Yet Another Reason Why Getting Older is the Pits

I know, I know, I'm not posting at the usual rate which should be several times a week.  I think the additional 30+ kids I have this year are really adding up to a lot more time grading and paperwork, plus the whole scheduling nightmare which really hasn't abated, and then there's the outside stuff that's been getting in the way.  And truth be told, this blog hasn't been much of a priority.

My Dad on the other hand, has been.

Daddy Bird is 75, lives about 3 1/2 hours away, is very independent and acts like a man quite a bit younger.  We're talking a guy who gardens, mows, works on his house, walks three miles a day, is very active in his church.  Definitely not a guy who sits and watches TV all day.

In any case, he got a bad cold after a family reunion thing in Las Vegas, got a bit of a respiratory infection/flu after that, then had trouble sleeping, shortness of breath, and then on Saturday I talked to him and he mentioned that he'd fallen and hit his head earlier that morning.  If that wasn't enough to worry me, he was slurring his words.  My first thought was he'd had a stroke or something and I finally convinced him to get some help.  He did call a friend, who called 911, and we spent four days in a the regional stroke center at a very nice hospital about an hour from where he lives.  He's in a rehab facility right now, and I'm heading out on Saturday morning to take him back to his home.

We were lucky.  This was a warning.  He didn't have a full blown stroke, and in fact, they can't find evidence of one, but they were stroke-like symptoms.  He has an enlarged heart, and is borderline diabetic (that part just amazes me because he eats healthier than most folks, myself included).  His speech is nearly normal, and although he still has weakness in one side, and totters a bit when he walks, it's getting better every day.  He's just going to have to make a few lifestyle changes, and we're seeing a cardiologist to get that issue straightened out.   Fortunately, between me and his long-term lady friend (who is awesome and came up from her home in Florida to help out) he's had someone with him during this ordeal.  His spirits are great (he just wants to get home and putter in his yard), and I think we'll be fine with some adjustments.

So, I was out for two days, and three out of my five classes were hell on earth for the sub.  Great.  They were not happy with The Talk I gave them, and I'm still annoyed with them.  Unfortunately the sub didn't single out any kids by name so I can't slap a referral on them.  I hate that.  I want to know who the jerks were.

So that's what I've been doing.  I really did miss my kids when I was gone.  They do give me something to worry about and think about.  But honestly, spending time with Daddy was pretty cool too, even if it wasn't under the best of circumstances.

Why Do We Feel Like It's May?

This has been a rough start to the school year.  I'm not sure what it is exactly, but nearly everyone is walking around asking why we all feel worn out and exhausted like we do at the end of the school year.  Good gracious, we've just started and we're  dead tired.  

Maybe it's the overload of paperwork that we have at the beginning of every year...and the fact that, for the 7th grade teachers at least, we're looking about about 30 more kids a year than we had last year.  It doesn't seem like it would make that much difference but it does.  (We have the same number of seventh grade students this year, but we're down to two teams...and overall, we went down 7 teachers).  Maybe it's because we're still waiting to hear about our new standards and how the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests went and rumors out there indicate it wasn't very good (State-wide, I might add).  And then there's the general student apathy which is nearly as bad as the parent apathy.  Who knows?  All I know is that it's been a rough start.

And then you find that little folded up piece of notebook paper on your desk.

Every year we send out an introductory post card to all our homeroom kids.  Every year.  The key is getting it done while you still can honestly say something good about the kids and haven't been around them long enough to really get truly annoyed.  It's just one more thing we do at the beginning of the year, and considering I've never got one bit of feedback on these cards in the past, oh, six years, you sometimes wonder why in the hell we bother?  I mean really...we're talking about parents who hang up on us.

So this is what I found, dropped on my desk by one of my homeroom kids, Very Nice Boy, on his way out the door the other day

"Dear Mrs. Bluebird,

Thank you for saying that about me and I have something to tell you.  You are a great teacher that wants youre students to exceed and have fun at the same time.  Also you are fun and kind and you are my favorite teacher of all time.  Sincerely, Quiet Boy.

P.S.  I really appreciate that what you said about me."

I wish I could remember what I said about him - probably something along the lines about what a nice kid he was (he really is) and how much I enjoy having him in class (I really do).

Notes like that make it a bit more tolerable...

My Charming Class of Malcontents

My Seventh Period Class from the Very Depths of Hell Itself, is the sort of class that makes teachers count the years until retirement.

I kid you not, in a sea of otherwise fairly nice classes (and including two class that are just an absolute joy to teach), this group of kids stick out like a sore thumb.   They are absolutely amazingly miserable to be around.  Surprisingly, it's my smallest class, it is, by far, my worst behaved.

I have at least five girls in this class Who Cannot Shut The Hell Up.  Some of them will literally talk to a wall, given a wall to talk to.  They are Dramatic.  They are attention-seeking.  They are a royal pain in the ass.  I have at least three boys who are the type that like to mess with other people and other people's things.  I could spend all period dealing with "he touched my binder" and "he took my pencil" issues with this group, but I refuse to play that game with them.  I have two little Thugs in Training who walk around like a couple of roosters sticking their chests out and trying to out-bully each other to see who's going to be the baddest boy in the henhouse (news to them, I'm the head chicken in this yard so they better just stop squawking and sit the hell down).   And then, of course, I have a handful of kids who really care, who really try, and who just hate the class because of the idiots that are in there ruining everything for them.

And it dawned on me about a week ago, that these kids all hate each other.  Absolutely can't stand each other.  It's like a cross-country trip with a van full of kids who are ready to smack the snot out of each other by the time we reach our destination.

So, after multiple seating chart changes moving kids, here, there and yonder, I finally gave up on my dream of perfect lab groups of four and started spreading these kids out.  I figured since they hated each other, they'd be better off with more personal space. On Friday, I was simply planning to move Roster Boy 1 to his own little table (since I have such big classes this year, I have a small lab table as well as 5 isolation seats so I can accommodate everyone in the bigger classes) for the express purpose "of giving you a space where people won't pester you."  (I actually moved him because I was a afraid he and Roster Boy 2 were going to come to blows and the further apart I had them, the better life would be.)  As soon as he happily moved over to his table, five hands went up in the air.

"Can I move to a seat by myself?" asked one of the kids frantically waving his hand.

"Seriously?" I asked.  I mean most seventh graders just love to be able to sit in groups, but, again, this is a unique class.

"Yes, pullleeeeze," he whimpered.

"Okay, head over there," I said and pointed to one of the isolation seats and moved his post-it name on the seating chart.

After that it was like I'd opened the flood gates.  Within five minutes all the isolation seats were taken and most of the big tables were down to two kids, or three at the most.  Amazing.

And today?  They were awesome.  They were quiet.  They stayed in their seats, followed directions and did their work.

I was stunned.  I gave them each a Reward Dollar (part of our PBS thing) and told them to mark on the back that it was for being respectful to their classmates by being quiet and doing what they were told.  It was like a different planet in there today.

Amazing.

A Day to Remember Hereos

I was student teaching up North when I heard about the planes hitting the Twin Towers. I knew then that life as we knew it wouldn't be the same.

We learned a lot about what a true hero was that day. And one of mine is Rick Rescorla.  If you don't know his story, take a moment to learn about what a amazing man he was.  He saved the lives of 2,700 people nine years ago today.   An astounding feat by an astounding man.

God bless him.

And may God bless all those we lost that day and all those left behind.

When Opening a Locker is a Major Accomplishment

The lockers in my part of The Building are OLD. Not just OLD, but DIRT OLD and could be, in fact, older than I am (which is pretty amazing). I believe some of them are original to the building (1964 era) and some were moved over from another building that was even older, so you can imagine what we're dealing with here.

Old cranky lockers that can give a kid fits.

However, I'm used to this. I'm used to the kids having to deal with sticky lockers and knobs that don't want to turn and handles that actually snap off.

What I'm not used to is kids who can't, after six weeks of school, remember their locker combination from one day to the next.

Seriously.

I have two boys in my homeroom who never, ever, remember their combinations. Ever. I'm at the point where I'm tired of looking it up for them and figure if they can't remember three little numbers (and which direction to turn the knob, yet another issue with these kids) then they don't need a locker and can just carry their books around all day. That may sound like a chore, but since they only have three textbooks this year (reading and LA are using class sets), that's not as bad as it sounds.

I thought it was just my kids who were having trouble, but found out from some of the other seventh grade teachers that they were seeing the same thing. Mr. Math has one kid who asks for his combination every morning and Mr. Math doesn't even have to look it up - he's told it to the kid so many times that he has it memorized. Apparently we have a whole group of kids this year who can't memorize a three letter combination.

Which got me to thinking...are we raising a generation of kids who can't memorize sets of numbers because we're all running around with cell phones where all we have to do is touch a screen or hit a pre-programmed key and the phone automatically dials? I have kids honestly tell me that they don't know their parents phone numbers when I'm filling out a phone pass (which makes the secretaries up front nuts as they have to then look up the number since the kid doesn't know it).

I know these kids can memorize some things - I've seen them memorize rap lyrics, dance steps, and football plays. So you think, as much as they love having those lockers, they could at least memorize three little numbers.

But apparently not.

Surviving Centers

I think I just survived two days of centers.

Mrs. Eagle and I had the great idea this summer that we would occasionally do centers instead of a unit test so that we could give the kids more hands' on experiences and also a different way of assessment. Mrs. Mallard, one of the most creative and amazing science teachers we know (she teaches 8th graders), is a big fan of centers and we saw the great results she got with them, so we thought we'd try them. I know a lot of teachers, in particular elementary, do centers, but it's not something we've done much of in seventh grade science.

So, we came up with four center activities dealing with our rock and mineral unit. We had a mineral identification center where they could identify a variety of minerals using streak plates, among other things. We also had a center dealing with the rock cycle that included labeling and diagramming. Another dealt with the three rock types and involved drawing a comic strip. The last one was a puzzle dealing with minerals and their uses in our daily lives. Pretty simple stuff and stuff that could be done, with a bit of focus, in two class periods.

One thing we learned from this is that large classes, small rooms, and center activities can be a challenge simply from a space and mobility perspective. The smaller classes seemed to be able to get on task a bit quicker, while the larger classes seemed to have trouble just navigating around the room without stopping and interacting with other kids. However, once they finally got going, they didn't do too bad.

Mrs. Eagle and I haven't graded the center packets yet, which is something we're going to do this weekend, however from what I've seen, they range from kids who barely did one activity to kids that rocked and did all four and did them well.

The big problem with most of these kids is they have absolutely no concept of time management (despite a giant timer on the screen, thanks to my Kagan Timer Tools software), and they are highly social and can waste an entire class period talking about cheer-leading and other important things. I ran laps around the room trying to get kids focused and helping them stay on track. It worked with some, but not with others.

Many of these kids seem to think that if they turn in anything, even if it's poorly done or incomplete, that they deserve a good grade. I think many of them will be surprised when they get their packets back and see that we actually expect some sort of effort and quality work out of them. Hopefully it will wake a few of them up.

And just think, progress reports come out next week.

The Shopping Spree

Historically, the class of kids we take to lunch is the Absolute Worst Class of the Day. Part of it stems, I am sure, from the fact that we're moving them from one point to another - always a reason for behavior issues. Then again, we're also bringing them back from a thirty minute block where they've been talking, socializing, and generally creating some sort of mild mayhem in the lunch room.

When I first started at The School, my fifth period was actually broken into two parts. I'd start the class and teach a bit, we'd stop, go to lunch, then I'd bring the kids back and we'd finish up our class. This was hell on Earth. Trying to get the kids focused on what we were doing for the last twenty minutes of class was a challenge, to put it mildly. It's a bit better now as the kids come in, sit down and get quiet, we line them up, walk them down, and then when we get back we start class. Still, trying to get them calmed down has always been a bit difficult.

And for some reason, nearly every year, the kids they put in my lunch class are the kids that aren't all that academically oriented or well-behaved to start with. Were talking the low achievers, the low readers, the kids who live in the principal's office. A few years ago, three of the kids in my lunch class were responsible for 50% of The Team's discipline referrals. Every day when I go to pick up my kids from the cafeteria, I'd have one of the lunchroom aides stop me to tell me what crazy little bits of misbehavior my darlings did on that particular day.

So this year, after eight years of absolutely dreading the lunch class, I have an absolutely awesome fifth period class to take to lunch. We're talking kids that line up and get quiet without having to be told a dozen times to do so. And then when they walk to lunch they stay in line and stay quiet. And when I pick them up, they walk back in a quiet line, a fact that still astounds me. The lunchroom aides can't tell me enough how nice and sweet and well-behaved they are. In fact, I haven't had a single kid in one of the "time-out" seats along the front wall of the cafeteria (I've had kids there all year in the past).

So, the other day I emailed The Principals and told them what a wonderful class I had and asked if it were possible to have them open the School Store the last twenty minutes of class so I could take them shopping. Currently the School Store is only open in the mornings before classes start and in the afternoons after buses roll, so aside from special appointments for entire classes (like I asked for) the kids don't get a whole lot of opportunity to shop. Mrs. Sparrow agreed to open it up and I told my kids the day before so they'd be prepared and bring their School Bucks to spend.

So, instead of going over our workbook assignment in class we went shopping. What a blast! I had to help Mrs. Sparrow a bit with the actual selling aspect, but that was a lot of fun. We sold a lot of candy, chips, and drinks, but also some stuffed animals, a fuzzy blanket, and some other big tickets items. The kids were excited, and loved the fact that it was their own "private" shopping time and they didn't have to share the room with 30 other kids.

I love the fact that my Admins have something like this I can use to reward my kids. And I hope my Fifth Period tells all their friends so I can do this with all my other classes when they start behaving as well as Fifth Period.

It's Not Size, It's Guts

So yesterday one of our boys, Big Boy, came into homeroom crying his eyes out because he'd been punched in the face by another kid on the team. He's in Mr. Math's homeroom so he hustled him across the hall to Guidance so we could figure out what happened. Apparently some sort of altercation happened outside the cafeteria on the way from breakfast to the homerooms before school started.

Now Big Boy, as far as I know, doesn't have a beef with anyone. He's not a great student by any means, but definitely not a trouble maker. He has the motivation of a slug and moves just as fast. He's just one of those kids you notice more because of his size and the fact that you put a lot of zeros in the columns across from his name.

It took a while to figure out what had happened and who the culprit was. At first we only had initials so Mrs. Social Studies and I took my gradebook, as we were doing hall duty, and went through the names to see who we had with those initials. We came up with two, one an honor student with impeccable manners who wouldn't dream of punching another kid, and the other a little guy about 80 pounds soaking wet who is about a quarter of Big Boy's size (and who could best be described as a "fart in a skillet"). Nah, couldn't be either one of those two, we figured.

We figured wrong.

It was Tiny Tyke. Amazing. I'm not sure how he even managed to reach up high enough to smack Big Boy in the face, but Tiny Tyke was apparently the little villain who took on a kid four times his size. Why? I have no idea. But it is a bit amazing how fearless this little guy apparently is.

It's Not Black Friday But It's Darn Close

Part of our School Wide Positive Behavior Support program involves rewarding the kids with a "School Buck", for doing the right thing and being "responsible", "respectful" and "engaged". When we hand out a School Buck we have to be specific about what they are getting it for. For example, we had a video today and I handed out Bucks to kids who were actively watching the video (engaged) and taking notes. My mom said she thought it was as if were bribing the kids to be good, but I see it more like teaching them basic economics - you do your job and you get paid. And it's amazing how the kids react when they get them. I've handed out Bucks for kids who've helped others with their lockers, picked up trash from the floor in the classroom, and kids who come in and get to work even before the bell rings.

The kids can use these School Bucks to buy supplies in their classrooms - boring stuff like pencils, erasers, pencil grips, and highlighters. The highlighters have been a huge hit in my room, and I must sell a pencil or two every class period. The cafeteria even got into the program and is selling slushies at lunch so the kids can have a treat now and then.

And this week we had the opening of The School Store.

The faculty got a tour of the store last week, and I've got to be honest, it's impressive. It's in one of the older classrooms right by the front office, and has great displays of stuff a typical middle school kid would like - everything from boring school supplies like sheet protectors and trapper keepers to posters to silly bracelets, stuffed animals, pillows for the stylish bedroom, t-shirts, snacks, and soda pop. It is all arranged attractively, and behind counters which are staffed by administrators, folks from guidance, and teacher volunteers. The store is open in the morning during homeroom, and after the kids are dismissed in the afternoon. We can also make appointments to take our classes there, as long as we call and they can get someone to help staff it. We each got two special blue hall passes so we can give these to kids in the morning and they can go shopping.

And boy, can these kids shop!

The demand for these two hall passes in the morning is amazing. Today I had four of my homeroom kids standing with me during hall duty, waiting for their classmates to come back with the Store Pass.

"Hurry!" they screamed, as they saw a classmate come around the corner with the pass and a handful of purchases. Goofy Boy came up to us and tiny little Helpful Girl just about took his head off as she grabbed for the pass, removed it from his neck, put it on and dashed off to the store.

"Man, I thought she was going to take me with her," he said with a smile as he showed off his bottle of Coca Cola. I couldn't have agreed more. And she wasn't the only one who was waiting impatiently for that Blue Pass.

The number of kids walking briskly by my hall duty station, wearing the Blue Pass, and heading to the store was pretty large - but then again, if you consider that each homeroom teacher received two, that's a pretty big number of kids. Big enough, in fact, that they had to turn away kids yesterday morning as it was too crowded.

I decided to check out the store yesterday afternoon to see how it was going, so after the kids were dismissed I headed over.

Oh. My. Gosh.

The room was packed with kids standing three and four deep to buy a soda, a snack, a poster, anything they could get their hands on. They were waving their School Bucks around so that it looked like the trading floor of the Stock Exchange on a really busy day. That, and a bit of Black Friday mixed in for good measure. It was insane!

But man, it's nice to see these kids enjoying the rewards that they've earned.

On an aside, I'm enjoying hearing their talk about their School Bucks. There was a big conversation in my seventh period about which kid on the team they thought had the most School Bucks. Most kids by now have at least a few (if they haven't already spent them all - some of them spend them as fast as they get them), but a few of them are hanging on to their Bucks to buy one of the big tickets items (MP3 players for example) at the store. It so happens that one of the kids who save up their Bucks is in my seventh period.

Mean Girl didn't have a pencil, and was whining because I wouldn't just give her one.

"Well buy one," I suggested to her, "that's what your School Bucks are for."

"Well, I don't have any," she whined. I'm not surprised. This is a kid who even wrote on her student information form that she was "mean sometimes," who's nose is in everyone's business, who's perpetually sour-faced, and bothering other kids. She also won't do a lick of work, and considering her behavior most of the time, I'm hard pressed to find something to give her a Buck for.

"Well, maybe if you did some of the things like you're supposed to, like being responsible, being respectful, and being engaged, you'd earn a few," I said.

At about this time, Quiet Boy who sits at her table (I figured he was the one person in that class who could ignore her as he doesn't talk to anyone,) reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ziplock bag that is CRAMMED FULL with School Bucks. This kid is rolling in the dough! Absolutely rolling in it! Even my eyes pop out when I see the stash that he's earned, but then again, it isn't surprising. He's a hard worker and a super nice kid.

By this time the whole class has spied his roll of cash and they are staring in awe. He slowly opens the bag, peels off a Buck, then another, and asks if he could buy two pencils. Mean Girl's mouth is about ready to touch the top of her shoelaces by this time. I take his Bucks, and hand him two newly sharpened pencils. He inspects the points, lays one down by his books and then hands Mean Girl the other pencil!

Mean Girl is stunned.

And of course I had to prompt her to thank her benefactor.

And as for Quiet Boy? I gave him another Buck for being nice and buying his most unpleasant table mate a pencil.

Shopping on the Donors' Dime

This year The District has something new in place called the Teacher Free Store. Apparently the local Education Foundation got a bunch of donors (mainly businesses in the area) to donate school supplies and things teachers use in their classrooms so they could set up a "store" that teachers can visit four times a year. Considering that teachers spend an average of $500-$1000 a year out of their own pocket for things for their classroom and their students, I thought this was a great idea.

Personally, I don't need that much for my classroom. I've taught at a summer camp for the past few years and they were always more than happy to have me take leftover and slightly used items off their hands. Storage over the school year was an issue and the less they had to store the better. So, for most teachers, I do pretty well.

However, the kids this year are having an awful time getting basic supplies, especially binders, pencil pouches, and divider tabs. Our free and reduced lunch numbers are up and fewer and fewer people are paying school fees. So, I figured I'd go down to the free store and see if I could find a few things for my kids.

(On an aside here...if there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's people who can't take care of their kids' basic needs like food, clothes, and school supplies, yet have enough money for beer, cigarettes and lots and lots of body art. Priorities people.)

In any case, I made my appointment to go down to the store, drove down there, and spent about ten minutes picking up things for my kids. I got some binders, some pencil pouches (no dividers, alas), two sets of multiplication cards to use with our team remediation class, and a stapler. The stapler was the only thing I got for my room, as I now have 8 lab groups, not 7, so I was short one stapler.

All I had to do was write a thank you note to the donors and that was it. Painless.

So yesterday one of my kids, Tank Boy (this kid screams football player when you look at him, even though he's only 12), is digging through a bunch of folders to find his make-up work from when he missed class. I like this kid a lot. You can tell he doesn't have much support at home financially, but he's a hard worker, participates in class and has a lot of potential. I notice the folder and ask him if he needs a binder.

"Oh yes, ma'am, I do," he says.

"Wait a second," I say, and go to the cabinet where I put the goodies from the Teacher Store. "Do you need a pencil pouch too?"

"Oh yes, and tabs if you have them," he says. His eyes are getting wider and wider as I start pulling the binder and pencil pouch out of the cabinet.

"Well, I don't have tabs, but I have these," I say as I hand him plain boring binder and a pencil pouch. You would have thought, from the look on his face, that I'd given him something much more valuable.

"For me?" He says, as if he couldn't believe I was actually giving him something to keep.

"Yes, but I expect you to take care of them, stay organized, and keep your grades up," I say. (Never hurt to lay out the ground rules again!)

"Oh, I will!" Tank Boy said with a huge smile. "Thank you so much!"

Thank you, dear donors, for helping me make this kid's day.

Staplers, the Handy Tool that Can Staple...Well...Anything

I hate wasting time. And some of the biggest time wasters in my day (aside from the student who wants to interrupt class to inform you that he found gum under the table and silly stuff like that), is passing out things. I hate taking time to pass out papers so I file them in students mailbox folders instead. I hate passing out lab supplies so I have one student from each group get the supplies. And I hate passing out things like scissors, staplers and glue sticks (which I use a lot) so I have them in a nice plastic shoe box with a lid on each lab table.

When I first put out the supply boxes, as we call them, I give the kids very specific instructions about what's inside, how they are to be used (honestly, these kids have to be taught not to bang on staplers), and how if any of the materials are abused or stolen, those boxes would disappear and they'd have to find their own staplers, glue sticks, scissors, and what not. And of course, they are instructed in the most important rule regarding these boxes: These Are Not Toys To Play With So Do Not Open The Box Until Told To Do So. Over and over and over again. I must say this a dozen times a class period in the first weeks of school just to pound it into their heads.

Obviously, however, some kids need a little more head pounding to get it.

I have, case in point, one young man whom we'll call Stapler Boy. Stapler Boy came to us with some baggage but he's certainly capable of following simple directions such as Do Not Open The Box Until Told To Do So. However, the temptation has been too much for him so this past Wednesday he open the box and decided to play with the stapler.

Now, staplers and seventh grade boys can be a toxic mix if the boys are smart enough to figure out that you can shoot staples at your friend by lowering the base of the stapler. (Most students are smart enough to figure out if they do anything that damn stupid the Wrath of Bluebird will come down upon them, so they don't). I tend to notice when a kid is playing with a stapler and looking as if he's wanting to turn it into an advanced pea-shooter.

Stapler Boy looked, quite honestly, guilty as hell when I busted him the first time for playing with the stapler. But I'm still in my "I'm teaching them how to behave and understand the procedures and policies of the Land of Bluebird Mode", so I didn't get too upset, I simply told him to put it away. The second time I caught him I told him, more forcefully, to put it away again and to Do Not Open That Box Again.

The following day Stapler Boy not only was out of his seat without permission at least three times, and he decided to play with the stapler again. The rest of his lab group is having a grand time on their engineering design project (build a shelter that can withstand wind, rain and has room for 4 people), but he's busy walking around with a stapler. After the third time of telling him to Put The Stapler Away!, I yanked him into the hallway and asked him just what on earth he was doing.

"I don't know," he answered. I swear if I had a dollar for every time a seventh grade boy said that to me, I'd be wealthy beyond imagining.

I decided I had no choice but to write up Stapler Boy on one of our new PBS classroom discipline referral forms. I wrote down about the MULTIPLE warnings that Stapler Boy got, the interventions I did (counseling, alternative assignment since he wasn't helping his lab group anyway), and then gave it to stapler boy to write down his side of the story. His explanation? "I was just playing with them."

But the best part came later when Mr. Math came by after school.

"Hey did you have staplers in your room today?" he asked.

"I always have staplers in my room," I answered. "In their toolbox. Of course they aren't allowed to use them without permission, and we didn't use them today."

"Well Stapler Boy was messing with his ear this afternoon and told me he'd used a stapler to try to pierce his ear today," he said.

Oh. Good. Gracious.

This kid will be lucky if he ever does a lab again since it's apparent I can't trust him with tools of any kind. I pulled him aside the following day and told him so. The kids finished up their lab and he sat by my desk and did a worksheet packet which involved nothing more dangerous than a pencil. He wasn't happy, so perhaps he may learn something from the experience.

Mr. Math has already set up a parent meeting for next week. This should be interesting.

A Hearty Recommendation

One of these days I hope I climb over the mountain of paperwork and "to do" lists on my desks and actually start to feel like I have a grasp on this school year. In between the scheduling nightmare we've had for the past two weeks where our class rosters are changing nearly every single hour, to the normal beginning of the year paperwork, to trying to get seating charts that work put together, and actually trying to teach, it's been busy.

And then, of course, we had open house.

Actually I kind of like having open house rather early in the year, before the first progress reports show up. Chances are we get better turn out that way. (I still remember the year we had zero parents show up for conferences.)

We did actually have a good crowd, and since the book fair had already opened (and there are some nice science books in there for a change) there was a lot to see and do. I had two pages of sign ups for my parent email newsletter (although some parents were honest and said they don't check email that often) and Mrs. Social Studies said she had about 50 parents on her list, so that's a good number of parents actually showing up.

The best part was actually seeing some of my former students who are now in high school. Many of them come because they have younger siblings going through The School. (It amazes me how many siblings I have this year.) Others come just because they want to visit their former teachers. I had one young man (now a Junior and standing about 6'4") come up to me and give me a big huge hug right in front of four of my new parents.

"I just love you to pieces, Mrs. B," he said. "You're still the best teacher ever."

The parents are standing there, mouths hanging open. "That's a pretty hearty recommendation," one father says with a bit of a laugh.

"Heck ya," says my former student. "She's the best. She's why I'm majoring in geology when I get to college."

I love my former kids.

Click...

One of the problems with our wacky unbalanced classes this year is that some kids that really shouldn't be together are. Poor Mrs. Social Studies was ready to pack it in, retire, and move to Arizona when she realized that not only was her 5th period (the class we take to lunch and historically, the Worst Class of the Day) her largest class at 36, but that it had every single one of our wannabe thugs in it.

One of the little darlings, Bad Attitude Boy, had already had hallway conferences with two of us, had been barked at (severely) by me, and was rapidly proving to be a real pain in the neck. In addition, we looked at his records and realized that he really should be in our inclusion math and wasn't. So, Mr. Math, Mrs. Social Studies and I sat down and reworked his schedule to put him in the proper math class and to remove him from his buddies in Mrs. Social Studies' crowded class and put him in my nearly all girl class of 21. (I figure putting him in with a bunch of rather serious-minded girls, rather than another set of class clowns, would be a new and sobering reality for him.)

Before we can do a schedule change, we have to do a parent contact to let them know we're doing a schedule change (just in case they actually care), so Mr. Math went off to do that during planning.

I was setting at my desk putting the final touches on a lab when Mr. Math comes in.

"Can I borrow your phone?" he asks. "Something weird keeps happening every time I try to call Bad Attitude Boy's parents and I want to make sure it's not my phone."

Let me step back a minute and mention our issue with the phones. Last spring Someone Somewhere Who Has Authority decreed that all phones would be removed from our desks and mounted on the wall by the door of each classroom. Apparently many phones were getting knocked off desks and we were spending a fortune replacing them. No one asked the teachers if this was convenient (it isn't) or if it made sense, they just up and came and took our phones and put them by the door. Since many of our classrooms have doors right next to each other, it's a real treat trying to figure out who's phone is ringing when you are doing hall duty. The other annoying part is that if you want to talk to a parent with your computer in front of you (so you can read the information in PowerSchool) you have to unhook your computer from the teacher station goodies (document reader, LCD projector, etc.) and carry it over there and find a place to put it so you can read from it. I've seen teachers sitting on the floor by their door with their computers in their lap, talking on the phone because not everyone has a table to put by the door! I have my teacher station somewhat close by so I went and bought a 25' phone handset cord so I can see my computer and talk on the phone.

But anyway...back to Mr. Math's phone problem. I wasn't surprised, at all, by Mr. Math's question because yet another issue with the phones being moved is that, for some weird reason, they don't work all that well now. I was having an awful time with static, and voices cutting in and out (until, amazingly, I spent my own money on my 25' phone cord), so I figured Mr. Math was having a similar problem.

"Go ahead and use it all you want," I said.

"If you don't mind, I want to put it on speaker phone so you can hear it in case it does it again," he said. No problem. He pressed the button, dialed away, and the phone rang twice then picked up.

"Hi there, this is Mr. Math from The School and I'd like to..." he said and then we heard a very loud and audible CLICK.

"See, it did it again!" he said.

"That's not the phone," I told him. "That's someone hanging up on you!"

"That's what I thought," he said. "It happens as soon as I mention that I'm from The School! I can actually hear breathing on the line, and then they hang up!"

Amazing. So much for all that parent involvement that we keep hearing the politicians bark about. Good thing we weren't calling to tell The NonParent that the little darling had been, oh, hit by a car or something.

Mr. Math did go to Mrs. Sparrow, one of our admins, and she said to document the three hang-ups and change the schedule.

So there.

Someone Please Explain...

...why, when I have classes of 17 and 19, that I keep getting new kids scheduled into my class of (now) 33.

Just wondering.....

Random Musings...

It's 9:00 pm in my Beloved South, it's still 85 degrees outside on my front porch and the heat index says it feels like 93 degrees. This is wrong on a lot of levels, the main one being that we're in school now so dadgummit, it should at least feel like fall.

I did see one tree today covered in yellow leaves. I don't know if it's because it thinks it is fall, or that it's so hot it just gave up.

Another heat advisory for tomorrow and Thank the Lord and Our Awesome Janitors that we Have Air Conditioning!!

We spent the first two hours of the past two days teaching the kids expectations and behaviors as part of our SWPBS. Fortunately the lessons were already done for us, we just had to roll them out. It went pretty well, although we really didn't need two hours...oh well, live and learn. Did a carousel activity where they wrote down expectations for behavior in seven main zones of the school (classroom, hallways, cafeteria, bus, etc.) which was interesting. It got them moving and talking (which they love) so that, and the class discussion as a wrap up, worked well. Today was skits on behaviors where they got to show how to do things the wrong way (hilarious) and the right way (not so funny but we still learned some stuff).

I'm having fun swooping down like some avenging angel of happiness and handing out PBS money for good deeds and behavior spotted - like the kid who picked up the milk carton off the cafeteria floor on her own accord - and looking at the kids' faces when they get their money. We're supposed to be very specific when we give them their money - "I really appreciate how you were responsible and took the initiative to keep our cafeteria clean," for example - and it kind of blows their mind when you say it that way. That part, at least, is fun.

Another random thought - having PowerSchool schedule the kids was not a really good idea. One kid went up to Mrs. LovelyLanguage and mentioned that it seemed a bit weird that he actually had three Language Reading classes, and didn't have any math classes. Sure enough he had been scheduled into her regular reading/language block of two classes and then had been scheduled again into the gifted reading/language block class, with, of course, no room for math. We got that fixed, he now has has a block of gifted reading/language, and advanced math.

And poor Mrs. LovelyLanguage, a veteran of 3rd grade teaching, had her past come up and haunt her when a seventh grader pulled the ultimate elementary experience - he threw up. On his desk, his agenda, his work, and, unfortunately, on her. He went home sick, she cleaned up best she could, and life went on.

My class of 36 is down to 32. I'm hoping it gets to 30, or better yet, 28. It's a noisy bunch with a lot of high maintenance kids in there.



My 4th period is scaring me. Seriously. Yesterday I had them all of 30 minutes and did the fastest introduction to my class I've ever done. Today I walk into the room from hall duty expecting complete chaos (this is another class of 32) and you could have heard a pin drop. I am not kidding. Each and every one of them had his or her agenda out, was rapidly filling it out, they weren't talking, they were seated, it was, well, kind of unnerving. I have had classes for an entire YEAR who could not (chose not to) get out their agenda and fill it out every day like they were supposed to. Jolly Ranchers all around for this bunch.

Why am I so freaking tired? I miss my naps.

Let's Try Something New

Mrs. Eagle and I have always been the type of teachers who are willing to try something new to see if it works with our kids in our classrooms. Foldable notes? We'll try 'em (love them). Cornell notes? We'll give them a whirl (hated them, kids hated them, we don't do them.) Brainpop videos and quizzes? Sure, bring them on (use them a lot!)

So, when nearly a year ago, Admin said they were considering putting together a program (with the help of a prestigious nearby University and members of the staff) to help with our discipline issues, we were all for it. Goodness knows we have more and more at-risk kids walking our halls every year, many of whom have absolutely no support at home. We needed to find a way to keep them in class and learning, rather than constantly getting into trouble and being out the door.

So, it's been nearly a year that our school has been working on this program, and they rolled it out to the faculty (for the most part) last spring right before we left for the summer. Today was an in-service day and we had workshops on how to train our kids on this (gotta love lessons already done up for you), as well as how to reward them and how to do our new discipline referral process.

Gotta be honest...I'm impressed.

Tomorrow and Wednesday we have a two hour block in the morning where we'll be working with our homeroom kids on the program. Lessons are already prepared, posters up on the wall, we're ready to go. From the conversations I've been hearing in the halls, pretty much the entire faculty (and definitely all the admin) are willing to give this a real chance. Good gracious, they even trained the cafeteria people and the bus drivers on the program, so that's saying something!

So, we'll see how it goes. I'll keep ya'll posted.

And in the meantime, let's just hope my class of 36 magically shrinks.

1 down, 179 to go...

So today was the first (half) day of school.

And, considering some of the first days we've had in the past, this wasn't too bad. Really. (In case you're wondering about one of the less than stellar first days, click here.)

The buses were all unloaded quickly, the sixth graders made their way to the gym, the seventh graders made their way to the theater, and the 8th graders (who should, for the most part, know their way around) looked up their homerooms which were posted, and went to their class. In fact, the buses all unloaded so fast that we had to wait nearly 15 minutes to start calling out our kids because the walkers and parent drop off kids hadn't all shown up yet.

We did have attendance lists and rosters. We also had - surprise! - emergency cards which we weren't expecting until Tuesday. Out of 29 kids in my homeroom, 25 showed up, which isn't too bad. However, I still have some really unbalanced classes - 27, 31, 19, 35, and 18. The Administrators all walked around to welcome the kids and The Principal mentioned that she really noticed the unbalanced class sizes and was going to see if Guidance could fix it before Tuesday (I hope...) Apparently this is what happens when you let a computer system do your schedules for you. Still, with block english/language arts, special ed, advanced classes, and all that, sometimes it's hard to get the class sizes balanced. We shall see.

The kids were really pretty good - chatty to start with, but on the whole not bad. It's always so dreadfully boring the first day or so as you spend most of the time handing out paperwork, going over stuff like supply lists (exciting stuff), and forms that need to be signed, returned, blah, blah, blah. Like I tell the kids, it's boring to me too. We did finally get through all that, had the five of us on the team circulate and introduce ourselves, and then I had the kids do a few "getting to know you" activities because it amazes me that they can sit in a class with a kid for a year and not know his or her name! They liked that activity because it was noisy, involved moving around the room, and they could talk, talk, talk.

One thing I noticed...out of 25 kids that showed up, 23 ride the bus. That's huge. It will make going to lockers at the end of the day a bit of a challenge because I always let bus riders go first...and now that's most of the class. Hum...

Monday it's in-service on our new School Wide Positive Behavior Support program (more on that soon). Tuesday it's back to reality with a full day, a full schedule, and a whole bunch of kids.

Down to the Wire

So tomorrow is the first day of school.   Actually it's a half day, but who's quibbling?

And no, I do not know why we go a half day on a Friday, have a teacher in-service on Monday and the kids finally show up for a full day on Tuesday.  It doesn't make sense to me either.

Anyhow, I'm not sure if it's because this is my eighth first day of school, or because I finally got a bit more organized, or if I got started earlier, but I had my room set up and ready to go about three days ago.  I got the bulk of it done Friday of last week, but started going in every morning this week (to get back on the getting up at o-dark-thirty routine) which enabled me to get a lot more done.  No last minute copying, no last minute poster-hanging (I hate that part), no last minute anything.  So it's a bit weird because everything is ready to go.

Except we have no homeroom rosters.

Seriously.

I sarcastically suggested we line the kids up in the theater like you did as a kid when you chose teams on the playground and pick the kids we want in our homeroom. (Actually, now that I think of it, I kind of like that idea.)

I love our guidance department. They are rock stars. They are some of my best friends. So, it's not really fair that they get blamed for the whole scheduling problem issue because truly, it isn't their fault. It's technology. We use PowerSchool (which I usually love for the most part) but they did some changes over the summer and for some reason it has not been cooperating. At all.

First problem is that we've gone from three seventh grade teams to two seventh grade teams. Our numbers are down this year (which is weird because they are building apartments and subdivisions all over our zone but alas, no middle school kids. Perhaps they're all elementary.) And the eighth grade has gone from three full teams to two teams plus a "mini-team". Some of the eighth grade teachers are going to be teaching one class of seventh graders to reduce the class sizes. So, since Mrs. Eagle's team is closer to the eighth grade hall than my team is, her team should be getting about 30 or so more kids than my team (and these kids will be the ones that have one eighth grade teacher). Confused?

So, for some reason that no one can figure out, PowerSchool wants to schedule all new seventh graders onto my team. And from what the Guidance Goddess said, yesterday and today was Scheduling Hell as parents and kids were lined three deep trying to register for school.

And then there's the issue of balanced class sizes. Although we currently don't have homerooms, we can see some of the kids that are in our other classes. My class sizes are quite a bit bigger - for the most part - than last year. Let's see, 3rd period has 29, 4th period has 23, 5th period has 22, 6th period has 37 and 7th period has 17. (Yesterday 6th period had 42).

All of this will probably change by tomorrow. I can cram about 34 kids in my room, with 7 lab groups of 4, one lab group of 2, and 4 flying solo seats. It should be interesting to see how many show up, and how it all shakes out.

Oh boy!!!

Oh, It's Just Me Frying an Egg on the Sidewalk

It's nearly 5:00 pm and the temperature on my shaded front porch is 99.3 degrees Fahrenheit.   (Hey, I'm a science teacher, so of course I'm going to tell you whether I'm talking Celsius or Fahrenheit!)  The heat index is supposedly 111 degrees.  Just about 50 miles north of here the heat index is supposedly 122 degrees.

And school starts on Friday.

Some school districts in the region are delaying opening school since they apparently don't have functioning air conditioning systems.  We, however, do have functioning air conditioning (cross my fingers) so we're going to go ahead and start.  I feel bad for the kids who ride the bus because they are definitely not air conditioned.   All outside activities are canceled, which is smart.  Actually I've been at The School the past few days and it's been rather comfortable.  So, if nothing breaks, we're good to go on Friday.

Still, there's some concern about the fact that we start school so early in August - the hottest month of the year.  (And there are some districts who start in late July!)  Some argue that we could save money by not having to air condition schools as they'd be unoccupied by students.  Others argue that we've taken away kids' summers, so much so that there's a political action group here called Save Our Summers who would like to see statewide legislation requiring that school cannot start prior to Labor Day. 

Personally, it really doesn't matter much to me when we start school.  In fact, I wouldn't even mind year-round school.  As long as I have enough time to teach content prior to The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests, I'm happy.

But it got me to wondering...readers, when do you start school?  Any of you teach/attend a year-round school?  What do ya'll think???

In the meantime, I may just go cook supper out on the sidewalk.  You know, save some electricity.

A Little Like Christmas In July

Summer is done.

Today I loaded up the car and headed over to The School to unpack and get my room set up.  Amazing how long that can take.

Every year we have to box up and pack up our rooms.  For those, like me, who have absolutely no built-in storage, this means EVERYTHING.  Mrs. Eagle had cabinets and all sorts of counters in her old room so it was simply a matter of just putting stuff away.  My room, however, has nothing of the sort, so I have to box it all up so that the janitors, bless their hearts, can empty the entire room to strip and wax the floors.   Then they haul all the stuff back in and, thankfully, read the little map we tape to our doors so they know, more or less, where things go.  I have to give them credit - this year I didn't have to hardly move a thing.  They were rock stars.

A few years ago I got tired of the Spring hunt for boxes with which to pack up my room and instead bought big plastic tubs to store things in.  This has turned out to be one of the smartest things I've ever done.  For one thing, it increased my storage during the year.  Four of these huge tubs can sit under the work table by my door.  That means I can store things in these four tubs during the year.  The other ones I simply stash in an out-of-the way corner (I do not have a square room so there are a lot of weird little corners) and then I pull them out every Spring and pack them up again. 

I do not, however, label them with what's in them.  Because that changes every year.  Which means that today was kind of like opening presents at Christmas.  Wonder what's in this tub?  Oh wow, books, pipe cleaners, and my precious red Swingline stapler!  Cool!  

I did get a lot accomplished.  Still need to get out and hang up posters, and figure out kid seating, bring in the plants and clean a few things, and then I should be ready to go.  Heavens, I even got the technology up and running and working.  That can sometimes be a disaster but this year worked out fine. 

Now if I can just find a way to fit a rumored 34 kids per class into a room that's made to accommodate 28...