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Teacher, I Brung My Homework!

Every single kid says "brung." It makes me crazy. And I sound like a broken record, "'Brung isn't a word. The word is 'brought.'" Nope, they're totally convinced that they brung their homework. This is across districts, because when I did my student teaching in Sacramento, they also brung their homework. I guess it's the English language that should make me crazy: If the past tense of "bring" is "brought," why isn't the past tense of "sing" "sought?" (I know someone who could answer that, actually...) And the interesting thing is that not a one of them says "bringed." They say "He hurted himself," "it costed money," "she runned," but none of them bringed their homework. They brung it.

And by the way, I HATE being called "teacher."

Jessica (thanks, Jessica!) suggested I talk to the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights to see if they know how I could get in touch with former students who are incarcerated I did, and the assistant to the exec utive director wrote back to me:

I am so moved by your passion and concern. I have previously worked with kids and know the void that opens up when life takes them on a path they neither wanted nor chose. It takes strong community members, moving forward just as you are to reverse this epidemic. Have faith! I have forwarded your request on to several members of our Books Not Bars campaign in hopes they will have the best idea on how to proceed. Thank you for reaching out to us.


I don't really consider myself a "strong community member" but I am concerned! Anyway, it would be wonderful to find out where they are.

This is a lovely picture that a student drew for me last year. I love it. Going kind of from the top right down, the words you probably can't read: "SuperApple" (on the superhero apple, obviously), "Happy Apple," a scared looking apple saying, "Don't hert me!" "SuperStar," "I (heart) apples," "Angree - some one bit my apple,"and "No apple for you!" All out of his own imagination!



I love this kid.
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Comments

Jessamyn Harris said…
they always said brung when I was little too.
not me though!
11:41 AM
Anonymous said…
I think I said "brang," actually.

On another note, I'm glad that Ella Baker was a good contact! I hope they're able to help.

As for changing the URL - do whatever makes you feel comfortable, but I think the district would be COMPLETELY insane to do anything other than give you an award. Seriously, you're a dedicated teacher making the whole situation transparent, both the bad and the good.

And it's not like you really complain about the administration. You have a few things here and there, but it's clear to me anyway that your focus is on your classroom; it's not even on other peoples' classrooms! You know there are actually politically minded teachers... you aren't one of them. You seem to only bring up district-level or school-level absurdities when they're impacting you.

That said, if you want the kids to be even more obscured, you could change the name of your journal. Frankly I'd prefer if you made your journal as impenetrable as possible so that I could publicize it :)
11:58 PM
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