because my kids are NOT allowed to say anything in English.  Consequently, they are VERY quiet and (surprise) they listen better.  They worked really hard through math and Spanish language arts.  After that comes writers’ workshop.  I knew I had to let them blow off some steam or I’d be paying for it.  So, I had them begin a new choral reading for our poetry slam that’s coming up.  They LOVE to do this.  (Drama much?)   After that little break, we moved into writers’ workshop and they were focused and working hard for the whole 40 minutes.  I love how WW builds their stamina and turns them into serious writing.  (I actually heard some “Awwwwws” when I told them to guardar los ensayos.  Could this be MY class???)  Finally, I turned them loose on their social studies project, building their “worlds” and creating maps of them for the hallway walls.  I made sure to type up a list of all the jobs the kids had to do and then the team captains directed all the work.  It went so well.  One of the groups worked better than the other, but they both accomplished what they needed to do.  AND they were speaking to each other in Spanish without my prompting.

I wish I could just bottle days like today and keep it on the shelf for the ones that stink.

We are reading “The Lightning Thief” right now.  It’s an AMAZING book.  Truly.  You should read it.  My kids love it because:

1.   It’s an awesome book and

2.   I’m really good at reading aloud, if I do say so myself.  My kids ask me about it all the time, “Ms. Whiz, how come you’re so good at reading things aloud?”  I tell them,  Two reasons: practice, practice, practice AND the voices in my head.  I have to let them out somehow.  Them seemed satisfied with this answer.

Last week, our principal ate lunch with us in the room because the kids had beat him in a game of “Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.”  They clamored for him to read to them.  He agreed and then they asked, “Do you have as many voices in your head as Ms. Whiz?”  He gave me a sideways glance and then replied, “Kids, I’m sorry, but I think that’s just not possible!” 

Sometimes I don’t know how to describe it.  This week our union meeting was more hysterical than usual because our governor is calling for mid-year cuts in education.  Teachers’ jobs are gonna get chopped.  I’m a new teacher, I don’t have tenure.  You do the math.

And yet, I refuse to live my life based on fear, so for me, the meeting was a lot of blah-blah.  One of my colleagues and I chatted about it afterward.   She wondered if she should just move to a suburban school.  I admit, I’ve thought about it—in many ways it would be easier, or at least the challenges would be different (dealing with parents livid about 30-page coloring homework assignments?)— in the end, I love this job, these students.  In fact, the more I do this job, the more I love it, but there are definitely growing pains.

I grew up in such a different place and time than these kids (rural Nebraska?  Hello???).  I continue to live a different life than they do.  The issues are complex.  My students are so incredibly needy and at the same time, they act like the world owes them everything. 

We have a field trip to a museum coming up.  The museum is free, but the bus will cost $4 per student and the kids have to bring in the money.  I had kids angrily tell me (the day after the permission slip went home) “I AIN’T GOIN’!”  I started to hook into the anger and begin my little this-is-part-of-the-curriculum-it’s-not-optional  lecture, when I caught myself and began to peel back the layers.  Why not?  “Cuz my mama say she don’t got the money.  She got to pay the cable.”  Ohhhhhh.  Tell your mom to write me a note.  We can work something out.  Just like that, the anger dissipated.  (I AM learning.  It’s just a slow process.)

This week, we also had a cool assembly come to the school.  The message was great, but the guy selling the message was also selling yo-yos.  (He used it as his hook.  It was very effective.)  At the end of the assembly, he informed us that the program was not paid for by any outside funding, that it comes to us free of charge, but that he makes his living by selling the yo-yos.  They ranged in price from $6 to $15.  FIFTEEN DOLLARS FOR A YO-YO???  In MY school?  Pul-eeeease.  And yet, the kids were all excited about them, talking about which one they were going to get.  Inside, I was STEAMING.  I couldn’t help it.  I stood in front of the class, and told them, in no  uncertain terms, that we have a field trip to go on and if ANYBODY who told me they didn’t have money for the field trip comes in with a yo-yo, there’s gonna be heck to pay.  THAT went over well.  (I told you…my learning…SLOW process.)

I still have great difficulty reconciling my two worlds.

When I do anything in my own children’s suburban school, I am struck by the order, the manners, the QUIET.  My school seems so chaotic to me.  The constant struggle, shuffle and NOISE of my school still boggles my mind.  While I don’t come home in tears anymore, they are still plenty of times when I am frustrated or confused or just downright EXHAUSTED by the culture I serve.  I try not to be judgmental.  Really.  I do.  I make a contentious effort on a DAILY basis, but it’s damn near impossible.  Strike that.  It IS impossible.  When it comes to not judging, I’m an epic failure.  I see what goes on in the school and in the students’ lives.  I think about the lives my own children live and how they are so much more protected (and not just by me).  There IS a difference.

The things my students have to deal with are horrendous.  They are hungry, sometimes they are homeless, often they live in fear of physical violence.  (Just yesterday one of my favorite little guys, Bartholomew, told me that a SWAT team had come to his neighborhood to apprehend a neightbor.  I know it’s true.  I saw it on the news.  I said, I know you’re gonna say “no” to this, but weren’t you scared?  He admitted he was terrified.)  No adult should have to experience these things; I wonder how the children survive.  I am shocked by the things I hear and see.  I had to talk to Child Protective for the second time last week (I didn’t call them, but they wanted to talk to me about someone).  This is not ok.

My world is not like that.  I’m not hungry.  I have a home.  When my kids get sick, I don’t have to take them to the emergency room; we have a pediatrician and insurance to cover the visit (at least so far).  I have a car that can get us there.  My children are getting an outstanding education.  I have lots of education and for the most part, I comprehend what goes on in the world around me.  When I don’t, I know how to ask the questions and have the problem-solving resources and stamina to figure it out.  I know it’s a different world.  I can’t help thinking it’s better.  Isn’t it?  Isn’t this world better than one that lacks structure/stability?  If it’s not, why do we hold those things up as the standard?  And is that a judgment that is ok to make?

I never explicitly say, the way you live is wrong, there is a better way.  But  implicitly, isn’t that what I’m doing?    My job is so much more than teaching the basic fundamentals of “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.”  I am teaching my students about OPTIONS.  I hope my students can avoid drugs, violence, teen pregnancy, etc. and go on to get a solid education and fulfilling, stable jobs.  I want them to live lives full of promise, hope and dignity.  I hope I am modeling this for them.  I tell them every day how much I love my job and them.  And yet, I still have difficulty reconciling it all.  Who am I to say what’s better?  Am I just projecting how I would feel?  Are they happy with their lives?  I guess I can ask the questions.  And I can show different options.  But in the end, THEY are the ones who have to make the choice.

We have a local radio station that does a call-in science show.  They have a panel of scientists who answer questions from callers.  They like to start the show with questions from children, so they ask for classes to volunteer.  I did.  We recently did the show.

It was fun working in our science class to come up with the questions.  I told the kids, Have you ever wondered about something but didn’t have anyone to ask?  Well, now is your chance.  No question is off-limits!  We spent a whole class brainstorming questions and then we voted on the ten we liked best.  Ten children volunteered to ask them.

My favorite thing about it was seeing my Spanish speakers be so brave and ask the questions in English.  They were very frightened and yet they did it!  They were SO proud of themselves!  I printed out certificates that said, “I am a BRAVE SCIENTIST” for them.  They were walking around, showing it to everyone!

I also enjoyed watching the children’s faces as they listened on the phone to the scientists give answers.

The questions ranged from: “How do some many trees grow in the Boreal forest when it’s so cold?” to “Why don’t pigeons freeze to death in the winter?” to “Are dinosaurs still around?” to “Why do stars exist?” to “Why do we have boogers?”

Of course, the last question was a huge hit.  We all know that boogers are big with the fifth-grade set.  Did you know that there IS advanced scientific research being done on boogers?  (Neither did I–hey, it’s great to learn one new thing each day!)  I told the child who asked that question that when he wins the Nobel Prize in booger research, the second person he thanks (after his mother) had BETTER be Ms. Whiz, his fifth grade teacher!

I love maps.  I thought teaching this part of geography would be easy.  I was WRONG!

After a day of trying to teach it with the book, a map and a globe, I was still seeing that “deer-in-the-headlight” look from my students.  I came in the next day and was getting the same thing.  Desperate, I took a tangerine (fresh fruit isn’t just good to eat) and drew some “countries” on it.  Then I carefully peeled it and showed the kids what happens to the countries when we smush the round to flat.  A few light bulbs went off, but not enough.  I grabbed my masking tape and said,

Close your books.  We’re going into the hallway.

Out we went.  Thank goodness our walls have tiles on them.  I divided the class into teams and taped off two equal sections of wall for them.

These are maps of your worlds.  You will create hemispheres, continents, countries, landforms, and oceans.  You must create a compass rose for each map.  Everything must have a name or be labeled.  You must label the latitudes and longitudes.  Every person must have a job and there will be no fussing.  Go.

I can’t begin to tell you how excited they are!  Once they are done, we are going to have a “war.”  I know, I know, it’s violent.  They will launch bombs onto the other’s maps.  (The boys can’t wait for this.  Neither can the girls, now that I think about it.)  Of course, they will have to use latitude and longitude coordinates to do it.  If they “destroy” a country/continent, the one team has to give it up and the other team can put it on their map.

They WILL come away with this understanding latitude and longitude.  I know it.

I’ve begun my annual invitations to the community to come in and talk to the kids about their jobs.  Our first guest was a repeater from last year.  Her name is Nina and she was an exchange student to France during her senior year in high school.  She was one of the first kids I took with me to work in Guatemala (she was in eighth grade).  She came to visit with us before she left for her current “assignment.”  She told the kids about where she is currently: Guatemala, working for a whole year with the Guatemalan project (to say I’m proud of this girl is an understatement!).  The kids were in awe of her.  We’ve been sending her (and the children in the program) letters.

Our second visitor was Lt. Col. Santini.  He works as a PR man in the Air Force National Guard.  He and his unit fly to Greenland and Antarctica on the huge LC 130s.  They do all kinds of scientific research for the National Science Foundation.  Their specialty is climate change.  He had the most amazing slide show of glaciers.  His unit was the one who rescued Jerri Nelson, the doctor who had breast cancer.  The kids were riveted by his presentation.

Stay tuned for more guests to come!

An interesting new program in our school this year is “The Fresh Fruit and Veggie Program.”  Someone got a grant to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to the kids.  Three days a week, fresh SOMETHING is delivered to our room.  It could be apples, tangerines, cherry tomatoes, peas or beans.  Sometimes I have to laugh, because they’ll put three fresh green beans in a bag.  The amount of plastic used on this project makes me crazy, (they even put apples in plastic bags) but that’s a story for another day.

The kids are varied in their responses.  Yes, they are always hungry, but they rarely to NEVER eat fresh fruits or vegetables.  They always take the apples and bananas, because they KNOW apples and bananas, but tangerines?  Not so much.  Cherry tomatoes?  Uh, maybe.  Green beans?  Ick.  Zucchinni?  Fuggedabodit.

My role as teacher (it says this in the curriculum) is to “model eating and enjoying the food.”  Are you KIDDING?  Eat and enjoy it?  I can DO that!

We had green beans the other day and only about ¼ of the kids even took them.  I could’ve tried to “force” them to try them, but I didn’t.  I went to the front of the room and made another big production of eating them.  Mmm.  Mmmmmmmmm.  MMMMMMMMMMM.  That was it.  The other kids (who WERE eating them) started doing the same thing.  And of course, fifth graders being fifth graders, the other kids couldn’t resist.  “Uh, Ms. Whiz?  On second thought, could I try one?”  YESH!

They didn’t all LIKE them, but at least they tried.

The zucchini, now, THAT was a different story.  They tried it (thinking it was cucumber) and were all, “YUUUUUUCK!”  Adventurous eaters, my students are NOT.  One child, Contrary Freddy, started eating them, saying, “They have no flavor at all!”  (More about HIM later.)  I agreed and said,

You know, the way my mother got me to eat zucchini was to put it in brownies. 

“EWWWWWWWWW.” 

Hmm.  That gives me an idea.  I’m going to make brownies for you all. 

“You’re not going to put zucchini in it, are you?” 

You’ll see.

I went home and made two batches of brownies, one with zucchini, one without.  I cut them into squares.  The squares without zucchini were small, maybe an inch.  The squares WITH zucchini were huge, at least twice that size, maybe bigger.  I took them into school and showed them the plates.  I said they could pick ONE brownie.  I said,

Choose your plate wisely.  Did I put the vegetable in THIS plate, or in THIS one, or in NEITHER?  After I let that sink in, they got to choose.

Again, I know fifth graders!  Of course, they ALL chose the big brownies.  They gobbled them up and declared I had NOT put zucchini in.  (Yeah!  I LOVE it when my lessons work!)  At this point, the principal came in for his morning rounds and was able to do the taste test with us.  That was fun too.  The students loved watching him eat the brownie.  What would he say?  They were so excited to learn that there WAS a vegetable in the brownies and that they had been brave enough to try it!  Some even asked for the recipe.  All except Contrary Freddy.  He spit his out and threw it away when he heard the news.  The rest of the class yelled at him for that!  Good for them!

I can hardly wait to see what happens the next time we get zucchini!

I had an interesting experience this week on the OTHER side of the teaching coin.  That would be the PARENT side of the coin.  My daughter had a huge assignment (a 30-page packet) due.  She’d had a couple of weeks to do the different parts (lots of coloring work—I HATE coloring work).  She’s EXTREMELY responsible and had been doing several pages a night.  Her teacher told the class they could bring in the packet and she would check it for them on Friday and hand it back on Monday.  My daughter gave it to her on Friday.  Monday came and the teacher handed back the packets, but not my daughter’s.  My daughter asked where her packet was.  The teacher told her, in no uncertain terms, that she hadn’t handed the packet in and (here’s the worst part) that she needed to be more responsible.

Oh, Teacher, Teacher.  I KNOW you know how much power you have in the life of a child.  Those words, carelessly uttered, drop like stones on my girl’s head.  How could you be so cruel?

My daughter is far too polite (and terrified of this teacher) to argue.  She said ok and accepted a second packet to “redo.”  She brought it home and was doing it when I asked her where the other one was.  Once I heard the story, I was LIVID.  (Look out, you don’t KNOW Ms. Whiz when she goes all Mama Bear!!!)  My daughter now had two days to do an entire two week’s worth of work THAT SHE HAD ALREADY DONE.  So unjust. 

I was careful not to say anything disparaging though.  I’m a teacher.  I know that my students say they’ve handed things in when they haven’t. That’s why I guard their homework like gold.  I am not mean about it when kids say they’ve handed something in.  I just give them “the look” and tell them that I don’t have it, and if I don’t have it, I doubt they handed it in and suggest they should look for it again.  They do and I hear, “OH!  Here it is!”  (So far, I’m batting .1000 with that one.)  I have yet to lose something (although I’m human—I’m sure that day is out there—goodness help me).  But I also know my own daughter.  Like I said, she is responsible and honest to a fault.  If she said she handed something in…well, let’s say I had a conundrum here.

Still, I had seen her DO the work.  So, I helped her (quite a bit, actually) do the work and she handed it in the next day.  Wouldn’t you know, the teacher FOUND the other packet.  She gave it back to my daughter without so much as “I’m sorry.”  Nothing.  My daughter came home and told me with the saddest eyes.

*I* was apoplectic.  But so what?  What was I going to do?  Fire off a note to go in THIS teacher’s “goofy parent” file?  No thank you.  I’m a teacher.  I had a moment.  So I taught.

What did we learn from this, Baby Girl?

“I learned that my teacher can’t be trusted as much.  I don’t trust her now and I have less respect for her.”

Do you want me to say anything to her?

“No.  It won’t change anything.”

So there, it is.  Out of the mouth of a babe.  I do know this, though.  Next time this teacher says my daughter didn’t hand something in, I WILL be calling.  And I’m going to continue to guard MY students’ work like gold.

Half of my class doesn’t know basic multiplication facts.  It’s bad.  Seriously.  They lack the basic CONCEPTS of multiplication.  They don’t know the identity property. They don’t know that a number times zero is zero.  And yet…the other 1/2 of the class is owning the multiplication work.  I’ve finally been able to break the class into groups and we’ve been doing different games, projects and assignments, according to the student needs.

My advanced group is clamoring for “More!  MORE!”  One of the things the whole class loves to do is play multiplication hangman (Thanks, Mary!).  So, I made up a two-digit multiplication hangman assignment for the advanced group.  Obviously, I had to fill in some of the numbers for the kids since I wasn’t there to tell them if they were right—I had to give them SOME clues.  But then THEY had to solve the rest of the problems.  Most of them were pretty excited about the challenge.  However…

“Dear Ms. Whiz, I found this homework very confusing and not very helpful when it comes to learning multiplication.  I rather my child do a multiplication problem that includes all numbers instead of guessing back and forth wasting time.  Sincerely, Mama Helps-With-Homework.”

WASTING TIME???  Good grief. 

Congratulations to the mom for being involved with her daughter, but shame on her for writing this note!  This was higher-level thinking work.  It is ALGEBRA!  The kids need to be able to think through something and SOLVE for x (or y, or z).  To do this, they have to analyze and synthesize.  It is my favorite thing to do. 

I tell my students every day, “Never give up.  Never ever ever ever give up.”  I guess I need to send that message home to the parents as well.

Last year, I had a few go rounds with a child who actually LIKED this book, but said she couldn’t read it/hear it because “it was against her beliefs.”  After we got all the hypocrisy ironed out (hmmph), she very much enjoyed it.

THIS year, not only am *I* reading the book to my class as a read aloud, but I recommended it to another grade colleague and she is reading it to her students as well.  She is amazed at how much they love it.  (Told her so.)  My kids are eating it up this year as well and there are NO problems about it being “against beliefs.”  However, because I have to do TWO language arts classes, I only have time for read aloud two times a week (the great tragedy of my life–do you SEE the irony there???) and she can do it every day.  Consequently, she is on chapter 17, while I am only on chapter 10.  One of her students transferred to my class a few weeks ago and is in despair because we are so much further behind. 

When I ask the kids for their prognostications, “Mimi” always puts up her hand and wants to blow the whole thing for the others, telling what she already knows.  I’ve spoken to her about it, but she won’t stop doing it.  So, I spoke to her again and explained why I wouldn’t be calling on her during read aloud.  She takes it all in stride.

So, this weekend, Mimi took matters in her own hands.  She came in today and said, “Ms. Whi-i-i-i-i-iz…look what IIIIIIIIIIII have.”  She held up a library copy of “The Lightning Thief.”  She’s not the only one to do this.  SEVERAL of my students have gone to the library to get their own copies of not only THAT book, but the rest of Riordan’s as well!  I have to say, I can’t be upset!  THEY ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT READING!!!  They are plowing through these books and talking about them (AND Greek mythology) all the time.  So what if they know the ending?  I just won’t call on them.  Ha!  (They seem to understand.)

YESH.