Teaching with kids, living on coffee

 During a meeting with those on my team for this upcoming year, I was asked about the books I was planning to cover with my students this year.  At the end of last year I was very happy with what we had gotten through and now that I have been able to sit and refresh and recharge I am now dare I say coming up with some more ambitious goals for my students this year.  We covered about 3 novels last year: The Giver, excerpts from Trevor Noah's Born a Crime which we compared with an excerpt of Nelson Mandela's A Long Walk to Freedom, and then finished with the Hunger Games.  I want to have a novel for the beginning quarter and I think I am going to do Tangerine, but I also want to incorporate Book Club corners where the students choose their book and see if I can have it align with the book we are currently working on in class.  I still have to figure out and plan how I am going to get it all done BUT I think that is going to be a goal.  Next week is when I plan to have the start o

  Things have been crazy around out here.  I switched districts and found an AMAZING team and found my home.  I also moved and had my mother-in-law and sister-in-law move in with us as well.  Adjustments over the last school year have been mainly positive consisting from my running one half in August of last year to having to having done my 3rd of this year in June.  I have at least two more planned and goals on improving my times and health.  The school year was tough overall and a larger part of it was due to a lack of accountability, yet my team bonded and strengthened throughout the year.  The struggles this year have had me seeking solace in my house and my books as a way to handle the stress and pressure of the constantly performing required from being an educator.  Winter break had me not leaving my house A LOT, and I will honestly say that the first couple of days after the school year was over I holed up and avoided people.  I have set a goal for book reading this year, thanks