Textbooks, Conferences & the Sexual Habits of Plants

Week 6… what a ride.

Post Spring Break, Parent Conference week, and the beginning of spring (if the weather would cooperate).

The week started well considering:

Monday:
Looking through the madness that has been the last five weeks, and dealing with the regression of today, I am recognizing the progress we, as a class, have made. As for me, I’m still as disorganized as ever and wishing I had a few more routines I could call on… so I could stop this particular phrase from exiting my lips: “oh crap, where did that go?” Or could not have to deal with the mounting stacks of work to grade… it is never ending!

Tuesday:
On the drama front, there is discussion of dropping a teacher next year and the squeakiest wheel has been working on getting my support. The funny part is, I’ll be the first to volunteer to leave, although the last one they should let go (if only for the fact that they’ve been trying to replace the last long term jr. high teacher for at least three years). The school is discussing ways to pick up enrollment, seems having only 49 students doesn’t warrant four full-time teachers. The mentioned dropping of one teacher would put the school on a three grades to each class model… lets explore shall we: K-2, 3-5, and 6-8… doesn’t that sound glorious?!! (Did I mention there are no text books, no yard duties and limited parent help, as in I haven’t had any real help in my class to date.)

I did go to the board meeting to try to convince them to adopt my favorite curriculums (math and history) for this or next year… it’s only $7000 of a wish list. I did succeed in getting them to approve the purchase of one teacher and one student edition for each of my three grades, for math only. The plan is that I’ll just copy 14 sets of the text book for my kids to use. (At over 600 pages, and let's just estimate one cent a copy, that would be $8400 just for math, and likely for only the first year, seeing as photocopies don’t hold up as well as texts.) Math text book are approximately $70 a piece for the student copies and last for at least seven years according to the adoption schedule of most districts. Smart long term thinkers aren’t they. But at least we have something, or will as soon as the money and orders come through. The “Elder Club” that Grandpa took me too is looking into buying at least a ½ set of history books for me, which will also work as a language arts program in terms of vocabulary and comprehension. Of course I haven’t yet figured out how much the copies will cost for that.

Wednesday:
Plant Sex Education:
Some plants make flowers to reproduce. Flowers have both male and female parts. “So plants are hermaphrodites?” Bees spread the pollen and birds eat the fruit the flowers produce, which spreads the seeds. "So that's why they call it the birds and the bees." After our riveting discussion I had the class dissect and label a flower picked from our garden. "You are a plant murderer." "Sacajawea wouldn't approve." "Sacajawea led Lewis and Clark to the ocean and Pocahontas fell in love with a white guy. I saw the movie." Priceless.

Parent Conferences:
Besides the three no-shows and two cancellations and reschedules (by the same parent), it’s been… well... interesting. The grades aren’t as good as the parents would have hoped for and its amazing how motivated the kids are to improve their grades the weeks report cards come out.

One parent today honestly looked put-out when I told her of her daughter’s continued disruptions, as if I was asking her to go above her ordinary duties when I asked for her assistance in curbing her daughter’s attitude. So far a whopping ½ of my parents have been completely helpless in their child’s problems in school. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was in charge of raising your kids too.

Thursday:
It's tough when the best day of the week is Monday… They are getting worse by the day. Today I yelled… that’s a first… it worked briefly… and was a great reliever of that pent up frustration… for a minute… It was one of those real throaty yells too the kind you reserve for the emotional teenage fights with your mother about how she’s ruining your life and doesn’t understand you. I feel absolutely awful about it. I’ve never yelled in such a way to kids before. I’ve raised my voice, and I’ve been angry, but I’ve always been in control and been respectful and reasonable and while I didn’t cross the line into irrational, I did cross the line into last resort. Not a place I like to go.This of course happened after I gave them a movie break on Wednesday and an impromptu field trip when we discovered the library was closed. I would love to give them more responsibility, but the more freedom I give them, the worse it bites me later. They really have no idea how to control themselves and their logic and reasoning are lacking severely. I’m convinced one girl is just trying to push my buttons.

I just found out that one of my students has recently been abandoned by his mother, has an abusive alcoholic brother, no hot water, and is staying with his young aunt and her two-year-old. He wants to get on the honor roll this year, which he is very capable of doing if he can keep his anger in check and show up to school on a regular basis. Shouldn't be too hard considering the ample amount of at-home support. I really just wanted to give his aunt, who is likely younger than me a great big hug and tell her it would all be ok, but I’m a horrible liar.

Post Card #11
Seattle
Home of:
1. Pikes place – where they throw fish
2. Public market – oldest farmers market
3. Ferries
4. Space needle

Vocabulary lesson:
Wares mean goods for sale not what you wear.

On a different note, I just completed my mid term in my Algebra class… Ugh... because I need more pressure, and I completed my second of five writing assignments due for my other class that is finishing up in a few weeks. Of course that means the grading has been put aside for some time, and that the peanut M&M’s have been brought out. Of course I’ve decided to stay local this weekend and so I’ll have to ration them; won’t be able to restock for some time.