job. There are days when I want to pull my hair out because of kids being disrespectful or rude, but most days I simply love what I am doing.
So...this new blog will be about teaching, the books I read concerning education (and otherwise), some crafting/sewing, lesson plans and maybe some personal stuff here and there. I'm really excited about this new adventure and I hope you are too!