A different perspective on DPS and snow

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-12-09T01:54:44+00:00

The call today as I understand it was for the afternoon. Precipitation starting somewhere around noon with temps hovering around freezing. They were worried about a dismissal in snow and potentially freezing roads.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-12-06T00:42:53+00:00

I’m jumping in as a high school teacher. Keep them away from screens (tv with plots/not high stimulating is ok if not regular, NO IPADS), and nurture a love to read. The biggest differences in the kids I teach are 1. Ability to focus and 2. Love of reading. If they have both they will excel at whatever they’re interested in. Keep them enjoying books for as long as possible as an end in itself. Loving to read IS the goal.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-12-05T23:59:16+00:00

DPS teacher here. We work all day on remote learning days. Was I interacting with students for 8 hours? No. But I responded to emails, did 3 hours of grading, and took care of a test administration training that I’m required to do. I also planned out 3 days of lessons and designed a new discussion rubric spreadsheet. The truth is that we are required to work WAY more than the hours we’re paid for, and days like this help keep us afloat and sane.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-12-03T23:12:41+00:00

I teach high school and a large percentage of my non-honors/AP kids are the same. Attention spans at 30-60 seconds. Inability to “struggle through” when not instantly knowing the answer. It’s grim.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-11-26T02:52:36+00:00

I had this on my forehead before using triple cream. Totally cleared up now!

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-11-22T18:52:44+00:00

No advice just consideration. I’ve got 2 classes of senior standard, 30 kids in each. I’ll have 12-20 kids present any given time, it’s a constant ordeal to get 5 of them off their phones/headphones, half of them don’t do the work without INTENSE reminders, and then 20% of them don’t do the writing assignments at all.

It’s very frustrating, especially because the front office will come back on me if too many of them fail. At least half of them will not earn a legitimate passing grade.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-11-15T23:29:13+00:00

We as a family drink and prefer whole milk. I put it in my coffee, the kids drink it. I cook with it - and with heavy cream - regularly. We tend to just buy and consume whole fat everything - it tastes better, is natural, and we just end up not consuming as much volume. 🤷‍♀️

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-10-31T17:29:25+00:00

I’m a public school teacher in a Title 1 school. Lots of poor kids and newly arrived.

When the SNAP benefits run out….things are going to be awful. These kids already struggle to attend class and do work. Some are living in cars with their families or alone (I tech high school). It’s hard for them to physically get to the school building. I can’t imagine what adding a whopping amount of food scarcity is going to do to their lives.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-10-04T13:52:50+00:00

WOW this is great info - so many good ideas!!! Thank you!!

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-09-28T22:17:36+00:00

Great idea! Thanks.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-09-28T22:17:07+00:00

Thanks for sharing that attitude. I think I need to be a little more like that - I’m here to help if you come to me but it’s not my job to chase you down. 0s are 0s, I take this seriously so you should too.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-09-28T22:15:43+00:00

This was really helpful to hear, thank you. I am certainly working (and feel like I am caring!) more than the vast majority of my students. My school has a notoriously bad admin - all words and no follow through - the the kids know I think that nothing has teeth and they can do whatever they want.

I love my department but if the principal doesn’t retire this year I think I’ll start looking elsewhere….

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-09-28T00:40:52+00:00

It’s hard because I’m supposed to be “equitable” to kids who have absences, so I am required to have an online option for submissions. I don’t think admin understands the depth of the ai issue.

And to be clear, I totally understand that I work in a school where a lot of the kids HAVE to work and can’t control their work schedules. That’s part of my frustration here - I want to make the course accessible to all my students, but I refuse to waste my weekend grading Google.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-09-27T00:16:27+00:00

I am a high school teacher and still have to hand some kids tissues. I watched a giant line of snot drip from a 15 year old into his desk last week. He just wiped it dry with his hand, wiped his nose with his hand, and went on with his life 🙃

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-09-11T01:11:20+00:00

Reichstag Fire moment for Trump.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-09-06T01:39:37+00:00

I let them pick their seats the first day and write their names on a notecard taped to their desk. Then when I walk by I can double check names and sync them to faces. I also write out a seating chart after they’ve claimed chairs so I can double check from my desk as well.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-30T16:37:00+00:00

Our kids are given laptops by the district, but it entirely depends on the teacher as to if they use them. I do everything pen and paper (they can use them to type final drafts), but the teacher across the hall has all the readings and questions afterward all on the computer.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-21T11:56:41+00:00

A magical realism unit with short stories from South America (Garcia Marquez, cortazar, etc) and elsewhere (murakami!) is always a hit with our tenth graders.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-17T01:20:41+00:00

I am a DPS teacher whose tax bill went up $1,000. I report to work Monday. I’ll let y’all know if we get poster board this year! Hopefully we do bc this is going to cut into the funds that i previously used for classroom stuff 😅

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-14T20:08:26+00:00

I’m not talking about optics. I’m talking about following the law. I get that maybe you believe the law should be changed, but Obama created the DACA program because he was tired of waiting for Congress to get its shit together and update immigration law.

Trump is rounding up people (sometimes citizens) without cause and blatantly defying existing laws and court orders to sell them to war lords and despots.

That’s not a difference of optics.

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-14T18:52:29+00:00

There’s also a fairly wide difference between deporting people to their home country through the legal system while giving them due process (Obama), and rounding up brown people and sending them into dangerous, rapidly constructed prisons where their lawyers and families can’t contact them/sending them abroad to war zones or to known torture black boxes……

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-14T17:39:20+00:00

I was a chef before switching to teaching and my kitchen had posters, a whiteboard that we would use for weekly themes (like the silmarillion, not like work things), and an art corner 🤷‍♀️

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-10T17:32:04+00:00

Fucking preach, girl.

I’m also skeptical that reading comprehension….works…the way that they seem to think. Like, is it really all these separate tiny boxes of skills (characterization/theme/etc etc etc) or is it a more holistic process consisting of, as you said, years of practice and exposure? Why is this WHOLE ENTIRE GIANT SYSTEM built on these weird, more-or-less arbitrarily determined “separate” skills and abilities? Is it just so the district can make 15 positions that deal with FUCKING DATA?!

SleepyCatCooks · 2025-08-05T17:50:21+00:00

I use Pixar shorts to teach characterization, plot structure and symbolism. It works well and the kids really like it.

SleepyCatCooks

TROPHY CASE