Week 24

It is week 24 of the school year.  There are 40 weeks total... quick, do the math!  Wow!  As this year is on the down hill, I can't believe it's going/ gone so fast.  I wonder if I'll think back to this year a lot... tell stories about "that one girl Jamesha" or "this one kid Montease."  As I think about some things that have happened, I can't help but laugh.

During halloween week, a stink bomb was let off in my classroom.  The smell of rotten eggs to the 1000th power slowly filled the air, and then all of the sudden, the entire room REEKED.  [side note - truth be told, it was a shot to my classroom management pride that I didn't see who did it.]  Because these stink bombs were being let off all around the building all week, our security team came up with a fool proof plan- stop every kid on the way out of the building and drop their bag on the floor (to "detonate" any left over bombs).  It worked.  Suspended.

I have tripped over the garbage can that is in my teaching space several times.  Now that I think about it, I should move it permanently.  Although, the kids get a kick out of it every time.

student (upon hearing a slow, soulful version of amazing grace on the harmonica in a random class activity) "ms. cook, this be raw. you gotta give me those notes so i can play them on my flute" (flute = recorder)  lol!!

student: "Ms. cook, where you was yesterday?"
me: "I went home sick."
student: "you didn't fainteded?"
me: "nope. and that's not a word."
student: "because i be hearing that you fainteded and i was finna say i hope you was okay."

me: "One thing you can do to improve your focus on the ACT is to read at home - 30 minutes a day.  uninterrupted."
student: "ok. ms. cook. let me aks (ask... often pronounced axe) you a question... my momma tells me to read and i tell her i be reading my text messages and she says that don't count.  so then i tell her i be reading the street signs while i'm driving, but she say that don't count either.  but i'm reading so i wanna know why it don't count."
me: "well, those are very short things to read.  i'm not telling you to read for 30 minutes to practice reading words - i know you can read.  but those ACT passages are very boring and you have to really learn how to concentrate and understand the main ideas.  text messages are so quick - the thoughts are so short."
student: "girl, i gotch you. i'm finna go home and read right now."
me: "great."

It is the first week of March.  I still have to ask students to sit in their assigned seats.

They LOVED singing "Seasons of Love" from Rent around Christmas time... every day, at least 2 kids in every class.... "Ooo Ms. Cook, that's my sooonnng."

If those stories aren't as funny reading them, sorry! but i'm laughing as i re-imagine these scenarios... maybe you had to be there ;)