Rock the Pickle

One thing I miss about my old teaching assignment is that I don’t get to teach social studies anymore.  I feel funny saying this since social studies was never a strength of mine as a student, but as a teacher I think I did a pretty darn good job of getting the kids engaged and learning.  Four years ago, upon the insistence of our principal, I had my students really dive deep into the election process as we learned about the candidates and their opinions on important issues, the electoral system, the history of voting rights, and most importantly, the art of expressing one’s opinions and accepting those of others with respect and composure.  (More about that here.)

This year, though I didn’t get to go into the election in depth, I did talk to the kids about the importance of voting and told them to encourage their parents to do so.  Today for their journal topic I had them write about the person they would vote for if they could, but before setting them loose I…

• gave them my old speech about pickles;
• assured them that their opinions were valid;
• reminded them to respect everyone else’s opinions too;
• made sure not to mention the candidates by name (I told them that if they didn’t know the names of the main candidates then they really were not prepared to make an educated decision about them anyway);
• told them voters did not have to vote for any of the candidates on the ballot but could write-in any person they chose (and explained also that this would be a vote for principle rather than practicality);
• explained the basic criteria for becoming a President (and smiled when several students in each class asked me how old I was)
• encouraged them to vote based on their own opinion and not that of their parents, friends, teachers, or any other outside influences; and
• asked them to write down their reasons for choosing their particular person.

After the five minutes of writing time were up, I had them close their journals and put them away without discussion.  Their opinions will be shared, along with all their other entries, the next time we exchange journals, but for today their votes (and mine) remained anonymous.  And tonight, as the whole planet awaits our country’s official verdict, most of my students are brushing their teeth and getting ready for a night of restful sleep, secure in the knowledge that the results of tonight’s election will not likely cause any tremendous changes to their lives.

Losing Hope

God.  Days like today make me think.  When I consider the world in general I feel like we’re all on it together, you know?  All human beings riding the same ride.  But that’s not the reality, and it’s arrogant of me to think so.  There are so many different versions of this life going on all around, simultaneously but so very separately as well.

Sometimes I wish I could just wave a magic wand and let every single person on the planet see just how beautiful and amazing life can be… it seems so simple, actually.  Yesterday morning I saw for the first time this season a bunch of little Caladium sprouts shooting up out of the earth from where I had planted them a few weeks ago, and I felt such a profound sense of happiness and excitement.  I felt it, like something physical inside of me.  A warmth.  A pulsating, live thing.

Life, man!

But then today I step outside of my little happy bubble and see another side of life.  Something dark and sad and tangled beyond repair.  Wait.  Beyond repair?  Do I really believe that?  The optimist inside me doesn’t want to, but I don’t know.  It’s such a giant, scary thing.  Such a powerful thing, and so destructive!  Ignorance.  That’s the root of it, I think.

sigh… I’m being cryptic, sorry.

It all boils down to child abuse, in all of its ugly faces.  A ruthless, relentless cycle.  When I see adults at what seems to be their lowest point, it saddens me.  Homeless people, drug addicts, criminals, abusers.  I hate it.  Hate that people live their lives like that every single day.  Hate the fact that even though those people live on the same planet, in the same city and even in the same neighborhood as I, they are unable to see and experience the beauty of the world the way I do every day.  How is that fair?  How is that possible?

And see, my life revolves around kids.  I work with ten- and eleven-year-olds day in and day out.  I see their innocence and awe as they experience the brand-newness of life.  It’s still magical for them.  Yeah, they’re starting to think bigger, starting to replace the magic with logic and reason, and some of them are dealing with really difficult situations in their homes but even then their view of the world is still relatively good.  They have a natural optimism, an innate sense of resiliency and hope.  I know.  I had it, too.

But I think about these two extremes: the innocent child and the adult who has lost it all.  What is it that causes one to become the other?  At what point is a child’s sense of hope completely shattered and replaced by despair?  And more importantly, what can I do about it?

That’s the magic I want to work.  I want to break the cycle somehow, but God, just the thought of it is so overwhelming!

On days like today, the idea of teaching American history and subject-verb agreement just seems so mundane and pointless.  I want to do more.  I need to do more.

Power to the People

A few weeks ago I decided to try a brand new project in my social studies class.  I was in the mood for change, ya know?  A fresh idea, the excitement of something different, the risk of not knowing exactly how it’ll turn out.  Yeah.  You need a little of that every now and then.

So this idea actually began as a result of the Bio Body project.  I’ve always felt that the kids learn so much from that project but their research is limited to people of African descent.  And yeah, I know Hispanics have a whole 30 days set aside too, but honestly half of one month and half of another is just so anticlimactic.  And what about white people and Asians?  heh.  I’d been letting this concern sort of roll around in my head for the past couple of years, but this year several factors came into play which caused my idea to finally come to life.

First, we had a really good student teacher come help out with science at the beginning of the school year.  She was smart and sweet and oh-so-full of idealism.  I love the enthusiasm of teachers just starting out.  It’s so sad that most of them lose it within the first few years.  Anyway, so this teacher had her students (the same students I get for language and social studies) make short videos about a science topic of their choosing.  Some chose the water cycle, some chose the rotation and revolution of the sun, earth, and moon… stuff like that.  They performed little skits, made up songs and cheers, added text–it was really impressive!  They had a blast making the videos as well as watching everybody else’s.  Best of all, they actually learned in the process (both by creating their own and by watching their peers’).

Secondly, I had a parent express to me the exact same concerns that I was feeling: she and her son had loved the Bio Body project and wanted to do it all over again with people of every ethnicity!  Well, I promised that mother an awesome end-of-year project, and then I got to work trying to plan it all out on paper.  Here’s what I came up with:

Instead of a research paper, the kids (either individually or in groups) would create a PowerPoint presentation.  And instead of focusing on a particular person, they would research the history of a particular invention.  This way they would be forced to work backward without knowing the ethnicity of the person or people who had hatched the invention’s original idea.

The first step in the project was to brainstorm.  I told the kids that the most common “inventions” were objects or tools–products used in our daily lives today.  I told them to imagine standing in their living rooms or kitchens and to make a mental note of all the man-made devices they saw.  I also told them that they could think bigger.  Large inventions, powerful ones, important ones.  And that an invention didn’t have to be a physical object at all–it could be an organization, an idea or a tradition, etc.  I encouraged them, as I always do, to think outside the box.  And I reminded them that every single presentation had to be different from the others.

When each kid had at least ten things written down, I had them choose their group members (no more than three students per group).  Some chose to work alone, and that was fine.  I told the singletons that from now on I would be referring to them as “groups” as well, to avoid confusion.  Once in their groups, the goal was to agree on ONE invention for the group to research.  I gave them a good fifteen minutes for this, and the conversations I overheard while walking around were fantastic!!  Here are all the topics they finally came up with:

From this point, they were able to get to the meat of their project: the research and presentation.  I reminded the students at various stages throughout the process that they were my guinea pigs so I wasn’t sure how everything would turn out, but that I expected them to try their best.  I also participated in the activity myself just to show them a clear example of every step.  The topic I chose for my invention was the paperclip.

Before setting them loose on the Internet to do their research, I gave them tips on finding information (enter “history of ___” in the search bar) and cross-referencing to check their facts.  I also gave them clear instructions about what to do if (and when!) they came across something inappropriate (exit the Internet immediately and raise your hand to tell the teacher how you got to that particular page).  They were also not allowed to print anything–instead they had to find the main facts and write them down on notebook paper.  This helped to cut back on plagiarism, but one thing I might add next year is a bibliography just to make it more official.

Then I spent one full hour in each class going over the basics of creating a PowerPoint presentation.  I knew that some of them were familiar with (and even experts at using) the program, but I explained that I would be going slow for those who weren’t.  And it turns out that even the experts learned a few things.

We went over creating new slides and adding text boxes first.  I told them that was really all they had to do, and that the only thing I was going to grade was their content.  They were to have at least four slides:

1.  Title and Name(s)

2.  The Problem:  They had to think about what problem their invention had been attempting to solve.

3.  The History:  They had to go over people’s first attempts to solve the problem, tell who came up with the idea(s) that resulted in the invention (if applicable), and what the circumstances behind its invention had been.

4.  The Invention:  They were to describe it, give details, and tell if there were variations of it in existence.

Then we got into the “everything else,” the stuff they could do just for fun that would NOT be graded.  I showed them how to add images (including a lecture about copyright laws), how to change font sizes and colors, how to add arrows, and their absolute favorite: how to add animation.  Oh man, they got such a big kick out of that.  :o)  By the end of their one-hour instructional lecture, they couldn’t WAIT to get started.

And holy hay, the results were wonderful.  I had expected soooo many questions, soooo many confused kids, soooo many crappy attempts at a real PowerPoint presentation.  But they did great!  I did make “cheat sheets” with step-by-step instructions, but honestly I don’t think half the kids even used them.  They’re just so awesome with technology!

The last step in the whole process was for each group to come up and present their slideshow to the class.  I was the clicker for each, and they basically just took turns reading each slide, and at the end we would discuss their topic.  Fascinating conversations!  Once I started clicking the first PowerPoint, I realized how successful the projects had turned out to be.  They weren’t all perfect, sure, but especially for those students who’d never even heard of the program, I was amazed at the results.  And you know what else?  I actually learned.

Did you know that football (soccer) was invented in China?  That the ancient Egyptians had a calendar of 12 months and 365 days?  That a man named Thomas Crapper played a significant role in the development of the flush toilet?  That there is such a thing as a “marshmallow plant”?  That all refrigerators were white until the 1950s?  That Thomas Edison did not invent the first light bulb?

Yeah.  Learning is good.

“George Washington was Beast-Mode”

We were reviewing facts about the American Revolution today, and I told the kids about how George Washington was elected President by a unanimous vote.  It occurred to me during second period to ask if they actually knew what “unanimous” meant, and surprisingly, they didn’t.  The ones who even attempted a reply mostly thought it meant “secret” as in “anonymous.”  So as I’m explaining the meaning of the word, I’m emphasizing how awesome George Washington was–what a great leader during times of war and times of peace, how everyone respected him and admired him, what a tremendous impact his role had on our system of government… and I told them how unusual it was for a whole entire group of people to ALL vote for the same person, especially when it came to something as important as the Presidency of the United States.  So I asked them to think about what a unanimous vote in his favor said about such a person.

Several hands went up and I called on a little Black kid in the back row.  “Umm… he was beast mode!”

Yeah.  Beast mode.  Most def.

My Peeps

I own Black History Month at our school.  hehe.  Every year my students make these AWESOME little people to decorate the hallway and they’re fantastic!!  Seriously.

See, it’s okay for me to toot this horn because technically it’s not originally my own.  A few years ago our librarian told me about another writing teacher at our school who used to have her kids make these things called Bio Bodies.  They were big–I guess about two feet tall, and decorated to look like a famous person, and on the back the kids would write a biography of the person.  Well, that brilliant teacher has been gone for ages, but her idea (or the idea, regardless of where she got it) lives on.  Except I’ve tweaked it a little bit.  My Bio Bodies are only about 15 inches tall, and they consist of two layers.  The top layer is the one that gets decorated.  The bottom layer is for the biographies, which I have the kids write in the first person (it’s supposed to help cut out plagiarism, but if nothing else it gets them thinking about subject/verb agreement in the process).  We also save the Bio Bodies for the last few weeks of January so we can focus on “people of African descent who have made a positive contribution to society.”

Every year I am absolutely amazed by the wonderful work that some of my students produce.  They use real fabric, real jewelry (well, you know, costume jewelry, but still), real leather for shoes, real buttons, real [fabricated] hair, etc.  I mean, they’re awesome!  Oh, I said that already.  Well, they’re spectacular!!  lol.

And it’s not just the artwork.  The first-person thing really helps them see their people as people, I think.  When they bring them in, each student has to get up in front of the whole class to show their person and read the biography, and I use my little homemade spotlight on ’em, and we all snap afterward, just like when they recited their poetry.

I always encourage my students to branch out from the most common African Americans, reminding them that there are literally thousands of people to choose from, but this year I took it a step further and did not allow multiple submissions. There was only ONE Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Only ONE President Obama.  Only ONE Oprah.  My selection process was fair.  The first weekend I allowed each student to come up with a list of 5 people they would like to research and told them they still wouldn’t be guaranteed someone from their list, but I would try.  Well, to me this was one of the most important parts of the whole project because it encouraged them to go out and research people (kinda like they did with the poem memorization).  And if they found someone who wasn’t that commonly known, they’d have a better chance at getting to do that person.  All the kids who turned in their lists (signed by their parents) on that Monday were entered into a drawing.  I basically reshuffled all the papers into a random order and let the “top” ones get their first choice.  As I went down the stack, if all of a student’s five choices were already taken, then I worked with that student to find someone who was of interest to him or her.  (Do you realize how difficult it is to find famous female soccer players of African descent?)  Letting the kids choose was definitely more effective than if I had just assigned people.  But making each student find a different person was effective in other ways, too: it helped us all learn about new people we’d never heard of!  And the most beautiful thing about this project is having people (adults and students alike) come up to a person on the wall and lift up the top layer and actually read about the person.  I love seeing that!

Artsy Fartsy

Taught the kids a little art today.  Art disguised as social studies, heh.  No, it was more like social studies disguised as art.  On Tuesday (the day I was out) I had them read out of their social studies textbook for the first time this year and complete a worksheet.  Yick.  I hate giving them worksheets.  Yesterday I had them make a “tree map” diagram showing the five components of the Great Seal of the United States: the national motto, the national bird, an olive branch, 13 arrows, and 13 stars.  They added complete sentences to explain the significance of each.  Then today they started actually drawing the darn thing… but that’s quite a challenge!!

I mean, there’s a lot of details there.  So before I turned them loose I went over the basics not of drawing, but of copying.  There’s a difference.  Your eye has to really see the original, see every detail, and then you have to sort of talk to yourself as you guide your pencil onto the paper.  “The curve of the wing goes out from the flag but curves up toward the head, then another gradual curve back toward the outer edge…”  Stuff like that.  I told them to simplify the shapes, draw a circle for the head and then add a triangle for the beak, in very very very light pencil marks so they’d barely be visible at all, and then when everything was in place to go back and darken their lines, adding details.  The hook of the beak, the mean-looking eye, the feathers.  Their favorite part is always when I show them how to draw the feet grabbing the olive branch and the arrows, because I show them how all you really see are the last segments of each toe (this works for human fingers, too), so all they have to draw are three little grape shapes bunched together and one crooked grape on the other side, add skinny black triangles to make the talons, and then draw either the olive branch stem or the arrows coming out of the grapes.  When they see it simplified like that and then see the final results they are amazed!!  It’s nice to hear their ooohs.  Even nicer when they actually put my instructions into practice and are able to produce AMAZING copies of this seal.  When they color them they turn out so beautiful!!  I love to see the pride on their faces.

Of course, some students really are artistically challenged, but even those kids’ drawings, if the student has actually attempted to follow my advice, turn out way better then they expected.  Usually the funniest looking ones belong to the kids who didn’t pay attention to my art lesson at all and failed to plan ahead.  They’ll end up with tiny eagles in the middle of this huge circle, or have to erase so hard to remove their dark pencil marks over and over again that their paper becomes all smudged, rubbed off, or even torn.  But they don’t get a second sheet.

Still, though, overall the kids did a really great job with their seals.

Obameducation

I’ve been waiting a long time for Obama to follow through on his promise to bring reform to the US educational system.  He says he was waiting for Congress to make a move.  I dunno.

In 2008 my classroom was abuzz with discussions about the election, the candidates, the process, and the issues.  It wasn’t even my idea to cover the election so deeply–I was afraid of stirring up controversy with our parents, but our principal really pushed it.  So I sent home a note explaining that we would be talking about these things, and that all the children were expected to be respectful of each other’s opinions.  And during every lesson I would allow the kids to express their thoughts and opinions but I kept mine under wraps.  I played devil’s advocate a lot, pointing out flaws in each candidate’s positions, highlighting the most logical and idealistic views, etc.  I remember having a website up on the overhead screen once, with McCain’s views about education, immigration, the economy, health, etc. on one side and Obama’s on the other.  We talked about each issue and each candidate’s position, and I remember so many kids asking me which of the two was going to receive MY vote, but I never told.  Some of the kids were sure I was going to vote for McCain and some were sure I was going to vote for Obama.  Most of them had no clue, and I was proud of this because it confirmed my stance of neutrality in the classroom.

We took some polls that year, before the election, and analyzed the results.  Our voter characteristics included gender, left- vs right-handedness, college affiliation, and pickle-lovers vs pickle-haters.  It was pretty funny, but also hugely educational.  We discussed the electoral college, the role of demographics and geography, cultural views, media, peer pressure–all kinds of stuff!!  In the end our fifth graders conducted a mock election and the results were almost identical to those of the nation.  I remember Obama winning by something like three votes.  But it turns out that five students had voted for “Other” or “Undecided,” and this sparked new dialogue about voter participation, about the importance of letting your voice be heard, about how every single vote is important.

Anyhoo… after all was said and done, after Obama’s inauguration in January, I had each of my students write two letters.  One to a member of the Bush family and one to a member of the Obama family.  As the kids wrote their letters (which included a rough draft and a final copy), I decided it would be patriotic and appropriate for me to join them.  So I wrote a polite welcome-home note to President Bush.  And then, in my very best penmanship, I wrote a loooooooooong (three-page) letter to President Obama, wishing him luck in his new role and expressing to him my biggest concerns with the current educational system.  I wasn’t planning on making the letter so long, but once I got going I couldn’t stop.  I knew that the chances of him actually reading my letter were nearly non-existent, but the chances of somebody in Washington, D.C. reading it were actually pretty good.  And, I don’t know, I just felt that it was my duty as a public school teacher to let my voice be heard even in such a primitive way.  After all, that’s what I preach to my students.

I sent those letters out in February or March of 2009.  Over the summer, we received a reply: a glossy 8 1/2″ by 11″ autographed photograph of President Obama and a little card with some inspirational words and his signature.  Nothing about how nicely written and eloquent my letter had been, or how my students’ adorable notes had brightened his day.  hehe.  But still, I took it as a small gesture of recognition, some acknowledgement of the tiny connection between my classroom and the White House.

This past Thursday I was making some copies in the workroom at our school and I came across my picture of the President laying on a table underneath a bunch of laminated posters…  I had completely forgotten that at the beginning of this year I had taken it to the work room to have it laminated, along with the card, on a sheet of black paper.  I was overjoyed to be reunited with the photo (even though I hadn’t even realized it had been missing), and immediately took it back to my room and stapled it to my wall.

So then on Friday, the President gives this speech.  Coincidence?  Or maybe a sign that good things are finally on their way for the public education system of our nation…

Weekend Homework

Hot off the press:

I am writing this letter in response to the memo dated September 13, 2011 which refers to a conversation I had with Mr. ____ regarding a parent complaint about the way in which I teach the 50 states to my students.

I am the 5^th grade Social Studies teacher at ____, and the curriculum standards for my subject and grade level (according to the ____ Education Agency) mandate that I teach American history, geography, economics, government, citizenship, culture, and social studies skills, including an appreciation of “the basic democratic values” of our nation.  In addition to the curriculum standards, I take on the responsibility of cultivating in my students basic human values such as honesty, integrity, empathy, and respect.  Of these, I place the highest emphasis on respect—in fact, I tell my students that in my classroom this is the one rule they must follow at all times.  Starting on the first day of school, my students and I discuss all the ways in which showing respect (for adults, peers, one’s self, all living things, property, etc.) will keep them from breaking any other rules at school, and I encourage them to show respect in all aspects of their lives.

In my lectures, I discuss with my students the facts regarding our nation’s birth.  I tell them that The United States of America was founded on principles of freedom, equality, and respect of others’ beliefs, and I also remind them how fortunate we are to live in a country that continues to value the opinions and beliefs of its individuals.  I tell them that we are a nation in which people of every culture have the opportunity to live together peacefully.  I let them know that in our own classroom we have students whose ethnic backgrounds, cultures, traditions and beliefs may be different from our own, and that we must always be sensitive to and respectful of those differences.  I explain to them that their own opinions and beliefs will not be challenged or ridiculed, but that I do expect them to accept the fact that another person’s opinions and beliefs might simply be different from their own.  This is the basic principle of a democratic society.

The notion of having respect for others’ differences, however, goes far beyond the basic Social Studies curriculum.  My students know that I have zero tolerance for any sort of bullying or disrespectful behavior toward each other.  At the beginning of every year I invite them to see that every single one of them is amazing and gifted in their own way.  I encourage them to embrace their individuality.  I want all of my students to feel accepted and valued.  At our school we have students with physical and/or learning disabilities, self-esteem issues, economic difficulties, and a wide array of domestic problems.  We have students who excel musically, artistically, mathematically, verbally, athletically.  We have short students, tall ones, loud ones, quiet ones.  We also have students who come from non-traditional families.  I want all of my students—every single one of them—to feel accepted, valued, and proud of who they are.

When teaching my students the location of Vermont and New Hampshire on a map, as I do with all the states, I use the physical characteristics of the states as a mnemonic device.  Vermont and New Hampshire happen to be almost identically shaped, except for their orientation.  They happen to fit together perfectly, and they’re side by side, just the two of them.  I teach other states as partners (the Carolinas and the Dakotas, for example), but Vermont and New Hampshire are different because they don’t share a last name.  It just so happens that Vermont and New Hampshire were also two of the first states to legalize marriage between people of the same gender.  When I mention this fact in the classroom I do it casually and we move on.  I do not use the word “gay” or “lesbian,” and we do not go into any further discussion about the issue.  My students know from our previous discussions that this is one of those sensitive topics about which there are many conflicting opinions, and by this point they also know that I expect them to be respectful of the fact that those opinions exist.

My mention of this fact is in no way an attempt to disclose or justify my own opinions on the issue.  It is not a lesson in gay and lesbian rights.  Rather, it is a lesson in tolerance.  Homosexuality is an issue that comes up indirectly in classrooms all over the country every year, and nearly always in a negative way.  Students see the words “gay” and “queer” in their dictionaries and thesauri.  They use those words against each other in derogatory ways, and the issue of homosexuality itself becomes a weapon used by bullies to torment other students.  During my thirteen years of teaching I have learned that dealing with this issue head-on in my classroom, in a light-hearted and factual way, actually helps to diffuse the hateful connotations surrounding the issue, and it becomes a learning experience for all: those students who are uncomfortable with the issue learn that at the very least they are expected to respect the idea that differing opinions exist, while those students in my classroom who come from non-traditional families are made to feel accepted and safe.

While I understand that a parent who has not been in my classroom from day one to listen to my lectures about tolerance and respect would misinterpret my intentions regarding the Vermont/New Hampshire lesson, I do not believe I have overstepped the boundary between politically correct neutrality and the teaching of personal morals and beliefs.  However, at the request of my administrators, I will in the future refrain from mentioning the legalization of same-gender marriage in Vermont and New Hampshire when teaching them on a map.  Instead I will refer to these two states as special friends or partners.

Respectfully,

[Me]

Standing Up

Okay, I promised to be honest and unapologetic, so here’s what’s on my mind today:

I had a great day at work.  Had some technical difficulties but I was able to adjust my lesson plans beautifully.  After school we had a BS meeting, and after that when I went to check my email one last time before heading out for the day, I found a message from our AP asking me to come by and see him before I left… “not an emergency.”

Ugh.

So I head off to his office.  He wanted me to sign a note stating that we had had that conversation the other day.  He said it was just a formality, just to document the fact that the conversation had taken place, and that they would keep it only in case that parent or another one brought the subject matter up again, they pull the note out and tell them that see, they had already spoken to me about it.

He made it sound so nice, but I know better.  It was a write-up.  Like one of the pink slips we give our kids when they get three discipline marks in one day.  Yeah, technically it’s just a piece of paper, but it goes in your Permanent Record, and if you collect enough of them, I dunno.  They’ll do something.

But okay, whatever.  I’ll take my punishment.  I didn’t have a problem signing a document that stated that the meeting had taken place.  What I had a problem with was some of the phrasing.  The note stated that a parent had expressed concerns about me teaching the kids about the states that had legalized gay marriage.  The next sentence stated that I had–oh man, I don’t remember the exact word he used!  Like I had admitted or confirmed those actions.  Dangit, I wish I could remember the actual word he used.  But anyway, it basically said that I had admitted guilt to those accusations but only because I was trying to teach the students that just because different people have different beliefs doesn’t mean they are bad people.

I disagreed with that whole entire last part.  As far as what the parent had expressed concerns about, I wasn’t there, so I’m assuming that part was correct.  But for the note to say that I had admitted fault to that, that’s incorrect in my view because I did not teach the kids about the states that had legalized gay marriage.  I told the AP that first of all I had never used the word “gay,” and I had only talked about same-gender marriages with regards to Vermont and New Hampshire because they are so similarly shaped, they’re right next to each other, and they were two of the first states to legalize marriage between people of the same gender.  The way the note worded it, it made it sound like I took out a map and said “Look kids, this state and this one and this one all have legalized gay marriage.”  And then I know he was trying to help me by justifying the reason why I taught them about this in the first place, but the lesson was not that people with different beliefs aren’t bad.  The lesson was that we should respect all points of view, even when they are different from our own.  Somehow that’s an important distinction for me. “Good” and “bad”… pshh, those are judgment words.

Anyway, I very nicely expressed my concerns and he said he would rewrite the note and have it for me to sign in the morning.  At the bottom of the note it says that I have 10 days to write like a reply or a follow-up, or really an explanation, and you can bet your behind that I’m gonna write one.

I have felt kinda bummed out all afternoon.  I hate the feeling of “being in trouble,” but even more than that, it’s people’s ignorance that ticks me off.  Not my AP.  Not my principal, either, who incidentally has not mentioned a word of this to me.  (I’m tentatively taking that as a sign that she doesn’t feel this is a major catastrophe, at least.)  But whoever the parent was–and I keep wondering although I know that it’s pointless and really I don’t even want to know who it was.  I’m hoping it was somebody notorious for making a stink about silly things.  I hope it wasn’t somebody whom I actually respect.  Anyway, it just makes me angry that there are people like that who take offense to someone trying to set a good example for their child.

Oh, one last thought at the end of that note.  The AP said in it that he had told me to stick to just teaching the curriculum and to not teach my beliefs to the kids.  Which also kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth, because okay.  Math, reading, science, social studies, writing… and no values, then, because they’re not on the curriculum?  So nothing about the value of telling the truth, about standing up for your beliefs or standing up for others, or having respect, or being responsible or being kind or being tolerant of others?  Because those things aren’t on the state standardized test?  Screw that.  Teaching is not just a job for me.  I am a teacher 24 hours a day, and there’s no way I’m ever gonna stop trying to teach kids about basic human values.

Day Two

I got to meet most of my students today.  Four periods with about 26 kids in each.  I’m not a big fan of having to repeat my whole shpeel four times in a row before lunch, day in and day out, but on the other hand it does make my life a little easier because I really only have to plan for one 60-minute block every day.  And I try, in little ways, to make each class a little different, but it’s tricky.

Anyway, today’s routine (actually this whole week) I’ve got pretty much memorized.  The kids come in, I talk a little about my subjects (writing and social studies), some basic procedures (sharpening pencils, turning papers in), and some housekeeping stuff (location of the trash cans, the Kleenex boxes, and the no-name paper file).

I passed out a letter about my class and told them to have their parents sign it tonight.  It talks about homework in general, a website called spellingcity.com on which I post their spelling words every week, the district-wide weights on different types of writing assignments (grammar, spelling, etc), my contact information… the boring nuts and bolts.

Then I passed out a fill-in-the-blank sheet entitled “Who is Ms. ___?”  There’s not an actual blank in the title, but in the interest of maintaining some anonymity here… Okay, so as I pass it out, I tell the kids that this will be their first spelling test of the year, but not to panic because I will be giving them all the answers, writing all the words in the blank and all they will have to do is copy down the words exactly as I write them on the screen.  Seems easy enough, huh?  The paper is a little composition about my teaching experience, my education, my family (including my pets), and my interests.  The kids actually love it, we get to talk about education, I give them my “I expect every single one of you to go to college” speech along with my “you need to explore as many different subjects as you can to find out what you’re really good at and enjoy” speech, and other motivational speeches of that sort.  But then we talk about pets, and traveling, and art, and multiculturalism… I don’t know.  It’s a neat little activity, AND–I think this is one of the main reasons I started doing this in the first place–it lets the parents know a little about me, too, when the graded papers go home next Tuesday.  See, I tend to be extremely open with my students, but with adults (especially those I don’t know too well), I’m a pretty private person.  So many of our parents don’t really have an idea about who I am and those few paragraphs I think really go a long way in sort of personalizing myself for them.

Oh my gosh.

I have a huge headache.  It started at the end of the day as I was working on something that involved the use of a big fat permanent marker, and I think the fumes just got to me… but now it’s freaking seven hours later and it’s even worse!

I wanna take some Ibuprofin and go to bed, but I’ll write a little more…

Okay, so once we finished the fill-in-the-blank sheet in each class, I explained how they’re supposed to write their heading on their papers.  Name, homeroom number, subject, date, and title.  Five things.  We went over it, I showed it to them on the projector, and I emphasized each component of the heading.  Several times.  Then I had them take out a sheet of notebook paper and told them we were gonna practice.  I left the heading “cheat sheet” on the screen the whole time.  The title for their assignment was “Pop Quiz.”  I smiled at the obligatory gasps and giggles.  A pop quiz on the first day?  Yes.  Is this for a real grade?  Yes.

I told them several times to make sure they had their full heading on their paper and went over the components again, pointing to each on the screen as I went along.  Then I had them number their paper and instructed them to just write their one-word answers next to my questions on their paper.

1.  How many cats live in Ms. ___’s home?

2.  Name one country Ms. ___ has visited.

3.  On which day of the week are Spelling Packets normally due?

4.  What is Ms. ___’s favorite sports team?

5.  What is Ms. ___’s favorite color?

I told them they could guess on their answers if they didn’t know, but assured them again that yes, I was seriously taking a grade on this quiz.

When they had all turned their papers in I flipped through them and announced that every single student in the class had passed their first quiz.  Wonderful!!  But that unfortunately, not all of them had made a 100.  Then I told them that the “quiz” had been simply to put their full heading on their paper, so if they had followed the instructions and done exactly what I had told them to do, they made a 100.  But for each of the five components of their heading their paper was missing, I would deduct 5 points from 100.  Overwhelming sighs of relief throughout the room, and here and there an “Oh, man!  I forgot to write the date!”

Am I tricking them?  Sure.  But in my defense, I did tell them we were going to practice writing our heading.  I did have the entire heading up on the screen for them to see during the entire duration of the quiz.  And I pointed to everything.  And I went over every component several times.  I can get away with this because I teach social studies, and if I’m allowed to give them a “grade” for getting a piece of paper signed by their parents, then I’m also allowed to give them a grade for simply following instructions.  It’s a life skill.  A “social” skill.

But I guess I could see where a parent might question my first day methods.  Haven’t had one yet, but maybe someday…

Anyway, I’m wiped out.  Gonna go take care of this headache and then drop into dreamland… hopefully tonight I won’t forget to set my alarm like I did last night!!