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Thursday, February 26, 2015

A Hard Day at Work






Is this You?  You get on the computer with the intent of “working” on something.

A lesson plan.
A letter about an upcoming field trip.
A home budget on Excel.
An update for your teacher webpage.

Just something productive.  Something necessary.  You have the timethe cup of coffeethe abilitythe dogs have been outdinner isn’t for hours
you get the picture

So here you go.  Open up PowerPoint.  Oops, you need some cute clip art for your lesson plan on PowerPoint.  Open up TpT to look for clip art.  Find a new seller who has the cutest button

Ever

So here is your afternoon: 

Link to her store - find her blog page - read her stuff - link to other products - order a book from Amazon because SHE recommended it.  Buy 8 of her products.  Transfer money to your Paypal.  Check Facebook.  Change your picture on Twitter.  Respond to email.  Pin a couple of pins on Pinterest.  Read another blog.  Decide to start your own blog.  Hire a designer to design your blog.  Love the colors she is using.  Click on Overstock.com to see if you can find a bedspread in the same color your blog designer is using for your new blog.  Make a pot of coffee.  Order the cutest coffee pot from Overstock.com.  Click on bloglovin to see what blogs SHE follows.  Follow all those blogs.  Find her Pinterest board.  Follow all her Pinterest boards.  Start your own “secret” board.  Wonder how to make a Prezi.  YouTube it.  Download Prezi.  Wonder if your school system’s technology can support Prezi.  Click on the technology department for your school system.  No mention of Prezi.  Email somebody.  Respond to all your emails.  Get an email that the bedspread you ordered in the color of your new blog is out of stock.  Contact your blog designer to ask her to change the colors to match your new bedspread.  Go pee.  Realize your baseboards are NASTY.  Fill a bucket with Mr. Clean and go at them.  Come back to computer because you never began the lesson plan.  Check Facebook.  Realize it’s now time to switch to wine.  Youtube is still open.  Click on bloopers of Carol Burnette show and laugh the night away until your husband wants to watch Blue Bloods.  Get another glass of wine.  That’s enough work on the computer today.  There’s always tomorrow. 

That’s a tiny stretch of reality there with a whole boatload of truth sprinkled in. 

The point of this rambling is this - Did you know or AM I THE ONLY HUMAN ON EARTH WHO DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS…….

Did you know.

Were you aware.

Have you researched.

DID YOU KNOW there are software companies, apps, programs, etc.  - who will take your credit card information and charge  you on a monthly basis ..

TO KEEP YOU FROM HAVING THE ABILITY TO DO MOST OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED STUFF?????

You can pay a company and tell them -

I need to make a lesson plan from 10:00 to 11:30.  Please, oh, please, whatever you do…….DON’T LET ME ON THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES UNTIL THE PLAN IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!
·    Facebook
·    Pinterest
·    Email
·    Twitter
·    Bucket with Mr. Clean
·    Wine bottle

You can pay a company and tell them THIS.  And they will keep you off of most of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Here’s the kicker though……….There are discussion boards about which ones are UNHACKABLE and which ones you can get around!!!  There are people who have paid these companies so they can work in peace..then have tried to hack into Facebook……found a way to do it..then spend time explaining how to get around the software that you just paid to keep you working. 

We’re swimming upstream, folks. 

Just keep swimming. 





Wednesday, February 18, 2015

It's Poetry Time!!!!!


I haven’t blogged in a long, long time. Actually, that’s not true!!!  I’ve blogged in my local newspaper!!!!!  



That’s kept me super busy -

not really the writing.

or the cooking……

or the photos..

Nope.  What kept me busy was the WORRY!!!!  

But there it is.  It’s out there, so on to something else!

It’s time to teach poetry in my classroom.  Hear the collective sighs of many adolescent boys as they think, “Yippee!”  Here’s what’s going on in class -

·      I’ve jumped onboard with Jeff Anderson’s “Mentor Sentences,” and I LOVE IT!!!!!  I will keep this strategy FOREVER.  Check out his book..





·      I’ve also jumped onboard with Kelly Gallagher’s thoughts on mentor texts and week-long, current-event texts.  Check out his book……







·      I’ve been onboard with interactive notebooks.  I will never get rid of them in my classroom.  I will, however, strive to improve them every year!!!!!

After combining all of these strategies that I’m currently using in my classroom, I’ve created two new products.  One is a week-long study of Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers.”  The other is an updated study of Langston Hughes’ poem, “Mother to Som.”  Here are links to them.just in case you are interested.







Well, it’s 7:00am, and I’ve been working since 5:00am.  Time for more coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 



Happy teaching!!!