Preparation

It has been a while since I have written about my job. Teaching is a roller coaster, lots of ups and downs and sometimes can be a bit scary or worrisome. This past week has been wonderful.
I started a new lesson with one class and I had a hard time thinking of something that they could be successful at and wouldn't take too long. I found an old lesson about Kandinsky and non-objective abstract painting while listening to music. I have found this lesson very calming for students in the past, there is something about music without words and watercolor paint. Normally I would have ran off my handouts, wrote the objective on the board and gotten the materials ready, cut paper, water container, brushes, paper towels, and Kandinsky images. Last week the administration team informed all the teachers that our boards need more information to be in compliance with the charter academy we work for. So, I needed to find the space on my boards to also post, the standard written in long form, the objective, essential questions, warm-up / drill, motivation, "I do", "we do", "you do", for each grade level I teach which is three a day. So in addition to the normal preparations, I was rushing around trying to get all these parts of my lesson written so that they could be read if an administrator walked in. Everything was ready on time, somehow, and just as I began the lesson my AP walked in to do a pop in observation. I was so relieved that I had made sure my information was up, and the students responded very well to the new lesson, they had been wanting to paint again.
What a relief.

My Dad

About two months ago my Dad informed me he has cancer. He reassured me that it was caught very early and he was confident that surgery could remove it. Regardless of his confidence, I have been afraid to talk about it. My dad is very important to me. Growing up he was the one constant in my life, the one person I know I could always depend on if I needed someone. The Monday before Thanksgiving he had surgery at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which is like Hopkins if you are not from Michigan. I am happy to report, the surgery was a success, the pathology report came back yesterday and they removed all the cancer, what a relief!
Now back to life as usual.

Grad school blues...

I am sick of Grad school. I know I have said this before, the feeling just wont go away. I have had a clod for a few days, and therefore have not gotten any work done. I took my first two sick days yesterday and Monday, which is a new record for me. I usually get very ill in October and again in November. As usual, I have awoken from my cold hibernation only to panic at the amount of work to be done. I am behind on my lesson plans, I need to make a new seating chart because I decided to rearrange the tables the day before I got sick, I need to write an article summary/critique for my class tomorrow, and rewrite the questions from my midterm that I got wrong explaining why I thought the answer was right, all for tomorrow. Instead of doing any of these things I am blogging. I find comfort in complaining, why I am not sure.
I'm tired, I might go to bed early and worry about it all tomorrow.

I have been an emotional wreak. I am so happy, so proud, so relieved. We did it, everyone that voted for Obama did it! I feel like I have been quoting Michelle Obama all day, "For the first time in my adult life I am very proud of our country."

My students were super hyper today for a good reason. I had decided on the way to work, when I couldn't stop crying, that my students should make a collage to express their feelings about the election outcome. Discussing this was more difficult than I had expected. I had a difficult time explaining the idea because so many students wanted to interrupt and share their opinion, stories, worries, etc. I am glad they are aware of the enormity of this day, but if we could speak one at a time we could express our feelings through art.

At the end of the day we had a "family" meeting in the gym. All the students and staff gathered to talk about the election. We discussed how we learn about dates in our history courses that changed our country, but this date we lived during, we experienced, and we will never forget. One staff member shared that being a minority she always felt off to the side, never really included in the "American dream." Now, because a minority is the president elect she feels the dream is a reality, you really can be anything you want when you grow up, even the president of the United States of America.


Another staff shared a text she received, you may have heard it;
"Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King Jr. could walk, King walked so that Obama could run."

Nov. 4

Well the big day has finally arrived! I have been looking forward to Nov. 4 for a long long time, about two years. I have been wanting to vote so that I can stop being nervous, but I am still nervous. I woke up a bit early, 7am is early when I don't have to work, jumped out of bed told the kids to gather up some books and coloring because we were going to vote. They were not nearly as excited as I was. I think the exact quote was "Do we have to go?" Yes, I said this is an amazing and historic election, I want you to experience it. So I showered, got dressed, and piled the kids in our decrepit minivan.

If you do not know about our decrepit minivan, let me explain. Our van is not old but seems to be aging very fast. The gas gage does not work, we keep track by miles. The radiator overheats unless you always have the heat on, which is fine in the winter, not so good in the summer. Last year while I was at a professional development on Cathedral St. downtown Baltimore, my passengers side window was broken so the thief could have my bag, which looked like a laptop bag but really was only holding my year of lesson plans and a year of research. We have not been able to afford to replace the window, which is ok when you need fresh air because of the heat. Recently the steering began to make loud squeaking noises when I turn. So the van has issues.

When I got near the retirement home where I vote there were cars parked down the street. I kept driving hoping for a closer spot. I found one very close and saw a very long line.

It wrapped around the parking lot several ways and I could not see a door in site. I knew my children would revolt so I asked them if they would like to wait in the car, they did. Luckily for my excellent parking spot I could see the car the entire 4 1/2 hours I was in line. Yes I did say 4 1/2 hours! I arrived at the parking lot at 8:40am and got to my van at 1:15pm. I kept jogging back to my car to make sure the kids were ok, they were of course. Zeek brought 2 books and finished one and started the other. Little blue was not as content and wanted some music, I agreed. I was very happy to see so many people wait so long and I did not hear any complaints, except for my stomach. I voted successfully and ran back to my car. Kids were good, but hungry. I turned the key, the battery was dead. The decrepit van had used up the battery listening to music for an hour, usually the radio does not use enough power to drain a battery. Well, kids time to walk! Luckily we live close.
Now I am still nervous, I want to hear reports, but it is too early. Hopefully everyone reading this has already voted, and now all we can do is wait for the good news.

Update: As I was finishing up this post my husband came home, he only stood in line 45min. He said that our polling station was on the news for having the longest wait.

Update 2: the following picture I found on a local news channel website. I am in this picture, reading a book that Zeek had finished. At that point I had been waiting almost 4 hours.

On the other side of the trees is the retirement home.

Sometimes things work out

My last blog I was pretty defeated. Friday was definitely better. The new schedule is actually better because instead of having three 6th grades for 45min each, I will have one 6th grade for 70 Min's. They will get more work done, the extra time is all for them. My drill, instruction, clean up times all remain the same its just their work time that increases.
I took Monday off to spend with my kids since they don't have school, so I have a 4 day weekend to finish my grades and chill with my own kids. I think the break is much needed so that I can start 2nd quarter a bit more refreshed.

I spoke too soon....

Today was not good. My first period was so horrible, students talking during their test, cursing, some students wouldn't even take the test, and a parent stopped by to observe because she had been hearing such horrible reports from her son. Great.

My other classes were ok, but not good. Then we (teachers) find out there will be an adjustment to the schedule, but it will only affect the SPARS, that's what I teach! On top of that the 8th and 6th grades are reorganising their students, classes that I have been teaching will be all mixed up, I might have new students, and lose others. BOOOOO!

At least some of my students made fantastic campaign posters,

So Far So Good

Well, I am having a great week! I had my formal observation on Monday, and my AP said she was impressed! No one has ever said that before, usually they say I did great and then tell me all kinds of ways to make it even better. I also feel like I have earned some respect from my students. I have had decent behavior and did not have to call school police at all this week. I made several phone calls I made last week and have seen a huge difference in 3 of my difficult students. Yesterday, out of the blue, a computer repair person appeared in my classroom. The librarian had showed him to my room because he knew I had several iMacs. I never placed a work order, someone else in my building had called him because there are several other iMacs they wanted removed and by accident he was delivered to my classroom. He replaced the hard drives in all of them and re imaged them with new software! I now have 11 working apple computers, that run faster, have office, and can go on the Internet. What can I say, so far, so good. :)

I read a book today, and I loved it!

I was at the book store yesterday because Zeek wanted to read "Ida B...and Her Plans to Maximise Fun and Avoid Disaster, and Possibly Save the World." This is not something Zeek would normally see and want to read but his school is reading it for a book club and he wants to participate. While I was at the book store (which by the way did not have the Ida B book I was looking for and I had to drive to Towson in a rainstorm to get it) I saw The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne DuPrau! I LOVED The City of Ember, The People of Sparks, and The Prophet of Yonwood. If you haven't read these you need to. I had no idea she was writing a fourth book and was a bit excited.

This is the first page from The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The Instructions;
When the city of Ember was just built and not yet inhabited, the Chief Builder and the Assistant Builder, both of them weary, sat down to speak of the future.
“They must not leave the city for at least two hundred years,” said the Chief Builder. “Or perhaps two hundred and twenty.”
“Is that long enough?” asked his Assistant.
“It should be. We can’t know for sure.”
“And when the time comes,” said the Assistant, “how will they know what to do?”
“We’ll provide them with instructions, of course,” the Chief Builder replied.
“But who will keep the instructions? Who can we trust to keep them safe and secret all that time?"

I love mysterious beginnings.
The newest Book of Ember, The Diamond of Darkhold is a fantastic end to the series.
If you haven't heard the first Book of Ember is now a movie, so read the book first, books are always better.

I Heart Bmore

I Y Baltimore. For many reasons but today I want to share one, The Book Thing of Baltimore

The Book Thing is a non-profit where anyone can donate books and anyone can take books, for free! You can take as many as you want just sign out when you leave with the number of books you took. I love to go there for National Geographic, maps, and other magazines for my students to tear, cut, and glue into collages. Today I was very excited to find some magazines written in Chinese, these will be great for collage and papier mache'. I signed out that I took 70 books! All free, mostly magazines. If you live in or near Baltimore you should check it out.



This is a picture from the text of one of the Chinese books, can my friends in China read it?

Even if you do not know how to read a language, it is always beautiful to look at.

I Love PD

I really love fine arts professional development. First great thing about PD days, I didn't have to wear professional clothes! I wore my favorite jeans and my Dansko shoes, I love jeans and comfy shoes. When we arrived at City College we signed in and had a continental breakfast. In the morning we discussed management, writing grants, curriculum challenges, and how we should set up criteria for the next city wide art exhibit. After lunch, we chose a workshop that we would like to learn more about. I chose pop art grid drawing. I had a great time. The workshop helped build my confidence in drawing and teaching drawing.
But wait, my day got better.
My art teacher friend and I always carpool to the art PD as we did today. I was inquiring if she had art textbooks I could borrow and she said she has so many I could borrow a whole set and she would still have enough for herself. So after PD we headed to her school, packed up the books, and took them to my school. When we arrived at my classroom, I discovered the kiln and throwing wheel had arrived from the ceramics grant.
That was exciting, but it gets better.
I went upstairs to say hello to any staff that was still around, and found out that the materials from my donorschoose.org grant had arrived! I am very excited to start making tons of sculpture. :)
The only bummer about today is that I had to go to class from 7pm-10pm!
Tomorrow I get to sleep in, because I took tomorrow off to spend with my kids, yeah!

Feels like Friday?

Today is Wednesday, but it feels like Friday. The students in BCPSS have a four day weekend. The staff have two days of professional development and then their weekend. I love Professional development, really love it. When I was working at a miserable school, the art PD was the best 4 days of the year! I always learn something that I can apply to my job immediately. I love to be able to talk with other visual arts teachers and gain new ideas and strategies. Usually if you are an art teacher you are the only art teacher in the school. Other subjects usually have a team, others to bounce ideas off of. So these professional development days are very beneficial for us art teachers.
Since I started positive, now the other side to the long weekend for my students. I have this great student who constantly tries to skip her class to come to art, and I have to tell her she needs to be in her class (which breaks my heart since she actually wants to be there.) She is very helpful to all staff. She will stay after and help the basketball team and today she stayed with me until 6pm helping me grade drills. She told me she didn't want to go home, she didn't like her home. She is basically raising herself, and she is awesome! I was so sad for her and amazed by her at the same time. Later she told me she would come to school tomorrow to help, just to get out of the house. Four days off for students who have crappy homes is a really long time!
I know I will spend all weekend thinking of her, I hope she is ok.

My Brave Husband

I had a much better day than my husband. My husband had been complaining that something in his eye was bothering him. He had flushed it, and it still bothered him. This morning he woke up and his eye was bothering him again, so he decided to go to a doctor. The walk in clinic sent him to an eye doctor. The eye doctor found a glass sliver in his eye! It was very small so the eye doctor numbed the eye and removed the splinter. He was advised to stay home since his work is so dusty. My husband is much braver than I am, I would have freaked out, the doc would have had to put me under to pull a splinter out of my eye.

Sunny Day

Today is beautiful here in Baltimore. Sunny, the leaves are changing, the temperature is perfect around 73 ish. Perfect!
I had a rough week at work, but Friday was OK, even though it was an A day. By no means were my students polite or well behaved, but I did see an improvement from Wednesday. The students that I told would no longer have any art materials and would have to learn art by reading and writing about it really stepped up. Most of the class walked in the classroom ready to learn, quiet and respectful. Only 5 came in with the same foolishness. So I decided the ones that came in ready to learn would paint the lesson they were supposed to paint and the others would do the book work. After much explaining to the 5 that had reading (from an Art textbook) that the reason the rest of the class was painting was because I could tell they came in ready to learn. I further explained, that if they did this assignment without a fuss and came in next time ready to learn they could paint also. A few understood and did the assignment correctly. So that leaves only one 8th grade class that cannot paint.
I look forward to Monday, I feel ready for the challenge.

Thursday

The funniest thing happened to me today. I was in the cafeteria because that is my morning post. All the students had gone upstairs except the hearing impaired class because they were waiting for another bus. One of my ninth grade students came in just as two hearing impaired students were going outside to check on the bus. I said good morning from across the cafeteria to the ninth grader, she ignored me, but the hearing impaired student turned around and waved to me. So the child with the hearing loss could hear me, why not the student without hearing loss?
Today was a great day, I do love B days. My classes are calm, they paint quietly, they clean up quietly and on time because they want to keep painting. Today I had 5 students come to work on their paintings after school, because they wanted to! Things are looking up :)
I realised today that my blog titles are very uncreative, which is very sad for an art teacher. I feel compelled to keep it up for the rest of the week, but I will try and think more creatively over the weekend.

Wednesday

Not a good day. My A days are long and tiring. The bright spot of the day is that the clay arrived today. I can now start my clay lessons and my after school ceramics club. The brightest bright spot was, a student that stayed after. Not because she had detention, not because she had work to make up, but because she wanted to work on her painting. She even called her mom to let her know without me reminding her.

Tuesday

I had a good day! My students were awesome, all painted responsibly and listened to directions.
I had sign language class today. I learned how to sign Egypt since my hearing impaired students are making an Egyptian profile painting. I also learned how to sign zero paper balls, and stop wrestling. I think all of those will come in handy tomorrow.

Monday

I now dread Monday. Most of the other teachers at my school have noticed that Monday's are horrible. The students either have to relearn how to listen or they are so excited to see thier friends that they cannot stop talking. What ever the reason, today was horrible. My students were whinny, rude, and immature. I will never understand why asking a student to do thier work (or I like to say, stay on task), which in my class means draw, is a reason for the student to yell, "LEAVE ME ALONE, WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS TALKING TO ME!" Well gee, maybe its because it is my job to teach you about ART, and you are not doing it!

ok, vent over, I really do feel better :)
So I was checking my favorite blogs and read, http://bmoreteach.blogspot.com/2008/10/youre-horrible-teacher-you-know-that.htmlMore Humbly I Teach

This is a great blog from another Baltimore City Teacher (originally from Michigan), and watching the clip from "Chalk" really made me smile. I love the line, "Where's my chalk? OK, who took my chalk?" I think that pretty much sums up my Monday.

On happier news, I then checked my email. My Donors Choose grant was fully funded today!
A link to see my proposal;
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=211189
I am very excited for my students to make large plaster sculptures. Now I just need to decide which class can handle a messy project.
Well, Tuesday can only get better :)

My Kitchen

I really, really, really dislike my kitchen. When we bought the house, I found the cute 50 year old kitchen cute and retro. I knew it was too small, but it was clean and it would work. Now I strongly dislike my kitchen.

My husband and I have two children, two dogs, a cat, a corn snake, and some fish. Our house is just the right size, about 1,000 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, and a finished basement.

When we were shopping for a house, we looked at many houses in our price range that were dumps. This house came on the market and I knew it was meant to be ours. It was the least expensive and in need of the least work. The previous owners were the original owners and kept their home very clean and well kept. My husband and I instantly loved this house. We discussed before we moved in that we would update the kitchen eventually, but it would work fine for a couple years. The oven is small, I had to buy new cookie sheets that would fit and the door would close. The stove and oven both waste gas, the pilot lights are so enormous that they heat the kitchen and dinning room year round.

It has been 1 1/2 years. I am ready for new cabinets. You should know that my husband is a cabinet maker, furniture designer, woodworker extraordinaire. But like his bosses wife says, "the cobblers wife wears no shoes." The existing cabinets are metal and slide. Which means you can never see whats in your cabinet all at once. You can push the doors to one side and see some of the contents, and then push to the other side to see the other contents. For some unknown reason, this drives me nuts! I want to see the contents all at once.

This is a picture of the kitchen before we moved in;

The only difference now it that the walls are green and the counters have dirty dishes. Did I mention there is no dishwasher?

grades

I have finished my progress reports!
I feel so relieved. Grades have always been difficult for me to keep up with. With 8 different classes and 3 grade levels, the work piles up fast. So, I figured out who is passing and who is failing and turned it in.

weekend

Well I made it to the weekend. I enjoyed sleeping 12 hours last night and I am now ready to conquer my massive amounts of homework. I really want to get caught up with my class so I can reduce some of my stress. I am so close to graduating, I need to finish so that I can have more time with my family.
My job is wild. My students are awesome, and frustrating. I learn more compassion every day from them. They are dealing with things I still as an adult have a hard time imagining. I have several 8th grade girls that have baby's at home. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a baby at 12 or 13. Another student lost his only brother to violence a couple weeks ago and does none of his school work now. I have tried calling home about another student that walks out of my class, only to hear the disconnect message. I asked his homeroom teacher if she has been able to contact anyone. She said she just found out his family is homeless. How can we expect these students to come to school and learn the same way all other students in the state are learning. We can't, which is why I am so glad to be at a school where creativity in the classroom is encouraged.

tired

Is it really only Wednesday? A teachers job is exhausting. I didn't eat my protein bar (my lunch) until 5:15pm as I was hooking up some computers I found stashed in unused classrooms. The computers all work and the Internet hookups work! My classroom now has 4 imacs, 1 emac, and one apple G3. They are old and slow, but my students can use them to research an artist or create digital art. Yea!
I am tired, and now I have to write a paper for my class tomorrow. I am very sick of grad school, I hope I can pull through and be done with it. If I wasn't so close, 2 classes, I would probably drop out. I have a family, 2 kids and a husband, and I work an extended school day, 8-4. When I get home I am tired and need to cook dinner, wash dishes, do laundry, check homework, put the kids to bed, write lessons, do more dishes, wash more laundry, feed the dogs, etc. So when am I supposed to write a research paper?

Student's and Paper

I love working at my new school.
I was at a horrible school last year. When students were difficult everyone would just complain about them, and tell you not to stress about it. Administrators would tell the teachers that they were being selfish and accuse us of hording paper. Each teacher was given 2 reams of copy paper at the beginning of each month. If we ran out we were told we were dittoing the students to death. I have heard this year there is no paper given to teachers, they have to bring their own.
This year (at my fabulous new school) one grade level was having a lot of behavior problems. The grade level team and the Instructional Support Teachers (this school has fantastic IST's, I never knew they could actually be so helpful!) came up with a positive behavior reinforcement system. Everyone is working together to make changes, for the benefit of the students and teachers! When teachers need to make copies, we just go make them! There is paper in the machine and when you run out there are drawers full of it in the same room.
This situation may sound strange, a school without paper? A teacher so excited about paper being in the copy machine when ever she goes to use it? It still amazes me how a simple thing like working with a positive staff and not having to worry about paper can make my job so much more enjoyable.

Well I did practice my sign language this morning. I was trying to say good morning, but forgot the dominant hand needs to come from above and then go down on the other palm. So instead of saying good morning I was saying money morning. We all giggled and I learned a new word.

I am very excited to announce that I will be receiving a ceramics grant. The grant will provide my students and I with a kiln, all the necessary tools, clay, glaze, and even training for me if I need it. This is very exciting since buying all the above mentioned would cost thousands of dollars, which of course when you work in a city school is not available.

Today was my first sign language class. At the school where I teach we have a hearing impaired program. These students use sign language and come to my class with an interpreter. I have been wanting to communicate better with these students and feel bad when I have to turn to the interpreter for help. Today I learned mother, father, sister, brother, feelings/emotions, weather, how, you, me, friendship, and good morning. I am so grateful to the wonderful teachers that offered to teach any willing staff member at our school. I can't wait until tomorrow morning when I can great them in sign language and say good morning, how are you feeling, and talk about the sunny, windy weather we have been having here in Baltimore.

The Tooth Fairy

I can not believe I forgot to write about little blue yesterday.
Little Blue, my daughter is in Kindergarten. Yesterday she lost her first tooth. She was very excited to show us the tooth in a little manila envelope and to put it under her pillow last night. This morning she discovered two shinny quarters under her pillow. She was so excited. She kept them on the table while she was eating her cereal, looking at them, turning them, and then she said, "They are so shinny!" too cute.


Hear is a picture of her missing tooth smile,

Monday

I survived Monday. I had a couple students tell me to leave them alone, but not that nicely, because I asked them to stop talking while I was instructing. I am tired.


I took new pics of my classroom which shows the nice white paint. :)

Now I need to grade 200 hand drawings.

Back to School

I have not been writing for awhile because so many other things took importance. I was on vacation and then since I am a teacher I had to set up my classroom. I spend on the average 2 weeks setting up my classroom before the students arrive. This year, I was only able to spend about 4 days because I am at a new school (old building, new staff). When I arrived two weeks early, I asked if my room could have a fresh coast of paint. Let me back up, I work in Baltimore City Public School System and the first three years I never knew anyone to have their room painted. If you wanted it painted you did it yourself. When I went to check out my new school there were tons of people, cleaning, painting, fixing everything! I had never seen anything like it in BCPSS. So I asked if my room could get painted, and my principal said sure! I was quite excited since it is a large room and had horrible colors, yes many colors.

Days went by and no painters appeared. This made me quite nervous since I had a lot of work to do after the paint dried. I inquired every day and was told they are coming. Finally, my principal made a request that my room was next and it got done, the Saturday before school started. That meant I had Sunday to set up my entire room. I was a bit stressed, but got enough up to feel ready to begin.

The students arrived Monday and then the real work began. I had been teaching elementary visual art to grades K-5. Now I am teaching art to grades 6, 8, and 9. Big change in attitude. So to say the least I have had my hands full typing up new lessons, trying to motivate, and inspire. I think I have motivated a couple students but I still have a lot of work to do.

and so it begins...

I recently enjoyed reading others blogs and decided I should start my own. Then I thought I would do this with my son so he can work on his writing and typing skills. So this is the first entry of our blog about our lives in Baltimore or Charm City. My son, Zeek, is visiting the grandparents in Detroit and will not be able to add for awhile, so I will begin.
I am a Baltimore City Public School teacher, married to a wonderful husband and we have a son, Zeek, and a Daughter, little Blue. We moved here three years ago from Marquette Michigan for my job. Baltimore was in desperate need of teachers and I was in desperate need of a full time job.
Thanks, Love and Peace, I