Let's Talk About Rigor

This is the biggest obstacle that is standing in my way right now. Rigor. Moving from a poorly performing school to one of the best in the District along with having highly motivated students, I am at a loss as to how to up my rigor game. I am not going to lie and say that I am not terrified that I am going to get a "developing" score from our master educators on my IMPACT.

I am currently teaching English 9 regular, inclusion and honors. We are reading To Kill A Mockingbird and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. I keep thinking "did I make the right change to English? Should I have stayed with History/Social Studies?". Has anyone else made the switch to a new subject area and dealt with the same problems?

Am I just completely off my rocker? Someone let me know!

Sunday Social!

How has everyone's week been? I ended up taking off Friday because I rocked a fever at school all day on Thursday. I have a horrible cough and congestion. BUT! The weather is freaking glorious here in the nation's capital. The BF and I have the windows wide open and are ready for some football. Anywho, let's continue on with our Sunday Social questions...

1. What is something that you have wanted to do but are afraid of?
Trying Socratic Seminars! I am terrified to turn that control over to a bunch of 9th graders.

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Still teaching. However, Chris and I will be probably be married or engaged and living in Southern Maryland.

3. What are you looking forward to before the end of 2012?
A huge snow storm! We didn't get one last year and this autumn has started off with a bang of cold weather. Loving it!

4. What are your hopes for your blog?
That it will continue to grow and gain more readers. I would love to become closer with my readers!

5. Do you always see yourself living in your current town/city?
In the area, as I say in #2!

 6. What is your morning routine?
Wake up, check email, get dressed, put on clothes/makeup/brush teeth, watch some news and leave out! 

Sunday Social!

1. 5 items you cannot live without on a daily basis (water, food, shelter, & clothes do not count).
Oh jeez let's see: iPhone, MacBook, teacher planner, Sugar lip balm, and a good pen.

2. All time favorite book & why.
Pride and Prejudice because I absolutely adore the Bronte sisters. This is a book that I constantly read time and again. I love Mr. Darcy, my perfect man!

3. Something you'd like to accomplish by the end of 2012.
Losing 50 pounds!

4. If you could go back and relive any year of your life, which year would it be?
Freshman year of college. I would've taken my schooling seriously and started off on the right foot.

5. What do you wish people knew about you without you having to tell them?
I am a really a nice person once you get past my tough exterior. I don't want to be viewed as a pushover. I am so very sensitive so be kind :-p 

Massive update!

This is me everyday after school!

Whew! I know I haven't updated in a while because I have been SO INCREDIBLY BUSY!! Between internet issues at school (so enjoyable considering we have to do all of our data, attendance and SRI testing on the internet now) and meetings out the craphole, I am ready for a mini-vacation already. I am having such a hard time getting back into the swing of things. I haven't properly worked out in since before school started. My sleep schedule is either falling asleep at 8 pm or going to bed at 3 am. Now that football season has started, oy vey, my Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Monday nights are consumed with footballllll. I find moving to another school and another subject area to be...daunting. I feel like I am failing. I know that I am great at teaching English but I feel as though I am not as good as other teachers in my department. Does anyone else have these feelings of...inadequacy? Or am I just going crazy?

The school itself is gorgeous (I plain on doing a massive picture post soon). The classrooms are state-of-the-art and we are completely green. Every classroom has a Promethean board (boo!hiss!), white board and kickass audio system (I may or may not crank Kayne West after school through the system...). The massive downside is that I teach in 4 different classrooms. My "homebase" is in the room that I teach only 1 class. My 1st and 3rd periods are in the same classroom (thankfully directly after each other). My 4th, 5th and 6th periods are in 3 different rooms. I am constantly moving around and get frazzled quite easily because I tend to leave things in my other room and have to go back. Sometimes the teacher in my "homebase" is understanding, sometimes she isn't. I just can't wait until I get the hang of things!

How has everyone else's first 3 weeks gone? Leave me some love below!!