How To End A Novel Study

 

Today is day 15 of the Slice of Life Challenge.

My class of juniors in the Advanced Placement Language & Composition class have finished reading The Great Gatsby. I hate the end of a novel study because I'm never quit sure how to end them. Test? Projects? Essay? This decision just feels like the What's For Dinner conundrum I have every day! And, yes, I KNOW I'm already supposed to have had this part figured out, but I've never been good at backwards planning. It's a flaw in my teacher school or something didn't click when I took the "planning" course. IDK.

Anyway....

This morning, I had to decide how I was going to handle this part of the unit. I have given fairly easy reading quizzes throughout the month, so I know who has been reading and who hasn't. We've had two circle discussions which turned out pretty good. After our reading and quick write time, I still didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I gave them the last quiz for the book's last chapters. While they took that stupid multiple choice quiz, I knew that I didn't want to give a test. And I didn't want to assign any projects. I just felt (this morning at least), that those things didn't matter. 

When I finish reading a book, all I want to do is talk about it with someone who's read it! I don't do fake Instagram posts or book advertisements. Like, is that not wasting their time for me to assign those things? Is that petty because I have given these assignments. But this year, for some reason, I'm just not into time being wasted. 

The story of Jay Gatsby, Nick, the Buchanans, and the Wilsons sort of speak to our time and what it means to want/work for something that might be out of reach. I just don't think a test or project will make this group of 17-year-olds think about that. 

There are changes I need to make for next year when I teach this class, but for now, I'm going to have them participate in a class discussion and grade them on their participation in that. But then, the whole grade thing is another issue I have to tackle some day. 

I'd love some positive thoughts for my plight!! haha....

And, if anyone reading this has any ideas for the end of a novel study, I'm always open for advice!

Today is day 9 of the Slice of Life challenge. 

 I've been thinking about student mental health lately. A thousand years ago, when I was in college, all I wanted to do was to be a child therapist. I interned at the local mental health center in the children's program and loved every minute of it. In grad school, I worked as a liaison between the mental health center and a child's family. It was the most enlightening experience I'd had up to that point. 

Sadly, in NC, just as many other states, I'm sure, the state mental health organization got broken into pieces (sort of what I believe the "choice" folks and some politicians want to do with public schools). Now there is no central location for mental health services anywhere in my state. 

Which leads me to my point. Since my daughter attends the same school I work in, I'm now privy to some uncomfortable conversations regarding kids in disheartening situations. It's not that I didn't hear gossip before now; it's just that I could pretend that my ears were closed. It's not that I didn't refer kids to the guidance counselor who would take care of them; it's just that now, I don't know who to start with. 

And the problems the kids exhibit aren't the normal my-family-has-no-food, even though, that definitely happens regularly. Nope...these problems are more sexual in nature, and dealing with grief because the grandparents who they've lived with since elementary school died with Covid, and homes that have burned from faulty wiring in a condemned house so the family still lives in a motel.

Like, these kids are suffering! And I don't see anything innovative or imaginative that the staff at my school is doing to help. When the kids get in trouble, we suspend/punish/nag at them. I know it's not just the kids, but the families who are absolutely suffering unimaginable grief. And if my grad school job taught me anything, it's that when I made sure the kid's mom was okay, that kid I worked with was fine. He could function in a regular school in a regular classroom like a regular kid. But when mom was out of control or stressed, guess what? 

So unless and until mental health gets put on the top of the To Do list instead of the Someday list, nothing changes. I'm not sure I believe  the "kids are all right." I'm worried. 

Another Board Meeting That Stinks

Day 8 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge

As I sit here trying to think about my day and what was important, I'm listening to my district's school board meeting. There are 7 members plus the superintendent made of people who I'm sure totally believe what they say. But....not ONE of them actually talk to the teachers they make rules for. Like, I'm so angry that they made face coverings optional in OCTOBER 2021 when the county's (and country's) infection rates were sky-high! 

Then, there's the whole money/budge issue -- priorities are for sports. Every time. 

And extra pay for employees during covid? Every district around us got a bonus (some districts got up to $5,000!); us, though, a big fat zero! Nothing. 

I shouldn't be surprised. I shouldn't even care, especially since my plan is to get out of here in two years. But these decisions are par for the course for the elected board members in this district. Teachers are last on the rung for recognition or help or being in the room when decisions are made. 

This is a phenomenon all over the country. Something has to give, right?

(from my Twitter feed today 😢)

My Musical Group

 

Today is day 7 of the Slice of Life challenge. Click the picture to learn more. 

    I have so many pets in my house: a dog, 3 cats, and 2 fish. Like, there is always someone wanting to eat or for me to clean up after. The dog's name is Bella and the kitties' names are Cleo, Grace, and Jasper. The fish are Tony Shark and Randall.

    Every time my daughter and I leave the house, we tell Bella we'll be back soon (and Lily says she loves her), and we tell Cleo that she's in charge. However, when I talk about them to other people, I always name them Bella and The Cats as if they are a musical group. 

    Lily says I should write about them so everyone who reads my blog will be entertained. So, here is my idea of how my pets' musical group deals during the day while Lily and I are at school. 

Jasper is the baby, so he's the one that gets the girls their gigs. Pretty sure he makes the calls while everyone in the house sleeps. 

He's the drummer and back-up singer. Dude is the hip-hop guru and keeps the girls fresh and in the game. 

Bella is the lead singer, guitarist, and the one who cleans up after the others. She loves to sing rock & roll, specifically, Bon Jovi and a little Joan Jett. She's getting older, so her hips aren't as limber as they used to be -- but those hips don't lie!

Cleo is the lead on keyboard and the one who makes sure the others don't get roofied or too inebriated. She doesn't take anything from those whiny squirrels just looking for trouble! She's the one who's going to slow down the dance floor with Adele ballads --also, Sarah McLachlan is her spirit human.

Grace, the middle child, is the trouble-maker. There's no way that the concert ends with her NOT getting into a fight -- most of the time with her own drummer. Grace is the loudest singer with the worst voice; pretty sure she'd never make it past the first round on American Idol. But, what she doesn't have in talent, she makes up for in getting the audience hyped up -- clapping, cheering, singing along. Her specialties are the tambourine and the keytar.

    Bella and The Cats put on a show most days when their humans are at work. They stopped touring during spring of 2020 when the humans were at home all the time. Bella, of course, loved every minute of them being home, but The Cats spent most days arguing, hoping to send the humans out of the way so they could get some music in them. 

    They take requests to get together with other groups. Just email Jasper at: bella&cats4U@thegoogledotcom.

P.S. The fish don't participate in the concerts -- they are the lookouts since Bella is an awful guard dog!

On This Day

 

Day 6 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge

Two major events happened on this day in history: Cyrano de Bergerac and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were both born on March 3. 

Browning wrote one of my favorite poems: "How Do I Love Thee." I remember reading this as a sophomore in high school and copying it in my diary. I just knew that one day I'd love a guy as much as Elizabeth did and when I gave him this poem, we'd be together forever. Needless to say, that's not how my life worked out. 😜

I teach the Edmond Rostand play, Cyrano de Bergerac - the play is about a romantic hero who was  not handsome, yet he loved a woman named Roxanne even though she was in love with a handsome guy named Christian. I love teaching the play in February when all the little kids are so love-struck and think they will never have the kind of love they want. Reading Cyrano lets me take them through a journey with love - and that we should tell people how we feel about them rather than letting life get away from us. It's always a fun unit to teach; the kids get so roped in with the love triangle among Cyrano, Roxanne, and Christian. 

Love must be my theme of the day! So I'm leaving both the Browning poem and the trailer for the Kevin Kline play as the lead in Cyrano. What are some brave love stories/peoms you've read or teach?

When Is It Enough?

 

Today is Day 5 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Click the pic for more info!

As I sit here on a Saturday night, thinking of all the school things I should have finished today, I can't help thinking: when is it enough?

This semester, I'm teaching a new subject -- AP Language & Composition -- along with my usual sophomore English and being the adviser for the yearbook. I also have an online English elective for Mythology, so my days are pretty full. 

In the Before Times, I spent most of Sunday planning and grading; but lately, I just cannot bring myself to do any of that. The more I think about all the ways my job has gotten more difficult over my 25-year career, the more aggravated I become. Then, I come across this post on Instagram:

Guess what the comments were? Yep...."Good thought, but when does the work get done?" When do I write lessons for AP Lang? How do I get the yearbook finished and submitted? Who's going to grade all those essays?

IDK....my Lang students are reading Gatsby, and we spent Friday discussing the juxtaposition of East Egg (the rich area) and the Valley of Ashes (the poor area) and all that is running through my mind is how teaching is the Valley of Ashes. I would never say that to my students --it's not them that makes teaching difficult (okay, sometimes the kids are grumpy, though). But how can I create cool lessons when I have to stay after school for tutoring? Or gate duty? Or work with a club? Or respond to the barrage of emails from admin who won't leave their offices? When do I just get to be with my own kid and not feel bad for leaving my school bag in the car?

So I've felt guilty for not doing any school work today. I vegged out in front of the TV watching that Anna show on Netflix. It was mind-numbing, and I'll pay for it tomorrow when I'll end up writing lesson plans until midnight or one in the morning. Then on Monday, be too tired to be engaging. 

Got advice for this never-ending cycle? 

Poetry Done Messed Me Up!

 

 Today is day 4 of the SOLSC at 2 Writing Teachers. Click the picture to join us!

I know it's only the fourth day of this challenge, but today may be my best post this entire month! haha...I have this amazing group of tenth graders who are the best humans I've met in a long time! (Full disclosure: my daughter, Lily, is a member of the class, too). I just absolutely adore every one of them, even though there are so many girls with the same name but different spellings that I get them all confused. I think they forgive me most days. 

Anyway, Fridays are always poetry days in Ms. McCabe's class; today, I shared my favorite sophomore poem called "Owl Pellets" by Ralph Fletcher. If you haven't read it, here you go:

After we read a couple of times, we talk about how love can be fleeting and some things just hurt and how teenagers are all about "the moment." Then, I tell them about my tenth grade Biology crush named Lloyd. Normally, this is just another #StephStory, but today, these precious kids were so upset that after Lloyd had flirted with me and leaned his chair back to rub my ankles and then dropped me like a hot tamale after I got him through our frog dissection unit, they ALL decided to "find this boy, Ms. McCabe!"

hahahhaahhahahaah.....

These kids literally spent the next 10 minutes scouring social media and Google to find my high school Lloyd!! When they said that I need to bring my yearbooks to school on Monday, I told them that my childhood was burned in a house fire; that was even worse because one of them said, "We almost lost our favorite English teacher in a fire and didn't even know it." 

OMG....dear readers, today was a win in the teaching world. My students won't forget how I'm making them feel safe and loved and full of poetry. And I will not forget that they tried to fuss at a guy I haven't seen since 1985 because he was "mean" to their English teacher! Sophomores are the BEST!!!

13 Things I Can't Live Without

                        This is Day 3 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge. 

There's so many ways that life has changed since the pandemic started, and most days it's a struggle to get through it. Teaching this year has just become impossible, in the words of a friend of mine. So how does a tired teacher deal?? 

Ya gotta get creative! 

Here are some things that are giving me LIFE right now:

1. Old tv shows! Thank goodness for Netflix & Hulu because I can veg out on all the Seinfeld and Frasier episodes. I can't take the drama shows at all -- so these old friends are back to make life funny again. #It'sBreathtaking  #MyNameIsGeorgeI'mUnemployedAndLiveWithMyParents

2.  Abbott Elementary!!! This show is my new favorite because it's teachers showing how amazing this teaching gig is, even though we have to deal with all the badness in the world. 

3. PM coffee.....okay, hear me out. I don't get up early enough to enjoy my creamy drink in the mornings before work, and by the time I actually get to it at school, it's iced! So when I'm sitting up late, a cup of coffee make me happy. Sometimes, I do a chai tea which hits the spot, too!

4. Wordle...if you know, you know. Who knew there were so many five letter words in the world! :-)

5. Stickers...IDK why, but I love putting stickers in my notebook and calendar. I can't keep up with the daily habit of bullet journaling, but sporadically being creative on some pages is pretty cool.

6. E-books from the library....ALL the books are there! 🥰 The book I'm reading now is The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz.

7. Making playlists on Spotify....I've been making playlists for everything from mood music to stories I want to write. One of the last ones I made was for a writing contest in January: Rita's Story My prompt was to write a mystery using a meter maid as a character and incorporating a memory lapse. 🙂

8. Dried mango...just a yummy treat.

9. Popcorn.....I know popcorn is awful for my teeth, but it's my favorite snack. 

10. Everything Bagel seasoning...Go right now to the spice aisle at the grocery store and get this. Add it to all your favorite foods -- especially salads!

11. Buying more books than I could ever read...Lily (my daughter) has grounded me from buying any books in March, but up until now, I just buy another book and add it to my nightstand pile!

12. Teacher groups on Facebook...teachers are so creative, and it's nice to share resources.

13. Lily....the kid makes me laugh every day and reminds me how cool life is. 

So, what kinds of things help you get through the rough spots of life?

Charlotte Weaves Her Web Again

 

 This is day 2 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Click the picture to learn more from Two Writing Teachers. 

    I teach some precious high school sophomores this semester. I love them and have a decent relationship with them. It probably doesn't hurt that my daughter is in this class, and she's pretty-well loved by most of her classmates. 

    We read every day -- every single day. So, one of the first community activities we engage in is book talks and a trip to the library. Normally, I start the kids off with independent choice reading, but this time, we started a whole-class reading of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I worried that making the sophomores all read the same book was a mistake, but they were totally into it. Christie just drew them in. They were so hooked that we talked about that book every day -- and all 30 of them participated! That has maybe happened twice in my time at this school. 

    So when independent reading time came around, I just knew that my students would pick amazing books and we'd have daily amazing conversations. #CueLaughTrack

    Weeelllllll......it's not that this didn't happen for some of my students, but one kid in particular took my goodness to an extreme when he found a lone copy of Charlotte's Web in our high school library! Charlotte's Web? In a high school? A sophomore honors level class? Am I supposed to make him get a different book? Chide him for reading a "baby" book? 

    In truth, I thought about both those tactics, but in the end, I supported the kid. Celebrated him for choosing a book that he'd not actually read in 3rd grade. Fussed that he was on page 60 after two weeks of independent reading (and his reading quiz grade reflected this lack of reading). Yesterday, he came in and told me that he was almost finished with the book. I told him that it's a "cry-baby book" (my term for books that are tear-jerkers), and he said, "I don't cry at books," then he grinned a little at me. Like, he knew he was going to cry a little 😜. 

    Today, my sweet student came to class, excited that he'd finished reading. "Don't tell anybody," he said sheepishly --grinned, too -- "but, I teared up some." We had the most fun book talk! Like, we shared favorite lines (he couldn't believe that I remembered so many lines from a book I've not read in many years); however, he reminded me of other fun lines that I had forgotten! 

    Here's what I learned today. Even though this kid may have been trying to be funny or think he wouldn't have to work hard by reading Charlotte, he needed that book! In this age of pandemic, I'm not sure that there's been learning loss so much as story-loss. And the way that school is --we rush from one test-prep to another, not paying attention to the emotional needs of the kids in front of us because we are being rushed by admin or district officials --tends to impede young kids from embodying the stories that have been part of American culture for a long time. This year, I've noticed more high schoolers wanting to re-read books from elementary school up to grade 6. And while I'm worried about the trend, I haven't made much of a fuss about it. 

    Maybe we are all looking for comfort from the Before. 

p.s....My student's next book is Winger by Andrew Smith. He chose it because his tablemate read it and raved about it. Also, now my whole class of 30 has decided that they are ALL  going to take turns reading Charlotte!! I adore this group! 

Passwords & Promises

Today is Day 1 of March's Slice of Life Challenge. Click the pic to find out more!

I had to change my password at school today -- an actual change in a password not done since 2017. The last numbers of said password was 2017, so this is pretty significant.  Changing passwords is like the worst thing in the world (except trying to think about what to make for dinner EVERY SINGLE DAY, but that's a different blog post!), and today was a bad day to try to to make a major change. 

But I did it. 🙂    

Now, I know that changing a password isn't all that interesting -- I mean, who doesn't change passwords all the time? But in thinking about how to now be NOT 2017, I had to figure out what I am. Thus, the "promise" in my title. 

My daughter, who I used to write about many years ago, graduates high school in 2024. The promise I've made to myself is that in her last year, it's time for a change for me as well. 

These two years of the pandemic have taken a toll on so many of us, and it's so easy to get discouraged or complacent. Although this promise has been a long time coming, I'm feeling it is more important than before the pandemic started. 

I'm not sure that I want to stop teaching --I'll still have about three years before I can retire--but I think I'd like to change positions. Middle school? Community college? Something totally different? I just love the idea of DIFFERENT! A new challenge ~ new friends to make ~ new town & experiences!! What could be better? 

Anyway, I moved my password from 2017 to 2024 so that everytime I enter it, I'm reminded of the promise of change --new fun on the horizon!