If I'm Procrastinating, So Are You.

The inevitable fate of someone who is trying to record events - when there are events to record, you don't have time to write, and when you have time to write, there is nothing of interest to report. On the other hand, when you do have interesting things to report and also a rather important cumulative project to work on for your Masters degree, somehow procrastination finds a way to make time to write. It is under that context that I am now able to post the update.

I finally got to take my kids on our field trip to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the 28th. This was the reward trip for all the kids who got 80% or better for their Midterm, the trip I had originally planned for a month and a half earlier but due to the ineptitude of our secretary had to postpone until this final date. The trip was a blast and went off without a hitch...unless you count accidentally leaving a student at the museum when we went out to lunch and then having her leave to look for us and us only finding her by chance as our paths crossed on our way back to the museum a hitch. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some picture highlights:






I was rather disappointed to find, upon my return to school, that someone had peed in my room. At first I denied it, thinking maybe someone spilled soup or something, but when I tried to mop it up the smell was undeniable. It was...irritating, to say the least.

The great news is that three of our girls, Jesi, Victoria, and Shakora, went to the school board meeting to speak on behalf of our school, and they voted not to close us (a 4-3 vote, probably swung by our brilliant girls) but to send us to Harlem Park Middle School and give us $5.5 million to set up our programs. The chairman of the board apologized to the students for their misrepresentation and personally promised to make sure they had what they needed. I went last Friday on our professional development day to meet with the administrators and the architects to plan for our space in the new building. It is going to be phenomenal - the building is 100 times nicer than the Southwestern building, for starters. We will have large space and enough rooms for all the classes we want to offer - and also 3 multimedia labs, a digital media lab, a technology lab, a photo lab, and even a kiln. We'll be like...a REAL school! Talking to the kids about this and about how we were going to prove we deserve it got them really fired up, and several of the kids are in the process now of starting up their own clubs and organizations. I helped them to decide that if no one else was going to do it, then it was their responsibility, and I'm impressed with how some of them have risen to the challenge. I love my kids - they are really getting empowered and making me so proud to be their teacher.

On a less positive note, one of our seniors was shot on Wednesday night. He is still in critical condition, last I heard. Though he is not my student, it still made me really sad. He is Tom's kid and Michelle had him too, and I imagine how it would feel for them. It's also sad when any kid gets hurt like that - a teenager getting shot in anything other than a total accident just isn't something that meshes with my brain as something that is supposed to happen. I guess that is reality for my kids...but I wish it weren't.

In other news, the portfolio is almost done (WILL be done by the end of today, if I have my way) and I have about 3 assignments left before my Hopkins experience comes to a close. I have less than 2 months of classes left. I can't believe I've almost got my Masters, and I can't wait to be done! This next week may be torturous with a lot of work left, but after that my aunt and uncle will be here, and then spring break, and then the year is almost over! YEE HEE!!!