Getting Ready for a Substitute

Some of the kids wrote notes to me about how they were going to behave when there was a sub the following day:

"I'm going to try to get along with the sub."

"I'm going to be good so when you get back you don't have to waste your brath on us being bad."

"I'm nurvse about the sub because I don't know is it going to be good."

"I don't want a sub because they mean and not take us to computer"

"I am sad because you are not going to be hear but I am happy because you are going to be back. But I am going to be good for the sub."

"I am mad because we would have subsututues that weak. I am a little happy because you are here today. So I am a little mad and I am a little happy to see you today."

"I am happy because I'm not going to be here next year. And I'm happy because I'm going to have more fun there." [A little off topic, but apparently what was on his mind!]

"Im going to controll myself by remembering what you said I was good before so I could do it again."

"I will fill sad when you not here and I will be on a good behayer [behavior] and I will call you to tell you how we doing."

"I am neavors because when we have "subs" chrildren are bad when "subs" are here. I'm neavors because I want the teacher to be able to come back and tell everyone how good we are. Also because when maybe one child or a secound child acts up it's concacitions [consequences] for everybody. I try to be good a lot when subs are here. I try to be helpful, thankful, good, nice, and I also try to listen to whoeva the subs is derections."

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Stuffed Animals

There are several much more serious stories I was going to share, but I'm not in the mood to be made sad tonight, so I'll tell you all about the stuffed animals. This is a post that needs images so someday when I have or borrow a working scanner, I will add the photos. A few years into teaching, I joined Freecyle. For those of you who don't know Freecycle, it's a group of people in any given community who are on an email list to get rid of their old stuff and get stuff from other people. It's a fabulous form of recycling. Somebody posted that they had a huge bag of stuffed animals in good condition to give away and I decided to grab it for my class. I thought that some of the kids would like the stuffed animals, but I certainly didn't think they'd all be into them. Kids grow up really fast in that neighborhood, and when you have six-year olds talking about how they walk to school alone because their parents say they're "grown," and how

A Loss

(I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why) Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me. He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me. We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.

A New Prison, Part Two

Second very long part of the prison visit report. After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk. First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other prison but I still

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