Spring Break-est
I realize that I have neglected my blog duties as of late. Actually, this seems to be a pattern of abuse and neglect that I hope to change. Mostly, I stopped blogging simply because I was caught up in everything ELSE that needed to be done. I've started a new drama unit with my regular students, and my Pre-APs are reading "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. I feel as if I'm finally coming into my own as a teacher, seeing as I'm confident enough to completely bypass the curriculum for my Pre-APs and plan a unit that I feel will be much more entertaining and enlightening for them. As reward for my endeavors, the new head of English Language Arts/Social Studies for the district has asked if I would help rewrite the curriculum this summer and get it online so it's much more user friendly. It sounds like a daunting task, but I'm up for the challenge, and it'll certainly make me more invested in my teaching next year.

Austin - the weekend after Spring Break
I've really grown to enjoy teaching, and the weeks pass fairly quickly. My school sent me, as well as 3 of my ELA colleagues, to Austin for a weekend training. Going to the training helped me reconnect with my fellow teachers, become re-energized and reinvigorated, and gave me good, solid materials that I can use in class this year. If I wasn't before, I'm now a HUGE fan of work trips and workshops that might take a good drive/flight to get to: it's worth it.

TELPAS
Since Spring Break ended, I've been rating my LEP (Limited English Proficient) students on their writing, speaking, and listening. For most teachers (elsewhere in the country), this is not too hard of a task, as LEP students make up maybe 10% of their students, if that. However, I had a daunting 68 LEP students to rate, which is over half of my students. Only one other teacher had more LEP students. As far as rating the students, it's on a scale of 1-4, or Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Advanced High. Once they reach Advanced High in all three of the major categories (Listening, Speaking, and Writing), they are no longer classified as Limited English Proficient, and are seen as fully competent English, or bilingual students. A few of my students have reached that stage, but a good number still have a lot to work on. Heck, it's hard learning another language, and I'm dang proud of my students. I sure wouldn't be "Advanced High" in Spanish, or even "Advanced".

Other News
I was sad to hear that one of my students was jumped outside of school on Thursday by a group of girls from another school. I had been on the other side of the school and didn't know it was happening until 15 minutes after the cops left to chase after the car. Amazingly enough, the victim was back in class the very next day and was volunteering to act in one of the scenes for the drama unit. These kids are really resilient, and I'm learning quite a lot about life from them.

I've also grown accustomed to the normal ebb and flow of student enrollment at my school. I thought that all of my students that would leave and come back had finished their migratory ways back in the first semester, but I have recently started seeing some of my old students show back up on my roster. I even have a few new ones.

Parents
I'll be the first to admit that I have not done the best job of getting my parents involved at school. I tried sending home letters at the start of the year, and I keep in good contact with some of them, but if it wasn't for my team teachers, some of the parents I would probably never get in contact with. I'm really doing my best to relearn Spanish, and my ability to comprehend WHAT is being said is quite good, but I turn into a bumbling mess when I try to speak on the phone with a fluent adult. It takes me a few seconds to think about what I need to say, and I know my grammar is horrible. At least I have friends and neighbors to help.

Oh, and it REALLY doesn't help that the records of phone numbers is not nearly as current as it needs to be. If a parent changes a phone number, they should call the school immediately, in case there is an emergency. Do they? No. Do we get neighbor's numbers and no actual way to contact the family? Yes. Geez...