Wow -lately I feel like I don't quite keep up on anything!  Clearly I need to executive function overhaul my life!  Welcome to the world of ADHD and teaching.

One of the things I'm behind on is my Nat. Geo Teacher Certification.  If you don't know about this program check it out!  It's terrific and free.  National Geographic Educator Certification

I did discover a really great new resource while looking into the poetry written by Chinese Immigrants detained at Angel Island for my 6th grade unit on Dragonwings - Listenwise
Here's from their "about" section:

Listenwise is an award-winning listening skills platform. We harness the power of listening to advance literacy and learning in all students. Our collection of podcasts and public radio keeps teaching connected to the real world and builds student listening skills at the same time.

We believe in the importance of listening for student success.
We believe in the power of a great story.
We believe in literacy for all.

Looks like Newsela but for audio stories!  I found several good stories related to Chinese Exclusion already.  So - that's my useful resource for the week,  month, however long it is until I post again if anyone out there is listening anyway since I don't advertise my blog much. 

What's a great resource you've found lately?  Share it in comments.  Anyone?  Bueller? 😀

And in a separate thought:
We're doing a sort of Responsive Classroom Reboot now that we're back from December Vacation.  One of the things we're doing is having the students create "rules" to go with our Middle School Values that they created in the beginning of the year.  Arguably we should have had them create the rules but, for some reason, possibly just being all new to our current positions this year, we didn't.  We also intend to have them help us create consequences.  Some of my peers have noticed that some students are quite literally "begging" for consequences.  It's not that we have no consequences, it's just that we don't have clearly delineated consequences.

In reading up to prepare for my part of our activity I came across this short article about using public discipline systems.  I hate them and try very hard not to use them - although I can't swear I haven't very occasionally written names on the board or called out a student publicly.  But I try hard not to and this is why.
https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/public-discipline-systems/

Well, I guess I'm not doing a great job of staying on top of a regular blog.  I really don't expect many people are reading this, but my apologies to anyone who was eagerly awaiting my next post.  I can probably recommend several, more diligent education bloggers!

I'm surviving my first year as a middle school 5th through 8th grade social studies teacher, but it's been very busy.  Here's a sort of bullet list in no particular order of things I've learned or re-learned:

• Being creative and able to design curriculum is great, but it is really helpful to have a curriculum with a scope and sequence that you can adapt, rather than just sort of winging it every day!
• First Trimester using Expeditionary Learning I blithely thought I could just "take the social studies lesson content and let the ELA teacher do the rest".  Yeah, it's not so easy - especially when your partner is having to cope with the challenges of being a newly single mom of 5!  Yikes!  Going forward I am taking the historical time period of our EL modules, and using a timeline as an overarching sequence structure with a few exceptions like pulling out specific topics and looking at their own timeline - for example voting rights in the US while studying the Civil Rights Movement.
• When designing your own curriculum, start with the end in mind, backwards design is your friend.
• Yes, I learned this when I got my Masters in curriculum at St. Michael's.  The fabulous Aostre Johnson did a great job teaching me to think carefully when designing curriculum.  However, in the day to day, when you haven't been doing it a lot it is easy to lose sight of that.
• 5th Graders are a lot different developmentally than 8th graders.  Or 7th graders.  Or even 6th graders. I enjoy them just as much but I'm more comfortable teaching the older kids.  I admit a tinge of trepidation if we stay with our current plan which is to have me loop so I'm the advisory teacher for the incoming 5th graders.  But we'll see, a lot can happen between now and next fall, especially at a non profit charter school.
• Using a Responsive Classroom approach takes commitment and a lot of time.  I knew this, but I'm reminded daily of it as we try to encourage our students to be kind to each other, to take care of materials and to just generally be engaged in their learning.
• I apparently have a very limited patience with pencils being broken intentionally.  I tend to be very patient but for some reason this flagrant disregard for materials bugs the HECK out of me.  Which is why I got to reinforce our Middle School Team Value of "Keep our Space Clean" (which I enlarged to mean "Take care of our space and materials")

I'm taking a short break from solidifying my Trimester 2 curriculum so I'll get back to that.  I hope you are having a good year full of inspiration and the joys of learning and mentoring - whether you are a teacher or not!

Hey fellow teachers!
As I frantically prepare for my first week of school and weigh the myriad "first week" activities I am looking up, I am reminded that Teaching is the profession most likely to suffer from vocal distress!

I have been a singer and voice teacher but I got vocal nodes during a very stressful period in my life which made me become very aware of vocal health!  I discovered this awesome site - it's free - and has LOTS of good info!

https://uiowa.edu/voice-academy/
The Voice Academy
A no cost, virtual school just for teachers!

Stay healthy folks! Hydrate, rest, use methods to get attention other than trying to talk louder than the kids... and get enough sleep. (ha!) ;-)

Kindness and hope in a worrisome world

If you are going to spend your summer break frantically prepping to teach a new subject and designing your curriculum, at least looking out the window at Lake Champlain is a nice way to do it!

I'm really looking forward to teaching social studies. To get my head in the game I've been re-reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."  Here is one of my very favorite quotes of his:

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” 
― Howard Zinn

I recently saw "Won't You Be My Neighbor" the documentary about Fred Rogers.  It was delightful and made me realize that watching his show as a kid is probably just one more piece of my optimistic philosophy which tries to be focused on kindness and understanding.  Maybe I can somehow pass on a small piece of that to the middle school kids I teach?  That would be a win for sure!  There needs to be a lot more kindness in the world right now.

As I sit here typing this I am being poked by my children.  This might sound perfectly normal but my sweet little guys are 16 and 18.  Sigh... I guess I should be glad that they still goof around with me. (incidentally, why is mom the only one who knows the recipe for "ice"?)

Anyway - I have been happily setting up my teacher binder for next year.  I bought it from Teacher's Pay Teachers Editable Google Drive Teacher Binder
Also a shout out to a nice freebie I got from History Gal on TPT - I think her Doodle Notes might be a great scaffolding to more visual note taking since they encompass some of the same ideas but are more structured.  Check them out! I came across her from her excellent blog https://www.musingsofahistorygal.com/

Now I just have to scrounge enough tables so I can get rid of the grotty old desks I had last year.  And an aquarium.  If I can come across a 40 gallon or larger aquarium so I can have a class home and a home home for my bearded dragon that would be swell! If you haven't heard of it the Pets in the Classroom grants are great!  That's how I ended up with a bearded dragon (rescue) for a class pet.  He's lovely, and very friendly.

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