Poetry and Plumbing
Got back on Saturday night from a vacation in Puerto Rico. It was really a work vacation because most of the week was dedicated to supervising a bathroom renovation at my apartment. Unfortunately, that has turned into a nightmare because I have an uncooperative tenant and to make matters worse my repairman became ill and had emergency surgery without completing the job. He started to lay down the tile and was going to finish the job on Saturday the day I was leaving but the tenant asked him to leave. Then on Sunday night he got ill and had to be rushed to the emergency room and now he will require two weeks of rest at least! Can you believe that? Once he is well, I hope he will complete the repair in one week.
On the other side of ocean, here in Florida, I had to face my final observation of the year for work. It was my first day back at work and it was going to be during my first class of the day. Talk about pressure! And it was. I was nervous and my students were nervous. Have you heard of Murphy's law? Everything that can go wrong will. This is how it happened.
First I got back from making copies about 30 seconds late. My supervising assistant principal was standing there waiting for me. He is a stickler for punctuality and I was so ashamed, but I had to make those copies. So I apologized. He put me at ease saying he did not start the observation until he stepped into the room! Then I lost the TV remote and without it I couldn't put on the channel for the school's news. I could only turn the TV on manually but needed the remote to find a particular channel. So we couldn't say the pledge which we always say. I was on the verge of tears. I finally spotted the remote, but by then the news was over and it was just in time for the credits. What good was that! After all of that I made a remark about it being April Fools and I shook it off and kept going. I started the class and the kids were great and I made it through. I taught them a lesson on creative poetry writing putting into practice all they had learned about figurative and descriptive language. I used the poem I wrote about the turtles as a model and they got inspired! They talked and wrote about their Spring Break. They circled key words and phrases which included imagery and figurative language and then began to write. The kids were wonderful, were on task, and loved the idea of creative writing! Everything turned out alright!
Fortunately, I don't have to worry about any more observations for the rest of the year. Now I can focus on teaching, finishing my IPDP, and the end of the year! Can I deal with that? You betcha!
On the other side of ocean, here in Florida, I had to face my final observation of the year for work. It was my first day back at work and it was going to be during my first class of the day. Talk about pressure! And it was. I was nervous and my students were nervous. Have you heard of Murphy's law? Everything that can go wrong will. This is how it happened.
First I got back from making copies about 30 seconds late. My supervising assistant principal was standing there waiting for me. He is a stickler for punctuality and I was so ashamed, but I had to make those copies. So I apologized. He put me at ease saying he did not start the observation until he stepped into the room! Then I lost the TV remote and without it I couldn't put on the channel for the school's news. I could only turn the TV on manually but needed the remote to find a particular channel. So we couldn't say the pledge which we always say. I was on the verge of tears. I finally spotted the remote, but by then the news was over and it was just in time for the credits. What good was that! After all of that I made a remark about it being April Fools and I shook it off and kept going. I started the class and the kids were great and I made it through. I taught them a lesson on creative poetry writing putting into practice all they had learned about figurative and descriptive language. I used the poem I wrote about the turtles as a model and they got inspired! They talked and wrote about their Spring Break. They circled key words and phrases which included imagery and figurative language and then began to write. The kids were wonderful, were on task, and loved the idea of creative writing! Everything turned out alright!
Fortunately, I don't have to worry about any more observations for the rest of the year. Now I can focus on teaching, finishing my IPDP, and the end of the year! Can I deal with that? You betcha!
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