Spirit Week, The Recap

I had intended to write this post over the weekend, when I could include photos, but I think I'll just have to come back and add them later at home. Today, only 13 babies showed up for school. Apparently, I never received the memo that stated a pizza party signifies the end of the school year. Hmmm...oh, well. I'll just have to deal with having 1/2 my class gone... ;-)

Ok, so I already shared Monday's festivities. Fun, fun, fun! Tuesday was Crazy Hat/Hair Day, and the babies did not disappoint! The girls had the crazy hair, and the boys wore the hats. I actually only had 3 boys that did not have hats, but as luck would have it, I had three "crazy" hats in my trunk (from last year's Spirit Week!) so it all worked out perfectly! I didn't need the paper hats after all. I'm going to pack them away for next year. I've already thought of a hundred different things we can do with them (including making 100th Day hats! yay! I've warned you all several times now that I'm a helplessly geeky teacher, right?) I tried to take pictures of my hair for you, but of course my camera died! I had the front of my hair up in a ponytail (picture samurai hair?) then I braided that. I put the two sides up in pigtails, and the back was up in a bun. The babies thought it was hilarious, and the adults all told me I looked like a little girl (because of the pigtails). I took pictures of the babies, though, and I will post them later.

Wednesday was Mix 'N Match Day, and it was too cute! Let me first tell you how I dressed. I prayed all the way to school, that I wouldn't get pulled over or in an accident, because I would have a hard time explaining myself! I took half of my hair and put it in a french braid, then put the other half in a pigtail. Because I did this immediately after I got out of the shower, my hair was soaking wet. As I drove, I must have been twisting the pigtail, because by the time I got to school, it was one big banana curl (picture Cindy Brady!) I had one brown eye and one green eye. I had on a crazy patterned top (flowers and hearts) with a pair of penguin pajama pants (navy blue pants with white penguin silhouettes) I wore one orange sock and one red sock, one slide-on sandle (the ones that I adore, that make my foot feel better! smart, right?) and one clog. I looked utterly ridiculous, which was the point, after all! Most of the babies wore two different shoes and/or two different socks. A couple actually wore some mixed patterns.

Unfortunately, the Trail Mix was a big bust! Most of the kids didn't like it, and I watched my $$ get thrown right in the trash. :( I don't understand it. It was all stuff they liked individually. As I told them what each ingredient was going to be, I kept hearing "mmmmmm!" but then once it was mixed together, they didn't want it. Go figure!

Thursday was a cute day. Not all the babies brought Teddy bears, though. Some of the kids, however, brought bears that were literally bigger than they were! It was hilarious! I had downloaded a bunch of teddy bears pages from a website, so we colored teddy bears, wrote our Daily News on teddy bear paper, and made a jointed teddy bear. That afternoon, the Teddy Grahams and Gummy bears were a HUGE hit!

Friday was Pajama Day, always my favorite day! I wore a different pair of penguin pajamas (I know, you're shocked that I have more than one, right!?) and put my hair in pigtails (this time they both were in Cindy Brady curls!) and most of the babies wore jammies, too. All but one of the girls wore cute two-piece pajamas, as did about half of the boys. One little guy, DB, wore his Superman pjs under his clothes, but didn't want to take the clothes off. He had denim shorts on over his long Superman pants. It was hilarious! His mom also brought us cupcakes, which was an unexpected treat. Another mom brought three big bags of candy for the kids (I ended up making candy bags to take HOME!) so we had lots of treats. During my prep, I convinced my friend to go to the grocery store with me, so he could run in for me, (I didn't want to walk around the store in my pajamas!) and get the Popsicles. Turns out we didn't even eat them since we had too many other treats. I'm hoping we have a warm day tomorrow or Wednesday so we can go outside and eat them. It's raining today :(

I guess because we had a week of celebration, my parents assumed that school was over. Um, hello!! Who the hell said that?! I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but I'm not ready for the babies to leave yet. I haven't given them their end-of-the-year gifts, they didn't empty their cubbies, they didn't take their papers home, WE'RE NOT READY!! They didn't even get their report cards yet. And, many of them owe me library books. I'm really pissed about this, to tell the truth.

I have never let my students take my library books home before. Never. I knew I would never see them again. Now don't get wrong, I have hundreds of other books that I let the babies "borrow" because I don't really care if I get them back. Some were here when I came to the Hell-Hole, and the rest I've accumulated over the years, either through donations from colleagues, book drives, or other programs (we have this awesome program every year called Bookworm Angels.) Anyway, I made a list this morning of every child who owes me a book, with the name of the book and the replacement cost, to hang on my door. I'm also giving the office a copy because none of those children will receive a report card until the book is brought back or paid for. Sad thing is, most just won't get their report cards because their parents could care less. But, since today's post is not going to be a bitching session, I'm moving on....

We only have two full days left of school. Thursday is a teachers institute day so the kids are off, then Friday the kids are supposed to come for one hour. What a waste! I actually convinced the Big Cheese to print the report cards out early so we can pass them out on Wednesday, thus eliminating the need for the children to return on Friday. Our attendance is anticipated for the last week of school, anyway, so the kids are already marked present. The teachers only work a half-day on the last day, so we are finished at 11:30. That is, IF you worked both Report Card Pick-Up nights. I don't know why they always stipulate that. Who would NOT work Report Card Pick-up? But, I guess some people don't, since it's in the evening. Who knows!

Traditionally, I meet for lunch with a group of my teacher friends on the last day of school, since we get out so early. Even though we don't all work together anymore, we still try to keep up with this, since we so rarely see each other anymore. I'm really looking forward to our lunch.

Oh, one crappy little thing I realized today...we start back to work on AUGUST 5TH!!! I want to cry. I keep trying to find the silver lining in this year-round BS, but things like this make it really, really hard....ok, I said no bitching, right? I'll come back and do it tomorrow....

I heart the G Family!!!

I haven't written about the G Family in a while, but I still love them just as much as always!! Especially at this time of year. They never cease to amaze my with their generosity. Thursday morning, Mr. and Mrs. G showed up with 24 goody bags for my babies.

Each bag was lovingly decorated by hand by, what I'm guessing was, the entire G Family. I love that this family actually does things together! It's sad to me that they are the exception instead of the rule when it comes to the families in Englewood. I realize not everyone had the idyllic childhood that I was privileged to have, but most of the families in Englewood are the polar opposite of what I had as a child. Most of our kids are raising themselves. Nearly all the families are single parent families, many of our students are foster kids, oh my God....I'd better stop right now. I had NO intention of writing a rant. Let's see, where was I? Oh, yeah, the G Family!!

Mrs. G always makes old-fashioned goody bags, with a piece of fruit, and few pieces of candy and maybe a little toy. This year, she included a book and some crayons. How great is she?

Of course, she brought me a lovely gift basket like she does every year. This one was just as beautiful as all the others. Just in case I haven't said it lately, I LOVE THE G FAMILY!!!

I'm afraid I'll jinx myself....

...by putting this in black and white. But, so far, 2008-2009 seems like it just may be a good year! Damn, now I'll probably get 6 new kids Monday morning!!!

So far, we have finished 9 days of kindergarten, and "we're 9 days smarter." For the third year in a row, I have a disproportionate number of boys to girls, as does the other kindergarten class. Right now, I have 7 girls and 13 boys. Last year, I had 7 girls and 23 boys!! I don't remember the exact numbers from the year before that, but the 2nd grade teacher asked me about it the first week of school because she couldn't believe how many boys she had. Must be something in the water in Englewood the past few years. Who knows. I shouldn't even admit this, but my cynical, jaded side thought for moment, "Gee, I wonder if the powers that be know about this trend, cuz their gonna need to build more jails in about 10 years." Yes, I know, that's horrible. That's what being in Englewood for 10 years had done to me. I immediately pushed that thought out of my head, and put my focus on trying to do something to ensure the exact opposite happens.

Another strange thing this year - our enrollment is WAY down. The first week of school, we only had 305 kids enrolled at the Hell-Hole. 305! By the end of the week, Mrs. J. in the office told me we were up to 429. Still a pitiful number. I do know, however, that during that week before the students came back, I saw three of my babies from last year and their parents in the office all asking for transfer papers.

One was my little D.S., who you might remember was the baby who needed to be thisclose to me all the time. He's the one that said, "Mrs. L., I love it when you touch me," and wanted "100 shmarshmallows." Jeez, I could think of a million more cute things he said and did. Anyway, I actually hugged his mom and celebrated the fact that he was going somewhere else. There isn't enough at the Hell-Hole for him. What a sad statement, huh? I know I gave him the best foundation I could, but I'm not that confident that there would have been a continuation of the same dedication to his education. I'm not for one minute trying to say that I'm the #1 teacher at the Hell-Hole. We have many teachers who care as much as I do about their students. But, unfortunately, they don't always have the resources to do everything they know or want to do for their students. Plus, we have a number of teachers there who simply show up everyday to collect their checks every other Friday (despite how small they are!) Add that to the fact that our staff turns over by 50-60% EVERY SINGLE YEAR, and it's a recipe for disaster.

That all leads to why so many of our kids have left. Because the Hell-Hole has been on probation for so long, the parents in the neighborhood have all been given the option to send their children to other, "better" schools. Obviously, many have opted to do just that. Which leaves me a bit torn. I'm really happy for those kids who will now get the quality of education they deserve. Hopefully, it will lead to a path of higher education that will someday get them out of that neighborhood and open doors to opportunities they might not have had.

But, at the same time, no students=no jobs. I'm not for a second worried about my job. Worst case scenario, the other kindergarten gets closed, and I will have to do both classes, probably as two half-day classes. Actually, I wouldn't mind that so much. I'm worried for the other teachers, especially those 'brand new' ones that were just hired. They come so full of enthusiasm and energy, and truly feel they can make a difference in the lives of these kids. I would hate for them to have to leave, but it's a very real possibility.

Very worst case scenario, Hell-Hole is closed due to low enrollment. Now, you gotta know, there's a small part of me that actually hope that happens. Maybe then, Big Cheese would be "forced" to retire. Within a year or two, the school would be reopened, but with a whole new administration, and probably new staff, and maybe things could finally turn around in that neighborhood. Ok, whoa, I'm getting way ahead of myself here. One can dream, can't they?

OK, back to this year's babies. For the most part, I LOVE them already. D.B. has actually been able to string together a couple of wonderful days. Just like she said, Mom didn't stay on Wednesday. There were a few ugly moments in the morning when he realized she was leaving, but luckily, Mrs. G. was going to stay with me for a while and do the morning read-aloud. [You may remember Mrs. G. and G. Family because I wrote about them many times last year. I LOVE THIS FAMILY!!! But, more on them in a bit...] So, Mrs. G. simply put her arms around the screaming D.B., and continued to read the story that she was reading, gently persuading D.B. to be her helper and hold the book, turn the pages, etc. She's so great! After a few minutes he stopped crying. I was actually able to leave the room, get some things done in the office, and put up a bulletin board in the 15 minutes that she read. Have a mentioned that I LOVE THIS WOMAN?!

There were just a couple other moments of crying, but we were able to get them under control very quickly. Thursday, Mom was saying good-bye, and the crying (ok, screaming) started again, but this time, another mom was in my room. (I had her daughter last year, and her daughter, I.W. was one of my absolute favorites.) She knows D.B.'s mom from the neighborhood, so she proceeded to step in and handle the situation. That's one thing that I still can't get used to about my parents. They really believe "it takes a village" and have no problem stepping in with other people's children. I go back and forth over whether I think it's a good thing or not. I'll let you know when I decide! Anyway, she proceeded to use a little tough love on D.B., which only made the screaming escalate. This went on for a few minutes, and just when I was about to step in (and ask her to get the hell out of my room!) he sat down in his seat, and stopped crying. I wasn't really sure what I should do, because I didn't want to set him off again. I just continued on with our morning routine, and he actually seemed fine. The rest of the day went relatively smoothly, with only two other very short crying episodes. By the afternoon, he was really showing a new side of himself. For the first time, he joined the other kids during center time, and actually played! Maybe that sounds insignificant to some of you, but to me, it was HUGE! All the other days so far, he either just sat/lied on the carpet, or sat alone at a table watching the other kids. He also put himself smack in the middle of the carpet during calendar time. The first 7 days, he was either on the very outer edge of the group, or next to me. And, the most exciting part was that he did it completely on his own. I looked down, and was very pleasantly surprised to see him in the middle, surrounded by the other boys and girls. Yay, D.B.!! Naturally, I couldn't give him enough praise and encouragement that day, and even the other babies chimed in, giving him a hand for having such a great day. One of them commented that "he didn't even cry during centers." Too cute! His mom came about 15 minutes before dismissal, and was going to come in to check on him, but I stopped her at the door and said, "Please don't jinx me, he's having a GREAT day!" She seemed very relieved to hear that.

Friday, D.B.'s mom sat with him for a few minutes reading during our quiet reading time. He was actually smiling and enjoying his time with his Mommy. Right up until....I.W.'s mom walked into the room! He took one look at her, and started screaming!! Oh, crap!! But, believe it or not, he was able to pull himself together very quickly, and the moms both left. The rest of the day was great!

I actually came home Friday in a relatively good mood. Exhausted, but happy. I also came home with my period AND a cold, but that's for another post :(

Customers are coming into the bar now, so I'll have to write about my other babies later. Have a great weekend!!

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. ~John W. Whitehead, The Stealing of America, 1983

Frigid Friday!

I just checked weather.com, and it's currently 15 degrees outside, with a windchill of -1. Whoo hoo! Talk about brisk! Unfortunately, I just had to stop for gas on the way home. Naturally, I was wearing a hooded, zip-up sweatshirt, so needless to say, it was a bit nippy! Did I mention the 26 mph wind gusts? It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't wearing a short-sleeved summer shirt under my sweatshirt. But, despite the temperature being in the low teens this morning, my classroom was 96 steamy degrees when I got to school. And it stayed that way all damn day!!!! That kind of heat all day makes me physically sick to my stomach most days. I had the window behind my desk open all day, but it didn't do much to alleviate the oppressive heat.

I'm really irritated with myself for not remembering to bring home the pile of scribbles on my desk. All week, I've been writing down the funny things the babies have been saying during testing. It's funny how almost all of them misunderstood the same words used in the section where they're supposed to come up with sentences. Most of them, when given the word meant, said, "I like to eat meants." (mints!) For felt, the ones that came up with a sentence almost all said, "I felt, " ("I fell.") Several of them used woman by saying, "My mom is a woman."

Today was a rough morning with my darling little boy. Without boring you with all the details, I was hoarse by the time we got to his school. Anyway, when I pulled into the parking lot at work, I realized that in all the madness, I left my bag on the kitchen table with my crock pot, apple peeler/corer/slicer, sugar and cinnamon. Ooo, I was SOOOO pissed! My poor babies! Well, as soon as they walked in, I let them know, and they actually were really good about it. I told them I would cut the apples I had saved, and they could eat them later. Well, one of my moms came in to see if I still needed anything for the 'apple party,' and I told her what happened. She said, "Oh, I have a crock pot! I'll go get it, and I'll be right back." How sweet! Of course the babies got all excited. C.B.'s mom came back about 20 minutes later. Unfortunately, the crock pot she had was one of those little ones you might use to keep a dip warm. There was no way we could use it for our purposes. C.B.'s mom also brought us a bag of sugar, and a jar of cinnamon. I think she went and bought them, as they were both new, unopened containers. Again, so sweet! What we ended up doing was not cooking the apples, but I used another apple cutter I had at school (the kind you push down over the apple and it cuts out the core, and wedges the apple into 8 pieces) and then sprinkled cinnamon sugar over the pieces. The babies went nuts! They actually said they liked it better than the cooked apples. Thank goodness everything worked out for the best. I hate disappointing the babies.

Well, this is a perfect night to take a long soak in a hot tub, so I bid you adieu! What a great start to a nice, loonnggg weekend. Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ---Martin Luther King, Jr.