inside and outside of my dream

I woke up at 5:49 A.M. this morning. Jackie got me up. I leave at 5:45 each morning. CRAP!
I was up and out the door at about 5:53-54 (the clocks were all different). I AM AWESOME.
A shower after school never felt so good. The whole day I kept thinking, "That shower this morning would have been so nice. I am so incredibly greasy and dirty feeling today."

This week at school has been pretty awesome, so far. I think the 4-day weekend for the kids was exactly what they needed. The knowledge of a 2 1/2 day week next week probably doesn't suck so bad for them, either. This is perfect timing. Of course, having so many days off really sucked for the whole "bring back a rough draft!" homework assignment, but the kids out of my 5th bell surprised the holy crap out of me by bringing in a whopping 10 completed rough drafts! I told them their class was well on their way (and way ahead of the other classes) to the free movie day. For the first essay, they were the class with the most turned in on the due date. So, hopefully they win it. If they're working this hard, they deserve it.
Monday was an all-day professional development day. It was completely mind-numbing. It was 6 different sessions. A lot of info. Not a whole lot said. One session was AMAZING. One of my co-teachers, Sue, and I were both there and decided we would definitely use it for the next essay.
Tuesday after school we had this loooong meeting (seriously. It went from 2:15-3:45). The first part was about recognizing possible gang-related tags, tattoos, etc. This year, so far, they've already had 9 gang-related issues in the school. As Mr. D said, "Last year, as you all know, we had zero." So. We got informed about all the different signs, tags, language, etc. and the three major gangs they've identified in Norfolk. Ugh. I'm pretty sure of a few of my students being related to gangs or in gangs. I don't ask, they don't offer. I told a few of them that that crap doesn't belong in school and especially not in my classroom. I told them to watch what they put on their folders and their papers. So far, I haven't had a problem. Other teachers (mostly 9th grade) have apparently seen kids flashing money, hand signals and all that crap. I'm glad that the few kids that would just LOVE to show off like that just don't do it in my class. But... those 9th graders, man. They're a different story. I am not looking forward to the kids in the 9th grade coming into my class. I do, however, trust the 9th grade English teachers to whip their snappy attitudes into shape by the end of the year.
Speaking of attitudes, my two "bells from hell" are actually IMPROVING in their response, attention, stamina, and general respect for themselves, classmates and their teachers. This is wonderful. Sue and I are definitely enjoying it. Yesterday and today was Picture Day (yaaay.). They took pictures in their English classes--oh joy! I told 2 of my classes who had a high-risk of being complete fools not to embarass me. I gave them a list of what to do and what not to do. I can say that my students were some of the best behaved students down there. I was proud of all my little hooligans. Especially my 8th bell. As one of my students in that class said, "Man, Mrs. Pushie, this WHOLE CLASS has, like, ADD or something!" Truer words have never been spoken. They did fantastic though! They followed all directions even when the other classes (which were 11th and 12th grade classes! They were crazy!) came down and started acting like fools. It was amazing. Again, I was very proud of my students.
Yesterday I stayed after school with a few students to answer questions and help them outline their essays. The essay they have is tough. It involves a lot of interpretation and inferencing, which a lot of these kids are completely intimidated and uncomfortable with. They're all doing fine and know what they're doing, but, since it's all kind of new to them, they're in panic mode, which makes the writer's block come on hardcore. I stayed until 3:30. The last half hour, we just talked about starting up a discussion club and then went into talking about a GSA. One girl (who is a friend of one of my students and a student of the teacher who I share a classroom with) said she thought there was a Gay/Straight Alliance last year, but there was none on the list this year. We were talking about why they're so controversial and a problem to start up and all of that. One student said he wanted to start up a HIV/AIDS awareness group to educate other students. Basically, I love my students. I would say 80% of my kids enjoy talking about politics, social issues, etc. They are way more socially aware than I expected and more aware than I remember my classmates being at that age.
I was supposed to stay after-school with some kids today to help them with late work and essays, but all after-school events were cancelled in Norfolk due to weather. All day we've had a Tornado Watch. Apparently, there was a tornado in North Carolina. We had some power surges in 8th bell, which made it so much fun. The power flickered a few times and went out at one point in time. I totally thought it was the light bulb in the overhead projector until I looked into the hallway.

Anyway. In non-school news... Glenn might be coming down for an extended visit with us. Details are still being worked out. I've been super tired recently since I've had to stay so long at school then come home and do everything else. Tonight I'm going to try and relax and read something of my own choice! (and not student work!) I'm starting to really look forward to the trip back to Michigan for x-mas now that it's getting closer (and now that I've started making "dates" for the few days we'll be in Kzoo).