Aaahh, the sweet smells of summer!

I'm so glad its over. So very glad. The last day went relatively smoothly. In the morning I sent some of the kids to the first grade classroom to help that teacher pack her things (first graders aren't very good at that!) I had sent kids to Kindergarten the day before as well. Then, they watched a bit of Monster's INC and then we joined up with fourth grade to go to the park.

I brought my towel for a blanket and camped out on the grass with Sophie for the three hours we were there, every twenty minutes or so I would get up and make sure my nine students were still inside the park. It was sunny with clouds and not too hot, there were trees, grass and shade so it was very nice. Some of the other teachers had brought kites, balls, bats and frisbees for the kids to share. The organized chaos was quite bearable. The Boy brought me lunch on the motorcycle. Twas lovely.

We got back to school with about two hours to go and watched "The Amazing Panda Adventure with the fourth grade. Cosmo had been giving me trouble day, disrespectful comments, whining, refusal to follow directions, the works. But it came to a head during the movie. He had been sitting quietly watching the movie for about an hour next to Allen on one side of the room. Cassie and Fiona were on the other side of the room reading books and picking their heads up only at the action parts. One second I look over and Cosmo is next to Allen, the next he's shoved himself up next to Cassie and Fiona and has started talking to them. I asked him nicely (even used the word 'please') to move back to where he was sitting for two reasons; 1, he has been smothering Fiona lately and 2. Everything was quiet before he moved. He refused and I asked him again, he refused, then said he would and then didn't move. I tried one more time. Nothing. Sophia popped up and said, "That's it. You stand up right now and come with me." And out of class he went for a stern talking to.

I know that Fiona said that she talked her mother into letting her go to ADLR next year for seventh grade but I'm afraid that she'll change her mind over the summer and I won't ever see her again. So after every one was dismissed I gave her my email address and told her to keep in touch and that I was really proud of what she had done this year. She gave me a big hug and promised to get in touch. I hope hope she does. I would hate to lose track of her.

It really was great to come home that day. Wheww. I'm really looking forward to classes starting this summer. I can't wait to be on the other side of the desk for a change. I hope the summer camp with Sophia goes off without a hitch. We have one trip planned for the end of the summer and perhaps even a drive to Roswell (no alien stuff without you Grant, I promise!) to see my first roommate from college, Ben's parents are coming down to visit and revel in their beautiful house. It should be a really nice two months.

Next week I'm working with an education consulting firm that I love. I was introduced to the woman who runs it, Marta (not real name) during my E.A. year when she hired me to write some of the Social Studies curriculum that we use now. These workshops are going to be a Standards Based Checklist that she created for teachers to easily track what their students know according to the state standards during the course of a year. I love them. I really wish ADLR used them. On Monday, I'll be speaking at a pueblo school and on Tuesday for two other charter school in the city. I've done five or six workshops for her now. I'm almost not even nervous!

These are the days of Hell.

The last days are always the worst.

Last year at about this time the Sr. Callejo was putting together last minute field trips for everyone to go on. I think I went on one of them with my class. Refer to this post for why field trips with ADLR are terrible. On Monday night Ben said, "You know, tomorrow morning Sr. Callejo is going to hand you some permission slips at the last minute and you're going to have to go." I was sort of hoping that because he said it, it wouldn't happen. No such luck.

Tuesday was epic before that however. My class had Performing Arts at nine. So we did some simple math and I sent them on their way. Now, a little history. The performing arts teacher is seriously a trip. Ms. Tours is a great dance teacher, but that's really all she is. She has zero control over the students who want nothing to do with the dancing. She'll work with the girls and leave the boys to their own devices in the very back of the large cafeteria.

On this particular morning, she took them to one of the smaller conference rooms to watch a movie on African Dance or some such thing. About forty five minutes later, Cassie came running into the office where I was organizing and filing paperwork to tell me that "the boys are fighting!" So I shoved my paperwork aside and sprinted through the hallway trying to decide the best way to break up a fight between boys that both bigger and stronger than me. Luckily by the time I got to the room they had already been separated by the other kids (note; not Ms. Tours who look completely frightened.) Fonzo was sitting at one end of the room and Cosmo and Allen were at the other sort of shouting insults back and forth.

After listening to everyone's shouting accusations of who had started the fight and why, I pulled Monte, Fonzo and Cosmo out of the conference room, asked Ms. Tours to keep my kids a little longer and headed upstairs with them. We spoke to Cosmo first, but while we were talking to him Fonzo flipped out. I mean; flipped out. He start screaming hysterically, making suicidal statements, pounding his fists, sobbing, slamming the desk and the chair he was near; flipping out. We had to call the cops, they came spoke with him, calmed him down, got in touch with Child Protective Services (who said when we called about him that there was nothing they could do) and get contact with Fonzo's sister.

I left the office to deal with the fight at 9:45 (I remember looking up at the clock on the wall before shooting out of the room) and didn't get down winding up lose ends with the police and paperwork until 1:30 in the afternoon. It was crazy. Monte and Fonzo were suspended for three days (i.e. the rest of the year.) Cosmo was let off the hook because it turned out he was trying to break up the fight and keep Fonzo from beating Monte's face to shreds.

That afternoon we spent organizing and packing up the classroom. I noticed that Cosmo and Allen were all of a sudden not in the classroom. I went out into the hallway and around the corner and found them talking to Sr. Callejo and Ms. Tenny, the fifth grade teacher. They were trying to wiggle their way onto the fifth grade field trip to Santa Fe the next day. Sr. Callejo then looked at me and said, "Well, can they go or do you think that's not fair to the other students?" I said, "That's completely not fair to the other students." So he asked I wanted to take my whole class. I said, "No, I don't want to take my class." He looked at me a bit surprised and said, "Remember, years from now that these are the things your students are going to remember." I don't remember exactly what I said next, but I shooed the boys back into the classroom and said to the principal, "Look, the day before isn't enough time for me to organize chaperones, I have a lot of things left in the classroom to do and I just don't trust these kids, I barely have control over them in the classroom. I don't feel safe going on a field trip to Santa Fe." He agreed. Jeez, I thought, if they can't even stay in their own classroom they certainly shouldn't be running around in Sante Fe. I was really annoyed that he asked me in front of the children, that's the third or fouth time he's done that and made me look like the bad guy because I'm the one being practical.

He did pass out permission slips for a trip to the park for the last day of school. So there are no plans, just that we are going to the park. I didn't even know until the last half hour of the day. I'm hoping for organized chaos, but I'm betting it's just going to be chaos.

I think though, that I'm the only teacher who has everything done for the year. Paperwork filed, reports finished and passed out, classroom packed labelled and ready to go. That makes me feel good. When I leave school tomorrow, I will actually be leaving school. It's going to feel good!

Marianna's Mother's Decision, Fiona, Paperwork

Marianna's Mother's decision finally came in yesterday afternoon. She has decided to retain her, no word on testing or not however. Interesting. She has also promised to bring Marianna back to Alma De La Rosa. I don't think she was planning on getting back to us however. She picked Marianna up from school early on Thursday and I asked Janice, the admin. assistant who came to get her out of class to ask her mother if she had a "letter" for me. Twenty minutes later, Sr. Callejo called me out of class to discuss situation. The letter also states that Marianna will not be back for last week of school. (Grr. I hate it when parents do this, it looks really bad on our attendance reports that are sent to the state.) But at least we have a plan for her for next year.

Fiona will be coming back to ADLR next year. For awhile her mother said that she was going to have to go to a city middle school if we had to leave our current location. It seems like she has relented however, which is very good news. I would have been so sad to see her go after these two years. I'm going to pass my email to her anyway, just in case her mother changes her mind at the last second.

Cosmo had his last day of in school suspension yesterday. That morning Sr. Callejo buzzed into my room to ask if he could be let out early because he had done all his work and had behaved well for Janice. I said that I didn't think that was fair to all the kids who had served all of their suspension time well (like Denise and Marianna and Allen.) Cosmo is always saying that he doesn't think I'm fair, that I treat the girls better than the boys (wonder why? umm...the girls rarely have to be told to do anything twice) So I sat down directly across from him and got right in his face and said in a low tone, "This is an example of me being 100 percent fair. Did I ever let anyone else out of in school suspension early? No, I did not. It would not be fair if I let you out." He grudgingly agreed but I think he was still pissed about it.

I've realized the last few times that he has been that angry, that he looks like an angry gangsta, like someone off of law and order. Like someone who feels like not only the person he disagrees with, but the whole world is set against him. Not just an angry kid pissed off because he's sick of being a kid. He looks like an angry gangsta. It takes me a second to remember that its still a child I'm looking at (a child that is bigger than me, but a child none the less.) He's so smart and so caring, I really hope that side wins out as he continues to grow.

Eight Days Left

Eight days left. Solo ocho. I can do it!

I did finally get an update on Allen, the boy who had professed suicidal thoughts during class. He was admitted to the hospital, placed under observation, put on antidepressants and was released today. So, with any luck I should see him tomorrow. This is good because he is only person left that I need to administer my end of the year tests too.

Also, we had the last SAT (Student Assistance Team) meeting of the year. The little sister of one of the students I had last year was up for today and my former student, Azul showed up as well. Every time I see her, I just want to strangle her.

Each year, since starting at Alma De La Rosa, I've had one defining day. During my E.A. year with the kinder class it came the day I was substituting in the third grade. We were working on a math lesson, I think it was measurement conversion. Anyway, I was interrupted when I heard one boy say, "Oh my gosh, this kid just said that instead of teaching you should just take off your clothes and strip!" I think he was just so surprised by what the other boy had said he couldn't keep quiet. I didn't know what to do. I explained all this to Ms. Hernandez when she returned later that morning and the boy was told to report to the Sr. Callejo's office. The mother was called, he was suspended...it was a big day for me having never been in that position before.

The next year, Azul decided pretty early on that I was too white to be her teacher and made it clear that she didn't like me. I didn't realize until to late that she had it in for me. One day as the year was coming to an end, I think it was March. I was leading the class out to recess. I left my Nalgene water bottle and my computer (this computer acutally) on the reading table that was just inside the "door." (I use the term lightly as we didn't really have really walls.) While I was leading the class out, Azul convinced Fiona and another girl Heather to put hand sanitizer all over the outside of my computer and INTO my drinking water. Before I sat down to eat with them half an hour later I added some water to my bottle. I drank some at lunch and I thought it tasted funny but I chalked it up to the custodian just cleaning the water cooler spout. Then the third graders came over for Science class and as I began the lesson, I took a large swig of water. Three of the third grade girls shouted that I should stop drinking the water. They explained that Azul had been bragging about what she had done at recess and that they were scared I was going to die. Azul blamed it all on Heather and Fiona and neither of them had the gumption to stand up to her bulling nature.

This year was perhaps the most embarrassing. I had only been working with the sixth graders for about a week. They were in groups, working on some word problems when smoke started coming out of the heater! I got everyone out of the classroom, told one of the male teachers to pull the fire alarm and the entire school evacuated. It turns out that a CRAYON had been shoved into the heater. I couldn't believe it. It took about two hours of standard military rule teaching but I was able to get the culprit to confess. Allen.

Anyway, those are my embarrassing stories. Must get back to tying up lose ends for the end of the year...eight days left after all. More on SAT later...that's a good story too!

Almost Done!

There are only ten more days of school left! Huzzah! I say. Our last day is the 28th of May, but I have one day that I have already put in to take off to see the Indigo Girls play in May. Ten days...ten days isn't bad.

The end always comes around so fast. I have given the required reading and math tests to ten of my twelve students, two were absent on Thursday. It doesn't really feel like the end until after these are finished.

We have also heard that we will probably be moving back up to the westside of the city for next year. This is good and bad. Good because our enrollment will almost certainly go up and because we will have more space there. Bad because it means another round of packing everything up and spending two to three weeks of class time next year unpacking it all and because I'll be spending a lot more in gas next year.

Last Wednesday was interesting. One of the harder boys to deal with, Allen had a hard day. During Literacy he didn't realize I was behind him listening when he said to Cosmo, "I can't wait until I get home so that I can kill myself." I was shocked, but able to explain to him that because I'm something called a "mandated reporter" I had to report what he had said to Sr. Callejo.

Before recess, Sr. Callejo called him into the office. Later he called me up as well. Allen's mother and step-father had come in after they have received a phone call from Sr. We had a talk with them about how seriously debilitating his attitude has become and that what he had said earlier was the kind of thing that we take very seriously. They agreed and said that he had been saying things like that at home as well. They said they were going to take him to a hospital to have him checked out. Off they went. We never heard anything. I'm looking forward to him being in school tomorrow morning.

Thursday was Fiesta Fandango, our annual party in honor of Cinco De Mayo. There were lots of great dances and some awesome circus acts. My two sixth grade girls, Fiona and Callie did a fantastic dance that they choreographed themselves. Absolutely amazing. These girls can move their bodies in ways that I could never make mine move. Takes my breath away.

Also...I'm trying really hard to keep from tearing at and picking my nails and cuticles. I've been doing well for about three weeks. Yay! My mother would be so proud!