2020 Reading Goal Achievements...Thus Far

Please click here to read my thoughts on my 60+ books I have read thus far in 2020.

I enjoyed all of the books I read.  My favorite, though, the one which left the greatest impact and the one which I recommended the most would have to be...drum roll, please...The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.  Have you read this one?

As for 2021?  My reading goals remain much the same:

1. to read an average of one book per week = minimum of 52 books
2. to read half of my goal from my own TBR pile = 26 books (these will be bolded).
3. to complete books for book clubs before the meeting time (love book clubs!)  See here for my list of book clubs...so far.
4. to read more series (love series!) (5 in 2020)
5. to completely read more professional books from my own shelves.
6. to read more ebooks (19 in 2020)
7. to continue to read more young adult books
8. to read a classic...or four!

In the past, I have joined online challenges, but I am deliberately choosing again to not do so, as I the above will keep me quite busy.

What are your reading goals?

For now...another 30 hours or so to read for 2020!  Happy reading!

The Latest Completed Assignment

 I attempt...usually...to complete the assignments with my students.

Assignment:  Create a list of nouns (one for each year of your age) for which you are thankful...and add some commentary to each.  I might should have considered the math in this assignment!

Click here to access my list of nouns!

Now, on to December!

For Three Weeks

Today completes week three, a time span on which I would not have wagered as we continue to live in this pandemic with rising numbers within our state, county, and area schools.

For these three weeks, I am thankful...and several other emotions and descriptors.  Grateful, I am that we could gather our students back for a somewhat normal start.  Blessed, I am to continue to experience a career for which I was born.  Tired, I am after spending hours making and creating to plan and prepare for both face-to-face and online learning.  Unhappy, I am with decisions made to remove students from online learning for reasons not based on curriculum, resulting in more work for me as these students need the repetition gained from multi-ways of explaining to-do tasks.  Relieved, I am that none of my students (knock on wood...and say a prayer) have COVID (although some have been quarantined).

For these three weeks, I have been so busy, going from before daylight until night fall.  Teaching both face-to-face and keeping up with online learning remains a bit much.  I certainly do not have the answers as to how to manage it all.  I greatest frustration right now consists of the students who have yet to meet with me online, a,seemingly a common concern.  Next week, I will add the wording that each is required to join at least one of the Google Meets; afterall, are they not at home working on assignments also?

I so hope we are in school all year...and for at least one more...so that I and my kiddos might enjoy reading, listening, and discussing The Crucible.  The reflecting via writing will follow.  I had decided that if we were to be sent to full online learning that I was not sure if I would still have my students reading the longer core texts, for our previous plan just involved our meeting twice a week for 40 minutes with our students, but that has changed, and we will now adhere to our current block schedule, which really is a good decision.

I also hope to have my students check out an independent read next week...plotting and planning...you know...just in case!  (Over the last two days, each class and I practiced a Google Meet.)  I know...I know...I just want us to be better prepared than we were last March 16...when we went home, for what we thought would be just a few days....to not return until August.  Just sooooooo glad we returned!  Yay!

Now...off to plan the reading of The Crucible...looking for engagement...even through those masks!  

Teaching in a Pandemic: A New Year, A New Schedule

Week One already comes to an end!  Wow!  I do hope you had the best of weeks in these quite challenging of times.  Not returned?  Read on for some words of advice!

First, masks.  I have made and given away 300+ masks and thought I was ready for returning to teaching fulltime in a mask.  No.  Not at all!  Here are my thoughts on this subject that I posted on Facebook after Day Four:  

Oxymoron: seemingly contradictory statement.

Example: Masks - I have a love/extreme dislike with masks right now.

My vain side says, “Oh, make sure my mask matches my outfit of the day! Yay!”

My sane side says, “Just wear the medical masks, so by bell time, I won’t feel like I am going to eat the oh-so-perfectly-matched mask!”

NOTE OF EXPLANATION: Inhaling air seems to be important when talking in front of groups. Seriously. Feels like I am going to inhale my mask!

Plan B: I am going now to my sewing machine to make a different style.

NOTE TO RONA: As I tell my kiddos, where there’s a will, there’s a way...and where there’s a way...there’s an A or a B or a C! Thus, Rona, I have a few more ways to appease my vanity!

PS Yes, I have ordered some of those silicone mouth guards! Yay! Which...should have been Plan B...but they are not here...yet...

PSS Please forget you read any of this, for considering what our friends in Louisiana/Texas have just endured...this is just so trivial. Truly. Lifting up those who have lost so much... 

Next week, I am wearing the medical masks, more specifically the KN95 masks...I think.  In other words, my battle with them continues, but I want to be in school more than I do not; therefore, for my students' safety and mine, I will continue to battle the masks...knowing...that, yes!...I will win!

My advice (which I read several times...back in the summer...and did not heed):  wear the masks at home and talk...and talk...to determine which style you prefer, for you will talk.  Much!

Second, blended learning.  At our school, the online students are listed in whichever class they would be in should they (at any time) return to face-to-face.  I would prefer they all be in one class in the grading system.  I assume that is a computer nightmare.  So I am adjusting and learning where each one is.  Doable.  Just more work.

Also, we have been asked/told to have online learning posted on the Friday before so online may have ten days or so to complete.  Having now lived this schedule for a week, I know this results in frustration, as I reaffirm that I do not always cover what I had planned, so what would have been Week Two is truly Week Two for online, as I just have to post what I have ready, but Face-to-Face will work in real time = not quite with Online Learning, which is okay; just one more thing to keep my mind busy!

Online students email anytime, all the time.  Even though the teacher has a full load of face-to-face teaching...and records videos to post for online students.  Yikes!  Consider posting office hours.  That said...I have a hard time not responding, as I assume if they are emailing me, then they are working, and I want them working, so I should respond...right then or in a timely manner.  

BUT.  I only have two classes for which to plan and prepare.  Some teachers have four and five.  I can only empathically sympathize. 

BUT.  We got this!

Third, block scheduling.  I have taught block before...loved it...and still do.  The format the admin adopted to decrease traffic throughout the day is odd/even, which means, as in Monday and Tuesday (August 31 and September 1), we will meet with odd numbered classes back-to-back.  Not a big deal...teachers just have to wrap their brains around odd and even classes not being together for a few days (in our case, next Friday and the next Tuesday will both be evens, so by September 8, the classes will be back in sync.)  Doable.  Just another thing teachers have to consider.  

On odd days, this past week, I had morning duty and classes from 8:00 until 3:12, with a 35 minute lunch, the only time I could remove the mask.  Again, doable.  That is just a long time to teach and breathe in a mask!  Doable. Note:  refer to my advice about wearing that mask now...practice! :)

Your schedule will not look like mine, nor will your schedule roll as last year's did.  Teaching in a Pandemic requires such changes.  Good luck!

Fourth, my attitude.  I left Friday tired, overwhelmed and head spinning.  Very.  Much.  Then, yesterday, my daughter and I took most of the day for a Girl Day.  I just needed to walk/drive away for a while. As the day passed, I relaxed, regrouped, rejuvenated.  Just bless her for putting up with me!

Teaching in a Pandemic, both face-to-face and online, is doable.  I, too, read the memes and messages about giving teachers grace as we returned to a situation unlike any we have ever faced.  My Advice:  Give yourself grace.  I appreciate the gift of grace from parents, students, peers, admin...BUT...I need to give myself grace.  Sometimes, just a few seconds, sometimes a lunch period, sometimes an evening off, sometimes a day off.  Just grace.  This is doable...with grace. 

Rona is a beast.  Beasts, though, are meant to be conquered, maybe even tamed.  Not an easy task.  But doable.

Doable.  My theme for Week One.

We got this.  I wish you the best year ever as 2020-2021 becomes our year.

In 1.5 Days...Yay!

 After the longest Spring Break in the history of teacher-kind, I am 1.5 days away from beginning Year 30!  Yay!

Am I excited?  Yes!  Of course!  Nothing like the first day of school!  Yay!

Am I a bit nervous?  Hummmm...not really!  I got this.  Seriously...see previous 29 years of experience!

Here in no certain...yes, quite random...order, are my thoughts on 2020-2021:

1. My Room:  Almost ready.  I need to spend a chunk of time there tomorrow...finalizing and picking up the Gillmore vibe...trucks, bees, teal...just me.  Almost there!  Challenge:  social distancing.  Needed.  Necessary.  BUT...no more group work in a face-to-face setting.  Back to desks in a row.  Yes, I taught that way for years.  I got this. (Thank goodness for technology!  See 2, 3, and 4!)
2. Curriculum:  Ensuring everything is ready to go digitally...that takes time, friends!  I know you started even more ahead of time than I did.  But...again...that 29 years of experiece is kicking in.  AND...this is an absolute (sorry!):  I enjoy talking to kids...are you listening?!...time just flies!  In case you are curious, here's the first day of class for Eng 11/Oral Com and Teacher Cadets.  NOTE:  these lessons are very subject to change as my brain is popcorning all over the place, and I keep having ideas!  Stop me!
3. Technology:  I have kept some tech tools...and added some apps.  This I know:  One may quickly become overwhelmed with technology tools.  My advice?  Choose one...or two.  Master those.  Become friends with them.  THEN, add another.  Do NOT allow technology to not be your friend, as technology is the way to 2020-2021!
4. Favorite Tech Tools:  All things Google.  Of course!  This week, I created two graphic organizers using Google Drawings.  A first for me...I like!    My go-to Google apps are Classroom, Docs, Slides, Sites, and Blogger (glad you stopped by!)...and Gmail! :)  Use every day.  All day.  They make my life happy.
5. Going-to-Be Favorite Tech Tools:  Pair Deck and Automagically!  Thank you, School Leaders, for thinking of us!  Yes!  I am still on a bit of a learning curve.  I know...do what I should do when driving....slow down!  Ease into them.  Then, speed up!  (Just have to love an extended metaphor!)  OH!  I now have my very own YouTube Channel!  Congratulations, Tammy!  Houses one video.  Success!  Hopefully, more on that soon!
6. Amazing School Family:  These people have spent hours...yes, hours...working, plotting, planning, getting ready for our kiddos.  My Suggestion:  Set up a group text with your hallway or PLC or those that have become your besties across the building...and share, lean on one another, support...prop up, if needed.  Just be present in others' lives.  On March 17, our hallway started a group text...what an empowering group!  SIDE NOTE:  Well, we occasionally strayed and vented...BUT the next round of 100 texts (women have much to say!) would be full of memes and just-learned info and jokes...not always in that order!  HINT:  Beginning Monday, save those texts until after hours!  :)
7. Added Job Responsibilities:  This year, I will become even more adept at the cleaning of desks and administoring basic medical advice and such.  Happy to do so, for our students need the routine of school. Supplies are ready, and I might...could be...facing a learning curve as dusting is just not my favorite...BUT...I am sure cleaning desks will be much more fun.  Right?!  :)
8. My Students:  I have read a plethora of comments from teachers who are not ready, scared, apprehensive.  I have chosen to not go there.  I am resting in my Faith that these students are the mission field to which I have been assigned.  Yes, you are so right...mission fields can be dangerous places.  Very.  BUT.  The rewards are immeasurable.  There is where I rest.  I FIRMLY believe that students need school...mentally, emotionally...some even physically (food and such).  Simply put:  We are #BetterTogether.
9. COVID:  Rona is a beast.  One to whom I have nothing good to say.  BUT.  We have faced other beasts; yes, I have faced a few throughout my years of teaching and learning with thousands of kids (those numbers do add up over 29 years!)  Whatever COVID brings...we will handle each situation in the professional manner in which teachers and administrators rise to every day. (Stop...no finger pointing to the few times we failed...humans, we are!)  I work with amazing people who love our students.  They are better with me...than not.  Does that sound conceited?  I hope not.  I am just confident that our intentions are true.  
10. PRAYERS NEEDED:  If you are a praying person, then I ask that you pray for each on the mission field of education; that each will fulfil his/her calling this year...with smiles and positive attitudes abounding...all the while impacting your child's future story.

We got this.  I really believe you do, also.  Happy New School Year!  2020-2021 is here!

Thank you.

Playing in the Digital World

Please tell me...do you have a Bitmoji Classroom?

I watched and learned and wondered...and then dove into the creation of my own.  Yes, can be quite addictive!

First, I created a new header for this blog (Sure...scroll back up!)...and probably will for my TG Book Thoughts blog...and began building one for my classroom.  Fun!

Honestly?  I don't know how developed mine will become, so, yes, mine remains in a work in progress!

I began with a pic of my "real" classroom (photo 1)...and then digitally added to create the "Bitmoji" version:

So interesting!  How clever is this?  AND so cheap to create!  Point.  Click.  Insert.  Magic.

Yes, any changes you see between the two photos are simply digital enhancements.  I like!

I follow a group on Facebook and am ever amazed at the creativity there.  I know...I should NOT be amazed.  Teachers are the ultimate!  Absolutely!

I will update as I create more!

This, also, begins a series on digital tools with which I am playing!  More updates soon!

Planning for 2020-2021

Hello, all!

This week our Literacy PLC met with a focus on choosing essential standards for a Reading Boot Camp as our first 10-12 mini-unit.  As our Curriculum Director said, "We have kids who have not read since March 17. "

Unfortunately, true.

To begin, I took a scroll around CommonLit and Newsela; from CommonLit, we chose a unit entitled "Fitting in...Standing out...," to which we will add a couple of texts from Newsela to complete the unit.  Engagement is our goal, with more reading the end result.

Some of that time spent together we utilized to wrap our brains around planning for blended learning and sharing tips and tricks we each have been learning over the summer about Google apps and other tools that our teachers might find useful, including Pear Deck, Kami, and one to allow our students to type on a PDF (sorry!  the name has left the brain at the moment!).  

Oh!  What good would a PLC be...if one did not share book titles and excellent reads?!  So, yes, I sat and placed book titles within my cart...and placed an order...right then!  I am such a book addict.  I am.   

What titles you ask?!  So glad you asked!

• Same Kind of Different As Me
• A Simple Favor
• Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean (excerpt in the CommonLit unit is from this book...thinking kids will want to read this one!)
• Watch Me Disappear (for my Alumni Book Club...how cool is that?!)
• What book should I have ordered?!

Back to reality.  (NOTE:  I may be about to climb upon my soapbox...just so you know!)  

I want to meet face-to-face with my students...at least for a week or two...to better know them.  But.  Our COVID numbers are increasing...much.  Therefore, yes, I encourage masks, whether you like them or not.  Also, I do not need the virus, for I would not have the privilege to meet my kids face-to-face.  Disgruntled I am as I know people who will not wear a mask.  Very much struggling with this.  To the point of being very grumpy.  Ugh. 

But...with numbers now 1000+, my brain is shifting to online learning.  Yes, I am a realist.  Optimistic...but, also, a realist.  To meet this objective, too, I have already attended a live session to learn about Jamboard this morning (cool tool...led by Tyler Tarver of Tarver Academy...you really should check him out!)...and then kept the next YouTube playing (Oh!  Blogger has updated link options...awesome changes!)...learning about creating a template...and then making that image a background...for drag and drop activities...yes, even for 11th graders!  Such an inspiring presenter!

But...back to my soapbox...pleeeeeeeeease wear your mask!  Speaking of which...I make masks...have probably made 300...and now have several more to create, some for friends, some for a student and her family.  Yay!

Is your teacher brain on overdrive like mine!?  Please share!

In the meantime, today, I take a break and go have lunch with my daughter...who will turn 21 next week and has decided adulting is for her!  Yay!  I am very proud of her!

Keep thinking!  And reading!

2019-2020: A Perspective

Last Wednesday, I completed year 29.

Year one for me at a different school.

First year to ever have just two preps.

Experienced a sense of family within these walls that extended my previous years.

Encountered challenges within my classroom walls that I resulted in more learning and growth on my part.

Taught eight weeks of the last nine online.

Contact with some students is near impossible.

Marked event after event off my calendar as meetings were canceled.

This online teaching definitely affirmed my real passion for face-to-face interactions.

See those sentences above...that is one of the results of the pandemic on me. Flashes.  Segmented.  Distanced.  A loss. 

Yet...I can take that same half-empty glass and switch my perspective to half-full.

No one I know caught the virus.  My daughter, an essential worker, also kept working, sometimes 60+ hours a week.  She had definitely proved her work ethic.  :)

I watched many of my students rise, completing every assignment, remaining in contact, maintaining their positive attitudes, proving, too, their work ethics.

I "attended" more virtual meetings and sessions and grew to very much enjoy how small this world really is, as I continued to learn...and learn.

I read books, several of which were series, most of which were ebooks, spending less money, taking full advantage of online checkout of ebooks.

I cut, sewed, and distributed nearly 250 masks.  I pray they protected someone.

I met daily with my hallway PLC via  text messaging, an anchor they became that held us steady.

I enjoyed more me time and completed projects at home...and began more.  Of course!

I watched spring flourish through my big windows here at home as I have not in many years...if ever.

I dove into online Bible studies, professional development, and book clubs, one of which was for my students...we have met three time so far...and they want to continue meeting through the summer.  How powerful is that?!

And now...

Our state, which never fully closed, is encouraging more events.  Celebrations will occur in July for graduations, proms, and end-of-year see-you-laters.

I do not see life ever being the same again; school already sounds different for 2020-2021.  But.  Teaching is my vocation and my avocation.  Therefore, already, I feel the stir of interested for what will be...but first...let's take June off and enjoy some real downtime!

I have said this before...I hope to spend more time here reflecting...

How have you survived the pandemic?

2020 Begins...Encouraging Reading

On the second day of 2020, I met two teacher friends at school where we spent some time working in our classrooms and then enjoyed lunch together.  A superb way to begin the new year!
I spent part my time creating a snowman and putting together a new bulletin board...as shown at right.

First, may I say?  I LOVE making bulletin boards (when I have the time).  Second, may I say?  This is the only elementary teacher bone I have in my body!   Bless them.  I admire them.  Give me my big, older babies any day!

The purpose of this bulletin board (still need to add snow!) exists to encourage my students to read the nominated books for the Arkansas Teen Book Award.  Awesome promotion of reading by the libraries in Arkansas.  Just cool!

Excited!  Our principal has agreed to purchase a set of the five books for each English classroom. 

Yes!  I must get these read soon so that I can book talk and encourage others to read.  On it! (Right after I finish my current read...second book for 2020!)  Right after that...need to prepare lessons for the first day of this new semester in this new decade.

Happy 2020!