DAYS 81 and 82

DAY 81 I taught 6th grade in the morning. I overheard a boy telling his friends that Coke used to have drugs in it. I confirmed the fact that it originally contained cocaine (when it was legal, about 100 years ago) and refuted his conclusion that we might still be able to find some in there today. We talked a little more about some drug issues and as I turned to speak to some other kids, I heard him say, “She’s cool!” Well, if writing more than 600 web posts about drug and alcohol addiction made me cool, so be it!
Today was 6th grade in the morning, and it went well after they realized I intended to be firm with them. I made sure that they were all rewarded for being good, also. The afternoon was Kindergarten at another Livonia school, in a class I’ve been in before. (Mrs. B! It’s Mrs. B!) 🙂 A good day, overall, though I got a little annoyed with two boys (T and M) who were having some sort of long-lasting disagreement over the ownership of two tiny sequin-sized “treasures”. I suspect that T took M’s from him, because M was NOT letting go of the issue – I even had to put his coat on him and stuff his backpack because he had a one-track mind. I told him I’d leave a note for the teacher since I couldn’t resolve it. It seems silly to us, but to a little person, it truly is a crisis, so, while I wanted it “over with” I had to respect that it was important to them.

DAY 82  I don’t know why, but I was dizzy this morning so I was glad to be in the Resource Room, dealing with only a few students at a time. Also, this particular huge Westland school has a whole row of offices for Resource and Counseling, so I had my own office which could hold 4 kids. It had a locked door and a window to the hallway that had a curtain. After about two hours I had a break and I laid down on the floor for half an hour and the dizziness passed. Later on I discovered that the Teacher’s Lounge has a very nice sofa unit…. 😦  I pushed in and pulled out all morning. Push in is helping in a classroom, and Pull out is taking the kids to the office to work on some needed skills.

The last half hour was the best. The 6th grade class was watching CNN for Kids and my job was to circulate and encourage/push kids to take notes as they were supposed to. There were some lively discussions about some of the topics, one of which was iPhones versus flip phones. I mentioned that my cell phone bill is only $16/month. Later a girl raised her hand and asked me how my cell phone bill could be so low when hers is $103/month? I explained that it is a flip phone that just makes and receives calls and texting can be done but not extensively since it’s a pain. I said, “and no internet.” Gasps arose from the students. “I couldn’t live without my phone!” This is when my fun started (think Heathcliff Huxtable and Theo with Monopoly money.)

Me: “That’s because YOU are not paying for it!” I glanced at the teacher and she gave me the go-ahead to keep going.
“Let’s say that you have a job making $8 an hour. How many hours do you have to work each month to pay for her cell phone?”
Voice: “13”
Me: “Okay, and how many hours do you have to work each month to pay for my phone?”
Voices: “2”
Me: “Okay – do you REALLY want to work THIRTEEN hours just to have internet and games on your phone, or could you work just TWO hours a month and enjoy your games on your computer instead?
Many.Thoughtful.Looks.

🙂 Score 1 for Mrs. B! And the teacher was delighted.

PS (I didn’t even address the fact that taxes would take the first $2 of each hour or the fact that neither me nor my children, as well as millions of other people, never had cell phones at age 11.)

The afternoon was 6th grade in a different Livonia school, which went well. The students read from Time for Kids (Time magazine’s mini-mag) and filled out quiz forms afterwards. I checked them over. In the article about “Selma”, there was a question about what was the importance of the 1965 march. One boy put down “To end slavery.” I told him that was incorrect, and asked if he thought there was slavery in 1965 – to which he said yes. I informed him that it would have been closer to 1865 and there was no slavery in 1965 (not of the kind he was referring to). I told him to re-read the article and see what the march was about. He came back with an answer about Civil Rights and black people being able to vote, which is what the article said!  This is the second kid I’ve run into who thought that Martin Luther King, Jr. was marching to end slavery. Sigh. I suppose 1965 seems as far in the past as 1865 to someone who was born in 2003. Yep, Dr. King was no doubt on his iPhone to Abe Lincoln discussing the issues.

Later, after talking about how great it is to have a job you like, a student from another class whom I had only for one hour asked me if I love my job. I told him yes, and he asked, “Is it because of me?”  I was rather surprised! It reached his goal of bringing laughter from the class – I foresee that this kid (whom I think the girls would find good-looking) is going to be a real charmer.

BTW, are boys really wearing layered cuts that look exactly like girls’ hairdos, now?