Take another look at the story you wrote about your classroom from yesterday. Rewrite that story from another person's perspective. Perhaps from the perspective of a student you wrote about, or an administrator watching, or perhaps a co-teacher. Have fun!
This teacher is doing too much. She wants us to write about something stupid and I am tired of writing. I write in every class and this should be the class where I can bring my extra work or just chill. Ok. I’m going to participate in this stupid activity just to get it over with. I’m in high school writing this stupid crap. Wait till I tell my mom what she made us do…. I do not want to do this, but she’s gonna start complaining, so I’m gonna just write my part and be done….My turn…..What am I going to say? Oh… This will be funny…..I wonder what everyone else wrote……now that we’re done, let see what we came up with. Wow…that wasn’t half bad. It was kinds funny. It almost flowed together. Well maybe it wasn’t that stupid. I’ll see what she asks us to do next….but this activity was ok. Just ok.
ReplyDeleteI rolled over and rubbed my eyes. Still tired. I definitely did not get enough sleep. I don’t want to go to school!
ReplyDelete“Oh, good morning Pancake!” I said rubbing my cat’s ears gently. She purrs. I smile. She makes my morning better instantly.
I run to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready. As I round the corner to return to my bedroom, I see my backpack on the floor. It wiggles a bit. I see a small pink nose and one pointy ear sticking out of the top zipper. How funny! Pancake crawled into my backpack!
“Hmm…” I think to myself. “She could make school MUCH better. I’d have a friend to sit with on the bus, a buddy for reading time, and the best entertainment at recess! Maybe… just maybe, I’ll leave her there.”
“The bus is almost here! Get your stuff!” my mom yells up the stairs.
“Coming!” I shout back, as I quickly zip my backpack up and fling it onto my back. I skip to the bus, grab the seat all the way in the back and carefully set my bag on my lap. I can feel Pancake wriggling around. I unzip just a little to check on her, and she nuzzles into my hand.
As I make my way into the building, I see my reading teacher. “Good morning!” she says with a smile. Most days, I grumble about being tired or give her a hug without saying anything. This morning, I smile back, give a quick hug, and scurry past her before she hears Pancake meowing quietly in my bag.
I make it to class, hang my bag up and unzip the top just a bit to give Pancake some fresh air. I sit down and try to focus on my bellwork but all I can think of is my secret. I brought my cat to school!
My reading teacher is here. I skip over to her and say, “Today is a special day!” She looks confused, so I decide to give her a few hints. She still looks confused. I am so excited that I can’t stand it, so I grab her by the hand, get my other teacher and walk them to the cubbies.
“Look!” I say excitedly as Pancake pokes her head out of my backpack.
I finished my breakfast and I am still very hungry… I asked for seconds but we don’t have anymore. I was out in the hall way and that’s when I saw those beautiful yellow bananas. I grabbed one and then I heard my teachers calling my name so I hid it in my backpack. Eventually I decided to go back into the classroom and see what everyone else was doing. Everyone was writing in their notebooks and I didn’t want to. All I could think about was my mommy talking about how we needed to go shopping because we had no food. That’s then I had the best idea in the entire word. I would be a superstar and shop for mommy. I snuck back into the cluster and I tiptoed and quietly as I could and I grabbed one banana and then two.. and three and all the bananas. I quickly stuffed them into my backpack. That’s when I saw the notebooks. My teachers are always telling me to practice my writing and reading at home but I don’t have anything to practice with… so I could just take one or two or five of those and practice and show my teachers how super smart I am.
ReplyDeleteIts time to go home and when I went to pack up I picked up my bag and thud. Man is this thing heavy. How can I get it to my seat…. That when I decide to hide my bag under my puffy jacket and drag it to my chair. “ Why is your bag so heavy, maybe its time to clean it out” I heard one of my teachers say behind me. I got so nervous I just turned around and smiled the biggest smile I could
It’s the last week of school….I can’t wait for summer break to start. It’s so hot in this room all day. I don’t sleep at night because it’s hot and there’s so much noise outside my window. Today, Mommy got up with me and helped me get ready for school. She gave me a new headband. It’s so pretty. It’s gold and has cat ears! I just love it! I can pretend to be a cat when I wear it! Mommy even said I can wear it to school. I know Aliyah and Jamyiah will love it. I think my teachers will like it too. I feel so happy today.
ReplyDeleteThe bus ride to school was good today. Nobody bothered me. I’m so happy!
That boy is on top of the cubbies again. He makes me nervous when he does that. I’m afraid he will fall. I’m going to sit in the box from breakfast. I fit perfectly in here! This is so much fun!! There’s Aliyah; I’m going to hop over and say good morning and ask if she likes my headband. I can use the straps to hop in the box like a kangaroo! I’m so happy today! Oh no! The teacher has spotted me! Here she comes! I know she’s going to make me get out, but she doesn’t look mad. Maybe if I smile a lot she will let me stay here all day. Nope, she made me get out. That’s ok because Aliyah said my headband is pretty. I’ll just get breakfast….I love yogurt day!
Now it’s time for lunch! It’s pizza day….my favorite! I still have my headband. No one has made me take it off today. Ethan keeps looking at me funny though. I wish he wouldn’t. I start to meow and act like a cat, so maybe he will leave me alone. Everyone is laughing at me, except Ethan. He still looks at me funny. I’m laughing too because this is so much fun! Amariell wants to wear my headband and be a cat too!
Mrs. Roberts and Ms. Madsen are smiling and laughing too. This is such a great day. I still feel happy!
I am heartbroken. I am confused. I am scared. I just want to talk to Ms.Timkey. I am not at school because my house caught fire last night and I won’t be able to see Ms. Timkey today. I don’t know what to do. I tried calling school but I cannot get through. I just want her to know. I want her to know I am okay. All of the thoughts that are running through my mind are hard to sort out in my eight year old mind. Does Ms. Timkey not care about me? Why hasn’t she called? Does she know what happened? All these questions circulate in my blurred mind. Grandma is asking if I called school today. I want to tell grandma the truth. I want to tell her I am scared. I want to be honest. I want to scream and cry and ask, “Why me”? But I need to be tough. I am a boy and boys do not cry. I need to be strong for my family. “No, I didn’t call”. I wish I told the truth but at least I know Ms. Timkey cares. I want to go to school tomorrow to tell her it was me. I called. Finally, I can breathe. I can tell Ms. Timkey what has happened. I know I have been a difficult student but I am thankful that I have had a teacher that has not given up on me. She cares and that feels good.
ReplyDeleteToday my teacher asked us to write about our "favorite place". She wrote about her front porch.How can your porch be your favorite place if you don't go anywhere? We kept asking her questions about her writing but she wouldn't tell us. She told us to keep writing and we would share later. I wrote about going to Sea Breeze. I am glad she is writing too, because I can't wait to here her story.
ReplyDeleteOur teacher is always telling us about how her glass and baboon (is that right?) water bottle is better for the environment than plastic water bottles. We recycle everything we can in our classroom and we aren’t allowed to leave the room until everything is cleaned up off of the floor and where it should be... Well, we had an interesting writing lesson today. We watched a really cool video on a this girl who was just as excited about taking care of the Earth as our teacher is… but it was different to watch since she was my age. She said a lot of shocking things to adults and it made me want to listen to her. Then, my teacher wrote an essay trying to convince us to help keep the school clean. I felt really good about all the things the girl in the video said and what my teacher said. I’ve always thought my teacher was a little weird with some of the natural stuff she’s said she’s tried… like her clay toothpaste, smelly vinegar water, and lemons she uses to sanitize the classroom instead of chemicals. But yea… I could really get behind this. Because I do really care about our school. This is my home during the day and it’s really important… Ok, so we had left for specials and came back to find a large blue gunky stain on the ground in the hallway... I think it was Gatorade. Nasty. Instead of ignoring it or just pointing it out for someone else to clean it up, I asked my teacher if I could come back with some friends to clean it up. Other kids heard me and also wanted to help. My teacher picked a few of us and said the rest could help some other time. She came with us while our other teacher stayed with kids to work on ELA. We tried to spray and scrub it, but it wouldn’t all come out. There was too much gunk stuck on the ground because people had walked through it. It did look better and I felt good about trying to help keep our school clean. That stain was still there on the last day of school. It was that sticky.
ReplyDeleteI ain’t no punk! I mean, everybody knows that they can’t mess with me. I’m bigger than they are, and I have been taking boxing lessons since first grade. Some of these kids think they are tough, but they can’t beat me. Most of the kids in my class were here last year too, so they already know.
ReplyDeleteThis year we have a different teacher. Mr. Phillips is alright. He used to give us prizes for having a good day. Today though, he is all about rules and he’s already making us work. I wish it were still vacation time.
He’s telling us how to do emergencies; like we don’t know how to do a fire drill! We’ve done these a thousand times. Now we have to do another lockdown.
“Lockdowns are drills we do in case someone is in the school trying to hurt us.”
Wait, someone could come in here to get us!? I thought the school was a safe place!
“…and we have to stay quiet and in the corner, so no one knows that we are here…”
This is getting a little bit…uh…
I mean I ain’t scared of anything, but we’re safe here, right?
“Okay, so now it’s time to practice. Everyone, Lockdown!”
We all get in the corner of the room behind the yellow tape that Mr. Phillips put on the floor, and everything gets quiet. JC is still giggling and playing with KR.
“This is very serious J,” Mr. Phillips whispers. “This could be the difference between life or death! We can’t let the bad guys know we’re here.”
My stomach starts hurting and I’m shaking. I wish those kids would just shut up!
Mr. Phillips keeps looking at me. Now everyone’s looking at me. I wipe my eyes. Mr. Phillips says that the lockdown is finally over.
Suddenly, everyone is around me telling me that it’s going to be okay.
I’m not so sure.
As I walk into school, things are weighing heavily on my mind. Why didn’t my stupid fucking mother get her ass to the store and feed these kids? How come I gotta be late and practically miss the bus when she had all those damn kids? She and I used to be tight before Mr. “Sexy” started paying attention to her. Whatever. I’m going to school and get settled and try and learn something that has nothing to do with this wacked group of idiots that call themselves my family.
ReplyDeleteAs I enter the building and see a few of my friends, they say, “Let’s go see Knauss, maybe she has some snacks.” I am thinking today would be a REALLY good day for that to be true. I’m starving, my head hurts from doing too much this past weekend and I need to chill. We head up the three flights of breath stealing stairs in a musty building that has to be as old as time itself! Really? Can they NOT help us out and put in some A/C? It’s about ninety damn degrees in this place. Sweat is already running down my back.
Alright, we made it. A few more slap ups and hellos and we find Mrs. K in her crazy chaotic unpacking of her bags. This lady makes me laugh, she is always hauling shit up the stairs for us. Food, games, clothes, whatever she can get her hands on before she flies out the door for her day with us. She is rarely early, we have to wait for her sometimes, but man is she cool. She don’t judge, she helps. She don’t yell, she speaks. AND! She usually has snacks. Now, truth be told, she eats some weird shit. I never had hummos, Cliff bars or raw almonds before meeting this lady. I now have a favorite Cliff bar flavor: peanut butter/banana. She seems to find some pretty decent apples too.
The smile and hug I needed, with the gentle reminder to stay outta trouble, apple and cliff bar in hand...off I go so I’m not late for my day!
I just found out that I will have a co-teacher. I am not sure if I should be happy, terrified, or tell her to run far away. The position I was hired for was a consultant teacher, but since I started, I have done very little of that. Now I am a full classroom teacher, soon to be part of an ICOT team. This is all very confusing and doesn’t make much sense to me at all. I wonder does this new teacher really know what she is getting herself into? Does she know about the behaviors, lack of support and pure dysfunction that she is stepping into?”. I laugh to myself because this year has truly been hell for me, so at least now I will have someone else who feels my pain. At least I hope she is down to earth and doesn’t think she can swoop in and save the day. That is not happening, at least not in this classroom. I assume that she has not seen this building or met the administration since she accepted the job. I assume that she also hasn’t seen the many students who are able to just wander the halls, disrupt classrooms but never have a consequence. I bet she also doesn’t know that this building never gets subs, because the behaviors are so bad and students fight teachers. Maybe I won’t tell her that just yet. I guess it’s also safe to assume that she doesn’t realize we also don’t always get our contractual planning time, and lunches are often cut short due to staffing. Well, I can’t wait to meet her, and after her first week ..the drinks are on me. Life as she knows it is over. Welcome to School #41.
ReplyDeleteWhen we performed a reader’s theatre about Jackie Robinson, there were some realistic scenes that included examples of the verbal abuse that Jackie endured during his playing days. After we performed these scenes the students commented that they felt afraid when they were reading and hearing some of the language that was directed toward Jackie from opposing teams and fans. Perspective taking is a very challenging social skill for autistic children. Our Speech-Language Pathologist was in the classroom when this occurred, and she immediately noticed how the students were deeply impacted by feeling what it was like to be in somebody else’s shoes. She continued to facilitate the feelings associated with this moment by talking in small groups about seeing things from somebody else’s point of view. They collaborated to develop a slide presentation about considering others’ perspectives, and the students presented this at school-wide assembly.
ReplyDeleteWow, I am surprised that Mrs.Granger complained that Karen’s classroom is too noisy while her students are doing independent reading. Karen has great classroom management skills and I cannot believe that I have to address this issue with her first thing in the morning. “ Oh well, here goes nothing” I am going to sit amongst the students closest to the door so that I am not disrupting too much. Shoot! I could have used this visit as an unannounced observation, but i forgot my laptop. Oh well, I will grab a sheet of paper and transfer the information later. Let’s see...where are we on the agenda. Oh, we are sharing out the do now quote. I did not realize it was the first 15 minutes of class, and I can't afford to sit here for 30 minutes. Oh I see what all the commotion is about. Wow, that student was way off base with his interpretation. Oh good job paraphrasing for the ENL student so that he too could get a great round of applause. I wonder how this do now is connected to the day’s lesson. I have to send her an email for our post meeting. I am not quite sure how to address the noise level, but will speak to Karen after class.
ReplyDelete3 days later...That was fun Karen and many students were actively engaged. I am wondering about the two students in the back who were sleeping, and the 3 girls near the window chatting---what can you do to engage them in the lesson? Tell me how this quote is connected to the day’s lesson? How do you think the lesson went?
“I think the lesson will go well. The do now share out was the bridge to the lesson, but you left before we got to the mini-lesson.”