How it all started...

For years now, my colleagues and I have shared stories of our greatest frustrations and achievements in the teacher's lunch room or during our planning, or even after school and on weekends.

Recently, while checking out at a local convenience store downtown, the cashier (a stranger to me) asked me if anything interesting had happened in my life that day. Immediately I thought to myself something along the lines of: Boy, is he going to regret asking me that in a minute. I'm a middle school teacher- of COURSE something interesting happened in my life today!

As I started to think back on my day though, I realized that I couldn't pick out a singular interesting event. After 4 years of teaching middle school, I think all of the events that make up a typical day at school have started to seem routine. So, that is the purpose of this blog. In a time when education seems to be getting pushed to the back burner, class sizes are increasing, salary raises are a thing of the past, and furlough days are all too common, I want a place to reflect on the events of each day and award them the value they deserve. Come join me as I provide a glimpse into the rollercoaster world of middle school- the ups, the downs, and everything in between.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Grow flow

In the last twenty four hours, I've witnessed two different, but similar situations at school involving hair.  Yes, that's right, hair. 


Situation #1: 
   My room is full of what my students sometimes describe as "beast" toys (for those of you who do not come in contact with twelve year olds each day, beast = awesome).  I have a demonstration table in the front of the room where many of the toys reside as well as a stack of Yaffa blocks (re-used from my college dorm days...hollerrr!) which contain stacks of mind games, science experiments, magic tricks, small catapults, etc.
  The most popular toy I have in my classroom was actually a Christmas present last year that my dad picked out and it's part of a line of toys that are, I'll admit, pretty beast. 
  We named this creature "Sparky" last year because when you wind it up and release the red handle, Sparky crawls along the desk like an insect (it will even crawl over textbooks or pencils) and shoots sparks out of the back as it crawls.  Needless to say, after half a year of being handled by middle school students Sparky had seen better days, and by the end of last school year, he had pretty much kicked it.  Don't worry, he's still sitting on my demonstration table at the front of the room and when students inquire about his health (which happens frequently), I inform them he's just living it up and enjoying retirement.
  The holiday season was good to Sparky though, and he now has the company of a Sparky Jr. (purchased by Cindy and Scotty P for Christmas once they had learned of the demise of the beloved Sparky...the newer model is red instead of green) as well as a new toy given to me by a very sweet student.  We've named the new gadget "Spaz" because it looks like it is "spazzing out" when wound up and released.


  The students have taken to putting Spaz on their heads because it feels like a massage.  Great.  Fine.  Lovely.  Knock yourself out.  Until yesterday, that is.  Yesterday, a boy was playing with Spaz before the bell at the end of the day, and got the toy stuck in his shaggy hair.  I mean, seriously?!?  This is why I don't teach pre-school!!!  I ended up having to cut his hair and this morning a student had to use a toothpick to get the hair out of all of the gears.  Luckily, Spaz is making a swift recovery and has not ended up in the retirement home with Sparky.

Situation #2:
  One of the best parts about teaching 6th grade (and now 7th grade) is that former students are able to easily come back to visit you throughout the rest of their time at the school.  While students get reprimanded for coming to visit old teachers, they still manage to sneak by our administrator, and I was lucky enough to receive a visit from a particularly loud, but lovable former student this morning.  This student is now in 8th grade and literally towers over me.  He normally comes to my room to get candy and catch up, and occasionally harasses my current students just a tad.  Today, he stayed for awhile and we were talking about "his thing" aka lacrosse.  Specifically, I noticed he was sporting a new hairstyle.  Little did I know that I was about to receive an education about current male hair trends.  While I refer to people with swooping hair in the front as J. Bieber wanna-bes, this student informed me that he was working on his, "lacrosse flow."  It is apparently all the rage among lax players and when I Googled the topic, I was greeted with many results, including a question about how to "grow flow" and Google Images of J. Bieber himself.  

Homework: Try "growing flow" or maybe just letting your hair "rage"...two of the hair trends taking over the world of lacrosse.  

Updates: "David" still has yet to turn in any writing samples to me even with my daily encouragement.  "Sarah" brought up our "hollerrrr vs. holla" conversation again today and pointed out to me that saying "holler" instead of "holla" has yet to catch on at our school.  I'm still holding out hope.

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