A Day of Prayers and Hope

Dear Dialog,

I know that this blog is for education related postings, and I guess that this post is to some extent but I have to say that today, I question my faith in humanity and the goodness in people. Today, one of the most horrific incidents in recent American history occurred. Twenty elementary students, ages 5-10, were murdered by a 20-year old man at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. The identified gunman, named Adam Lanza went to the elementary school for reasons that have yet to be determined and now the country is trying to figure out all those questions that have yet to be answered.

Why did this happen?
How could it happen?
Why so many victims?
Why an elementary school?
Why did this happen to children so young?
Why did this happen to kids who had their whole lives to live?

These questions I do not know will ever be answered. Today these questions and this tragedy has brought so many feelings to the surface. Five and a half years ago, there was a shooting at Roseburg High School in Roseburg, OR. In 2008, there was a shooting at Virginia Tech University. In 1999, there was a shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado and in 1998, there was a shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, OR.

 

Every few years, there seems to be these unimaginable tragedies that are continuously occurring. No one has been able to answer why these events happen or why they have transpired, but what we do know, is that there will always be fear. There will always be blame. There will always be changes in laws by State officials. There will always be tragedies.

Today, a friend on Facebook posted the following:
"A much wiser person than I gave me this exercise so you might try it. When you are feeling anything negative, especially as strongly negative as today's events would inspire, imagine it as dark smoke. I feel it as very thick, black, almost choking smoke. But use your chest, your heart, your lungs, your love, to change that black smoke into white. Breath in the dark smoke and using your own love change it to white and then breathe it out. Imagine it coming out of your mouth looking white, calm, compassionate, and peaceful. Breath in and breath out and each time you do, choose to breath out white smoke. Hold hands with someone as you do it. And give yourself permission to take a break from your day and spend a few moments in silence imagining your own body changing this hateful black to compassionate white and breath it out slowly. Feel it surround you and fill up the room. If others are you are breathing out black smoke, recognize that they are hurting and are responding as they know how and breath in their black smoke and use your own good will and compassion to change their black smoke into white. Choose to breathe theirs in and feel the black change to white through this choice you have made to put more white smoke into the room. Visualize it. I'm doing it now. Breathe in and breathe out. Breath together."

So today in closing, I hope that you chose to continue to breathe in and breathe out. To breathe together. To pray for the good in people. To hope that these events no longer occur. 

Memories

Dear Dialog,

Today has been a day of memories... Today I went Christmas Tree Hunting with my boyfriend and my dad who is in town for the weekend. He brought me a bunch of ornaments that were on our trees when I was growing up and it brought back all those memories of decorating the big tree in the middle of the living room, the smell of hot coco, the smell of cinnamon pine cones and the sounds of family...


I am going to be able to bring in these memories to my school tomorrow. A fellow co-worker asked if we could bring in an extra tree since she knew we were going hunting... We found a wonderful, tall tree that will work perfectly in our lobby. My homeroom students are responsible for decorating the tree and maintaining it while it still maintains it's residence at school. With almost 75% of my students being low SES, and many of them not only unable to have a Christmas Dinner but also a tree and presents, bringing that sense of holiday cheer to them is wonderful and makes this time of year even more special.

Well more tree pictures are to come and I hope that everyone has a wonderful and happy holidays... Only 12 more days until our Holiday Break!!!

Grading time!

Dear Dialog,

Well our first Trimester is coming to an end. It has been an interesting one at that. A trimester full of firsts, full of surprises and full of drama!

On November 30th, we have a teacher work day to complete our grading. I am in the progress of getting my students grades entered before hand as I do not want to wait till the last minute to get them entered in. We have to put in comments and they can get monotonous so I like to do one class at a time and separate them over the course of a couple of days.

With this grading period ending, that also means that classes are changing. I am quite happy about that. I am teaching one class of Economics, two classes of Pre-Algebra/Algebra I, one class of US History, one class of World History and one class of Girls PE.

I have taught each of the classes before with the exception of World History. We are going to be focusing on Modern World History. We are going to be studying the connections between various countries and how they impacted one another.

I am ready for these new set of classes and excited for the new term! I cant wait to see what surprises are coming!

A Day of Thanks

Dear Dialog,

Today is Thanksgiving. A day when growing up you learn that the Pilgrims were friends with the Wamponoag Indians and celebrated with each other the seasons harvest in a big feast. While this may be somewhat true, we also know of the atrocities committed against the natives. Instead of dwelling on that, we have made today a day where we say thanks. A day when we take in family and friends and celebrate life's treasures with one another.

This year, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my boyfriend David and his parents. It was only four people but people who were thankful for what they have received and been given.

So today, I am thankful for:
-My family and friends
-My students who, without them, would not make me push so hard to love what I do and push them to be better
-My special hot coco, that takes all my worries away
-My life, while it has been stressful lately, I am still appreciative of being here

And finally

-Love... for if there was not love, there would be no life nor happiness to be thankful of.

So have a Happy Thanksgiving all and remember to be thankful for what you have.

Sick... and Glasses!!!

Dear Dialog,

This year, I have been sick countless times... I don't know if there is some super viral bug going around or if my immune system just isn't keeping up, but I have been sick three times already since August. This last round, has me on Day 4 and still kicking my butt. I have tried countless medications, herbal remedies, tea with lime, peppermint tea and so on and so on...

Unfortunately, this bug has spread to other schools in the area, causing the early closure of an Elementary school in town because half of the students and staff were out sick with a type of intestinal virus. This intestinal virus causes a high fever, vomiting and diarrhea. I have a combination of this virus and a head cold that has made my life hell... I am afraid my boyfriend is now catching this horrible bug. Although, his might be caused by the questionable Mexican food he had yesterday too... Too soon to tell. :(

On a separate note, I know that with the holidays coming around, money is tight. I myself, are trying to figure out how to be cost conscious this holiday season while getting something special for my family and friends. Recently, I thought I lost my glasses. My eyes and contact do not get along well so a friend referred me to www.FirmOO.com. It is an online Rx glasses company which has extremely affordable glasses for as low as $8.00 a pair! If you are a new customer, you get your first pair for FREE!!! All you have to do is pay shipping and any extra upgrades that you want. I just purchased two pairs of glasses with free shipping for $25.12!!!!!!!!

I just got these glasses http://www.firmoo.com/eyeglasses-p-1754.html  and these in black http://www.firmoo.com/eyeglasses-p-1017.html.

These glasses are very durable so check them out and click on the link or picture below!

http://www.firmoo.com/?invite_code=0062072240

Privileges versus Entitlements

Dear Dialog,

Recently it has come to my attention that many of my students are taking advantage of privileges in my classroom. Some of these students seem to believe that these privileges are now entitlements. 

Dictionary.com defines Privilege as " a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most". 

Dictionary.com also defines the word Entitle as " to give (a person or thing) a title, right, or claim to something".

Currently, it is a privilege in my classroom to use a cellphone for music and the occasional text or phone call with permission. Seeing as though many students now believe that they can answer calls from anyone in class without permission, communicate with others to "meet up" during class and overall, be rude and inconsiderate, I have implemented a cell phone ban during my 5th and 6th period classes. My 1st, 2nd and 3rd period classes are on the cusp of this happening to them too. The moment students enter my room, they are required to surrender their cell phone (turned off) and placed it into the cell phone box on my desk. They are able to text or make calls during our three minute passing periods if they have me for both class periods. Many students were not happy with this ban and I gave my principal a heads up that a few may come and complain about my new rules. 

A few students also seem to believe that they are entitled to leave my class at any point without notifying me to get food from a fellow teacher, go to the restroom, or just wander and take their leisurely time returning. Because of their actions, I have also instituted a hall pass. This is a first for me and I hope that I never have to use it again. When a student leaves, and I mean only one student at a time may leave, they are required to take the new hall pass with them and return back in a reasonable amount of time so that others, who are now waiting for them to return, may leave. This new hall pass is a very very very big jug with a National Guard lanyard attached to it so it is quite visible to anyone who sees them or walks by.

I am just waiting to see how quickly it will take for students to earn back their privilege to use their cell phones in class. Students may use an I-pod or Pandora on the computers to listen to music, but cell phones are now off limits until further notice.

Let the groaning commence!!!!!!!

What I learned at my Conference..

Dear Dialog,

I was probably one of a few who signed up at my conference to receive 500-level graduate credit for attending the conference. Now just because I attended the conference, doesn't mean that I got the credit that easily...  

Just like I tell my students... "Having your butt in a seat does not earn you a grade, the work that you do, does."  

The same applies to me here. I have four assignments I have to complete by November 3rd with an 85% or better on all four assignments to receive a passing grade. This is only for one quarter credit too!

I completed and submitted my first assignment last night. My assignment was to state what each of my workshops were about and what I learned from each. 

The first workshop I attended was called "Empowering Students Through Action Research and Storytelling to Transform Classroom Culture" This particular workshop, I was not fond of. In this workshop, I felt, based on the description, that we were to learn about how to Action Research and Story Telling in our classrooms and how that would change the dynamics of a teacher oriented classroom to a student orientated classroom.  I felt like the presenter was not prepared and used this workshop to get feedback towards her Master’s thesis rather than how to use Action Research and Storytelling within the classroom.

The second workshop I attended was called "Contemporary Issues that Inspire Historical Fiction".

I found this workshop to be very informational. This workshop demonstrated how to turn characters in real life stories, whom you may not have any information about, and create a back story to them. In this particular session, we read the transcripts of an NPR session about tomato farmers in Florida. This story dealt with illegal immigrants and the hardships that they face on the fields.

The assignment for this workshop included first writing a short story about an experience you had with a tomato. The leaders of the workshop then played for us the transcript from the NPR session. After that, we discussed the audio clip and had the assignment to write a story about one of the characters involved in the clip. For my assignment, I wrote about a young girl named Esmeralda who was taken by a coyote and forced to become a domestic servant for a local family in Florida.

The third workshop I attended was called “Minds Matter: Case Studies in College Counseling for Low-Income and Underrepresented Students”. In this workshop, I learned about the Minds Matter Program and how it has been an asset to low income and underrepresented students in the Portland Area. In this class, I learned several different methods in how to help students identify what they want to study and where they might want to go in college. I was also given information regarding different schools who specifically gear programs towards first generation and low income students. Schools like that of Western Oregon University or Southern Oregon University.

Some of the questions I learned to ask are:

• What are areas you might want to study?
• Do you want to be in state or out of state for college?
• What are your study habits like?
• What are some strengths and areas that might need to be improved upon?
• What is the cultural diversity you are comfortable with?
• What is the educational background of your parents?
• Are you willing to talk about family struggles in college essays?
• Reveal single parent, homelessness, teen parents, talk about school struggles, jobs while working and going to school?
• Should we look at no-loan schools?

While there are always going to be pros and cons about any conference and any workshops that you attend, there is always a learning experience. I feel that I learned a lot in this conference and I am glad that I went. I hope to attend this conference next year.