So Long, Farewell!

Today was the last half day of school!

It's fair to say that the seventh grade teachers were probably more excited than the kids.  I'm not sure why we even have a half day as the day, truly, serves no purpose.  We managed to get the report cards printed and issued yesterday (in the hopes that the little darlings would stay home), but they came anyway.  Pretty much the day is spent showing a movie, letting them run around in the gym for a while (the weather has been awful), and hoping they don't annoy the daylights out of us on this last day.

Fortunately for me, all the kids in my home room (with one glaring exception) that gave me hives were gone today - either in alternative school, suspended (for fighting the day before), in school suspension or they didn't come.  That made for a pleasant day - one of the most pleasant we've ever had.  I put on a movie, but most of the kids chose to go through the game club games and spent the morning playing Apples to Apples and Monopoly.  Nicely.  Without causing a fuss.

It was actually quite pleasant.  Which goes to show that when they want to be, they can be well mannered and a lot of fun.

So, we sent them on their way, most to 8th grade, others to other states (we have quite a few of our military kids moving out of the area now that their military parent is back from Afghanistan), and some to who knows where.  But we waved the buses goodbye (my favorite tradition), and wished them all a wonderful summer.

The bittersweet moment for Mrs. Social Studies and I was saying goodbye to two of our boys from last year. These two young men are kids that I would not hesitate to give a home to should they need one.  They are polite, well-mannered, and just delightful.  (They also happen to be best friends practically joined at the hip.)  Neither one was a star student in 7th grade (one is a sped kid) but they flourished in 8th grade.  And they never let a day go by that they didn't stop and give each of us a hug.  I kid you not - they'd be walking down the hall with all their basketball buddies and they'd stop, come visit us (making their friends wait) and off they'd go.  Their friends quickly figured out that this was something they were going to do regardless of how much they teased them, and the teasing ceased and pretty soon these kids were coming by to say hi even though we never had them as students.

I love these two.  And I know they'll be okay.  We had a talk with them a bit today about high school, and what they hoped to accomplish - they have managed to stay clear of the gangs and drugs that so many of our kids fall prey to, and that's a blessing.  (They ascribe this to good role models and the fact that "it's not something Jesus would approve of or do.")  They know they'll be fine because they have people that love and support them, both at home and in school.

I'm looking forward to their graduation in four years.

So to T and T, I love you both, God bless, and I'll miss my daily hug from the two of you.  I'd be glad to call either one of you my son.

Girl Drama - A Theory Behind the Madness?

As you know doubt have read over my past few posts, we've just had an amazing amount of girl drama this year.  We are not alone.  The eighth grade as well as the sixth grade report mass amounts of girl drama as well.  It's almost as if a damn has broke and we're just flooded with girls gossiping, arguing, threatening, fighting and just generally acting like a bunch of horrid little brats.

It really takes the fun out of everything, truth be told.  But there's always hope.  We did have one nice day this week when our main instigator was absent and all the girls were, surprisingly, well mannered and actually kind of nice.  But she came back the next day to stir the pot and life was hell again.

So, I'm on the telephone the other night talking to my cousin who lives in Colorado.  We call about every other week or so and chat and catch up on what's going on and all that sort of thing.  Like me, she doesn't have any kids of her own, but she's the favorite aunt for her sister's three children so she does have some kid experience.  I began to tell her about all the girl drama we were having and she commiserated.  And then she said something that had never, ever occurred to me.

"Did you ever wonder if all this increase in girl drama is a result of too much reality TV?  I mean after all, that's all it is, a bunch of grown women running around fighting with each other and acting horrible."

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  I think she may be on to something here.  I have NEVER watched a reality television show.  EVER.  (They hold absolutely not interest for me.  None at all.  I teach middle school, why would I want to subject myself to the same bad behavior but this time in adults?)   Although I've never seen one of these shows, I've seen enough advertisements for them to realize that they seem to have a bunch of grown ups acting like children.  Badly behaved children.

It's often been said that kids model what they see.  Well, if all our kids are doing is watching sitcoms where people are rude to each other and reality television where they fight and argue with each other all the time, is it any wonder they act like this themselves?

Counting the days...one and a half to go.

The Cursed Class...Part Two

The 8th graders finally - FINALLY - got in their field day.

Granted, it rained most of yesterday so it was (of course) canceled.  Today it was dry, but cold (at least for this time of year).  I don't think the temperature ever reached above 55 and it was cloudy and windy.  But by golly, they got field day in.

So that was the good news.

The bad news is that on field days for the other two grades, we're more or less trapped with our kids all day with no planning or breaks.  So, during first and second period when they usually go to their elective classes such as PE, art, band, and the like, they stay with their homerooms (because the PE, art, and band teachers are all out running field day).  Usually what we end up doing is giving them some fun time - a movie or something easy like that because, after all, these are their fun elective periods.

Today, however, guidance wanted us to give them an on-line career inventory survey to help them do career planning with them as they get into 8th grade and high school.  The good part was that it was all done on line.

The bad part was that it was all done on line.

The Guidance Goober saw to it that we all had the computer labs delivered to our rooms, as well as an individualized instruction sheet for each kid that gave them all the user name, password, and other information (including birthdays as some didn't know their own birthdays last year!) that they needed.

All they had to do was follow the directions and everything would be fine.

Let me say that again. All.  They.  Had.  To.  Do.  Was.  Follow.  The.  Directions.

You know where this is going, don't you?  Just last week we did a Periodic Table of Elements project that involved FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS and many of them were amazed that I'd hand it back to them and tell them to "read number six again and follow the directions."  They assured me they had followed all the directions, but it one glance I could tell if they had or hadn't.  They just want to jump in, and not do anything so borrrrrring as reading directions.

So.  Today they had to go to a website, set up a user account, and answer 60 easy questions about what they liked and did not like to do.  Easy, right?

I had three - three! - kids who took over 45 minutes to set up their user account because they couldn't (wouldn't?) follow the directions on their sheet which told them EXACTLY how to set up their user account and what their user account was called.

I am not kidding here.  Between the account issues with my kids, and then having to listen to them whine about pages loading slowly  - "good gracious, there are 300 seventh graders logging in all at once, give it time!"- it was a solid two periods of aggravation.  I think Mrs. Social Studies next door was ready to toss at least one kid and computer outside and slam the door behind him.

It was definitely a day that called for chocolate.

Counting the minutes.

The Cursed Class

Last year's seventh graders got a raw deal towards the end of last school year.

For those keeping track, last May was The Flood.  Something like 13" of rain fell in one weekend and most of middle Tennessee looked like a lake.  We ended up missing a week of school due to flooding, and we still have businesses that are just now reopening after last year's disaster.

As a result of The Flood, we ended up canceling a lot of events.  We canceled the school play.  We canceled a band concert.  We even canceled our weekend camping trip to the local recreation area.  (Now that, I might add, wasn't solely because of The Flood.  A lot of it had to do with the fact that The Flood caused every snake in the entire region to hike on up to dry land to places they've never been before.  The camping area was overrun with them.  The thought of seventh graders + camping + snakes = chaos didn't appeal to any of us.)

And of course, this was the group of kids who never got in field day due to tornadoes.

So can you guess what's happening to them this year?  Anyone?

Yup, you got it.

Friday was supposed to be field day for the 8th grade.  It rained.  It was cancelled.

It has rained all weekend.

Tomorrow it's going to be in the 50's (cold for this time of year) and raining.

We may run out of school before we run out of bad weather.

Girl Drama

I hate middle school girl drama.

I realize that as a female I was once myself a middle school girl, and although my memories of that era are long ago and quite foggy (probably by choice, middle school is a miserable time), I'm sure I had my share of drama as well.  That doesn't mean I have to like it.  Especially when it's causing so many issues in our classrooms this week.

Remember how good they were for field day?  Well it was a one-time thing, I'm afraid.  Since then we've had fights pop up all over the place, good kids doing the most outrageously stupid things (shooting straightened staples out of click pencils comes to mind), and just general mayhem.

And of course we've had the girl drama.

You gotta like boys.  They get annoyed at someone, they'll duke it out, then shake hands and be best buds afterwards.  It's forgotten.  They move on.  Girls on the other hand will stir the pot over and over and over and over, making threats, telling tales, dragging in other girls and pretty soon you have a team in an uproar.  And Mrs. Eagle's team in an uproar because we're getting "cross-team pollination" between our girls.  Apparently the trash talking starts in their elective classes, where the teams are merged together, then spills over.

It's enough to make me want to pull my hair out.

It got particularly bad on Friday.  Mrs. Social Studies and I had a number of girls request to talk to a guidance counselor about "issues" they were having with other girls.  Unfortunately, guidance was buried in end of the year crap, we were one counselor short, and they had to deal with fall out of actual fights. As far as guidance and the admins were concerned (they'd been mediating all sorts of girl drama that day among other things), if they couldn't get along, and caused trouble, it was a big time write up and it wouldn't be pretty.  So, the girls didn't get called in, and Mrs. Social Studies and I decided to take things in our own hands.  We actually ended up moving kids between our classrooms to separate some of the girls, but felt we needed to take more action.

We yanked a few out in the hallway for some candid discussion, took names, got different sides of the stories, and realized that we had Had It Up To Here with the disruption and the drama.  This is your typical girl drama story:

"Well Girl A is mad at me because she said I stole her boyfriend, but I didn't, he's just a creep, and she told Girl B and Girl B told Girl C and now Girl C and Girl D along with Girl A and Girl B are threatening to jump me and I can't go in your class because Girl A and Girl D are there."

That's just the tip of the iceberg.  Seriously.

By the way, Mrs. Social Studies and I have rooms that are next to each other and have doors that are separated by a mere 14".  When we take kids out in the hall for a chat, and close the doors, it's amazing how well behaved the kids in the rooms are (we can see them through the glass).  Why?  They're desperately trying to hear the conversation.  Cracks me up every time.

So, we called Mr. Math, who has an inclusion teacher during sixth period, and asked if he'd watch our rooms while we went around to the other team classrooms and basically laid it on the line.  We have six days of school left and by golly, they weren't going to make it a living hell for the teachers and other students.  Two of our team classes had subs (who were probably a bit surprised to see the two of us at the door, asking for a minute with the kids), but they seemed really happy to turn the room over to us for a few minutes.  The girls were warned (and so were the boys, we told them the same deal held for them although they've been a lot better behaved than the girls - however, Monday is another day) and as far as everyone is concerned, that was a final warning.

Let's hope it works.  But I'm not placing any bets on it.

Field Day? Without a Hitch? Really?

All the seventh grade teachers had been dreading Field Day this year.  After all, our kids have been absolutely wild since we finished The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Testing.  We had a really nice day during testing week, took them outside to blow off steam, and ended up breaking up fights left and right.  (The upside to that was some of our biggest pains in the rear ended up getting suspended for about ten days which was a nice break for everyone.)

So, to say that we were NOT looking forward to Field Day was an understatement.

And now that it's all said and done (on a lovely day in the low 70's with NO TORNADOES), it turned out to be one of the Best. Field. Days. Ever.

Strange.

These kids, who prior to field day were doing everything in their power to cause drama and stir up fights were actually well behaved.  We had Mrs. Reading's substitute (Mrs. Reading had a baby a few weeks ago) stay inside in a "holding room" where trouble-makers got sent and they could spend the rest of the day reading or doing piles of worksheets.  She had only four customers and these were kids who got sent to her by The Enforcer after doing something stupid at breakfast.

Seriously.  We didn't have to send a single kid in for getting into trouble.  Not.  One.  The Enforcer told me he kept checking the holding room to see how many kids were stacked in there and he was astounded to see that the only kids in there were the ones he'd put in.

What's kind of funny is that after we practically had to threaten kids to sign up for events, we ended up having kids begging to participate (once they saw how fun it was).  We had some new events this year and they were a lot of fun, for both the kids participating and those watching (and some of them were a lot harder than we expected).

So it went off without a hitch.  Which is almost scary considering this group.  We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never did.

But never fear...we may have had a wonderful field day on Friday, but on Monday they were back to their old tricks and they celebrated by having a knock down drag out fight between a couple of our boys in between 2nd and 3rd period.

Counting the days...just counting the days.

Field Day Fiasco

Field Day for the Seventh grade is this Friday.

As long as it doesn't flood, hail, storm, snow, whatever.  Heavens, last year we spent most of field day in a hallway while tornado warning after tornado warning was issued.  Such fun.  So we shall see if the weather holds and we do indeed have field day. (We have a frost warning tonight, of all things.  In May.)

In any case, many of the Seventh Grade teachers have said all along this year that this bunch of kids really, really don't like each other and really, really don't have any team or school spirit.  They are a cantankerous group.  I've often said that individually, most of the kids are pretty good kids, but put them in groups (or classrooms) and you fell like you're on mile 1,999 of a 2,000 mile car trip with six kids who can't stand each other and who've fought the whole way.

It's been that kind of year.

So on Monday I had The Team talk to their homerooms and get kids signed up for Field Day events.  The idea was that I'd take all the names, do a spread sheet in Excel and then make sure that each kid got to do at least one of the events they wanted to do.  (It actually works out pretty well this way.)  Our kids responded pretty well and we ended up fielding pretty full teams for all the events, including some of the new ones the kids were unfamiliar with.  (For the record, everyone wants volleyball, kickball and tug-of-war).  

Mrs. Eagle's team, however, had a different response.  They pulled all the kids together during seventh period on Tuesday and they couldn't get kids to sign up for anything, even the three most popular events.  They were rude, the didn't want to participate, they wouldn't listen, they didn't care.  According to Mrs. Eagle, all they want to do on field day is run around and talk with their friends.  Participating in the actual events wasn't on their agenda.

So, she went and talked with Coach Cool, who pretty much organizes the whole thing, and told him that we might have a problem.  (The fact that we only have two seventh grade teams this year is making it even more difficult, especially since so many of our kids are cross-teamed.  There's not a lot of team identity or spirit like their used to be.)  Mrs. Eagle pretty much said that unless something dramatic happened, they'd probably end up forfeiting all the events because she couldn't get kids to sign up.

So, The Principal, who we also talked to, suggested that on Field Day, Mrs. Eagle's team dismisses the few kids that did sign up to go to the gym and begin the volleyball tournament, whole the teachers keep the rest of the kids back in class and put them to work on something.  She figured that after about an hour of seat work they may actually want to sign up for kickball.

Coach Cool decided to announce that little gem to the PE classes and lo and behold, we had kids crawling out of the woodwork wanting to sign up for events.  I needed only a few kids to fill a few empty spots, and managed to get those filled without any effort.  Mrs. Eagle said kids were practically running to her room to volunteer to sign up.

So I guess, when the alternative is sitting in a classroom doing worksheets all day, or getting out in the sun and maybe actually participating in a little game of tug-of-war, being outside wins.

 

The Longest Month

I don't know if it's because we lost all our mental health days holidays (due to going over our snow day limit), or if the kids are just more annoying this year, or what, but this is turning out to be the longest 16 1/2 days of my life.

I am not alone.

There probably isn't a staff member on board who isn't just dragging into the building every morning, hoping to make it through the day.  Of course, the nearly constant thunderstorms and tornado sirens aren't doing us any good when it comes to getting a good night's sleep.  But still, we're just dragging.

And even coffee isn't helping.

Southern Spring

I am sick of bad weather.

We are coming up on the anniversary of our 1,000 year (or 500 year) flood (it depends on who's talking what year it is), and the city is asking for volunteers to fill sandbags because - SURPRISE! - we're experiencing flooding again.

Within the past week, we've had numerous tornado warnings, storm damage, awful amounts of rain, hail, you name it.  Everyone is cranky and irritated (kids and staff included) because we're spending nights in basements, closets and anywhere deemed safe while the tornadoes are popping around, dealing without power, and having to hang out with insurance adjusters as they assess damage.

Let's see...last week we sent kids home early due to power problems throughout the county.

Monday night we had rotten storms again - more power outages - and even more damage than we had last week.  School was cancelled.  (Smart call).  We only lost power at home for 8 hours and I consider myself lucky.  Some people still don't have power.   One neighbor lost a tree, another lost most of his expensive, not even a year old, vinyl fence.  Trees everywhere and power lines down.

Last night more tornadoes, more time in the basement (did not lose power - yeah!) and we delayed school for an hour, and let out today an our early due to flooding.  Some teachers didn't make it in (trees in roads, trees through house, flooding, etc.) and a lot of kids stayed home because they were predicting more tornadoes today.

Can we just have some sunshine?

But truly, I'm thanking the Good Lord that it wasn't worse.  We're alive, and unharmed, and although tired, and cranky and a bit soggy, we really got lucky.  Other folks didn't get so lucky (just look at Alabama for example).  My heart goes out to them.

Dodging the Raindrops

Spring in the South can be a bit tricky.

The redbuds are out, the irises are blooming, the trees are leafing out, the grass is greening, and we're all trying to get our vegetable gardens in so we can have some great big huge ripe tomatoes come Independence Day.

However, one of the drawbacks to Spring in the South is Gawd-Awful rotten weather.

We just happen to live in the part of the country where cold fronts and warm fronts tend to bump into each other which means we get a lot - A LOT - of thunderstorms and rain and the occasional tornado.  When I went house-hunting when we first moved here, Hubby wanted one thing - a full, finished basement.  The primary reason was he had somewhere to put his office and our massive book collection but the other reason was "they have too many tornadoes and we'll need some place to go."  The fact that a tornado siren is down at the end of my street was just a bonus.  

Tuesday night they were predicting some really bad weather to come our way and I was hoping it would come through before it got too late.  I can't sleep during severe weather and really didn't want to spend most of the night in the basement.  As luck would have it, I was sound asleep when the tornado siren just about knocked me out of bed at 12:50 in the morning.  Great.  Hubby and I got the feline children in their kennels and got everyone downstairs pronto (we're getting really good at this and so are the cats).  We had just turned on the television to see what was going on when the power went out.   Fortunately we have plenty of flashlights and we pretty much sat in the dark, listening to my old Y2K wind up radio until the all clear sounded.  At that point we tried to go back to sleep but still didn't have any power.  Our power came on around 4:15, so I was one of the lucky ones.

By the time I headed to school around 6:15, it was barely light enough to see that there were a lot of trees down, street signs and stop signs laying flat on the ground, and debris all over the roads.  The traffic lights were out as well, which made it a bit dicey getting to school as some people don't seem to get a clue that when there's no traffic light, every intersection is considered a four way stop.  Surprisingly, when I got to The School, we actually had power.

We were one of the lucky ones.  Apparently power was out all over the county, including at a great many of our schools.  The high school down the road from us was dark, and there probably were only a handful of functioning traffic lights throughout the entire county.  Most of the kids rolled off the buses bleary eyed.  Half the staff didn't have power.  (There were some unusual color combinations and outfits spotted among staff and students, the result of getting dressed in the dark.)  By the time school started I was thanking my lucky stars that I actually had power since it appeared I was one of the fortunate few

As luck would have it, with so many schools without power (and with not good time frame from when they'd get power), the District decided to call it a day and pick everyone up and send everyone home.  Thankfully we won't have to make this day up (we're still making up time from our snow days this winter).  The seventh grade teachers - for once - got the best of this deal as our planning is 1st and 2nd period and they sent the kids home before 3rd.  

The forecast for the upcoming week pretty much indicates thunderstorms for the next five days.  It's Easter Sunday today and it's already rained 1.7" in my yard and still coming down.    I'm starting to worry a bit as we're coming up on the anniversary of  The Flood we had last year that many people are still recovering from.

But they say a flood like that comes along every 500 years....right.

Priorities

I opened up my email program at school at 6:20 Monday morning to find this:

"Clever Boy's father called to let us know that his mother was killed in Afghanistan last week.  He won't be at school for a few days and would like you to collect work for him."

This sucks on so many levels.

One of the hazards of working in a building that serves a lot of military kids is that the odds will eventually catch up with you and you'll get a message like this.  That doesn't make it any easier.  And the fact that it isn't the first makes it suck even more.

So, we got together work for Clever Boy but I really don't care if he turns it in or not.  He has other things to deal with that are lot more important than a writing prompt and a set of workbook pages on states of matter.  Mr. Math actually talked with Clever Boy's Dad (who is divorced from Clever Boy's mom) and it was obvious that this has hit the family hard (despite the divorce) and that they need to deal with this before we need to worry about school.

So, the week after we finished The Very Bid Deal Government Mandated Test, I'm struck with the realization that although the government makes a big deal over the damn test, and everyone is so obsessed with the damn test, that when you really get down to it, IT ISN'T WHAT REALLY MATTERS.  (Although 50% of my evaluation of a teacher is now based on this damn test.)

What really matters is that we take care of our kids.

What really matters is that we are here when a kid loses his mom.

What really matters is that when a kid needs a shoulder to cry on, we're here.

What really matters is that when a dad is choked up about losing his ex-wife in the line of duty, we're here.

What really matters is that we are here, taking care of many of the kids that society doesn't really care about because they're poor, or have disabilities, or their parents have issues, or no one really cares about them at home.  We are here for them.

What really matters is that we try to do whatever we can to get these kids to grow up to be decent human beings with the skills to take care of themselves and have a happy life.

We just don't teach these kids about science, or social studies, or math, or reading, or whatever.

We're teaching them to be good people.  And it's a damn hard job.  And no freaking test is ever going to measure that.

The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Testing is Over!

Well.

I am almost at a loss for words.

We are finally - finally! - finished with the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Testing.  That is the good news.

The bad news is that we have witnessed the worst - the absolute freaking worst- behavior that any of us have seen in all our years of giving TVBDGMT.    It has been an adventure.  (Or as one of my teammates said, "I feel like I'm on the roller coaster to Hell.")

We used to have a more flexible testing schedule where each building could more or less decide how they wanted to scheduled TVBDGMT within a certain time frame.  Those days are apparently long gone as now we have to give the tests on specific days.  Four specific days to be, well, specific.  Which means that we have for the past four days spent the mornings giving tests to a bunch of kids who don't really care (they have no stake in them this year although next year it will count towards a spring semester grade), and who, quite honestly, aren't used to being well-behaved and quiet for three hours straight.

I'll give them credit.  They were good during the test.  Although some of mine, truth be told, were just fed up with practicing good test taking skills.  Instead of highlighting, underlining, crossing out, checking their work, and all that, they simply bubbled in answers and put their heads down.  The were D.O.N.E.

What this means is that as soon as the tests were done and they were released to first period, all hell broke lose.  

It started right after first period when one of my girls (who is suddenly boy crazy beyond belief) got dared by two boys to pull a fire alarm.  Which she did.  She swears her t-shirt sleeve got caught on the alarm but the cameras said otherwise.  I doubt I'll see her again.

Then we tried to take them outside for an hour or so to run off steam which worked for some kids but for the others it was a complete disaster.  They spent that hour arguing, getting into each other's businesses, running their mouths and generally gearing up for some fights.  The only thing that kept them quiet in my room was because I ran a Brainpop so the room was dark, and cool (they were all whining about being hot after being outside) and they calmed down.

But not enough to stop the fights that broke on the way home.

And today wasn't much better.  It was raining and thundering all morning (I had visions of a tornado warning right in the middle of the test) so taking them outside wasn't an option.  Mrs. Eagle and I were going to do a really fun mini-lab on states of matter but quickly tossed that idea out the window as the first hallway fights began.  Three of my girls got into a tussle and all three have now been suspended for ten days and one has a heck of a shiner for her trouble.  Again, if they weren't running their mouths and into drama, I doubt any of this would have happened.

And that was just the seventh grade.  I heard that the sixth and eighth weren't much better.

So today, instead of having a fun lab, I had them open their workbooks, work on a section we didn't use this year, put on some lovely classical music and told them they were all going to be quiet, to mind their own business, and CALM DOWN.    I think they were read the riot act by just about every teacher (as well as The Principal over the loud speaker this morning after testing was finished), and we pretty much said if they didn't get it together the last five weeks weren't going to be much fun.

For any of us.

But as annoyed as I am at the kids and their horrid behavior, I'm more annoyed at the People Who Make Decisions But Who Have No Idea What Goes On In A Classroom.  You spend all week with a bunch of middle schoolers, with hormones raging, and put a high-stress, high-stakes test on them and force them to be QUIET, and then watch what happens.

Morons.

The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Test

It's Testing Season.

Oh yippee.

And yes, I'm still trying to figure out why we hold tests six weeks before the end of school.  As far as the kids are concerned, they are DONE, DONE, DONE, after the VBDGMT, but goodness, we still have six weeks to keep them calm, working on something, and hopefully passing on to the next grade.  It's like herding cats. Except cats behave better (at least mine do).

Anyway.

We've done the massive, long, and relentless Reading and Language Arts on Tuesday.  Not bad.  No one fell asleep (in my group at least).  One of my girls thought she was going to throw up so I put her by the door (and trashcan) and told her if she thought she was going to lose it to "run like the wind" to the bathroom.  She survived.  Math was today.  Some kids didn't finish and just ended up guessing, but that's par for the course.  Tomorrow is science, and then Friday is social studies.

The kids are, doing great during the test, behavior-wise.  We did have two kids who we were worried about being disruptive in a regular classroom, and we were able to get them in a small group testing situation which works out better for all involved.

After the test, however, they have completely lost their minds.

I had to break up an "almost-fight" in my fourth period class today which resulted in a complete change of plans in terms of lessons as my kids all ended up writing witness statements about what happened so I could attach it to the discipline form.  Lucky for us, no punches were thrown, but it still was pretty disruptive and got the kids a bit upset.  I should have taken a grade on the witness statements, come to think of it.

And that was just fourth period.  Every other class was loud, disruptive, argumentative, and generally just hard to get them settled and focused.  And it wasn't just my team.  The Principals spent the whole afternoon putting out fires as the kids pretty much just exploded after testing was done and we had fights and disruptions all over the place - and we haven't had that this year with our Positive Behavior Support plan in place.

So, tomorrow, if the weather is nice, The Enforcer is going to come up with a plan that will allow us to take the kids outside to blow off some steam.  They need it.   (And yet again, another reason why I feel that middle schoolers still need recess!)  Hopefully we can wear them out to the point where they won't have the energy to cause any trouble.

Ah Spring

You have to love Spring in The South.  The daffodils...the greening of the grass...the Redbud trees and Bradford Pears in bloom.

And of course, we can't forget the tornadoes.

We had a warm weekend - actually hit 82 degrees which is pretty warm for this time of year, and a cold front was headed our way.  It was 70 when I got up this morning, and windy, so I knew we were in for a busy day in terms of weather.

And oh my, was it busy.

We got all the way through lunch without anything much than dark, ominous clouds, heavy rain and wind.

It wasn't until 5th period that The Principal came across the loud speaker, told us we were under a tornado warning, and requested that everyone get alongside the interior walls on the floor until further notice.  My fifth period is usually pretty good, so they lined up along the walls like they were told and I sat there on the floor and tried to conduct class the best I could.  We are, after all, in the midst of reviewing for The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Test, and I need every second of instruction time I can get.  So, although we were all on the floor, I did manage to go through a PowerPoint on body systems, did an activity on levels of organization, and, since we hadn't handed out their review books, read to them from their review book about diffusion.  It wasn't ideal, but I still got material covered, the kids were kept quiet (sort of) and we managed to make it through the end of the tornado warning.

I may add that the Enforcer, he who is in charge of safety and security, did away with the blaring tornado warning siren.  That thing going off for twenty minutes was enough to drive anyone mad.  Not only was it noisy and aggravating, but it made it fairly impossible to hear what was going on outside (I have no windows so I can't see anything.)  Trust me, if there's a tornado coming, I seriously want to hear about it before it smacks us.

The warning ended, we wrapped up class and headed into sixth period.

Where we had another warning, ended up on the floor, and I did my "teaching from the floor" lessons yet again.

And we had another one seventh period as well.  By then I had done more teaching from my spot on the floor against the wall than I had actually standing on my feet this day. This one was a little louder outside, the lights flickered a bit, but we made it through this last warning with flying colors.

Three different periods, three different tornado warnings.

Ah spring!

A few years ago I picked up my first sudoku puzzle book and was instantly hooked.  I've always liked puzzles anyway, although I never was quite like my mother-in-law who would do crossword puzzles in ink pen.  Sudoku was more my speed.  It was something I could pick up and work on for a few minutes, then set it down, and return to it hours, or even days later.

So, my husband, being the dear that he is, bought me a sudoku puzzle book featuring 601 puzzles.  I really enjoy working on these in the morning, when the sun is coming into my living room, and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee.  It's a nice, quiet, brain-boosting way to start the day.

As of today, I have completed each and every one of the 601 puzzles.

Yeah me!

But not to worry...I have a few other books ready to go, although I'll miss this one.  The binding had long ago given up and pieces of the book have fallen out (held intact with rubber bands).  It was well-used, well-loved, and well-worn!

Spring Break, or the Era of Yard Work

Spring Break has arrived!

Truth be told, I would have preferred to use a bit of spring break to make up our snow days, but here it is, intact, and as luck would have it, really darn nice in terms of weather. (Although I know better.  I remember one spring break where we went from 85 to 18 in one day.)

Actually the week before break was amazingly warm and spring-like, to the point that the kids were wild (ah, the sap rises and so do the hormones).  They were excited about break, excited about warm weather, and excited about just about anything aside from doing work.  They also were all wacked out about the time change and couldn't quite seem to get with the program this week.

A few highlights...and lowlights.

We had our reward party on Friday for the kids who didn't have a single discipline referral for the previous nine weeks.  Basically it was a dance with prizes and food and fun stuff during their 2nd related arts period.  One of my darlings got into a tussle with another kid at the REWARD party and managed to end up in ISS (and who knows what else).  The irony of kids getting in a fight at a party for being good just kills me.

Dennis the Menace has returned and he's like a new kid.  Granted, Mom has him on meds now and he's already learned that he'll be expelled if he screws up, but honestly, I think there's more to it than that.  He's matured.  He even looks a little different - the greasy hair and acne of a kid who's just been slapped upside the head by Puberty - and he's a lot more calm.  He doesn't get pulled into other kids' drama, does his work, follows directions, and is polite and well-mannered and just wonderful.  All the teachers on the Team have noticed it and have commented as much to The Principal and to Dennis' mom.

Anyhow, he's been here for about a month (and hasn't had a single write up for ANYTHING) and when the names of kids who couldn't go to the reward party were released, he wasn't on it - which meant he could go. The problem is, he thought he shouldn't be allowed to go because, after all, he had been in alternative school for part of the nine weeks and had had a write-up while there, so as far as he was concerned, he couldn't go.

He's in my homeroom, and sits right in front, so we'd talked a bit and I said I'd find out for sure if he could go or not.  Because, this kid, out of all of them deserved to go.  So basically, I went to The Principal and said I thought he deserved to go...and she agreed.

The best part of my day on Friday was telling Dennis that he could go to the party.  You would have thought I'd given him a winning lottery ticket.  His face lit up and he was so happy.  And this is the best part - he came back from the party and thanked me for seeing that he could go.  (You have got to be kidding...a kid thanking a teacher?  How rare is that!?)  He told me about the whole thing, what he bought with his reward dollars, the music, and just how much fun it was.

Made my day.

So, for Spring Break I am not doing anything remotely exciting.  I went and got Daddy Bird, spent a day at his place cleaning up, and now he's here at our place for a couple of weeks.  He can drive (doctor said he could) but I don't think any of us want him driving long distances yet.  However, the pacemaker seems to be ticking along just fine and he's doing a great job supervising my yard work.

I have tons of yard work to do, it being spring and all.  The list will blow your mind.  Today was pruning roses day and digging up a rose bush that hasn't bloomed for a few years (you give me nothing but thorns and I'm getting rid of you).  I have shrubs to trim back, yard to feed, winter debris to get rid of,  early spring veggies to plant, and on and on.  I don't know if I'll get it all done, but I'll try.

And then there's taxes to do.

But at least I can sleep in.

Just Ticking Away

Sorry folks, I've been away from the blog for a bit to deal with Daddy Bird and his ticker.  Regular readers may remember that he had a TIA (mini-stroke) last fall.  Well, to make a long story short, he was having blood pressure issues (too high) he blacked out while driving for just a second or two, ended up in a ditch, and instead of going to the doctor for a look at the blood pressure, ended back up in the regional stroke center (about 3 hours from me).  Turns out the heart was ticking along at 40 beats per minute when it should be at 70.  (Hence the blacking out while driving).  They put in a pacemaker and the difference has been amazing.  He's less winded, has more energy, and feels a lot better.

So, I missed three days of school.

Which meant my kids had a sub for three days (I managed to get one that knew the kids although they can't stand her).

The kids were rotten.  Completely rude and rotten.

While I was gone, the Team members were good at emailing and filling me in the nutty things that were going on while I was gone.

Like three of our girls were texting in class and ended up in in school suspension.

Three of our boys - all BIG boys - got in a scuffle in Mr. Math's room by calling each other "fat".  These are the fattest kids on the team and the fact that they're calling each other fat is, well, just beyond ridiculous.

Another boy apparently, at lunch, stuck his hands down his pants, played a bit with the family jewels, and then proceeded to rub his hands on two other (much smaller) students. Mrs. Social Studies was grossed out by this when it was reported to her that she wasn't even sure she know how to write up the referral.  Fortunately The Principal was nearby and informed her that it fell under "lewd and lascivious" behavior and that "unfortunately it's been happening quite a lot lately."

Disgusting.

My Seventh Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself had an issue when our Drama Girl (this one is something else - she invents drama like nobody's business) apparently reacted when one of the boys made a comment (who knows what) and had a complete and total meltdown in class.  Crying, screaming, sobbing, so forth and so on.  My poor sub managed to get her to the hallway where Mrs. Social Studies saw her, called guidance and they took her away.

So, in short, life is normal.

Seventh graders, however, are not.

I Won't Make the Majors with this Batting Average

Three parent meetings.

Three cancellations.

But hey, at least they called/emailed...about 5 minutes before the meeting.

With this batting average, I won't ever make the Majors.

Update 3/15/11 - Had a parent meeting today (scheduled by the parent).  Can you guess what happened?  Yup, another no-show.  I am now 0 for 4.

Buttons

During class the other day Silly Boy, one of my homeroom kiddos who is one of the silliest kids I know, got all worked up because he'd lost a button off of his shirt.

Go figure.

The kids were busy working on a group activity about Newton's Laws when Silly Boy came up and asked me what to do with the button that had popped off his flannel shirt.

"Well, take it home and sew it on," I suggested.  "Or have your mom do it."

"I don't know how to sew, and I'll probably lose it before I get home," he admitted.  At least he's honest.  This is a kid who loses his locker several times a week because he can't remember to bring his books to class.

"You don't know how to sew on a button?" I asked, figuring that was one of those life skills that everyone pretty  much knew how to do, sort of like boiling water.  Granted, Silly Boy is, after all, a boy so maybe he missed the "how to use a needle and thread" lesson somewhere in life.

Which got me to thinking.  Maybe he's not alone.

So, while I went to my desk and whipped out my "housewife" (you Civil War buffs will know what I'm talking about but it's a reproduction sewing kit that soldiers would use to do their own mending - me, I use it to fix things at school) I stopped the kids for a minute and asked them if any of them knew how to sew on a button.

My jaw about dropped.  Out of 23 kids, two raised their hands.

"Seriously?" I said.  "You don't know how to sew on a button?  What do you do when you lose one?"

The answers varied from "I dunno", to "Give it to mom/grandma/older sister" to "Don't wear it anymore".

Oh dear.  Even the girls, many of them in Girl Scouts at some point in their lives, didn't know how to sew on a button.  They were, I might add, just fascinated as they watched me sew the button back on Silly Boy's shirt (with him still in it, squirmy little twerp that he was).   Most of my kids don't come from money and the fact that they can't do basic clothing repairs just blows my mind.

So I'm thinking...the last week of school, when we're wrapping up the year, I just may get a bunch of buttons, fabric scraps, and needles and thread and teach these kids one of those basic life skills - sewing on a button.

When Kids Are In Charge

I really like my kids, for the most part, this year.  (Okay, I hate my Seventh Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself but there are kids in there I like - it's just the combination of kids which make me crazy).

Their parents, on the other hand, are making me insane.

Case in point.  We have a kid I'll call Absent Boy, because, you guessed it, he's absent all the time.  He misses every test.  He misses every benchmark.  He's usually gone on Fridays and often times he's gone on Mondays.  When he comes back he's healthy as a horse, nary a sniffle or a sore throat in sight.  In short, he basically tells his mom when he wants to come to school and she lets him get away with it.   He was absent yesterday, the day we had our two hour delay, and when one of the teachers asked him why, he said, "Well, there was a two hour delay and we didn't know if they'd cancel, and mom didn't know how she'd get me to school, so I didn't come". (Did this lady never hear of a bus?)

Absent Kid has a whopping 37% in my class and he's pretty much doing the same in all his other classes.  He's a bright kid, when you can get something out of him, which isn't often.  He is on an IEP as a special education student, but seriously, he does well on the things he does.  He is capable.  As a sped kid he can turn in late work (never does) and in my class he gets a homework helper which basically is an answer key to help him do his homework.  All he has to do is copy it and turn it in.  But he doesn't.  He has, in fact, informed his sped case manager and the enrichment teacher that he's not bothering to do much in seventh grade since he'll get passed anyway because he's on an IEP.   He won't even turn in things we do in class.

We have tried to get his mother to come in for a meeting.  She'll agree to a meeting, then five minutes before she is to show up, she'll call and cancel.  Today, yet again, she pulled this stunt. So we have yet to get her in here (she also apparently doesn't show up at IEP meetings either.)

This kid is running the house.  If we wanted any more evidence of this, Mr. Math ran into Absent Mom (how appropriate) and Absent Boy at a local fast food join yesterday.  Absent Boy didn't see Mr. Math at first and was running around being a brat and talking back to his mom.  She told him he couldn't have something and he went off and slapped her in the face!  And. She. Did. Nothing.

Apparently this is her coping mechanism...to do nothing.  The kid talks back...she does nothing.  He fails his classes...she does nothing.  He whines and complains and wants to stay home from school...she does nothing.

But I'm the one being held accountable.

Just Can't Win With the Weather

So after the winter we've had (and I'm not sure it's all done yet), we've actually managed to go two full weeks of school without a snow day.  I know, pretty amazing, eh?  And, truth be told, it's been almost spring-like.

However, spring-like warm weather can often bring spring-like bad storms.  Nothing like a warm front and a cold front banging up against each other and producing thunderstorms and those lovely little things known as tornadoes.  We've already had the tornado sirens go off twice in the past week and it's still February.  Fortunately these have happened while we were at home, not during school, so it simply means hustling all the felines into the basement and  hunkering down until the storm passes (praying the whole time that we don't have any damage).  I must admit that the felines are not happy with these little interludes and spend most of the time in their kennels (so we don't have to chase them all over the basement during the storm) glaring at us with That Look of Complete Disdain that only cats can give.

Anyhow, all the weather sources were predicting A Really Bad Line of Storms coming through our areastarting last night and going into today.  Oh fun.  Usually that means little sleep between the storm, the sirens and the cats bouncing all over the place.  However, the sirens went off yesterday (while Mrs. Eagle and I were returning from Girls Night at the Hockey Game) and I missed that fun.  It settled down a bit and didn't get bad again until around 5:00 am this morning.

And then it just let loose.  Thunder, lightning and buckets of rain, not to mention lots and lots of wind (no tornado warnings, however, Thank Goodness.)  So I'm sitting there drinking my coffee and watching the weather as large yellow, green and orange blobs sailed through the map right over our town when the phone rang.

At 5:15 am.  What the heck?

It was, surprisingly enough, the School District.  Apparently they took a look outside, took a look at the radar and decided a two-hour delay was a good thing.  Good decision.  It was a mess,  a rainy, stormy, windy mess.  (Oh, and the temperature was 70 when I woke up, was 58 an hour later, and now is 38.)

Now, a two-hour delay means the kids have a delay but all the employees report at their normal time.  I didn't have to much trouble getting in, but a few teachers who live in some of the more rural areas, really had some issues.  The rivers in town are rising (almost as bad as last' year's 100 Year Flood, but thankfully, not quite) and it was raining so hard that the streets were having trouble draining.

But we made it through.  The good news is this counts for a full day.  The bad news is I'm hoping and praying that I get everything taught that I need to before The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests in April and I'm not feeling really confident about it.

The Sharpie Wars

So today I was walking around my classroom during third period (my first period of the day) when I noticed that my students looked like a bunch of dirty ragamuffins.

There were black smudges on their faces, necks, arms, hands, and just about any bit of exposed skin.  Weird.  Most of these kids are in my homeroom and I didn't recall them looking like this earlier in the day.  It wasn't until I walked around the room while the kids were working on their activity, that I found my answer.  Jock Boy, a jolly good-natured kid ever there ever was one, had an entire arm covered with writing, smudges, and who knows what.

"So what's with the tats?" I asked him, pointing to his arms.

"Oh that?  That's just Sharpie," he said.  "Cool, huh?"

"Uh, not exactly," I said.  "You know it's not allowed in the Student Code of Conduct, right?"

He looked crestfallen.  "It's not?"

"It's not," I said.  "So, let's get cleaned up tonight and not do it again, okay?"  He agreed with a smile and went on with his work.  And as I continued to walk around I realized that what at first looked like dirt was actually Sharpie smudges.  I didn't pursue it beyond the quick conversation with Jock Boy (which all the kids eavesdropped on) but continued with my class.

And then my fourth period walked in looking just as bad.  And then my fifth period, same story.  So at lunch, the time when all of the teachers on The Team get together, eat lunch,  and check in with what was up with the kids, I found out that all of us were seeing these Sharpie smudges on our students.   As Mrs. Reading said, "It's a bit hard to focus on a kid's question when there's a big black line going across their face."

After lunch Mrs. Social Studies and I pulled aside one of our kids that we could more or less trust and get the truth out of and asked her about the Sharpie smudges.

Apparently the kids, on the way back from the gym and their other electives, were having "Sharpie wars," in the hallway.  Basically they were taking Sharpies and drawing lines on each other as the mass of seventh grade humanity made it back to the core part of The School (where there is more supervision and they can't do anything that stupid without getting caught.)

Oh.  Good.  Gracious.

I'm used to Seventh Grade Stupid Stuff, but jeepers, it's only February!  This kind of stupid stuff really shouldn't show up until after spring break!  If this is a sign of the spring to come, it's going to be a long, long time until school is out.

Making a Splash

This was only the second full five-day week we've had since December 6th.

And it seemed like a really long week.  The kids are out of it and not motivated to do any work at all.  I almost feel like I'm back in the first weeks of school where we have to go over everything again and remind them how to "do school", since it's been so long since we've actually had any kind of routine.

But Mrs. Eagle and I have found a new way to de-stress after school.  We go to The Pool.

Our City Fathers, in all their wisdom, pissed off nearly the entire city by deciding to convert the community pool across from our school into a year-round aquatic center with the addition of an inflatable domed cover.   You should have seen the nasty letters to the editor in the local paper about "how dare they put that aquatic center over in that part of town" (meaning the part where the poor folks live).  That whole ruckus really annoyed most of us who work at The School because they were talking about Our Kids.  Yeah, we know the Neighborhood isn't the best, and our kids are nearly all on free and reduced lunch, and yeah, we have gang problems and all sorts of issues, but is that any reason to deny them a covered pool because hey, we pay taxes over here in the 'Hood too!

So there.

So, they spent a couple of months working on the pool (because it snowed every other freaking day for the past two months) and it finally opened up a couple of weeks ago to much fan-fare and some really amazingly cold water.  (It apparently takes a long time for a really big 500 meter pool to heat up.)  And the Guidance Goober who is on a health kick (but who inhales peanut M&M's like no body's business and single-handedly keeps all the local coffee vendors in business) walked across the parking lot and asked if he could make a deal with the pool management.  See, we had all these teachers Just Across The Parking Lot, and it would be really nice if they'd let us go together and buy family passes instead of making us all spend the big bucks and get the individual passes.

And the pool people said, "No problem!" and about ten of us are now "family" and have a much cheaper pool pass.  We're actually considering getting t-shirts made up that read "The School Swim Club" or something equally stupid.

So, Mrs. Eagle and I have been going over to The Pool nearly every day after school.  They offer water aerobics classes for $2 and we've done a few of those, plus we sometimes just go over to swim laps.  But the best part is just the way that floating in the water makes some of the tension just ease away.  (By the way, water aerobics is one heck of a work out - but it sure doesn't bother my knee like regular aerobics used to do.)  I haven't been swimming since my own years in middle school so it's been quite a change of routine.

Every day there seems to be more and more people coming in to enjoy the pool and this week we've started to see some of our kids come in after school.  

Which is interesting.

Because the kids almost seem embarrassed to see - GASP! - Their Teachers at the pool.  It's a good thing that both Mrs. Eagle and I have reached the age where We Just Don't Care, and so neither one of us really gives a flip that the kids are seeing us in a swimsuit (which covers everything because we are of a certain age and our shape is well, round).  Mrs. Sped next door to me, who is a fitness freak and a regular swimmer made the comment that she thinks it's good that the kids do see us at the pool engaging in healthy fitness activities.  She has a point.

So it's nice to see the kids coming over and using the pool.  It's a great way for them to get some exercise (and they aren't sitting in front of a video game console).  They swim, they splash, they jump off the diving board, and they're having a great time.  They're not running the streets, they aren't causing trouble, and they are having fun.

Really, isn't that what exercise should be about?

Hello...and Goodbye

The Guidance Diva the other day made a very astute comment..."They can throw billions of dollars at schools for education but it won't do a bit of good until they fix what's going on out there."  "Out There," being the neighborhood, the culture where education isn't respected or desired, the culture where working isn't a goal because drawing a welfare check pays better, a culture invested with drugs, gangs, abuse, and alcoholism.  A culture where parents aren't being parents.

And where they hang up on the teacher who is trying to call them about their kid.  (Yup, happened again today).

In any case, it never ceases to amaze me how people don't seem to have a clue about the types of kids we see every day and how amazingly screwed up their lives are, mainly due to the grown ups in their lives who aren't acting like grown ups.

Case in point.

We got a new kid this week (part of the seventh grade infestation) who came from outside our county.  Seemed like a nice kid (although we had to have a conversation about sagging).  Didn't say anything, got to work, said "Yes, Ma'am" and all that.  No problems with him at all.

The second day he was here, Mr. Enforcer strolled into Mrs. Reading's class and asked to have him pointed out.  Apparently some of his records were catching up with him, and Mr. Enforcer wanted to be able to recognize this kid should his name cross his desk.

This is not a good sign.

The next morning New Kid was absent from my homeroom.  Mrs. Reading came in after the kids went to their elective classes and told me that The Principal had ran into her in the hallway and mentioned that the New Kid wasn't going to be coming back.  Apparently more of his records had arrived the day before and The Enforcer brought them to The Principal's attention.

And what they saw apparently scared the living daylights out of both of them.  As The Principal put it, "It made me sick to read."

Again, not a good sign.

So he's gone.  No one is really saying much, but he was a kid in foster care.  The Principal took one look at his file and realized that this kid had emotional issues and problems too big (and too scary) to keep him in school with our student population.  She called the foster parents (who had no clue about any of this apparently which is just wrong) and informed them that due to his issues that she was going to get him placed in a nearby school that serves severely emotionally disturbed students.  I hope she succeeds in this and that he gets the counseling and care he needs.

But really it all comes down to this.  The kid is twelve.  Twelve!  And his life is already so screwed up by the grown ups in his life that he's considered a threat to the normal school population.  He has been, according to The Enforcer, "completely let down on every level by every grown up in his life."

I wish people who had no business or desire to be parents just stopped breeding.

The Seventh Grade Infestation

This past fall, due to declining enrollment, the seventh grade went from three full teams to two teams, and then some eighth grade teachers picked up a seventh grade class to help lower the class sizes.  The eighth grade had two full teams and a "mini-team", and the sixth grade had three full teams.

Except by November it was apparent that there were eighth grade teachers with class sizes in the teens while we in seventh grade were trying to maintain some semblance of control over class sizes in the 30's.   Fortunately our Admins saw that this wasn't good, so the eighth grade teachers teaching one seventh grade class, were upped to teaching two of them (along with three eighth grade classes).

And the numbers of seventh graders just keeps climbing.  

We got an email from the Guidance Goddess early this week informing us that not two, not three, not four, but seven seventh graders were going to be enrolling and she'd appreciate it if we could let her know what classes we'd like to put them in.  At this point, with special ed considerations and block scheduling for reading and language arts, it is nearly impossible to have a good schedule.  Regardless of what we do, the big classes keep getting bigger.  I pretty much said I didn't care where they put them as long as they weren't in my homeroom or third period.

Can you guess where two of them ended up?  My homeroom and third period.  

Sigh.

Both seventh grade teams are nearly out of lockers to give to the new kids, so I asked Mr. Enforcer if we were still going to have two seventh grade teams, was there a possibility of moving some of the school's unused lockers down into the seventh grade area.  He said he didn't know what we were doing for staffing next year, but he'd definitely consider it.  

We now have more seventh graders than we had last year (and five fewer teachers).  We have more seventh graders than eighth graders, and are five kids below the number of sixth graders.  The seventh grade teachers are cranky.  Seventh grade is a bad year for most kids - absolutely perfectly normal wonderful kids become dysfunctional goobers in seventh grade (and then, usually, outgrow it by eighth grade).  It is The Year From Hell.  Seventh graders have the most failures, the most discipline referrals, the most problems.  So we're putting them in cramped classes with other kids who are losing their minds due to hormonal overload.  I swear it's like a long car trip with a van-load of kids who can't get along.

I'm with Guidance Goddess...I want a sign on the marquee that says "Seventh Grade is Closed."

Another Snow Day and a Wonderful Tool

We haven't been back to school since we dismissed early on Monday.  That storm came in and dumped 3.5" of heavy white stuff.  The roads were a mess (as usual) and although they were much better by Tuesday, the National Weather Service was forecasting another round of winter weather starting Wednesday morning, so they canceled school for Wednesday as well.  It started snowing at my house around 10:00 am, and finished around 8:00 pm after dumping another 4" of the white stuff.  Again, the roads were a disaster.  To make it even more fun, the nighttime temperature dropped to -6 - and this in an area where our average temperature is 50 degrees! So today, Thursday is another snow day and who knows what Friday will bring?  Hard to say.

So, we've really lost two weeks of instruction already and I've been getting a bit stir crazy.

However.  Thanks to a Tech Geek at our district I have been test driving a new tool to use to keep my kids in the learning game even while they're home for a snow day. A few weeks ago the Tech Geek was out in our building working with some teachers and I asked her if there was anything she knew of that I could use to connect with my kids during a snow day - a social networking type site, a chat site, whatever.

She recommended Edmodo.

I'm going to sound like a commercial here, so apologies ahead of time, but this application just rocks!  It's a social networking site that is teacher directed.  I signed up, gave my kids the code to sign up for my class, and so far I have about 50 kids signed up and a number of parents as well (parents can get a code to monitor their child which is a fantastic idea!) It looks a lot like Facebook, but the one thing is the kids can't talk with each other, they can only talk to the group as a whole or to the teacher.

I have posted extra credit, I've linked to Brainpops, I've put in missing work for absent kids, and I even posted a video lesson this morning (my first video!).  The kids who are absent absolutely love it, and they actually are turning in work (that's a huge problem for us - kids who are absent tend not to make up their work).  I can send direct messages to kids ("while we are out on a snow day, please finish your writing prompt.") and to individual classes and to the group as a whole as well as to parents.

If you haven't had a chance to check out Edmodo, take a minute and do so.  I can assure you that this will definitely be something I start at the beginning of the year next year.

Snow! Snow! Snow! or Why Bus Drivers Deserve Our Thanks and Respect

So the National Weather Service called for rain starting last night, turning to snow around noon today, and an accumulation of maybe 1-3 inches.

And they sorta got it just a bit wrong.

It was raining and 36 degrees when I got to The School this morning.  We went through 1st, 2nd, 3rd, no word of early dismissal which was a bit worrisome since Mrs. Social Studies had peeked out her back door and noticed that it had already turned to snow.  (We have no windows in our part of the building).  Halfway through 4th period The Principal came over the loud speaker and told us all to stop what we were doing and check our email.  Apparently we were going to dismiss two hours early, and we had a slight adjustment to the lunch schedule.  By the time we walked the kids down to the cafeteria, and past the bank of glass doors that go into the gym area, we could see that it was not only snowing, but snowing hard and everything was just covered.  This didn't look good.

We got the kids fed, went back to class and taught until around 12:10 when all the buses showed up and we dismissed the kids.  The good news is I got 3 periods taught.  The bad news is that it was a mess when the buses left.

I stayed behind, as part of the snow crew, for a while along with Mrs. Eagle.  We were supposed to be going to another middle school to see how their pilot STEM program was being implemented tomorrow, and worked on the sub plans for that only to get an email RIGHT AS WE FINISHED THE PLANS, telling us that the visit was canceled.  As I told Mrs. Eagle, if we didn't do the plans, we'd be going.  If we did them, we knew they'd cancel.  Oh well.

After about an hour we went up to check and see what the bus status was.  The whole idea behind us staying was in case a bus had to return or a kid didn't get picked up.  By then, it was a complete and total mess outside.  One of our teachers who lives in the county west of us decided that trying to get home was not a good idea, and had made arrangements to stay with another teacher who lives within walking distance.  She had called her daughter and they were reporting school buses sliding off the roads and people having to get 4-wheel drive vehicles out to the buses to get the kids off and home.  Not a pretty picture.  The Principal was on the phone trying to figure out if all our buses had made it safe and couldn't get a decent answer.  It didn't sound good.

She finally put her phone down and told those of us who didn't live within a few blocks to get home before it got even worse, and to text when we were home safely.  You didn't have to tell me twice.  By the time Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Social Studies and I walked out to our cars, I had at least 3" of snow on mine and you couldn't hardly see the baseball fields behind the school.  It was wet, slushy, and coming down thick.

My 12 minute drive home took about three times as long, but for once people weren't being morons.  They were going slower, not tailgating (that drives me nuts) and I didn't see any wrecks on my way home.  That, however, was around 2:00 pm.  Since then we've had report of buses sliding off the road, some elementary schools just told the parents to come get their kids, and nothing but a huge big mess.  The local on-line paper reported that parents were swamping the district office with calls because the buses were late.   Another local news source is reporting over 80 wrecks.

I feel for these bus drivers.  It's not an easy job on a good day, but then having to deal with slushy slick roads, and poor visibility...they deserve a lot of credit for getting our kids home safe.  And I bet they won't get a cent of overtime for this.

And we're out for tomorrow.  The 1-3" is now looking like 4-8".  I'm beginning to think we may actually go to school again in March since there's another storm scheduled for Wednesday.

All I Ask is For a Little Effort

Sigh.

We finally - finally - had five whole days in a row this week and weren't interrupted by weather, holidays, or zombies running in the streets.  It felt wonderful to get back into the flow of things and to finally get our genetics unit covered.

I finished grading all the tests on Thursday evening and entered the grades in PowerSchool.  I was hoping that I'd see some good results because, firstly, we've been covering this unit for over a month although it has been interrupted a lot.  Secondly, the classes that are test-driving the notebooks were allowed to use their notebooks during the test and the other classes could use their notes.

The results were, in a word, ugly.

Many students completely bombed the vocabulary test because they absolutely refuse to learn the words we use in science.  Genetics has a lot of key words that if you don't know what they mean, you won't be able to answer the test questions.  Homozygous, heterozygous, genotype, phenotype, allele, and so on.  We went over, and over, and over these words and did project after project using these words, but when it came down to their test, they absolutely croaked.  What made it worse, is that in order to answer the Punnett Sqaure questions, they had to know the difference between these words or they'd just mess it up beyond belief.  What annoyed me even more is even with all the time we spend going over how to answer a test question (underline key words being one huge strategy), only ONE STUDENT even did that when it came to the Punnett Square word problems.  So, not only did they not know the vocabulary (after nearly six weeks) but they didn't even bother to underline the important features of the questions.

They just failed miserably.  And half the test we did in class, so all they had to do was pull out their notes and simply copy them.  Very few kids had their notes out for their test, and even some of the notebook kids never once opened their notebooks.

So they tanked.

On an aside, for those of you who were wondering, Wiggly Boy did a bit better.  He didn't pass, but he didn't fail nearly as bad as some of the others.  And he was the one who prompted a discussion we had about personal responsibility on Friday when he told the class, "Well, I didn't bother to study at all so it was my fault I failed."

As I told them, I can't follow them home and make sure they do their homework.  I can't follow them home to make sure they study.  That's their parents' job.  And if their parents aren't doing their job, then they're just going to have to sit back and realize that they have the tools at their disposal to be successful if they only had the personal responsibility to use them.  It is up to them.  If they think they're worth success, then that's what they need to work for.  I believe every one of them can be successful, but they're going to have to start working towards that goal.

We have a much shorter unit (and hopefully no more snow days) so we'll see if they do any better this time.  Some of them, perhaps, have learned that using your notes, when Mrs. Bluebird says you can, is not a waste of time.

But I truly am at my wits' end on what it takes to get these kids - and their parents - to care as much about their learning as I do.

Wiggling and a Writing

I haven't posted much because, truth be told, I'm tired of hearing myself whine about snow days so I can only imagine how you all feel.

For the record...we have not gone a complete, full, five-day week since the week of December 6th.  We're hoping that we'll make 5 days this week because we've already lost every holiday scheduled, and we're so far behind on our scope and sequence that I'm not even going to bother looking at it.

So there.

It's been a absolute monster trying to get our genetics unit finished.  We just love teaching this unit - it's so much fun, and there's so many cool things you can do.  However, it's not fun teaching a unit when it keeps getting chopped up by days out of school.  I feel like I can't get into my groove, and the kids seem to be getting things piecemeal.  It's frustrating.

So anyway, we finally - FINALLY - got our unit test in today.  As a rule I hardly ever give a test on Monday, but we are so far behind we really didn't have a choice.  As soon as I finish this, I'm going to start grading them (yeah!).

I'm kind of curious as to how one of my students - Wiggly Boy - did.  Because we tried something different today when it came to taking his test.

Wiggly Boy is tiny, and cute, and a lot of fun, and enthusiastic, and just a neat kid - but he can't pass a test - any test - to save his life.  From class observations and discussion, he knows the material fairly well, but he just blows it big time when it comes to tests (and the subject doesn't matter).  One thing, however, that The Team noticed, is that Wiggly Boy likes to stand a lot.  He would much rather stand than sit in a seat, so I got the idea, why not have him stand at my teacher station while he takes his test?

I approached him with the idea, and he was willing to give it a try, so that's what we did.

So he stood there, and took his test...he did all the good test-taking strategies I've taught him, but since he was standing, we added in his natural bouncy enthusiasm.  (I think he needs his own soundtrack, personally.)  Even if he didn't do better (and that remains to be seen) he seemed a bit more focused, and certainly had fun.

And honestly, when's the last time a kid had fun taking a test.

The Last to Leave

Will this winter never end?

The weather forecasters have been going crazy over the past week forecasting snow and ice and every miserable thing a cloudy sky can produce for today.  Great.  We've already had to use one holiday up to make up a snow day and the last thing we want to do is use up another.  When I went to bed last night the storm was supposed to hit around 3:00 pm, so we were all hoping that we could get in a day of school before the Great White Death began to hit.

No cancellation call this morning, so off to school we went.

Only to be told by the kids getting off the buses that the bus drivers had informed them that we were going to be dismissing early.

Great.  Nothing like having them bouncing off the walls with excitement before 7:15 in the morning.  I think every teacher in that building was about ready to find a bus driver and wring his/her's neck.  Good luck trying to get any learning out of our kids today.

Of course, we didn't get the word until every kid in the building knew about it.  But finally, we were told that yes, we were going to have a half day and get the kids out of there by 10:45.  The storm was apparently going to hit around noon, and we needed to get all the high school and middle school kids dropped off and then the buses would pick up and deliver the elementary kids.

But first we had to feed them.

For seventh grade and sixth grade, the day wasn't bad.  Seventh has 1st and 2nd period planning, sixth has 3rd and 4th period, but eighth grade - they didn't get any planning today as their planning is 6th and 7th period.   The idea was that the sixth grade would have lunch first, then us, then eighth, and we'd have them all fed by 10:30.  To speed up the food service, the kids would be eating in their classrooms.

I actually had kids in my room making up their benchmark tests during 1st period, 2nd period was free (although I spent it with Mrs. Eagle making up a different lesson plan than we'd planned since we'd only see two of our five classes today), and then third period we'd take them to lunch, and 4th we'd have an actual class.

It really did go a lot smoother than I thought it would.  My third period, the group that had to eat lunch in the classroom, did pretty well and actually once they'd finished eating, they got out their workbooks and began working on a meiosis assignment (which will be extra credit, but I sure as heck didn't tell them that).  Fourth period was a bit hard to get going as they knew they'd be leaving shortly, but they didn't do too bad either.

Thank goodness I didn't have to deal with my Seventh Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself.

Mrs. Eagle, Mr. Math and I are part of the "Snow Team", the group of teachers that stay back for an hour or so until the last bus has delivered the last kid and the last parent has picked up their child.  It's a volunteer thing, but basically if you live nearby the school, don't have any kids of your own to pick up, and can drive in the snow, they kind of like it if you stay.  The idea is we want someone at The School in case a kid(s) doesn't get picked up or a bus has to return.  It wasn't snowing yet when the buses rolled, so we didn't really have anything to do but go back to our rooms to work on whatever.  (Mrs. Eagle and I ate our packed lunches and worked on our notebooks for next week).  It's actually not a bad thing because it does give you some quiet time to work in your room - I love that opportunity.

And goodness, after 12 years in Ohio, I can drive in snow.  Don't like to do it, but I can.

And now, that I'm home, it's snowing like mad.  And tomorrow?  Who knows?  The high is only going to be 23 degrees.

And it looks more and more like we're going to have to add 30 minutes to our day to make up the time.

Ick.

A Mom With the Right Attitude

Last year when the school board came out with our inclement weather make-up plan, it involved using our winter holidays (MLK Day, Presidents Day and Good Friday) to make up the school we missed due to weather, over the measly three days we are allotted.

No one raised a fuss.  Not a peep.  And, keep in mind, the school board meetings are open to the public and the school board is elected by the public so there was plenty of opportunity for the public to have some input.  If they cared enough...

But oh my, when it actually came to implementing the plan (with MLK Day the first day we used), you would have thought that some big vast conspiracy was afloat.  (For the record, we had to make up days last year, but we didn't go over our limit until after MLK Day so we didn't have to use it as a make-up day.  We did use President's Day and Good Friday and no one squawked.)

We had a lot of absent kids, but, for the most part, very few kids who had notes stating that they were at some of the regional MLK celebrations.  Most of our kids were absent because (a) the parent is so clueless they didn't get the phone call/email/read the paper/watch the news to figure out we were going to school and the kids sure as hell weren't going to tell them of (b) they had plans made for the three day weekend already and most of them didn't involve any sort of MLK celebration.

So, the kids that were there were, for the most part, completely accepted the fact that we were making up a snow day, buckled down and got to work and didn't whine.

Drama Boy, a boy I had last year and who is now in 8th grade, was apparently whining a big about going to school to Mrs. Sandpiper's room next door.  He wasn't happy he was in school on MLK day.

"So, what did your mother say about it?" Mrs. Sandpiper asked.  We both have always liked Drama Boy's mom because she's pretty much no-nonsense when it comes to school and Drama Boy's drama.

"She said that if Martin Luther King were alive today, he'd want me in school getting my education," Drama Boy replied.  "And you can't argue with that."

No you can't.  Perhaps that would be a better way to celebrate the day - put a focus on getting an education and being the best person you can be.

Back at Last!

Finally!  Finally, we made it back to school, the high school kids were able to finish their exams and we'll be able to start the second semester tomorrow...8 days late.

I was beginning to wonder if we'd make it because just about every other county around us canceled and had another snow day (and many are cancelling already for tomorrow as well) but we went ahead and went.   I won't make any criticisms regarding the roads - I live in town where the roads aren't as hilly or twisty and they tend to get cleared and plowed before the county roads do.  For all I know, there's county roads under two inches of ice.  But we went ahead and had school (thank goodness), and we'll be making up our extra snow day on Monday, MLK day.

However.

One thing that has always perplexed me is how rarely we use delays.  When I taught Up North we used delays all the time.  The district would announce a two hour delay, which gave everyone a chance to see better in the daylight, and if the roads were still dangerous, they'd cancel for the day.  However, a lot of times that two hour delay was all the time we needed for the roads to begin to clear up, especially on a sunny day where the morning sun could begin the job of melting.  True, our classes were shorter, but we weren't having to make up so many snow days.

Down here, at least in my district, delays are rare.  And what's even stranger (and this just makes absolutely no freaking sense to me at all) is that even if we are on a delay, faculty and staff sill have to report at the regular time.  Which is two hours before the kids come in, assuming we're on a delay.  So, if the roads are too bad for buses, how come they aren't too bad for employees?  After all, supposedly, the whole issue is safety - we don't run buses when the roads are unsafe.  So why should the school employees get out on these dangerous roads to get to school?  And then, if it was eventually decided that we needed to go ahead and cancel school, (because the roads are unsafe) we then have to dismiss all the employees that went ahead and showed up and send them back out on dangerous roads.

Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Ideally?  Everyone reports two hours late...and that way, if it's decided that a cancellation is in order, there's no one to send back home.  And if the delay is all we need, we'd get in our scheduled day.

But hey, no one asks for my opinion.  I just give it.

Yet Another Snow Day

Our 4th Snow Day...which means we go to school on MLK day rather than have it off.

I am getting tired of not being in school.  True, I have plenty to do, but I'm getting bored with my own company at this point.

Hopefully we'll go tomorrow.  Please.

The Semester that Will Not End

Prior to the Christmas break, we had two snow days.  Two snow days right at the end of the semester when we were all finalizing grades and the high school students were taking their final exams.

So, it was decided by The Powers That Decide Such Things that when we returned this past Wednesday, the High School students would review for their exams (because we know they aren't mature enough to study for them over their break) then they would take them on Friday and today.  As a result, it was decided to extend our 2nd nine week grading period by one week so that everyone in the district would be on the same calendar.  Grades were held off for a week, and report cards delayed.

For those of us in the middle school it was more an administrative pain in the butt than anything else.  The kids were annoyed because they didn't get to go to their new elective classes (things like art, music, computers, etc).  We had kids going around with paper schedules because we couldn't make schedule changes in PowerSchool.  Just more of a pain than anything.  And in the midst of all this, we've got Benchmark testing coming up and all the silly scheduling nightmares that entails.

So today, Monday, the day the semester was going to finally freaking end as the High School kids would be taking their exams....it snowed.

And we had a snow day.  Our third (and last - from now on we use up holidays).

So the semester is not over.  Still.

They are predicting more snow and ice to come in tonight (oh joy) so we may be closed tomorrow as well.  As it stands we are now just about the only county in the region that is showing as open for tomorrow.  We shall see.

But as of now it feels like this semester will never, ever end.

For Those Who Inquired - Science Notebooks and Weber Grills

I love it when you guys leave comments!

First off, Jessie left a comment asking about my science notebooks.  First off, I'm not an expert.  At all.  In fact, I've done science notebooks for a whopping two days.  However, I'll lead you to some of my resources.  First off is Dinah Zike's book "Dinah Zike's Notebook Foldables for Spirals, Binders & Composition Books"  We have used her foldable techniques for years and one thing Mrs. Eagle and I did not want to get rid of were foldables - we saw this book at the NSTA conference in December, and attended one of the conference workshops that her organization put on about doing science notebooks.  That workshop may have been the best one I've attended in ages.  Now we know how to keep doing foldables and at the same time, utilize notebooks.

Mrs. Eagle also went to an in-service (I was supposed to go but my father was in the hospital) where another teacher in our district shared his notebook ideas.  There are lots of teachers out there who do them.  If you are a member of NSTA, you can go on their website and find a lot of things.  Also, Google them like mad.  You come across a lot of resources that way.  And of course, one of my favorite bloggers, But Wait! There's More!, does a lot with notebooks so you may want to check out her site.  (And if you aren't interested in notebooks, check out her site anyway).

As for the Weber Grill...My mother refuses to get my husband books for Christmas.  She feels, rightly so, that we have run out of room at our house for books so she won't buy any for him.  He loves to cook out, and really needed a decent, larger grill.  So, she got him a grill for Christmas...

Okay, let me back up and explain why it's a Weber grill.  A few years ago, Mother Dear was transporting her grill to a BBQ her GOP ladies were putting on at a blackberry farm.  She had the grill in the back of her little pickup and took a turn a bit too fast (for a grill) and looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see her nearly new Weber grill go sailing out of the bed of her truck and bounce down the street.  She was sure she had just ruined her grill and was not happy.  Anyhow, she stopped, went back, picked up her grill only to discover that not only was it still in two pieces (grill and lid) but they weren't even dinged or dented.  The lid still fit perfectly on the grill!  We've pretty much decided after that experience that Weber grills were the best made around.

Okay, so Mr. Bluebird gets a grill for Christmas and it was sitting there in a big box in my living room.  For about 3 days.  I kept hoping he'd get a clue and either assemble it himself, or something.  However, I'm the one in the family with most of the tools, so one morning I decided to go ahead and put the thing together myself. If not, it probably would still be in my living room.  It was remarkably easy.  I had it together in about half and hour, and had it put out on the deck (complete with cover) by the time Mr. Bluebird rolled out of bed.

I also am good at fixing toilets.

We're back....

So I didn't post much (at all) during my Christmas break, mainly because I didn't have that much to post about (honestly how exciting is it to hear me talk about how my dad and I went to every place you can purchase a tool of some kind within a radius of about 20 miles? Or how I managed to assemble a Weber grill?  Or how I still woke up at 5:00 every morning but managed to take a nap?  And how many bowl games I managed to watch?).  We had a delightful time off, I did very little school work, went and saw the latest Harry Potter movie, read, knitted, napped and enjoyed my time away from the classroom.  Hanging out with Hubby, Dad and the felines was a great deal of fun.

But today, we're back.  Actually teachers came back yesterday and did in-service most of the day (which was actually interesting and informative) and Mrs. Eagle and I managed to get everything copied and prepared for the rest of our heredity and genetics unit.  Whoo-hoo!  Love to be prepared.  Considering that we couldn't even remember if we'd done lesson plans before we left for break (we did), that's a plus.

We gained (so far) a new student, a sixth grader who's being promoted into seventh who is a good student, a polite young man and an absolute delight.  What a relief.  I'm used to getting kids that no one wants.

The other good news is we lost one.  Yes, Very Mean Bully Boy, came back today to officially withdraw.  He will still be doing his 30 days in alternative school but when that's done, he'll be in another school across town.  Let's give mom credit for moving him out of that horrid gang-and-thug-infested apartment complex down the road and shifting them across town to a better neck of the woods.  However, they are both in for a rude awakening because the folks at the school across town aren't used to dealing with thugs like VMBB and and he's certainly not used to them.  He is, however, no longer my problem and I can enjoy doing hall duty without worrying about who his latest victim is going to be.

The kids, by the way, were relieved.  It was like a different atmosphere today.

And today, Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Hummingbird and I debuted for a few of our classes the New Science Notebooks!!

The good news is we didn't fall flat on our faces.

We've been kicking around the idea of doing science notebooks for a year or so, but really didn't get too motivated until we went to the NSTA conference and hit up some workshops on them.  We decided to go ahead and "test drive" them for two of our classes, our 3rd (lots of sped kids) and our 5th (lots of bright kids) and see how they go.  The Principal found the money in the budget to buy composition books for the kids and we also got a few new pairs of scissors, as well as some liquid glue (glue sticks, we were told, don't work as well).    The idea is to work out the kinks this year, then go ahead and start the year off with them next year.

The kids seemed to like them except for a few who see a composition book and assume they'll be doing nothing but writing in them.  Oh well.  We'll see how it goes.

The other good thing?  I only had 4 kids forget their locker combinations - that's pretty darn good!