Too Many Lows

I've been horrible about blogging lately...I completely blame it on the fact that I'm a first year teacher, and barely have time to even sleep, let alone shower.  But as I lie here in bed on a Monday night, after taking my first sick day ever and taking my second sick day tomorrow, I figured I could do a quick blog entry before letting NyQuil take over my night again.  Here are the highs and lows of this past week:

Highs:

• Chris visited from Thursday to Sunday! We aren't able to see each other as much now that I tutor on Saturdays, so it was so good to see him for longer than a day and a half.  Having him here makes me so much more relaxed and I seriously don't know how I would have gotten through the last 6 months without him.

• 26 days until Spring Break! I can't wait for Vegas!

Okay, so...I always try to write more highs than lows in my blog updates.  It seems like it's better to focus on the positives in life more than the negatives, and while blogging the negatives is therapeutic, I always like to include more good than bad.  However, that just truly isn't possible for me this week.  So here goes the negative...

Lows:

• I was sick ALL of last week.  I woke up Monday feeling like crap, and progressively got worse. By the time Chris came Thursday, I was in full-blown flu/strep throat/am-I-dying mode.  This meant that our quality time together consisted of me sleeping ALL weekend, and drugged up on cold medicines the entire time.  I know he must have been so bored since we only left the apartment about 2 times in 4 days, but he was a trooper and took good care of me.

• My kids take their huge state test on April 24th...even though it seems like we have a lot of time left, with Spring Break and middle of year testing next week, it feels like I have hardly any instructional days left with them, and I'm terrified that they're not ready.

• I have no idea if I'm preparing my students for this test (and even their futures) well enough.  Lately I've been feeling very inadequate as a teacher.  My kids are misbehaving more than usual, I don't feel like the "fun" teacher that I used to be, and I'm feeling kind of down on myself overall.  This job is so difficult and I'm just not sure if I'm even doing a good job.

• I got a parking ticket.  I went to court to fight it because I thought the street parking signs were very misleading.  The judge asked me for any pictures that I took, and then proceeded to tell me that the pictures I showed him actually incriminated myself.  He even said to me, "I bet you feel stupid for showing me those pictures now, huh?  You just made my case." Long story short, he made me feel like a royal idiot, and though I tried to hold back tears, they definitely started flowing as I exited the court room.  Talk about embarrassing.

• The judge lowered my parking citation from $70 from $30.  This would be a high, except for the fact that the judge entered my citation number incorrectly into the system, so now it shows that I have TWO parking tickets...one for $30 and for $70.  I have called about 5 times now and each time the city of Houston tells me something different---"Oh, don't worry, I'll get that fixed for you, check back tomorrow it should be taken care of..." or "You're gonna have to come back in and see the judge to get that fixed.  I can't fix that over the phone for you." 

• Like I said, I took my first sick day ever today.  Of course, on the one day I need to take a sick day, no substitute signs up to fill my absence.  Someone from the front office covered for me all day, but I feel bad because I didn't want my absence to make it harder on anyone else on my staff.
• I feel like I'm not even myself anymore.  I have no social life, feel like I'm not even a fun person anymore, and don't even have time to take care of myself let alone spend time with the few friends that I have in this city.  Teaching is not the kind of job that allows you to stop working when you finish at work for the day---this job literally consumes me.  My teaching friends and I even joke about how pathetic our happy hours are since all we talk about are our students.

This blog does a pretty awesome job describing the life of a teacher, and kind of sums up how I feel every single day: 

http://www.loveteachblog.com/2012/01/why-teachers-are-complete-psychos.html

Highs and Lows

Highs:

• Yesterday was TFA Houston's Winter Summit.  While I wasn't excited to spend my Saturday at an all-day training, my sessions were actually really interesting and I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while! Plus, TFA events always get me re-inspired for why I'm actually doing this job
• Dinner and drinks at Berry Hill last night with Briana, Jennifer, and Sarah was exactly what I needed
• I got 12 hours of sleep last night.  Going to bed at 9 PM and waking up at 9 AM felt so right
• I finally went grocery shopping for the first time in a month!  I made a trip to the mall, Trader Joes, Randalls, and Target all in under 2 hours!
• I decorated the apartment for Christmas! Christmas lights and chocolate Advent calendars are definitely starting to make it feel more like the holiday season
• My kids loved my lessons on theme and plot stages this week--I even got to teach them plot stages using the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Spongebob Squarepants.  When they learn and enjoy it at the same time, I am very happy
• I'm trying to make Sundays less stressful, and have therefore started referring to Sundays as "Stress-free Sundays."  That means Glee is on, candles are burning, and Christmas music is playing in the background while I lesson plan
• Kate and Mark get married in 27 days and I go home in 20 days!

Lows:

• Bills, bills, bills.  I simply never have enough money for all of my expenses
• I graded my students' Thanksgiving homework packet and only about 70% turned it in.  Of the students who did turn it in, about 50% of them circled random answers and didn't actually read the passages.  Needless to say, if they don't re-do it and turn it in tomorrow, they will be in detention on Friday.
• I have training Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until 8:30 PM this week.  Those long days are going to be rough
• I can't seem to kick this cold! 

1 month until Christmas!

My Thanksgiving break was absolutely wonderful and I have so many things to be thankful for this year.  Unfortunately, now that the break is over, I'm having a hard time re-gaining motivation for the next month.


Highs:

• Spending Thanksgiving with my parents, Chris, and our next door neighbors
• Meeting Chris' wonderful family and friends and getting to see his hometown
• Seeing Jackie, Allie, and Sierra and having a great night in PB together!
• Homecooked meals and copious amounts of wine all week
• Oregon beat Oregon State in the Civil War game! Not that I am surprised, but you never know after last week's game
• 1 month until Christmas!

        

Lows:

• My Thanksgiving break was awesome but there was definitely not enough time to relax 
• I spent ALL day Wednesday grading and going through 60 thirty-question scantron answers because our scantron machine is messed up...that's 1800 questions
• 4 days is simply not a long enough break and now I feel like this next month is going to go slower than ever
• Long distance never gets easier.  Who wants to live 10 hours away from their boyfriend?
• USC, FSU, and UCLA lost--normally I would never root for these teams, but I was rooting for every team this weekend that could possibly bring Oregon up in the rankings
• I'm back to late night lesson planning tonight

Here's to hoping the next month goes by quickly so it can be my favorite holiday already!

2 days and counting!

Highs:

• My personal day Friday was amazing.  I slept till 11, got my nails done, and did some shopping!
• I got to see Chris this weekend, and get to spend most of my Thanksgiving break with him as well! We are really working hard to make the long distance seem as little "long" as possible
• I got most of my planning for Monday and Tuesday done last week so I didn't have to stress too much this weekend
• Tomorrow is a test day...aka I get to rest my voice all day! Let's hope my students' grades on the test keep this high a high
• I fly back to San Diego in 2 days!! I simply cannot wait to be home

Lows:

• I have to move my entire classroom in the next 1 1/2 days
• I missed Kate's bachelorette party and had major FOMO (fear of missing out) all weekend hearing about all of my girlfriends reuniting in Portland to celebrate the bride-to-be...but regardless, I'm very glad they had a wonderful time!
• I have a ton of grading, packing, and organizing to do before my plane leaves on Tuesday night
• Finally, the lowest of the lows...the Ducks lost last night to Stanford and fell to #5 in the BCS rankings

Can't wait to report back with hopefully all highs after Thanksgiving break!

Let the Countdown Begin!

Highs:

• Only 10 days until Thanksgiving! Chris will be with my family on Thursday and then on Friday we are driving up to Moorpark to see his family!
• I'm taking a personal day Friday---aka this week I'm only working 4 days, and next week I'm only working 2!
• 48 days until two of my amazing friends, Kate and Mark, get married!
• Briana, Emily and I got Thai food last night...never a bad choice
• We got to pet-sit a black lab puppy this weekend!
• Oregon is ranked #1 in the AP polls...hopefully #1 in the BCS rankings tonight too!

Lows:

• I am missing Kate's bachelorette party this Saturday...I'm so jealous I can't be in Portland for what I know will be an amazing girls night
• Grading the Fall writing assessments is taking me FOREVER
• We had training all day Saturday...enough said
• Tomorrow is Monday, the worst day of the week

I'm back!

After a long vacation from blogging, I'm back!  Since I don't have much time to blog nowadays, I am going to try to take on the blogging format of my dear friend Caitlin, who always posts her highs and lows for the week.  Seems simple enough, right?

Highs

• Chris and I met up this weekend right outside of Dallas.  We got to relax, do a little shopping, and watch the Oregon vs. USC game at a local bar.  Chris is a USC fan so it was even more awesome that I got to watch my team beat his, since we all know the Ducks are better anyways
• The Ducks are now #3 in the BCS rankings (but let's be real, we should be #2)
• I finally went grocery shopping today and no longer have to walk around my school asking to borrow $1.50 from anyone in sight to buy a Diet Coke from the vending machine
• I've been getting to bed a lot earlier than usual lately...maybe I'm starting to get the hang of nightly lesson planning?

Lows

• District testing is this week, and so far my teaching schedule has been all over the place
• Walking around and monitoring kids taking tests for 2 hours straight is surprisingly exhausting
• Kids are very hyper in class after testing all morning
• I'm super stressed about how my students will perform on the reading test tomorrow...
• I took away one of my student's football during an assembly because he was playing with it, and may or may not have misplaced it...this resulted in a trip to Sports Authority today because I felt guilty and decided to buy him a new one.  Who knew Nike footballs were so expensive?
• My coffee tumbler tipped over and spilled coffee all over my students' tests

I can't believe it's only Monday...here's to what's hopefully a good week!  Keep your fingers crossed that my students do well on their reading and writing tests!

Week 1 Done!

I am officially done with my first week of school! It was a combination of stress, inspiration, fun, and exhaustion, and I'm definitely glad it's over but excited for more weeks to come! Overall it went pretty smoothly and my kids are really awesome.  I definitely have a few students who are "too cool for school" in some of my classes, but I've made the personal goal for myself that my biggest challenge students are going to be my biggest successes at the end of the year...the hard part will be keeping that positive mentality all year.

I just graded my beginning of year assessments to see where my students are in their reading comprehension skills, and the results were definitely disheartening...only about 20 of my 70 or so students scored 70% or higher.  While these numbers are intimidating, it just shows me that I have a lot of work to do this year, and that I have the opportunity to really help my students get to the reading level that they need to be at.

I had my students write stories of their lives, or as we like to call it at Teach for America, Stories of Self.  To be honest, I was worried that my students wouldn't really understand the assignment or wouldn't take it seriously.  I shared my story of self with them about why I am here as a teacher today, and how I struggled with school and my self esteem a lot when I was their age--needless to say, they completely surprised and amazed me.  I haven't been able to read all of their stories yet, but from what I have read, I am so proud of them.  They were so open, honest, and got really personal with their stories.   Reading about the struggles and hardships that they have had to go through just reminded me why my role is not only to be a teacher for my students, but also a mentor and role model as well.

Since I was running around trying to get everything done in time before school started, I'm just now getting around to posting before/after pictures of my classroom.  I'm pretty pleased with how it looks, and I can safely say that I was wrong when I assumed that all of my teachers' classrooms came decorated for them.  I also never realized how much money teachers pay out of pocket to decorate their classrooms and get supplies for their students.

BEFORE:

AFTER: