a more effective method

Lately some kids have started swearing in class, more because they get lots of attention from the other kids than because they really mean it. The last few times I've asked if they know what the word means, and they don't. So I try to explain what it means and how bad it makes everyone feel. Today, though, I had the strongest temptation to tell MaShia that the specific words she was saying meant that she wanted everyone to kick her - hard - in the shins. I think that may be more effective in eliminating the swearing problem.

"he did it!"

Today just before specials I had the students drawing a picture of something they would see in the city or county and labeling it. As I came over to their table, Amari and William (my new student) were in a heated debate about whether Amari had snatched a crayon from William or whether William had said Amari could use it. They were in a "she did it!" no, "he did it!", no, "she did it!" type of cycle. The pressure apparently became too great and William's grasp of pronouns suddenly broke down, so it became "he did it!" no, "he did it!" no, "he did it!" From the expression on his face, William was trying hard to disagree with Amari, but couldn't figure out what was going wrong. Since they were agreeing, I redirected them back to what they were working on, and that was the end of it, but I've never seen anyone try so hard to disagree and be so frustrated that he couldn't do it.

is it raining?

This morning, as I was driving to the temple, I was stopped while merging off the Beltway onto Georgia Ave. It had rained yesterday and all night, but it had dried out this morning and was beautiful. The car behind me had his wipers on full blast. They were going so fast that I thought it was raining, and I looked out my window just to make sure I wasn't missing something. But no, the sky was clear and the roads were dry. Then I thought perhaps he was using his window cleaner. But he had his wipers going the entire time we were stopped, which was way too long to just clean the windshield. The driver looked pretty anxious, too. Maybe that was because his wipers were surely squeaking as they went furiously back and forth. It was such an unexpected sight that it gave me something to laugh about as I circled and circled the temple parking lot looking for a spot.

working it out

Today Aiyanna approached me while I was working with Deondre and Jaquan and informed me that Jima'Ya wasn't sharing the books in the library center. Not wanting to interrupt instruction, I told Aiyanna that it sounded like something that they needed to work out together, and turned back to Jaquan and Deondre. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aiyanna go back to the library and lean threateningly over Jima'Ya, who was sullenly slunk down on a bean bag awaiting the verdict. Aiyanna put one hand on her hip and sternly shook her finger at Jima'Ya and announced, "Ms. Marshall says you need to work it out!" It sounded more like an aerobics instructor than coherent directions, but it apparently resolved the issue, since there were no more complaints. Maybe Jima'Ya was intimidated by Aiyanna's body language, or perhaps the accusatory tone and the term "work it out" was enough to quell Jima'Ya into submission. I made a mental note that Aiyanna clearly didn't understand her part in the process of "working something out" for something to discuss some other day.

The photo is of Aiyanna. If I'm not giving her my complete attention, she'll say, "Come on, Ms. Marshall!" or "I'm ready." She's a saucy little girl, but she's almost always very happy, too.

perverse motorists

When the weather is good (ie. traffic is flowing pretty well), I'll use the Beltway around D.C. to get home from work. Although it's a little longer than other routes, I like it because there are fewer stoplights, and I turn right at all the intersections. There is one particular intersection that has been posing an interesting dilemma, however. I turn right, so when the light is red, I stop and then pull forward a little bit so I can see around the cars in the other lanes. For the last several days, I've noticed that when I pull forward, the cars in the other lanes inch forward, too, so they're blocking my view again. If I move forward again, they do, too. The light is still red for them, so they have no reason to move forward - and they only do it after I've moved. Maybe they don't think it's fair that I get to move and they don't, so they're taking their anger out on me by keeping me from seeing past them. I can just imagine their thoughts: "Oh, you want to see past me? Well, take that! And that!" Or maybe they think it's funny: "heh heh...now what's she going to do?" Meanwhile, the cars behind me, who can clearly see that no one is coming, are wondering what my problem is. I wonder how far forward the cars in the other lanes would go if I kept inching forward. There's a thought for tomorrow.

not quite rebellious

Jabari typically has a two-inch fro. Yesterday he came to school with his hair in braids, which is common among my students, but something that he hasn't done before. I'm not sure whether it is because of the texture of his hair or because it's not long enough, but his hair wasn't braided very tightly. There were little tufts sticking up here and there, and everyone kind of giggled when he walked into the room. By halfway through the day, one of the braids had come undone. His hair stands straight up, so he was strutting a perfect tomahawk. He's kind of the class rebel, anyway, so it fit with his personality, but there was one problem: the tomahawk wasn't down the middle of his head, it was about two inches off the center. So instead of looking rebellious, he looked lopsided and a little top-heavy, as though he was about to careen off his path and crash into something just off to his left. He spent the rest of the day that way, and the students kindly didn't mention his altered appearance. I don't know what happened when he got home, but today his hair was braided again, still with the little tufts here and there. Today all the braids stayed in, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow. If the braids come out, I will make sure I get pictures.

vehicular convulsions

On my way to church this morning, I stopped at an intersection and waited for the light to change. It was a long light, and I noticed an ambulance also waiting at the stoplight (without its lights on). Suddenly the driver of the ambulance started "rocking" the vehicle by easing off the brake and then stomping on it again and again, so that the whole ambulance began jerking back and forth. It looked like the vehicle had suddenly gone into convulsions. It continued convulsing for several minutes until the light turned green and we both went through the intersection. It looked like those kinds of things that you see teenagers do with their buddies....and something that I never thought I'd see an ambulance doing. Who knows...maybe they were in desperate need of ambulance drivers this morning and had to fall back on their teenage volunteers.

good impressions

I submitted a final paper on Thursday for a grad class that I was hoping to test out of. It was a pretty good paper, too. And I had a moment of horror this morning when I realized that the final paper I had emailed to my professor still had notes to myself in it. Specifically, I had typed "Add more here" in one paragraph and "Jabari had an MLU of 5" (which was a grossly inaccurate statement only meant to remind me to figure out what the MLU was) in bold, oversized font. Yes, it was a great impression on the person I was trying hardest to impress. It reminds me of the time when I did a similar thing on a stats paper - except I had "This does not make sense" typed in bold in the final copy emailed to my professor. I even had it highlighted in yellow to make sure it wouldn't be missed. I clearly have difficulty doing a final proofread on papers I submit online.