mmm.

hail is falling now
blue-yellow, our sky seems green
i love these spring dusks

(my haiku about the weather)

sigh part II

big big big ol' fight today. lasted off and on for the last 40 minutes of the day. two boys in my class at each others' throats, over nothing. just some rude-ish words exchanged, and then their tempers took over.

in the course of the fighting, another student threw a chair at a TSS worker, who is pressing charges - the student left school in handcuffs today.

absolutely unbelievable.

sigh.

today i got a new kid. he got kicked out of his other school for his "sticky fingers."

he knows all the boys in my class from elementary school and is as rowdy as they are.

man oh man.

black eye

kid had a black eye today.

another kid asked him who hit him.

his answer: my dad.

i asked him later and he told me "i got in a fight and got beat up."

with your dad?

why did i wait?

i've been considering moving my desk from the back to the front of the room since, um, october? yes, since october. never got around to doing it, until last friday, when, with only 7 kids, we chilled out for a lot of the day. they wanted to rearrange the room, so my compromise was that i'd "let" them move my desk to the location to which i have been wanting to move it anyway.

i feel like it's a whole new classroom. i LOVE sitting at my desk (something i haven't done all year because i had to push the desk against the wall about the 4th week of school because the kids kept stealing stuff from it). it is so great.

mummies

by the way - we made paper mache mummies on friday.

i thought that was worth mentioning. we used hugs containers (those nasty kid juices in plastic barrels), scrunched 'em up real good, and went to town with paste and newspaper strips. then we did the last few layers in paper towel, all the while talking about natron and embalming.

one girl had to go sit in the back, she was grossed out by the paste. really thought she was for sure going to puke.

but everyone else LOVED it.

reasons

oh, but one of the reasons for today's marvelous-ness is ... 3 kids absent.

and by absent, i mean suspended.

planning

planning really makes a difference. last night i decided at about 11 that i should be a good teacher today and actually plan some good things for the kids to do. so i did.

and it was lovely. one of the students even said, wow, ms. matthews decided to get real real good at the end of the year. why'd you wait? i said, why'd you wait so long to behave? (he still is not all that well-behaved).

we even did a science experiment (literally the second of the year. oops.)!

sunday afternoon ...

trips to the museum.

wow.

a few apologies are in order:
1. to the penn museum staff member who had to pull one of my students off of an exhibit.
3. to the other museum visitors if you were trying to concentrate on an exhibit.
4. to all the random people student #3 kept saying things to as we walked down locust walk and baltimore avenue (can i have a drink? can i play? are you racing (to bikers) - who's winning? ... and on and on)

and many thanks:
1. to my four students who came.
2. to my precious gal who brought her mom, cousin, brother and sister. and who fell asleep at one point on a bench. and who still calls me matthew. i love that girl.
3. to sally, allison, reid, and kates who came and saved me from having to be the only adult in charge of the kids. AND for pairing up with the boys one on one to take them around the museum. seriously saved my life there, friends. not kidding when i say i don't know what i would have done without you.
4. to the egyptians who chose to preserve their dead in such a fascinating way.

remember when

i looked out the window one winter morning before school and i saw one of my students (the one who calls me matthew). she waved to me and yelled for me to watch. she took a big flat cafeteria crate and "sledded" down the concrete steps on the side of the school. i only watched for a few rounds but she kept at it for 15 minutes or so.

i want to remember that moment.

makes me want to

argh. at the end of the school day, the principal announced (in a mean, you're in trouble tone) "all teachers who took their classes outside today, report to my office immediately."

a few of my kids still in the room after having just returned from ... outside (uh oh) groaned and (of course) immediately started "ms. matthews! aahh! you're in trouble."

i go down to the office and got reamed along w/ a few others for taking my kids outside. "this is a middle school. we do not have recess - " over and over and over. the principal was so unbelievably rude.

it's the most absurd thing ever. i have 11 year olds in my class who might as well be 6. recess is the only thing that gets us through some days because we won't go outside unless we have finished all of our work. it was one of the only redeeming things about the rest of the school year - that i can count on the weather enough to plan to go outside often.

i am really sad. it makes me want to take my kids on a "nature walk" (an alternative that, with administrative approval, would be acceptable ... but i have no desire to lead my kids around on the sidewalk. i want them to play.) and be gone ALL day.

the last few days

complete washes as far as anything academic goes. we haven't done ANYTHING.

wednesday: a fashion show assembly that was supposed to be about african pride/awareness ... yet every outfit was just a hoochied version of something the kids already wear. lasted over an hour.

yesterday: make decorations for special ed. assembly. read a short story. start math lesson. do about 5 problems. hang up decorations. lunch. outburst jr. with 3 kids (the rest were all over the place). open house/assembly (parents came), where each class had a performance (ours was a little langston hughes poetry - my 'actor' memorized and recited. quite a good job, he did). play outside. go to gym/art/music.

today: only had half my class. silent reading. lunch. everyone ran out or was taking benchmark tests, so i read to one girl while 2 boys played a game. music. computer. early dismissal - 12:19.

:)

long past

remember my kid who auditioned for a play at his community center?

he got a part ... as a dope fiend (spelling?).

he was happy about getting the part, but thought it was pretty lame that he had to play a dope fiend. he said, "ms. matthews, you see, i'm not tryin' to be like that."

so he went and talked to the guys in charge. they gave him a new part -

a banker.

he did a little dance when he told me the news.

a dream deferred

what happens to a dream deferred?

does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
or fester like a sore-
and then run?
does it stink like rotten meat?
or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?

maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

or does it explode?

vvvvvvvvv...

thwap!! swosh gurgle gurgle ...

that was the sound that the 20 oz soda made as it flew through the window above my door, hit my foot, and gushed all over the floor.

mondays

my kids all had a case of the mondays today. until after lunch, when we spent an hour and a half doing silent reading and writing. WHAT?! i usually can't pull 20 minutes out of that. it was incredible. looks like math and reading times are switching places.

how much is a million?

did i mention that one of my high school projects has successfully infiltrated my classroom? two copies of a children's book i wrote my senior year (i opted not to write a zillion poems for a portfolio. the thought still sort of makes me cringe inside ...) made it into the boxes of books i brought from home.

it surfaced sometime at the beginning of the year, and i am not exaggerating when i say that on any given day, that book is sitting on someone's desk. today someone was reading it instead of doing math ... and when i changed his card for not doing work, he got so upset because 1. it's YOUR book ms. matthews! how you gonna get mad about that? and 2. it has so many numbers in it already! it's just like doing math. i told him that writing a book like it could count as a math assignment ... but until he learns enough math for that, good luck. (was that mean?)

sometimes it reallllllly makes me miss my little brother to see kids reading it and enjoying it (i wrote it for him). i remember on his birthday, someone was reading it and then they asked about david since his name's in the book. i got all teary-eyed and could barely answer.

awww, you say ... yeah well, i'm just a sentimental lady when it comes to these things.

the absentees

Two of my students were absent today. But I didn't miss them too much, because one called at about 10 am to see who was in school (so he knew whose house he could go over to? i'm not sure). another student answered the room phone when he called, and they handed it to me and said, um, ms. matthews, it's **. why is he calling you?

he has called me through the school before, no big surprise, but still funny.

and the other one, at 3:10, comes bouncing into the classroom.

um, buddy, whatcha doin' here?
- oh, my mom sent me to the store, but i wanted to come up and say hi and get my tokens.
why weren't you in school today?
- uh, i don't know. just didn't come. i stayed home and played.
well it's good to see you. let me give you your homework. so glad you stopped by!
- ah!!!! ms. matttttheeeewwwwwwsssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hilarious. what kid skips school but stops by 10 minutes before it's over to say hi?

follow-up

after school i pulled one of my kids aside who had been asking a lot of the questions, answering many of them too. he's the one with whom i've had spiritual conversations before (same kid who loves shawn mcdonald and STILL sings one song about every day). a couple other kids were waiting for him so they hung around. he had been answering a lot of other kids' questions, but with lots of what you have to 'do' to get to heaven. so for 2 or 3 minutes i explained things a little more clearly. when i finished, one of the other kids exclaimed, wow ms. matthews that was a good speech. well no, but the information most certainly is.

captivating

the neatest thing, though, about the conversation, was that all day i couldn't get them to listen to me for my life. they were antsy and silly and talkative. and this conversation started and all of a sudden, all of the talking was (gasp!) on topic. everyone was clamoring to be heard. they were all leaning forward, no heads down, raising their hands - no, waving their hands, listening to every comment i made, all eyes and ears to see what everyone else was saying.

they were totally captivated, for the first time in a long time.

not surprising, He's like that :)