Good News--Finally!

The little girl in my class who recently had brain surgery has been released from the hospital and is at home with her family where she should be. I heard the news that she would possibly be released from the hospital on Friday, and it was hard for me to decide how discreet to be with that information. I was excited to tell the rest of my class because they ask me about her every day, but I was worried that I would tell them that and if it didn't happen I would have to deliver another blow of bad news on Tuesday. I did make the decision to tell them that she would most likely be released this weekend and to deal with the events as they unfolded. Praise God, she was released and news is good!

This whole thing has been a tough balancing act for me between being discreet with information, being honest about circumstances, and protecting children from this as much as possible.

The wonderful news is that the surgery appears to have been successful and I can now report on this child's healing instead of her sickness. We still don't know when she'll be back in school or able to have children visit her, but I am just glad things are on the track of healing.

Now, will come the part where I will have to make some difficult calls. I'll be trying to send work home and eventually trying to catch this child up, but because this involves brain trauma I cannot put stress on her. How does that look? It is too soon to tell, but to be honest I am wondering if I ought to start looking into retention now in case that is the best path in the end. My district makes it really hard to retain and really easy to cancel it. I don't know how it will end up, but I really need to start looking at the options. All of that is small potatoes, though, after a child wins the battle for her life.

Questions to Not Ask Your Single Friend at a Wedding

I had to go to a wedding tonight. The wedding ceremony was during a PLAYOFF GAME for the local football team. They got annihilated anyway, but I have never seen so many well dressed people stringing headphones through their dress clothes. So, I will say that my mood during the reception (after my team lost) was a little unpleasant anyway, but I would have been annoyed by the way people talk to me at weddings even without that. Why is it that everyone at a wedding feels the need to give me backhanded compliments about being too (pretty; beautiful; stunning; you fill in the blank) to not have a date? That is not really a compliment! It's more like saying, "Even ugly people get dates--what's wrong with you?!!" Anyway, in honor of the wedding I was at, here is a list of typical wedding questions I get. I am also including the real answers that I give and the answers that I should give.

1.) What are boys thinking by not dating you?
Real Answer: I don't know; if I knew what boys were thinking, I would probably get more dates.
Answer I Should Give: Usually guys my age are thinking that they would like to have sex with someone without a committment or they are thinking that they want to find a wife to take care of them. I don't believe in casual sex and I am not exactly the type to exude domesticity, so here we are.
2.) If someone as young and pretty as you can't get a date; is there any hope for the rest of us?
Real Answer: I am just looking for the right person--like everyone else--and it takes time.
Answer I Should Give: I assume I have some other major problems I am currently unaware of.
3.) Have you ever considered E-Harmony? (I really have been asked this at weddings.)
Real Answer: I wouldn't feel comfortable with that.
Answer I Should Give: Thanks for the totally intrusive and inappropriate question!

I just wish that people could accept me for what I am right now. I am single, and maybe I will always be single or maybe I will meet the right guy, but either way I want to be accepted as complete on my own. If you see me alone at a wedding, just ask me if I've met the cute single groomsman or if you are him ask me to dance. Really, just skip the backhanded compliments.

Too Light; Too Heavy

Every week we give a Math assessment over the Math skills for the quarter. Currently, we are in the third quarter and I gave the kids assessment two of the third quarter Math assessments. The kids had done poorly on the first one, but I expected that because I hadn't taught many of the skills. I gave the kids a speech and told them to think of it as a kind of pre-test.

Well, this morning when I graded their second assessment I was dismayed. There were skipped problems, problems with no work shown, and just general laziness. So, first I fined (using our classroom money system) any student who turned in unacceptable work or missed work. Next, I gave a speech about the perils of not being a careful test taker. Finally, I warned that parents would not be happy to find poor test grades because they were not careful test takers.

The results of my little speech: three kids in tears. Sometimes third grade is really different than fifth grade folks. I did take it down a notch and point out that we still have six more assessments this quarter and that now is the time to learn what mistakes they made and improve.

The whole experience reminded me of a commercial I saw recently. See below.

O Captain My Captain

I have to brag about our new principal a little bit. Bragging words from me about a principal are really high praise right now. After my experience last year, I have been slow (snail paced) to put any trust into administration. I haven't gotten over that yet. The other day when someone from BFF teams said something about packing up rooms, I replied "Maybe I'll be told on the last day of school to pack up my room and move to kindergarten."

"I think that would just send you over the edge," she said.

"No," I answered, "I'll never be surprised by anything like that again now. I expect that kind of nonsense." I didn't realize that I still felt that way until I heard it coming out of my mouth. I do, though.

BUT I digress. I wanted to say why I am inspired to write about how much I like my new principal even though I don't trust him--although that is not his fault.

I like him because he is really a team player and because he is open and supportive of teacher ideas. I am new at this, but I think that has got to be pretty rare. BFF team is implementing a big group read naturally program, and wanted my good friend Mrs. Bear from fifth grade to come and work with us since she has successfully implemented such a program in fifth grade. We wanted her for two days and each day for forty minutes. Not only was the new principal supportive of this plan, he volunteered to cover Mrs. Bear's class for the whole eighty minutes. He has also been teaching one of the focused skill groups third grade runs every week and has not given us trouble about any supplies or copies. He really supports teachers and I have never gotten to experience this before.

Another member of BFF team and I were talking today about how the whole environment of our school is less stressed out. It's true!

I can't say that my faith is blindly in administration now, but I will say as far as principals go this is the sort of principal that I want to work for. My old principal had the pseudonym on this blog, Principal Sadie. Today, I am making a pseudonym for my new principal. I am naming him Captain. I chose this name off of the famous poem O Captain My Captain because he has been a leader who is helping our school work as a team. I hope that next year I don't get riffed or shuffled around because I would like to work for Captain again. I have been able to grow a lot this year and it is because I have had enough space and enough support to reach more of my potential.

Math Lab

Yes, I know that the term "Math Lab" sounds too close to the word "Meth Lab" to be useful in describing an instructional technique--or maybe I have just been watching too many reruns of cops. Bear with me, though, because setting up work stations in Math for the second half hour of Math everyday since Christmas Break is working really well for me.

We have been covering elapsed time story problems, telling time to the minute, and time related vocabulary over the past two weeks and one of the members of BFF team set up 7 time stations for each third grade classroom. It has been awesome! I have been able to turn the mass of kids over to station time (to do stations that were made for me and are really well done) while all the little ones who "don't get it." Have been able to be taught in very small groups.

So Long, Have Fun at Harry Potter School

One of my students moved to another school today. This student has only been in my class for nine weeks because he wasn't enrolled in class. He has been a bit of a challenge. He told crazy, fantasy-filled stories when he first came. He told my class that he came from Harry Potter School and that he is really twelve. He talks very loudly and very slowly.

He talks so slowly and loudly that it leads to some funny situations. One day, I had the kids doing a fluency activity where half of the class was reading a passage and then the other half was trying to read the passage with greater unity. Finally, the side of the class this kid was on said to me, "Can he just be our leader because we can't hear past his voice!" They won.

Anyway, this kid drove me crazy sometimes, but I am going to miss him a lot.

I have really loved teaching this group of kids. I am going to miss every one of them when they move on. They have made a huge impact on me, more than any group I've taught so far.

The little girl from China who has been learning English really reminded me what makes teaching so worth it even when it is hard. My little friend from Harry Potter School taught me a lot about seeing beauty in hard situations. The little girl battling cancer is a picture of courage and tenacity that will be with me always.

The hearts of all of my students have impacted me. Watching how they have befriended someone who cannot speak the same language, when one of my students just wanted to give his teddy bear to the little girl with cancer, when they've made big mistakes and still owned them, all of these things stay with me.

I am really trying to soak in all the great times I have had teaching this year. I really want to remember them, and when I might feel discouraged again, I'll remember that sometimes things go right and I am nothing but lucky and privileged to have the job I do.

This Song Made Me Think

One of my students stopped me as they were entering the classroom on Friday and told me that she needed to talk to me. After everyone else went in she says, "Something happened last night."

"What happened?" I asked.

"My stepdad got arrested and now I'm just paranoid."

"What do you mean you're paranoid?"

"I don't know, I just am."

We talked for a couple of minutes and then went in. She had a fine day, but I have a soft spot for kids having a hard time with their families. I experienced that.

It is times like when I wish I could talk about God in school. I used to pray before I was sure anyone was listening. I wish I could say, "Someone is always there." I have had so many situations where watered down, politically correct words don't seem like enough.