Homework Assignment

One of my homework assignments for my Intermediate Literacy class is to share about a book that  made an impact on my life. My first go to book idea was To Kill A Mockingbird. I am sure that this book is a common choice for many since it is such a powerful story. My second thought went to a book from my childhood, What Do I Do? 

I have been a reader for as long as I can remember. I don't know when I started reading but I can't remember a time when I didn't read. My mom is a big reader and books, like breathing air,  have always been a core necessity to my existence. What Do I Do?  is a simple book about a young girl, probably a kindergartener. It is a bilingual book so the story is told both in English and in Spanish. I am pretty sure that this was the first bilingual book I owned.  The story goes through a day in Consuelo's life. The story isn't compelling, there is no great plot twist or moral to be taught. The reason I loved the book as a kid was because the main character, Consuelo, looked like me. She was brown like me, she had dark hair like me, her family spoke Spanish, like me, and she did things just like I did. I saw myself in Consuelo. Even though I read and enjoyed everything I could get my hands on, this book was extra special. Here, in this book, was a girl that I could identify with. Sure, there were some differences. Consuelo lived in a big city and her grandparents lived with her. I understood that though because I understood that as a normal occurrence in my Latino culture. It just didn't happen to be the case in my family. Somewhere, as the years went by, and amongst our many moves, I lost this book.

Jumping forward to my first year teaching in public school, the same year that Sabi was born, I took my students to the library for our weekly visit to hear a story and then check out books. As the librarian read a story to the kids, I scanned the shelves that I was sitting by and happened to see this same book, What Do I Do?, on the shelves. I had the biggest physical and emotional response to seeing the book. I was flooded with excitement and memories of reading the book as a kid. I remember feeling so warm and happy inside and I wanted to call my mom RIGHT AWAY to tell her about the book. I checked out the book and took it home to share with my mom and Sabi. I then spent the next two weeks trying to track the book down online because I had to have a copy of my own. I found one and I now have a special place for it on my bookshelf.

Why is this book so important? It is important because Consuelo was a character that I could identify with. When I was growing up, there weren't many stories I could see myself or my family in. Owning and reading this book reminded me that my family was important and just as special as any other family. As an educator, I try to expose all kinds of literature to my students for the same reason. Today, we are so lucky to have a vast array of multi-cultural books available to kids as well as books that address the subject of different types of families and lifestyles.

How about you? What book made an impact on your life?

What is New?

School: I have gained and lost several students in the past month. It has been very troubling.

Child #1:
I have been fighting for testing since the first day of school. We finally had the SST, I advocated strongly for testing and the team decided to go ahead and test. The next day, he moved! The poor child is bouncing his way through the system and can't read, or write his name to save his life. I HOPE he gets someone who will keep fighting for him.

Child #2: Lots of ups and downs with this one. He started off with behavioral problems but we then worked them out with behavior mod. He started slipping Mid December. He has not been at school for the past 3 weeks. I have an emergency SST for him this week. I am not sure what will happen with him but I can only hope for the best.

Child #3: I had this one for one week and then he was gone. There was apparently a custody battle going on with the parents. I just received notice that he would be back tomorrow. Now, the parents are back together. In the meantime, this child has been bouncing around between schools for about 3 months. he isn't a child who can afford to miss even 1 day of school. Due to the fact that school is a challenge for him, he is easily distracted and enjoys playing the class clown. Fun!

Child #4: This one was gone for 4 weeks. She made her First Communion in Mexico and was there for Christmas. She had a wonderful time with her family but she definitely could not afford to miss out on classwork. She is now back but struggling. It is going to take a long time to get her back on track.

I have 15 more kids that all come with their own baggage. This job is really challenging sometimes.
*sigh*

Election 2008 - Voting At School

My school's cafeteria is a polling place. Today, after reading our Scholastic News magazine about the election and Obama and McCain, we went to tour the polling place. When we were done, I had the kids sit in the back of the cafeteria and fill out a special kids ballot for the two top presidential nominees. After voting, I gave the kids an "I voted" sticker. When we returned to class we tallied the votes. I didn't vote. I also refused to tell them who I voted for this morning in order to not sway the vote.

Here are the results:

Mc Cain: 0

Obama: 18

Tomorrow we will compare our results to the rest of the Country!

First Day of School

Today was pretty good as far as first days go. The kids were ok and my new student teacher seems great.

The best part of though came about 2 hours after school. I was walking down one of the school hallways in front of the after school tutoring program. One of my new students was being picked up by her dad. She peeked over at me, gave me a HUGE smile and waved. She then turned to her dad and said in a most proud voice...'that's MY teacher!"

That was pretty cool!

First Week Back at School

I tracked back on for the last trimester on Monday. Monday was a minimum day since it was a track on day and Wednesday was a minimum day because all Wednesday are minimum days for prep time. It was a very sweet set up 2 regular days and 2 minimum days. Why then did this week seem like it was 14 days long????

Here are a few reasons:

1) I got a new student on Monday. He is a sweet kid and he is working at grade level. This week has been busy though trying to figure out his academic placement as well as work out his bus schedule and figure out custody issues.

2) Monday night was the first night of Passover. After school my mom and I had to rush home to prepare the meal before my brothers and my grandmother arrived at 6:30. It was a race against the clock but we did it. Thank goodness that my mom cooked the brisket the night before. I was also happy to sit for a while during the Seder just to have a chance to relax!

3) A student who left in December FINALLY returned on Monday. THANK GOODNESS that I didn't delete her grades file! I found out some interesting information when we walked around the track this week during PE time. I am not sure why they stayed in Mexico for so long but I do know that her mom couldn't come back with them because "si viene con nosotros en la troca la van a meter en la carcel!" (if she came with us in our truck they would put her in jail!) Ay! Pobrecita.

4) One of my students had a rotten day on Tuesday. I talked to his mom about it and she said
"yeah well we are moving." I asked when that would be and she said that it they were moving on Friday. (this Friday!) I didn't ask why but I think that there is/was a problem with his parents. I was busy prepping his things for him to go and then the next day, when I called to tell mom that his day was MUCH better, she said "oh yeah, we aren't moving anymore. We worked things out. That is probably why his day was better." Poor guy!

5) Tuesday night we had to race home from school to make it to our community Seder at the synagogue. We were running very late but we ended up making it just in time. The Seder was great, the food was good, Sabi found the first Afikomen BUT the Seder was LONG!!! We got home very late.

6) We found out that our vice principal is moving to another school. He has only been with us for a year and we really like him! :-(

7) The Superintendent of my school district showed up in my room today. I signed up for a Rotary Club reader to read to my class. Guess who came??? I was a little stressed out but the kids were excellent and enjoyed the visit.

I am looking forward to this three day weekend.

Frustration

I am having such a hard time this year with my students' academic status. While my students have been making steady progress, most of them are not near where they need to be. I have been trying all kinds of tricks to see what makes them motivated and eager to learn. What I have found out is that they are motivated and eager to please me but they don't have a strong academic background at home to carry through with what we learn at school. Most (if not all) of the academic stimulation they get is from school.

I have been very surprised this year to find that most of the parents of my students aren't doing too much at home with the kids. They aren't even helping with homework. I send home a packet once a week so that parents have the time and opportunity to work together with their kids. Unfortunately, when the packets come back. they are not signed by parents. There are pages that are incomplete and unchecked by a family member. I simply can't understand this. Sabi receives homework on a daily basis. I make sure to review it with her each and every day. I also have her make any necessary corrections before turning it in so she can receive immediate feedback and learn from her errors. Yes, this can sometimes be difficult due to our schedule but it is my responsibility!

I realize that I do need to take into account that the work my students take home may be challenging for their parents. Half of the parents in my room are not strong English speakers. Being fluent in English does not necessarily mean they can help though. Last month an English Only speaking parent, who does help her son at home with homework, questioned me on a reading comprehension activity I sent home on Inference. She told me "I tried to help **** but the homework don't got no answers that are right." I then had to give mom a mini lesson on inference and tell her that she would not find the exact answer in the text and that they would have to process the information and figure out which answer made the most logical sense given the scenario. She then apologized to me and said "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't graduate from no high school and I don't know too much." (Bless her heart!) Several issues here: 1) Grammar 2) She doesn't have a sound academic foundation to carry through newly learned concepts at home. I am extremely grateful for parents like this one I mentioned because they do value education and know how important it is. On the other hand, I feel even more helpless as a teacher when I know that so many of my parents have such great academic defecits because I know that in order for their kids to succeed I am going to have to work overtime with their kids.

I have been giving some thought into holding a parent academy to try and help my parents to hellp their kids with their homework. I know that if I can give them the tools that they lack, many of them will go home and do what they can to follow through with their kids. The problem with this parent academy is that I would have to take more time away from my own family to help these other families. While I know the benefits would be so great, I can't help but feel selfish with my time. After working all day with the kids and then a few more hours without the kids, it is all I can do to keep my energy up and have some quality time with my own child.

What is the solution????

Back to Work

Tomorrow I go back on track. The good thing is that December usually flies by very quickly and we get two more weeks off. The bad thing is that in December, it is hard to get kids to focus on schoolwork, especially during the last week of school. Usually, I try to combine all of the December holidays with second grade standards to try and jazz up interest in school. This year though I will not be doing that because I have a J.W. student who can not do the work. That is ok though... I will just have to get creative and figure out another way to teach and entertain the kiddos through this month.

It doesn't feel like a vacation

I know that I have been talking about being on vacation in several of my recent posts but it really doesn't seem like I am on vacation because I have been working at another site. Today, I didn't go to work because I had a Coaches Meeting at the County Office of Ed. The meeting was over earlier than I expected so I decided to go shopping at Target before I picked Sabi up from school. I was shopping during what would be considered school hours if I were at work. The entire 20-30 minutes that I was shopping I was constantly looking over my shoulder. I kept feeling guilty for shopping like it was wrong to be there. I forgot that I was on vacation!

The sad part about this all is that vacation is over for me as soon as Thanksgiving weekend is over. It is quickly slipping away from me....

The Count Down Begins...

I have 8 days left before I track off. I hope that I make it too! This is what is coming in the next 8 days:
SCHOOL:
1) 20 parent-teacher conferences: Each will be at least 20 minutes long. I have to review our new standards based report card, a parent teacher contract, class work and a special report card for all of my 17 English leaners. (A report on their proficiency in English) I also of course have to save time to answer any questions and concerns the parents might have. I am feeling sorry for the parents right no because I will be bombarding them with too much information as it is.

2) A Class Performance: 6 Kids will perform an adaptation of Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night and 7 will perform and adaptation of Frog and Toad Together. THe remaining 7 will do a Fall poetry reading.

3) Carnival: My grade level will be working 3 booths. This is occuring on the very last day that we track off. Who wants to work then?

4) A Buy Back Day - On SATURDAY too! :-(

HOME:
5) Halloween Party: This should be fun and easy but I have to prepare the house for it!!!

6) Halloween: Sabina and her friends will meet at the mall for a Halloween dance celebration and then go out in the neighborhood to trick or treat.

Did I mention that Halloween is on a school day and that we track off on the following day? Two crazy kid days....Help!

Thanks Circle K!

Today I was suffering from a sweet tooth. I decided to treat my serious situation on my lunch break with a quick trip to Circle K. When I walked in to the store, I was greeted by all of the employees. Actually, I was ribbed by them. I used to be a frequent coffee purchasing, morning customer. I think I haven't been there in over a year.

The manager rung me up and asked if I was still a teacher. I said yes. He then asked how many students I have. I told him 20. He then told me to hang on and he went in his office to grab something. The "something" that he had for me was a big box of flourescent Circle K pencils that say "Because we care about your education." Wow! I told him that pencils were like gold in a classroom!

When I got back to class, I shared the pencils and story with my students. They were thrilled! We then went straight into an Interactive Writing lesson and wrote a letter of thanks to Circle K.

Yay pencils! Yay Circle K!

More Tales From the Classroom...

One of my students is on a Daily Report. Daily Reports are for kids who need daily communication with parents due to behavioral challenges. Today, Daily Report student had an exceptionally amazing day. When school was over, she went behind my desk, found my daily report notebook and walked it over to me with a HUGE grin on her face. She knew that she would be getting a good note. This was our conversation:

"Teacher, you forgot to write my note. What are you going to write?"

I said "I don't know. What do YOU think I should write?"

She said "You should say _____ is a cute girl. She is very beautiful and her clothes are pretty too. She was the best kid in the whole of our school today. The end."

I said "What about if I say " ________ behaved wonderfully in class and at recess today. She completed all of her work on time, was respectful of herself and others and was a very good citizen. Good work ______!"

She said "I guess that is ok."

She took her note and walked out. About 30 seconds later she ran back, gave me a hug and said "Ms. V, you are the cutest teacher in the whole school!"

I love days like these!