Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Last day

It's amazing that by the last week of school, all the kids who ever hated you for giving them consequences for their actions or rolled their eyes at you or gave you attitude have started saying You are the best teacher! or I will miss you! I held it together until the last group of students to get on the bus were all crying, which made me cry. BUT IT'S SO SAD. You spend an entire year getting to know these kids, figuring out their ticks, seeing them (practically) every day, 8 hours a day, worrying about them constantly. They are like your children. And then one day, they are gone. And that's it.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

They'll call me freedom

So, like, this week has been insane, because it's the last week of school and it's bound to be. From last Friday, when we had our spring recital and all the 6th graders learned the song "Wavin' Flag" in two days and then I was signing their posters and I started crying, to other (less happy) stuff I'd rather not mention, this whole week is just a whirlwind of insanity and I don't know what the fuck is going on half the time. Also I just found out I'm teaching 3rd grade language arts in English (as opposed to math in Spanish) which is just like.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Sometimes it's just like what the hell

Ok, so this is a problem I put on Friday's quiz:
"You have several options for a cake. You can have tres leches, chocolate, or strawberry cake. You can have chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry for the frosting. Draw all the possible results."
This is the answer one girl gave me:
Chocolate: cookie, M&M, vanilla
Vanilla: algocha*, jam
Strawberry: pineapple, peach, apple
I'm sorry, but what? What? What is going on here? Bless this girl's heart, she does try, but I don't know what kind of math they teach in Venezuela that makes her come up with the answers she comes up with. (Sidenote: She came to the US from Venezuela in January. Also the quiz was in Spanish so it's not like she doesn't understand it.)

*algocha is what she wrote in Spanish, I looked it up and I still have no idea what it means

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Don't leave me tongue-tied

Somehow, it got to be May, and there are 15.5 days of school left. (Unless there is another snow day because it's been snowing in motherfucking MAY.) I can't wait to get the hell out of dodge but at the same time...

Where was all the time I had to teach all the things? Like math? And how to be a good person? And the scientific method? And Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz?