An Inspiration

I recently read a newspaper article about Khadijah Williams, the homeless girl who got into Harvard. This girl has been to 12 schools in 12 years because she, her mother and little sister have moved from shelter to shelter or street to street for most of her life. She graduated last week, 4th in her class, with honors. Her story is quite a story and it got me thinking about my own students.

My school is primarily a low income, English as a second language school. A lot of our kids have issues that they deal with; issues that are way more pressing than school. Most are economically disadvantaged, many live in apartments with several other families, some have parents who have committed suicide and others have parents in jail. Our transiency rate is very high. In fact, this year I had 5 out of 16 kids who came mid-year or later and for a few of them, we were their 3rd school this year. We are always trying to find ways to motivate and make our kids do well in school so they have more opportunities. But for some of them, nothing we do inspires them. They still come to school everyday; we are a place of consistency and safety to a lot of them, but they don't live up their potential. Khadijah Williams did. She was motivated to make her situation better. She is a role model.

Even though my summer just started, the new school year is right around the corner. Every summer is a time to regroup and rest, but it is also a time to think of ways to make more of an impact than I did the year before. I want all my kids to be like Khadijah Williams. I don't mean I want them all to go to Harvard, but I want them all to think of their education as more than
something we make them do. Each year that is my goal. Each year I always feel like I've failed with some of them.

A Smelly Story

A week or so ago, Happy Wife posted about a smelly situation at her new job. That got me thinking about a smelly story of my own. Let me just say that the main story is not funny

at all. How I handles the situation was the funny part.

During my second year of teaching, it was just before recess and there was a faint, but bad smell in my classroom. During some student work time I wandered around the room, sniffing trying to locate the it. I found that it was coming from one of my little girls who I will call B. Now, B's mother was dying of cancer and that was all B's father could possibly deal with so B and her brother's hygiene hadn't been as good as it should have been. During recess time, I went to the health assistant to get some advice on how I should handle this. She said that it could be halitosis, or really bad breath, if brushing her teeth hadn't been a priority. So I asked around the office for some gum or mints to take back. The other kids had started commenting about the smell so I wanted to nip it in the bud as to not embarrass B. We scrounged up some peppermints and I picked up the kids to bring them back to class.

After recess, I played a game and handed out mints. I didn't want to embarrass her by just giving her one. So a few students "won" mints including B. The smell didn't completely go away, but at least everyone around B also "won" a mint, so we masked the smell as much as we could until we left for lunch.

During lunch my assistant principal found me in the staff room and laughingly told me the health assistant was ranting and raving. Apparently, one of the yard supervisors found B in the bathroom and somehow realized that she had actually had an accident and the smell was not halitosis, but rather "number 2". The health assistant was running around the office telling everyone, "The girl pooped her pants and Pumpkin Delight gave her mint!"

And the Muppets Win By A Landslide!

Last week my 2nd graders earned a "Marble Party" by accumulating 100 marbles in a jar for outstanding classroom behavior since August. I told them that it was their party and they could democratically plan the party according to the majority's votes. After a short discussion, three choices were agreed upon - A Pizza Party, A "Potluck" Party, and A Rootbeer Float Party - I know how cute is that? Then we took a vote and the "Potluck" Party and the Rootbeer Float Party tied. Collectively we decided that we could do both. I would provide the rootbeer floats and if students wanted to bring in treats to share with the class, they were allowed to to do that. This year's class is sooo easy going that I could have just given them all a hug or high-five for the "Marble Party" and they would be thrilled, so a combination "Potluck"/Rootbeer Float Party is so fantastic they can hardly stand it. "I'm so excited!" one student exclaimed waving his hands, fanning his face.

I promised the kids that during the party I would show them a movie as well. I found a few movies that I could access to show on my "magic" whiteboard, and the next day we voted on them. Their choices were Madagascar, Meet the Robinsons (which I kept referring to as Mrs. Robinson), Ratatouille, and the Muppet Movie. I added the Muppets to the list at the last minute because in December I showed them the Muppet Christmas Carol after studding families/traditions in England. They really enjoyed it so I thought, "What the heck, this will give them another choice."

Much to my surprise, the Muppet Movie took all but a couple of the votes. The kids were thrilled with the choice. Now, as someone who grew up in the 80s, I love the Muppets. They are a hoot! I was really surprised though that the kids would be so excited about them. The Muppets aren't sleek and sassy (except for Miss Piggy of course) and the shows and movies certainly aren't fast paced. As a teacher, every year I see attention spans reduce and expectations increase as our world's technology advances. More of my kids have video games than books, so this vote threw me for a loop. I'm thrilled that my kids want to see a movie that's not popular and trendy and not only did they vote for it, they can't stop talking about it. The Marble Party is this Friday and all week they've reminded me that it is this Friday. "Don't forget the movie," they tell me. "I think that movie is going to be so funny," they tell each other. It's really very sweet.

Did you watch the Muppets (shows or movies) when they were popular? Who were your favorites? I think all the characters were very funny, but the two old guys who heckled in the theatre crack me up!

I Spoke Too Soon

DAP had been making progress, but this week was not a good week. In class he has been fine behavior-wise. He continues to struggle getting his work done, but besides that, he's pretty respectful in class and when he isn't we deal with it and he quickly becomes respectful.


Well, this week has been a different story. In class he has been OK, but on the playground he has fallen apart. It all started on Tuesday when the yard supervisor told me at lineup that he and one of my mutes (that's right, I have more than one) had been sent to the office for hitting, each other. Our principal/assistant principal have done a pretty good job taking on the behavior during recess time so the classroom teachers don't have to deal with it when it's severe. We have a lot of playground issues at our school and it was taking up a lot of our time; time away from teaching our classes. So DAP and my mute (let's call him CJ) were sent to the office and I was notified about it. They spent part of the afternoon in the office working with the AP and the psychologist (who happens to work with both students) trying to get to the bottom of it since fighting is a suspendable offense. It turns out that they were "play" fighting and it got out of hand. They were told to write letters of apology to each other and then to apologize verbally. The AP and psych had to turn their heads so CJ would apologize quietly, and he did. Things seemed fine and they came back to the class.


On Wednesday, I was out with Mr. Show doing a training, so I had a substitute in my room. That afternoon when I went to the classroom to cleanup and prep for the next day, there was a note from my sub stating that DAP and CJ were, once again, sent to the office for fighting. Great! Apparently, both boys were happy to see the AP and when she asked DAP what had happened, he smiled and said, "I think CJ's going to talk to you today." Hmmm?


Again, Mr. Show and I were out of classroom at a training on Thursday, and I had the same sub in my room. I read the sub's notes at the end of the day and saw that DAP was sent to the office at recess for hitting another student, and then sent home on a 2-day suspension. Later it was noted that the AP took CJ out of class at the end of the day today and, he didn't return. I met with my AP at that time to hear about what happened. As it turns out, DAP punched another one of my students (the child of a colleague of mine) in the back today, yah, that's right! So he was suspended for two-days. The kicker on this one is that when the AP called his mother, she was mad that Thursday didn't count as a suspended day since she had to take Thursday off too to pick him up. Yah, that's what she was mad at!


The AP then flipped over DAP's file and got to CJ's file. He was sent to the office for also hitting another student, a different one thank goodness, and suspended for two days as well.


With some kids, it always seems to be something.

Meltdown Paid Off!

Good news everyone! The DAP meltdown paid off. That's right. DAP is a sitter arounder most of the time in class. When everyone else is diligently working, DAP is sitting (quietly mind you) and doing NOTHING. When an assignment is not done in a specified amount of time, we have an agreement. He has to take it to another classroom time during his recess or lunch time. Missing play time (which is the ONLY reason DAP comes to school in his eyes) is pretty powerful, so it is often an easy choice for him, but sometimes, not so much. I've been weary about giving him work to do during recess after the melt down incident, but this week a whole new DAP came to school. No, no, he didn't willingly get all his work done without the threat of losing recess. But, two times this week, he chose not to get his work done during work time and when he was sent to another room he did it quickly and pleasantly, like someone who didn't, just three weeks ago, have a complete and utter "tea kettle" meltdown and block me from going back into my classroom. What a difference a few weeks makes. Phew! (Knock on wood, of course)

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

For those of you following the DAP story this might be of some interest. Tonight was back to school night which is a night that the teachers are able to meet the parents and listen to a presentation about their child's upcoming year. At my school, it's attended by (if we're lucky) about half of our parents. This year I had 5 out of 16 parents attend which, in case you're not so good in math, isn't half. However, one of those parents was DAP's. I have tried to get in touch with them the last couple of weeks, just leaving messages with no response. So I was thrilled that she showed up. DAP happened to have a FANTASTIC day today and I was happy to share that with her. We talked for a bit and I wanted to be encouraging about the last couple of days. To make a long story short, one of her comments to me was, "I'm most worried about his social skills this year." (OK that sounds good, but just wait). "Elementary school is really just a wash, it doesn't matter that much, I'm more concerned with his social skills." (Well, it actually is pretty important. A lot of foundational skills are taught in elementary school) "Oh sure, but he already knows it." (Are you freakin' kidding me, everything in elementary school? Then maybe he should stay home for the next 5 years. Ya know, if he already knows everything.)

That sure would make my life a hell of a lot easier.

Choices - Epilogue

After the meltdown at recess DAP came back with the class after recess was over, and we proceeded through our day. At lunch time, Jason and I went to lunch with our team and I apologized for sending DAP in there that way. I felt, however, that if let him come with me, he'd see that as me backing down...that wasn't one of his two choices. Jason said it was fine, but laughed and told me that one of his students asked DAP why he was in that room. DAP went back to that whiny, tea kettle voice and sobbed, "IIIIIII'mmmmmm doooooiiiiinnnnnggggg myyyyyyy maaaaattttthhhhhh," before crying and dramatically throwing his head onto the desk. Jason told his kids to leave DAP alone. Really, all you can do is laugh.

The remainder of the day with DAP was fine. He didn't have any more meltdowns, and the next day he finished all of his work, before work time was over. As I said in part 1, I am hopeful that all this effort early on in the year, will pay off as the year moves on. He is someone that needs to have structure and to be well prepared for what is to come. I have to be on my toes if I'm going to "throw" something new at him. How does that saying go, "That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." My goodness, I hope so.

Choices - Part 2

Now, don't get me wrong. I like DAP. He's smart and funny, just frustrating. I'm not teasing or making fun of him. As a teacher, if you don't laugh at the craziness, you'd go crazy.

So, DAP joined the rest of us at music. He seemed to not dislike school as much as he thought during music time. After music we came back upstairs to our classroom and after getting settled back in, started math. After my math lesson, the students were assigned some math practice. The timer was set for 10 minutes, plenty of time. At about 5 minutes, I noticed that DAP was staring off into space. "What are you working on?" I asked him. "My math," he answered. "Great, but I want you to watch your time. There's only about 5 minutes left, and you still have a lot to do." "I don't really want to do math anymore." "I know, but I need to know that you know how to do it." He didn't say anything. "But it's your choice DAP, you can do it now and join the class at recess time, or you can sit here now, and go to Mr. Show's room at recess." He didn't answer back. "OK, watch your time. Remember, it's your choice." The timer went off, everyone else was done except for DAP. The rest of the class and I went over the math assignment and then put it away to get ready for recess. This time, DAP started putting it away immediately (can you beleive it?). "Oops, DAP, you need to go get a clip board so you can take the math and your pencil over to Mr. Show's room. You can finish there and then join us at recess." "But, but," he was surprised. "But I have a poptart." "Well, that was the choice you made." He was still in shock and absentmindedly found himself a clipboard. I lined up the class outside and told him to go next door to Mr. Show's room.

That set him off. (Now, close your eyes and imagine the sound a tea kettle makes when the water is ready. The rest of DAP's contribution to the dialogue took place in that sound.) "But IIIIIIIIIIII waaaannnntttt tooo goooo tooooooo recesssssss." "I know you do, but you made the choice to not do math during work time so now you have to do it during your time." "IIIIIIIIII haaaavvvveee aaaaa poooooooptaaaarrrrtttttt."

I didn't want the rest of the class to have to wait for this meltdown to occur and I didn't want to send him to Mr. Show's room in this state, so I told him to get in line as we walked downstairs. He thought I was giving up, but what he didn't know is that I am more stubborn than he is. He happily got into line and we walked downstairs. I quickly sent the rest of the kids out to recess, and told DAP to wait with me. The meltdown suddenly was back. "But IIIIII waaannntttt toooo goooo toooo recesssss." "DAP," I said firmly, "Your work didn't get done during worktime. That work must get done, and it's going to get done right now." Throwing his fists down, "Buuuutttt IIIIII don'ttttt waaaaannnnttttt tooooo dooooo worrrkkkkk." During this time, other 2nd grade classes walked by and he didn't care. We stood by some bushes and being upset he started pulling the leaves off the plant. "DAP, you now have two new choices, one is to come back upstairs with me and do your math, the second choice is to go see Mrs. H (our assistant principal). Which would you like to do.?" He put his face down in the bushes and whined, "I don't like school work." "I know, but that's your job here. Which choice would you like?" He didn't answer. "Alright, I'm going to go get Mrs. H." He looked up at me, "Thaaaatttttt wasn'tttt myyyyy chooooiiiice." "So what choice do you want?" "IIIIIIII don'tttt liiiiikkkkke either oooofff thoooose chooooiiices." "Well, you need to make one and right now you are showing me that you are choosing Mrs. H." "NOOOOOOOOOOO." "Then what's your choice." "Maaaaattttthhhhh." "That's a wonderful choice, let's go upstairs and get started on your math."

With some coaxing, DAP slowly followed me upstairs, several paces behind. "I am so glad that decided to do your math," I told him, "because as soon as you finish, you can bring it to me and go out and play." We walked into my classroom, grabbed his clipboard, and walked back out the door to Mr. Show's room. I walked in the the classroom, the door closed behind me and DAP wasn't inside with me. I looked at Jason and rolled my eyes, "We'll be right back." I walked back outside and there was DAP with his head against the wall, "I doooooonnnnn'ttttt waaaaannnnttttt toooooo dooooooo maaaaaaath. IIIIIItttttt'sssss toooooooo haaaarrrrddddd." "Well, come on inside with me and I will show you how to do it again." He didn't move. "Does that mean you are choosing for me to call Mrs. H?" Silence. So I walked back towards my room and opened the door to call the AP. "NOOOOOOOOOO," he jumped back and blocked the door to stop me from getting inside. Now, I was mad. This had taken up 10 of my 15 minutes of break and I had to go pee. "DAP, this is unacceptable. If you don't go in that room right now and work on your math, Mrs. H is going to come up and get you." "FIIIIINNNNNNEEEEE."

We walked back to Mr. Show's room and I opened the door and made him go in first (fool me once). I sat DAP down at a single desk in his room. "IIIII dooonnnn'tttt knnnoooowwww howwwww toooooo dooooooo itttttt." "I'll show you." I quickly showed him, again, and told him as soon as he finished the front page (that's right people I'm not that much of an ogre, so much time had passed, I just made him do the front side) he could bring it to me and go to recess. He started to meltdown again, but I cheerily said, "Come see me when you're done." I looked at Jason and whispered, "I'm sorry." He just chuckled.

I left the room and went back to my room. I still needed to pee, but I was afraid he'd meltdown again and would need me. I just sat there waiting, and I'm not kidding you, about 3 minutes later he walked in with the front page all finished. "Are you done?" I asked. "Yes," still high pitched, but not whiny. "Come show me, let me see it." He showed it to me and it was all correct. "You did great! It's all correct and I am so proud of you that you made such a good choice to finish it." As soon as I said that, the bell rang. "MMMMMMMMM," he started to pout, knowing that he missed recess, "buuuutttttt IIIIIIII haaaaaaaaddddddd aaaaaaa popppppptaaaaaaaaarrrrrtttttt."

I'll stop there for now. There is just a bit more funny to the story. Stay tuned.

Choices, Part 1

I have written one other post about teaching and I'm kind of iffy about it, for a number of reasons...

• So many blogs out there are written about kids, but is it appropriate for me to write stories and such about my students? They are "my" kids, but only from 8:00-2:30. They are other people's kids and I feel kind of weird about that.


• Since so many of my readers have kids of their own, will they be offended that a teacher is writing about someone elses kids?


• Do readers even care about my job as a teacher; is it even interesting?

Well, all of those concerns have been thrown right out the window, cuz I'm writing about a student! Teaching is something I spend the majority of my time doing and it makes up part of who I am, so I'm sharing. Today was a very frustrating, but funny day and it came just in time as I was about to quit the blog since I had nothing to write about. It's a long story, so I hope it doesn't sound like I'm rambling. I need to get it down right now, so I don't forget, but if it gets too long, I'll make it a 2-parter.

As posted about in Madness, a couple of weeks ago my 2nd grade team reorganized and some new students started in my room last Monday. It has been a trying week and half with a borderline autistic, two mutes, a new student who is showing some strange/scary behavior, oh, and have I mentioned two students who are the children of some of my colleagues at school? Yah! It's been an interesting beginning of the year.

Anyways, today's post is about my borderline autistic, I'll refer to him as DAP from here on out. Well, DAP, like any child who struggles with this disorder has had some difficulty adjusting to our classroom. I have high hopes though, since I run my classroom very structured and once students are familiar with how our classroom works, there aren't a lot of surprises. I spent the first week with these new students working on and reinforcing procedures. After the first day, when DAP had various meltdowns because he wasn't ready for a transition, I also spent that first week preparing him ahead of time about what was to come. We had a lot of "talks" about what was coming next and how he might handle each of those situations. After talking about making good decisions, I gave him some scenarios and asked him what he might do. This is howthose conversations went...

Me: OK, DAP, so when the timer goes off, what do you do?

DAP: I stop working. Did you know it's my birthday in 3 months?

Me: I didn't know that. Where do you put your work when the timer goes off?

DAP: I put it in my yellow folder.

Me: That's right!

DAP: What's that? (said looking past me and pointing at my computer)

Me: That's a clip to hang my papers. Back to your work. If you're not finished with with your work, what do you do with it?

DAP: I like lasagna. It's my favorite food.

You get the picture. DAP's just a wee bit self involved, which isn't uncommon with children like this. This self-involvement is what led today's events. DAP is always the last one ready for anything, everything. As the rest of the class has followed directions and is quietly waiting to move on or leave the classroom, DAP might still be working, or maybe leisurely getting his lunchbox out of this backpack, or dumping out 15 of his crayons while trying to put 1 of them away, or anything else except what he was asked to do. For the first week, I was patient, we waited, and waited, until he was ready before moving on. But now, I'm tired of it. Unfortunately, my classroom is very far away from the playground, the bathrooms, and the cafeteria, so I can't just let the rest of the class go without me while I wait for him and I can't just leave him unsupervised while he's STILL putting his pencil away. I have lost all patience for this dilly-dallying.

This morning we had music. About 10 minutes before music, we prepared to go downstairs. That consisted of putting one (1) math page inside a folder, and one (1) pencil inside a pencil box. That's it. I assumed 5 minutes would be plenty. Well, you know what happens when you assume (you make an ass out of you and me, ha, ha). I was wrong. At 5 minutes before music, the time when we were supposed to be leaving for music, we were still waiting for DAP to be ready. I had had it!!! I lined the rest of the class up outside and herded DAP outside telling him that from now on, if we are ready to go and he is not, he will be sent next door to Mr. Show (yes, from the Jason Show!) and that might mean he will miss library or music or recess or lunch. Mr. Show happened to be outside at the time, so I walked DAP over and introduced them. "DAP," I said, "This is Mr. Show, and you will be visiting him if you choose not to be ready with the rest of the class." Mr. Show said, "Hi DAP," and before he could say anything else, DAP threw his arms down in frustration and said in a high pitch, whiny voice, "See, this is why I don't like school." It was all Mr. Show and I could do not to laugh. "I know," I said.

Are you exhausted yet? And to think, this all happened before 9:10 am. I will stop here for now. Part 2 coming soon.

Madness

I haven't written about my job as a teacher yet. I don't know if I had planned on writing about it, but after this week, I need to vent!

Tuesday was my first day back to work with kids. I've been working on-and-off all summer, but Tuesday was my first official day. Before the school year started, I was told that I would have a 2nd/3rd grade combo. That's a tough one for a teacher because, even though we make "it" work all the time, I have not yet figured out how to be two teachers at the same time in order to teach two separate grade levels. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have it and tried to just shrug it off as one more thing. As the end of the school year approached, it seemed to me like the combo wouldn't happen because of the numbers, but I still remained a combo teacher.

Over the summer, I didn't do too much planning because I didn't want to waste the time on something that was bound to change. The first day of school got closer and closer without word one way or another. Then on Friday of last week, I got my class list and I had a combo. I spent the weekend doing some planning and started school on Tuesday, ready to go!!!

This entire week was spent on assessing and teaching classroom procedures. I had a nice little group, albeit two different grade levels, but it was ok. I still wasn't convinced that this combo should be happening. The numbers weren't right, but as the week went on, I started some curriculum and we were moving forward. Then Friday morning I was told that I wouldn't be having a combo anymore. My 3rd graders were to go to another 3rd grade room and I would get additional 2nd graders to fill my class. Ugh! Here we go again.

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to have a straight 2nd grade, but the first week of school is so, so very important and now it's come and gone, but I've got to do it all over again. I started school on Tuesday with 18 students and now I will start school on Monday with 17 students 8 of which are new to my classroom. Not to mention that among those new students are a borderline autistic child and two selective mutes. It's almost comical, and all I can do is laugh.

This is my ninth year of teaching and not one of those years has started off "normal". I work for a principal (yah, the one who grabs his neck) who likes to change things and move people around a lot. Here is a quick glance at my 9 school years...

Year 1 - Hired in October. Two second grade classrooms were too full so those teachers picked students to go into my classroom. I started that year with 18 boys, two girls, and 5 students who didn't speak any English, 2 of which had never ever been to school.

Year 2 - Given a 2/3 combo and moved out of Year 1's classroom into a classroom that was pretty much condemned a year later. My kids and I were sick all year, so sick that my principal wouldn't even come observe me because we were hacking, and coughing, and sneezing like a doctor's office.

Year 3 - Back to 2nd grade, but made into a roving teacher. I had to move, yet again, out of the sick classroom and into one rolling cabinet. That rolling cabinet made it "easier" to pick up and move from classroom to classroom each month...that's right, EACH MONTH!

Year 4 - Still in 2nd grade, but this time had to pack up that rolling cabinet and all my storage and move to a new school, literally a brand new school. We got to move in about 4 days before school started. That year I had the class from hell.

Year 5 - Still in 2nd grade and the same classroom, but I don't remember too much about it, so it must have been pretty normal.

Year 6 - Still in 2nd grade. The year started off pretty normal. Then a month into the school year another teacher was mad that she had lower kids and to appease her my principal moved 7 of my kids out to her room and 7 of her kids to my room. Did I mention how important that first week of school is? After a month had gone by it was very difficult to reteach all the classroom procedures AND keep up with curriculum. That was the worst year I have had.

Year 7 - Still in the same classroom, but back to a 2/3 combo. Plus I had back-to-back student teachers starting with day 1. They were WONDERFUL, but it's hard to get your classroom running smoothly when you have to hand it over to another person a week or two into the year.

Year 8 - Started off the year job-sharing with another teacher and doing additional tasks for my principal. Let's just say that last year is neck-in-neck with year 6 as the worst year ever.

Year 9 - See above

I know I'm just being a whiny baby, but it's my blog and I'm allowed too. I'd really like to have a normal beginning to the school year more than one out of nine times. I'm just saying.