Snow Day...Just In Time!

Well, it happened. I had to break up my first fight.

Let it be known that I went to a teeny-tiny high school where the closest thing to I fight I ever encountered was hearing some senior say, “We’ll meet up this weekend- then we’ll fight.” These fights never happened, and, thus, I’ve made it to 24 without ever actually seeing physical violence.

That being said, of course my first encounter would be in my classroom with two of my students. And, of course, these students were two big boys. Boys much bigger than me. Much bigger. Because, I could have expected no less.

I have to be frank: it was scary, overwhelming, and just too much. You know that story about a mom being able to throw off a car when it’s on her infant? Well, that’s pretty much how I felt. My voice got louder and stronger than I ever imagined. I was took up more space between these two boys than I imagined possible. And when a desk was picked up by a boy more than ready to chuck it across the room, all it took was one word to have it put back down.

Honestly, I was proud that I handled it as calmly and rationally as I did. I broke it up before a punch was thrown. It felt like I had the boys separated, in the office, with the report written before I even was able to blink.  I must admit, however, that when I finally walked back to my classroom, my hands were shaking.

So, it’s happened now. I’ve  broken up a fight. I now know that I have it in me and that my students will, in fact, respect my authority in an abnormal situation. And I feel good about this realization.

Now, with all that said, can I tell you how glad I am to have two snow days in a row? As much as I love my kids, after drama like that, I needed a breather!

Handwritten with Love

I am guilty of spending a large chunk if my time on Pinterest, particularly in the education section. I love looking at blogs of adorable classrooms, perfectly crafter word walls, and the individually created resources. With darling fonts and whimsical borders- be still my heart. 

I'd love to be a teacher whose handouts and quizzes were all created with a font that captured the heart of the story. I would like to have clip art and borders that matched the theme of the novel. And sometimes I try to do this. But more often than not, this is what my quizzes end up looking like:

My school currently doesn't have enough classrooms for every teacher to have their own, so I share my room with another English teacher. To be fair, I'm luckier than most of the first year teachers as I get to teach 2/3 of my classes in my room and don't have to travel with a cart. But this also means that I have no computer or private place to work on my planning period. Hence the handwritten quizzes and handouts. 

I try to remind myself that the quality of the materials far surpasses the adorableness, but sometimes I do wish I had that cute factor. Anne Shirley and Laura Ingalls certainly wouldn't have had fancy copies for their students and if handwritten was good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

What do you think- do appealing quizzes and handouts help students learn? Or does the material trump all?

Making it Work

Now, don't get me wrong. I love the opportunity to sleep in from time to time. I have last period planning so when school lets out early and I get the opportunity to head home early, I'm all about it. Snow days can be beautiful, relaxing, and productive. They give me the opportunity to work on reading this:

Why, yes. This is my reading for my classes this session. And no, sleep is not on the agenda for the next 11 weeks. 

Anyway, the point is that after all of these snow days, I'm starting to feel lost in my lesson planning. I spent a good chunk of time before Christmas Break working on a master plan for the month of January. And I must say, I was so pleased to know that everything was ready to roll when it was time to go back to school.

See? I'm never this organized!

Now that we've been out 4 days, let out early one day, had a 2 hour delay, an in-school wrestling match, and a school wide assembly, my schedule has gone out the window. Instead, I'm swapping things around, trying to prioritize, and just learning how to make it work. 

So, until the weather settles downs and school gets back to normal, I'm embracing a new moto:

Book Proposal

One activity that I have my students do each 9 weeks is to complete an Outside Reading Project (we call it ORP) with a book the choose. I found last semester that many students were choosing books that they had either already read or that were too easy for them. To remedy this issue with my new students, I wanted to design a way to let them have freedom over their choice, yet allow me to have veto power. And, of course, I wanted to find a way to get them writing. 

So I designed a new book proposal activity that will ask students to justify their choice of novel for their Outside Reading Project. It asks them to explain their reasoning for choosing the book, what they hope to take away from it, and how it will challenge them. I've put this activity on my Teachers Pay Teachers account for FREE for you to check out!

This was designed to pair with my Outside Reading Project but could be used with any literature reading assignment or book report. It could easily be used with a variety of ages- just tweak the length requirements.  How do you keep your students feeling in control of their decisions, yet still maintain control?

Snow Day Chalkboard

I went to bed last knowing that we would have a 2 hour delay today. I didn't expect anything more than this since it hadn't snowed a single flake.  I woke up at 6 this morning and peeked out the window to see- SNOW! Just a few minutes later I got the text that we were out for the day. Clearly, the right thing to do was to roll over and get some more sleep. 

I did decide that a snow day was the perfect day to make a craft that I've had in mind for quite some time: a classroom chalkboard.  I already had the chalkboard paint squirreled away waiting for the perfect project so all I had to do was hit up the thrift store to find the perfect board. And, oh boy. Did I ever find the perfect board.

It's perfect- perfectly ugly! I can't imagine what house this ever hung in, with its smudged flowers and unmatching green frame. However, the frame was good quality and it was only two dollars, so it seemed like the perfect subject for my chalkboard attempt. 

Overall, I think it turned out pretty well. What I read online said to wait 24 hours before writing on it so I'm going to try to wait- but I'm not going to lie, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I think it will be just the thing to spruce up my classroom. Perhaps I can switch out literary quotes...what do you think?

Welcome to 510

I feel that, too often, when it comes to high school classrooms, decor gets overlooked. I realize that having stimulating colors and pictures around the room is less important to teenagers than to younger students, but it is my opinion that it does make a difference. I wanted my room to be warm and comfortable and to evoke a safe feeling in my students. 

When it was time for me to begin decorating my classroom, I wanted to be sure that I kept this in mind. I spent months leading up to the start of the school year keeping my eyes open at thrift stores, yard sales, and clearance sections looking for odds and ends to create a cozy feel in my room. I spent a great deal of time over the summer crafting and dreaming up possible plans. When the time came to decorate my room I set out with all of my hoarded decorations and went to town!

About half of my materials.

It took me about 10 hours and several pairs of helping hands to get my room put together, but in the end, I was pleased with the results. Of course, there are about a million more things that I would like to do, but there will be time for that as time goes on. Now- let me take you on a mini tour of my room!

The kid's LOVE the Readbox

My "Readbox" is one of my favorite parts of my room. It is stocked full of a huge variety of books that my students are able to help themselves to. In a high schooler's schedule, it can be hard to find time to get to the library, so I think this is a great solution! The kids think it's great, too.

Adventures ahead!

I love, love, LOVE my sign. My parents made it for me out of a reclaimed pallet over the summer. Pretty much everyone who steps foot in my room is excited about it. It was hard to narrow down which literary places to include- perhaps I need another one!

Computer station

I'm lucky enough to have some student computers in my room. There wasn't a whole lot that I could do with this section of the room- far be it from me to try to mess with that many computer cords. So I tried to spruce it up with some fun signs that I found on Pinterest. 

All my favorite posters

I surrounded my SmartBoard with my absolute favorite posters. They add some fun to the empty space but aren't too distracting for the students when I'm teaching. 

Fun Harry Potter quote.

I'm a Harry Potter fiend, so I try to sneak in references where I can. I love this quote and I thought "How perfect for over the light switch!" 

Posters make ugly cabinets much better!

When I was student teaching, two of my students had all of the teachers in the building sign a good luck poster for me. And true to 8th grade boy form, it was a One Direction poster- because that's what they think all girls like. When I got my own classroom I knew this poster had to make its way in. The freshman girls don't seem to mind it too much, either :)

View of the room

Posters, posters, everywhere. In all the boring, blank spaces I stuck fun colorful posters. I've got a huge variety- everything from Joseph Campbell to Wu Tang. 

Banned Book Shelf

 This is another of my favorite aspects of my room.  I added this section in when we studied Banned Books week. You would not believe how quickly these books fly off the shelf. And don't worry- I have a system to make sure they are allowed to read them, but that's the subject for another post.

That is a quick tour of my classroom. I think that I was able to do what I aimed for in creating a cozy, safe environment in which my students are happy. I know I feel happy when I'm in my room, that's for sure.