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