Conferences, Report Cards, and Open House, oh my!

This week was a very busy week full of preparation. A teacher trifecta if you will. Conferences are next week, and in the week after Thanksgiving report cards will be handed out, and we will have our first open house of the year. Conferences + report cards + open house... and what do I do on the eve of all of this busy in my professional life? Injure my leg of course. It was actually a three week old injury last weekend, one that I thought was mostly healed, when I went to a friend's wedding and proceeded to dance the night away, in heels. Oops. It hurt so much the next evening, with a visible bruise from ankle to knee and a goose egg swelling out of my mid-shin, that I decided to make time on Monday to go to the doctor. But first I sent a message to Nuat Thai Healing Arts, my massage guy. The one who helped me regain functionality in my wrist after the medical professionals couldn't. The one who studies Thai massage and natural healing. The one who has a tendency to disagree with my doctors and get better results than them. And *he* told me to go to the doctor.

So instead of pulling the typical teacher, yes I know I should go, but really how do I make time for that shtick, as soon as my students went to their Monday morning PE class, I called my doctor, who got me an afternoon appointment. I spent the day mostly seated, with my leg on a chair, and an ice pack stuck in my boot. I went to the doctor, who sent me for an x-ray down the hall and told me to come back afterwards. Although the walk was painful, I was grinning at the irony of sending someone with a suspected broken leg on a walk down the hall and back to get confirmation of the break. After that little bit of crazy, I was called back into the exam room, where the doctor kept repeating, "I just can't believe it's not broken!" Which I have since taken up as my mantra: whenever anyone asks about my leg, I say, "It's not broken!" I keep saying it because for most of the week it was the only positive thing I had to say about it. It HURT! But my aforementioned massage guy came to my rescue on Wednesday evening. He worked on and around the injury site for about 20 minutes and gave me a bone blend of Essential Oils which has markedly decreased my need for ibuprofen and icing. Tonight I am happy to report that the visible bruise has shrunk by at least half and the goose egg is not nearly as prominent. 

Anyway, next week is conference "week" - conferences are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday, and then we have the rest of Wednesday and Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving. Students who have their conferences scheduled for Monday morning effectively have an entire week off of school. There are enough teachers posting through my Facebook feed about being on their Thanksgiving Break, that I am a teeny bit jealous that I don't have the entire week off too. But as long as I remind myself that this is the closest thing I've ever had to a Thanksgiving Break, and that's exactly why conferences were scheduled for now (and that Thanksgiving Break was only Thursday and Friday until quite recently), I'm okay with it.

Our conferences are student led, so my students spent a good portion of this week preparing for them. They filled out a worksheet of academic talking points and another one of IB Learner Profile Attributes to use in leading their conferences, and then had "rehearsal time" where they pretended they were leading their conference to a group of classmates. That last part didn't go as well as I would have liked - the kids were squirrely by the end of the day on the last day before there was no school for a week - but I think they are all prepared to spend twenty minutes telling their parents about their progress thus far in fifth grade and to set some goals for the remainder of the school year.

Friday also marked the end of the first trimester, with report cards being handed out on the first Friday in December. That meant that students had to finish projects in both social studies and science, and take a math test to close out the term. The science projects were presented in class, which meant no take home grading for me - a total bonus of the presentation format. That left me with not much grading for the weekend (my partner teacher teaches social studies and math), which means that everything that is going into my first trimester report cards has already been entered into our online grading system except for any late assignments that students hand in during their conferences (my hard deadline for the last opportunity for kids to turn in work), and their religion journals which I forgot to bring home to score. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to use the gaps in my conference schedule, and Wednesday afternoon to write report card comments and plan for the first week of the new term so that Thanksgiving can just be Thanksgiving... especially since my family is having foster kids move in with us on Wednesday.

In the midst of all of this, we are also planning for an open house on November 30. Cue the science presentations! Another benefit of having the kids present their final projects is that three trifold boards and a diorama came in, as well as a ton of Google Slide presentations that I can project during the event. More prep will have to happen prior to open house, but hopefully not too much.

We also snuck in an inside lesson with our Master Gardner from Seattle Tilth this week. She brought in several different kinds of seeds and talked to the kids about how the shape and size of each seed has adapted for maximum dispersal. It was the perfect teaser lesson to our second trimester science unit on properties of matter where our focus will primarily be on how form and function are interrelated. It was awesome because I hadn't told her what our next science unit will be but I was able to use her lesson to make the connection for the kids in the middle of her lesson.

It was also awesome because I could sit behind my desk and let her teach. For me, a teacher who is normally crazy like a kangaroo on steroids, it's been incredibly difficult to sit and be still during class. I've set a personal step goal of under 5,000 while I heal, but I've been consistently between 6,000-8,000. Oops. One benefit of the injury has been that I've seen my students adopt a caring, protective attitude toward me. Most of them are volunteering to help whenever they perceive a need.  "Can I get you another ice pack, Mrs. Conrow?" "Do you want me to carry your coffee for you, Mrs. Conrow?" "Mrs. Conrow, I'll get that for you!" They truly are an amazing bunch of kids!

Science Weekend

I spent last weekend at the regional NSTA conference in Portland, Oregon. It was a little strange to be in the area and not visiting family, but there was very little time for anything other than stuffing my head full of educator science lingo and playing with scientific concepts before rushing home again. I didn't get a three day weekend, but that meant I only had to write sub plans for one day, which I count as a net benefit of the timing of the conference. Staying in a hotel in the thick of some of the most violent protests over the election, not so much. After spending all day learning, I needed sleep much more than I needed to hear shots, bangs, skidding cars, and helicopters hovering.

The conference itself was my first professional development focused specifically on one subject. I feel like I finally started to wrap my brain around the Next Generation Science Standards and their three dimensions of Cross Cutting Concepts, Science and Engineering Practices, and Disciplinary Core Ideas - all of which got abbreviated more often than not for an alphabet soup that was nearly incomprehensible to me at the beginning of the conference. Thankfully the NGSS are new enough that I was not the only one feeling this way. By the end of the three days, I can safely say I still have a lot of learning left to do on the new standards, but I am excited about the way they seem to be lining up neatly with of the International Baccalaureate philosophy that I have been learning about over the past year. The NGSS best practices modeled for me at the NSTA conference correspond to the inquiry based, hands-on, student centered philosophy of the IB. 

Working with other science teachers to learn about these new ideas in mostly engaging and hands on activities was an amazing way to spend a weekend. I got to simulate the digestive system, making (a very sweet smelling) poop in one session and gaining a free trial to an online treasure trove of videos for science instruction. I played with center of balance and saw creations out of plasticized milk. I worked with others to engineer a dirigible to transport pennies across a fishing line. I created a colorful chemical reaction and learned how to use Microsoft and Google applications to engage students in modeling tasks.

Collaborating with the middle school science teacher in my building and meeting new colleagues (some with connections to former co-workers!) was the highlight of the trip. I learned a lot from a woman I ended up sitting next to during two different sessions, and I loved running into the new classroom neighbor of a teacher who used to work across the hall from me. Sharing a hotel room with the middle school science teacher in my building and getting to debrief with her in the evenings was invaluable. I feel more confident and competent in my abilities to teach science well after spending the weekend at NSTA.

November Blah Blah Blah

This came through my Facebook feed at the right time this year.

Lots of good learning can happen in post-Camp Seymour October and during the start of November. Lots of good learning does happen in post-OEE October and in the beginning of November. But somehow, every year, I have to try harder when Camp Seymour is in the rear-view mirror and daylight savings is upon us. I feel bogged down by all the day to day aspects of being a teacher (lesson planning, parent communication, materials preparation, meetings...the list goes on and on, but I digress) and I feel like my family must think I am MIA.

The Friday before Halloween

But the truth is, it's probably all attributable to the change of the weather and the end of the "honeymoon phase" of the school year. I need to start taking vitamin D again and remind myself that it's a good thing the kids are feeling comfortable around me and in my classroom.  And remember to take time for myself and my family somewhere in the mix after the run up to Camp Seymour.

This year the family stuff was impossible to ignore, starting the very week I returned from Camp Seymour. Last year about this time my husband I started a journey to become licensed foster parents with the end goal of adopting kids in need. The Friday after I returned from Camp Seymour we took our first placement. Six days went by in a blur, and then as fast as the new kids came, they went. I mention this piece of my life mostly to explain the lack of a post last weekend, but also to remind anyone who may have forgotten that teaching is just a slice of my overall life.

Writing Pen Pal Letters

At school, the past two weeks shifted from post-OEE reflections toward moving forward with completing units in progress before our big trip. Students "fossilized" plastic dinosaurs in sand, pebbles, and plaster of paris before excavating them again. They researched survival and worked to synthesize ideas from their research with ideas from in-class reading with transitional statements. And we finally found time to begin drafting responses to our pen pals in Virginia. (Sorry it took so long, Mr. Jackson!) With Halloween thrown in the mix, complete with my class' annual viewing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, I am happy to report we are on track to end the first trimester right where we should be. Is it Thanksgiving yet?

Excavation Time!