I am a veteran English teacher at the secondary level who has recently gone back to college to earn an M.Ed. I am a connoisseur of all things nerdy -- steampunk, GoT, LOTR, HP, reenactments and cosplay... now if only I had more time to indulge in such fun!
After spending the summer working on my room, it is finally ready for class next week! Come with me on a tour! 🙂 As students enter the room, they first check out the clothesline on the right — on it, I hang labeled handouts that they need to pick up for that day from on top … More Transformation: Complete!
Yesterday was move-in day. I woke up bright and early, and then made my husband do the same so he could load the box van with/for me. Honestly, he is the Tetris Master of loading box vans. Armed with a tape measure, he positioned 10 tables and 32 chairs into the van, along with my … More Move-In Day Arrives… Kind of.
I am thrilled to say that I have met a significant goal today: I now have acquired enough table space and chairs for 40 students (crossing my fingers the classes are no bigger than that this year!). In fact, I have stacks and stacks of chairs and tables across my patio at the moment! A … More Making Progress!
So, it has been a while. Between crazy yearbook deadlines, teaching, family, and M.Ed. classes, this was a clear place to save time. Honestly, time is still at premium because I don’t know how to take a break. This is legitimately something I would like to work on as an area of personal growth, but … More Creating the Calming Classroom
The holiday season and the end of the year always seem to invite one to look back over the events of the year and the memories created. We remember loved ones who are no longer with us. It is a time of reflection on who we are and how life is going for us. In that … More Small Lights
Five weeks ago, I started a project: a blogging challenge as a part of my M.Ed. program, in which I was asked to learn something new. I considered a number of ideas – how to do video editing, how to create flowers with buttercream icing, how to use my InstaPot pressure cooker with consistently … More Blogging to Learn & Learning to Teach
My AP class has been busy at work as we begin our unit on Hamlet. They started by engaging in an activity in which they “tweeted” using Padlet, responding to various events that happen to the title character at the beginning of the play. Here is a sample: As a reflective piece, students were asked … More Learning About Literature Through Art
Learning about de-cluttering has been a challenging process in many ways. On the one hand, I feel like I have made great strides in moving toward a more organized, tidy, and user-friendly classroom environment. During the process, I have found some valuable online resources to help guide me, and one of my classmates in my … More A Home for All Things, Including My Heart
This week has been my most challenging in terms of getting organized. As I have been progressing through my clutter, I knew that one of the biggest hurdles would be the amount of paper I have in my classroom. I have three full-sized filing cabinets and they are overflowing with paper; moreover, much of it … More Challenges in Cleaning Up the Classroom
It has been a long couple of weeks – lots of activity at school, the craziness that Halloween always seems to bring out, the rival football game, yearbook deadlines for seniors, progress reports, work for my M.Ed. class, and the typical mom-wife stuff… the list goes on and on. In spite of all of that, … More Clearing the Clutter & Calming the Chaos
