Friday, April 08, 2005

They like me!

I'm not talking about the kids. Though I know, can tell, that many of them do. Which is astounding in itself.

No, I'm talking about the administrators. And I should probably amend "they like me" to "they like what I do," which is actually a much higher compliment, to me.

Mr Principal loved my assessment book on his unwarned visit. My department supervisor (not Mr AP) came in to my room yesterday with some folks from another school starting the same program we're using. Have not heard any feedback, even informal. Next week I'll have to ask her. This afternoon, Mr Principal was checking out my bulletin board. He said that I'm "raising the bar," and "going to the next level, " because my "focused comments reflect the rubric." Fucking yeah, people!

Let's see. I know that the kids like me because three boys from Class A stayed after school to help me remove all posters and other print matter from the walls of my classroom. On the day of the test, all of it must be down or covered. I decided it would be faster to take all the shit down, and that way I can also rearrange the stuff I have.

This one girl from Class C was like, "Dang, Ms C, you're everywhere!" because I was looking around with my crazy blue eagle eyes for non-workers and stuff. She laughed and pretended to shiver.

Today I had the classes do some practice questions with a poem. I told them that poetry is the hardest kind of passage, because you have to use so many skills at once, and they really try to trick you with questions. I've been emphasizing that when I model the strategies: "Guys, the people who write the test WANT to trick you! They say, 'oh, those kids are dumb, so we're gonna trick 'em, and they'll fail--bwahaha!' DON'T LET THEM TRICK YOU--DON'T FALL FOR IT!" So when I demonstrated answers that are wrong or right, I heard kids go, "Oh man, I got tricked."

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