From the mixed up files of SP…

From an interesting roomie email:

“The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.”

It’s an interesting concept! Check it out-

http://kevan.org/jh/ashley+salter

post yours in the comments if I know you (who am I kidding- I know all of you people. This is not a popular blog) and I’ll fill it out!

Wonderful World of Tacos

This was my breakfast on saturday, brought home by my wonderful roomies:

A breakfast Taco! That’s right folks, not a breakfast burrito- a breakfast taco. It may not look like much in this blurry cell phone photo (on that note, I’m hoping my new iphone will take better photos when I get it, because I never seem to have my camera with me), these are one of the best things in the valley. I’ve become uncomfortably addicted, and it may be the downfall of my health.

That baby right there is a potato and egg breakfast taco. Moist scrambled eggs and seasoned potatoes, all packaged in an amazing fresh flour tortilla. It’s my breakfast nemesis. Every morning I try not to buy one… most mornings I fail. The problem is, this taco is from a gas station. A GAS STATION. and it’s good! How is it possible to avoid that? There are two Stripes stations that make these on my way to work, one at the very beginning of my drive and one at the end. So if I avoid the temptation the first time, I usually cave at the last minute.

Resolution: I will eat less than three of these this week. Baby steps. At least I’m not addicted to the donut shop right by work. Yet.

I wonder what it’s like to be the head honcho…

I hit gym nirvana today– that magical moment of running bliss when life just makes sense, or at least doesn’t seem quite so hectic. Then this song came on (name that artist?):

Straight up, what did you want to learn about here?

If I was someone else, would this all fall apart?

Strange, where were you when we started this game?

I wish the real world would just stop hassling me…

It struck a chord today. Sometimes I wonder what my kids think the purpose of school is. They are honestly surprised every time I say we’re going to read. In English class. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be learning?

I talked to a very nice math teacher at my school today who gave me some good advice on controlling my crazy class. Which made me wonder, of course, would my students be better off with someone else? Someone who can keep everyone in line so they can learn more?

It also made me think about every time my students say something that annoys or frustrates me. I wonder- do they even consider what goes into “this game?” Sometimes I think teachers are the most underestimated people on the planet. Students- think you’re working hard? Try our job.

And of course, the last line needs no explaining. Real world? go away please. just let me sleep, work out, and read all day. Ok? cool.

Highs and Lows of the day:

Low- getting hit by a ball of paper, by a students who then did not understand why they would get in trouble when “I wasn’t aiming at you miss, I missed the kid I was trying to hit.”

High- getting an email from a student. They can send me messages on my class webpage, and many of them often do. It makes every frustration of my day go away when I get a message from one of my kids, especially because of the content of these messages. Most of them don’t even have homework questions, they just want to say hi, ask me how my day was, or tell me something cool that happened to them. It reminds me that I really do adore these little people. Today’s message: “hey ms salter!!(: well i really enjoy your class cuz you make it really fun with all of your activities especially on fridays(: i really cant wait to start talking to the kids from florida(:”

High school students are just plain weird. They’re a bundle of contradictions. But when it comes down to it, my students are really nice kids. and that means a lot.

Dooley

We have dog fever in the lakehouse. Well, two of us do. Sam and I met a lovely little dog named Dooley at the animal shelter and we got so hooked. So now our household has begun a great conversation… to dog or not to dog?

Oh dearest blog readers, anonymous viewers of every kind, What are your thoughts?

New look?

Still working on it. Can you tell I’m a little change-happy with this blog?

Feeling blah today. I need to see a doctor for some migraine meds. But, I have a fun lesson planned for tomorrow!

Lakehouse internet Redux

Once again, our internet is on the fritz. Access is intermittent. Mental stability is wavering.

Welcome to the New World

I realized tonight that, in all my whining and complaining about how hard teaching is, I haven’t uploaded pictures of my classroom! I really do love my room. It’s a big sunny place (well, a big florescently lit place, but you can’t exactly expect windows as a new teacher), and I love the way my students have helped me decorate. The room is based around our big goal: we want to become “architects of our own worlds.” I’ll write more on that later, but the basic idea is that if you (ie my students) do not learn the skills of reading, writing, and respect, you have no choice about what world you live in. When you master those skills, you get to start making decisions for yourself. More detail on this at a later date, but for now, it’s bedtime. Tomorrow, I’m teaching plot diagrams, using the fresh prince theme song, a pixar short, and a short story we read. I’m so pumped!!

For now, welcome to the new world: Room 186!!

The front of my room!

student desks!

my desk!

During their first week, my students created “goal houses” to think about what the foundations are of their future goals, and what they need to do to get there! As an added bonus, they’re super pretty and now decorate my room. This picture is from my phone so it loses some of the majesty, but here it is nonetheless:

so pretty!

Sleep approaches. Tomorrow: a debrief on the week, and pictures of tonight’s lakehouse cooking night!