The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

::waves::

Hi!

Wow. A lot has happened since my last post! If you don't know me, my name is Martha. No, I'm not a 90-year-old resident of a retirement home. My mom named me after my great-grandmother. I have a melancholic personality, which fits well--Martha literally means "sorrowful and full of tears" (thanks mom). If you're looking to be offended, you found the right place. I'm an adult survivor of child abuse. Watching my family drown in a life of alcoholism, drug abuse, and mental illness helps me understand what my students are going through. Climbing out of a life of poverty and helplessness prepared me to keep my expectations high for my students. My teachers, youth pastors, professors, and friends stepped in and provided the support I needed. THIS is how I know that teachers are immeasurably influential in the lives of their students.

I'm embarrassed to say that I became less reflective lately and I'm feeling the effects of it. I once took pride in pursuing excellence and improving my craft (whatever it may be at the time), but I slowly became complacent and satisfied with mediocrity. This isn't the person I want my children to remember. It's not the teacher my students should have. It's time to kick my ass back into gear.

Although I've had the least growth outwardly, I'd like to think that I'm beginning to understand my personality better. What makes me tick. My triggers. What motivates me.

My husband and sons are introverts, and while doing research and taking trainings (yes I'm *that* mom) to help me better understand them, I learned that introvert does NOT mean "shy". It means that being around people drains them, and they need time alone to recharge and process new information. As I learned more, I realized that I'm also an introvert. That explains why I've only had three close friends my whole life. And why I never learned the names of anyone that lived in my dormitory hall in college. After spending all day teaching and talking to twenty 8-year-olds, I HAVE to unwind and unpack my thoughts.

But meetings.

The bane of my existence. The necessary evil.

I value the ideas of colleagues and I recognize the importance of collaboration. But why can't we collaborate via text? I carefully budget my energy to last the entire school day, then there's a surprise faculty meeting after school. o.O I've talked to psychiatrist about it. He laughed.

My Life in Numbers

Our first week of school was spend doing baseline assessments for our students. Unfortunately that leaves very little time for actual instruction, although our district's curriculum map calls for us to begin math and science on the first day.

...alas...

I was trying to think of a way to review/teach place value to our students during this weird time (lots of testing, early lunch brunch, and learning classroom rules and procedures. And in all that thinking, I created a prototype for this!

This 12 page booklet (half pages) applies place value concepts to numbers in student's lives and makes this sterile subject more personal. I hope they would be as excited as I was about this project, and they were! :) ::nerd flag::

Students used the number of letters in their names, their birth year, the population of their city, etc. to demonstrate their knowledge of place value and representing multidigit numbers many ways.

I'm very pleased with the way this product came out! And it fits perfectly in their math notebooks! :)

I love being able to help my kiddos make deep connections to learning!

My hurricane day/weekend has come to an end. I hope everyone has a wonderful, productive week at school!

-Martha

Wow.

What a week! This was the best first week of school I've every had! We are blessed to be able to loop up with our kiddos and they returned ready to work and learn! :) We started teaching math, science and writing right away. One of my summer projects was to create a writing/spelling resource that our students could keep in the back of their writing binders. Having so many students meant we probably wouldn't have time help students with spelling commonly misspelled words.

I wanted something more extensive, so I included Sitton's list of 1200 most frequent words in children's writing. And there are lines for students to add their own words throughout the year.

I was very happy to see that my students liked it...one even said "Thank you, Mrs. Sosa!" It feels good to know that it's something that will be used. :)

There are also pages with transitions and lists of family members, number words, days of the week, months of the year, etc.

You can find this spelling dictionary at my store on Teacher's Pay Teachers. I also have a Zaner-Bloser version for primary grades.

Off the Grid

I've been MIA for a few weeks! Aaaahhhhh....

As I've said before, I have approximately an hour commute, so I've been spending much of my time travelling, setting up my classroom, and clinging to my last few hours of summer bliss.

My boys and I spent a lazy day playing outside yesterday. My five-year-old, Pablo, is starting kindergarten at K12 Virtual School on Tuesday and I'm so excited! :) This is a new venture for both of us, so I'll keep everyone posted.

My youngest son, Eddie, has one more year at home before he starts Preschool. I get mixed feelings at the end of every summer. I know how quickly the school year will fly by. Summer will be here again before I know it, they will have another birthday, and one more year will slip away--Oh, time...do slow down.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few projects that Judith and I have completed in the classroom. Today is the first day of school, and who knows how longs this organization will last! ;)

I'm jumping up and down excited about having such an awesome selection in our classroom library. My co-teacher, Judith, has an obscene amount of books, spanning all genres and interests! I wanted to make a contribution (since she's clearly already spent lots of time and money building her library!) so I set out to organize and level each book.

::gasps for breath::

By the way, this project was bigger, more time consuming than I thought. BUT the I'm so proud of the end result. Since we both are looping up with our students from last year, I wanted to change things up for them and make it interesting. :)

We have squeaky, clean, freshly-waxed floors! And 36 students! And that means lots of annoying screeching sounds when students scoot their chairs in and out when they sit/stand. Luckily, I found this idea on Pinterest! :) It may require a few repairs through the year, but it's a less expensive alternative to tennis balls, and we can color coordinate student chairs and desks!!

It's a fairly easy project and we've gotten a lot of compliments already! I bought the felt at Wal-mart for 23 cents per sheet--cut them in thirds and fold them over to create a 2-ply sheet. Then we just rubber-banded them to the bottom of the desks! The chairs aren't done yet, but we're going to let the students do that on the first day. :)

I wanted something other than letter cut-outs for our content boards, so I made banners!

I have lots more to share, but I have to get read for the first day of school! I wish all my teacher friends well!!! :)

-Martha Sosa

Family

Whew...

This weekend has been chaotic, magical, stressful (the good kind), and therapeutic...

We just had a family reunion!

Here is a photo of my paternal great-grandparents and their children (one of which is my grandpa). It's amazing to have so many family members gathered in one place. I had a blast! My favorite part was when my 5 year old asked me, "Mom, how do you know all these people?"

10 minutes and one very long explanation later, I'm sure he regretted asking me. :)

Oh, yes. Speaking of my son, I wanted to introduce my family to the blog world. My husband, Pauly, and I have been married for 6 years. He is the kindest, most loving person I've ever known. He is a driven small business owner, even in a struggling economy. He makes me laugh...a lot. And he listens to all my crazy teacher stories and ideas. I'm so blessed to have his unwavering support in anything I do. And trust me--I have some crazy ideas.

We've been blessed with two beautiful boys. Pablo just turned 5 in June. We call him our little professor as he is filled with an ever-growing bank of knowledge and facts. He's painfully shy and observant. And his current kick is knock-knock jokes and Hot Wheels. :)

Our youngest, Eduardo or Eddie, is three years old and he's the same height as our five year old! He was 23 inches when he was born and he has yet to land on the height/weight chart! :) He has the most enchanting smile--which is great because it gets him out of all the trouble he gets into.

Thanks for learning a little about my family. I wanted everyone to be able to put a face with a name if I ever have a story. ;) I've been truly blessed--beyond measure.

Newbie Blog Hop

Alright, I'm attempting my first link up with Grade Three is the Place for Me for a Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop. I hope I'm doing this right!

::crosses fingers::

The Questions are:

1. what state you are in
2. your current teaching position
3. your teaching experience
4. when you started blogging
5. share a blogging tip / blogging resource

1. I am in the state of Florida! We're called the sunshine state, but all Floridians know that means squall lines, sun showers, and suffocating humidity.
2. I'm currently preparing to teach 3rd grade! I'm beyond excited to loop up with my kiddos this year--and this is my first year team teaching with my friend Judith. It's going to be a great year!
3. It's hard to believe that this will be my 6th year teaching. Time flies! I have five years under my newbie belt. I finally, almost, MIGHT have an idea of what it takes to be an effective teacher...maybe.
4. My first blog was back in 2004 when Xanga was the trend. I recorded the ups and downs of college life. I still look back and marvel at how unbelievably naive I was. :) As soon as Mark Zuckerberg expanded FB from Harvard to other colleges I gave up blogging for microblogging; also known as status updates.
5. A blogging tip? Hmmmm...Not so much a tip, but a resource I've considered joining. I've been looking at Teacher Blog Traffic School to help me refine my blog skills (I'm feeling very Napoleon Dynamite-esque).

Now I have a question for you! What activities, games, craftivities do you plan for the first week of school?

Take a look at my sad list of followers...yep. Just me. Help me out, will ya? ;)

Abstract/Random {Originally Posted June 20, 2012}

If you know me, you know that I did not inherit the organized gene. And if you have 2 brain cells, you know that organization is non-negotiable when it comes to co-teaching or team teaching (is there a difference between the two?). The coming school year will be my first year coteaching with my friend Judith. She is punctual, professional, she remembers to check her students’ agendas everyday and turns in her lunch count on time. She has all the qualities that I lack. :/ I’m not going to lie when I say that I’m slightly intimidated to share the responsibilities of a classroom and students with someone that has such great management…and memory. But I’m excited to get a jumpstart on organizing my thoughts, supplies and procedures. My fear of being a burden to Judith is fueling my desire to start prepping right now. The 2011-2012 school year was an intense growing year for me professionally. And I know the coming year will only stretch me more.

Waylon {Originally Posted June 21, 2012}

I can’t get my mind off Waylon. In 2008 I was hired to teach 2nd grade. I had 2 days to get a classroom ready for a room full of little ones. The school year began and I LOVED every minute of it. My heart is in second grade. I love the age–the curriculum. Everything. A month into the year, I got news that my unit was cut by the county and that I would be placed in a kindergarten classroom. I swore on everything that I would never teach kindergarten. I was sent home because I was crying so hard. I had already built relationships with my 2nd graders and we were just beginning to dig into the meat of instruction. I considered quitting. I came to work the next day. Mrs. Rodriguez stayed with me and helped me learn the ropes. I didn’t realize exactly how much work teaching K would involve. They didn’t know how to hold a pencil. How to sit down. My first day in there a little one yelled from the bathroom, “Mrs. Sosa! Come wipe me!”. I was going to lose my mind. Looking back I see God’s hand in those moments. He knew exactly what he was doing. You see, that year I learned how to REALLY teach a child how to read from the VERY beginning. 8 out of 16 of my babies knew no English. I had a few spunky kiddos that added “flavor” to our day. One of them was Waylon. Waylon was incredibly creative in kindergarten. Every Friday we had show and tell (practice speaking for my ESOL babies) and Waylon forgot to bring something to share with the class, but his hand was still flying in the air, waving back and forth. “Oooh! Ooh! Pick me!” He walked to the front of the room. His rigid posture commanded the presence of everyone in the room (including my friend Kelly who was helping us that day). With the most serious face a 5 year can make he began singing the Iron Man theme song, complete with sound effects and motions. I had to bury my face in my hands to keep the students from seeing me laugh and turn red. He never failed to make me laugh on a daily basis. And I can still hear him saying my name with his cute little lisp, “Mith Thotha!!” (which he no longer has). Waylon was part of the class that taught me how to teach each student what they need. I thought I would never want to teach kindergarten, but at the end of that year, I walked away with more than I ever could have imagined. Waylon is in St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital right now fighting for his life. He is on life support and doctors are telling his mom that they aren’t expecting him to make it through the night. I can’t imagine the pain his family is feeling right now. Please pray for him and his family. *Edit* Waylon left this life June 30, 2012. I think of him daily. Life is precious.

Waiting on my floors

My (our) classroom is being used for summer school which means the floors cannot be waxed until the end of this week. I'm itching to get in there and start working and preparing for this year! :) Until then, I've been gathering some ideas and resources. As you know, my team teacher and I are using a Hollywood/movie theme in our classroom. I wasn't so sure about the idea at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized that we could take serious advantage of "rehearsals" and "performances". (Oh yes...that REALLY means practice and assessments) And we all know that acting, singing and dancing require full engagement! :) ...sigh... I can't wait to spend the year with my students again. I'm so blessed to be able to loop up with my kiddos! ::focus Martha:: Anway, I wanted to share some of the things I've made to get ready for the year. Since we are dealing with a team teaching situation, we are going to rely on class jobs to alleviate some of the responsibility. And lets be honest, for the most part, it seems that my students have a better memory than I do! ;) I'd be lost if I didn't have 18 (now 36) pairs of eyes helping me find my classroom keys. To go with our Hollywood theme I used clapboard as job labels. I was able to think of 24 jobs for the labels, and we are going to have 6 team leaders and 6 supply managers,so that means a job for everyone! ::whew::

Again, once my floors are waxed, I can post pictures of how our job chart looks in our room. We are in the process of leveling our classroom library. I never realized how many books can fit on these shelves! I almost blurted the dreaded phrase, "We have too many books," but according to Rudyard Kipling, you can never have to many books. Looks like we don't have enough space... :/ As we're leveling our books, I was thinking of purchasing some leveled library stickers (on sale at lakeshorelearning.com) but I was struggling with trying to keep to a theme, so I made these blank Hollywood-themed stickers.

They can be printed on sticker paper and punched with a circle or scalloped craft punch. I'm planning on labeling the books with their reading level and genre. Here is the birthday bulletin board set to go along with our theme. There is a star-shaped monthly heading and the the student names and birth dates will hang below the corresponding star.

I'm going to glue the tickets onto fishing line to hang under the stars. The moment I step into my freshly cleaned and waxed classroom I will snap pictures to post. I hope all my teacher friends enjoy this week with their families! The summer is passing quickly.

Say It Ain't So...

Lie to me. Tell me summer isn't half over. I have the amazing pleasure of looping up with my 2nd graders into 3rd grade this year, and to say that I'm ecstatic is an understatement. I cannot wait to spend another year with my kids! But... I only have a 4 weeks to finish all my projects and plans for the upcoming year and I'm not sure that's enough time to do it all--and do it well. I'm finally recovering from the shock of learning that I will be teaching third grade. And I'm tres lucky to share this crazy adventure with my friend and now co-teacher, Judith (Mrs. Hardesty...or Mrs. H...or H...depends on how lazy I'm feeling when I'm blogging). You'll hear a lot about her. ;) This year we are creating a Hollywood theme for our room!

This behavior clipchart is going to save a ton of space...and we're going to definitely need that having 36 kids in one room. You can click here to see it in my store! Keep an eye out for my 20% off sale near the end of July! We're making a Hollywood Hills bulletin board for our Word Wall! And here are letter labels!

Word Wall Letter Labels And our desk name plates...

Only a dollar! And you can print as needed... And lastly (for now), our math fact mastery tracker to match our Hollywood theme.

Poppin' Through Our Facts I have quite the commute and we're still waiting for our floors to be waxed, but when we're finally able to get these up, I'll post pics! Can't wait!