See you real soon!

Today, as I was leaving school, I saw the orchestra teacher and a history teacher walking down the hallway. I said, "See you guys later!" After a moment's pause, one of them replied, "Come back again!"

I had to chuckle as I said, "I sure will!"

As if I have a choice.

Weird Conversation with a Random Person

I was talking to my friend Shukria (the P.E. teacher) after school. She asked what I was doing this weekend and I mentioned I had a date. While we were talking about it, a random guy walked by and was opening the door to the janitorial room, obviously listening to what we were saying. I mentioned it was my second date with this person and I was a little nervous about making a good impression. This random dude jumps in to the conversation and the three of us proceed to have the following dialogue.

Guy: If it makes you feel any better, I only went on two dates with my wife before we got engaged.
Me: Oh, no! And this is my second date...that's a lot of pressure!
Guy: In fact, our two dates were after we were engaged. We always just hung out before.
Me: Oh, so you knew each other for awhile before you got engaged, then.
Guy: One month.
Me: Oh wow.
Guy: But we've been married for 6 and together for 9 now.
Me: Years?
Guy: No, months. I'm only 21, for crying out loud!
Me: You're just a baby!
Guy: And MY baby is coming on December 17th.
Shukria: ...and, he's reproducing!
Me: Congratulations!

I had one of those, "Did we just have that conversation?" moments after that was all said and done.

I Want To Be a Super Model

Today is Hawaiian shirt Friday! Our school theme is "Dixon Ohana" and each Friday, the faculty wears a Hawaiian shirt and jeans. I have now expanded my Hawaiian shirt collection to two in honor of this tradition.

Since this really is my teaching diary, I am going to share a huge revelation I had about teaching today. It has improved things dramatically from last year. Every other Friday, we have talent day. Last year, it was a STRUGGLE to try to get the class to run in an organized fashion on talent days. I couldn't get the students to take their own performances seriously and behave (semi) professionally. I realized it was because I didn't give them a clear idea of what I wanted before I began the talent day program (probably because I really didn't know what the heck I wanted). This year, after having experienced last year's ups and downs, I knew how I wanted talent day to run and I kicked it off with an example for the students. I walked to the front of the class, said my name, what I'd be performing, and then played a part of a song. Afterward, I bowed. The demonstration took about 30 seconds and was extremely simple. It was shocking to me, however, how well my students followed suite when it was their turn to perform. I learned that modeling appropriate behavior is by far the best way to teach. It establishes proper habits from the get go, rather than trying to enforce good behavior later.

I love getting emails like this one:

"Hi Miss Houston. This is your seventh period favorite student Matt! I was just wondering why my grade lowered even more? I was good today and I did my assignment all right. So I am just pretty confused. If you could tell me why that'd be great!
Thanx!!!

-Matt"

A little background: I knew this student's name the first day of school. Teachers always learn the names of the students that are the most rambunctious first, because those are the names they have to repeat over and over again within the first 30 minutes of class. "Matt, quiet please." "Matt, turn around in your chair please." The reason for his grade drop, FYI, was that he forgot to put his name on his paper. Let's not mention the fact that it took him ten minutes to even begin the assignment because he hadn't been listening when I gave instructions and had no idea what was going on while everyone else was busy working. He can find his paper among the "no names" and bring it to me for credit today.

Who's the boss?:

Today, a couple of my 8th grade boys from my first period were chasing each other around a few minutes before the bell rang for class to start. One of them yelled, "Ms. Houston, make him stop!" I responded, "I'm not in charge until the bell rings." About a minute later, a bewildered girl in the front row said to me, "I have never, ever heard a teacher say that before." Whoops. I tried to back pedal by saying, "I just don't want to be in the middle of your fights." Another student exclaimed, "So you mean we can have fights up until the bell rings?"

Sigh.

A Different Bag of Tricks...

When I'd complain about unfair treatment between me and one of my siblings, my mom always said to me, "You have to use a different bag of tricks with every child."

I am realizing it's like that with each of my different periods of 7th grade choir. I teach 4 periods of the same material. What works with my other classes absolutely has no effect on my 5th period. I don't know what to do. They just look at me and say next to nothing all period long despite my desperate attempts to help them participate. Sometimes I'll think, "But this worked so well for 3rd period..." But then I have to remember what my mother always told me.

Yesterday, I had a difficult time staying indifferent to their indifference. When the bell rang for class to be over, one student yelled, "Yes!" as though my class had been the most boring thing he'd ever sat through in his life. I blurted out, "Don't say, 'yes!' you mean, mean people!" Yeah. Real mature.

I need to find a way to reach them. I just don't know how yet.

The Last Straw

I had back to school blues last week.

I started feeling immense amounts of pressure at work. It's scary to be responsible for providing students with a fun curriculum that will actually help them LEARN something new. I started wondering if I really had it in me to do it this year. I started questioning my career choice. and wondering what else I could possibly do if I decided not to teach.

I think we all have moments like that in our chosen professions, don't we?

The feelings of panic subsided, and I'm back to really loving my job. I feel so lucky to get to be with 12-14 year old kids every day and watch them discover what they can do.

I remembered something this week, too. It doesn't always take much to spark students' interest. I was concerned about having to figure out elaborate things to teach every concept; however, I forgot that even a small change in routine can make a big difference.

For example, I taught today about four pillars of supported singing. I brought in four cylindrical cans to be the pillars and used a plain piece of paper for the roof (not my most creative moment). I was trying to figure out what exciting thing to put inside the cans to represent each "pillar" (breathing, posture, vowels, and space). Finally, I settled on just writing each word down and putting one in each can. When I gave the lesson, the kids were so excited to get called on just to open the cans that they didn't really care what was inside. I almost made it way more complicated than it needed to be to get across a simple point.

I was stressing out last week about being a fun and exciting teacher, but I was shooting myself in the foot in the process. Instead of making me a more effective instructor, worrying made me not want to teach any more. Focusing on simple but new ways to present material works much better for me than trying to be the most fun and creative teacher on the planet.

Which brings me to the straws.

Those of you who have ridden in my car the past five months may have noticed a bag full of hundreds of straws that never made it's way back into the house after we used them for Melissa's birthday party in March. I have probably gotten 50 comments on that bag of straws of alone. We bought the bag at Costco and probably used about 25 out of 1,300 or so. I think they are only intended to be bought in those kinds of quantities by restaurant owners. I've tried to think of ways of getting rid of the straws without actually throwing them away, including an April Fool's joke on my sister. It truly is the never-ending bag of straws, however.

Today during my prep period, I was trying to figure out how to teach posture tomorrow. When one sings, he/she needs to stand up straight and tall like a...like a......a.... like a straw! BINGO! I think I learned the straw analogy in college. I'm bringing the whole bag to school tomorrow and passing them out during the posture part of class. I'll have them blow through the straw straight first. Then, I'll have them bend the straw and try blowing through it again and see how much less effective it is. When your posture is slumped, you can't breathe as well. The end.

I'll keep using that bag of straws for next semester, too. And the semester after that. And probably the semester after that as well.

What about Bob?

That is my question for you, ladies and gentlemen.

What IS it about the name, Bob, anyway? Why is it so dang funny?

You say the name, "Bob," and everyone erupts into giggles.

No, seriously. Try it. The next time someone asks what your name is, just say, "Bob," and see what happens.

Case in point:

Today, I had to take my biannual teacher test. In each 7th grade period, I had to say all my students' names in 60 seconds or less without making a mistake in order to win. If I made a mistake, I had to give them a treat. In one period, I got stuck on a boy's name. I finally blurted out, "Bob!" and I felt like I had made some really awesome joke.

But I didn't.

It was the name BOB.

Popular

Two days before school began, my co-worker (also the band director) came to my office to ask if I could help her with a musical number for the faculty retreat. In less than an hour we raided the costume closet at Dixon and threw together "Popular" from Wicked. We performed it at the faculty retreat and it was a lot of fun. I dressed Christy up to be "popular" throughout the song, giving her ridiculous sparkly shoes, a wig, a boa, and lipstick for blush.

After the skit was over, my department head informed me that our department was supposed to do a skit for the 7th grade assembly the next day and he wondered if we could do the same thing, but add in the rest of our teachers. So, all 7 of the teachers in my department sat on stools while they got "popularfied" by me in a pink, puffy dress in front of an aduitorium full of 7th graders. They provided items for me to adorn them with, including hats and scarves.

Opportunities to humiliate yourself without caring what anyone thinks come along rarely in one's life, so I decided to take full advantage of the moment.

I didn't get any pictures because my camera was dead, but I'm hoping to get more pictures from another teacher that include what Christy looked like at the retreat! Stay tuned.

The next day, I read a book out loud to my SWELL students called, "Things are Scary." My mentor teacher suggested doing this and then talking with the 7th graders about what had scared them about the first day in a brand new school with a whole new schedule. Of course they had to preserve their image in front of their friends, so no one admitted to being scared of ANYTHING the first day of middle school. I was really happy when one girl finally raised her hand, until I heard her response: "The teachers' skits scared me."

Rhino Shmino

Yesterday was the first day of school for 7th graders and today was the first day of school for 8th graders. Today, I had the 8th graders do a "getting to know you" activity where they each chose a colored dot and answered a question based on the color they chose. The question for the neon green dot was, "What is the coolest thing that has ever happened to you?" When it was one particular student's turn to share, she said, "The coolest thing that has ever happened to me was that I got in a rhino crash."

A rhino crash?

What?

It turns out that every 12-14 year old seems to know what a rhino is.

I thought I knew what a rhino was, but apparently the kind she was referring to looks something like this:

As opposed to this:



You learn something new every day.

The Day Before the First Day of School

The purpose of this blog is to talk about my trials, travails, and utter joys as a teacher of middle school students. I feel like my life, apart from teaching, is not nearly as interesting as my life as a teacher of 12-14 year old boys and girls. School is starting again, and now things should get a bit more exciting. So, here we go....presenting, "A Teacher's Diary, Take Two!"

Last night was Back to School night. The administration asked us to prepare a power point presentation to show parents what would be going on in our classroom. I had new 7th graders and returning 8th graders come in to watch the presentation throughout the evening. One particular 8th grade student was one of my first semester 7th grade chorus students last year. As she was leaving my classroom after the power point presentation at back to school night, she said, "Ms. Houston, it looks like you're starting to get the hang of things!" As I kind of sat there dumbfounded, not quite sure how to respond, she said, "You know, because you were new last year and everything..." My hopes and dreams of coming across cool, calm, and collected last year as a first year teacher were crushed in that instant. There was a mother standing nearby who saw the exchange and looked a little embarrassed for me. I had to laugh and feel grateful to appear a little more prepared this year!

Let the fun begin!

The girls are back in town!

Holly came for a visit this weekend and we've been having all sorts of fun!




Some of the activities we've done include (but are not limited to) the following:

My roommates and I introduced Holly to Magelby's Chocolate cake, our apartment's tradition
We visited my classroom and Kate's school
We had "homemade" pizza (so I bought the crust...sue me!)
While I was at work, Holly took the bus to SLC and walked all over looking for Jewish graves
We had a traditional Provo Brick Oven dinner
We went to 'yo-zone' with T-Ray Mills
We rented what turned out to be the worst movie on earth and fast forwarded through most of it
We had a pancake breakfast with Tina, Jer, Melissa, Kate, and Tracy
We went to the movie "500 Days of Summer" with Kate, Melissa, and Tracy
We tried out the Sweet Tooth Fairy Bakery cupcakes (located near the Provo Town Center Mall)
We read and napped and read and slept, etc.
We watched "Ink Heart"

And the good times just keep on a-rollin'...

Birthday Beach BBQ Bash

Today was a very special DATE
for a very special girl named KATE
who is our very special roomMATE!
It was GREAT!
She turned twenty-EIGHT (minus two).

Here is the birthday girl:


Here are the birthday decorations:





Here are the birthday hostesses:




Here are the birthday guests:













Here are the impromptu birthday games:




Thanks to Melissa's mom and dad for letting us use their beautiful yard!

Stiffy

This is my friend Stiffy (on the right).


Here are some things you need to know about Brett Stifflemire:

1. He's awesome (that was his suggestion for number one).
2. He makes cheesecake.
3. He's a monkey. He can perform on rings and parallel bars and do a front flip into the pool.
4. He is our neighbor.
5. He watches the food network.
6. He is studying film criticizing.
7. He is from Alabama, y'all.
8. He is 5 foot 4 and 1/2 inches enormous.
9. He thinks taller woman are hot.
10. He defines himself emotionally by Spongebob Squarepants.

That's all. Thanks for your friendship, Stiffy.