Who else but 7th period?

Dear 7th period,

My last period of the day has always been the most interesting. I seem to get a mix of the smartest, brightest and most rambunctious kids all in one class of 26-28. Your class has definitely been the most tame (even though you don't think so) and the most advanced. You all pretty much have personality and get along, which I like.

Today, for example, we read about Theseus. I figured you would not be into it at all, like most normal teenagers, but you surprised me again! You came up with History channel references, knew a lot about ancient Greece and really, really enjoyed when I called the Minotaur the "bastard child" of Minos' wife (not to mention when I called Gwynevere from Sir Lancelot's tale last time an adulterous whore). I'm glad my tests to make sure you're still awake are successful. Not to mention how much you enjoyed reading about Theseus torturing bandits the way they tortured other people. Oh, and I love how Troublemaker always acts out the stories, like today's reenactment of Theseus drawing out his sword to prove he was Aegeus's son (with perfect sound effects!). And it was so cute how y'all got quiet when Michael--our British kid for today--read the last paragraph of the selection because you wanted to hear him speak.

Remember how when we were done with work, you were supposed to work on your outlines, but instead danced to Thriller? I honestly didn't mind because you did so well with the story and asked a lot of questions about your writing assignments (and I also know that 90% of you will work on your own to complete it, the other 10% won't do it or will use the class time to complete some of it). Plus, it was great to see all of you laugh and have a good time together.

Basically, I really enjoy your class (even though I'd never tell you that during the school year). I look forward to it, even on your chattiest of days because you make me laugh and keep the class interesting.

Thanks for not being boring or a bunch of crazies!

Mrs. P.

Strange

My day started off with seeing two guys on the side of the freeway. I had no clue why they were just standing there, until I noticed their car halfway up a hill, between two trees. I have no idea how they got that car up there. There was a malfunction in the fire alarm system that led to an urgent-sounding announcement that we needed to evacuate. Now. I've never seen students move so fast out of a building, except for that one time there was a gas leak at GHS. On the way home, the first stop light I hit (and one of my last on the way home) stopped working the moment I stopped after it. That's the exact moment I started shaking my fist and saying, "It's TUESDAY! Not MONDAY! What is going on?!"

I realized I haven't told you how much weirder my students are this year. They have so much more humor and personality as a whole, it's crazy (awesome)! This is a plus for me because they seem to understand my sense of humor, which keeps me on my toes a little more (I like that).

For example:

Me: Why are you hovering outside of my door?

"I've been in jail" 9th grade boy: I can't hover. I don't know what you're talking about.

Me: You mean you didn't buy those special hovering shoes?

Mr. IBIJ: Nah, they were sold out.

I didn't expect him to come back with that.

A lot of my students seem to enjoying my habit of booing or yelling "Whoaaaa!" while making overacted arm/hand movements at students. We've done this in the hallway, at one of my students as she hugged her boyfriend goodbye (Math Teacher Next Door took part in that, too), and at multiple silly children who thought they could throw me off my game.

Oh, and we did that at the girl who brought about the first Classroom Joke.

Ahh, I love the time of year when the first joke that unites most of a classroom comes along. Today I caught a girl being forced by a male classmate to touch another male classmate's butt.

I yelled across the classroom, "Lady L, butt touching is banned!.... Plus, we don't know where Skater Kid's butt has been." Skate Kid says, "Yeah, seriously. My butt's been a lot of places." She says, "I guess I just can't help it..." Hilarious! I'm glad she went with it! This led to an ongoing joke about how L was addicted to touching butts and had to go to rehab. It was ridiculous, but made the whole class laugh.

That time of year

I keep feeling like I catch up only to fall behind again. My to do list never seems to end! Every day there seems to be more things to do and I find more reasons not to finish things and, instead, go home early. My initial motivation and initiative is kinda gone. This usually happens around this year, where I don't have to rush so much and find some sort of balance. Unfortunately, this usually leads me to laziness and procrastination. This is why I'm posting: a little reminder to myself to get my as back in gear.

Here are some highlights:

-40 kids showed interest in the literary magazine. Whoa. We'll see how that goes.

-They keep interrupting English classes again and again for just about everything. Just because English 9 and 10 do not have an SOL doesn't mean we don't have stuff to do.

-We bought Wii Fit. I love all the games in it.

-Something I've been thinking about: Do you ever find yourself thinking about the same people around the same time? For example, I usually find myself thinking about my grandpa or grandma Pushie around 3:30 (my drive home from school). It's usually my family and wondering what they're doing around 6 or 7. I just noticed that I do this most days, and I find it very interesting. Do I connect these people with these times for some reason?

-Have you see Glee or Modern Family? Awesome! New seasons of Mad Men and Dexter? Love them! Although I haven't really liked the new season of the Office as much as I expected, I loved the Jim/Pam wedding!

-We went to see Zombieland and it was AWESOME. I can't wait to see Where the Wild Things Are this weekend!

-Pictures of National Equality March should be up soon on flickr and I'll prob. post a bit on here as well.

It's October already?!

Holy moly. It's October. Already.

I have a lot I could post about, but right now all I want to do is breath & relax for a second. We had a pretty busy weekend, we have another sort of busy one coming up, and I've already taught 4 classes, graded, made dinner, and run errands (and while running errands: avoided buying up all the cute Halloween stuff I found, haha) all before 5. Whew.

Then again, I promised myself I'd blog more. Here's a compromise:

• This year is waaaaaaaaaay better than last.
• I love my principal, Math Teacher next door, new AP (assistant principal, for those who don't eduspeak), and other snarky English teachers.
• I love my little English 9 kiddos! I did NOT expect to ever say that. They are crazy (in a good way), hilarious, creative, pretty well-behaved, enthusiastic, and have tons of personality.
• My throat is so horribly dry today (and yesterday) that I could only talk at a normal tone. There was no Teacher Voice today. Thankfully, the kids were very supportive (even talkative 7th period!)
• I've been having a lot more success with correcting students behavior using a hand on the shoulder and conversational tone. This only works during independent work time or when my co-teacher is in the room and I'm circulating, but it's amazing how this works on kids who were seen as "bad kids" to other teachers.
• Yesterday I hung out with other teachers outside of school for the first time. Okay, it was a baby shower for another English teacher, but it was something! I went. I laughed. I played games. It was fun. Oh! And I wore my "There Their They're" shirt from Threadless and they all commented on it!

And a big announcement:

I am now the sponsor of the new literary magazine. New School hasn't had one for years, but they desperately need one because those artsy, nerdy kids are getting no love or recognition from our school. I stepped up to do it even though I honestly have no clue what I'm doing. I already have about 25 kids who came in to say they're interested. There are flyers all around the school. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will have something to show for our effort.