A quick story:
My friend who teaches the fifth grade bilingual class at our school and who has all my students from last year popped her head in my room last Friday. "Oh my God! I almost killed Pedro!" she burst out.
Pedro deserves a whole blog entry all to himself, but suffice it to say that he is rather odd. He is obsessed with fashion (especially Abercrombie and Fitch), has a new spiky gelled hairdo, is a tetherball star, and does not reason the same way your average fifth grader does.
The fifth graders have been doing a project in which they thought of "What's your favorite ...?" questions, surveyed first graders, and made bar and pie graphs showing the results of their surveys. As they were preparing posters with their results, Pedro picked up a glue stick, proceeded to smear glue all over the bottom of both his sneakers, and then started walking around the classroom. My friend finally realized what was going on and was so angry that all she could think of to do was point furiously at Pedro and scream, "KNEEL! KNEEL RIGHT NOW!"
Fortunately for her and him, he gathered what the word "kneel" meant and did it, thereby getting his sticky feet off the floor. My friend was so angry and flabbergasted that she made Pedro stay there for a minute or two until she calmed down and had time to deal with him. He cheerfully mopped up the sticky mess. What he will take from this incident is anyone's guess.
***
I can't believe there are so few days left of school!
In talking with a few people who read this blog, I've heard some ideas for topics they'd like for me to write about during these last few days. To save myself some time and brain energy tonight, I thought I'd pose a question instead of writing a regular post.
What do you want to read about? I have 12 days left at my school with my students. What do you want to know about them and my teaching life?
Some topics other people have suggested to spark your thinking:
- discipline (i.e. what kinds of discipline problems do I deal with, how do I deal with them, etc.)
- the social worlds of the girls in my class (ins and outs of their cliques, gossip, etc.)
- how my curriculum has changed as a result of No Child Left Behind and other mandates (what, specifically, I have stopped doing and what I do more of now)
Please take a minute and post your vote for a topic you'd like to read about - one of these or anything else that you've been wondering about. You can post your comment anonymously if you want. Or you can send me an email to my regular email address if you have it. Thanks!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Day -13: Celebrations
Nope, this isn't a picture of a friend getting married.
On Saturday, five of my students had their first communions at the church down the street from our school. The pews were packed with probably 1000 people. The boy who passed the collection basket down my row was a former student of mine, and I saw lots of other former students and their families, too. There were many poofy white dresses and tiny suits, plus lots of hairspray, cologne, nervousness, and pride.
Day -14: Open House Photos
Here are a few things my students showed off at Open House. You can click on them to see slightly bigger versions.
First, this is an example of a list each student made of things they wanted their parents to see.
Here are some posters a pair of students made about the book Sarah, Plain and Tall. It's hard to see in this picture, but I liked their comic-book style drawings.
And here are a few of my students' biographies. Anyone know who Omar Bravo (on the biography in the upper righthand corner) is? I didn't, but all my students do!
Probably the biggest hit of the evening was the little iPhoto slideshow I made a pictures from our field trips this year. One parent asked if I could email her some of the pictures that her daughter is in. This is the first year that a few parents of students in my class have email.
First, this is an example of a list each student made of things they wanted their parents to see.
Here are some posters a pair of students made about the book Sarah, Plain and Tall. It's hard to see in this picture, but I liked their comic-book style drawings.
And here are a few of my students' biographies. Anyone know who Omar Bravo (on the biography in the upper righthand corner) is? I didn't, but all my students do!
Probably the biggest hit of the evening was the little iPhoto slideshow I made a pictures from our field trips this year. One parent asked if I could email her some of the pictures that her daughter is in. This is the first year that a few parents of students in my class have email.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Day -15: Japan Is Cooler than China
At least that's what Alex thinks (Alex of the "I rest my case" comment a few days back).
I was hanging out with Alex and a few other kids at the Book Fair after school. (Oh, the excitement the Book Fair creates ... but that's another story.) He spotted a book in a new Magic School Bus series that centers on social studies rather than science themes. In this particular installment, Ms. Frizzle takes her class to China.
Alex flipped through the book briefly and then put it back. "That looks cool," I said.
"Yeah," Alex answered half-heartedly, "but I'm more into Japan than China."
"Really? Why?" I asked.
"Japan is cooler than China," he elaborated. "Japan has cool cartoons. And Tokyo looks like the future."
***
Tonight was Open House. I love Open House, but I didn't get home until 9:00, having worked more than 13 hours straight with about a 10-minute break for lunch. I'll post a few photos tomorrow.
I was hanging out with Alex and a few other kids at the Book Fair after school. (Oh, the excitement the Book Fair creates ... but that's another story.) He spotted a book in a new Magic School Bus series that centers on social studies rather than science themes. In this particular installment, Ms. Frizzle takes her class to China.
Alex flipped through the book briefly and then put it back. "That looks cool," I said.
"Yeah," Alex answered half-heartedly, "but I'm more into Japan than China."
"Really? Why?" I asked.
"Japan is cooler than China," he elaborated. "Japan has cool cartoons. And Tokyo looks like the future."
***
Tonight was Open House. I love Open House, but I didn't get home until 9:00, having worked more than 13 hours straight with about a 10-minute break for lunch. I'll post a few photos tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Day -16: Health
Today I found out that Celeste, one of my former students who's in 7th grade now, has had a really tough past few months. Turns out that since hitting her head in a car accident recently, Celeste has had two epileptic seizures. And then a month ago, her dad had a serious stroke while he was at work. He has been hospitalized ever since. Currently, he can't talk and is almost entirely paralyzed on the left side of his body, though he can wiggle his toes. I got all this news from Celeste's second-grade sister. I ran into the second grader on the playground and asked how Celeste was. Out spilled all the details, very matter-of-factly. But this normally very bubbly second grader was clearly out-of-sorts.
Students' lives can contain such tragedy. And health issues occupy a surprising amount of my time.
This year, I have a student with diabetes. She needs to get her insulin levels checked every day at lunch and has to stay in at recess every morning for a snack. She was hospitalized for almost a week last summer when her diabetes was diagnosed. I have another student this year who has a hormone disorder which made her grow to her full adult height by the end of third grade. She is 5'9" now, I'd say, and looks like she's at least 15. I don't know the name of her condition, but she goes frequently for MRIs and check-ups. I have another student David (mentioned in the "duda") post) with achondroplasia, which means he is a little person. His mom is illiterate in Spanish and in English, so she sometimes has difficulty accessing services for him, but he has a team of doctors that keep tabs on him. I have two students with serious asthma and lots more with less-serious asthma. One of the serious asthma cases, Leonardo, also has serious vision issues that went uncorrected until this year because his mom didn't have health insurance and couldn't pay for an opthamologist's exam. Janette has spent much of the year without her glasses, which keep breaking. And Marco just went to get his glasses today, after being referred for them back in October.
For the large number of my students without health insurance, these health problems are that much more complicated and stressful. Whenever people start talking about denying health care services to undocumented immigrants and their children, I can't even bear to listen for very long. Are they honestly saying that they want Leonardo to die of an asthma attack? Or that Celeste shouldn't get epilepsy medication?
Students' lives can contain such tragedy. And health issues occupy a surprising amount of my time.
This year, I have a student with diabetes. She needs to get her insulin levels checked every day at lunch and has to stay in at recess every morning for a snack. She was hospitalized for almost a week last summer when her diabetes was diagnosed. I have another student this year who has a hormone disorder which made her grow to her full adult height by the end of third grade. She is 5'9" now, I'd say, and looks like she's at least 15. I don't know the name of her condition, but she goes frequently for MRIs and check-ups. I have another student David (mentioned in the "duda") post) with achondroplasia, which means he is a little person. His mom is illiterate in Spanish and in English, so she sometimes has difficulty accessing services for him, but he has a team of doctors that keep tabs on him. I have two students with serious asthma and lots more with less-serious asthma. One of the serious asthma cases, Leonardo, also has serious vision issues that went uncorrected until this year because his mom didn't have health insurance and couldn't pay for an opthamologist's exam. Janette has spent much of the year without her glasses, which keep breaking. And Marco just went to get his glasses today, after being referred for them back in October.
For the large number of my students without health insurance, these health problems are that much more complicated and stressful. Whenever people start talking about denying health care services to undocumented immigrants and their children, I can't even bear to listen for very long. Are they honestly saying that they want Leonardo to die of an asthma attack? Or that Celeste shouldn't get epilepsy medication?
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Day -17: MySpace
I've known this for awhile, but most of my 9- and 10-year old students have MySpace accounts. (And yes, you're not allowed to register unless you say you're 14 or older.)
When I started teaching five years ago, I think one of my 32 students had a computer at home with Internet access. Now I think almost a third of my class does. Most of the rest regularly use the Internet at friends' houses or at the library.
I was eating lunch with five students today, and over turkey sandwiches, we started talking about how much TV they watched. "Sometimes I watch 'Lety La Fea,'" Maria said, referring to a popular telenovela, "but I use the computer and MySpace more."
This prompted a whole discussion about their MySpace profiles, how they can protect themselves from the "people who can rape you" on MySpace (as one girl said), spam, friend requests, and Tom. Maria, the most-frequent MySpace user in the group (and the students whose family was considering moving back to Mexico because they are afraid of deportation), was listing off her MySpace friends, most of whom are students in our class, and added, "And then there's Tom."
"Yeah, everyone's friends with him," another girl added. "He started MySpace."
This cracked me up. For you non-MySpace users, there is this guy named Tom who supposedly did start MySpace and who becomes your "friend" as soon as you set up your account. The idea that my peers who are on MySpace and my students all have this same "friend" named Tom - that they and his 179 million other "friends" have never met - is rather odd. How many conversations has Tom inserted himself into?
I was impressed with my students' Internet savvy, their knowledge of Tom, their knowledge that those banner ads they saw for free iPods when they were setting up their MySpace accounts were not something to fall for. I wonder how the Internet and MySpace and YouTube and instant messaging will shape literacy practices and language learning in the future. I am not the first to wonder this, obviously. But I don't think teachers think about it enough.
***
On a different but communications-related note, AT&T decided that it's really no big deal to disable the phone system for a school of 850 students and 75 staff members for two days. They are supposedly "upgrading fiber optic cables" in our area, the principal says, and this upgrade involves cutting the current cables before the new ones are up and running. We have had no phone or Internet access for two days. What kind of business, especially one with almost 1000 employees on-site, would stand for this?
When I started teaching five years ago, I think one of my 32 students had a computer at home with Internet access. Now I think almost a third of my class does. Most of the rest regularly use the Internet at friends' houses or at the library.
I was eating lunch with five students today, and over turkey sandwiches, we started talking about how much TV they watched. "Sometimes I watch 'Lety La Fea,'" Maria said, referring to a popular telenovela, "but I use the computer and MySpace more."
This prompted a whole discussion about their MySpace profiles, how they can protect themselves from the "people who can rape you" on MySpace (as one girl said), spam, friend requests, and Tom. Maria, the most-frequent MySpace user in the group (and the students whose family was considering moving back to Mexico because they are afraid of deportation), was listing off her MySpace friends, most of whom are students in our class, and added, "And then there's Tom."
"Yeah, everyone's friends with him," another girl added. "He started MySpace."
This cracked me up. For you non-MySpace users, there is this guy named Tom who supposedly did start MySpace and who becomes your "friend" as soon as you set up your account. The idea that my peers who are on MySpace and my students all have this same "friend" named Tom - that they and his 179 million other "friends" have never met - is rather odd. How many conversations has Tom inserted himself into?
I was impressed with my students' Internet savvy, their knowledge of Tom, their knowledge that those banner ads they saw for free iPods when they were setting up their MySpace accounts were not something to fall for. I wonder how the Internet and MySpace and YouTube and instant messaging will shape literacy practices and language learning in the future. I am not the first to wonder this, obviously. But I don't think teachers think about it enough.
***
On a different but communications-related note, AT&T decided that it's really no big deal to disable the phone system for a school of 850 students and 75 staff members for two days. They are supposedly "upgrading fiber optic cables" in our area, the principal says, and this upgrade involves cutting the current cables before the new ones are up and running. We have had no phone or Internet access for two days. What kind of business, especially one with almost 1000 employees on-site, would stand for this?
Monday, May 21, 2007
Day -18: Endings vs. Beginnings
Does it make me a bad teacher that I like the beginning of the school year so much better than the end?
I feel like by the end of the year, I'm supposed to have built one big, happy family. I'm supposed to be able to sit back and bask in the glow of all the learning we've done. But that's not how it is for me.
The beginning is all possibility. In September, I'm meeting this group of 30-odd students, getting to know them and falling in love with their quirks and smiles and questions and aspirations. They've just spent a couple of months sitting around watching too much TV (in some cases, anyway), away from their friends, and they have gotten bored, bored, bored. They are so eager at the beginning of the year, hanging on my every word, so excited to see what the mysterious world of fourth grade will be like, trying so hard to put their best foot forward. When I look at their work in the fall, I see what I need to help them with, and I dream big of all the progress they will make, all the learning we will do together. Kids really do ask me for homework and get sad on Friday because there isn't school the next day.
But now, they're sick of each other, sick of me, sick of our routines, sick of tests. Their hopes that suddenly they would master the multiplication facts they didn't learn in third grade haven't been realized either. It's so easy to focus on the gaps between where I want students to be and where they are now. At the beginning of the year, those gaps weren't my fault; I was just entrusted with closing them. But now I see, in some cases, how big the gaps remain, and it can't help but depress me.
Not that students haven't made progress. Of course they have. Sometimes I look at our whiteboard full of math problems we do each day and marvel at the fact that at the beginning of the year, they didn't know how to do any of those problems - find equivalent fractions, write decimals, calculate area and perimeter, do long division. But other times I focus on the students who still can't do some of those problems. Like Arturo, who still, still does not reliably use capital letters at the beginning of his sentences! He knows, when reminded, what to do. He punctuates sentences appropriately. He just does not start sentences with capital letters. I have handed back countless papers of his, forcing him to add capitals in appropriate places before I would grade his work. To what avail? Almost none. He will dutifully add capitals without any prompting from me about where they needed to go, but will he use capital letters appropriately on his own for his next assignment? Usually no. He is a smart kid. He remembers lots of other, much more obscure things. What's his block about capitals? I wish I knew. I think his fifth grade teacher is going to kill me.
Thankfully, the very-end-of-the-year nostalgia will set in, for both me and my students, pretty soon, and then we will focus on all the good parts of our year together. At the moment, though, I feel disintegration rather than creation.
I feel like by the end of the year, I'm supposed to have built one big, happy family. I'm supposed to be able to sit back and bask in the glow of all the learning we've done. But that's not how it is for me.
The beginning is all possibility. In September, I'm meeting this group of 30-odd students, getting to know them and falling in love with their quirks and smiles and questions and aspirations. They've just spent a couple of months sitting around watching too much TV (in some cases, anyway), away from their friends, and they have gotten bored, bored, bored. They are so eager at the beginning of the year, hanging on my every word, so excited to see what the mysterious world of fourth grade will be like, trying so hard to put their best foot forward. When I look at their work in the fall, I see what I need to help them with, and I dream big of all the progress they will make, all the learning we will do together. Kids really do ask me for homework and get sad on Friday because there isn't school the next day.
But now, they're sick of each other, sick of me, sick of our routines, sick of tests. Their hopes that suddenly they would master the multiplication facts they didn't learn in third grade haven't been realized either. It's so easy to focus on the gaps between where I want students to be and where they are now. At the beginning of the year, those gaps weren't my fault; I was just entrusted with closing them. But now I see, in some cases, how big the gaps remain, and it can't help but depress me.
Not that students haven't made progress. Of course they have. Sometimes I look at our whiteboard full of math problems we do each day and marvel at the fact that at the beginning of the year, they didn't know how to do any of those problems - find equivalent fractions, write decimals, calculate area and perimeter, do long division. But other times I focus on the students who still can't do some of those problems. Like Arturo, who still, still does not reliably use capital letters at the beginning of his sentences! He knows, when reminded, what to do. He punctuates sentences appropriately. He just does not start sentences with capital letters. I have handed back countless papers of his, forcing him to add capitals in appropriate places before I would grade his work. To what avail? Almost none. He will dutifully add capitals without any prompting from me about where they needed to go, but will he use capital letters appropriately on his own for his next assignment? Usually no. He is a smart kid. He remembers lots of other, much more obscure things. What's his block about capitals? I wish I knew. I think his fifth grade teacher is going to kill me.
Thankfully, the very-end-of-the-year nostalgia will set in, for both me and my students, pretty soon, and then we will focus on all the good parts of our year together. At the moment, though, I feel disintegration rather than creation.
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