money money monnnney...money

How much do teachers spend every year on their kids and classrooms and supplies?

Dunno. I only know how much I spend each year.

I have begun the annual spree. At Office Depot I dropped $118, and Target another $10. It's not even September yet! I buy donuts for some classes, candy for rewarding answers and participation SeaWorld-style (like when the trainer gives the sea lion a dead fish for barking on cue). I haven't even been in my classroom yet to know what else I'll need--well I know I need a new CD player--, but fifty cents for a comp book is a great bargain, and I like to hand some out on the first day to kids who raise their hands first, just to show them that engagement itself can be a reward. 

[Some years I spend more than others. Last year I sent away for a talking Thomas Jefferson doll (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCsuzAsMCto). I put him in the closet and FORGOT I HAD HIM!! OK, so that was dumb. But this year TJ is in the house. Fo shizzle. I will be sure to post the day my presidential purchase makes his first middle school appearance!]

$$$o Far....

Fifty cents will buy

A bound composition book (I bought twenty five)

dreaming

what if....
every
teacher taught kids the way she'd
want her own kids taught

Used to

Used to feel a little guilty on Monday mornings, rising at 9, finding the gym empty, reading book after book on the balcony, ordering take-out sushi. Or as guilty as a person can feel when she is blissed out.

But one day it dawned on me: I work nearly every Saturday of the school year for at least three or four hours, often more. Some days I work Sundays, too. I am at school for an average of nine hours a day. And I cannot use the restroom or walk away from my desk or any of those mini-breaks that most professionals do to refresh their spirits. (Five minute passing periods are like blinking and the exiting kids from period 2 always overlap with the entering kids for period 3.) What it boils down to is that my two month summer vacation is all my Saturdays and many Sundays and potty breaks and water cooler breaks and "let me just step outside and quiet my mind" breaks all strung together like pearls!

Used to feel guilty, and now I feel fine, just fine.

summer days

"Summer days".... these words
dance, long and warm in my heart,
but end before I--

The Plan

OK what I'm gonna do is assign each kid as one of the thirteen colonies right when we study them. The New England kids will be sitting together, the Middle Colony kids too, and of course the Southern Colonies. Then when we learn the songs, they'll likely remember at least their own and have some others to chime in together, built-in camaraderie, and since the state name tags will have the state shape on it, that's one-thirteenth of them memorized simply by association. Seeing the states of the others in their region should boost recognition, too.

(You would be shocked at how many kids do not know the names of states on a blank outline map. Oh, they can tell you the capital of Louisiana, but they can't find Louisiana.)

And then as we eventually study states' stands on historic issues, they'll have stance, just like a real congress. And as our country expands, maybe each kid will get another state on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line, so when we discuss North/South issues, they will have a deeper understanding.

Do I make and laminate cards that look all pro and use these? Nah. I think kids will have to make their own and keep it--the cards will have the OUTLINE of the state in the color of the REGION (ie, all the Middle Colonies will be green) with the NAME of the state on the back? And the ABBREVIATION on the front. Later the kids can add key facts/peeps/stances as we travel through time together. So I need to find an easy way to have kids draw their states. Choice of free hand and overhead trace, I suppose. I'll need yarn. (Can you believe it? Yarn? I don't believe I've never typed that word before...)

OK. So kids will have to keep them in their backpacks. They'll wear them first semester. I'll bring out the tricorn hats. Flava, you see. Drama, don't you know.

my new first week idea

B e M a s s a c h u s e t t s
F o l l o w S o u t h C a r o l i n a
B e c o m e h i s t o r y