Step By Step (or, Bulletin Board by Bulletin Board)

Bulletin boards and front board is up. We're getting closer to the start of the year!

Preparation Time is Here!

Summer's officially over. #Bummer

But my classroom is coming along - check it out!

my bookshelf (and reminders of RLP)

Going to gain significant desk space when they switch us over to Macbooks as our desktops...

My classroom library is overflowing!

These book sets found a new home with the LA teacher next door - more cabinet space!

Feeling the ND theme this year - RLP is getting to me...

my "special" picture books

Excited to focus on prayer and the Saints this year!

Turn in bins - I labeled them after this picture was taken...

I commissioned my sister to paint this. #winning

We start back on Monday full force, full faculty. I'm excited to see everyone and get things started. (I always hate the in-between/waiting phase the most!)

Praying for all teachers as they start (or, in some cases, already started) these next few weeks. Let's have a great school year!

Calling all Catholic school teachers and youth ministers...

Finished a good, timely read on Saturday - Room 24 by Katie Prejean. What stuck out to me most about this book were the quotes and anecdotes by her students as well as her own thoughts about ministering (in a school setting) to teens and young adults. For almost the entirety of the book my head and heart were screaming "me too!" 

Trust me, if you work with teenagers in a Catholic school or youth ministry setting, you should get your hands on this - it's poignant and hysterical at the same time. And it's a quick read so you can read a few pages here and there between grading and lesson planning...

Here are some of my favorite parts:

"To teach Jesus is to conform ourselves, and help to form others, into 'little Christs' who go out and share the Good News. People are not easily transformed by ideas and concepts alone. They are far more often transformed by other people." (p. 23)

"When we constrict ourselves to scheduled teaching on its own rather than actively living what we believe, we can become blathering drones losing sight of the greater mission." (p. 78)

"As humble evangelizers, we should be pointing not to ourselves but to Christ. This is humility in its most concentrated form. We seek not to advance ourselves but to advance the work of the Lord." (p. 108) <-- There are lots of opportunity for humility as a middle school teacher. This was a good reminder. Kids have a way of making sure you don't stay too proud of anything... (Check out the Litany of Humility, which the author explains kept popping up when she needed it the most. It's a good one.)

"Student: I'm only fourteen, Miss P. As of right now, my life plan is just to get to heaven." (p. 127)

"My mom used to say that being a teacher was the hardest job in the world, not because the pay was low or the kids were bad but because at the end of the school year you'd have to say goodbye and you never knew how they would turn out." (P. 128) <-- This quote probably hit home the most, especially as many of us teachers are preparing for graduations.

Katie Prejean also talks a lot about how her students always notice far more than she ever realizes. Similar realizations have occurred in my classroom this year too, most recently on Friday, when, upon going outside to return a student's fruit snacks that I had confiscated during class (Could he have picked a quieter packaging choice to try to sneak in?), a group of 8th grade girls stopped me and said, "I really like your outfit today. I noticed it in class and meant to tell you." Well, if that don't beat all - I tell people that you really know you've "made it" in terms of fashion when you get complimented by an 8th grade girl. (They're usually so hard to please in that department!)

All kidding aside, the book reminded me that the whole teaching about God thing is more than one person's job. I may not see the effects of anything take hold while the students remain in my care, but I have to hope and believe that somewhere down the line at least one thing we studied or learned or prayed about will sink in.

For all those who teach (especially at the middle and high school level), keep doing an amazing job! You're planting seeds - scatter them abundantly for you never know where or when they'll blossom...


P.S. Happy Mother's Day weekend to all moms, moms-to-be, and women who seem/act like moms! It was a beautiful weekend (weather-wise) for all those who were out and about brunching and celebrating. Spring has sprung in Chicago!

Just Be...Held

For some reason a few weeks ago, I found myself in tears on my way home from school. A bunch of upcoming deadlines combined with classroom stress and upcoming conferences was apparently more than I could bear in that given moment.

I had been listening to a podcast, but I found it too hard to concentrate, so I turned it off. In the silence (and in the dark - let's face it, I haven't left school before 5pm for the past month), I didn't know what to do except cry out (and cry it out, for that matter).

I ended up turning on the radio, and these were the words I heard:

Just be held.
Your world's not falling apart, its falling into place. 
I'm on the throne, stop holding on and just be held, 
Just be held, just be held.

Can we just pause <dramatically> here for a second? Really, could the timing have been any better? I felt like I had found my personal soundtrack. The only thing I was missing from my very own Hollywood movie scene was foggy windows with rain slipping down the glass.

The song just struck me, as many a song has in my life. (I like music, what can I say?) And I was suddenly filled with peace. It's hard to explain, but I stopped crying and realized that the things that were bogging me down with worry were not deserving of my energy, stress, and tears. In our great, big world, I am so very small.

In that moment, I needed to know that. I needed to hear that. I needed to believe that.

Just be held. Yes, God - hold me now.

One and Done...Well, I Guess We're Just Beginning

Day 1 is in the books, folks.

And it was a good day...even though I did get a touch frustrated with the 8th graders due to chattiness and not following directions. (But, as a coworker pointed out, they're not malicious or doing things to hurt people on purpose. He's right - if chattiness is our biggest problem, we should consider ourselves, or, really our students, lucky.) But, if it takes 5 times instead of 4, or if something isn't going as planned, we'll break it down further and go over it again. Procedures, procedures, procedures + high expectations, that's what I'm striving to bring to my classroom this year.

I'm also striving to be more organized and prepared. Let's face it, it's not usually the kids' fault - there was likely faulty directions, unclear expectations, hasty release of responsibility, or the mere forgetfulness of the fact that I am, in fact, dealing with teenagers (and their respective hormones). So, yeah, it's going to take some extra effort and foresight (and some flexibility) in the beginning, but we'll get there. I have faith in that (and in them).

In other (teaching-related) news...Today we will celebrate Mass as a school community, both campuses uniting in prayer and fellowship. It is a great testament to our values as a Catholic school. (Now, if only I can get the middle schoolers to sing...hmm...)

I'm looking forward to the start of volleyball practice (today!) and settling into the teaching routine. Plus, I already have a happy hour in the works with a few teaching and non-teaching friends this Friday. Let's keep this week going!

Open House = Open Heart

Monday will mark the beginning of my 8th year as a classroom teacher. Though no year is ever exactly the same (in terms of the classes and/or content I teach), one thing does stay the same - each year is an opportunity for me to open my heart (and my door) to a new community of learners.

And that's exactly what happened at Friday's Open House - students came by to see if they needed any books (which, the older ones know, I never give out - I like to think they came by to say hi), and parents new to the middle school were both anxious and excited for the changes that will present themselves to their children this year. Parents are ready to send their kids back to school, and students are, for the most part, ready to come back and see their friends (and maybe learn a little too).

Do I have any goals for the year? Sure I do. I have BIG goals focused on helping the students develop personal relationships with God through regular prayer and through Sunday Mass attendance. I want to get to know every child and help find activities that meet their individual needs. I want to strike a balance between school stuff and my personal/for fun activities. And I want to empower the grade level teams of teachers to discuss and use data effectively to improve instruction and student learning. Don't worry, I have some smaller goals too... ;)

Here are some of the final touches to the classroom - although, my "Just Finished" sign will need to change, as I literally just finished "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" today. (It was a pretty phenomenal read with lots of clues and twists at every turn of the page.) -->

Monday morning will be here very soon. It's time to start the next chapter in my time at this school.

More Photos...and a Little Fun

And here we are again - photos do a better job of telling the story of this teacher setting up her classroom than words ever could:

Personal picture books + religion loaning library

by my teacher desk

prayers and goodies bulletin board

attempting to keep my teacher desk organized

ready for student work to be turned in

Look who showed up - it's Flat Francis (and a great quote from St. Ignatius of Loyola)

These hang by the door on the way out of the room...

student artwork and yet more attempts to stay organized

Absent? Now work is going to be in one place.

"Homeless Jesus" statue from the prayer table

desk setup...for now

partially completed Mass bulletin board

an almost organized classroom library - waiting on one more bookshelf

Yes, I'll admit, I got a lot done the past few days in my classroom. But I also took some time for fun with friends - on Friday night, a few friends, my sister, and I went to the Chicago Summer Dance swing lesson & open dance downtown - I hadn't swing danced in a long time, so it was a ton of fun! Then, on Saturday night, another group of friends, my sister, a co-worker, and I met up at one of the Shakespeare in the Park shows, which this year happened to be his "Greatest Hits."

All's well that ends well, that's what I always say.

Oh wait, that was Shakespeare who said that...

A few classroom pics

I'm off and running to the first official day of inservice at my school, so I unfortunately don't have much time to post. (I was at a coaching clinic for volleyball last night, so I got home late - but the content from that meeting warrants its own blog post. Stay tuned.)

Regardless, here are some pictures - I was able to get into my classroom yesterday as well as make a trip to Target. I feel pretty good; even though progress is slow, it's steady:

Entrance sign above door (inspired by my Practicum supervision site in Elkhart)

Exit sign above door

Prayer corner - decided to change up the location of it and its content this year

objectives & agenda board for my 3 sections

personal bookshelf - with more books being stored in the cabinets...

turn-in bins (still need labels for them)

WARNING - book sorting in progress

playing around with ideas for 8th grade to learn more about the Saints (Table of Contents)

My sample Saints page (St. Lawrence)