Ah...A Whole Week of Preplanning!

I don't even know how many years it's been since teachers in my district were allowed a full week of preplanning.  With furloughs being the newest, most popular way for school systems to save money, planning days are often the ones to be cut.  So, we've had to accomplish (or do what we could) in 2 days what usually takes 5.

This year, I feel READY!  :)  My biggest "to-do" items where:
1.  Plan at least 2 weeks for each class, implementing some of the new ideas I got from the Literacy Institute and other professional learning this summer.
2.  Make seating charts for each class
3.  Fit enough desks into room for largest class
4.  Organize room so I'm ready to go on first day

Among all of the other chores, tasks, meetings, and required activities I did this week, I accomplished all of these big tasks as well!  Even better, I planned the entire month of August for both my World Lit and American Lit classes; AND was able to arrange my seating charts so that almost no one is sitting next to more than one person who speaks the same languages as he or she does!  This will be a huge help in the lower-level English language classes.  I already feel so much better about this year than I did about last year.

A colleague and I were talking today, and we agreed that we are going to be more positive this year.  We both had pretty challenging experiences last year and refuse to repeat the anger, frustration, and depression.  We agreed that if we say something negative about work, we have to say 2 positives as well. :)

This morning, the last day of preplanning, we were treated to a presentation by Mr. John Antonetti.  I wish there was a video clip online of him speaking, because he is one of the most engaging and relevant speakers on education I've heard.  His comments and stories were honest and moving, and he had the whole crowd laughing the entire time.  The focus of his presentation was on engagement: that students aren't going to pay attention to something they don't have an emotional connection to or a personal experience that relates.  So, we have to present the material in such a way that makes it relevant and then allow them time to FIND those connections.  He said so many interesting things that I took pages and pages of notes!  I'm sure I'll refer to him again in future posts.

Incidentally, my motto for this year (More on them, less on me.) goes along very well with this year's focus in my district on student engagement.  Huzzah!

On a different note, I am super excited about a new addition to the Media Center: the Ladybug Lumens.  I've wanted one of these since my first year of teaching when one of the presenters at my county's "New Teacher Orientation" used one.  I've already checked it out to use on the first day to show my levels 2 & 3 students examples of an activity they'll complete.  More importantly, though, I'm going to use it to teach my SOPH and JR level students how to annotate their texts.  So, I'll make copies of certain texts that will be especially challenging or dense, and we'll work through it together (with Ladybug's help!) to annotate, discuss, and make sense of it!  

Honestly, I can't wait to get started. :)