I haven't posted much because, truth be told, I'm tired of hearing myself whine about snow days so I can only imagine how you all feel.
For the record...we have not gone a complete, full, five-day week since the week of December 6th. We're hoping that we'll make 5 days this week because we've already lost every holiday scheduled, and we're so far behind on our scope and sequence that I'm not even going to bother looking at it.
So there.
It's been a absolute monster trying to get our genetics unit finished. We just love teaching this unit - it's so much fun, and there's so many cool things you can do. However, it's not fun teaching a unit when it keeps getting chopped up by days out of school. I feel like I can't get into my groove, and the kids seem to be getting things piecemeal. It's frustrating.
So anyway, we finally - FINALLY - got our unit test in today. As a rule I hardly ever give a test on Monday, but we are so far behind we really didn't have a choice. As soon as I finish this, I'm going to start grading them (yeah!).
I'm kind of curious as to how one of my students - Wiggly Boy - did. Because we tried something different today when it came to taking his test.
Wiggly Boy is tiny, and cute, and a lot of fun, and enthusiastic, and just a neat kid - but he can't pass a test - any test - to save his life. From class observations and discussion, he knows the material fairly well, but he just blows it big time when it comes to tests (and the subject doesn't matter). One thing, however, that The Team noticed, is that Wiggly Boy likes to stand a lot. He would much rather stand than sit in a seat, so I got the idea, why not have him stand at my teacher station while he takes his test?
I approached him with the idea, and he was willing to give it a try, so that's what we did.
So he stood there, and took his test...he did all the good test-taking strategies I've taught him, but since he was standing, we added in his natural bouncy enthusiasm. (I think he needs his own soundtrack, personally.) Even if he didn't do better (and that remains to be seen) he seemed a bit more focused, and certainly had fun.
And honestly, when's the last time a kid had fun taking a test.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Last to Leave
Will this winter never end?
The weather forecasters have been going crazy over the past week forecasting snow and ice and every miserable thing a cloudy sky can produce for today. Great. We've already had to use one holiday up to make up a snow day and the last thing we want to do is use up another. When I went to bed last night the storm was supposed to hit around 3:00 pm, so we were all hoping that we could get in a day of school before the Great White Death began to hit.
No cancellation call this morning, so off to school we went.
Only to be told by the kids getting off the buses that the bus drivers had informed them that we were going to be dismissing early.
Great. Nothing like having them bouncing off the walls with excitement before 7:15 in the morning. I think every teacher in that building was about ready to find a bus driver and wring his/her's neck. Good luck trying to get any learning out of our kids today.
Of course, we didn't get the word until every kid in the building knew about it. But finally, we were told that yes, we were going to have a half day and get the kids out of there by 10:45. The storm was apparently going to hit around noon, and we needed to get all the high school and middle school kids dropped off and then the buses would pick up and deliver the elementary kids.
But first we had to feed them.
For seventh grade and sixth grade, the day wasn't bad. Seventh has 1st and 2nd period planning, sixth has 3rd and 4th period, but eighth grade - they didn't get any planning today as their planning is 6th and 7th period. The idea was that the sixth grade would have lunch first, then us, then eighth, and we'd have them all fed by 10:30. To speed up the food service, the kids would be eating in their classrooms.
I actually had kids in my room making up their benchmark tests during 1st period, 2nd period was free (although I spent it with Mrs. Eagle making up a different lesson plan than we'd planned since we'd only see two of our five classes today), and then third period we'd take them to lunch, and 4th we'd have an actual class.
It really did go a lot smoother than I thought it would. My third period, the group that had to eat lunch in the classroom, did pretty well and actually once they'd finished eating, they got out their workbooks and began working on a meiosis assignment (which will be extra credit, but I sure as heck didn't tell them that). Fourth period was a bit hard to get going as they knew they'd be leaving shortly, but they didn't do too bad either.
Thank goodness I didn't have to deal with my Seventh Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself.
Mrs. Eagle, Mr. Math and I are part of the "Snow Team", the group of teachers that stay back for an hour or so until the last bus has delivered the last kid and the last parent has picked up their child. It's a volunteer thing, but basically if you live nearby the school, don't have any kids of your own to pick up, and can drive in the snow, they kind of like it if you stay. The idea is we want someone at The School in case a kid(s) doesn't get picked up or a bus has to return. It wasn't snowing yet when the buses rolled, so we didn't really have anything to do but go back to our rooms to work on whatever. (Mrs. Eagle and I ate our packed lunches and worked on our notebooks for next week). It's actually not a bad thing because it does give you some quiet time to work in your room - I love that opportunity.
And goodness, after 12 years in Ohio, I can drive in snow. Don't like to do it, but I can.
And now, that I'm home, it's snowing like mad. And tomorrow? Who knows? The high is only going to be 23 degrees.
And it looks more and more like we're going to have to add 30 minutes to our day to make up the time.
Ick.
The weather forecasters have been going crazy over the past week forecasting snow and ice and every miserable thing a cloudy sky can produce for today. Great. We've already had to use one holiday up to make up a snow day and the last thing we want to do is use up another. When I went to bed last night the storm was supposed to hit around 3:00 pm, so we were all hoping that we could get in a day of school before the Great White Death began to hit.
No cancellation call this morning, so off to school we went.
Only to be told by the kids getting off the buses that the bus drivers had informed them that we were going to be dismissing early.
Great. Nothing like having them bouncing off the walls with excitement before 7:15 in the morning. I think every teacher in that building was about ready to find a bus driver and wring his/her's neck. Good luck trying to get any learning out of our kids today.
Of course, we didn't get the word until every kid in the building knew about it. But finally, we were told that yes, we were going to have a half day and get the kids out of there by 10:45. The storm was apparently going to hit around noon, and we needed to get all the high school and middle school kids dropped off and then the buses would pick up and deliver the elementary kids.
But first we had to feed them.
For seventh grade and sixth grade, the day wasn't bad. Seventh has 1st and 2nd period planning, sixth has 3rd and 4th period, but eighth grade - they didn't get any planning today as their planning is 6th and 7th period. The idea was that the sixth grade would have lunch first, then us, then eighth, and we'd have them all fed by 10:30. To speed up the food service, the kids would be eating in their classrooms.
I actually had kids in my room making up their benchmark tests during 1st period, 2nd period was free (although I spent it with Mrs. Eagle making up a different lesson plan than we'd planned since we'd only see two of our five classes today), and then third period we'd take them to lunch, and 4th we'd have an actual class.
It really did go a lot smoother than I thought it would. My third period, the group that had to eat lunch in the classroom, did pretty well and actually once they'd finished eating, they got out their workbooks and began working on a meiosis assignment (which will be extra credit, but I sure as heck didn't tell them that). Fourth period was a bit hard to get going as they knew they'd be leaving shortly, but they didn't do too bad either.
Thank goodness I didn't have to deal with my Seventh Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself.
Mrs. Eagle, Mr. Math and I are part of the "Snow Team", the group of teachers that stay back for an hour or so until the last bus has delivered the last kid and the last parent has picked up their child. It's a volunteer thing, but basically if you live nearby the school, don't have any kids of your own to pick up, and can drive in the snow, they kind of like it if you stay. The idea is we want someone at The School in case a kid(s) doesn't get picked up or a bus has to return. It wasn't snowing yet when the buses rolled, so we didn't really have anything to do but go back to our rooms to work on whatever. (Mrs. Eagle and I ate our packed lunches and worked on our notebooks for next week). It's actually not a bad thing because it does give you some quiet time to work in your room - I love that opportunity.
And goodness, after 12 years in Ohio, I can drive in snow. Don't like to do it, but I can.
And now, that I'm home, it's snowing like mad. And tomorrow? Who knows? The high is only going to be 23 degrees.
And it looks more and more like we're going to have to add 30 minutes to our day to make up the time.
Ick.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
A Mom With the Right Attitude
Last year when the school board came out with our inclement weather make-up plan, it involved using our winter holidays (MLK Day, Presidents Day and Good Friday) to make up the school we missed due to weather, over the measly three days we are allotted.
No one raised a fuss. Not a peep. And, keep in mind, the school board meetings are open to the public and the school board is elected by the public so there was plenty of opportunity for the public to have some input. If they cared enough...
But oh my, when it actually came to implementing the plan (with MLK Day the first day we used), you would have thought that some big vast conspiracy was afloat. (For the record, we had to make up days last year, but we didn't go over our limit until after MLK Day so we didn't have to use it as a make-up day. We did use President's Day and Good Friday and no one squawked.)
We had a lot of absent kids, but, for the most part, very few kids who had notes stating that they were at some of the regional MLK celebrations. Most of our kids were absent because (a) the parent is so clueless they didn't get the phone call/email/read the paper/watch the news to figure out we were going to school and the kids sure as hell weren't going to tell them of (b) they had plans made for the three day weekend already and most of them didn't involve any sort of MLK celebration.
So, the kids that were there were, for the most part, completely accepted the fact that we were making up a snow day, buckled down and got to work and didn't whine.
Drama Boy, a boy I had last year and who is now in 8th grade, was apparently whining a big about going to school to Mrs. Sandpiper's room next door. He wasn't happy he was in school on MLK day.
"So, what did your mother say about it?" Mrs. Sandpiper asked. We both have always liked Drama Boy's mom because she's pretty much no-nonsense when it comes to school and Drama Boy's drama.
"She said that if Martin Luther King were alive today, he'd want me in school getting my education," Drama Boy replied. "And you can't argue with that."
No you can't. Perhaps that would be a better way to celebrate the day - put a focus on getting an education and being the best person you can be.
No one raised a fuss. Not a peep. And, keep in mind, the school board meetings are open to the public and the school board is elected by the public so there was plenty of opportunity for the public to have some input. If they cared enough...
But oh my, when it actually came to implementing the plan (with MLK Day the first day we used), you would have thought that some big vast conspiracy was afloat. (For the record, we had to make up days last year, but we didn't go over our limit until after MLK Day so we didn't have to use it as a make-up day. We did use President's Day and Good Friday and no one squawked.)
We had a lot of absent kids, but, for the most part, very few kids who had notes stating that they were at some of the regional MLK celebrations. Most of our kids were absent because (a) the parent is so clueless they didn't get the phone call/email/read the paper/watch the news to figure out we were going to school and the kids sure as hell weren't going to tell them of (b) they had plans made for the three day weekend already and most of them didn't involve any sort of MLK celebration.
So, the kids that were there were, for the most part, completely accepted the fact that we were making up a snow day, buckled down and got to work and didn't whine.
Drama Boy, a boy I had last year and who is now in 8th grade, was apparently whining a big about going to school to Mrs. Sandpiper's room next door. He wasn't happy he was in school on MLK day.
"So, what did your mother say about it?" Mrs. Sandpiper asked. We both have always liked Drama Boy's mom because she's pretty much no-nonsense when it comes to school and Drama Boy's drama.
"She said that if Martin Luther King were alive today, he'd want me in school getting my education," Drama Boy replied. "And you can't argue with that."
No you can't. Perhaps that would be a better way to celebrate the day - put a focus on getting an education and being the best person you can be.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Back at Last!
Finally! Finally, we made it back to school, the high school kids were able to finish their exams and we'll be able to start the second semester tomorrow...8 days late.
I was beginning to wonder if we'd make it because just about every other county around us canceled and had another snow day (and many are cancelling already for tomorrow as well) but we went ahead and went. I won't make any criticisms regarding the roads - I live in town where the roads aren't as hilly or twisty and they tend to get cleared and plowed before the county roads do. For all I know, there's county roads under two inches of ice. But we went ahead and had school (thank goodness), and we'll be making up our extra snow day on Monday, MLK day.
However.
One thing that has always perplexed me is how rarely we use delays. When I taught Up North we used delays all the time. The district would announce a two hour delay, which gave everyone a chance to see better in the daylight, and if the roads were still dangerous, they'd cancel for the day. However, a lot of times that two hour delay was all the time we needed for the roads to begin to clear up, especially on a sunny day where the morning sun could begin the job of melting. True, our classes were shorter, but we weren't having to make up so many snow days.
Down here, at least in my district, delays are rare. And what's even stranger (and this just makes absolutely no freaking sense to me at all) is that even if we are on a delay, faculty and staff sill have to report at the regular time. Which is two hours before the kids come in, assuming we're on a delay. So, if the roads are too bad for buses, how come they aren't too bad for employees? After all, supposedly, the whole issue is safety - we don't run buses when the roads are unsafe. So why should the school employees get out on these dangerous roads to get to school? And then, if it was eventually decided that we needed to go ahead and cancel school, (because the roads are unsafe) we then have to dismiss all the employees that went ahead and showed up and send them back out on dangerous roads.
Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Ideally? Everyone reports two hours late...and that way, if it's decided that a cancellation is in order, there's no one to send back home. And if the delay is all we need, we'd get in our scheduled day.
But hey, no one asks for my opinion. I just give it.
I was beginning to wonder if we'd make it because just about every other county around us canceled and had another snow day (and many are cancelling already for tomorrow as well) but we went ahead and went. I won't make any criticisms regarding the roads - I live in town where the roads aren't as hilly or twisty and they tend to get cleared and plowed before the county roads do. For all I know, there's county roads under two inches of ice. But we went ahead and had school (thank goodness), and we'll be making up our extra snow day on Monday, MLK day.
However.
One thing that has always perplexed me is how rarely we use delays. When I taught Up North we used delays all the time. The district would announce a two hour delay, which gave everyone a chance to see better in the daylight, and if the roads were still dangerous, they'd cancel for the day. However, a lot of times that two hour delay was all the time we needed for the roads to begin to clear up, especially on a sunny day where the morning sun could begin the job of melting. True, our classes were shorter, but we weren't having to make up so many snow days.
Down here, at least in my district, delays are rare. And what's even stranger (and this just makes absolutely no freaking sense to me at all) is that even if we are on a delay, faculty and staff sill have to report at the regular time. Which is two hours before the kids come in, assuming we're on a delay. So, if the roads are too bad for buses, how come they aren't too bad for employees? After all, supposedly, the whole issue is safety - we don't run buses when the roads are unsafe. So why should the school employees get out on these dangerous roads to get to school? And then, if it was eventually decided that we needed to go ahead and cancel school, (because the roads are unsafe) we then have to dismiss all the employees that went ahead and showed up and send them back out on dangerous roads.
Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Ideally? Everyone reports two hours late...and that way, if it's decided that a cancellation is in order, there's no one to send back home. And if the delay is all we need, we'd get in our scheduled day.
But hey, no one asks for my opinion. I just give it.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Yet Another Snow Day
Our 4th Snow Day...which means we go to school on MLK day rather than have it off.
I am getting tired of not being in school. True, I have plenty to do, but I'm getting bored with my own company at this point.
Hopefully we'll go tomorrow. Please.
I am getting tired of not being in school. True, I have plenty to do, but I'm getting bored with my own company at this point.
Hopefully we'll go tomorrow. Please.
Monday, January 10, 2011
The Semester that Will Not End
Prior to the Christmas break, we had two snow days. Two snow days right at the end of the semester when we were all finalizing grades and the high school students were taking their final exams.
So, it was decided by The Powers That Decide Such Things that when we returned this past Wednesday, the High School students would review for their exams (because we know they aren't mature enough to study for them over their break) then they would take them on Friday and today. As a result, it was decided to extend our 2nd nine week grading period by one week so that everyone in the district would be on the same calendar. Grades were held off for a week, and report cards delayed.
For those of us in the middle school it was more an administrative pain in the butt than anything else. The kids were annoyed because they didn't get to go to their new elective classes (things like art, music, computers, etc). We had kids going around with paper schedules because we couldn't make schedule changes in PowerSchool. Just more of a pain than anything. And in the midst of all this, we've got Benchmark testing coming up and all the silly scheduling nightmares that entails.
So today, Monday, the day the semester was going to finally freaking end as the High School kids would be taking their exams....it snowed.
And we had a snow day. Our third (and last - from now on we use up holidays).
So the semester is not over. Still.
They are predicting more snow and ice to come in tonight (oh joy) so we may be closed tomorrow as well. As it stands we are now just about the only county in the region that is showing as open for tomorrow. We shall see.
But as of now it feels like this semester will never, ever end.
So, it was decided by The Powers That Decide Such Things that when we returned this past Wednesday, the High School students would review for their exams (because we know they aren't mature enough to study for them over their break) then they would take them on Friday and today. As a result, it was decided to extend our 2nd nine week grading period by one week so that everyone in the district would be on the same calendar. Grades were held off for a week, and report cards delayed.
For those of us in the middle school it was more an administrative pain in the butt than anything else. The kids were annoyed because they didn't get to go to their new elective classes (things like art, music, computers, etc). We had kids going around with paper schedules because we couldn't make schedule changes in PowerSchool. Just more of a pain than anything. And in the midst of all this, we've got Benchmark testing coming up and all the silly scheduling nightmares that entails.
So today, Monday, the day the semester was going to finally freaking end as the High School kids would be taking their exams....it snowed.
And we had a snow day. Our third (and last - from now on we use up holidays).
So the semester is not over. Still.
They are predicting more snow and ice to come in tonight (oh joy) so we may be closed tomorrow as well. As it stands we are now just about the only county in the region that is showing as open for tomorrow. We shall see.
But as of now it feels like this semester will never, ever end.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
For Those Who Inquired - Science Notebooks and Weber Grills
I love it when you guys leave comments!
First off, Jessie left a comment asking about my science notebooks. First off, I'm not an expert. At all. In fact, I've done science notebooks for a whopping two days. However, I'll lead you to some of my resources. First off is Dinah Zike's book "Dinah Zike's Notebook Foldables for Spirals, Binders & Composition Books" We have used her foldable techniques for years and one thing Mrs. Eagle and I did not want to get rid of were foldables - we saw this book at the NSTA conference in December, and attended one of the conference workshops that her organization put on about doing science notebooks. That workshop may have been the best one I've attended in ages. Now we know how to keep doing foldables and at the same time, utilize notebooks.
Mrs. Eagle also went to an in-service (I was supposed to go but my father was in the hospital) where another teacher in our district shared his notebook ideas. There are lots of teachers out there who do them. If you are a member of NSTA, you can go on their website and find a lot of things. Also, Google them like mad. You come across a lot of resources that way. And of course, one of my favorite bloggers, But Wait! There's More!, does a lot with notebooks so you may want to check out her site. (And if you aren't interested in notebooks, check out her site anyway).
As for the Weber Grill...My mother refuses to get my husband books for Christmas. She feels, rightly so, that we have run out of room at our house for books so she won't buy any for him. He loves to cook out, and really needed a decent, larger grill. So, she got him a grill for Christmas...
Okay, let me back up and explain why it's a Weber grill. A few years ago, Mother Dear was transporting her grill to a BBQ her GOP ladies were putting on at a blackberry farm. She had the grill in the back of her little pickup and took a turn a bit too fast (for a grill) and looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see her nearly new Weber grill go sailing out of the bed of her truck and bounce down the street. She was sure she had just ruined her grill and was not happy. Anyhow, she stopped, went back, picked up her grill only to discover that not only was it still in two pieces (grill and lid) but they weren't even dinged or dented. The lid still fit perfectly on the grill! We've pretty much decided after that experience that Weber grills were the best made around.
Okay, so Mr. Bluebird gets a grill for Christmas and it was sitting there in a big box in my living room. For about 3 days. I kept hoping he'd get a clue and either assemble it himself, or something. However, I'm the one in the family with most of the tools, so one morning I decided to go ahead and put the thing together myself. If not, it probably would still be in my living room. It was remarkably easy. I had it together in about half and hour, and had it put out on the deck (complete with cover) by the time Mr. Bluebird rolled out of bed.
I also am good at fixing toilets.
First off, Jessie left a comment asking about my science notebooks. First off, I'm not an expert. At all. In fact, I've done science notebooks for a whopping two days. However, I'll lead you to some of my resources. First off is Dinah Zike's book "Dinah Zike's Notebook Foldables for Spirals, Binders & Composition Books" We have used her foldable techniques for years and one thing Mrs. Eagle and I did not want to get rid of were foldables - we saw this book at the NSTA conference in December, and attended one of the conference workshops that her organization put on about doing science notebooks. That workshop may have been the best one I've attended in ages. Now we know how to keep doing foldables and at the same time, utilize notebooks.
Mrs. Eagle also went to an in-service (I was supposed to go but my father was in the hospital) where another teacher in our district shared his notebook ideas. There are lots of teachers out there who do them. If you are a member of NSTA, you can go on their website and find a lot of things. Also, Google them like mad. You come across a lot of resources that way. And of course, one of my favorite bloggers, But Wait! There's More!, does a lot with notebooks so you may want to check out her site. (And if you aren't interested in notebooks, check out her site anyway).
As for the Weber Grill...My mother refuses to get my husband books for Christmas. She feels, rightly so, that we have run out of room at our house for books so she won't buy any for him. He loves to cook out, and really needed a decent, larger grill. So, she got him a grill for Christmas...
Okay, let me back up and explain why it's a Weber grill. A few years ago, Mother Dear was transporting her grill to a BBQ her GOP ladies were putting on at a blackberry farm. She had the grill in the back of her little pickup and took a turn a bit too fast (for a grill) and looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see her nearly new Weber grill go sailing out of the bed of her truck and bounce down the street. She was sure she had just ruined her grill and was not happy. Anyhow, she stopped, went back, picked up her grill only to discover that not only was it still in two pieces (grill and lid) but they weren't even dinged or dented. The lid still fit perfectly on the grill! We've pretty much decided after that experience that Weber grills were the best made around.
Okay, so Mr. Bluebird gets a grill for Christmas and it was sitting there in a big box in my living room. For about 3 days. I kept hoping he'd get a clue and either assemble it himself, or something. However, I'm the one in the family with most of the tools, so one morning I decided to go ahead and put the thing together myself. If not, it probably would still be in my living room. It was remarkably easy. I had it together in about half and hour, and had it put out on the deck (complete with cover) by the time Mr. Bluebird rolled out of bed.
I also am good at fixing toilets.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
We're back....
So I didn't post much (at all) during my Christmas break, mainly because I didn't have that much to post about (honestly how exciting is it to hear me talk about how my dad and I went to every place you can purchase a tool of some kind within a radius of about 20 miles? Or how I managed to assemble a Weber grill? Or how I still woke up at 5:00 every morning but managed to take a nap? And how many bowl games I managed to watch?). We had a delightful time off, I did very little school work, went and saw the latest Harry Potter movie, read, knitted, napped and enjoyed my time away from the classroom. Hanging out with Hubby, Dad and the felines was a great deal of fun.
But today, we're back. Actually teachers came back yesterday and did in-service most of the day (which was actually interesting and informative) and Mrs. Eagle and I managed to get everything copied and prepared for the rest of our heredity and genetics unit. Whoo-hoo! Love to be prepared. Considering that we couldn't even remember if we'd done lesson plans before we left for break (we did), that's a plus.
We gained (so far) a new student, a sixth grader who's being promoted into seventh who is a good student, a polite young man and an absolute delight. What a relief. I'm used to getting kids that no one wants.
The other good news is we lost one. Yes, Very Mean Bully Boy, came back today to officially withdraw. He will still be doing his 30 days in alternative school but when that's done, he'll be in another school across town. Let's give mom credit for moving him out of that horrid gang-and-thug-infested apartment complex down the road and shifting them across town to a better neck of the woods. However, they are both in for a rude awakening because the folks at the school across town aren't used to dealing with thugs like VMBB and and he's certainly not used to them. He is, however, no longer my problem and I can enjoy doing hall duty without worrying about who his latest victim is going to be.
The kids, by the way, were relieved. It was like a different atmosphere today.
And today, Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Hummingbird and I debuted for a few of our classes the New Science Notebooks!!
The good news is we didn't fall flat on our faces.
We've been kicking around the idea of doing science notebooks for a year or so, but really didn't get too motivated until we went to the NSTA conference and hit up some workshops on them. We decided to go ahead and "test drive" them for two of our classes, our 3rd (lots of sped kids) and our 5th (lots of bright kids) and see how they go. The Principal found the money in the budget to buy composition books for the kids and we also got a few new pairs of scissors, as well as some liquid glue (glue sticks, we were told, don't work as well). The idea is to work out the kinks this year, then go ahead and start the year off with them next year.
The kids seemed to like them except for a few who see a composition book and assume they'll be doing nothing but writing in them. Oh well. We'll see how it goes.
The other good thing? I only had 4 kids forget their locker combinations - that's pretty darn good!
But today, we're back. Actually teachers came back yesterday and did in-service most of the day (which was actually interesting and informative) and Mrs. Eagle and I managed to get everything copied and prepared for the rest of our heredity and genetics unit. Whoo-hoo! Love to be prepared. Considering that we couldn't even remember if we'd done lesson plans before we left for break (we did), that's a plus.
We gained (so far) a new student, a sixth grader who's being promoted into seventh who is a good student, a polite young man and an absolute delight. What a relief. I'm used to getting kids that no one wants.
The other good news is we lost one. Yes, Very Mean Bully Boy, came back today to officially withdraw. He will still be doing his 30 days in alternative school but when that's done, he'll be in another school across town. Let's give mom credit for moving him out of that horrid gang-and-thug-infested apartment complex down the road and shifting them across town to a better neck of the woods. However, they are both in for a rude awakening because the folks at the school across town aren't used to dealing with thugs like VMBB and and he's certainly not used to them. He is, however, no longer my problem and I can enjoy doing hall duty without worrying about who his latest victim is going to be.
The kids, by the way, were relieved. It was like a different atmosphere today.
And today, Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Hummingbird and I debuted for a few of our classes the New Science Notebooks!!
The good news is we didn't fall flat on our faces.
We've been kicking around the idea of doing science notebooks for a year or so, but really didn't get too motivated until we went to the NSTA conference and hit up some workshops on them. We decided to go ahead and "test drive" them for two of our classes, our 3rd (lots of sped kids) and our 5th (lots of bright kids) and see how they go. The Principal found the money in the budget to buy composition books for the kids and we also got a few new pairs of scissors, as well as some liquid glue (glue sticks, we were told, don't work as well). The idea is to work out the kinks this year, then go ahead and start the year off with them next year.
The kids seemed to like them except for a few who see a composition book and assume they'll be doing nothing but writing in them. Oh well. We'll see how it goes.
The other good thing? I only had 4 kids forget their locker combinations - that's pretty darn good!
Friday, December 17, 2010
A Big Sigh of Relief
The Team did receive a wonderful gift today from The Enforcer when he sent Very Mean Bully Boy to alternative school.
We were ecstatic.
However, not nearly as ecstatic as the kids on the team.
Very Mean Bully Boy is incredibly smart (seriously, he could earn straight A's if he so much as tried) but is so busy being mean and hateful that he's usually failing all his classes. The more I observe this kid (and believe me, during hall duty we're watching him like a hawk because he cannot walk down a hall without tripping, kicking, or hitting someone) the more I've come to the conclusion that his goal in life is to inflict pain and humiliation on others. He does not come from a home with positive role models - he idolizes the uncle he is named after who happens to be in prison for first degree murder. What he really needs is a lot of therapy to get rid of his anger, and some really positive male role models, but he's pretty much exhausted our resources.
And what bothers me the most about him is how he's a threat to the other kids. The tipping point finally came this past week when my sub reported he'd hit a girl in class coming back from a fire drill (and I had witnesses that, for once, we willing to talk), he pushed another girl down in music class, he threatened another girl at lunch, and he hit another girl in math. And that was a typical week for him. He's been suspended, in ISS, you name it, but he finally hit the number (and we had an opening) and off to alternative school he'll go.
For a while, at least, my other kids can walk to the drinking fountain without fear of getting hit or tripped, and my seventh period may actually become somewhat productive (it's hard to teach when you're trying to keep a war from breaking out between Very Mean Bully Boy and Everyone Else.)
Sad to say, but not a single kid in the building will miss him. Hopefully someone, somewhere, can connect with this kid. But I'm starting to wonder.
We were ecstatic.
However, not nearly as ecstatic as the kids on the team.
Very Mean Bully Boy is incredibly smart (seriously, he could earn straight A's if he so much as tried) but is so busy being mean and hateful that he's usually failing all his classes. The more I observe this kid (and believe me, during hall duty we're watching him like a hawk because he cannot walk down a hall without tripping, kicking, or hitting someone) the more I've come to the conclusion that his goal in life is to inflict pain and humiliation on others. He does not come from a home with positive role models - he idolizes the uncle he is named after who happens to be in prison for first degree murder. What he really needs is a lot of therapy to get rid of his anger, and some really positive male role models, but he's pretty much exhausted our resources.
And what bothers me the most about him is how he's a threat to the other kids. The tipping point finally came this past week when my sub reported he'd hit a girl in class coming back from a fire drill (and I had witnesses that, for once, we willing to talk), he pushed another girl down in music class, he threatened another girl at lunch, and he hit another girl in math. And that was a typical week for him. He's been suspended, in ISS, you name it, but he finally hit the number (and we had an opening) and off to alternative school he'll go.
For a while, at least, my other kids can walk to the drinking fountain without fear of getting hit or tripped, and my seventh period may actually become somewhat productive (it's hard to teach when you're trying to keep a war from breaking out between Very Mean Bully Boy and Everyone Else.)
Sad to say, but not a single kid in the building will miss him. Hopefully someone, somewhere, can connect with this kid. But I'm starting to wonder.
Time for a Nap
Despite the best efforts of Mother Nature, we did finally make it back to school on Wednesday. Thank goodness. We only have three snow days and none of us (well, except for the kids) wanted to use them all up before Christmas Break. We did, however, have to leave an hour early on Wednesday due to an impending ice storm, but Thursday and today were pretty normal.
As normal as you can be for the last few days of school before two full weeks of freedom.
Mrs. Eagle and I (and every other teacher in the building) had to make some major adjustments to our lesson plans. Two assignments that I'd planned to have due this week, won't be due until the week we get back in January. That means that I'm more or less done with grades.
And man, does that have my kids freaked out.
All of a sudden it dawned on many of them that they didn't have the grades they wanted (but certainly the ones they earned) and they were running around in a panic trying to figure out how they could pull their grades up in under a day.
This just kills me.
Oh well, live and learn, I suppose.
The last half day (today) was actually one of the nicest and calmest half days we've ever had. And, amazingly, most of my kids actually came to school. We started off with the faculty vs. students volleyball game where the faculty, for the tenth year in the row, won. (This just cracks me up - we're old. We're decripit. And we play one day a year. And we still beat them.)
After that my kids had voted on watching The Sandlot, so we watched that, I popped popcorn, and for the most part, they were quiet and entertained. We did have a break, courtesy of the PE department, where the kids went to the gym to run around for half and hour so teachers could have a break, and that was wonderful.
Now, time off to rest, knit, enjoy family and yes, even get together with Mrs. Eagle to work on some of our units for the remainder of the year.
As normal as you can be for the last few days of school before two full weeks of freedom.
Mrs. Eagle and I (and every other teacher in the building) had to make some major adjustments to our lesson plans. Two assignments that I'd planned to have due this week, won't be due until the week we get back in January. That means that I'm more or less done with grades.
And man, does that have my kids freaked out.
All of a sudden it dawned on many of them that they didn't have the grades they wanted (but certainly the ones they earned) and they were running around in a panic trying to figure out how they could pull their grades up in under a day.
This just kills me.
Oh well, live and learn, I suppose.
The last half day (today) was actually one of the nicest and calmest half days we've ever had. And, amazingly, most of my kids actually came to school. We started off with the faculty vs. students volleyball game where the faculty, for the tenth year in the row, won. (This just cracks me up - we're old. We're decripit. And we play one day a year. And we still beat them.)
After that my kids had voted on watching The Sandlot, so we watched that, I popped popcorn, and for the most part, they were quiet and entertained. We did have a break, courtesy of the PE department, where the kids went to the gym to run around for half and hour so teachers could have a break, and that was wonderful.
Now, time off to rest, knit, enjoy family and yes, even get together with Mrs. Eagle to work on some of our units for the remainder of the year.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
I am Humbled
I have absolutely no clue who nominated this blog for Best Teacher Edublog 2010, but I am humbled. Thank you.
Wow.
Who'd a thunk it?
Wow.
Who'd a thunk it?
Day Off, Part Two
We are on our second snow day today.
We only get three per year, so that means we have one left.
And it's not looking good for Wednesday.
And technically, it's not even Winter!
If we go over our allotted three before break (which officially starts for teachers the moment we wave those buses goodbye at around 11:00 am on Friday morning), then we will have to use December 20th and 21st to make up the days. No one is looking forward to that.
Those of us here in My Beloved South are experiencing some very Northern-like weather. According to the local news, this is the coldest December since 1942. Really. I can believe it. I woke up yesterday morning to find it a whopping 7 degrees outside. I think it may have reached 20 degrees by yesterday afternoon, and it certainly wasn't warm enough to get rid of all the ice on some of our twisty rural roads (which is why we're closed again today.) Today it was 11 degrees when I woke up. And on Wednesday they're calling for ice, wintry mix, and freezing rain.
Oh yay.
I hope we don't have another repeat of last year.
We only get three per year, so that means we have one left.
And it's not looking good for Wednesday.
And technically, it's not even Winter!
If we go over our allotted three before break (which officially starts for teachers the moment we wave those buses goodbye at around 11:00 am on Friday morning), then we will have to use December 20th and 21st to make up the days. No one is looking forward to that.
Those of us here in My Beloved South are experiencing some very Northern-like weather. According to the local news, this is the coldest December since 1942. Really. I can believe it. I woke up yesterday morning to find it a whopping 7 degrees outside. I think it may have reached 20 degrees by yesterday afternoon, and it certainly wasn't warm enough to get rid of all the ice on some of our twisty rural roads (which is why we're closed again today.) Today it was 11 degrees when I woke up. And on Wednesday they're calling for ice, wintry mix, and freezing rain.
Oh yay.
I hope we don't have another repeat of last year.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Hoping Grandma is Wrong
Years ago, my Grandmother R (the one who, along with my mom, taught me to knit) once told me that you wanted to pay attention to the date of the first snowfall of the year. She said that the date would tell you how many snow storms you would have for that season. For example, if it snowed on the 7th of November, you would have 7 storms that year.
I seriously hope that this is one of those old wives tales that really has absolutely no basis in reality.
Our first snowfall of the season was on November 27th. That in itself is weird because we hardly ever get snow here until January. (Or least we haven't since I moved to My Beloved South eight years ago.)
But, according to Grandma, that means we're having 27 storms this season.
And we just had the second. And now we're out for a snow day for tomorrow. (I am not happy - we only get three a year and this isn't the week we really need one. We need to save them up for those dark and gloomy days in January and February when we really need a mental health day.)
I am so hoping that this year isn't a repeat of last year when it comes to missing school.
I seriously hope that this is one of those old wives tales that really has absolutely no basis in reality.
Our first snowfall of the season was on November 27th. That in itself is weird because we hardly ever get snow here until January. (Or least we haven't since I moved to My Beloved South eight years ago.)
But, according to Grandma, that means we're having 27 storms this season.
And we just had the second. And now we're out for a snow day for tomorrow. (I am not happy - we only get three a year and this isn't the week we really need one. We need to save them up for those dark and gloomy days in January and February when we really need a mental health day.)
I am so hoping that this year isn't a repeat of last year when it comes to missing school.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Something to Cheer About?
Mrs. Eagle and I attended the NSTA conference in Nashville last weekend and had a wonderful time, picked up some fantastic ideas (as usual) and bought some really cool stuff.
On an aside, this was held at the Opryland Hotel which in May had something like 15' of water in it from the flooding. It just opened about two weeks prior to the conference so we were eager to see how it had been repaired. Oh. My. You would NEVER know that the building had been damaged so badly. There was absolutely no sign of it. The place was amazing!
In any case, one of the really cool things I bought was a Dr. Seuss book, Oh Say Can You Seed? Okay, it's actually not written or drawn by the late Dr. Seuss, but his family has authorized the use of his characters for educational publications done in the Seuss style. This book is all about flowering plants and since we were just finishing up our unit on flowering plants, I just had to have it. It's nice when you can find neat things that actually align with your standards. And this book is really well done from the science standpoint.
So, back at school, we finished up our review for our on Tuesday and I had time to read this book to them. I used the document reader so they could see all the pictures up on the screen, and took the last few minutes of class to give the kids a dose of Dr. Seuss.
It always amazes me how seventh graders will become deadly silent and completely absorbed when you read to them. I've often wondered if I'd get the same results if I was reading cereal boxes. They still love picture books. And they love being read to. So I read to them and you could have heard a pin drop.
Amazing. I must do this more often.
However, the funniest, and most surprising response was from my sixth period class. I read the book, finished the last page, and closed it.
And they applauded.
I am not kidding.
They applauded.
It was the weirdest thing. And truth be told, it made us all laugh. And they said how much they enjoyed it.
But seriously, as a teacher, when was the first (or last time) you ever got a round of applause for what we do each and every day?
Amazing.
On an aside, this was held at the Opryland Hotel which in May had something like 15' of water in it from the flooding. It just opened about two weeks prior to the conference so we were eager to see how it had been repaired. Oh. My. You would NEVER know that the building had been damaged so badly. There was absolutely no sign of it. The place was amazing!
In any case, one of the really cool things I bought was a Dr. Seuss book, Oh Say Can You Seed? Okay, it's actually not written or drawn by the late Dr. Seuss, but his family has authorized the use of his characters for educational publications done in the Seuss style. This book is all about flowering plants and since we were just finishing up our unit on flowering plants, I just had to have it. It's nice when you can find neat things that actually align with your standards. And this book is really well done from the science standpoint.
So, back at school, we finished up our review for our on Tuesday and I had time to read this book to them. I used the document reader so they could see all the pictures up on the screen, and took the last few minutes of class to give the kids a dose of Dr. Seuss.
It always amazes me how seventh graders will become deadly silent and completely absorbed when you read to them. I've often wondered if I'd get the same results if I was reading cereal boxes. They still love picture books. And they love being read to. So I read to them and you could have heard a pin drop.
Amazing. I must do this more often.
However, the funniest, and most surprising response was from my sixth period class. I read the book, finished the last page, and closed it.
And they applauded.
I am not kidding.
They applauded.
It was the weirdest thing. And truth be told, it made us all laugh. And they said how much they enjoyed it.
But seriously, as a teacher, when was the first (or last time) you ever got a round of applause for what we do each and every day?
Amazing.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
The Numbers Game
Last spring we were told that our enrollment numbers were declining, and that we were losing a number of positions at The School. The seventh grade took the biggest hit, going from three teams to two teams. The eighth grade went to two teams, plus a mini-team (including teachers who taught one section of 7th grade "overflow" kids). And the sixth grade stayed at three teams because sixth graders have such a hard time dealing with the change to middle school in the first place that the thought was to give them some smaller classes to ease the transition.
So, instead of about 90-100 students like I've had the past few years, I now had 120 or so. If you've been a regular reader of this blog, you know that the numbers game this year has been a mess. We have some awful unbalanced classes. However, some of the side effects of only having two teams, and larger classes, weren't really expected. I didn't realize how much more time I would spend just doing things like grading and keeping up with my gradebook (and not blogging). Thirty extra kids doesn't seem like a lot when they're spread over five class periods. But it was when I got home and realized that all I did was grade student work all night long that it really hit home. The other problem was that separating kids by moving their schedules around was almost impossible. Between the special ed classes, the advanced classes, block scheduling for English/Language Arts, and who knows what else, we had real issues when it came to trying to move kids apart who have no business being together. With three teams it was a lot easier to just relocate a kid to another team. This year we have so many kids cross-teamed that we were joking that we wouldn't be able to have teams for Field Day as we're all one big 7th grade team.
And of course, with bigger classes, you have more behavior issues. The noise level can be incredible at times (just having them come in from the hallway before the bell rings is amazingly loud when there's 30+ of them in one small room). In addition, they are so crowded together that I feel like I'm on a long road trip with a bunch of kids who've been stuck in the car too long with each other. They're crammed together, crowded, and tempers flare. They are cranky. The seventh grade teachers are cranky. Mrs. Eagle and I actually asked The Principal a few weeks ago if there was some light at the end of the tunnel or would we be stuck with two teams next year. She said she wasn't sure at this point in time.
So Mrs. Eagle and I were stunned, to say the least, when The Enforcer said he wanted to get with us (and Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies) to talk about moving kids out of our science and social studies classes into another section taught by eighth grade teachers. Apparently, what has been going on is that every time a new kid enrolls, that kid happens to be a seventh grader. So, gradually over the past few months, the seventh grade has been getting bigger and bigger, and the eighth grade has been getting smaller. In fact, many of the eighth grade teachers had classes of 14-18 kids while we were looking at 28-30 kids. So we were able to get together with Mr. Enforcer and Guidance Mom and give her a list of kids who we could move to the new section being taught by Mrs. Hummingbird (who was thrilled to get another seventh grade class as she isn't as happy teaching 8th grade content).
We basically picked kids who had schedules that were easy to tweak, and a couple of kids who needed a fresh start with some new kids (Brilliant Boy, being one). We did make one request that the schedule changes not take place until today, as progress reports went out yesterday and we wanted to be able to print the progress reports up with as little drama as possible. (In PowerSchool when a kid moves from one class to another, the grades do not go with him/her - the grade report from the old class has to be printed out and then manually entered into the new class - which can be a real pain). No problem, guidance would see that the schedule changes go into effect on December 1st.
Except PowerSchool didn't see it that way. So, although it said that none of this was supposed to happen until December 1, the kids had already been moved around from all our rosters on November 30th (actually around 10:00 pm on November 29th which was when Mr. Math noticed it). Talk about a nightmare. We had about 40 minutes to print out progress reports, and then print out individual class reports for science and social studies for the kids that moved around, and get everything all lined up so we could send the progress reports home along with a letter from The Principal explaining why the kids were being moved.
Argh.
Most of the kids that moved didn't seem all that concerned about the change. Brilliant Boy, of course, assumed that he was being moved to advanced science and social studies (which does not exist in seventh grade) because it was being taught by and 8th grade teacher in the 8th grade hall. Whatever. If that's what he wants to believe, fine.
What we did notice was that today, with our new smaller classes, it was like a different world. My sixth period which was crowded and full of a lot of high maintenance kids who needed to be in isolation seats (every one is occupied) was a lot of fun today. The kids noticed right away that Brilliant Boy and Catalyst Boy were gone. And they were thrilled. They all know that these two stir up the most trouble in a classroom, and not having them around was like a breath of fresh air. You could almost feel the relief. They worked well, they were quiet (for them) and we all had a great time. They were also able to spread out a bit more and not be crowded at their lab tables. They really enjoyed that little increase in personal space.
Hopefully this trend will continue. Especially for the next two days. Because I'm going to be out at the NSTA conference and a sub will be in the room.
We will see.
So, instead of about 90-100 students like I've had the past few years, I now had 120 or so. If you've been a regular reader of this blog, you know that the numbers game this year has been a mess. We have some awful unbalanced classes. However, some of the side effects of only having two teams, and larger classes, weren't really expected. I didn't realize how much more time I would spend just doing things like grading and keeping up with my gradebook (and not blogging). Thirty extra kids doesn't seem like a lot when they're spread over five class periods. But it was when I got home and realized that all I did was grade student work all night long that it really hit home. The other problem was that separating kids by moving their schedules around was almost impossible. Between the special ed classes, the advanced classes, block scheduling for English/Language Arts, and who knows what else, we had real issues when it came to trying to move kids apart who have no business being together. With three teams it was a lot easier to just relocate a kid to another team. This year we have so many kids cross-teamed that we were joking that we wouldn't be able to have teams for Field Day as we're all one big 7th grade team.
And of course, with bigger classes, you have more behavior issues. The noise level can be incredible at times (just having them come in from the hallway before the bell rings is amazingly loud when there's 30+ of them in one small room). In addition, they are so crowded together that I feel like I'm on a long road trip with a bunch of kids who've been stuck in the car too long with each other. They're crammed together, crowded, and tempers flare. They are cranky. The seventh grade teachers are cranky. Mrs. Eagle and I actually asked The Principal a few weeks ago if there was some light at the end of the tunnel or would we be stuck with two teams next year. She said she wasn't sure at this point in time.
So Mrs. Eagle and I were stunned, to say the least, when The Enforcer said he wanted to get with us (and Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies) to talk about moving kids out of our science and social studies classes into another section taught by eighth grade teachers. Apparently, what has been going on is that every time a new kid enrolls, that kid happens to be a seventh grader. So, gradually over the past few months, the seventh grade has been getting bigger and bigger, and the eighth grade has been getting smaller. In fact, many of the eighth grade teachers had classes of 14-18 kids while we were looking at 28-30 kids. So we were able to get together with Mr. Enforcer and Guidance Mom and give her a list of kids who we could move to the new section being taught by Mrs. Hummingbird (who was thrilled to get another seventh grade class as she isn't as happy teaching 8th grade content).
We basically picked kids who had schedules that were easy to tweak, and a couple of kids who needed a fresh start with some new kids (Brilliant Boy, being one). We did make one request that the schedule changes not take place until today, as progress reports went out yesterday and we wanted to be able to print the progress reports up with as little drama as possible. (In PowerSchool when a kid moves from one class to another, the grades do not go with him/her - the grade report from the old class has to be printed out and then manually entered into the new class - which can be a real pain). No problem, guidance would see that the schedule changes go into effect on December 1st.
Except PowerSchool didn't see it that way. So, although it said that none of this was supposed to happen until December 1, the kids had already been moved around from all our rosters on November 30th (actually around 10:00 pm on November 29th which was when Mr. Math noticed it). Talk about a nightmare. We had about 40 minutes to print out progress reports, and then print out individual class reports for science and social studies for the kids that moved around, and get everything all lined up so we could send the progress reports home along with a letter from The Principal explaining why the kids were being moved.
Argh.
Most of the kids that moved didn't seem all that concerned about the change. Brilliant Boy, of course, assumed that he was being moved to advanced science and social studies (which does not exist in seventh grade) because it was being taught by and 8th grade teacher in the 8th grade hall. Whatever. If that's what he wants to believe, fine.
What we did notice was that today, with our new smaller classes, it was like a different world. My sixth period which was crowded and full of a lot of high maintenance kids who needed to be in isolation seats (every one is occupied) was a lot of fun today. The kids noticed right away that Brilliant Boy and Catalyst Boy were gone. And they were thrilled. They all know that these two stir up the most trouble in a classroom, and not having them around was like a breath of fresh air. You could almost feel the relief. They worked well, they were quiet (for them) and we all had a great time. They were also able to spread out a bit more and not be crowded at their lab tables. They really enjoyed that little increase in personal space.
Hopefully this trend will continue. Especially for the next two days. Because I'm going to be out at the NSTA conference and a sub will be in the room.
We will see.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thankfullness
I'm thankful for my parents and my husband, all of whom are in good health. Thankfully Daddy Bird has recovered completely from his mini-stroke of a few months ago.
I'm thankful that I have, for the most part, really good kids this year.
I'm thankful I have a job I love, in a building I love, with a staff I love.
I'm thankful that Goth Girl came back to visit and although she took time off to have a baby (at 16), she is finishing up high school, plans to graduate, and is applying to college to study nursing.
I'm thankful that Stoopid Boy, who I have always adored, will be going to college to major in music and plans to be a youth minister. For those of you who followed Stoopid Boy's antics over his middle school years, you'll realize that he'll make one amazing youth minister because he's "been there, done that."
I'm thankful for great friends like Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Bunny, and Mrs. Social Studies.
I'm thankful that I get lots of snuggles, headbutts, purrs, and loving from my feline children.
And I'm thankful for my readers. You guys rock.
And that's just a start....
I'm thankful that I have, for the most part, really good kids this year.
I'm thankful I have a job I love, in a building I love, with a staff I love.
I'm thankful that Goth Girl came back to visit and although she took time off to have a baby (at 16), she is finishing up high school, plans to graduate, and is applying to college to study nursing.
I'm thankful that Stoopid Boy, who I have always adored, will be going to college to major in music and plans to be a youth minister. For those of you who followed Stoopid Boy's antics over his middle school years, you'll realize that he'll make one amazing youth minister because he's "been there, done that."
I'm thankful for great friends like Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Bunny, and Mrs. Social Studies.
I'm thankful that I get lots of snuggles, headbutts, purrs, and loving from my feline children.
And I'm thankful for my readers. You guys rock.
And that's just a start....
Friday, November 19, 2010
Was This The Week that the Seventh Grade Went Insane?
According to The Enforcer, the bottom has dropped out of the Seventh Grade.
It started on Wednesday.
It didn't get much better on Thursday. Mrs. Eagle had two boys get in a fight in front of school (busted up by a parent who brought the two offenders into the front office while we were at a faculty meeting). A few more seventh graders were suspended and put into in-school-suspension as a continuation of the "pulling down the pants" incident in the locker room. Stroll Boy got in trouble at lunch and was still raging mad by the time he landed in my room, threw his books across the room, slammed his chair into the table, pouted and refused to take his test. I bounced him to The Enforcer's Office for that stunt. (Need to make another call to The Hood to get The Big Dude From the Hood back down for a visit, I believe.)
Today wasn't much better. Again, we had boys messing around throwing binders at each other (and then getting mad at each other because it's not funny when it's YOUR binder) so that got some action. Another gets called up to the front office for a chewing out by his mother because he hasn't turned in a single assignment this year, comes back to class - mad - and slams his chair into the table, throws his books around, pouts, sulks, refuses to take his test (does this sound familiar?) and off to Guidance he goes.
But my favorite was the kid who decided to take off his pants in the middle of class.
Seriously. At least I hope that's what he was doing.
To backtrack, Pants Boy is a big kid. In fact, he could pass for a high schooler, but he's really not all that mature. (We have a large collection of boys who just melt down and act like 8-year-olds when they get in trouble - this is one of them.) In any case, before class he asks to go see the Guidance Dude. I tell him that's fine, I'll put in a guidance referral and when the Guidance Dude is free, he'll call for him. (This is an in-house program one of our more techy teachers developed for us to track guidance issues - it's wonderful.) Pants Boy takes his test and then asks if he can go see Guidance Dude. I explain - again - that we don't know if Guidance Dude is free, so he'll have to wait until he calls for him. He doesn't look happy, and goes back to his seat to read his book.
Now, I have a clear view of him from where my teacher station is, and a few minutes later, after walking around the room, checking on the kids as they're taking their tests, I come back to my computer to check something, look up and see Pants Boy trying to wiggle out of his pants!
His belt is undone and hanging down, his shirt is untucked, his pants are unzipped, and his hands are moving and he's squirming a bit. At this point, I'm hoping that all he's doing is trying to get out of his pants and he's not working on getting in some private entertainment before the bell rings!
"What on earth are you doing?" I snap at him, loudly, and he stops and looks up
"I have shorts on!" he responds.
Shorts? Undershorts? Basketball shorts? I don't care what freaking shorts he has on, YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF IN SCIENCE CLASS!
By now, the kids are all looking at him, their mouths agape, and some of them are so embarrassed that they're ducking down behind their privacy folders, rapidly working on their tests. I go over to Pants Boy who is still sitting there with his pants all undone and hiss at him that he better get himself arranged, pull his pants up and get himself put together or I'd make things even worse for him.
Of course that got a write-up, although it took me a few minutes to figure out how to categorize it on the Administrative Referral form. Dress Code? (We must wear pants to school.) Disobedience? Well, I never had a class rule that said "must wear pants". I finally decided on lewd and lascivious conduct, because, after all, YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF IN SCIENCE CLASS!
I swear, I need a sign for my class room that has these four words: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
You Can't Make This Stuff Up...Really
This was one of those days that you sit back and realize that you could tell people about your day and they wouldn't believe you.
Today was the day that the seventh grade apparently decided to lose their minds.
It started at bright and early when some of the boys in the locker room decided that pulling down gym shorts (and exposing the Full Monty) was a laugh riot, until one of the victims didn't find it so funny, and a brawl ensued.
Then there was the girl fight down in Mrs. Eagle's area.
And then we had some of Mrs. Eagle's boys harassing one of her girls, taking her books, taking these books into the boy's bathroom and laughing hysterically as they pretended to have, shall we say, carnal knowledge of the text book?
See? People just don't believe me! Really! This is the brain of the seventh grader!!
My favorite, however, was one of my darlings who didn't like the fact he was getting suspended. Let me backtrack a bit. This kid, who we will call Dennis the Menace because he's the cutest little freckle-faced darling ever, but don't let that fool you, was a horror last year in sixth grade. You mention his name to some of the sweetest, most patient sixth grade teachers we have and their eyes narrow and steam comes out of their ears. He spent most of last year in alternative school, being homeschooled, back to public school, back to alternative school, off to live with relatives in another state, expelled, sent back to us, and he lands back in our building with a record that would scare the most hardened administrator. He spent thirty days in alternative school, and arrived back with us. I actually haven't had him in class much because he managed to get in a fight, got sent to ISS, lost his mind in ISS (standing on tables, cursing, spitwads, you name it), got suspended for two days, came back, had to finish up his time in ISS, and today was back to his old habits of causing a rukus, throwing things, etc, and he got suspended again.
However.
This time when he was brought in to guidance so they could do the suspension paperwork, he lost it, threw his books across the office, then took off running and screaming at the top of his lungs throughout the building.
Really.
You seriously can't make this stuff up.
Oh, and I'm held responsible for their test scores...just thought I'd remind ya'll.
(And to all the folks that will post comments about why this kid is still in the classroom and not identified as emotionally disturbed...I wish I could tell you. From what I can tell in his file, there's not a thing wrong with this kid except he just doesn't like to behave. He can, when he wants to, be an angel. Hard to say - and like I said, I haven't had him long enough to even get to know much about him.)
Today was the day that the seventh grade apparently decided to lose their minds.
It started at bright and early when some of the boys in the locker room decided that pulling down gym shorts (and exposing the Full Monty) was a laugh riot, until one of the victims didn't find it so funny, and a brawl ensued.
Then there was the girl fight down in Mrs. Eagle's area.
And then we had some of Mrs. Eagle's boys harassing one of her girls, taking her books, taking these books into the boy's bathroom and laughing hysterically as they pretended to have, shall we say, carnal knowledge of the text book?
See? People just don't believe me! Really! This is the brain of the seventh grader!!
My favorite, however, was one of my darlings who didn't like the fact he was getting suspended. Let me backtrack a bit. This kid, who we will call Dennis the Menace because he's the cutest little freckle-faced darling ever, but don't let that fool you, was a horror last year in sixth grade. You mention his name to some of the sweetest, most patient sixth grade teachers we have and their eyes narrow and steam comes out of their ears. He spent most of last year in alternative school, being homeschooled, back to public school, back to alternative school, off to live with relatives in another state, expelled, sent back to us, and he lands back in our building with a record that would scare the most hardened administrator. He spent thirty days in alternative school, and arrived back with us. I actually haven't had him in class much because he managed to get in a fight, got sent to ISS, lost his mind in ISS (standing on tables, cursing, spitwads, you name it), got suspended for two days, came back, had to finish up his time in ISS, and today was back to his old habits of causing a rukus, throwing things, etc, and he got suspended again.
However.
This time when he was brought in to guidance so they could do the suspension paperwork, he lost it, threw his books across the office, then took off running and screaming at the top of his lungs throughout the building.
Really.
You seriously can't make this stuff up.
Oh, and I'm held responsible for their test scores...just thought I'd remind ya'll.
(And to all the folks that will post comments about why this kid is still in the classroom and not identified as emotionally disturbed...I wish I could tell you. From what I can tell in his file, there's not a thing wrong with this kid except he just doesn't like to behave. He can, when he wants to, be an angel. Hard to say - and like I said, I haven't had him long enough to even get to know much about him.)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Thank a Veteran
As a school, we probably have one of the absolutely best Veteran's Day Assemblies I've ever seen. Different teachers over the years have taken upon the role of putting this together, because it's something that we all value and look forward to. When someone gets burned out there is always someone to take his or her place. Perhaps it's because so many of our teachers and staff are veterans, or so many of our kids are military dependents, or the fact that many of us were just raised respecting veterans. But we do it up right.
And this years assembly was the absolute best I've seen in eight years at The School.
Seriously.
It. Was. Amazing.
We had the band play. We had the color guard from the High School Down the Road. We honored our teachers, staff and bus drivers who are veterans. We had the appropriate dignitaries (including some of the mucky-mucks from Downtown). However, the most popular dignitaries were the six soldiers from our local military post (all combat veterans by now, and one walking with a cane) who recited the Soldier's Creed in unison. Many of my homeroom kids were able to shake hands with them afterwards and were really delighted to report back that they had done so.
But the kicker was the kids themselves.
Over the past month or so some of our English teachers in both 7th and 8th grade have been working on a patriotism unit. Considering how many of our kids have family members who have served overseas, or are currently serving, and the fact that we have two who have lost a close family member to combat (father and uncle), this is a really emotional subject for our kids. One of the things that the kids brought up was that many of their peers didn't stand and honor the flag the way they thought they should during our morning Pledge of Allegiance.
That has now changed. Because our kids asked everyone who they stood for when they stood for the Flag.
As part of the ceremony, the thirty plus kids from the 8th grade advanced English class came down from the stands with American flags and one by one they came across the stage with their flag. And each one stopped, and spoke into the microphone.
"I stand for my grandfather."
"I stand for my uncle."
"I stand for my brother."
"I stand for my sister."
"I stand for my mom."
"I stand for my step-dad."
"I stand for my dad."
And this years assembly was the absolute best I've seen in eight years at The School.
Seriously.
It. Was. Amazing.
We had the band play. We had the color guard from the High School Down the Road. We honored our teachers, staff and bus drivers who are veterans. We had the appropriate dignitaries (including some of the mucky-mucks from Downtown). However, the most popular dignitaries were the six soldiers from our local military post (all combat veterans by now, and one walking with a cane) who recited the Soldier's Creed in unison. Many of my homeroom kids were able to shake hands with them afterwards and were really delighted to report back that they had done so.
But the kicker was the kids themselves.
Over the past month or so some of our English teachers in both 7th and 8th grade have been working on a patriotism unit. Considering how many of our kids have family members who have served overseas, or are currently serving, and the fact that we have two who have lost a close family member to combat (father and uncle), this is a really emotional subject for our kids. One of the things that the kids brought up was that many of their peers didn't stand and honor the flag the way they thought they should during our morning Pledge of Allegiance.
That has now changed. Because our kids asked everyone who they stood for when they stood for the Flag.
As part of the ceremony, the thirty plus kids from the 8th grade advanced English class came down from the stands with American flags and one by one they came across the stage with their flag. And each one stopped, and spoke into the microphone.
"I stand for my grandfather."
"I stand for my uncle."
"I stand for my brother."
"I stand for my sister."
"I stand for my mom."
"I stand for my step-dad."
"I stand for my dad."
And the last kid for each grouping would add, "If you have a grandfather/father/mom, etc. who served in the military please stand with me and remain standing."
It didn't take long before the entire gym was on their feet.
And then the local Marine Corps representative played Taps.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house. And that includes the kids.
The kids are still talking about what an awesome assembly it was. And parents who came have emailed expressing how moved and astonished they were at the assembly. And today, when we said the Pledge, I looked around my room and noticed that they were standing straighter, they were focused on the Flag, and they were a bit louder when it came to the pledge.
The Principal, however, topped it off with her email. "The policy makers probably don't realize that we can't test or make a standard about some of the things we teach our kids. Today, we've taught them alot about respect, and honor, and patriotism. And that's what makes them good citizens. And no one can measure that on a bubble test. Keep that in mind when you're feeling pressured about standards and testing and high stakes. You all teach them so much more than what's on your curriculum. You teach them how to be good people."
Thank you to all my veteran readers. God Bless.
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Priceless or Pathetic?
120 Students
69 F grades on Friday's Progress Reports.
Number of parent calls, emails, or conferences?
Zero.
Pathetic.
On an aside, we've had the past two Thursday evenings set aside for parent conferences. My team had quite a few openings in our schedule. We did get a few walk in's - including a mom who passed the school on the way home from work, saw the marquee, and pulled in, thank goodness, as we were going to call her to set up a meeting anyway. However, it never was busy.
Pathetic.
Why do I care more about these kids' future than their parents do?
69 F grades on Friday's Progress Reports.
Number of parent calls, emails, or conferences?
Zero.
Pathetic.
On an aside, we've had the past two Thursday evenings set aside for parent conferences. My team had quite a few openings in our schedule. We did get a few walk in's - including a mom who passed the school on the way home from work, saw the marquee, and pulled in, thank goodness, as we were going to call her to set up a meeting anyway. However, it never was busy.
Pathetic.
Why do I care more about these kids' future than their parents do?
Monday, November 01, 2010
Putting the Hood to Work for You
I have a student in one of my classes we'll call a Stroll Boy. Stroll Boy never moves faster than a stroll, and that pretty much plays out in all aspects of his life. He's famous for doing nothing. At all. He's turned in maybe 2 assignments (classwork) this grading period. He fails every test. He won't bring his book, a pencil, a binder, a work ethic. If you pull his records you'll find that he's being raised by grandparents and biological parents are non-existent in this kid's life. His grandparents are feeding him, giving him a place to live, but don't seem to be all that interested in seeing that he's a success academically. They probably are overwhelmed at having to deal with a 13-year-old when they'd rather be retired.
So, Stroll Boy is mad at me because I took his locker away - again - because he won't bring his book to class. (This is a pretty much standard practice in the seventh grade - no book, no locker.) He's also mad at me because I have higher expectations for him than he has and doesn't want to hear the cold hard truth that he's not going to be playing in the NFL if he doesn't make the grades to play on his high school team in a year or two. Last I looked, he's not such a phenom that the scouts are already lining up to sign him. In fact, considering his work ethic and lack of speed, I doubt he'll even make it to the high school team.
His method of "punishing" me, is to be tardy to class. Now, we're not talking tardy by a second or two. We're talking a kid who comes in, puts his books on his desk, and then "goes to the bathroom", and shows up five or more minutes late to class. He just strolls in, ambles to his seat, and spends the rest of the period trying to look somewhat busy (without moving too much or making much of an effort). I actually find this kind of funny because all I do is write up a classroom referral for a tardy, tell him to get his pencil out (usually doesn't have one) and off we go with class. If he thinks he's punishing me, he's far off target. Rather, he's just showing me how sad and lost he is. This kid has been through every intervention program we have at school for at risk kids and he's one we just haven't been able to reach.
Anyhow, after the second tardy in a row, I managed, amazingly, to contact his grandparents and told them about the tardy issue, the missing book issue, and how I was worried about how he was probably not going to pass science if he didn't turn on the jets here shortly. I got a very non committal "Okay," from both, and tried to get them to schedule an appointment for a conference with no luck. (At this time I was lucky to even get to speak to someone considering our lack of success in the past). I figured, well, I made parent contact, they know what's going on, and we'll just keep doing the referrals and he'll end up in detention or something. No big deal.
So imagine my surprise when I get an email from one of the front office secretaries telling me that Stroll Boy's grandparents had sent down his uncle and he'd like to sort of spy on him and see how he's behaving in class. No Problem! I love it when I get parent/uncle/significant adult observers. I email back that that would be great, and to let her know what time to send him down.
Classes change and Stroll Boy walks in, drops his books, and takes off. I'm doing hall duty and don't see The Uncle, but figure he's found a place to observe (most likely guidance where they can watch all the cameras). The kids run to class, the bell rings, and I start class.
No Stroll Boy.
He walks in five minutes later.
And three minutes behind him there's a knock on the door. The Uncle. (Who saw that Stroll Boy was late, I found out later.)
I open the door and there stands The Uncle...and this guy is HUGE. He's nicely dressed, his braids are pulled back, but he's HUGE. I introduce myself, he introduces himself and I wave him over to a spare chair which happens to be by the lab group that Stroll Boy is in. And then I wonder if the chair will support him. Because he's almost twice as tall as most of my students and quite a bit heftier.
Stroll Boy's jaw drops and he looks like a deer in the headlights. He obviously wasn't expecting his Uncle, especially his Big Huge Uncle from the Hood (as we often call the neighborhood The School is in because, well, that's what everyone calls it). It was amazing (and really kind of funny) what a model student he was during this period...he had his pencil, he snapped to whenever I gave directions, he participated, he did a great job. He looked like a candidate for National Jr. Honor Society.
And then I noticed something.
This is my sixth period class, my largest class, and a class with a lot of unruly kids (every isolation seat is occupied) who have a lot of issues with self-control. They are loud, they tend to talk all the time, and they aren't the most academically inspired kids I've ever seen.
But on this day they were perfect.
Absolutely perfect. They didn't talk out. They raised their hands. They were polite. They participated. And we had a great time.
And then I realized why. Sitting in the corner of the room, was a Big Huge Dude from the Hood. A Real Big Dude from the Hood. And they weren't about to do anything out of line with the Dude from the Hood sitting Right Over There.
After class I talked with the Uncle from the Hood and had a nice conversation with him. He knows his nephew needs to get motivated and with the program, and he says he's going to work on that. Good for him. I hope he does. But in the meantime I invited him to sit in my class whenever he wanted. Seriously. I'd take a Big Huge Dude from the Hood in my corner any day.
So, Stroll Boy is mad at me because I took his locker away - again - because he won't bring his book to class. (This is a pretty much standard practice in the seventh grade - no book, no locker.) He's also mad at me because I have higher expectations for him than he has and doesn't want to hear the cold hard truth that he's not going to be playing in the NFL if he doesn't make the grades to play on his high school team in a year or two. Last I looked, he's not such a phenom that the scouts are already lining up to sign him. In fact, considering his work ethic and lack of speed, I doubt he'll even make it to the high school team.
His method of "punishing" me, is to be tardy to class. Now, we're not talking tardy by a second or two. We're talking a kid who comes in, puts his books on his desk, and then "goes to the bathroom", and shows up five or more minutes late to class. He just strolls in, ambles to his seat, and spends the rest of the period trying to look somewhat busy (without moving too much or making much of an effort). I actually find this kind of funny because all I do is write up a classroom referral for a tardy, tell him to get his pencil out (usually doesn't have one) and off we go with class. If he thinks he's punishing me, he's far off target. Rather, he's just showing me how sad and lost he is. This kid has been through every intervention program we have at school for at risk kids and he's one we just haven't been able to reach.
Anyhow, after the second tardy in a row, I managed, amazingly, to contact his grandparents and told them about the tardy issue, the missing book issue, and how I was worried about how he was probably not going to pass science if he didn't turn on the jets here shortly. I got a very non committal "Okay," from both, and tried to get them to schedule an appointment for a conference with no luck. (At this time I was lucky to even get to speak to someone considering our lack of success in the past). I figured, well, I made parent contact, they know what's going on, and we'll just keep doing the referrals and he'll end up in detention or something. No big deal.
So imagine my surprise when I get an email from one of the front office secretaries telling me that Stroll Boy's grandparents had sent down his uncle and he'd like to sort of spy on him and see how he's behaving in class. No Problem! I love it when I get parent/uncle/significant adult observers. I email back that that would be great, and to let her know what time to send him down.
Classes change and Stroll Boy walks in, drops his books, and takes off. I'm doing hall duty and don't see The Uncle, but figure he's found a place to observe (most likely guidance where they can watch all the cameras). The kids run to class, the bell rings, and I start class.
No Stroll Boy.
He walks in five minutes later.
And three minutes behind him there's a knock on the door. The Uncle. (Who saw that Stroll Boy was late, I found out later.)
I open the door and there stands The Uncle...and this guy is HUGE. He's nicely dressed, his braids are pulled back, but he's HUGE. I introduce myself, he introduces himself and I wave him over to a spare chair which happens to be by the lab group that Stroll Boy is in. And then I wonder if the chair will support him. Because he's almost twice as tall as most of my students and quite a bit heftier.
Stroll Boy's jaw drops and he looks like a deer in the headlights. He obviously wasn't expecting his Uncle, especially his Big Huge Uncle from the Hood (as we often call the neighborhood The School is in because, well, that's what everyone calls it). It was amazing (and really kind of funny) what a model student he was during this period...he had his pencil, he snapped to whenever I gave directions, he participated, he did a great job. He looked like a candidate for National Jr. Honor Society.
And then I noticed something.
This is my sixth period class, my largest class, and a class with a lot of unruly kids (every isolation seat is occupied) who have a lot of issues with self-control. They are loud, they tend to talk all the time, and they aren't the most academically inspired kids I've ever seen.
But on this day they were perfect.
Absolutely perfect. They didn't talk out. They raised their hands. They were polite. They participated. And we had a great time.
And then I realized why. Sitting in the corner of the room, was a Big Huge Dude from the Hood. A Real Big Dude from the Hood. And they weren't about to do anything out of line with the Dude from the Hood sitting Right Over There.
After class I talked with the Uncle from the Hood and had a nice conversation with him. He knows his nephew needs to get motivated and with the program, and he says he's going to work on that. Good for him. I hope he does. But in the meantime I invited him to sit in my class whenever he wanted. Seriously. I'd take a Big Huge Dude from the Hood in my corner any day.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Skipping School, Seventh Grade Style
So Mrs. Aide, Mrs. Eagle and I are at breakfast this morning at the local waffle and egg establishment by The School and Mrs. Aide relates the following story.
Yesterday, after she worked the sixth grade lunch, she realized that she'd left something in her car that she needed for one of her small group reading classes. No big deal, she called up to the front office and left the building for a moment to go out to her car. However, she's walking to the car and she sees a kid pedaling around the parking lot on his bicycle. He's pedaling around and around like he hasn't a care in the world. He sees her, waves, and keeps pedaling. In fact, he pedals up by her, says "Hi!" and then pedals off again.
And she's thinking, okay, school is in session and there's a kid - whom she recognized as being one of our students - just riding his bike around the parking lot. Truly strange.
So, she goes inside, grabs Mrs. Sparrow and tells her that she thinks we have a kid on the loose. "There's a kid riding his bicycle all around the parking lot," she says.
Mrs. Sparrow is incredulous. "Seriously? He's just out there riding around?"
"Seriously," said Mrs. Aide. "I know he's one of ours, and he may be a seventh grader. I just don't know his name."
So, while Mrs. Sparrow sent out our SRO to check this out, Mrs. Aide and the Guidance Goddess go through the absence list and pull up photographs of the absent seventh graders. It didn't take long before she was able to identify him. Not only was he listed as absent for yesterday, but he'd also been absent the day before.
Mrs. Sparrow calls Bicycle Mom and asks her if her son had been at school on Wednesday. "Oh yes!" she answers. "He was there." What about Thursday? "Oh yes, he was there too as well!," answers Bicycle Mom. Mrs. Sparrow then informs her that although he may have gone to school on the days in question, it appears that he never made it in the building.
So Bicycle Boy was busted. (He's one of Mrs. Eagle's kids, not one of mine.) He earned himself three days of ISS for his little vacation from school.
But seriously, you have to wonder. I mean if you're ditching school...why would you spend your time riding your bike around the school parking lot???
Ah, the seventh grade mind...
Yesterday, after she worked the sixth grade lunch, she realized that she'd left something in her car that she needed for one of her small group reading classes. No big deal, she called up to the front office and left the building for a moment to go out to her car. However, she's walking to the car and she sees a kid pedaling around the parking lot on his bicycle. He's pedaling around and around like he hasn't a care in the world. He sees her, waves, and keeps pedaling. In fact, he pedals up by her, says "Hi!" and then pedals off again.
And she's thinking, okay, school is in session and there's a kid - whom she recognized as being one of our students - just riding his bike around the parking lot. Truly strange.
So, she goes inside, grabs Mrs. Sparrow and tells her that she thinks we have a kid on the loose. "There's a kid riding his bicycle all around the parking lot," she says.
Mrs. Sparrow is incredulous. "Seriously? He's just out there riding around?"
"Seriously," said Mrs. Aide. "I know he's one of ours, and he may be a seventh grader. I just don't know his name."
So, while Mrs. Sparrow sent out our SRO to check this out, Mrs. Aide and the Guidance Goddess go through the absence list and pull up photographs of the absent seventh graders. It didn't take long before she was able to identify him. Not only was he listed as absent for yesterday, but he'd also been absent the day before.
Mrs. Sparrow calls Bicycle Mom and asks her if her son had been at school on Wednesday. "Oh yes!" she answers. "He was there." What about Thursday? "Oh yes, he was there too as well!," answers Bicycle Mom. Mrs. Sparrow then informs her that although he may have gone to school on the days in question, it appears that he never made it in the building.
So Bicycle Boy was busted. (He's one of Mrs. Eagle's kids, not one of mine.) He earned himself three days of ISS for his little vacation from school.
But seriously, you have to wonder. I mean if you're ditching school...why would you spend your time riding your bike around the school parking lot???
Ah, the seventh grade mind...
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Can Anyone Find a Parent?
We handed out report cards last Friday. Unlike some buildings in the district who have gone all electronic, we still do the paper report card. Seems only about 20% of our parents bother to sign on to PowerSchool so this is about the only way we can make sure they see their darling's grades. Even then, it's a gamble that the report card will make it home, but at least they can see the staple holes in the agenda where it had originally been stapled.
Out of 125 kids, 30 of them earned an F in science, mainly because (all together now), they don't turn in work, don't study for tests. (A good sign, however, is I have two special ed kids with B's because they do all their work. It can be done.)
Along with the report cards we sent out a team newsletter (which probably won't be read), a full color booklet from the State about test scores and high standards and high expectations and how you need to be engaged with your child and make sure they study and do their homework, blah, blah, blah (which probably won't be read), and then a BRIGHT PINK form to use to sign up for parent conferences, which start on Thursday. The form is pretty straighforward. We schedule individual appointments, so it said to put the name of the teacher you wish to see by the time slot you prefer.
Any guess on how many parents sent back the parent conference form?
Better yet...any guess on how many parents sent it back filled out CORRECTLY and actually followed the directions and put in the names of the teachers they want to see at the time slot they preferred (unlike most who simply put their kid's name by a time slot, leaving us to wonder who, exactly, they want to visit with)?
How does twelve sound?
Yup. Twelve. 125 kids, tons of F's in all subjects, and we get twelve parents who plan to visit.
Now granted, we may get a bunch of walk-ins, especially if the weather is good and not raining, but truth be told, we may just be sitting there all night with nothing to do.
And my ass is on the line if these kids don't pass the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Test...and every study on earth points to parent involvement as the key factor in academic achievement.
And my parents really don't want to be bothered.
Out of 125 kids, 30 of them earned an F in science, mainly because (all together now), they don't turn in work, don't study for tests. (A good sign, however, is I have two special ed kids with B's because they do all their work. It can be done.)
Along with the report cards we sent out a team newsletter (which probably won't be read), a full color booklet from the State about test scores and high standards and high expectations and how you need to be engaged with your child and make sure they study and do their homework, blah, blah, blah (which probably won't be read), and then a BRIGHT PINK form to use to sign up for parent conferences, which start on Thursday. The form is pretty straighforward. We schedule individual appointments, so it said to put the name of the teacher you wish to see by the time slot you prefer.
Any guess on how many parents sent back the parent conference form?
Better yet...any guess on how many parents sent it back filled out CORRECTLY and actually followed the directions and put in the names of the teachers they want to see at the time slot they preferred (unlike most who simply put their kid's name by a time slot, leaving us to wonder who, exactly, they want to visit with)?
How does twelve sound?
Yup. Twelve. 125 kids, tons of F's in all subjects, and we get twelve parents who plan to visit.
Now granted, we may get a bunch of walk-ins, especially if the weather is good and not raining, but truth be told, we may just be sitting there all night with nothing to do.
And my ass is on the line if these kids don't pass the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Test...and every study on earth points to parent involvement as the key factor in academic achievement.
And my parents really don't want to be bothered.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Why I Have Grey Hair (aside from the whole genetic thing)
Last year we had a kid who was a non-academic promote from 6th grade. For the uninitiated, this means that he most likely failed every class but was passed on to seventh grade anyway. For one thing, he had already been retained once, so was a year older than the other kids already. Sock boy (he always wore basketball shorts with bright socks, flip flops and had the skinniest legs on earth) was a special education student, was on an IEP, but was perfectly capable of doing work and passing.
Except he chose not to.
He did nothing. He turned in no work. He made no effort to do work in class, and homework, despite the fact that he got help with it, was never done, never turned in. We had parent meeting after parent meeting with his mother, who was frustrated beyond belief with Sock Boy and couldn't make him do any work at home either. We had him in tutoring (skipped a lot), our remediation program, in addition to his special education services. In short, everyone was bending over backward to get this kid to work except, of course, for the kid himself. I often told him he was responsible for at least half the grey hairs on my head. (He thought that was hilarious, by the way.)
So, he was then non-academically promoted to the 8th grade. (See reasons above...they didn't change any). The theory by seventh grade is that we'll promote them anyway, maybe they'll grow up and actually get on the ball, and if they don't, we'll bump them on to high school after 8th grade and they'll get all the whiz-bang services in place at the high school for struggling and at-risk students.
So today we handed out the first quarter report card, and, as usual, I'm depressed because 30 of my students have chosen to fail because (okay, all together now), they don't do work, don't study, don't try, don't care.
And then a little email popped into my in-box from an 8th grade teacher...which read:
"For those of you who had Sock Boy last year, I thought you'd like to hear this. Sock Boy, who was a non-academic promote for both sixth and seventh grade, has earned for the first quarter....two A's, two B's and a C in his core academic classes. So remember, never give up. He finally matured, finally GOT IT, and he's finally working...so if you see him make a big deal out of it. You all had a big part in it."
Oh. My. God.
Mrs. Social Studies and I were stunned. And of course, Sock Boy wanted to come by and show us that Magical Report Card. And of course we made a HUGE deal over how proud of him we were. I wish I could see his mother's face when she saw that report card because I've seen her in tears over the struggles with her son. She's gonna be so relieved that he's finally on the right track.
Now, if the 30 kids that failed my class this nine weeks would only get it...I could stop worrying about the greys.
Except he chose not to.
He did nothing. He turned in no work. He made no effort to do work in class, and homework, despite the fact that he got help with it, was never done, never turned in. We had parent meeting after parent meeting with his mother, who was frustrated beyond belief with Sock Boy and couldn't make him do any work at home either. We had him in tutoring (skipped a lot), our remediation program, in addition to his special education services. In short, everyone was bending over backward to get this kid to work except, of course, for the kid himself. I often told him he was responsible for at least half the grey hairs on my head. (He thought that was hilarious, by the way.)
So, he was then non-academically promoted to the 8th grade. (See reasons above...they didn't change any). The theory by seventh grade is that we'll promote them anyway, maybe they'll grow up and actually get on the ball, and if they don't, we'll bump them on to high school after 8th grade and they'll get all the whiz-bang services in place at the high school for struggling and at-risk students.
So today we handed out the first quarter report card, and, as usual, I'm depressed because 30 of my students have chosen to fail because (okay, all together now), they don't do work, don't study, don't try, don't care.
And then a little email popped into my in-box from an 8th grade teacher...which read:
"For those of you who had Sock Boy last year, I thought you'd like to hear this. Sock Boy, who was a non-academic promote for both sixth and seventh grade, has earned for the first quarter....two A's, two B's and a C in his core academic classes. So remember, never give up. He finally matured, finally GOT IT, and he's finally working...so if you see him make a big deal out of it. You all had a big part in it."
Oh. My. God.
Mrs. Social Studies and I were stunned. And of course, Sock Boy wanted to come by and show us that Magical Report Card. And of course we made a HUGE deal over how proud of him we were. I wish I could see his mother's face when she saw that report card because I've seen her in tears over the struggles with her son. She's gonna be so relieved that he's finally on the right track.
Now, if the 30 kids that failed my class this nine weeks would only get it...I could stop worrying about the greys.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Nothing Like Waiting Until the Last Minute
Today was our first day back to school after a week off for fall break.
At 5:55 am I received an email from a parent (kid is in my homeroom but has been moved into Mrs. Eagle's inclusion class). The parent wants to let me know that Baseball Boy did not do his worksheets over break because the log in and password I gave him for the online book was wrong. (More likely, since I cut and paste this information from the textbook website, someone wrote the information down wrong, but hey, who's being picky here.)
It is obviously my fault that he didn't bring home his book and he didn't have the correct information to access his online book.
However...the parent and Baseball Boy have had all week - ten days to be precise - to email me to get the correct information. However, Baseball Mom waited until about an hour and a half before school started back up to inform me of my obvious error. I would bet that Baseball Boy pulled the work out of his backpack sometime late the night before. Or more likely, mom went through the backpack and found the worksheets.
I copied Mrs. Eagle on the email, again cut and pasted the correct information for the online book, and mentioned, without being too snarky, that I wish she had emailed me sooner during the week as I would have been glad to assist her with her problem.
What a great freaking way to start the new nine weeks.
However, I did, I suppose, get the last laugh. Mr. Eagle copied me on the email she sent to Baseball Boy's mom informing her that she didn't assign any worksheets to do over break, that those worksheets, in fact, were due PRIOR to break and she has already finalized grades.
Oh well.
At 5:55 am I received an email from a parent (kid is in my homeroom but has been moved into Mrs. Eagle's inclusion class). The parent wants to let me know that Baseball Boy did not do his worksheets over break because the log in and password I gave him for the online book was wrong. (More likely, since I cut and paste this information from the textbook website, someone wrote the information down wrong, but hey, who's being picky here.)
It is obviously my fault that he didn't bring home his book and he didn't have the correct information to access his online book.
However...the parent and Baseball Boy have had all week - ten days to be precise - to email me to get the correct information. However, Baseball Mom waited until about an hour and a half before school started back up to inform me of my obvious error. I would bet that Baseball Boy pulled the work out of his backpack sometime late the night before. Or more likely, mom went through the backpack and found the worksheets.
I copied Mrs. Eagle on the email, again cut and pasted the correct information for the online book, and mentioned, without being too snarky, that I wish she had emailed me sooner during the week as I would have been glad to assist her with her problem.
What a great freaking way to start the new nine weeks.
However, I did, I suppose, get the last laugh. Mr. Eagle copied me on the email she sent to Baseball Boy's mom informing her that she didn't assign any worksheets to do over break, that those worksheets, in fact, were due PRIOR to break and she has already finalized grades.
Oh well.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
How Not to Win Friends and Influence People
We have a student new to the school this year who is supposedly here, living with his grandparents, because his school Up North "couldn't meet his needs." In other words, grandma and grandpa think he's brilliant. And Brilliant Boy agrees. (Although, truth be told, he did tell some students that he's here because his mother couldn't afford to take care of all her kids - personally, I think his mother just wanted him out of her hair.)
Brilliant Boy's grandpa spent quite a bit of time in the Guidance Office questioning the Guidance Goddess about all the zeros he had in PowerSchool and how come, since his grandson was so brilliant, that he was failing all his classes? The Guidance Goddess, with infinite patience, explained to grandpa that if a student doesn't turn in work, or fails to put his or her name on it, then the teacher has no choice but to put in a zero. He assured her that Brilliant Boy insisted that he has turned in everything and it all had his name on it. She suggested a team meeting, which we had. And, by the time we had the team meeting, Grandpa had pretty much figured out that even if Brilliant Boy was brilliant, he was a lying little mess.
It wasn't just the academic issues with Brilliant Boy, a kid who can't even turn in classwork, but it was behavior issues. Brilliant Boy assumes that everyone wants to hear what he has to say so he says it. Constantly. This child cannot shut up to save his life. In fact, he received one of my first referrals this year for talking during a test. Of course when you call him out on the talking you get the "What me?" look of horror, the denial, the insistence that everyone else, but him, was talking. Right. He talks so much that the other kids really can't stand him. He's annoying, and all they want is for him to Shut the Hell Up. So of course, he's made it to an isolation seat in every class.
So we're in the parent meeting, and Grandpa asks that Brilliant Boy get called out of PE to attend, and he lets slip a little blurb about "How the teachers say you're talking all the time, and isn't that why you didn't have any friends at your other school?" Brilliant Boy squirms and admits that yes, the other kids hated him because his mouth got him in trouble all the time. Great. A repeat offender.
So fast forward a couple of weeks later and Brilliant Boy and a few kids have a bit of an argument at lunch, and he ends up cursing the lunch monitor and using a couple of F-bombs in the process and manages to get himself three days suspension. (I'm sure grandpa enjoyed that). Of course he comes back and spends the entire homeroom period in the morning bragging to all the kids about how he got suspended and isn't he cool, and life is just great, all he did was play videogames. The other kids glare at him and Mrs. Reading tells him to pipe down.
Well, it just so happened that the day that Brilliant Boy came back was the day of our SWPBS reward party. Kids who did not get an administrative referral during the past nine weeks got to spend their related arts period having a party - they got to run around outside, toss footballs, play games, eat hot dogs and popcorn, scream, and just have a great time. This was a really big deal and the kids were pumped about it. So, Mrs. Reading, Brilliant Boy's homeroom teacher, reads off the list of kids who can't go, including Brilliant Boy, and says that as soon as they check in with their 1st period teacher, they need to head to the "holding room" with their science and geography books as they had an assignment to do.
Except Brilliant Boy didn't do this. He managed, sneaky little brat, to sneak into the party and had a grand time, while the rest of the kids who had referrals sat in a room and did a science outline (I gave them extra credit for it).
To say that these kids were incensed was to put it mildly. They were LIVID. He KNEW he wasn't supposed to be at the party - for goodness sake, he was just back from being SUSPENDED for three days! By lunch time all the kids on the team knew that Brilliant Boy had attended the party and they were fit to be tied. It was not FAIR! Mrs. Social Studies had to pull a few kids aside to tell them to let it go, the principal knew about it, it would be taken care of, and the last thing they needed to do was to get in a fight or something because they were all upset. Not a kid on the team would talk to him and many of them were turning their backs on him. He definitely didn't make any friends with this stunt.
I had to go to a team leader meeting later that day and mentioned to Mr. Enforcer that I thought it was amazing that Brilliant Boy managed to make it out of school today without the snot getting beat out of him for his stunt. (I might add that not only were the kids furious at him, but his homeroom teacher, Mrs. Reading was madder than I'd ever seen her.) The Enforcer agreed and said he'd take care of it. He did. He'll have two days of In School Suspension when we get back from break.
But I seriously doubt that our kids are going to be very forgiving.
Brilliant Boy's grandpa spent quite a bit of time in the Guidance Office questioning the Guidance Goddess about all the zeros he had in PowerSchool and how come, since his grandson was so brilliant, that he was failing all his classes? The Guidance Goddess, with infinite patience, explained to grandpa that if a student doesn't turn in work, or fails to put his or her name on it, then the teacher has no choice but to put in a zero. He assured her that Brilliant Boy insisted that he has turned in everything and it all had his name on it. She suggested a team meeting, which we had. And, by the time we had the team meeting, Grandpa had pretty much figured out that even if Brilliant Boy was brilliant, he was a lying little mess.
It wasn't just the academic issues with Brilliant Boy, a kid who can't even turn in classwork, but it was behavior issues. Brilliant Boy assumes that everyone wants to hear what he has to say so he says it. Constantly. This child cannot shut up to save his life. In fact, he received one of my first referrals this year for talking during a test. Of course when you call him out on the talking you get the "What me?" look of horror, the denial, the insistence that everyone else, but him, was talking. Right. He talks so much that the other kids really can't stand him. He's annoying, and all they want is for him to Shut the Hell Up. So of course, he's made it to an isolation seat in every class.
So we're in the parent meeting, and Grandpa asks that Brilliant Boy get called out of PE to attend, and he lets slip a little blurb about "How the teachers say you're talking all the time, and isn't that why you didn't have any friends at your other school?" Brilliant Boy squirms and admits that yes, the other kids hated him because his mouth got him in trouble all the time. Great. A repeat offender.
So fast forward a couple of weeks later and Brilliant Boy and a few kids have a bit of an argument at lunch, and he ends up cursing the lunch monitor and using a couple of F-bombs in the process and manages to get himself three days suspension. (I'm sure grandpa enjoyed that). Of course he comes back and spends the entire homeroom period in the morning bragging to all the kids about how he got suspended and isn't he cool, and life is just great, all he did was play videogames. The other kids glare at him and Mrs. Reading tells him to pipe down.
Well, it just so happened that the day that Brilliant Boy came back was the day of our SWPBS reward party. Kids who did not get an administrative referral during the past nine weeks got to spend their related arts period having a party - they got to run around outside, toss footballs, play games, eat hot dogs and popcorn, scream, and just have a great time. This was a really big deal and the kids were pumped about it. So, Mrs. Reading, Brilliant Boy's homeroom teacher, reads off the list of kids who can't go, including Brilliant Boy, and says that as soon as they check in with their 1st period teacher, they need to head to the "holding room" with their science and geography books as they had an assignment to do.
Except Brilliant Boy didn't do this. He managed, sneaky little brat, to sneak into the party and had a grand time, while the rest of the kids who had referrals sat in a room and did a science outline (I gave them extra credit for it).
To say that these kids were incensed was to put it mildly. They were LIVID. He KNEW he wasn't supposed to be at the party - for goodness sake, he was just back from being SUSPENDED for three days! By lunch time all the kids on the team knew that Brilliant Boy had attended the party and they were fit to be tied. It was not FAIR! Mrs. Social Studies had to pull a few kids aside to tell them to let it go, the principal knew about it, it would be taken care of, and the last thing they needed to do was to get in a fight or something because they were all upset. Not a kid on the team would talk to him and many of them were turning their backs on him. He definitely didn't make any friends with this stunt.
I had to go to a team leader meeting later that day and mentioned to Mr. Enforcer that I thought it was amazing that Brilliant Boy managed to make it out of school today without the snot getting beat out of him for his stunt. (I might add that not only were the kids furious at him, but his homeroom teacher, Mrs. Reading was madder than I'd ever seen her.) The Enforcer agreed and said he'd take care of it. He did. He'll have two days of In School Suspension when we get back from break.
But I seriously doubt that our kids are going to be very forgiving.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Time to Recuperate
Fall Break has finally arrived. And I finally had a chance to get a good night's sleep and managed twelve hours. Can you say that we're exhausted? Pretty much so. Don't know exactly what it is, but everyone at The School has commented on the fact that we all feel physically and emotionally like we usually do in May, at the end of the year. I have my suspicions on the cause - more and more paperwork coming down from The State and the District (aka more BS we have to do other than teaching), more testing of the kids (aka time out of my calendar that I could use to teach), bigger class sizes, even less parent involved (every year it gets worse), and goodness knows what else.
We are tired. And it's only October.
We are tired. And it's only October.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
The Funny Things They Say
My great-grandfather had snow white hair. My grandmother and her siblings all inherited this trait and also had snow white hair. My mother? You guessed it...snow white hair. And of course, I inherited this same trait. I started finding white hairs in my early twenties, colored my hair for years, and few years ago when the dye wouldn't stick (seriously, it was a waste of money and time) gave up and just let nature have her way. We don't get gray, we get white or silver, so it really isn't as bad as it sounds. (Think of country star Emmylou Harris and you get an idea as to the color).
So anyhow, I'm walking around the room today during one of my larger and more challenging classes, keeping an eye on things and helping kids now and then with their cell coloring and labeling sheets. One of my girls, who really isn't much of a talker, raises her hand so I head over to her table to see what she needs.
"Can I ask you a question?" my Quiet Girl says.
"Of course," I tell her, thinking we're going to have a conversation about nuclei, or mitochondrion or something.
"Do you color your hair?" she asks. The other kids at the table are all silent, staring at me with wide eyes.
I laughed. "No, actually I don't. I used to a while ago, but I just gave up on it a few years ago," I say.
"Well," she says very seriously. "You really wear it well." The rest of her tablemates are nodding in agreement.
"Well thank you," I told her. "That's a really wonderful thing to say."
I had to laugh. That was just the funniest phrase to come out of a seventh grader's mouth that I've heard in a long time. It sounded like something someone of my generation would say, not a twelve year old! And honestly, it was pretty sweet.
So anyhow, I'm walking around the room today during one of my larger and more challenging classes, keeping an eye on things and helping kids now and then with their cell coloring and labeling sheets. One of my girls, who really isn't much of a talker, raises her hand so I head over to her table to see what she needs.
"Can I ask you a question?" my Quiet Girl says.
"Of course," I tell her, thinking we're going to have a conversation about nuclei, or mitochondrion or something.
"Do you color your hair?" she asks. The other kids at the table are all silent, staring at me with wide eyes.
I laughed. "No, actually I don't. I used to a while ago, but I just gave up on it a few years ago," I say.
"Well," she says very seriously. "You really wear it well." The rest of her tablemates are nodding in agreement.
"Well thank you," I told her. "That's a really wonderful thing to say."
I had to laugh. That was just the funniest phrase to come out of a seventh grader's mouth that I've heard in a long time. It sounded like something someone of my generation would say, not a twelve year old! And honestly, it was pretty sweet.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
The Name Game
There are times that the typical seventh grader just absolutely blows my mind. Seriously. You would think after nearly a decade of spending most of my waking life with twelve and thirteen-year-olds (also known as the kids most of you would avoid like the plague) I would be used to some of their idiosyncrasies. But nooooooo. Life isn't that easy. They consistently do things that absolutely make me want to beat my head against my desk.
For example, the apparent inability to put one's name on one's work.
This just absolutely drives me crazy. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why they consistently forget to put their name on their work. I mean we're talking about an incredibly self-centered generation of kids who will write their name on their jeans, their shoes, their binders, their lunch bag, their lockers, the bathroom stalls, everything But On Their Freaking Assignments. On those, their leave a big white vacant spot where their name should be.
This is a skill they learn in Kindergarten, folks. The First Thing You Do When You Get Out Your Paper Is To Put Your Name On Your Work. So for eight years my little darlings have been taught to always put your name on your work, and still - STILL! - they forget. This past weekend I graded packets of vocabulary cards and I had fourteen kids who did not put their name anywhere on their cards. That's somewhere along the lines of ten percent of my students. Fourteen kids who merrily managed to do their vocab cards, even do some extra credit drawings on them, but they forgot their names.
Good gracious.
I have tried just about everything I can think of to solve this problem. I remind them every time we do anything to Put Your Name On Your Work. I go around and check to see if they have Put Their Name on Their Work. I have a sign by the turn in basket that reminds them to Put Your Name On Your Work. I also have torn up and tossed in front of their startled little faces, work that is turned in without a name. (I'll admit, that's kind of fun, especially if I'm feeling theatrical.) But still, They Forget To Put Their Name on Their Work.
I am astounded - astounded! - that these kids are alert enough to look both ways before their cross the street.
For example, the apparent inability to put one's name on one's work.
This just absolutely drives me crazy. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why they consistently forget to put their name on their work. I mean we're talking about an incredibly self-centered generation of kids who will write their name on their jeans, their shoes, their binders, their lunch bag, their lockers, the bathroom stalls, everything But On Their Freaking Assignments. On those, their leave a big white vacant spot where their name should be.
This is a skill they learn in Kindergarten, folks. The First Thing You Do When You Get Out Your Paper Is To Put Your Name On Your Work. So for eight years my little darlings have been taught to always put your name on your work, and still - STILL! - they forget. This past weekend I graded packets of vocabulary cards and I had fourteen kids who did not put their name anywhere on their cards. That's somewhere along the lines of ten percent of my students. Fourteen kids who merrily managed to do their vocab cards, even do some extra credit drawings on them, but they forgot their names.
Good gracious.
I have tried just about everything I can think of to solve this problem. I remind them every time we do anything to Put Your Name On Your Work. I go around and check to see if they have Put Their Name on Their Work. I have a sign by the turn in basket that reminds them to Put Your Name On Your Work. I also have torn up and tossed in front of their startled little faces, work that is turned in without a name. (I'll admit, that's kind of fun, especially if I'm feeling theatrical.) But still, They Forget To Put Their Name on Their Work.
I am astounded - astounded! - that these kids are alert enough to look both ways before their cross the street.
Monday, October 04, 2010
Believing in Miracles
I teach by a very large military installation and consequently, a lot of my students have a connection to the military, as do a lot of my co-workers. It's just a fact of life here. I've had many parents deployed (multiple times), I've had kids move in and move out due to changes in duty station, and I've even had one very cool Dad meet the team via a conference call from Iraq last year to discuss his daughter's performance (not good, Dad was not happy). Many of my fellow teachers and staff are veterans and many have spouses who are also veterans or even active duty. One of our Partners in Education is a unit on the local military post. We are, in fact, a community where what most people read in the paper impacts a lot of us personally.
So, it is a blessing to realize that The School hasn't been touched more frequently by the kind of tragedy that happens when you're in a military town. We have had two parents killed in action over the past ten years. That's bad enough. However, looking at the many connections we have, the fact that we've only had two has been just sheer luck. The fact that none of our co-workers has lost a spouse is also somewhat astounding. So, while the past two months have been dreadful on the military community here with a large number of young men and women losing their lives in Afghanistan, we've all been saying our prayers that our little school family will remain safe.
Our number, however, was up.
We had a faculty meeting a few weeks ago, with the Superintendent from The District coming by to talk to us about goals and visions and all that, and The Principal had to break the news to us that the husband of one of our Aides (who was out on maternity leave) had stepped on an IED and was in really, really, bad shape. So bad, they weren't sure he was even going to make it long enough to get to Germany for better medical care. Talk about getting whapped upside the head with some absolutely dreadful, horrible news. Our Dear Aide has resigned so she can focus on her husband, but as far as we're concerned, they're still part of our School Family. He has lost one leg completely, another below the knee, has damaged pelvic bones, damaged elbow and hand. However, from what we've heard, no internal injuries. He made it alive to Germany, then to Walter Reed, and he is there with his wife at his side.
And we prayed. This is a pretty solidly Christian group of faculty and staff (after all, we are in The South) and we believe in prayer. So we prayed.
And a miracle happened. He woke up this morning, for the first time, and spoke, and his wife was at his side.
And so, at times when I'm feeling whiny about my lot in life, how the kids won't listen, and the paperwork is burying me, and I just feel like retiring and going to work at Home Depot, I realize how lucky I am that I am in fairly good health, my Daddy is recovering, my husband is fine, and all in all, it's a pretty good life. And I'm glad, and humbled that there are men and women like Sgt. V who give their all for our way of life.
So, it is a blessing to realize that The School hasn't been touched more frequently by the kind of tragedy that happens when you're in a military town. We have had two parents killed in action over the past ten years. That's bad enough. However, looking at the many connections we have, the fact that we've only had two has been just sheer luck. The fact that none of our co-workers has lost a spouse is also somewhat astounding. So, while the past two months have been dreadful on the military community here with a large number of young men and women losing their lives in Afghanistan, we've all been saying our prayers that our little school family will remain safe.
Our number, however, was up.
We had a faculty meeting a few weeks ago, with the Superintendent from The District coming by to talk to us about goals and visions and all that, and The Principal had to break the news to us that the husband of one of our Aides (who was out on maternity leave) had stepped on an IED and was in really, really, bad shape. So bad, they weren't sure he was even going to make it long enough to get to Germany for better medical care. Talk about getting whapped upside the head with some absolutely dreadful, horrible news. Our Dear Aide has resigned so she can focus on her husband, but as far as we're concerned, they're still part of our School Family. He has lost one leg completely, another below the knee, has damaged pelvic bones, damaged elbow and hand. However, from what we've heard, no internal injuries. He made it alive to Germany, then to Walter Reed, and he is there with his wife at his side.
And we prayed. This is a pretty solidly Christian group of faculty and staff (after all, we are in The South) and we believe in prayer. So we prayed.
And a miracle happened. He woke up this morning, for the first time, and spoke, and his wife was at his side.
And so, at times when I'm feeling whiny about my lot in life, how the kids won't listen, and the paperwork is burying me, and I just feel like retiring and going to work at Home Depot, I realize how lucky I am that I am in fairly good health, my Daddy is recovering, my husband is fine, and all in all, it's a pretty good life. And I'm glad, and humbled that there are men and women like Sgt. V who give their all for our way of life.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Yet Another Reason Why Getting Older is the Pits
I know, I know, I'm not posting at the usual rate which should be several times a week. I think the additional 30+ kids I have this year are really adding up to a lot more time grading and paperwork, plus the whole scheduling nightmare which really hasn't abated, and then there's the outside stuff that's been getting in the way. And truth be told, this blog hasn't been much of a priority.
My Dad on the other hand, has been.
Daddy Bird is 75, lives about 3 1/2 hours away, is very independent and acts like a man quite a bit younger. We're talking a guy who gardens, mows, works on his house, walks three miles a day, is very active in his church. Definitely not a guy who sits and watches TV all day.
In any case, he got a bad cold after a family reunion thing in Las Vegas, got a bit of a respiratory infection/flu after that, then had trouble sleeping, shortness of breath, and then on Saturday I talked to him and he mentioned that he'd fallen and hit his head earlier that morning. If that wasn't enough to worry me, he was slurring his words. My first thought was he'd had a stroke or something and I finally convinced him to get some help. He did call a friend, who called 911, and we spent four days in a the regional stroke center at a very nice hospital about an hour from where he lives. He's in a rehab facility right now, and I'm heading out on Saturday morning to take him back to his home.
We were lucky. This was a warning. He didn't have a full blown stroke, and in fact, they can't find evidence of one, but they were stroke-like symptoms. He has an enlarged heart, and is borderline diabetic (that part just amazes me because he eats healthier than most folks, myself included). His speech is nearly normal, and although he still has weakness in one side, and totters a bit when he walks, it's getting better every day. He's just going to have to make a few lifestyle changes, and we're seeing a cardiologist to get that issue straightened out. Fortunately, between me and his long-term lady friend (who is awesome and came up from her home in Florida to help out) he's had someone with him during this ordeal. His spirits are great (he just wants to get home and putter in his yard), and I think we'll be fine with some adjustments.
So, I was out for two days, and three out of my five classes were hell on earth for the sub. Great. They were not happy with The Talk I gave them, and I'm still annoyed with them. Unfortunately the sub didn't single out any kids by name so I can't slap a referral on them. I hate that. I want to know who the jerks were.
So that's what I've been doing. I really did miss my kids when I was gone. They do give me something to worry about and think about. But honestly, spending time with Daddy was pretty cool too, even if it wasn't under the best of circumstances.
My Dad on the other hand, has been.
Daddy Bird is 75, lives about 3 1/2 hours away, is very independent and acts like a man quite a bit younger. We're talking a guy who gardens, mows, works on his house, walks three miles a day, is very active in his church. Definitely not a guy who sits and watches TV all day.
In any case, he got a bad cold after a family reunion thing in Las Vegas, got a bit of a respiratory infection/flu after that, then had trouble sleeping, shortness of breath, and then on Saturday I talked to him and he mentioned that he'd fallen and hit his head earlier that morning. If that wasn't enough to worry me, he was slurring his words. My first thought was he'd had a stroke or something and I finally convinced him to get some help. He did call a friend, who called 911, and we spent four days in a the regional stroke center at a very nice hospital about an hour from where he lives. He's in a rehab facility right now, and I'm heading out on Saturday morning to take him back to his home.
We were lucky. This was a warning. He didn't have a full blown stroke, and in fact, they can't find evidence of one, but they were stroke-like symptoms. He has an enlarged heart, and is borderline diabetic (that part just amazes me because he eats healthier than most folks, myself included). His speech is nearly normal, and although he still has weakness in one side, and totters a bit when he walks, it's getting better every day. He's just going to have to make a few lifestyle changes, and we're seeing a cardiologist to get that issue straightened out. Fortunately, between me and his long-term lady friend (who is awesome and came up from her home in Florida to help out) he's had someone with him during this ordeal. His spirits are great (he just wants to get home and putter in his yard), and I think we'll be fine with some adjustments.
So, I was out for two days, and three out of my five classes were hell on earth for the sub. Great. They were not happy with The Talk I gave them, and I'm still annoyed with them. Unfortunately the sub didn't single out any kids by name so I can't slap a referral on them. I hate that. I want to know who the jerks were.
So that's what I've been doing. I really did miss my kids when I was gone. They do give me something to worry about and think about. But honestly, spending time with Daddy was pretty cool too, even if it wasn't under the best of circumstances.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Why Do We Feel Like It's May?
This has been a rough start to the school year. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but nearly everyone is walking around asking why we all feel worn out and exhausted like we do at the end of the school year. Good gracious, we've just started and we're dead tired.
Maybe it's the overload of paperwork that we have at the beginning of every year...and the fact that, for the 7th grade teachers at least, we're looking about about 30 more kids a year than we had last year. It doesn't seem like it would make that much difference but it does. (We have the same number of seventh grade students this year, but we're down to two teams...and overall, we went down 7 teachers). Maybe it's because we're still waiting to hear about our new standards and how the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests went and rumors out there indicate it wasn't very good (State-wide, I might add). And then there's the general student apathy which is nearly as bad as the parent apathy. Who knows? All I know is that it's been a rough start.
And then you find that little folded up piece of notebook paper on your desk.
Every year we send out an introductory post card to all our homeroom kids. Every year. The key is getting it done while you still can honestly say something good about the kids and haven't been around them long enough to really get truly annoyed. It's just one more thing we do at the beginning of the year, and considering I've never got one bit of feedback on these cards in the past, oh, six years, you sometimes wonder why in the hell we bother? I mean really...we're talking about parents who hang up on us.
So this is what I found, dropped on my desk by one of my homeroom kids, Very Nice Boy, on his way out the door the other day
"Dear Mrs. Bluebird,
Thank you for saying that about me and I have something to tell you. You are a great teacher that wants youre students to exceed and have fun at the same time. Also you are fun and kind and you are my favorite teacher of all time. Sincerely, Quiet Boy.
P.S. I really appreciate that what you said about me."
I wish I could remember what I said about him - probably something along the lines about what a nice kid he was (he really is) and how much I enjoy having him in class (I really do).
Notes like that make it a bit more tolerable...
Maybe it's the overload of paperwork that we have at the beginning of every year...and the fact that, for the 7th grade teachers at least, we're looking about about 30 more kids a year than we had last year. It doesn't seem like it would make that much difference but it does. (We have the same number of seventh grade students this year, but we're down to two teams...and overall, we went down 7 teachers). Maybe it's because we're still waiting to hear about our new standards and how the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests went and rumors out there indicate it wasn't very good (State-wide, I might add). And then there's the general student apathy which is nearly as bad as the parent apathy. Who knows? All I know is that it's been a rough start.
And then you find that little folded up piece of notebook paper on your desk.
Every year we send out an introductory post card to all our homeroom kids. Every year. The key is getting it done while you still can honestly say something good about the kids and haven't been around them long enough to really get truly annoyed. It's just one more thing we do at the beginning of the year, and considering I've never got one bit of feedback on these cards in the past, oh, six years, you sometimes wonder why in the hell we bother? I mean really...we're talking about parents who hang up on us.
So this is what I found, dropped on my desk by one of my homeroom kids, Very Nice Boy, on his way out the door the other day
"Dear Mrs. Bluebird,
Thank you for saying that about me and I have something to tell you. You are a great teacher that wants youre students to exceed and have fun at the same time. Also you are fun and kind and you are my favorite teacher of all time. Sincerely, Quiet Boy.
P.S. I really appreciate that what you said about me."
I wish I could remember what I said about him - probably something along the lines about what a nice kid he was (he really is) and how much I enjoy having him in class (I really do).
Notes like that make it a bit more tolerable...
Monday, September 13, 2010
My Charming Class of Malcontents
My Seventh Period Class from the Very Depths of Hell Itself, is the sort of class that makes teachers count the years until retirement.
I kid you not, in a sea of otherwise fairly nice classes (and including two class that are just an absolute joy to teach), this group of kids stick out like a sore thumb. They are absolutely amazingly miserable to be around. Surprisingly, it's my smallest class, it is, by far, my worst behaved.
I have at least five girls in this class Who Cannot Shut The Hell Up. Some of them will literally talk to a wall, given a wall to talk to. They are Dramatic. They are attention-seeking. They are a royal pain in the ass. I have at least three boys who are the type that like to mess with other people and other people's things. I could spend all period dealing with "he touched my binder" and "he took my pencil" issues with this group, but I refuse to play that game with them. I have two little Thugs in Training who walk around like a couple of roosters sticking their chests out and trying to out-bully each other to see who's going to be the baddest boy in the henhouse (news to them, I'm the head chicken in this yard so they better just stop squawking and sit the hell down). And then, of course, I have a handful of kids who really care, who really try, and who just hate the class because of the idiots that are in there ruining everything for them.
And it dawned on me about a week ago, that these kids all hate each other. Absolutely can't stand each other. It's like a cross-country trip with a van full of kids who are ready to smack the snot out of each other by the time we reach our destination.
So, after multiple seating chart changes moving kids, here, there and yonder, I finally gave up on my dream of perfect lab groups of four and started spreading these kids out. I figured since they hated each other, they'd be better off with more personal space. On Friday, I was simply planning to move Roster Boy 1 to his own little table (since I have such big classes this year, I have a small lab table as well as 5 isolation seats so I can accommodate everyone in the bigger classes) for the express purpose "of giving you a space where people won't pester you." (I actually moved him because I was a afraid he and Roster Boy 2 were going to come to blows and the further apart I had them, the better life would be.) As soon as he happily moved over to his table, five hands went up in the air.
"Can I move to a seat by myself?" asked one of the kids frantically waving his hand.
"Seriously?" I asked. I mean most seventh graders just love to be able to sit in groups, but, again, this is a unique class.
"Yes, pullleeeeze," he whimpered.
"Okay, head over there," I said and pointed to one of the isolation seats and moved his post-it name on the seating chart.
After that it was like I'd opened the flood gates. Within five minutes all the isolation seats were taken and most of the big tables were down to two kids, or three at the most. Amazing.
And today? They were awesome. They were quiet. They stayed in their seats, followed directions and did their work.
I was stunned. I gave them each a Reward Dollar (part of our PBS thing) and told them to mark on the back that it was for being respectful to their classmates by being quiet and doing what they were told. It was like a different planet in there today.
Amazing.
I kid you not, in a sea of otherwise fairly nice classes (and including two class that are just an absolute joy to teach), this group of kids stick out like a sore thumb. They are absolutely amazingly miserable to be around. Surprisingly, it's my smallest class, it is, by far, my worst behaved.
I have at least five girls in this class Who Cannot Shut The Hell Up. Some of them will literally talk to a wall, given a wall to talk to. They are Dramatic. They are attention-seeking. They are a royal pain in the ass. I have at least three boys who are the type that like to mess with other people and other people's things. I could spend all period dealing with "he touched my binder" and "he took my pencil" issues with this group, but I refuse to play that game with them. I have two little Thugs in Training who walk around like a couple of roosters sticking their chests out and trying to out-bully each other to see who's going to be the baddest boy in the henhouse (news to them, I'm the head chicken in this yard so they better just stop squawking and sit the hell down). And then, of course, I have a handful of kids who really care, who really try, and who just hate the class because of the idiots that are in there ruining everything for them.
And it dawned on me about a week ago, that these kids all hate each other. Absolutely can't stand each other. It's like a cross-country trip with a van full of kids who are ready to smack the snot out of each other by the time we reach our destination.
So, after multiple seating chart changes moving kids, here, there and yonder, I finally gave up on my dream of perfect lab groups of four and started spreading these kids out. I figured since they hated each other, they'd be better off with more personal space. On Friday, I was simply planning to move Roster Boy 1 to his own little table (since I have such big classes this year, I have a small lab table as well as 5 isolation seats so I can accommodate everyone in the bigger classes) for the express purpose "of giving you a space where people won't pester you." (I actually moved him because I was a afraid he and Roster Boy 2 were going to come to blows and the further apart I had them, the better life would be.) As soon as he happily moved over to his table, five hands went up in the air.
"Can I move to a seat by myself?" asked one of the kids frantically waving his hand.
"Seriously?" I asked. I mean most seventh graders just love to be able to sit in groups, but, again, this is a unique class.
"Yes, pullleeeeze," he whimpered.
"Okay, head over there," I said and pointed to one of the isolation seats and moved his post-it name on the seating chart.
After that it was like I'd opened the flood gates. Within five minutes all the isolation seats were taken and most of the big tables were down to two kids, or three at the most. Amazing.
And today? They were awesome. They were quiet. They stayed in their seats, followed directions and did their work.
I was stunned. I gave them each a Reward Dollar (part of our PBS thing) and told them to mark on the back that it was for being respectful to their classmates by being quiet and doing what they were told. It was like a different planet in there today.
Amazing.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
A Day to Remember Hereos
I was student teaching up North when I heard about the planes hitting the Twin Towers. I knew then that life as we knew it wouldn't be the same.
We learned a lot about what a true hero was that day. And one of mine is Rick Rescorla. If you don't know his story, take a moment to learn about what a amazing man he was. He saved the lives of 2,700 people nine years ago today. An astounding feat by an astounding man.
God bless him.
And may God bless all those we lost that day and all those left behind.
We learned a lot about what a true hero was that day. And one of mine is Rick Rescorla. If you don't know his story, take a moment to learn about what a amazing man he was. He saved the lives of 2,700 people nine years ago today. An astounding feat by an astounding man.
God bless him.
And may God bless all those we lost that day and all those left behind.
When Opening a Locker is a Major Accomplishment
The lockers in my part of The Building are OLD. Not just OLD, but DIRT OLD and could be, in fact, older than I am (which is pretty amazing). I believe some of them are original to the building (1964 era) and some were moved over from another building that was even older, so you can imagine what we're dealing with here.
Old cranky lockers that can give a kid fits.
However, I'm used to this. I'm used to the kids having to deal with sticky lockers and knobs that don't want to turn and handles that actually snap off.
What I'm not used to is kids who can't, after six weeks of school, remember their locker combination from one day to the next.
Seriously.
I have two boys in my homeroom who never, ever, remember their combinations. Ever. I'm at the point where I'm tired of looking it up for them and figure if they can't remember three little numbers (and which direction to turn the knob, yet another issue with these kids) then they don't need a locker and can just carry their books around all day. That may sound like a chore, but since they only have three textbooks this year (reading and LA are using class sets), that's not as bad as it sounds.
I thought it was just my kids who were having trouble, but found out from some of the other seventh grade teachers that they were seeing the same thing. Mr. Math has one kid who asks for his combination every morning and Mr. Math doesn't even have to look it up - he's told it to the kid so many times that he has it memorized. Apparently we have a whole group of kids this year who can't memorize a three letter combination.
Which got me to thinking...are we raising a generation of kids who can't memorize sets of numbers because we're all running around with cell phones where all we have to do is touch a screen or hit a pre-programmed key and the phone automatically dials? I have kids honestly tell me that they don't know their parents phone numbers when I'm filling out a phone pass (which makes the secretaries up front nuts as they have to then look up the number since the kid doesn't know it).
I know these kids can memorize some things - I've seen them memorize rap lyrics, dance steps, and football plays. So you think, as much as they love having those lockers, they could at least memorize three little numbers.
But apparently not.
Old cranky lockers that can give a kid fits.
However, I'm used to this. I'm used to the kids having to deal with sticky lockers and knobs that don't want to turn and handles that actually snap off.
What I'm not used to is kids who can't, after six weeks of school, remember their locker combination from one day to the next.
Seriously.
I have two boys in my homeroom who never, ever, remember their combinations. Ever. I'm at the point where I'm tired of looking it up for them and figure if they can't remember three little numbers (and which direction to turn the knob, yet another issue with these kids) then they don't need a locker and can just carry their books around all day. That may sound like a chore, but since they only have three textbooks this year (reading and LA are using class sets), that's not as bad as it sounds.
I thought it was just my kids who were having trouble, but found out from some of the other seventh grade teachers that they were seeing the same thing. Mr. Math has one kid who asks for his combination every morning and Mr. Math doesn't even have to look it up - he's told it to the kid so many times that he has it memorized. Apparently we have a whole group of kids this year who can't memorize a three letter combination.
Which got me to thinking...are we raising a generation of kids who can't memorize sets of numbers because we're all running around with cell phones where all we have to do is touch a screen or hit a pre-programmed key and the phone automatically dials? I have kids honestly tell me that they don't know their parents phone numbers when I'm filling out a phone pass (which makes the secretaries up front nuts as they have to then look up the number since the kid doesn't know it).
I know these kids can memorize some things - I've seen them memorize rap lyrics, dance steps, and football plays. So you think, as much as they love having those lockers, they could at least memorize three little numbers.
But apparently not.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Surviving Centers
I think I just survived two days of centers.
Mrs. Eagle and I had the great idea this summer that we would occasionally do centers instead of a unit test so that we could give the kids more hands' on experiences and also a different way of assessment. Mrs. Mallard, one of the most creative and amazing science teachers we know (she teaches 8th graders), is a big fan of centers and we saw the great results she got with them, so we thought we'd try them. I know a lot of teachers, in particular elementary, do centers, but it's not something we've done much of in seventh grade science.
So, we came up with four center activities dealing with our rock and mineral unit. We had a mineral identification center where they could identify a variety of minerals using streak plates, among other things. We also had a center dealing with the rock cycle that included labeling and diagramming. Another dealt with the three rock types and involved drawing a comic strip. The last one was a puzzle dealing with minerals and their uses in our daily lives. Pretty simple stuff and stuff that could be done, with a bit of focus, in two class periods.
One thing we learned from this is that large classes, small rooms, and center activities can be a challenge simply from a space and mobility perspective. The smaller classes seemed to be able to get on task a bit quicker, while the larger classes seemed to have trouble just navigating around the room without stopping and interacting with other kids. However, once they finally got going, they didn't do too bad.
Mrs. Eagle and I haven't graded the center packets yet, which is something we're going to do this weekend, however from what I've seen, they range from kids who barely did one activity to kids that rocked and did all four and did them well.
The big problem with most of these kids is they have absolutely no concept of time management (despite a giant timer on the screen, thanks to my Kagan Timer Tools software), and they are highly social and can waste an entire class period talking about cheer-leading and other important things. I ran laps around the room trying to get kids focused and helping them stay on track. It worked with some, but not with others.
Many of these kids seem to think that if they turn in anything, even if it's poorly done or incomplete, that they deserve a good grade. I think many of them will be surprised when they get their packets back and see that we actually expect some sort of effort and quality work out of them. Hopefully it will wake a few of them up.
And just think, progress reports come out next week.
Mrs. Eagle and I had the great idea this summer that we would occasionally do centers instead of a unit test so that we could give the kids more hands' on experiences and also a different way of assessment. Mrs. Mallard, one of the most creative and amazing science teachers we know (she teaches 8th graders), is a big fan of centers and we saw the great results she got with them, so we thought we'd try them. I know a lot of teachers, in particular elementary, do centers, but it's not something we've done much of in seventh grade science.
So, we came up with four center activities dealing with our rock and mineral unit. We had a mineral identification center where they could identify a variety of minerals using streak plates, among other things. We also had a center dealing with the rock cycle that included labeling and diagramming. Another dealt with the three rock types and involved drawing a comic strip. The last one was a puzzle dealing with minerals and their uses in our daily lives. Pretty simple stuff and stuff that could be done, with a bit of focus, in two class periods.
One thing we learned from this is that large classes, small rooms, and center activities can be a challenge simply from a space and mobility perspective. The smaller classes seemed to be able to get on task a bit quicker, while the larger classes seemed to have trouble just navigating around the room without stopping and interacting with other kids. However, once they finally got going, they didn't do too bad.
Mrs. Eagle and I haven't graded the center packets yet, which is something we're going to do this weekend, however from what I've seen, they range from kids who barely did one activity to kids that rocked and did all four and did them well.
The big problem with most of these kids is they have absolutely no concept of time management (despite a giant timer on the screen, thanks to my Kagan Timer Tools software), and they are highly social and can waste an entire class period talking about cheer-leading and other important things. I ran laps around the room trying to get kids focused and helping them stay on track. It worked with some, but not with others.
Many of these kids seem to think that if they turn in anything, even if it's poorly done or incomplete, that they deserve a good grade. I think many of them will be surprised when they get their packets back and see that we actually expect some sort of effort and quality work out of them. Hopefully it will wake a few of them up.
And just think, progress reports come out next week.
Monday, September 06, 2010
The Shopping Spree
Historically, the class of kids we take to lunch is the Absolute Worst Class of the Day. Part of it stems, I am sure, from the fact that we're moving them from one point to another - always a reason for behavior issues. Then again, we're also bringing them back from a thirty minute block where they've been talking, socializing, and generally creating some sort of mild mayhem in the lunch room.
When I first started at The School, my fifth period was actually broken into two parts. I'd start the class and teach a bit, we'd stop, go to lunch, then I'd bring the kids back and we'd finish up our class. This was hell on Earth. Trying to get the kids focused on what we were doing for the last twenty minutes of class was a challenge, to put it mildly. It's a bit better now as the kids come in, sit down and get quiet, we line them up, walk them down, and then when we get back we start class. Still, trying to get them calmed down has always been a bit difficult.
And for some reason, nearly every year, the kids they put in my lunch class are the kids that aren't all that academically oriented or well-behaved to start with. Were talking the low achievers, the low readers, the kids who live in the principal's office. A few years ago, three of the kids in my lunch class were responsible for 50% of The Team's discipline referrals. Every day when I go to pick up my kids from the cafeteria, I'd have one of the lunchroom aides stop me to tell me what crazy little bits of misbehavior my darlings did on that particular day.
So this year, after eight years of absolutely dreading the lunch class, I have an absolutely awesome fifth period class to take to lunch. We're talking kids that line up and get quiet without having to be told a dozen times to do so. And then when they walk to lunch they stay in line and stay quiet. And when I pick them up, they walk back in a quiet line, a fact that still astounds me. The lunchroom aides can't tell me enough how nice and sweet and well-behaved they are. In fact, I haven't had a single kid in one of the "time-out" seats along the front wall of the cafeteria (I've had kids there all year in the past).
So, the other day I emailed The Principals and told them what a wonderful class I had and asked if it were possible to have them open the School Store the last twenty minutes of class so I could take them shopping. Currently the School Store is only open in the mornings before classes start and in the afternoons after buses roll, so aside from special appointments for entire classes (like I asked for) the kids don't get a whole lot of opportunity to shop. Mrs. Sparrow agreed to open it up and I told my kids the day before so they'd be prepared and bring their School Bucks to spend.
So, instead of going over our workbook assignment in class we went shopping. What a blast! I had to help Mrs. Sparrow a bit with the actual selling aspect, but that was a lot of fun. We sold a lot of candy, chips, and drinks, but also some stuffed animals, a fuzzy blanket, and some other big tickets items. The kids were excited, and loved the fact that it was their own "private" shopping time and they didn't have to share the room with 30 other kids.
I love the fact that my Admins have something like this I can use to reward my kids. And I hope my Fifth Period tells all their friends so I can do this with all my other classes when they start behaving as well as Fifth Period.
When I first started at The School, my fifth period was actually broken into two parts. I'd start the class and teach a bit, we'd stop, go to lunch, then I'd bring the kids back and we'd finish up our class. This was hell on Earth. Trying to get the kids focused on what we were doing for the last twenty minutes of class was a challenge, to put it mildly. It's a bit better now as the kids come in, sit down and get quiet, we line them up, walk them down, and then when we get back we start class. Still, trying to get them calmed down has always been a bit difficult.
And for some reason, nearly every year, the kids they put in my lunch class are the kids that aren't all that academically oriented or well-behaved to start with. Were talking the low achievers, the low readers, the kids who live in the principal's office. A few years ago, three of the kids in my lunch class were responsible for 50% of The Team's discipline referrals. Every day when I go to pick up my kids from the cafeteria, I'd have one of the lunchroom aides stop me to tell me what crazy little bits of misbehavior my darlings did on that particular day.
So this year, after eight years of absolutely dreading the lunch class, I have an absolutely awesome fifth period class to take to lunch. We're talking kids that line up and get quiet without having to be told a dozen times to do so. And then when they walk to lunch they stay in line and stay quiet. And when I pick them up, they walk back in a quiet line, a fact that still astounds me. The lunchroom aides can't tell me enough how nice and sweet and well-behaved they are. In fact, I haven't had a single kid in one of the "time-out" seats along the front wall of the cafeteria (I've had kids there all year in the past).
So, the other day I emailed The Principals and told them what a wonderful class I had and asked if it were possible to have them open the School Store the last twenty minutes of class so I could take them shopping. Currently the School Store is only open in the mornings before classes start and in the afternoons after buses roll, so aside from special appointments for entire classes (like I asked for) the kids don't get a whole lot of opportunity to shop. Mrs. Sparrow agreed to open it up and I told my kids the day before so they'd be prepared and bring their School Bucks to spend.
So, instead of going over our workbook assignment in class we went shopping. What a blast! I had to help Mrs. Sparrow a bit with the actual selling aspect, but that was a lot of fun. We sold a lot of candy, chips, and drinks, but also some stuffed animals, a fuzzy blanket, and some other big tickets items. The kids were excited, and loved the fact that it was their own "private" shopping time and they didn't have to share the room with 30 other kids.
I love the fact that my Admins have something like this I can use to reward my kids. And I hope my Fifth Period tells all their friends so I can do this with all my other classes when they start behaving as well as Fifth Period.
Friday, September 03, 2010
It's Not Size, It's Guts
So yesterday one of our boys, Big Boy, came into homeroom crying his eyes out because he'd been punched in the face by another kid on the team. He's in Mr. Math's homeroom so he hustled him across the hall to Guidance so we could figure out what happened. Apparently some sort of altercation happened outside the cafeteria on the way from breakfast to the homerooms before school started.
Now Big Boy, as far as I know, doesn't have a beef with anyone. He's not a great student by any means, but definitely not a trouble maker. He has the motivation of a slug and moves just as fast. He's just one of those kids you notice more because of his size and the fact that you put a lot of zeros in the columns across from his name.
It took a while to figure out what had happened and who the culprit was. At first we only had initials so Mrs. Social Studies and I took my gradebook, as we were doing hall duty, and went through the names to see who we had with those initials. We came up with two, one an honor student with impeccable manners who wouldn't dream of punching another kid, and the other a little guy about 80 pounds soaking wet who is about a quarter of Big Boy's size (and who could best be described as a "fart in a skillet"). Nah, couldn't be either one of those two, we figured.
We figured wrong.
It was Tiny Tyke. Amazing. I'm not sure how he even managed to reach up high enough to smack Big Boy in the face, but Tiny Tyke was apparently the little villain who took on a kid four times his size. Why? I have no idea. But it is a bit amazing how fearless this little guy apparently is.
Now Big Boy, as far as I know, doesn't have a beef with anyone. He's not a great student by any means, but definitely not a trouble maker. He has the motivation of a slug and moves just as fast. He's just one of those kids you notice more because of his size and the fact that you put a lot of zeros in the columns across from his name.
It took a while to figure out what had happened and who the culprit was. At first we only had initials so Mrs. Social Studies and I took my gradebook, as we were doing hall duty, and went through the names to see who we had with those initials. We came up with two, one an honor student with impeccable manners who wouldn't dream of punching another kid, and the other a little guy about 80 pounds soaking wet who is about a quarter of Big Boy's size (and who could best be described as a "fart in a skillet"). Nah, couldn't be either one of those two, we figured.
We figured wrong.
It was Tiny Tyke. Amazing. I'm not sure how he even managed to reach up high enough to smack Big Boy in the face, but Tiny Tyke was apparently the little villain who took on a kid four times his size. Why? I have no idea. But it is a bit amazing how fearless this little guy apparently is.
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