Yesterday marked the start of our homecoming spirit week. Since we don't have a competitive football team, there is no game, no real culmination, but that doesn't stop us from dressing like fools for five days and having a dance Thursday night.
Yesterday was school spirit day and the school bought everyone matching tshirts. It was a little creepy to be in the halls between classes and see EVERYONE in the exact same thing. But, it was a nice idea and now I have yet another school shirt to rock at the gym. Tomorrow is "professional dress" day, which means I can wear parent-teacher conference wear and be okay. Thursday is twin day, which I might pass on - last year the whole SS department went as "twins" (technically, qunituplets), but this year's department doesn't have that same vibe. Friday is class color day and I will rock some combination of green (Seniors) and black/white (7th graders). You may have noticed that I skipped today (Happy Halloween, by the way). That is because today deserves a paragraph all its own.
Today is "'bama day." A 'bama, as far as I can tell is pretty unique to the DC area. Everyone who has lived here long enough simply knows what a 'bama is, but probably can't actually articulate that knowledge. "A 'bama is...you know...a 'bama" is what my kids have told me for the last two years. 'Bama outfits range from crazily mismatched to raggedy and dusty, but what they all have in common is their pure outlandish-ness. Earlier this month, I got a reasonable explanation. As I suspected 'bama is short for Alabama and the idea is that people in that state dress is loud and sometimes clashing colors. So "'bama day" is, in essence, mismatch day. Only for any of you who teach in schools with mismatch day, trust me when I tell you this is mismatch day to the Nth degree. Craziness will reign supreme in school today.
To answer your question, yes I did dress for 'bama day, as hard as it was for me. My whole being shies away from mismatching clothes and I have always had trouble embracing this particular spirit day (regardless of its name). Today I am wearing a navy blue skirt that has light blue and light green circles and dots on it. I am also wearing red loafers and a two-toned pink striped polo shirt. It's not the light up tiara, shorts on top of pants ensemble that another teacher is rocking, but it is the best this Banana Republic girl can do. (Note that I wore flip flops and a jean jacket to school so that when I stopped for treats this morning, I passed as an average young professional. And I have jeans and a black button down in my bag so I can go babysit after work in regular clothes.)
Oh. And Halloween in DC? 75 degrees and sunny. Happy day.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
GAH!
I had entered 12 of 25 grade comments when my laptop decided to suddenly reject the pop-up comment screen (which hadn't bothered it in the past) and force me to refresh the gradebook site, thus deleting all aforementioned comments. Sometimes, technology is NOT our friend. Grr...
Friday, October 27, 2006
Two-in-One
POST I: Maybe relationships are like pregnancy
You know how most pregnant women do not tell people they are pregnant until they are through the first trimester? I am starting to think that maybe women should treat relationships the same way. Not tell anyone about them until they are through the unstable start-up period. Otherwise, you are left having to explain to a lot of well-meaning people that it "just didn't work out" or something similar and even less convincing. And there are few things worse than reliving your pain/confusion by explaining to your happily coupled friends that "current-crushing-on-guy" is now "no-longer-in-the-picture-guy," especially when the explanation is that he seems to have fallen off the edge of the planet or no longer feels ready to date.
I like to think that I have a pretty good attitude when it comes to being single and dating, but even I have my moments when I start to wonder. Today is one of those moments, I think. I mean really, was I absent from school the day they said this would be so hard? Or gave out the Cliff Notes for dating? B/c I am clearly missing something. ::sigh:: One of my friends once referred to herself as "one date P.." and I am starting to think I should pick up the long forgotten moniker. Seriously.
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POST II: A sorry state of affairs
My friend Jen posted a soliloquy on urban education, talking specifically about her experienc teaching HS in Milwaukee, that I loved. I have struggled for years to put into words what I see and feel and know to be true about my job every day and she managed to convey all of that and the sense of urgency that grows in me each day.
I hope she doesn't mind, but three of her paragraphs really resonated with me and I wanted to share them with more folks, especially with election day right around the corner.
The books and the research about delinquent activity among high school students says that increasing a student's social capital decreases delinquent activity. I know, personally, how valuable mentorship and community programs can be for high school students-- I'm just overwhelmed by the need. I don't have the time or the energy to be that connection or make those connections for all of my students and to also keep coming back every day. I have to make room for myself in here somewhere if I'm going to make it at all.And that's the thing, really. In the school system in which I grew up, there were certainly families and students with serious issues. The majority of families and students, however, were relatively healthy-- so the teachers, support staff, community agencies, churches, etc. could pick up the slack for the few students and families in serious crisis. In this situation, however, this whole community is in crisis-- and it's a serious crisis-- and the future just looks so bleak.
I don't know how to fix this stuff, but I know what we are doing is absolutely not working. Instead of working to increase the numbers of adults in these students' lives, we are cutting teacher positions and increasing class sizes. Instead of creating more ways to increase our students' social capital-- by providing more sports, after school clubs, special interest classes, and family programming; we are stripping budgets of everything but the bare bones of what's being tested to comply with NCLB. And in the meantime, the jails just keep being built and the wars just keep being fought and we wonder why our students don't know how to solve their problems peacefully and feel compelled to pledge allegiance to the gang.
I'm pissed, and I'm frustrated, and I'm disgusted, and I'm just so, so, so terribly, terribly sad. As a society, we are conveniently chosing to look the other way as generations of children are the living victims of poverty, drug abuse, gang violence, and inadequate education. We have our own CHILDREN living in Third World conditions in every major city in this country, and we're fighting terrorism across the world. What about the terror of having old bullet holes in the walls of your house from the most recent driveby in your neighborhood? I have no idea why we are spending so much time worrying about making it more illegal for people to get married and who is going to do what to lower our fuel prices. We are failing as a city, as a state, and as a nation-- and until we get our shit together, not one of us is innocent.
Think about it ladies and gentlemen, because the woman speaks the truth. And not just about Milwaukee - the same is true in cities around the country and something must be done. It may never be enough, but it is also never too late to try. And if we all start somewhere, then we will all start and that's something.
You know how most pregnant women do not tell people they are pregnant until they are through the first trimester? I am starting to think that maybe women should treat relationships the same way. Not tell anyone about them until they are through the unstable start-up period. Otherwise, you are left having to explain to a lot of well-meaning people that it "just didn't work out" or something similar and even less convincing. And there are few things worse than reliving your pain/confusion by explaining to your happily coupled friends that "current-crushing-on-guy" is now "no-longer-in-the-picture-guy," especially when the explanation is that he seems to have fallen off the edge of the planet or no longer feels ready to date.
I like to think that I have a pretty good attitude when it comes to being single and dating, but even I have my moments when I start to wonder. Today is one of those moments, I think. I mean really, was I absent from school the day they said this would be so hard? Or gave out the Cliff Notes for dating? B/c I am clearly missing something. ::sigh:: One of my friends once referred to herself as "one date P.." and I am starting to think I should pick up the long forgotten moniker. Seriously.
**************************************************************
POST II: A sorry state of affairs
My friend Jen posted a soliloquy on urban education, talking specifically about her experienc teaching HS in Milwaukee, that I loved. I have struggled for years to put into words what I see and feel and know to be true about my job every day and she managed to convey all of that and the sense of urgency that grows in me each day.
I hope she doesn't mind, but three of her paragraphs really resonated with me and I wanted to share them with more folks, especially with election day right around the corner.
The books and the research about delinquent activity among high school students says that increasing a student's social capital decreases delinquent activity. I know, personally, how valuable mentorship and community programs can be for high school students-- I'm just overwhelmed by the need. I don't have the time or the energy to be that connection or make those connections for all of my students and to also keep coming back every day. I have to make room for myself in here somewhere if I'm going to make it at all.And that's the thing, really. In the school system in which I grew up, there were certainly families and students with serious issues. The majority of families and students, however, were relatively healthy-- so the teachers, support staff, community agencies, churches, etc. could pick up the slack for the few students and families in serious crisis. In this situation, however, this whole community is in crisis-- and it's a serious crisis-- and the future just looks so bleak.
I don't know how to fix this stuff, but I know what we are doing is absolutely not working. Instead of working to increase the numbers of adults in these students' lives, we are cutting teacher positions and increasing class sizes. Instead of creating more ways to increase our students' social capital-- by providing more sports, after school clubs, special interest classes, and family programming; we are stripping budgets of everything but the bare bones of what's being tested to comply with NCLB. And in the meantime, the jails just keep being built and the wars just keep being fought and we wonder why our students don't know how to solve their problems peacefully and feel compelled to pledge allegiance to the gang.
I'm pissed, and I'm frustrated, and I'm disgusted, and I'm just so, so, so terribly, terribly sad. As a society, we are conveniently chosing to look the other way as generations of children are the living victims of poverty, drug abuse, gang violence, and inadequate education. We have our own CHILDREN living in Third World conditions in every major city in this country, and we're fighting terrorism across the world. What about the terror of having old bullet holes in the walls of your house from the most recent driveby in your neighborhood? I have no idea why we are spending so much time worrying about making it more illegal for people to get married and who is going to do what to lower our fuel prices. We are failing as a city, as a state, and as a nation-- and until we get our shit together, not one of us is innocent.
Think about it ladies and gentlemen, because the woman speaks the truth. And not just about Milwaukee - the same is true in cities around the country and something must be done. It may never be enough, but it is also never too late to try. And if we all start somewhere, then we will all start and that's something.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Repetition works
So, in order to teach our students to be better writers and to best prepare them for the standardized test in spring, we have been working with them on using evidence/details in their writing. The basic idea is that they open with their thesis (answering the question in a complete sentence) and then give three details or pieces of evidence that support their answer. They must also explain how each piece of evidence/detail relates to their answer. Then they close with some sort of conclusion.
They work on this in English with open response literature prompts and I use it in Civics with "big questions" from each chapter. Some students are still struggling with the five sentence paragraph format so today for their warm up I asked them to write a five sentence paragraph that explained why this weekend would be fun. Here is B's response:
This weekend will be fun because it is longer. I will be able to do more things with my family because I will be home longer. I could go to Phillips All You Can Eat or IHOP with my family since it is a longer weekend. I could probably go to Six Flags with my family since the weekend is so long. That proves that the weekend will be fun because it is longer.
Clearly, he has gotten the point.
They work on this in English with open response literature prompts and I use it in Civics with "big questions" from each chapter. Some students are still struggling with the five sentence paragraph format so today for their warm up I asked them to write a five sentence paragraph that explained why this weekend would be fun. Here is B's response:
This weekend will be fun because it is longer. I will be able to do more things with my family because I will be home longer. I could go to Phillips All You Can Eat or IHOP with my family since it is a longer weekend. I could probably go to Six Flags with my family since the weekend is so long. That proves that the weekend will be fun because it is longer.
Clearly, he has gotten the point.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Out of sorts
Three things have me out of sorts today:
- My second period was AWFUL. Outright-yelling-awful. Calling-all-parents-awful. Completely-and-totally-exhausted-awful.
- My back is twinging and locking and hurting; must go to the gym after work then.
- My best friend in kindergarten is now three months pregnant. She is my first friend to have a baby outside of high school. Congratulations, Russ and Nora!
Monday, October 23, 2006
A whole new me
Friday night I went to get my hair cut and colored. I decided to try something completely new, something I'd been thinking about for awhile. I have been digging my long (relatively anyway) hair so I kept that, but in honor of fall and fresh starts and all that good stuff, I went in a whole different direction with my hair color.
At our apartment-wide party Saturday night a few friends didn't even recognize me, but once I re-introduced myself they all lauded the change. Even my kids were supportive, telling me I look great and that I should keep my hair this way. Thank G-d too b/c if they hadn't liked I would have known for sure.
So what does the new me look like? An awful lot like the old me, only with much darker hair. Witness:
At our apartment-wide party Saturday night a few friends didn't even recognize me, but once I re-introduced myself they all lauded the change. Even my kids were supportive, telling me I look great and that I should keep my hair this way. Thank G-d too b/c if they hadn't liked I would have known for sure.
So what does the new me look like? An awful lot like the old me, only with much darker hair. Witness:
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