Thursday, November 28, 2013

And so it begins...

I have embarked on a great adventure in blogging about my classroom. I suppose an introduction is in order. I teach 8th grade core in the San Francisco Bay Area. Core at our school is a two period block of English and US history. I've taught the same thing since I started, and this is my 11th year. I knew when I went to get my teaching credential that middle school was the level I wanted to teach at. I have always been one of those crazy people who ADORES middle school students. I'm always amused by the common conversation I have when people ask me what I do:

"So what do you do?"
"I'm a teacher."
"Oh, that's wonderful! What grade do you teach?"
"Eighth grade."
"Oh my god, you are a saint/I don't know how you can do it/kids at that age are crazy"

Like many schools, our school is VERY focused on implementing the Common Core this year. Everything seems to revolve around that. My department has been working together to revamp some of what we do with that in mind. What I've discovered, however, is that a lot of what we already did fits the Common Core model. At first, I was worried that the Common Core would mean throwing out everything I had been doing and having to start fresh like a first year teacher all over again. However, now that I know a lot more about Common Core, I see that is not the case. I'm excited to incorporate a lot of the higher order thinking skills in to my curriculum. I also decided that since I was doing a lot of curriculum development this year, I'd try my hand at teacherspayteachers.com and see if I couldn't share my curriculum with other educators.

Right now, I'm on break for a week for Thanksgiving. I'm always so grateful for the fact our district gives us this whole week off. It's nice rejuvenating time, and it's given me an opportunity to sit down and get this blog off the ground!

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