I'm still smiling!

The last couple of weeks have been really great ones.  Nothing exceptionally big has happened, but I do want to share some of the small things that have made the end of the semester wonderful. 

1.  I have great students.  For the most part, I've had students with really good grades, which makes my job a lot easier.

2.  I have students who will stop by just to say hello - apparently seeing me once a day is not enough.

3.  Monday we had Christmas parties in all of my classes.  I was really on top of things and got to school early Monday morning - early enough that hardly anyone was there.  I had a very heavy box full of soda and puppy chow.  I managed to get it out of my trunk without a lot of fuss, but as I closed my trunk lid and start walking toward the door I was pondering how exactly I was going to get it inside.  I look over and one of my students is running toward the door from across the parking lot to get there ahead of me and holds it open for me to get in.  As I'm walking in, he says - I didn't realize you had that big box until you were started toward the door or I would have carried for you.  How sweet is that!?  Add to this - he's a kid you would never expect that from.  Made my day!

4.  I also handed back pajama pants Monday.  Same kid that opened the door for me asked to go change into his.  He wore them for the rest of the day - proud as could be that he had made them.

5.  I have students that draw me funny pictures of class jokes and write me random notes to say hi when my room is used for after school activities. 

6.  My foods kids are awesome cooks!  They have made some AMAZING dishes this semester!  And they want to take group pictures to remember the class by. 

7.  I finally have even the kids that aren't in foods trained on how to clean up the kitchens when other classes borrow utensils or prepare food in my room.  They even dry out my stainless steel sinks!

8.  I have students volunteer to do things for me - take boxes to the dumpster, clean out nasty tea containers that were randomly left in my room, wash my dishes, etc.

9.  Kids want to change their schedules to take more of my classes.  Two of my classes are doubling in size after Christmas break!

10.  One of my student's gave me a really sweet Christmas gift. 

11.  My student's never fail to make me smile.  They are the reason I love my job!  Don't get me wrong, sometimes they really frustrate me to the point I'm ready to pull my hair out, but they usually make up for it later.

The Magic of Cooking

I am a very happy teacher! I've mentioned earlier about our FCCLA Holiday Bread Sales. This week has been bread week. The mass baking extravaganza. Four different types of bread, 211 loaves, 5 days. We actually started last Friday, and so we finished up today. My 1st and 3rd hour classes did all of the baking, which they of course loved! I have to brag on my classes just a little here. They have been wonderful this week! Monday I had to be gone unexpectedly, but thanks to my very capable substitute, bread week went ahead as planned. I was worried all day about how the bread making would go, but these kids stepped right up and baked 50 loaves of lemon bread in one day! Not only that, but I came back to clean kitchens. It's so nice to know that they have learned something this semester! I have some amazing students this year that make it easy to come to work every morning. That being said, there is also something to be said for cooking.

Cooking can be a very magical experience. It does so much more than give us food to feed our bodies. It also helps feed the soul. Years ago women bonded over a cook stove or around the kitchen table preparing meals. They had to, there wasn't other time to spend together unless you were working at the same time. Cooking has also been the time for parents to pass down life lessons to their children. There is a song by Trace Atkins that fits here well. In the song he describes a father fishing with his daughter, but in reality they are doing much more than just fishing - they are making memories together. Cooking fits into that song as well. I have a lot of fond memories of times I cooked with my mom as I was growing up and even now that I am an adult. I look forward to the day that I can have some of those same memories with my future children. In the meantime, I get to make memories like that with my students at school. There have been so many of these this week! There are far too many memories to share them all here, but there have been many times of laughter and smiles in my foods classes this week. I sincerely hope that they have enjoyed the week and made as many memories as I have. I hope that I will have many more bread weeks in my teaching career, but I'm not sure any of them will be able to top the first.

What's missing?

I have taken on a new endeavor this year with my FCCLA group - a holiday bread sale.  We sold four different kinds and will be making them ourselves starting next week.  When I started planning for this a few weeks ago, I decided to have one of my foods classes give the recipes a trial run so the club members would be able to taste the product before the sold it.  The lemon, chocolate, and sour cream streusel loaves all turned out great. 

The problem came with the pumpkin.  Thirty minutes into baking the 10 small loaves they still had not risen like the others and the girls called me over.  This is what I found: 

I began going through the list of ingredients, thinking they had left out the baking soda or baking powder.  Neither was the case.  Any guesses? 

The flour!  The recipe called for 6 cups of flour, and they didn't put in a single one!  I was a very unhappy camper.  Needless to say the board members did not get pumpkin bread that night.  It will take the girls a long time to live this one down. 

Sales have also been pretty successful.  We now have 207 loaves of bread to bake next week. 

Things That Make My Day

I've mentioned this several times before, but I love my job.  I teach at a great school with some amazing students and wonderful coworkers.  I can't even begin to tell you how much better the second year of teaching has been so far.  It is so much easier!   My class sizes and my FCCLA numbers are up from last year.  If that's not enough to put me in a good mood, in the last couple of weeks there have been some instances that have just made my day even better.

Last week my FCCLA group attended a regional leadership conference.  Most of these girls had never been to this conference before and were a bit skeptical as to if it would be fun.  We arranged to attend on the same bus with 2 other schools which they were also skeptical about.  Oh and we left school at 6:15 in the morning for this!  I did not hear a single complaint all day about being tired or sharing their space.  In my opinion they were the best behaved group of students there.  (I may be slightly biased of course)  On the trip home I got comments along these lines - "I had so much fun today!" "I really enjoyed the workshops and got a lot from it." "I wish I had joined last year!"  So even though I was exhausted from being up at 4:00 in the morning, I was all smiles. 

I am pretty laid back with my students in homeroom.  They do homework, we chat and discuss the happenings.  I have a pretty good rapport with them and enjoy the time they are in my room.  Earlier this week, one of them jokingly accused me of being the meanest teacher ever.  Another student from a different hour was also in my room to finish off the applesauce he had made that morning didn't take it as a joke apparently and responded in my defense with, "Actually, she's pretty nice.  Her classes are really fun!"  Inside I was smiling from ear to ear. 

Tonight we had an FCCLA officer meeting after school.  I was a little leary of how it would go since we were trying to plan activities and such.  I had every officer volunteer to head organizing something!  I guess my expectations were too low because I honestly thought I would have to push them to get things started.  They proved me wrong!  They're excited about what we're doing and are ready to go!  I'm thrilled and cannot wait to see what the rest of the year brings!


Other smaller things - I have students in my Orientation class that are basically sewing on their own.  The read the directions and ask only a few questions to make sure they're doing it right.  This may not seem like a big deal, but these are beginners!  It's a huge deal!  I also have one of my boys in FCCLA learning how to crochet.  Most high school boys would not be thrilled about the idea, but he has volunteered to stay after school with some of the other members to learn.  He also picked it up quicker than most of the rest!  I've also had 3 students from last year come back to visit me. Normally that wouldn't sound like much. But these are three boys who would never have admitted they liked my class last year.

I am a happy camper!

And we're off!

The first week is officially over!  I have to say I'm pleased with the school year so far.  All of my classes but one have either grown or stayed the same as last year.  The one I lost students in, but overall I'm up 3 students compared to last year!  It's small, but it's progress.  I also have a pretty good group of students this year, so I'm excited to see what the year has to offer. 

I've also found out this week that I have a "look."  I don't know if it has just developed or maybe it wasn't as effective last year, but it's kinda cool.  It was early in the week and I had a student who thought something was funny and was snickering to himself.  Now I have a pretty good sense of humor and most of my students realize this.  But at this point there was nothing to be laughing at and his laughing was getting in the way of what I wanted to accomplish.  So I stood and looked at him until he looked back.  The entire time I'm thinking some not so nice thoughts and I guess it showed through on my face because one student at the front of the room whispered very quietly to himself, "whoa" in an awestruck voice with a tinge of fear.  The snickering quickly stopped and we continued on with my agenda for the day.  So I guess it's official, I have the look. 

In other stories, Friday was quite the day.  I am usually quite on top of having copies ready for class, but not Friday.  First hour we had a test.  It turns out I hit the wrong button on the copier and only managed to get 3 out of the 5 pages copied and only ended up with 8 copies when I needed 10.  Thankfully I'm close to the office.  Second hour comes and again we have a test.  They take it and I start to grade them and realize the test they took does not match up with my answer key.  A test from a different class had gotten in the folder somehow and I had copied the wrong one.  So I print out new copies on my printer and they retake the test.  The rest of the day went off without a hitch until after school.  Our principal announced we could leave early and as I'm getting ready to leave I find out the vending machine for the FCCLA is broken.  I can't fix it and neither can our maintenance man, so I call the company.  Twenty minutes later I start to leave again and I can't find my purse.  Turns out I left it in the teacher's lounge at lunch.  Thankfully I made it home in one piece!  Let's just hope I can find my way back Monday morning. 

Transformation

One of my summer projects this year was to paint my classroom.  Normally the janitors do this kind of thing, but with the Great Flood of 2010-2011, they have several other projects that don't allow time for extras like painting my room.  This is what my room looked like originally -

All of the walls were this lovely buttercream yellow.  Under other circumstances I might like the color, but my classroom is quite large and I had a lot of buttercream yellow. The main problem was choosing a paint color.  You can see from the picture I have a lot of browns.  What you can't see is the beautiful shades of green, tan, and black I have for my tile floor.  So several opinions and paint samples later I decided on Wildwood and Falling Ash (green and gray).  Day one involved trimming.  Thanks to the help of K & S, it only took one day.

We finished in 3 days, thanks to my coworkers who came to help. 
 And the results look like this -

This is the back of my room which houses the Yellow & Brown kitchens. 

Front of the classroom. 

In the front corner of my room I discovered this bulletin board hidden behind some old burlap.  It was one of those things I didn't have time to investigate what it was until now. 

Front of the red kitchen

I have to say I'm thrilled with the results.  And yes, I know the gray looks like white, but if you put white against it you can tell it's gray.  Now I just have to wait for the deep cleaning to be done and then I can decorate again!

Adventures in Sewing

One of the most fun parts of my classes this year was the sewing unit in Orientation to FACS.  We did this unit in 9 weeks and I was quite ambitious.  We made pillows, aprons, and pajama pants.  I had two sections with 10 and 15 students respectively, and only 5 sewing machines to work with.  That's right 5.  For anyone who has ever attempted sewing before, you know that this is quite a task.  Only a couple of my students had ever touched a sewing machine before.  Most of them were scared for their lives (and their fingers).  Needless to say it was a unique experience. 

The first project was designing their own pillow.  Nothing large or complex just a few pieces of fabric sewn together to give them a feel for working with the fabric and the machine and have something to show for their efforts.  The projects went really well.  We had some very nice looking pillows, lots of unique color combinations.  I was pretty happy.  As I carted these things home to grade, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they had done.  Until I get to one pillow. 

Upon first inspection, it looks nice.  Even stitches, straight seams, even stuffing.  Except for one corner.  As I'm feeling for lumps in the stuffing, I find something hard.  It's small, right in the corner of the pillow.  What on earth has this girl stuffed in her pillow?  It's small, hard and in the shape of a cylinder.  Any guesses?  A spool of thread.  I guess instead of tying a knot to keep her thread in place when she sewed her pillow shut, she just left the thread on the spool.  When I asked her about it at school the next day, she replied, "I wondered where that went!" 

There were a few other incidents, but none as humorous as that first one.  We had a few crooked apron pockets, and there was the pair of pants that one boy sewed a front piece and a back piece together and a back piece and a front piece together to make his pants.  To explain, you end up with a piece that is more curved (that's supposed to fit your back side better) on the front of your pants.  It makes for an interesting fashion statement and a strange walk!

Overall, I would call our first efforts at sewing a success.  Next year, I will not be quite so ambitious.  I need more sanity at the end of those nine weeks!

The Antics of the Yellow Kitchen

The yellow kitchen is neatly tucked in the back of my classroom.  It's one of my favorites because of it's color.  It also gets to claim the home of the spice cabinet, the garbage disposal, and the newest stove.  Because of this, I'm not sure why it feels the need to act up.  Maybe it's because it has the least amount of counter space, or up until February because it had the oldest stove.  Regardless, the yellow kitchen has developed quite a name for itself. 

It started back around October.  The seniors had been cooking taco meat for their lunch fundraiser and we were pouring cooled grease down the disposal.  A couple days after this, an unpleasant odor starts coming from the yellow kitchen.  My first thought was a dead mouse.  Unfortunately the problem wasn't that simple.  The garbage disposal had a crack all the way down the side and had spewed hamburger grease all over the cabinet under the sink.  It was very disgusting.  And thankfully our wonderful day maintenance man cleaned it up for me while I taught class.  (I cannot sing his praises enough!)  So the yellow kitchen receives a new garbage disposal. 

Everything seemed to be going well, until the beginning of this semester.  We were getting ready to do some serious cooking in Orientation and needed all 5 kitchens, so our maintenance man goes about turning on the gas and checking for leaks.  He's checking the stove in the yellow kitchen and all goes well until he gets ready to light the last burner.  Suddenly there's an explosion of fire at the back of the room.  I'm not exaggerating here.  I was standing at the front of my room discussing lab options with "my boys" and felt the heat from it.  As it turns out, the pipe that feeds the burner in question has been broken and leaks gas out all the time.  So my amazing administrator magically comes up with the funds for a new stove for yellow kitchen. 

At this point, I'm thrilled.  I have a new garbage disposal and a new stove.  We are good to go!  Well apparently the yellow kitchen is not happy yet.  I haven't figured out why it feels unloved, but apparently it does.  During one of our last labs in Orientation, the stove starts smoking.  (This is mainly because of human error, but still)  To make a long story short, moral of the story - it is possible to use to much cooking spray.  But on top of that, we can't leave the gas on all the time yet, because there is still a strong odor of natural gas coming from the yellow kitchen.  I don't know what it will take to end these antics, but I've had enough of it!

Quote of the Day

"Ms. Miller, you're gonna miss us next year."

I can't tell you how many times I've heard that from my seniors Friday and today.  And I can't deny it.  I am going to miss them next year.  A lot.  And some people will think I'm crazy because of it.  Maybe I am, but I embrace it. 

My students already think I'm crazy.  After all, I expect them to do their homework, I save seemingly EVERYTHING in foods class, I won't let them sit on the counters, and I expect perfection in clean up.  I also dance in the hallway and at prom, and won't let them set me up with one of the construction workers.  (I know, I'm practically insane!)

It's part of life, a very fun part at times.  Frankly, I think you have to be at least a little crazy to be a teacher.  Most kids can't wait to get out of high school to make a mark on the world.  And what do teachers do?  We make a running sprint back to it to spend the rest of our lives in high school.  Crazy right?

Looking Back & Moving Forward

(This was intended for last week, but got lost in the files of my computer before I could post it)

So many things have changed since the beginning of the year.  In August I was scared to death and so excited to have my own classroom.  I had tons of ideas and lots of fresh hope for things to come and plans – BIG plans.  The first day of teacher meetings, I nearly cried when I saw how small my classes were.  I’m talking small, one student, two students, four students.  Yes, I actually had a class that was one student.  The first day of school arrives and I meet my new students for the first time.  After meeting my small classes, I did go home and cry.  I had two classes of only one student.  My plans were falling apart before the year even started!  Thankfully one class doubled in size.  (Yes it’s still just two, but doubled makes it sound impressive.) and the other quadrupled.  I went home on cloud nine that day, but still wondering how I was going to handle one of them. 

Now as the year ends, I realize that God knew exactly what He was doing.  I needed those small classes to maintain my sanity.  It’s been a wonderful year and a stressful year.  Some things have worked wonderfully, others, not so much.  There are things to change and more BIG ideas for next year.  I’ve learned to choose everyday to believe in my students.  I’ve made some great new friends in my co-workers, and forged some good relationships with my students.  We’ve learned a lot this year and made the school smell wonderful along the way.  And those small classes?  Those are the ones I’m going to miss the most.  I have a week left with my seniors, and it makes me a little sad to see them go.  (And now that I’ve written this, they’ll do something next week to make me happy they’re gone.)  I’m not going to be sad though.  We’re going to celebrate next week!  They’ve survived four years of high school, and I’ve survived my first year of teaching.  Sounds like a reason to celebrate to me!

Taming the Savage Beast

Not that I would ever call any of my students savage beasts, but the analogy works well.  In two of my classes, we are working on designing bedrooms in shoeboxes.  Students have two weeks to work on their designs so we have plenty of class time to try to stay quiet.  We had encountered this problem when we had our sewing unit too.  So what is the answer?  Music. 

It’s the most amazing thing.  As soon as I turn on Pandora the mood of the room changes.  They get quiet, they concentrate better, and they seem to get more accomplished.   And it doesn’t seem to matter what type of music I play.  Anything works!

Of course I realize, I could make them be quiet without music, but playing music helps maintain my own sanity as well.  Some days I need to calm my own inner savage beast.  And if two periods of music isn’t enough to calm me, this thought is – it’s May!  And there are only 17 days of school left!  Holy cow!  Where has this year gone?

The Smoking Iron

The whole purpose of starting this blog was to share some of my funny stories.  Since that has yet to happen, here we go. 

Around the middle of October one of my classes started their sewing unit.  Teaching high school students to sew is not a task for the faint of heart.  You have to expect the unexpected.  Be prepared for anything, and hope that they have paid enough attention to you that they don't seriously injure themselves.  I can proudly say that both sections of this class made it through the unit with no serious mishaps.  (Only one minor burn from the iron.)  Anyway, back to the story.

Among my inherited possessions in my classroom were 5 irons that appeared to be from the 1970s.  I am nothing if not frugal in my classroom, so just because something is old does not mean it cannot be used.  I had 1 newer iron, but sharing 1 iron among 10 to 15 students creates a bit of a traffic jam.  So one day when we were particulary congested, I pulled out the relics.  We plugged them in and added water for the steam.  The first two leaked.  The third wouldn't get hot, so on to the fourth we went.  At this point I was called away to help another student with a sewing machine problem, leaving two of my responsible girls in charge of watching the iron.  A few minutes go by and one comes to me asking if the iron is supposed to be steaming.  I look up and small puffs of steam are occasionally coming from the bottom.  Success!  We have an iron that works.  Or so I thought. 

A minute or so later, the girls come rushing back over, saying there's something wrong.  I walk towards the front of the room to investigate, and there is not steam coming from the iron, but smoke!  Lots of smoke billowing out from around the sides!  My first thought?  Oh Crap! I quickly unplugged the iron, turned on a fan, and had students open the windows while I'm frantically waving my arms around trying to disperse the smoke and avoid setting off the alarm that is overhead.  (Come to find out, I do not have smoke detectors in my room, only heat detectors.  Thanks goodness!)

Needless to say we didn't try out iron number five.  I decided one close call to setting my room on fire was enough and the irons from the 70s went promptly into the trash.  Thankfully Dollar General had a sale on some pretty good irons and I had some classroom money left.

The Teaching Lifestyle

It's amazing how much changes in a year.  A year ago I was still substitute teaching and waiting for the next interview.  I was insecure and only dreaming about having a full time job.  Now I'm living that dream.  Every day I get to go to a job that I love.  But it's more than that. 

At the beginning of the year our superintendent told us teaching is not a job; it's a lifestyle.  Little did I know how true that was.  Rarely do I do something outside of school without coming up with an idea for a class.  My plans revolve around school events and extra curricular activities.  I can't go shopping without thinking about the school dress code.  Cuteness is not longer the only factor in picking out shoes.  It's nearly impossible to leave school at school, and it's difficult for me to have a conversation with someone without bringing up my students or classes.  It's a physically and emotionally draining profession, but to me the rewards far outweigh the negatives. 

I once had an administrator ask me when I was a senior in high school, "Why do you want to teach?  You have endless possibilities!"  He seemed to think I was "settling" for teaching.  Was I capable of other great things?  Sure, but that wasn't what I wanted.  I've always loved school and learning, so it was a natural choice for a profession.  But home ec?  A lot of people have the idea that FACS is useless.  In fact, some of my students have that view.  But I beg to differ.  (Of course I would, right?)  I teach kids that don't know how to cook anything without a microwave, don't know anything about reading a recipe or doing laundry.  They come from broken and abusive homes and don't know the first thing about communication or what a good relationship looks like.  They know nothing about insurance, loans, or making a budget and keeping a checking account.  If they have a hole or lose a button, they don't know how to fix it.  Now I'm not turning them into professional chefs, financial gurus, or custom tailors, but I am making a difference.  I see the pride in their first successful foods lab.  I hear the stories of how they're communicating with their boyfriends and having fewer fights.  I see the results of sewing a button back on their coat and the excitement of making good decisions with their money.  So you tell me, do we need FACS teachers?

(*Disclaimer - I am in no way suggesting that my subject is more important than any other.  I am only arguing my equality.) 

I love looks when they finally understand why we've been doing these things in class.  It means they;re learning something, and all my teaching is not in vain.  The great thing is I've not been the only one teaching in my classroom this year, nor have my students been the only ones learning.  My students have taught me countless lessons.  They've taught me how to be a better teacher and a better person, and they've taught me to celebrate the small successes.  These students have become my children.  I cheer at their games, laugh at their jokes and antics (classroom appropriate of course), smile at their happiness, and cry with their pain and sorrow over things they should never have to face as teenagers (even though they never see my tears for them).  And I hope that through this process of learning together that I have touched at least one life even half as much as they have all touched mine.  Because that is the reason I teach.

What are they thinking?

My students never fail to amaze me.  Sometimes that's a postive thing.  Other times. . . not so much.  While I care about each of them tremendously, sometimes all I can do is shake my head.

For example, the other day as I walk into the room from doing hall duty between classes, one of my students is moving a chair.  I didn't think much of it.  I have a couple of chairs that have cracks in them, and the girls often complain about their hair getting caught.  Later as I walk to the back of my room, I notice one of my chairs is missing a chunk out of the back!  Not just a little chip, a piece bigger than my hand.  Close to a fourth of the back of the chair.

(In order to understand how I missed this, it's important to know that I have a half wall in my room separating two of my kitchens.  This wall separates the back of my room from the table and chairs section and has a lower counter to use when we sew.  Hence the chair in the back of the room.) 

How exactly did they expect me to not notice part of the chair missing?  The logic (or lack there of) puzzles me.  Some of the things they think they can get away with amaze me.

An Introduction

My first year of teaching is nearly over, and I've been thinking about all of the things that have happened this year.  I have lots of great memories and funny stories, so I thought, why not share?  Hopefully this will provide some good laughs and give you an insight to my world of Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS).