High speed car chase...

Okay, so it wasn't high speed, I'm pretty sure we only reached about 35 mph, but still, I was involved in a medium speed car chase.

No, I was not the one being chased, and for those of you who assumed that, shame on you. Or, shame on me for making you assume that. I was the one chasing.

I was leaving school headed to our last football game. I pulled out of the parking lot and saw my Principal starting to jog. Then he started running a bit faster, and before I knew it he was in a full out sprint. He was not the only one running, though, a student was running not 50 yards in front of him.

I pulled up to a stop sign at about the same time Mr. Alvarez was turning the corner. I rolled down my window and asked if he needed any help- for I was in a vehicle, and he was on foot. "Nooo, thank you Miss Schwartz," he responded a little short of breath. I proceeded to make a complete stop. When I started to drive away my principal grabbed on to my car door and yelled "Wait," apparently he had changed his mind and wanted my 4 runner's assistance. He hollered for the police officer that works at my school. I went from minding my own business, driving to the football game, to becoming involved in chasing a kid with my principal in the back seat and a police officer in my front seat. Interesting change of events...

I would be lying if I said I was not curious about why we were chasing this kid. I didn't even ask, and Mr. Alvarez says that this kid, a high school student, decided it would be a good idea to smoke pot on our middle school campus. Little did he know our principal is awesome and in a matter of minutes he would be running from the cops (mmm... Miss Schwartz and co.)

We followed this kid for about 3 blocks. I was doing my best to be the perfect driver considering I was carting around two fairly important people, but that ended quickly when the police officer told me to blow the stop sign. We caught up to the kid and the officer and my principal jumped out of my moving vehicle. They split up and caught him right in front of my car. To say this was awkward would be an understatement. Me, just chillin' in my car, not knowing if I should stay or go watching them frisk this kid and question him.

Did I mention Coach White was following me to the football game? No, I left that part out. Coach White was behind me for all of this. As I was waiting, he called me and asked what the heck was going on. I was still short on details but I filled him in for the most part.

The outcome of all of this was not as exciting as the chase, he had dumped whatever he had and was pretty much just laughing the whole time. They got his name, and got back in my car. I drove them back to the school and then was on my way to the football game.

This all happened in a matter of 6 minutes. What an exhilarating 6 minutes that was.

Bad boys bad boys whatchya gonna do when they come for you?

C

Confidence, the mini-lesson

Mondays we have advocacy. I also forget about that and end up having to plan something super quick. Today- I had a genius idea that just came out of nowhere (well not really it came from the TV) bullying. Bullying has become a huge issue at my school and even though my advocacy kids are really good kids, I thought I should still talk to them about bullying. I literally googled "how to talk to middle schoolers about bullying" on my phone. Brilliance, pure brilliance. It had a step by step guide on how to do it. I added some things... like while I was reading the step by step guide I gave them all a half piece of paper and prompted them to write about a time you were bullied, you witnessed someone being bullied, or you bullied someone. Most of them got to writing really quickly, but some were actually quick to question me, "Misssss won't you get mad if we say we have bullied someone?" I told them it could be anonymous if they wanted (a lot of them ended up putting their names on it) and I would not be mad, I just wanted them to be honest with themselves. While they were writing I whipped out a poster board and started writing all the stuff I found on this website.

One of the key points was to instill self-confidence. PERFECT, I needed to introduce this word to them. I was fearful of this introduction, however, because I did not want to hear that no one knew what this word meant.

No one knew what it meant.

I don't even remember what they actually said when I asked, "Do you guys know what confidence is?"

Their responses sounded like a different language because they were so, beyond, off.

Luckily, I had dictionaries in my classroom, and I had them look up the definition, instead of just telling them what it was. One of the definitions that a student offered up was "belief in yourself and your abilities." Right away multiple students shouted out, "that's just like our pledge!" Oh my gosh, I could not have asked for a better connection.

Here is our class pledge:

I am a young adult with hope. I am talented, smart & capable of success. I have dreams for the future & I will climb to reach those goals & dreams everyday. I believe in myself and in my ability to do my best. I am intelligent. I am capable of greatness. I can learn. I will learn. Today, I will listen. I will speak. I will see. I will think. I will feel. I will reason. I will read and I will write. I will do all these things with one purpose in mind: to do my best. I am too smart to waste today.

Everyday we read this pledge as a class, and it has gotten to the point that they have it memorized.

I asked them if they really meant these words when they said them everyday, and one student said yes, followed by this profound quote:

"I do believe in myself, I just didn't know that's what confidence meant."

So, to answer my previous question, I guess it is possible to be confident even if you don't know the meaning of the word.

Herein lies the problem... their reading levels are so low. They don't know basic definitions.

I almost find this to be better than them not having confidence in themselves though, we can teach them how to read, but it's up to them to be confident.

Caroline

October Blues

Everyone warned us that October would be tough. They weren't kidding. I don't know the exact reasons as to why October is so difficult but I thought of a few that may be adding to our stressful lives...

- ACP Classes ...For the month of October we have one every monday 530-830

-No Holidays ...September we only had 2 five day weeks, October is our first full month

-The Honeymoon is over...We are not the young excited new teachers anymore... we're tired and stressed

-It's football season...this is a stretch, but my weekends are literally dedicated to watching football, all day Saturday- college, (I watched from 11-1 yesterday), and all day Sunday nfl (from 12-10 usually)... I should be planning but I've got a lot of football to watch :)

The bright side- there's only one more week in October, and I can't help but think that this month has gone fairly fast. It probably helps that it still feels like it's summer here :)

The days fly by when you're looking back at them, but when you're living them, they seem to drag on. This is not your average 9-5 job, not by a long shot. This is a 24/7 job. When we're not actually teaching, we are either planning to teach, thinking about teaching, talking about teaching, or dreaming about teaching. Even as I'm sitting here watching the Bears game, I'm planning for the next week/blogging about it.

This week is the last week of Deady football which is pretty bittersweet. I'm sad that it's going to be over because I look forward to it everyday, but it's going to be nice to have those extra two-three hours every night. I'm also looking forward to a conference I'm going to in Corpus Christi Nov. 15th and 16th and going home for Thanksgiving. It's going to be really nice to be able to re-energize and get back to finish off the semester before Xmas break.

It's almost half time which is pretty much the only time I get any work done, so I'm off to do that.

Until next time,

Caroline

More vocab

AH! another question and this time it was "Miss what does enthusiasm mean?"

I'm going to make a positive/happy vocab list for my classes.

If more questions arise I will add them to the list. So far we have:

-Confident

-Enthusiasm

At lunch I'm talking to the reading teacher,

CS

Confident

Today is day 2 of lock-down benchmark testing. It is basically tests that are only taken for data, so we can try and teach them all the stuff they don't know for when TAKs comes. These poor kids. 8 hours of testing. Yesterday and today have been pretty nice for me though, just sitting in the front of the room, bringing them pencils every once in a while when they push the lead to the scantron too hard because they are frustrated with the ridiculousness of taking these tests. I don't blame them.

I've never proctored a test. I guess it's something that I can cross off my bucket list that not many people have had the opportunity to do. I've had many a test proctored for me but I never really saw, or cared for that matter, what the job entailed. Not much. I pass out the tests, pass out the scantrons, read a blurb about how they must answer each question by filling in the bubble completely, all that good stuff. Also, how I can not answer any questions unless they are about directions. Okay, ready, go.

I still get the occasional question that is about content where I have to say, I can't answer that, do your best. A moment ago, I was hit with a question that may stick with me for the rest of my life. He silently raised his hand and I brought him a pencil. "No Miss I don't need a pencil." "What's up?" I asked. He pointed to his test and asked, "what does confident mean?" I immediately had to pick my jaw up from the floor and say, "I can't answer that, do your best." First of all, I wish I knew the context of the question but seeing as I am not even allowed to look at the test that was impossible. Second of all, why does this child not know what the word confident means? Not that it even matters, but this is one of my brightest kids. Confidence. This is something I am blessed (or burdened) with having a lot of. My confidence has gotten me through a lot and this child does not even know what the word means let alone the idea of it. It actually feels like someone just shot me with a stun gun. I am bewildered by the fact that not once in his existence has this boy heard the word confident. I would even say that he is a pretty confident student, proud of his work, willing to help others, but he doesn't even know what it means.

So I question myself, can one have confidence, be confident, without the basic knowledge of the word itself?

Mini-Lesson here we come.

CS

I just wanna teach.

So I have officially signed my name on the dotted line stating that I will stay for a third year.

It was so easy to sign this piece of paper. It felt right. Simple. Now, I'm thinking, "Wow, I can't believe I did that." Not in a bad way at all, but the fact that I made a decision about something 2 years from now is crazy. I'd like to think of myself as someone who plans ahead, b-ut 2 years ahead, wow.

I signed that piece of paper for many reasons, some of which include (in no particular order):

1- I don't think 2 years is enough. I signed up for this 2 year commitment, but now that I'm here, living it, I don't think I can accomplish all the change I want to accomplish in these 2 years.

2- I want to see my 6th graders graduate from Deady and go to High School. I've known these kids for under 3 months, and already they mean so much to me. I want to help them get to High School, and that will require me to at least teach for 3 years.

3- I want to see what teaching is like with out having to deal with TFA. Basically, I just wanna teach. If I am enjoying it now while I have to attend countless meetings and events that are telling me the same things over and over again, I can't imagine how much I will enjoy it when I don't have to essentially waste my time with all of that. Everyone always asks if I will continue teaching after TFA, and as of today, the answer is yes, however only one extra year. I do not see myself teaching for the rest of my life, but I also haven't had enough experience to actually make that decision. So, I'm hoping that teaching for a third year will help me make that decision.

The only thing I know for sure for my future in teaching is that I will be staying in Houston until 2013. After that, who knows. I also know that I will be moving back to Chicago in the future... when though? who knows. But I will. I have to. I love it there. Maybe I'll teach there though, who knows. Maybe I'll get an advertising job, who knows. Maybe I'll work for the Bears, that'd be sick. I really have no idea what is in store for me, but for now, I am staying positive and going with the flow.

I just wanna teach, teach, teach no matter what what. For awhile at least.

Caroline

Silly Science

So sorry for the hiatus. I've been somewhat busy attempting to teach the children about Science, that I, myself, do not remember/know.

I have been struggling with the fact that I seem to be somewhat "unknowledgeable" of the content. Every week I have to re-teach myself all of the stuff I learned 10 years ago that I am planning on teaching.

Good news... I took a Science test and on

ly got 3 wrong! 37/40, a 93%.

Bad news... It was the 5th grade Science TAKs test.

More good news... it seems as if I have done a fantastic job forming relationships with my students. They are loving my rewards systems, individual and class rewards. They talk to me about their interests without being prompted to. They give me silly bandz and make my name out of them...

But best of all, they are excited to be in my class. Today, Leo asked, "Miss, why does your class go by so fast?" (reminder: my classes are 90 minutes long). I replied, "Because Science is so fun! Time flies when you're having fun!" He said "Nahh Miss, I think it's because of you."

I almost wanted to run outside the classroom, close the door, and do a victory dance. Instead, I smiled, gave him a little wink, and continued with my lesson, because I have so much to teach them and so little time... (even if sometimes it feels as if time is dragging on.)

But most of the time, it seems that I'm running out of time. There are not enough hours in a day to plan or implement everything I think would benefit my kids. Besides all of my teacher duties (which I did not realize included an excessive amount of mostly pointless paperwork) I am taking classes. In the month of October I have a 3 hour class every Monday that pretty much requires me to leave right after school to get there on time. So, by the time I get home it's almost 9 which is barely enough time to watch Gossip Girl and get to bed. Then, I also have class every other Wednesdays for 3 hours. Blah.

Bottom Line: It's a lot of work.

I try with all of my being to not complain, I really do try, but sometimes it's impossible. Sometimes, the things I have to do outside the classroom seem so unimportant and that I could be spending my time preparing for my actual teaching instead. That is what frustrates me beyond belief. I just have to keep thinking that everything I am doing is for the greater good of my kids, and will help me in the long run... Even if it means I have to repeat that to myself over and over again. There's nothing I dislike more than hearing myself complain. Really, what do I have to be complaining about? I have a job that I enjoy, great friends, an awesome family, and I am healthy and happy.

Pretty sweet life if you ask me.

ttfn-

C SCHWARTZ