Positive Outlook

So I guess I kind of like my principal these days. I got in trouble last Friday...got called to her office and everything. I knew what was coming...I put a girl out of my class with a note that said "...to waste someone else's time while she wastes her potential" and she told me "you know, you could get written up for these smart little notes. People have been giving them to the principal." I said "I'm fine with that." So when she asked me to come to her office at lunch the next day, I was expecting it. I came in, sat down, and she handed me another note, "...to inquire about GED programs or learn some academic responsibility." I thought I was going to get some lecture on respecting kids and all that, but instead she said, "Where exactly were they supposed to go? You need to give them a destination." I guess a parent had called up mad at me, and she told them that given the fact that the kid had a history of fighting, class cutting, disruptive behavior, and hall wandering, she figured I was probably just fed up with the kid and that she might need to have a talk with her. I thought that was nice. So this Friday when I put out my entire 9th period I gave them a destination. Five minutes after class started, I had 6 kids in my room and one other who had checked in and gone on a quest to find water. Four of them were in the hall, and another four were MIA. So I left a note on the door that said, "Unless you are Shmira...Have a nice weekend! Be on time on Monday! Do not knock!" Then I added notes to the door with names sending them to specific teachers' rooms to write a paper on student responsibility. I'm going to do the same for the rest of the week.

Also, we got a memo last week that we could no longer send kids home for not being in uniform, but that we could suspend them if they showed up 3 times out of uniform for failure to follow school rules. Since then, she's made an announcement every morning telling us to send kids who are not in uniform to the office. I found out this week that she's still sending them home...just with a conference letter saying they're not following school rules. Our attendance is back up a little bit, and most of the kids are showing up every day in uniform. Interesting how just a few days of actually enforcing rules gets kids to follow them....

So my kids are a lot smarter this year. In reality, it's probably just that I am a better teacher and they are behaving so they're actually hearing what I have to say, but whatever he case is, I was all braced for a lesson that totally confused my kids last year, and my kids this year were like, "yeah, ok, that's easy." So I've planned a full week instructing this material, and now I get to cut it down to two days. Neat!

One big highlight of the week was having my kids remind me on Monday to vote. The downside was when I reminded them to get their parents to vote, a surprising number of them said their parents can't vote because they're felons. Yikes. Even so, having Tuesday off to do some Hopkins work that I was really behind on and get a little sleep was magnificent. And I was exceedingly pleased with the election results (except the victory of Heather Wilson in New Mexico).

This week I started my new part-time job as the Program Assistant for TFA. It is so nice to work with people who are organized! I'll be doing a lot of odds and ends for them, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm also considering working for them full-time next year instead of staying in the classroom, so this should give me an idea of what I could have to look forward to. It's really fun!

Oh, we saw Stranger than Fiction on Friday with Taylor and Megan (after I cooked this amazing gorgonzola cream pasta...mmmm....) and it was the best movie I've seen in a long time! I even forgot it was Will Ferrel after a few minutes. On Monday I also saw Running with Scissors, but I was very disappointed. It had the same content as the book, but a very different tone. They really missed the mark there. Though Annette Benning's acting was breathtaking. So if you saw the movie but didn't read the book, go ahead and read the book, it'll be better.

That's it for me...we've got a half-day this Friday for parent conferences, and then the following week is Thanksgiving (and my birthday!!!). I'm really looking forward to it, even though I don't get to go home (Matt's parents are coming here, though). Wish me luck making dinner for them...I'm a little nervous...tips and advice welcome...