Lesson Plans and a Dishwasher

So things have been going well work wise. I am so glad that the struggles of last year seem to be behind me! Really my only struggles seem to be adults, and honestly since I am in the classroom most of the day the time spent being annoyed by other adults can only amount to so much!

I've been busy making new work friends, cleaning house, getting involved-ish with my new church group, helping friends move, being a dog sitter to said friends, reading books with said friend's toddler, working on new lesson ideas, dealing with foot pain, and SLEEPING.

I have some funny stories and updates I have catalogued to tell you about including, but not limited to:

I get in trouble for being snarky in the morning
I get in trouble for not saying good morning the correct way
I get in trouble for not placing my lesson plans in the correct folder at the exact precise moment
(I get in trouble a lot)
Students say the darndest things (these kids have some personality on them)
How my reward system is going
How my job system is going
How my rules system is going
How my using iPods in the class system is going
And other various updates

In the meantime, I thought I would give you my last two week's lesson plans:

Lesson Plan Week 7

Lesson Plan Week 8

I'm running about a week behind of my master plans. I am not quite sure how that has happened because I am normally spot on, but it is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things!

Also, after a LONG time I finally have a dishwasher again!

When I moved into my house there was just an OLD portable dishwasher that the old homeowner had rigged to stay in one place:

This is the dishwasher that I had used for the last 3-4 years (side note: this is what my kitchen floors looked like before I moved in!)

Over the summer I came up with an idea to buy a dishwasher and make my friend, Jake, build a cabinet like structure around it and then hire a plumber/electrician to install it.  Sounds simple right?

WRONG!

Everything seemed to be against me in this simple home improvement plan.
After many phone calls with the plumber, I was told that he couldn't do the installation until certain things were in place. This seemed logical so I went ahead and bought the dishwasher and the supplies to build the "cabinet" around it in July (and trashed my old dishwasher).
 My friend Jake had a series of unfortunate events occur so he didn't start the building process until mid September. 
Long story short many other things went wrong to the point that I thought I was just going to have this boxed up dishwasher sitting in my kitchen taunting me until the end of time.

Well, one night at Bible study my pastor friend (who is also a contractor and all around handyman) basically said, "Give me a key to your house, when you come home from work on Thursday, your dishwasher will be installed."
Lo and behold he was serious. I came home from work and he had finished the building, installed the things, and it worked!
I've never had people be so nice to me and it is awesome!

He wants to charge me $30 dollars for the ordeal (when the plumber was going to charge me $500-$600!) but that is not what he is going to get. If I have to hide cash in their mailbox like it's an illicit drug deal that is what I will do. 
I still have a few more finishing touches (end laminate caps and kickplates at the bottom), but my mother won't stop whining about wanting to see the end product. Soooo without further ado, the most exciting thing in my life right now:

(Ignore my stupid cat who kept getting in the way and the groceries on the counter!)

Lesson Plans

It's been a busy week that I will have to catch you up on a little bit later. 

In the meantime here is last week's and this week's lesson plans!

Also, I just noticed the date on the first lesson plan below should be 9/10....oops.

Lesson Plan Week 5

Lesson Plan Week 6

All Dogs go to Heaven

So I was doing some reading tonight and I came across this article. I really do not enjoy Sarah Silverman, but this made me cry for about an hour straight:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/sarah-silvermans-dog-died-and-she-wrote-a-touching-obituary

Duck “Doug” Silverman came into my life about 14 years ago. He was picked up by the State running through South Central with no collar, tags or chip. Nobody claimed or adopted him so a no-kill shelter took him in. That’s where I found him — at that shelter, in Van Nuys. Since then we have slept most every night together (and many lazy afternoons.) When we first met, the vet approximated his age at 5½ so I’d say he was about 19 as of yesterday, September 3, 2013.

He was a happy dog, though serene. And stoic. And he loved love.

Over the past few years he became blind, deaf, and arthritic. But with a great vet, good meds, and a first rate seeing-eye person named me, he truly seemed comfortable.

Recently, however, he stopped eating or drinking. He was skin and bones and so weak. I couldn’t figure out this hunger strike. Duck had never been political before. And then, over the weekend, I knew. It was time to let him go.

My boyfriend Kyle flew in late last night and took the day off from work to be with us. We laid in bed and massaged his tiny body, as we love to do – hearing his little “I’m in heaven” breaths.

The doctor came and Kyle, my sister, Laura and I laid on the bed. I held him close – in our usual spoon position and stroked him. I told him how loved he was, and thanked him for giving me such happiness and for his unwavering companionship and love. The doctor gave him a shot and he fell asleep, and then another that was basically an overdose of sleeping meds. I held him and kissed him and whispered to him well passed his passing. I picked him up and his body was limp – you don’t think about the head – it just falls. I held him so tight. And then finally, when his body lost its heat, and I could sense the doctor thinking about the imminent rush hour traffic, I handed him over.

14 years.

My longest relationship.

My only experience of maternal love.

My constant companion.

My best friend.

Duck.

*******************************************************

It made me think of the first dog *I* ever adopted...Jasper.

I was in the process of buying my first house when I decided to adopt. I went with my friend Emalee on a search of the local shelters. She was looking to adopt as well.

We went to the Lynchburg Humane Society and I saw Jasper right away. Jasper was let into the "play" area with about 4 other adults and 3 other dogs. He walked right over to me, into my lap, and refused to leave. I was hooked. He came home a week later after getting "fixed"

He was a wonderful dog right away. Learned tricks fast! He came with me everywhere (aside from work). When I was doing remodeling on the new house he would happily sit in the sunshine and watch me work. 

I already had 3 cats before I adopted Jasper and he fit right in....a little TOO well maybe!

Those first two years we were just an inseparable pair.

I had enough space so I decided to adopt again and that is when Rory came along, much to Jasper's chagrin at first. Rory thought Jasper was the best thing since Milkbones...and Jasper did NOT...at first. 

On Christmas Eve 2012 Jasper seemed tired and just not himself. I called a myriad of vets, none of which were open. Finally around 5 PM I got worried enough to drive the hour to the emergency vet. After 3 hours in a waiting room and $300 dollars worth of tests I find out that he has cancer and probably wouldn't make it through the night. 

I had to make the decision right then and there to put him to sleep. 

I loved him more than any other living being I have ever encountered. 

I get really annoyed (This word really isn't strong enough) when people don't seem to understand how important Jasper was to me. 

He showed me more kindness and love in the three years I had him than any human being that has ever entered my life. 

He was always happy to see me even when I was in a bad mood. 

He loved me unconditionally and to an astounding degree.

He would listen to me talk for hours on end and be in heaven about it. 

He knew when I was sad from work or a break up and would cuddle next to me and refuse to leave my side. 

His death to me wasn't just the death of a "pet" it was the death of my most important family member in the world. 

I think the article above hit it on the head so I will close with that:

3 years.

My longest relationship.

My only experience of maternal love.

My constant companion.

My best friend.

Jasper.

Teacher Humor

In need of a little pick me up like I am? Here are some of my favorite starred items on my inoreader lately:

Say What? Foreshadowing Humor

So we were covering foreshadowing this week and last week. 

This is probably one of my favorite things to teach for a few reasons. 

1. It is one of the first prezis that I made and I guess there is a little nostalgia.

2. I have a dark sense of humor and being so I get to pull out my favorite dark stories!

3. Every year the kids mock one of the songs I use to teach foreshadowing "Buenos Tardes Amigo" which is, granted, a really weird song. However, by the end of the song they GET IT and they end up quoting it for the rest of the year. 

4. I just feel like this is one of the literary elements that I really excel at teaching.

After the prezi and songs I always start by having the kids read "Death by Scrabble" the foreshadowing in that story really just smacks you in the face.

A husband and a wife are playing a Scrabble game. The husband really, really hates his wife. He notices that the words that are being played are coming true in real life (example: When he plays ZAP his wife gets a shock from the AC unit). He decides that he wants to be able to spell out a word that will kill his wife. In a fun little twist he ends up choking on a Scrabble tile and dying at the end of the story because his wife was plotting the same thing!

I get to throw a little bit of irony into the lesson as well because at one point the husband recounts how his cousin died when they were younger because he swallowed a bee. He wishes that his wife would swallow a bee and die, but he himself ends up choking on a letter "B" Scrabble tile. 

It is quite the demented little story, but I like it because it is highly exaggerated, and the kids really love it too. 

Sometimes I like to show an adaptation of the story after we read it:

My kids might actually have a little bit of personality this year because in almost every class a kid would say, "Hey Ms. Potter....wanna play Scrabble?" after reading this story. I got a chuckle out of that. 

Products discussed in this post:

Foreshadowing in songs

Foreshadowing Prezi

Complete Foreshadowing Unit

***Note: The video contains the word "Damn" if that is an issue don't show it. 

The story contains the words "Damn" and "Bitching" if you are opposed to that you can edit it out before reading it in class. 

Middle School Classroom Jobs System

The last two years I "hired" kids to update my chalk board during bus waves each afternoon. 

That worked out well, but I decided to add some extra jobs this year, and open the jobs up to anyone who wished to participate. 

I printed out the jobs that I offer to kids most frequently and put magnetic tape on the back of them.

Each day I put up the jobs that need to be done up on the board. 

If a kid wants to do one of the jobs he/she takes it down and places it in the basket that I have provided. 

I need a new camera! Blurry picture of all the current jobs I have kids doing.

The basket they place completed jobs

Jobs I offer:

-Change the daily agenda and SOL objective

-Update the vocab word of the day and wall

Agenda is seen above

Daily Standard & Vocab Word

I have the student write the vocab words on an index card and place on the word awl

Organize the class books

I don't like when books are falling down and out of order (like a few in this picture are!)

Clean / line up the desks

I hate, hate, hate that students cant keep the desks where I want them! How do the move so much over the course of a day?! A few times a week I have the kids line them up. On Fridays we sanitize them (ick!).

Organize files

Each of my classes has a milk crate in which they have a hanging folder and a manila folder. ALL work is kept in those folders and should theoretically never leave my classroom (Unless they are studying for RPS or a quiz). At the end of each grading period they can take the old work home. However, hanging files are finicky so I ask students to check to make sure they are all hanging neatly!

Staple Papers

Sometimes (most of the time) our copy machine is out of staples and I can't stand the thought of stapling 95+ papers multiple times so I have a kid do it. I let them use my trusty automatic stapler that I LOVE and has been trucking along  with me for the last 6 years! My little buddy can be seen on the far left!

I give a punch on my reward card for each completed job so I am never short for helpers!