#declutterfication

Brushed & Flossed

Biography Boxes Work Day – Wednesday, 28 February 2018 59/365

Declutterfication: None, sorry.

Students worked diligently on their biography boxes. I took the original idea from a Pinterest post, and then adapted it like crazy for my students. Each year I change it up a bit depending on what I learned the previous year and what my current students’ needs are. I do each project with them. I want them to be able to see the process, so I use mine as the means of chunking the task into smaller parts to achieve the final grand project. Here’s my final project.

This project marks the perfect segue into the final quarter’s literature unit. Biography entails story, real life stories that are hopefully depicted in an engaging manner.

That’s all. I’m whipped.

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Just Lenses – Tuesday, 27 February 2018 58/365

Declutterfication: None, sorry.

Today I made it to my optometrist appointment. I hadn’t gone for about a year and a half. I felt as though I am seeing just fine, and I love my frames. Strangers stop me to say how cool they are. I don’t NEED new glasses. However, I do have to jump through hoops for our district’s really bad insurance. I spend about fifteen minutes every day logging information to get to the magic number of 65,000 “wellness points.” Once I reach that magical number, I am “rewarded” with an additional $775 dollars in my Health Savings Account. (Sidebar: what the insurance company is really doing is collecting data on me that should be my own business, not theirs.) Although I pay separately for health insurance and eye insurance, I get over a thousand points for getting an annual eye check. So, there I was, getting my eyes checked.

Doc made minor adjustments to distance and reading levels on my prescription, and then she sent me on my merry way to the display floor. Since I love my frames, I asked for just the replacement of the lenses. Those are covered on my insurance. My co-pay for lenses that are COVERED on my really bad insurance: over three hundred dollars!

I’ll just keep the ones I have, thanks.

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Monday Blues – Monday, 26 February 2018 57/365

Declutterfication: School stuff…there’s always more school stuff.

I rushed through the day as students worked assiduously against the looming deadline for their biography projects. It was early release so I was able to get through a lot of work because our Professional Learning Community or PLC was cancelled; our book study texts had not arrived. Then I rushed through my portion of a parent teacher team meeting for a struggling student who is actually doing much better in my class than he is in other classes. Then I rushed to my optometrist appointment only to find that my appointment is tomorrow. I wrote it down incorrectly. So, I didn’t miss my appointment, but I rushed to one that didn’t exist.

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Projects… Oh, Projects! – Sunday, 25 February 2018 56/365

Declutterfication: I didn’t do the nightstand yesterday…I planned it; I didn’t do it. Today? Maybe, it’s another full day.

Two monstrous projects loom before me. I shouldn’t really use the words “monstrous” and “loom;” it sounds like I dread the projects. I actually enjoy the projects…or I wouldn’t do them.  It would be absolutely lovely if I could not work and just spend my day doing the creative tasks I’ve imagined, begun, or discarded for lack of time. That would be an awesome Declutterfication…taking all the materials for these imagined, begun, and discarded for lack of time projects…and actually finishing them.

…or tossing them out, kit and caboodle.

Two projects need to get done today. One is my book project for this quarter. I do the book projects with my students to keep them on task and to keep myself from assigning insurmountable tasks. The project is due on Thursday, so I better get myself in gear.

The other project is my gift project. I need to iron that fabric that I purchased at Joann’s last Monday. :-O Darling Husband was kind enough to wash it for me during the week, but I never got around to ironing it in preparation for using it in my gift boxes. I also have one more purchase…the last one for inclusion in the gifts.

Okay, I’m over and out…I’ve lolled about until eight in the morning and I need to get to work. Oh! Dang! I also have some grading that needs to get done. Oh, and preparation for tomorrow’s short day. Aarrgghh.

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Celebration! – Saturday, 24 February 2018 55/365

Declutterfication: Nightstand. Yup. Needs it. That’s the plan, anyway. We’ll see. It’s a busy Saturday.

It’s official! Yesterday I received the results of my second test: in order to embark on the adventure of teaching high school, I needed to take two tests: Professional Knowledge – Secondary, and English. Since my endorsement for ELL and Bilingual is K-12 and I’ve been teaching middle school, it should have gone without saying. However, my certification is K-8, and my master’s degree title didn’t include the word “English;” it is in Language, Reading, & Culture, there was a need for extra proof that I am prepared to teach high school English. Well, the test results are in; I passed both with flying colors. Now I just have to do the application process. It has been sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long since I updated my résumé; I think it’s actually on floppy disk! My old desk top is barely serviceable other than a conduit for our wireless. That means one of my projects today is rewriting my résumé.

Regardless, I took two three-hour tests back-to-back and aced them. Today I will also find time to celebrate that accomplishment! I’ve invited Darling Husband and Darling Son out to lunch. I can’t wait!

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TGIF – Friday, 23 February 2018 54/365

Declutterfication: School fridge…it was due!

Short weeks are always LONG weeks, even without the drama of a poorly scheduled picture day. Testing is around the corner, so hackles are raised regarding preparations for it. The police came to our school for what I do not know, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know. Everyone was ready for the weekend. I swore I would be out of there at 3:30, the official end to our teacher day. It was closer to five when I headed to the car. :-O

While students worked on their quarterly book projects, I played Count Dee’s Silver Disco Explosion’s Thank God It’s Friday from the movie of the same name. Afterwards I played a combination of other feel good Seventies tunes. I needed it. Weird thing? Most of my students knew the songs. It isn’t just because I randomly include them as part of my teaching day; they must be hearing them from grandparents, parents (who like us, were not spring chickens when they started their families), or some retro multi-media like Psych.  I needed that positive spin to my day. Good day, but I’m still tired since my fibro night was a sleepless one last night.

I headed home to deliver Darling Son to basketball practice and then back home for dinner and some Psych!

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Picture Day– Thursday, 22 February 2018 53/365

Declutterfication: Sorry, none.

Picture day…ugghh. I hate picture days. Once again, it used to be something that I looked forward to, even though I knew it would throw the academic schedule into chaos, we all did our best to keep it to near chaos rather than complete chaos. When I saw the picture schedule my first thought was to just send in a request for a time when I actually had my students. With the collapse of our classes, there are days that some of the homeroom teachers don’t see their students after announcements. 

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Do-Over! – Wednesday, 21 February 2018 52/365

Declutterfication: My copy room mailbox was overflowing with master copies of numerous “important papers.” I got rid of a bunch of them because they were from first semester projects. Woohoo!

When students achieve scores below 70% on tests, quizzes, or assignments, our junior high policy is to allow retakes for up to 70%. If I made the policy I would either have the students earn the second grade (or highest grade if they do worse on the retake) or take an average of the two (one of Darling Son’s teachers did this, and it seemed effective with the accelerated students). Here’s the deal: If I am a junior high student and I am only allowed 70% on a re-do, why would I strive for excellence if the highest score I could achieve is a basement level C? Hmmmm??? Not my policy, but I have to abide by it.

Today one of my students did a retake on a difficult test. I don’t remember his original score, but it was below fifty percent. His retake? 100. I know this kid. He’s smart. He’s capable. His work in my class has been a solid B, sometimes low A. Language Arts is just not his thing. I get that. When a student who usually does not do well in a subject scores a perfect paper, eyebrows raise. What’s up with this? Sometimes, those blessed sometimes, it is because a student has completely engaged with a topic or task. Sometimes, alas, it is with a high level of parental “assistance.” (Side note: once I had a student look at my comments on a rough draft and his response was, “I didn’t know they did that! I didn’t even write that!” So, yeah.) Back to our regularly scheduled not-quite-a-rant rant. And…sometimes it is because of cheating. Whether it is plagiarized cheating or getting the answers from a source outside of your head cheating, it is cheating. I want students to be able to know where to go to find answers! I want them to ask great questions! On the few times a test requires recall, I want them to use their brains to figure out the answer. On standardized tests, they have to do that. My teacher created quizzes and tests are designed to help them do that. If they are cheating, they won’t be able to do that.

This reminds me of a high school tennis option I took for P.E. many years ago. There was one student who I hated playing; if she served and made a mistake, she called out, “Do-over!” If she fumbled in some way on the court, she called out, “Do over!” I remember thinking, but being too polite to verbalize it, “What? Are you four years old?” Yes, I believe in second chances, but sometimes the result is what was honestly earned. Just saying.