I HEART MY JOB

i know. what a weird post. two in a day after nothing for two weeks. but my fifth period class walked out today and i just thought to myself, "i love my job."
it is so powerful and satisfying when i teach a good lesson. i guess good teachers like doing their work because students do well in their classes and it is really fun to deliver a good lesson, have your kids get it, and know that they are enjoying it also.

we did idioms today and i did an example of "kicking a bucket" and then "bending over backwards"--i did crabwalk around my classroom and totally freaked out my kids. it was really fun!

i have to run to a meeting but honestly--the end of my first year, and i love my job. what a good feeling.

my family is like a . . .

so this post could be titled "figurative language: we enter the land of similes, metaphors, and idioms" but i thought that would be kind of boring. sometimes i tell my blog readers secrets that i would never tell my colleagues, so here's another one: i was TERRIFIED of teaching figurative language. i had no idea how to teach it, so we didn't do it in the poetry unit. i knew it would be on the CSTs (high stakes standardized tests starting in 3 days) but i still didn't know how to approach it so i did nothing. bad idea! but, i decided this week, with the encouragement and push from my TFA person, that it was time to tackle it. so i got a bunch of worksheets from a friend who was luckily very generous, and we got started.

i wanted to share a few poems that my students wrote today, which are modelled on an example we read. these are from my strategic class:

My family is like a tree.
My Gran has the roots
Because she keep the family together.
My mom's the trunk
Because she always stay strong.
My dad is the dead branches
because he's useless.

My family is like the beach.
My dad is violent like the incoming
waves of the ocean, yet quiet and caring like the settling waves
at noon fall.

My mom is like the sand, always
covering you and sticking to your
body as you walk away.

My sister is like the feisty, pinching crabs
you find, always trying to be stubborn.

My grandma is like the sea shells, you
find, beautiful and very precious.

My family is like a refrigerator,
My mom is like ice cream, she help people who's sick,
My dad is like the fridge, he help provide the family with our protection,
My brother is like a nasty junk food, who takes up room,
and myself is like a light who shine.

My family is like a turtle's shell, safe,
never leave you, always their for you.
Like a safe lock, hard to crack,
keep you warm in the night.

My family is a bank.
My father is a check that I just ask
for money whenever to fade on some drank.
my mother is like a credit card that takes me
shopping for all my Jordans.
And I am like a customer always complaining.

obviously these are unedited but for the most part their grammar is fine.
four of those six poems are in the top 10 most difficult students out of all 125 students. a lot of kids didn't even turn in their poems, or they didn't get it. this makes me think that my students who mess around and don't follow rules are bored to death at school because they are so bright, but something is keeping them back. i totally adore these kids and my heart soars when they do this type of work. i want to give them big hugs but it's illegal. oh well. i am so positive with them anytime i can be.

these are reminding me of the "where i'm from" poems, and how powerful those were, also. i still have them up on my wall. people always read them when they come into the classroom. these kids have so much inside them and when they get the opportunity to let it out, it just blows me away. they are so difficult but so endearing at the same time...

i know i haven't written in awhile. i have been ridiculously busy. i am almost finished with my credential class (then i'll have a preliminary credential instead of a clear credential) and i had a big project with a videotape, a written component, and i had to turn in student work. with all of that stuff together it turns out to be about 50 pages. it went well but it consumed my entire week. it was a challenge.

otherwise school is good. testing does start next week which i am less than excited about. soon it will be time for 8th grade activities--picnic at the waterslides, dinner dance, and then promotion. craziness! i can't believe i've almost made it through the whole year.

class starts in 20 minutes so i should go use the restroom etc. i just felt compelled to share these.

9 glorious days

yes, it's spring break. jesse commented earlier this break that i seem to be enjoying each break more and more this year, and i think it's kind of true.

yesterday morning i woke up at about 4 am (i'm guessing) to hear rain coming down on our tent. we were at pan toll campground at mt. tamalpais. the day before we had hiked from the mountain to stinson beach and back. it was great! once it got light yesterday morning we packed up in the rain and got our butts home. luckily, it is less than an hour back home with no traffic. by 10:30 am we were eating french toast and watching season 4 of "the sopranos" in our living room. we are still cleaning up and putting away but we stayed fairly dry in general. it was a great camping trip although i wish it hadn't been cut short.

even though i still have tons of work to do including stuff for my credential class, TFA, etc, something has truly shifted and i am not getting stressed out the way i used to be. it feels like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders. i'm not exactly sure what changed other than i finally feel like i can plan more easily an dget more finished in a shorter amount of time. grading student work is still difficult for me, but beyond that i am getting it together. it feels very exciting. of course, it doesn't hurt anything that there are two more months of school left.

i did make a difficult decision this week, though. i think it is a final one. i decided to quit capoeira. i know that this might be shocking to some people but the reason is based on time and manageability. i love capoeira and the community is amazing. i loved the movement, music, history and people. capoeira was huge for me right after i graduated from college--i worked 40 hours a week, rarely any more than that, and i trained, made friends, rode my bicycle all around berkeley. things have changed very drastically from that fun and carefree time. i actually look forward to work and i feel challenged there; i am in a very nurturing and positive relationship; i have a house that i love being in, keeping clean, calling my home; and it's true, i do work a lot. each time recently that i've gone to capoeira it has been very fun but i am definitely not in great shape for martial arts so it's painful. it typically sucks about 3 hours of time between getting there, training, and going home. then i am exhausted and can't do anything else for the rest of the evening. so, it's been very hard to make myself go.

although teaching is calming down significantly, i know that it will always be a very busy activity. i know that wedding and family commitments will also arise in the next few years and it seems like it will only get more difficult to train, not any easier. i am sad to be making this decision but truly, i haven't been training consistently since june 2005 when i left my legal services job. i feel more like this is an acceptance of the inevitable rather than a huge dramatic decision. i've decided to commit to masters swimming and actually i will investigate a team in the area that is supposed to have more rigorous workouts at all levels.

in short--i used to get certain things from capoeira because i was not getting them elsewhere in my life. now instead of having a few truly challenging and rewarding hours each day, i have a whole challenging and rewarding work day every day. yes, it means that i have less time for other things--but i get to go do something that i love, that is creative, that is always changing, each day. i used to spend a lot of time with capoeira friends and acquaintances, as well as other friends. my truly nurturing relationships were limited. now, i am engaged and i have other close friendships. it's not like life was bad then and is good now--things have changed with the flow of my life and i know this is always how it will be. i am looking forward to getting back into swimming and i hope to do some open water swims this summer.

one era ends, another one begins. overall i feel positive about the decisions, although i also feel sad to be leaving such a rich culture. like i said, though, i feel in many ways like i left it a long time ago.

i am off to plan for a test prep unit which you will surely read more about here.