Almost There

I'm packing for Europe right now. Actually, that's false. I'm packing for a week in London and Ireland, 10 days in Portland, a week in Hawaii, and another week or so in Portland. In one carry on.

AM I CRAZY? Probably. I think I'll ship a box of shorts to mom tomorrow morning before my flight so that I don't have to pack those for Europe. And the dress for Billy and Lucia's wedding. Everything else will have to go in the pretty, blue suitcase.

Here's hoping I make it.

Year 1

Is in the books. I don't really know what to say. I can't even begin to write actual paragraphs, or sentences that describe this past year, these past 10 months, the long days, and the eternal minutes. So I have words. Thank God for words.

frightening

tiring

exciting

big

loooooooooong

(that's what she said)

rude

sweet

delicious

horrible

memorable

work

fun

leisure

stress

massages

sleep

lack of sleep

tired feet

bad outfits

big purchases

move

stay

sit down

quit talking

thank you.

Someday I'll sit down and try to piece it all together, but I've never been good about that. So now I'll just look forward. I leave on the 13th for Europe. I'll be spending a few days in London Town, then a couple more in Rome. I'm excited to eat, drink, and be merry. I'll be with my most wonderful roommate and constant companion, Jessica for the entire trip, and will be joined by Jeff while in London. THEN, I'll fly from Rome to Portland, which is going to be the longest flight ever. I'll spend about a week in the city of roses, Rip City, and Stumptown, then it's off to Maui with ALLISON!  Oh geeze. After a week of laying in the sun, snorkeling, surfing (??) and sipping Mai Tais, I head back to the 503, and hang out there until I decide when I'm coming back to Houston. I should get on that plane ticket, right?? I'm excited and nervous and have no idea how to pack for such a summer. I'll be living out of my carry on. And I'm reading all of the travel blogs and Rick Steve books that I can find. So be watching out for maybe a reflective post, and DEFINITELY pictures from my travels.

I'm sick, I think. Or my allergies are flaring up in ways that are completely new and unwelcomed. And that makes teaching DIFFICULT. But this week my students are working on research for their final projects, so my role is to really just be a warm body and answer the same three questions over and over and over again.

So today I sat, put on the Justin Beiber station on Pandora, and watched them work. Then K.Q. heard the intro to "Our Song" by Taylor Swift and said, "Miss I know this song". 

"I'm not surprised, K."

And then, with perfect timing, he belted out to TSwift. I nearly died from laughter. I wish I had videotaped it. It was GREAT and just what I needed.

Love it.

consequences

Here's an article about the KIPP system of consequences. It's an interesting read about both positive and negative consequences, and might cause you to think some more, which is always a good thing.

KIPP students prove that real consequences can change behavior

Monday, May 17, 2010

Akey lesson in the "no excuses" type of public school, which uses firm measures to raise achievement for impoverished students, is behavior has consequences. The Knowledge Is Power Program, a no-excuses-style charter network, does that by denying some students the traditional year-end trip to Orlando or Utah or New York or other places they desperately want to go.

Does it work? Here comes an unusually qualified expert. Monday night, Kyrien Curtis arrives in Washington as a volunteer chaperon for 60 fifth-graders from the KIPP STRIVE Academy in Atlanta. He is a short, lean freshman at Morehouse College. He grew up in Houston and attended the KIPP Academy Middle School there all four years, from fifth through eighth grade. Because of foul moods and other distractions, he missed the trip every time, so this will be his first.

Denying children cherished prizes is a controversial part of the no-excuses model. The idea is to build self-restraint. It has had an impact. Former KIPP students, now adults, tell me that losing a year-end trip was the most dramatic moment of their middle school years. They are still trying to measure its influence a decade later.

Squashing a student's dream is something that most schools, public and private, rarely do. Some educators think it is cruel and destructive to a learning environment. But KIPP's achievement gains are large.

KIPP's co-founders, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, were appalled at the lack of meaningful consequences for students who misbehaved when they were novice teachers in Houston public schools. When they started KIPP in 1994, they devised a system of KIPP dollars for good behavior and loss of privileges -- such as being prohibited from talking to your friends -- for bad behavior.

Getting a good education and going to college, they said, were the consequences of good decisions. Bad decisions set you back. Some students did not believe that until they lost a trip.

In middle school, Curtis spent much time on the Porch, a KIPP word for the isolation imposed on students who skip homework, interrupt class, insult other students or talk back to teachers. "I never lied, cheated or stole," he said, "but I also was not always nice."

A teacher would urge his class to have a clean week -- no demerits. But by Thursday, Curtis would succumb to a destructive mood, miss an assignment and be back on the Porch. He had to sit separately from others in class and at lunch and could speak only to teachers. Good behavior freed him from the Porch, but that often took a while.

Curtis credits KIPP's nine-hour school days and heavy homework for teaching him how to manage his time. He doesn't think he would have a 3.2 GPA at Morehouse without that.

But as he moved on to KIPP Houston High School, becoming active in student government and eventually student body president, the lost trips stayed on his mind. He was struck by a teacher's observation that so many of the middle school students on the Porch were African American males raised by single parents, just as he was.

Curtis talks like a business leader remembering rowdy days as a prep school student. He learned about rules, but he had to break some. Each KIPP school has a different system. At STRIVE, each student has a chance to get off its version of the Porch in two days and is isolated only at lunch.

But 25 STRIVE students still will miss this trip.

Curtis is a computer science major, interested in robots. But he said he also might become a teacher and help kids like him who get left behind.

For more Jay, go to

http://washingtonpost.com/class-struggle.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051602933.html

When It's Raining on Saturday

All I want to do is curl up with a book today, and spend Saturday listening to the rain come down and drench Houston from the comfort of my own bed. It's such a refreshing sound, and I love how rain makes everything fresh!  But this is the Saturday that will be spent grading and planning and cleaning. Then tonight, I have been invited to an end of the year party at a coworkers house. He's from Louisiana, and is making REAL southern food. I'm excited. And he lives in the Heights which is an adorable neighborhood filled with craftsmen houses.

Allow me to swoon for a minute while I dream of cratfstmen houses with big porches and built-ins.

OK.  Now I'm done. Since I'm up, and since I promised, I'm making scones this morning, as soon as i clean the kitchen.

With blueberries!!!

Work Hard. Be Nice.

Sex, Drugs, And Rock n' Roll (but mostly just Drugs).

I did something pretty ballsy on Tuesday, and I am so lucky it didn't blow up in my face. I was trying to get 8th period started on the topic of the history of Australia, Antarctica and Oceania. Getting 8th period started is always difficult, and usually takes 15 minutes longer than any other period. This is the class with ... 4 students with modifications, one of which is a big, Texas-sized pain in my rear end. As I was reminding JP to move back to his original seat, I told him he needed to hand over the tennis ball that he was playing with, as it would only serve as a distraction to him and the rest of the class, and would most likely spend the next 80 minutes rolling back and forth on the floor. JP flat-out refused to give the ball over, and after about a minute and a half of me stating "I am not arguing with you about this. This is not a discussion. This is not a question, but rather an order", I told him to leave.

Get out of my class.

Just go.

When he asked if I wanted him to take his work, I told him to leave. Again.

When he asked where I wanted him to go, I repeated the oder to leave my classroom. He was no longer welcome.

He packed his things quite quickly (for JP), and left.  The rest of the class worked almost silently for the rest of the class. A couple students asked if I wanted them to go look for JP, but I said no. I did step into the hall once or twice to see if he was simply sitting outside of my door, but he wasn't. He was no where to be seen. Inside, I was panicking. What had I just done?? I sent a kid to wander the halls. I could get into trouble for this. He could get into more trouble.

Shit.

Class ended, JP came back, and he had his work complete. We talked after class about how he was in serious danger of failing my class, and failing freshman year, and having to repeat. I told him that for my own sanity and well-being, I could only care if he did. He said he didn't want to repeat and so I told him he really needed to start acting like it. I was not going to tolerate blatant disrespect, and if he wanted to pass my class, he needed to act in a way that would allow me to teach, and his classmates to learn as well as him.

We will see if it happens. I really don't want to teach him again next year.

As for the drugs, a freshman is suspended and could be expelled for going off campus before school on Monday with a couple other students and getting stoned in an apartment across the street. The school called the cops and drugs were found on the other students. We're sure all of the drug tests are going to come back positive. The faculty seems split on whether or not the students should be expelled. Some say there needs to be a no tolerance policy, others say that if we expel them, some of them may never finish high school.

Wrestle with that dilemma for a while. I know I am.

I'm almost done with year numero uno. I'll do cartwheels down the hall, a la Brian Reichelt, my advising teacher during my student teaching. I'm also going to buy a car at the end of summer. I'll have saved $4,500 bucks, and can put that towards a car OR pay off one of my student loans. Hmmmm....

Remember: Work Hard. Be Nice.

Break in Concentration

I'm in my third-to-last week of my first year. There are officially TWO Mondays left. And I can't keep showing movies, right? I need to keep teaching, and it's hard and I don't know what to do and all I want to do is start their research projects but we can't do that just yet. So here I am, stuck trying to figure out how to make learning about Australia and Antarctica and Oceania neat. I don't want to rely on the book, because that is boring as heck. But I don't want to put in the time to create awesome power points and find neat resources. What kind of resources could there be? And I've already shown an awesome video about Australia that was narrated by Russel Crowe. 

Man, I need to step up to the plate and stop bitching. I'm ALMOST DONE...

So here are some things I've been thinking about INSTEAD of work...

London

Rome

Good Coffee

Yummy food...

Home...

Oh you know, just the normal stuff...

Like a good Portland rain...

And a good rain jacket

Because, really, what could be better than a good rain jacket, with a good cup of coffee, while walking in the rain in Portland? I urge you to find something more soothing than that!

Oh, and it's sunny and beautiful in Houston, in case anyone was wondering.

:)