Portfolio Day

We've had some things occur at our school that make a lot of us nervous about taking field trips. Field trips can be really effective ways of sparking student interest and engaging them in education but law suits and accountability on behalf of the teacher is nerve racking.

This past weekend was National Portfolio Day at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Last year I offered to accompany kids as a club field trip, this year I helped them organize a time for them to all meet at the train and go on their own.

Nancy called me at 9 p.m. the night before, "hey! Um...I decided to go tomorrow and was wondering if you were going." I told her I wasn't but informed her of the plan. However, the next morning I was having coffee with Heather and J.P. while Jackson played with his trains and Sampson annoyed the fuck out of all of us when I looked at my watch. It was 9 a.m., the time they agreed to meet. I sent Nancy a text asking if she found the others. The reply was quick, "Yup we're at mcdonalds!!! Cuz we are hungry!!!!!" Her multiple exclamation points got me all fired up.and excited.
"Who all is there?" I asked her. She sent me back the names of five others. "Yay! Let me know if you guys want me to meet you down there."
Another quick reply, "ok well um yea!!! They want you to meet them down there!!!!" How cute is she with all those exclamation points?
I jumped in the shower and drove down to meet them. Jon waited in line for over two hours just to have a word with someone from his dream school, Parsons. The rest of us were in the old Stock Exchange room taking turns with all the Illinois schools. I was so proud of them and so happy theat I met them there. Priscilla was a little discouraged after speaking with her first rep but uplifted by the others. Nancy stayed peppy the entire time, Victor was a bit taken with University of Illinois and Illinois State. It's funny how a kid could decide on a school based on a five minute interview with someone that won't even remember them. Do these people who look at portfolios realize the dreams and feelings attached to the hands that present these drawings and paintings to them? We heard from Cindy through text, she had come also but we never saw her. On our way out we ran into Kelly who couldn't meet earlier because she was in a class.

That makes seven students who on a Sunday morning got up early and, unaccompanied by parents, met at a train and found their way into Chicago to learn about Colleges they may like to attend. I'm going to use this pride to get me through entering grades for first quarter report cards today. Yay kids!!!!!!!!!

Showering With a Friend

There were only two other ladies in the locker room when I entered, they had already showered and were dressing. I grabbed my shower stuff out of my locker and went to the shower area to begin my routine. I picked up my black plastic scrungie and poured some soap on it and then scrubbed my tummy. I moved up to my arms and was about to get my chest when I saw something emerge from inside the scrungie and then jump out.

It was the same inch and a half long roach I made the maintenance guy try to find that I saw in my locker last week. Dude must have been chilling with my soap and shampoo the entire time before he took a nap in my scrungie and then joined me in the shower.

Well of course I screamed. Dammit, I even cried a little. It took a few minutes for me to get the courage up to get my shampoo and finish the job. But only after Mary Pat came and took my friend away in a toilet paper body bag. Ironically she was once an exterminator.

Ah the perks of a free health club in your place of work.

First Lead Teacher Meeting

"Excruciating," Mary said after about twenty minutes.
I fought sleep. I doodled. A deer in headlights, then an abstract.
Ate some mints and offered a few to Mary.
Went to the bathroom just because I was bored.
Made lists: What I need to do today, Who I need to call, Ideas for my blog...
I counted how many calories I had eaten that day.

oh, another PowePoint. Now look, two Power Points at once on two screens.

I cannot be paid enough for this. Never will I be paid enough for this.

Cucumbers

This posting is from Monday. I haven't been able to log onto this site until yesterday so I'm doing a lot of posting of blogs I've written all week:

I took Friday off. Just needed a day, don't tell HR because I called in sick instead of calling it a personal day. I went out that night and stayed out, LATE. When I woke up Saturday morning I noticed I had missed a couple of calls and a few text messages. Two of them were from senior AP student, Reyes: "Hey, it's Reyes. Jon said maybe ud b goin into skul 2moro. If u do can u look 4 my wallet. I think i dropped it there. It's blue and one of those with a velcro strap. I'm real worried cuz it's got my license in it n stuff. Thanx" I notice he sent this to me at 12:01 a.m. Why do I give these kids my number? I send him a text telling him I wouldn't make it in but I'd look for it first thing Monday morning,he replies:"Ok thanx. I'm really buggin about it."
Sunday nite at 8:44:"Sorry to bother...but just wanted to give u a reminder abt my wallet tomorrow...thank u!" I get to work on Monday at 7:30, see no wallet. Send a text: "Sorry kiddo, no sign of ur wallet. :("
He replies: "Ummm cindy said that she saw it after i left and that she gave it to the sub...so wut wud he do with it?"
"Principal's office"
"So do I have to go get it?"
Why do I respond to these kids? "I'm not the one who left it here."
"So do I have to go get it? ...or?"
"Yes YOU have to get it, it's UR wallet. duh! And stop texting in school!"

Many funny things were said today. A note left by one of the substitutes: "Jose had cucumbers for you but we ate them." I saw Jose outside my room, his locker is right there, i asked him about the note and he held up a cucumber and said, "I love cucumbers." Then he snapped off an end of it and ate it. I cannot make this shit up. I laughed and he said, "we have a lot of them in my backyard."

Speaking about a day of silence held last year to acknowledge the difficulties of being homosexual:
Daisy: "Remember that day last year when you could shut up for gay people?"
Juan: "Shut up for gay people?"
Daisy: "Yea, you didn't talk so gay people would be respected."
Juan: "Oh yea, I remember that."

In AP Studio while drawing from still life:
Reyes: "Why am I sitting over here when I can't see the composition?"
Jon: "You say that as if you actually know what that word means." Discussion begins about a YouTube video, "Leave Britney Alone."
Jon: "It's a transvestite."
Javier: "Yea, a dude that still wants to be a dude but dresses like a woman."
Me: "Isn't that a cross-dresser?"
Jon: "Transvestite."
Javier: "Yea, cuz he still wants to be a dude."
Jon: "He hasn't gone full woman yet."
Me: "What about the guy that doesn't want to be a dude anymore?"
Nancy: "A guy that changes his wee-wee to a v-jay-jay is a transgender."
I think I've got it now.

Footlocker

At yesterday's faculty meeting we were asked to write Deans' Referrals for students out of uniform. Some of the most commonly seen infractions are jackets being worn, multicolored shoes and undershirts of different colors.

I was explaining the meeting and request to my first hour students, who are a pretty quiet group. "If you're wearing a shirt under your polo you need to be sure that it's plain white, ok? I've seen girls wearing those tanks with the lace at the top and bottom and those are ok as long as they are white." I try to be funny by asking a boy if he has any of those shirts, "It's ok if the white lace hangs out the bottom of your polo, we're told. So, that would be alright for you to do, ok, Jesse?"
He blurts out, "Foot Locker."
"What?"
"Huh?"
"Do you know a kid named Omar?"
"Um...yes he was in my night school class last year," I tell him. "Why?"
"He worked at Pizza Hut with me."
"Oh yea? How is he?"
"I don't know, I don't work there anymore."

Of course, that makes sense. Jesse can't find his sketchbook and asks for another handout to start over on the shaded face drawing. I give him one, he tells me he'll look for his sketchbook in his locker. After school he stops in the room to tell me he still can't find his sketchbook. "I know they took it because I made my cover real sick." Nobody steals sketchbooks. I tell him to check the other class cabinets. "No, I remember putting it in our cabinet, I'm telling you, they took it." I remember his cover and then it dawns on my that Jesse doesn't like tearing out his drawings so he turns in his whole sketchbook everytime an assignment is due. I file through the stack of things I need to grade and find his sketchbook. "Oh, Miss! Look at you! You made me look all over the place for that."
Sorry.
We talk a bit about the teacher that just dies. Jesse didn't know him, still he was moved by the somber mood of the school created by the loss of this man. "I hear he was real cool. Real good teacher, man. That sucks."

Legendary Teacher

One of our veterans passed away a couple nights ago. An English teacher that had been in the school for thirty three years. This guy was one of those characters you imagine when envisioning someone completely dedicated to the job.

I didn't know the man very well, at all, really. A self-described introvert he spent almost all of his time in the building with his own students in his own room. He wasn't the big voice that opposed administration openly, not the funny smart ass comic relief, or the crabby guy that should have retired years ago. He was just there to teach and teach well.

He was admired and respected by the kids, the one who taught them the value of the five paragraph essay. He may have had very few friends but I don't know anyone that didn't like him.

Today there were many emails sent from teachers to us all about him, to honor and memorialize him. Many of these teachers are alumni of the school and had him as a teacher when they were kids. I came to realize what an impact he had on so many, how powerful our words and teaching can be to the children we come in contact with every day. How awfully he'll be missed by so many. This man that was so quiet in passing me in and out of the main office, auditorium, cafeteria (only to get coffee). I spoke about him with Mandy last night, with Mariko, and with Kathy. Everyone had a different story of how he influenced them and their teaching.

Today Vince came in to my class during Sustained Silent Reading and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I just needed a little cheering up," he said and left. I smiled and blew him a kiss as he walked out. I wondered how long before I lost a good friend this way.

Leaving the building today I glanced down a hallway and saw four students seated on the floor in front of an open locker and surrounded by balloons. I don't know what they were doing but the sight just touched me. Kids, on a Friday, on the floor, with balloons quietly speaking to each other. Nobody was rushing them home. What's the rush anyway?

We are in the service of these children and I can only hope I serve them well.

A Red Spoon

Brian came in my room at 7:40 to say hello. He looked over my desk and said, "hey, that's a really cool red spoon you have there, where'd you get it?" I had no idea what he was talking about. "Huh? Red spoon? That's not mine."
He said, "well, it was sitting right here next to your yogurt." I left my phone home that day, got a ticket on my way to work the day before that, misplaced a dress I was supposed to send to my mom and keep forgetting what day and time my chiropractor


Over the years I've found a lot of strange things in and around this school. One day a few weeks ago I was leaving school and found a wad of gum stuck to my windshield, the next week there were soccer ball imprints on my driver side window. One morning there was a puppy outside the main entrance of the building trying to get into the building, I brought him inside and called animal control. Another
year I rescued a kitten from being kicked by a group of obnoxious boys.
T ay I was checking my email while my AP students worked quietly and when I turned to look at them I noticed a cicada exoskeleton on my desk. Better than the mouse droppings that are usually sprinkled there, but still.
"Who put this on my desk?" There were smiles but no answers. I laughed, I mean, a cicada exoskeleton. "You guys know what I'm talking about. Who put this here?" They gave up John like he was Al Qeda.
Once while viewing a film in the auditorium I almost sat in a seat where an apple had been left to rot. It was so soft, to the touch it felt more like the fleshy cheek of a six month old.
l recall a conversation with another teacher who, last year, found a dried up slice of Bologna in a book from his classroom set. I don't think I can beat that.

During first hour I found a yellow post it in my gradebook with a note written on it by Brian, "I left the red spoon on your desk. :)"