Successes and not quite successes

We got our junior scores back. Actually we got prelim scores the afternoon that we got the seniors' scores. The sheet that says YES or NO.

Of my juniors (who obviously had a 0% passing rate last year since they are in my class) 54% passed. I still have a few who the writing got them...but not many. I had one girl write a 3!!! but she didn't pass. The grammar kicked their butts. Some kids only got like 5 of 20 right. So I have to learn how to teach grammar this summer. I get to say goodbye to some of my kids because I won't have them again next year. I'll miss them, but I'm so glad they won't have to go through the stress their Senior year. I will get to teach Lit Genres still (partly because I sorta pitched a fit and told everyone how hard I worked and how sad I would be if I didn't get to see it through another year). Also I'll be teaching Reading I & II in the Language Center. I'm happy about that. I'm really happy that I don't have to teach Speech. :) I was dreading that.

Speaking of summer, Dan and I are taking a vacation to D.F. (Mexico, Distrito Federal). He is trying to convince me that I should go down a few weeks early and take Spanish classes. I am playing around with the idea. While it would be great to come back and not tell them I learned Spanish--personal dream of mine--I am not sure. Advice, help?

Today I hope to plant my veggie garden. It is a little late so we will have to start from bigger plants, but we should still be fine. I'll post pictures when we are done!

Country Map OR where in the world?

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

the final call comes

We got our senior TAKS scores. Of my 22 kids...2 passed. That means that 20 won't be graduating due to their grade on some silly test. At least 2 or 3 of the 20, the English section was the only thing holding them back.

I'm not good with crying. Did everyone know that? I'm not much of a crier myself, though I nearly teared up today telling one boys' father..he was there 'cause said child got his cell phone taken up. I had this one girl sit and weep in 7th period wanting me to tell her why she didn't pass. I'm not very good with sympathy. I think I just made her feel worse, because I told her why she didn't pass. Another boy 4th told me he was quitting...Another told me their dad is pulling them out of school to go to work because he can't pass the test.

The kids on the whole took it extremely well. But you know they are disappointed. How fair is it to work 4 years, get all your credits, pass your classes, do all the work and fail because you missed 2 questions too many on a test? Not fair at all.

We should get the junior scores this week, too. I can see how the rest of my babies did then.

what happens in...

Well, I really hate that thought. That you would do something in another place that you are ashamed of where you usually are domiciled. But apparently that is the rule when you go on conference trips. I was out Thursday and Friday at an ELL (English Language Learners) conference in San Antonio. I did learn the 3 rules of TDY (temporary duty) from our ROTC Colonel.

1) Never whistle while you pack (your wife will wonder where you are going)
2) Never eat when you can drink (that is a whole other thing that I was worried about because I heard stories, but actually they don't drink as much as they say that do.)
3) .......Oops, i forgot the third rule. It is probably something important, too.

I was also renamed Louann, later shorted to Lulu. Praying that doesn't stick....

The conference itself was ok. It was really repetitive of stuff we were already familiar with. I did learn a few good points, like the way that Spanish speakers are taught to write an essay:

Idea
Idea
Idea
Idea

Therefore.....

English speakers write like this:

Main Idea

Support
Support
Support

Conclusion

That is why we get kids who write about their mommas and then stick a paragraph about soccer in the middle of it. (Our classic example of smart kids who have trouble getting the essay.) I'm going to ask some of my students about this and see if it holds up. I'll have to find someone who was educated in Mexico so they will be cognizant of the structure of their writing.

All in all, it wasn't a complete waste of time, but if he had given us a bunch of articles to read and left me alone, I might have learned just as much...

my husband was right

dan suggested i try google desktop .

it is really cool. Not only does it link in your google mail (let me know if you would like an invitation to have a google mail account) but it also links in photos on your computer and scrolls through them. weather, news reports, blog updates a scratch pad and and to do list.

it docks on the side of your screen or in your quick launch bar in windows....

try it out.

Fun blog tagging

This sounds like fun...so somebody comment and I'll try it out....Sheri, Deva, you guys should do this too.

Leave your name in a comment.
1. I'll respond with something I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song or movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll ask you a question.
4. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
5. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
6. I'll describe our final fight to the death.
7. If I do this for you, you must post this on your blog.

I have icing in my nose...

Today was the day of my postponed birthday party. We had about 60 kids who said they were coming...this concerned me, but when it was all said and done only about 25-30 showed up. Some didn't stay the whole time, others left early. The teacher across the hall made cupcakes (with the colors of the mexican flag as sprinkles - not a choice I would have made, but he was trying), my friend brought me a birthday cake and ordered pizza, kids brought chips. All in all it was a success.


We invited the soccer team because we owed them pizza for winning against their rival team back during the season...One of them brought a ball. They took the opportunity of having all the desks pushed back to bounce the ball around. It still amazes me how good *the kids who don't officially play soccer* are at bouncing the ball around.

They attempted to get me to dance, but there is no way I am dancing in front of kids with everyone staring at me. My rhythm isn't that good. Plus I tell them that I didn't learn any school appropriate dancing in high school. A couple of girls were brave enough to dance with the same boy over and over again, but that was really short-lived.

Perhaps the most exciting thing was when they decided I should take a bite of the cake....I should known, and had an inkling that there was something up with that. Finally I agreed to take a bite of a small piece of cake (really glad my friend suggested this). Well, when I agreed EVERY KID IN THE ROOM rushes over to see me take a bite of the cake. Four boys hands were on the plate and I was holding it back. Needless to say when I did go to take a bite very little of it went in my mouth. Most went in my nose, on my nose, in my eybrows, eyelashes, hair, etc. I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't breathe. There is a picture..I don't have it (still in my friends camera) and it won't be posted here I'm sure.

And I learned how to say "I am going to vacuum" - "Yo voy aspire." There is currently cake ground into the floor of my room...The room that I am not going to be in next year, apparently I am moving down the hall- 3 years teaching, 3 different rooms. I'll have to bring carpet cleaner on Friday to clean it up.

Tomorrow night they are having another party at the restaurant of the father of two of my students. We have been invited. Perhaps mainly because the restaurant is within 1 mile of my house and I have never been inside. I didn't actually know it was their dad's restaurant until today. I knew one of the brothers worked there, but that was it.

Exciting Mexican food suggestions

Today one of my students was suggesting food for me to try.

First they suggested cactus (there is a specific kind-but i'm from MS and don't know anything about cactuses) that has been boiled in sugar so it is sweet like a candy. I thought the word for it was something like "huitacas" but I can't google that and come up with anything so I will have to double check it.

I double checked with the kids and it is actually quiote-still doesn't google.

Then they suggested raspados (snow cones) that are composed of ice, lemon juice, chili powder and salt. 3 separate kids said they had had this before and it was really good. They told me that I couldn't just use regular chili powder, I needed Mexican chili powder, but they couldn't tell me how to find the right kind other than "go to Mexico."

First I'd like to thank...

First, I would like to thank TEA for all their wisdom in setting the week of TAKS testing the same as my birthday. This year, in all their wisdom, we were required to "actively monitor" the students taking their tests. This translates to pacing the room every 15 minutes to make sure they are cheating and watching them take a test. Gotta say that watching kids take a test is one bar above watching paint dry. . . . Prior years activities like sitting or reading a book were condoned as long as you kept an eye on the kids.

There were some proud moments. For instance on Thursday I was sitting there and gave every kid that finished a book/magazine/etc. By 10:30 I had 2 kids left testing and another 20 that were actually reading actively!!! I really wanted a picture of said spectacle, but my camera was with the phone, battery taken out and resting in an envelope on the white board so that it wouldn't ring and void student tests...plus i'm sure that picture taking during the test is highly illegal. (j/k for those TEA checkers, I know that it is not legal. I would never do that to my kids, they want to graduate high school sometime this decade. Much less sign myself up for jail time and have my certificate pulled.)

But testing is over. Friday for my BIRTHDAY :) All my students came by to give me hugs (by all I mean I must have hugged a hundred kids on Friday). And my TAKS testing kids and 7th period sang to me. All very exciting. We have rescheduled my b'day party until Wednesday after school where we will have music and food for a fiesta grande. We are trying to get permission to be in the small cafeteria because we don't think there will be enough room in my classroom.

Dan got me a new digital camera for my b'day and mom and dad got me GPS system so i don't get lost so often. The combined joy of these was a lot of photos this weekend and an exciting trip to Wichita Falls.

Sheri & I at Joe T's for dinner Friday night.


Pictures of championship awards for the Volleyball dynasty of Windthorst, TX.
Do you people see this? This is not a McAlister's in Clinton or on Lakeland or in Oxford or anywhere else in MS. THIS is a Texas McAlister's Deli. Wow. We had muffelettas and a Spud Max and Sweet Tea. That was a good birthday surprise. I had even forgotten that there was a McAlister's in Wichita Falls, but Dan's keen eye spotted it out right away. Good birthday.

Most fun extra credit ever

Yesterday on my test I gave the following bonus question:

a) Name all 4 of Mrs. Fuller's names.
b) Tell what part of "A Modest Proposal" freaked her out because of her maiden name.

[I didn't use the phrase 'freaked out' because I wasn't sure how that would translate...but I don't remember how I said it now.]

Let me explain. In "A Modest Proposal" it talks [in satire, people] about getting rid of the papists. Well we explained papists is a word for Roman Catholics, that it was satire, etc. But every time I said papists, my skin would crawl a little. So I told the kids about it during the review, and put it on the test.

Of course only half of every class was listening so I got lots of good new names. It was really rather fun.

Eva Maria Gutierrez Fuller
Janeth Alizabeth Smith Fuller (still working on whether to give them credit for the spanish spelling of Janet)
Shaniqua Fuller
Ana Maria Panchachabela Fuller (Pancha= Francisca; Chabela=Isabel)

Fun huh? And I haven't even graded them all!!!

My chilango children did get it right, but I think they cheated.

I was told yesterday that if we take our planned vacation to D.F. *I* could be a chilanga!!! Aren't we all excited?

officially a teacher

According to Dan I'm now officially a teacher. Our house has been egged. We came home last night and the house smelled funny but we didn't think about it. He went outside and saw the egging just now. I think it was yesterday or the day before because we didn't smell it till last night, but he seems to think that it could have been any time. . . . but he is pretty mad because he is the one out there cleaning it so I don't really think he cared exactly *when* the egging occurred.

I don't really think it was one of my students because they don't really know where I live (though they could figure it out, I'm in the phone book). But who knows.

Which Gilmore are you?

I wasn't terribly surprised here. I started watching this as my "daily" show around Christmas on advice from my roommate in college. It is cute. Dan even occasionally watches it with me.

Satire books

Wow, I wish I could invite everyone over for a read-aloud to hear these books the kids did. They are *incredibly* good. I am very pleased because as a general rule I don't get real high quality work on stuff like this. I get average work, just enough to get by. I think it is an outpouring of the fact that I don't grade hard enough.

But this time they were excellent and really funny satire too. I think that is the best part, that I taught these kids satire some of whom have already done satire in English IV last fall and didn't get it.

We are reading A Modest Proposal now, by Jonathan Swift. I don't think I read this in high school, but we did it while I was student teaching. It is incredibly funny if you get past the initial shock of it. If you have never read it, go take a gander. The kids I have who did it in English IV DIDN'T REALIZE IT WAS A JOKE. And that would seriously put a damper on the humor.

My kids favorite parts so far:
*One male per every female for breeding
*Children cannot hold jobs...they can't even be a good pickpocket till they are at least 6
*Teenagers can replace the dwindling deer population.

I'm just sorta proud that they are reading something that was written in 1729 and they aren't complaining the entire time about how boring it is. :)

ratted out

So my teacher friend down the hall TOLD the kids that I said 'juego' in class instead of 'jugo.' They thought it was incredibly funny. I blushed.

Tomorrow the kids are presenting their satire children's books. The stories are incredibly funny. We have the Three Bears with SpongeBob, Patrick and R-Kelly, the three pigs with varying hair colors of Kelly Clarkson (that student actually told me today that he didn't realize that the book had to have the story written in it...he just has a book full of hot girls), red riding hood as a pot smoker in Mexico City (we did actually have to clean that one up so that there were no illegal drugs involved, but it was incredibly funny) and many many more. I'll have to share more of the best ones after I read them all.

This lesson has amazingly been very sucessful. One student even came back over the weekend and said this:

"Hey Ms, we saw Ice Age 2 this weekend. You should show it to your classes next year because it is all satire."

Wow, to see it out of context like that and still get it!!! Super proud of that.

Also I taught my 9th graders stream of consciousness. I love that I taught them stream of consciousness and that they have nearly got it. It is really hard for my kids to look past the content and look at the style of the writing. It comes from not having read enough to see that writers have different ways of saying the same thing. Also, they have not written enough to play with different methods of writing. Most are still too hung up on writing in English to worry about anything else.

Hoy en clase de espanol

Today in Spanish class, I have learned that I must forget the Spanish I know...Ok, just be really careful not to fall back on the Spanish I have already learned.

I was supposed to be saying, "I am buying orange juice (Compro jugo de naranja.)

What I said was, "I am buying orange games(Compro juego de naranja)." I got used as the example of confusing people by swapping vowel sounds. :)

keeping it real...

Ok, not really. But this is a really funny site that will 'gangsta up' a webpage for you.

Look at my page Gizoogled.

Soccer games, writing folders and long, long days

Wow, I have never been so tired in all my life. Ok, that is probably an overstatement (told my kids this week if they are having trouble figuring out exaggeration, just think about how I talk). However, I am incredibly tired. Let me give you a quick run-down of my week.

Monday - Started a new spanish conversation class at TCC. For the low price of $133 I am now learning some spanish. We did pronunciation. I actually think it may have helped.

Tuesday - First the walk-out at school. In case you haven't heard about this
- It is dramatically affecting my teaching right now. Tuesday, our kids walked out at the end of 2nd period. Of course our principal is quoted saying they left at lunch, but whatever. I know when the kids left. I had 6 in my 4th period class, 7 in 5th period. After lunch most came back. I was furious at the kids because they weren't prepared, so many were skipping that didn't have any idea why they were leaving, etc. I am for protests to change injustice, for protests that are done well, peacefully and organized. Kids yelling !Viva la Mexico! is not productive. I scrapped my lessons for the day and taught immigration policy and the differences between the bills. My kids had to do journal articles to reflect on the situation. I tried my darndest to keep my opinion out of the mix. That is really hard sometimes, especially when they ask. But it isn't my place to influence them in this issue. They need to talk to their parents. After school my chilango children showed up...cause they skipped my class 7th...and i told them they needed to go away before they made me cry because I was so upset at them. Two took the hint and left and one stayed to find out the deal so he knew why he went to the protest. he was cognizant of the fact that most of the people there were just goofing off. But he wasn't and neither were most of his friends. They scheduled a 'day without latinos' on april 13th...the school is saying that they won't get to go to prom/senior activities if they skip on those days. they are encouraging weekend/after school protests.

Tuesday night - soccer game. we lost. our game, which was supposed to be at 8 started at 9:24. We lost 4-0. Our kids just couldn't pull it together. bigger team, we got offsides every time we got within shot range of the goal. but we were real proud. one of my students got the district offensive prize. Then I got lost coming back from Denton...Not lost per say, but went the wrong way down 35. Dan was asleep by then so I couldn't get directions and had to muddle my way down 121.

Wednesday - tested a room full of 9th graders in the morning. my friend who assigned rooms heard it from me on that one. spent the whole day discussing immigration issues with kids who are probably half illegal themselves. came home...my testing friend called to ask me to get a sub so i could help her finish up the writing folders to send off on Friday...went to bed at 8:30.

Thursday - spent the whole day nearly in the copy room. realized 7th period that it was freezing in there and I could just set the thing copying and stand in the hall and listen for it to finish. stayed till 7 to finish the stuff up. went to bed at 9.

Friday - wow...is it really friday??? i came home at 4:30 today. it wasn't a bad day, but i'm terribly tired. it has been a long, draining week. i'm going to sleep a lot this weekend.

Pretty Yard

Yesterday one of my student's brother came out and did our yard up pretty. Our beds had gotten washed away in the recent deluge so he came in and re-topsoiled it (with said student and another helper) and put in new mulch. The mulch is some sort of red wood. It is really pretty, stands out nicely too. I'll have to ask Dan again what kind it is.

Today I hope to get a flat of impatients and put them out and replant the bulbs that have been sitting in a box for too long now. Also, I think I have an elephant ear plant around here somewhere that can go outside.

I'm not really a "yard" person. I like my yard looking pretty and am embarrassed when it doesn't, but I can only do about 4 hours work before I get tired of being dirty. And I go inside to wash my hands like every 20 minutes. I am pretty good with my little vegetable garden because it is very small and can be tended in about 20 minutes (I can wait till I'm done to wash my hands!) But it is still early for the veggies. It might get one more cold snap. I think I'll wait till at least the middle of April.

My friend is leaving

On a side note: My wireless mouse just fell on the ground...right into my boot. That is only thing I don't like about these wireless mice. :)

Well, my teacher friend from down the hall is getting an AP job at another high school. I knew this was coming, but she and I had both thought that they weren't going to move her until next year. (I mean, it is March already - post-spring break.) Central office is interviewing her on Tuesday, one month before they interview any other applicants for next year. On a special day of the week - they only do Saturday interviews. So we assume that means she won't be here for the end of the year.

She has started telling the students. She told her classes yesterday that her and I were getting a divorce. She has granted me custody of all our children.

They asked her who was going to defend the LC kids and she told them that I would. I'm a little worried about being the lone advocate. I tend to let her do the talking to the higher ups and I just chime in as necessary. Now I'm may have to step up and take a larger role. I am always afraid to do that.

I'm going to plan a going away party for her. Get the kids involved. That will help them out. I'm going to get one of those journal books and have all the kids sign it and have them bring pictures to put in it. Then I have to find out what the rules are about food and kids in Texas and see what we can do there.

She is really sad and doesn't want to leave the kids. She is going to miss them a lot I know. I would if I had to leave mid-year like that, without the completion of the end of the year. I hope it works out.

Incredibly cold soccer games

I turned down my dad's offer to the portable propane heater last week when we were home for spring break. "Nah, It is spring, we won't need it. There are only 3 more games."

What do we do? Go to playoffs during a cold snap.

One of my sons made it to the paper though.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/high_school/14176594.htm

Kids 'fessing up

So my friend today said the kids confessing now, months later is like when kids don't tell their parents the truth and months later go, "Hey mom, remember that time...?" So are we really these kids' parents now?

On a side note, My kitty must be really cold cause she is trying to crawl under the keyboard to get warm. That is really sad.

finding a good story to tell

I don't really have any terrific stories, just a few vignettes.

-Senior math/science scores came in. Not many kids passed. I spent all yesterday and today convincing one boy that he has done better *every time* he takes the test. This last time he was only 1 question away on Science. Read his essay for English, scores aren't back yet....also better but still not quite there. We have been explaining to him that it is just the language. It isn't that he is dumb (he feels dumb), he would have easily passed the test in Spanish, but it is really hard for him 'cause it is in English. He told me he won't drop out for now....

-Funny how kids 'fess up things months later. Remember my child in November that disappeared and came back like an hour after school was over to get his stuff? Told me that he walked home cause he didn't feel good? Truth came out today. He had gone to the Newcomer academy to visit his old teachers. He went, two friends and one little brother of a friend. They were saying they were skipping tomorrow to go to INA and that they had done it before. "Hey Ms., Remember that first time that I skipped? Yeah, that is when we went before, but we didn't make it before school got out."

-Today I wore my new cool green flow-ey shirt and my newly hemmed khaki pants. Apparently my shirt reminds kids of a maternity shirt cause EVERY SINGLE CLASS asked me if I was pregnant. Most of the girls would call me aside and ask if they could ask me something. 7th period mi hijo put it up on the board, "Mrs. Fuller is not pregnant" (had to spell it for him) since it had become such a joke that everyone was asking. I just kept asking them if I looked fat or something. Generally that stops kids but today there were all out arguments between different sides of the room about whether or not I was pregnant. (For everyone's information, I'm not. But apparently I need to lose some weight. I like the shirt a lot so I will keep wearing it.)

-We might have a lead on the computers....they are going to investigate tomorrow.

-It looks like I get to keep my room assignment for next year. They have double-booked my room, but the other guy is ROTC so I think that is a mistake.

-None of my kids have ever heard of okra. since it is the reigning favorite food both for me and a lot of my family (you should see the amount of fried okra that mom has to make at our house!) I decided that I should bring them some. So I went to the store and bought some pickled okra so they could at least see what it looked like, even if it isn't really the same taste as fried or in gumbo. You wouldn't believe the noses that got turned up. One girl who gets me to try EVERYTHING wouldn't take any. I reminded her the number of times I have tried chili-flavored cheese chip stuff and chili-cheese on hot cheetos and chili-covered lollipops...and made her bite off one and then she could throw it away. She did. One boy took one from me so he didn't hurt my feelings and the other teacher said something about okra, "I don't like okra." "But *that* is okra." "Oh, f***." Then we had to have a discussion about appropriate language. :) But he ate the whole piece. One boy left his bag at school rather than try a piece. He said he would get to school early the next morning if we wouldn't open up the room down the hall for him now.

-Dan says that my students years from now will be spouting out Fuller-isms. They already have picked up on: "Does it look like I care?" "Whatever" and the like. Yesterday someone wrote on their paper, "Fiona kicked Robin Hood's a**." I told her she couldn't put that or use the stars, she had to find another way of saying it. "But Ms., How else do you say it?" Another student pipes up and says, "You should use 'tail' instead." This is because I am constantly telling said student to, "Sit his tail in the chair."

Ok, so that is my randomness of the week. Comments? :)

getting up early

I have to say that I love getting up early. Not so much for the early part, but for the getting up and not having to talk to anyone (Dan? Get up early?) or do anything other than drink a cup of hot tea ....and maybe eat some grits. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

Today is my last day of Spring Break. I have to spend it getting together what I am teaching this week. I'm teaching a lesson on satire that I am "borrowing" from readwritehink.org. The students are going to be jazzed that we are watching Shrek, until we only watch 5 minutes of it. :) I'm so mean.

After that I have to come up with something else to teach. I have 2 ideas:

1) a modern play. I'm supposed to be teaching Literary Genres. While this is a TAKS class, I am really jazzed about the title and would like to expose them to some varying genres. However, I don't know a lot of contemporary plays. I mean I know the famous people like Sam Shepard and August Wilson. While The Piano Lesson has a video to go with it (kinda important cause we are talking about a play here). Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot (too obscure for them) and Sam Stoppard - Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead (which I saw at Millsaps in high school and loved it - but half of them haven't read Hamlet cause it is in senior English. It is only really funny if you have read Hamlet). I love the idea of it, but I can't quite decide which play would be good. Suggested has been Tennessee Williams, jonquils and the whole bit. Love Tennessee Williams...too much, if they didn't like it, would I be crushed?

2) Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Found a lesson, meant to be taught in Spanish of course, comparing "The Saint" (short story) with Miracle in Rome (video production). Really good lesson. . . Found Miracle in Rome at the library at North Side, but it is VHS so it may be entirely in Spanish. My kids would understand it (about 90% of them), but I wouldn't. Marquez is one of favorite writers since I read 100 years of solitude. I can get "The Saint" in English, but I'm not quite sure what to do with it after that. This is probably my best option though.

Ideas or suggestions? Anyone read anything contemporary (and fairly short - no novels right now) that they liked enough to think that others might too?

So, you are from MS

First I would like to point out that MS stands for, and should immediately bring to mind the state, not the title that I am called at school. I found this cute forward and thought I'd share cause it is pretty true. I would like to add that you are from MS when you get why cotton is a big thing. Sheri and I bought these great shirts to show our MS pride when we were home. I would link to one, but it is apparently impossible to search for "cotton shirt" on the internet. :)

You know you're from Mississippi when....

You've been to or know about the towns of: Hot Coffee, Whynot, Soso, Shuqualak, Okalona, Koscuisko and Noxapater.

When someone talks about The Flag, you know exactly what flag they're referring to.

In any given parking lot, every third car has a Flag bumpersticker.

Your neighbor (or yourself) has the Confederate battle flag in his yard and nothing else.

You eat coon hash.

You know where chitterlings (chittlins) come from.

You know it's coke, not "pop", or "soda."

You know pop is a noise or an action (ie the coon popped out of his hole), not a soft drink.

You can tell, purely by accent, whether a person is from the Black Belt, the Red Clay Hills, the Piney Woods, or the Delta.

You know that the Delta is not the one below New Orleans.

Your church's attendance is reduced by half on opening day of bow season.

The preacher is not there on opening day of gun season.

The last time it snowed, you took fifteen photos and put some in your freezer for old time's sake.

There is a trampoline in your neighbor's back yard.

Teenagers refer to the bus as the "cheese wagon," and refuse to ride it.

You only know five spices--salt, pepper, Ranch dressing, BBQ Sauce and hot sauce.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Mississippi.

Chinese Tongue Twister

Ok, being that my chinese is quite limited I didn't attempt to try this. But I have to say that it amazes me that such a tongue-twister is possible. Literally the only thing that distinguishes the sounds in this story is the tones...and most of my chinese is toneless. I would be up a creek.

On the Eastern Journey

Sunday afternoons at home

Since I guess there isn't a Nascar game on today, we are watching basketball and napping. Basketball by my brother and Dan and napping by my father. This is a typical afternoon. that is about the extent of the excitement level at our household. :) And for the 6th time (at least) in a row I have forgotten to bring a book to read while this goes on! I really should remember it better. I could see about going to the bookstore and buying something to read...or at least dropping by Wally-world to see what they have...Now that's an idea.

presentations in class

Student presentations were today. They were really quite good. All except for the group who started out talking about the Trail of Tears and ended up talking about slavery....I still haven't figured out how that happened. But they say they are going to fix it for tomorrow.

And the masses of kids who said they "weren't ready" and I made get up there anyway. They may have needed one more day to work on it. But lots of kids were finished after two days...of course their presentations weren't terribly good either.

I spent the afternoon helping kids with their English projects that are also due tomorrow. I have now read "The Raven" six times this week. "The Tell-Tale Heart" at least twice. All to help kids figure it out. Then passing out scissors, posterboard and letting them print pictures on my printer.

So when is the last time that you read "The Raven"? Want to know my favorite stanza? He has just been told that he will never be relieved of the pain of grief that he feels at Lenore's loss...then he asks this only to hear, "Nevermore." It is such a sad, sweet sentiment.

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil--prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that heaven that bends above us--by that God we both adore--
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore---
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

my sister is wonderful

For those of you who didn't know....My sister is wonderful and considerate.

Today she sent me flowers at school. There was a lot of drama with this because they sent some kid to me who said that I was needed in the office as soon as possible. I thought that there was a problem or there was a parent up there or who knows what. I panic. I find someone to cover my class cause I had 2 rooms full of kids cause a friend of mine had to go to the doctor and there was no one to cover *her* class so they came in with me. Then there were flowers for me. :) then i was testy with the secretary and had to apologize cause it wasn't her fault. the flower people didn't want to let them sign for them. they thought it was better to pull me out of class than to send the flower guy to me. the kid didn't know why they needed me or I would have told him that I couldn't come, just have the flower guy come to me. I need to go and apologize to that new secretary again tomorrow, I think. And thank the guy who covered my classes cause i've been bugging him a lot lately and he didn't really have to do that. I'm far too high-strung today.

The flowers are beautiful. I'll take a pic and post them tomorrow.

I left them at school to show them off to my students tomorrow cause I got them 7th period today.

Tomorrow I have presentations on Modern-Day Genocide to wrap up our unit on the Holocaust. It should be good. I hope they are ready.

drama of last week or The Case of the Missing Computers

Well, I have had these laptops in my room now for ....well since about October I guess. I've had kids actively using them (every day almost) since November. About 2 weeks ago, between 5th and 6th period the keys went missing. This was highly irritating, but truthfully I thought I had mislaid them....for about two days. Just put them down or in my purse or somewhere and couldn't find them.

Then I didn't ever find them.

So I thought, "Ok, some kid is playing a very bad joke and has hidden them from me."

Then no one came forward with them.

So, the next Monday someone put staples in my lock...to try to keep me from locking my door. Well, that wasn't terribly creative, so I took the staples OUT and locked the door. No problem.

Tuesday was TAKS.

Wednesday, someone put glue in my door. At this point I had already moved the laptop cart to the room across the hall because I was to have a sub and didn't want to leave them in there with a substitute. Security came and put a new lock on the door.

All this happened WHILE I WAS IN THE ROOM. That is the most disturbing part.

Then Monday I went to the room across the hall with a new set of spare keys to check on the computers...They were gone. Now, they were there the Friday before. I had been counting them multiple times a day by sticking a pencil through the ventilation holes. Yes, I was cognizant of the risk. But Monday with the keys in hand, the computers were gone...Ok, all but the one that doesn't work because Windows was never loaded on it.

How, might you say, would a thief know that #16 computer is unusable? Did they turn them all on and play with them before they stole them? In a manner of speaking, yes. It means it is someone I know. Some kid that uses the computers. Some kid that I have allowed into my room and put myself out there for. It wasn't some random thug that decided to rip off $25,000 worth of laptops to make a quick buck. It wasn't some kid in my classes that doesn't come use the computers cause those kids don't know that random computers don't work. It was some kid who wanted to use the computers at home. That didn't have one, enjoyed using them and just decided to take 15 of them home to use. And not just one kid, cause no one person could have carted off all 15 in one stroke.

The police are involved. They have a Crimestoppers reward out. We are going to get them. I'm betting we find all 15 of them spread out at my students' houses. The worst part is that we have suspects. I have 4 or 5 kids that I don't trust because they *might* have jacked the laptops. We spent Saturday morning cross-referencing which kids lived next to each other and checking every kid who has ever used them.

Want to know the best part though? They left every one of the chargers. Right now they have 15 laptops that won't boot up cause the batteries should be dead by now. The chargers are about $100 a piece so most of our kids couldn't afford that...well unless they were able to pawn a laptop without a charger, but I doubt it.

That is my drama. I was so upset I almost couldn't teach for about 2 days. I couldn't handle the stress of looking at every kid and thinking, "Are they the one?"

As for those of you who are now worried about the situation where I teach, my school is very, very safe. I just teach kids who, for a lack of a better term, live in poverty. They don't have stuff. It is terribly tempting to want to have something right there in front of you. Daily students asked, as I kicked them out of the room, if they could borrow a laptop and take it home. And they are kids. They don't realize the consequences of taking what everyone is using to only use for yourself. They don't realize that it is hurting everyone cause they only think of themselves.

I, naive as I am, still truly believe that I should try to give students trust and they will live up to it. I don't think it is the kids I always trusted, I think it is those who always bothered me, but I didn't know how to apply too many extra rules to them that I didn't enforce for others. I don't have problems doing that now. I am hoping that someone becomes guilty and fesses up or brags around and gets caught. Regardless, we'll catch them, they weren't so savvy that they could have possibly done this before.

students at work

Today I was talking with another teacher from school and she was saying our students are always really excited to see us outside of school. This is really true, they come up to you and start grinning, etc.

Last night Dan & I went to Sundance, cause it was warm and I like walking around. We went to eat at Riscky's and then went to Barnes and Noble's. My son is working at Riscky's now. He is one of the food runners. We went in last night and I pointed him out to Dan. We waited on our food. When he brought it out Dan was sitting there, just smiling at him. You could tell he was thrown off. After an incredibly long pause Dan glances at me and H looks over and smiles and says "Hey Miss." I asked him how he was doing. All this time he started to blush. I can't say I've ever seen the child blush. He doesn't usually get get embarrassed about anything. I also waved at, though didn't speak to, another one of my students who works there.

Then we went to B&N and I saw a student from my 2nd period who came up and spoke to me. Said he was there with his sister and I told him he should get a book too. :) But I realized it does give me some credibility as a teacher who says they read a lot to actually be *seen* at a bookstore. Cool huh? This is a kid who barely speaks to me at class and is incredibly shy and came up to me in public? Kinda proud of that.

At B&N I got a book journal that you can put a synopsis of what you read and refer back to it. The only drawback is that it is titled "Book Lust" which makes me hesitate in taking it to school. There are a number of things you don't say around high school kids, "lust" is one of those words. :)

80 degree day

Wow, It is incredibly hot today for the first day of March. And I think the hot weather is giving me a headache. Great huh? Tomorrow it is supposed to rain and go down to the 60's.

I thought I would be a better blogger now that TAKS is over, but that hasn't seemed to pan out yet. I have quite a bit of drama at school this week and I am not quite ready to talk about it. But I'm sure I'll eventually post or recover to a point that I feel that there are other topics in this world to discuss.

Dan's birthday was yesterday...Or actually at the second between last night and today, Leap day baby that he is. We got dinner from Central Market, complete with a 6 inch carrot cake, which he can eat all of cause it isn't really my thing and i'm not into sugar right now. I really don't eat a lot of sweets.

TAKS IS OVER

Today I'm having a sick day. :) I am worn out, needed the break and decided a week ago that I would take off today.

While I've been here I got called and told that my kids conned the sub into sitting in my room during lunch and were so loud that Officer M had to come and settle them down. I wish I could take off tomorrow too so I don't have to deal with it.

As for TAKS, the kids did really well i think. They all seem calm about it. I've only had about 3 tell me that they failed, which is pretty good cause that means that they at least did their best. That is all they can do. I hope that I have a good turnout. At least 3 of my kids failed because they decided to make them go home at 5 and they hadn't finished the essay yet. They can't pass the test without a 2 on the essay. If they didn't finish, they probably made 0's.

We have been discussing our academy plan for next year and it looks like I will be a supplementary staff person that isn't actually attached to an academy. That might change if my friend takes an AP job next year and they move me to her slot. She is in the Social Service academy so that would be great with me.

Hot Cheetos and Snickers

Just so you know the preferences of high school students...they like Hot Cheetos and Snickers. Another teacher mentioned today that they probably don't know that any other Cheetos exist. I've never seen any of them carry them around.

Why do I care you might say? TAKS

Last year the 11th grade English teacher made up goodie bags for each of her students to give them motivation and confidence the day of the test. She got them to tell her their favorite chips and candy bar and filled up the bags with random treats. I thought it was a great idea and decided to do it myself. I have been slammed with Writing Camps till yesterday so I am a bit behind. I have 120~ students plus the 10th grade Language Center kiddos that I don't actually teach but know pretty well so that adds up to 148 goodie bags.

So yesterday I put 15 extra credit points on the quiz (they needed it anyway) and asked them some fake off questions so nobody realized I really just wanted to know their favorite candy and chips. 48 kids wanted Hot Cheetos (have you ever had them? they are really not my thing. I don't like cheetos and don't like spicy chips so i sure hope I don't have any leftovers.) 31 wanted Doritos. 39 kids wanted Snickers and a bunch wanted random things like Carlos V (a Mexican candy bar). Dan and I headed off to Sam's and a basket full of junk food and $112 later I have enough to fill up 148 bags for the kids. I'll make address labels that say "Good Luck on TAKS" and then pray that they do their best.

*************************

Learned a number of words in Spanish for someone who talks too much yesterday. 7th I had a girl who I had to ask to be quiet about 3 times. So I put another extra 3 points on the quiz for whoever could tell me what the word would be.

Here is what I got (all in feminine form since my offender was a girl):
chismosa - not really what i meant, more someone who tells secrets, a gossip
habladora - literally a person who talks a lot
perico - a parrot :) metaphor, they get extra points for that
parlanchina - a chatterbox - the best choice for my use, but a little hard for me to say cause the combo rolled r & l isn't easy for me to do...i can repeat it if someone says it but I can't say it from memory with the r done right.

thursday night pre-er viewing

This is what Dan and I watch pre-ER (pronounced Er at our house).

No idea how we happened upon it, but we watch it nearly every week now.

We have a soccer game tomorrow. Our school secretary got on the announcements this morning and told all the kids to wear coats. It may get canceled. We'll see.

Underground internet radio in D.F.

http://www.ugr.com.mx/

Here is a link to an underground station in Mexico City that my students listen to. It has a mix of Spanish and English songs. Right now it is playing Foo Fighters, before it was Ferdinand somebody.

Today we had senior writing camp. I had to tell one of my students that the essay he wrote would not pass the taks while still encouraging him in the fact that he wrote something! And in less than 30 minutes (not a week of class time). Wow, that sucks the energy out of you.

And another one of my students got embarrassed today. She had written on her brainstorming page as a story idea "when my mother died." Another, entirely well meaning kid, read off her paper, aloud, and she freaks out. Her mom only died last summer and she has been having a real hard time. I took the student out in the hall and told him that he can't do that and he needs to be more considerate of others. He said he only read it cause it was a good topic to use, he was thinking of using it himself. However, the poor girl shut down and did nothing the rest of the day. I didn't push her, but I think she was mad at me that I had let it happen.

soccer game groupie

My friend and I are officially soccer game groupies now. I drove to Keller to go to the game tonight, got lost 3 times cause i don't get texas roads. why is it that they have to give everything 3 different names AND THEN NOT POST A SINGLE SIGN WITH ANY OF THEM? yes that deserved yelling capital letters.

tomorrow begins the last two days of writing camp. I'm tired. the TAKS is tuesday, feb 21st. be nice to any 3-11 grade texas students you know. it is a hard test and very tiring.

10 things you may or may not know about me....

Idea courtesy of my sis :

1. I currently hold three masters' degrees. :) MA Theological Studies, MA Intercultural Studies, Union University, TN and MA Education, Teaching, UTA.

2. I always wished I could have played on a soccer team. My brother did, my sister even did for a year. I love soccer and I really think I could have done it. I've never even played in a pick-up game. Probably because I'm not much of an athelete.

3. I still consider myself a Mississippian, even though I haven't lived there in 5 1/2 years.

4. I had my belly button pierced in college. I never told my parents, though I think my mom knew. Guess she will now. :)

5. I am really naiive. I have to get stuff explained to me all the time. Today mijo was wearing a shirt (that I later made him change) that said "Dime vaquero" [Call me or Tell me Cowboy]. Two girls in my second period class had to explain it to me. We learned how to line dance to this song this summer at Billy Bob's so that is the only reason I think it clicked. I had to listen to it for about 20 minutes before I got what it was saying then.

6. I like languages, but am really bad at them. It is 'cause of the southern accent. I can never get the vowels right.

7. I have never had any sense about clothes. My sister had to approve my outfits in high school. It was such a joke among my friends that my roommate in college asked would she get the same priviledge when we moved in together.

8. I have never had a room to myself, always a roommate or a husband.

9. I am incredibly ticky about my computer and how things are set up. I don't like stuff to appear or disappear and I want everything just so. My computer is incredibly neat to contrast the room it sits in (both at home and school).

10. I listen to Casa 106.7. Started it because I wanted to know the same groups my kids do. Now I just really like it. I don't really have a "kind" of music, but I have always really liked hip-hop/rap/r&b. Music with some soul. However, I still can't dance.

blog additions

You can now translate my blog into six different languages! See the translate this site link on the side.

distractions

Wanna know what cracks my students up more than anything else? Sound effects. Yes, and honestly I make a lot of sound effects. Any time I tell a story (especially about cars), today going over the study guide for the test tomorrow. Do normal people not make sound effects? I mean other than 5 year old boys playing with trucks.

It is a lot of fun. I think more people should start.

how I learn spanish

My Spanish is generally learned by need. So I get a lot of holes in it. For instance I can say:

Why are you bothering her? - Estas fastidiando la?

Why are you flirting with her? - Estas coqueteando con ella?

This is not boring. - No esta aburrindo. (sp?)

I check all my spanish past three speakers. I make sure that it is "polite." "Can you say this to your grandmother?" I make sure that it is appropriate for an adult to say to a teenager.

Despite all this I *frequently* find out that I have missed something.

Today I learned that "chilango," which I thought was merely a nickname for those from Mexico City, is actually used for pickpocket...still a nickname for someone from Mexico City. I had been assured that it was polite and simply a nickname. I learned this when mijo snatched my nectarine off my desk at lunch and then asked me did I want a "peach." (I forgave him for not knowing the difference. Pretty impressed he knew the word for peach!) My teacher friend turned to him and said, "You little chilango!" When I inquired, really out of curiosity, why people always say that to the D.F. kids and tease them about taking stuff she filled me in that "chilango" has the connotation of pickpocket.

So there you go...why it is dangerous to learn languages by immersion. :)

google earth

Have you guys seen Google Earth? Dan used it a couple of semesters ago to show an archeological site in Israel. Today I was showing two students after school maps.google.com and they asked if I could look up their houses in Mexico City. So I bopped right over, downloaded Google Earth and showed them satellite photos of D.F. Now they spent 30 minutes and couldn't find their houses, but they did seem to think it was cool.

I went home to figure out the program and find out if there was a way to look up street addresses (not available internationally except in Canada and UK), but they do have user added waypoints. There is a whole community you can join to find stuff.

Gotta say this is incredibly cool.

bad luck

Ok, I've decided I've just been having bad luck lately. Maybe God is teaching me to accept things without stressing out, maybe I'm being tested, who knows.

This morning we go to get into the car to go to church and the back window of my car is broken out. Nothing is gone. For some reason, they didn't want my soccer blankets (choice of maroon or john deere pattern) or my stash of styrofoam cups or empty bags... They did leave dan's new xm radio (which I'm glad about).

So I guess tomorrow I'll be calling the glass repair people to see if they can put in a new windshield.

leftover phrases

Well, sorry I haven't posted in a while because I was only restored to a computer monitor (as opposed to the computer hooked up to the tv) today. My eyesight isn't really good enough to see the words on the TV screen so I was kinda avoiding using it much.

Yesterday I caught myself before saying something (I would like to point out how amazing that is, since I don't usually even realize what I said until much after it is actually said). My friend and I were standing around talking to our students. She asks if she was going to get her bag back from one of the students who had been carrying it around for her. He states that he had brought it to her from Mexico, so we come back by saying he can't just take things back.

I said, "Now, You don't want to be..." and stopped myself. Do you know what I was going to say?

I'm not entirely sure what the view of Indians is in Mexico, but I know that they talk about them and tease each other about being "indio" if they are dark-skinned. Regardless, it is a completely insensitive phrase that shouldn't be used. I *haven't* said it in who knows how long, but somehow that is what my brain pulled out at that moment to say.

My friend turns to me and smiles and says, "I know what you were going to say."

"yeah, but it is completely inappropriate. I stopped myself just in time."

"You're right. It is inappropriate."

Later we tried to figure out what the etomology of the phrase is, but we didn't come up with anything. So strike 1 for being culturally insensitive and 1 point for not letting more than one person hear me do it. :)

random conversations of the day

Conversations I had with students throughout the day:

-There were some men dressed in Mexican army uniforms caught smuggling drugs. The president of Mexico says the uniforms were stolen, my kids say they weren't.

-Why casinos are not good and why in MS they only have them (or used to have them) on water.

-How to pronounce the name of the state of Louisiana (correctly, in Mississippian and in Spanish)

-How to say "can I borrow an eraser" so that can no longer be an excuse to talk in class.

-I was called a "white girl" for needing multiple blankets to sit through tomorrow's soccer game.

-One of my students got a job...I thought he said he was a "foot runner" this was highly confusing, but I had to send him off to class. Actually he is a "food runner" at a restaurant. Still don't *really* know what that is, but it at least makes sense.

-Was I called chismosa today? No, I think that was last week.

-The system of nicknames and some new spanish curse words.

-About how my mom and I have the same sarcastic sense of humor. :) When she was teaching and her first graders would come whining about splinters and such, she would offer to amputate. She said when the lips started quivering she would back off. I say things like that to my kids, of course the humor is lost on them most of the time. They just think I'm strange.

Fairly exciting day. Nothing disappeared and no one said I was a bad teacher. In fact many of my students today told me I was a *good* teacher. That made me feel better.

Third happy thing for the day:

These are two of the sentences that I got when I was grading original sentences for our commonly misspelled words homework.

"H fell from the second floor window, but he was all right."

"When my sister sees Mr. Y, she breathes."

I find both of these interesting. First, what made you think of throwing your friend from a 2nd floor window? Secondly, I get this great mind picture of a girl sighing when she sees her science teacher. :)

Ok, off to the cocoa and ice cream.

Here's the snowman we produced. Pretty impressive for two Mississippi girls! 

I thought I needed happy pictures today. Here's Sher in our snow a few years ago.
 

bad day part II

Well, the good part about today is that I got all my grading done and all of my classes have even seen their grades with the exception of 7th period who couldn't be quiet unless I was sitting in my new red mushroom stool. They were, however, much better than usual.

The bad part is that my projector has gone missing and now I have to deal with that. I tend to want to avoid things that I dislike. I have interrogated every kid I know and no one has fessed up about it. I really hoped it would show back up before the end of the day, but maybe that was just me being hopeful. So today I was terribly stressed out and spent most of the day trying not to cry. Not because the projector is gone, but because I feel like I have some responsibility not to trust my students so absolutely anymore. But I want to trust them. They need people to trust them. I think it will make them worthy of that trust, even if they aren't...but they need to learn to be worthy of it, too.

I'm sad.

So now, since I couldn't find a Marble Slab friend, I'm going to make the biggest bowl of Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint ice cream that I can and pair that with a mug of vanilla cocoa. How's that for avoidance? :)

Pride goeth before the fall...

I looked it up. That quote is in fact an actual biblical quote (Proverbs 16:18) . Instead one of the many sayings that gets attributed to the Bible.

That is my key verse for today...It was the worse day I have had in a long, long time. By the end of the day, I lost my temper and was so mad that my heart was beating and I could breathe. I had to go to Mr. Across-the-hall-neighbor to calm down. I *never* go across the hall to calm down.

2nd period - J, who I have been having some problems with, tells me when I accidently called out the wrong answer for the test question that I need to just stop and think about it because I am confusing him. Ok, that doesn't sound so bad now, it was the tone, but I tell him that he shouldn't criticize me, I never said I was perfect. He continues talking so I send him to the hall. Basically he tells me that he is bored in class because I am not prepared and he sits around a lot. I really want to tell him that there are 25 kids in class, all of whom need special attention and he needs to learn patience. What I do tell him is that he is 18 and I have a master's degree and he needs to just accept that I know more about teaching than he does and that I am not perfect, human, and I do make mistakes. I was furious. I am getting together the entirety of the work for the six weeks and letting him work on it himself. He can sit in the back and speed along at his own pace. After school when I mentioned that I had a bad day, mijo asked me to tell him who it was, "come on, just tell me. I want to know." from a kid who is not violent at all, it was kinda flattering that he would want to stand up for me.

6th & 7th we had an instructional meeting with head honcho from downtown. In these meetings there is sort of an unwritten code that we stand firm with each other and say what we have done to help the students. Last year the lady called us all down individually for our failure rates, told us all students should have a textbook (even though the curriculum doesn't even have a textbook in some cases. we would leave really feeling bad. well, I was incredibly nervous cause stuff like that always makes me nervous, but I got through my part and my friend from down the hall even threw my name in because she did a walk-through in my room this morning. it was going really, really well.

Then the new teacher's turn came round. She basically laid it out that the students didn't know anything and she was starting over from step one and since she had only been there 3 weeks, she didn't know what she could really do before the state standarized test. And since her kids are exit level, she is just doing the best she can. "they don't know metaphors or similes or even what dialogue is." Ok, not only did I teach LOTS of these kids last year, I also teach 85 of them this year...And they do know stuff. I can't believe she got up in a meeting with people from downtown and said that they didn't. Like we hadn't taught them anything the last 11 years they've been in school!

Now I've been told that I shouldn't take it personally, true, because she didn't know her audience and no one was sitting there thinking, "hey who taught those kids last year?"

Then I walk back up the stairs, steaming...to find my 7th period class trapsing out of my room two minutes before the bell. Apparently the sub that was covering my class that class period got tired of them and decided to let them go early rather than fight with them about it. Shame really, she seemed like a good sub. She definitely knew better. Well I start ranting at them to get themselves back into the classroom. Then I got every kid in the class back in their seats and tore them up and down about even thinking about leaving early. Then I kicked out the kid who had already been in my class 4th and decided to come again. After school another kid said they had thought about staying in my room too. I told him that he had better be glad he didn't.

By the time I got up there I was so angry that my heart was beating and I almost couldn't breathe. I made them stay a full minute after the bell to make up for the time they were going to cut out early. They will hear it from me tomorrow, too.

Linked in to the Post?

Somehow last night my blog was ranked. If you search for "Miss Mississippi pageant" on GoogleBlogSearch, I'm the number one link.

And I ended up on the Post's "who's blogging about this article?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2006011601489_Technorati.html

Kinda scary..kinda cool.

memories

Tonight we flipped through the channels and are currently watching the Miss America pageant.

When we were kids, Sheri and I watched Miss America every year, cheering for Miss Mississippi (who by the way has more Miss America titles than any other state). Then we would have our own pageant in the living room: changing to swimsuits for the swimsuit competition, putting blankets around our necks for capes and fabricating crowns so that we could both win. We would try to get Mom to pick a winner, which was always pointless because we would always both win. I think we tried to con Joey into judging one year. We would do talent even...although all our acting was during commercial breaks. We would have to stay up late to see the end. Hmmm...9:00 doesn't seem so late anymore.

First Ammendment

We have been having the interesting debate at school about students and their blogs (Xangas specifically). I was sent this article through NCTE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/01/16/AR2006011601489.html

Basically it talks about a school in DC who have concequences for those who post "inappropriate material" on their blogs. All the stuff I tell them not to write in the TAKS essays: getting drunk, their intimate relationships, etc. I printed it out for a friend who used it as her lesson on Friday with a lot of the seniors that have Xangas.

The comments from the teachers included:
"Yeah, they can post anything they want, they just need to know there are consequences."
"They have to realize that other people can see what they are writing."

I really lean towards we should just leave them alone. But truthfully there have been those who were fired for what was on their blog. For better or worse, should we teach appropriate use before these kids could get in *real* trouble?

Well that's the arguement. What do you think?
Here's a link to random high school blogs so you can get a feel. Not my kids obviously since I'm trying to be better about being more vague. :)

Should I be proud or disappointed?

I have always considered myself slightly better than Oprah book club picks. Now don't get me wrong, I truly appreciate her efforts to get a population of this country reading that wouldn't otherwise. However, they tend to all have the same plots as a Lifetime movie: women in trouble, men fail women, women conquers all...and maybe falls in love. :)

However, the novel I'm reading with class just became an Oprah pick:

http://www.bordersstores.com/features/feature.jsp?file=night_rg

On one hand, it may lend credibility to the book for some kids. On the other...does this devalue the quality of the book? Now that it is mass-marketed to the daytime tv watching population?

mijos

Tonight my friend and I watched our soccer team play an away game at the high school near my house. We brought our blankets, hot chocolate and warm jackets...because we were prepared this time, no telling us about it 7th period.

When we were there we whiled our time away divying up our students as our children. One of our students has been my friend's son, mijo, for quite some time now. And she has all but decided who my son should be, but we have all these other spare children running around! So I think we are up to 4 1/2 a piece that we each claim. One set of brothers has three so we have dual custody to be fair. Apparently we shared a sancho or two along the way to have so many that are actually brothers!

Also, I have been on this kick lately telling my students, when they are whining too much, "Does it *look* like I care?" I know, it is the sarcastic side of me. One of the kiddos, mijo actually, asked me after school how to say it. He kept swapping the words, "Doesn't look it...." So we had to practice for a minute. We didn't work on the intonation so when he says it, it just comes out extremely rude. :) I am going to regret teaching him this; I can see it now.

update on the perfect way to fold a t-shirt

Dan was successfully able to do this. I am in awe of my husband's greatness.

one of the most amazing things I have ever seen...

Last week two of my students called me over and asked me to watch this...

How to fold a T-shirt perfectly

Two days later they called me over because someone had successfully figured out how to do it.

These are the things that I *want* my students to share with me. The weird new year's resolutions they made over Christmas...not always. :)

i can see the fisheys in the water

Dan successfully cleaned out the goldfish pond yesterday. We drained all the water and scooped out the sludge and leaves. Then we pressured washed it, thanks to the pressure washer Dad gave us one time because "it comes in handy." Now it is very pretty and clear. There is a little bit of residue, but we think that the filter should take care of that...and we got blue water tint so it will be slightly blue also. We counted our fish (because we had to take them out to drain the water) and we have 13. They seem to have all survived, even though a couple of them got bopped in the head by a shovel.

I seemed to have misplaced my digital camera so I only have pictures on my cell phone and don't really know how to get them off. Maybe one of my students can tell me.

We are going to Target right now to get the rest of the stuff together and because I love Target. Not Target in general, just the brand new one downtown between my house and school. That one is great, convenient and handy.

18 screws

Three of the computers in my laptop cart are currently not working. I set out this week to get them fixed, e-mailed support and they e-mailed me back suggestions.

I was supposed to take out one screw and pull the hard drive, try to boot and put it back. I got all the computers out after school, with the tiny screwdrivers Dan loaned me and set to work.

Out came one screw, nothing happened.
So I pulled out another screw, at this point attracting attention from two of the boys in my room, and nothing happened.

Then I handed it over to I who pulled and prodded. After 7 screws, in my defense, I did mention that perhaps we should stop and think about this. Perhaps they had been wrong about it only being one screw...but probably they didn't want you to take the whole bottom off the computer.

When I and A had ever screw out of the bottom of the computer, we still couldn't get the hard drive out. They decided it needed muscle; I decided the computer was broken to begin with so we probably couldn't do any harm. At this point, Dan calls and asks how come I hadn't looked at the support docs online. Good question. However by this time both boys had degenerated into giggles and was laughing pretty hard myself.

While on the phone with Dan I hear cheers because they got the hard drive out. It only took 18 screws. However, they were able to figure out a better way and get the other two drives out with only 6 screws being removed. Five off from the e-mail support lady. But in her defense when I look that laptop up online, it is configured differently.

None of them are working yet.

I am cracking down on the cursing thing. One boy has a three page, typed paper to write now. The other student *did* go to in-house, by himself, all day, on Friday. He was miserable and really mad at us. However, perhaps he learned his lesson.

First week back

Well, it is the first week back to school and I have to say that I am really enjoying it thus far. My computer project went off without any hitches. Only a few complaints of "please mrs. let me use the computer today." All in all a very successful project. Tomorrow I go over the benchmark scores and tuesday we start our novel, Night. I hadn't read it until after I started teaching, even though I remember my sister reading it in high school. It is a pretty good book and I hope the students like it.

I had to write up one of my kids that hangs out in my room after school. Unfortunately he can't say an entire sentence without cursing in either English or Spanish. Since they have taught me a variety of Spanish curse words (I can cuss like a sailor now -- a phrase I have to say is beyond the understanding of my students so I gave up, the etomology is far too complicated to explain), I can't ignore their spanish curses. The student didnt' really think I would write him up. If my friend hadn't been there I might have backed down. I couldn't give him detention because he and his friends spend all their free time in my room anyway. That isn't really punishment. My friend is on her administrative internship so she can assign punishments. We gave him In-house for an entire day. He won't know anyone so he can't talk and will probably be by himself since the tardy calculator hasn't been running that long. We are hoping that this is discouragement enough.

how much did you love school?

So, when you were in school did you ever show back up before you had to? I don't think in all my years of school I *ever* showed back up early...not even for some extracurricular thing.

Yesterday we are standing around talking. Bemoaning my friend who is leaving us to go to the old building and be our instructional specialist (same school, just not my right hand anymore). While my other friend may be going to an asst. principal somewhere.... I may just get left behind! Ok, back to the story, we are standing around talking and one of my 9th graders sticks his head in the window and waves. So Angela and I step out and talk to them.

"Guys, school doesn't start till Monday. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, really? Ooops. [sheepish grinning]"

The conversation ends with asking to use the computers, since they were up there. I told them no cause I had tons of stuff to do yesterday. Angela mentioned that she thought they might have just been up there to use the computers cause they had been bored all break. At first I thought, "Yeah, maybe," but then I remembered that one of the boys has a brother at our school...who didn't show up for school. This was all a ruse just to come and use the computer! Cute really. I kinda wish I could have let them if they were really *that* bored. I could have put them to work too, as it turned out.

various tv watching day

Today I have to admit my laziness. I have currently not gotten out of my pj's and am sitting on my couch after having watched 3 tv shows and a movie.... I have successfully finished up next Friday's lesson plans and am considering making up all the grammar quizzes for this six weeks so they will be done. Also I need to finish grading the benchmarks. I am about half through and they need to be done this week so I can go over them on Tuesday.

I am super excited about this six weeks. I have gotten all my lesson plans for lit genre planned out. We are reading Night by Elie Wiesel and working on short answer questions a la TAKS. Then we are going to write an essay. In an amazing amount of preparation I am handing my students a calendar with the syllabus for the six weeks the first day back. Shocking, huh?

Today I cut apart cards pasted them on blue card stock and trimmed them with my fancy shaped scissors so the students can all practice their inference skills and figure out the clues about the main character. Next I can cut apart their benchmark grades and sort them by class so they can figure out what they made! :)

Hope everyone else is having a good day!

Making Chicken and dumplings

I whipped up a batch of chicken and dumplings for our hall potluck at school last week. Since I was under the weather nothing tasted good and Dan wasn't feeling well so he wouldn't taste them for me, so I showed up to school with dumplings; the first batch I've ever made by myself, and not entirely sure how they tasted.

Since I had a half-dozen boys hanging out in my room I decided to con one of them into tasting it for me.

So I called over Andres and asked him if he would taste my food.

"What is it?"
"Chicken and dumplings."
"What's that?"

Well this presented an interesting problem. How do you explain dumplings and have it sound like something someone would want to eat?

"Well it is chicken, in like a thick broth...Then there is a bread thing inside, dumplings. They are like biscuits that are cooked in. They should be soft but taste cooked, not doughy. Can you just taste them and let me know if it tastes cooked?"
"Sure."

I mean really, he is a 15 year old boy. Is he honestly going to turn down food?

So I give him a scoop full and he tastes it and tells me it is ok. Then they all walk around the room whispering about my food. A couple of boys made faces, to which I replied that I don't make fun of *their* food (specifically mentioned menudo). And this is what we eat at my home. They laughed and no one else said anything else about it. Most of them said it smelt good but weren't entirely sure about tasting it.

Christmas at the Pape house

My parents have taken off the week between Christmas and New Year's. Amazingly, since they hardly even take off work on the weekends. Of course today they went on 3 service calls and spent the morning at the shop, but still.

What have we done over Christmas? Had multiple parties: Dad's company Christmas party (which I missed most of cause I hadn't gotten over the crud yet), Family Christmas party at Aunt Gloria's on Christmas Eve and then Christmas day we ate the tamales that one of the guys that works for Dad gave him for Christmas and an enchilada experiment that I made. I probably wouldn't have attempted it but it was just going to be for mom, dad, Dan, Sheri and Joey....then Mammaw and Pappaw, Eddie's family, Aunt Leisa and my cousin Derek all ended up there too. I don't make terribly authentic enchiladas, I always do it wrong. But they ended up ok. Martha saved me by knowing how to make sour cream enchiladas and made those also.

Yesterday we went shopping at the mall and ate dinner with a friend of Dan's. then today we went shopping again. Best thing today was that we got to go and eat at El Sombrero's in Clinton, which I probably ate at 2-3 times a week in college. I had missed it terribly. Silly huh? I live in Fort Worth and can have much better Mexican food and I end up craving El Sombrero. But you know? It was good.

Silence OR What do you say?

Currently it is 12:24 am. Now, for those people who know me, (and since Sheri, Deva and Dan are usually the only people who read this) I don't stay up late. In fact I am early-to-bed girl sometimes getting in as early as 9:30 on a school night and can sleep right on through with no problems. Now I can't sleep. Probably because I'm getting better and am not as tired. Though apparently those steroid shots can keep you awake.

Train just went by. Didn't even know there was a train at 12 am. One of the joys of living across the way from a railroad track. Of course, nearly everyone in Fort Worth lives near a railroad track.

One of the teachers at school has discovered blogs. Specifically student blogs. I pinned my lips shut and didn't say a thing. He monitors them for inappropriate content and discussions about himself. :) Please don't let me get that old!

Today was a good day at school. I was feeling better. I was only disheartened when 3rd. . . which is my planning period I had 8, count them 8, students show up in my room. Why were they there? Apparently they were exempt, from both tests and didn't want to go home. Well except the kid that rides the bus and had to stick around until the bus ran at 3:35. At one point I had 21 people in my room. Now that was after my friend down the hall brought in her class so that I could head out a little early to go to the doctor.

The majority of the boys in class today were on elchat.com again. I am still shocked and surprised that the filter hasn't blocked them from it yet. I keep having to watch a few of them to make sure that it is appropriate content. The problem is that I don't speak that much spanish. I was doing ok at shutting them down when they were just cursing at each other. We caught one of the boys talking to "laura - sexy y horny." We told him that someone with that name was up to no good. Come to find out it was another boy from across the room. Then "maira" shows up and she was also someone in the room. My friend and I let it go on for a while and somehow with us giggling on the other side of the room, they never figured it out. We ended up having to tell him later. :)

Later on two other students were chatting with each other and only realized it when they asked each other where they were from and one of them calls out, "Hey, this person is from Fort Worth!"

But really there was only one thing that happened today that really impacted me. Sitting at lunch we were discussing students and one of them had gotten taken away to juve for being found with cocaine. Not someone I teach, but someone I knew, and I was there when they got caught. . . .We thought they were tagging the walls in the boys' bathroom or smoking cigarettes. We were going to be pretty mad about that, but I wish that had been the problem.

In the process of discussing this, one of the teachers brings up that this student wasn't the only one involved in drugs and started naming names. So the first couple I thought, "Ok, *maybe*, but I'm not sure." I try not to take what teachers say about students to heart. Everyone deserves more than one chance. It isn't like I haven't needed them myself in life. Then they named one of my kids that hangs out in my room all the time. Immediately, myself and another teacher piped up and said, "No, not him. He isn't involved in anything like that!" But we were assured on good authority that it was true. If it were true I would notice, right? I am not completely naive to think that it doesn't happen. I know of students who have come high on weed to my class. I noticed that.

To make a long story stort, we pulled the student into another room (because like I said, he hangs out in my room all the time) and my friend point-blank asked him. I didn't know what to say. It broke my heart. He swore up and down that it wasn't true. So we had a discussion about who you hang out it with and people's perceptions of you. No matter how much you don't care what people think about you, it changes your opportunities in life if people don't trust you or have misconceptions of you.

I'm sure there is a lesson there that i can learn. Right now I still want to cry about it. I'm glad my friend was there cause I wouldn't have known what to say. I didn't say a word. I just stood there and tried really hard to comprehend the accusation.

Fever count - 101

Ok, today I am sick. It is extremely obvious to my students, my collegues and most of all me. I am not walking-dead-sick, but still lacking energy. My co-11th grade teacher (who is leaving me next semester to be an instructional specialist) told the principal that she didn't think I would make it through the day. Principal says, "Who?" "You know, Mrs. F." [gotta point out how memorable I am here.] "Nah, she won't leave. She'll stick it out."

Now I need to point out that the person that had to think about who I was pegged me better than my friend. but I did leave at exactly 3:45. It took 10 minutes of 'date prisa' and 'vallence a su casa,' but i got all the boys & girls kicked out of my room and headed home. My across the hall neighbor was even impressed that I didn't stick around today.

Why you might ask was there anyone in my room that wasn't taking an exam. Good question. I had about 7 boys show up. 2 that rode the bus and couldn't leave, 2 that were taking the last exam, but not the first and 3 that just showed up. Then two more asked their teacher next door could they come in my room when they finished the exam. I should have kicked them all out. but I wasn't leaving, I knew I wasn't leaving and where else would they go? At least in my room they weren't getting into trouble.

We did have a moment where they all felt my head to see if I had a temperature. I was proclaimed "calliente" (sp?) and they stayed away from me after that. they didn't try to give me any grief though and that was good.

sicky girl or i'm really tired and school hasn't started yet

Ok, it is currently 6:27 in the morning. I'm coughing (already took my antibiotics and cough syrup -- hey deva. i been meaning to call you. can i take both at the same time?). I couldn't sleep tonight. So why am I going to school? It is finals. My 1st period has no idea what is on their exam cause I haven't reviewed it and 4th needs to get a review so that they can take their exam tomorrow. up side? i get a planning period today, we haven't taken 3rd period's exam yet. And 2nd is doing locker cleanout. So i'm pulling my oh-so-famous Ikea mushroom stool out to the hall. and yelling at kids from there to keep their stuff neat. :)

On the other upside, as soon as I get exams graded I'll be completing my TAKS/Wiesel unit on Night. I have found a way to read a novel, which will faciliate answering 3 step open-ended responses, which will lead to higher level thinking skills and hopefully facilitate essay writing. this is my plan. sometimes . . . ok, usually, my grandious plans don't turn out as I would like. but this unit will be immediately after my heart to heart with my classes about behavior and how if they don't want to do anything, that is fine. I'm here to help but really it is up to them. if they want to pass TAKS and graduate, they have to step up and do the work. I'm letting the kids who don't care sit it in the back row. I'm not fighting with them next semester. Not till after February. :)

spanish lessons

now, in addition to my informal spanish lessons, it seems I can sign up for spanish for teachers taught through the district. :) classes start in January.

in the meantime here is the spanish I've learned this week.

What's up - Que honda?
What's up (in chilango speak) - Que tranza?
Vallence a su casa - Go to your house.
Largete (sp?) - You go.

Oh and a great deal of good spanish curse words. I learned at least two really pleasant ones today. The last two spanish phrases are to help kick the kids out of my room.

Exams start tomorrow....that should be fun.

Today was the last time I will see 7th period until January! Woo-hoo!

Field trip to the library or "Can you help me find?"

Amid the hectic schedule of the past week, we managed to secure that our field trip to the central library still happened. The other reading teacher and I have bribed our kids this 6 weeks that if they read a certain number of pages (160 for Reading I & 200 for Reading II) they can go on a field trip. . . to the library. I had seriously downplayed the library part and seriously up-played "you get to spend a whole day with us, out of school, not in math or English class. come on, it'll be fun." In the end we had 45 of 75 that finished their reading and brought permission slips and got to go.

We had a blast.

Among the highlights:
-Teaching the students how to hold chopsticks at our lunch at P.F. Chang's.
-After Francisco was the kid to sit the farthest to the front of the orientation, getting to point out that he read HP & the Goblet of Fire and is halfway through Order of the Phoenix (the librarians gave him a copy of Half Blood Prince!!! He was so excited that he said it was the best day. He got to eat Chinese food AND got a book.)
-Having the kids genuinely excited to be at the library and get their own library cards.
-Spending all day with my students. they are great kids. they were *quiet* in the library even. They didn't complain and were genuinely pleased to be there. Even if it was a trip to the library, less than 5 min from the school. (Our school is right near downtown.)

To copy my sister:
Things I learned today -
1) I have been calling one of my students Isaac, everyone else calls him Ee-sahc (spanish pronunciation)
2) I can't count...or add. I counted the kids on the bus 7 times only to have another teacher come through and say "they're all here."
3) I learned 'what's up?' in spanish. but i forgot it already (didn't write it down).
4) Homework is "tarea"
5) sports is 'Deportes'
6) The kid I thought never talked, talked all day long!!! His brother was even surprised.
7) My after-school club is going to spread the words sancho/sancha into the English language. They were extremely disturbed that there wasn't a word for it in English. Basically a sancho is an extra boyfriend. It doesn't carry quite the same negative connotation as an affair or mistress. The kids are fixing us up with sanchos all the time.
8) Two of my kids are being left home alone for 3 weeks over Christmas.

SNOW DAY

Yep, I got a snow day today, along with the rest of FWISD. I also got a snow 'afternoon' yesterday. We let the kids out at 12:10 to go to lunch, buses picked up at 1:00 pm...but most of our kids walk or drive home. I spent the better part of the afternoon making sure that all the kids I could find had a ride home.

The thing that amazes me most about our school is that kids don't want to go home. Days off, after school and summer they just show up and hang around. Multiple students were sent home with reliable rides and then they would show back up on the 2nd floor *because they never left!* I mean, I'm flattered, that they want to be at school and not out on the street getting into trouble, but it was sleeting, my car was covered with an inch of ice, and the students needed to go home. So we kept pushing them out the door.

An hour after we sent kids home 7 of my students show up. All telling me they are going to walk home. None of them live within a half mile of school, so I start trying to find a way for them to get home. They wait till I get just slightly panicked, then they say that they are all walking to Pedro's house and he is going to take them home. So I send them all to Pedro's house to hang out there instead.

Today I have the excitement of not getting up until 9 am...Dan said it was a snow day miracle. I never sleep past 7:30. Then I watched ABC Family's Christmas Carol movie version of the year and 2 weeks ago's Charmed. For those of you who keep up (ha!) Leo didn't die, but he is frozen and being "kept" by the Angel of Destiny until such time as the sisters can fight a final battle. They needed the loss of losing Leo to make them stronger for this battle. :) Ok, I like Charmed, you can get on to me if you want.

I think my husband wants to play Civ IV this afternoon. I suppose I can accomodate. :) It is a good snow day activity...but we have to decorate the house later!

taks scores

I got the senior TAKS scores. 12 of my kids passed, 22 failed. Of the 22 that failed, 19 of them failed because of the writing. I teach reading....I'm not supposed to be teaching writing, but i guess i'm doing that from now on. i just can't take a chance.

today i was relocated for 6th and 7th. the cheerleaders were doing stretches outside of the portable that I was in. The male members of my class were very excited.

One of the kids I taught last year just came back from alternative school yesterday. I, apparently, am the only teacher he gets along with. he drives the rest of them crazy. very very add kid. why is it that i do fine with the add kids? ok, don't answer that.

alex and jorge were rating the girls on a scale of 1-5 during the testing by pointing to a girl and then holding up fingers.

one of my kids came up and told me 7th that it was going to snow tomorrow. I told him he was crazy. He asked me did I watch tv. I said I was out of town all weekend. I nearly, almost nearly bet him $10 that it wasn't going to snow tommorrow, that he was just making that up. I would have been wrong!

a week off...

...Exciting fun things of the day:

1) I'm presenting about India tonight for the Week of Prayer at my grandparent's church. I went there in 2001 for an ethnographic study. Kinda nervous...Apparently they have hyped me up quite a bit, i hope no one is disappointed.

2) I called H's sister. . . who speaks perfect English. She is about 15 years older than him and was in high school when he was a baby born in Los Angeles. We had a discussion about him and how he is doing and what he could be better at.

Then 2 days later I caught him wearing spanish curse words on his shirt. :) kinda proud of myself for noticing. Had to hunt him down cause he wouldn't come back and change it right then.

3) I get to go on a field trip with my reading I's a week from Tuesday. We are going to the downtown library and then out to eat. *I'm* excited, I hope they are.

4) My 7th period class is out of control and I'm being observed in there on Wednesday...This could be bad. I get to practice my lesson on Tuesday, but we are relocated because of TAKS benchmark testing to a portable. This *might* just be chaos.