The Lunch Party

We had a lunch party Friday, the last day before the Thanksgiving week off. Students had been getting stickers for their team flags for winning grammar games, or getting best average quiz scores, or other signs of working hard. The winners were "Hush" from 1st period (naming themselves for their quietness), a tie of "The Smores" (for melting together into a team), and "The Randoms" (self-explanatory) in 5th period, and "IDK" ("I Don't Knows") for 6th (for helping each other in times of need).

Grace was awesome, she woke up at 5:30 to fry up lumpia and made Philippine torta and rice too. The kids chowed it down in seconds. It was a cool time and I think everyone had fun. I hope we can do it again to end the semester. It is definitely worth the effort to see them laughing and smiling in English class!

Now it's time for a rest week, and I think we're going to San Francisco to visit the family of Grace's friend Marissa. I haven't been there for a long time, so it will be great to go. The last time I spent any real time there was when I was living in the RV and travelling the West trying to be a writer. That was almost 20 years ago! I remember meeting some hippie kids by some parks along the coast highway and taking them up with me. Everyone should have the chance to travel with no home but their car for a bit when they're young. It gives such a sense of freedom and life to your life. I've always thought the more keys a person has the harder it is to be happy. If you can be happy with no keys, then you can have true happiness in your soul indeed.

Peace

Anyone out there?

By the way,  I wonder if I am sending out these messages into the big empty internet universe. If anyone is reading this please post a comment! Or a question or two would be great. Anything anyone would like me to write about? Peace

The Whirlwind

The most amazing thing about this first teaching year is definitely the non-stop, 120 miles per hour, head-spinning, being-pulled-in-240-directions-at-once tornado of days and weeks that it is. It feels like I was on my fall break yesterday, then I realize that that was almost 3 weeks ago! Since then we had parent teacher conferences. It was awesome to meet so many parents and start to work together to help the students learn, but it was 4 hours of meetings without a chance for a breath. Wow. Of course, there are so many kinds of parents and students; some are very interested, some are a little interested, some are happy, and some are not satisfied. We all have one thing in common though, we want the kids to succeed. It's an wild experience for a new teacher to see all these different families one after another and realize we are all connected through this classroom.

Then as soon as that was over, it's back to work. It was time to rev up to the end of our 3rd unit (already). That means another essay. Sometimes I think that the biggest success for the kids may be just getting past the nervousness of writing an essay. It causes a bit of a panic. We almost spend an entire class just giving the instructions and gathering the energy to give it a try. I wonder if I was like that when I was their age? (It's much to long ago to remember). Then it's time to quickly grade all the end-of-unit work and get the next unit started strong.

Meanwhile all the fall holiday events are starting; carnival, dances, car wash BBQs, bake sales, fundraising events, visits from motivational speakers, pep rallies, and, my favorite, my first official review. If I can take the experienced teachers vibe as a hint, this is something to be nervous about. The judgement of 1 day of 1 administrator observing 1 lesson (or 1/2 a lesson), could decide my future at the school. No pressure. And all of this is cutting into lessons and making short schedule days as we lead up to a week off at Thanksgiving, which means we will lose all momentum on the novel we start next week. The fun thing about seeing a train wreck coming is that your on the track, there is no turning left or right. One thing is for sure, it is not boring. The life of a first year middle school teacher is like seeing who can stay in the washing machine the longest :)
Peace.