On the Reservation

I'm sure Native Americans would have something to say about this but my 1st period kids seemed to enjoy being put onto the reservation I created in the corner of the classroom.

Renaissance Debates

Lina, Brenda and David- our Magellans
Danny, Andrew, Faris and Amy- our Brunelleschis

Because we have so few days to teach the Renaissance, we kill about eight birds with one stone by having the kids take on the role of a Renaissance Man and prove why they are the greatest influence on modern society. So the kids for a day become William Shakespeare, Fillipo Brunelleschi, Johann Gutenberg, Leonardo da vinci, Michelangelo and Ferdinand Magellan. The students are divided up into debate teams (they pick who can debate 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) and they try to prove to me why they are the greatest person of the Renaissance. I've read biographies about all these men and let's just say some of the things that I heard in this debate are far cries from what they might actually say. Read on for more entertainment.

"If you didn't have the lantern, you couldn't go camping!"
- Andrew, as Brunelleschi


"What would happen if there was no gas in your helicopter- which I inveted. Well, I invented the parachute too so you wouldn't die."
-Geo as da Vinci


"Why am I the greatest person of the Renaissance? Um, because I'm cool."
-Manny, as Magellan

"I made it easier to send letters to peoeple who were in a war."
-Nick, as Gutenberg (although no mention of Gutenberg Bible.... hm....)

"You know, you look good with tape on your mouth!"
- debating got a little heated and I don't remember who said this but I did write it down :)

and probably my favorite (although I did almost fall off my chair I was laughing so hard at Andrew's quote...)

"I made it harder for people to make good art that's better than mine because i'm so good."
-Sean, as Michelangelo

Love it!

Clash of the Titans: Leonardos versus Gutenbergs


Tuyen, Andrew, Geo and Alyssa strategizing for the da Vincis

Ariel, Vu, Eli and Ana preparing to defend Gutenberg

Edgar, Jessica and Yanira- our Shakespeares

Did Michelangelo get his inspiration from the heavens? That's what Nick seems to be indicating, joined by Lydia, Jonathan and Dennis

Really Cool Lesson

So today with my seventh graders I did a lesson on the Black Death. "Sounds cheery!" as one of my students said. I really didn't spend any time at all on the Black Death last semester because we were running short on time but Catherine recommended this lesson so I thought I'd give it a try.

I passed out to each student a copy of the Graphic Novel, which is supplemental to the textbook. This portion of the graphic novel had only pictures, no words, and basically went through the story of the Black Death. It started with a picture of a trading ship coming in and then showed the rats transferring the fleas which bit the humans and started off the train of the Black Death. Later pictures showed more and more people coughing and dying, the bodies being taken away on carts drawn by men with skeleton masks on and ended with a picture of a town with rats overlooking it on a hill.

I partnered the students up and gave them a Sum It Up page. For each page of the graphic novel, there was a questions. The kids talked to their partner and then wrote their answer down in the appropriate Sum It Up box and then we shared out. The kids were FABULOUS! They came up with some great answers, some diverse answers and definitely some unique answers. One of the last few questions was why there was the nursery rhyme "ring around the rosies" and so I sang it for them in a very dramatic voice.

Ring around the Rosies
A Pocket Full of Posies
Ashes, Ashes,
We All Dall Down

Let's just say it totally creeped them out, especially when we discussed the meaning of each line and how it's not a fun game to play and dance to but it's got a very dark history. I told fourth period about this book I have called "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown" which basically digs into the history of a whole bunch of nursery rhymes (Little Jack Horner was a squatter and a thief, Ba Ba Black Sheep was a cry against taxation, etc.) and some of them (not the ones that I would have expected) asked me what the book was called so that they could read it! Some kids came up to me at the end of the period too and told me that they really enjoyed the lesson. Yes! That's what I like to hear!

Certainly a First

Last night I was night duty for the spring play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Let's not even get to the performance yet (which was probably the funniest thing that I had ever seen in my life...) but I'd like to repost here the letter that was passed out to all audience members because never before have I seen something so elaborate like this before. Usually when you go to a performance, someone comes up before it starts and says something like this: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming tonight. Please make sure that all cell phones and pagers are turned off. No flash photography and please be aware that the performance is being taped. If you need to leave, please do so quietly as to not disrupt over audience members. Thank you and enjoy the show.

This is what we get....

Dear Audience Members,

In an effort to provide both the performers and the audience with an enjoyable performance experience, we offer these guidelines for audience behavior. By overseeing these guidelines, everyone contributes to the success of the show.

1. During the performance, it is important not to talk, sing along, or yell. Shouting a performer's name is inappropriate and will disturb the performer and others. Applause at the end of a musical selection or scene is appropriate and welcome.

2. We are professionally videotaping this performance. Please stay away from the stage area, all sound equipment and the videographer so that we can have the best possible copy of the show. If you are interested in purchasing a high-quality DVD of this production, please see Mrs. M after the show or send a note stating you'd like to purchase a DVD of the performance.

3. Please avoid walking in front of our video camera operator, who will be in the center aisle. If is important to attend the entire production out of respect for the efforts and dedication of all involved. If one must leave or enter while the show is in progress, lease do so only during the applause between selections and avoid the center aisle.

Finally, we deeply appreciate your attendance at our show. We understand that may people attend in support of a specific person or persons. Please remember that while your person may have completed his or her contribution, someone seated next to you could be listening intently for another special person's performance. Please help everyone enjoy all performances by respectfully adhering to the above guidelines.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Mrs. M and the Drama and Choir students.

Wow.

Again, wow.

I was pretty speechless, so let's get onto the performance. First of all, one of my students was up there and I have never heard him speak so much before. Good to know that his vocal chords work. Another one of my students was playing one of the "actors" and my goodness, was he not the best "moon" that I had ever seen. The other students were OK, but so many forgot their lines and confused the plot! I know the plot of a MSND pretty well and there were times when ever I was like "what?" So all in all, it was definitely a show to laugh at and get some amusement from. I'm seriously contemplating buying the DVd just for the dance that the actors did at the end. Best part of the entire show. Full stop.

Idiot

This is what happens when you go for a month without posting. You repost stories twice. So at least you get the proposal story two times. Good thing it's a good story.

By the way, here are a few more quotes from today.

Peter (repeating over and over again while trying to figure out a question on the Southern Literacy Test): Spell backwards, forwards. Spell backwards, forwards. Spell backwards, forwards. Stop laughing, Miss Yadlin!!!!

Sammie: R-squared P! Get it Miss Yadlin! R-squared P for Radical Republicans Plan! Do the math, woman!!!

Peter (again, struggling with the Southern Literary Test): This is harder than the CST!

me (as I'm checking over Yarely's Crusade paper): What does that mean? The Crusade lost. A Crusade can't lose. Go fix it.
Yarely goes and "fixes it"
me: This still doesn't make sense! Now you've written The Crusade French! What does that mean?
Yarely: Ooops, I erased the wrong word....

Coming up with their own plans...

So, there are several plans of Reconstruction. Lincoln had his 10% plan, Wade-Davis had their plans, Johnson had his plan and the Radical Republicans had their plan. And now, my students have their own plans. Here are a smattering of them, along with my sarcastic comments.

Jonathan: It would be better if we just forget the past and go on with the future.

my commentary: This sounds like the Oprah plan. Can't we all just forget the past.....!!!!

Briana L: Southerners shall be jailed if caught disrespecting African Americans.

my commentary: Don't you disrespect me! What's that from!!?! South Park maybe? We should call this the South Park plan.

Gaby: The southerners who rebelled should be left behind in all the planning until they agree with the plan.

my commentary: This is the either you're with us or you're on the outside looking in plan.

Briana C: When someone rebels, I would put them in jail. Also I would try to beat them to the punch.

my commentary: I THINK she means that she would try and make sure that the south doesn't rebel again by taking forward action but she needs to be aware that using a phrase like "beat them to the punch" can also mean physically beating them up. Which would take the plan in a whole 'nother direction...

Jackie: Execute KKK's, execute any lynchers kick the senate and governments that make unfair laws. Call a huge meeting for a compromise.

my commentary: Where do I begin? I'm a big fan of kicking the senate. Although does that meaning kicking the Hart Building in DC or the door of the Senate chambers in the capitol or kicking each individual member? And then I also like the huge meeting. Where will this meeting be held? In the entire state of Kansas? We might all fit there....

Denny: Southerners who rebel should be tried and if found guilty should be punished accordingly to their crime.

my commentary: What's the crime for leaving your country, starting a Civil War where over 600,000 people were killed and African Americans should be enslaved? 25-life?

Melissa: I think Southerners should be punished in the worst way possible.

my commentary: Again, what would that be? Tickle them until they squeal? Put them in a cage and poke them with a stick? Push them out on an airplane? I need specifics here!

Here's my favorite...

Good Ricardo's plan: All African Americans would be free. They will be able to vote. They will be treated with respect. Southerners who don't respect this will be shot (oh dear!). State should have new Confederates (wait, what?)

Bad Ricardo's Plan (is he schizophrenic? Multiple Personalities? Where did Bad Ricardo come from?): African Americans who do the smallest thing wrong will be shot. Some some Confederates but none black (I don't get this one). If an African American rebels, he/she shall be hung.

my commentary: Wow, I really have no words.

I love reading the stuff that their crazy minds come up with!

How Could I Forget....

...that a student proposed!! :)

OK, before you think it's scandalous or anything, here's the story.

I was teaching about European Feudalism and we were talking about how it was nice to be king or a lord, but not so much a peasant. I was also reminding them that they needed to stay on my good side because I was the queen of the classroom and I would be chosing who was going to be the king and the lords and knights and serfs during our Feudalism activity the following week. They were all trying to "flatter" me and I was telling them that it wasn't working and then one kid, Sean, who was sitting on the floor in the front of the room got a big grin on his face.

"I know how to be king!" He exclaimed, and then rolled up onto one knee in front of me and pretended to open a ring box.

Needless to say, the entire class and I cracked up. And Sean, for his effort, was given the position of knight for the activity.

Hey, there was NO way that I was actually going to make him king! That would be wwwwaaayyyy too awkward! :)

Time to Stop Avoiding....

All right, I've been avoiding writing this for awhile but I guess it's about time for a big update. So here goes....

So, I don't know really where to start, so I'll go back to March. I received a Form D in March, which basically says that I need to "improve" on some things and since then, have done everything that my principal requested I do- went to go see a teacher on campus as well as off-campus, meet with the 7-12 Social Studies instructor and debrief with her, etc. Since March, she came in to see me for a cumulative of 20 minutes- five minutes here, ten minutes here, three minutes here, etc. Several times I even requested for her to come in and she did for about five minutes, which was frustrating.

So on April 30th, she comes into my room 5th period on Wednesday, saying that she was "just" told by personnel that she needs to do my formal evaluation meeting by May 1st which was THE NEXT DAY! Then at the meeting, she tells me that although she's seen some improvement, she hasn't been enough (when, during all those times that she's visited????) and that after consulting with other people who have observed me (who are all teachers and therefore should not be part of the evaluative process) I'm just going through my motions because my job is on the line and that I'm not just a good fit. So she's going to decline to rehire me at the end of the year. When I tried to protest saying that I didn't feel that I was being evaluated properly because she had only been in a few minutes, she wouldn't take that into consideration saying that she's looking for very specific things (which I still don't understand how she can evaluate when she's been in for two minutes.... anyway). When I told my department, it hit the fan. One of my dept members came with me the next morning to meet with a GGEA Union rep (I love how they've just adopted me as their little girl in the department- they are so incredibly protective) and then today I was told by the principal that she wants to come in sometime this or next week to observe me "again" formally (although how it can be again when she never formally observed me in the first place is beyond me....). I was also told that someone from the district would be in during the next two weeks to observe me as well (which is nice but also frustrating since those were two weeks of testing where we see our kids every other day).

So fast forward to Thursday when she came to observe me. I was teaching a lesson on lynching and the blues. We started out by talking about music and what kind of music the kids like and it eventually led us to talking about the blues. We t hen watched a video clip from Ken Burns' Jazz DVD about the blues, which had great pictures and some awesome blues music in the background. We then listed ideas on the board why the African Americans might be "blue"- i.e. Jim Crow laws, black codes, having to sharecrop, lynching, etc. We focused on lynching, looked at some stats on lynching and then watched another clip from Jazz about the KKK and lynching. Then we turned to nine documents about lynching and they got into partner groups and analyzed one document each, summarizing it and indicating if it was a step forward for anti-lynching or a step back. After we went over each document as a class, the partner groups took a big index card, wrote their document, the date, the summary and whether it was a step forward or back. We t hen put those kind of on a vertical timeline on the board with the step forwards to the right and the step backs to the left. we discussed the significance of the steps forwards and backs and how lynching went on for quite some time after Reconstruction. Finally, we brought back the music from the beginning of the period and listened to Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit. Their homework was to fill out a metaphor chart, explaining what Billie Holiday was really talking about.

I had the principal come and observe third period. They're a small class, 17 kids, but a pretty good class, certainly 100,000 times better than at the beginning of the year. And let me tell you, we both KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK! They were great, I felt so confident and at ease and when it was over, I was so proud of them and myself. I KNEW that I did a good job so no matter what happened at our meeting on Monday, I was going to know that I did my best and did a great job. She came up to me afterwards and said that she saw improvement and that we'll talk on Monday.

So another fastfoward to Monday. She starts by asking me why I taught that lesson since it wasn't a focus standard (I KNEW she was going to ask me that too and so I had a kick-butt answer prepared). I was very confident during the meeting and very articulate and explained my positions well. she made some odd nit-picky comments that were pretty ridiculous but whatever and she eventually said well, we'll continue to observe you and let you know more in June.

What the heck?

So that's when I said, very politely, of course, that I needed a more specific timeline. Especially since the job market in California for teaching is so up in the air right now, it's not fair for me to be in limbo for all that time and so I need to know sooner rather than later what the situation will be. I'm really proud for sticking up for myself (thanks department!) and although she kind of danced around an answer, I'm going to stay on her case until she let's me know. June, what the heck does that mean anyway? June is in two weeks. Beginning of June, end of June, what? But whatever happens, I know that I've done my best, my students are doing great and constantly improving and if she's dumb enough to not hire me back next year, then I don't even want to be there.

So that's the situation. Full stop.

Some more quotable quotes

So disclaimer: Some of these will be funnier to me because of the context but hopefully some of them will be enjoyable to the rest of you.

Jose, Denny, Ricardo, Andy, Joe

Me (observing that a kid sitting in his chair has his wallet hanging down onto the ground): Um Sean, your wallet is just hanging out there...

Sean: Yeah I know.... this thing (pointing to the metal ninja star looking thing on his wallet) is poking my butt.

Me: Hm... thank you for sharing....

Julio (seeing if Linh has a paper since he has an extra): Excuse me, miss, do you have one?

--since when do eighth grader call each other miss or mister?

Jenny, Kendy, Irma

Jose: She doesn't want to work with me... (said with the SADDEST puppy dog face EVER)

Seventh grader (coming through a mass of kids outside the door, looking like he's just made his way through the biggest crowd ever): Everybody's hugging everybody outside!

-AMEN seventh grader- what is it with middle schoolers and having to hug everybody in their five-foot radius! They aren't even real hugs! They barely touch!

Alex: Miss Yadlin, do vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Robert and Thomas

Thomas: Miss Yadlin, have you ever seen "Not Another Teen Movie"
Me: No, I don't think so. Why?"
Thomas: Cuz you look like the girl in that movie.
Me: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Denny (rolling up his sleeves to make his t-shirt sleeveless): Check out my guns!

Irma: Dude, Denny, you're so white!

Denny: Yeah, well, you should see my thighs!

Me: Please Denny, please don't.

Gabriel: Miss Yadlin, you're Jewish?

Me: Yes.

Gabriel: So does that mean you despise Hitler?

Me: Gabriel, I would hope that even if I were not Jewish I would despise Hitler.

Gaby, Gabriel, Melissa

Ricardo (after I confiscated, for the second time, his Magic Eye book from Melvin): Dammit Melvin!

Me: So what does pastoral mean?

Thomas: Well, pastoral is like a big meadow with flowers and little streams with deer jumping over it....

Me: Deer? When did deer get involved in this?

Man, I love these kids!

Teach What You Love

I feel horrible saying this but I am so glad that we're done with China and Japan. There's nothing wrong with those subjects, but I just don't feel connected to them. I haven't been there, I don't have any stories, any anecdotes, any pictures, anything. The Chinese and Japanese were awesome, don't get me wrong. I mean, who doesn't love a good reenactment of how samurai committed hari-kari? I know my kids do.


But Europe man.... Europe is my bread and butter! I love this stuff, I eat it up, I'm consumed with it. I love telling my stories and showing my pictures and getting the kids excited about this. I get to bring in my pictures of Dover Castle and Canterbury and Southwark Cathedral and the Globe and the statue of David and Oxford and Cambridge and all these places that I'm teaching about that I've been to! I get to tell stories that I've heard myself a hundred times. I had the kids in sixth period eating of the palm of my hand this afternoon when i was telling them the story of "Why One Should Only Have One Child If One Does Not Want to Fragment Their Empire." They loved hearing about how Charlemagne's grandchildren split up his empire and then divided it again.... and again.... and again.... and again... until finally the king had to make sure all the lords were loyal so they didn't rise up against him!



They asked a ton of questions about what it was like to be a knight or a lord and lady or the king or a peasant and a serf. They even now are trying to act as good as possible because they know that next week, one of them might be king and the others will be serfs and peasants. Sean even went so far as to "propose"! He was on the ground having come up to sit nearer to the board and stated: "I know how to be king!"and then got on one knee in front of me and mimed opening a ring box! The class cracked up but it was so clever since I had dubbed myself queen of the room earlier and had gone around promising certain people that they could rule their table as long as they didn't cause me any trouble (fealty at its best).

Man oh man, I hope they continue to enjoy Europe because I know that I'm going to have a blast teaching it again.

Lesson Learned

I know, I know, you've never supposed to touch a kid. I thought that i had the relationship with most of my kids where we could joke around but apparently I got involved with the wrong kid. yesterday, I tapped a kid with a pencil to get him to pay attention and the extent that this incident got blown out of proportion was out of control! During 4th period, Mr. Presby came by to find out what happened and I told him, because the kid had claimed that i had thrown the pencil at him. The pencil did slip out of my hand when I tapped him but there was definitely no throwing. Presby asked for some names of kids in the area pretty much for "witnesses" but apparently this kid has a mom (who I met at Open House and seemed very nice) who also likes to blame everyone but the kid.

So the next day, Presby came in before school and said the mom had called and could I apologize? I said absolutely, and I don't mind saying it in front of the class because it's no big deal. He thanked me and said that's all I needed to do and if she still had a problem and wanted the kid out of the class, I probably wouldn't have a problem with that. I replied that i certainly wouldn't shed any tears.

The funniest part of the entire thing: Third period rolls around and a few kids come in. One of them comes up to me and says "MIss Yadlin, did you get in trouble for Gabe and the pencil?" And i replied, "No, but I'll apologize to him today." She says, "Well, if you have any trouble with him, then let me know. I'll take care of it." I cracked up. Then two more kids, the two quiet, sweet Vietnamese kids who sit at his table, tell me that they were called up to the office and said that it was a tap and Gabriel was totally blowing things out of proportion. I felt so bad for those kids and they were just pissed that he had to be called up to the office for something so ridiculous (for those good kids, getting a note to come see the VP is terrifying!) Even Gaby, a friend of Gabriels' was called up to the office and said that he had blown it out of proportion. It was really funny to see all those kids ganging up on the kid and pretty much all on my side. Very interesting!

Anyway, at the end of the period, I apologized and s aid I hope that we could put this all behind me. He claimed that the only reason that he said anything was because Presby came by and asked him why he was outside. Note: he was outside because he failed to do his homework again and I was sick of it, not because he was tapped with a pencil.

At least I know now that Christina has my back... good to know. :)

Surrounding Support

On my way to school this morning, a red light went on on my dashboard around the temperature guage. When I got to school, the engine seemed to me smoking a little but I really couldn't deal with it until after school. I had called Abba and he told me to get one of teh guys to help me out. Of course, what is the first thing that Mark tells me when I ask him if he knows anything about cars?

"No."

Brilliant. I didn't even try to ask Hau but instead ended up asking Irv Abrams, our lovaeble, incredibly un-PC but totally funny woodshop (and apparently life skills next year) teacher. I explained what had happened and he gave me some suggestions and said that he'd come check it out after school. So after school, Irv, dressed in his seriously bright lime-green polo (awesomest shirt ever!) and brown pants, comes out to the car with a bucket of water and proceeds to spend about twenty minutes looking at the car, trying to fill the correct compartments with water, etc. He got wet and his hands were filthy but he was so incredibly helpful! I was blown away by how well he was taking care of me. He came to the conclusion that I probably shouldn't drive home so I then sat outside on a kind of three-way conversation betewen Mom, Abba and myself and Wendy walked by. She offered to take me home even though I didn't need it but again, it was nice to have that support. The lovely ladies in the office found me a god place for me to take the car that was in Garden Grove so I wouldn't have to tow it all the way down to Lake Forest. Later that afternoon, when I was getting the car towed, both Sharlene and Steve made sure that everything was OK and that I had someone meeting me at the garage and picking me up.

Even though I don't get around to much of the staff because I'm mostly with the history department, it's nice to know that I've seemed firnedly enough for others to care. I definitely think that I have more friends on campus than the rest of the department (mostly because I'm too scared to outrightly hate anyone anyway!). I've been volunteering for things lately and that's gotten me involved witho ther people and it's nice to know that if the entire history department left (please God, don't let that happen) there would be other people around that i can be friendly with and that I know will help me out.

It's a nice feeling.... :)

Oh Idaho

Things I miss and love about Idaho:
1. Downtown Boise
2. Pita Pit
3. Old Chicago
4. The HAPENNY!
5. My kids at Timberline
6. The apparetly nonexistant elk farm
7. Being able to gather around the table with eight people who kind of know each other and still be able to chat and have fun for over an hour.
8. CAMPUS- with the clocktown, memorial garden, buildlings filled with memorials, fountains, oh man I miss ACI
9. Sitting behind the 100+ car train at very specific times of day
10. The feeling that it takes longer to get from the Franklin exit to Caldwell than it does to get from Boise to Caldwell
11. the Capitol buildling, despite its reconstruction
12. the Anne Frank Human Rights memorial
13. random coffee shots like Thomas Hammer, Flying M, Java, Moxie and of course the needed Starbucks through in every once in awhile
14. Ralph Smeed's gems
15. driving past the empty hops fields on the way to church
16. church
17. my professors- history, english, ed and music, plus the admissions folk
18. driving through the center of the Activities parking lot, ala Megan
19. the random track around, but not really around, the soccer field
20. people playing golf the day after it snowed
21. 96.9 the Eagle! Best classic rock station ever!
22. Brooke's house
23. Mary's cooking
24. freeways with two lanes
25. traffic being bad if you sit for about ten minutes
26. my small group
27. all my friends
28. Idaho in general

But, because my life is not horrible down in California, here is a list of what I love about California.
1. my family
2. my friends- especially Amanda, Megan, Kristina, and Maya
3. my kids, except a few ..... :)
4. my department
5. my bed
6. the weather
7. Junior high group and staff
8. college and young adult group and staff
9. voyagers
10. Legacy
11. freeways with more than 2 lanes
12. driving against traffic both ways
13. the beach
14. San Diego
15. Elephant Bar's drinks, especially Strawberry Cyclone :)
16. walking around the lake
17. my car with the ipod connector that my rental car didn't have
18. the ability to wear tank tops nearly 365 days a year
19. palm trees
20. parks

So yeah, I totally miss Idaho but I don't have much to complain about down here either. :)

Long Overdue Update

So yes, I know that it's been weeks since I've updated. Not because I've not had anything going on but mostly because too much has been going on. A lot has happened since I last posted. So let's start at the beginning.

So I didn't receive a pink slip (California's going through some pretty intense budget cuts right now) but I come back from Winter Camp to have a meeting with the principal. She told me the previous week that she wants to talk about "instructional issues" so I'm like "that's fine, let's do this". So in the meeting, she discusses some "instructional issues" that she would like to see in the classroom, like engagement (aka making Popsicle sticks with everyone's name on them to call on them in class) and "checking for understanding" (which is the new "big thing" in the district right now). Those were under issue number one and there was an issue number two that said curriculum issues or or something like that but she said absolutely nothing about that. So after the meeting I go over to Catherine and she's like "this is a Form D! She can't give you this after the deadline." She immediately gets on the phone to GGEA, the union and sends me over to go see them immediately. Apparently, a Form D basically is what you get if they're maybe thinking of not having you back next year. If she didn't want me back at the end of the year, she would have had to previously given me a Form D. This doesn't mean that I'm done for and I'm not getting my job back next year, but basically I'm on the chopping block. Anyway, I go over to GGEA and talk to the president and he tells me that she can give me a Form D whenever she wants but to give me one with no warning and having only been in my classroom twice in the last two months (one of those times being a day they specifically told us to not teach new material since half the kid would be out for the Spanish language test) is pretty shady.

Now what does this mean for me now? Well, basically it's Suck-Up City time. I basically need to show her in as many ways possible that I'm trying to be the teacher that she wants me to be. If that means making note cards with my kids' names on them to useto call on them in class, do it (check). If that means going to observe Mark and his questioning strategies, do it (check). If that means going to visit another off-site teacher to observe, do it (will be checked after Spring Break). If that means meeting with a TOSA after I'm observed, do it (check). If that means attending optional meetings, no matter how inane, do it (I will be attending probably every single upcoming advisement meeting for the year of my life). And this sucks. Not the extra stuff that I have to do per say but really the sucking up to someone that i don't really like and respect. I really don't have confidence in my principal. I have watched her around the students and they can walk all over her. You can't have that in an administrator of a middle school, especially a middle school with some pretty tough kids. They should not be saying that Friday Follow Through (Friday detention for not doing homework during the week) is fun when she's there because they know that they can talk. It's very very frustrating. I realized that there is no way in hell that i can ever present my thesis to the school without cutting out a lot because everything that I discovered about what makes a good school with a strong culture is missing from my school right now. It's out of control!

Thank goodness for my department though. From minute one of getting the Form D, they have been behind me, giving me whatever I've needed, from support to humor to a letter to the ACLU asking if we have a lawsuit on our hands since both Jimmy (the teacher who was fired last year) and I are Jewish. I'm so grateful and lucky to have such a great department and also support of people outside of the department who have been on my side with this. So that's where my saga ends for the moment. Who knows what will happen as things go on. Tomorrow my kids take their benchmark and then I'm off for Spring Break. Thank goodness- it cannot come soon enough!

Some quotes that I remembered....

Alex: How old do you have to be to retire?
Me: Um, usually 65.
(long pause...)
Alex: How old is Mrs. Tartaglini?

ouch.....!

This one was more a quote on my part but the kids loved it.
Me: So when you're powerful enough to take over an entire country, you get to decide what religion they are. So the Chinese came into Korea and spread Buddhism through the power they had.
Brayhan: Miss Yadlin, do you like power?
Me: Brayhan, who doesn't?
Brayhan: I don't like it when people who don't have a lot of power think that they really do have a lot of power.
Me: Well listen, Brayhan. I don't care how much power you think I have. All I'm going to remind is that I'm still in charge of the gradebook.
Class: Oooohhh (softly)
Me: Oh, and would you like some ice with that burn (said of course with a grin).
Class: Ohhh! Brayhan, she told you!

And this one came today while discussing the accidental invention of tea.
Benny: So tea was actualy an accident.
Me: Yes, Benny. A lot of what is invented comes because of an accident.
David: So does that mean I'm an accident?

Quotable Quotes

Amanda told me that I should write down all the funny quotes my kids have said over the months so I'm going to start compiling them here. I can't remember too many off the top of my head so for now, I'm just going to put the ones that I can remember and then try to add to them later.

Denny: No straight man is name Chester!

Nick: Why do British people say "wink wink, nudge nudge" all the time? (when requesting that I speak in a British accent)

Me: Yeah, I was kind of in a bad mood yesterday.
Kristine: Yeah, we noticed....

OK, I for the life of me can't think of any more right now. I'll think of more later though and make sure to write them down and add them. Trust me, my kids are funnier than I make them out to be :)

Breaks My Heart....

One quote that I wish I never have to hear again:

"Can I come do my dentention tomorrow because my family is going to visit my brother in jail today?"

Absolutely heartbreaking.

Jingles

At the end of last semester, Catherine and I had our kids write jingles to sum up what they knew about the Aztecs, inca and Maya. Here now, a month later, are the top quality ones.

(this one is sung to the tune of "Dashing Through the Snow")
Dashing through the swamp
In a one llama open sleigh
Through the grass bridges we go
Yelling Quechua all the way.
People about to die
By being sacrificed
Oh what fun it is to collapse
Someone else’s land!
All the slaves and warriors
They were sacrificed
Just to be tribute to
The gods in the skies.
They started to collapse
When Pizarro came and robbed.
Their king never returned
Because he was kidnapped.
We used chinampas to farm
To grow tobacco, tomatoes, and peppers.
Sweet potatoes corn and beans
In their swampy area.
They saw death, they saw death
As an honorable thing!
Oh they thought that killing
People was a sport.

(this one is sung to, I believe, "My Name Is" by Eminem..... and it did NOT get a good grade because I TOLD them a hudnred times to focus on more than just killing people....)

Hey kids, do you like violence? (yeah, yeah!) Do you want to see us the Maya, Aztec, Inc stick three-inch nails on each one of our eyelids? (OK!) Then you better watch us sacrifice all these people and play the death game. (Alright!) Which is the reason why we’re all gonna be extinct in exactly 100 years of less, expect the Inca. (I know!) Hi, our cultures name is (huh?) our name is (what?) our names are the Aztec, Inc and Maya (awesome!). Now watch up buy slaves just with one llama to stick a sword through his guts and eat them (Cool!). Now watch me sacrifice this person by cutting his head off with my sword (Sweet!) We’re all gonna die now because we’re all gonna be sacrificed now. Remember out names, the Maya, Aztec and Inca (Yes!) (Uh…. Die sound) Time to celebrate by eating our crops now!


(not sung to the tune of anything really...)

I am the Maya
I do the farm work
While my sisters do the chores
I believe religion
Is the center of life
Our people invented
The number zero
Our people sacrificed
All our slaves
We know…. How to….
Protect us with walls
So you better not mess with us at all
Bt if you ever want to meet us
We’ll never be there
Teotihuacán is our capital
And we disappeared
Oh…
I am the Aztec
I get educated till
I’m ten
You better pay a tribute
If you don’t want to die
You can visit us by the gulf
But you better not betray us
Like Hernan Cortez
He is the reason
We all are dead
Oh…
I am the Inca
You can find us
By the Andes
I hope you’re healthy
Cause you have to climb high
I live on a farmland
The mountains are hard to farm…
We don’t use chinampas
So terrace farming is for us
We call our selves
The “Children of the Sun”
You better not betray us
Or we’ll kill you all
You better not be
Francisco Pizarro
Because we’ll kill you all
So which one of us do you like the best?
Is it me?
Is it me?
Is it me?
Or is it me?????

(sung to.... what else? Yes, "Jingle Bells")

Jingle bells, Aztecs kill, conquistadors are from hell, we hate them, they hate us, they are conquering us, oh! This battle will be recorded in the best codices in Tenochtitlan, we’re running out, of food, from our chinampas, ah Quetzlcoatl must ate us, he needs more sacrifices, what fun it is to die from the Spanish armada tonight, oh!
Jingle bells, Incas, tell, stories from oral tradition, right now they sing of Pizarro conquering civilization, first he wanted gold, then he took Sappa Inca, then he held him ransom and ended up killing him, oh!
Jingle bells, Mayas are scholars, they invented zero, they were great stonemasons, they had a calendar, and used a codex, ho ho ho, they played death ball, talk about organized culture, this concludes my presentation.

(this one too is sung to the tune of.... nothing....)

Maya, Aztecs, Incas too… Let us tell you something new!
Sacrifices were important. Religion made an impact too… the Maya and Aztecs in Mesoamerica, he Incas lived in South American, so let us tell you something new.
The Incas loved their llamas, for they were essential for their needs: traveling, fertilizing crops, wool for clothing, and transport too! The Incas used terrace farming for growing leveled crops while the Aztecs used chinampas as floating gardens to grow food!
Aztec, Mayan calendars, keep track to play their games. They use their hips to hit the ball, losers get sacrificed after all! Inti, Chac, Quetzlcoatl, are the sun gods that the three empires praised! Incas, Aztecs, Mayas did religious sacrifices to please their gods as a tribute all in all!
Men were priests, warriors, hunters too. Women cooked, made clothes, created medicine. Women often married to Royal Families who lived in distant states, which created an alliance! These were the Mayan roles! Girls were taught to stay home, but those who got pregnant were honored. Women were skilled craftsmen too. Men were told to be tough and were farmers, artisans or traders. They could join the noble class, by doing one act of bravery. These were the Aztec roles!
The Mayas weren’t so nice. They threw captives into watery pits to please their gods, which wasn’t very polite. Aztecs, Incas, were conquered by conquistadors. Cortes defeated Aztecs, where Pizarro defeated the Incas
Nobody knows how Mayan’s empire collapsed. Aztecs are dead because of Cortez. Inca’s ended because of the Spaniards. Hope you enjoyed our jingle and maybe it will become a single.

From JJ

This isn't necessarily about teaching but it IS about books- therefore I deem it appropriate for this blog (plus, I'm the author- I get to choose to put whatever I want in here....) So here goes.

1) One book that changed your life.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I loved it as a story when I was little and then when I grew up, I felt a strong connection to the symbolic ties- Aslan sacrificing himself, Edmund's temptation of Turkish Delight and being a prince, the power of family and friendship. Plus, things just get better as you read on and continue to see symbols in the other six Chronicles of Narnia.

2) One book that you have read more than once.

The Outsiders. It's short but so incredibly powerful that as soon as I get to the end, I just want to go back to the beginning and read it all over again. (It's also possible that I want to do so because the last lines and first lines are the same....)

3) One book you would want on a desert island.
Honestly, probably The Idiot's Guide to Survival. Seriously, I highly doubt my abilities to keep myself alive on a desert island. Now, if I was just chilling on a desert island for a long time by myself, I'd probably want London by Edward Rutherfurd because it's loooooonnng and keeps me captivated.

4) Two books that made you laugh.
Anything by Bill Bryson but especially Notes from a Small Island. Parts like "My neighbor is a darkie", "Colins Crapspanties", "Don't call me bub....", pretty much made me snort with laughter the entire time.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So bizarre (no wonder, coming from the likes of Douglas Adams) but also so hilarious. It teachings you how to fly, reminds you of the dangers of tax evasion (being dead for a year), the answer to the Big Question of Life, the Universe and Everything (42) and features at one point of a cello player. Plus, how can you not laugh at an alien who spends his entire life going around and insulting every single person in the entire universe?

5) One book that made you cry.
Only Revolutions by Mark Danielewski. By the time I got to the end, I was so entranced by the love Sam and Hailey had for each other than by the time the book concluded and it wasn't the happy ending I was expecting, I had tears running down my cheeks.

6) One book you wish you’d written.
The Little House on the Prairie books. First of all, I grew up wanting to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. Secondly, because she wrote it, she obviously experienced so much history- living in Indian Territory and being removed by the US Army; living in the Dakotas before they were states; experiencing the locust plagues that often happened in the midwest. She lived such a life, seeing all these things! I'm jealous!

7) One book you wish had never been written.

Honestly, I can't think of one right now (at least something significant- I kind of don't like all those self-help books, which I never read, but I guess they're useful to someone...) but when I was in eleventh grade, I HATED reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles and honestly wished that Thomas Hardy had spent his life doing something else. Maybe he would have been a good blacksmith?

8)Two books you are currently reading.

Before. I just stared it so there's not too much to say although I have been enjoying the first few chapters. Also, technically it's not reading but it is a book so I say it counts. I'm listening to The Da Vinci Code on CD when I fall asleep and it's been interesting. As a basis for Christian belief, it's crap, as a story, it's decently captivating. But as a written piece of work, honestly, it's also kind of crap. Dan Brown is not the world's best author... not even close. But at least he can hold an audience.

9) One book you’ve been meaning to read.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Colin's told me for teh last four months to read it. I've given it a start but didn't have a chance to finish so I'm got to go back and give in another try this summer, possibly when I go to England since I'll have lots of time on my hands.

Life and Times of Die Fuhrer

Here is the paper on Hitler written by the kid in my fifth period that i referenced below. All spelling and gramatical errors are left in their original form.

Hitler Report

Hitler, the man who started and caused depression and angered others deeply. He was borned in Austria. He lived a poor life and later became homeless then soon je joined an army in Germany. theen leaders of Germany and Hitler started world war one. Then later on the war was ended, germany lost. Soon Hitler came to realize he hated Jewish people. He started well known racism. As hew as in the army his rank ascended. He had plans of massacreing Jewish people. So he did, which started the Holocaust. by then he became a leader of a fierces party, Nazis. His political party and military soon took the swastika symbol, symbol of which many type of people worshipped. Those people were very angry but were massacred too if you were against Hitler. Many Jews were so afraid of him he was soon known as a tyrant, fierce, dictator. during his plans the "Holocaust" killed many Jews. Attacked cities of the eastern side of Austria and eastern Europe. He'd also killed pople who are not the same as him or normal or something that he is not. That whole event caused world war two. Almost all countries that were against him teamed up to defeat Hitler and the nazis. Not long till other countries learned his teachings and ways "communist". After a long period of tie USA and other countries defeated the outrageous party and Hitler. He decided to kill himself, "suicide". The terror and fear was ended but not al was done. Most of the Asian countries went through his ways, "communist". Many people's lives were taken even the young were taken out, and mostly Jews of all kind, young, old and middle aged. Most were glad that that event was over. Soon other countries did communism but some were ended. And now still today they still do his teachings. Never the less we hope pain of our wounds will heal from the past.

Wow. Speechless.

Brother Future

When I was in eighth grade, every single class watched "Glory". Great movie. Plus, who doesn't like Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman and Andrew Braugher. Depending on time and everything, I may even show it to my own kids. What I had never heard of before was a movie called "Brother Future". Mark and Hau told me about it and I later went to go google it. The first thing that popped up was "science-fiction story...." and I was like "wow, um, OK...." Then I read further and got a little more worried. Basically, "Brother Future" is a story about a black kid named TJ from Detriot who's got a lot of street cred and basically thinks that he can do better hustling and making money from the street than goign to scool. He doesn't care about his past or his heritage- he's jsut interested in making money. One day, he's running from the police, gets hit by a car and wakes up in Chartleston, 1822. When I read that, I thought "Oh man, the kids are going to laugh me to Kalamazoo and back." While in Charleston, he is caught and thought to be a runaway slave. He's sold to a man name Mr Cooper at a slave auction and goes to work on Master Cooper's plantation. He meets a bunch of peope there- a friend named Josiah who is trying to read, Josiah's gf Caroline, the black slavedrive Zeke and Mortilla, a paml reader who tells TJ that in order to get home, he must help another slave without getting anythign in return and then find the big tree. Again, kind of cheesy and I'm getting concerned with the reactino of the kids.

Over the course of TJ's time in the plantation, he gets himself whipped, accidentally gets his friend Josiah whiped, hits on caroline, tries to run away and then ends up going to meet Denmark Vesey (woohoo! Real person!) He becomes involved with a slave revolt, led by Vesey and other slaves, including Josiah. Josiah, TJ and Caroline all try and escape after Zeke rats out the plan to Cooper and the two evil men chase after the three slaves. TJ stalls them while Josiah adn Caroline escape. Cooper shoots TJ and he falls from the shot, right under the big tree (after, of course, helping out someone without getting something in return.... cue cheesy music....). He awakens and leanrs that he really needs to know about his past and his heritage in order to know himself and learns that to help yourself, you have to help others. The end. Happiness all around.

So, by the time I decide to show this, I'm worried. I was borrowing the video from Mark, so I didn't know how the kids were going to react. But it turns out they were captivated. It really ended up not beign cheesy at all. The acting was decent, there weren't to omany bad lines, and best of all, the kids really got a sense of what like was like on a plantation in pre-Civil War times. I was really quite relieved. Incidentally, TJ was played by a young Phill Lewis, who now is apparently a character named Mr. Mosely on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, whcih the kids loved, and Denmark Vesey was played by none other than Carl Lumbley, who played Dixon on Alias.

So, I definitley will be showing Brother Future again in the future (no pun intended....)

Long Overdue Update

So, first semester has come and gone and we're into the third week of second semester. It's been a crazy last few weeks and honestly, I just haven't been motivated to update. But here, first of all, is a little recap of all my classes and how they're going.

First period- they're doing just fine. The only problem is that in the last two weeks, I've gotten two new students. One of them is from out of the district/county and doesn't know what the last thing that she did was. The other student came from a school in the district and when I asked her what she was learning, she said she didn't remember. I replied, "How can you not remember? You were just there last week!" To which she replied that she hadn't been in school for two weeks because she had been suspended for fighting. Well, fan-frickin'-tastic. Where do these people come from!

Second period- The only major problem with this class right now is my loud-mouth, life-enthusiastic kid who needs to just tune down the loud-mouth life-enthusiasm. he's a great kid, smart, highest (usually) grade in the class but just needs to learn when it's appropriate and when it's not. Hopefully he'll start to learn the more he has to stay after school. By the way, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but the rentention kid from fifth period who moved is now back and in my second period. And honestly, he's been fine. Still rolls his eyes and says "oh my god" but he's been doing his work and hasn't been rude or out of line so that's been nice.

Third period- Due to several kids moving or transfering into other periods, I now have 18 kids on this class and they're amazing. I love them. It's hard to believe that three months ago, they were a class that I didn't like and was having issues with. I think the fact that it is so small helps. I can connect with them on another level and can give them individual attention. They're not always thebrightest, but they're hard working kids, we've got some good report and some good inside jokes and they seem to be excited about what we're learning about right now.

Fifth period- Pretty much the same as last semester. Special-Ed boy still driving me (and pretty much the rest of the class) crazy (except for the day his MOM came in and sat with him during class... man!) but what can you do. The rest of the kids have been doing pretty well. Funny story- one kid (I don't remember hwo we got onto this subject) said that something about Hitler being cool or interesting or something like that. I was pretty shocked and so I said "OK, what I want you to do is go and write me a one page report on Hitler." And he did! I'll include it in its own separate post because, despite some flaws, he obviously did some research. So go him.

OK, so that's my eighth graders. My seventh graders are a whole 'nother story. So, they're definitely not as smart as my kids were last semester and they don't seem to try as hard. The major problem that I'm having with them is that they're not very quick on the uptake with learning my class rules. I've had to keep both classes after for talking, not raising their hand, wasting class time, etc. and I'm hoping that they're starting to learn. I wish that I remembered more of how it was the first few weeks with my first semester kids (dang, I knew I should have taken better notes....) to see if they're taking more or less time to adjust. Another thing that's hard with both of the classes is the amount of prior knowledge that they have. Which is none. Seriously, my kids don't know the 50 states, they don't know the differences between cities and countries and states, they can't tell me what number is approx halfway between 85 and 90, they don't know how to plot numbers on a chart, it's crazy! I know that elementary teachers need to focus on math and reading but if they don't teach basic history skills, then I can't teach what I need to! I'm struggling with that SO much but I'm really working to try and go as basic as I can with the amount of time that I have.

They also seem to have an issue with homework. I know that I started right at the beginning of the year with Friday Follow Through with my other kids so maybe I really have to enforce that right off the bat with these kids too and then back of when they start doing their homework. Many of them have already lost the privilige of turning their HW in late and I'm really thinking of doing away with it compeltely at this point because it just makes a whole heckuva lot more work for me and it just rewarding them for not doing their work in the first place. Because they either don't do their homework or they do it so poorly that it's basically worthless. Sigh.

I do like most of the kids though. There are some uber excited ones that just make me smile a lot and there are also some kids who really try hard. One quick story- there's a kid in my sixth period class who has a language issue, as well as a learning disability. So I can tell rright off the bat that there's something wrong with him and David (SDC and RSP teacher) confirms that with me last week. So despite the fact that this kid probablyd oesn't udnerstand a word coming out of my mouth nor does he understand the amterial, he is the HARDEST try-er in the class. His effort and perseverence to get his assignments in is amazing- all theo ther kids in the class need to take a look at him and have him be their example. he's fantastics. so for the story... today, after lunch, he walks into my classroom. "Marco," I said, "it's fifth period. You're not in here until sixth period." He is absolutely convinced that i'm wrong, that it's sixth period and that he's in the right room. I finally have to ask him if he recognizes anyone in the class (which, of ocurse, causes a kid to say "hey, he knows me!"- thanks, that defeats the purpose...), and finally he gets it. He is so precious!

So yeah, that's the update. Welcome to my life....

My seventh graders

Pictures of my fourth period kids....
Pictures of my sixth period kids...

Things That I've Learned

In light of the end of the first semester and beginning of the second semester, here are TEN things that I've had learned these last four months (but don't worry, I've learned more than this.... these are just the fun ones).

1. Always hole punch the handouts that you give. There's a 99% chance the students will NOT have a hole punch, there is a 99% chance that mine will get stolen if I give it out so, therefore, life will be eaiser for all if I hole punch the handouts myself.

2. Always make sure that the pencil sharpener is emptied- pretty much on a daily basis.

3. Be careful when calling on students who hold a pencil up when raising their hand. Most likely they don't want to answer the question, they just want to sharpen their pencil.

4. Always make WAY too many copies. Too much is much better than too little.

5. Never underestimate the mind of a seventh grader. They may pull something on you that will pretty much make you dissolve in laughter and end the lesson right there and then.

6. Boys will probably always play with those little fingerboards in seventh and eighth grade. They did when I was a seventh and eighth grader, they still will when my kids are seventh and eighth graders.

7. You can get yourself a lot of street cred with seventh graders by showing the collection of fingerboards that you've collected from the eighth graders...

8. A look of death can go a long, long way....

9. Practice makes perfect so PRACTICE not smiling, no matter what an eighth grader says about the sexual orientation of Chester A. Arthur ("no straight man is named Chester")

and finally.....

10. Learn to not flinch despite how bizarre a student's haircut might be.... how much cracking a seventh grader's voice might experience..... how ridiculous a girl's outfit may be...... and especially what their hair looks like after they show up in your class after P.E. and/or a very windy day.

Demon Possession and Bad Moods

For the most part, these last three weeks with my kids have been amazing. Other than minor disturbances here or there, the kids have been well behaved, friendly, inquisitive, not annoying, etc. Until sixth period Thursday. If this has been a Friday, I would have understood. But this was a regular, run-of-the-mill, ordinary Thursday afternoon. Which is why I am convinced that during sixth period, my seventh graders were possessed by demons. I was tempted to find myself some holy water, ala Sam and Dean style to see what I was dealing with. I have no idea what their problem was. They were talkative, noisy, they refused to settle down and, this is my biggest pet peeve, did the whispering and shuffling through things while I tried to talk. it got so bad and they wasted so much of my time that they ended up spending 4 minutes after school. I haven't had to do that with them in literally months! And the following day, they were fine!!! Ridiculous! I swear, demonic possession or satanic influence must have had something to do with this.

On the same sort of note regarding the major changes from day to day, I was in a horrible mood first period yesterday. I haven't been sleeping well, I had a major headache and the majority of the students hadn't done their homework. So basically, it was a "don't piss Miss Yadlin" off day. And they pissed me off. So first period was pretty tense. The rest of the day got better but the entire time I was praying that things just went up from this point, that the horrible first period wouldn't be the high point of the week. So this morning, I was in a much better mood, things were good and one of my students comes in and is like "Miss Yadlin, you're in a good mood this morning!" And I replied, "Yeah, I know, I was kind of in a bad mood this morning." And she replies in return, "Um yeah, we could tell." Nothing like the words out of the mouths of babes to put you in your place.

Final closing remarks- Thursday is my last day with my seventh graders! I'm so bummed! But i am looking forward to hopefully an even better crew next semester. Keeping those fingers cross and keeping that holy water in hand, just in case.....

Recap and Update

So I haven't written in a week not because things have been bad but maybe because things have been good. These last two weeks (two weeks? sometimes it seems like it's been longer, sometimes shorter...) have actually been amazing. I was incredibly worried about how the kids were going to react to being back at school after break but I have been blown away. Every day has been great. I have no idea what's going on differently or what's been changing but it's been fantastic. We've been having a great time in all classes and I've been feeling really confident. In the eighth grade classes, I've been doing more of my own lessons which I hope have been keeping them entertained and the end result of their test seemed better than before. I need to try and get an average for all the tests and see how they did and see if I can make some sense of teh data but yeah, in general, I've been feeling REALLY good.

CHANGE IS GOOD!

So my friend Megan and I were talking over hot chocolate and Daphne's tonight. One of the things that we ended up talking about was the idea of change. It's a long story about how we got there but in a nutshell, we were talking about how brutal junior high was. If you weren't in the cool crowd, your life could sometimes be miserable. If you weren't one of those kids who wore the right clothes and knew the right people and did the right things after school, forget being popular. And for those of us who were on the outside, we had such a fascination for those girls in the cool crowd. Even though you knew that your smarts and your brain would take you so much further in life, there was still this obsession, as Megan said, with those girls. And it wasn't as if they were nice.... even if you were on their side and you pissed them off or did something, they would give you up in a second. Presby and I were also talking about that today. A student got arrested at our school today and they knew it was him because his seven friends gave him up. They were all asked to write down on a piece of paper who did it and they all wrote down "It was John" except for John who wrote "It wasn't me." He told me that in junior high, it's every man for himself, you look out for yourself and there's is absolutely no loyalty. He paired this with a story from the high school where he sat with some high schoolers at lunch every day for a month trying to get them to tell him who stole a dictionary from a teacher's classroom and they just wouldn't budge and wouldn't give each other up.

In high school, this obsession just seemed to get worse. In a way you longed to be a part of the cool crowd but on the other hand, you really didn't want to be friends with them because they were mean and they drank and they talked behind peoples backs. Yet we knew every single detail about their lives. I know for me, I would always be really quiet around them, especially in class. They would use me to ask for help and then forget about me and talk about their inner social life and I, being the awed person I was, would just sit quietly and listen. I knew all the details of their inner circle and really, as much as part of me wanted to be a part of them, the other part knew that I would be miserable.

Fast forward now to college and post-college. All these people are still friends! And here's is where the Change is Good phrase comes into play. I'm not saying there's anything bad about being friends with people from high school. Heck, I still am friends with friends from my high school. But I've also branched out. I've grown. I've found out who I am. I've found what makes me happy. I'm totally and completely happy spending more than six hours a day with 150 squirmy, ADD, hyperactive, sometimes unmotivated kids. I love and adore the friends that I've kept from high school. They were an integral part in helping me find out who I am. But I've also made new friends. The friends that I've made in college and beyond far outnumber the friends I had in high school (and I am not that popular). I look at the people in that cool crowd in high school and junior high and I know that they're always going to have each other. But I wonder if they're going to be happy. I wonder if they've been caught up in this same social circle for so long that they don't know how to get out. I don't think they realize that change is good. Moving on is good. Meeting new people and making new friends and having new experiences is good. Being exclusive for the rest of your life is not going to get you anywhere. Part of me wonders if in twenty years, they're going to be looking back at their life and wondering where it all went wrong....

I'm not entirely sure where exactly I was heading with this when I started writing. In general, Megan and I had a really great conversation about the idea that changing is good and it was really great to talk and share with someone who was kind of there in the same place as I was, in a totally different school. It definitely made me think about my kids later when I got home and I hope for all of them that they can take those steps out of their comfort level, that they should strive to push the boundaries of their confinements. Overall, I want them to know that sixth period history class in seventh grade is not the rest of their life, junior high is not the rest of their life, college is not the rest of their life, it's just the steps that are being taken on this long road that we do call life. I want them to be able to lookg back at their life one day and be proud of how they lived, be proud of what they accomplished and most importantly, be proud of the changes that they saw over the years.

Debating and Discussing

I decided spur of the moment yesterday, admist discussions about the Electoral College and my realization that my kids realy know nothing about the world they live in, to assign my eighth graders a newspaper project where every week they get an article about the campaign and summarize it. I know that most won't do it but hopefully it'll get a few of them involved in what's going on and how the upcoming election will affect them. In first period, we ended up having a very long discussion about why they, as thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, they should be interested and should care who was president. We talked about policies that presidents have that will affect us- education laws, environmental laws, taxation law which, although mainly affect their parents, also affect them. But then we got onto teh discussion illegal immigrants and how illegal immigrants can't vote so why should they care. This got us onto a discussion of illegal immigration and why people immigrate and why Mexicans tend to do the more menila work and the American dream.
Anyway, this was a very long discussion and of course, you have to be INCREDIBLY careful about what you say. Usually I'm good at picking up when kids want to talk about "issues" but really just want to get me off-track but today, they were all really engaged and seemed extremely passionate about it, which seemed to make sense because a lot of it actually applied to them and their families.

Then, in fourth and sixth period, we were discussing Machiavelli. I love Machiavelli. I don't agree with nearly anything that he says but in generall, I think that what he says really rings true for a lot of people and certainly for a lot of leaders. The two main quotes that we were debating and deciding whether we agreed or disagreed with were "It is better to be feared than loved" and "The ends justifies the means". The best discussion took place in, obviously, foruth period. Most of them agreed that they wanted to be a combination of feared and loved. If you're feared than most of the things that people do for you are because they're scared but if someone loves you, they go it because they genuinely want to. I loved playing Devil's Advocate and pushing them to explain what they were thinking.

In fourth period, we were also able to talk about the quote where Machiavelli says "the only thing that prince's should learn is war and peace is just a time to breathe and get ready for the next war" (ok, so that's paraphrased, but the basic gist). This quote was interesting because we started listening things that rulers should be learned in. Students said things like history, theology, and then one kid speaks up.

Eric: How about philosophy?

Me: OK, good, philosophy. Why should they learn philosophy?

Eric: I don't know, I'm just throwing that out there.

Me: Eric, do you know what philosophy is?
Eric: No, no I don't.

Oh Eric.... :)