My name is Jessica but most people call JB or Jbizzle, This is the story of 27 year old Chicago teacher stumbling her way through big city life one lesson learned at a time. I write about teaching, random stuff, and fitness. This is me being a "whole person" on internet paper.
Come along for the ride.
Email? Sure! JBizzle329Tumblr@gmail.com
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
15 days until the first day of school with kids. (8 until first day of inservice.)
Carry on.
I start inservice in 16 days. Kids in 28 days.
Inservice starts in 6 days (counting the weekend) and 13 days until the kids grace our halls.
‘Dropout Nation’ Turnaround: How Shelbyville Fixed its Dropout Problem
In 2006, TIME Magazine featured Shelbyville, Ind.,under the headline “Dropout Nation.” With a graduation rate of 75 percent, Shelbyville was the poster child for the dropout crisis in America. Since then, the community of 18,000 has dramatically shifted its strategy and attitude when it comes to helping students get their diploma. Six years later, Shelbyville’s graduation rate jumped to 90 percent, but how did they turn things around?
“the first thing they did was shorten the school day.”
Maybe this is breaking Title 9 rules? Boys can participate in all the sports, but girls can’t? Hmmm.
*I only found this because I was looking for middle school programs.
I share a classroom with 2 other special ed teachers. I get along really well with both of them. I joke around a lot with one of them. She has a dry sense of humor and we are both new this year. Anyway, she’s funny.
I refer to both the teachers that are in my room as my “roommates”.
Jean said something butt-headed (see my previous post about hicksters). So, I told her I wanted a new roommate and I was putting up a flyer to ask for one. She countered with advertising office space to get rid of me.
We hung them up outside of our room and took pictures and sent them to our principal. He thinks we are wackos. I agre.
Anyway, both my “roommates” are great. I really do believe that half of the job is the people you work with and I am lucky to work with such great people.
It’s picture day. Picking out what smile I’m gonna use.
Also practicing task avoidance.
It’s hot outside.
The kids just came in from recess.
The hallway smells like sweat.
I just said my impromptu “thanks” to all my colleagues at our staff lunch.
It wasn’t articulate.
I didn’t make it through without crying.
I’m gonna miss this place.
Tears.
History
History should be taught like a read aloud.
Speak it with all its glory. Let kids build a picture in their mind of what happened in the past. Invite them to hear the small things. That’s what makes history unique and interesting. Give people from the past character. It makes them come alive to the listener.
*just some thoughts on how I came to love history. *ill probably add more at a later date.
It Just Got Real…
Cleaning up the classroom. Packing all my stuff up and putting it in my car.
I can’t leave it at school because as far as I know I don’t have a job.
Stupid budgets.
Stupid government.
Stupid looking for a job…again.
Stupid being sad.
…and being sad is the worst part.
Update on the student who stole my phone…
I came to school yesterday excited to give my character lesson on stealing. I got shot down! My principal and our discipline/security guard told me it wasn’t a good idea and not to bring attention to the issue.
That morning when the student came in, the security guard pulled him aside and asked him if he went in my room. He said he only went in there to get his homework and my co-teacher was in there helping another student.
My phone is still gone. A new one came in the mail yesterday. All my stuff is locked up. I got dropped from my phone insurance for a year…hope I can keep this one.
I wish we could have an assembly to address this issue. The day my phone was stolen, so was a 7th grader’s wallet. There have also been other items that have been stolen from school: phones, palms for testing, wallets.
It’s just so frustrating. Address the issue to the whole school!
Short story from high school: When I was a senior six 7th, 8th and 9th graders OD’d on Oxycontin. (my school was so small is was 7-12). As seniors we were kind of upset that the younger kids were so out of control. That was one major incident, but they led the school in deferrals, suspensions, lunch detentions…the list goes on. So after this happened, we as seniors wanted to address those grades about their behavior and their character. I went to the principal and asked him if I could round up some seniors to do this. We had an agenda of what we were going to talk about, some seniors shared personal stories, and then we placed a bunch of seniors in the audience with the younger kids to keep them at bay. It was just us and them (the principal and some other teachers were hiding in the locker rooms and outside the doors listening) . We were “real” with them. A few years later I was talking with one of those 7th graders who was then a senior and she said it made a lasting impression. The seniors (people they looked up to) were telling them that their behavior was unacceptable and embarrassing the school and themselves.
Maybe that’s what my school needs. Maybe they need a group of peers that try to build a stronger, safer environment for their peers. I think our student council could take on this endeavor.
Thoughts?
