All is fair in love, war, and . . . May 14, 2008
Posted by msbernier in Teaching.Tags: crossword puzzles, daily life, Teaching
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. . . Crosswords.
I need to figure out how to incorporate crosswords into the curriculum. A few days ago one of my kiddos picked up the crossword in class. An aside here, my kiddos, are teenagers, and I have 98 of them this year.
After reminding him that we were supposed to be working on research, I found myself turning towards the crossword in the paper I was perusing.
Now for three days straight with the help of some students, I have been rushing to finish my crossword in any spare moment I can find. And it’s turned into a bit of a race. I don’t know how long this can go on, but for now it’s tied up two-two.
Have faith, the teacher led team will pull through in the end.
Just another manic Monday May 12, 2008
Posted by msbernier in Mama World, Teaching.Tags: case of the mondays, parenting, Teaching, time management
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I have a case of the Mondays. I had a long weekend which included a trip to Boston for a swank wedding in the South End. Then yesterday my late afternoon mother’s day brunch rendered me useless and in bed with a terrible stomach ache as soon as Kai’s head hit the pillow.
Today Is my long day. I teach three classes in a row. Three high energy classes. Thankfully we are in the midst of major projects in most of these classes and will be in the library writing and doing research.
This afternoon, we have a yearbook meeting to prepare for next year. We have a great crew of returning students next year, and should put out a quality product. My only concern is recruiting some underclassmen for the upcoming years. After the meeting, I’m going to town on my, getting larger everyday, list of administrative tasks. I have emails to return, union elections to plan, and lesson plans to submit. I don’t think I could of ever imagined, while sitting in any number of of my grad school classes, how much would be required of a teacher outside of just teaching.
What is most challenging this year is balancing my work responsibilities with my new mom life. In the two previous years I could stay until the work was done, and then work at home. But my very active one year old doesn’t really let that happen. He has to be picked up at a certain time, and when I’m home, it takes both Russ and I to manage him, and dinner, and the house. This is the extent of academia at my house after five- 
So, by the time the kiddo is in bed, I’m so ready to fall asleep to another episode of American Idol.
And so, I do what I can. Which is why the occasional day of work in the library is a welcome respite for this teacher with a case of the Mondays.
Full speed ahead May 7, 2008
Posted by msbernier in Teaching.Tags: Teaching
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My first goal is to not have any cliche’ titles for the rest of the year. Or maybe, I should just have all cliche’ titles.
So most of the students have blogs. Most of the students have a blog roll, and most of the students are writing. Some students had a harder time getting things set up than others. I think it had more to do with how web savvy students are, and how intuitive they are about where things will be while setting up. There are some student who have chosen not to move forward with this, or who are doing so with much mumbling, but in general, I think students are enjoying the project.
My biggest concern is keeping the blogs at a school appropriate p.g. level. My dilemma is how to do that while ensuring that each student feels like they have the ability for their voices to be heard. That’s the thing with being a newish teacher. Each new assignment is an experiment and you spend a good amount of time failing miserably. Assignments and projects are not always perfect at the beginning, and often need much tweaking in future terms and years. But among the failures there are often monumental success, and those help this newish teacher to keep-on, keeping-on.
Ready or not May 1, 2008
Posted by msbernier in Teaching.Tags: Teaching, technology
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Looks like after a week of figuring things out with the proxys and what not, we’re good to go for tomorrow’s class. I’m hoping we can get everyone on and ready to go for tomorrow. I really like the set-up part of blogging. I get such a kick out of setting up the side bar, picking a theme, and listing links. Of course that’s the easy part. And it’s the same way when I’m setting up a paper. I pick out my font, adjust my margins, write my working title, bold my name, before I even type my first thought. There is something about the anticipation of a clean page, ready to be filled, that gives this nerd a thrill.
