Month: March 2014

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

As a perfectionist, I have to make a conscious decision to keep doing something once I have made a mistake.  My whole being wants to say, “it will never be good enough now so why bother?”  I have to force myself to get through this hurdle and keep going.  As I have gotten older, I have developed different ways to get myself to lighten up.  However, it takes a lot of self-discipline to keep myself from negative self-talk.  I tend to berate myself the way I would never do to anyone else.

It can be a very small thing.  For example, last night I forgot to get cash out when paying for groceries.  It took me a good five minutes to stop beating myself up over that simple mistake. So when it comes to bigger things, there is always a struggle to keep myself on an even keel.  “Nobody is perfect” becomes my mantra and I try to live with that.  Failure is a part of life, and everyone needs to be able to deal with it.  In fact, failing at something is sometimes the way to learn.  Making mistakes is how we learn.  I teach that to my students all the time.  I want them to be able to make mistakes and cope with it and in fact embrace the mistake and learn from it.  Therefore, I need to be able to do the same.

Last week I failed.  I was not able to keep up with the daily writing of blog posts.  I wanted to do it, but I was exhausted and feeling the pressure of report card deadlines looming.  I didn’t get it done.  I missed 4 days of blogging.  I no longer will be perfect at completing this challenge.  This eats at me, and I almost didn’t get back into it.  When I had missed one day, I was disappointed but ready to continue.  Then I missed 2 days, then 3 days, then 4.  It was a big challenge to not throw my hands in the air and say “why bother?”

Since I am having some health issues, I may miss more days.  I will try not to, but I cannot promise I will get here every day to blog.  This does not mean that I cannot still get a learning experience from this blogging challenge.  It doesn’t mean that I can’t still make writing a priority most days.  I will do what I can.  My perfectionist brain will have to deal with it.

Reflecting on my own perfectionism really makes me think about my students.  I wonder how many of them share this type of challenge.  I wonder how many of them waste time with the negative self-talk and give up on things when they don’t think they will be able to be perfect.  I wonder how many of them hear me when I say that mistakes help us learn, but don’t really believe it.  I wonder what I can do to help these perfectionist students to keep going even when they know they won’t be perfect.  I can start by leading by example.

Here is my day 10 post.  I won’t win a prize, I won’t be perfect, but I will stick it out and learn from it.

Books I Finished This Week:

I love, love, LOVED this book.  Patrick Ness is an outstanding author and this is another excellent book from him.

Dangerous by Shannon Hale is a fun book.  I read it practically in one sitting.  There are so many fun elements, some superpowers, some aliens, a trip to astronaut camp, some romance, a lot of lies, and a really well done book.  I read this one in anticipation of hosting Shannon Hale at my school next week.  I am so excited to meet her!

Another mystery by Lisa Unger.  This one was by far my favorite of the ones I have read.  It is such a great story with so many layers to it.  I was fascinated in reading about this character who had so many psychological issues.  I would definitely recommend it to mystery lovers.

Books I am Currently Reading:

I just started A Red Herring Without Mustard, which is a Flavia de Luce book.  I love these fun young adult mysteries because Flavia is such a great character.  I also am still reading Freedom Writers Diary.

What’s Next?

I hope I get to Flora and Ulysses soon. I am not sure what else because conferences are this week and my reading time will be depleted again.

What are you reading this week?  I would love to hear from you in the comments!

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Today I am so exhausted I can’t see straight.  Ever notice how when you are tired the world seems to move at a faster pace? I have been super fatigued the last few days and all I want to do is sleep. Is there a pause button on the world? Wouldn’t it be great if we all could press pause every once in awhile and take a nap?

Tonight, I would use that power if I had it.  I hope to be able to finish some of my grades tonight and get something started in my report cards before I fall asleep.  Wish me good luck!

Here is a Haiku that goes with my general feeling right now:

Glorious bed waits
Eyes need to stay awake
Deep sleep comes tonight

How are you feeling today? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Over the weekend, my sister and her husband and my niece stayed at our house for a visit.  Since my brother-in-law is on an epic quest to try many different beers (he actually has a spreadsheet and is working through the list of beers that judges in beer festivals have to try to be able to define certain beer types), we decided to tour the Sprecher brewery.  Now, in Milwaukee we have multiple brewery tours available to us so it is sometimes hard to decide.  Since my sister and I were planning not to drink this weekend, we chose Sprecher because they have sodas as well as beer at their brewery.

Since we have done multiple brewery tours, the actual tour was pretty boring. What was interesting was hearing about the soda-making process and the way that root beer outsells everything.  The end of the tour when they give beer samples was the best part.  Normally, I would be sampling right alongside my husband, but I had been under the weather lately so I decided not to have beer.  At Sprecher, they give unlimited samples of their sodas in the beer garden.  This was AMAZING!!!  The sodas are so delicious and there is so much variety in what is available.  There are flavors like raspberry, blueberry, grape, orange cream, cherry cola, and of course root beer.  I now will be a bit obsessed with Sprecher soda for a while.  I really wish it were good for you!

I highly recommend this brewery tour if you ever are in Milwaukee.  Even for the beer drinkers, sampling sodas between beer samples would be a great way to extend your time there.  I know it hit the spot for me on Saturday!

I am joining in on this weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week there is a different top ten list topic and a bunch of bloggers weighing in. Head on over there to see more of the great blogs participating.

Today’s topic really got me thinking.  These are the authors I could think of that I have not yet read.  I am sure there are many, many, many other popular authors that I haven’t read.

#1 Stephen King–I may be cheating a little bit here because I have read his memoir On Writing but I have never read any of his novels.  I like the story ideas and the movies that I have seen based on his books, but I have never actually sat down to read one.

#2 Henry James–I don’t know if this author actually qualifies as “popular.” However, as an English major whose favorite books are comedies of manners from the same time period in which he was writing, it is quite weird that I have never read his books.

#3 E.L. Doctorow–I have heard of him and know his books have been made into many movies, but have never read one.

#4 Willa Cather–Another American author that I should have read by now but haven’t.

#5 Lee Child–As a mystery fan, it is really odd that I haven’t read any of the Jack Reacher books yet.

#6 Stephanie Perkins–I have heard many really great things about Anna and the French Kiss but have not read it yet.  This is definitely an author that I need to read.

#7 Jack Gantos–I have not read any novels by Jack Gantos, although I have read his memoir as well.

#8 Junot Diaz–I have heard a lot of great things about this author and his works, but have yet to pick up a book by him.

#9 Ursula LeGuin–Her books always seemed to high fantasy for me, but lately I have been reading more fantasy so now might be the time to try some.

#10 Orson Scott Card–With the movie of Ender’s Game coming out this year, I realized that I have never read anything by this author either.

My reading is about as eclectic as this list.  I enjoyed thinking about which authors I have never read.  I will have to aim to remedy this as soon as possible.

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

If you are interested in reading my It’s Monday! post click here.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme started by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Books I am Currently Reading:

What’s Next?

Last Week’s Posts:

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

This week, I need to get my report cards ready to send home.  I have to turn them in on Friday and my principal will then read them and give feedback so that we can correct them and have them ready to give out next week.  I always dread this time of year because I feel like there is so much information that we need to share with parents and this is such a short (and confusing) document.

A few years ago, we switched to a standards-based report card.  This means that I give students proficiency scores on each of the standards in each area rather than giving one letter grade for each subject.  I am glad that we report student progress in this way, but there are so many people that are confused by our system that it makes report card day a dreaded time in my building.

Compounding the problem is the fact that I work in a large urban district and the students are far from proficient in many categories.  Helping parents to understand that the effort score is really what tells them if their child is doing everything they can to make progress is very difficult.  Our society is so set in the traditional grading system and so many people think that grades are all about jumping through the hoops and handing things in.  I don’t know what the solution is, but I do wish more people would understand that a score of Basic or even Minimal in a standard does not automatically mean that the student is not doing everything he/she can do and making progress.

The last few years have been extra frustrating because by the time I get students in 8th grade, many of them are very far behind.  Getting 8th graders to understand that doing “extra credit” is not going to change their score (unless the extra practice helps them get proficient) is really challenging.

As I enter into this week in which every waking hour will be spent grading and writing report card comments, these thoughts scramble through my head.  I hope that with the comments I write parents will be able to understand how their child is really doing in school.

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March.  If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

I am so excited to participate in this challenge again this year.  I have not been so great at getting to the Tuesday slices, and I am excited to make writing a priority during this month.  Last year, the challenge helped me to start writing more regularly on my blog.  I am hoping this year the challenge will be habit forming to get me consistently writing daily.

This morning, as I am writing this, my sister and her family are sleeping upstairs.  It is so fun to see her and my brother-in-law. We always enjoy their visits.  This time it is super special, because it is the first time they have come home with the baby. My niece is ten months old and so fun to be with.

The best part of the night last night was watching my dog and the baby together.  So precious! The baby loves doggie kisses and was laughing and playing with the dog. I love seeing such cute moments happening.

Our family time is precious since we live so far apart.  My sister lives in California and we live in Wisconsin.  It is so amazing to spend family time enjoying each other.

This is a fabulous idea from Ruth Ayres in which we write about something to celebrate each Saturday. I love participating in this link up each week and hearing about the awesome things happening in everyone’s classrooms and lives.