New Message

You have a Picture Mail from mmw b

Message: View Entire Message Send and receive Pictures and Videos through Picture MailSM. For more information go to www.sprint.com/picturemail.

Please be aware your friends can forward your picture, video, and album share invitations to others or post the unique Web link to your share invitation on any number of sources (e.g. blogs), through which others could also gain access to your online photos. If you have private or sensitive photos you are sharing, please share them only with those you trust.

© 2011 Sprint. All rights reserved.

Last Quarter Reflections

• Tornado warnings and actual tornadoes every day through April (but we're ok) 
• Flood warnings most of May (but we're ok)
• State testing and relocation to the gym for the whole day allowed for boredom and mild chaos. One fight errupted where a student punched out a special needs student. The senior starter on the basketball team intervened, but not on the student's half. The 6'3" center stood between the teacher and the instigating student, preventing the teacher from breaking up the fight. He stepped down eventually and was suspended for a day. But the coach let him hang out and play basketball in the gym instead of making him serve his suspension.
• My fellow geometry teacher and "sophomore class" sponsor was in charge of organizing and collecting money for the class trip. She kept the money under lock and key. While a female student was registering and while she had her cabinet unlocked, a male student approached her for some help on a geometry problem. Meanwhile, a third female student approached the desk for help. The first female student left. The male student asked to go to the bathroom and left. The thrid female student handed the teacher a dollar and said "So and so just walked out with all your money and this fell out of the envelope." One-thousand six-hundred dollars was stolen, $1,200 in cash. The administration watched the survelliance tape but couldn't pin point the perpetrator since the camera only covered the hallway and only at certain angles. The teacher filed a police report.
•  
• (Part 2) Cut to the end of the year: the school district deducted $1,200 without an official warning and no option for a payment plan from her last pay check. She has six kids. She is attempting to fight it.
•  
• I learned that RIF stands for "Reduction in Force," and that's because RIF letters went out to half the staff the Friday before spring break. Back story: the district is broke and was recently busted for misappropriation of special education funds. More letters were handed out than necessary. Some teachers have already been asked back. Within our math department, 2 of the teachers were RIF'ed, 1 is retiring, 3 are not returning, including me. That leaves 2 math teachers who are looking for work elsewhere. Would you like to have a class of 40+ students? Me neither.
•  
• I had a plush beanie-baby tiger doll that I received as a gift from another teacher. Within a day, it was lifted. I put up a little "LOST" sign that included a reward. Off the record, a student informed me the tiger was in another teacher's class room. I followed up with this teacher, very nice English teacher, and she described it to me perfectly. I said, "Yeah! That's it." She shook her head and said, "No... not anymore. The first day I saw it, it had all the whispies pulled off. The second day, it had been emptied of all its "beans." The third day, it was gone and I haven't seen it since." It's just a beanie baby, but someone gutted my beanie baby. And that was the end of that.
•  
• A couple of my pregnant students were really starting to show. Both of them are expecting boys in August. I saw this other student in the hall who I had for a little while the first semester. I had her transferred out of my class when I discovered she got off on making teachers cry. The day of our first test, she staged a mutiny, declaring, "You ain't never teach us this. We's all gonna fail. You can't control your class and ain't nobody learning anything up in here." When the whole class ganged in, I took her aside in the hallway, told her thanks for the advice, and then I passed the tests to everyone but her. "Ms. B., I didn't get no test," "I know. You don't feel like you've learned anything, so I don't think it's fair to test you. We'll arrange for tutoring after school and you can take it Monday." "Oh, it's ok, I was just playing, I'd like to take the test." I learned that day to make kids like her squirm for for a day. But I didn't know at the time and gave her the test anyway. Long story, short, she was a bitch the remainder of the time in my class, so I had her moved into another geometry class, and she was still a bitch to me in the hallway. Well fancy that I saw her on the last day of school and said hello out of habit. She smiled and humbly said, "Hi Mrs. B." It was the first time she had been anything close to civil. She was also 5-6 months along and showing considerably.
•  
• I told the class on the second to last day of school that I was expecting in December. I took a little poll of who thought it would be a boy vs. a girl. it was about tied, with a few extra votes under the "girl" column. I was going to work this into a percent math problem, out of X many students, what percent of the class thinks it's going to be a boy/girl, but I was greeted with, "Why we doing work? This is the only class we be doin' work in, Mrs. B. It's the end of the year, it's over." "But some of you don't have an A and still have to take the exam. And you don't want a daily grade of zero so close to the end to mess up your grade in this class..I didn't think so..." (I hate the test-exempt policy by the way; makes the last two weeks a joke instead of a strong finale. Kids still show up for the final exam who don't have to take it, and I give them stuff to color, while some students just walk the halls... not the best testing environment.) Doing any kind of math was considered "work." "You need to know how to do this" doesn't seem that important, so I'd have to resort to holding grades over people's heads, and that only works for the students who care about their grade. Some just want to pass, and even then don't put forth much effort.
•  
• I had some cute questions and comments when I shared the news of the baby bump in the form of a limmerick, "There once was a teacher named Mrs. B. And she happened to teach Geometry. But her students ended up teaching her about confidence, conviction, and character, and those are the things she'll teach her baby... Now, let's take a vote. Raise your hand if you think it'll be a boy..." That's when it registered, "Mrs. B, you pregnant?!" I had one student say, "Mrs. B's knocked up," and another student snapped, don't be talking about my teacher that way. Another student said, "You should name her after my middle name, Angel (pronounced "Ange-SHELLLL")... Angel Domonique Bergeron..." "Thank you, Erin" I told her, "I'll keep that one in mind." Another student was bummed when I announced I wouldn't be coming back next year. "Aww, Mrs. B.! But we want to see your belly get big." I make promises to visit with my big ol' belly. Another student said with total confidence, "it's going to be a girl." And then he asked me, "was he on top?" Other students asked:
•  
• -Was it a one-night stand? (No, I'm married)
•  
• -Does the baby daddy know? (Yes, he's my husband)
•  
• -How long were you trying? (I tried to make this a teachable moment to emphazise the fact that it didn't take long, so be smart, be selfish with your life, your goals, and don't be doing anything that would lead to a baby until you've had a chance to live your own life for a little while... this concept is totally lost on the half of my students who already have kids and whose momma's had them when they were teenagers...) Then the same student asked again, "But how long did it take?" All I could think of was the line from The Money Pit. "Two weeks. Next question."
•  
• I had a student who was terrible at math and condradicted almost all my instructions daily. He threw tests on the floor, didn't move or stop talking when asked, would sometimes just walk out. Sometimes, he would just look away and not respond to me at all. I've had issues with him since the second day of this past semester, even with pulling him out of another class to level with him one-on-one. Still nothing. Little successes along the way: he was extremely helpful without being asked when he wanted to be; he also agreed to stay after school a couple times when he really started falling behind so I've tutored him after school. On one afternoon when he was at risk of failing my class, he was all A-game. On another day, he said he was going to the bathroom, and then left and waited outside for his ride. When I saw him, I went outside, suggested we finish what we can until his ride arrives. Nope, not interested. While we talked outside, the sun was setting and the "no-see-ums" (flying, biting gnats) were beginning their twighlight feeding. We were both swatting them out of our faces as we talked. I said, "Don't stay out here. At least wait inside." Nope, not interested. He would rather swat pesky bugs out of his face. I had this revelation that the familiar is always easier than the unknown. Swatting bugs is at least familiar, while the Pythagorean Theorem takes some thinking.
•  
• (Part 2) I gave the students a quilting project to do while we were studying area. Many of them (high shool students mind you) were rusty on how to find the area of a square. I had to pull teeth with some of them to remember their perfect squares. That's when it's most painful to be a math teacher: when I take away the calculator and ask a high school senior what 7 x 7 is, and they look lost. "Well, 6 x 7 is 42, take it from there..." So part of the quilting project was the students designed one side on a piece of muslin. I provided them with a swatch of printed fabric to sew on the back; then, they stuffed it to make it a pillow. It was right before mother's day, so some of them made some nice messages like "I love you, Mom" and "Happy Mothersday (I didn't think to show them that Mother's Day is two words). My special student who preferred swatting gnats to solving the missing side of right triangles made this beautiful design. It was by far one of the best and most colorful. I told him as such, and asked if he was going to give it to his mom. "Naw, this is for my dog." Ok, that's great. I was just happy he completed an assignment on his own. It was then I realized for my special student, where math dropped him off, his artistic skills picked up. He went on to complete some lovely colored stained glass window patterns. Many of the students could do these when they finished their work early. His coloring was always a little more thoughtful and vibrant than anyone else's. He passed my class with his artistic contributions.
•  
• (Part 3) It was the last day of exams. My special student asked me, "Do you think you'll ever come back to teach here?" I said to him, "I'm not sure, but you'll be gone and graduated if I do..." And he said, "Yeah, but then I can still tell kids to ask for you because you're a good teacher."
•  
•  
•  
• Bleeding hearts of the world united in that moment. "Thanks, Don," I said. (This is the student who would be openly defiant and would look away whenever I asked him questions... until we started doing art.)
•  
• Overall, it was a good last term. 80% of the time, I loved my job. I adored 80% of the students and faculty, and felt most competent this past semester (or at least learned how to be satisfied with what I could accomlish with the limited resources I had). I stopped thinking it was my fault if they were acting up, and I stopped making it my crusade to help them recover all the learning gaps since Kindergarten.
•  
• But you need a smart, proactive administration, and they were, 80% of the time. And that's what we were lacking at the end of the year picnic. That sealed the deal for me for a polite but firm exit from Moss Point School District.
•  
• We had an end of the year picnic for all the 9th through 11th graders the last regular day of school before exams (not exactly exam-prep minded). No permission slips were gathered, no first aid tent was set up, and one garbage can was placed in the field for everyone to use throughout the picnic, scheduled from 10 am to 3:30. Two dollars was charged to each student for a ticket, but no one collected tickets (students were pissed). I was charged $5 to attend (to be a mandatory supervisor and to take part in the catered friedness, because nothing says finger-licking good like fried chicken and hot mac and cheese in the high heat of the day... should I throw up now or later).

Coming soon... more on the picnic and the teachers vs. students' softball game

More on this Puppy Business (see photo below): Meet Beauregard

It was early May, and I saw a young golden lab scampering about next to the Interstate 10 Exit 62 which I take to work. Two weeks ago, I saw another dog, a pug, running free next to the main road to the school, weaving in and out of the street. I can't stop and save these poor creatures because I need to be at work. When you can't make it better, make art. I wrote a little free verse reflection on it, under Prose on Southern Nooks & Crannies & Other Dark Places.

We've come full circle. On 5/25, during the faculty meeting, after the kids had all gone home for the summer, after the principal announced to the staff, "Mrs. B. won't becoming back next year because she is with child," (I stood up to the gratuitous applause and raised both hands in the victory symbol a la Nixon), someone said, "There's a dog running through the hallway." Maybe it was my desire to get out of the faculty meeting but I bolted out of the library, saw the very same pug I had seen just a few days earlier, and scooped him up. "Yeah, you're alive!" Very cute, very friendly, very infested with fleas and God knows what else. I let my dog loving heart get the better of my pregnancy-saftey head. But I wasn't about to send him back out to be peeled off the road. Another teacher was on the mission with me, and she called the local dog catcher while I held the pug and pinched off fleas. Turns out, this dog gets out all the time and the dog catcher knew exactly where he lived (he wasn't neutured of course). The dog catcher had his hands full with a racoon in one cage and a rabid dog in another, so he just told my teacher friend where the dog lived and she walked him home. We were all ready to have her adopt him, and I was ready to drive home living to the closest to school to get him the flea-blitzkrieg pill called capstar, and a leash. But once we discovered he had legitimate owners, he had to be returned. My teacher friend discovered upon walking him home, that the household had 2 pugs, and this wayword runaround stud was the proud pop of 3 pug pups which the family was giving away. My teacher friend traded the grown frisky pug for a docile little pumpkin of a pug. Mind you, we're supposed to be cleaning out our classrooms, but this is far more entertaining. The little puppy was also covered with fleas and had a ringworm. I'm not supposed to be handling any of that. I have a doctor's appt today so I'm crossing my fingers I didn't pass anything on. Even the cute pugs are country dawgs when left to their own machinations and fertilizations. She had him swaddled like a baby and gave him a bath in some Palmolive I had left in my room to remove most of the fleas. He had a sore on his neck where his mom had been biting off the fleas. My teacher friend had already picked out a name for him: Mr. Beauregard, Beau (Bo) for short. This was a name her husband had in mind for their "next dog" (he was not yet informed of the newest member of his family). Resistant to the adoption at first, he was soon pawed over once he found out the puppy's name was Beau, the one he picked out.

You can't save all the lost puppies. And by God, there are still 2 cute, flea infested pug pups, free to good home. But little Beauregard, he's been saved. He's going home to a nice flea dip and a cozy family who will make sure he doesn't go running off to play too close to the highway. You can't save them all. But you can save one.  Fleas are temporary. Puppy love is forever.

This Past Quarter Came in Like a Lion and Went out Like a Little Puppy

You have a Picture Mail from mmw b

Message: View Entire Message Send and receive Pictures and Videos through Picture MailSM. For more information go to www.sprint.com/picturemail.

Please be aware your friends can forward your picture, video, and album share invitations to others or post the unique Web link to your share invitation on any number of sources (e.g. blogs), through which others could also gain access to your online photos. If you have private or sensitive photos you are sharing, please share them only with those you trust.

© 2011 Sprint. All rights reserved.

Memorial Day Music

Here are a couple violin songs. This post is dedicated to my dad, and I hope it brings some patriotic joy to kick start all the rest of y'all's summer. My official VACATION started today at 6 a.m. when I woke up to (1) turn off the alarm, (2) wake up Brian, and (3) go back to bed. It was glorious.


Note: I don't know how good the sound quality is. I wish I could equalize and adjust the levels myself, but hey, it's enough that after ten years, I've got a laptop that can upload video without a firewire cable. Regarding the American Medley, I must have done 8 different takes, and then I started goofing up within the first 10 seconds, deleting and restarting, and then I deleted one take by accident (new laptop learning curve)... so this was the "good enough" version that saved me from drop kicking my violin, my laptop, or both. Enjoy and watch for the baby bump. :)

American Medley

Civil War Theme

Anole Sitting on a Satsuma

You have a Picture Mail from mmw b

Message: View Entire Message Send and receive Pictures and Videos through Picture MailSM. For more information go to www.sprint.com/picturemail.

Please be aware your friends can forward your picture, video, and album share invitations to others or post the unique Web link to your share invitation on any number of sources (e.g. blogs), through which others could also gain access to your online photos. If you have private or sensitive photos you are sharing, please share them only with those you trust.

© 2011 Sprint. All rights reserved.

Spring Break Swan Song

Is it wrong to most enjoy being paid for your job when you're not actually there?... Tomorrow, I WILL go to school after a glorious week and a day (and another day I took off on the front end). We spent the first weekend in San Antonio, TX for the AAE Annual Session, and it was lovely catching up with endodontic friends and my former and still fabulous AAE staffers and employer. I danced, I shoped at the supermercado, I guac-ed it up every day. Brian and I drove back together Sunday (I flew in Thursday to join him).

The rest of the break was overtly relaxing. I made it a point to burn no more than a quarter tank of gas whatever I ended up doing. We painted eggs, I caught up on my housework, reading, and gardening, and we had some major repairs done to the ceiling. Alas, I wish I had timed my housework to be after instead of the eve of the ceiling new prime, popcorn, and paint job. Instead, my housework served as bookends to the whole ordeal. From Tuesday to Saturday, it looked like we were housing E.T. in our makeshift medi-vac living room. But that's what spring break is all about: a break from the norm to catch up on cleaning, household, and personal maintenance. I got enough of "school" accomplished to feel decent about my plan for this week (and the next 4 weeks, count it down!), but I couldn't help feeling a sinking sensation as I made my lunch tonight. I had to pull out my discarded lunchbox which I had stuffed in the bowels of the pantry, out of site out of mind until tonight. Even sitting dormant for a week and a half, it still retained the ripe, rotten, something's gone BAD smell of my classroom which I also had blissifully shoved out of sniff/ out of mind. It came raging back, and I felt so grateful for the time away... but why must a person, or her 70 students, put up with a horrible dank odor M-F...? The smell was enough to depress me.

Let alone that 100 teachers were RIFed Friday, April 15 before we were all let out. Moral will be at an all-time low, and just in time for state testing to commence Wed. I don't know if I still have a job, since I played hookie on the 15th. As much as I know I shouldn't be saying this, it's the ultimate win-win if I'm one of the teachers let go: unemployment sponsored paid vacation beginning in August, and plus, freedom from dealing with the 30-50% class size increase. I'll tell you now: 25 is too much, even with half of them good kids. There are too many different learning styles and too many wannabe thugs that it's way too much to expect class sizes that large to be effective. Life is too short to wish away 9 months out of the year, and there just isn't enough money is the booze budget to self-medicate after a day of 90 kids, 90 minutes each. Block schedule, remember?

I'll keep y'all posted. Today is the Confederate Memorial Day (last Monday in April). I actually heard the Civil War called "The War between the States" twice today on the radio. What's wrong with celebrating the fallen Confederate soldiers with the rest of the Union's casualties on the regular Memorial Day? Still pushing that separate but equal agenda, I guess.

I mentioned we'll be going into state testing for the next two weeks. My classroom is used for testing so my students and I are relocated to the gym where we are "held" for the duration of the test. It could be a really neat experience for diverse learning media, but because most of the other teachers sit on the opposite side of the students and don't require ANYTHING to be done during the duration of the period, it's really uncool to be the only group of students with a teacher crazy enough to want to do something hands on, or even go outside and fly a kite (I only had 3 takers out of my class of 17 the last time we were in the gym... the rest wanted to stay inside and chill... did I mention it was 67', sunny, low humidity, and a perfect breeze... funny enough, I had 6 students from the other geometry class want to fly the kites, so why not, they came out with us). I'm going to introduce them to quilting this week. In the classroom, any classroom, not the gym. I'm getting to old to lug crap and leep bleachers, pretending the open gym circus of loose supervision is not the worst use of time and resources ever.

It's bed time. Here are some pictures. Oh sweet spring break, do not leave me now... twas not the lark you heard, but the nightengale...

At least I have some swell and swelling distractions, like the Bulls, the Blackhawks, and my awesome garden and fruit trees. I also made a friend with a big ol' frog tonight who was hanging in the garage. I relocated him to the back porch and fed him a huge beetle and a deerfly. I actually saw him eat the beetle. There was a soft crunching. But the little bugger reminded me of me, watching him eat something that was a third his own size like no one was watching.

Big Ol' Frog "Setting in the Gee-Raj"

You have a Picture Mail from mmw b

Message: View Entire Message Send and receive Pictures and Videos through Picture MailSM. For more information go to www.sprint.com/picturemail.

Please be aware your friends can forward your picture, video, and album share invitations to others or post the unique Web link to your share invitation on any number of sources (e.g. blogs), through which others could also gain access to your online photos. If you have private or sensitive photos you are sharing, please share them only with those you trust.

© 2011 Sprint. All rights reserved.

Felt like writing

You can sum up the difference in culture and ework ethic by the communities local weather response. Back in Chicago, a blizzard dropping a predicted 2' of snow along with sheets of ice wasn not a blanket day off, even if it ends up being covered in a blanket of snow. Here, a tornado watch and a few thunderstorms with dropping temeratures cancelled all after-school activities (understood that parents and kids don't HAVE to be out on the road, unless it's a basketball game, in which case was still on because the playoffs are on the line!

There was a fight yesterday between two of my students. Afterschool, there was a fight between a former student who weighs 100 lbs wet and a current student who weighs 220 lbs., with 25 lbs of it in his face. Busted the other guys' nose. C'mon people. At least pick a fight that doesn't make you look like a wuss. 

I received my W2 for income earned in 2010. Take home pay was 27K and some change. I think I made a wee bit more on my first job out of school ten years ago. And that first job was slightly abusive and crazy hours for the creative designers. But we didn't have to buy and bring our own supplies to work, or break up fist fights... it makes much more sense to be an alcoholic now.

But! I'm happy to report, I've had 5 nice days this past semester. Not in a row, and not today, but that's 5 more than I had all of 2010. By "nice," I mean, I felt professionally adequate and had most of my students on task and accomplished most of my lesson plan.

I've got my last week of Grad School left. Yeah. Back to homework. I'll clean the house later.

In other news, Danielle just got back from the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Rachel went to the same thing 2 years ago. I'll talk to them about that whole things when they're just a wee bit older, at least old enough to start forming their own opinions.

Sick... but GO BEARS

Some stories from the Gulf Coast educational homefront:
It only took two weeks back into the school year to get sick. Nothing like teaching between drippy snot and soar throat action. I've come close but haven't quite reached the breaking point where I say, "Oh, I don't care what you do, just don't stand in the halls. And here's some sudoku for anyone who gets bored." Wait, that's not true. That's what I said to my third block (period) of the day last week on Friday, when no one knew or was given any heads up on when an awards ceremony would end and when the "in-school" soc-hop would begin. I never experienced such a place in which all the extracurricular events (except for sports) took place DURING the school day.

I have several great students, and a ton of good students. I have a couple who will test the waters of Mrs. B's Inner "B," but I've given them all jobs in class. One of my students came up to me after a lesson, when I mentioned OCD in some context. Well, it turns out, he really is, and he explained how he blinks a lot. The next day, he told me that he likes even numbers, but he doesn't like odd numbers. "So, if I blink three times, I don't feel right, and that's why I have to blink four or six times." Well, I was thrilled he knew his even from his odd numbers. He's my only Asian student, and his last name I wowed the class by being the first teacher to pronounce it correctly: Nguyen (thanks AAE!). I started to feel bad for the sweet kid who truly is a minority in the Moss Point High School environment, but that was before he stayed after class to tell me to try to give better examples. "Or maybe just try teaching it better..." "...I appreciate your honesty, San, and I'll see what I can do..." Nothing like your OCD kid who blinks a lot to keep you humble and grounded. Brian said I should have replied, "San, I told you not to blink so much or you'll miss something."

My fellow teacher friend across the hall has experienced a similar problem to the one I'm having. A particular student has been coming late to class. So, he gets written up for it right? "No, Ms. B, I was running down the hall, and you closed the door on my face, and no one else was in their seat so why you ain't mark them tardy, aw Ms. B, you're playing favorites and I told you I wasn't LATE." "...Are you finished?...what's my policy about being on time-" "But Mrs. B., I explained it to you that I wasn't late-" and I'd have to wait for him to get through his monologue again, and I'd just repeat myself. He's cut off by the third round. It's like, there's the truth, and then there's the mindset that if it's said loud enough and with enough detail, and you're angry about having been accused, then what you're saying MUST be the truth. I've caught kids red handed stealing passes, being late to class, copying answers, saying disrespectful things under their breath or sometimes above their breath, and mark my words... the student has yelled back at me, spins an entire yarn, and gets themselves in twice as much trouble. Dude. There's reality. And then there's what you're saying. (I don't say "dude," but I do explain that it's my job to help them see the light between fact and fiction... this is math class, not English).

Go Bears!

2011 Year in Review

Lunar Eclipse, Dec. 2010

With Auburn Tigers just a few seconds from taking the 2010-2011 college football season championship, with my first full year of teaching the Moss Point High Tigers, and with one student too many asking me, "Mrs. B! You got a tatoo?! What's your tatoo mean?"

...it's certainly been...

THE YEAR OF THE TIGER.



A wonderful trip to Alaska for Kim and Dave's wedding in May,

A thankful cancellation of Brian's Air Force Humanitarian/Disaster Relief trip to Chile back in March,
A blessed arrival of good friends Nick and Karen, bringing true southern comforts,

And some of the most exciting adventures never left the state of Mississippi:

-I started teaching. And have been feasting on Humble pie a la mode, al fresco, all-you-can-eat ever since (today, for only the second time since I started in Jan. 2010, I had a good day).

-Rachel started her Freshman year at Mississippi State University in the Biology dept,  with destination: med-school on the mental GPS.

-Danielle received her driver's license, look out!

 -Mom and Natalie came down to the MS Gulf Coast to help me and Brian celebrate the week before Christmas.

 Le chat du Vieux Carre