New School Year – Days 27-31

“We had a sub today,” I overheard the 3rd grader say to his grandfather on the way out of the school building. “Better than usual.” He saw me coming towards him. “She’s approaching us right now!”

I was surprised and pleased to hear him use that word. He’s a student who needs some extra help, but he’s obviously got a good vocabulary.

I’ve been in Redford, Plymouth and Livonia lately, twice in high school, 3 times in elementary schools.

Redford now has an alternative high school. This is a fantastic idea, and I wrote about one up in Swartz Creek when I was the editor of Swartz Creek Life magazine a while back. Setting up programs where they can do most or all of their studying online is a great way to keep kids in school and lower that 26% Michigan dropout rate that existed two years ago (I don’t know what it is now).

When I arrived, the principal told me “no bad language and no disrespect – send them next door to me if there’s any problems.” I actually felt more comfortable with these kids than I have in some of the other high school classrooms – maybe because I am SO much for this program? Maybe because I was just supervising them in a computer lab? Maybe because there were fewer of them than in a traditional classroom?  I did have to re-direct some of them to stay on task.

After several warnings I told one student to move to another part of the room because of his incessant talking. A while later I told another student to do the same. “What? I’m not doing anything.” (I could have said: Exactly.) I gave him the choice of moving to another row (closer to me) OR going to the principal. He chose the principal! A few minutes later the principal came to ask me what had happened. When I told him and mentioned the choice, incredulous, he whipped his head around and said to the student, “and you CHOSE to come to me instead?”

“I didn’t do nothin’,” the student responded. Riiiiiiight. I just sit there and make up stuff to pick on all of them for no reason.

I intended to make a list of some of the names I’ve seen lately – maybe I will. But what intrigued me at the alternative school was that I saw at least 10 versions of DeShaun. Teshawn. Dry’Shaun. No exaggeration. I’ve also seen Paris, Zeus, Ezra, Roman, Pinkie, and a few names I can’t remember how to spell. One boy only had one name. In another class I had Mohamed Saleh and Saleh Mohamed, along with a boy named Mohanad. I have gotten to know the districts well enough now that I can guess at the nationalities that I will encounter.

Best idea: A nifty folder or clipboard holder – with two of them next to each other they made a half circle with translucent colored clipboards protruding at every angle – nice.

In Plymouth last week, I had the nicest class of mixed 3rd/4th graders. Every time I said, “Class, class” and they responded “Yes, Yes” they were dead quiet. It was so nice I hated to ruin it by speaking! I would be this class’s teacher ANY day. I had all of them clip up on the behavior chart at the end of the day and I overheard several saying, “My mom is going to be SO proud of me.”  We had slightly inclement weather, so for afternoon recess we took a vote whether to go outside or not. Outside won. It was cold and sprinkling a little at first but then it cleared up. I let the nay-sayers stay near the doorway. There were several really helpful kids in the class took especially a boy named Keigan. 🙂 It is amazing how wonderful teaching is when you don’t have to spend so much time keeping order. 🙂  Of course, maybe I just got them on one of their best days, but, wow, it was great. We had a few extra minutes at the end so I revived the old “Pizza Hut Song” – which most of them were delighted with.