April Currently

I'm linking up with Farley for this month's Currently.  I cannot believe it's April 1st and third quarter ends this Friday.  The school year is flying by so fast.

Listening:  I wake up most days at 5 AM.  I usually have a good hour of peace and quiet to myself (which is very hard to come by in my life).  This is when I read blogs, check twitter, respond to any emails from the night before, look over the lessons I'm teaching that day.  I love having that quiet time every morning to start my day.

Loving:  That Winter seems to have left the building finally.  The last two days it has smelled like Spring, fresh and new.  I think it was a big mistake that we did not go somewhere warm for Spring Break this year.  Lesson learned.

Thinking:  In WI we have something called Educator Effectiveness that involves hours upon hours of time writing goals, and uploading artifacts to proved you are an effective educator.  It came to be because WI got a waiver for NCLB and had to come up with a system of teacher evaluation.  We had to upload 12 different artifacts for Danielson Domains 1 and 4.  I also have been waiting for my informal observation to happen and it FINALLY did yesterday morning. I feel the biggest wait has been lifted off my shoulders and now I can just enjoy working with my students!

Wanting:  To have a strong finish to the school year for both me and my students.  I have seen tremendous growth from so many students and I want them to all continue to learn and finish strong.  They still have so much to learn and I want to continue to help each student achieve his/her potential. In my regular classes we are doing Geometry and Probability & Statistics.  In my Accel class we will be starting the 8th grade curriculum next week, mainly Expressions & Equations and more Geometry. We are teaching three more 8th grade chapters than we did last year!

Needing:  To get active again.  My husband and I started out strong working out over my long Winter break and kind of fell off the workout wagon the last two months.  I love working out before school, but now that my son who is a freshman starts school 10 min earlier everyday (to make up time for our four cold days  in Jan) there is not enough time.  I can however bring my workout gear and go right after school and need to get a routine down for that.

Hours and last day:  My official teacher day is 7:30-3:30, but I am usually at school between 7:00-7:15 and I rarely leave school before 5 PM.  My goal for the rest of the year is to leave school earlier more often.  We'll see how that goes!  Students come into out rooms starting at 7:40 and the end of the day bell rings at 3:15.  Our middle school has the longest student day in the district.  It's annoying having so little prep time before and after school, but I'm used to it.  The students' last day of school is June 11th and they have a half day. The afternoon is for teachers to finish grades and start packing up.  The last teacher day is June 12th for close out procedures.  We always have a cookout for lunch that day as one last hurrah.