Halfway Crooks

So we've reached the halfway point of the school year. December came with the quickness... but things slowed down like crazy post-Thanksgiving. It was like someone told the kids that they didn't have to do work after Thanksgiving. "Yo Mr. DeShields, we ain' supposed to have work... what's this mess? Mr. DeShields... I got a headache (day after day after day)... We supposed to be drawing pictures of snowmen and watching movies and all that"--

Psssshhhh... needless to say, the last 2 weeks before vacation were an adventure. Kids and teachers alike were strugglin. Plenty of highlights though, as always:
-Our holiday program was off the hook. Paul really puts on some nice programs... and the arts department is really committed to what they do. Shout out to Ms. Floyd, Mr. Wegman, Ms. Johnson, and Mr. Saltman for all their hard work.
-The girls won a game 31-0. Unfortunately we played a team of 5th and 6th graders. Frustration abounds with our schedule. The game before, we showed up at a gym 45 minutes away to find out that the team we were playing didn't even have a middle school girl's team. We decided to scrimmage the team's high school squad..... man, that was painful to watch. Our girls did their best, but they were just completely undersized.
-3 IEP meetings in 3 days... all lasting 3 hours each. The IEP marathon was wild... and the meetings were even crazier. Wish I could share the highlights of the meetings, but just know that they were out of control.

Now that we're on break though, I've been thinking about some things for the second half of the year. Leslie and I attended a development session on co-teaching. It was really helpful to learn about some practices and strategies that would work best for us in our inclusion classroom. It'll be cool to be able to implement some of them after the break-

Some thoughts/plans:

-Differentiation has to get better. I've got to be able to address similar needs in different ways. It means more planning, but it also means your class can move forward together (less re-teaching/foundational lessons in the long run).

-Organization is serious. I used to be able to get by with minimal organizational skills, and by passing things off as "looking neat" in college... but for real, you've got to be on point in the classroom. While I haven't lost any papers or tests, I've certainly come close. Word to Target right about now, I need some desktop filing trays.

-More to come as my mind slowly recovers from being in break mode......
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Break is legit so far... and there's still more break to be had....

Here's what I've done:

NAP

Read- I'm reading Ben Carson's new book about taking risks, and a book by the former CEO of HR Block (he gave up his position to become a high school math teacher in kansas city--interesting so far, but I keep sensing his ego more and more).

Watch movies (I'm up to 12)

-Slumdog millionaire is the best movie I've seen in a minute... freida pinto is ill-na-na too... and I shall marry her.

-I waited forever to see Che: The Argentine (or Che Part One)-- it was well done, but was entirely about the Cuban Revolution-- it was interesting to see the dynamic between Guevara and Fidel....Guevara basically did everything Fidel told him to. I read a review that said the movie cast Guevara as being both controversial and as a revolutionary... I'd have to disagree and say it cast him as being a positive influential figure-- most of his controversies stem from post-Cuban Revolution...specifically dealing with him torturing bolivians.... so it'll be interesting to see if they address it at all in part 2?!

something stuck with me from the movie though-- Guevara was big on educating his soldiers and making sure that they were literate-- "One who cannot read or write is easily deceived".... so true.

Spending time:

the best part of being home is spending a good deal of time with family and friends. my parents both work longgggg hours, so i've really enjoyed the past two days with them.

on Christmas, my grandparents, my uncle, and my cousin came over. we had a meal, I passed out, and we all had a great time. it's just really nice to get up and spend uninterrupted time with loved ones.