My students and their sub seem to have survived each other while I was in New York. "Awesome group of students!" the sub even wrote in a note to me. That is not always the kind of note I get from subs!
This morning I was starting to explain what we were going to do, but I was speaking slowly, drawing out my words as I often do when I'm buying time to adjust my plans according to whatever constraints present themselves. "We ... are ...," I said slowly.
"Family!" Juan sang. He is always like that, making me want to crack up, but when it's the 500th such interjection of the day, it isn't really funny anymore. And consequences don't really help that much. His comic drive is too strong to be stopped by time-outs and the principal's office (if it even should be). "I am a cute boy," he wrote today as a sentence for his spelling word "acute" - and then he wanted to get up to show off his cleverness to everyone else whose attention he could grab. Squirmy, hilarious, and incredibly, incredibly smart. I wish I had someone who could come in and teach him calculus while I'm teaching long division. I really hope he gets the challenges and opportunities he deserves. Our world needs him!
Today at recess Janette said to me, "Did you know Maria is moving to Mexico?" Janette and Maria are attached at the hip, leaning in to confide in each other at recess, finishing each other's sentences, knowing everything about the other. "She didn't want to tell me because she knew I'd start crying," Janette added.
When Maria came in a few minutes later, I asked her whether the rumor was true. Her answer shocked me - though I suppose it shouldn't have. "Yeah, my dad wants us to leave this week, I think," Maria started, hesitantly. "You know how they ... the ..."
"La Migra," another student chimed in.
"Yeah, La Migra," Maria continued. "You know how La Migra is coming to get people who aren't from here. They don't want us here because they say we take away jobs. Well, my dad doesn't want La Migra to come for us, so he might take us to Mexico. My sister's babysitter, La Migra came to her house. They knocked on the door really hard, and they hid. They have a dog, and if the dog had barked, they would have come inside and taken them away."
"Her brother is the only one who is from here," the other student added, "so they don't know what to do."
"My dad is going to come back here and keep working and send us money," Maria added. The group of girls gathered around my desk all nodded knowingly, the news of INS raids across the country clearly something they were deeply familiar with, the fear and confusion palpable.
Maria came to the US with her parents when she was in first grade. She is a lanky, spunky student who speaks English well, struggles with multiplication facts, and loves singing hand clap songs with other kids. She knows more hand claps than anyone else in my class. One time she told me that she didn't like her kindergarten in Mexico because "they didn't teach you anything. They just had you color." I don't want her to leave!
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