Miss Bennett in the Bay

Thanksgiving break gives me enough time and space to finally sit back and reflect on my life for the past 13 weeks. It’s amazing to me that I’ve only been in my classroom for 13 weeks. Surely it must have been more like 13 lifetimes. But no. The Day Planner does not lie. 13 weeks are all that have elapsed.

My students and I have come a very long way in that short amount of time. My mentors have told me that they are impressed with my progress. I’m more consistent in my classroom management, my students are more comfortable in my classroom, and some of them are actually learning something.

Some of them. Not all.

Some of them are being held back by language. Some of them are being held back by their own inability to focus in class. Some of them are being held back by the fact that their parents can’t help them at home. And some of them are being held back by the very system that is supposed to help them. (more…)

On Thursday we had the Sponsor a Teacher event in downtown San Francisco. Basically, all the really rich people who paid Teach for America a lot of money came to a really nice building and hung out with really good food and beverages. I wore my super nice clothes to school that day since I wouldn’t have time to change before we had to drive up to the city. I managed to get purple dry erase marker on my white blouse. I sort of freaked out and ran to the sink in my classroom and began scrubbing furiously at the spot. The kids were confused, asking, “Ms. Bennett, what’s wrong? Why are you doing that?” After I got the spot out, I explained that I had a really important event that night and I had to look my best. I can see the gears turning in S’s head. After a moment, he says,

“Oh, Ms. Bennett? You need to wear the styles?”

Me: “What?”

S: “You need to wear the styles.”

Me: “Yes, yes I do need to wear the styles.”

I’m still not quite sure what that meant. But whatever it was, I’m sure I was wearing it.

We only have 2 days of school this week and then it’s off for Thanksgiving. I’m really looking forward to going back home (to a place where there’s real fall weather!) and seeing my family and friends. I’m also really looking forward to making pine cone turkeys with my kids. I made a sample one tonight. It was awesome. Photo uploads to follow.

Since I teach Open Court Reading, every morning we do Daily Oral Language (also known as blending, or sounding out words). One of the words on our board this week is hoe (of the garden variety). I was drawing a picture of a hoe on the board in an attempt to explain what it is. We are also working on homophones this week, so the kids connected hoe to ho ho ho (of the Santa Claus variety). I then drew a picture of Santa Claus on the board to illustrate this connection. Then, V raises her hand and says, “Ms. Bennett, what’s a hobo?”

I can see how this connection would happen in her brain, so I then attempted to draw a picture of a hobo on the board (which more clearly illustrated my limited drawing abilities than a hobo). While I am attempting this, I hear some singing. I turn around, and V, to whom, you must remember, I am attempting to explain the definition of hobo, is singing “Old MacDonald.”

Me: “V, WHAT is that about??” (Trying to understand why she would be singing instead of listening).

V: “It’s about a hobo.” (Thinking I don’t understand what “Old MacDonald” is about).

Now, I really try to keep a straight face at all times in my classroom. It’s the only way I have some modicrum of control. This, however, was just too funny for me to handle. I started laughing so hard I started crying. And the kids, of course, all lost it. Fifteen minutes later, we finally returned to our blending.

On Friday, 2 of my kids were pulled to the office to finish working on a district Language Arts test. They were there until about 11 am. About 10 minutes after they came back, I got a phone call wanting to know if one of them was in my room. I said she was, and the nurse told me to send her to the office. I did so, and about 5 minutes after that, I got another phone call telling me to send her folder to the office because she was going home. I had thought she seemed perfectly healthy, but I figured the nurse would know better than I would. I continued with the morning, and a few minutes later the nurse walked in the door with a stack of papers. She called me to the back of the room and without a word showed me the papers. “Attention Parents: Head lice have been found in your child’s school,” I read, and let out a gasp of horror.

Head lice. In my classroom. Right before a long weekend. If I get lice, I thought, I’m going to be pissed. So far, though, so good.

This weekend has been the best, most relaxing weekend since school started. When I got home on Friday night, I put my TFA messenger bag in my closet and I haven’t looked at it since. I spent the entire weekend doing normal things, hanging out with Scott and relaxing. Tomorrow, Scott has to go to work, so I figured I’d just stay home and do my planning and whatnot while he’s working. Seriously, every weekend should be a three day weekend. My life would be a lot happier.

In non-teaching news, I had my body measurements with my personal trainer on Friday. Since I started working with her at the end of August, I have lost 5 pounds in body fat and gained almost as many pounds in muscle. I’m pretty proud of myself.