Second Week of June

Monday
The first speeches were given today! It was very exciting (for me) and terrifying (for the students). But all of the kids who gave their speeches today did a great job. My favorite part by far is when they talk about the themes in their books. I required them to identify big concepts the books deal with and, using those concepts, to pull out a universally applicable theme. It’s the sort of higher-level thinking that usually annoys them – “What do you mean, the answer isn’t in the book?” and that sort of thing… But they seemed relatively interested in exploring their own books this way this time.


Tuesday
I offered an after-school session both yesterday and today, allowing kids to stay and work on assignments they’re missing, quizzes they need to make up, and elements that will eventually go on their book posters. I was struck by the difference between my current students and the students at my old school. At my old school, they all wanted to type their projects; they seemed drawn to the computers in a way that my current students are not. My current students don’t seem to care and are perfectly happy to write out their assignments and projects, unless they have to finish the work at home. Perhaps the difference is related to access – my current students are more likely to have computers at home, while my previous kids (of a much lower socio-economic status) usually only had access to technology at school.

One of our school goals is integrating technology into education, but our current system doesn’t allow that. I would like to have a laptop lab for my classroom – a dedicated set of laptops that students could use with consistency, instead of trudging to the computer lab twice a year after I finally manage to get time on the lab schedule. Our students are sadly lacking in technology skills, including (but not limited to) their word processing skills, and the best solution to this is a little bit of direct instruction at the start and then regular exposure (practice). I usually hate applying for grants, but I might have to look into this. You know, in all of my spare time…


Wednesday
Holy cow. We had a “pride assembly” today, and it was quite possibly the craziest assembly I’ve ever attended. Our mascot is a mustang – Morris the Mustang – and the mascot costume involves a student as the front legs and head of the horse and a student as the back and back legs of the horse. As our drama teacher led the horse around by a lead rope, the student who was the back of the horse would drop wadded-up pieces of paper… as if the horse was pooping! It was hilarious, and the students loved the goofiness.


Thursday
We began rehearsing speeches today. So many of my students are really nervous about these speeches… I see a solution for them, but they don’t really want to take it. The obvious solution is more practice; instead they shy away from even writing their note cards. I’m thinking about designing some kind of lesson for next year that would teach my kids NOT to put off the tough stuff. If you ignore it, it will NOT go away. You’ll just have less time to work on it.


Friday
I began my workday today by interviewing the head secretary from my old school. I have to interview a bunch of different people for this graduate class I’m taking, and she was the first. It was nice to see her again, but hearing her perspective on her job, on schools, and on teachers and principals was even better. I wish everyone approached their jobs with the same mix of servant’s heart and efficiency. It was a lovely and encouraging way to start the day.

The evening was not nearly as encouraging. We’re in the midst of some very complicated contract negotiations with the school board right now, and we had another session tonight. We started out in public, facing each other across a table, but spent the rest of the time in our caucus rooms. We would send our spokesperson to meet in a side room with their spokesperson, and then she would come back and report to us what the other side had said. Then we would talk about our options and what we wanted to propose, and then send her back. During the waiting times, when we were sitting around while she was off in the side room, we got a little goofy. We played “Name That Show Tune” using someone’s iPod music library. We had mini dance parties when certain songs played. We drew cartoon pictures of an octopus attacking a school, a school bus driven by wild students (that was mine), and a monkey throwing fruit at kids and teachers while hanging from the top of the flagpole. (We were a little bored at times…) The negotiations themselves did not go well at all. We took some of our proposed changes back to make it easier to settle, and they added more proposed changes. We came down a little on money, and they dropped their offer more. (These people do not understand the concept of negotiating.) It was discouraging and exhausting, and I’m ready to sleep now.


Saturday
Mr. Chandler’s brother and his wife came over this morning to talk to us about the new house they just bought. It's very exciting... (And it's cute; I've seen it.) We all sat around in the back yard, enjoying the brief sunshine and watching our dogs play in the yard. They brought their border collie (my niece dog), who tried to get my dogs to play with her. Little Dog was confused by this, but he followed her around obligingly. Big Dog (who is still smaller than Niece Dog) would chase her or run from her when she chased him, but didn’t know what to do when she introduced a stick -- a fetching concept -- to the game. (We’re not big on fetching… we try to avoid letting Big Dog have anything in his mouth that didn’t come from his food bowl.) Anyway, a lovely, relaxed time was had by all.