Studentisms…

A student is attempting to zip his coat.

Myself: “Be careful when you zip that. Look up or you’re going to zip your chin, which hurts.”

Student A: “I got it. I got it.”

Student B: “Oh, oh! One time my dad did that to his (points to genitals). He said it hurt real bad!!”

Studentisms…

The class is playing a game of charades where they try and determine the “community helper” being acted out by a classmate……

Student: “Ohhh!!! I know! It’s a hooker!”

Co-teacher: “A what?!”

Student: “You know, a hooker! The person who cooks all of the food at the restaurant. Like at Einstein Bagel.”

Myself: “You mean a chef. Gotcha!”

—-

My co-teacher and I are leading the class as they work through a word problem.

Co-teacher: “What do you think “ft.” means in that problem?

Student: “It probably means a bad word. My dad always says “Eff that” and my mom tells him not to say that in front of my brother and I.”

Co-teacher: “Good attempt, but remember we’re talking about measurement here. Think meters, yards, feet. Things like that.”

Brief Update

This is exactly what I told myself I’d avoid…. getting lost in the school year and not reflecting. This year, though, I’ve been lost in such a drastically different manner.

I look back at last year this time and remember spending hours crying and worrying about how I would ever make it to the end of the year. I was totally over my head. My students were threatening me and testing all of my teaching skills and patience. I had no support administratively and was starting to feel very leery about the decisions that were being made at my school.

As a recent sub described it to me last week, “You’re totally in Disney World, aren’t you?” I absolutely LOVE my new school. I’m teaching the grade-level I love. My co-teacher is incredibly smart, helpful, and so kind. The administration is also unbelievably supportive and once again so smart. I love being challenged intellectually by the parents, kids, and my co-workers. It’s just such a wonderful environment to work in. I could gush for hours. Putting it simply, I get to work and the next time I look at my watch, it’s time to go home. It feels great to love my job finally.

What I’ve been up to….

• Listening to parental criticism regarding my interactive reading binders. I spent the weekend tweaking the binders to make them more user-friendly for both my students and their parents. I’m looking forward to the input.
• Scratching my brain as to how my co-teacher and I can teach our “primary” (kids just out of Kindergarten/first grade) students how to follow directions and classroom routines. All three of them are in their own worlds and really act as if they’ve never been in school before, despite attending this school last year.
• Completing my first Back-to-School Night, alone as my co-teacher was out for a family emergency. Amazingly 6 out of 9 students were represented by their parents. My record last year: 0/20.
• Creating Smart Board activities to teacher my students about the continents and oceans, as well as what it means to be a global citizen.
• Taking two of my former students out to buy shoes and winter coats for their birthday. The boys loved it, as did I. Unfortunately one of the students was robbed at gun point a week later, having his new shoes and winter coat stolen. My heart breaks for him as those were the only gifts he’d received for his birthday.
• Watching the documentary that was made of the trip some of my former students took during the summer.

I’m constantly comparing this year to last year and I know I shouldn’t. It’s like comparing two children. It’s just not fair to either experience. Either way, I continue to compare this year against last. I’m finding that I absolutely adore my job and students, yet I continue to mourn the loss of my former students. Despite the agony and anxiety they put me through last year, I fell hard for them. I may be teaching in the suburbs now, but a huge piece of my heart will forever reside in DC. Someday I hope to go back.

Studentisms

Boy A: “So what are we supposed to be doing?”

Boy B: “She said you have to put your homework in your binder and then put your binder in your backpack?”

Boy A: “But we did that yesterday!”

Boy B: “Seriously, I’m being honest here. You gotta put your stuff away everyday!“

—–

Myself: “This country has lions and giraffes. The largest mountain in Africa is there and the Masai people live there. It’s the country I lived in last summer.”

Boy: “Ohhh!!! Ohhh!!! Tangerina!!”

Myself: “Close. Tanzania.”

—-

Co-Teacher: “Good morning, student. Are you feeling ok? You look a little tired.”

Boy: “Well, Teacher, I might be short, but that doesn’t mean I’m a little tired. I’m big tired today!”

School Dichotomy

I’m going to officially put myself out there as completely crazy by making the following statement, but you must realize that I’m making this statement with the utmost honesty….. I miss my students from last year! On the forefront, that doesn’t seem to crazy, right? But with a little history, you’ll understand how bizarre that statement is.

Last year, my first year of teaching none-the-less, I taught High School students (all boys) with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. They were quite the active bunch with the most colorful language I’ve yet to come across. As someone who was raised in Middle America, I was new to D.C. and urban culture. I was also new to special ed. and teaching in general. I was young, naive, and had a huge heart. To make a long story short, I spent an entire school year being oh so lovingly referred to as a “dumb, white Bitch” and having a myriad of threats thrown my way, both literally and figuratively. My boys tested me the entire year, but I hung on because I believed (and still do for that matter) that they deserved to have a consistent, competent, caring adult in their lives. I busted my butt to make these boys realize they were talented and worthy of great successes in life despite the angry they took out on me. I did all of that while dealing with an atrocious administrative staff that left me shaking my head in awe.

I left for greener pastures, and the younger kids I adore working with (I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a horrible high school teacher, my former school didn’t seem to care, though, and placed me wherever they wanted) this year, but I can’t stop thinking about the boys I’ve left behind. I’ve been in contact with nearly all of my former students since school let out last June. We’ve been on a few museum visits, had lunch together, and I’ve even taken a few of them to job interviews. In fact, tomorrow I’m taking two of them to buy new shoes for their birthday. I say all of that not to toot my own horn, but to emphasize the fact that those boys seems to need me as much as I need them. I felt like last year I planted some seeds into extremely parched soil and this summer the rains came. My boys are beginning to mature and blossom and I want to be along for that ride. I want them to know that despite all of the difficulties they’ve faced in life (trust me the difficulties are endless…. abuse, neglect, gangs, drugs, etc) and will continue to face, I’m behind them 100%.

If you’re willing and able to put yourself out there, I promise you, there are hundreds of students who’re just waiting for that one person to nurture their soul.

Why I Love My Job…

An excerpt from an e-mail sent by the parent of a new student:

“At dinner, I had (child) tell his dad about his visit to the school. I mentioned that I thought he liked it. He looked at us and said, ‘Mom, I didn’t like it! I LOVED it!!’ Thanks for making the first impression so wonderful.”

Interviews

I had my first student interviews today. At my school, the students and their parents come in a week early in order to meet with their teachers, get acquainted with the school, and complete some brief assessments. Since I’m working with the younger students, our goal is to get the kids excited about coming to school. This isn’t always an easy task as many of our kids haven’t had much success in school and already approach school with an attitude of disgust. Who wouldn’t, though, when you’re in lower elementary school and don’t have basic letter recognition or 1-1 number correspondence yet?

The two boys I met today were drastically different. Student A attended the school last year and spent the summer in an intensive reading program. His parents claimed he had made a great deal of progress, although, I didn’t see this in the data I was able to obtain from him. His long-term memory appears to be poor as he repeatedly stated, “I know Mr. X (my co-teacher) taught me this last year,” yet he couldn’t complete the tasks, which included adding and subtracting with carrying and borrowing, reading from the Dolch word list, and creating number representations with base-ten blocks. He’s a BIG Star Wars fan, though, and excitedly read a beginning reader book on Wookies.

Boy B was a classic child who had yet to have any success in school. He’s new to the school and repeatedly stated how much “school sucks” and how the only thing he liked about school was recess. He did appear to have a keen interest in the Smart Board. Yay for technology! His skills were decidedly weak. He has very poor letter recognition and is essentially a non-reader. His spelling is poor, as is his handwriting. Math is a relative strength for him as he could skip count by 2′s, 5′s, and 10′s to 100 and could complete 1 digit addition and subtraction problems using manipulative’s.

We’ve got 3 more interviews to complete tomorrow.