Ancient Greece

I have always felt that I am not very good at teaching Social Studies, and in a post-NCLB educational world there is NO pressure to put any emphasis on that (if you are interested in what I mean by that, read this). This summer, in my curriculum planning course, I chose to plan out a Social Studies unit. The main standard in the murky Social Studies curriculum for third grade in my district is the Ancient cultures of Greek and Rome. So, I planned a detailed unit on those cultures. I have been enjoying teaching Social Studies more than I ever have, but I didn't realize what an impact this was having on my students. At parent teacher conferences, all of the parents kept telling me how excited their kids are about Ancient Greece (we haven't started the Rome portion of my unit yet). Apparently, the kids are always exploring Greece on my website at home, and are going home and telling their families all about Ancient Greece.

Anyway, this is just another shameless post to plug Social Studies instruction. It is not a waste of our time! I don't know if other schools are as eager to forget about Social Studies as mine is, but kids love it and it is part of a thorough education. The rest of this post will be directed at anyone who teaches on Ancient Greece. Feel free to steel my stuff. I stole a lot of it off of the internet too!!


Here are some links I use in class and keep on my web page.
http://www.mystery-productions.info/hyper/Hypermedia_2003/Miller/AM_hypermedia/Artifact/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/athens_games/game.htm

You can see a picture of the Greek drama masks my students made at the top of this post. Below is the link where I got this idea from.
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/ancient_greece/masks.htm

I've also incorporated some simple elements. I checked out my schools entire section on Ancient Greece and set up a special topic based reading station. I picked out a few fun videos on discovery video streaming.

Here's the best part: I am not losing my instructional minutes toward Reading. Every lesson begins with guided reading from the textbook. My kids love doing it because they love learning about Ancient Greece.

Young for My Age?

Sometimes I wonder if I should be more mature by this point in my life. I hate admitting that, but seriously, I'll be twenty-five this year and I still don't think of myself as a "real adult." I always thought by the time I was this age I would be a lot more mature. Here are some examples.

• I didn't think I'd be having to save my money and worrying if I spent too much money on a cup of coffee or something.
• I didn't think I'd still be worrying about going on first dates.
• I didn't think I would still be eating tons of Easy-Mac and Soda and Candy and the other things that concern me.
• I didn't think I'd still be up all hours of the night writing papers and reading textbooks.

Maybe I have unrealistic expectations. My life is a lot of fun, and I have it pretty good. I don't know; I just always thought being "grown up" would feel different.

P.S. Don't judge me for my music link. This song came out when I was in high school and got me through my first heart break...

Teaching Writing Is Hardest on the Writer

I love writing! Well, at least I did like Writing before I spent my day administering the district Writing test to third graders today. I'm a little upset with Writing now. Writing has left me with a little bit of a headache--not unlike a hangover. Seriously, though, I do love to Write. I need to Write to clear my head and I've been like that my entire life.

Even my journal, in second grade was overflowing. Not unlike my computer files from college, the countless notebooks I keep at home, and the blog I write in devotedly at twenty-four.

Because I love Writing so much, teaching it is kind of a double-edged sword. I love designing creative Writing opportunities that give students the opportunities to express the nuances of thought and language. Really good ones, at the right level, can hit everyone.

I've learned something, though, in my two and a half years of teaching. Not everyone is born with a love or an ability to write passionately and abundantly. Most kids need very structured scaffolded writing. They need me to give them those formulas and wait for them to expand them.

It's not that I mind teaching that way; there is something extremely rewarding in good teaching too. Good teaching is reaching all the students. My students are all becoming better Writers, but I want them to love Writing and to have it not be labored. I want them to feel about my old friend, Writing, the way that I do. They don't.

I should probably admit in closing this post that it is not Writing's fault I have a headache. It is not Writing's fault the children took over THREE HOURS to complete the test today. It is not Writing's fault I have been at my school over forty hours this week before Thursday started. It is not Writing's fault I am still exhausted.



Writing, I still love you!!!!

I'm Done!!!!!

As I was driving home from round two of parent conferences at about 7:15, Delilah was on. She was talking about her kids being out of school for parent conferences. She was going on about how tired it made her to have her kids home all day. All I could do was yell at my radio, "What the Hell?" Seriously, I worked from 6:30 am until about 7:15 pm. Kids in my district do not have the day off. We have to teach all day and then conference with every parent in the evening. I didn't know other districts are actually giving teachers time during the school day to conference.

My conferences and school day actually went really well, but seriously that is too many hours in a row in that school building. I was starting to feel like I was in my own personal prison when I was waiting between conferences. Too many hours. AND I still have to teach two more full school days.

Fin

I woke up this morning in the fetal position. Maybe that's just a fluke. Maybe I'm being dramatic. That doesn't seem to portend anything good.

I left my house early. I had a parent conference before school and needed to hurry!!!

The stupid new camera installed on my freeway stop flashed at me on the way to work. I think I got a ticket.

My morning conference didn't show up. I rushed around prepping my lesson for observation for nothing.

I was soooooo nervous at my observation. I am a hundred percent sure that was obvious. The kids were not into the story this week and I don't blame them because it was a boring one.

By lunchtime, all this stress was wearing on me, and I was ready to fall asleep.

My first after school conference involved a parent telling me I don't celebrate her daughter's good grades enough. I promised to lower her daughter's grades--just kidding.

The SEI "coach" and translator did not show up for my parent conference with the family that speaks absolutely no English even though I scheduled it with and for them.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just think, "Thank God it's over"?

Why Is It So Hard????

I want to be completely past the events of last year. I want to be confident and happy and unaffected. I am just not there yet.

In some ways, I am a much better teacher than I was when I started two and a half years ago. It seems, though, that my molehill of progress is overshadowed by my mountain of insecurity. One of my parent volunteers today was asking me how I like teaching. For some reason, once again, the words felt caught in my throat.

I have been doing so much better, but evaluation time is really surfacing my insecurities. I am supposed to be observed tomorrow, and I can't visualize myself being successful at all.

I know, if I could relax about all this, I'd do much better. I can't seem to relax, though. I feel like my precariously balanced confidence will be knocked over again.

Might Be a Long Week for Me

The other day the teacher across the hall from me had her formal observation. We are always joking around and she thought it would be funny to try to scare me send me an e-mail telling me the new principal is really difficult and that she was almost in tears when he left. It worked. I was really really scared.

I have my formal observation on Tuesday. It is going to be really difficult for me to do well because I will be really nervous.

The funny thing is that I am starting to wonder if any of this really matters anyway. We just got another message from the superintendent warning about the severe budget cuts. I, and all second through third year teachers, may not even be teaching next year.

All these plans that I make go nowhere. I determine a course, but the Lord determines my footsteps.