Baby It's Cold Outside

Here in my Beloved South we just aren't prepared for temperatures in the single digits.  

That being said, it's been an interesting January.  We were late getting back to school after our Christmas break due to the temperatures.  Well, actually we were supposed to have four inches of snow on the Sunday evening before we went back, so they cancelled the teacher work day for Monday.  The snow wasn't as bad as they thought but then the temperature dropped like a rock.

Teachers reported that Tuesday and it was a whopping 1 degree that morning.  I teach in a 49 year old building that had its own weather system so I was expecting the worst.  After all, even on a normal day when the temperature is in the 50's we have rooms that are freezing, others that are sweltering, and others like mine that change throughout the day.  So I had on hand knit socks, layers, and even brought a wool shawl I could use as a blanket if needed.  As luck would have it, we had no problems.  Amazing.

However, other buildings, especially those with portables and those that were actually newer, had issues with frozen and bursting pipes and heating systems that wouldn't work.  It was fairly wide spread so they cancelled school for the following day so they could get the buildings back up to par.  Not to mention all the buses that wouldn't start.

Most of us thought that was a good idea, mainly because it meant our kids weren't waiting for a bus when the wind chill was -5. 

Now, my students Up North would have no problem waiting for a bus in weather like that, but they have the clothes for it.  My kids don't.  Heavens, were seeing temps that haven't been this low since 1994!  Some of my boys are still wearing basketball shorts in this weather with just a hoodie for a coat.  Gloves?  Unheard of.  

And here we go again.  Temperature tomorrow is supposed to be -10 to -5.  Some school systems are starting to close...wonder what we will end up doing?

The View from My Couch

Okey dokey, so I haven't blogged for a while.

Truth be told I haven't done much for a while.

You know how you look forward to break so you can relax, and get some things done, and enjoy your family and all that?  And you have all these great plans?  Well, I did too, although, compared to most people, they were quite tame.  Hanging out with Hubby, cleaning out my office, getting organized for 2014, reading, knitting, seeing some movies, some quick day trips, and all sorts of fun things. I was looking forward to this time off for weeks.

And then, lucky me, I got strep throat. And, even luckier, it took nearly a week before I could get in to see a doctor (or in my case, a nurse practitioner) who said I had a throat that "looks like a piece of really rare blood beefsteak."  Oh yay.  All I knew is I wanted to curl up into a fetal position on the floor of her office.  I got the magic ten-day antibiotic shot (works wonders although my hip hurt for a week), a steroid shot, and some "magic mouth rinse", and off I went.  

So, for the week prior to the shot - I pretty much napped the whole time, laid on the couch, read, ate chicken soup, hot tea and lemon (not all together) and felt miserable.  Gosh I hate strep.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Miley They Just Aren't Into You

One of my homeroom girls showed up today sporting a new "Miley Cyrus"-style haircut.  She's a bit of a rebel and trying to be a bit of a trend-setter, so it wasn't that surprising.

What was surprising was the response from the rest of the kids.

They HATED it.  Absolutely hated it.  Choruses of "Oh My God, what did you do?" along with "Are you trying to look like Miley, she's so gross," were some of the nicer comments.  It got so bad I told them to hush and if they didn't have anything nice to say then just to keep quiet.  Haircut girl didn't seem to mind (she's a bit of snot anyway and can dish out as much as she gets) but I wasn't going to put up with that nonsense.

However, one of the kids said they thought that Haircut girl actually looked kind of cute in that haircut, which was surprising because "Miley is such an ugly dog but you look cute in it."  Choruses of agreement abounded. It was then that I decided to do an impromptu survey.

"How many of you like Miley Cyrus?" I asked.  Not a hand went up.  Not one.

"How many of you can't stand her?" was my second question.  Every hand went up.

"So how come you don't like her?" I asked them and was hit with a bunch of comments regarding her acting slutty, sticking her tongue out, trying to act cool but really coming off as pathetic (a word I was impressed this bunch used) and so on.  A few admitted that her behavior rather "grossed me out".  So, if my homeroom is any indication, she's really falling flat with the 12-14 year old demographic.

Which is surprising, because the media has you think she's quite popular with this group.  Perhaps they think she is.  However, a few minutes with my homeroom kids will let you know that she's definitely not.

You learn something new every day.

Assault With a - Potentially - Deadly Weapon

Honestly, people who don't work in a school have no idea as to the absolutely crazy shit that goes on with these kids during the day.  Seriously.

For example, this week we had three sixth grade boys decide to pee on each other.  Really.  You cannot make this stuff up.  Of course, that irritated one of the victims, who promptly threw a punch towards the kid peeing on him.  Which is completely understandable. 

(I checked.  None of these were my kids.  Thank God.)

I guess it was apparently quite hysterical to watch these three boys explain to four grown men, our SRO, The Enforcer, and two coaches, what, exactly prompted them to act like such idiots.

The SRO explained to them that he could charge them with assault because they could unknowingly infect another person with a horrifying and deadly disease by peeing on them.  This did, apparently, finally get their attention.

The only question remaining, said the SRO, was whether we charge them with a weapon over, or under three inches.

*The three inch measure is what our law uses to guide the punishment for a knife at school.

First Snow Day!

Well, more like a ice day.  I'm on my third cup of coffee watching the ice build up on my deck and trees in my yard.

Hoping we don't lose power.

Fortunately they called for the schools to be closed last night, rather than wait until morning, which was nice of them.  Those of us who grace the school hallways at oh-dark-thirty every day often have the unpleasant experience of actually already being at school before they cancel for the day.  That sucks.

So I have a full tank of gas in my car, the cell phone is on the charger, the Kindle is charged, the heater is running to warm up the house, and I'm ready if we lose power.

At least I know how to make coffee on a grill, if it comes to that.

A Buzz Worthy Lunch

A few weeks ago, on a surprisingly cold day, the rest if the seventh grade teachers and I were in the teacher lunchroom (right next to the cafeteria) enjoying our all too brief 30 minute duty free lunch.  It was a typical lunch until the double door slammed open and in ran Mrs. Cheerful, one of our aides who has the horrid duty of helping with seventh grade lunch.  

"I need an administrator here fast!" She shrieked as she dialed the front office.  Now that the door was open we could hear a huge commotion coming from the cafeteria.  That usually signals a fight, so within a flash, all of us in the middle of our lunch ran into the lunchroom to restore order and break up what sounded like a doozy of a brawl.

Except when we got there, we didn't see any kids fighting.  

What we did see were a number of kids screaming and running up and down the aisles between the tables, and other kids throwing food into the air.  They weren't throwing the food at other tables of kids but rather up into the air.  This was weird.  They usually aim at other kids when they start flinging food.

I happened to be standing by The Monitor (the other adult in there trying to keep 300 kids fed and in control every lunch period) and heard her say "I can't believe all this over a wasp."

A wasp?  Yes, a wasp.

It took a moment but I finally saw the wasp buzzing around one of the tables which was sending the girls, and some boys, into fits.  Some of the boys were throwing food at it, which only made the wasp madder and caused him to buzz and dive bomb the tables.  Which caused more hysteria.

Good gracious, this generation needs to get outside more so they can learn to deal with things like insects without going into hysterics. 

We finally got them calmed down, sat them back in their seats, and convinced them that throwing things at wasps doesn't improve their mood.  At all.  Honestly, I felt sorry for the wasp at this point.

What's really weird is that the wasps have had a nest somewhere near the cafeteria for several weeks now, and that wasps have been showing up at lunch all that time.  However, apparently both the 8th grade and the 6th grade kids don't lose their minds when they see a wasp.  Just the 7th grade kids do.

Which tells you a lot about the character traits of seventh graders.

Bad Blogger

Yeah well I'm not being very consistent here.  Sorry about that.  I'm not sure what it is, but none of us seem to have the spare time we did in years past.

Enough apologies.

So a few weeks ago the Guidance Guy sent out an email about these cushions they had purchased that were supposed to help kids, particularly those with ADHD, focus.  They are made of plastic, somewhat semi-inflated, with teeth on the side you place on the chair.  Basically you give them to a kid, they use it on their seat, and they focus more.  I actually tried it myself and it is nearly impossible to slouch with this thing on your chair.  You do have to wiggle a tiny bit all the time to stay somewhat balanced, and you tend to lean forward.  

Well I have some real live wire kids this year so I thought is give it a try.  Guidance was basically looking for some so us to try these and get data on the kids to see if there was any change in behavior and academics.  I sent an email but was rebuffed at first as they wanted to give them to team leaders first and have them used through a team so they could follow a kid throughout the day.  Since I'm teaching two grades this year, I'm not tied to a team (which has its pluses and minuses.)

Except very few team leaders seemed interested.

So lucky me got one of these cushions to use and see how they work.

I basically picked one kid in each class and told them that we were doing an experiment to see if these cushions helped them concentrate more.  What I wasn't counting on was that all the kids decided that they wanted to be the "tester" so I'm having to rotate each week.  

But here is the amazing thing.  These things work like a charm.

Honestly after the first day I was bowled over by these things.  Kids who never stayed in their seats are sitting down and working.  They aren't tapping pencils.  They aren't digging through their papers and fiddling.  They are WORKING.  It is just amazing.  I talked with the few other teachers that were trying these and they had the same results.

I want a class set now.

P.S.  Someone asked for a picture, so here's the link to Amazon that our guidance sent us.

Magic Seat Cushions

Be sure to read some of the comments from readers who also had experiences with these.

Watching Their Heads Explode

Okay. I know I said I would be posting more but this is turning into One Hell of a Year.  Used to be you could count on one hand the number of teachers who were at school an hour early and who left after five.  Now it's the bulk of us.  It's all about bringing up the test scores and revamping just about everything we do.

Mrs. Eagle, Mrs, Angora and I are basically ripping apart our curriculum and rebuilding it to make it more rigorous and to raise expectations.  However, it takes a lot of time to do that.  Friday evenings we're lucky if we leave by eight.  At least we enjoy working with each other.

However today I had a great deal of fun at my students' expense.  For several years I have done a weekly email to parents, usually on Friday afternoon, where I list what we are doing in the week ahead. It works out pretty well except when things change.  And I have noticed this year that we are making more adjustments to our plans than usual.  So I needed an alternative.

One of our new teachers told me about a website called www.remind101.com that sends out text alerts.  It protects both the teacher and the students' privacy, you can schedule the alerts for when you want them to go out, and they can even be sent via email if so desired.  I was hooked.  (No, I don't work for them.)

I sent out the notice in my parent email on Friday, and then today I sent home the sign up information for parents and kids to sign up.  However, I wanted as many kids signed up as possible so I blew their minds when I told them to get out their phones, turn them on, and subscribe to the text alerts.

I swear you should have heard the gasps in the room.  

"Is this a trick?  Are we going to get in trouble?" And so on.  They were completely freaked out.

I loved it.  

They finally figured out that this was indeed a legitimate request and slowly the phones came out, were clicked on, and then they started to sign up.

The selling point?  It wasn't getting notices about tests or homework.  Oh no.  It was me telling them that I would text them the night before if they needed their book in class or not.

Anything to keep from carrying their book.  Wimps.

Things I Learned This Week

When teaching two different grade levels, DO NOT plan a lab activity for both grade levels on the same day.

Why didn't I realize I did this?

It's September and We're Already Exhausted

Oh my.

I really intended to blog a lot more this year, but there just hasn't been the time.  I'm getting to school at 6:00 and leaving some nights at 7:00, so it's been a matter of eating, grading, and passing out in bed.

Why?

Scores weren't high enough school wide so we're having to revamp lessons.  We're also being told to take more class grades and more homework grades.  We're having to take a lot of looks at a lot of data to figure out what to do with our kids to - you got it - raise test scores.  All in all, it means a lot of time spent outside of the actual teaching.

On the good side, at least Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Angora and I have a lot of fun together.  Fridays are turning into "Friday Planning Parties" where we bring snacks and work together in Mrs. Angora's room, with a few other teachers, mostly 8th grade teachers as they're down the hall, joining us.  It's a great way to kick around strategies and come up with some good ideas.  And it's fun, although perhaps fattening.

I am hoping that things settle down soon...in the meantime, some highlights.

The Bully Parent showed up for an IEP meeting and was somewhat pleasant and really nice to me since I sent her a post card about how organized her daughter's locker was.  She is now out of my class (still in homeroom) and moved to inclusion science so I don't have to deal with her academically.  I suspect she's one of those people who hide behind the keyboard.

Open House was fun.  Met a lot of parents but the best part is seeing kids I used to have.  One is a senior and looking to go to the Air Force Academy.  Another is a junior and is going to major in chemical engineering.  The fact that he squeaked by 7th grade and DROVE US CRAZY with his behavior, makes this turnaround all the sweeter.  He's a tall, delightful young man and gave me the biggest hug.  It's nice to see a kid who drove you nuts come back and tell you that they did listen - a little - and are going to turn out okay.
I spent the Labor Day weekend working on lessons and grading papers but hubby and I did take a day trip to Paducah, Kentucky to the American Quilt Museum to see an exhibit on Civil War quilts.  Awesome display but the best part was hanging with my guy.

Knitting and Crochet club starts tomorrow.  I haven't had time to knit since school starts so this may be the only chance I get.

When the Parent is the Bully

So a bunch of us got what has to be the most vile, hateful, and vitriolic email I have ever received in eleven years at The School.

It was five single-spaced pages of threats and condemnations and was just mind-blowing. It basically was the parents demands on how we were to teach her child.   This is the sort of email you'd expect halfway through the year when a kid has been expelled and has had a long history of issues.  Not something you expect the Third Freaking Day from a kid that you haven't had a lick of trouble from.

Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.  (Actually makes me feel sorry for the kid.)

God bless The Principal.  She called us into a meeting after school and said that we were not to have any personal one-on-one contact with this parent.  She was going to run interference.  Thank goodness.

It's one thing to deal with bullies at school, who are kids, but another dealing with a bully who's actually a parent.

Things They Didn't Warn Me About

Having never taught sixth grade before, about the only thing I really know about sixth graders is that they're shorter, for the most part, than my seventh graders.

I figured they were a little more immature, a little more sweet, and a little more nervous than the jaded bunch of seventh graders I see every year.

Are they ever different.

Since we're doing electronic attendance every period this year - sigh - the first thing we do when class starts is attendance.  And of course, since we don't know each other, this involves saying "here" and raising their hands so I can physically see them when I call their name. I do a big production out of asking them to raise their hand high - "be proud of your name!" - when I call so I can actually see it.

Seventh graders, for the most part, sort of mumble, if they answer at all, and then you're lucky to get a hand that's higher than shoulder height.  It's like they can't be bothered to put forth the effort. Half the time I have to call a name several times before I can determine that the kid, really and truly, is sitting in my room.

Sixth graders, on the other hand, are like a bunch of perky little cheerleaders - boys and girls alike - popping those hands up towards the ceiling and chirping "here!" with so much enthusiasm that I'm almost overwhelmed.  Attendance with these kids is a breeze.

However, the one thing that no one warned me about, and which really surprised me is that sixth graders apparently feel the need to hug you goodbye when you dismiss class.  I thought maybe after my very brief second period (my first bunch of sixies) that it was just that particular group of kids.  I dismissed them and about half a dozen of them, boys and girls alike, came over to give me a hug and go on their way.  Nothing intense, just little shoulder hugs and off they went.  Okay, that was weird.  But then my seventh period sixies did the same thing!

What the heck?

I mentioned this to The Principal and she started laughing.  "Oh, they do that!  You'll just have to get used to it.  They think you're their school mamma and since you teach science, they also think you're a rock star!"  (I didn't pursue that last comment...)

So, perhaps I'm liking my schedule better than I thought.  I sort of wanted my sixth grade classes closer together in the day (preferably back to back) because of lab preps and the like.  However, starting the day with sweet nice kids and ending the day with sweet nice kids, isn't a bad way to go.

I just wish it wasn't such a tongue twister.  Saying "I teach sixth, second and seventh," is a bit of a challenge.

Week One Down...

The first day and a half of school went pretty well.

I don't know why, except it's the way it's always been done, but we always have a half day on the first day of school which we spend entirely with our homeroom.  Then we have a day off for staff development and planning.  Then we have a full day with all our classes.  That day off in there is a little wonky, but we do put it to good use.  It just seems weird.

In any case, the first half day is the "here is all the paperwork your poor parents needs to fill out, sign, return" day, plus rules, policies, blah, blah, blah, blah.  It's really quite boring, not only for the kids, but for us.  As the principal says, the important thing is they feel comfortable in a home room and they know how they are getting home.  This year I only had one kid who didn't know his bus number, but Guidance solved that rather quickly.  That's pretty good.  I had one kid one year who didn't know his address, phone or bus number (he had landed here the week before from Florida.)

My homeroom kids, all 24 of them (a significant drop from the 30 I had last year) are mostly special ed and lower achieving kids.  Out of the 24 of them, I teach 4 of them science.  The rest go to inclusion science with Mrs. Eagle and Mrs. Angora.  I guess because I'm teaching two grades I didn't get an inclusion class. So that's a bit weird.  I see these kids in the morning, then see them in the afternoon, and that's it.  No academic contact with them.

On Friday, the first full day, it got a little crazy.  The first three full days we spend a two hour block with our homerooms in the mornings doing training of some sort.  My homeroom is seventh grade so on Friday it was there turn to go to the gym or the theater and hear "The Talk" by the administrators.  Mr. Enforcer talks with the boys, and Mrs. Sparrow talks with the girls.  They go over discipline, dress code, cell phones, bullying, sexual harassment, etc.  On Monday we'll get our books and lockers.  On Tuesday we'll do our School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) training.  Then on Wednesday, it's normal schedule, normal day.

So, that two hour block in the morning means about a 30 minute class for the remaining periods.  Which is barely enough to do attendance, introduce yourself, hand them the science lab rules that need to be signed and returned, and go over expectations.  We're doing electronic attendance every period this year instead of just in the morning, and that's taking a lot longer than I thought it would.  Once I know everyone's names, it should go easier.

Unfortunately, on these weird schedule days lunch just seems to throw a monkey wrench into everything.  The sixth grade went down to lunch early for a bit of an orientation (apparently there are a lot more choices for lunch in middle school which kind of overwhelms the kids).  However, going early didn't help as it took an extra 15 minutes for the kids to get through the line.  Which left me with about 5 minutes to introduce myself to my 2nd period class of sixth graders.   From that point on, everything was running quite a bit behind until about 5th period when things calmed down and the lunch was over.  Let's hope that it works out better on Monday.

So here it is, Saturday, and the building was open and quite a few of us were in there working.  Mrs. Eagle and I had some data drilling to do, plus copying, plus just catching up on stuff so we got in there early and did about 5 hours.  I don't feel so bad about missing a Saturday since it rained all morning and is hot and muggy today.  I just don't want to make a habit of it as we all need a mental break on the weekends.

So, one week is done.  So far, so good.

Mamma Bear...Hug

On Monday I participated, for the first time, in the annual Parent Night we have for sixth graders and their parents.  Basically the parents come with their kids, pick up schedules, listen to The Principal welcome them and their darlings, then go to either the gym, the theater, or the cafeteria to see a presentation by their team of teachers.  After that, they're turned loose to follow the schedule and try to locate their classrooms and meet their teachers.  This evening started a few years ago as a way to avoid having the parents follow their children around on the first day of school which apparently was an issue.  (I had no idea.  By the time a kid gets to the seventh grade, it's hard to even find a parent.)

Considering that I'm an "overflow" teacher, I'm not exactly tied to a team.  So I really felt like the fifth wheel. The Principal wanted those of us who were overflow teachers to sort of pop in and out of the team presentations.  She did inform the parents that due to the numbers, that there were going to be teachers that were not on teams teaching their children.  Hopefully the parents figured out that's who we were when we dropped in since only one of the teams was nice enough to introduce us.

Back in my room it was kind of amusing.  I only have two classes of sixth grade, so that's only 48 kids (as of today), so I wasn't swamped with parents and kids.  I spent a lot of time giving directions to classrooms because guidance had the wrong room numbers on most of the schedules.  Basically, anyone who changed classrooms last year (which was over half of us) had a wrong room number.  Big screw up.  However, it eventually worked its way out and everyone, hopefully, found their way around.

I did have a rather bizarre, but funny experience with a parent which I completely didn't expect.  She showed up in my room with a teenager with dark, dark hair and her little one.  She went on and on about how I was her favorite teacher - which would have been impossible, considering her age.  Her older daughter stepped in and mentioned that she had been my student, not her mom.  I did not recognize her at all and asked her name.  When she told me, I was surprised to say the least.  What I had in seventh grade was a quiet little blond with big round glasses.  What was in front of me was tall, skinny, with no glasses and dark hair!  Amazing how they change!  Mom, meanwhile, gushed some more, picked me up in a big bear hug and then they went on their way.

That, my friends, is a fairly positive way to start the year, don't ya think?

Changes...Changes..Changes

This new school year is going to be very different than many of my past school years.

I have taught 7th grade for ten years - hard to believe its been that long - and this year I will still be teaching 7th grade.  But I'll have two classes of 6th graders as well.  Our enrollment is just jumping (we've added nearly 300 kids in 3 years) and there are so many 6th graders coming in that The Principal had to add an extra "overflow" teacher.  So, I'll have two 6th grade classes and three 7th grade classes.   I'm considered a 7th grade teacher (The Principal has me work with the 7th grade team at all staff things) and "just helping out" the sixth grade for the year (or two.)  I am cool with this.

I am also cool with the fact that my class sizes are a lot more manageable than last year.  I averaged 154 kids last year which comes to about 32 per class.  This year I'm up to 125 which is about 25 per class.  A huge difference.

I may decide I like 6th grade better.  Who knows?  What I do know is that the 6th grade teachers are not a tight-group like the 7th grade teachers are, so that may be interesting.  I like the way the 7th grade teachers act like a family.

The good part about all this is that after seven years I am no longer a team leader because I am no longer on any one team - I get the "overflow" kids.  Considering I was going to ask The Principal if someone else could have the pleasure of being team leader, I am more than thrilled at this.  Having less responsibility suits me fine, especially after the year I had last year with dealing with being the executrix of my Father's estate.  (That's still going on, btw, and I hope to have most of it done by December.)

I also am in a different room which is bigger than the tiny room I have had for eight years and that's a good thing.  The only real drawback I've found so far is that it is still in the older part of the building and is a little short on electrical outlets so I have 3 extension cords running along the walls which is par for the course in this part of the building.  Especially considering the geniuses who installed all the technology stuff a few years ago didn't put any of that near an outlet which makes it impossible to get power to the technology (doc reader, computer, etc.) without an extension cord.

So, it should be an interesting year.

Summer Ends with Sweet Corn

Mrs. Eagle and I took a little road trip up North last weekend, to visit a good friend of mine, to see her adorable MIL, and so I could do a little talk for a historical group up there.  The fact that people will actually pay me to drive up and talk about the Civil War is a plus - it helps pay, somewhat, for the girls' weekend.

One of the other reasons we went up there was because there is nothing - nothing! - like Ohio sweet corn.  Even the sweet corn down here in My Beloved South does not measure up and I buy from the Amish so you can bet I'm buying from people who know how to grow corn.  Northern sweet corn is just the best.

Mrs. Eagle's little adorable MIL called ahead and placed an order for us with the local grower as he tends to sell out every day and we had five bushels of sweet corn waiting for us on Monday morning.  We sort of thought it would be in those cute bushel baskets, but it was in these huge green woven bags.  Thought was probably a good thing.  We put them in big plastic bags, put some bags of ice in with them, and tossed them in the back of her CRV for the nine hour drive home.

I had ordered 5 dozen ears of corn because, after all, it's just me and Mr. Bluebird to eat it.  However, this grower, being a nice guy, throws in two extra ears for every dozen, so I ended up with 70 ears of corn.

That's a lot of corn.

I spent the better part of a day shucking it, boiling it, letting it cool, then cutting it off the cob, and then packing it into freezer bags.  (My vacuum sealer is probably one of my most useful kitchen devices.)  I ended up with 16 bags of corn which is just about the right amount.

And I saved a few just to eat with supper for the next week.  Mr. Bluebird, swooned.  I swooned.  It was awesome.

However, as much as I love sweet corn it does pretty much signal the end of summer for us.  School starts on Wednesday, August 6, and we report on Monday, August 5th.

Time to savor summer and the sweet corn.

In Service. Yay.

I have three days of in-service starting tomorrow.

So not looking forward to it.  It better be interesting or I'll be in day dream land.

What Has Happened to the Dixon Ticonderoga Pencils?

My gosh.

What is the world coming to?

Crappy pencils aggravate the daylights out of me.  I get tired of kids churning away at the pencil sharpener until they've eaten away at least half a pencil in order to get a decent, sharp point.  Makes me nuts.  A lot of the "cutsey" pencils (and gosh, I'm so done with cute) are absolute junk, made out of recycled paper and wood and won't even last a day.  They are useless.

So, for years, I've bought Dixon Ticonderoga pencils for my students to use on The Very Big Government Mandated Tests, and for Other Important Things that require a #2 pencil.  (For birthdays I give out mechanical pencils although most teachers, as a rule, don't like middle school kids having them - kids have been known to use them to fire straightened out staples at each other with them.)

This year I came to the dreadful conclusion that the Dixon Ticonderoga pencils have obviously changed something because they are, sad to say, just about as crappy as all the rest.

I brought home a big box from school to use in my summer camp and my suspicions were confirmed. They aren't what they used to be.  I would sharpen to a point, only to have a piece of lead you can pull out of the pencil.  Back to the sharpener.  Again, when it was sharpened, all you had to do was tug on the lead and out it would come.  You can even tell when the lead is like this as it seems to almost "bulge" slightly at the point where the lead and wood should connect.

I ended up throwing away about half a dozen pencils.

This is ridiculous.

Whomever changed things over at Dixon, do something!  You've screwed up the best pencil ever.  Now it's just junk, like all the rest.

Now the Relaxing (well, sorta) Begins

Today is the first day since school let out that I completely free.  Nowhere I need to go and nothing in particular I need to do.

I am enjoying every single second.

I went to visit my  mother for two weeks immediately after school was out, came back, did a week of in-services, then a week of summer camp, and this week I have....nothing.

Well, let me rephrase that...nothing with a particular time schedule.

I need to paint my porch and my back deck.  I need to do some serious yard work.  I need to finish up working on my Dad's estate.  That includes going through boxes, sorting, shipping off mementos to relatives, and trying to get the whole thing finished.  I need to really deep clean my house.

And I need to get caught up on my sleep.

Because, dear friend, school starts in five weeks.

It's Called "Camp" for a Reason

I'm spending a week this summer conducting a Civil War Summer Camp for my City's Parks and Recreation Department.  I used to teach a Civil War class at a gifted camp Up North, and always wanted to recreate it for all kids, not just gifted, down here in My Beloved South.  Fortunately, we have a wonderful Civil War park and interpretive center, that's relatively new, and the Powers That Be, asked if I'd put on this camp for them.  (I know the Powers That Be because Mr. Bluebird and I actually worked as historians when developing the museum.)

Well, sure I would.

So, I have a dozen 10 to 11 year old boys (no girls, which is weird because all my classes before were a fairly even mix) this week for a camp that runs in the morning.  The site does not have a classroom, however, so we're meeting outside.  We have the real fort on one side, a view of the river on the other, and we're on a concrete patio that surrounds the building.  We're also under two large canopy tents for protection from the sun.  Water and restrooms are just steps away inside the visitor's center.

Honestly, I've never taught in such a beautiful site.

Apparently the grandmother of one of the boys has taken exception to this.  The manager of the park, who is a wonderful man, told me he got a call complaining that her grandson was spending four hours in the morning - gasp! - OUTSIDE.

Seriously.

Apparently she'd rather have him inside in air conditioned comfort playing video games.

I think one of the biggest problems I see with my students is that they aren't outside enough.  They're soft, and lazy and complain about the slightest bit of discomfort.  They need to get out and burn off some of their normal kid energy - that's a much better solution that slapping a pill down their throat because they're a little hyper.

My husband calls it the "pussification" of our kids.  He's right.

Funny, but the kids aren't complaining too much (it was hotter than blazes on Monday).  They're running around, learning to be a Civil War soldier.  And so far, they're having a blast.

I Think I'm Coming Back

If any of my regular reader(s) are out there, you know that I took a hiatus from blogging after my father passed away in January.  It's been a tough, tough year.  I quite honestly, didn't feel like anything was interesting, witty or funny, and didn't feel like writing.   Between teaching, working on the estate, and just life in general, I was exhausted.

However, my number one reader of my blog (my Mother) asked if I'd start it up again.  I went out to Southern California to visit her for two weeks, right after school got out, and it was well worth it.  Time with her, time to decompress, time to think.  And one thing she said was she missed hearing about my kids and all the silly things that go along with teaching.

And I got to thinking that it's been enough time.  The estate business isn't done yet (I'm shooting for December), and I have a lot more to do. But it's summer now, and although I just finished a week of in-service, and have a week of summer camp, it's starting to look light there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

So, it's Father's Day - my first one without my Father - and I thought I'd come back and visit all of you and say hi.  I'm listening to the College World Series in the background, and he'd appreciate that.  He did love baseball so.

So for all the Fathers out there - bless you.  And for all of you who still have your father, please take time every single day - not just Father's Day - to appreciate the gift you have.

I think I'm kinda glad to be back.

My Heart's Just Not In It

Well.

It's not been a good year for the Bluebird family, which is why I haven't posted much.  Truth be told, my heart just isn't in it.

We lost a good friend to a heart attack (he was only 42) in January.

That was hard enough, but then, three days later, my beloved Daddy Bird passed away suddenly.

As you can imagine, it has been quite a blow to Mr. Bluebird and I and we have had our hands full with the funeral, getting his house gone through, and I am acting as executor of his estate.  The fact that I have always been a Daddy's Girl, makes this even harder.  My father and I were best of friends as well, something that not everyone, sadly, experiences with their parents.  So, Mr. Bluebird (who is awesome and is my rock) and I have been driving back and forth to where Daddy Bird lived (three hours away) to get things taken care of.

Taking care of an estate is a second full-time job, I've decided.

Fortunately, The Principal is an angel and is letting me have as much time off as I need.  However, the thought of leaving my kids with a sub for too long is somewhat daunting.  And truly, I kind of need to see my kids.  They have been a lot of comfort for me these past few weeks.

So, I'm not feeling funny, or witty, or particularly motivated to blog.

I'm just missing the best Daddy a girl could ever have.

Popsicles Anyone?

It's that time of year when you feel like you have to have a bit of flexibility in your plans because you never know what the weather will be like, and how that will impact your day.

For example, a little over a week ago we had a fire drill because it was 70 degrees outside. That was a Friday. That following Monday we had a two hour delay due to ice. Tuesday we had a two hour delay, then an early dismissal, due to ice. And Wednesday we didn't even go at all, due to ice.

So, I tossed away a few activities we had planned simply because we had run out of time. It's not ideal, but that's the way it goes.

I just hope we don't end up having a lot of cancellations like we did a few years ago. We ended up adding 30 minutes to the school day to make it up.

No one liked that.

If it's 70, and January, it's a Fire Drill Day

There are certain things you can almost bank on when it comes to predictability.

For one, if it's January or February, and the day is clear and unseasonably warm, we'll have a fire drill.  We're required to have one a month, and trust me, it's much nicer to have one when the weather is nice than it is when it's stupidly cold and rainy or snowy.

So, Friday, last period of the day, we had a fire drill.

Which was fine with me as it was nice out and the kids were bouncing off the walls anyway.

And today?  Well, it was 25 this morning and never got about 30.

Good thing we didn't do the fire drill today!

When Technology Bites Back

It has been a day.

We had our Learning Links math test, an on-line test, scheduled for the first two periods of the day today. This means that every seventh grader had a laptop and was trying to access the network at the same time everyone was trying to send in attendance and get the day going. Well, with nearly 400 kids, that's a lot of activity on our network. Many kids had to be patient, a challenge for most seventh graders, and kept trying until they finally got online. I finally gave up and simply walked my attendance up to the front office.

For the record, listening to 30 kids fuss about computer issues can fray nearly anyone's nerves.

After much fussing and trouble-shooting, all my kids finally got online and got their test finished before third period arrived. Mrs Social Studies wasn't so lucky. She had kids that couldn't get on for nearly an hour so her kids had to take their laptops to another room to finish, under the supervision of someone from guidance, while the rest of the kids went to class.

And that wasn't the end of the craziness.

We were about two thirds of the way through third period when the building lost power. This usually happens once or twice a year, usually when the weather is bad, and after a few minutes we get power back. Today it was simply rainy and drizzly, so the weather wasn't an issue.

And it took nearly two hours before we had power.

I know we had it easier than the PE department did, what with 200 kids in the dark in the gym, but goodness it got old really quick being stuck in the room in the dark with my third period.

I did have the emergency lights working in my room, so we could at least see a little bit. In fact, I did have the kids take their quiz by writing the three questions on the whiteboard directly below the emergency lights, rather than put it on the document reader. They were not wild about that, but hey we were still in class and at that point I thought the lights were going to come back on shortly.

After a while however, it became apparent that this was going to take a while. And then the whining began. First they all had to go to the bathroom, so Mrs. Social Studies took the boys and I took the girls and we walked them to the bathrooms. The girls at least had an emergency light in their bathroom, but the boys were faced with pitch black. At this point we suggested they use their cell phones as flashlights.

After that adventure we went back to the dark classroom and tried to keep them somewhat quiet. Which was a challenge. They kept asking if they were going to get to go home. There were a few I would have gladly sent home by this point. Then, when the clocked ticked past our usual lunch time, the cries of hunger started up.

Good gracious. I found a box of graham crackers left over from a lab we did this fall and had just enough to give each kid half a cracker. Surprisingly that settled them down somewhat.

Finally, after just a little over two hours, the power came back on. We completely skipped fourth period, and sent the kids to fifth period, used part of fifth and sixth for lunch, and finallyhad a normal seventh period.

And those kids who didn't finish the online math test? Some were still working when we lost power. And they'll have to start over and take it again, poor kids!

So glad tomorrow is a Friday.

Ka-Boom!

It's been a year so far.  And I'm the lucky one.  Mrs. Angora and Mrs. Eagle have absolutely horrid kids when it comes to behavior, and mine are, in comparison, pretty good.

Or so we thought.

Firecracker Boy is smart as a whip, but has issues with behavior.  He's new to The School, being one of the kids that was rezoned from another school into ours when The Powers That Be redrew all the lines.  The first nine weeks he was awesome - polite, hard-working, a great student.  It sort of surprised us, based on what his file said.  And then the second nine weeks shows up, he's now comfortable in his new school and has figured out his circumstances, and the "real" Firecracker Boy appears.  It was like two different kids.  Disrespect, disobedience, slapping other kids, threatening kids, you name it.  Dad has a meeting with us to ask us about moving him to 8th grade (as that's where he should be) because he feels that he's acting immature because he's around younger kids.  That didn't go anywhere, simply because of his behavior (and that group of 8th graders aren't all that swift either.)  What we didn't know at the time, because Dad didn't bother to share it, is that Dad calls the authorities on Firecracker Boy quite frequently when he gets out of control with his behavior.

So, a few weeks ago, I write Firecracker Boy a referral after I had him sent out of class, basically for disruption and disrespect, and he gets one day in In School Suspension.  I also noticed that on the bottom of his discipline slip, after it is worked and a copy is put in my mailbox, is the note that he has 100 points and the next infraction will earn him a trip to the alternative school.  So, he spends his day in In School Suspension, comes back, then is absent for two days, supposedly (according to his sister) because Dad caught him smoking weed, called the cops and he spent two days in a juvenile detention facility.  Okay, so he's back, and he takes his test and all is well and good.

Until 5th period when Mr. Math emails me to let me know that Firecracker Boy has just been escorted from his room by the Enforcer because he apparently threw a firecracker down a toilet in the boys' restroom, thereby busting the toilet and flooding the bathroom.

I guess he really didn't want to stay here much longer.

Needless to say, he's gone for a while, and even better, has a $500 repair attached to his name.

Brilliant.

One and a half days.

Drama, Drama, Darama

It's that time of year.

No, not the holidays.  It's the time of year when the kids decide they are all Sick And Tired of Each Other and the Drama starts.  The nitpicking.  The name-calling.  The arguing.  It's like being on one hell of a long car ride with six kids who can't get along.

We have two types of drama - boy drama (rare, but I have it going on in my homeroom) and girl drama (every freaking where).

Now, I rarely see boy drama because boys just don't go into this sort of thing - usually.  This year, however, I have several boys who just can't stop talking and messing with each other.  It usually revolves around disparaging comments regarding athletic ability and the ability to keep girlfriends.  I have one kid, Whiner Boy, who is constantly wanting to go to guidance to talk with a counselor because someone said he was a lame football player.

Really.

I can't wait until this kid hits the real world and a boss yells at him for doing something stupid.  He'll be on the floor in a puddle of tears.

And then of course I had the two boys get in a tussle over their STEM project because Boy One accused Boy Two of being lazy and Boy Two accused Boy One of not doing his share of the work.  Next thing I knew, they were slapping each other.  (That earned them a two day stint in ISS, plus Mrs. Sparrow had to eat her words about how the kids would love doing STEM so much they'd behave like angels.)

That's just a taste of the boy drama in my homeroom.

As for the girl drama...there's too much to even go into here.  I do know that the Guidance Goddess and the Guidance Diva are so fed up with Girl Drama that if one more girl walks through the doors wanting to write a statement or complain about another girl talking trash, that they just might hurl a book at her and shove her out the door.  Or, better yet, let the two girls get into a tangle so they can both be suspended, hopefully until January.

One thing about Girl Drama...the girls aren't too bright about who they stir up trouble with.  Mrs. Eagle has one little, and I mean little, girl who's a complete pest and who wants to talk trash and stir up trouble wherever she goes.  I have a girl on my team, Amazon Girl who is, easily, about 5' 10" tall and very big-boned.  She's not fat, she's just big and solid - and bigger than most of the boys and nearly all the girls.  In any case the Pest has been bothering Amazon Girl for well over a month and Amazon Girl has been doing the right thing, going to guidance, writing statements, walking away, and generally ignoring the little brat that's 1/3 her size.  Finally, on Friday, the Pest walked up to Amazon Girl at a dance, started messing with her and then slapped her in the face.  Amazon Girl had had enough, grabbed the Pest by the hair and just beat the snot out of her.  The result?  Amazon got one day suspension, but the Pest, who had thrown the first punch and who had been bothering Amazon for a month, got three days.  (Good thing there was all that documentation that Amazon Girl had done in guidance about the bullying she was getting via the pest.)

It's never boring.

Five and a Half Days.

Kissing Pigs

My home room kids sold 98 tubs of cookie dough.

As a reward, someone (a certain silly bookkeeper), got the idea that we should borrow one of Mrs. Angora's baby pigs and those of us who had classes that sold the most got to kiss the pig.

The kids loved the idea. Some of us, not so much. I actually didn't mind because there's not much that can go through a nice red layer of Avon lipstick.

In truth, I felt a bit sorry for the pig as he was obviously overwhelmed by the screaming kids. He was kind of cute, even if a bit smelly.

Kind of like a typical seventh grader, come to think of it.

What we do.....

The Most Popular Kid in Middle School

A few weeks ago we had our annual Veterans Day Assembly at The School. Every year we do a very impressive assembly honoring our Veterans, many of whom are parents, teachers, and support staff at The School. We live in a military community so Veterans Day is a very big deal.

We have the band play a patriotic medley, the JROTC color guard comes over from the high school to present the colors, we have a guest speaker from the community, and we have soldiers from the local military installation come as well. It's moving, it's patriotic, the kids get into it, and usually the guidance department is overwhelmed with kids who get teary eyed about the whole thing. Those of us on the committee that puts it together stress out a bit but usually every thing goes as planned,

Usually.

Every year we ask the soldiers if they would recite The Soldier's Creed to open up the assembly. Every year they agree. Sometimes they do it as a group, but lately they have given the honor to the lowest ranking guy there. This kid, because that's what he is, has to stand up in front of 1,000 kids and recite The Soldiers Creed, and unfortunately, it can be a bit nerve-wracking. We always ask if they need a copy of the words, because we have one handy, and every year they decline.

This year Corporal Creed stood up, began the Creed, and halfway through, he freezes. His mind goes blank. He pauses. He pauses some more. There is silent, dead space throughout the gym. You could hear a pin drop as he struggles for the words.

"Oh s$&?," he finally says. Into the microphone.

The kids go wild. They cheer! They applaud! And Cpl. Creed remembers the words and finishes the Creed and sits down.

I look over at The Principal and she is trying very hard not to smile, so that was a good thing. After that, the rest of the Assembly went off without a hitch, until of course the emcee introduces all our guests, including Cpl. Creed.

Guess who got the largest round of applause?

After the assembly Mrs. Eagle and I were shaking hands with our visitors and thanking them for coming. When we got to Cpl. Creed, I mentioned that he was the most popular kid in middle school. He looked embarrassed, but agreed.

Interestingly enough, that bit of levity may have done some good. Guidance reported no crying kids for the first time ever.

The story doesn't end there.

The following week, The Principal was getting ready to do our afternoon announcements and said she had a special announcement. Onto the loud speaker comes Cpl. Creed! He aplogized for what he had said at the ceremony and said he wanted to do it correctly this time. And he did. And better yet, the kids, in each and every room, gave him a huge round of applause. I wish they could have seen him as I heard that he, and the rest of the soldiers that were there with him, came in their dress uniforms and were quite a impressive.

And if that wasn't enough, he, and the rest of the guys were back that Friday evening for the Fall Festival where they set up a display and were giving the kids samples of MRE's.

Impressive.

Dog and Pony Show

There just are not enough hours in the day this year.

As part of the new STEM initiative in our district, we have to do at least four STEM challenges per year. The challenges have a lot of value as they are really good exercises in problem-solving learning. They are, however, completely built from scratch and are a lot of work, both in creating them, having the kids do them, and then grading them. We worked for about two months to get the last one designed and created, even including meeting over fall break.

Anyhow in the midst of all this (and the regular teaching stuff we do) we were informed that the school district was sponsoring a STEM open house and we were supposed to put together an exhibit for the big event. It was at the local high school that our school feeds into and would feature the schools on our side of town - elementary, us, and the high school.

Oh yeah. One more thing to do.

So we spent several weeks on this, getting the student presenters picked out, coached and trained. Mr. Math had his wife, who is working as a sub, put together three science fair boards for our exhibit which was HUGE as we were swamped with parent meetings and some of us were also working on the Veterans Day Assembly that, of course, was scheduled for the morning after our big event. We had a lab for the visitors to do, plus the kids brought their engineering notebooks to show off. Is it any wonder that we were all getting frazzled and some of us hadn't seen our spouses or family for supper for weeks as we've been so busy doing all our regular teaching stuff and then THIS?

Sigh.

When the evening finally arrived, the kids were great. They got there on time - hey, free pizza - were dressed nicely, and were well-spoken. The crowd, which was huge, seemed to really enjoy it and our Director of Schools gave us a thumbs up.

The really amazing thing is that Mrs, Standard, who is now in charge of STEM, actually said we did a good job. This from a woman who never, ever can say anything nice about anything we do. It's to the point that we hate to see her show up anywhere because we know it will be nothing but criticism and complaints. We couldn't believe it. (She did scare our kids when she showed up to watch them practice. They wanted to know who the mean, grumpy lady was.)

So the dog and pony show is done. Let us hope there isn't another one for a few more years.

The Magic Number is?

Mrs. Eagle and I often get concerned that we obsess too much over school and tend to let it take over our lives.  It's hard to escape.  School doesn't end when the bell rings, but often continues after supper and until we go to bed in the form of grading papers, updating grades, working on ideas for projects, researching labs, whatever.  And to make it worse, Mrs. Eagle and I spend a lot of non-school time together and even then we tend to start "talking shop' when we should really just let it go.

The challenge is finding something that will force us to stop thinking about school and starting relaxing a bit.  I'm back trying to run (or plod as the case may be) and that's helping some.  And I'm trying not to take too much home in the evenings, but that's a challenge as well.

In any case, Mrs. Eagle, back in September, calls me up and asks if I'd like be the fourth person on her bowling team for a winter league.  She bowls along with her daughter and son-in-law, both delightful young people, in the Old-Timers League at one of the local bowling alleys.  (I guess as long as you have someone over the age of 50 on your team, you can be an Old-Timer.)  For them, it's kind of a date-night where they drop the little one off with her grandfather and go out and have some fun.

"You do realize," I said, "that I haven't bowled in 35 years?"

"Yes," she said.

"And I sucked then," I said.

"That's okay," she said.  "Come on, it would be fun, and besides the kids suggested you."

Fine.  She talked me into it.  Well, maybe I should have said she bribed me into it when she went and bought me an early Christmas present in the form of bowling shoes.

So anyhow, I'm now in a bowling league on Monday nights.  And yes, I still suck.  But gosh, I'm having fun.  And Mrs. Eagle's daughter is enjoying it because, as she said, "I'm no longer the worst one on the team."  What's neat is that everyone, all the other players, are so nice and helpful and it's just a fun atmosphere.  We get out there, we play, we talk, we relax.  It's awesome.

And my average is 74.

Really.

Told you I sucked.

But I'm hoping to break 100 one of these days.    And I want a bowling ball for Christmas.

Motor Skills? String? What?

There are days when I think of something amusing, or witty, or interesting to write about but then, I get home, I grade papers, I work on stuff for school and I'm just so damn tired, I don't even bother to turn on the computer and blog.

I hang my head in shame.  I have become a slacker blogger.

Things are chaotic, mainly due to STEM and having 152 students this year.   This week, for the first time since school started, I actually had a complete planning period.  And I almost didn't know what to do with myself.  It was amazing.  It was surreal.  And it won't happen again for a while.

We're embarking on our second STEM challenge next week.  The same challenge that we worked on over fall break (we being the 7th grade math and science teachers), that we've spent time shopping and scrounging for supplies, and that we've been preparing the kids for for ages.

I hope the kids are ready.

We do have a concern.  One thing we've noticed, and actually have been noticing for a few years now, is that there is an amazing number of kids who have very little common sense when it comes to building or doing things with their hands.  It's like they can do a whole lot of texting with their thumbs, but give them a chance to actually do something with all ten digits and they're lost.

We did a scaffolding activity called balloon racers a few weeks ago which is a lesson on Newton's third law (for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction).  Basically the kids had to design a balloon racer which is a balloon, which has fins and a straw taped to it.  You put the balloon on a long piece of string stretched across the room, let it go, and off it goes.

Our kids had a dickens of a time figuring out how to get the string through the straw.

Really.

You would have thought we'd asked them to do brain surgery.  Fortunately, most of them figured out which direction they had to put it on so it didn't blow up in their faces (although some did have the balloon take off towards them which was a scene of my hilarity for all).

And it wasn't just my kids.  Mrs. Eagle, and Mrs. Angora had the same problem.  And Mr. Math said the kids in the Lego Robotics club actually were having issues putting the pieces together.  And it got us to thinking.    These kids play differently than we did.  We used to play outside, tear apart things, build things, make go-carts, and boats, and fortresses out of boxes and gosh knows what else.  These kids play with a controller or a mouse or they text, text, text.  They don't get the experience of going, "hum, wonder what would happen if I did this?" to a real object.

Now, I do have kids who do have this kind of experiences - mostly my kids from the more rural area of my zone.  But the numbers are getting smaller and smaller every year.

Are we creating a generation of kids who can't do things with their hands?

These Aren't Yearbook Photos...

I've been teaching at The School for ten (10!  Can you freaking believe it!?) years now, so it's safe to say that some of the kids I had during my first few years are now adults.  I do run into them quite a bit when I'm out and about, to the point that my father teases me when we don't run into a former student.

For the record, the girls are easier to recognize - their facial features don't change as much.  Boys, however, are a different story.  They get way taller, talk differently and their facial features change dramatically.  Believe me, there is a big difference from a 4'6" twelve year old and a twenty-two year old who's 6'2" and has a beard.   I get a kick out of talking with them and finding out what they're doing.  Fortunately, the ones I tend to run into are working and usually going to college.  (They must be employed at every restaurant in town.)

Lately, however, I've been spotting quite a few of my former students on-line courtesy of the local law enforcement's collection of mug shots.  The Guidance Goddess used to check the bookings log to see if any of our parents or caregivers had been arrested - obviously something like that affects are kids and, in fact, causes many of them to want to visit the guidance department in the first place.  Believe me, when a kid is worried or embarrassed about the fact that dad got picked up for drunk driving and is sitting in jail, doing science homework is not a priority.

In any case, these booking photos got so much traffic that they are now featured on not one, but two, on line newspaper websites.   And, not surprisingly, they are even more popular.  We're just a bunch of nosy folks at heart.

Sad to say, however, that the past week I have seen not one, not two, but three former students picked up and arrested.  One, in fact, made the local news (which is where I saw it first) and I about fell out of my chair when his name and face splashed across the screen.  Then Mr. Social Studies (who taught on my team for a few years before he got moved to Mrs. Eagle's team) ran into me and mentioned two other students of ours that had shown up on the website.

Sad.  Of the three, two of them didn't surprise me.  They didn't make good choices in seventh grade and they obviously aren't making good choices now.  (Running over a police officer is not a good thing.)  The other one...well, he was a bit scatter-brained, but smart, and had potential.  However, it looks like he took a wrong turn somewhere.

So sad.

Update:  As luck would have it, another one showed up this weekend as an accessory to murder.  Can't say I'm even remotely surprised.

When All Else Fails...Punt

I'm the first to admit that I really enjoy, and utilize heavily, all the technology in my room.  I know some teachers do a lot of PowerPoints (I don't) and they love that, but my favorite is my document reader.  It's amazing what you can do with that thing.  I've dissected a flower on there, zoomed in to look at the different parts, and gosh knows what else.  It's easy and convenient to slap up an example of something and work through it so the kids can see what's going on (talk about modeling).  I probably use that thing more than anything else in my room.

So, when it blinked on and off orange three times and then went off completely IN THE MIDDLE OF A LESSON on Friday I knew I was in for an interesting afternoon.  No matter what I tried to do, it would not come back on.  Tested wires, turned things on and off, rebooted my ancient computer.  No luck.

Darn.

My lesson was about doing formulas for speed, distance and time.  Let's be honest, our kids feel that they can't do math without a calculator and really have no clue what they are doing when they press buttons on the stupid things.  So this was one lesson where they really needed to see examples.  Except now they weren't going to see them.

So, I grabbed the bottle of white board cleaner, my cleaning mitt, a basket of markers and proceeded to do the lesson by moving from the three little (and I mean little) white boards scattered across the room.  I'd write some notes and examples on one board, explain it, the kids would work on it, and I'd move to another board and repeat.

I forgot how short I am compared to these boards.  And I was having to write REALLY BIG because it seems that half my kids can't see anything if it's not in really big letters.

Thank goodness we only had two periods left.  By the end of the day a tech guy had shown up, found a problem with a wire in the wall, and fixed it.  Yeah.

What a way to kick off fall break, eh?

Fixing Other People's Kids

As I've mentioned earlier, we're getting a lot of new kids in the building this year, including a lot from out of state.  The Guidance Goddess has been swamped with new registrations, contacting previous schools for records, and just processing all these new kids.

Busy as she is, she knew something was amiss when she called a school in a Northern State to request records for two girls who had landed in our building and they laughed at her.  "Oh dear!" was the hysterical response, "They ended up with you!  Good Luck!! You'll need it!"  Hysterical laughing all around in the background.

This is not a good sign.

The younger sister was on Mrs. Eagle's team and on the first full Monday of school, essentially our 3rd day, she asked permission to go to the bathroom and then didn't come back.  Her teacher did an APB (we send out these emails all day long to the school at large looking for kids who should be with us but aren't, and aren't on the absence list) and she was found in one of the bathrooms with her sister, an 8th grader.  Back to class she was sent where she stomped in, threw her notebook on the ground, and shoved a kid.  When her teacher picked up the notebook to give it back, she realized that it was full of a lot of really inappropriate comments and writing and turned that over to the administration along with the write up for the skipping, and shoving.

Giving the young lady, who we'll call Skipper Girl, the benefit of a doubt, I was informed by Mrs. Sparrow that they wanted to give her a fresh start so she was moving to my team and my homeroom.  She had to, however, finish a stint in in-school suspension first.

To make a really long story short, she and her sister (because they are joined at the hip and if one gets in trouble the other one does as well) got suspended from ISS for attempting to flee the building and the school grounds (which sent our Sheriff Reserve Officer and administrators running across the parking lot to catch them).  Then mom said they were both going to be out for ten days due to chicken pox (although their records, which arrived a day later, indicated they'd both already had chicken pox).  Then mom said, no, she didn't say they had chicken pox, but that we'd said they couldn't enroll until their records come.  (Which is funny because I have an email from mom about the chicken pox and we always enroll kids without their records, and when these girl's records came, they were huge!)  Then they came back, had to go to ISS, got suspended again for trying to leave the building and swearing at The Principal, then came back.  In addition for their trying to leave the building and roaming the halls trying to locate each other, Skipper Girl and her sister like to curse and insult the adults, including the administrators, in our building.  The situation is so nuts with these two that the front office has radio codes for each girl so they can let people know when they're on the lose.

Now, keep in mind.  This kid is in my homeroom and I haven't even SEEN her.

After about 4 weeks of this on and off suspension thing I get a call from the front office asking if Skipper Girl is in my classroom.  "Uh, no, I haven't seen her," I said.  "I don't even know what she looks like.  Isn't she supposed to be in in-school suspension?"

"No, they don't want her out there anymore, and she needs to be in class, so she's supposed to be with you," said the Front Office.

At this time, I look at my door and see a skinny little blonde in the hallway.  "Are you Skipper Girl?" I ask her.  She nods, and I wave into the room and sit her down.  "She's here," I tell them.

I get her seated, get her my new student paperwork, and get her caught up, best I can, on the assignment the kids are working on.  She sits down, doesn't make a peep, and gets to work.  A few minutes later the phone rings.  It's the Front Office.  The Attendance Lady from Central Office wants to talk with Skipper Girl.  So, off she goes.  Except she doesn't come back.  She takes herself out to the in-school suspension building.  Mrs. Saint, the teacher out there, calls me and asks me to open my back door and make sure Skipper Girl comes back to class.  (Apparently Skipper Girl doesn't want to be in a classroom with the other kids.)  She comes back, class ends and off she goes.

That day she made it through 3rd period, 4th period, and in 5th had a blow up with another girl and threatened to beat her up.  The other girl is mystified by this because She Was Just Sitting There Minding Her Own Business (for once.)  Mrs. Social Studies called the office, they said to hang on to Skipper Girl until the class change (since Mrs. Social Studies had moved her into a corner away from everyone which seemed to make her happy) and they'd deal with her then.  Off she goes to 6th period except she just kept walking on out of the building, with Mrs. Sparrow and Officer Cool chasing after her.

Suspended.  Again.

At this point, the kid has been here for four weeks and had racked up 110 discipline points.  She was on the fast track to alternative school.

So.  A parent meeting is set up to decide on Skipper Girl's placement.  The entire team is there.  The administrators are there.  The school psychologist is there and there's even a psychologist from Central Office there.  Mom is there, along with her sister and her sister's baby (why, I have no idea except mom wanted them there).  We have people from guidance.  Mom has a government advocate from social services or something.  In short, we have about 20 people at this meeting to decide if Skipper Girl is going to go to alternative school.

The meeting starts late because Mom doesn't show up on time.  Apparently she was downtown enrolling another child, a high school student, in our school for severely emotionally disturbed children, after she had been expelled from the high school.

Really.  You can't make this stuff up.

So we have the meeting.  Mom basically says that Skipper Girl is really bright, has no problems academically, but she needs a special placement due to emotional issues. It is, after all, OUR job, according to mom, to "fix my daughter."  Problem is, we don't have a single piece of documentation from a doctor that says the kid actually has something going on with her emotionally, so we have to treat her as we would any other child.  Mom says that she doesn't understand why her daughter doesn't want to go to school, but school is obviously a trigger, and she also doesn't like the fact that we get our Sheriff to track her down. At this point the principal makes a comment that mom is lucky that we haven't called 911 and had the kids arrested for disturbing the peace based on their behavior.

That shuts mom up for a minute.

The psychologists asks for input from the teachers.  Now keep in mind, this is about 5 weeks into the school year.  We go around the table.  I start.  I mention that I've had Skipper Girl in my room for 20 minutes total so I can't really tell them anything.  Mrs. Social Studies and Mrs. Reading mention that they've had her for one period.  Mr. Math and Mrs. Grammar say they haven't even met the child.

The lady from Central Office, the Psychologist, and the government advocate all seem a bit taken aback by that.  I honestly don't think they really realized how little this kid has been in our classrooms until they actually heard it from us.

At this point, I look at the clock and ask if they really need us anymore as we have classes starting.  The Principal sends us on our way.  Thank Goodness.  Because that meeting lasted for three hours!

I got word later that many of the folks in the meeting felt that mom wasn't being honest with us about her situation and her kids.  She was really vague in areas, kept mentioning that the kids had PTSD, but never would say why, then would claim that all these problems just happened since they'd moved Down South (but the files from the other schools say otherwise.)  The end result was that Skipper Girl got sent to alternative school, and surprisingly, she's actually showed up and registered down there.  Although truth be told, she probably won't last and will get expelled considering her fondness for threatening other kids and skipping out.  She'll threaten the wrong kid.

The older sister was withdrawn from school and mom is going to home school her.

What's really scary is that out of the three kids we know about (there are more, believe it or not), not one of them is a typical, normal kid.  One is obviously very emotionally disturbed to the point that she's in a special school (Skipper Girl and her sister did tell the guidance staff that they had an older sister who was crazy).  The other two can't/won't stay in school.

And mom thinks it's OUR job to fix her kids.

Holy Cow! Where'd The Time Go?

Yesterday Mrs. Eagle and I were working after school getting our lessons done when we looked at the calendar and realized that Fall Break was in TWO FREAKING WEEKS!

We were stunned.  Honestly, it seems as if we've been on a high speed treadmill since the beginning of school in August, and it hasn't let up yet.  With over 400 seventh graders this year, all the seventh grade teachers are exhausted.  Planning time has been chewed up by meetings, meetings, and more meetings, and if we don't have a meeting, we're doing interventions for kids who aren't doing well in school.

For those of us teaching science and math, STEM has been a real kick in the butt.  Don't get me wrong, I think the idea behind STEM is great and actually a better way to teach science and math, but it's a heck of a lot of work.  Basically everything we used to do, we're tweaking and changing.  Throw in the mandatory STEM challenges, and you have a lot of time being spent just prepping for units and grading projects.  And with about 30 more kids than normal, it just takes a lot more time.

So, my house hasn't been really cleaned since school started.  Truly.  And I'm a bit of a neat freak in some respects, so this is making me slightly crazy.  Knitting?  Only managing to get that out for knitting club and when I'm waiting for an allergy shot.  Walking/running?  Trying, trying, trying, to get a walk or a run in about 3 times a week and that's a real challenge.  The ankle I messed up in June is better, not 100%, but I'm thinking it never will be 100%.    And of course, just getting enough sleep isn't happening.

So my plans for Fall Break?  Sleep, knit, clean house, sleep.

And They Think I'll Never Call

It just cracks me up that my students honestly don't think I'll be calling their parents when they're missing, say, a 100 point writing prompt that we worked on in class for four days.

I graded 3rd period's Pet Rock Projects today (combining an assessment to see if they can explain rocks to me with one of our mandatory writing assignments for their portfolio).  We worked on this in class for four days.  That's FOUR.  So when I had eight kids who hadn't bothered to turn anything in, and it was due Friday, I got on the phone.

One dad was incredulous.

"He worked on this in class?"

"Yes," I replied.

"For four days?"

"Yes, from last Tuesday and it was due Friday."

"And you didn't get it turned in?"

"Nope, nothing as of this afternoon."

"That's ridiculous.  There's no reason he shouldn't have turned it in."

"Oh, I agree," I said.

"You'll have it tomorrow."

That one was fun.  However, it wasn't as fun as when I called one of my darlings, who answered the phone and politely asked who should he say was calling, and about choked when he found out it was me.  Mom got on the phone and I informed her of the missing assignment.

"Young man, where on earth is this assignment that you didn't turn in?" she asked.  Then a pause.  "He's holding up his finger asking me to wait a minute."....pause...."He's digging in his backpack."....pause...."He has it and he's turning it in tomorrow and if he doesn't You Call Me and we'll get things fixed."

I wish all my parents were this awesome.

The School of Misfit Toys

Last week Mrs. Eagle and I had our first fundraiser for our Knitting (and now Crochet) Club.  We needed some money to buy more yarn and needles, as well as crochet hooks for our new crocheters.  (One of our fabulous special ed teachers volunteered to teach them how to crochet, bless her, since neither one of us knows how.)

In any case, we were having a hat day which is The Easiest Fundraiser Ever because basically the kids give you a dollar (or in some cases, handfuls of coins) and you give them a sticker to wear on their hat which says that yes, they can wear a hat all day.  It's awesome.  Twenty minutes of work usually nets around $150 which is about all the money we'll need all year.  All we have to do is provide a bunch of stickers, a box to put the money in, and then set up a desk right outside guidance that All The Kids have to funnel through and that's it.

I love simple fundraisers.

In any case, The Enforcer was there right before the kids came in and we got to talking about some of the rather, well, unique, children we have this year.  It's weird, but it's like we have had a huge influx of kids with some serious issues with behavior and emotions and goodness knows what else.  A lot of these kids are coming from out of the area - many from out of state - and that was another thing we noticed.

The Enforcer, who has worked at a number of buildings in our town, commented that he thought it was as if word had got out that we do our best to help these types of kids.  "It's like we're the school of misfit toys," he said.  "We're getting all the kids the other schools don't want."

Are we ever.

Just Not Enough of Me to Go Around

Ah, dear reader, I really had much better intentions.

I truly was going to post at least several times a week.  I really was.  But, unfortunately, the beginning of the year reality has pretty much changed that.

With 151 students, a significant increase over previous years, I'm spending a lot more time grading papers.  Consider that it's like having an additional complete class of kids, it's taking way more time than it has in the past.

As for planning...what planning?  We've had this mandatory meeting and that mandatory meeting, and mandatory STEM meetings every Tuesday, and this IEP meeting, and that IEP meeting, and that means that we are doing work after school (or at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am) because that's the only time we have free.

And so, to be honest, I'm just beat.  At school at 6:30, home by 5:00, run or walk after I get home, cook supper, eat, clean up, grade papers, fall into bed by, we hope, 9:30...

I'm truly going to try to be better, I truly am...you're just going to have to be patient.

Piggies Beware!

Some of these new seventh graders are starting to show their true colors lately, and truth be told, some of them are pretty amusing kids.

For example, the second or third day of school the kids at the table in front of my teacher station were having a conversation about their favorite foods before the bell rang.  One of the girls, a thin, pretty little thing mentioned that her absolute favorite food in the world was pork chops.  Now, I've heard kids rhapsodize about pizza, and chocolate, and ice cream, and candy, but never pork chops.  And she doesn't just love pork chops...she LOVES pork chops. Absolutely adores them.  Would probably be happy if she ate them for every single meal, every single day.

Now, I wouldn't have thought much of it, but a few days later the topic of pork chops comes up again and she begins telling the kids at the table about the great dinner she had the other night with her momma's pork chops.  They are all seriously listening to her, which is funny in and of itself.

Okay, this is getting amusing now.  And it wouldn't be nearly so funny but she's not a big kid.  She doesn't look like she could manage one pork chop, let alone two, at a meal, but apparently she polishes them off quite handily.

Yesterday, she asked me how my weekend was after she walked into class.  (This kid, by the way, has apparently adopted me and considers me her school momma, and is checking in every morning to make sure I'm here and it's not a sub.  I'm not sure why this is, but every morning I get a bearhug from her - she's strong for such a tiny kid - and off she goes.)

"I had a pretty good weekend," I tell her.

"Did you have pork chops?" she asks.  Really.  I thought I was going to crack up laughing right then and there.

"No, but I think I'll have to have some this week," I told her.

So last night, I tell Mr. Bluebird this story about my Pork Chop Girl and he thought it was great.  However, he did have something to add.  "You need to ask her how her momma cooks her pork chops.  If they are that awesome, I want the recipe."

So I did.  I pulled her aside this afternoon, and asked her how her momma made her pork chops.

"Well, I honestly don't know," she said.  "Momma gets mad at me for wanting to eat them out of the pan and not waiting to sit at the table so I stay in my room until supper is ready."

Okay, by this point, I'm picturing this girl standing by the stove with a fork in hand reading to spear those chops from the pan into her mouth.  In one bite.

"Well, Mr. Bluebird would really like to know how your momma cooks them, so can you bring me her recipe tomorrow?" I asked.

"Okay," she said, "I'll ask her.  But you know, you're making me hungry."

We'd finished lunch only and hour earlier.

So, we'll see if she shows up with a recipe tomorrow.  Truth be told, I'm intrigued.  Maybe we'll do pork chops this weekend.

Really? A Week Already?

I'm not even remotely surprised that I have not posted this week.  I'm actually wondering just where the week went.  To say it flew by was putting it mildly.

The first full week of school is always like that but this year, in between STEM and the fact that we're bursting at the seams with kids, seems to make it a bit more chaotic.  It's one thing to learn 22 names for a class.  It's quite another to learn 34.  Now multiply that by five class periods and you get a clue how frazzled we all are this year.

Our numbers aren't going down.  The kids are showing up, very few are withdrawing and heading elsewhere and even more new kids are showing up.  If it keeps up like this we'll probably get another teacher or two, but where they'll put them is anybody's guess.  The PE classes are already so large that the gym can't hold all the kids so some of the kids are walking across the parking lot to the city-owned community center to use the gym there.  The electives teachers - music, band, art, PE, and so on - have classes inching up towards 40 in size. Seventh grade doesn't fit in the lunch room so a few groups of kids are eating in what we call the Large Group Instruction classroom right down the hall from the cafeteria.  The Head Janitor put in a request with downtown to provide us with 80 student desks from the warehouse because we'd ran out.

All of which makes me wonder...what were the people that got paid the big bucks thinking when they redrew the zoning maps and said we'd be down - way, way, way down - in enrollment this year?  Last year's sixth grade was big, and all you had to do was drive by our feeder elementaries and see all the portable classrooms they had to realize that there was a population bubble heading our way. I'm wondering if these people even got into the neighborhoods.

So the attendance secretary from the middle school that we rezoned with (we took, supposedly 85 of their kids, but the real number is over 100) is having a freak out because they may lose teachers because their numbers dropped and our attendance secretary is telling her to send them our way because we're about 200 over predictions.  (Some of us have suggested we just send the kids back to their old school, but that would really cause some community melt-downs.)

It's nuts.

The Honeymoon

That first day or so of school is sort of a honeymoon period where the kids, for the most part, act pretty well until they figure things out.  After that, it's anyone's guess how it will go.

The first full day went off pretty well.  One of the downsides was that PowerSchool was off line for repairs so we had to use a back up to get kids copies of their schedules because - surprise! - half of them had left them at home.  Yet, for the most part, it went fine.

For the first three days we have a two hour block in the morning where we do "getting the year started" stuff.  So, you get to keep your homeroom, and get to know them pretty well, for quite a bit of time during these days.  Part of that time is used to go over our SWPBS program (School Wide Positive Behavior Support) which isn't too bad because by now most of the kids know the drill and those that are new quickly get filled in my the old-timers.  It's also nice because we're given lessons that we can use to help them re-lean the program.  All in all, pretty easy.

The rest of the time is used to issue text books and do the "boy/girl" talk.  Friday was the seventh graders day for the "boy/girl" talk.

Actually it's a talk about what you can and can't do at The School, but we separate the boys and girls because there's some conversation in there about sexual harassment and dress code that wouldn't go over too well if the opposite sex was in the room.  So, I went with the boys to the theater, where The Enforcer was doing the presentation.  It includes things like bullying, lunch room expectations, write-ups, sagging, etc. and of course, cell phones.  The school board has a policy that the kids can have their phones but they must be off (not just silent) and away.  (Yeah, right).  This is one of the areas where the administrators have no leeway in consequences for being caught with a cell phone - the first offense is two days in ISS.

So any guess on what happened with cell phones in seventh grade on Friday?

First, Mr. Math managed to catch a kid with a cell phone out, googling away, right after The Enforcer finished his presentation (that included the whole "off and put away" message.)  We didn't even leave the room and he had his first cell phone violation of the year!  The second violation was a seventh grade girl later in the day who had her's out during a class.

You have to wonder...the grade level that had the talk about no cell phones was the grade level that got busted for the first two cell phone violations.

Makes you wonder.

And We're Off!

The first day is over and done with.  And here's the amazing part.

The computers worked.

PowerSchool worked.

The phones worked.

The kids were well-behaved.

They all got on the right bus and went home.

And if you don't work in a school, you don't know how amazing this is.  It went so well, so very well, that some of us were wondering if we'd entered some alternate universe or something.  Even the Goddesses in Guidance were freaking out because no one was there freaking out.

We have had years where the network went down, the phones went down, kids got on the wrong bus, there was no way to print schedules, and any number of minor crises.

But this year...smooth as silk. Kind of makes you nervous.

Enrollment is another story.  We have to count kids who don't show up for about 20 days before we officially drop them off our roll.  We figure if they haven't showed up by then, they probably weren't going to.  Other kids we can drop off because we get requests for records from another school, or the parents actually take the time to notify us.  So, we usually figure that out of every class on the first day we'll have a chunk of kids who aren't going to be here this year because they've moved.  Some years it's been as much as a third of my class.  The past few years, it's been a lot smaller.

Yesterday, out of 30 kids, 27 were there.  And most of us had this experience, so it appears that we have a lot of kids who aren't dropping off our enrollment but who are actually showing up.  And our numbers are a lot higher than forecast, so that's going to be a challenge.  Seventh grade has officially hit 396 last I heard, which is a lot bigger than any grade we've ever had before.  There were so many seventh graders that we ran out of seats for them in the theater on Wednesday morning (where they go to find out what homeroom they are in.)  We have lunch for the first time tomorrow and there are some concerns that we may not have enough room for them in the cafeteria.  It will be interesting to say the least.

As for my homeroom...seems like a fairly decent bunch of kids but we're still in the honeymoon phase.  They have big shoes to fill because last year's kids were absolutely the best homeroom I've ever had.  But they have potential.

And then there's poor Mrs. Eagle and her homeroom...21 boys and 3 girls.  She's considering seeing if she could trade those poor little girls for three more boys and just do an all-boy homeroom.  That might be interesting.

Regardless, it's seventh grade, it's bound to be, at least, entertaining.

Tomorrow - first full day.  Wish me luck!

On Your Marks, Get Set, Go!

Tomorrow will be the first day of school we have with the kids.

I've actually been back in my room, on and off, for about two weeks now, getting it set up, going through files on my homeroom, in-service on STEM, and so on.  We actually didn't have to report until yesterday, but I already feel like I've been there for a while.  It really does get easier after you've done it about ten times.

The big news is enrollment.  Remember the big sixth grade class we had last year?  Well, they've rolled into seventh grade.  And, as the Principal put it, it seems as if every seventh grader in town wants to enroll at the school.  Which means that as of this afternoon, we have 400 seventh graders.  So not only did the sixth grade roll up, they brought along a lot more kids with them.

Where we are going to put them all will be interesting.

My classes are all in the low 30's, which is tolerable.  Barely.  Depending on behavior.

But we'll see how many don't show because they've moved and didn't bother to let anyone know.  Could be a bunch, or it could be few.

Wish me luck!

At Last...Rain!

Yeah!  After four weeks we finally got some rain, 1.75" to date.  I can't believe the difference it already made in my yard.

The first storm rolled in on Sunday night.  We had a good two hours of thunder and lightning before it finally let loose and rained.  It had been so long since we'd had a gusher like this that we went out on the front porch to watch it rain - and noticed nearly every neighbor on the street was doing the same thing.

Let's hope this continues.  Not only for the farmers, but for Hubby.  It's killing him that we're under a burn ban and he can't use his grill (he refuses to get a gas one.)

Toasty, Toast, Nice and Roasty!

If the local news station is correct, we're heading into day ten of temperatures at 100 or above.

The good news is that it isn't humid.  The bad news is that it's not raining, at least on my little piece of heaven.  We've had pop up thunderstorms for the past few days, which have dropped some rain, but not in my neighborhood.  We had a sprinkle yesterday, but it didn't even make the rain gauge damp.  Some parts of town have had awful winds and damage from fallen trees and power lines (and no power), but I've been lucky.

This, however, is my lawn:

My friend mentioned that her lawn is now the same color as the siding of her house (her house is brown).  Considering that August is usually the hottest and driest month, and we're only in the beginning of July, I hate to imagine what it may look like by then.