Fourteen 5 hour days!

That is what I have to work with in summer school. I have 14 school days, lasting 5 hours each with a smallish (I presume) group of students to get them from not passing to passing on their statewide tests.

I have never taught high school before. I was supposed to be teaching two sessions of MCA (Minnesota testing) prep for incoming 9th and 10th grade students. Well, my first session had a whopping one student signed up so we flipped him to math session 1 and he'll take reading with me session 2. So now I have 3 weeks to get my session prepped and ready to go, I will be teaching next session, most of the students I have are taking math this session, so we know they're around.

Five hours is a long time each day! Wow. I'm struggling with it a bit. So far I have that we will do some test-taking strategies, figurative language, story elements, daily journaling, daily analogies, reading strategies, independent reading and non-fiction responses.

I typically hate "teaching to the test" but in this instance, I took all of these things directly off the test specifications and since the point of this class is test prep, I'm ok with it.

If anyone has any great ideas for filling 5 hours with a bunch of high schoolers, I'm all ears!

Summer Goals

I don't know a single teacher who does absolutely no work in the summertime. Teaching summer school, working in their classroom, adapting lesson plans, creating an entirely new curriculum, attending trainings, reading up on new practices, studying common core standards, the list of things teachers do over the summer goes on and on.

My summer isn't any different. Starting a new school at the end of the school year, teaching summer school starting from day 1 of break until mid-August, and being on maternity leave darned near the beginning of the school year (potentially at the beginning of the year) means I have a lot to do this summer. So I'm making a list of goals.

1. Determine a direction, focus and theme for this blog.
2. Write a reader's workshop curriculum for the school year focused on interventions and test-success.
3. Write a summer-school curriculum for a 7-week high school reading workshop (implement it as I go!)
4. Write detailed lesson plans for my long-term sub to use during my maternity leave to ensure a smooth transition.
5. Get my classroom set up for an effective reader's workshop. (Fingers crossed I don't get asked to move rooms, I have a FANTASTIC room as of right now, and I have oodles of ideas.)
6. Get all of my classroom library books loaded into my book check-out system.

If I sat down and thought about it, I could probably  make an even longer list, but between this and preparing my personal life for a baby, I think this is plenty, don't you?

What are your summer goals? Attending any wonderful trainings? Writing any new curriculum? Taking a class? What's on your summer agenda?