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.

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.