Time to Tweak Another Resolution

The year 2014 is two-thirds finished. I’ve said before, and I firmly believe, the older we get, the faster time passes. I don’t know if it’s because we’re more aware of the passing of time or if it’s because we are so much busier and doing so many different things that it just appears to pass more quickly. Regardless of the reason, years move along much more quickly now than they used to, and when one is attempting to meet a certain number of resolutions during that year, one becomes keenly aware that when the year is two-thirds finished and there are kinks in the resolutions, it is not likely that all those resolutions will be met. I’ve already tweaked a resolution or two, and being much more logical and realistic than I was 20 years ago, I realize I have others that need tweaking, especially if I’d like to see a bit of success.

The Blog Resolution. I tweaked this goal so that I would post two blogs per week. I did well with that for the first couple weeks of August, but last week, that didn’t really pan out. I knew with the start of school that I’d have some time issues to deal with. There simply isn’t enough of it. Between lesson planning (daily and unit plans), grading papers, recording grades, and gathering materials, that doesn’t leave a lot of time left over. However, I still believe this to be a reasonable goal, and I will continue to attempt to do two blogs per week for the remainder of the year.

The Reading Resolution. This is the one that I suspect I may have the most trouble with by year’s end. Well, it’ll be this one or the weight-loss one. I’m not ready to tweak this goal, and for now, the goal remains to read 84 books by December 31. To date, I should have read 56 books to be on pace to reach that goal. However, to date, I have only read 51. Down five books, that means I have a lot of catch-up to do, and it’s sometimes difficult to do with all the other demands on my time. I’m still eager to try to hit 84 for the year, though, so I’ll just keep chugging along.

The Weight-Loss Resolution. This one has also been difficult, but it’s not really a time issue like the book resolution is. Instead, the problem here is me and my lack of devotion to making it happen. Last year, I lost 35 pounds, and I’m grateful that weight has stayed off, but I’ve not really lost a lot this year, though my goal in January was 40 pounds for the year. Each month, I rededicate myself to the goal and increase the pounds per month I’d have to lose to reach 40 pounds by the end of the year. I’m to the point now that I’d have to lose ten pounds each remaining month to hit 40 pounds by the end of the year. I’m realistic enough to know that probably isn’t going to happen now. Therefore, yet again, I’m having to revise my goal. I’m now going to try to lose 20 pounds by the end of the year, an average of five pounds per month. This is doable, but I’ve got to follow my own advice of developing a plan and sticking to it, and I’ve got to get back on track with writing down my food intake. I can do this, if I will make myself stick to the plan. If I can lose 20 pounds by December, then I can lose another 40 next year, and by December 2015, I should be at my goal weight.

The Try-Something-New Resolution. This one is probably the easiest to accomplish. I have managed to try four new things in August. First, we tried the new Miller’s Cafe that just opened up in town. The BBQ chicken sandwich I had was amazing. I’m super-thrilled with the arrival of the two new restaurants in town (Miller’s Cafe and Kelsey’s on Main) that give us options other than fast food. Both have amazing food. I also tried butternut squash for the first time. I fixed it like I would have fixed sweet potatoes, and I thought it was really good. I tried a new recipe this month as well for spicy peachy pork chops, and we enjoyed it. Finally (and for those of you who live for the Honey Festival just to get a corn dog, you may want to make sure you’re sitting down), I tried my first ever 4H Corn Dog from their booth at the Honey Festival. When I tell people this, the look of shock upon their faces is undeniable. The thing is, though, that I don’t like corn dogs. I’ve tried corn dogs before, and for whatever reason, I just didn’t like that batter around the hot dog. Therefore, my logic was simple. If I didn’t like corn dogs, why would I go buy a corn dog, 4H or otherwise? I had a group of students this year, however, who kept telling me “but these are different,” and so, I promised them that I’d give it a try. And, you know what? They were right. The 4H Corn Dog was unlike any other corn dog I’d ever had, and I really did like it. I suppose it was worth the 20-minute wait and the sunburn I got while waiting. I will make sure to get another at next year’s festival.

The Prayer and Gratitude Journals Resolution. This is still going well. Other than the Try-Something-New Resolution, this is probably the next easiest to complete. Most days I don’t have to think very long or hard about what I want to include in the gratitude journal and I just include requests I see on Facebook or that I hear in church in the prayer journal.

Four months remain. The first three resolutions are really the only three I’m worried about whether I’ll ultimately have success or not. I’ve got four months to prove that I can achieve these resolutions. Nobody can do it for me; it’s something I have to make up my own mind to do, and I’m going to try to recommit myself to these resolutions so that I’ll be inspired enough to see them through.

Turning Right on Red

There’s one thing I’m very curious about. In Kentucky, school buses are not allowed to make a right turn on a red light. Why not? It makes no sense. I’m guessing it’s some sort of safety issue, but what isn’t making sense to me is how is it safer to keep a bus from turning right on red? I’ve never heard of a school bus wreck that happened because the driver makes a right turn on a red light. Of course, that doesn’t mean one hasn’t happened, but it seems to me that nearly all accidents involving school buses are unrelated to right turns on red.

You might say that there haven’t been any (or very, very few) accidents because the law is that they cannot make that turn, thus they don’t. However, that hasn’t always been the law, and I don’t recall accidents prior to it becoming a law. In addition, explain to me how turning right on red is different from making turns at stop signs. When there is a two-way, three-way, or four-way stop sign at an intersection, bus drivers (and the other drivers on the road) have to follow the law of navigating the intersection, knowing when it’s their turn to go through the intersection. To me, it would seem that a driver having to make a turn at a four-way intersection that has a two-way stop sign is much more dangerous than a driver turning right at a red light. If we can trust bus drivers to make a safe decision about navigating an intersection with stop signs, why can’t we trust that same driver to make a safe decision about turning right on a red light at a different intersection?

I’m all for keeping our students safe. I’m just not sure how this particular law does that. I understand that in the name of safety, bus drivers have different rules. Coming to a full stop and opening the door at the train tracks is a law that makes sense to me in the name of student safety, even though I haven’t heard of any accidents involving a bus and a train. This law makes sense because it gives the driver time to stop and be sure that the tracks are clear, the same way he would be stopping at a stop sign or red light at an intersection to make sure the road is clear. When the driver determines the track is clear, he/she is free to travel on. When the driver determines the intersection is clear and it’s his/her turn and there is a stop sign, he/she is free to travel on. Yet, when the driver determines the intersection is clear and any other vehicle on the road could turn right at that red light, he/she is not free to travel on. The bus just has to sit there, often creating a huge line of traffic behind it.

As I said, I’m all for keeping our students safe, but it seems to me that there are other safety issues that need to be addressed on our school buses that would keep students safer than prohibiting a driver from turning right on red. Why not put air conditioning on buses so students aren’t having to ride with the all the windows down in order to try to stay cool? Why not have seat belts on buses? We have seat belt laws, and we have child restraint laws, yet we fill buses with children who are not restrained by a simple seat belt, and certainly not by a car seat or booster seat that kids are required to have in cars now until they are eight or nine years old. If that school bus flips, kids will go flying all over the place, and if windows are down, students could go flying out those windows. I have heard of accidents where buses have flipped and children have been injured. To me, this seems like a greater safety issue to address. I do understand that this issue will cost a lot more money than the law that prohibits drivers from turning right on red, but if student safety is our concern, shouldn’t all safety issues be addressed, regardless of the cost?

Great Expectations for a New School Year

We officially have two weeks of school in the books and have had eight days with students. This is the beginning of my 18th year, and I’m very pleased to say that it’s been an excellent start to the year for me.

This year I have, as of now, 58 students in English 100, 46 in AP, and 50 in English IV. That’s about the average number I usually have in English IV, so no surprises there. However, based on my previous English 100 and AP classes, my numbers there are huge this year. I’m thrilled that many students met the criteria to be placed in English 100 and get the benefit of the dual-credit class, with the ability to earn free college credit hours. I’m also thrilled to have so many good students interested in and enrolled in AP. If I don’t reach my goal for the number of books read this year, it’s going to be because of all the extra time I’ll be putting in reading English 100 and AP essays. In the past, I would have maybe 60-65 such essays to read at one time. Now, there will be over 100, and that will take a bit more time. I won’t complain, though, because it’s really a great thing that we have so many students enrolled in these classes.

It’s been a busy year so far. In addition to having more students in class, there will be other challenges ahead. For English IV, we are piloting standards-based grading, which requires that we revise how we teach the content of English IV and how we assess the content of English IV. Since most of this is new to us, that means a lot more work for us. I’m already feeling that I’ll never get ahead during this school year. However, I’m trying to keep it in perspective. After these new materials are created, next year will be much, much easier. It takes a lot less time to tweak than it does to create. This year will definitely be a busy one.

We’ve definitely hit the ground running, which may explain why I’m good and tired by the end of the day, and I have great expectations for this school year. My goal is that all students pass both English 100 and 200 and earn their free college hours. I also hope and pray that I don’t have to deal with any plagiarism issues for the English 100 and 200 classes. Last year, I had more kids pass the AP exam than I’ve ever had pass the exam, and my goal is that even more will pass this year. For English IV, my goal is that this standards-based grading pilot will be a success. I’ve no reason to believe that these goals are unattainable. We (both the students and me) will just have to work hard to make it happen.

Save, Save, and Save Again

If you are entering high school, one of the investments you need to make is a flash drive. Fortunately, the price of this device has decreased significantly from when they first hit the market. The size of the flash drive required depends on what you’ll be using it for. Obviously, the more you’ll be saving, the bigger it will need to be. If, however, you’re going to use it as I’m going to suggest here, a two-gig device will provide you with plenty of storage. If you are entering college and for some reason have not yet invested in a flash drive, you definitely need to get one now.

One of the things I try to stress to all my students, but especially to the college class, is the need to save their work in multiple locations. It may be because I’m paranoid I’ll work hard on something and then lose it, but it’s just good practice to have your work saved in more than one place. Should the unthinkable happen (and really, it’s not all that unthinkable; computers and programs crash and get viruses, the electricity goes out while you’re working on something, etc.) you still have a copy of the work. All is not totally lost. To make this easy to do, I’m going to share with you what works for me.

First, when I was a student, I started on my laptop, in the “My Documents” folder, by creating a folder called “Morehead State University.” I suggest you do the same, using the name of your high school or university. Inside that folder, I created another folder and named it for the school year. If I were doing this for this school year, that folder would be named “2014-15.” By the time I finished taking classes, I had many folders for many years’ worth of work. As a college student, I would create two folders inside that yearly folder. One would be named “Fall 2014” and the other “Spring 2015.” Then inside those folders, I would create a folder for each class I was registered for. Inside those class folders, I would create folders to organize whatever class materials I needed to keep track of. As a high school student, where your classes don’t change each semester, inside that yearly folder, I wouldn’t create a folder to break it down into semesters. I would just skip to the next step and make a folder for each class I was taking. Then, as I create documents for each class, I would save it in the appropriate folder. That’s the first place everything would be saved.

The second place everything would be saved is on my flash drive. This is really simple to do. You don’t have to repeat all those steps you went through on the laptop. Instead, after you have your filing system created, just drag that entire school-named folder over to the flash drive. As you create a document, do a “save as” to save it first to the laptop folder, then do another “save as” and save it to the flash drive. And just like that, you quickly and easily have the document saved to two different places. You could probably stop there, but my paranoia asks, “What if the laptop crashes and I lose my flash drive?” Therefore, I keep saving.

A third way to have access to the documents you create, especially if it is a document in progress that you have to work on over several days or weeks, is to email it to yourself. By doing this, you will be able to access it wherever you can pull up your email. I don’t often do that because I have other methods I use for additional backup, but it is a quick and easy option to have another copy of your work.

As a teacher, my “Morehead State University” folder has become “Teaching Materials.” I still start with putting the year as the next set of folders. I currently have folders going back to 2009-10 on my laptop. For earlier years, before external storage devices became so popular and cheap, I have those files backed up on CDs. Each year, I create a new folder for that year, add folders inside that for the classes I’m teaching and for other things that are useful as a teacher. I copy over what I’ll be using from the previous year’s folder and add the new stuff I’ll be using. By storing things in this way, though, whether as an MSU student or a BHS teacher, I have access to all the materials I’ve ever created, and if I need something, I know where to look for it.

Also, as a teacher, I not only have my laptop at home, but I also have my teacher computer at work. That “Teaching Materials” folder is saved on my laptop, copied to my flash drive, and then copied again to my computer at work. I now have all my teaching documents saved in three places. As a student, you likely won’t have an extra computer to save your work to, but that’s fine. For me, I also have an external hard drive with a terabyte of storage (which I thought would be more storage than I’d ever use, but with as many pictures as I take of the grandbabies, I now think I can fill it; if I do, no big deal, I’ll buy another), and as of right now, all the files on my laptop (documents, pictures, video, and music) are backed up on the external hard drive. For me, that is now four places I have my “Teaching Materials” folder saved. I also have a Dropbox account where I put my “Teaching Materials” folder. I’m up to five places. That may seem like a bit much, but I’m always afraid I’ll lose my data, so I backup my backups (I’m so paranoid about losing my pictures that I have them on the laptop, the external hard drive, Jimmy’s desktop, and Jimmy’s external hard drive).

The thing is you work hard on the documents you will be preparing for classes, and you don’t want to lose them. Even when that class is finished, don’t get rid of those documents. You just never know when something there will be useful in the future. I’d be sure to have at least three copies of my documents saved in various places. If you’re paranoid like I am, then go for four or five places. The biggest thing you’ll need to remember is to keep all the locations current. You don’t necessarily have to do that every day, but once a week, you’ll want to copy those files from the laptop to the flash drive to your other source so that you always have the most up-to-date version of your document.

If you’re just entering high school, you have a lot of years of school left, especially if you plan to attend college. If you’re just entering college, you still have a lot of school left. You’ll be doing a lot of hard work over the next few years. It’s to your advantage to keep up with that work. Saving your work is vital to that. Hopefully, these suggestions will help you do that.

Supplies Are Needed and Appreciated

There’s a lot that goes into teaching, and much of that is behind the scenes. Unless you are actually in the education profession, it’s hard to understand just what is involved in getting ready for class. Most folks assume we have summers off, entirely free to do whatever we wish, and that’s just not the case. This summer was relatively short compared to some we’ve had, which means that I’ve spent more days working on school stuff than I’ve spent doing whatever I wish.

My contract pays me for 185 days a year. I am not paid for the 30 days during the summer I spend getting ready for the upcoming school year. I am not paid for the weekends during the school year that are spent finishing lesson plans or grading student essays (and I can easily spend eight hours on a Saturday grading 50 student essays). I’m not complaining. I’m getting ready to being my 18th year as a teacher, and this extra time is one of the things I’ve just come to accept.

I do understand that every school in every district across the country has a teacher (in some cases, perhaps, more than one) who isn’t very effective. I don’t want to be that teacher so I put in some extra time to make sure I get things finished and that I can be more effective in the classroom. I also like to believe (and I really hope I’m right) that most teachers do try to be effective and work hard to keep improving that effectiveness.

In addition, most teachers I know spend their own money to purchase supplies for their classroom. Like most folks out there, teachers live on a budget, have families of their own, and have lives outside the classroom (I know; for many, this last one is such a foreign concept, but it’s true). It’s not right that teachers should have to do this, but they do so they have supplies. Myself, I tend to buy pencils and paper to keep stocked in my room for those kids who never bring them, and let’s face it, there are just some kids who will never bring paper and pencils to class. I could fuss about it. I could send them to the office. However, neither of those solutions solves the problem. Instead, I can give them a sheet of paper and a pencil, and suddenly, they have no excuse to not complete that day’s assignment. In addition to paper and pencil, I buy Kleenex and hand sanitizer to keep on my desk. I keep paper towels in my room. These may seem like small purchases, and when just buying one or two items at a time, they are, but if you consider how many times I have to make a trip to Walmart to replenish the supply, it adds up over the course of the school year. The IRS allows teachers to deduct a whopping $250 from their income for supplies purchased with their own money. Most of us spend more than that during the year. It’s not just these basic supplies we buy, we also buy books for our classrooms, either ones with teaching strategies or materials, or books for our students to read. These aren’t nearly as cheap as a pack of paper and the totals can add up quickly.

Some teachers, especially primary teachers, will put together a supply list for students so that when back-to-school shopping time comes around, parents know what to buy. These teachers will often include things like a box of Kleenex or a package of Lysol wipes on their list. Don’t begrudge them this. I can assure you that even if every student brings in one of these items, that teacher will still be buying Kleenex to bring to the classroom, especially in a primary classroom.

Times are tight for everyone, and the teacher isn’t trying to stick it to you if he/she asks for some classroom supplies that seem out of the ordinary. If you can, help him/her out. If you can send that teacher a bottle of hand sanitizer, a box of Kleenex, a package of Lysol wipes, a pack of paper, a box of pencils, a roll of paper towels, a box of paper clips, or anything else at all, that teacher will appreciate it more than you will ever know. Some may think it’s actually kind of sad how excited teachers get about little things like this. But most teachers really do love their jobs, really do try to make a difference, and really do work hard to keep getting better and better so that your child can have the best education possible.

Your Senior Year Will Be a Busy One

This blog is primarily for students who will be high school seniors in 2014-15 and their parents. The senior year of high school is extremely important as it is the last year of school before students enter the real world. That real world will either be attending college, entering the work force, or joining the military. While many students have the misconception that their senior year should be their easiest year because it is the last year before entering the real world, the opposite is actually true. Because this is the last year before entering the real world, the senior year should be the most challenging.

In addition to providing a challenging academic year to close out high school, the senior year is filled with many other components that make it challenging. Senior pictures, cap and gown orders, invitations to graduation, and senior prom are just the beginning of the challenges. Others include completing college applications, scholarship applications, and the FAFSA.

Here are a few tips to make the senior year more manageable.

1. Students who plan to go to college should choose at least three colleges that they would like to attend. They should visit those colleges, talk to the admissions counselors at the colleges about admission requirements and deadlines, talk to the financial aid counselor about scholarships and deadlines, sit in on a class there, research the academic programs they are interested in, and talk to students who go there. After doing these things, if they are still interested, they should apply to all the schools they might want to attend. Students should not put all their eggs in one basket. You never know what life events will occur over the next year. Give yourself options; that’s why I suggest at least three. Obviously, if you want to do more, that’s fine. However, do not wait until late in the year to start. You should start your college search in August when you return to school for your senior year.

2. Students who plan to go to college should start looking for scholarships in August. Scholarships have application deadlines, and they will not change those, so it’s important to get your scholarship applications in by the deadlines. Therefore, it’s important to start looking early. For the schools you are considering attending, check to see which scholarships you are eligible for and apply. There are a lot of general scholarships. Do a Google search for scholarships and look for those you qualify for. Don’t just do this one time. New scholarships are added frequently, so it’s important to check at least once a month. Check with your guidance counselor regularly to see what scholarship offers have been sent to your school. Check local businesses for scholarships they have. I know in my area, my car insurance company, my electric company, and a phone company all have scholarships for their customers. In addition, there are several other local scholarships available. These scholarships won’t come looking for you. You have to go looking for them.

3. Complete the FAFSA as early in January 2015 as possible. You cannot complete it before January 1. You will need financial information from your parents and for yourself. If your parents haven’t filed their 2014 taxes yet, that’s OK. You can complete the FAFSA, check “will file” and use your 2013 tax data. After you complete your 2014 taxes, you go back into the application and edit the information with the new data. Here’s the thing. Even if you know your parents’ income is too much for you to qualify for financial aid, you must complete the FAFSA. Your college will not be able to process any financial aid awards, including scholarships, if you do not have a completed FAFSA on file. It’s important to apply early. Kentucky offers grant money in addition to the federal grants. Each year, Kentucky runs out of grant money earlier and earlier in the year. So, it’s simple. Apply as early as possible.

4. If you aren’t planning to go to college, you still need to start making plans. Decide where you’d like to work, and check with those places to make sure you are ready to apply upon graduation. See if those places have an internship program you can participate in during the school year. If you’re thinking about the military, talk to recruiters. Whatever you’re going to do, gather information, talk to your parents about that information, ask questions if you don’t understand something, and make the most informed decision possible.

5. Practice good college and career ready skills throughout the year. Attendance is important to employers and to college professors. Practice good attendance during your senior year. Make good attendance a habit now and it won’t be a problem later. A good attitude is also important to employers and to college professors. Approaching everything with a positive attitude will make the year much more enjoyable and will also allow you to be prepared to approach life after high school with that same good attitude. A good work ethic is also important to employers and college professors. Don’t get lazy because it’s your senior year. If you do, it will be far too tempting to approach your job or college career lazily. Laziness interferes with success. Keep working hard during your senior year, and it’ll make the transition to the work force or to college much easier on you.

6. Enjoy the year. Yes, it should be challenging. You will be working hard. You will be stressing out about the decisions you need to make for life after high school. However, the year need not be entirely stressful. If you do what you’re supposed to do, that will cut down significantly on the levels of stress you face. In addition, it is your last year of school before the real world welcomes you with open arms. You have a lot of friends, and, unfortunately, after graduation you won’t see a lot of them again (keeping up with each other on social networks will be nice, but it’s not the same as seeing them). Make some good, clean memories. Take lots of pictures. Write nice notes in each other’s senior books. Participate in as many activities as you can. Don’t graduate with regrets.

Be Prepared to Participate in Class

One of the easiest ways to achieve some success in school is to participate in the classroom activities your teacher has planned. There are many ways to participate. Today, I want to share some things you, as a student, can do to make your participation the most effective to ensure learning.

The first thing you must do to participate effectively is to be prepared for that day’s lesson. If there was homework the night before, have it completed. If there was something you were supposed to have read before class, be sure you have read it. If that reading material was a particularly challenging text, be sure you annotated as you read to make sure you understood what you were reading. Most often, this step in effective participation actually takes place outside the classroom, making it tempting to skip it. However, don’t do that. If you enter class feeling unprepared because you are in fact unprepared, you will not have a productive day of participation in class. When this happens, you are the one who loses something important.

Another thing you can do to make your participation more effective is to be well-rested. This may go along with being prepared, but if you are tired and sleepy and fighting to stay awake because you were up too late the night before, your participation is not going to be as effective. Go to bed early enough to get enough rest so you will stay awake. In addition, don’t skip meals. Have something for breakfast, eat lunch, and if necessary, between classes, eat a quick snack. Being well-rested is important to effective class participation, but so is not being hungry. If you aren’t giving your body the nourishment it needs during the day (and I understand the argument about school lunches), then you aren’t going to be able to focus as effectively.

Another component of being prepared is to have all the materials you need for class. It’ll be hard to complete class activities if you don’t have any materials. Paper and pencil are vital. Highlighters may be helpful. The text you are currently working with is also important. If you have a digital device you are allowed to use in class, have it with you, and be prepared to use it only for class during class. I understand we all lose our pencil from time to time or we give our last sheet of paper to a classmate. These occurrences should not happen regularly, though. Have the materials you need so that you can effectively participate in the class.

The next thing to do to make sure you are effectively participating is to be attentive while the teacher is presenting the lesson. As teachers, we try to make the lessons engaging, but the fact is, some material is more boring than other material. Not everything can be fun. However, if you can accept that fact and still give the teacher your attention while he/she is presenting the lesson, you are participating. As the teacher moves the lesson through the various activities, participate in those. If you need to take notes, then take notes. If you need to do a short in-class writing, then write. If you need to complete a few problems, then complete those problems. If you need to read a short excerpt, then read it. If you need to answer questions, then answer them. If you need to take part in a class discussion, then speak up. If you are attentive to what the teacher is doing and saying, and if you are completing the variety of activities the teacher presents to you, then you will become an effective, active participant in class. By doing so, you will learn more.

Finally, to ensure you’re getting the most out of class and you’re being an effective participant in class, you need to ask questions if you don’t understand what’s going on in class. Teachers don’t mind being asked questions, as long as those questions aren’t designed to get us off track in our lesson (and yes, we do recognize those for what they are when you throw them our way). If you really don’t understand what’s going on in class that day, ask the teacher for more clarification. It’s hard to effectively participate if you are confused about the material. You could wait until a later time to ask the teacher, but you’ll likely forget about it and then the question won’t be asked and you’ll still be confused. Asking questions does not make you look stupid. Odds are there are others who have the same question but are too embarrassed to ask. So, ask the question.

Student learning is a joint effort between teachers and students. Teachers can plan and present great lessons but if you, the student, just sit there and zone out to visit La La Land, learning will not take place. One of the easiest ways to make sure you learn the material is to participate effectively in class. Follow these suggestions and you’ll be on your way to doing just that.