All good things

I have an exciting announcement!

This summer, I quit teaching! Things got really bad at my school. The administration gave us no support. The kids were wild, the parents worked against us. So many things went so terribly wrong. Out of 6 fifth grade teachers, 5 of us quit!

The only thing that went right was my STAAR scores. We managed an 82% pass rate! It was the highest the district had ever achieved by far, so I left on a good note.

So what am I doing now?

I am a newly minted process operator at my local Valero refinery. I run the equipment that makes a variety of products, like diesel and kerosene. I went in knowing nothing. I'm not sure how I even got this job, but I could not be more grateful that I did. I love my job, which is something I never felt as a teacher.

Please feel free to use anything and everything on this blog. I'll leave it up in case anyone wishes to use any resources.

I wish you all the luck in the word, teachers. Stay awesome!

~Ms. Kat

Let's catch up Weeks 18-20

I woke up today and realized that I had been sorely neglecting my teaching blog. Oops. I guess that lecture I gave the kids on apathy should have also swirled around and hit me too.


Let's recap the past 3 weeks, everything since the holiday break.

Week 18

Monday- Staff Development

Tuesday- Space and Weather unit Vocab.

Wednesday- Characteristics of the Earth, Sun, And Moon

Thursday- I bought the Science Cut Ups for Earth, Sun, and Moon. The kiddos matched the cards and we went through them.

Friday- The kiddos took their 3rd 6-weeks benchmark. Joy.

Week 19

Monday- Another Curriculum day. Wonderful and feeling spoiled after not getting ANY during the first semester.

Tuesday- Rotation and Revolution

Wednesday- Seasons. The kiddos filled in their ideas of what the avg. temp, rainfall, what plants and animals were doing during each season and we discussed.

Thursday- Rotation and Revolution lab

Friday- The kiddos took their Vocab Quiz. Did really well!

Week 20

Monday- I GOT OBSERVED TODAY. Woah, man. Crazy, having the principal in there for a whole class, typing away at my desk. I think I did well, though.

We talked about moon phases, and they practiced a song

 Tuesday- Moon  Phases Lab. The kids used oreos to make the moon phases.

 Wednesday- Weather

Thursday- I got shanghai-d into part of Hal Bowman's "Be The One" program, and pulled from two of my classes, so we took a day to watch Bill Nye's planets, and the Magic School Bus Stars.

Friday- Weather Maps

Wooooo. That was a doozy. I'll work harder to keep up. I've just been so... destitute this year. With our "president" and his shitty agenda, the kids losing focus and testing around the corner, we're all a bit off.

Here's hoping to a better February!

~Ms. Kat