Finally!

No more excuses! I've been telling myself and my wonderful boyfriend that I would start this blog for months. I had every excuse in the world for dragging my feet. "My blog doesn't look as good as everyone else's." "I'm not that interesting." "I don't have time." "No one is interested in my experience." Yadda, yadda, yadda. Well, today is the day that I commit because all of my excuses are simply mountains of nothing.

A little about me...My name is Jocelyn, and this is my third year teaching elementary. I taught third grade my first year. Second grade my second year, and I've looped back up to third (with most of my second grade students) this year. Speaking of looping, I'm totally sold on it. We hit our groove much sooner this year. A little about my school and school district....My school is unique, to say the least, especially given my overall district demographics. We have a high ESOL population. A little less than half (40-45%) of my students have been ELLs every single year. My school and school district is also considered high poverty. Eighty percent of my students receive free or reduced lunch. My school received the School Improvement Grant (SIG) 5 years ago. The grant provided additional funding to the lowest performing elementary, middle, and high schools in our school district. My first year teaching was the last year of the grant (3 years). We used to be one of the worst performing schools in our very large urban district. Now, we are on the verge of full accreditation. We earned 69.3 points two years ago. Schools must earn 70 points for full accreditation. That was gut wrenching to say the least. This past school year, we earned 68.9. Our drop was a little disappointing. However, a community school located close to ours closed, so we had to absorb quite a few students from that school in addition to a few charter schools that closed as well. Unforunately, many students were lacking basic skills when they came to us....collateral damage of a few dysfunctional schools. We've really turned the school around. I'm hoping and praying and working very hard to do my part, so that we can be fully accredited next year.

I do believe that's enough reading for now. I will be back in a little bit to chitter chat about academic vocabulary and the 'aha' moment I had on my way home from work at the beginning of the year.