The Rubber Room

If you don't know what the Rubber Room is check this out. And then go see the movie when it comes out. One teacher from my school was sent to the Rubber Room at the beginning of this year and he is still there.

Thanks for the link Nancy.

Too Much Information?

I have a blog, I post a daily photo of myself every day on Flickr, I have a Myspace account and a Facebook account (to which I semi-regularly post "status updates" telling my Facebook friends what I am currently up to). I share plenty about my daily life and my friends and "friends" that are linked to my various accounts are able to keep pretty good tabs on me (as far as I'm willing to share), I'd say. But is this taking it too far?

Is anyone on Twitter? I checked and none of my friends are. Yet.

Happy Friday

Today was a wonderful Friday for me. I had a meeting to attend that was just three blocks from my house! And even better, it didn't start until 9am. This meant I got to sleep until 7:45. By the time the meeting ended at 1pm there was no point in going back to school since I get an hour for lunch and then an hour for travel time. There was nothing else to do but go home :) So wonderful!

The meeting was about scoring for the big state English proficiency test that all of my kids just finished taking this week. Starting on Monday I have to train a group of teachers at my school to score them. The scoring should only take a couple of days since my school doesn't have that many ELLs. Then it will be back to real teaching again.

Three Angels

Why I love Kindergarteners . . .

One of my Kindergarten girls, Jessica, was trying to tell me a story but I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. "Angel, the man who cleans the floor!" She said, referring to our custodian. "My cousin's name is Angel, too."

"I know." I said.

"There are two Angels. My cousin and . . . Oh, and the one that flies. So there are three Angels: the one that flies, my cousin, and the one here."

So precious.

My First Ever Meme!

I've been blogging for about three years now and this is my very first meme. And clearly I need the inspiration right now since I haven't blogged in month. Thanks Julie!

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.


1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

In 1998 I was 17 and a senior in high school getting ready to graduate! I was planning my first backpacking trip to Europe which really gave me the travel bug. In the past ten years I have taken a trip or lived abroad almost every year (the first two years living in NYC were pretty rough financially so I didn't make it anywhere those years).

Also ten years ago on that backpacking trip I randomly met a Jordanian guy who I had a romantic summer fling with. We have always kept in touch and have seen each other on various trips of mine to Europe (and one of his to NYC). It still amazes me that ten years later he is still a really important person in my life. Meeting him also sparked my interest in the Middle East, learning Arabic, and now a desire to go teach abroad in the Middle East. Sometimes I forget that all of this started with a chance encounter in the Florence leather market.

It's interesting to reflect upon how ten years ago the things going on in my life were sort of setting up for what is happening now.

2. What are five things on my to do list for today?

Well, the day is over now but the only thing on the to do list was to go to brunch and I can proudly say that I accomplished that!

3. Snacks I enjoy:

-carrots and hummus
-fudgesicles
-chips and guacamole
-brownies

(These are just random things that popped into my head. I'm not sure if they are my most favorite. I'm sure there are others.)

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I don't really sit around thinking about what I would do if I had extreme amounts of money. Like Julie, I do know that I would travel the world. It would be nice to have a house in a few different places that I like to visit often so I could split my time between say, NYC, Italy, etc. And (obviously) I would donate to a worthy cause. Most likely something involving education would be on that list.

5. Three of my bad habits:

-Hitting snooze in the morning. I love the morning and I REALLY would love to be a morning person in theory but I just can't get out of bed in the morning. Even if I've already had more than enough sleep.

Hmm . . . the first one was easy, let's see.

-Maybe taking ridiculously long showers. All the time. I know, it's bad to waste water (and time) but I love being under the hot water and as much as I try (or don't try) I can't seem to take a quick, or even relatively quick, shower. I have ALWAYS been like this.

-I'm starting to think spending too much time on the internet. Sometimes I "multi-task" by watching T.V., talking on the phone, and/or eating while being on the computer.

6. 5 Places I have lived:

-California: I lived there until I graduated high school.
-Arizona: I went to college there and my family moved there too so I don't really have family connections to California anymore.
-Florence, Italy: I studied there twice. Once for a study abroad program and another time as an exchange student with the University of Florence.
-Sardegna, Italy: After I graduated from college I taught English in Sassari, Sardegna for a year.
-Brooklyn, NY: I moved here in 2005 when I started teaching as a Teach For America corps member. I put NYC as second choice of cities that I wanted to teach in but in my heart it was really first. I'm so glad that I ended up here.

7. 5 jobs that I have had:

-Lifeguard
-Starbucks Barista
-selling jackets in the leather market in Florence
-working at the reception desk in a youth hostel in Corfu, Greece
-waitress (in Italy and Arizona)

8. Peeps I want to know more about:

-Minty at Pepperknit
-Kelly at An Adventure of a Lifetime
-Ruth at Out of Uganda
-Ms. Brave at Ms. Brave Teaches NYC
-Miss G at Closing the Gap in NYC

Language Learning

Recently I started taking Arabic classes again. The classes were going well at first but tonight I was really frustrated by the way the teacher was presenting the lesson. There were so many things that I would have done differently. Mainly I was frustrated that the teacher was doing all of the speaking in Arabic and we, the students, barely got to say anything. How can you learn a language when the teacher is talking and the students are listening? Students need to SPEAK in the target language. This critique comes not from my teaching experience here in NYC but from my TEFL training in Italy and then teaching for a year at Inlingua (a private language school) because those experiences were comparable to the class that I am currently taking. So when I got home tonight I wrote an email to the school telling them about my concerns. At first I thought the email was going to sound really rude because I was so frustrated but I think it turned out to be quite reasonable. What do you think? Would you have emailed the school too?

Hi,
so I just had my third Arabic class and I am not feeling satisfied with tonight's lesson. The first class (which was my trial class) was good but the teacher deviated from the book so that perhaps wasn't an indication of a regular lesson. The second class was with a substitute and it was also good. This third class, using the book with the regular teacher, I did not like. The problem that I have is that the teacher did the majority of the talking. For most of the lesson she read all of the tables of words to us in Arabic and asked us if we knew what they meant. We then responded in English. Then for the exercises she read the sentences to us in Arabic and we answered filling in just two words in Arabic. There were so many opportunities for us (the students) to be reading/speaking in Arabic that were missed. I felt really cheated out of the time that we had in class. With just three students we should have had ample speaking time. Instead, the teacher talk time was about 90% while the student talk time was about 10%. I hope that we can somehow resolve this because otherwise I really like the class (and the teacher) and want to continue with my Arabic studies. please let me know what you think about this. (And if perhaps I am addressing this with the wrong person could you please forward this message on?)

Thank You,
Ms. M

Our "Quality" Has Been Reviewed

So the first word (given by our principal over the loudspeaker just minutes after the reviewer left) was that our review was "extremely positive" with more details to come.

I'm sorry, but I'm not excited that my school did great on our Quality Review, because it just isn't. For the second year in a row we managed to fool them. If I were the principal I think my goal for next year would be to get the same result without any crazy preparations leading up to the day and a half review. If all these pretend things we did for the review (bulletin boards, data binders, classroom rearrangements, prepping the students and teachers to say the right thing) were just naturally in place all year with out a mention of the QR, THEN I'd be happy we got a good review.

Kindergarten Writing

This week I introduced my kindergarteners to using a rubric to get a "happy face" on their writing. I showed them a big rubric I had made on chart paper and explained all that they would have to do to get a happy face.
- a detailed picture
- a sentence with a capital at the beginning and a period at the end
- spaces between each word
- all words sounded out ("stretched")

After explaining the rubric I asked: "Who wants to do their best writing and get a happy face on their paper?" They all raised their hands and were really excited. AND they all really did their best work of the year. They were so excited to see if they were going to get the happy face on their papers. Even my kids who usually struggle a lot got it with a little help.

There's just one kid, my newcomer, who didn't get the stretching of the words. He's just not there yet developmentally. But he did his neatest writing, a great picture, perfect spacing, copied the sentence starter I have them ("I learned that . . ."), and then wrote a string of letters for the rest of the sentence. I asked him what his sentence said and he said he didn't know. He really did his best work of the year though. So do I give him a happy face or really stick to the rubric and give him the "medium(?) happy face" because he can't stretch his words? He was the only one who couldn't do all four things even with help.

I gave him the medium happy face and told him what an awesome job he did.

Breakfast!

. . . because Ms. Frizzle asked.

Pineapple bits, orange and tangerine marmalade on a whole wheat English muffin, cottage cheese and, of course, coffee.

Now that the math test is over we have the Quality Review to drive us crazy.

I truly think that the quality review team should just show up completely unexpectedly (at any point in the year) without any warning. If we have to "get ready" for it, then we're really just putting on a show, aren't we?

First it was the binders with printouts of data that no one really uses. Do you think the QR people will notice that we printed out test item analysis reports to be analyzed a MONTH after the ELA was already over? Clearly those were not being used to "drive" instruction. So the newest thing is the "Vigilante Squad" (as one first grade teacher calls them). The Vigilante Squad consists of the Principal, AP and both coaches. They are going around from room to room completely changing furniture arrangements, demanding that more charts be added, putting in "centers" that we don't use, and generally causing all the teachers in the school to freak out. They don't consult the teacher on what they are changing, nor do they ask the reasoning behind the current set up of the classroom. When they finish their rearranging, they give the teacher three days to complete the organizing and cleaning (Or else?). The funny part of all this is that the administration has been harping on how when the QR people come "you students better know the routines of your class, how to use things in the room, where to find things, etc." So I guess changing every room in the school just a few weeks before the QR was the best way to ensure that.

If only we put the same amount of time and energy into teaching and planning and collaboration, we might just have a decent school.

I finally have my week back!

Now that the math test is over, so is after school, Saturday Academy, and weekly PD. That's eight extra hours a week all to myself! This is what I did with my week:
Monday-yoga
Tuesday-one-on-one training at the Mac store for my new computer
Wednesday-yoga
Thursday-Arabic class

I don't regret doing all that I signed up for this year; the extra money was definitely worth it and now the extra time is just that much sweeter. I'll definitely do it again next year.

Letter in the File

Today I received a "letter in my file" from my assistant principal.

Hold on though, it was a GOOD letter. It was thanking me for doing such a great job on a particular report that I have to do every year that collects data on the ELLs in the building. My AP said that she knew the report took a lot of extra time and I did it "without complaining" and my doing so freed her up to look after other things. She even threw in a little joke about how we both finally nailed down the meaning of a particular term regarding ELLs that had been throwing us off for quite a while now.

While I was very happy to be appreciated for my work on the report, the letter was kind of funny for a few reasons: 1) It's my job to do the report, not the AP's, so it wasn't really like I was helping HER out, 2) While it did take a lot of time, it wasn't as if I took it home or did it after school; everything was completed during regular school time, 3) I finished the report a month ago, so why the sudden recognition?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have any positive letter put in my file that she wants to write, it just makes me wonder: Is the administration trying to butter me up for something?

One For Me, One For the Kids

I stopped in Barnes and Noble after brunch today to get a new book to read. Of course I couldn't resist the picture books in the kids section and ended up with this book, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. It is hilarious and I can't wait to read it to my Kindergarteners and first graders. While taking this photo I actually settled on the book that I am holding for myself, Through the Children's Gate: A Home In New York. I'd been browsing around for an hour or more and seen lots of book that I have wanted to read or that look newly interesting, but none that I was ready to commit to today. Then I found this one and didn't want to put it down.

It's Official!

My job contract arrived today and I purchased my ticket . . .

I'm going to Italy this summer!!! I got a job as an RA with a study abroad company. For five weeks this summer I will be looking after high school students studying abroad in Florence. It's suddenly becoming real . . .

Super Bowl Salsa

Salsa before:


Salsa after:



I have been making this salsa for many years now and it's always a hit. Basically it's just all of the veggies from the first picture plus a can of corn, a can of olives, a red onion, salt, pepper, olive oil, and two squeezed limes (plus the one on top for decoration).

I have a funny story about this salsa. I made it for my Italian roommates and some of their family members one year when I was living in Italy. (I had to go to a specialty store just to get the tortilla chips.) So they had all sort of eyed me chopping the vegetables wondering what exactly I was making. My explanations in my first year Italian weren't really working. When I was finished I left the salsa on the kitchen table with the open bag of chips next to it. I left the room and came back a few minutes later to find no one had tried any. I took a bite myself and one said "Oh, you eat it like that." Then they all tried a bite. One of my roommates said "It's good," in a still unsure voice. He paused for a few seconds and then added, "But it would be really good if you cooked it and put it over some pasta."

Afternoon in Cobble Hill

Today after teaching Saturday School I decided to walk around a part of Brooklyn that I love but for some reason or another don't get to all that often: Cobble Hill. I had lunch one of my favorite brunch spots, Bar Tabac. I sat at the bar (by myself) and had a delicious Croque Madam. I even shamelessly dipped my French fries in the little ramekin of mayonnaise on the plate leaving the ketchup untouched.

I also made a few purchases which I will share with you all in photos:

1. I had this Lenanese coffee on my birthday when I ate at Tripoli. I loved the small strong coffee with cardamom and asked the waiter to write down the name of it for me. He told me I could buy it at a shop just a few doors down from the restaurant. It's taken me almost two months to get back but I can't wait to brew some at home.



2. Although I once loved this slim gold wallet, it has clearly seen better days.



I've been on the lookout for a unique looking wallet that I was really in love with for several months now. I wasn't sure I'd find one before the old one totally died on me but today I found this:





I love this coin pouch that is attached to the inside; it's what initially drew me to the wallet. I also love the way the pockets are set up and the magnetic clasp. And . . . after I photographed it I realized there is a strap that pulls out in case you want to carry it alone (which I do every time I go out to get lunch at school). And I love that it is blue. I really HEART this wallet! I didn't even have buyer's remorse when I paid $65 for it.

3. I got these sweet little cookies at One Girl Cookies. I loved the atmosphere of the little shop. So cute! The cookies aren't bad either :)


(Cookies shown on a little plate that is part of a tea set I got for my birthday.)

Window Box Herb Gardens

Today I worked with Kindergarten and first grade classes planting window box herb gardens. I wish that I could post pictures of the kids getting their hands dirty in the soil because they had so much fun. One first grader was so adorable when he said: "Look how nice or garden looks when we work together. If I didn't behave I wouldn't get to help plant . . . and this is SO cool." Such grown-up statements for a 6 year old.

The lower grade classes are donating the window herb gardens to the upper grade classes as part of the community service aspect of the project.

Two New Things, One Photo

1. After Christmas my sister let me take her cat back to New York with me. It's sort of like a temporary adoption. I love her so much! It's great to finally have this pet on loan since I can't commit to getting one of my own.

2. I started my second scarf in three years at the knitting get together Jules organized last Saturday. I think this is going to take FOREVER to finish! I think we need another meet-up quick.

I got a fun summer job.

I'll share the details when I'm sure that I won't get pinched and wake up :)

Priceless

Quote of the day:

"You have to listen to the teacher. That is the true meaning of school."
-Christian (Kindergarten student, to another student)