On the state of education

One of my students came back from the bathroom and very excitedly announced, "They actually had soap!" She then smelled her hands 4 or 5 times. It was adorable, but also really tragic when we can't consistently provide soap in our schools' bathrooms. 

On leaving your phone unattended

This is what happens when you leave your phone unattended during Leadership class:

You end up with creeper pictures on your phone...

On Free Trips!

I just got word that we have enough students signed up for the Washington DC trip to warrant an extra chaperon and I get to go--for free!  I can't even describe how excited I am.  I've never been to DC.  We are also going to NYC!  Color me ecstatic.  I feel like I will forever be drowning in student loan and medical bill debt and will never be able to afford a trip like this.  So grateful.  Someone is smiling down on me!

In other news, derby started up again this week.  Oh boy, did it start.  I had so much to do for work that I didn't make it to practice on Wednesday, so last night was my first practice back--Travel Team practice..  6-9pm.  And at the end of all that, we did this body-weight workout.  I happen to have a LOT of body weight.  Needless to say, I am having a hard time moving today.  So sore.

On New Years and New Starts

The second semester started today and I didn't waste any time jumping into content.  I don't like to ease them into it.  I like to pretend that no time has gone by at all!  Also, I might just be a little excited to be teaching To Kill A Mockingbird this year!  It's always been a high school book.  Even I read it in 9th grade.  But, after talking to a friend who teaches at the high school, she said that the high school teachers decided it should be an 8th grade book.  No one told the middle schools, so I spent Winter Break re-reading and planning to teach TKAM to my advanced class. Unfortunately, my school only has 24 copies and I need 35, so I'm banking on the idea that one of the high schools will let us borrow some copies and I've already started having my students take notes on the historical context.  We will spend some time studying the Scottsboro Trials and hopefully by next week, we'll have enough books.

My other 8th grade class is reading The Outsiders.  This is for 2 reasons: 1) We won't have enough copies of TKAM for both classes and I was already planning on doing The Outsiders anyway. 2) They're immature and I don't want to deal with them not being able to handle all of the n-word dropping in that book because I know the first time a kid giggles about it, I will freak out at him/her.  I know that sounds horrible, but these kids don't really experience racism, so they often perpetuate it in the form of a joke.  We are lucky to live in a beautiful place that is extremely diverse.  These kids are used to it because it's all they know, and so we don't really have race issues here.  All of the kids crack jokes about each others' races and their own race and everyone laughs because no one means it maliciously.  It is because of this that I am afraid they won't know how to take the TKAM seriously.  And I refuse to drag them through it because it is a beautiful book and I don't want them to ruin it for me.  Selfish, I know.

The Outsiders will be more interesting to them anyway.  One of my students asked if they needed their textbooks today and I told her they wouldn't for a while.  She said, "You mean, we're reading a real book?! Yes!"  They hate the textbook just as much as I do :)

I can't wait to start reading TKAM with the advance 8th graders though.  I think they're going to love it.  They already have so many questions!

On familiar faces

One of the things I most look forward to every week is Friday afternoons. Not only because it signals the weekend, but because I know that my room will welcome at least a handful of my former students. I have such a great time catching up with them, and even just hanging back and silently observing, laughing to myself at the funny things they say and do. I know that as they get older and become more independent, making friends with older kids who have cars and then eventually driving themselves, their visits may become fewer or even stop altogether. So for now, I'll cherish the time they are willing to spend with me. 😃

Sh!t My Kids Say

R (an extremely avid reader), to three of his (male) friends, "We're going to start a book club.  Have you guys read Twilight?  We're all going to read Twilight." And then he distributed copies of Twilight from my bookshelf to his friends.

Maybe it's only funny to me, but I think this kid is absolutely hilarious.

On the past...

One of my students bought an old copy of LIFE magazine featuring Anne Frank (we happen to be reading The Diary of Anne Frank right now). The article was really interesting, but what was more interesting were the ads from back when cigarettes didn't have Surgeon Generals Warnings. And, oh yeah, we needed to teach our "chubby girls" that they better have a good personality to fall back on!