When your new classroom, in a new building, has no windows or AC, you find a great space in the lobby-ish area and sit down to work.

It’s Friday. 6 pm. Memorial Day weekend. I am packing up my office. I have way too many things. To be fair, most of them are books. Anyway, mostly cleaned out my desk. Here’s what’s left until we’re done next Friday. I might have a problem. I also need to get that fall PD proposal done. 😭🙄😬

Get yourself a principal who makes sure you feel appreciated. This is a small, small example of what she does for us. She does a lot of the heavy lifting, including trying to protect us from foolishness whenever she can.

We have 17 days left. We end two days early bc our school is closing & we need time to pack. This crate is going with me so that I can get a lot of work done during my two months “off”. For the first time in 3 years, I can actually start planning for the long term. There are so many possibilities.

I haven’t read this one yet because the next one isn’t out yet and there’s a cliffhanger. I lent my copy to a sixth grader (w/parental permission). They finished it and this is the note I got. Anyway, I might have promised to read it this weekend based on their review.

Let’s go, Virginia!

There is a wide, wide, wide, fucking huge gap between "not the perfect candidate" and the other choice. Even the NYT, not the most astute of observers, had this to say prior to the election. He has done every damn one of those things and has now started a war he swore Harris would start.

I’ve only just started leaning into this in the last year or so. I love it.

I love my job. We get Scholastic Scope every month for the sixth graders. It's my job to take the magazine and create activities that are tied to what we're doing in class. I've just started April's. This is going to make kids crash out.

When a big part of your job requires thinking ahead so you start next year’s ideas notebook and you realize that, if nothing changes, next year is going to be one big, long 6-7 joke.

Welp. It’s March and I’m a teacher. Daylight Saving Time got me this morning. Now, can I make it through the day without the kids noticing? 🤣

It’s that time of year where I start thinking about next year. It can be really hard to tweak existing pre-packaged curriculum to make it work for our students but every year we get a little closer.

When you have a fabulous principal, take the risk & follow them wherever they go. It’s worth it. The text I sent 5 minutes after she announced she was leaving our elementary school w/o knowing which of the middle schools she was going to. Turns out it was to the one that was closing. No regrets.

Today the weather is going to be beautiful. I’ve set up with a book, some iced tea, a blueberry muffin, a book on the Plantagenets and a brand new journal for note-taking. As I’m going to do a deliberate deep dive on medieval England. And, to quote @heymrsbond.com this morning: What the fuck?

There's a song sparrow trapped in our office. We have high ceilings so the critter people couldn't catch it this morning. Tell me you share an office with the science facilitator without telling me you share an office with the science facilitator.

CEA's response to CCS's Friday afternoon email. drive.google.com/file/d/1Z4Ym...

Over winter break I learned about commonplace books. I decided we needed a community commonplace bulletin board. Students are able to post quotes or work of which they’re proud. Book reviews, suggestions, art. Trying to find ways to make school seem more about learning than passing the next test.

Look what showed up in my ASCD newsletter today:

There are rules to snow in Virginia. It snows, then it’s 50 degrees and all is right with the world (as right as it can be these days). It’s not going to get above freezing until next Monday. After an hour I’ve reached a bare patch. I’m never going to leave my house again, apparently.

Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse looking out for a woman who had been pepper sprayed, was executed.

I keep my winter coat at school bc car duty. Needed one this morning bc 15 degrees. I had to dig deep into my closet. Put it on, found these in the pocket. Last time I wore it was during outdoor lunch duty during Covid. 😂

Making intentional choices to spend more time reading physical books this year. I’ve been bouncing between books and topics, mostly focusing on the Salem Witch Trials and writing. I stumbled onto this book by accident. It is sooooo good.

Read Letter from Birmingham Jail. Do it often. Be able to quote it so that when people tell you about that dream that has been co-opted and made shallow, you will be able to explain the depths of the actual dream and the work it requires from all of us. www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen...

I love finding this on my desk knowing I’d just dropped the second book in the series off for this student. (This was one of the recommendations that required a parent contact. I teach in a 5/6 school.)

Prior to break, students read a book on Gordon Parks. They beginning to use the TQE method for annotating (though w/post-it notes because..book). I'm compiling them so we can discuss. My favorite one so far: The 20th century is WILD!

I've fallen into the personal curriculum TikTok rabbit hole. I'm working on writing for now. I started with "Writing to Learn" by William Zinsser, written in 1988. Just thought I'd toss this out there that when people say everything old is new again - here we are.

Ignore all of the dust. I’ve found these in various places around my apartment where I shoved them to be forever forgotten about. Until today anyway.

Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like threatening schools in the days before break.

Things we’re reading today: One of the kids asked if the picture of the Black man was MLK, just in case you were wondering if we do a good job with representation across the curriculum. Spoiler alert: We don’t.

Tell me you teach without telling me you teach: Guy at the register says my number is 42. In my head, I immediately hear “six, sevvvvven” and have to stop myself from involuntary hand movements. 🤣😭