...a work in progress.

As a teacher, I adore my job.  So much so, that I sit in front of my computer on a Sunday in order to do it!

My first year of teaching, the Assistant Principal who helped to hire me "voluntold" me as ASB Adviser.  She told me I'd "be perfect for it!"  I later learned that first year teachers hear that ALL THE TIME!  But lucky for her (and more lucky for me...) ASB/Activities Coordinator has turned into my love and passion.

Now, I adore my humanities classes.  History is my favorite subject, and I am self titled "grammar-police."  But when I was offered a period to teach an elective, any elective, and had the opportunity to forge a Leadership class at my school, I was overjoyed (and of course, overwhelmed!).  Not only was I getting what most ASB Advisers only dream of, but I had the opportunity to team-teach with one of my good friends and my role model, the choir teacher (and amazingly fantastic superhero extraordinaire).

Neither of us had taught Leadership in the past, but I had my ASB experience and she had some experience helping out at her previous school.  So we bumbled and stumbled through Leadership Year 1, and together, we got to work with some awesome kids and come up with some spectacular ideas.

To this day (to this minute, actually, on my living room floor...) I am refining those ideas.  My leadership class is, and probably always will be, a work-in-progress.  At the end of last year, my lovely teaching partner moved on to be a High School Choir Director (a long time dream of hers), and this year, I am getting to work with an equally awesome choir teacher on leadership.

I'm having trouble working through all the fanastic things I got through camp, through teaching leadership, and through all the other wonderful people in the field, in Tacoma and Puyallup and all over the place.

Here are some of the things I'm working on.  Feel free to steal for any type of class or project!  That is, after all, how good teachers get good ideas. ;)

Team Project Binders

Our theme this year in Leadership is "Superheroes."  Everything we do is going to have the underlying theme of "heroes," and that includes the fonts I choose for assignments (Comic Book Commando) and the very cool Superman "L" that I found online.  That "L" adorns our syllabus, assignments, and is the cover page for our Team Binders.

Having a theme helps me tie together plans and projects, and it keeps a focus for the students.

The covers of the Team Binders are universal (rather than decorated individually) because even though the students are in small groups for projects, they are still all a part of one big team: Stewart Leadership.

The intention of Team Binders is to give the students all the tools necessary for them to design, create, and execute their own projects.  They are fully responsible for delegation of jobs, approval from Admin and SCDM, and ensuring that their project is successful.  Ms. Warren and I are to, of course, to support them and give them nudges when they're missing something important, and we're also going to leave up a list of "Possible Projects" for those who need the extra idea boost.

Tab 1:  Team Member Contracts

The Team Binder is divided into different sections, the first one being the member contracts.  This week, students will all receive a contract outlining their responsibilities, and a few of the consequences for not upholding the expectations we have of them.

Their VIP passes are their ticket to get around the school for various business they may need to complete: Admin signatures, jobs for teachers, school clean-up, poster hanging... the list goes on.  The VIP passes look something like this:

The badges include a mini version of the contract.  They also include the students "job" in the team.  The jobs they have the option of taking on, depending on their self-decided talents, are

• Manager
• This student is the one who decides that their talent is organization and management.  They are sort of like the "secretary" and book-keeper of the group.
• Creative Consultant
• The student who, in the group, decides they are artistic and creative.  They are going to take on the responsibility of design.
• Technology Guru
• This is the student who will keep up with their groups blog page and be responsible for computer and technology related things (powerpoints, e-mail, etc.)
• Publicity 
• This is the student who claims that they can be "loud and proud."  Generally, the student in the group who doesn't mind being in front of large groups of people, likes being on the video and/or intercom announcements, and can make phone calls to different adults.

Before being placed into teams this week, students will decide their talent.  Groups will then be comprised of one person from each talent, which will then become their job in their team.

Tab 2: Current Project

Teams will be responsible for coming up with projects (or choosing from the class list of Required Projects/Project Ideas).  In order to begin a project, they'll get a "Project Proposal" filled out and approved.  

Once it's approved and groups decide they're going to go forward with the project, it goes under their "Current Project" tab.  Under this tab, they'll also have a "To Do/Doing/Done..." sheet:

They also include any other paperwork that has to do with their project (examples include registration sheets for things like Relay for Life, signatures from principals, etc).  They should also have a calendar with a timeline under this tab that includes all the other groups dates for events as well.

Tab 3 will be completed projects, and the other tabs are blank and teams have a choice as to how they want to use them.

...Bad for my body, and great for my heart.

The evolution of shoes in the classroom:

Student teaching and year 1: High, skinny heels; pointy, squished toes.
Year 2:  Realized that wasn't working out, bought a pair of Naturalizers and some flatty flats.
Year 3: Flatty flats making my feet swell to astronomical sizes.  Each day of this week, I left barely able to walk.

So I did it.

I went shoe shopping.

The fact that I went [shoe] shopping is not tremendously surprising for me.  As a former shoe store employee, my footwear collection is large.  The collection includes adorably painful shoes that are killing my feet, knees, and spine when I wear them all day at school.  The surprising thing is that I went with full intent to never wear my teenie tiny, very cute, zero-support shoes to school ever again.

So I went to the mall and entered near Journey's, knowing full well that I wouldn't stop in, since I didn't need character shoes or neon sneakers.  But something caught my eye in their window display... and I did it.  I went in to try on a pair of Toms.

As yesterday was casual Friday, I was wearing my very bright green Stewart Middle School t-shirt.  The salesperson who helped me was very friendly, and we started talking about my job and why I needed new shoes.  Turns out, her little sister was one of my rock star Musical Theater students my first year of teaching.

After reliving that sweet part of history, I left the store, intent on "shopping around" for other shoes.  But after being distracted with best friends, Ninja Turtle Starbucks Style Water Glasses, and former students in the mall, I made my way back to Journeys and made the purchase.

The true test will be Monday, when I have seven straight periods of teaching and a half hour "lunch" in between to sit down.  As it stands right now, Toms seem to be the most perfect teaching shoes I could have found.

As much as my poor body has been tortured this week, one thing that has been warmed by being back at school is my heart.

Cheesy cliches aside, I am truly and honestly having an incredible time with my students so far.  Yes, it's only been three days.  And yes, the "honeymoon period" is not technically over.  But the change I've seen in some kids from last year to this, and the change I see in myself and my school, is overwhelmingly positive.

If you know anything about my school, you know that we've had our fair share of change.  And with change inevitably comes drama.  Changes in the schedule and calendar, new and shifting leadership, funding concerns, and Tacoma News Tribune articles were our lives for the last 2 years.  It hasn't been easy.  Especially for our kids.

This year, the changes we've made are solid... and... drum roll... CONSISTENT.   We've got high expectations for our students, all teachers and administrators are on the same page, and overall, there is an incredible culture and environment beginning to form at Stewart.

I am so excited to see where these changes take us as our "honeymoon" dies down and the real rigor starts.

More on that as it happens, I suppose.  :)

...Exhausting.

This first post will be short, sweet, and fairly uninteresting.

Generally, when I think of procrastination, I think laziness.  Laziness tends to make my mind wander to "sleep."  However, right now, I'm procrastinating sleep.  I've found a paradox that I hope will not continue throughout this school year.

I am loving the start of my year in 7th grade  The kids are spectacular; many of them are the same students as last year, but I've never seen students buckle down the way these guys have these first two days.  It's beautiful to see kids following the "rules of writing badly" and being shocked at the amount of words they get onto paper.

I'm in my third year as a teacher in Tacoma, WA.  They say your first two years are the most exhausting, but since the fifth of September, I've discovered that that fact is a blatant lie.

I'm having the best start-of-year I've ever had.  Which may be why the circles under my eyes age me by about 14 years.  Interestingly enough, I've not been asked how old I am this year.  Maybe because they think I'm old and don't want to offend me by asking.

This post has been an accurate depiction of how my day has gone... how fitting that today I taught "The Importance of Writing Badly..." I am following rule #5 very well: "don't think; don't get logical."  My sentences don't make sense together.  I'm showing embarrassing pictures of my eye-bags.

Tomorrow is Friday, and if all is right with the world, then tomorrow night I may be able to express coherent thoughts.

Good night friends, fellow teachers, and random blog stalkers.  And happy first week.