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!