Ahhhhh....summer.

So yes. I haven't been writing lately. Bad. I know. I actually had to re-read some of my last posts to remember where I left off. Very bad.

It was so nice to leave that last day. So. Nice. It had been so rushed up until then. I felt as if I had been going going going (think Energizer Bunny) since the standardized testing mid March. The end is always a garbled mess of report cards, retention meetings, IEP's and so on. Then Sr. Callejo threw in a two day (Friday and Saturday -- days I don't usually work and was planning on using them for cleaning the house and packing for my epic trip east) training that I was not at all excited about and was not being compensated for.

Then I left and had a fantastic time visiting family and friends in a trip that was all too short. Graduation was fantastic, I'm so proud of my brother and I can't wait to see what the talented man does next. I met up with one of my favorite people from high school and the Boy bonded with her little boy (SO CUTE!) and I spent time on the Cape with my family and my Dad's fantastic fishing boat. (Pictures perhaps to follow!)

When I came back I began doing some work for Moonlight Consulting that has been taking up a lot of time and when I'm done with that I just sort of want to knit and breathe and watch mindless TV mostly via Wii Netflix; Friday Night Lights, Weeds, Big Love, Real Housewives of New Jersey and so on and so forth. (Love that Wii Nexflix...totally awesome...I'm sure we won't be using Netflix mail for very much longer.)

Then, sometime in the near future, the boy, the Chaca Dawg and I leave for an epic road journey that's going to take us visiting family through Wyoming and Montana (Yellowstone Baby!) and I absolutely can't wait for that.

So over the next few days I have a lot of things to catch up on! Keep an eye out!

Watermelons

Parents are the wild card in my career. Some are fantastic, some never believe the good or bad things you say about their children and some are just awful.

Sometimes you get great parents like Saul and Brent's mum whom I've now known for four years. She's always ready to back you up, she's active on the PTA but she's not in the classroom all time and so she's not in your face. I've known Matt's parents are just as long too and though Matt isn't always the easiest kid in the classroom to deal with, his parents are willing to discuss the problems in a rational how-can-we-help-each-other kind of way that I really appreciate.

Then there are those that make me really uncomfortable. Gilbert's family, whom I've also known since moving here is one. They are really really religious which in and of itself is not a problem. But they push religion into every part of their lives. The Christmas card from them had such a strong pro-life message that made me feel so icky that I tossed it in the trash when no one was looking almost immediately after it was handed to me. Also, when I was their daughter Loo Loo's teacher, she panicked after she head the girls from my class doing "Bloody Mary" in the bathroom. She decided that this was some sort of "spell." She went directly to the board meeting and tried to ban Harry Potter from my classroom. I did not let this occur. This post is another example.

Another mother, of whom I'm not going to say, for further anonymity is really hard to understand. When she speaks to us, Ms. Jenson and myself, she speaks in ebonics. Now, I have a lot of parents that speak exclusively in Spanish. I understand almost everything they say and am usually only about a half sentence behind in understanding. When I speak to this mum I'm usually around three sentences behind in understanding.

This is one thing. The other thing is the way she is dressed. It's embarrassing for us and I'm sure even more so for Sr. Callejo who has been in on many of these meetings with us. She is wears shirts that are so revealing. Shirts that show her underthings and doesn't seem to ever leave much to the imagination. That's not the worst of it. She stores her cell phone IN her cleavage. And when it vibrates/rings...need I say more?

So after one of these meetings, it somehow came up that some parents occasionally join their kids at lunch. That next week, in she came complete with three bags of food from McDonald's. Now whenever someone unexpected comes in all my students (eating separately from the third graders) turn to see who it is.

Fred, who seems to know a bit more about the world than is healthy for a boy of ten, turns to the boy sitting next to him and says, "You know what fruit I like best?" The other boy shook his head. Fred replies, "Watermelons." The other boy looked confused, but I wasn't.

It took all I had not to burst out laughing while I was telling him that I understood perfectly well what he was talking about and that he needed to knock it off this instant.

Not so depressed as before

So I think I'm coming to terms with teaching sixth grade next year. There were a few reasons I wasn't so comfortable with this idea.

The first is that I just love the fourth grade curriculum. The science and math curriculum is rich with hands on activities that are doable by the students. The stories in the reader are engaging, culturally relevant and the kids love them. I've taught both fifth and sixth grade and did not find them to be similar.

Fourth graders, you know the actual students are just the best. They are still engaged in school for the most part. They find new concepts exciting and they love the practice. Fifth graders have started to see the routine in school and its harder to keep them engaged in school and not the drama among their peer group. And sixth graders. Ug. I don't even know where to begin with them. Check out the beginning of my blog because I try not to revisit that particular part of my teaching career...it tends to bring on waves of panic.

As I was wrestling, fighting, cajoling, begging, helping the third graders to finish up the science fair group project, it came to me that these kids are actually going to be next year's fourth graders. (Well, except for those we are going to hold back.) Now, you might think this would have come to me much sooner. And perhaps it should have. But in years past, at the beginning of the year it's the third graders that I've the most problem with and fourth graders that I've loved. As the year comes to a close, the third graders start to become fourth graders and they become the most fun to work with and the fourth graders start to become fifth graders and I begin to become annoyed with their drama.

The other day I realized April was ending and I hadn't observed this particular change which I usually begin to see at the beginning of March. The third graders are still third graders, some are even still acting like second graders. The fourth graders are still fantastic. I'm grateful every time I get to send the third graders on and the fourth graders walk into my room.

So perhaps working with fifth and sixth graders next year will be a good thing. I'll have my fantastic fourth graders from this year and the sixth graders will be my fourth graders from the first half of last year and for the most part, I really enjoyed them.

I said as much to Sr. Callejo as the Science Fair was ending last night and he seemed excited about my change of heart. I know he loves the way I teach and likes the way I expect great things my students. He said, "That means you get to have my niece!" and he introduced me to Elma's mother, his sister.

So all and all, it's probably all sewn up and might even be for the best.

How's that for a positive note.

However, I'm definitely going to have to take home the sixth grade math curriculum and spend the summer with it.

18 Days left.

Well it's hit. The year is almost over and the kids know it. So the countdown begins.

Today was one of the those days. One of those days where you feel like you are nowhere, you have taught all those kids nothing and you just want to roll up in ball and cry.

Instead I chose to go home and loose myself in The Wire and pet my dog. Well. To be honest there was a little crying.

I put together this great probability unit back during my Master's year. Every year I take a piece of it and use it in my classroom. This year, I decided to do the entire thing. It's all hands on games. It was reviewed by a mathematician back in 2006. It's a damn good unit plan if I do say so myself. I weave fractions, games of chance and games of probability together so well, the kids don't realize until the game is over that they learned something. Sr. Callejo was so excited when I told him all about it. He said that my plan was exactly what he wanted teachers doing at our school all the time.

I came into school Monday so excited. I had spent a lot of the weekend thinking about it, working it through in my head and double checking to make sure I had everything. I start with the third graders. I get nothing. They throw around my manipluatives, refuse to think about the questions, all they want to do is fool around. My fourth graders did a little better but they fell apart today. I'm getting nothing from either class. It's so frustrating.

I know it's almost summer. (Hence the countdown) But I keep stressing to them that it's not over yet. It's just not.

Then at the end of the day I have a conversation with Sr. Callejo that leads me to believe I'm going to be teaching fifth (which is great, because I'll have my fourth graders that I usually love again) and the SIXTH GRADERS.

Oh to put the cherry on my sundae.

I guess my job doesn't have to make me happy yet.

There would be more choice for me with grade levels if I had my bilingual endorsement, but that's a really expensive thing to get and there is no help from the school or the state because they were in a terrible state even before the economy fell.

I'm stuck.

Second Day of Testing or The Day I Got Thrown Up On.

Yesterday, ALDR started our New Mexico Standards Based Assessment (NMSBA), the state test that the children are required to take according to No Child Left Behind (NLCB) in order to access whether or not we've made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Whew...that was way too many acronyms! AYP is a powerful number. At best, if we have good numbers, we'll get some monies from the state to continue improving and at worst we'll be closed down because our numbers are so bad.

Thankfully the latter can't happen to us just yet as we haven't been open long enough. This year is our last “free pass” so to speak. Last year, we did alright. We passed in reading and came close in math. Our math scores did double, which was great and gave me some much needed confidence in our mathematics curriculum.

The kids have three weeks of testing. 12 days of awfulness. It starts at 8:30 and should only last until 10:00, but there are days, like yesterday that it can last until 11:00. It's hard because all the kids can be be done except one and the others can't move or talk until everyone is finished. So some kids can be sitting (reading if they choose) for up to an hour and forty five minutes. They have three days of reading, three days of math, two days of writing and three days of science.

It's a lot of work for them. And it's tiring. So after the testing, the rest of the day is sort of shot. Their eyes are glazed over. They can't focus. They are exhausted. This year, I have the fourth graders after the test until 1:00 and the third graders from 1:00 – 3:00. I have each group do some math, usually something fun and hands on and then let them watch an episode of Planet Earth or Seas of Life for some brain rest time.

I have nine fourth graders to test. What about the other four you ask? Well, two are severe special ed and so need one on one testing and two are mild special ed and so need small group testing. Because I only have nine students in my room, it was decided that I didn't need a proctor. This at first was fine with me, because all my proctors have done in the past is sit there and read a book while I do all the work. This did however mean, that if anything went wrong I was going to be in a tough spot as children are not to be left alone while testing.

As I mentioned earlier, my classroom is in an interesting spot in the school. This makes it very difficult to begin testing because there are so many people going back and forth between the rooms that it's hard to tell when everyone is where they are supposed to be for the next two to three hours. The other two classrooms also have outside access so you'd think that people (Mr. Rama a.k.a. my least favorite person at school) would realize that they don't have to interrupt testing to get from place to place. To deter errant people walking through my room during testing (which according to the test directions is expressly forbidden) I began locking two out of the four doors in my room.

Yesterday, as it was the first day there were the first day kinks to get out. ALL of the directions had to be read aloud to the students and two sample questions had to be worked through before the students could even begin. There were 26 questions in first session of the reading test. I think the students really struggled with it and put a lot of time and effort into what they wrote and how they answered. They asked questions that I wasn't allowed to answer, but that showed me they were really thinking. They weren't getting all the questions right, but I was impressed with how hard they were trying.

Today was an entirely different experience. We were able to get started on time for the most part, which was nice. There were only 16 questions. (Now, why they didn't let the kids get their feet wet with less questions on the first day is beyond me.) About five minutes after I had set them to begin, Jamie raised his hand. This child is so quite and so shy, I was surprised. I walked over and he told me he didn't feel good. I asked him what he wanted to do about it, my usual response to that question. He couldn't even get the answer out before he began to throw up. So I rushed him to the door. Which was locked. Just as I got it unlocked, vomit sprayed over my back and left arm. Lovely.

I opened the door, stood in the door way (you know, because I didn't have a proctor and couldn't leave the room) and grabbed the nearest garbage can. Jamie continued to throw up. The Kindergarten kids came by on their way to morning water break. I asked their teacher, Ms. Betty to run to the admin office and get someone to come help because I couldn't leave the room while the kids were testing. The office person came and said she was going to get the custodian. Which left me still standing in my doorway with vomit all over my back. Custodian came cleaned up and we sent Jamie to the office. The office person was able to give me a shirt, luckily Jamie missed my pants. (It was really nice of him.) She stood in the doorway of my room while I ran to the bathroom to clean my arm and change.

The students had 16 questions and three passages to read today and they were finished in about 30 minutes in. They did not spend any where near the amount of time on the questions today that they did yesterday. We aren't even allowed to point out to students if they've missed one. I was so upset as I walked around and realized that some students weren't even writing complete sentences for most of the short answer questions. They know how to do that. We've worked on it all year. They just want to be done with the test. (Frankly, I don't blame them.) I walked back upstairs to talk to return the tests to Sr. Callejo and mentioned how discouraged I was. You know what he said? “Encourage them to write more.” Ok. Seriously. Duh. I did that. But that was all the advice he had for me.

I heard an awful story yesterday from the current second grade teacher that was assigned to test the seventh graders. Ms. Billings is a lovely teacher, she does a great job and she's always willing to go the extra mile even though her life outside of school isn't easy. She was telling me that the seventh graders basically refused to take the test. They found it too difficult and threw their test booklets and answer documents on the floor. They told her that if they didn't pass it didn't really matter because it was her fault because she didn't teach them right. (She's the second grade teacher...she hasn't even spent a single day with them. Haha, lucky woman.) She was horrified at their lack of disrespect and their inability to do anything without complaining about it first. I wasn't at all surprised. They were awful to me last year as I've written about on many occasions.

I put that sentence in bold for two reasons. The first because she isn't their teacher and hasn't spent anytime with them and it shows the amount of maturity these kids lack, the second is the sentiment itself. More and more it is becoming apparent to me that my job is going to start depending on these scores. What with the firing of an entire staff at a Rhode Island school, the firing of an entire staff in Georgia and the idea flooding public schools across the country that students and parents should be more in control of what happens at a school than teachers. This really worries me and makes me wish that I was trained for something other than teaching, you know so that when all the shit hits the fan, I would at least have a back up.

It seems 100 percent unfair to me that my job should depend on these scores. Maybe in middle class suburban neighborhoods and others that are more affluent. Maybe. The odds that are stacked against my students (and therefore me) are tremendous. Lack of English Language proficiency, poverty, parents that work 24 – 7, students that come to school but decide not to learn no matter what we do, parents that take their students out of school early ALL the time, parents that don't bother helping us with disciplinary issues, parents that bring their children an hour late EVERY day and the school not having enough money to provide us with what we need to teach these children all play into how well the students learn.

And it's not only these everyday things. There's also the children that come to use a month before testing is to begin, like Eliza in the third grade, from a different school, already behind. We are still responsible for that child's scores. You know why she moved schools so late in the year? Her father passed away suddenly. Guess who found him at the bottom of their hot tub. Eliza. Tell me how can we expect her to be able to do her best? Or what about the pair the sisters (both of whom I've taught, but have in the classroom this year) that lost their father suddenly over the past weekend. We are held responsible for those scores as well. And yet these children should not even expected to perform under these conditions.

How can it 100 percent my fault when the students don't test well even when the kids have been here all year? Today alone, Jamie threw up at the beginning of the test. He's going to have to go back and re-do it. Fred, after missing all last week, (when we did review and prep for these tests) (not that was the only prep and review, but still) didn't get home from El Paso until after midnight last night. He was half asleep as he was working on the test and he won't be able to go back and look at it again. How is that my fault?

Now don't get me wrong. I think teachers should be held to a very high standard. I work to meet that standard every single day. I think teachers should be educated in what we teach, I think we should constantly reflect on how well we are doing, I think principals should be in classrooms observing, checking on student learning and giving the teacher feedback weekly. I also think teachers should be paid as if they are professionals and that schools should be castles.

Lots of things get in the way of this ideal. Principals (not mine, though today he didn't have very good advice), the government, teachers' unions (my opinions on that are definitely a whole other post) bad teachers and of course students and parents. We ALL need to do better. I'm doing my part and I know there are other fantastic teachers out there that are doing their part. At some point all that has to add up to something.

Nice moment of the day: I got a quick note from one of the girls that did the same Masters' program that I did in Bennington. She ran into one of the students, Kim from the class that I student taught in back in 2005 – 2006 year who wanted to know what I was up to. Which really warmed my heart. Exactly what I needed to bring my spirits up a few hours after being thrown up on.

The Weather Man

Sorry to say, but this is going to be another rather negative post.

A few weeks ago, I got a flyer in my mailbox at school that said the local meteorologist was interested in coming into the local schools to talk to children about what he does to predict the weather. Awesome. I called right away for the fourth grade. (Since I'm their homeroom teacher and well quite honestly because I like them better.) I ended up making the appointment for third and fourth grade anyway. All he needed was a DVD player and a dry erase board. I have both in my classroom already and hung up looking forward to it.

A week later, Ms. Hernandez started the staff meeting by announcing that she had called to make an appointment for her class and ended up making an appointment for the ENTIRE school on the same day and time as mine. She said to me in front of the entire staff, "As long as you have no objections, I figured that was the best thing to do." I'm happy to say this time that I stuck up for myself and explained that I liked the idea of the small classroom setting for my kids because they would be more likely to get something out of it and that was the reason I had set it up that way. It didn't change anything however, because obviously it didn't really matter if I had objections.

Today was the day he was set to come and we had all received a reminder note in our boxes. I wondered if anyone had set up how we were going to get a TV and a dry erase board over to the cafeteria for the presentation. So when Sr. Callejo walked through my classroom this morning to ask him I learned that no one had thought about this. Two hours later, about an hour and a half before the presentation was to begin, I got a note from the office that it was going to take place in my room for grades 3 - 7. I was not pleased. You can't trust 5 - 7 grade to behave anywhere for anything and I didn't want them all crowded into my classroom AND causing a ruckus. So I asked Sr. Callejo what was going to happen if the older couldn't calm down and pay attention. He said they would be sent back to their classrooms. I wasn't going to hold my breath. I was hopeful.

I had all the fourth graders prepare a question, each of them wrote it down on an index card and practice reading it out loud. Then they took the time to move all the desks and chairs to the side of the room. We clean up and organize so that all the kids will have a place to sit. I even made sure the seventh graders had chairs to sit in because they always put up a fuss about sitting on the floor. The weather man came in just as we were finishing and we had some fantastic lively conversation while he was setting up.

Then everyone else filed in and it was basically a free for all for the next hour. Only the third and fourth graders were trying to pay attention. We had a few errant third graders here and there, but it was easy to catch their eye and remind them to behave. Fifth grade through seventh grade however were talking and fooling around the entire time. Only Ms. Hernandez tried to do something about it and even that was only half heartedly. I was really really angry as I was watching my students tried to hear and learn to no avail.

Then of course, after everyone left we had to put my room back together. So a week before the most important test of the year, my students lost two hours of learning. I *so* hate it when I'm right.

Oh and after everyone left, my room smelled like gross, oily, unshowered, zitty tweens.

Ewww.

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.

Dog Days of January

I wanted to tie up some loose ends that I left when I stopped blogging for so long.

Ms. Jenson is still a bit of a nutter, but I have a little more respect for what she does in the classroom now. I do still have some problems working with her. The first being that during the first set of parent teacher conferences, she told all the parents (with me sitting right there) that I was responsible for all of the academic concepts the student were learning, except for Social Studies and she was only responsible for whether or not the students were learning Spanish. This was incredibly frustrating for me. I only have each class for half a day. There is no way I can cover all the academic subjects for both grades in that amount of time. I have spoken to Sr. Callejo about this and he agrees something needs to be done, he just isn't exactly sure what to do. I hope it's figured out soon, because report cards are coming up again and I really don't want all the work put on me again.

First, Fiona came back! Her little sister didn't because their mother can't deal with Ms. Jenson. Getting Fiona back felt so good though. I really don't think she would have done as well in a huge inner city middle school as she would do with us. I guess that's probably true for all our students, but I really feel close to Fiona. Her mum told us that she didn't like the other school at all and basically begged to come back to us. That made me feel really good. Of all the kids, she is the one I would choose to find out about as she grows up and moves on.

Kismet has been causing quite a lot of trouble lately. He's probably spent a total of an hour in my classroom all week because he gotten into so much trouble before his class even gets to mine. It has gotten to the point where no adult in the school can keep his body safe. In the past four days, he's climbed to some pretty high heights after being asked not to take his feet off the ground and dropped from them. The first time he landed on his arm and came close to breaking it, the second time he landed on his face and scratched it up. He doesn't do these things while he mother is at the school with him obviously but once she leaves it's all over. I really feel like I can't be held responsible for his personal safety because he listens to nothing I say and then chooses to do the most dangerous thing. He'll be in class and then disappear. I can't chase him because I'm also responsible for the other 11 children in my class. His family doesn't seem to understand how dangerous this is.

I've lost some other students, I'm down to 12 students in the fourth grade. I have only two girls in that class now. The third grade class has been fluctuating a bit. One of my favorite students, who didn't show up at the beginning of this year, showed up on Monday. Hector was one of my kindergardeners and it's nice to have him back!

We got a new student, who has been causing a lot of trouble. He's been making a lot of gang related comments and threatening to hurt other kids. It's been quite the experience. I think of my third graders as relatively hard core kids, they have a lot of energy and a lot of street knowledge, but after spending time with Chris, I'm pretty sure most of them are scared s*&@less of this kid. He's only been here a few weeks, but as missed three days because of external suspension and two days worth of internal suspension

I don't feel like the year is half over... at all.

Obama Speech!

I was so excited when I heard that Obama was giving a speech specifically written for children. What a novel idea! I got goosebumps.

I excitedly told Sr. Callejo about this speech and how I hoped that the whole school could gather in my classroom (as it is the only one with cable) that morning sans interruptions so that we could have a group campfire experience. He thought it was a fine idea and let everyone know in a MEMO.

Then, the next week while at the gym, I saw a CNN bit on how parents were boycotting the speech because it was going to be "too political." Many schools were sending home permission slips for parents to sign. This struck me as odd, but as NPR wasn't saying anything and so I didn't take it too seriously. As I heard more and more about parents refusing to let their kids see this speech at school the more incensed I became. Seriously? (channeling Grey's Anatomy here) Then the White House (in a very smart move) released the text of the speech early, so as to prove that it was not too political. Even this didn't calm people enough. Seriously? I didn't read the text because I felt like a kid on Christmas and I didn't want the surprise to be ruined, (also, I didn't believe that Obama was trying to create an army of socialist minions.)

This morning a few of the non teaching staff asked me if I was "really going to show it after all the hubbub in the media." My answer was as follows; "Look, if George Bush (the second) had ever bothered to give this kind of speech, about staying in school, to the nation's students I would have been just as gung ho about showing it the entire school. These parents who aren't (as well as the parents that are) letting their children see the speech at school are also letting their kids get their world views from Low Rider, Fitty (sp?) Cent, and so on and so forth, why can't the President of these United States speak to them as well?" Everyone agreed with me.

So, everyone came to my classroom this morning to watch it. It want really well, everyone basically fit and the teachers were all there as well, which meant that afterward, adults from all sides of the classroom were talking to the kids about what they had just seen and why it was important. Politics didn't enter any part of the discussion. It was centered on staying in school and working well with your teacher and classmates and the idea that he (Barack Obama) could get them all the school supplies, books, computers and school buildings they could stand and still nothing would change until kids step up to the plate.

There were a few moments when he mentioned that kids who give up on themselves are not only giving up on themselves, but on their country as well. I think I get that feeling of negativity because of September 11 and the huge surge in National Guard and Army Recruit numbers and the proud way that George Bush spoke about it. (Not that wanting to serve your country that way is a bad thing, its more that he made it sound like that was the only way.) FDR encouraged young people in his fireside chats to leave their families and work on one of the numerous New Deal Projects, JFK; "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you for your country." Neither of these statements are military-centric and people loved them for it.

I also have to say that I loved that Obama reminded kids to wash their hands, much like Jimmy Carter used to reminded not to speed and to keep our thermostats at energy efficient levels.

I loved that speech. It brought me to tears.

More Co-Teacher Drama

Hehe.

The other morning I was doing my "duty" outside where all the cars come in, Sr. Callejo brought his son (who is in Kinder and totally adorable) to the cafeteria and then came back and exchanged pleasantries with me for a few moments. As he was walking away Ellie and Fiona's mum came up to talk to him. Whenever I see one of my parents talking to my principal I'm always nervous that they are saying mean things about me since that was all that was ever said about me to my principal that first year of teaching. She walked away and he meandered back to me. He explained that she was thinking about pulling Ellie out of the school because Ms. Jenson (co-teacher) says mean things to her. Example; "Ellie, your handwriting is ugly." This is the first time we've heard the same comment from parents, so now we knew that really is what she was saying and not the kids putting words in her mouth.

He asked me to tell her before we started classes that morning that she should really try to be more positive with the kids and less negative because we can't loose kids at this point, especially because of something like that. He couldn't because he had to leave for a day long meeting. I balked at this a bit. If it had been Sophia, it might have been a little awkward, the conversation would have been casual enough that the awkwardness would have blown over pretty quickly. This I feared would not be the case with Ms. Jenson. I said as much and he said that he really appreciated me sending on the message. I reluctantly agreed to pass on the message. Which pretty much went over exactly the way I predicted, with Ms. Jenson saying things like, "Why would he tell you and not me, hum...hum" (fake dramatic confused look.)

This morning the third graders were in my classroom for the first hour (as per our implementation of reading recovery) and I realized that Ellie, wasn't in class. The girls are rarely late and absent less than they are late. I wondered if I had inadvertently left her in the cafeteria. I asked the other kids if they had seen her that morning and they all answered in the negative. Then little Molly (Callie's little sister) piped up and said, "She's not coming to the this school anymore, my sister told me." I was so surprised. Then it hit me. If Ellie was gone, that probably meant that Fiona, my most favorite student ever was gone too.

I opened the door to my classroom when I saw the seventh graders coming through the hallway. I was relieved to see that Fiona was in the line. I asked their teacher if I could borrow Fiona for a moment. She followed me to my classroom and explained that their Mum didn't like the way that Ms. Jenson spoke to the kids. I asked her if she was leaving and she said that her Mum hadn't decided yet. I explained that I really didn't want to lose touch with her. So I gave her my email address and my cell phone number and made her promise to keep in touch if she had to leave the school. She promised and gave me a hug. I really hope she keeps her promise.

I hate that we're losing kids because of this...other things I can understand. But this? Come on. Especially that family. They have been with us from the beginning and it's just too bad.

There was a staff meeting today and Sr. Callejo explained to the whole staff we needed to keep "positive reinforcement" in mind. He also said that the PTA President wanted all complaints like this to come to her so that she can speak to the family and give them a tour of school, so that parents have the chance to see all the good things we are doing. I think this is a great step, something I wish I had thought of. So many parents never come into the classroom. These sorts of things make our school more community oriented.

By the way. I think I have the third graders licked. Licked I tell you. More on that later.

Want a great kid's book? Try Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. I just finished reading it out loud to them today. They loved it.

I love my job.

I do. It's true.

The year that I was teaching the fourth and fifth grade, my first year with my own classroom. I wasn't an E.A. and I wasn't a student teacher. It was my first whole class. I was a young, white teacher in a 98 percent hispanic school. I am a strict teacher and this definitely came out that year, not that the students didn't deserve it. However, the parents didn't enjoy it and told the principal so. I was young and white, easy prey.

Here is why I love my principal, Sr. Callejo. In the face of all the parents complaining about me that year, and believe me there were more than a few, he backed me up. Every single time. Not once did he let the parents believe that he was going to reprimand me. He always backed me up. Even when faced with the prospect of losing students (which for our tiny charter school is a big deal.) He understood that the kids needed the strictness that I was providing to the point that last year he moved me out of my successful fourth grade partnership to the awfulness that was the sixth grade.

This summer, Sr. Callejo hired a new teacher to take my place in the middle school slot that I practically got down on my knees and begged to get out of. This teacher, Ms. Wheat is African-American which I mention because I feel that she and I are kindred spirits as neither of us are Hispanic or literate in the culture that we have been thrown into. She has the pleasure of teaching the fifth, sixth and seventh graders (my sixth graders from last year.) I told her that any time she needed to vent, she should talk to me, because I've been there and I know EXACTLY how she feels.

She has been having a world of trouble. Parents have been complaining like crazy to me, to Ms. Tenny, to Sr. Callejo, everyone. I feel for her. She's an outsider in same way that I am. She's going through exactly what I was. She goes home and freaks out in the same way that I did.

When I was going through it, I had no one at school to talk to who took me seriously. She availed herself of that invitation yesterday and HELLO did she. When she asked how I put up with it, all I could say was that every morning, I went in with the goal of getting one thing done in Mathematics and one thing done in Literacy. If I was able to accomplish that, I felt successful. How awful is that?! Finally, someone understood. Ms. Wheat, she understood.

She was saying that the only way she could deal with the seventh graders was to put herself in one room and her husband in another when she got home. I didn't have that ability. I needed The Boy. When I couldn't sleep and would spend most of my nights in tears, he was the one that got me through. There was no one at school that understood. No one that could. When the year was over, I realized that without him, not only would I not have made it, but I literally would not have made it.

Anyway. It's nice to not be the scape goat anymore. It's nice that parents are complaining about someone else. Sr. Callejo even admitted that when he asked the seventh graders they thought he should do to improve the situation, they said that he should, "just bring Ms. Knitter back." So in the end. I must have done something right. Man, do I feel for her.

Oh Special Ed

So I mentioned in this post that I had yet to see the behavioral plan or the I.E.P. for my one of my students, Kismet. At the beginning of the year, I asked both special education teachers as well as Sr. Callejo during orientation for permission to go through both of these documents. (There are lots of laws about them, so there is some red tape, which is why I asked early.) The special education teachers, Mr. Dido and Mr. Rama said that, of course I would have the chance to go through those documents before school started.

Well, a week in, after asking both of them twice with no actual seeing of the documents, I used my weekly "teacher journal" (Sr. Callejo's way of finding out what we need) to tell the principal that after asking twice, I hadn't heard from either man about when I could get a look at these documents. Three more days went by and I still heard nothing.

From what I have been able to piece together about this Kismet is that he was seriously hard time as a little person and so missed a lot of the developmental hurdles that most children master. Thank goodness he and his two younger brothers were adopted by a very generous couple that has devoted their lives to these three boys. In fact, the mother spends her mornings in the classroom with Kismet in the fourth grade class.

Because he has this terrible past, there are many moments in the classroom where he just can't cope the way that my other students can. I met this little boy when he was in the first grade, while I was the E.A. in the Kindergarten room. There were times that he would lash out to the point that he needed to be restrained. I witnessed this one morning when we were called one day to help control him. It was necessary because he has a habit of throwing things like textbooks hard enough to hurt (having been on the receiving end) and climbing so that he can't be followed.

Thank goodness that Kismet has come so far since his first grade year, his previous teachers have been devoted and caring, his parents very supportive and helpful. He hasn't had any break downs this year and he and I have gotten on really well so far.

For all of these reasons, it was really important for me to know at the very beginning what to expect from him behaviorally as well as academically. All of these systems have been put in place by the special education team and by law they need to be followed. I couldn't understand why Mr. Dido and Mr. Rama were not falling all over themselves in their effort to give me the information. Mr. Dido did say to me at some point that I should treat him like any other student. (Which, because these systems were in place, I knew wasn't true.)

Kismet does his best in the morning and so I didn't have him in the afternoon until this week. I have been concentrating on staying upbeat and positive throughout the day. (My homage to Sophia.) And the three times that we have been at odds, I've called Mr. Rama, while staying calm yet stern with him. Thankfully, each of these times, Mr. Dido and Mr. Rama have backed me up and Kismet is learning that he has to listen to me. However, I was still a bit miffed that after asked three different people, I still didn't have access to the information that needed to work with him.

So today after being at odds with Kismet, I called Mr. Rama to explain what had happened and that that was the last time I was going to "wing it." I told him that I needed to sit down with that paperwork. We met after school and I have a good idea of how to work with him behaviorally, thankfully, I was already doing the right thing for the most part. But that isn't the point, because I did learn a lot. I have yet to see the I.E.P.

Moments that Mattered: Yesterday, Cosmo, a sixth grader from last year gave me a copy of his football game schedule so that I could go to one of his games. I don't think he asked any of his other teachers. Raul, my budding artist from last year is hoping that I will buy one of his sketches. He's going to bring it finished soon for me to see. I think I shall buy. I think they have realized that as hard as last year was for them, I was in it for them, for their successes. That matters to me.

Routine

School is beginning to become a routine again. Yay!

So remember how I wondered what would happen when Ms. Jenson and I couldn't communicate about what was being taught in the classroom. Well. It happened.

So. We are a bilingual school, which means that the students have half of their day in English and half of their day in Spanish. We have to find a way to do this without "translating," which means that I can't teach on lesson in English and then that afternoon another teacher (in this case Ms. Jenson) teach the same lesson in Spanish. The two lessons need to build on each other in some way. This is easy to figure out for most subjects. We both teach Language Arts in each language, I teach science in English and she teaches Social Studies in Spanish. Math sort of throws a wrench in this finely tuned machine.

Because of the way that "Everyday Mathematics" is set up as a spiraling curriculum, we can't do every other chapter on our own the way we do with the reading curriculum. We have to know what each other taught yesterday, so that both of us know what to teach today and tomorrow. This, at least at the beginning involves a lot of planning. Sophia and I figured it out together last year and it took us a few weeks to get used to how it worked. We worked so well together, that eventually we didn't need to sit down and plan together because we got into a groove. I don't foresee this happening with Ms. Jenson.

Before school started I sat down and explained how we use the math curriculum in a bilingual school. She seemed amenable to this at first and the first two days of teaching this way went alright. On Thursday, I asked her how far she had gotten with the third graders that morning so I knew what I needed to work on with them that afternoon. It was then that she told me that she didn't think that she was going to be able to to do it the way we talked about. Rather, no matter what part of the day, she said that I should teach the introductory lesson (the lessons are mostly broken up into two main parts with smaller third part) and she should do the follow up. She said that kids just don't know any Spanish at all and that she was going to start teaching them SSL (Spanish as a Second Language.)

Now. It could have been worse. She could have suggested the translating method. This was a step or two above that, which is good. But this is the one thing that Sr. Callejo was clear about, this is how we were teach math to give the kids the best chance of having a bilingual vocabulary in the subject of Mathematics. So very carefully, very politely I said that if she really thought that was the best plan because she didn't think the kids could succeed the way we were doing it, she should bring it up with Sr. Callejo so that he knows that we will be switching it up a bit.

Well. That went over like a lead balloon. She went off about how she left public school because she was sick of being told how and what to teach. And that she couldn't believe that this was happening to her in a charter school and how she was just going to have to learn how to deal with it again and finally that she just couldn't believe that I was suggesting she get permission to change the way she was teaching. Which of course was not my intention, or in fact, what I said at all.

Now. Honestly. We have it really good at ALDR. We are not handed our schedules, our lesson plans, we get to use the curriculum (other than this relatively loose method with the math curriculum) in any way we wish as long as we address the standards set down by the state. We are not micromanaged at all. At all. The rules and procedures we do follow and set down we do to follow the laws set down by the state.

Nutter. This lady is at least part nutter. I spoke to Sr. Callejo about it and he talked her down from the ledge today at lunch.

Mondays are going to be my saving grace because the third graders have performing arts at the same time as the fourth graders have physical education and then vice versa. This means that Ms. Jenson and I get to plan together for a whole hour and a half. So today we sat down to talk through what we were going to teach for math (just math mind you) for the next five days. It took us over an hour to get through FIVE (five people) days. Crazy.

HaHa! Funny story from today. Fred came back today, I was expecting him last week but he didn't show up until today. I was helping him with some Geometry today when he looked at me and said, "Ms. Knitter, you've got stuff right here." He pointed to the part of his eye nearest his nose. I realized that he thought my eye brightener looked like "stuff." From the mouths of babe eh?

Banishment!

I'm not sure if I've really explained before that my school has a four day week. We have school Monday through Thursday from 8:00 to 3:00 (3:30 for seventh graders.) I love this schedule. I'm not sure what's going to happen when we have to go back to a five day schedule for whatever reason. When we went to this schedule, one of the biggest worries was planning time, since we would be losing a whole day of after school planning time. So we picked one day a week to stay until four thirty and one afternoon a month that hour would be a staff meeting.

Good plan right? Well, it didn't exactly turn out that way. We ended up having a staff every week. After a few weeks of this I realized that it was because people weren't reading their memos! We would go to the meeting and 90% of the time was spent on regurgitating the memo! I mentioned this to Sr. Callejo once and he told me that the rest of the staff wasn't reading the memo and couldn't be trusted to follow through with things the way I did, simply because they read written instructions. He laughed it off, but in my mind I was saying, "then hire better people you crazy man!"

Anyway, we had our first staff meeting this afternoon. We were given a folder of information that we had to sort and some of it needed to be returned. Instructions had to be given four times. Which wasted time.

And then came the title of this post. My classroom is the largest. I love it. It's got a great heater and a great air conditioner, the computers are out of the way, and I have enough space to store things. However, there are four doors. There is one door that leads out into the school parking lot, a straight line from the school to the cafeteria. Another door leads to the small office of the school business manager, another to the other classrooms and admin offices and the last leads to the second and third grade classrooms.

Now, there are many times during the day when people have to come through these doors. Second and third graders need to be able to get to their title one reading and special education classes, admin staff need to be able to get the business office and to the second and third grade classrooms as well as my own. I get it. I'm fine with that. The kids are trained to do it quietly and a month into school, it won't bother my students at all. What drives me nuts is the interior/exterior door that leads straight to the cafeteria.

On the first day, Ms. Jenson thought (and rightly so, she's brand new and we've been using my interior/exterior door during orientation) that that door was how her kids were to go to the bathroom, so twice during the morning and once during the afternoon. So before the second morning, I took her aside and explained that she could use her own interior/exterior door. She was upset. Not sure why.

At the end of the day today, I ran into the third grade classroom where my fourth graders were having Spanish, to pass out some things. I reminded the students to put their pencil boxes back on our classroom library bookcase for the next day. Ms. Jenson looked at me and said, "Well we'll have to go through your classroom then." And I said, "Oh yes, of course you can go through at the end of the day." She said, very sarcastically, "Oh yay!" I walked back into my classroom very confused, because when I asked her not to use my door, I was only talking about the whole class bathroom trips in the middle of classes.

There's one teacher, Ms. Gana that I had to beg last year not to use my door during the school year. She's started back up this year. (Even thought this year, she has her own door on the same side of the building as me!) Last year she was upset that I asked her not use my door. This year after Ms. Gana and a few others have taken to using it during the school day again, I decided to bring it up at the staff meeting. Very politely, I explained that we needed to not use that interior/exterior door during the school day. After I was finished, Ms. Jenson said to everyone, "Yes, she's already BANISHED me from using that door." I was so surprised, I couldn't really defend myself.

I really hope our relationship improves. It's going to be a hard year if my co-teacher is like this about things that have nothing to do with what's being taught...

Over One Hundred Feet of Laminated Material

In preparation for the beginning of the school year, I went out and bought a new calendar and letters for above the chalkboard, stuff for a birthday and a helper bulletin board. I had all this stuff last year but during the move I lost a bunch of it. On Thursday, I took it all to the district's low cost laminating center and laminated over one hundred feet of materials. For my last birthday my mother sent me the flashcards that my brother and I used. The Christmas before last my parents bought me a great set of jumbo playing cards and I laminated those as well. I ended up with over one hundred feet of laminated material.

I also bought some new plastic tubs for all my books and other materials. I went though all of the stuff that has been stored in the garage for the summer. I went though, trashed stuff and reorganized what I decided to keep. Since The Boy was out of town and some of the tubs were too heavy for me to lift one of our very best friends helped me get them into my car and then Sr. Callejo helped me get them into my classroom. I was very excited to learn that I was going to get my old classroom from fourth grade last year! Yay! It's the best classroom! It's big, comfy, square, two magnetic dry erase boards that are kid height (because I made them rehang them last year) and it has an interior/exterior door! Now let's just hope I get to keep it all year long.

The Boy is out of town until August 9th and so I'm alone. And bored. Out of my mind. West Wing only takes you so far. (I have one and a half episodes left.) So tomorrow I have decided to take the bus downtown and catch Ice Age 3 before it leaves the theaters. Also a pedicure. I report to school on Monday and I'm ready.

And My New Co-Teacher Is...

Introducing: Ms. Jenson.

The other day Sr. Callejo called and asked if I wanted to be in on the interview for my co-teacher. I replied in the affirmative of course. And then realized...that meant for sure that was going to be teaching fourth grade (well at least for half the time)! There was awhile when it was thought that I would have to repeat my stint in the middle school grades.

So here's how its going to work: I'll be the homeroom teacher for the fourth graders and have them for half the day. The other half of the day I'll be teaching the third graders. Ms. Jenson will be teaching the kids when I don't have them.

We interviewed two teachers today and I didn't LOVE either of them. But I realized that's because I was comparing them to Sophia...and no one can top her. I learned so much from working with her and she was such a great role model.

Ms. Jenson is much older than me...perhaps in her sixties, anglo and bilingual. She's taught all grade levels, in inner cities as well in refugee camps in Costa Rica. She's got some serious experience. I hope to be able to learn as much from her as I did from Sophia. I really hope that she wants to work together for the both classes, rather than us planning seperately for both.

It was good to go back to ADLR. For awhile we thought we were going to move back to where our school was orginally situated, this was the reason for all the hurried packing at the end of last year. At the last moment, Sr. Callejo decided that it was better to stay where we were rather than make the move, which means that the packing was a mute point. It was nice to be back in the classrooms, everyone coming back from break, seeing the old faces. Report day is August 3. I'm ready.

Four Days Left!

It's true! Only four days left of the school year. I'm swamped with paperwork, place cards, testing requirements, grades, report cards, retention paper work and on top of that, we have to pack up our classrooms! Craziness! I think my students have a good start on the packing, we shall pick that up in earnest next week. I'm so behind on paperwork though, I'll probably be at it all weekend.

Cosmo is trying to get out of his three days of in school suspension. I'm tempted. I let him eat lunch with the class today, because I took pity on how lonely he must get all day upstairs with only the administrative staff to keep him company. I've decided however that he need to fulfill his punishment.

Tonight was Awards Night and Kindergarten Graduation. The latter I think is ridiculous. You get high school graduation and college graduation if you are lucky, but I draw the line at Kinder graduation. I have kept mum about this particular opinion of mine (as I do with other political opinions) at school but Sr. Callejo told me a story that tore at my heart the other day. A mother came into thank him for holding a Kinder graduation ceremony because this would probably be the only time she saw her son in a cap and gown. (Yup, the kinder kids will be wearing caps and gowns.) I mean, that story got me for a second, but then it just made me a bit mad. The kid is six years old and already she has lost faith in him.

The Awards ceremony was nice. Each teacher recognized students in his or her class that stood out because of achievement and attendance. I chose my three best girls; Callie, Fiona and Denise. I wanted to be less gender heavy, but I didn't have a single boy that I thought deserved it even a little bit.

I have rediscovered the musical, "Les Miserables" along with the "Wicked" trilogy. I'm so looking forward to summer.

It rained today, smelled so nice outside.

Five Days Left! And a forgotten favorite lesson!

There are only five days left of school. Last night was the Indigo Girls concert, so I'm not at Alma De La Rosa today. However, yesterday was a doozy.

Everything went alright until the afternoon, which is about par. Cosmo has started playing football. Everything is about football. He loves to regale me with how many times he had to run up and down the hill during practice the night before. Yesterday at lunch he told me that he couldn't get in trouble for the rest of the year or he wouldn't be able to stay on the team and I said, "Wow what great leverage to hold." Then he asked me if I thought he could throw an apple (he had one in his hand) from the inside of the cafeteria where we were sitting across the driveway of the school, across the next street and hit the house on the south side of the street. This was a good long distance that perhaps Tom Brady could have made. But not my dear Cosmo. So I said, "No, I don't think you could make that throw and even if I did think you could make it, I wouldn't let you try because that's totally not allowed." He gave me a sly smile continued to beg which I mostly ignored other than to say "You better not," about three more times.

Well. He did it. And than had the gall to be upset when I wrote him up. He was given in school suspension for three days. At first I felt a little guilty because of what he told me about his football team and then I snapped out it. 1. He was dumb enough to tell me about it in first place and then 2. He was dumb enough to be so directly disobedient that he had to know I was going to write him up. I do not feel guilty.

Oh and while I'm out Teacher Rhonda is substituting for me. Awesome. Tomorrow is going to be rad! (so. not.)

A forgotten lesson: Before the election, I signed the school up to do an online election. I thought this would be it, but no, I got totally into it. My friend Brigid was working for Tom Udall at the time and I invited her to come speak to my fourth graders and give an unbiased perspective on the two candidates! The kids asked some good questions as well as some inane ones. (One of the fourth graders, Lacey is obsessed with knowing what happens to a person's property and financials after they die, she has asked each speaker we've had about it.) I created Voter Registration card based on the one I received from the state of New Mexico. The Boy used the computer to actually make it a card, with the school mascot on it and Sr. Callejo signed it as the Registrar. It was totally rad.

When the big day finally came, Sophia taught our class all day, so I could go around to all the classes and help them through the internet voting program! There was even a map that popped up (like the one on CNN) so that the kids could see how kids in other states were voting. Only seven voted for John McCain, one of the girls, Brita doing so because "Well, the other one kills babies." (Awesome.) After the election we had an all school assembly and Sr. Callejo asked me to talk to the kids about it one more time. So I stressed that in this election more young people had voted than in many years past and that when they turned 18 it would be their turn to vote for real. I really hope they remember that.

Favorite Lessons from this year!

So in the interest of being less negative, I decided to write about some of my favorite lessons of this year.

During Balloon Fiesta, (while I was still teaching fourth grade) Sophia and put together paper mache project. Simple enough, the kids had a great time and they were beautiful to look at when they were finished. Another teacher, Mr. Dido brought in a tissue paper balloon and we talked about how real balloons fly. I got to tell them my story of taking a ride in one and being in the chase car. It was the perfect example of teachers working together to create a great lesson for kids.

Before Thanksgiving (still in fourth grade) Sophia set up a soap making lesson! The kids actually made soap. I did some introductory lessons about simple chemistry and we pooled money for the materials. Parents came in and helped with some of the more complicated steps. All the kids were involved in all the steps and at the end we wrapped the soaps up and the kids sold them and used the money towards the "Earth" field trip. Fun and learning was had by all.

So far, these have been other people's (mostly the awesome Sophia) ideas. But this one is all mine. It started to snow one day (still fourth grade) and the kids were so excited for recess. Except that Sr. Callejo imposed every kids' worst nightmare; indoor recess. The kids were devastated. He does this because we are living in New Mexico and he think parents will be mad if their children are outside in less than 60 degree weather. Anyway. Well the bathrooms are across the driveway so I took the kids to the bathroom and on the way there and back I had them catch snowflakes on their shirtsleeves and look at them up close. When we got back to the classroom I read them the story about Snowflake Bentley (which I had just happened to order the week before) and then in small groups of three they looked at pictures on the internet of snowflakes magnified. The kids loved it. I felt really good about it!

Now for the sixth grade. There have been many moments, especially since Monte moved into our school. Monte is questioning some part of his gender. This has opened up a can of worms that until he came was just not something that was part of the class' world. But there have been at least three conversations where I think I really made a difference in the way that the kids saw people that do not follow the usual gender identity pattern.

I also just absolutely love how the girls have turned out. They really are a bit of a hint of what they will be.

SAT, Pedis, Manis and Dog!

Ok, SAT meeting yesterday. It was the last official meeting of the year and we had 5 students to talk about. Marianna from my class was last on the list.

Marianna is one of my lowest students. I had her last year and was unsure whether to promote or retain her. Sr. Callejo and I got together and decided that because she was progressing (albeit slowly) we would retain her and monitor her progress this year. Well this year she had Teacher Rhonda for the first six months of school and she basically stopped progressing.

I had parent teacher conferences about a month or so after the switch. I explained to her mother that after working with Marianna all last year and so far this year, I felt that pushing her into seventh grade (she's about three years behind in both math and reading) would be too much of a leap and she would feel left behind and frustrated. The mother was disappointed but understood what I was saying (through a translator.) I explained to the mother that I would put Marianna through the SAT process we would see where we landed in May. She agreed.

Well, Marianna is still behind and is still progressing slowly. Going through her educational history, we learned that she had been taken out of bilingual classes and put in monolingual classes before she was fluent in either language. Because she was not able to continue learning in Spanish it became it was hard for her to continue learning English as students use their first language to help them learn the second. I've also noticed some interesting things about her reading. For example, when reading Dr. Seuss, where there are repetitive words she'll still miss the same word ten, twelve pages in. When she is reading English or Spanish she'll skip whole syllables. Both of these are red flags and when I brought them up at the meeting some of the other teachers suggested testing for Special ED.

The mother refused testing outright. Which surprised me. I had heard stories of parents refusing testing but had never seen it happen in person. Sr. Callejo explained to me (in a very patronizing way, that "that's a big deal, a big label for the Latino culture to deal with." Oh, how I hate that...he makes it sound like 1, I don't know that Special Ed is seen as a negative label by most of society, 2, that I don't know anything about the Latino culture and 3, I need things explained to me because I'm just an Anglo.) So, I said, "Well, it's a big label for everybody, which is why we explain to the parents that they can still refuse services after the testing, but that the results of the testing will help us learn how to best help the student."

Anyway, we gave the mother a few options; 1. Marianna is held back in the sixth grade, 2. Marianna is tested, 3. Marianna is held back and tested, 4. Marianna is promoted to seventh grade and tested, 5. Marianna is promoted. We back and forth over the options, assuring the parent that the first time a student is recommended for retention, the parent could override (not the second time though.) She just couldn't decide. So I suggested we give her a few days to decide. She agreed that she would let us know by Monday.

I've a bad habit of tearing at my cuticles. I've had this habit...gosh...since middle school I think. My mother could probably tell you exactly when she noticed. It's I'm stressed/I'm bored habit. My thumbs have always have always gotten the worst of it. Two years ago, I noticed that my tearing habits had moved to my toes as well. This I put a stop to. I got a pedicure every other month or so, so that they would be too pretty to tear. It worked! Here is the latest:

I made a deal with myself that if I could just let my fingers and thumbs heal and the nails grow a little, I would go and get a manicure. It took two years, but I was finally able to do it. I went for two manicures and the second time watched very closely. I will probably never be able to do a pedicure as well as the ladies at Magic Nails, but I could probably do a manicure alright and lo and behold, after two or three tries, I think I got the knack of it:

I guess it's a little fuzzy, but there are little pink ditty dots! Yay! I hope I can keep it up!

So an update on the dog. We are not getting a pitbull. (Everyone hear that?) I guess people actually read this blog because I've had a few interesting calls from family about it. My parents made it very clear that they didn't think this was a good idea for all sorts of reasons. But for me it finally came down to the idea that I don't want my parents to visit (as they will be in November and...well...the rest of my life) and be afraid of the dog. Even better, years from now when we have little ones running around I don't want my mother sitting at home thousands of miles away worrying about what the dog might do to the children. So no pitbull.