So glad I don't teach the upper grades!

The last half of last year was really hard for me...just check out the very beginning of my blog.

One of the worst days was this one.

Ms. Tours has not improved her classroom management skills. A bit earlier this year, many of the teachers came together and complained at the same time to Sr. Callejo. Her classes are out of control, children are getting hurt (because Ms. Tour can't keep control and teachers weren't finding out about the injuries ((children getting shoved off the stage)) until parents came to complain about them and students coming back from performing arts in such a state that no teaching could happen until they calmed down. Sr. Callejo had a meeting with Ms. Tours and she was told to create a behavior plan and stick to it. Months later, nothing has changes which became painfully obvious on Tuesday of last week.

She was not paying attention and a fight between Cosmo and Zarahe broke out. A serious one. Kids were egging them on, screaming and shouting. Zarahe started the fight, with Cosmo deflecting at the beginning and then (guessing at this part) said "F*%# it" to himself and fought back hard. The fight was about 25 seconds long (I know this because the kids decided to record it on their cell phones and I saw it later that afternoon) and wasn't broken up until the woman who works in the cafeteria came and broke it up. Ms. Tours could be heard in the background telling the kids to "stop it," she also asked some of the other sixth graders to break the fight up instead of doing it herself. (Um. Helloooooo.)

But this sort of begs the question. Now that we have middle school kids, what do you do if the kids start fighting? I got in between Cosmo and Fonzo last year (they had stopped throwing punches, but would've started up again I hadn't been there. I always thought that I would try to get between them, stop it, pull them apart. Ms. Hernandez said that she would never do that because the kids can get so angry and she wouldn't want to get hit. (To that I say "Bring it on.") But she also mentioned that she knew of teachers who had done that and then gotten into trouble for "man handling" the kids.

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!

Unpacking and Dogs

The unpacking continues. I got all my knitting supplies organized and put away yesterday. We have a loft area in the upstairs that has a little sink, refrigerator and lots of cabinet space. We have nothing to put there so I decided that's where all the yarn and other knitting supplies would go.

I have a beautiful antique looking sewing table that I got for free when I moved into my first apartment here in La Pasa. It's perfect for the vintage sewing machine that my grandparents, bought me for my Master's graduation. I think it makes the hallway look like a museum!

If someone knows how to change where the photos show up in the blog let me know. I would love for the knitting cabinet picture to show up under that paragraph and the sewing table picture to show up under that paragraph. But alas.

We have most of the books put on bookshelves and the furniture where we want it, we have an almost organized kitchen. We still have to completely organize all the clothes and put things on the wall. The washer and dryer get here sometime on Sunday morning.

I was able to get into the clases de Espanol that I wanted at the Uni! So excited about that. Ben keeps teasing me by saying that now I'm going to a real college! Ha! I can't wait to buy the books! Class will todos los dias de la verano, but that's alright because the more I hear it the quicker I'll be at picking it up. Mostly, I'm really looking forward to being on the other side of the teacher's desk.

School was tough on Thursday. Not only was it the last day for the week (we have a four day schedule) but I had six boys all day! Why? you may ask? Because two girls were absent and the rest plus Fonzo went on a dance field trip. Oh. It. Was. So. Difficult. The boys are so disrespectful and frustrating.

I have come to the conclusion though that sixth graders are a lot like first graders. They don't walk in lines very well, they aren't sure where their bodies are and they smell weird. I also think that most of the time, it's not that these kids don't want to be respectful, I think its more that no one has ever truly expected it of them. Crazy.

Yesterday, while we were shopping The Boy and I visited an adopt-a-thon for the Humane Society. It makes me cry. I want a dog so badly. We are planning on getting one this summer, but it just can't happen soon enough. It's so hard to look at them in the cages. I stopped going into those pet stores in the mall years ago because I would just come out crying. It wasn't so bad when we had Jax and Allie and Jo and Leo and then just Leo because I knew I was doing my part in giving a dog a good, safe and happy home. After Leo passed away, it was really hard on me to know he wasn't at home (makes me cry now) but I was able to make friends with the dog that lived next door at our old apartment. Maggie was so sweet. I would pet her and give her treats. When we drove away from the apartment with the last load of stuff, I just burst into tears because I knew I probably wouldn't be seeing her for awhile and I wondered if she would miss me.

I was set on getting a puppy, mostly because that would mean that The Boy and I would be in charge of all the training and wouldn't have to worry about bad habits that are already instilled. But after seeing all of the adult dogs that don't have homes it makes me not care. We aren't set on a certain breed at all but don't want a tiny dog and we don't want a huge dog. Something Leo size would be perfect. There were so many pitbull mixes there and so many in this area on the internet, that I think we will get one of those. Seriously, as I'm sitting here in tears, it can't happen soon enough.

Field Trips

I have noticed of late, reading back over the last few blogs that have to do with teaching that I have not sounded all that positive. Forgive me. Believe me when I say, I feel like this is the only career I was made for and I do love it. I don't mean to sound so negative.

Ready for more negativity? I don't like field trips. Especially with Alma De La Rosa. Going on field trips with my students in Bennington and with campers at BDC on the cape were fun. I enjoyed it. Field trips at ADLR are extravagant 'ventures where rules forgone for fun and what's easiest by all involved, teachers, parents and students alike. I think what drives me the most crazy are employee parents that don't do their job that day because they "have" to be with there child, parents that come to help that go off with their children without saying anything, parents, children that bring money and the list goes on, educational assistants that are assigned to a class and then wander off without telling anyone.

The main rule about field trips is that it has to be educational. Totally agree with that rule. So we go to the state fair every year under the pretense of "education" but the kids never want to spend time at the exhibits where they can learn things about energy or animals. They want to spend their time at the insurance and health care booths where they get cheap pencils, paper fans and other free stuff. So frustrating, because that trip if done properly could be a great learning experience.

Today we went to see the "Earth" movie. I think this is a great idea and I've done a lot of preparation for it with my students. We've talked about photography in nature, watched some of the BBC's "Planet Earth" and so forth. However, not once has a student asked me what the movie is going to be about. All they want to hear is how much candy they get to buy and whether or not I'm going to buy it for them. It's ridiculous.

In other news, we have quite the love quadrangle going on my class. Fonzo, Cosmo, Raul are all head over heels for Fiona. Those boys are always trying to find ways to show her how much they like her. What's funny is the lengths they will go. After Fiona won the Science Fair she was standing with Fonzo gushing to me about excited she was about it and he turned to me and said, "She won because she's so perfect and pretty looking." He was trying to give her a round about complement. Fiona turned to him and said, "I'd rather think I won because I'm intelligent." (I had Fiona in my class last year and I'm so impressed with how she has matured and become so confident. She is constantly showing me that she really believes in herself.) Cosmo was sitting next to her at lunch and she had a sick look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I'm hot." I said, "So take off your sweatshirt." "Right!" she said. Cosmo looked at me and said, "She's hot because she's sitting next to me!" So obvious. He's going to be a real heartbreaker.

Fonzo came in this morning in tears. He wouldn't tell anyone why. he just sat at his desk and cried. It's odd to see a boy-man sob. They sob with their whole bodies. I tried to coax out of him whatever it was that was making him so upset. I asked about his dad, where he was living with his sister, if anything had happened last night that had made him upset. He refused to answer and just continued to cry. Then later on the field trip as we were walking to the movie theatre he tossed a piece of paper which I picked up. It was a picture of a heart with tears coming out of it, eyes and a sad face. At the top it said, "Can you help fix me?......" There are weird drawings at the bottom, something that looks like a wrench and a screwdriver. The wrench has 7/14 on it. It smells like some sort of cheap cologne, perhaps he has been carrying it around for awhile. I'm going to turn it into the principal this afternoon. I know Fonzo tried to throw it away, but being a mandated reporter and all...It makes me so sad.

Science Fair!

Today was the the annual Science Fair! It went really well. I think we had some really great projects. This year the focus was on creating an experiment instead of a model. Once the students understood the difference, they really stepped up the plate. The winner, a student in my class named Fiona, created an experiment in which she tested which dance got a dancer's heartbeat to speed up the fastest. I was really impressed with most of my students.

Only one student, Fonzo, didn't turn one in. The worse part of my job is definitely the stories I hear about the home lives of the students. I'm pretty sure this is one of the reasons I have problems sleeping at night or awake with a start...I worry...I worry about the students when they are at home in my subconscious. Fonzo has a particularly sad story. He came to us as a new student about two weeks after I started in the sixth grade. He had a really hard time adjusting...constant disrespect, refusal to work, obvious homophobia, the works. Not a lot of teaching went on the first few days he was with us.

Spring break happened and he did a complete 180. Out of nowhere, I never had to ask him twice, he showed me that he was great a math and a good writer. Then we found out what he had been doing on Spring Break. He had moved to La Pasa with his mother, because his gay father is dying of cancer and didn't want to talk to him. Over Spring Break, he got to go and visit him. Then about two weeks after Spring Break, his mother left him with his sister and her husband and she went back to her boyfriend in (not his father) El Paso. So not only does he feel like his father doesn't want him and is dying, he mother left him too...so he feels completely abandoned. He admitted to me that now he is afraid his sister doesn't want him...and if she doesn't then he has no where to go because his uncles in town are all alcoholics and drug addicts.

What the hell do you say to that? I think I was able to say that instead of flipping a kid off when he was having a bad day he should come and tell me he's having a bad day and I can cut him slack with heavy duty assignments and give him some time to just do some journal writing. I think I also managed to get out that perhaps he should try to help his sister out as best he can so that she appreciates having him around. We've already offered counseling services to this family and have been turned down, so there is nothing more we can do unless we think he is being abused or neglected.

In other news, the school day went particularly well today. The students were in a good mood, excited about their science projects and excited about starting geometry in math. We finally finished the unit on fractions and decimals.

We may actually close on the house tomorrow. Please. Please. Let us close tomorrow.