That Time of Year

I think I'm getting sick. Not fun at all. It's been a while since I've been REAL sick. Okay, I lied. I was really sick Christmas of 2009, but I haven't been sick during a school week since I was in middle school. Anyways, all my students are sick, so it's only time since I caught whatever they have. Right now it feels like I have a 10 lb brick on my chest, and I keep coughing. Awesome. I also have to work tomorrow morning. I'm done sulking now!

I am finally done teaching full time. It's so nice to be done. We started the introduction to the Cold War by having four stations set up. There were 6-8 students in a group and they were placed at tables from 1-4. At each station they had a reading and a set of questions to answer. They were able to ask their group if they couldn't find an answer. The catch? They were timed and only had about 7-10 minutes. My MT said that this activity was great to keep students from talking to each other. They moved from table to table which helped their attention spans which would not have lasted that long in if they stayed in their own seats. Also they were allowed to talk, but there was such a short period of time to get the reading and questions done that they locked in right away. Great activity to get students to learn information without having them listen to the teacher.

We have a new student from Puerto Rico this quarter. He is an ELL (English language learner) student, meaning he speaks Spanish. He does know English, but his Spanish is much better. He plays on the basketball team, and I'm pretty sure he thinks I am the craziest person in the world. I try to talk to him in Spanish, but I fail miserably. Anyways, he comes up to me and goes, "Miss Albert. Did any one of the basketball team tell you about our fundraiser? We are selling cookies." I go, "No, they didn't. I don't know anything about it." He says, "You like cookies?" Of course, I do, so I got suckered into buying cookies from my adorable Spanish speaking student.

I've come to realize girls are evil. I thought it was just the type of girls from my hometown, but it's not. I've known more girls who got suspended for fighting than guys since I started. They are vicious and cruel. There is one girl, who I mentioned in an earlier post, who is nice to adults, but not to her students. She was suspended for along time a while back. Well, she just got suspended AGAIN because she helped instigate a fight. Then, today, two girls I like both got suspended because they were fighting about the girl who got suspended. Really? I wish I could instill some wisdom into their minds that HIGH SCHOOL WON'T MATTER IN FIVE YEARS! Of course, they won't believe me. I wouldn't believe me at that age either. But really, the things they fight over is just ridiculous.

On Tuesday, we are having a Holocaust survivor come in to talk to us! His name is Werner Coppel and at one point he and Elie Wiesel (author of Night) were at Auschwitz at the same time, although they didn't know each other. This is probably the only time I will ever meet a Holocaust survivor. I think I will get more out of this experience than my students. I found a clip of Werner that I posted below.


I may or may not have a bad addiction to this show. I'm already on season 4. Seriously, it's all I watch. I love Netflix and the fact that it allows me to watch this show! I hate when good books, movies, and tv shows come to an end. I feel like I have grown a connection with the characters. I'm going to cry when the show ends. Just thinking about it is making me teary eyed. Haha, just kidding, but I know I will be sad!