It's embarrassing, really, how disorganized I am. My desk is more like a trash heap than a work surface, the front table is sloppier than your pre-teen's bedroom, and I rarely straighten the student desks...so what starts out as a seating arrangement slowly ends up looking more like a giant jumble of chairs and books and work surfaces that are probably coated with ink splotches and a thin coat of germy grime.
Yeah, I'm definitely NOT organized, not in terms of neat little piles and distributing papers, BUT you should see my plan book!
Confession #2: I spend a lot of time writing my lessons.
If only you knew how much time I spend organizing my lesson plans: making sure each lesson ties to the next, tweaking and retweaking the order of activities, projects, assignments to make sure they blend fully into each other and the standards I'm trying to cover, crafting (hopefully) fun new tasks and assessments... Like I tell the kids - there IS a method to my madness!
And I think it's my "madness" that they enjoy most - while I'm certainly not going to win any awards for teaching kids how to maintain a clean work area, I can at least show them that learning can (and should!) be fun! It's important that we not take ourselves too seriously and that the kids know that you're never too old or "too cool" to have fun - which is probably why we played tug of war with the black tarps that were covering my posters for PARCC, why we tested out candied banana peels, why we wrote ridiculous conclusion paragraphs about becoming president and having an army of unicorns, why we had a paper snow ball fight, and why we read the directions for PARCC tests in silly accents and voices.
I'm pretty sure that it's my disorganized, zany "madness" that keeps your kids coming back day after day! (Well, that and the threat of the truancy officer....) Yes, we're learning in 6th grade....but we're also making memories! :)
Confession #3: I love your kids.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to buy them their first car or help put them through college (I don't love them THAT much), but I do really, really love them and want the best for them....even if I DO forget to hand out their report cards....
Which really is what this post is about: I totally forgot to pass out their 3rd Quarter report cards, and I'm SO sorry.
But there are things that I didn't forget!
I remembered the supplies for making the candied banana peels!
I remembered that I had promised a party to make up for missing Valentine's Day!
I remembered the ice cream cake -- and spoons, plates, and napkins!
I remembered drinks and donuts!
I remembered that one student doesn't like sweet treats and bought him some Sun Chips instead!
I remembered the bonus Knight Shields to reward your kids for their hard work on PARCC!
I remembered to order the new books for the end of the year novel study!
I remembered ..... no, wait.... I DID NOT remember to pass out the kids' science expo papers....RATS!
Okay, so amid all of the things that I DID remember, there will always be things that I forget. Always. But I'm hoping that the things that I DO remember are the things that are most important to the kids: knowing that their teacher will follow through on weird recipes, random parties, and fun lessons on a regular basis hopefully balances out the fact that I sometimes forget to send home report cards.....