The World According to Leslie

I can speak in front of my teenage students for hours.  We have fun. We learn.  We do what we have to do.    When it comes to speaking to their parents, for even 8 minutes in a group, I get sweaty, nervous, sickish!    Tonight at my school, we are doing Curriculum Night.  That means that the parents get to walk their students’ schedules.  Each “class” will be 8 minutes long. They will have 5 minutes to get from “class” to “class”.  This is a time for me to let the parents know what is going on in class, what their angels are up to, and what we will be doing after Spring Break in a couple of weeks.  This is NOT a time for Parent-Teacher Conferences.  (The good thing is that if a parent wants a conference, my school does it a little differently that any other I have seen.  The parent has to set it up with a guidance counselor.  The counselor and the student’s other teachers are all in there together with an administr...

At the beginning of every semester, I find it hard to plan my lessons.  I know that sounds weird.  I have 18 weeks of information I need to give the students.  I should have PLENTY to plan.   However, it is very hard for me to plan lessons the first few weeks. At the ending of every semester, I find it hard to plan my lessons.  I review all semester.  We play review games all semester.  I have given them PLENTY of information.  There should be plenty to review.  However, there are only so many ways to review information. There are only so many ways to ASK the same questions.  Since I get to make my own exams, it's much easier for me.  If, for some reason, I don't get to finish EVERYTHING I wanted to in a semester, I just don't put it on the exam. :)  If I finish more, I add it to the exam. I know what I want them to learn.  It's just easier to plan in the middle of the semester.... when things are already rollin...

Today, I am waiting for the call from HR at my new job to call me to do paperwork. I have already arranged for daily after-school transportation for Chasity (beginning today). She already rides the bus in the mornings. I am hoping that I will get my paperwork completed soon and get into my classroom! I am excited! Over the weekend, I went through all the stuff that I have already. I filled up 3 notebooks with "random stuff"...grammar, vocab, short stories, novels, etc. I filled up one notebook with "Romeo and Juliet" stuff! Hopefully I can use some of it (I'm sure I will be able to) in my new classroom. I sat in the floor for a few hours working on getting my notebooks together. I couldn't stay focused because of the excitement! HOWEVER....today..... while I'm waiting on the call, I'm being productive. I have already read 50 pages. I have 88 left to read. Then the writing starts! I've been productive so far!