First day. 2000 more to go.

We started school today. My class seems to be a pretty good group. A bit sleepy. More than half hadn't eaten breakfast. One of my fabulous games sussed out that factoid. A bit reluctant to work together. That's pretty normal. All in all a good day. Nobody had any problems. I can tell a few students that may be trouble later. I've got my teacher eye on them. We'll see.

It's all routines at this point. How do we sharpen our pencils? How do we ask to go to the bathroom? And so it goes. The thing is, teaching this stuff and team building is the most important thing now. You give up some time but get so much more back later because you don't have to keep teaching and practicing stuff that should be basic. No matter how many years I've done it, there's an impatient voice in the back of my head saying "ok, let's move on." I ignore that voice for a long time.

The funniest thing that happened was long after they left. I was reading the 3/5 cards they filled out. I asked them to tell me if they're allergic to anything. Most wrote nothing. The others wrote things like bugs or pollen. Jennifer wrote "cheap jewelry." I bust a gut laughing. I guess it's ok to surprise them with a treat here or there without worrying about food allergies. Just no cheap jewelry surprises. Someone will turn green.

The Room is Ready!

I can start teaching. The room is ready. It's not complete and that's ok. My room is always a work in progress. It's always good to have somewhere to go anyhow in terms of decoration and arrangements. You don't have any idea how the room will work until the students start to use it. You see after a few days that certain things don't work where they are and need to be moved. The kids usually take up more space than you imagine and that blows apart your perfect floor design. The "perfect room" doesn't exist anyhow. Johnny can't sit next to Sammy and Brenda decides she hates both of them and is allergic to peanuts. Suddenly there's a room change. Desks move and it's all gone. Same with the wall stuff. The district or the teaching coaches decide you must have rubrics. Ok, then, these giant rubrics take up a hell of a lot of space. Already have the word wall, number line, job chart, and everything else up. Guess I'll have to take down some stuff.

I have to say the smartest thing I've done this year is to bring in a small level. $2 from Home Depot and it's magnetic. Saves the "Is this straight?" problem. I'm always working alone putting the room together and for years have put things up and got down off the ladder and it was crooked. Up and down. Up and down. This year the level makes it one and done. Much faster wall hanging. Working smart Rookie Schoolteacherstyle.

Here's hoping my community building activities get the year off to a good start. It all begins in a few days. Hopefully, these ladies will like my teaching as much as they liked my room during their visit.

Beware of morons with 2-cycle engines.

I forgot about the people who ride motorcycles, scooters, and ATVs. Let me explain. I'm out of practice after a summer away from my hood. When it gets warm people in the inner city start riding dirt bikes, scooters, ATVs all over the place. I'm not exaggerating and it's scary and dangerous. They ride the wrong way down the middle of the street, on the sidewalk, weave in and out of traffic, and dart into your lane from anywhere. Sometimes these are kids but usually these are grown adults. Almost all of them have no license plates and wear no helmets. I usually leave work with the windows down because you can hear the note of the exhaust pipe before you see them. That split second warning helps you avoid having one of these idiots as your hood ornament. Yesterday, I was driving home and a guy rounds a corner and rides up the middle of the street on a dirt bike toward me. He's going the wrong way down the middle of a one way street at 30 miles an hour. He's wearing a pair of shorts and a grin. Lucky for me I saw him and had some grace under pressure or he would have been a goner. How stupid can you get? For those novice teachers reading, be careful.

I've been taking things to work and doing the room in between the meetings. The meetings are winning, by the way. Our administration wants to get the safe harbor and we're all about the meetings. We're always trying to make AYP, safe harbor, you name it, and always under the gun. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. My favorites are the meetings were we meet and report out about the meetings. That way you get to have a meeting and at the same time double or triple your pleasure by virtually attending more meetings.

Anyway, it would be nice to have more time to get stuff put up and put away. I'm just thankful for my hand truck. The best $20 I ever spent. Another bit of advice for you newbies, get a cheap durable hand truck at Harbor Freight and save your back. It will also save you time because you won't have to wait around for the school's hand truck as it goes from teacher to teacher. You'll look smart and make friends when you invariably lend it to a beleaguered colleague.

Enough for today. I don't have any school homework and I'm going to the gym.

Back at work.

I sat in meetings all day. Meetings about a whole lot of nothing. Some new folks on the staff seem nice. I wonder how long they'll last. A few were putting down bets on who'll resign first. I don't play those games because bad stuff happens on the way to good teaching. The classes we're dealt will play a huge part in the way the year goes. I've seen good folks eaten alive because of all kinds of factors. Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you. Words to live by. I've done both.

I'm whipped and heading to bed. Sitting listening to blowhards blow is tiring. I'm bringing in a lot of boxes of teaching goodness to my classroom tomorrow. Going to get my set up done in between all the important meetings.

Going back tomorrow.

It's been a while. The summer is winding up. I'm going in tomorrow for classroom setup and some meetings. School begins soon. I'm a bit grumpy about sitting in meetings tomorrow. I find most meetings to be tedious and unnecessary. Hopefully, they will be short and I can get on with the important things concerning setting up the room for the best possible learning space.

I never properly finished up the last year where the blog is concerned. I'm sorry about that. Nothing happened to me or anything. This year's finish up was more involved than most. I had to plan a ceremony for the kids to move up to the next grade and it took up a lot of time. Those that teach know the end of the year is hectic enough without creating a ceremony from scratch involving speakers, songs, music, parents, programs, and food. Not more than 5 minutes of help from any administrator on the ceremonies. Not one word of encouragement or thanks from an administrator after it was finished successfully. Needless to say, I was happy to pack my sh%$ up, hand in my keys, and go home when the contract said the year was over.

This year, hopefully, will be my best ever. I say that every year, but this is the one. I'm still a rookie and this is my 6th year. I'm working my way through Mosaics of Thought to get some new ideas to rev up the teaching through all of the subjects. Read a great book from the ASCD called Rethinking Homework the other day. Lots of good ideas going through my brain now.

Got to sleep and recharge.

The President's views on education.

I'm an Obama man but on the subject of education we differ. Mr. Obama is on the side of merit pay, charter schools, and school reorganization at the expense of the teacher's unions. Reading this article by Dana Goldstein in the Nation didn't change my opinion. It put into words all the things that have been floating around my brain these days. Take a read and see what you think. Why must we destroy the existing system and replace it with a worse one? Why is Mr. Obama not meeting with anyone from the other side of the equation? As the article points out, most students are going to be taught by unionized public school teachers regardless of the reforms. Every school in the nation isn't going to be replaced by a charter school. Why isn't he talking to anyone from the other side? What's really going on here?

What a day. It's over.

Wow. What a day. One of the teachers on my team was out and her students were doubled up in my room and the rooms of the others on the team. It's hard enough to teach my students at this point in the year. It's really hard to teach and motivate students that you barely know along with your own. I'm tired and angry, but it helps to do something else after teaching. It's important to forget. To cleanse yourself. To let it all go so it doesn't poison the rest of your day. I'm having a cleansing ice cream sandwich. I read outside on the hammock instead of cutting the lawn. Reading restores me. I'm about to grade some stuff. It's good to know that it will be over soon. There's not much left in the year. Soon, I'll be off. I'll do what I want for a while.

The summer will be a refreshing change before I go back to school and to grad school in the fall. I'm going back to get a supervisor's certificate. I'm psyched about grad school again.

Headaches, mutiny, the usual.

A lot has been happening at school. Most of it is pretty annoying. My administration is piling on the end of the year work. I have so many forms to fill out and things to find before they'll let me turn in my key for the summer. I'll get it done. My students are pretty annoying too. It's sad that I'm wishing for last year's class and the year with my current bunch is almost over. Some years are like this, it's sad to say, and it comes down to the luck of the draw. This current class just never has it together. They're mean and ill mannered as well. It's rough going now in June. They can't be quiet for very long. They bring so much crap to school that they aren't supposed to have. They don't wear their uniforms properly. As a teacher at this point I just want to put the days in the book and get it done. I'm overlooking a lot so this can happen. That being said, there's no way I can overlook the kid attempting to do her nails in the second seat. I can't, honey, I just can't. I know, you're pissed, but you can't do your nails here. No matter how many times you scream at me you can't do it. I'm not going to let you when you call me a motherfu%$er either. Nope. Won't do it. You think I'm making this up. Wish I was.

Some of it is funny. The other day we were writing a journal entry. A hand goes up. "Mr? Is douchebag a curse word?" "Why yes it is." It was all I could do not to bust out laughing.

Some of it is not. Our gym teacher had the kids outside today. They came back early because they were throwing rocks at him. As they entered the classroom they were very happy. "We had a riot, Mr." Huh?

I just want to get through this. I'm hoping next year's class will be better.

Space is the place

We're learning about the Moon and the Solar System. We watched a few documentaries on the Apollo program and the manned trips to the Moon. It's neat to turn the kids on to stuff that they don't know about. That's why it can be so much fun to teach. There's a comedic side and a frustration side that run with the enjoyability portion of teaching. I guess this is a three-sided model of teaching. (This is the theory part that will be taught in education grad schools from now on.) Anyhow, we were watching a pretty interesting and pretty cool documentary about the Apollo 11 mission and my kids just can't help themselves from talking. It's just the most bizarre stuff. "Look...he's wearing a spacesuit!" Yes. That's what astronauts wear. "That thing blew up! Why did it blow up?" It's a rocket. Rockets are filled with explosive materials. They are really friggin' dangerous. They just told you that before the footage of all the rockets blowing up. "He in a black hole!" No. He's in space. Space is that dark black color. "He's wearing a spacesuit and hopping around." Yes. He's on the Moon. He'd be a dead man without that suit. He's hopping because there's less gravity on the Moon. "Gravity? There's gravity on the Moon?" Yes. If there wasn't any, they wouldn't be sticking to the surface. "That looks like it's burnt up." Yes. They just told you that Apollo 1 had a problem and all three crewmen burnt alive. "What's that black pile of stuff?" That's Apollo 1. "They're on the moon?" No they died. It was a catastrophe. "So what did they say when they got back from the moon?" They didn't say anything. They died. "But Gus Grissom was walking around. I thought you said he was dead?" They took the film before he died. "So he's dead?" Yes. "Did he go on the Space Shuttle?" No. "Mr. Who was that man who died?" Gus Grissom. "What's that thing that looks like fried chicken?" The crew of the Apollo 1. "That pile of stuff?" Yes. "Burnt up like fried chicken?" Yes. "Mr... chicken is so good. I'm hungry for chicken...." And so it went.

It's fun to teach. It's also so sad and frustrating. Humorous too. I feel sad that my kids have no prior knowledge of the simplest things. The space program was 40 years ago. I don't expect them to know that much. I wish they could be a bit more reverent. I got choked up when the Apollo 11 crew walked on the Moon in our documentary. My kids were talking through it. It's not a bad thing to believe in your country and to be emotional about the good things we do. Even from an engineering perspective it was awesome. The Saturn V rocket worked perfectly. Awesome. I'm not sure how we get that feeling of emotion to happen in our students.

Almost a goner.

Yesterday, I was unpacking and setting up for the day. I took my cold pills with a swig of coffee. The first pill went down but the second lodged sideways in my throat. It was really painful. I swallowed and it wasn't going anywhere. At the same time there's a student tugging at my sleeve. "Mr? Mr?" I swallow and think. "Is it in my throat or is it in my windpipe? Am I going to choke to death right here at 7:50 am with a kid tugging at me and in front of a classroom of noisy, oblivious kids who are talking and running amok instead of putting their things away? This isn't the way I want to kick off. What am I going to do?" Lucky for me the next swig of coffee dislodged the Dayquil. The student went away. I lived to give another standardized test.

It makes you think about your own mortality. I spend more time with my students than I spend with anyone else. Seemingly, they would dance around the room for joy if I had dropped dead.

Ugh. We teachers do a pretty thankless job. I try hard. We all try hard. Here's to all the teachers out there that made it through another trying day. They're all going to be harder the closer we get to the end of the year.

Sorry to be so maudlin.

Three Awesome Goals.

One of my students was doing some writing about himself and I learned that he has three goals: 1. To fly, 2. To have super powers, and 3. To get an electric guitar. He's a wacky kid but I can't argue with those goals. What could be better than to have super powers, to be able to fly, and to rock out on electric guitar? I want the same three things. I'm turning my amp up to 11.

Smoke them if you've got them.

I was teaching my students about how to divide fractions today. I couldn't believe how frustrating it was. In the middle of that I'm leaving my body and my mind is thinking about how good a cigarette would be. I'm tasting pure tobacco goodness. Then I'm back to reality and to getting them to change the sign and make the second fraction a reciprocal. It's wild what you think about while teaching. Where your mind floats as you fight your way through a frustrating day.

I guess it was more frustrating than I thought if my body was craving a cigarette to unwind. I haven't had a cigarette in more than 13 years. I'm not going to smoke. I'll never smoke again. I am going to enjoy a Mexican beer (or three) with dinner in honor of Cinco de Mayo. A couple of my kids knew what it was about. A first. Most classes think it's in honor of the dead rising from the grave or something. One year a kid said "Cinco de Mayo means the devil is rising from the dead!" Hmm, no, sorry. Wrong answer.

I have to get through to June. I can do it but it isn't going to be easy. After the standardized testing the kids have no incentive to do anything. To them the year is over. There's a lot of time left.

I'm back. Sorry for the hiatus. I was addicted to Facebook.

It's been a while. I've been meaning to write. There was a lot of paperwork to complete since last we spoke. Grading is a bitch. At least for me it is. I'm not as on top of things as I should be. So what's new? I'm more on top of things than in previous years, however.

My class is irritating. We have a huge field trip scheduled. We're supposed to go to Washington, DC. The students are slowly winnowing themselves down. Our grade came up with a very generous rubric for inclusion on the trip: 4 detentions or 1 suspension result in a loss of the trip. Within 2 days, I had a student that couldn't go. At least 4 others are almost there. We go next month. By then it will be me and 3 of my students left. The others will be on the outside looking in. The boy that won't be joining us told me the classic "I go to DC all the time. I was going there this weekend, anyway." He has to tell me this to save face. It's sad because he could have had such a great time there and instead can't go. He's always being excluded. His whole life is about exclusion. So I've excluded him and now I've fed into the whole cycle. It sucks for everyone.

I'm not pleased with Obama's ideas for education so far. He wants to weaken unions, support charter schools, extend the school year, extend the day, and increase merit pay. Wow! I don't support one of those ideas. What I do support is funding the system we already have. I also support feeding our children, getting them healthcare, getting their families counseling, getting their families jobs, cleaning up the neighborhoods, getting rid of drugs and crime, and getting some hope in these dangerous, depressing neighborhoods where I teach. If we did some of this - addressing Maslow's hierarchy of needs - we would be so much better off. Until you do that, there aren't going to be gains. Not really. The Rookie Schoolteacher plan is much harder but better. Write a letter to Obama like I did. Tell him what you think. I'll let you know if I hear anything about mine. Let me know if you hear anything from yours.

Aggravation

I'm still angry about my day and it's very late now. Mondays are always tough but I just want some manners. Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is. Apparently my class thinks I am their punching bag. Have I mentioned lately how much I haven't bonded with this class? They can't walk in a straight line, they never stop talking, they push and shove, they follow no directions, they haven't learned their multiplication tables, they can't spell, they can barely speak/read the English language, they're lazy, they're crybabies, and their attitudes suck.

I have a lot of time left with these little @#&%ers. I need another beer.

Fiddler's damn

It's been a while. Sorry about that. Hopefully, your holidays were wonderful. I came back all refreshed. Things were great for about a week. I think my kids were sated with long vacations, horror movies, running wild, and playing video games. There weren't any problems. I actually was beginning to feel thoughts of love and bonding with them.

I say "was" because things have gone back to the way they were. My kids have resumed their lack of care. They are lazy and angry. More than I've ever seen them. It's only January. I don't get it.

I wish I could say that they were excited and thrilled about the Obama inauguration. They don't seem to give a fiddler's damn. Fiddler's damn. I read that in Revolutionary Road the other day. People just don't use terms like that anymore. I've been waiting for a chance to use it. There you go. Anyhow, I write from the front lines and I wish I could say the kids are excited, ready, and willing to learn. In fact it's just the same as it ever was. My kids don't give a fiddler's damn. I, however, do and will continue to work my ass off. Obama said yesterday that we've got to work hard because no one else is going to do it. Well, I'm doing it. It would be nice if my kids got that message. Mr. Obama, if you're reading, please come by any day between 8 and 3. Lend a hand. I can use it.

Get me the F out. Santa needs me.

I'm sorry that it's taken so long to write. So much is going on in my life. It's just so busy right now with the holidays and the work and I'm tired. My kids are just off the hook lately. They don't know what to do with the impending presents or lack of presents, the bit of snow in the air, the performances and practices for the holiday shows and caroling, and the approaching end of the school year and end of the marking period.

Needless to say it's discipline paper city. I'm writing pink slips and holding detentions like they're going out of style. Administrators and counselors are nowhere to be seen. There's not a hint of help for us on the front line. I can't wait to get to the break because I can't do this for much longer. I'm tired of angry kids yelling at me and yelling at everyone else in the building. I'm f#$king tired. Get me to Christmas. Let me do my f#$king paperwork. Let me alone. I'm tired of noise. I want out.

I'm having a rough day. Please observe me.

I've had a rough day. Mondays suck but they suck harder when they follow a holiday break. I haven't bonded with this year's class yet. They didn't help me bond today with their surly behavior. I have a few boys who come to work just to get into mischief. One got suspended by our gym teacher. Two others kept up their insanity for most of the day. At least they hadn't started their misbehavior until after gym class. It didn't impact my observation during my literacy lesson this morning. Yes, the best times for observations in my school are just before or after a holiday, Fridays after lunch, and half days. Let's observe you when absolutely none of your students will give a crap about the lesson. Ugh. All in all, I think the lesson went OK. Not my best but good enough. I wasn't exactly at my best after 5 days off either. We'll see.

Coloring instead of rioting.

So we're doing an art project in the classroom and the kids are coloring and talking and things are going well for a change. Peace has broken out. Students are working together. Then...."If Obama had lost we were going to the Gallery to burn it down. Yeah, we were going to bust windows up on Lehigh Avenue and take a big television. My Dad was going to shoot some people. Oh, snap, if he hadn't won we were going to set everything on fire. We weren't coming to school on Wednesday." Oh, if only teaching wasn't so full of life lessons and challenges that crop up at every goddamn minute. "Excuse me. I need your attention. I'm not going to sit here and listen to this. If your candidate loses then you feel sad and try again next time. Feeling sad is normal. Feeling sad isn't an excuse for burning down the Gallery and running off through the mayhem with a plasma screen and Air Jordans tucked under each arm." And so it goes. The teaching and reprogramming continues. Reprogramming. Just another job that I do as your friendly neighborhood rookie schoolteacher. Oh, and it's on me. I can work for free without a union to watch my back. Just remember my reprogramming might be the only thing saving your plasma screen. Isn't that important when my contract is up?

I'm in the doldrums.

Teaching the entire year is similar to playing the entire baseball season. It's long and tiring. I'm in one of the low patches in the year. I'll get out of it but it's just paperwork, paperwork, and more stupid paperwork combined with unruly kids, unavailable parents, incredulous administrators, and stupid sh*t that keeps me from doing what I was hired to do - teach.

This week at school we're doing all sorts of spirit stuff for school spirit week. It's like color wars at summer camp. We should be preparing for benchmark testing but instead we're wasting miles of colored paper to make hall decorations and floats. It should be fun and it isn't and I'll tell you why. Almost all of the time the kids wear uniforms and there's no fun, not even candy, allowed in the school. It's depressing. The kids are miserable. It's like jail without the drugs. Anyway, this spirit week comes and now we can wear different clothes, we don't do much schoolwork, we do art stuff, and the kids go f*$%ing bananas because they don't know what to do with themselves. Fun is sort of a foreign concept to them. They don't have fun like everyone else. I'm not trying to condescend, they don't know what it is. Fun isn't laughter and good times. Fun for a lot of the students is calling each other ugly, poking each other with scissors, and stomping on the floor like it's a step dance competition. Needless to say, the fun I'm having is mostly reigning in the kids and trying to keep people from getting into fistfights. This spirit week crap is going to be the death of me. I hope we never do this again. I know, I sound like an old bitter grandma but damn it, this stuff is tougher than teaching. I'm running out of energy.

Thanksgiving can't come soon enough. There's only about 20 teaching days left for the year. Not than I'm counting or anything. I've got to recharge. I've got to recharge.

Do I have to?

I've been off and it's been nice. I so don't want to go in tomorrow. One of my teachers on my team is out for the rest of the week because of personal business. That means her class may or may not have a sub. If there's no sub the kids will be split into my class and other classes. That will create complete chaos. My class will show off for the new kids introduced into mine. Her students will show off for everyone because they will. I'm dreading it. Do I have to go?