Ms. Terry's Blog: June 2023

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Alaskan Adventure

Did you know that Alaska is cold? Even in the summer? Yes, Memaw was not happy about the temperatures, but overall our Alaskan adventure was excellent.

First and foremost, this state has so much natural beauty. The mountains, the glaciers, the forests, the animals. Everything. It also has a very small population, so traffic is never bad (as far as I can tell).

Here's what we did:

Anchorage Museum- A top museum. I really enjoyed the combination of art and history.

Alaska Native Heritage Museum- Very informative. Also home to a family of overprotective geese.

Train to Spencer Glacier- Scenic and glacial

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center- MOOSE. BEARS. PORCUPINE. REINDEER. ALL THE ANIMALS.

Denali- We drove until we could see Denali (through clouds), then turned around.

I feel like outdoorsy people would get more out of Alaska than we did, but we still learned about the state and its history and culture. And we saw our big three: glacier, bear, and moose. Check.

Now, it's on to Asia! I think it will be a little warmer there.

Alaskan Adventure- https://youtu.be/sA0S0BVS7SI

Flattop Mountain

Balto Statue

MOOSE

GLACIER

Alaska from the air

Anchorage Museum

BEAR

Sunday, June 4, 2023

May Dump featuring Taylor

If you haven't gotten the memo, it's summer vacation time for most students and educators. Finally! Yay! Time to go to the bathroom whenever we want!

But anyway, yes, the school year is over. I have finished my first full year at Houston Middle, my fifth year as a solo classroom teacher, my sixth year in an American classroom, and my eighth year in education as a whole. Those numbers mean I have made it longer than most beginner teachers in America, which is both unfortunate and not surprising.

The school year ended well, with the usual amounts of shenanigans. We usually have about a month after testing, and it's hard. We have fun events like LipSync and Field Day, but we've officially made it through our content so it's more difficult to keep student attention. Possible solutions include changing the timing of state testing or just getting rid of high stakes testing as a whole (that's the dream). The 3rd grade retention law based on testing has clearly shown that such testing is awful. This is a topic teachers have been discussing for ages, but the powers at be ignore teacher expertise.

Here's a good overview of the 3rd grade retention law and the scores: https://tn.chalkbeat.org/2023/5/22/23733132/tennessee-tcap-third-grade-reading-proficiency-retention-scores

And here are some sample TCAP items from 3rd grade if you want to try them: https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=2426642#anchor

Here is my LipSync performance, which is also my audition for Taylor Swift's next tour: https://youtu.be/0ioxGA7SdPg

And my Classroom Amazon wish list if you feel so inclined: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/30HO0E8Z0B5G3/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_2

And speaking of Taylor, I went to her second concert in Nashville and it was amazing. Immaculate. Spectacular. Meticulous. Transcendental. Like honestly, being there, on the very top row of the stadium, with 70,000 other fans who all knew every word to every song was an out-of-body experience. And she introduced the Fearless section as a trip back to high school. I felt that. Because those songs were very popular when I was in high school.

Nashville itself leaves a bit to be desired. The Tennessee State Museum was nice, but otherwise the attractions seem to all be country music related or various ways to get drunk (bus, honky top bar, tractor, bike, etc).

Here's a dump of May pictures. I'm traveling to both Alaska and Asia over the summer, so stay tuned!