3 day streak...

Amidst the sweltering heat of our 4th floor classroom, and the stinky pits of mostly adolescent boys, the Bad Wolves are currently into the third day of a streak of learning, curiosity, and fun. It seems that we have collectively gotten a "second wind" and the motivation and positive attitudes are overwhelming me.

This is a much needed break, as many of you probably know.... so cross your fingers for me. I am worried that I am cursing myself by even mentioning the classroom atmosphere.... but I just find it so amazing that the entire demeanor of a classroom can so drastically change in a short time. Even more amazing is the way that my student soak up knowledge when they let themselves. For the past 3 days, the "cool" thing to do is learn, and the only students who haven't enjoyed the past few days of school are the ones that refuse to think for themselves. With any luck, this positive class outlook will begin to rub off on those few before it diminishes.

Yesterday I had 4 parent logs go home that started like this "___________ had a phenominal morning, a positive attitude and was motivated to learn!" I love parent logs like that...

Good days Ahead

Back to good times.... for now.

Although my life is chaos right now, I must admit that the teaching thing is going pretty well for the time being. Corey Booker, Newark's mayor, is coming into our school next week to be our "Principal for a Day", so we have been having daily visits from our principal, just for good measure. So far, we have had nothing but compliments. My students have been working cooperatively with one another, responding to their behavior mods, and overall following classroom rules and procedures. This is something that we have only perfected in the morning however, and we continue to show out the bad behaviors in the afternoon, after lunch (which incidentally is when the mayor will be in the school), but I think that we have made some great strides since the break. Honestly, none of this has anything to do with the mayor coming to our school, but it just happens to correspond in such a way that makes it so that the principal is even getting the chance to observe "the bad kids" behaving positively.

Don't get me wrong... we still have our issues, and I am fairly certain that this thing we have going on right now won't last through the hot weather we have coming soon, but for now it is something that we all need.

Changes...

As much as I am happy for the Holidays... right now I am also ACTUALLY excited to go to school. My students have been amazing. In the past few days, my kids have been in love with learning-- and that means that they have been respectful, kind, and on task. They don't want to let me down, and more than anything they want to feel like they are being challenged. This is a phenominal change, and I am loving it. I love that I feel like a TEACHER the last few days, rather than a security guard. I think this need for learning and challenge is rare in a BD classroom-- as much as kids might WANT to be smart, BD kids have a hard time not being overwhelmed when they are introduced to new things (ex: learning) and then they exhibit the behaviors that got them classified. My kids have been able to overcome this in the past few days, and all I can say is that I hope it continues this way after we return from this break.

Raindrops on Roses

Today was wonderful. I don't know what happened when I was out, but something miraculous changed the whole demeanor of my class, and today was heaven-sent. I didn't raise my voice once. I talked practically in a whisper, and if someone couldn't hear me, my students asked the others to "please listen, Ms. G is talking". They followed the hand signal, the rules, and they were respectful to me. Jerry told me that he missed me, Tay hugged me and said "welcome back", and Tyler wrote me a note over the weekend from the Bad Wolves to let me know that they were happy I was coming back. My teacher face worked today, in the same way I remember it working when my teachers used to use it on me. Bad Wolves worked together today, and tried to use all the language of a 'team' that I have been drilling them with all year.


Apparantly Thur and Fri were hell. I can only immagine. Ms. Baker (aide) is one to downplay incidents to me, so when she told me that Friday was a madhouse, I knew she wasn't kidding. The interesting thing is that even Ms. Baker, as much as she complained about how awful it was on Thur and Fri, admitted to me that it was probably one of the best things to happen to the classroom because it gave her the perspective of what I am up against. She told me that she undertsnads now how hard it is to move on with a lesson when the other aide is in the back doing he rown thing, and then today she came out from behind the table she usually stays at and helped with a shared reading group that we had formed.


Last week was a strange week for us... it looked like this:
Mon- full day
Tues- Half day
Wed- No School
Thur- No Ms. G (substitute and aides in the classroom)
Fri- No Ms. G (no substitute available, aides only (aka: extremely illegal) Weeks that are different always affect my students, but this time it was more than the average change because then I wasn't there for 2 days.

The other major issue that was affecting the level of respect that was exhibited today revolved around events that occurred in the area around our school on Sunday. If you look in the Newark Star Ledger, you can read that there were 3 drive-by shootings yesterday within 4 blocks of the school. These incidents left a 14 year-old dead, and 2 young boys in the ICU. The boys were shot literally outside the school.

My kids cling to the poeple they love when they fear it might be taken from them, and as much as my students don't recognize this as a direct correlation to the shootings, I really believe that it makes all the difference in the world to have people there that are looking out for you.

In the past my kids get pissed when I miss school, and then treat me awful for a few days until I can get tem back into the swing of things, but this time, they embraced my return. I got hugs, I was respected, and generally i think that my students learned a lot today-- which means that by the time they went home they were able to make a difference in their own lives.

I didn't yell once. I was excited and energetic. I felt respect.

Can i say again that today was a good day?

A good day...

I had a good day at work today, and since I don't get to say that very often, I thought that I should write it down. This way, I can remember that things aren't always awful in the life of a teacher.

It was kinda strange even... they were all so calm. No one in my class really wanted to do any work, but they didn't mind the learning part of things. I usually struggle teaching any sort of lesson, because they are so out-of-control, and I have to do everything with each student individually, but today as I explained to my kids how the tide is the sea rising and falling as the earth rotates, they listened. They even got up and helped me demonstrate how the earth rotates, and every one of them used the magnets I gave them to feel what the gravitational pull of the moon is like. They were really into it. As I held a globe up in the air bearing my sweaty pits, I rotated it on it's axis as Ricardo held the styrofoam moon in one place and Jay held his hand as though it were the sun. At the end of the lesson they were all able to explain to me exactly how the tide works, and even Amber shouted out answers when I asked questions. (She usually sits silently, with a lot of attitude, until she has a violent outburst).

Then, at lunch time they all begged me to sit at their table instead of going back up to the classroom. I haven't eaten with them since my last post, and I didn't eat with them today either, (just because the food smelled like ass and I didn't think I could bear it combined with the stench of 11 year-olds that just got out of gym...) I figure I'll invite them to eat with me tomorrow. The strangest part about this invitation though is that it was Amber that said, "Ms. G, aren't you going to stay and eat with us?? You can sit here."

It was overall a pretty good day in 401.

Carrot Day

Today was "Carrot Day" in room 401.

I don't know why, but my students became obsessed with the idea of having a carrot-eating competition with me... so I decided that it would be a great incentive for good behavior.

Today was finally the big day-- so I bought 4 bags of carrots, and for the entire afternoon we ate carrots while playing "states bingo" and learning the properties of magnets. I lost the competition, but it's probably better that way. My stomach still hurts though, so I can only immagine what my students are feeling right now.

Here's to Carrot Queen Amber and the two Carrot Kings George and Ricardo-- the winners of the Carrot Day Competition in room 401.