Updates:
1) Big News (!) I found out the school where I will teach in the fall, and it looks SO cool. Yes, I realize that it might be foolish to say that this school "looks cool," since it undoubtedly has some serious issues that need to be addressed. But it's in a program that makes it an "Academy of World Studies," and here's what that means:
The choice theme program features student exposure to other cultures, traditions and heritage around the world. At each grade level, K-5, students will focus on one particular country or continent. Curriculum concepts and skills will be integrated through the studies of countries and continents, including their literature, arts and history. Each child will have the opportunity to acquire a richer and more meaningful awareness, understanding, acceptance and respect for diverse populations. Caring, sharing and cooperation will be fostered as students develop this global perspective.WOW! Talk about right up my alley, yeah? In the fantasy world inside my head, I get assigned to the "Middle East/North Africa" grade and I teach my kids how to speak Arabic. Of course, this means I would have to remember how to speak Arabic... Yikes! Still don't know what grade level I'll be teaching, but the more I think about it, the more I would like 4th or 5th. I think that would be best, for reasons that are quite lengthy and involved. Just trust me on this one.
2) There are three (3) more days of Institute. To say that the mood here is overjoyed would be an understatement (did anyone notice that literary construction--the juxtaposition of overjoyed and understatement? Chi, it's like "overeager underclassman"!!!)
Anyway, we're all very happy. Of course, it's a happy-sad feeling, since I'm head-over-heels in love with my kids and I'm going to miss them so much. They took their CRCT retest today, aka the test that determines whether or not they move to 6th grade, aka the whole reason we're here this summer. We're all incredibly nervous, and the worst thing is that we won't even find out the results for weeks. AH! What agony!! The poor kids--you're not supposed to start stressing about tests until the SAT, and even then... No Child Left Behind (glory and wonder that it is) is making teachers and kids so paranoid about standardized tests, and it's definitely going to be a challenge in the future. Teaching to the Test is a strategy that I'm not 100% comfortable with...
3) There hasn't been enough funny in this post, and for that I apologize. We talked about a phonemic/literacy strategy today involving blending sounds together to make nonsense words, so I spent *literally* eight hours running around school muttering/yelling, "BLOIST!" in a British accent. Is my mind slowly exiting the premises? Why yes, yes it is...
4) I'm sorry, #3 should not have been included in this post.
5) There have been a few interesting additions to the gnfab (good name for a band) list, including:
- Raffle Bag
- Incongruous Juxtaposition
- Spoiler Alert
- Something With Puppets
- Large Group of Asians
6) Today's Daily Bit of Meta (DBoM): Garmin and Chipotle are co-sponsoring a team in the Tour de France. Today, my friends and I used a Garmin GPS to drive to a Chipotle. Discuss.
That's all I've got for now. To those of you who know about my Happy List project, you'll be dismayed to find out that it has not been updated since June 19, so I must fix this grievous situation. For those of you not in the know, tune in on July 15...
Missing you all,
--amfm
3 comments:
your school looks awesome, and the kids posing in their uniforms are too cute! i also plan to teach all my arabic knowledge to the over-65 crowd
is that really meta? unclear.
The Mustangs -- just like Stilwell Elementary!
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