Thursday, March 15, 2018
Houston's Dual Language Conference
Vivian Pratts and friends have put together Houston's First Annual Dual Language Conference. It is slated for April 28th in Humble, Texas. I will be presenting, along with Omaly Sandoval, Vivian Pratts, and Dr. Sandra Mercuri. I will be presenting two sessions on teaching grammar in both languages and also adding text structures to teach expository text. My daughter, Elizabeth Ucles, will also speak at the beginning of the day about growing up as a dual language student. This will be a blast! I look forward to seeing you there!
Whirlwinds
It has been a long time since I posted anything. I've been too busy this year. I've had to manage three classes, collaborate with the colleagues on my campus, and collaborate and plan with 28 wonderful 4th teachers of Writing in SBISD. In addition to that, I've helped with tutorials twice a week, plan, organize, and teach five Saturday Writing Camps at Edgewood. Now that it is spring break, I started thinking that it might be a good time to post.
This year has been super crazy. The first week of school was breezy, but then I experienced Harvey. I was out of school the Friday of the first week of school. We then returned two weeks later. My house didn't suffer much damage, but my roof begged for mercy from the winds and rain. I had to get a part of it repaired along with the ceiling in one of my rooms. The mental strain, however, was more taxing. I left my house during the hurricane to seek shelter at hotel nearby. The strain of not knowing if my immediate area would or would not flood was tremendous. When I hear it rain now, I get nervous thinking about those five days of sitting and watching my area flood. I become anxious because of the flooding and think about the health of my roof as well. This event really brought home the realization that this weather event could happen again because of the crazy nature of our weather and the melting of the polar ice caps. There have been four Nor'easter in the last three weeks in the New England area! That is super crazy. My mom's house almost flooded in Ohio due the amount of rainfall in her area. She was making plans to evacuate or climb to the second floor to wait it out. It feels that no place is safe from our changing climate and weather.
I started the year two weeks behind. Then in January we experienced two days of ice and snow. I usually don't mind snow days, but since we missed due to Harvey, I wasn't happy about that. I definitely need to be out because the streets were bad. I certainly didn't want to drive to work on slick roads. That makes my school and district 12 teaching days behind. I really wish that I had those days back. The STAAR Writing test will be administered on April 10th. That leaves me with only three weeks to review and refine all the grammar, usage, spelling, composition and revision techniques that my students will need into order to be successful. I feel really behind even though I planned methodically all year long. My weekends and weekdays have been filled with grading, providing feedback, and then adjusting to the data. I felt really tired before spring break. I have worked almost non stop grading notebooks and classwork, planning the next three weeks, making copies necessary for that time, and cleaning up my classroom. I get my best work done in a quiet atmosphere at school. Today there was no line to use the copier. The school was quietly awaiting the return for the last push before the test. After the test? Is is over? No, the party is just getting started. We have STAAR Reading and Math to work to refine and review. That will be fun!
My thoughts right now? Stay focused and positive. I want to build confidence through competence. I will review and share a few more Writing techniques. We are almost to the finish line. This time, however, is not for the faint of heart! Like Truman once said, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen!" The pressure is increasing, but I wouldn't like it any other way. Crunch time is my favorite time of the year. Vamos a ver lo que pasa. We will see what happens. These next three weeks will be a whirlwind of creativity, planning, adjustment, and calm in the midst of this STAAR Nor'easter. To my fellow Writing teachers: Take a deep breath and know...we got this!
This year has been super crazy. The first week of school was breezy, but then I experienced Harvey. I was out of school the Friday of the first week of school. We then returned two weeks later. My house didn't suffer much damage, but my roof begged for mercy from the winds and rain. I had to get a part of it repaired along with the ceiling in one of my rooms. The mental strain, however, was more taxing. I left my house during the hurricane to seek shelter at hotel nearby. The strain of not knowing if my immediate area would or would not flood was tremendous. When I hear it rain now, I get nervous thinking about those five days of sitting and watching my area flood. I become anxious because of the flooding and think about the health of my roof as well. This event really brought home the realization that this weather event could happen again because of the crazy nature of our weather and the melting of the polar ice caps. There have been four Nor'easter in the last three weeks in the New England area! That is super crazy. My mom's house almost flooded in Ohio due the amount of rainfall in her area. She was making plans to evacuate or climb to the second floor to wait it out. It feels that no place is safe from our changing climate and weather.
I started the year two weeks behind. Then in January we experienced two days of ice and snow. I usually don't mind snow days, but since we missed due to Harvey, I wasn't happy about that. I definitely need to be out because the streets were bad. I certainly didn't want to drive to work on slick roads. That makes my school and district 12 teaching days behind. I really wish that I had those days back. The STAAR Writing test will be administered on April 10th. That leaves me with only three weeks to review and refine all the grammar, usage, spelling, composition and revision techniques that my students will need into order to be successful. I feel really behind even though I planned methodically all year long. My weekends and weekdays have been filled with grading, providing feedback, and then adjusting to the data. I felt really tired before spring break. I have worked almost non stop grading notebooks and classwork, planning the next three weeks, making copies necessary for that time, and cleaning up my classroom. I get my best work done in a quiet atmosphere at school. Today there was no line to use the copier. The school was quietly awaiting the return for the last push before the test. After the test? Is is over? No, the party is just getting started. We have STAAR Reading and Math to work to refine and review. That will be fun!
My thoughts right now? Stay focused and positive. I want to build confidence through competence. I will review and share a few more Writing techniques. We are almost to the finish line. This time, however, is not for the faint of heart! Like Truman once said, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen!" The pressure is increasing, but I wouldn't like it any other way. Crunch time is my favorite time of the year. Vamos a ver lo que pasa. We will see what happens. These next three weeks will be a whirlwind of creativity, planning, adjustment, and calm in the midst of this STAAR Nor'easter. To my fellow Writing teachers: Take a deep breath and know...we got this!
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