tornado city!

One thing I learned yesterday?
Virginia doesn't have tornado sirens.
That'd be a good thing to look into nowadays, folks.

Thanks to all those that called, emailed, etc. today. I was, thankfully, out of the southside and back on the peninsula by the time the tornado warning/first sighting was reported on NPR (I heard it on my way home, as I was listening to Fresh Air). And it was all over with by the time I had to go to dance class.

As I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking about how crazy it was that only a few miles away, there were destroyed homes and businesses, but for Norfolk and Williamsburg, it didn't seem any different. Some people said their trees and things in their yard had a fun time with the wind, but they didn't notice anything beyond that, really. Crazy.

i hope you already know about this

Imagine this:
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
It's hours before your wedding.
You're celebrating with your friends.
You're leaving the club with your friends.
You get shot at 50 times.
The people shooting at you? Police officers.
And the courts find them not guilty.

That's what happened to Sean Bell and his family.

improvement on yesterday

Today was much better. I got a lot done, my kids were annoying and endearing. One of them chased me around the room, threatening to hug me. I asked him, "Maino- what am I going to do with you?!" He goes, "LOVE ME!". That kid is crazy. Another student, Kendall, came into 8th bell and asked me, "Mrs. P, you feeling better today? Someone told me you were having a horrible day yesterday."

I got some more good news today, too. My birthday will not only be awesome because Tye and I will be having a joint birthday (and my teachers-only "going away") party (possibly involving roller skates?) and because that same week, my parents, Megan, Liz will be here, but also because Katy and her boyfriend Mike will be here! YES! That is so fantastic.

Tomorrow night I'm going to Tye's for a spa night and possible sleep over. It is the perfect weekend for that to happen. This weekend and next I have a TON of work to do to get me on track, ready for David's graduation and his family's visit, and ready for the SOL craziness that's gonna happen in about 2 weeks. Wow--It's almost the end of the year.

i love my students

Sometimes, you have too many easy going and good days and the Gods of Luck and Karma decide you need to have a reality check.
Thanks, guys.

It started off with forgetting to brush my teeth, but not realizing that until I'm halfway to school. Whatever, right? I have Altoids, I'll brush when I get home. It's a little icky feeling, but not the biggest thing ever.
Then. Then, then, then. It all started to fall apart. I get stuck in traffic right behind a horrible, huge, injury-filled injury & deadly accident. Not stuck for a little while, a long while. About an hour and a half long while. That sucked. I couldn't even continue on 64 East, I was told to turn around and go on 64 West. Thankfully, there was one exit before I would have to go back through the Bridge-Tunnel, so I got off there and drove through Norfolk to school.

Edited to add: I saw the news was reporting on this accident and the many others this morning due to the heavy fog. The article's pretty crazy to read, since I only heard the brief mentions of closures and back-ups (for good chunk of time, no one could get to the southside from the peninsula). The part that scared me? The accident ~.5 miles away from me happened less than 10 minutes before I got there. A driver going westbound crossed the median and hit a car going eastbound. The westbound driver died and the eastbound driver had injuries. Rebecca and I joked about how I was close enough to be in there--and it ended up being true! That was almost me. I prefer being stuck in traffic, not the accident itself. I hate commuting.

I got there with half an hour to spare in my 1st bell. Those kids were in the library, finishing up their research for their first day there. My amazing co-teaching had everyone and everything on lock. Thank god we talked about the research library day plans ahead of time. I took a few kids upstairs that had to do project presentations, got in touch with a kid (LaQuan, mentioned later) who was missing info from his Middle College application.
All of the rushing around and tension of the morning gave me the hugest headache. My 3rd bell study hall wanted to finish watching a movie we started last class. We did, but other people kept yelling over the movie. All the noise and chaos and everything that happened started to make me feel really overwhelmed and almost like a panic attack was starting. I finally had to stop the movie for a sec and tell them, "you talk or you watch, choose. My head's about to explode, so please, let's cut the noise in half." They chose to sit and watch the movie, thankfully.
My lunch this week has been chicken salad sandwiches with pita bread. I'd been leaving all the materials at school instead of lugging it back and forth. I pull out a piece of pita to make my sandwich at lunch and I look down and see ANTS. ALL OVER MY BREAD. I had to throw out everything because somehow ants had invaded the WHOLE BAG. Wow.
My 7th bell was supposed to go to the library like 1st bell did today. We get down there, only to realize in 10 minutes that they had not double-booked, but triple-booked English 10 classes. Ugh. My library dates for my 7th bell got moved to Monday and Wednesday next week and NOBODY LET ME KNOW. They all thought someone ELSE had already told me. Wow. It was kind of funny, because I almost cried in front of class when I asked them to not embarrass me in any way, shape, or form. My 7th bell has some of the "usual suspects" of the school, and kids who are generally apathetic and unfocused.
The amazing thing? This whole day, not one problem with my students. My kids were incredibly sweet. My 1st bell said "Mrs. P!! You're here! And ok!!", which was nice to hear when I finally got to the library. Kids in my 3rd bell were hilarious and Cleo and Vanessa visited when they finished their class work. Kids in my 5th bell are alway sweet, but today they were extra sweet (and kept their voices down). My 7th bell was pretty concerned, acted right, left notes on the board, started planning my "going away party", etc.
The most amazing, though, was LaQuan. LaQuan and I have had our ups and downs this year. But, throughout the year, he's become more and more academic, interactive, etc. to the point where he came up to me and declared, "I think I might go to college." To which I told him, "I think you'd love it." He's the kind of kid that acts out because he's bored in class. He's full of potential, he's creative, he's sarcastic (to the point of frustration, at times) and he's insightful and intelligent. Amy and I both have him--back to back, even-- and we've both pushed him to try out Middle College, where he'd be taking a combination of community college and H.S. classes. He's totally sold on the idea, ready to go, finished his application and turned it in. We're all working together to make sure he gets accepted. Today, he told me that he had a brilliant idea for his research paper: 3 leaders of World War II and he was EXCITED ABOUT IT (WHAT?!). During 7th bell, he'll usually come in to borrow a pencil for his class across the hall. He came back to give it back and I told him what happened in the library, because we were just laughing and talking about it in class. I had to go see Rebecca to see if I could get the mobile lab or computer lab. Nope-both gone. So, we're trying to figure out where we can go, etc. when LaQuan comes around the corner and says he asked Mr. W if he had any extra computers. Mr. W says he can take 5 kids, so I have LaQuan take 5 of my students. Wow. That was... just, wow. I was blown away by him taking the initiative and go to another one of his teachers with a computer lab and ask him that. Wow.

The plus side is that this "bad" day made me stop and realize how long it had been since I'd had a "bad" day. That's also pretty amazing. Now I'm going to go do something stupid or ridiculous or hilarious to get rid of this day.

sitting down for a second

I kept telling myself I should update. To be honest, I haven't felt like it. March was a busy month, and February before that was a lazy month, which means that I was behind in taking care of a few things. Recently, I've had to take care of lots of things around the house, appointments to make, applications to send out, apartments to try and see. To do lists all over the place!
After a month of being incredibly social, I've been enjoying time by myself, trying to get through the 2 books I'm reading right now. Even though I usually dislike being so busy that I don't really have a moment to myself, I really enjoyed March. Seeing Natalie and Amanda gave me the extra boost I needed. Before seeing them, I was really down in the dumps, for numerous reasons. It was so incredibly nice to get to sit and talk with them for a while, to be comfortable and laugh with someone that you've known for longer than a few months or a year. It brings a feeling of "normal" into what's been a completely new environment. In the summer, we're supposed to see a few more friends (one of which I'm going to keep trying to convince to move to Richmond). It will be fantastic to see them in our area, as we're about to move to a new city again.

Beyond all that personal stuff, I had my 11th graders writing porfolios to get though, a play to finish teaching (and I'll have to grade projects on that soon), a novel to start/finish teaching (they're still loving it! YES!), and units and tests to get ready for. My 10th graders have their research paper coming up, which is always such an incredible joy to do. My 11th graders have a project on their novel, a play and their last English SOL coming up in the next 3 weeks. Plus, their ring dance is Friday and that will be my first time chaperoning a dance.
There have been amazing changes in my students. A few kids I've been working on all year have become more focused and started coming to class more often. One of them even stuck up for me when some kid (not even one of my students!) gave me sass when I asked him to watch his language for the nth time. One student who never considered college may go onto duel enroll in high school and community college classes. That is so exciting. One student, Tiffany, recently gave birth to a 9lb little boy named Zane. Cody is due any minute now to have her little girl Emmaline. I gave her 2 of my favorite books. This led Ava, Cody and I to talk about how young they should start reading to their kids and how it affects them in school later on. Ava finally returned after giving birth to her son only to have to take more time out because he got sick. He's okay now and she's shown up for 2 days in a row. I'm so proud of all of them.
We've started two countdowns on my board: days until school ends and days until the reading SOL. Both are exciting to see get lower and lower, but also bum us out a bit. I've been saying to anyone who brings it up that I'm not thinking about it until the end of May.

BTW, if you didn't see "Meeting David Wilson" on MSNBC, try and check it out. It was amazing.

what inspires you?

A few different things I've seen, heard, etc. recently that has influenced my conversations and thoughts.



40 years ago. Still amazing.



BuildAmericaTogether.org



This was one of the most interesting Oprah episodes ever. They are incredibly brave to put themselves out there. And they seem so sweet and amazing! I hope everything turns out fantastic for them and their child.

I've been reading this book and loving it. I hope that if you haven't read it, you do. One thing that it's definitely made me realize two things: I am so grateful I have the parents I do and to have gone to diverse K-12 schools.