Holy Toledo – it’s NoVeMbEr?!? That’s crAzy!!!
Here are my highlights from week 9.

1. Science Corridor – I broke into the Science Corridor this week. You see, in our school, all of the science teachers share a common hallway between their classrooms. This is where they house all of their special, awesome science equipment, and where they prep for labs. No one is allowed in the back without a special secret password, handshake, security deposit, retinal scan… just kidding. I’ve always been pretty envious of the science teachers – they’re like a special club. Well I started nosing around the Science Corridor, and I couldn’t believe all of the neat things I was finding. I especially love the anatomical figure they have guarding their coffee station 🙂

2. The Real Halloween – Our school actually celebrated Halloween last Friday. I already shared my costume from that day, but when the official Halloween came around, I just couldn’t help myself! I had to dress up again! Here I am, dressed as “Honey Boo-Boo.” It was quite enjoyable watching the students try and figure out this pun-y costume. I eventually had to tell most of them, at which point they smiled and laughed genuinely. My students are very good-natured this year, and I think they’re all so sweet!

3. Data – I feel like I am drowning in data. As I have mentioned, I am collecting data for my dissertation. It is very very very (yes 3 verys) overwhelming at times. But gosh, isn’t it pretty to look at? When I realize I am starting to go crazy and my mind is becoming numb, I guess it’s a comforting thought that I can just look at all the pretty colors… O.o

4. Reading Interventions – I’ve purchased 2 books this week that I am excited to read. I am intending to use them with my group of intervention students – the students who are currently behind grade level with reading comprehension. After doing some extensive testing and investigating, I have come to find that they aren’t lacking in reading comprehension strategies, but they are actually lacking in foundational reading skills. This is not something that a middle school teacher usually looks for or expects in a 7th or 8th grader, but I see it becoming a more prevalent problem. We are going to wind up going back to basics with phonics, phoneme-grapheme mapping, syllabication, morphemes and word study. I’m hoping that we can give these students the missing ingredients they need to catch them up to their peers with reading fluency and comprehension.

5. New Camcorder – Well, my husband and I decided to crack into the savings a bit and purchase a new camcorder for my school work. As I am working with students who are taking the ORCA, I need to record our conversations and their navigational habits. After doing some research, we decided on this Canon VIXIA HF R42 – Camcorder, and I’m very happy with it. It is simple to use, takes high quality video, allows me to also snap pictures, and the audio is unbelievable. (BTW we found an open item at Best Buy and saved a lot of money!) I’m playing back our recordings, and I can hear what the teacher is talking about in the next room! I wish I had purchased this camcorder when I was working on my National Board Certification, and for all of the other data collection projects I have done as part of my dissertation. I had been using the Flip Video, but this camcorder can record for much longer since I can use SD cards, and the video quality is much higher.