On Monday, my kids re-took a quiz that they had totally bombed. Nearly all of them improved their scores drastically. I've been slowly but steadily bringing up my kids grades so that now only about half of them are failing. It makes me despair less.
Tuesday was the start of my Chemical Reactions project. I was really pumped about the reactions I picked to have my kids work up, and they really didn't complain about the assignment. For the most part, they dove right in and started what they needed to do. I decided to arrange them in groups according to ability level...that way, the ones who knew nothing would be forced to learn something because there was no one else to carry them. I even told a few of the groups that..."sink or swim, kids!" They complained a LOT, but most of them rose to the challenge. I have been very impressed by the cool things they've turned out. Also, their mastery of objectives had improved during this time (kind of like the whole point...) and I have high hopes for next week's test.
Wednesday there was an organized student walk-out and strike that our kids found out about when it started...and they were too afraid to actually walk out. Long story short, it made them really rowdy. However, one of my girls, Symone, went doen to the principal and spoke to her about how she felt their concerns weren't being heard. Dr. Peters promised to give them a class meeting to discuss the topics at hand. When Symone told our class about it, I was so proud! Then one of my juniors, Kevin Diggs (for more on Kevin, go to Tom's blog and read "...and that's why I teach for America), stood up to speak about the strike and where student government stood on it. He basically called all of the ones who were standing in the hall immature, and told them that if they ACTUALLY cared, there were a lot of forums to go to, and they should see him if they had questions. What a gread, involved child. I beamed.
On Thursday we had the assembly/meeting in question, and it went ok. There were about 15 kids who wanted to talk, 30 who wanted to listen, and the others who didn't care or want to be there. The kids got frustrated...but honestly, I was excited about their frustration. It is invigorating to see them get fired up and try to make changes in their world! Which is the whole point anyway. Also on Thursday, some of the EOP kids went on a field trip to Towson University. They came back during 6th period, and they were so awestruck. One of my most energy-consuming kids, Marcus, really caught my attention. I'd just come out of a meeting with his dad last week, and we talked about Marcus doing better and setting himself up to go to college and all that sort of thing. Well, he was SO excited about the Towson trip. I was listening a bit to him talk, and was about to tell him to settle down and work, until I realized he was telling everyon how wonderful actual college was. He wasn't talking about hot girls or about good food or parties...he was talking about the buildings, how everyone was working, how people were being paid to go. I talked to him about it, and through the stars in his eyes he said, "I always wanted to go to college, you know, but now I WANT to go to college!" Now he doesn't just want the finished product of college in the form of a degree...he wants to actual experience of being there. I was overjoyed. While I was talking to Marcus, I overheard Rashad start talking to my special educator about college...majors and credits and all that. Such a positive thing. (On a side note...it might have been a bad plan to put Marcus and Rashad in the same group, because they are two of the ones who pretend to be dating me...today got a little out of control with them vying for my affection. It was quite flattering and very fun, but perhaps not too professional...)
Today, my fourth period was very small, only 8 kids. Most of them were done with their projects, so they were making collages and we were listening to some really old-school "slow jams." Here we are working and chillin'.
It was so chill, I loved every minute of it. So awesome. During lunch, I talked to Carl about the whole Ms. Holly's evil note situation, and when he did not get any response from his mother or Dr. Peters about it, he made more photocopies of it and distributed it to her students. He is also going to scan it and send it to me. If he does, I'll post it. He is officially a genius. She did something else heinius today, and Tom handled it quite well. Ask him if you want to know, or I'll post it later. Sixth period was fun...I mostly just played around with the kids, not so much worrying about work. It made me laugh and feel quite good, to end out the awful week. Tonight Aya came over for an impromptu dinner, and that was really nice too.
Ok, bad stuff. On Tuesday I got shoved by one of my highest achievers, and I'm not planning on letting her come back to class, though she has asked sincerely. I also got bitched out by another girl who has had a serious attitude problem lately, and then during the assembly she told me to shut up. Another kid was so obnoxious that I came dangerously close to hurting him. I put 3 out today for accidentally hitting me while play fighting...on two separate occasions. I got tricked into spending time in a financial planning meeting during my lunch on Thursday, which made me LIVID. I was stuck in traffic and had a rotten day yesterday, so I made myself fishsticks and macaroni for dinner to make me feel better.
See, this positive outlook thing worked. Instead of spending all that space on negativity and throwing in the positive, I spent the space on positivity and threw in the negative. Let's try and keep it up. Also, please go to Tony's blog, you'll dig the most recent post...it cracked me up.
Oh, and hey, comments are always cool so I know I'm not writing to Mr. Nobody. You can post even if you're not a blogger!
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