I was I my classroom, waiting for a parent to show up when the administrators came over the loudspeakers.
“Everyone in the portables needs to evacuate into the main building.”
We’d heard rumors of storms and had been told by our principal to come to school prepared for some rough weather but so far we hadn’t yet experienced anything. As I stepped outside of my classroom, the rain was just beginning to fall on the portables. I lingered for a few moments because I didn’t have a class and was afforded the luxury of helping other teachers evacuate instead of being directly responsible for my own brood. As the last students scurried into the building, small bits of hail started to fall and thus began my experience with what many have been calling the worst tornado in recorded history.
All every sense of the word, we were lucky. All of the southside schools…
I watched the tears stream down his face while his mother continued to abscond him in here broken English. “I work hard every day for you. Your teachers, they work hard every day for you. Is this what you want? Is this the life you want to lead?” Eduardo* continued to cry but didn’t say…
read more »This last week, during my planning periods I’ve been helping to administer the WIDA test. The WIDA test measures the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills of English Language Learners, aka all of my students. Students are scored on a scale of 1-6 with a one meaning that they are unable to communicate in English…
read more »There are only three weeks left of school but in my head it might as well be October. I haven’t dealt with this burned-out, nauseous-during-the-drive-to-school, counting-down-the-days state of mind since I was fresh out of Institute, coaching two sports, and lesson planning day by day. I’ve switched from trying to thrive and achieve exemplary…
read more »I was going to write a really negative post today, partly as a form of catharsis and partly just to let the world know how bad things can get once testing is over and student’s motivation goes out the window. I’m floundering and at the end of each day, all I can think about is…
read more »Over the course of a school year, there are thousands of things that a student attending school in a low-income community deals with that his or her more financially stable counterparts don’t. From lack of parental support to poor nutrition, gang violence to high teacher turnover, the kids that I have become so close to…
read more »Yesterday I became aquinted with the beuaracracy of the Department of Human Services in my attempt to help out two of my boys (I wrote about their plight yesterday in this post). While I understand the need for all the red tape that goes on, especially in places that have the potential to be dangerous,…
read more »Today after soccer practice, I’m going to drive to the local shelter. There, I am going to pick up two of my students and drive them home with me. They are going to stay with me for the next few days. After that, I don’t know what will happen to them. The two students are…
read more »As of this writing, it’s second hour and all 21 of my students are working. Not just working, but working hard. I haven’t had to do more than redirect anyone yet and in my first hour, we got through everything. Group work went great and everyone was on task and talking about the right things.…
read more »I can’t begin to describe the energy I’ve wasted this year arguing with students about their behavior. “Yoceline, this is your third warning. You got one when you walked into the room screaming and another when you sharpened your pencil while I was talking and this one right now.” “Paola, I can see your phone out.…
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