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I haven't written as much lately. I've been swamped with work and my kids' after school schedule. 5 classes and 4 preps have overwhelmed me admittedly. I always thought I'd be safe at middle school with no more than 3 preps at parttime, which seemed the best match for my being a parent of young kids. I haven't had to use extend-a-care for my children which I figure has saved me money. And for 5 years this was a great plan.
An 8 period day has been tough; squeezing every minute out of a 45 minute hour.
But the classes are going ok. 8th graders are acting like seniors with senioritis. 7th graders are, for the most part, gung ho. I'm creating too much to grade, and I keep dropping the ball on grading/checking work for the teen leadership class, which is what I should be doing right now.
I've been doing ok, I think, in keeping on top of the grading for the most part. But I feel swamped all the time and haven't been eating lunch. I'm grateful for trailmix, that's for sure.
I've been pondering some of the things I feel BEHIND on, and it's mainly things that I would have had photocopied and ready BEFORE THE SCHOOL YEAR BEGAN if I had only known whether I had a job or not. Also, these materials (like my master vocab list) need revising, but I don't want to bother revising the lists if we're still stuck with the old textbooks, which we probably will be through October.
People just don't realize how much we need summers just to make sure the year starts off well, otherwise you feel like you're chasing to catch up.
Well, anyway, here's the thing: you learn from your mistakes. Mistake #1 was thinking it was worth waiting for the new textbooks because I thought I needed to make those revisions to materials.
And I'm rambling because I'm tired and I just want to talk about stuff and not grade.
I don't think anyone realizes how much thought and preparation goes into teaching middle school--or any level. Yeah, of course you can wing level 1 Latin. Yeah, of course you can forego giving assignments that need grading. I personally try to keep certain assignments short so that they are easier to grade. In fact, I think this is why I always get so far behind in 8th grade grading--because the assignments are longer since the stories are longer. BUt, I could choose not to grade some things or just read together in class.
But if you don't stay on top of them with accountable assignments, they will stop performing up to standards, and 8th graders are always reluctant.
ha.
So, on to the grading. It'll get me to stop rambling.
An 8 period day has been tough; squeezing every minute out of a 45 minute hour.
But the classes are going ok. 8th graders are acting like seniors with senioritis. 7th graders are, for the most part, gung ho. I'm creating too much to grade, and I keep dropping the ball on grading/checking work for the teen leadership class, which is what I should be doing right now.
I've been doing ok, I think, in keeping on top of the grading for the most part. But I feel swamped all the time and haven't been eating lunch. I'm grateful for trailmix, that's for sure.
I've been pondering some of the things I feel BEHIND on, and it's mainly things that I would have had photocopied and ready BEFORE THE SCHOOL YEAR BEGAN if I had only known whether I had a job or not. Also, these materials (like my master vocab list) need revising, but I don't want to bother revising the lists if we're still stuck with the old textbooks, which we probably will be through October.
People just don't realize how much we need summers just to make sure the year starts off well, otherwise you feel like you're chasing to catch up.
Well, anyway, here's the thing: you learn from your mistakes. Mistake #1 was thinking it was worth waiting for the new textbooks because I thought I needed to make those revisions to materials.
And I'm rambling because I'm tired and I just want to talk about stuff and not grade.
I don't think anyone realizes how much thought and preparation goes into teaching middle school--or any level. Yeah, of course you can wing level 1 Latin. Yeah, of course you can forego giving assignments that need grading. I personally try to keep certain assignments short so that they are easier to grade. In fact, I think this is why I always get so far behind in 8th grade grading--because the assignments are longer since the stories are longer. BUt, I could choose not to grade some things or just read together in class.
But if you don't stay on top of them with accountable assignments, they will stop performing up to standards, and 8th graders are always reluctant.
ha.
So, on to the grading. It'll get me to stop rambling.
