This whole campaign thing?

Is tiring! Almost every day this week I've been out to various school sites, trying to get the word out about voting and letting those who don't know me, ask me questions and talk to me.

In a few minutes, I have to make another phone call to try to set up something for Monday at another school site with the possibility of teachers from two nearby schools coming over as well. The unfortunate part in all of this is that the person I'm running against has chosen to get ugly on a few issues. She has even got to the point where she is not talking to me at all. This is ridiculous for a number of reasons, but the main reason is that I'm the person in charge of communication and most specifically doing the web-site. In the 8 years I've been in the district, no one else has even offered to do the web-site.

So just a few more days . . .

Go Away, You Swine!

Wrestling Fan is a lot like Monk.

He has been using a lot this.



All because of this!

---

(Images courtesy of Google Images.)

A Healthier Me

At the beginning of the new year, I guess I made a resolution even though I generally don't do resolutions to become healthier. Eight years ago, I had lost twenty five pounds, going from a size 14/16 to a size 12 (weight wise: 170 lbs is a lot of weight on one who is only five feet tall). Since that time I had managed to keep most of it off, fluctuating between 145 to 155 lbs over this time.

However, I knew that even though I had lost the weight, more work needed to be done. So, I decided that this year was the year that I was going to get back on my healthy eating/healthy exercise path. I've hit some rocky patches over the preceding four months. Yesterday, I stepped on the scale to see where I was weight wise. Since the beginning of the year I've dropped ten lbs. It has taken longer than I would have liked, but I also know that slow and steady wins the race. So the weeks where I hadn't lost anything, I was okay with that.

With any journey in life, it is important to stay on the path to where you're going. If I'm honest with myself, I know there have been times where I haven't made the best food choice simply because I also know that complete deprivation of a craving just doesn't work.

My ultimate goal weight is to be a 125 lbs and I'm exactly thirteen lbs away from that goal. My pants are already starting to get too big. So, this summer? I suspect I might just have to go on a huge clothes shopping spree!

Whoopee!!

In exactly two weeks . . .

I find out if I will be the next president of our teachers union.

The campaign officially began last week & all I will say at this point is that it has been very interesting. I am hearing a lot of positives and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Feel free to send out any positive vibes out my way.

Featured Post . . .

Mr. D from I Want to Teach Forever is doing a cool feature this year called "52 Teacher, 52 Weeks" in which teachers send essential lessons for the classroom. I chose to write about "choosing your battles" and how I've chosen not to battle over gum with my 6th graders.

(image from Google Images)

Houston, We Have a Problem . . .

Yesterday, I posted about the increasing incidences of fights on my campus. In that post, I mentioned that we have four campus supervisors. I happen to get along quite well with our campus supervisors, which is important on my campus because woe be the teacher who is not liked by them. However, tomorrow I'm going to have to lodge a complaint against one of them.

The reason?

Today, towards the end of the lunch, I caught 4 to 5 students on the roof of one of the portables. I stepped inside of my classroom, called the office to let them know, then stepped back outside to yell at the students to get off the roof. As they are making their way off the roof, I stop a couple of them to find out just what the heck they were doing in a place they clearly did not belong.

They had been instructed by a campus supervisor to get a ball that had gone on the roof. I'm not making this up! Their story was later confirmed after I talked to a couple of other people on our campus.

Yes, another fight broke out in the lower field after school. However, I didn't bother to try to call for back-up because three of the four had left during fifth period. Two of our campus supervisors left because they are baseball coaches. I don't know why the other one left. However, I think it might behoove my principal to not let this happen again.

What do I know . . . I'm just a teacher.

Fight!

(photo from CinemaRetro)

I've been out of the classroom for two days this week due to bargaining. (If you ever want to see something move slower than molasses, that would be the bargaining process with my district. We've been at it for a year. That's a whole other post!) After school today, I noticed a rather large group of students headed down to our lower field. When I see that many kids headed that way, I know there is only one reason for it . . . FIGHT!

Grabbing my phone, I quickly punch in the five digits I need to call the office to send a campus supervisor down our way. As a five foot tall woman, the one thing I do not do is get into the middle of a fight. However, I do head down to the field to try to get those who enjoy egging fights on to leave the area. After about five minutes, our principal shows up. By this time, the crowd was dispersing because two of my colleagues much taller than me were able to separate the two psycho hair pulling girls hellions. One of our teachers just nearly avoided being punched in face by one of the students.

The girls are escorted to the office, my colleagues and I return to our classes, then I head back out to take copies that I need for tomorrow. That is when another colleague informs me that on Monday there had been another fight in the field, which she had tried to break up, almost resulting in personal injury to herself. She emphatically states that she is no longer willing to break up anymore fights. This is something that I fully understand and support. Frankly, I'm not willing to get hurt, putting me at risk of not being able to work. My job provides the health benefits for my family. It's not something I'm willing to risk.

As I head up to the copy room, I run into my principal. He asks me about the fight, so I tell him my observations. I then relay to him the concern we have with the increasing amount of fights that are occurring in the field. The frequency of fights has increased because students know that it's the only place where there are no campus supervisors and/or administrators. All of these people are up at the front of the school where the principal informs me "that's where they are needed." Get this, we have four campus supervisors and three administrators, all of whom carry walkie-talkies, so they can get rapid reinforcements if needed and he needs them in front because as one colleague put it, "we don't want fights breaking out where parents can see them".

The 6th grade teachers have decided that we will no longer try to break up fights in that area. We have decided that when we see a huge swarm of students heading in that direction our response will be to simply call the office to let them know what's going on. Believe me when I say that this has not been an easy decision, but we as a group of teachers, honestly feel that we are not getting the support we need from those in charge.

Yeah, It's a lot like that . . .

H/T Dr. Pezz's website, originally from the Seattle Post-Intelligence, by David Horsey. (I also think I lifted the wording from the title of the post from Jenn, because she's creative like that ;)

For Math Teachers Out There (or Those Who Lurve Math)

One of my favorite places online for unique t-shirts is Threadless. When I saw this shirt, I immediately thought of some of my favorite math teachers whose blogs I read almost daily. You can find the above t-shirt by following this link.

(note: I do not earn any money or points or anything else if you click the link to the t-shirt!)

Wii Fit

So, Wrestling Fan wanted a Wii Fit for his birthday and today was the first day that I had the opportunity to use it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This is going to be a good addition to my exercise regimen. It was a lot of fun, offering a variety of activities that makes you forget you're exercising!

For those that are competitive, you can do different exercises and see how you compare with those in your family. The Wii Fit has a ski jump, so my husband, WF, Guitar Teen and myself all decided to do a best out of three series. Guitar Teen had it completely dialed in, so he kicked our butts. As for me, I completely rocked the Super Hula Hoop and feel sore in parts of my hip that I didn't even know existed.

In the morning, I'm going to do some of the Yoga activities and may do the quick jog through the park with my trainer.

Happy Easter Eve!

A few days ago, Guitar Teen told me that this week-end he wanted to do something with me. Last night, he reminded me of this and I was somewhat at a loss as to to do. It was decided that we would visit a local lake that is about 40 minutes from where I live and of course, I got lost which added an additional 30 minutes to the drive and it was the perfect day to drive with the top down.


The weather at the lake was gorgeous! We found a nice little inlet where Wrestling Fan could strip down to his skivvies and swim. Guitar Teen was certainly contemplating getting in past his feet, but never quite got there.



I asked GT to take a picture of me. I thought this came out rather good!

Playing the Textbook Game

In an article that originally appeared in Edutopia in November 2004, Tamim Asary writes about his experience as a textbook editor. As a teacher, I was very surprised to read about the process it takes to "write" a textbook that school districts buy.

I think what was even more jaw-dropping to me was that textbook products are written for the top three states (Texas, California and Florida) and then sale the same product to all the other states. So, if you're a teacher in Oklahma with curriculum that you are required to teach and your textbook publisher has told your district that their curriculum covers those standards, that may not be true. However, the old adage of not messing with Texas still holds true. It appears that Texas is the BIG state when it comes to textbook publishing because of the amount of money that is allocated to purchasing textbooks.

This is important to note because of an organization called Educational Research Alliance. That rather innocuous name is really an organization that is "Christian" based. Their purpose is to scrutinize curriculum for any material that is "liberal leaning." Then, in liberal leaning California, according to the author, citizen groups routinely complain about material that they find offensive. Textbook publishers seek to sell textbooks that won't offend anybody and in the process, produce rather bland books that nobody wants to read! What a glorious process, dontcha think?

Wrestling Fan Turns 13

His birthday is tomorrow, our first day back at school. We are having his party with his friends today. In about four hours, we will have four additional boys in the house, geared up to watch Wrestlemania, WF annual gift. We put on the projector, make the downstairs area a wrestling area, and let the boys go at it (w/in reason, of course). There is also the trampoline in the back for when it becomes a little bit more raucous.

He is our last baby and the last that we will have the pleasure of enduring the teen years. I'm a bit melancholy about it. Where did the past 13 years go? It doesn't seem possible to me that my baby is now a teenager!

I'm off to finish the few chores left to do before the madness begins. Have a great day, everyone!

Somebody Needs to Tell Valentino the Truth!

(Photo from Tmz.com)

Outliving your child

I just received horribly, sad news. A colleague has a son who very recently started to turn his life around. Apparently last night he was struck by a truck as he attempted to cross the street. My colleague and her spouse are currently waiting for their son to die as there is no brain activity.

Please keep them in your thoughts today.

edited to add:
I've received word that my colleague's son died early this afternoon.

April Fools!

Okay, you remember this post? Well, it was written by the wonderful Mrs. Bluebird, who unlike me, teaches 7th grade. I really thought it was amusing to read the comments. Either people didn't realize it wasn't me writing that post OR people thought I had a guest writer, but were being nice because they thought maybe I forgot to give her credit.

Let me know either way :)

This brilliant idea came from none other than Mr. Teacher. You specifically Jenn can read my post at Tales from a School Bus Driver. Also head on over to Mr. Teacher's blog to check out the other participants.

Guitar Teen Comes in Second

We are fine with that and oh, so very proud. Last night was the second round of the speech competition. If he had won, it would have been another competition in Reno in May. He was somewhat apprehensive about actually winning the whole shebang. As we settled in to listen to the other speakers, I strongly felt that he had a very good chance of winning. I tell ya, you cannot teach the gift of actually touching the hearts of people in a speech. You either have it or you don't. He has that gift. (Many people came up to us afterward to tell us how much they enjoyed hearing him talk and how his story personally affected them. More than a few told Guitar Teen to make sure he competes next year and to also apply for their scholarship program.)

The young man who came in first place is a senior in high school. He has been part of his speech and debate team since his freshman year. He also just got accepted into UC Berkeley. This young man has been on a positive trajectory his whole school career. Guitar Teen has only recently discovered that perhaps in order to reach his goals, he might just need a high school diploma. I would say that it is quite an accomplishment to even be in the same competition to this young man knowing the history of my own son.

We are proud of him. He has recently hit a bump in the road. Sometimes the old habits start to emerge and we need to gently remind him of how far he has come. It is my hope that by coming by placing so well in this competition that it really has been worth all that he has had to give up. Only eight more weeks until he has completed his junior year. When he has completed this year, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

I don't even want to think about summer!

Truly, Really, It's All New to Us

Our Very Big Deal Government Mandated State Tests will be in mid-April, and as a result, we are in the middle of reviewing everything we've done for the entire year so that the kids, hopefully, will perform well on the Very Big Deal Government Mandated State Tests. After all, there's a lot riding on these tests (which is stupid, and insane and totally illogical, but I digress), and you want the kiddos to do well. Considering the crop of seventh graders I've had this year, it's a good thing that their names are already pre-bubbled in because I'm not so sure they'd be able to handle that.

So, a few years ago, Mrs. Eagle and Mrs. Robin (who has now fled the nest and is in the process of moving overseas) and I got together with Mrs. Standards and came with an eight day plan to review with our kids. It's actually pretty simple. We have a theme for each day and we do lots of quick mini-labs, two minute paired discussions, foldables, games, and so forth in order to make it fast, fun, and hopefully, memorable. We also came up with a review packet that covers, very concisely, everything we've done for the entire year. We break the packet into two parts and give the packet for homework (it's a big 100 point assignment) and all the kids have to do is fill in a few blanks on each page (answers are pretty much in the book and in all the foldables we've done all year and they were supposed to keep - yeah, that happened) and turn it in and they'll get an easy A.

Piece of cake.

Unless, of course, you are a student in my Fourth Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself. Last week, I'm getting class started with a Daily Science question, and Animation Boy raises his hand. "Mrs. Bluebird," he says, "I've looked through this packet and we didn't do any of this stuff this year."

Another hand goes up, and it's Dairy Boy, the kid who had no clue that milk came from a cow. "He's right Mrs. Bluebird, we didn't do any of this stuff."

Oh. My. God.

"Are you kidding?" I ask, because I wouldn't put it past this group to do something like this just to Waste Our Time.

"No," says Dairy Boy. "None of this looks familiar."

Let's take a step back and check out the demographics of this particular class. It is my smallest class. It is also the class with the lowest grade point average. Over half of these students will fail science this year. It isn't because they are not capable, because they are, it's just that they won't do assignments, they won't study, and they are at school purely for socializing. This is the class that has Spicoli Boy who had spent the entire year stoned in my class, and is now in alternative school. This is the class that has Stoner Boy, who should be in alternative school, and who has also been stoned all year but who has a mother more concerned with him drinking energy drinks and even though she says he's grounded, he gets a new video game every weekend.

Stoner Boy, by the way, has a whopping 23% in science right now. This is the class that has Sassy Girl, who just can't shut up and who has turned in no work for the past year. Oh yeah, her mother has stood us up for three parent meetings. About 25% of these kids are in our remediation class, which is a class for kids who, for whatever reason, aren't achieving to the level that they should be. In elementary school, they were, for the most part, average achievers. However, when they hit middle school, they just shut down. I suspect drugs, lack of parent involvement, and a lot of outside factors have a role in their lack of achievement, but I'm being held accountable.

So, I look out over the class, and for once they're quiet (of course three of them are currently in ISS, two are absent, and one is in alternative school so there aren't many of them left). They honestly, truly, don't recognize the material. There are a handful, maybe three, that are shaking their heads in disbelief because they were the three that had to suffer through these chuckleheads all year and actually managed to perform to a somewhat adequate level. I've felt sorry for them all year.

"Well," I respond, "I hate to break this to you, but we went through everything in that packet this year. Everything. Nothing is new. In fact, the water cycle stuff you did here in science and in social studies with Mrs. Social Studies."

Their mouths are hanging open.

"I would guess that perhaps it doesn't look familiar is because a lot of you have spent time in ISS, or were suspended, or you didn't do any homework, and you didn't study for any tests, and you spent most of your time in this room talking with your friends, misbehaving, and generally acting like you didn't have a care in the world. I would suspect that the fact that your class has done nothing but misbehave all year has a lot to do with it."

"She's right," chimes in one of the three who actually managed to give a rip all year.

"Really?" asks Animation Boy. "We've done all this?"

"Yup," says another one of the three achievers.

"Oh man," says Dairy Boy. "We are so screwed."

Oh yeah, you are, but I'm the one who gets the blame.