Fashion Advice 101

Yesterday at school, one of my 8th graders took a look at me as we were sitting doing our guided reading.

"Ms. D, do you realize you're wearing white, black, and gray in that outfit?" she asked me.

"Uh yes, I picked it out myself this morning," I replied.

She didn't even answer, just rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book. Now I know how my mother must have felt when my sister and I commented on her clothes. Next time, I'll call up my middle school fashion consultant before coming to work.

The School District of Philadelphia: Inefficiency in One Easy Vignette

Today we had an all-day professional development. I was supposed to be getting an all-day training on a reading program we're in the process of implementing, but they canceled on us last minute. Instead of coming up with something meaningful for me to do, or, letting me go home where I swear I would have been more productive about school, I sat around all day. Doing nothing. I couldn't even clean my classroom because the K-3 professional development was in my room. Fail, SDP, major fail.

Frustration

This week was one frustration after the other. First, having to give benchmarks and reading level tests in the same week was a management nightmare. If looks could kill, I'd be dead by now thanks to my students. They were not happy to have to take 2 standardized tests in one week (and while I can't blame them, I still wish they would complain less...)

Then, I got observed for my certification on Thursday, and instead of celebrating my progress this year (and recognizing that mid-May of 8th grade will certainly not be the best time to observe...), I felt as though only my management mistakes were being pointed out, and believe me, I'm fully aware of things I should have done differently from the start. On the same day, though, my 7th graders were their usual awesome selves, and I got a stellar observation from my assistant principal. I am doing some things much better than I used to, and I wish that had been acknowledged.

And then, I had the same child swear at me twice in the same day, so I wrote him up, causing his mother to fly into an outrage, call the school, and then hang up on the middle school dean. Friday morning, I had to have a meeting with the family to "settle the matter," during which the child lied and said he didn't swear, his parents believed him, wanted to call his friends in as "witnesses" (though we all know they won't say anything about their friend), and basically insinuated that I was out to get this child. This is the second time this has been an issue in my class, where this child has said something and then lied to his parents and said I made it up, and it just boggles my mind that they believe him. My assistant principal launched an "investigation," in which all the other kids (predictably) said they didn't hear anything (or they heard something that may have been disrespectful but they're not sure), so instead of getting a suspension (which is what another child got when he was disrespectful to the principal) he got detention on Monday. It's a bad precedent to set in my classroom and I am not happy about it.

And finally, some of my 7th graders stole the answer sheet to the reading level test, which made me angry because I feel like I have a better relationship with them than that. It did get returned, anonymously, at the end of the day, so at least that's a bright spot.

But it was one of those weeks where I can see why these schools have trouble keeping teachers, especially if they don't really feel like the administrators have their backs. When there's a double standard for disrespect to the teacher and to the principal, that sends a pretty awful message to the students about the teachers. It's really too bad that, with all the issues urban districts face, a lot of the times the schools are shooting themselves in the foot.

Teacher Appreciation Day

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day, and all across the country, teachers are being appreciated by their students and principals. Duckrey also recognized its teachers, with breakfast in the morning, and cupcakes this afternoon. I also got some of my first teachery desk supplies, complete with cheesy sayings about teachers touching the lives of their students. It made me smile :)

However, this day also makes me think about all the teachers I have had, both employed by schools and colleges and those people who taught me valuable life lessons. Though I think most of them probably don't read this blog, here's thanks to them as well. I don't think I realized how hard it was to teach someone until I started trying, so for all my awesome teachers out there, thanks for what you're doing and keep on doing it...I don't think you screwed up anything too badly with me ;)

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

I mean to post this on Friday, but I decided to actually have kind of a social life this weekend in between working, so here it is now...

On Friday we were taking a quiz in class on our Holocaust novels, and this is always a management disaster. Keeping the louds kids quiet so that everyone can concentrate on their quizzes is a little bit like playing tug of war with a gorilla. But I did eventually manage to get things quiet in my last period class, and was walking among the desks when one of my hyperactive students yells out, in reference to the girl sitting near him

"Miss, she's saying that I have a small penis!"

Now, the first thing that came to my mind was that this girl is pretty studious and is unlikely to be whispering this under her breath as we're taking a quiz, so I said, "I'm pretty certain that's a lie."

Oops. Didn't think through that one. My class burst into laughter, and thankfully, it was time for us to break for lunch, because there's just no way you can follow up on that one.

Coincidence?

Today we had our last English methods class of the year, and our professor decided to try out a few surrealist experiments on us. One of them involved writing conditional statements (If..., then...) to create a poem. The trick was, one person wrote the if part of the statement, and then folded the paper over. The next person wrote the "then" statement without looking at the "if" part- and of course, in a room full of young 20 somethings, double entendres and hilarity ensued. However, the best statement was one that, completely randomly, possibly made the most sense to any of us:

"If I made my choice again....I'd quit my job and move to Mexico."

If only...

In all seriousness, I do like my job a lot of the time though...and with that swine flu, Mexico isn't looking like a good choice anyway.

Middle Schoolers Say the Darndest Things...

In the middle of our guided reading group meeting during my second period class, as we were discussing the Holocaust and how Jews tried to escape to free countries, one of my male students leans over and starts sniffing. I looked over at him with a quizzical look on my face and he says, quite seriously,

"What deodorant are you wearing Ms. D? It smells really good!"

Sometimes you just have to laugh.