April 12, (Tues.)

Today was the last observation day. The lesson went really well, but there were a couple of surprises, especially the fire drill at the very beginning of class!! It took a little time off of the SSR, but we were able to get everything else done, even though I was moving at a much slower pace today. I’ve been so run-down lately, even after this past weekend. I’m still a little sick, but I’m getting better and less tired every day. Today was actually a pretty good day for a slower pace. Irony is such an abstract concept, some groups just get it better than others. I really like using “Tough Boris” with irony. That story always makes my eyes well up with tears, even after the third reading of the day! The kids also really enjoyed “The Ballad of Captain Super”. It takes them a minute to figure out what happened, but once they figure it out they get it, and they think it is pretty cool.

The only other major hiccup was that Sumaya eventually just couldn’t make it any more and Lynn took her to the office. The nurse came, so we sent Johana to get her ears checked out. Gabby wasn’t here, so Minah did the whole-group assignment and I monitored the whole group progress. So, I hated that Jamey didn’t get to see their progress with the Clear Speech stuff, but it worked out alright.

After spring break we will work on some broader elements of poetry, like types and styles and stuff like that. I’ll need to plan at least Monday’s lesson before we leave. I’ve already sketched out the last two weeks of the unit, but I haven’t figured out exactly which poems I’ll read.

APRIL 15-23 SPRING BREAK!!

April 10, (Mon.)

This is one of the longest weeks of the year. Honestly, it is worse than the week before winter break. The only week that is harder is the actual last week of the school year. The kids need a break, and I really need a break. The behavior issues aren’t too bad yet, but it’s only Monday…

We worked on mood today, and the kids really liked the “Today I Feel Silly” book. They are doing such a great job of identifying the skills that we are working on each day. They may not know the actual term they are trying to describe, but they are able to give examples and explain whatever it is to the point of understanding the issue. They are referring to the chart when we review, reminding themselves which story went with which skill. The strategies are starting to come more naturally, but they are still needing the push to figure some things out. They are still asking what words mean on a regular basis.

Sumaya and Johana are still sick, even after the weekend. Michelle called Johana’s mother and told her that she really needed to go to the doctor for her ears, but we know that she doesn’t have papers and won’t go. We are hoping that the nurse will be at school tomorrow to look at both of them. Gabby isn’t looking too good either. At least I am feeling mostly better-at least enough to function!

April 5, (Wed.)

Wow, I can be a real sap sometimes… Things have been going really well lately. I’ve been getting real results with the Clear Speech program and the low novices. The group poetry idea is really working out well. I bought a box of fireballs for Jerome, so he is awake and alive again. I don’t think anybody shows him attention, much less affection, all day long.

I’m working on vowels with the novice girls right now, and they are amazed that the letters don’t sound the way their vowels do. They were so surprised to hear that our vowels had lots of different ways to pronounce each one. In Korean and Spanish, their vowels don’t change like ours do. There is ONE way. I’m not sure how much this is carrying over to their every-day speech, but they are doing a really nice job with the poems they are reciting right now. They all did pretty well with “Trees” (except for Gabby, who has been out sick and has to make it up tomorrow, but Lynn is working with her a lot during homework help).

The large group is getting a lot more out of the group work practice that I’ve been creating than I thought. They are working together much better now that they have done it for a couple of days and they know the routine. They even seem to enjoy it! They are remembering the terms and the strategies, and they are able to offer answers when we go back over them each day. I do need to start recycling more, which I realized today when they were trying to figure out the rhyme scheme of “Stopping By Woods” and they couldn’t quite figure it out.

April 4 (Tues.)

Well, being away from the classroom is VERY refreshing, at least until you have to come back!! I had a great time at the ESL workshops on Thursday and Friday. The material was very useful, new, cultural stuff that I was completely unaware of. Even Monday’s review workshop of the BLM stuff with Connie Prevatte was good. It reminded me of all the great things I was supposed to be doing but I had forgotten.

The worst part of being out of school is the substitute never really does what you want, therefore the day(s) is pretty much a wash. Thursday, the sub couldn’t find my plans (which were in the clearly marked sub folder). Monday the sub didn’t collect anything, so now everything is gone. Friday, one of the students stole the sub notes off of my desk, so who knows what happened, since the only note I got was that the notes were taken!

The best part of being out of school is that the day you come back, your kids love you. You are better than any sub, even if they cheer when you tell them you are going to be away before you leave, they can’t wait for you to get back. Smiles, hugs, and students asking you to never leave again are the reason this job is better than any other. The little bit of appreciation they show after you have been away makes all of the other problems and struggles seem minor. Yes, everything is a mess. Yes, it will take days to catch back up, to find things that are missing, and to find the bottom of the mountain of papers that covers your desk, but somehow it is all worth it because it made them notice, realize, and show you just how much they really care.

March 29 (Wed.)

Poetry is continuing to progress nicely… The kids are starting to get familiar with the routine, they know what to expect, and I think they are enjoying the activities, poems, and group opportunities. My timing is still pretty far off, they aren’t able to get finished with the group activities in the time I allow, and I don’t know when we read SSR last. I really like the strategy/skill presentation of each lesson. They seem to be retaining some of it… I’m also really liking the discovery part of the skill that is happening through the read-aloud. The whole time I read, they are trying to figure out what the skill will be for that day. They know that the read-aloud will exaggerate the point, so they are paying more attention to try and figure it out.

I really like the new vocabulary program. I can’t wait until next year when I have a workbook for everyone, so the kids won’t have to shuffle through their stuff to find all of the loose sheets. I’m just modifying the novice students’ lists by making them shorter, and they are working on it with Lynn. I really like the choice of words they are using, since they are reasonable and useful. However, I want to align the words to what we are reading. How??? I have no idea.

Overall, I shouldn’t complain. Things are going really well. The problem is me right now. I come in bedraggled and stressed because I can’t manage to get out of bed early enough any more. I’m not late, but I don’t have the time I used to have. I get settled WHILE I’m teaching B1, which is turning my brain into a three-ring-circus. I’m already exhausted again by B2. B2 is great in terms of being such a smaller class and having Lynn with me, but I feel like I’m ready to collapse, therefore making me much more irritable. Jerome won’t stop putting his head down. Danny is still falling asleep. Alex, Jarrelle, and Ruslan won’t shut up. Anthony and Blake won’t stop chewing gum and writing on their desks. Claudia and Johana are still cheating every chance they get. Gabby has taken over Sumaya’s brain and now they BOTH are constantly whining, “I don’t understand,” or “Mrs. Joooones!”. I didn’t go to school for 8 years to be a babysitter. I recharge a little by overeating sweets (pi day leftovers) during planning, which is also crammed full of meetings and things I don’t want to be doing. By B3 I’m sitting on the top of a desk, yelling at Marcus and Colton to be quiet and trying to get Robert out of la la land. When Social Studies rolls around I’m nothing more than a vegetable. My lessons are crap, they hate it. I hate it. It’s boring. I don’t like teaching Social Studies, I’m not trained to teach it, and I’m BAD at it.

Going to workshops for the next three days will be tiring in its own way, but I think taking a break from the kids will help a lot. I hate thinking about how they will terrorize the sub, but it’s not like I’m skipping out on purpose. I have to go to these conferences.

March 27 (Mon.)

Today was the first day for a couple of things in class, making me think that video taping would probably be useless, but another teacher who has a student teacher this semester offered to tape me today, so I figured it was worth a shot. I could always tape again some other time as well…

We started a new vocabulary program AND we started poetry. Both lessons went GREAT! The kids were awesome (Mr. Redmond-my camera man and a gym teacher-threatened them with laps) and they really seemed fairly interested in what we were doing. I’ve got lots of points to work on (which I’ll save for the video write-up) but it looks to be a pretty good example of what goes on in my class on a daily basis.

The planning for this unit almost killed me this weekend. It has been really difficult to find quality materials to present everything the way I want it presented. Finding good read-alouds has been the hardest. Even the poem/story today didn’t quite do all I wanted it to do. They were interested for the first couple of pages, but then Jerome’s head went down, and then Jarrelle’s, and Alex’s… Gabby stopped looking at the pictures eventually too and put her head down. I know that these are the kids in this group that are most likely to do that sort of thing, but how can I keep them attentive like the other kids? I don’t want to bring in handouts that they have to fill in as we read at this point in the lesson. Why can’t they just sit and listen AND pay attention???

The group activities went really well. Lynn had full behavioral control, and the kids were respectful and on task. I didn’t have to turn from the novice kids at all, and I only helped the group right beside them once. The novice kids did really well with the syllable work. Sumaya was a little behind, but she was back to her old self, trying things out and asking questions. I included Johana in this group, and hopefully she will not only build confidence with her speaking, but she will make the effort to speak in English more because of it. We’ll see…

March 22 (Wed.)

I’ve been thinking about the problem with my novice kids, and while I don’t have a real solution completely worked out, I think I have an idea that might help. It’s really fitting nicely that we are moving into poetry on Mon. because that is going to be the key to all of this working out. I think what I will do is move them into a group together (oh yeah, we went back to groups last week when we started the play and they are hanging on pretty well-I think Jaime ruined more than I ever imagined…). Each class we will have a short period of time where each group gets a poem and a hand out based on the skill or strategy for the day. The novice girls will get a pronunciation exercise that is couched in a poem. SO… Lynn and I will be able to circulate like always, guiding each group through their individual processes, and then when they complete the task, they will present their poem and the way they used their skill/strategy to the group. The novice kids can do the same thing (making them included and part of the class) but they will share the pronunciation piece they learned as their strategy. This is going to take MOUNTAINS of planning… Maybe I can figure out a form for the main group where the strategy and the poem change, but the general format stays the same. This would also help them be more sure about what they are supposed to do, since the majority of this will be student-led. I’ll have to model it for everyone on the first day, Monday??? I’ve already got a lot of stuff from previous years, but I’m going to have to re-work things to meet this mold…
Class today… read Popo and Ixtla- Gabby volunteered to pronounce the Spanish words for us, Janet told us about how the mountains are really real. Minah was completely lost since we didn’t have time to go through the story earlier as a small group. Minah and Sumaya will go through the story again with Lynn during homework help, which will also get Johanna and Claudia caught up, since I finally had to break down and write them up for cheating for the 100th time. They are so blatant about it. I’m really surprised that they are continuing to copy each other. I am beginning to think this could be some kind of cultural thing, but this has really been the only year I’ve had a problem with it. Steven, who is in a completely different class, has been cheating as well, and he claims that copying an answer (off a TEST) is the same as raising his hand and asking me the question. He did say that when he asks a question during a test, that teachers don’t just give the answer, but might help him understand the question better, but he persisted in arguing that his copying wasn’t wrong. I’m going to have to talk to someone else about this.

March 21 (Tues.)

It was really nice to have yesterday as a teacher work day. The room is clean after the mess of the plays, and I got so much done a graded yesterday. Grades are due on Friday, so I’ve cut things off and I’m getting it all ready. We will finish up the oral tradition unit this week, sadly. This is my all-time favorite unit to teach. There are so many possibilities! The final test will be Friday, but until then, we are going to take care of some loose ends and review.

My novice students are really getting the hang of the parts of a story. They can identify the beginning, middle, and end based on the information they hear/read. Lynn read through the Arthur story that we did as a whole class today with the novice kids before we did it all together. Since they already understood what was going on, they answered some of the questions I asked as we read today! Even Gabby, who wouldn’t speak to the whole class, told Claudia and Johanna some of the answers along the way. I think Sumaya and Minah need some more pronunciation support, because they clearly know and want to share information, but they are both embarrassed about speaking in front of the other students. Gabby and Johanna are the same way, but they don’t usually make the effort to participate. Mrs. Goodheart has been pulling Gabby out pretty frequently lately, but maybe she could pull Minah, Sumaya, and Johanna as well for a couple of pronunciation classes. I’m wondering how she would react if I gave her some suggestions based on my observations. We will be starting poetry pretty soon, so that will be a great place to add in some pronunciation strategies. Deanna emailed Mrs. Goodheart about an ESL workshop next Thurs. and Fri. I told her I was interested, but I don’t think she has gotten in touch with Deanna in time. If Deanna doesn’t contact me today, I might give her a call…

While the novice kids are really making huge improvements, I am wondering if I am using my time in the best possible way. They really need more of the strategy-based instruction that I have been thinking about with my curriculum design, but the more pull-out individualized instruction they get, the more isolated they become. I really can’t leave the majority of the class to Lynn and work with the three (maybe 4, as I am considering Johanna as needing more English support than L.A. support) novice kids. Lynn does really well with my activities that I give her, and she keeps them straight during the times when they are involved in full-class instruction. Maybe if I can find a little more time to work with her before she works with the kids I can talk her through and actually show her some of the pronunciation things I am planning that would disturb the rest of the class (thus requiring them to leave the room). Maybe a checklist kind of thing with strategies, and each day they could learn a new strategy and practice with the old ones too. I really want this to work in the full context of the class… Definitely going to require more thought…

March 17 (Fri.)

Well, we pulled it off. Yesterday the plays were looking a little grim. We had no enthusiasm, no excitement, and so many mispronounced words that some of the kids were completely impossible to understand. Turk and I worked really hard with Claudia, who really wanted to be one of the narrators, but she was making such a mess of things that she couldn’t be understood at all. After slowing her down (a LOT) and writing out some phonetic spellings, marking syllables, and practicing over and over and over, she actually did a good job today. Gabby giggled through her lines, but she did them without her usual “Mrs. Joooooones!” Marking the syllables was really one of the most helpful strategies for the pronunciation problems we were having. Sumaya figured things out better with that support as well.

Jarrelle was my only true disappointment. He was so active and full of emotion and energy yesterday, but as soon as his ‘cool’ pals from next door walked in the, he was a different child. He mumbled his lines and didn’t even look at the audience. Jerome did the same kind of thing, but he was still audible. He put his hood on and turned towards the wall for the majority of the play. He did really well with all of the difficult vocabulary, and I could tell he had practiced really hard. It was still really sad to see the change in both of these boys, while every body else was still having fun with it.

Overall, the plays were a great break from the doldrums of essay writing, and they provided a nice bridge into finishing up the oral tradition material.

March 14 (Tues.)

The 12 Labor plays are really coming along! Yesterday they finished writing. I ended up putting all of their scripts together to make one, mostly because it was taking a really long time to type the script out. Rather than making three different ones, I combined all three to make one. Honestly, Block 1 didn’t overwhelm me like usual. I used a lot of B3 and at least 2 whole scenes from B2. It was pretty evenly distributed. Anyway, each class will use the same script. They were really excited about it in class today when they read the final product. Most of them went looking for the part they wrote- it was great to hear them comment on how I had used the part they had written, especially from the kids in B2, who are always putting themselves down as the ‘dumb’ kids.

We started speeches today. This is going to be a project similar to the fable speeches, but a good deal shorter and to the point. It’s really a creative idea-Wendy came up with it, and we created the handout together. The kids are running to take over as ruler of the gods since they are few up with Zeus killing humans and running around on his wife. Lynn worked with Johanna and I worked with Minah and Sumaya. Gabby was out with Mrs. Goodheart for something, but she’ll make it up during homework help with Lynn. Anyway, Minah was very thorough, looking through lots of books before she would make her decision. Sumaya knew right off that she wanted to be Posiedon, so I helped her find some stories and information about him. She took really great notes, not just copying from the book, but writing down key words like in the note-taking activity we did a while ago.

March 8 (Wed.)

How nice to have a class that did not require horrible stress about whether or not a test would be passed or failed based upon my choice of instruction. I think yesterday probably went fine, but we really won’t know until May. So, moving right along…

Finally, we can get back on track and have some real reading lessons for a change. We vaguely started mythology in the dark haze of persuasive writing, but now that the fog has lifted, review, review, and more review will be required to get us back on track. I had a moment of brilliance during the movie yesterday. I made an organizer for the myths that we will read in class, so the kids can keep a log of the stories they have read. They started this organizer today with the story of Phaethon and Apollo. It went really well, and it made the kids really think critically about the purpose of the myth. Between Lynn and me and their group buddies, even the novice students are getting the point. There was a little translation needed at first (and I swear, Minah thought I was totally crazy for a little while) but the novice kids really do understand that myths were used to explain things that happen in nature. One thing, the blanks aren’t big enough. They need more space to write the characters and the ‘how it happened’ section.

We also started the 12 Labors of Hercules play today. They read their labor in their group and tomorrow they will start to turn the story into a script. We modeled how to do this and the kids are already really excited. I’m wondering if they are going to be able to pull it all together by next Friday…

March 6 (Mon.)

Ok, so the conferencing was bad. Nobody really got upset, but there were several (girls and boys) that had glassy eyes. I made absolutely sure to start off with something positive and end with the thing that would be ‘really easy for them to fix tomorrow’.

On a positive note, while I was conferencing, they made collages of all of the things they needed to remember tomorrow. They were GREAT! They remembered things that I hadn’t thought about in a long time. They worked alone, they were creative, and they all met their goal of having at least 25 things. Bunches of them (even in B2) got more than 25 things. Luis was really worried, but once he got started, he was on a roll. Lynn worked with Johanna while I conferenced with everyone else. Poor Johanna… I don’t know how she has managed to live here as long as she has without learning more English. She is almost on the same level as Gabby. When she wrote her last essay in Spanish, she willingly translated it, but it only came out to a couple of lines. This last essay was much better. We aren’t going to worry about spelling and specific grammar rules. We will focus on making sure that she gets her ideas down on paper legibly enough to get her ideas across. The content score is so much higher than the convention score that if she can link her main ideas with supporting details, she might do okay…

I guess at this point, I’ve done just about all I can do. It’s time to sit back and see what they can do. I’m sure I will worry all night about what I should have done, who needed more help, and what prompts I’ve neglected… I’ll wonder and wonder what the prompt will be… But really, in the long run, my students are better writers than they were in August, and that is really all that matters. Stupid state testing.

March 3 (Fri.)

Well, every prompt presents its specific issues AFTER the fact… Some of the security camera papers are ok, but NONE of them are great. There isn’t a single 4 in the bunch. Hannah’s is nice, but it’s nothing special. Nobody has really done anything magnificent. There are a lot of solid 3s, but a lot of kids got 2s this go around. This will not go over very well on Monday when we conference. It will make them nervous and maybe even a little scared. While I try to instill a healthy respect for the test, I don’t want anybody to be afraid of it. I will have sleepless nights, but I don’t want them to. The low scores have all had the same problem. They wrote about things that happen at school that are bad, but they never discussed how a camera would change anything. They have plenty of details, blah, blah, blah, but none of that matters if they don’t address the prompt.

Feb. 22 (Wed.)

I should always remember when I am having a really terrible day, usually the next day can only be better. B1 did great- their essays are exactly where they need to be. Every thing else they improve between now and March 7th will be extra. They are ready.

B2 surprised me. I read over their introduction homework while they took their break, and they actually seem to have gotten something out of our lesson yesterday (even though I thought they were clueless!). Their introductions were much better, and for most of them, this carried over to the introductions for their essays they wrote today. Alex still doesn’t seem to care without prodding. I read over his shoulder, and he had something along the lines of, “Hi, my name is Alex and I am going to tell you about…” When I asked him about it, he realized immediately what he should have done, and wrote a reasonable introduction on the back of his paper. Jerome is in ISS for something that happened in George’s room yesterday, but he understood the instructions I gave him this morning. Jarrelle has calmed down from his incident yesterday, but did not apologize, even though his dad assured me that he would. Jaime is still gone, but he might be back tomorrow. Mrs. Goodheart will be testing him for most of the day since he missed the testing last week, so maybe we’ll have one more Jaime-free day.

The best part of today is that B2 was so settled and so quickly into their practice test that I took the novice students (Joseph is absent, so just the girls) to the lab to work on mythology for tomorrow. I had words for Lynn to work on, but I really wanted the opportunity to clear up some tricky issues before class tomorrow. We had a great lesson. I knew that explaining gods and goddesses would be a tricky subject since all three of them are very devout Christians. Minah had a funny story back at Halloween. Her preacher had told her that Halloween was bad, but her father thought it would be fun, so he dressed her up like a witch, and they got lots of candy. She said they ate it all that night, just the two of them! Anyway, I know that Sumaya and Gabby go to the same church, and that their god and the Greek gods were going to cause some confusion. Plus, it would be a tricky situation to put Lynn in. We talked it all out, and we ended with all three of them clearly understanding the difference in what they believe and what the Greeks believed. It took a lot of negotiating and some translating for Sumaya, but we eventually worked it out. I had never thought about the similarity in pronunciation between the Spanish pronunciation of Jesus and the English pronunciation of Zeus. We made a list of the gods and the goddesses, along with the trait they are known for, which helped clear up some problems. We also read a story about Aphrodite’s birth (which was very amusing to them, since she was born naked, wouldn’t have read that story if Joseph had been here). Sumaya is the best thing that could have happened to my class. She has such a positive outlook, and she works so hard! She also gets Gabby to pay attention and work because she often asks Gabby a question that Gabby can’t answer, so Gabby has to figure things out before she can pass the information on to Sumaya. They are a fun bunch, and I’m really glad I got to spend some time alone with them.

It’s planning time right now, so I haven’t seen B3 yet, but everything seems more subdued today. Even just changing classes in the hall is quieter today. We will hope for the best!

Feb. 21 (Tues.)

Whew… Today is one of those days that I have to reflect upon as a whole, not just Block 2. Something is going on right now, and the principals are not getting to the bottom of it fast enough. My team is falling apart and everyone is bonkers! Luckily, it is not all happening in my room, therefore I do not feel like the cause of the craziness, rather an innocent victim wrapped up in the whirlwind…
Today, you name it, it happened. We had a real fight, and a threat to fight, a kid openly wishing she owned a gun (thank goodness, no real guns), arguing to the point of referrals, and a complete lack of paying attention that even rivals the day before spring break. Granted, I am overly nervous and sensitive about the writing test right now, and I feel that every lesson on writing is vitally important to their ability to pass or fail (therefore they must WANT to pay attention, right??). It seemed like today all of my students got together and planned to let their minds wander to the furthest corners of the room, and completely ignore the writing lesson. I don’t think the lesson was at fault, it was really interactive and the few kids who were paying attention were really into it. They just had their own agenda today, and it didn’t include my class.

Rationally thinking, Block One was great, but they are always great. They never get lost or off track. They pay attention, they CARE, and they don’t let themselves get wrapped up in the petty stuff that the other kids get into. So what makes them so different? It’s not money, because there are kids in that class with absolutely nothing. Of course, several of them are wealthy, but the majority of the group is as middle-class as the rest of them. There is a racial difference present, but the kids that were noticeably in LaLa Land were not all one race or the other. Yes, more than half of the kids are gifted, but with the modifications the material is virtually the same. Block One kids have some sort of drive to achieve that the others are missing. Parental support is varied throughout the whole team- even with the B1, some parents are too busy for their kids.

Anyway, the classes for B2 and B3 were pretty much a loss. They have another practice writing test tomorrow, and hopefully the other lessons from the week will make an impression, but the introduction material that we worked on today will have to be revisited, and I don’t have much hope for improvement in this area.

Feb. 16 (Thurs.)

Today was an exhausting day. It was a good day, but a looooong day. The kids worked on legends again, this time each pair had a chapter from the King Arthur legend. Their job was to read the legend, highlight the key words, and summarize their chapter. I put them in their groups and they got started pretty quickly, but I handed out the highlighters way too early. Some of the groups were highlighting words like they were doing a word search and didn’t read the story at all, until they realized they had to summarize it. The kids were really helpful with one another, and even the novice kids took turns highlighting words they noticed. I’m not sure how much they understood the chapter, but they were able to participate in the large group, which they all seemed to enjoy.

The writing portion of the lesson went fairly smooth, but I think it would have been better if they had a copy of the overhead. They couldn’t read the small print, and while they were able to keep up orally, a visual reference would have been a helpful to keep everybody on track.

Jaime didn’t come to school today, but we don’t know what his parents have decided. Behaviorally, Ruslan is the only one who is continuing to be a problem. His attitude has really changed for the worse. Anthony was out testing, Minah was too, but I think he will be fine without having Jaime around.

Feb. 15 (Wed.)

Two amazing things: 1) they may actually have learned SOMETHING about writing, and therefore will NOT fail the test 2) Jaime is finally on the fast track…

Today they had their first real practice writing test, and they did far better than I ever would have believed at the beginning of the year. They are really using the strategies we have been working on, and they are getting in all of the important elements that they need. The biggest difference that I see in this class of students is that they are using the ENTIRE time allotted. I have NEVER seen students use the whole time like this in the past 5 classes I have taught. Even Jerome worked until only 5 minutes were left, and when I asked him to look over his work, I saw him erasing and changing some things. I can’t wait to read all of them, but the ones I have skimmed are looking really good. After grading half of the top class, next week’s lessons will be devoted to introductions and brainstorming.

Turk took the novice kids to the lab and worked through the King Arthur legend in the text book, along with the vocab. words, so they should be pretty comfortable tomorrow. Joseph still refuses to do anything, and is still trying to bring Gabby down with him. Tomorrow they will have to be on the opposite corners of the room. Sumaya did really well with the story and so did Minah. Poor Sumaya keeps calling me Mr. but we think that it is because all of her other teachers are men (odd, but true) so we are working on the Mrs. Mr. distinction.

The best news of the day is that Mr. Keever is working on persuading Jaime’s parents to move him to Apple Valley with his uncle since he is about to be permanently expelled. He is OSS for 5 days anyway, but they are working on not having him come back. Hearing board is already in the works… He “accidentally” came to school today, even though he still is OSS, and so they put him in ISS until someone could come and get him. Well, Jaime didn’t last too long in ISS, got another referral, and Keever is MAD. I’ve never been this adamant about getting a kid out of my class. He is so disruptive that the whole class can go into a tailspin when he is encouraged. He is so sneaky, I don’t trust him at all. The real problem is that he is fairly smart, and he could do really well if he had ANY support at home. Ever since his sister had a baby and the baby’s daddy moved into his house, he has gone downhill. All he wants is what his sister and his sort-of brother-in-law have minimum wage jobs, parents that will take care of you, and a baby. I thought my friends were bad about the baby talk, but lately I’ve been hearing more from him than my married, working, adult friends!! That scares me, because all of our little Hispanic girls just LOVE Jaime. They all live in the same trailer park, and I’m worried that they will decide to help Jaime with his “dream”. Hopefully he will move to Hendersonville this weekend, and peace will be restored!!

Feb. 8 (Wed.)

Block one clued me in to the trouble that Block two would probably have with the legend art analysis, so I was able to get through the intro much better with this group. We wrote each sentence together, talking about what we needed to include and phrasing each sentence as a whole class. They ‘discovered’ much more about the St. George picture than I expected, even picking up on the cave and the Una’s people in the castle without my prompting.

The novice ESL kids made comparison charts for the two dragons, which brought out Sumaya’s hidden vocab talents. She was trying to figure out the English for the word destroy. She drew a little picture and kept hitting it with her pencil and making crashing sounds. Finally she said that the word sounded like story and we figured out that she was looking for the word DEstroy. She is really making so much more progress than Gabby and Joseph, and it is all because she obviously cares and wants to learn. She and Minah are becoming friends, which I am glad to see since Gabby is such a terrible influence on Minah. I’m sure that Minah is strong enough to not follow Gabby’s lead, but I’m glad that she has a friend who values school the same way she does.

We were able to get Joseph to give his speech last week, but this week we haven’t been able to get much out of him. With Jaime being suspended, we are hoping that things go better for him and the girls. Gabby, Claudia, and Johanna boo hooed all afternoon yesterday because they thought he had been expelled or moved to another team. He will be back on Monday, but on an abbreviated schedule, he’ll go home after my class. I think he lives in the same trailer park as Claudia and Johanna, so I can’t get them away from him totally.

Feb. 2 (Thurs.)

I have never seen this group of kids so interested and motivated to do a good job as they were today preparing for their speeches. They were so excited they could barely contain themselves through the first half of class. Several of them kept pulling it out to practice or add a little more here and there. The best part was that Minah and Sumaya were really ready to go too. I was afraid that they would be too nervous, but they were both confident. The class behaved very well, and they were so sweet and supportive to both of them. Gabby and Joseph were absent (because of the speech, according to Johanna and Claudia), but they will do theirs when they come back.

All of the other students did really well with their speeches too. They were much longer than I had hoped, and most made it to at least 2 minutes, if not closer to 3. Several still have to go tomorrow, but they are off to a great start. Anthony did really well, especially after practicing with me and Mrs. Turk yesterday. Jaime even did a really good job (and volunteered to go first, which was a little scary…) I am really proud of what they have accomplished, and I think I will try to do another speech before the year is out. They will be doing their Hercules play, but maybe we can squeeze in something towards the end as well.

The most amazing part about the whole lesson, is that their speeches were clearly not copied from the fable text I gave them. The words came from them and they really proved their understanding of the moral. Jerome was the only one so far to really miss the point. He was doing Hen and the Apple Tree, and somehow he got off track and started telling the story of the three little pigs. I’m not sure what happened there, but since he had nothing yesterday, I wasn’t able to help him practice like most of the others. At least he had something to present and practice speaking in front of the class. I’m looking forward to hearing Robert and Luis’s tomorrow, since they are both funny and creative. I hope that Johanna is able to finish tonight so that she can present.

Feb. 1 (Wed.)

Well, Monday was horrible, but like always, Tuesday was better and today was even better. Sometimes they have bad days just like adults do, but it seems that their bad days are a result of wanting to be bad, not because they are in a bad mood.

Anyway, we continued with our speeches today. Several of the students still hadn’t written enough, which was no surprise, so the group broke in half- those who needed to write wrote with Mrs. Turk, while I worked on pronunciation and speaking skills with the other half. They really got into it, they enjoyed the lesson, and they have great speeches that are ready to present for their class. Even the novice students have practiced their speeches (very short) to the point where they are comfortable with the words and can present tomorrow, even Joseph, who I didn’t think would EVER get anything done!! I’m looking forward to their presentations tomorrow. I think they will be very entertaining, along with proving to them that they present these fables in convincing, first person speeches.

Jan 30. (Mon.)

I got the main group started, while my assistant got the novice students started. The main group got in their circle, they had their list and pencil, and I distributed the fables. They all understood what to do before we began. I started the first 2 minute timer and my assistant and I switched roles, hoping that all she would have to do is reset the timer every two minutes.

As soon as I sat down with the novice students the main group lost control. Several students started talking (about totally unrelated issues), several stood up and left the group (I’m not sure why), and even after I left the novice students and got everyone settled again, as soon as I turned my back, CHAOS. –The novice students did a great job, they displayed clear understanding and seemed to enjoy working through the fables.

How could I fix this problem without removing the option of choosing the fable on their own? I know the easy fix is to just assign them a fable, which I have done in the past, but their projects are 100 times better when they pick the fable.

This was a very frustrating class that left me very depressed and ready to chuck it all. I hate that they can make me that angry, but their behavior is SO bad and SO disrespectful that I don’t know how to handle them anymore.

Jan. 27 (Fri.)

Today was SO much better than I had hoped. I was exhausted, but the kids really liked doing the Ask, List, Link, Choose activity. They did really well with it once they understood what to do. I think I need to work on the way I give them directions because I always seem to be repeating myself over and over and over again. I model, I repeat, but they still will get in their groups and sit there doing nothing until I come over and prod them to get started, when they say they don’t know what to do. I think I will make more overheads and model even the actual activity and see if that helps. Anyway, once they got started they did a GREAT job thinking of the second half of the yes, but sentence. I think they are finally getting the point of addressing the opposite point of view.

Jan. 24 (Tues.)

Today the students were to finish their cause/effect sheet and transfer the information onto their rough draft for their comic strip. This activity went FAR better than I had expected, mostly due to everyone being in a good mood. Janet and Hannah helped Minah and Gabby, who ended up with great rough drafts that they really understood. Both were able to explain what they had drawn and why. For Gabby, this was a huge achievement. She said she liked the story, which is why I think she did so well. Joseph worked with Luis and Jaime, but he only filled in his title. Even with Mrs. Turk helping him, he wouldn’t even copy the words in the blocks. When we gave up with words, he wouldn’t draw pictures either. Luis said it wasn’t because he didn’t understand, it was just because he didn’t want to. I don’t know how I’m going to reach Joseph.