Positive Sight of The Day

This is something new I am trying. I thought I would put positive sightings in my blog as often as I see them (probably a max of 1 a day). Today I witnessed a highly unmotivated student, that is doing work that is way below his/her capabilities, doing his/her homework and staying busy the entire study hall! Wouldn't it be great if this became habit? You get the "teacher salute" for the day!

Day Off...Either Way

Well, 3-6 inches of snow are forecast for our area tonight and tomorrow. Could it be another snow day? I really hope it isn't because the school year is going farther and farther into May. I will have a day away from school either way. My wife and I are taking my daughter to an optometrist in Springfield tomorrow. She has been diagnosed with convergence insufficiency. The topic of surgery has come up but we will have to wait to see what the doc says. She is, of coarse, scared to death but has done pretty well so far with the news. We are going early and having a nice dinner. Wish us luck!

Basketball

I am a huge basketball fan. It doesn't really matter what level. I like to watch it all. I am going to our junior high game tonight but have a hard time watching them since I coached the 8th graders last year and they have a lot of talent. It is 8th grade recognition and our last home game. Last night I watched my Duke Blue Devils give one away. I have to give props to FSU. They played some great defense and hit some big free throws to finish us off. My Lakers seem to be turning it around a little. They are still not playing like the championship teams but there is still plenty of season left. I have been to a couple of Quincy University games and enjoy watching them also. Quincy Notre Dame is having a rough year but hopefully their schedule prepares them for the post season.

Snow Days

Today is our first day back to school after two snow days. I am torn on snow days. Occasionally I do like a snow day off but most of the time I would just as soon go to school, keep the routine going and get out in May when we are supposed to. I think most students love them (obviously)! I did get quite a few things done around the house and enjoyed the time with my kids, even though they only got one snow day. I hope today goes well. It can sometimes be rough getting everybody, including teachers, back in the groove of things. Tomorrow I have a meeting in the morning so I will be missing class again. I hate missing class! Monday we don't have school due to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I think I may be doing some traveling this weekend. I hope the weather holds but there is some concern about another storm heading our way on Monday night. No more snow days please!

On with Break

Today is the first official day of Christmas Break (Winter Break to be more politically correct). We are getting HD installed this morning and I have a doctors appointment this afternoon. Not exactly how I pictured break starting but oh well. It is going to be nutso around the Carey household this break, especially early in the break. I hope we get to spend time with some close friends this Christmas. We always spend plenty of time with family but friends are another story. I had a great time yesterday after getting out of school early and spending some time with fellow teachers and retired teachers. I also got the chance to spend some time with some of my wife's coworkers. They are a blast! Those of you lucky enough to be on break, enjoy! Those of you not…we'll enjoy it for you! ;-)

Surprisingly Good

Sometimes kid surprise you. Today was the first day of semester exams at our school. I teach at the junior high and high school level. Exams are given to high school students but not junior high students. Exams last 70 minutes which means if you have JH students during that time they have to be in there for that time period. My seventh graders are a pretty high strung bunch and I was kind of worried how they would respond to this length of time in class. They really stepped it up today! Heck, I was even getting antsy at the end of the 70 minutes!

We had a carry-in today and it was great food with some light-hearted conversation. It was a great way to end the week.

The weekend should bring some good family time and some Christmas celebrating.

How did my day go?

I had a pretty good day today. Most of my classes went without a hitch today (as usual). I do have one class that really needs to reach a junior high maturity level. I know it will come but I am not for waiting. The students in this class must realize that grades and doing a good job on everything is very important. The sooner this is realized the better. I have not found much that motivates this particular class. They have not responded to punishment or rewards for doing well and behaving well. Free time, or time designed to get a particular task done, is a weakness for this class. They would much rather do something distracting than spend time getting the assigned task done. I really want to give them some class time to get started on the homework but this time turns out to be wasted time. I do it to be fair. All of my classes get at least a little time to get started on their homework. The rest of the classes use this time in the ideal way. Just venting but if anybody has any ideas to shoot at this veteran teacher, let me know!