Welcome to the Real World!

Well this past week was Read Across America week in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday!  Actually, just one day was actually designated to celebrate the ‘holiday,’ but we celebrated it all week long.    I tried to do some fun/different things with my students to spice things up a bit.  We had some high school and middle school students read to us a few days, and we read lots of enjoyable Dr. Seuss books.  Also watched a Dr. Seuss movie or two.  Yesterday, we even had a special parade through the school.  Students in the elementary school were allowed to dress up as their favorite Dr. Seuss character for the parade.  This week just reminded me how important it is to mix things up every once in awhile … the kids do appreciate it, I think!

This past week was also really fun because our high school boys basketball team had its district tournament.  They won on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and they play today (Saturday) for the district championship!  YAY!  I went to the games this week with another teacher friend and stayed at her house after each of the games because it was quite a drive from the game site back to my apartment.  MUCH closer/easier/wiser to just sleep at her house and go to school with her the next morning.  She lives alone, and I think she loved having company.  We also ate out and enjoyed some awesome conversation with one of the players and his dad before the games.  Lots of fun!  …and a great reminder to me of the importance of taking time to just SIT, RELAX and cherish CONVERSATION sometimes.  Especially with older, wise people.

One sad thing from this week, though…  The school had to call the hotline for physical abuse after one of my kiddos came to school with a huge scratch/scab on his face.  He told me that his mom ‘accidentally’ scratched him when she was trying to hit him because he was fighting with his brother.  He started crying, and I asked him if he felt safe at home.  He said, no.  And then he told me that she uses an extension cord to give them ‘whoppings’ on their legs.  When the people from the hotline visited his house, though, he didn’t tell them anything about that because he said he was scared that he would get taken.   

Well, I have a JOY to share from last week!

So I may (or may not?) have referenced the student in my class who is hands down the lowest student I have.  He just really struggles with everything, and lately, he’d been severely apathetic ALL THE TIME.  Wasn’t even trying.  He used to get help from three different people each day…  He’d spend an hour with one of our high school football coaches every morning working on class work, 30 minutes with a Title 1 reading teacher in a small phonics group each afternoon, and 30 minutes with a high-achieving 4th grade student who worked on reading/phonics things with him every afternoon.  But in the past few weeks, every single one of those people said that they didn’t want to work with him anymore because he just wasn’t trying … their time would be better spent working with students who at least TRIED.

I really came to a standstill with him, and didn’t quite know what to do next.  Then, by the grace of God, his 6th grade step-sister stopped by my room Tuesday afternoon on her way out to the bus.  Came in, gave me a hug, etc.  This was a shocker to me, because I’ve never really interacted with her before.  She’s kinda a stand-off-ish girl … strong personality … doesn’t at all care for teachers telling her what to do.  She wasn’t in my class last year, and even at times when I tried to be friendly and kind to her, the sentiments were never reciprocated.  So, you can imagine my surprise when she walked into my room!

On her way out, I noticed that she paused at her step-brother’s desk to see what he was working on, etc.  So I GRABBED the chance to tell her that I’d love to visit with her about his progress/behavior/etc.  She seemed OK with that, so I said I’d come visit with her down in the middle school the next morning before school.

When I did, we had a most wonderful conversation.  I asked her if there were any privileges at home that could be taken away from her step-brother if/when he has bad days at school.  She said he loves to watch TV, and she also said that her dad has given her the authority to take away that privilege from her younger siblings if ever necessary.  I also gave her her brother’s homework packet for the week and explained the reading log that is supposed to be completed at home each night.  (Her step-brother had NEVER done ANY kind of work/reading at home all year long.)  I tried to communicate to her just how much it would help him if she could work with him at home each night … if even a little bit.

Later that morning, when her step-brother was starting to do his “I’m not even going to try” thing, all I had to do was tell him about the discussion I’d had with his step-sister, and he was perfect for the rest of the day.  …and the rest of the week.  He brought back his reading log COMPLETED and SIGNED every single day, and he was OH SOOOOO proud!!!  Wow.  What a feat for him. 

I am praying that this can continue into this next week!!!  As long as I work to build and maintain the relationship I’ve now started to form with his older sister, I’m confident that it will continue.  When I was at school yesterday (Saturday) morning to watch elementary basketball games, his sister came over and greeted me with a hug and a smile. 

This 6th grade girl is a great reminder to me that it’s always valuable to consider what goes on at home.  She does not like to be bossed around by teachers at school, and it’s no wonder …. because she’s not used to anyone ever telling her what to do at home. Instead, she is an authority figure in a house that holds 13 children.  Can you imagine that responsibility?  …at age 12?

How do 7-year-olds sometimes know JUST what you need?  One of my kiddos this year is “cognitively impaired”  …  which is the sneaky way, these days, of calling a child mentally retarded.  She spends a lot of time outside my classroom receiving help from various specialists.  Despite her daily struggles, though, she maintains a sweet and positive attitude almost ALL the time.  It often happens that when I’m feeling sad or frustrated about something, I will look down and find her arms wrapped around me in a giant hug.  Sometimes I credit it to coincidence, but I usually wonder in the back of my mind if she can just sense when I need a hug. 

Today, I had raised my voice at one point … I think in frustration that the kiddos weren’t working silently as I’d asked.  Probably had a sad/frustrated look on my face.  And all of a sudden, there she is.  Wrapped around my stomach.  “I love you, Ms. Pribnow!”  Ahhhhhhh.  I love you, too, kiddo.  Sometimes, kids just know.  Her heart certainly makes up for whatever her mind unfortunately lacks.

The Quotable Student

Can I go to the bathroom?  Yes, but make it quick.  This morning when you went to the bathroom, you were gone for like five minutes.  But Ms. Pribnow, I was having a hard time…

(Said with all seriousness and innocence.)

Heartbreak.

 I had a 12th grader walk into my room today in tears.  She lives with her mother and sister, and money is extremely tight.  She’s been accepted to a great college, and mere weeks ago, she was REALLY excited about the prospect of going to college and the possibilities that college would bring.  Today, though, with many bills to be paid–and not knowing how they would be paid–she expressed her reality.  Maybe she’d just have to take classes at a community college for awhile and keep helping her mom pay the bills.  (She already works quite a bit and contributes a lot on that end.)  I think she just reached her breaking point today.  She tries to do so much for her mom and younger sister, and her mom is near HER breaking point, so she’s trying to do even MORE for her.  Her mom sleeps on an air mattress, and she sleeps on a  matress on the floor.  Car is breaking down.  The only way their last electric bill got paid was by an anonymous donor at their church.  Talk about a life I cannot relate to one bit.

 But I did my best to calm her down and assure her that everything will be OK.  Knowing she goes to church, it was also a great opportunity for me to reassure her in her faith.  She often stops by my room on her way to school in the mornings, so I told her that we can start praying over her day when she comes. 

This beautiful young lady–in the midst of trying to act much more grown up than she is–deep down just desires a senior year filled with the fun memories that a senior year should have.  …senior pictures, a class ring, taking the senior trip, going to prom.

I certainly can’t solve all of her problems, but I can take her shopping and buy her a prom dress as a graduation gift.  And by giving her this gift, I can only hope that I’ll also be buying her one night of happiness, carelessness and freedom from the weight of the world that seems to rest upon her shoulders.

Well, yesterday was the day to celebrate Valentine’s Day at school!  Kinda fun.  I got some super cool little pins made that said “Ms. P loves me!” for my kiddos to wear.  They loved them.  …or at least they pretended to.  Ha ha!  Enjoyed being able to spend a day just kinda chilling and celebrating.  Although we DID do some learning at the beginning of the day, much of the rest of the day was pretty chill.  Kinda nice every now and then! 

 Also got in some quality conversation time with a sixth grade student (in my class last year) after school, as nobody came to school to pick him up until two hours after dismissal.  Oops! 

Highlight of my week:  Well, there’s this boy in my class this year who just reeeeeally struggles.  He is SUPER low academically, and even socially he just seems to be a step behind.  Very hard to figure out how to motivate him.  These past few weeks have been pretty rough for him, and I’ve removed nearly ALL of the extra help I had lined up for him to be receiving daily.  I hestitated to do this, but finally decided that I needed to send him a message saying that if you’re NOT going to even TRY, then I’m going to choose other students who can make use of the help you’re currently receiving.  I can tell it’s bothered him that others have been spending time with his special helpers, so I’m hoping that he shapes things up a bit next week.  Anyway, when we were leaving our classroom at the end of the day one afternoon this week, I heard him LAUGH for the very first time!!!  Not even sure what he was laughing at, but when I heard it, I just stopped dead in my tracks and stared at him … jaw dropped.  He immedately started saying “I didn’t mean to do it (laugh), I didn’t mean to do it!”  He was probably saying this because whenever he smiles when he’s getting in trouble (which he often does), I always say, “Don’t smile.  It’s not funny.”  I made sure he knew that there’s nothing wrong with laughing at the appropriate time, though!  Made my heart smile. 

So today my students had a unique opportunity.  One of the seniors who does community service hours in my classroom daily signed to play Division 1 college football today.  Another student at my school was signing with a D-1 school, too, and three others were signing with lower division colleges.  Our school made a huge deal out of it, of course, as it should.  So there was a really nice, special ceremony for the boys.  The whole high school attended–in addtion to their family members, of course–and I got permission to take my class, too.  OMG they were sooooo psyched!!!  It just overwhelmed my heart to watch their faces as they absolutely beamed with excitement and pride as he signed.  What a great thing for them to see.  I am so lucky to have a young man who sets such an incredible example for my students.

One funny part of the afternoon … although I tried my best to thoroughly explain what the whole signing ceremony was about, I failed on one part.  After the ceremony, the kiddos reeeeeally wanted to go shake his hand, give him hugs, etc.  I told them that we needed to give him time to be with his family, and one of them said, “Ahhh, but I’m going to miss my buddy!”  It was then that I realized that they thought he would be leaving for college immediately!  Ha ha!  I assured them that he’d still be here for the rest of their second grade days. 

The Quotable Student

Ms. Pribnow, I’m growing a beard.

…after our idiom of the day was “at the end of his/her rope” … and I was trying to be patient while waiting for the kiddos to be QUIET so we could line up for lunch …   Everybody, please be quiet!  Ms. Pribnow is THIS CLOSE to being at the end of her rope!!!!!

So during the first week back from Christmas break, my students were tired all week long from not getting enough sleep over break.  …thus making them too tired to be extremely ornery.  During the second week back, school was still a novel enough thing for them again to be interested in causing trouble.  Honeymoon’s over, though!!!  They were pretty darn chatty, bicker-y, etc. this week.  Ahhhhh!  Hoping that next week will be better.

Yesterday, I was at school from 6:45 until 10:00 p.m.  There’s a high school boys/girls tournament going on at my school this weekend, so there were games going on all evening.  Our girls played at 5:00 and the boys played at 8:30, so I just stuck around for them both.  Worked in my classroom for a bit in between.  Made for a long day, but I just LOVE hanging out in the bleachers on winter nights.  I’ve been to enough games now that there are plenty of people for me to visit with and simply enjoy during games.  And I know enough of the players now to makes the games really fun to watch.  Heading back to school shortly here this morning for a 5th/6th grade game …. then another high school game this evening.  I will sure miss basketball season once it’s over!!!  Oops, guess I should just enjoy it while it’s here, though, rather than wishing it away, huh?

Really enjoyed the company of a couple of high school girls (twins, in fact) yesterday afternoon/evening.  These two girls have had it rough, and their home life is less than desirable.  They come see me every morning before school, and they stick around in my room until 5:00 most days after their 3:30 dismissal.  Yesterday, they stayed at school for all of the games, too, and before some of their friends got there, the three of us were able to sit and enjoy one another in the bleachers together.  While we were sitting there, I was thinking about how thankful I am for the relationships I’ve built with so many students and adults at school.  Those two girls are pretty special to me, and I can only hope that their relationship with me makes their lives at least a little bit easier.

Finally, there was one sad part about my day yesterday.  While grading papers between games last night, I found an erased note on one student’s paper about wanting to kill herself.  YIKES!!!!!!!  Will report it immediately.  Those are some pretty scary words to be coming from a 7-year-old.

Wow.  In a few years when I feel like doing some reflecting on my TFA experience, I am going to hate myself for not updating more often this year!  I do have a semi-excuse, though.  Tried to update a week ago, but I couldn’t get myself logged in.  So I had to wait for a powerful person to re-set my password, etc.  But that is done now, so no more excuses!  Things are going pretty well for me at school right now, so tonight I’ll just share a few highs with you…

• My kids seem to be absolutely under control.  Never got to that point last year.
• My kids and I are loving the book “Have you Filled a Bucket Today?”  Through it, we’ve learned that everybody has his/her own invisible bucket that is full of good thoughts and feelings about him/herself.  When we’re kind to others and others are kind to us, our buckets fill up!  When we’re unkind to others, our buckets empty out a bit.  My kids have really latched onto the whole bucket-filling idea.  We try to always be bucketfillers, and that is having a positive influence on our classroom culture!
• Had my second (and final) administrative observation this week, and it went well!  Relief!
• My room is a constant hubbub of people and activity.  I now have TWO seniors (12th grade students at my school) who do their community service period in my room every single day, and I also have a football coach who is mentoring a couple of my kiddos and giving them one-on-two academic help for an hour every day!  Wow!  And I can’t forget about the amazing fourth grade student from a teacher-friend’s class who comes for 30 minutes at the end of each day to read and practice reading/phonics strategies with my lowest reader.  He is making great strides!  Also, as I’ve mentioned before, my classroom door is like a revolving door at 3:30 when middle school and high school dismiss.  Now that 6th grade basketball has started, several of the boys have asked if they can stay in my room between dismissal at 3:30 and practice at 5:30ish.  Although my 2nd graders don’t get out until 4:30, this has worked out just fine so far!  They come in, sit in the back, and listen to music and play their little high-tech handheld games.  And once my kiddos are on their way home, we break out the cards, checkers, music, etc.  It’s a party!  Ha ha!  Yesterday, I think there were about 12 kiddos in there until 5:30.  Eek!  Some of them were late additions, though.  …got dropped off at schol at 5 or something and came to where the excitement was.  I sure do enjoy just spending time with them all. 
• Loving basketball season!  Taking in LOTS of middle/high school games at school.  Always worth my time.

Here’s the only LOW I have to complain about right now…

• I have three grad school classes this semester.  So my Tuesday and Thursday nights are pretty much taken.  Boooo. 

And finally for tonight, here’s a quick edition of “The Quotable Student.” 

Ms. P, are you white?  Yes, I am.  Oh.  I thought you were peach. (2nd grader)

You seem to be about 40% cooler than you used to be.  (former student)

I’m probably forgetting some…  Will add them as I remember them.  Gotta love kids and their honesty! 

Well I’m on the tail end of this year’s FIRST snow day!  It was great!  Just wanted to share this text I got from a student a few days ago:  “Ms. P, I can’t wait until I can call you MRS. P!”  Ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!  …to which I responded, “Give me some time, girl.”

Oh, and that reminds me of another good one…  Last week one day I was wearing a vest thing with a collared long-sleeved shirt underneath, and a student said, “Ms. P, you kinda look like a man today.”  Ummmmm, thank you?  Ha!  Too funny.

 I like writing these down somewhere (like this blog!) so I know that I won’t forget them. 

The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas are trucking along pretty quickly … as anticipated.  My students have started doing some MAJOR BICKERING lately, and I’m hoping that a two-week BREAK will go a long way in curing that.  My classroom is pretty tiny.  My students can barely scoot their chairs back to stand up without running into something/somebody, and I think that is starting to take a toll on them.  They have very little personal space.

I’ve been trying to do some special holiday things to keep them busy between now and break.  Different administrators/workers from school have been coming in to read holiday stories to my class, and the kids have really liked that a lot!  Still debating as to whether of not I should attempt to let them frost cookies next Friday on our last day before break.  ??????  I know they would have a BLAST, but I’m just not sure if I really want to take on such a project.  We’ll see how generous I’m feeling this weekend when I am planning the week ahead.  Ha ha!

Still enjoying lots of before-school and after-school visitors EVERY SINGLE DAY.  I have 2-4 girls who hang out in my room for 20ish mintues every morning before the high school starts at 7:30, and anywhere from 2-8 kids (different every day!) who stay after school until as late as I’m willing to stay there with them.  Sometimes we play math-related card games, sometimes they just enjoy laughing at funny videos on the internet (don’t worry, they’re appropriate!), sometimes they draw on my whiteboard, and sometimes they just want to sit and chat …. and fill me in on the latest drama/gossip.  Ha ha!  So far, I am usually up to having extra kids around.  Gets a little wearisome every once in awhile, but not too often.

Also, basketball season has arrived at my school!  I am fully enjoying hanging out at school until games that start at 5:30 several nights a week.  The high school boys games are most interesting to watch, but I have made sure to stay for at least a quarter or two of some girls games, too.  Lovin’ the school spirit. 

Lastly for now, next week is spirit week for the elementary part of our school!  We get to have a pajama day, school spirit day, twin day, crazy day and dress-up day.  Should be fun!  I will plan my outfits however I can in order to wear jeans as often as possible.  YAY!!!  That will certainly be a treat!

So I had a precious moment today I just HAD to share. 

 My school does ‘guided reading’ … which means that every day I meet with small reading groups.  The groups are created based on what reading level the students are at.  My lowest group works on a short book with just a couple sentences on each page.  We work on the same book–in a variety of ways–for two weeks.  Today we were actually doing something with a different story I read to them, and at the end B asked if he could read our book for the week to me.  So of course I said, YES!  He came around the table to stand next to me and proceeded to proudly read the entire book to me all on his own.  It was just plain PRECIOUS!!!!!  Made my heart smile and burst with pride.  Yay!  Gotta love those moments!