Midwinter break!

Midwinter break is here. I'm not sure I've ever been this excited for break. I'm a little run ragged between teaching, taking a class, and teaching a class. Add scoring 75 explorer projects and you've got a very tired Pete.

The plan for break is to get some things done. I have some planning to do to recalibrate heading into our spring break. I have a number of items to score and get into our online grade book. I've also got some reading to catch up on. I brought home 4 books that I (wishfully) hope to read over break.

Oh, and I hope to nap!

Bend Don't Break

Winter Break started at 3:01pm on Friday. I, like many teachers this time of year, am in need of the break. I need a chance to rest, get some sleep, and do things outside of school. That being said, I'm likely heading into school tomorrow. I'll make the 20-25 minute commute post-rush hour and take care of some odds and ends. I need to file some student work in their returned work folders. I also need to take down a bulletin board, and put up a new one (something I absolutely detest doing during school time- file that under more important things!). Lastly, I hope to tackle my winter/spring curriculum map, taking another look at the standards and content we'll be working our way through.

I figure that doing some of the stuff tomorrow, and a little bit next week will allow the break to be stress free.

Questions Without Answers

Things I am thinking about heading into the Winter Break (starting next Saturday)...

• How do I integrate the leveled reader library into my instruction on a daily or weekly basis?
• In what ways can I leverage the 2:1 (student:computer) ratio more than I currently do?
• Where does our writing instruction go, and how does that impact my reading instruction?
• How can I better leverage peer conferencing throughout my day?

Those are questions I'll tackle over the course of the next 3 weeks. This next week is focused on a short transition "unit" and making it to the break.

When the lights go dark

My apologies for being gone. My intent certainly wasn't to be gone for a week! I've simply needed the break from education related stuff on the Internet- google reader! blogs! news! my blog! All of those things went untouched last week and weekend.

I'm in the midst of week 5 of student teaching. We are required to do 6, but my master teacher and I scheduled out through the 22nd (an additional 3 weeks). Thereafter it will be transitioning back to her control. Having a schedule with beginning and end dates is helpful for me, at least in creating a mental order of events.

So how has it been thus far? Teaching is certainly the profession I want to enter. I've struggled in creating an identity for my teaching in someone's space other than my own. Ultimately it isn't my classroom, but I also need to have the ability to try out some ideas from the academic end. I believe I have a far clearer notion of what my beliefs are about students, learning, and teaching.