From TAKSing to Relaxing

Salvete,

I survived TAKS. It wasn't nearly as bad as everyone said it would be. I had good kids in my room, a third of which were mine, and the children finished fairly quickly without incident or complaint. Future teachers, do not fear the TAKS Test Day. It is basically a good day, where you don't have to plan anything, and do what you are told.

Whether or not the children passed has yet to be seen.

Two weeks ago (or so), I had an "issue" with one of my co-workers. I will forgo the gory details. I didn't handle it well, and neither did my co-worker. I have now been added to the other teacher's black list (shout out to all my FFXI peeps...). Team meetings have resumed as normal, except she doesn't talk to me, and I don't talk to her. I act completely relaxed around her, and when she passes me in the hall she looks straight ahead with the dreaded stony eyes. At these times, I chuckle to myself. Grow up, woman. And don't you ever wag your finger at me again.

In other news, I turned in my resignation last week. I will officially be moving back to Dallas come summer. I have no doubt that this is the right thing to do. I love my apartment here, and my co-workers are good (minus the one; see above), but it is time to go. I hate this city. My superiors all know, but none of my peers or students are aware as yet. I'm going to tell my co-workers maybe the last week of school, and my students the last day, if they haven't figured it out by then. The resignation process was painless. I was going to wait until much later to execute it. However, the powers that be could not start looking for a replacement for me until I had officially resigned.

In reference to Alyssa's post from last time, I have heard about Rafe and his methods. I wish I had the tenacity and energy to do what he does. I plan to change a lot of things next year about how I manage my classroom and the quality of work I will take. A lot of the time, the problem is not that they get less than 90% on an assignment--it is that the students turn in nothing. How to make them redo, when they do not at all? How to make them understand, or write legibly with academic standards in English, when they cannot write well in their native language? This is a problem we face in Texas, among other places with a high immigrant population. Rafe overcomes it...LA has a huge influx of immigrants not just from Spanish-speaking countries, but from countries of many other tongues. Alyssa, I also recommend I am a Pencil by Sam Swope. It is incredible, and I think about him sometimes when I am feeling lost as to how to handle a situation.

I relate better to Sam than to Rafe, because Rafe seems to have it all together. He can make those kids perform (literally...they put on a Shakespeare play every year with fifth graders). Sam is just starting out. He has no clue what he is doing. I relate to him in other ways, but this is the main way.

Wednesday...we had a mouse in the classroom in third period. Those children! They are hysterical! Third period is my favorite right now. They are a little flaky, but lovable. I had gangstas and cholos standing on their chairs in sheer terror of a tiny mouse that was nowhere near their seats. I had JROTC students cowering in fear from a little rodent. What innocence! I rarely get to see that out of them. The situation was handled, and the one child who knew about the mouse in fourth period swore to keep the creature a secret. He and I both know what would happen if fourth period found out there was a rodent. Half the class would be looking for it, and the other half would be screaming. I pseudo-lied to seventh period. They saw the mouse traps (humane, of course) and asked whether I had a rat. I told them that I most certainly did not have a rat (not a lie...it was a mouse). Also, I told them that those traps had been there for a while. Had they not noticed them? To these children, "a while" can equal forty-five seconds, so the traps had indeed been there "a while" in their lives.

I'm a horrible person.

Friday...I ended up pushing the emergency call button to get a child escorted from my classroom. One of my students, for whom I've done a lot, decided to be belligerent, disrespectful, disruptive, and a general ass. I got the AP to come get him out of my classroom, and wrote the child up. When I carried down the completely-filled referral form, the principal saw it and asked, "Whoa, who is that for?" I answered her, and she said, "He is so unpleasant!" You know that if this principal says something negative about a student, that student must be a little hellian.

Finally, I'm going to Italy tomorrow. We are taking some kids. It is going to be insane! I am going to miss my love immensely. He is coming home in three weeks, though! Hurry home, darling!

Valete,
Magistra