The Best Thing

There are days that I don’t love being a teacher. But most days, I love my job. This year in particular has been wonderful. Obviously there are a few days sprinkled in where I lose my shit and may be a candidate for early retirement but they are few and far between.

The thing that I love the most about my school is how very wise the students are. Most live in extreme poverty and I’m not talking don’t have a Wii and a DS poor, but more like don’t know if they will have enough food over the weekend poor. However, they know exactly what is important in life. They are the most generous and thoughtful kids I have ever met. They amaze me with their perspective because they are so very clear about what is important and what is unnecessary in life. They love school and may be the only kids in the world who don’t want spring break to happen because, “I want to come to school so I can learn!”

Yesterday, we were discussing immigration and how when people immigrated in the 1800’s, it was difficult but they did it so that their families could have a better future. Every kid had an example of something their parents do to make their lives better. It was amazing to hear 7 year-olds explain the difficulties their parents face in providing for their families. The consensus that they came to was, it’s nice to have things but things are what can make life wonderful. People, memories, and love are the most important things that you can have and those are free.

Our school raised 4,000 dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with Pennies for Pasta. They collected three times as much as most schools even though our school is one of the very poorest in San Diego. The lady from Pennies for Pasta came to give out the prizes and announcing the winning. A student in 2^nd grade turned to his teacher, and in the sweetest little voice said, “The best thing is that we helped the kids with cancer.” I’m not as worried about the future of the country, not when there are still children who can see what the best things are.

Handwriting Prose

Occasionally, I come across such a well-written article describing something that I love that I want to tell each person I know about it. This is one of those articles. It's celebrating and mourning the loss of handwriting. I love script, fonts, typeset, and words. I always have, a life-long affair with print. Here is a blip from the article;

"Whatever the substance of graphology, the character is there nonetheless. Though ostensibly silent, a handwritten letter from someone we know speaks with the voice—querulous, joking, ardent, tinged with an accent from Padua or Bulawayo—of its author. Though still, the letters on the page live and breathe as the writer does, crotchety and shaky with old age, hectic with youth, comfortably embracing as a mother. A handwritten envelope (the first we seize on, among the mailouts and bills) announces itself from the doormat as unmistakably as if the sender had walked through the door; and we are accordingly happy or irritated, intrigued or fearful."

If you have a minute, read the rest.

Handwriting: Celebrating a dying art.
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/ann-wroe/handwriting-elegy?page=0%2C0

Valentine's Day Happy List

Since V-Day is around the corner I thought I would make a Happy List for the day of the things I love. I think it goes without saying that I could make a very long list of people I love...if you're reading this then you're probably one of them because no one else would put up with this somewhat narcissistic drivel.

A Happy List for February 14, 2012
-Grape soda lupine along the roadside.
-The first sip of a vanilla latte, mostly foam a little bit of latte.
-That quiet moments, early on Saturday morning when the world is gently waking up.
-Watching students go from being hesitant writers to excited writers.
-Losing 14 inches and 42 pounds...hopefully never to find again :)
-Mexican Coke
-Dreaming big dreams of wonderful and creative things
-Lettuce fresh from the garden
-The sky right before it rains, especially late in the afternoon when there are "god-rays" in the distance.
-Longer daylight hours, which means not getting home in the dark
-Making soup from a chicken carcass and some veggies
-Waking up before my alarm and realizing I have another hour to sleep
-Finding out that I can do once-impossible things
-Grilled cheese and thick tomato soup

Update: After marinating on this list for a few days, I thought of some more this I am enamored with.
-Girl Scout cookie season
-Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcasts
-www.colormekatie.blogspot.com
-Stirring ice cream until it is smooth, this reminds me of my dad for some reason.
-French onion soup from Trader Joes
-Freezing beverages until they are slushy, but not frozen solid
-Mo Willems
-The Hunger Games trilogy
-The names of nail polish, house paints, and crayons
-Using a brand new, fresh out of the package sponge
-Homemade pretzels

Barack Obama is a Lollipop and the Korean Dictator

We finished our Biography projects in 2nd grade. After we finished our research, I made everyone complete a timeline made from a sentence strip and also draw a portrait. We don't get enough arts in the classroom so any time I can justify adding art it I do. I will post my favorite portraits below with a brief comment. I would also like to state that I did give them guidelines like; they can't be lollipop heads, you need to fill the space, try to add a few objects in that relate to their job, they need a nose, etc.

Amelia Earhart. Actually a very good drawing if Amelia had made it to old age.
My favorite parts are the planes in the background.

She drew Marie Curie as a princess and then I told her that even though Marie Curie found Radium she was not a princess in any country. The girl was mad because she wanted to draw a pretty dress...apparently she was so mad she only gave Marie Curie three fingers. I know that Curie eventually died of exposure to radioactive substances but I didn't know she that affected by it.

This is my favorite! I love the flag in the background. Classic!

I have failed, this girl thought Rosa Parks was Asian.

Martin Luther King Jr. has ears all the better to hear you with and a kickin' mustache.

Kim Jon-Il. NO! Steve Jobs! I swear to you, a teacher came in and said,
"Why does the North Korean dictator have a iPhone and a computer?"

Barack Obama is a lollipop head. The leader of the free world my friends.

Another Steve Jobs, I kind of wish he had a turtle neck on...that would have been epic.

Don't worry Microsoft fans, we also have Bill Gates.
He is famous for computers and piles and piles of money.

Best picture ever. No comment needed.

Apparently George Washington is an orange dinosaur...I am mad that this kid still couldn't spell his name after a month of writing it. How many more times can I yell at someone for not trying their best.

When I asked why he colored him so dark he said that "He was outside a lot so he was probably very tan." Good thinking kid. I am impressed.

This kid couldn't find peach so he used yellow.
Jury is still out on why his neck is blue and his hair is green.

This kid wanted to write about the "person who invented books". Johannes Gutenberg isn't exactly an American hero but close...kind of. I did not know that the inventor of the movable type printing press also wore a poop hat.

I love that she added monkeys in the background. It doesn't matter that Jane Goodall studied apes...I appreciate her effort and execution.


We just started writing personal narratives. So far the most promising one is about a kid who played Bingo on the rez with his grandma. I am just glad not to be writing biographies!

Ms. A., An American Hero

A panoramic of where I live my life.

We just started a research unit on famous people. We are researching people and then writing biographical essays before Christmas. On the first day, we brainstormed some famous people who would be good to write about. We decided that they had to be famous for something that was unique, they couldn't be celebrities, and they had to help people in some way. We came up with a great list; Marie Curie, Michelle Obama, Ghandi, Ben Franklin, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Seuss. The Who's Who of famous people. (They were a little confused about how Barack Obama could be the president and George Washington was also the president...I guess when you're 7 there is not a big difference between the far away past and the recent past).

Then one of my little friends said, "Ms. A." and all the kids started to agree that I was indeed a famous person worth writing a biography report about. I apparently did not do a good enough job explaining exactly what the qualifications were for this report. I told them that they could not do a project on me even though I am famous at school, I am not a celebrity, and I help people learn. I was flattered....I wonder if they knew parent teacher conferences were coming up this week...hmm.

Well since the first semester is done and it is closing in on the 50th day of school next week I thought now would be a great time to post the pictures that are from the beginning of school.

There's the area that gets piled higher and deeper throughout the semester.

The classic kidney bean table, Lakeshore calendar, and pocket chart...staples of 2nd grade.

The front of the room. It looks different now...50 days later and more things going on.

The word wall is full now. I love our little library.

Some of my favorites so far this year.

The "Up"grade

As some of you may know, I used to live in the basement which I lovingly called the dungeon. I liked it down there. It was cool in the summer, warm in the winter and only occasionally flooded. When C-Dizzle moved to pursue bigger and better adventures at higher elevations I also decided I should try a higher elevation (higher by about 10 feet). I moved upstairs! However, I unlike C-Dizzle do not like the color purple and especially don't like the color lavender for a bedroom, I decided to re-paint it. Here are a few of the before and after pictures.

The Empty Lavender Room

A Pepper Tree Print and a funny little box that I found on Etsy.

A ridiculously tall bamboo and the early morning sunlight

A letterpress drawer. I'm not entirely sure what I should put in the little bottles. We will see what kind of inspiration strikes.

A headboard that I made from shelves.

A rifle cabinet from the basement and a old candy box.
A fish packing box and an art project that I made myself.

A close up of the tree art. 5x7 canvases with acrylic.

A few of my favorite trees.

I love this little box.

A Poor Decision, A Turtle, and an Almost Disaster

Sometimes when kids have hair-brained ideas like; "I want to get rid of my little brother.", "I think aliens are living in my attic", "It smells like nachos and earwax in here". I usually say something non-committal like, "You're parents have the final say" or "If that's what you think" sometimes a well placed, "We'll see..." is sufficient to get them off my back.

A girl, we will call her Candace for her high pitched voice and histrionics (Shout out to Phineas and Ferb), asked if she could bring her pet turtle into school. On Monday I said, "We'll see...". On Tuesday I said, "I don't think that is a good idea..." On Wednesday I said, "I'm pretty sure we won't have time for show and tell, you're not in kindergarten anymore..." On Thursday I said, "You will have to talk to your parents because I don't think they would want you to bring it in." Apparently her wheedling caused her parents to do what most parent would do in that situation...cave like a house of cards in a hurricane.

This morning she showed up with a baby turtle about the size of an oreo in an open cottage cheese container. His name is Cookie coincidentally enough. She brought him in and then the 10 minutes of calming and refocusing to breakfast started. I corralled the turtle onto a shelf and the children to their desks to eat the cured turkey roll-up and fruit juice. I knew it would be annoying...I didn't realize that she would ask me every 90 seconds if "Now is when I get to show the class my turtle." After about 30 minutes I was going to say something that was neither helpful or kind (the two ways we gauge our words in my class). I let her do a little blip about it and then had a Q and A session. I repeatedly warned the kids that they could look with their eyes and not with their fingers and gave an impromptu soap-box lecture about the fragility of amphibians and reptiles and how they gauge the planet's health which is why we cannot put our grimy little 7-year old fingers in the turtle water...not to mention salmonella. Only one kid got their digits in the turtle poo water.

After the cottage cheese container had been carefully taken to each row on the carpet, I took the container back and as I put it back on the shelf I noticed that it's eyes were closed and and it wasn't moving even a little bit. I tried to not go into natural overreaction mode...like I sometimes do. I decided that it probably was going to die anyway and that it wasn't a visit to my room that killed it.

After about an hour, I took another look in hopes that it had perked up/resurrected. Still no movement, still no open eyes, still dirty turtle poo water, still uneaten turtle pellet, still a dead turtle. I decided now was the time to start softening the blow of a death in the classroom...I started with something innocuous like, "So how long have you had this turtle?" then went to"Are you really attached to it?" then I threw in "Raising turtles is really hard, some don't make it out of turtlehood." I didn't want her to blame herself for its death so I added "Some turtles die for no reason at all, it doesn't mean that they wanted to die but it was just their time to go to the happy turtle pond in the sky." I'm not sure these were direct quotes but I started rambling in more and more desperate ways in hopes that she wouldn't blame me for killing her beloved pet.

When it was time to switch classes for the afternoon, I took a deep breath. Got the cottage cheese container off the shelf. Took another deep breath and prepared myself for the dreaded question that I knew was coming which would sound something like, "Hey, Ms. A, why isn't my turtle moving?"

I looked down and in a glorious moment I made eye contact with that tiny little reptile. This turtle that I had been mourning all day had been revived! It was alive! I was not the turtle kiss of death!

After a day of fretting about this stupid turtle I have found my backbone and the next time a kid asks me about bringing their pet, I will firmly say ,"No."

You Live. You Learn. You grow a pair and stand up to a 7 year old.