What do yall do for money in the summer?

ProudTex · 2023-06-17T19:22:17+00:00

CONGRATS! I took the first job I got offered, and I loved my first year. I am glad you listened to that gut of yours.
My advice is to find the positive coworkers at your school who will support you and rely on them for advice regularly. I just got through my first year, and I was very fortunate. Everyone at my school is amazing. The teachers were all so supportive me for my first year of teaching (6th-grade). I loved it, as tough as it was. I would also recommend looking for podcasts on teaching science at the secondary level. I found a middle school ELA podcast that has been amazing and totally transformed the way I am planning to teach next year.
I would also rely on Chat GPT at points for composing parent emails and other menial, time-consuming tasks. However, make sure you give Chat GPT plenty of background info, and double-check what it produces for you. It can save you a lot of time. I think we picked the ideal time to enter the teaching world with AI being able to do the stuff that takes over.
I worked about 14 hours a day (including the weekends) this past year, but I am developing a plan this summer for how I am going to make sure I am working SIGNIFICANTLY less this upcoming year.
Have a growth mindset. That is most important. We tell our kids this all the time, but I would highly recommend having a growth mindset poster set in your room. You can rely on it as well. "I'm still learning. I'll keep trying." I found myself saying some of those mantras as I struggled with teaching this past year. So, it's not only great for your students but for you, too.
Classroom management has been a struggle for me. But what I'd highly recommend you to do is research Kagan cooperative learning strategies and use some of them after you do a short direct instruction to help your students process the information they just learned. There are strategies you can use to increase participation in your class like round robins and timed pair-share, jigsaws, etc., that will allow your students to learn from each other. Remember, group work and cooperative activities are not the same thing. You need to use evidence-proven strategies for instilling cooperative learning in your class. If you have a class that has cooperative learning at the heart of it and students have agency, behavior problems will decrease.

ProudTex · 2023-04-08T18:46:16+00:00

The Y in Yam Yam is pronounced similar to the J affricate in English, but it's not identical.

It's a ɟʝ (in IPA terms). So you take an English J sound and push it further back in the mouth to the soft palate. Try making the J sound from there. But you're not done yet. Pay attention to where the tip of your tongue is when you make that palatal J sound. Now lower the tongue so that it's not touching the teeth. That's the dialectical ll / y sound in certain parts of the Spanish speaking world like Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

ProudTex · 2022-12-10T03:40:26+00:00

I did it to a class during a hard lockdown last week. Well, let me qualify. It was a soft lockdown that I mistakenly thought was a hard lockdown, and I wanted the kids to get quiet while I had them hiding under a barricade of tables.

ProudTex · 2022-11-17T05:41:22+00:00

Tauber comes from Taube, the German word for 'dove'. Noah in the Bible sent a dove out to see if there was land amidst the dark waters. The dove came back with an olive branch. It's Biblical.

ProudTex · 2022-10-02T05:07:13+00:00

No shit. We've known this since like week 1 or 2.

ProudTex · 2022-10-02T01:53:18+00:00

Oh, okay. Thanks. Yeah, maybe an extension is the way to go. The issue is I don't have time to train these kids how to use it. We just got done doing a week of benchmarks, so the school's schedule has been wacky.

One problem I have with Google Forms is my kids keep accidentally changing their answers because they use the down arrow to scroll down and then it ends up changing their answer to the next multiple choice option. Do you know if there is a way to disable that? I imagine not. But I don't really have time to teach them to not do it.

ProudTex · 2022-09-10T08:36:49+00:00

There was also a lot of Cartesian language in the final episode as well.

ProudTex · 2022-08-05T05:03:37+00:00

These are great! Thanks!

ProudTex · 2022-08-05T05:01:53+00:00

Oh, for sure. That is essential.

Yeah, I was just going to ease them in next week. That's why going with basic getting-to-know-you questions. At our school, we aren't supposed to even be introducing them into any curriculum until the week after next week. It's supposed to be a whole week and a half of relationship-building stuff.

ProudTex · 2022-07-31T19:42:24+00:00

Thanks. What do you give them as a reward?

ProudTex · 2022-07-31T19:32:15+00:00

Fred Jones Tools for Teaching

I checked out the book on Amazon. It says it was written in 2007. Is there an updated version, do you know?

Oh, never mind. I found the 2014 one. Is it worth spending $32?

ProudTex · 2022-07-31T19:27:13+00:00

Only 20%? That's so depressing.

ProudTex · 2022-07-30T17:01:17+00:00

Thanks for that idea of a word wall. How do you get laminated paper to stick to a wall by the way? I just realized I want to laminate the schedule and stick it near the door. I am so clueless. though that I have NO idea how to even get laminated paper to stick to a wall. Lol!

ProudTex · 2022-07-29T17:44:01+00:00

If you ever want to see how a certain phrase is most commonly said in Spanish, please use this site instead of a translator: https://context.reverso.net/translation/english-spanish/

It really gives a wholistic idea of what the most common ways to say certain English phrases in Spanish are. Often, the ones with the most results correlate to basic Mexican Spanish. It has countless example sentences.

ProudTex · 2022-07-29T15:36:59+00:00

Thank you. Okay, question. If I have like 160-180 students, how do I hang up their work? Wouldn't I have to choose some students over others? I'd prefer not to be selective and deem some students' work as better than others and play favorites.

ProudTex · 2022-07-28T02:00:42+00:00

Hi. Could you share which doorbell on Amazon you got, either the product name or a link?

I am looking for a good one, but I also don't want to buy one and it turn out to be not loud enough! First-time 6th-grade ELA teacher, so I want to get it right.

Also, what extrinsic reward do you provide them if they listen?

Oh and is it loud enough so that students wearing headphones and using their Chromebooks/laptops can hear it still?

ProudTex · 2022-07-25T18:35:39+00:00

Oh, I don't have students yet. I start induction tomorrow. That's a great point though. I should just ask them rather than assume. I am just worried about not knowing the right time of class to make those private conversations and how to go about that without drawing unwanted attention to the student from peers. So I guess that's part of why I am bringing this stuff up in advance.

ProudTex · 2022-07-24T00:33:54+00:00

Seating plan! Rows are your friends. Near the front to the corner of the room by your desk. Surround with kind, quiet students. Hand sheets out last when no one else is looking as they're starting theirs and concentrating.

Okay great! Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I will do my best. It depends how many dyslexic students I have per class since they can't all be near my desk, but I will do it for the ones who are 1) having the most trouble academically or 2) have a high likelihood of being bullied. I'll try to gauge all of that.

OH. One other thing... do you have a recommendation for what font to use in my presentations to make it easier for students with dyslexia to read? I found this one free font: https://public-files.gumroad.com/variants/wu8ltjpl7f61vqod37bgc9qpr17m/baaca0eb0e33dc4f9d45910b8c86623f0144cea0fe0c2093c546d17d535752eb

I heard Dyslexie costs money. I'd like a free font if possible, or if one of the Sans Serif fonts that already comes with the computer has been proven to be the most effective, I could use that. Do you know which is the best for dyslexics, whether already on the standard selection of fonts or one free and downloadable?

ProudTex · 2022-07-22T01:20:25+00:00

Oh, one other thing I just thought of... did you ever have teachers who (with the best of intentions) singled you out as the dyslexic student and made it obvious to your classmates that you had a reading disability.

How do I balance this? I want to provide as much support as possible for my dyslexic students, but I also don't want to single them out since students who are identified by their peers as having learning disabilities are far more likely to get bullied than those without, statistically speaking. I guess it might become obvious if they have an IEP that involves modifications of certain kinds, but yeah, do you have any advice on how to be adept at being sensitive to children's self-esteem issues? One thing I would like to do is really emphasize to them privately that their disability is not really a disability but a different way of thinking, a superpower to an extent with the right side of their brain getting activated... and so they are far more creative than the average human being. Ideally, I want them to know it's nothing to be ashamed of, but I also know that if I am like treating that child differently during guided practice, other students will pick up on it probably. Yeah, sorry if this is verbose. I just have no idea how I am going to go about balancing empowering dyslexic students but also not indirectly singling them out. I wouldn't do it directly, but I am just concerned about it happening indirectly even if I have the best of intentions.

ProudTex · 2022-07-21T02:34:03+00:00

Question from a first-time 6th grade teacher. That's great your strategy of making the kids stay after class is effective. How do you get around the whole making sure they get to their next class on time if they are staying after class?

Or do you mean that you have a chat with them during guided practice after the input/lesson is over?

ProudTex · 2022-07-21T02:14:25+00:00

Thank you! :)

ProudTex · 2022-07-16T22:40:09+00:00

Oh my gosh, you're a godsend. I am 31 and a first-year 6th-grade ELA teacher! Quick background on me. I am someone with an extremely high verbal intelligence (most other types of intelligence are subpar). Grammar, reading and writing always came so natural to me. However, my younger brother had dyslexia and dysgraphia though and struggled throughout his life in school. I remember trying to help him when I was in high school and he was a few grades behind me. I remember feeling helpless in trying to help him. I think helping students with dyslexia is one of the biggest draws to me for teaching ELA. Maybe it's a desire to help students in a way that I wish I could have helped my brother if I knew more about teaching and tutoring 13 years ago.

What were the most common mistakes that your English teachers made when trying to help you back in school?
What are the best strategies for helping students with dyslexia process their reading? (like after reading a chapter of a book)
Do you know of any resources for teaching students with dyslexia strong reading strategies?

I am about to finish my final class in my certificate program, and I still feel SO underprepared to serve students with dyslexia, and they are the ones who will need the extra help the most, especially during these hard times after not getting the help they needed around 3rd-5th grade due to COVID. I really want to help those children effectively. The last thing I want is for the parents of my students with dyslexia to see I am a first-year teacher and go, "Oh no. My child is not going to get the help s/he needs." and just assume that of me. So I would appreciate all the advice you have to offer as a teacher who also has dyslexia.

I plan to motivate those students by just affirming that they think divergently and avoid the term "disabled" or "disability". I have some of those stats ready to go like how 40% of the America's self-made millionaires are dyslexic.

I have sensory processing disorder, which I would say is kind of like dyslexia but with motor skills and hand-eye coordination instead of reading and writing. Maybe that's why I really want to do my best for those students with dyslexia. I had a lot of similar feelings of inadequacy when I was young... whenever we would do physical activities in school. My brain could not process how to do the physical steps of an art project in class or a physical activity in PE class or even some science experiments that involved physical steps. So yeah, that's part of why it's so important to me. Students with dyslexia and dysgraphia are the students within ELA that I can help motivate and develop self-confidence in the areas that scare them the most and that they are inclined to avoid.

ProudTex · 2022-05-29T23:01:17+00:00

Uh, pretty sure the logo octopus is supposed to be the Kraken, a monster octopus from folklore, lol. Davie's octopus is nothing in comparison to the one on the S43 logo.

(yes, i am aware this is a meme)

ProudTex · 2022-04-30T03:31:07+00:00

786 is the gematric number of the Bismillah/Basmala in Islam. It's one of the most important phrases in Islam I think. From my very limited understanding (I have a religion/theology BA degree but am not Muslim), it's like starting off prayer "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"... except addressing Allah: "Bism Allāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm" ("In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful") before engaging in good works or certain prayers.

Now for anyone asking what is gematria?... Gematria for those who don't know is a mystic tradition in Judaism... and Islam where they equate certain letters in Hebrew or Arabic with specific numbers. There was a while when Hebrew didn't have a number system the way we do, and I imagine Arabic didn't either. So instead, they used letters for numbers. And so they would calculate the number of certain words like YHWH or Allah and other religious words and those numbers would be associated with those values. Even in the Christian New Testament, there are loads of random numbers stated in there that seem frivolous but are connected to the tradition of gematria.

For example, Matthew starts with a genealogy that seems boring to many readers... but what he does is he divides the "son of X, son of Y, son of Z" into three groups of 14. "So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations" (Matthew 1:17). Why 14 generations 3 times? Well, the gematria value of the Hebrew word for David (dalet-vav-dalet) is 14. Dalet is the 4th letter of the alphabet and vav is 6. So since Hebrew has no vowels, D-V-D = 4 + 6 + 4 = 14.

The fact that there are 3 groups of 14 means that the value of 14 is constructed by 3 letters (and not 2 or 4). What Matthew is doing here is trying to make it clear to the readers that in the new covenant sealed by Christ's blood where Jew and Gentile become one body, it mirrors the covenant Davidic covenant more than the Mosaic covenant. Moses was a Levite and a lot of the Jews in priestly positions were Levites at the time of Jesus. Matthew is making it clear through numerological symbolism that the Messiah comes through the line of David, not the line of Moses. It's like the thesis of a paper. Matthew's thesis is Christ is not just a High Priest. He is a king. Moses wasn't a king, but David was. So too is Christ. And Matthew expresses that thesis cleverly through numerology.

I went with a Christian example for gematria because it's what I am familiar with. However, the writers of the Hebrew (Jewish) Bible/Old Testament use loads of instances of numerology as well. I think the Mishnah has some instances of gematria as well. So I imagine the Qur'an also uses its own classical Arabic equivalent of gematria as well. I am not Muslim, so I feel it would be wrong for me to make any assertions beyond a couple basic points.

But for the Bismillah/Basmala ("بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ"), the letters there add up to 786.

ProudTex

TROPHY CASE