New School Year!

Well, tomorrow starts my 21st year of teaching!  I started way back in 1985-86 at Windom High School in Windom, Texas.  It was an amazing place to be at the time.  Lori was a toddler and all but one of the high school teachers was a first year teacher.  My classes were small (the largest was about 7) and my math counterpart and I played some high scoring scrabble games during our conferences.

I was also the only non-coach teacher besides the Ag teacher, so it fell to me to be the cheerleader sponsor, take gate money at all the home ballgames, and be the junior prom sponsor.  It was two of the most wonderful yet chaotic years of my life.  I was very sad when the school board decided to consolidate and I had to look for another job.  Jeff and I headed to Oklahoma and it was nearly 3 years before I got an opportunity to teach high school again.

Now I'm back for my fourth year at Wolfe City High.  I started my tenure there teaching English I and this year I will be teaching those same students English IV.  Wow--the time has gone by quickly and I hope I find some maturity in those English IV students.  To all my other teacher friends and moms and dads sending their kiddoes out tomorrow--have a great one!

Back to Blog--Two Years Later

Today in my school's inservice we once again began to talk about teaching in the 21st century.  I've had these same discussions since 2001 and to be honest, I'm pretty much bored with it.  We need to change and adjust all the time.  When it was just Jeff and I in the house it was quieter, we watched whatever we wanted on television, and ate when and where ever we wanted.  Fast forward about five years, and we have a toddler and a baby.  We had to adjust.  Television was monitored much closer.  There was a schedule to follow.  We adjusted.  Its what you do.  I say this because I'm tired of listening to the same thing, year after year.  I love technology--I love my Kindle Fire, my computer, my digital camera.  I want to use it in my classroom--but I still believe reading and writing are skills that technology enhances--not dictates.

We talked about blogging with our students and having them blog because if there friends are reading it--they will take their time and make sure its written correctly.  I'm not so sure about that--there is a spell checker on this blog site--guess I will use it, but I'm not really concerned that any of my friends will read this--I don't really care if my administrators read this--I want someone to give me concrete ideas about teaching students who are tied to the phones.  Do I really want to lose the art of conversation or reading cursive handwriting?  I'm not an everyday ranter--just a today.  I'm through--maybe I'll blog--wonder if my students want to read what I like?  Guess we will wait and see.