Category Archives: teacher

Change

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Just over a year ago, I wrote and posted a poem that greatly affected my career and relationship with my boss. At least 8 people I thought were my friends sent it to her the following morning.

Did I think that so many people would see it and send it to her? No. Did I enjoy the immediate backlash from posting it? Obviously not. I hate conflict, and boy did it create conflict. Ultimately though, do I regret posting it? Absolutely not. I find that writing is how I can be most vulnerable and how I can share my truest feeling about subjects that are affecting me.

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i’m here for you [a poem]

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“i’m here for YOU” you say
in front of the crowd
of teachers who can’t see
that their future will be full
of frustration
of blame
of pointed fingers
of shame 

“i’m here for YOU” you say,
but not when students skip,
not when students fight,
not when students cuss you out because
“they cuss me out all the time”

“i’m here for YOU” you say,
but not when I wanted to die…
did you care when I thought about suicide?
or were you just checking the boxes
to say you tried

                            …in case I tried?

“i’m here for YOU” you say,
but those students who destroyed me,
i’m teaching them again?

“i’m here for YOU” you say,
but can’t have a conversation
before that decision
because “budget cuts” and “certifications”
as you remind me I can look elsewhere
like that’s what you wanted all along

“i’m here for YOU” you say,
…but not for YOU, Danielle. 

NaNoWriMo with Mrs. Always Wright | The Conclusion

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Every year I have blogged NaNoWriMo with my students, I have posted the conclusion SO LATE into December. I’m sure you can imagine the struggle of teaching in December: the end of the semester means all the late work, semester exams/project, and obviously the behaviors that come with being so close to a long break. I love many of my students but to say I needed this break is an understatement.

Not only that, but I was finishing my own grad school work to close out the semester. Humble brag that I’m 36% through my program (Masters in Curriculum & Instruction) and still carrying that 4.0! Honestly feels so much easier than undergrad; just have to make the time to do the work.

ANYWAY. All that to say, it’s late, but here is the final tally for my students in their NaNoWriMo endeavors.

We started off with some very excited goals. It kind of took me back to middle school band and our practice logs where the entire flute section claimed we somehow made time to practice for 20 hours/week. Students who hated writing were setting goals like 10,000 in the month, and as the time went on, realized they were a bit overzealous. But that was okay – I wanted them to dream big, and adjust their expectations as needed. That’s apart of the learning process!

In the end, the final total word count goal for both classes (55 students) was 101,467. I set my own personal goal that they’d get to 50,000 together.

We will all be having a big celebration in January! The final word count was

62,936 / 101,467 or 62%!

The top student in each class period wrote 6,102 and 10,011 words respectively. The first a work of fiction, the second a completely independently written guide to Super Smash Bros. (I told him to start selling it!).

To celebrate, I have printed winners and participant certificates (in color!), and will be giving a treat to all writers, a goody bag to all winners, and a trophy to the top word counts in each period. I’m so excited by what they all accomplished with only a little bit of class time dedicated to it each day.

I’ll likely be having them use this project to practice revising and editing throughout the remainder of the school year, and be sure that they remember the success they all had in just thirty days.

NaNoWriMo with Mrs. Always Wright Week 3

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As we now head into Thanksgiving break, I have some fun statistics and updates to share for my students’ National Novel Writing Month journeys!

Knowing that we’re on break, I do not anticipate having a week 4 update, so I plan on sharing some snippets of students’ writing in its place! Then we have four school days left before the end of the month and the end of our journey. I may have created some extrinsic motivation with the promise of a full color certificate and goody bag for each student who reaches their goal.

With that offer, I did allow students this week to change their word count goal. Some were very eager in saying they’d write 10,000 to 50,000 words. For many, I knew even 4,000 was a stretch, but I refused to question them. I let them lower their goal with zero judgement. With that, the percentages feel more realistic, but the word counts are still amazing!

So here we go –

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NaNoWriMo ’23 with Mrs. Always Wright

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I did not forc- I mean – encourage my students to take part last year and regretted it the entire month. This time, I have such a group of writers I simply couldn’t pass on the opportunity.

I have two blocks of 7th grade Honors ELAR this year, and this is the perfect side project for them. They have the first 10 minutes of class to write (in lieu of a warm-up), and can choose to add to their word counts as early finisher work or outside of class time.

I told them that they can write ANYTHING they want (school appropriate, of course). The goal is just to write every single day. Some students are just writing about their favorite things, some students are writing diary entries about their days, and the rest are taking the traditional path and writing fiction stories.

We are officially 3 days in and I’m already so proud.

My 4th/5th honors block sits at 32 students currently – I am missing goals for 6 of them. With goals ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 (yes, really), the combined goal sits at 159,316 words. As of the end of their block period, not including 3 students writing by hand, they had combined for 6,647 words! 2 students are already over 1,000!

My 6th/7th honors block also sits at 32 students – I am missing goals for 15 of them (they’re a rough bunch, ok?). With goals ranging from 1,000 to 25,000, the combined goal sits at 86,790. That will increase once I get the rest of them and I’ll update next week. As of the end of the school day today, not including 2 students writing by hand, they had combined for 6,285 words. 1 student owns 2,500 of them!

I’m already so happy to see their progress already. Some of them get really excited when I remind them to work on their writing project at the beginning of the period, already begging for more time to write. Two students have asked me to find writing contests they can enter. Sometimes, you don’t really know how much you love something until you’re forc- I mean, encouraged – to do it!

I’m excited to share their progress with you as the weeks go on. We have a lot of testing these next two weeks (SIGH), but for me, this opens the door for more writing time. I definitely also plan to get permission and share some excerpts with you, because their words deserve to be read!

Until next time!

*oh and if you’re curious, I’m still at zero words. I’ve been drowning in reading chapters for my Master’s program!

Here’s What I Would “Appreciate” -a poem-

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We all want more money,
but that’s not the point,
it’s the way we always feel
like we’re being exploited.

See, you want to “appreciate”
the teachers who stay –
too bad the way you do it
is making more of us run away.

A week to celebrate
those who educate our future,
a number of which people
dwindle fewer and fewer.

Five days of cute themes
and the snacks that they feature
planned by, you guessed it,
a committee of teachers.

Yes, we appreciate ourselves
because who else will?
I guess they probably think
our wishes, they can’t fulfill.

Like smaller class sizes,
less skipping in the halls,
or for someone to show up
when it’s so bad we call.

Support when a student
tells me, “Shut the fuck up!”
Any kind of response
before a fight starts to erupt.

Stop shilling new products
that suck and don’t last;
we don’t want a script to teach,
this is literally our craft.

No more duty: morning,
after school, or lunch,
on top of the meetings,
it’s all way too much!

Just listen to us,
we have good suggestions!
We’re in the trenches everyday,
giving us the best perceptions.

What I would appreciate
is a modicum of support,
and to feel that EVERYDAY
it’s being reinforced.

A Rant About Teaching and Why Can’t I Change the Whole System By Myself?

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So here we are again: It’s May, there are less than 20 days of school left, and even though this year was difficult (each one always is for different reasons anymore), I am bustling with ideas of things I want to try next year.

NEXT YEAR?

Yes, next year. While I do have two or three applications out to get out of the classroom and move into curriculum writing (which I think is my true passion), the odds I can get those jobs with very little experience in that subject matter is slim to none, I think. The odds aren’t zero, so I applied.

But am I really a teacher planning on going back next year, even with all the straight disrespect given to us lately? Surprisingly, yes. While there were a lot of challenges between students, colleagues and supervisors, I had a blast with my students this year. Did you know I had no students fail my class in the first semester? I have high expectations. Students met them.

As the year went on, my biggest struggle was in getting my coworkers to care as much as I did: to try new things to help their students; to build relationships and understand why they are the way they are. You’re not always the best teacher because you’re mean (you’re also not always the best because you’re nice either).

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Teaching in a Pandemic (I CanNOT Survive This Twice)

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Being a teacher this year has been one of the hardest experiences I have ever had to push myself through. I have written a bit on here about my journey being a 7th grade English teacher this year, amidst virtual learning, then hybrid learning, and now still hybrid but really like 80% face-to-face and 20% virtual.

Every part of this year has been so difficult. Let’s break it down.

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