Best job in the world

Life can be overwhelming some days.  Many days I carry this guilt that I'm not being a complete human being because I'm so preoccupied with teaching.  I always have something to do... and most days I have something pressing or urgent to do.

Some days are really rough, and it makes it not worth it.  But today was a day that I will remember forever!  Today has made teaching and the sacrifices and the emotional turmoil WORTH IT.

Today two of my students who have really been struggling, smiled and laughed in class.  They were both engaged, they enjoyed the lessons, they both did work.  Without going into too much detail, I cannot begin to describe how significant this is.  One even gave a fist pump after class!  I seriously almost cried.  I'm emotional in general lately... but this just moved me, that these kids ENJOYED LEARNING today.  And at least for today they were happy, in my safe little classroom.  Today they were SEEN and ACKNOWLEDGED by others.  It just made me feel really really good.

After school, two other students came by to say hi, and they made me laugh.  I have the best job in the world, and I'm so glad that these moments happen to remind me of that.

Let me know if you've seen my brain...

This week has been a funny one.  I've had lots of different challenges, lots of hiccups and stressful moments, which in turn has produced a lot of laughs for me!  I cannot believe how much I've lost my brain!

On Tuesday and Wednesday I lost an important grade sheet, which it turns out I placed strategically in a Biology textbook.  It was the secret spot that was so secret I didn't know about it!

Driving home this week, I missed my exit for the I-90 and only realized it 2 or 3 exits later.  When I drive to and from school I'm always going against traffic (which is really nice).  But because I missed my exit, I had to turn around and sit in traffic.  It took me an hour to get home that day.  I honestly didn't care though, I just laughed and shook my head.  I truly feel I've reached a point where's there's just not too much I can do for myself.  I'm a lost cause :)

Minutes ago, I was told by a co-worker that the Mercer Island girls soccer team was in the hallway.  So I went outside to say hi to them because I taught many of them last year, and three of them are on my basketball team this year.  I locked myself out of my room.  No big deal!  I figured I'd walk around taking a short cut outside to get to another teacher's room.  As I walked outside, in the cool crisp fall air, I realized they close the school doors at 4:00 pm.  It's 5:15 pm right now.  So, because my life is in shambles, I also got locked out of the school.

Again, I just shrugged my shoulders and said "Whatever", because this is what I expect from myself these days!  I didn't want to go to the office to ask one of my principles to let me back in the school.  We just finished a meeting about teacher evaluations, and that would look REALLY GOOD if I asked my principle to let me back into the school, and back in my room.  Thankfully another teacher rescued me.

In my entire life, I've never been so absent-minded, so forgetful, so just not present.  I have mushy meninges in my brain, if it's even still there.  How students are learning from me is beyond my understanding!

R.I.P. Mr. T (the frog)

Today was a rough day.  I did not sleep well last night after a weekend of Homecoming bliss (two late nights).  I was dragging all day and then in my 7th period I hear,

"Mrs. Yuen your frogs are fighting!"

Now, I have seen my frogs fight before.  One time when I was feeding them, one frog bit the other's arm and started dragging it around it's little aquarium.  It was scary, I thought I was going to lose them both.  Thankfully the Hulk frog settled down and resided to eating the food I was putting in the water.

Anyway, I let the comment go as I was teaching and then I hear,

"No... wait... I think your frog is dead."

I hurried over to my desk, and there I see on it's back, completely motionless, one of my little dear froggies.  The other one looked like it was trying desperately to resuscitate it.  With its little webbed feet on placed on the dead frog's chest, it pushed and pushed, but it was too late.  My dead frog was a ghostly white color, it had already reached a state of rigor mortis.

I held myself together, seriously... I am so tired, I almost burst into tears.  Not because my frog died, just because it was one more thing to add to my plate.  I've got grading, planning, a teacher evaluation next week, labs to figure out how to do, a booster club meeting tonight, hiring new coaches sometime in these next two weeks, finding out who owes money from basketball, and I'm running on very little sleep.  Did I also mention that I am dieting?  Yes, so all the wonderful foods in the world that make me feel better about myself have lately been the cause of me not feeling so good about myself.  I have been such a slob these past two months because I just can't find the time or energy to workout.  So I've added working out and dieting to my schedule.

The frog dying just put me over the top, but I held myself together.

Then the kids asked me if they could dissect my dead frog.  To which I thought was a brilliant idea!  Why not turn this into an educational experience?  I told them we'd have to see if we can preserve the body.

I brought my little aquarium to the back room, and I asked my mentor teacher (who is a REAL biologist) if she could take my dead frog out of the aquarium, because the thought of it grossed me out so much I gagged.

My kids kept asking me: "Mrs. Yuen which frog died?  Which one was it?  Did Snoop Frogg or Mr. T die?"  So I asked them "Which one do you want it to be?"

And so it was Mr. T who died today, and who hopefully is in a better place.  R.I.P. Mr. T!

Homecoming Week

This week has been a totally cultural experience.  Canadian high schools do not really do a whole homecoming week, and most schools don't really have a homecoming game.  Needless to say, I feel like I'm on the set of  a movie!

Leading up to homecoming week I have been able to witness the many creative ways high school boys ask girls to the homecoming dance.  It's such a big thing, it's like a mini-competition to see who asks in the most creative/sweet way.  I have seen dozens of flowers (roses specifically) roll through my classroom.  Stuffed animals and balloons.... everyone can always tell which girl has been asked!  Oh the drama....

It makes me think, how would I like to have been asked to homecoming?  I know I for sure would NOT have wanted any flowers... it's just too easy.  You can get nice-looking flowers from the grocery store these days.... I need some effort!  I would not have wanted any big stuffed animals because that's just ridiculous!  I think I would have wanted some kind of treasure hunt, where I'd find clues and eventually come to a cool spot to find the guy who would ask me to Homecoming.  It would be fun, it could be competitive... I could time myself :)

This week, being homecoming week, is crazy busy!  I've had to plan my butt off because we have District Chemistry meetings on Friday (which means Sub Plans).  I am only one day ahead of my Chem classes because I have to learn the material well enough to teach it, I'm planning most of my lessons from scratch, and I'm trying to observe and run labs that I've never run!  Kind of exhausting.  On top of that, I attended a soccer game and volleyball game this week.  I reffed the "Buff Puff" game, it's basically senior dudes playing volleyball (it was hilarious).  I am attending the Homecoming parade and Homecoming football game, and I will be chaperoning the Homecoming dance.  It's been a whirlwind and I am definitely tired this week, but it's been well worth it because the kids are so into it!

Happy Homecoming Week :)

Grades & Planning

I truly believe for the month of September I've been living in Teacher La-La land.  It hasn't been too difficult, I've been on top of things and very organized.  Many of my co-workers have even commented on my "together-ness".

Well most of that changed this week, as I've been planning for the month of October.  In both my Biology and Chemistry classes we are changing units and I need to get Powerpoints done, lesson plans done, figure out what movies to watch on certain days etc.  At the same time, grades are due on Monday.  I am really on top of my grading, however I made a lot of things due last week (while I was sicker than a dog), and so I'm making up for the grading I have to do from last week, and trying to get them all in before Monday, while I'm planning 2 units in Bio and Chem for the month of October.

This is what real teaching is!  And blissful La-La land is over.  It was fun while it lasted :)

Thankfully though, I still love my job, and I still look forward to coming to work everyday!  I'd like to think I'm still in the "anticipation/reflection" stage (refer to Teacher Morale graph/pic).  I am trying to constantly reflect, so I can be better than I was the day before.  Does this make me a hero?  No... I just know where I'm at, and how much better I can be.  There's some pretty freaking awesome teachers at this school, and I'm still competitive so I know I've got a ways to go!

First Pay Day

Wow... this week has kicked my butt.  I don't even know where to begin... I guess we'll start with Monday.

Monday, I get back to school not feeling so refreshed because I had basketball tryouts on Mercer Island for the 4th-8th grade Select girls... the tryouts went well, but there was A LOT of discussion following the weekend from parents, coaches, and board members.  I have never been e-mailed so much in my life!  Handling that was definitely a big weight to carry this week.

This week, I quizzed all my classes, had papers and projects handed in, so grading has begun!  Now I feel like a real teacher, swamped with tasks of grading and planning all at the same time.  I am so useless at remembering anything at all, I have 3 planners (a planner that I write in, my phone calendar, and a whiteboard calendar in my office).  I have post-it notes all over my desk, with notes to myself that need to be very clear and specific.  My to do list is never-ending, and the time I have for my "to-do's" is never enough :) Yes... this is what it must really be like to be a teacher!

On top of all these things I have deathly ill this week, but could not put in for a sub.  There are two reasons for this: 1) I have no clue how to put in for a sub.  I haven't signed up for my online thingy yet, cause the time it would take to go to the office and handle that, is time that I need for something else!  and 2) I didn't want to leave my students writing quizzes and doing labs with a sub.  So I have trucked a long, and I would say that I have survived this week... instructing with my phlegm-filled man voice, and asking my students to feel very sorry for me and behave and be quiet.  The students have been awesome!  They are very understanding and mature young adults (this week).

Other adventurous things that have added to this fun-filled week:
- The copy machine jammed twice again this week, on particular days that I was desperate to make copies.  (I have not really been too far ahead on the copy-making).  We can now no longer use blue paper AT ALL. When we staple packets, they must be vertical staples not angled.  We have to copy from certain trays, and so on.  I loathe the copy machine.
- We had two back-to-back fire drills.... literally.  So I'm making tea at 7:00 am yesterday morning getting ready for the day to start and the fire alarm goes off.  Thankfully all I have to do is make sure all kids are out of the building.  We stand outside in the chipper morning air, get told we can go back into the building. Seriously after the last kid enters the building, the alarm goes off again, and we have to evacuate again.  It was awesome!

Just another Manic Monday....

Wow... so after a crazy busy weekend with Select basketball tryouts (tryouts for teams 4th-8th grade on Mercer Island), I was definitely  not feeling as recovered and restored as I usually feel on a Monday.  Anyway, I ran out of the house this morning, with all these plans to get grading and planning for October done in these next two days.

On my merry little way, as I am about 100 yards away from the school, I realize I left my work keys at home.  So begins my wheel-slapping, hands-in-the-air, screaming "NOOOOOO" response.  Then I tried to get myself together.  "Maybe the office will have extra keys?".  So I go in, and I'm embarrassed to ask for a set of keys, but that's taken care of.  Now I get to my classroom and here's the real kicker: my desk is locked (because I keep important documents in it), and my media equipment is locked.  The keys for both my desk and closet are at home....  Thus begins the scramble to see if I have a key lying around to open either of those.  Thankfully my mentor teacher had about 100 keys stashed away.  And one of them did open up my closet to access the media equipment.  I was showing a video in class, so this was great!  I also found the key to my desk, so crisis averted!!!!  I did not reach a state of complete frazzlement, but man was I ever annoyed with myself!

So at that point I had my life in order, and I went to use the paper cutter thingy in the copy room.  I was met with a frenzy of teachers trying to get the copy machine working.  My assistant principal is watching them try to figure out.... we're talking 3-4 women pulling papers out of the jammed spaces in the copy machine.  I just laughed because it looked as though Monday has been a rough day for everyone!  That copy machine is the devil...

Oh, I also just remembered that as I was leaving my house, I also had reminded myself to do something, but now I can no longer remember what that thing was. Needless to say, my brain has officially turned into absolute mush.  Hopefully whatever I had to do wasn't important.... for today's classes anyway!

School Portrait Pics....

I cannot believe I got school portrait pics... I'm 26 years old... how awesome is this???  Too bad I didn't get the sheet with all the little pics to give to all my friends with a note on the back :)

Rough day at the office...

Geez... this last class really confirmed STRUGGLE being my middle name today!  I had my first scramble to plan moments last night and this morning because the copy machine is so many words that an educator should never say in front of her students.

I came in to work at 6:20 am this morning to get my copies done.  My first set went through without a hitch, then my next set jammed after 20 copies (not enough for one class).  I unclogged all the different compartments where paper decided to get stuck, and let 'er rip again.  A few copies later, the machine did its red light flashing and beeping thing at me.  I removed the jammed papers.... then I prayed.  I'm so serious, I honestly feel Jesus had a part in the fact that I got all my copies done because I was having so many problems with it yesterday and this  morning.  So thank you Jesus!

My first class was supposed to have a fire alarm as well as a guest speaker, so I rushed through some Powerpoint notes to make sure my students had them.  Then the fire alarm was canceled.  I had so much time left over!  Thankfully I had given them an article to read, so I just had them read.... sheesh!  Second class went a lot better, and then it was lunch which is always a blissful time for me :)

My last class today has not been participating at a level that I would like.  I only have a few students who raise their hands to ask questions.  I feel like the students are instantly bored when they walk into class, and it's just a painstaking 90 min grind for them.  It is a last period class, so maybe that's why it feels that way.  To make matters worse, I totally messed up in collecting data for a lab.  I needed to average my data and I was making them copy everyone's data down.... Why?  Why would you do that???  I was like "This makes no sense!  Stop writing!"  Then as we were averaging, the wrong data was in the wrong location which was messing up averages.  I started all over again, had students do bookwork, and needless to say it was such a GONG SHOW!  I apologized for the GONG show class and promised next one would be better.  I guess I have to take things in stride, especially when I'm teaching a class I've never taught before.  Hopefully my students are forgiving, and hopefully I can create a more dynamic atmosphere for this class!

The orca whale eats the big fish

So far I have survived two full weeks of school!  I'd have to say that's quite an accomplishment.  For some crazy reason, I have also not brought a lot of work home... I'm sure as I start grading more, that will change. But so far teaching has been quite blissful, and I can say with confidence that I love my job!

It's funny how true colors start to show a couple weeks into school.  When homework and assignments are due.... you can really tell who will be on top of things, and who might need some extra encouragement/motivation/reminders!  I love all my students' different personalities and quirks.  No trouble-makers yet... but it's still early and my guard is still up!

I am proud to say my freshmen/sophomore Biology students all know and understand the term biomagnification.  It's a freaking big Biology word, and they have got it down!  I love hearing them explain it though.

This is NOT how my students have been describing biomagnification:

Biomagnification - "Biomagnification is the sequence of processes in an ecosystem by which higher concentrations of a particular chemical, such as the pesticide DDT, are reached in organisms higher up the food chain, generally through a series of prey-predator relationships." - Oxford University, 2008

Instead it's more like "Biomagnification is when the orca whale eats the big fish that ate the little fish that ate the toxic plankton, and so the orca whale has lots of toxins in it."  And in my totally unbiased opinion, that is a way better explanation that Oxford University could ever give!

Yes... I love my job!

PS. The copy machine is possessed....

AMAZING THINGS TODAY!

Song of the Day: "Fashion is my Cryptonite"
For a little over a year now I've been listening to AM radio, because my FM doesn't work.... and I've been exposed to a Christian talk station, as well as the ESPN station.  Those are the two I usually stick to.  However yesterday I fell upon Radio Disney.  I truly feel it allows me to connect better with my younger students.  This song played yesterday and this morning on my way to work.  Favorite line "Walk, walk, work it right, fashion is my cryptonite."  This will be my mantra of the week.

Mishap of the day: Copy Machine War
Thank goodness I got to make some essential copies this morning before my epic battle with the copy machine.  I had about 2 hours of prep this morning because it's a short day today.... I went back to make some less urgent/important copies, and the copy machine almost exploded.  This thing is huge people... we're talking bigger than a golf cart!  It jammed a couple of times, and on the ultra-technological touch screen I had flashing red lights showing me which compartments were jammed with paper.  The first time there were 5 papers jammed in 5 different locations.  No big deal, after reaching into deep, dark places with my dainty hands (we all know how gargantuous they are), I managed to get the thing to stop flashing and beeping.  So I pressed start again, and lo and behold... the thing jams again.  This time in 3 places.  I did this twice and then gave up.  There were other people in the room, thankfully someone helped me... but if no one had been there, I can't promise that I wouldn't have kicked the darn thing!

Conversation of the day: "Do you sing?"
At the end of class, one student asked me if I sang.  I laughed and said "No, do you?".  The student did express interest and love for music & singing and stated: "The reason why I said that is because when you said "TYPOOOOO", your vibrato was wonderful".  TALK ABOUT A PICK-ME-UP!  There was a mega-typo in a homework assignment, so I basically said "TYPOOO" and in a high voice.  Who knew someone might find that beautiful?!?

In other news... have I yet shared that I am hosting two little African Dwarf aquatic frogs in my classroom?  They are so incredible!  They just swim around in their little aquarium, and there's a snail in there to keep things clean.  I had a class competition and the winning names for my two froggies are: Snoop Frogg & Mr. T.  The snail will be named Sheldon after Dr. Sheldon Cooper,  world renown scientist from 'The Big Bang Theory'.  I love teaching high school kids!

Start of Week 2

This week has gotten off to a good start.  I feel like I'm more into a routine now, I know my students and classes better, and now we're just off and running!  All my Biology classes are watching a video that took up most of the class period.  I can't begin to explain my gratitude for whoever invented educational videos.  The time I have while my students are watching the film, I get to use to plan and create Powerpoints & class activities.  It's a pretty long video, so I had my students stand up in the middle and touch a wall (not close to them).  Who says you can't incorporate basketball camp drills into a science classroom?

Chemistry has also gone well.  Chem is my lesser familiar subject I'm teaching, so I started with scientific notation, significant figures and dimensional analysis.... basically all the geeky math stuff that I was good at in high school.  My goal is to build confidence now, and hopefully  not struggle too much later!  We did a mass lab both days and that's always fun to facilitate.  Even when I make announcements, I still have to repeat myself almost 15 times, because the kids are very caught up in getting it done right (that's what I tell myself when they're not paying attention!).

I was actually thinking the other day how much I'm learning from ALL my students.  It's so easy as an instructor to get frustrated with students for various things, but when I really think about it, as an adult I make a lot of the same learning mistakes as them.  For example, even though instructions are written out on a piece of paper and I've made numerous announcements, many of my students will ask me questions based off something I  just said, or something they can find themselves.  It's so easy for me to complain about how kids don't just read, or how they need to be hand-held.... but I'm so like that too.  How many times do I ask store clerks where something is because I just don't feel like working too hard to look?  Or how many times does my husband say something to me, and I just blank out and need him to repeat, sometimes multiple times?  I guess this teaching gig is really showing me how we are all lifelong students, and no matter what, we will have our successes and failures; no matter what we will need help and guidance along the way!

I honestly feel incredibly blessed to have so many of these kids with vastly different personalities to share my day with.  It's truly remarkable how many of them are willing to share about their lives, tell a joke, or even ask me questions to get to know me better.  My days have been filled with youthful smiles, with all these little people (some of them not so little) that are so full of potential.  They're on their way to changing the world with or without me, and I'm just so grateful God has allowed me to be apart of their journey.

TGIF

I was so happy to hear that my co-workers that have been teaching for 5+ years each, were feeling just as exhausted as me today.  We had a lovely conversation at lunch about how we all can't wait to sleep in tomorrow!  5:00 am is just not humane, and I'm looking forward to having more than 6 hours sleep!  Have I mentioned just how incredibly awesome my department is?  Our little science team is fully of almost all women, with the exception of 1 male teacher.  I love our little lunches we have in the prep area among the glassware and chemicals!  And we just chat about everything!  Everyone is so light-hearted, I really feel like I can totally be myself, and these people are just flat out fantastic people.  I'm truly blessed to have such supportive, helpful and encouraging co-workers.  I really feel like I'm part of a team here, which is great!

We had an assembly today, where all the new teachers did a catwalk/fashion show of the new gear in the Spirit Store.  I rocked the foamy-spirit-finger, and man did I ever rock it!  Might have overdone it, but when I heard the cheers from the stadium... I felt the need to go cheerleader on them, and do the little skip, hop run with the waves and hand movements.  Was I mocking the cheerleaders???  No, I just so badly would like to be a cute little cheerleader with that oversized bow in her hair.  Anyway, timing was all wrong for me to have the spotlight with a giant foamy-finger on.  Hopefully some kids laughed... I'm sure most kids (who are way cool by the way), just rolled their eyes and said "Ew".

I have completed my first week of teaching!  I don't even know how many I have to go, but I think it's best that I don't do a countdown.  I'm gonna take it one week at a time and just try to enjoy it!  Today's classes were awesome.  The kids seem to be enjoying learning, I'm trying to make my classroom as dynamic as a science class can be.  My goal is to not sound like a Charlie Brown teacher, and get the kids looking forward to coming to class.  I don't have any real knuckle-heads.  One of my classes has some kids with behavioral/social issues, but nothing I can't handle.  I'll lay the smackdown when the time is right!

Last night we did Parent Curriculum night and quite a few parents came up to me to let me know that their kids were really happy I was teaching them this year in school.  I was so pysched to know that kids actually talked about me at home, and that they actually said good things.  I'm not fully devoted to making sure everyone of my students is my friend, but it's nice to know that some of the students have enjoyed my class so far, and that they enjoy my teaching.  Positive feedback is always great.... I'll hold onto these moments when in 3 months I get a nasty e-mail from a parent complaining about how incompetent I am :)

I had a successful dry-shirt day, finally defeated the power faucets in my sinks.  My fails today included tripping over every one of my students' feet as I passed out papers, as well as messing up words, including speaking with a French accent.... where did that come from?  Liberty  High School is great!  Life is great!  Now to go home have a glass of wine (or 2 or 3), and just relax!

Awesome day!

Yesterday was day two (another first day for my B-day students).  I am really enjoying getting to know the students.  It's an awesome student population here at Liberty.  I will definitely have my work cut out for me with some of them not really being able to read and write at grade level, but it's a challenge that really pumps me up!  Today I finally started really teaching.  We're talking about the Puget Sound in Biology, and in Chemistry we're discussing Measurement (sig figs, scale reading) leading up to our first lab next week (we're basically weighing a bunch of stuff, sounds fun right?).

Do any of you remember taking labs where they had the sinks that shot out water at rocket-speed?  Well I just experienced a HUGE splash of water because I was too ambitious with the faucet.  I got lots of water all over me and guess what color my shirt is????  Yep this white blouse is gonna be the talk of the school if it doesn't dry off in the next 20 min.  Thankfully I'm in my prep period right now... please dry.  I'm totally blowing air on myself.  I guess the good news is no other students or teachers have been injured in my lab, it's only I who has suffered the consequences of my ineptitude to keep things in one piece!

Other than that, Day 3 is going by quite blissfully.  I have Parent Curriculum night to look forward to tonight. I'm just praying that I can stay awake.  These hours are kind of killing me.  Waking up at 5:00 am and getting back home around 5/5:30 pm.  I don't drink coffee but I'm thinking this might be the year I start.  For now, it's green chai tea.... I'm hoping there are sufficient levels of caffeine in it, if not the placebo seems to be working!

First Day of School

So yesterday I survived the first day of school!  At the high school I'm teaching at there are 8 periods, and those periods are divided up into an A-day (Period 1-4) and a B-day (Period 5-8).  Periods are about 90 minutes long.

Period 1 yesterday was a little bit of a gong show.  My pacing was all off and I was left with about 25 minutes at the end of class and nothing planned!  Being the spontaneous, "go-with-the-flow" person I am (that's a lie), I decided I'd allow the kids to get a jump start on homework so I pulled out a laptop cart.  Well wouldn't you know it, none of the laptops were charged!  That did not deter me however, I offered the laptops that were in my closet.  Those were charged, but none of the students had their passwords or usernames, because it was after all the first period of the first day of school and they had not yet registered an account.  You know what was the best thing about all of this?  The laptop catastrophe really ate up a lot of time, so we were left with only a few minutes of class with absolutely nothing to do!  Lesson learned, have handouts on hand for when this stuff happens.

Thankfully, I get two first days to get the hang of things.  Today is my first B-day and I feel so much more experienced than yesterday.  I'm anticipating a lot of growth this year.... that's a nice way of saying that I have so not arrived and I have a ton to learn :)  Good thing I'm at a school, good place to learn stuff!