An apple for the teacher

The cats and I survived the wind and rain from Katrina last night although it wasn't the most restful night. It really kicked up a while there and got a bit noisy. However, no tornados which is always a very good thing. We only lost power for a short while.

My apple tree, however, did not fare very well. She's laying on her side, although her roots haven't popped out of the ground. I'm hoping when hubby returns we'll be able to prop her back up and she'll survive. Neighbors across the street lost a big tree, and friends up the hill lost a few. I think we got lucky. Did check the rain guage and we had 3 1/2 inches..not near the 6" they were calling for but I'm not complaining.

The more I watch television, the more concerned I am about some close friends we have down in the New Orleans and Gulf Coast areas. Some of them live in areas that were particularly hard-hit according to the reports and I only hope they got out okay. Hopefully we'll hear shortly.

Off to do more Dreadfully Boring Grad School Crap (DBGSC).

Teachable moments

A teachable moment is one of those moments where you can relate some content to something going on.

Like, for example, a hurricane.

We teach weather in the seventh grade, but we're not scheduled to do it for a while yet. We do severe weather late in the year because it's a great one to do for projects, and the kids love it. It keeps them involved when they're starting to think about summer vacation and shut down mentally.

You can show a video of death and destruction (i.e., hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, blizzards, etc.) and seventh graders will sit for HOURS, mouths agape, watching the stuff. It's astounding.

Today I took a few moments in between activities and read a couple of news articles about Katrina. The kids were fascinated. (One kid even had a carload of relatives show up last night from New Orleans.) The dire predictions of the LSU computer forecasters just blew their minds.

I love teachable moments.

Katrina

I live about 600 miles from New Orleans.

And I just got one of those automatic phone calls our school district uses to notify parents/teachers/staff about important developments and we're closed tomorrow due to Katrina. Apparently the predictions of flooding and tropical winds, not to mention the tornados that seem to hit our area frequently anyway, was too much for people to deal with so we're being safe and cancelling for the day. Good call. I never, ever want to be at school when a tonado hits.

And knowing my luck, if a tornado hits, it would tear apart the new wing and I'd be stuck up in that armpit of a classroom forever.

So, tomorrow I'll try to sleep in but probably won't because I'm so used to waking up at 4:30 am anyway (and if it's stormy the felines will be pinging all over the place) and then spend as much time as possible working on Dreadfully Boring Grad School Crap (DBGSC).

But on the good news side...the air conditioning compressor has arrived at school. It won't be installed, however, until Thursday. Which probably means Friday.

And we'll be moving to new classrooms the following week.

Apology

Something interesting happened on Friday.

It was Vocabulary Test Day and the kids were finishing up their tests and those that were done were working independently on their workbooks and turning in their Daily Science sheets when Angry Boy I came into the room. He hadn't been in class due to his meltdown yesterday, so I was a tad surprised.

"Mrs. Bluebird, I'd like to talk with you privately for a minute if you don't mind."

"Why certainly, let me finish putting this grade in the book and I'll be right over."

I look up at the theater door and Mrs. Saint is standing there along with another one of her charges who I don't know (you don't dare leave any kid, let alone these types of kids alone...if you need to go somewhere you take them all with you.) I walked up to the door and Angry Boy is standing there, looking really embarrassed.

"I want to apologize for my bad behavior yesterday. I feel really bad about it."

What is this? An APOLOGY??? From Angry Boy???

"Well honey, I certainly accept your apology. I just want you to know that when you're having a bad day that you don't have to get mad at people like me. We're here to make your day better."

"I know. I feel really bad. Can I come back Monday?"

"Of course you can. I'd like you to be back on Monday."

Angry Boy then slides over and very awkwardly reaches out an arm. This kid wants a hug. This kid probably NEVER gets hugs at home. He's not even quite sure how to initiate a hug. I give him a hug.

Mrs. Saint catches my eye. "I want you to know that this was all his idea. He has been sitting there all day very upset that he caused a problem yesterday and decided that the best thing he could do was apologize."

Amazing.

See Ya Later, Bye

My fith period is...well...interesting.

It is my smallest class. It is also my class with the highest number of high maintenance kids. I have three kids from the Behavior Adjustment (BA) unit in there. BA kids are kids who usually hae severe behavior and emotional problems. Many of them have been abused. Many cannot, or will not, control their anger and have problems in social settings. Many are also identified as special education because they have reading and computation problems and generally do poorly in school. These kids have emotional melt-downs on a regular basis.

And I have three.

However, Mrs. Saint, the teacher in charge of the BA unit, has graciously offered to loan me one of her aides, Miss T., who comes to class with this crew of three and works to keep them on task, calm, and somewhat in tune with what the rest of us are doing. Overall, they've been pretty good although I have to admit that Obsessive Compulsive Boy can grate on my very last nerve. (We are currently having an issue with the fact that he wants to put about 20 staples into every single thing he turns in to me - including single pieces of paper that do not need staples.)

This week Thursday, however, the melt downs began.

Angry Boy came in Angry. Big surprise. Angry boy has an attitude and a chip the size of a third world nation on his shoulder, but he can be a bright kid and actually can be very smart when he's not too busy being hateful. But Thursday was a bad day. He didn't want to sit in his seat, preferring, instead to slouch and put his feet on the chair in front of him. He didn't want to bring a book to lab. He was rude, beligerent, disrespectful, didn't want to communicate and didn't want to do anything for anybody. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see he was a few seconds away from a melt-down so Miss T slid off down the hallway and got Mrs. Saint who got Deputy Dude who came to talk with Angry Boy. (Deputy Dude is a real sherrif's deputy assigned to our building, thank the Lord.) In any case, none of the students were really aware of the drama going on in the back of the room as they were - for once - actually listening to me tell them about the lab they were about to do. Then, of course, Angry Boy had to get really riled up, knocked his desk over and was escorted out of the room.

And that was just the beginning.

Not more than five minutes later, after I put the kids in their lab groups, I had one of my regular ed students begin his melt-down. Angry Boy 2 decided that he didn't want to work with the lab group he had sat down with and proceeded to curse and kick his seat and act like a Class A Brat. Sigh. I told him to wait for me out in the hall while I got the rest of the class going. I knew that Angry Boy 2 had been having a bad day - he'd used profanity earlier in the day and my teammate, Mrs. Language had sent him to be counseled by Mr. Enforcer, the assistant principal. Angry Boy 2 would not open up, wouldn't talk, sulked, so he was counseled and warned and sent back to class. AB2 was pacing back in forth in the hall, obviously upset. I tried our new "warm fuzzy" approach with him with no luck. He would not talk. He would not tell me what was wrong. In fact, the only thing he said the entire time was "You can't make me do anything." So, I gave him his final option...do the lab or sit at a desk in the back and he could work on study for his vocab test. He chose the later option, but as soon as he got to the desk, he threw his books on the floor, sat down and spent the entire time banging on his desk.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The kids are ignoring him. I'm ignoring him because I am not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me get mad. The truth of the matter was, I wasn't mad at him at all. I can tell when a kid is having some emotional distress and this kid needed a guidance counselor and needed one badly. I didn't want to make a big deal of it, so I casually walked by Mrs. Eagle's computer, and dropped a quick instant message to guidance suggesting that if an administrator was in the area, it wouldn't be a bad idea to come get AB2 and talk him somewhere to talk out his issues.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A few minutes later Mrs. Squirrel arrives and takes AB2 away.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a kid removed from my room in the past three years. On Thursday, I doubled the number.

In one class period.

Sigh.

Merry Go Round

Just when I thought I was starting to whine too much about not having my permanent room and not having AC in the room I'm in, my kids begin to whine. The novelty of having to move to the theater to teach classes (because it's cooler there) is wearing off. It's like "oh great, we're going to the theater again." Big flippin' deal.

That being said, we did a bit more moving again this week. There's no way I can show a video in the theater (which sounds stupid now that I write that, I mean, it is a theater after all) beause there isn't a spare teachers station (TV/VCR, etc) to use and the kids would be sitting too far away to see the screen anyway. So, I went to The Librarian and asked if I could use a TV set up in her reference room which is still waiting for the new furniture to arrive and basically consists of boxes, a big piece of floor (with new carpet) and the TV set up. She set the whole thing up, provided me with a chair and a rolling cart for a desk, and I spent five periods walking the kids over, having them plop on the floor and watching a very cool video on matter and physical properties of matter. The kids enjoyed that even though I had one that claimed he couldn't sit on the floor. Considering that he seems to have trouble sitting in a chair, that didn't surprise.

On Thursday we needed to do a lab and my best friend (and fellow 7th science teacher) Mrs. Eagle loaned us her room. Basically we just walked our kids past each other, she used the theater, and I used her room, set up for the lab. We did a density lab which basically consists of the kdis FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS (interesting concept, that) and pouring different liquids into graduated cylinders and watching them separate. The fact that we were in a "real" classroom and one that had classroom pets, Watson the hamser and Keiko the ball python, was enough to make them crazy. Of course they all wanted to obsess about the animals but once I got them going on the lab, they were okay.

Well...most of them.

There's always at least one group of kids that seem to think that you don't need to read the directions, you just start doing stuff, and you've got a lab. These are the sort of kids that a science teacher fears because they're the ones that will set fire to your lab when you least expect it.

Which is why I rarely do any lab that involves anything remotely flammable.

In any case, some of them did great, some of them didn't have a clue, but we all made it out with no broken equipment, no spilled liquids, and at least one lab paper turned in per group.That in itself is an accomplishment.

No news on our room situation. Soonest the new wing will be ready to move in is after Labor Day.

Yeah. Right.

Too little to go around

No, I'm not ignoring you.

One of my big things is historic preservation, especially Civil War preservation. I happen to live in community that needs to learn that there's more to life than subdivisions and business parks and developers lining the pockets of greedy politicians. So, in addition to teaching the leaders of tomorrow the mysteries of science (and how to behave like civilized beings) I've been working all week in the evenings on a festival that we're putting on to highlight historic events and tourism.

So I haven't had much time to write. In fact, I don't have much time to write tonight but thought I'd let you all know that I was alive and the seventh graders didn't overrun the classroom.

And yes, we still have no air conditioning.

It's just flippin' hot

I live in a town near a major military base, and teach a lot of military dependents, so the fact that I'm whining about the heat when I have friends and neighbors over in The Sandbox where it's routinely over a 100 degrees makes me feel, well, like a whiner.

That being said, t's 100 degrees on my front porch and according to my nifty little weather doo-dad on my desktop, I have a heat index of 102 right now. It's so hot the cats are sleeping down here in the basement and one is so close to an air duct that you can see the air blowing her fur.

Whomever decided that school should start before Labor Day (and cooler temps) is a pinhead.

And, yeah, I'm a whiner.

Frost my cookies

I need to keep remembering that most people who write letters to the editor aren't necessarily people who have a clue. Case in point, a recent letter that appeared in the local paper this week that mentioned that "it doesn't take any money to teach a kid" coupled with the zinger, "what we need are dedicated teachers and there aren't any."

I know that some people consider teachers to be a step below a used car salesman in the pecking order of life, but comments like that just frost my cookies. To whit...the last time I checked the school district wasn't getting any of its electricity for free so I can argue that it does cost some money to teach a kid. And granted, if you home school, maybe it doesn't cost anything to teach a kid, but if you expect the public schools to raise your child (and sadly, many people do) I don't think you can expect teachers to do it for free. After all, everyone else who has a job gets paid for it, and I think teachers should as well. Considering that I'll probably retire before the school loans are paid off for the bachelor's and master's degrees (masters' are just about mandatory these days), it would be nice to not be considered a volunteer.

As for dedication...hummmmm....I was at school at 6:15 am this morning and left at 6:30 pm this evening. I brought home 120+ homework assignments to grade, will probably spend several hours putting names in my grade book, entering the grades I've taken so far, finish grading some quizzes, update the grades on the computer (so they can be uploaded), planning for next week, and checking off daily science assignments. When that's done I'll spend most of Sunday working on grad school assignments for myself so that I can continue to be the best teacher I can.

Notice how much time I have in there to do anything like, say, clean house? Spend time with my hubby? Do laundry?

I go to all my kids football games. I go to all the basketball games. I'm at every dance. I go to every play and every concert. I don't get paid for any of these. But I go because I think it's absolutely criminal that there are more kids on the field or on the stage than there are parents in the audience.

I am not alone. In my building there are a lot of us - well over half the staff - who do this kind of thing each and every day. We buy the kids lunch because there was no money or food at home and the parents can't get it together to apply for free and reduced lunch. We raise money to purchase food to send home with some of our kids because the last meal they'll eat will be lunch at school on Friday until breakfast at school on Monday. (I don't want to even think what happens to these kids during the summer.) We buy, beg, and donate winter coats for our kids because they are coming to school in t-shirts when it's snowing. We're at all the events because the parents aren't. We're mentoring at-risk kids trying to convince them that they can rise above the poverty, the abuse, and their own fear and make something of themselves. We are there for the kids.

Because that's all it comes down to - it's for the kids.

So don't give me any snotty platitudes about there not being any dedicated teachers, especially when you're sitting on your butt watching NFL and NASCAR all weekend long and aren't giving up a second of your precious time to make this world a better place.

I am. One kid at a time....

Grumpy

We're finally getting rain. Unfortunately that means it's getting humid. Hot and humid and an upstairs classroom with a broken AC is not a fun combination. So, instead of doing a mini lab in my room, I ended up having to move the kids down to the theater starting with 2nd period.

Some of my classes handle this with no problem. They still listen, they still work, they're well-behaved. This can be a challenge when your teacher, who is usually down and walking around you, is forced to be on a stage to work the overhead. Some of the classes rose to the challenge, others did not.

So I was a bit grumpy with 3rd and 5th period today. And I don't like to be grumpy with my kids.

The People that Know say they're going to have to put in a new compressor unit, which is fine with me. Just get it done ASAP. Even after I get moved, the health teacher will eventually need to use this room, and he's gonna want AC.

Apparently the new construction is almost done....which means maybe, just maybe, we'll get a decent room, down on the core, near the rest of the team.

Oh, and the observation. Did as well as I could considering having to relocate the classroom in the middle of it. Sigh. Not the kind of stellar performance I like to do, but adequate.

I'm tired and I still need to assign lockers. Oh boy!

Let's get organized!

At my school we teach in teams, which means five of us share 130 (or so) kids throughout the day. Our team was chosen this past spring to pilot a program for our seventh graders to help get them organized and to take those middle-of-the-road kids and turn them into high-achievers. They had a workshop over the summer on some of these startegies, which apparently are being used with some success in High Schools, but of course I couldn't go because I was off teaching summer camp.

In any case, one of the tenents of this plan is that the kids all carry 3" 3 ring binders, they have a section for each class, they have a pencil pouch to carry all their pencils, and there's notebook paper in the back of the binder. Now this may seem incredibly obvious and simple to some of you, but the idea of having all of your school goods in one place is just highly bizzare for your average seventh grader who's too busy worrying about acne and thinking about sex or video games to really care where his/her science homework went. The idea is that if all of the school work is in one place the kids will show up in class with everything they need, including, God forbid, a pencil. I had kids last year who were apparently physically incapable of bringing a pencil to class. I had one kid who could lose a pencil in the process of walking across the room to go sharpen it!! I suspect this child may have a career in Vegas in a magic show because he was good at macking things disappear.

The way I figure it, it's worth a shot. Anything that can help keep them organized and together because they are NOT going to go back to their lockers every time they forget something. Ain't gonna happen.

Fortunately our principal, who's 110% behind this program, offered to buy the kids the supplies they need so they all have the same thing - the binder, the folders, the pencil pouch, etc. Cool. Well, they goodies came in today (except for the pencil pounches) and we spent the afternoon counting, sorting, and labeling. Each of my homeroom kids will walk in tomorrow and find a pile of supplies on his/her desk. And the funny thing is, they've been bugging me about when they'd get them. I suspect for some of these kids, having something new, even if it's just a binder, is a thrill.

We've asked the parents to help pay for the supplies as part of the school fees. By purchasing in bulk we saved a lot of money (3" binders are pricey), so it actually was cheaper for the parents to buy it through us. What is surprising to me is how many of my parents on waivers (don't pay fees due to low income level) are managing to find the money to help their child participate in this program. Maybe they're looking at the lottery scholarships down the road in a few years and anything we can do to get the kiddo on the path to that can't be a bad thing.

And three more kids got added to our team today...

Too tired...

I'm too tired to write much of anything...and I still need to redo a guided notes worksheet for tomorrow.

I hate it when I wake up an hour before I need to and then can't go back to sleep.

It's Friday!

The first week of school has come and gone and we all survived!

I have to tell you, I was really aprehensive about this year because I heard nothing but horror stories from most of the sixth grade teachers. That's exactly the kind of thing that causes me to wake up in a cold sweat during a long summer night. Am I going to get a class of hyperactive, unmotived, mentally unstable 12-year olds ready to crawl the walls??? After all this is public school, where we teach everyone. And everyone means you do see everything.

But these kids aren't bad. In fact, they have started off a lot better than my group did last year. I have a higher percentage of papers getting turned in (the beginning of the year paperwork is absolutely mind-boggling). They're sitting. They're listening. They're following directions a lot better. In fact, it's going so well I'm getting nervous. It's almost like they're laying in wait and plotting something. But then they wait for me to dismiss them after the bell rings, they say goodbye politely, and off they go to their next class. They've acted like really nice, well-mannered kids. Most of them.

I hope it lasts.

And on to the air conditioning saga...finally someone from maintenance showed up. Apparently there is something MAJOR wrong with it (ya think?) and it will be "well over a week" before it's repaired. My thought was why in the bloody heck didn't they get out here to look at it two weeks ago so it would be fixed by now? Sigh. I called Super Secretary and asked her if the theater (which is like a freezer) was scheduled for next week. It wasn't. It's mine now! So, we'll be using the theater again next week. Which is kind of fun because all the kids want to sit and work on the stage. It's the drama queen in all of them I suspect.

And I have my first observation by an administrator next week. At least I work for a great administration that appreciates and knows the challenges I'm facing this year.

I want my new room. Now.

Field Trip....

We took a field trip today...totally unplanned but completely necessary. Our room temperature (with the yet to be fixed air conditioning problem) had to have been in the 90's. The heat index outside was at 97 degrees so just imagine what it was in my upstairs room. Some of the other parts of the building had the AC go out as well, and finally someone from central office figured that this might be an issue and sent some folks out. Of course, it took a rather irate phone call from our principal to convince them that this was an issue. One phone call from an irate parent who is incensed that their child is being taught in a room that's so hot the sweat is dripping off the kids' noses would certainly work and I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.

So...after my principal came up and told us we could move if need be, I took her up on the offer. During 5th period I did roll, collected signed forms, and then we moved down to the theater (which was freezing) for the balance of the period. The kids were visibly relieved (so was I - it gets annoying feeling sweat trickle down your back). Sixth period the theater was occupied so I called our marvelous secretary and she called around and found a teacher with AC and no class during that period. It was wonderful. All of us simply gloried in the cool air coming out of the vents. I could actually just talk with my kids rather than yell to be heard over the fans I have cranking at full speed in my room.

It remains to be seen if any of this gets fixed by tomorrow...Honestly, I doubt it will, but I hope I'm wrong.

Happy Dance!

Our state test scores came in over the weekend, and our principal had mentioned in some of our staff meetings that they were outstanding. So outstanding that she said tears were rolling down her cheeks as she went through each subject and grade. Of course, after we heard that we were all on pins and needles wondering just how well we did. Today was a work day (no kids) and we found out.

Oh my gosh. I am astounded, amazed, and just flabbergasted. Our kids just ROCKED! I was particularly interested in seeing how the 7th grade science scores came out because the three of us that teach this subject do a lot of collaboration - more so than any other group of teachers at the school. We've just found that it's easy to work together than to beat your head against the wall on your own. The seventh grade science scores were through the roof! And we hit every single subgroup - the low kids, the middle kids, and the high kids!! WHOOO-HOOOO!!!

Now, to keep this in perspective....I do not teach at a wealthy school. I teach at a designated low income school, with over 50% of my kids on free and reduced lunch. A lot of our kids live in poverty. A lot live in single parent homes with a parent who is working two or three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads and has no time to help with homework. Many have parents who do not work. Some have family members in jail. Many of my kids do not come from homes where education is valued, where reading is fun, where there is hope for the future. Yet, as teachers, we apparently did something right this past year because they LEARNED. And maybe, just maybe, they'll be able to rise about their challenges and have a successful future.

I am soooo proud of my kids.

Victory!

The first half day of school has come and gone and no major disasters. Okay, so we had some minor ones like the fact that the network and phone system were down all day, a bunch of kids mysteriously didn't have schedules (and since the network was down, no one could get a schedule to them), the chorus teacher had two classes scheduled for one period, and there was a mixup on some of the bus numbers. Overall the kids did quite well, even a few teary-eyed sixth graders who've now moved up to middle school. Truly a scary thing for most of them!

My kids did pretty well. First off, they found the room. That is always a plus. They were, for the most part, quiet. (That won't last). One kid in my homeroom even brought in a box of tissues. For those of you not in the know, tissues are like gold. Kids go through them (imagine a classroom during allergy or flu season) and teachers are constantly looking for donations of tissues. I was impressed. Although it was around 85 degrees in my room (see previous post about the fact that this is supposedly being addressed) many of the kids actually said it felt good because all the other rooms were so cold. This lasted about 15 minutes before they realized it was actually getting hotter.

The best news? We have a social studies teacher! Granted, he didn't get hired until the school day was over, and we had a sub there, but the fact is we have a teacher! And we are all tickled to death that we have a male teacher - so many of our male students come from single-parent homes headed by a mom, dad is no where in the picture, and they need male role models. It's nice to have one on the team.

I saw some of my kids from last year and my how they grow over the summer!! It's almost frightening the changes that take place in a 13-year old in such a short period of time. They're now so tall!!!

On another note...is there anything more annoying than crabgrass? I swear I'm fighting a never-ending battle with it in my flower beds. I'm off to yank some out now!!

I am so not prepared....

Tomorrow is the first day of school and I an no where near as prepared for it as I should be. Fortunately it's only a half day where we basically introduce ourselves, make sure the kids know what their schedules are, hand them piles of paperwork that needs to be taken home, read and signed, and then make sure they know what their bus numbers are. It's usually chaotic beyond belief, especially when the new sixth graders come in because they have no idea where they are suposed to go, poor babies.

Despite working most of last week trying to get ready for today, I still feel like I'm behind. Part of it is because I had to move, last minute, to a temporary (it better be temporary!) room since the remodeling of the library is not done and everything from the library is stored in what was supposed to be my classroom. The options were a rolling cart and I could borrow rooms during teacher planning periods, or a room that's upstairs, with no elevator, and about as far away from the rest of my team as it possibly could be. I opted for the upstairs room only to discover that they are apparently "working on" getting air conditioning in there. I say supposedly as I've never seen anyone actually in their working on it, and it's hot and muggy up there. I spent most of last week moving boxes of things up there although some I haven't unpacked yet because I'm hoping I won't need to. We are adding on a new wing, and it is supposedly going to be done by Wednesday, which means, supposedly, that we can move in perhaps in a week or two. I'm not getting room in the new wing, but I am getting a bigger room than I had last year, and one that's closer to my teammates. That would make me very happy.

Oh, did I mention that we don't have a social studies teacher for my team yet??? The job posting closed today at 4:30 and again, supposedly, our principal has someone in mind to offer the job to who has supposedly not taken another job. If that's the case he starts bright and early tomorrow morning. If not, we'll hopefully have a substitute. Either way, it isn't a good situation.

My goal tomorrow? Set the tone for the year, get to know the kids, and make sure I don't forget something vitally important.

Well, I've gone ahead and done it...

Started a blog, that is. See, I've been threatening to do this for well over a year mainly because I email weekly rants to a close group of friends and it has been mentioned that I should put my rants out for the world to see. Well, heck, why not? Goodness gracious someone might get a check and actually learn something!

Oh, and about those rants? I am a middle school teacher. This is the point in the conversation where people start to b a c k u p s l o w l y because only the slightly deranged would want to spend all day surrounded by adolescent hormones on feet, right? Let alone try to teach them anything! Truth be told, I gave up watching soap operas when I began teaching middle school because now I live them. Drama, thy name is middle school!

So, school starts this week, and I figured, why not? Get the blog started, see how it goes. Hopefully I can manage to keep this thing updated frequently which could be a challenge since I'm also going to graduate school (in pursuit of the almight pay raise). But hey, what's life without some challenges, right?