Right Now I Am....

So as promised...life update time.  As I was thinking about how I wanted to do this I thought of how one of my favorite bloggers Trish does it (Check her out at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity).  I messed with the order a little so that the two things people really need/want to hear about are at the top, but the headings are all her.

Feeling: Better. This is the most often question that I'm getting from people right now which is why I put it first. I had surgery last week of July to hopefully deal with the pain I have been dealing with since April last year. We haven't had a diagnosis really until now--possibly endometriosis.  I have taken a while to heal but I am pushing through thanks to pain killers.  The nice thing about still healing is that the pills work better and I am in less pain longer.

Yep coming home with boxes was not in the plan
This is only half of them too

Loving: The time off...so in part of my life update I must update everyone that I no longer work at Cedar Ridge Academy. I will be starting at Vernal Middle School teaching 7th grade English in just a few days--first day of school is about a week away. I really needed the time off....though not as early as CRA wanted me to be. They decided to lay me off a month ahead of time. Prompted me to have to pack up my room late at night and not having closure with the students. Just liked to remind me why I was leaving--I was done not being treated like a professional or a person.

Listening To: Almost done with City of Bones--two discs left.  Will probably put it in when I get done with this. Also listening to The Confession by John Grisham and enjoying it.  It has been awhile since I've read a Grisham novel.

Reading: I have a lot of books juggling right now.  The Classics Club spin book was #17---so for me Fahrenheit 451. I also want to get in on Austen in August--so I'm going to read Lady Susan because it is also on my TBR Pile List....though I really need to start it!  Still reading Fablehaven #5--current really wanting to get through it so I can move on.  Just been busy with other things and not in too much of a reading mood.  And I need to start Gone Girl for book club.

Watching: Lots since I have been in bed or on the couch for about a week and a half. I got through two seasons of How I Met Your Mother.  I have loved seeing how well they really set us up for the series finale....and the connections to Friends.  Maybe one of these days I will devote a blog post to it....since I did when the series finale came up.

Eating: Anything that sounds good....I was cooking more in July because I was home and then I lost my appetite and I bet a couple of pounds after surgery.  Appetite back to normal so that's good.  Hopefully going to do some freezer meals in the next few days for the school year.

Making: I am knitting a great purple blanket....can't wait to show it to you. I finished a yellow one earlier this summer that will be featured in a new blog post to come.

My awesome planner :)

Planning: Mentally constantly writing to-do lists and then writing them down--I have my planner that I bought at the beginning of the year and I am using it more now than I did at my job--more time to write again.  I am re-evaluating what I want...plans for the blog, plans for writing more, planning ideas for school...I think my brain is more active now that I'm not at school but easier to shut it off when I go to sleep.

Hope that fills everyone in...as always I am a pretty much open book so ask away :)

Y is for Yesterday

We often spend time thinking about what happened in the past.  As part of my job, I do that a lot--as a history teacher and talking to students about what they did in their past.  Your past still affects you but it is what you do with it that decides how much. The history that we have as a country still affects us today, and that is one of the reasons why I study history.  We understand the way things are now because of the history that has happened.  The same thing happens with us.  One of my students wrote a great example of this on our blog yesterday http://cedarridgeacademy.blogspot.com/2014/04/x-is-for-xtreme.html  check it out.

Sometimes dwelling on the past can get us in trouble---there is nothing that you can do to change it now. You just have to move forward!

A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal: Catch-up!

Ugh....I still don't have a great idea as to what to do for my theme.  But I want to get in on Yidya Sury's blog hop to reveal....so by the end of this post we should have a reveal! (At least I hope!)

Oh it is totally great and powerful!
http://vidyasury.com/2014/02/a-to-z-challenge-theme-reveal-blogfest.html

So I got one suggestion on Facebook, one suggestion in the comments of my post, and one vote on Twitter.  So in terms of voting you guys weren't a whole lot of help :P My brain has been doing a lot of A to Z because I am doing two other blogs in addition to this! Yes I am crazy.  My students are doing the writing but it is still a bit of work on my end to get them motivated and moving.  So go check out the main blog to learn about the theme of Cedar Ridge Academy and the revamped and new learning blog for Cedar Ridge Academy and their theme of Social Studies.

As a result of the brain in other A to Z things it has been hard to focus on my own blog.  So today on the drive home, I had just posted and gotten all of the stuff done for the school blogs--I kind of took a breathe and was like what should I do with my blog??

I had a lot of great suggestions and votes.  But I was thinking it needs to be something realistic--especially if I don't get all of the student ones scheduled in advanced like I would want!  And what I got suggestion wise seemed tricky and the vote I got was actually the two I had posted with the most work--and I might save those for another year. But they just don't seem like they fit this year. 

The other thing with realistic is lets be honest, since I finished the #365 project and work invaded my life more (which I didn't think was possible) I have been a HORRIBLE blogger! I had all of these grand visions when I was done that I would keep up with a regular schedule and update things and network more etc. etc. etc.  So that thought process led me to the idea of a CATCH-UP THEME! 

I had the idea on the other post about doing a week of each thing that my blog focuses on. And I kind of went with that idea for a little bit, but then I was thinking about how it would be a bit of planning to figure out which theme to do with which week and what if I want to change my mind.  So...the catch-up theme gives me the flexibility to do a book thing one day and a knitting thing the next day. I have a lot of book reviews I want to do and lesson plans I want to tell you about.  So, I am going to map out what letters I can use with catch-up things and then probably fill in the rest.  We'll see...like I said at the beginning I hope to have a reveal....I'm not super committed but I'm trying to be.  I think it would have helped if I had all of my letters mapped out already but I'm tired, its late and time for bed!

Thanks for reading the rambling! Feel free to follow on the side and follow my school blogs too--the students are excited to see what is said to their ideas!

Go to the link above to hop on yourself!

Happy Halloween!

Yes...I am lame--but I need a quick post tonight.  Happy Halloween!

And they snuck a picture of me at work today!

This is what I wear every year!!! I love my hat and they stuck this on the Facebook page.  Go like us to see more pictures of me and my students :)

1984 by George Orwell Part 1

So right now at my school, I am teaching a class that is currently reading this book together.  This is kind of a fun class because I am excited to be doing class discussions with students that are reading a book all at the same time.  Tomorrow we will be discussing part one of 1984 by George Orwell.  And I have been contemplating a lot of the different themes that come out in this section. One of the things that is really sticking out to me as I am reading this is the comments that George Orwell is making about history.

Winston contemplates a lot about how the Party has completely rewritten history and regularly does it--and he knows this because it is apart of his job.  And there is the idea that we don't know exactly what is true and what is not true. He realizes that without a record and no memory of the people, proving whether something happened or not is really tricky.

He even goes to talk to a man that is old enough to have lived before the Revolution to see what he remembers....which is not a lot.  Winston even tells the story of three high Party members who were going to be purged by Big Brother---they are arrested and confess to their crimes.  But one day, Winston gets a copy of a newspaper article that actually contradicts what they said in their confessions....proving that the three were just told what to say and that history is being changed.

As a history teacher, we understand that there is bias that is inevitable in history writing.  But this story takes that bias to the max! Everyone knows that the history is written really by the victors and this book really begs the question, how much of that can we really believe?

Five Favorite Front-Page Features...Teacher Style

I don't know if I have five things...but I have been doing current events moments with my kids at school.  So I thought I would share them with you.

First off...government shutdown:

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/us-government-closed-business-essential-employees-20439083?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=20439766--I like this one because of the ping pong analogy

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3032619/ns/NBCNightlyNews/#53170284--More really life situations

Second off...Affordable Health Care Goes Live
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/obamacares-day-20439111?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=20439766

We have also been reading articles from the NY Times Upfront---which is a great resource for teachers that have subscriptions---but right now its free :)

Magazine logo :)

The High Price of Cheap Fashion....all about our globalization--the pros and cons

10 Things You Need to Know About Washington Part 1 and Part 2--this is great for government classes...they talk about the nitty gritty of the works of government

Has the Arab Spring Failed? --Great to talk about world geography and world events because they do a nice job bringing the kids up to speed

Photo Day

Today's prompt in Blogtember is photo day.  This should be an "easy" post because I don't have to write anything :) But seriously....I have no idea what to put up.  The first thing I really thought of was a couple of pictures that show my life--family, religion, and work.

You can see this picture on the Cedar Ridge Academy Facebook page

Pretty flowers from a mom of one of my students:)

My family and religion all in the same picture...the temple where Brian and I were married

Five years ago :)

How has social media/blogging changed you?

So....I feel like I am way out of the blogging world.  I didn't realize that my good blog friend Jenni started a September blog challenge. I have been struggling for ideas to write about and wanting to just write--like Jenni.  So I really need to hop on this!!

So today's prompt: Discuss ways that blogging or social media has changed you.

The interesting thing is that I have been involved in social media since pretty much the beginning.  I like to tell my students that I was one of the original Facebook users when it was a college only group, you had to have a college e-mail to get on.  It was a great way to interact with friends after senior year had ended.  It has now morphed and moved around--but the addiction is still there.  We checked Facebook multiple times a day--and I check it at least once a day. And then there is the ridiculous games that I swore I would never get into and then I did.  So social media hasn't really changed me because my life was just forming when I got on--so much has it has added to my life and become a horrible waste of time.

However, it has changed my career--I do so much more social media marketing as a teacher than I ever thought.  And I really enjoy it--there is something about the desire to see who sees it, likes it, enjoys it, etc.  I have even contemplated leaving teaching to go into this full-time with a company.  I never would have thought that social media would become a marketing tool--but it is really a great way to get your brand out there.

With blogging, I am not sure how it has changed me.  I really started this to write, and write everyday. I had tried other blogs before, but none of them really had staying power like this one I want to keep. Actually thinking about my early blogs....that's kind of how I met my husband.  Gosh I hadn't thought of that until I was writing--great thing about blogging :) But yeah...the short version of this story is that I had a blog, and his roommate found it.  I started a conversation/acquaintance with the roommate, who lived in the same city as me and invited me to go bowling with him and some friends.  Brian happened to be there and you can say the rest is history. So actually blogging has really changed my life!

How has social media/blogging changed you?

Yep...blogging=marriage :P

September 11th

Today has been one of those days where I feel really old.  Teaching the last three years at Cedar Ridge Academy, around this time, I could say, "9-11, where were you?" I would actually get stories.  Today in my sophomore class...I got crickets.  Some of them figured out they were like 3! Well yeah that makes sense...15-12=3 but seriously!! I am not one of those history teachers that says, "Well I was alive and I remember..." because I am NOT old enough!  Sigh...oh well I guess I am.

But I thought that I would share what we did in class today.  I didn't want to do a lot, because it feels like for these students sometimes it is a dead horse--they often want to do their "choice your topic" research paper on this/bin Laden/terrorism etc.  It fascinates them I think.  So I wanted to do something a little bit different. The site 911day.org does a service project to coincide with the day.  This year's pledge is to do a good deed.  So I challenged my students today to do a good deed for someone between now and next week's class when they will report.

To go with this challenge I found this website: http://www.tributewtc.org/programs/toolkit.html which has eight different videos about people that have different perspectives on the event.  I chose the 2nd, 4th, and 6th to show in class with the different perspectives. There is a great video from the 911day.org site here so you can show a video of people remembering where they were when 9-11 happened and what good deeds they are going to do.

Belonging to Reading is Essential to Learning

So I read this quote recently and wanted to share it with all of you:

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. --John Locke

As a teacher, I often try to figure out why my students aren't understanding material.  Not always, but usually I can find something that they haven't done to "tangle" with the material.  Maybe they didn't take notes on a lecture, or try at all on an assignment, or didn't really do the reading if at all. That is when I try to figure out what to make them do to actually tangle with it--just like this quote says.  We have to actually think about what we have learned or we will never have it be ours. And if we can't absorb the knowledge, than we will never learn it.

So what are some techniques that I have used to help students tangle more with the knowledge?

• Actually take notes on the reading or lecture they were to have done before
• Asking them questions from the assignment to see what they already know--sometimes this shows them that they don't have it yet at all
• Supplementary materials...a lot of teachers hate worksheets--and I do to a point.  There is a purpose for worksheets--to give the student extra practice. 
• Annotating a reading
• Teaching a fellow student the concept (can only really do this after I know they have at least some of it)

This list is actually one of the reasons I love being at a blended learning school--I have a tool bag of tricks that I could use in a public school but the students don't have time to really learn it.  At my school, they do :) 

Blended Learning at Cedar Ridge Academy

One of the main things that I do at my school is publish a newsletter.  The students write the articles and sometimes the teachers do, but I put it all together and everything.  I have learned a lot from the previous teacher sponsor of the newsletter and I haven't changed much since she left--which makes it easier to do :)  Our last issue included three articles by teachers on our staff. We have been getting a lot of questions about how exactly our school works with the blended learning of our online and in house curriculum.  Today I wanted to share our handiwork.

A recent pic of me from the blog

Check out our math teacher's article that defines blended learning

Check out my article that answers some commonly asked questions about blended learning

Check out our science teacher's article that explains the day in the life of a teacher here

In other news, I received these beautiful flowers from a mom of one of my students.  She is such a sweetheart, and wanted to express her appreciation to me.  This was a great moment of--"Yes someone notices what I do!!" Check out this picture of me with my flowers on our Facebook page (and feel free to like us while you're there--we'd love that!)

Top Ten Tuesday: Making Blog Life Easy

So today's Top Ten is all about making your blog life easier....what tools/gadgets/etc. do you use?  I am not sure if I use ten...but I do use some so here it goes.

1. Hootsuite--If you have never used and you want more of a social network presence you NEED to!  You sync up all of your stuff (ie Facebook, Twitter) and post directly from there. I can do the same post to both with one click. I can schedule posts to go up at certain times. I can shrink links for Twitter, confirm my picture that shows up on Facebook etc.  It is awesome!!!

2. Scheduling on Blogger---I can write a post the day before and schedule it to post the next day.  So convenient when I know I won't have time to blog the next day---or at work when I write like three posts in a day so I can space them out a bit. (See our school blog here)

3. Fellow Bloggers--Doing this every day gets easier as I find other bloggers to read and participate in stuff with like Top Ten and Bout of Books!

4. Feedly---I am not using this to its full capacity yet, because I haven't organized everything into my lists--but I love having lists of topics for the blogs....all of my book friends together etc. so that I can see everything easily in one place :)

5. Pinterest!! OH my goodness don't know where I would be without the inspiration that I get from this site AND the ultimate list maker.  Seriously like I use to just bookmark stuff or try not to forget about what I saw...now I just save it to Pinterest and I know it will be there later when I want it.

6. Having "go to's"--When I finish a book or watch a new movie--instant blog post...each Friday I do something with current events...or if I'm out of ideas I can think about what I'm doing in school right now and talk about some techniques there.

Well I guess it only ended up being 6.....I have been trying to think of more with little success.  Happy Blogging everyone!!

Bout of Books Update for Day 1: Today I started Mansfield Park---jury is still out on whether I like it or not.  It took quite a bit of thinking to get all of my characters straight...I have a feeling this one might have the same problem as Sense and Sensibility.....too many characters.  I am at chapter 8....so I am still trying to have an open mind. I also did a bit of reading in To Kill a Mockingbird---lots of plane time switching between the Kindle and the actual book.  Feeling really successful about today!

Five Favorite Front-Page Features with Cedar Ridge Academy

Today in my U.S. History and Government class at Cedar Ridge Academy Therapeutic Boarding School we were able to go over some current events that have affected the world around us. We focused on three main stories: the Zimmerman juror speaking out, Ariel Castro's trial, and the Manning/Snowden situation. We get to have great discussions, watch videos, and the students write great opinions as to what they think the situation should be/change to.  Click here to see what they wrote today, and go below for the videos that we watched courtesy of ABC News and NBC News.

Zimmerman Case:

Zimmerman Juror Speaks Out
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/george-zimmerman-juror-stands-decision-19777201?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=19778064

Travyon's Mother Speaks Out
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/juror-b29-interview-ignites-emotion-travyon-martins-mother-19787910?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=19720024

Ariel Castro Case:

Castro Pleads Guilty
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/cleveland-kidnapper-ariel-castro-spend-life-bars-19787899?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=19720024

This video discusses Ariel Castro's final day in court

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Snowden/Manning and Espionage:

Bradley Manning's Conviction:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/bradley-manning-guilty-aiding-americas-enemies-charge-19821294?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=19821973

More Leaks from Snowden
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/nsa-secrets-revealed-19832057?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=19766051

Edward Snowden is out of the airport...

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is suppose to be Wednesday's post!

I completely forgot to submit this post yesterday......I guess maybe I messed up my 365 project.  But I did blog yesterday.  I didn't write most of it--I was the editor in chief of it.  Check out our book review of The Brain Fix by Ralph E. Carson.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Happy Birthday America!!! It has been an interesting day...I worked today--and parent-teacher conferences were the highlight.  So it has been a long day! But I love how my biggest tradition is watching Capitol Fourth on PBS.  YAY for great musical numbers and the National Symphony Orchestra.

From dc.about.com 

A Review of June and Coming Soon

Wow, can't believe another month has come and gone.  As I typically do on the first of the month, I do a run down of the top posts of the previous month and what's to come up this month.

3. We had a tie for third place...so you get two posts!
Classics Club Meme This one was actually a lot of fun!  I enjoy participating in the Classics Club, and doing little things with them.  It has no pressure and I love that!!
Article Review: Sending My Child Away I was actually glad to see that this one made it on the list. I debated actually posting this one, but I was very impressed by this article and wanted to share it.  I hope that it helps someone out there.

2. Shakespeare Plus Autism Another fun one to write! I love talking about Shakespeare!  I have a new found love for him with my job, as I mentioned in this post.

1. Another Doctor's Appointment I should have predicted that this one would be first, all the rest of my ones about my health issues have been.  It is nice to see that everyone cares.  This gives me an opportunity to catch everyone up on how I'm doing now. I have good days and bad days, and because I was having good days I thought that I would get better on my own. Biggest reason, I am done with doctors!  This weekend was a testament that I maybe shouldn't do that anymore.  So I called today--and I have another appointment next Monday.  I'll update then.

Upcoming this month...July will bring lots of new changes and busy times.  We will be closing on our new house this month!! How crazy is that! So my life will be full of signing and boxes. I have a family reunion that I am looking forward too and hopefully I will get my teaching license renewed this month too.

Blog wise I will be participating in my first ever read-along with To Kill a Mockingbird and RoofBeam Reader. This is one of my favorite books and I want to share some lesson plan ideas that I have had.  Feel free to join in too! I also really need to finish a blanket for a good friend who is having her first baby this month and I will share that too!!  I also hope to hop on some more blog hops. Finally, I am looking forward to possibly fixing up my blog following ways.  I need a better system...I am thinking about Bloglovin' or Feedly.  I can't decide...but I need too because I don't want to miss stuff!  Suggestions?

Our new house!!!

Article Review: "Sending My Child Away"

I saw this article yesterday on Facebook.  The rest of the title is, "It was hard, but best for our family."  This blogger mom went through a hard divorce that sounds like really put her kid in the middle.  It sounds like her son didn't really know how to deal with that divorce.  These kind of students are the stories that I hear about at my job. Cedar Ridge Academy receives a wide variety of students, and visit our website to learn if you/someone you know would be a good fit.  But this is why I work at this job as hard as it is.  Families are important and we help them put their lives back together.  And if for whatever reason they maybe can't go home again, I like to be able to set them up for their future.

This is a debate that I have with my fellow teachers too...we are not decreasing the expectations even though students want us too.  We need to hold the line with them, because we need to prepare them for life beyond high school. I always love teaching where I do because we focus on the learning--the body, mind, spirit idea.  We have a great school because we can deal with all of the parts of the student.

I hope that my readers never "need" our great school, but if you do find yourself in need, know that there are options out there.

Five Favorite Front-Page Features

So...today isn't going to be exactly five different news stories....just five (maybe more) different things all about the same thing. Today in my US History/Government class, we talked about the Edward Snowden/hacking thing.  Time Magazine did a great article this week about him and past hackers, and it really seems to be becoming an historical and political issue--great for my class.  So I started off with these video clips to give them the background.

These first two are in the same broadcast, back to back,and occurred that first day the media starts talking about the phone monitoring and the Internet monitoring.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/52126041

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/52126065

This next clip is probably the day after the other two because we are learning that this wasn't on purpose and the government is having to acknowledge that there was a leak.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/hunting-nsa-leaker-19351792?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=19352311

Then I showed this clip that reveals Snowden and who he is.  

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/edward-snowden-claims-nsa-leaker-19362889

Finally, I showed this clip to give them a bit of an idea of what PRISM is and to transition into the Time Magazine article.

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,2472288673001_2145377,00.html 

This article is on: http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2145506,00.html 

I loved this class because we had a great discussion and didn't even get through the whole article. They are really curious, and offer opinions which is the whole reason why I talk about current events in the first place.  We are going to finish it up next week, and I think it will be great.

The cover of this week's Time

Are Grades Important?

I read an article on Education Week today that seemed to discuss this very same idea.  Now I just got done reading the comments from everyone on the article, and wow.  People have a lot of different opinions.  I really don't like confrontation on the Internet. And these people sound belligerent so I am not commenting in the box.  But it got me thinking about how we doing grading at our school.  We still do grading, as I'm sure everyone here is aware.  And it is still very subjective with moments of objectivity just as every other teacher.  However, we do focus on competency and mastery. 

How do we do this?  We make sure the student knows the material.  Cs and Ds don't fly anymore....they just get As and Bs.  Most of our students have just "done what they had to" and tried to just barely pass before.  By actively creating these guidelines, the students reach for a higher standard. I saw comments on this article about schools that just let students retake as many times as they want so kids don't even try the first time.  WE also have things against that in the fact that they can only really take the tests twice until they need to go back and prove mastery to the material that they are being tested on.

But the cool thing to me is that the power of the letter grade gives these students confidence to go on to their next school with more confidence whether that be in college or another high school. I know that they are actually having to learn something to go through what I make them do :) unlike other schools where they could just skate by.  So it is definitely something that is worth considering in the constant debate of education reform.

Picture courtesy of: http://www.legaljuice.com/2011/07/post_245.html

Shakespeare Plus Autism

So my only actor friend (well at least that I know of...there might be some high school friend that acts but I clearly don't talk to them that often) shared this article on Facebook [yes you Katie :)] The article is called "The connection between Shakespeare and autism" And we taught Shakespeare together once for a MAGNIFICENT summer at Cedar Ridge Academy.  So of course I clicked on it because I want to know what is out there. This is actually quite the interesting article.

Our school does not teach highly autistic students, but we do see students on the other end of the autism spectrum (like NLD and Asprerger's).  As this article points out, with these students you are not going to immediately think of Shakespeare. But I have seen students that would have NEVER tackled Shakespeare on their own, take it and run with it.  They immerse themselves in the language and let them try it out and guess what they are getting at--and suddenly they are not scared and they can handle it.  

So go check out the article...what Shakespeare play would you try with students that aren't great with language?  Hmm....what about with ESL?

Thank you to shakespeare.mit.edu for the picture which is also where I get my copies of plays when I do it in class.  Printing them for a small class like mine is cheaper than buying books.