Testing

This is a test to see if the blogs are saving.....

New School Year - New Students - New Goals

I am excited to be starting yet another year of Globaloria - this is my third year and I am sure that it will be even better than last year!  I initially had 80 students, but since I only have 23 computers in one lab, and 22 in the other, some students had to drop.  I am now at the point where every working computer is in use and in my 8th period, I have one student working on my laptop.  Every year the classes get bigger, I hope that I can teach 4 sections next year (after all, next year is only 166 days away!)

What are my expectations for the year?  I hope that all of my students learn and are successful.  Last year I had many very immature 9th grade boys in one class and they wore on my every nerve. They thought that it was great fun to turn off the other one's computer, or mess with their keyboard or many silly things to do.  I hope that there is none of that this year. I hope that all of my students help one another and this becomes a truly collaborative class.



Where has the year gone? (I think I said this last year!)

                                                                       
Now we are down to 13 instructional days left...now that doesn't count 4 days for WesTest and another 4 days for finals, but I feel like I have so much to do and to teach and yet again, I have run out of time!  I remember how crazy the last few days of Globaloria were...I was afraid that we would not get everything done.  My Honors Geometry class will be OK, just barely....we will finish the last chapter of the book two school days before WesTest begins :)
I am so ready for school to be over, yet I don't want it to be over ~ my daughter will be a senior and I know, that before I know it, she will have graduated and be getting ready for college :(
I have a lot to do over the summer - I want to get my house straightened up and more moved into....I bought my house July 5, 2005 and lived in it for 3 months to the day.

56 days is sooner than you think

                                                                          

So we now have 56 days of school left - the kids think that it will be forever, but the end comes very fast.  We have WesTest testing that takes up a week, then we have 2 days of school, and then we have finals for a week - so even though there are 56 days, there really are only about 46 days.
This has been my best teaching year so far.  I have really enjoyed all of my classes and alll (mostly all) of my kids.  (There are a few VERY immature 9th graders that really are annoying!)

                                                              

What a past few weeks

Here I am again...not have blogged twice a week like I said that I was going to do, but the past 4 weeks have been CRAZY....I have worked every night for the past 4 weeks plus every Sat (except the one when we had mid-year training for Globaloria).  I leave school at 3:15, take my daughter home, and head out for work, trying to get there around 4ish....then I work until 11:00 or later...or much later....

I get home anywhere from 11:15 - 12:00, then it takes me a little while to "chill"  and then I get up at 3:31 to walk Princess, my Cairn-Terrior/Chahuahua mix.  Four weeks of such craziness...I spend all day Sunday getting ready to teach school the following week :(                                                                   

Important Visitors :)

I am SOoooo excited!  I received a phone call from Debbi Super on Wednesday asking what our school was doing for Digital Day.  I told her that I had spoken with a gentleman from the Charleston Gazzett and had sent letters home to the parents.  She then told me the govenor Gaston Caperton and Gayle Mansion wanted to visit a Globaloria classroom and she wondered if our school would host them!!!  I was beyond excited!!!

                

Why Links? Did you guys not listen?

                                                                        

Ok, as I was reading over my students' blogs yesterday I noticed several that said things like "We have to have 5 links - I don't know what to link to, so here are 5 random links", and I am thinking, have you not been listening.

                                                 

 So...we went over (again) what makes a rich blog and looked at rich blogs and plain blogs and how different they were. So then I assigned two more blogs, one to explain what a rich blog is (and it had to be a rich blog), and then another blog on anything they wished and they were to demonstrate to me (through their blog) that they understood what a rich blog was.  These blogs are not due until Sunday, so I am anxious to see how they did :)