Ms. S, why don’t you have babies?
Cause I like to spend my money on other things. like clothes.
Hi friends!
Yep, I’m starting like that. In my vain attempts to perk my self up. Okay, we have been back to school a week and a half now and I still can’t get the sleeping thing down. This morning I attempted to fix that by setting my alarm for 4:56 getting my ass out of bed and going to the gym to run. I know that doing this used to make my days better. I would go to work feeling awake and fresh. Alas, today was not like that. Ah well, shit happens.
My classroom has seen some change since we got back. First with the rearrangement of the desks. I let go of the idea of groups needing to have 4 kids and embraced the idea of individuality. Some kids need to sit in groups, other kids need to be facing the front. Some kids can work in a group of six others will be better with only 4. So as of now I have 3 groups of 6, a group of 4 and a line of 3. It looks a little silly but I’m totally digging it. I also have a big line across the back of 8. Right now though my classes changed and my biggest class with assigned seats is 24 so it’s working. (I don’t assign seats to my advanced class but I do make them sit at a different table, next to a new person each day. mostly cause I can).
We’re also trying an organizational folder system in 8th grade. I have no idea if this will work or what but once I work out the kinks and see how it goes I’ll share with you. Part of it is that I need a system that works for me and for that it needs to be not too cumbersome while still being mandatory.
On another note we’re studying rate in 8th grade so we played with google maps. question: Does google maps use a constant rate for all trips when calculating trip time or do they factor in speed limits?
I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t do anything super fancy. We voted at the beginning on which they thought. Most students (and all my aides) were firmly of the constant rate belief. We chose a bunch of places and then calculated the speed for each (from our school to there). We found that they hovered around 62 for long trips west to east coast but the short trips (or to Mexico) were significantly slower. Then we revoted. Almost none of them changed their minds. I can’t even get this! Come on, guys, look! It’s different! Anyway then I said, “how can we figure this out?” Answer: “Let’s google google!” So we did. Turns out they used the speed limits on the roads you drive on. good to know. Students were a little annoyed that they didn’t include things like stoplights and traffic but it was a fun lesson nonetheless. (one student was sure they used test drivers)
Then we also did how much money I make an hour and the difference between salary and hourly pay. They were pretty surprised by the idea that the more hours I work the less I make per hour. They also thought it was amazing that I made as much in 1.5 days as some one on minimum wage makes in a week. They thought I made somewhere around $11.25 an hour. Silly babies.
Anyway, it’s been a good couple of week despite my inability to not be tired. (I went to bed at 10:00pm the other night only to wake up at 10:15pm totes confused as to how I slept through my alarm. oh wait it was only 15 minutes later.)
I hope your week had been good, too.
p.s. I’m moving somewhere with snowdays because I am totally jealous.
a brand new line. 