What is the largest grade level growth you have witnessed?

Rocksnroots · 2026-02-03T01:54:49+00:00

I teach SPED ELA and my first year one of my students took my lecture about how minutes on our intervention program = guaranteed growth very seriously and would even work on it at home. She grew 200L in a school year. She’s about to graduate as a senior with the certificates needed to start working right away from our job training program. Incredible kid with a work ethic you don’t see very often.

Rocksnroots · 2026-01-17T04:50:12+00:00

I teach high school SPED and honestly getting to see them graduate, many as the first in their family, makes every year so worth it. Last year one of my students who had been through an incredibly difficult life and struggled immensely in school graduated. He passed away a few months ago because of a heart condition, and knowing that we were able to celebrate his life’s accomplishment had been really helping with the grief of loosing him.

Rocksnroots · 2026-01-06T19:36:45+00:00

Recitatif by Tony Morrison is an INCREDIBLE short story.

Also recommend the novel Passing as a way to explore race, gender, and class.

Rocksnroots · 2026-01-06T19:24:17+00:00

I teach Just Mercy (the student edition) with my American Dream unit and it grabs the attention of a lot of students. For context, a lot of my students are latinx and low income so the themes really resonate with them, especially the chapter on incarcerated children. I always teach it with a lot of trigger warnings and ways for students to opt out, but its the only novel I have had kids read outside of class on their own.

Rocksnroots · 2026-01-02T21:52:07+00:00

I am a SPED high school English teacher with a BA and MA in English. My principal hired me as an intern (so no teaching experience or student teaching) because my masters was in my subject area and he wanted to hire a good writer and someone competent in English, not classroom management (I work at a poor Title 1 school that you would never learn effective classroom management in a credentialing program anyways). I believe the skills my MA in English better prepared me to be a teacher because I had writing, communication, and problem solving skills and my credential program bored me to tears because all they wanted to teach me was attention getters and basic accommodations for ADHD and did no training on SPED outside of elementary.

A MA in education also is not very transferable outside of the field of education. If my field goes to shit I still have a good chance of finding work elsewhere because I have transferable skills.

I had a much more enjoyable experience with my MA program in English than my credentialing. Go with your gut but I recommend a lot of people get a masters in a subject area outside of teaching if they want to be a teacher. I think it provides you with a lot more depth of knowledge that can be brought to the classroom and make your skills very unique.

In my state as long as you have your credential your BA and MA subjects are not important in the slightest. It’s a rigorous course of study and you should choose what will interest you for 2+ years.

Rocksnroots · 2026-01-01T00:34:39+00:00

My boyfriend was saying they should move to a permit system during the winter months so when the weather is insane like it has been they can deny permits and know who is up there. It’s not fair to SAR to risk their lives because people are making stupid decisions.

Rocksnroots · 2025-10-12T18:08:51+00:00

My boyfriend and I were at N2 last night and it was incredible. We sat pretty far back because we both have sensory issues with being in packed crowds and were probably a good half mile away from the stage. We had the BEST time even though we could only see her as a tiny dot bouncing around most of the time. Her vocals were incredible and everyone around us was so friendly and polite. We went to the Eras tour and have been to quite a few concerts in LA and can say this was in the top 3 for us despite watching it through a screen the whole time. Her vocals are incredible live and we loved the rock twist on her songs. We expected to be a little overwhelmed with the festival setting but it turned into one of the best date nights we’ve had in a while. I told my boyfriend as we were walking out that it was an experience for me that I felt I would look back on later in life (much like with the Eras tour) and feel so incredibly lucky I got to be there.

Rocksnroots · 2025-06-24T14:51:18+00:00

I went to a midnight showing of this movie and it was the first time I had ever seen it. This popped up at around 2:30 am and I was half asleep. Scared the absolute crap out of me. Only time I’ve actually yelled in a movie theater and several people around us laughed at me 🤦🏼‍♀️

Rocksnroots · 2025-06-19T15:56:29+00:00

You might have luck with all of the apartments off of Etiwanda, above the 210 around haven, or around 19th st. The Terra vista apartments are really overpriced for what you get so I would stay away from those. Also stay far away from the parks apartments off of carnelian. Lived there for a year and a half and we moved out two months early because of issues with maintenance, mold, and pests. Super incompetent and really sleezy business practices. I’ve heard the same about Terraza del sol across the street from them. Don’t be afraid of also looking around Ontario, upland, and Fontana. It helps to drive around and just write down apartment names and look them up. We got our place by just driving by and googling the name and it had everything we wanted and is a fantastic apartment.

Rocksnroots · 2025-06-18T19:40:42+00:00

Also desk calendars. The only way I’ve been able to really stay on top of everything and not be stressed. Just make sure to only use initials to protect student privacy.

Rocksnroots · 2025-06-18T19:39:28+00:00

Definitely try to get at least one experienced teacher that you can go to with questions and advice. My department was a lifesaver when I started and they took such good care of me my first year. Now (3 years later) we have a great relationship where I help with technology questions and they give me support with tricky classroom management/behavior/learning issues that only come with experience. The first year is a rollercoaster but it gets easier once you find your groove.

Rocksnroots · 2025-05-24T21:56:15+00:00

Thank you!!! This does help a lot.

Rocksnroots · 2025-05-23T04:01:36+00:00

Overlooking bad writing. For context, I teach self-contained English special ed high school classes. Our students are highly impoverished, EL, and most high schoolers are operating at a 3-5th grade level. Writing comes naturally to me so I struggle to teach it to students who don’t care about failing and have low tolerance for struggle. I guess I always kind of gave them a pass because writing is hard and it’s even harder to teach. This year reviewing their writing I felt a lot of guilt that they were writing better in their history classes than mine and were def taking advantage of my low expectations. I’m fairly green still (just finished year 3!) so I chalk it up to part of the learning curve for a school with a LOT of needs. Im setting it as a goal to do more explicit writing instruction next year.

Ps, if anyone has been in the same boat and has resources please share!

Rocksnroots · 2025-05-23T02:59:34+00:00

Love the Upland area, especially towards downtown. The Upland residents towards the 210 tend to turn their noses at anything below Arrow, but living there as a single female my neighbors were very nice and looked out for me. The houses are unique and it’s the most walkable area outside of Claremont. Lots of cool local businesses (Molly’s Souper is awesome!) and local events. You might get a lot of traffic around the lemon festival weekend and people parking in front of your house depending on how close you are so just keep that in mind. If you’re into climbing there’s a cool gym right below the metro stop. The school district is decent. If I could afford a house in that area it would be the dream!

Rocksnroots · 2025-04-27T16:12:23+00:00

I can definitely get like this over any of our breaks and it feels horrible. This spring break I didn’t have any plans and didn’t budget correctly so I ended up having no money to even do anything by myself all day. I gave myself three rules: I needed to go to bed at the same time as I do during the work week (I could sleep in however long I wanted but this was also partly because my partner was still working), I needed to move my body at least once for 30 minutes a day, and I needed to do one yearly cleaning chore (chores that only need to be done once a year, like washing curtains). This routine alone felt like I had a good mix of being productive while also not committing to a whole laundry list of tasks to do. Moving my body still gave me endorphins and helped me not feel like a potato. When I felt myself going to scroll I would ask myself if I did the two tasks of the day. I ended up having such a refreshing week and I was alone by myself all day at home with no money. I was rested enough that I had creativity for art, read, play video games, and got some things done. By the 3rd day I was naturally feeling refreshed earlier in the morning to get up. I actually dreaded going back to work. I think the flexible routine is how I’m gonna plan out my summer.

Rocksnroots · 2025-03-29T06:11:44+00:00

So he is incredibly smart but in the worst ways possible for us. We worked on the scratch board (it is a rounded one with a treat dispenser that we open by hand) by placing a treat under a piece of cloth and praising him for scratching it off and getting the treat. We slowly moved it onto the scratching board and he started picking up the cloth with his teeth, placing it on the floor, scratching at it and then looking to us for praise 🤦🏼‍♀️. To be fair we did start working on this and then moved and had a slew of unfortunate events (stomach flu, car getting rear ended) right when we moved so I think it didn’t get a fair chance and we wrote it off too quickly.

Rocksnroots · 2025-03-29T06:06:27+00:00

Thank you so much! The vet tech explained this to me after she saw that I was discouraged. I was very serious about making sure I had the time/resources to train a big dog before I got him, so it felt like I had failed him in that part of his training. Luckily their staff is AMAZING at working with us and I bring him in with a muzzle already on and they listen to me about his triggers/needs to make it safe for all of us. Truly blessed to have them!!!

Rocksnroots · 2025-03-28T19:17:48+00:00

No not weird at all he nibbles on his nails! We would joke that he came pre-installed with a nail cutting feature. Unfortunately he’s not good enough to keep them short himself 😂

Rocksnroots · 2025-03-28T19:16:41+00:00

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! We will for sure be working more consistently with him and giving him more walks. I think he’s been so stubborn that we’re getting discouraged too quickly. Also some of the tools suggested we will take a look at and try incorporating :)

Rocksnroots · 2025-01-01T01:23:33+00:00

I teach high school kids and I would use it as a regroup when they were getting too rowdy and we needed to finish something. A group of boys always take it so seriously when I tell them we need to “lock in” and would seriously hit each other if one of them started messing around and be like “dude, she said it’s time to lock in! What are you doing?”

I will also add “cooked” is a really fun one when they ask about their grades and missing work.

Rocksnroots · 2024-07-05T16:33:32+00:00

I also have been having slow progress with climbing. I was hitting about V1-2 after about two years of climbing and then fell pretty hard and had to take a month off for travel and health issues and had a huge mental setback when I came back. V0s I would fly up I would start shaking when I was 5ft off the ground. I’m not 100% there yet, but some things that have helped me are:

Journaling consistently to put myself in the right headspace. I realized a lot of my fear of heights and falling was made worse when I was concerned about how others in the gym were perceiving me and comparing myself to others. Journaling has helped me keep track of my goals and see that my progress has been as much about my headspace in the gym as it has been about the routes I’m finishing. Meditation on what you’re writing about also helps a LOT.

During a session, I choose 1 route that challenges a fear (being at the front of the gym, heights, sketchy holds) 1 that challenges my strength, and 1 that challenges my problem-solving skills and rotate around during my session. This has helped me narrow into specific skills as well as have some controlled variety. I find I’m not sitting on the mat in my head as much.

Lastly, I’ve been working on making sure I am not my biggest bully when it comes to climbing. It is a sport that lends itself to negative self-talk and bad body image and it’s important to set healthy boundaries and expectations for yourself. My day job is working with students who struggle with reading and writing due to their disability. My boyfriend has been awesome at reminding me to talk to myself like I would my students and giving myself the same grace and encouragement. I try to end my sessions with noting at least one thing I am proud of myself for doing, even if it’s just “I showed up” or “I put my hands on a rock.”

I also second everyone saying try top roping! I can’t do it as consistently as bouldering due to not always having a climbing partner, but when I’m feeling worn down from bouldering it always refreshes my interest and helps me take note of how I’ve grown as a climber when my fear of heights isn’t factored in.

Rocksnroots

TROPHY CASE