March 2012
56 posts
hisnamewasbeanni asked: One thing that occurs to me (and I'm sure you've already tried it, but just in case) is to try to play up the "kids teach/coach the teacher" aspect as much as possible? The way it sounds, most of those kids wouldn't have had many life experiences in which they are in the role of the "expert"? It's really tough to walk the line between a "student"...
hisnamewasbeanni asked: Gosh, I feel for you! Reading about your current predicament, I have conflicting feelings of sympathy, admiration (for your persistence and sheer commitment), and jealousy (at getting to interact with kids in an area I'd love to but am unable to) battling within me! (Admiration is winning out, by the way. Pretty easily, too.)
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I want to thank everyone for the wonderful...
It’s really heartening to know I have such support in this community. It helps make the world a better place, what you all are doing. This week something fairly devastating happened to my family. I cannot go into it. But the worst of the news came this morning. I didn’t know if I could even move, let alone go to the program, where I was preparing to be emotionally beaten up...
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In all honesty, the kids are getting to me.
Even when I’m physically fit I’m not particularly graceful or well-coordinated.
The fact that I’m bad at just about everything they can do, or try to show me — sports, yoga, basic gymnastics like rolling and cartwheels, tree-climbing — is becoming a running joke. I’d like to think that they’re cheering me on because I keep trying it anyway, but...
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Today I...
Remembered there was a reason why I was always picked last in gym, recess, etc.
Tested the limits of my poor spacial awareness by accidentally leaping into a support column, nearly tipping over the porch railing, slamming my knee into said railing, and bashing my arm into a wall-mounted mailbox
Scraped, bruised, tripped, wheezed, limped, and lost at GaGa ball a lot
Brought in a pie for Pi Day
...
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We've Had Enough
positivelypersistentteach:
i-am-river:
Trigger Warning: Violence, Disrespect, Injustice, Public Education
Yesterday, a veteran teacher and wonderful person, with a thirty year unblemished record was attacked by one of her students. She defended herself, but still ended up on her back in the hallway, with the student on top of her and beating the living daylights out of the teacher. The...
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The day after incidents like yesterday’s I find the best way to counteract the bad attitudes and their effect on me is to go ahead and wear the most ridiculous outfit I feel the most comfortable in and not give a darn about the opinions of the kids. The latter, aside from the cursory making sure it maintains a certain level of professionalism, is something I should be doing anyway.
Last...
A student discovered while outside that they could shoot their drink out their nose. They did this repeatedly on the lawn to the shock, delight, and occasional horror of the other youth, as well as the other staff. The staff praised it as a great talent and just encouraged them to continue to do so on the lawn and not to bring it inside.
I don’t know how I feel about this at all.
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If this thunderstorm is happening in VT like it is right here I know at least one of my middle schoolers is freaking out right now.
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But the high point on the wings...
…is that they were made by four elementary schoolers, including a boy who meticulously selected only purple feathers and then proclaimed for the next half hour that he was flying (complete with occasional arms-out-in-front, and standing at the edge of the porch or sliding down the stairs on his butt for apparent effect).
That was pretty awesome.
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I can't tell if this will be the norm or not.
Me: *wearing a pair of little feather costume wings some of the kids would make later with feathers, pipe cleaners, and clothespins*
Middle schooler: What are those?
Me: Wings. We're making them later.
Middle schooler: Can I rip them apart?
Me: ...what? No. Why would you want to destroy something someone put effort into making?
Middle schooler: Because it's weird.
Me: So am I.
Middle schooler: *has no idea what to say*
Me: You know, you're going to miss out on some really cool stuff if you only want to rip up everything weird.
Middle schooler: ... *walks away*
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A note on language:
If you have a gay friend or know a gay person who’s okay with things like “That’s so gay” or “f*g,” that doesn’t mean that it gives everyone a blank check because on LGBTQ individual likes the word.
There are plenty of LGBTQ people out there — and people who may not be but have been assumed to be for one reason or another — who have been...
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Tank Full of Fighting Fish
When I was seven my first pet was a carnival fish. He was a Japanese fighting fish, and his name was Freddy. I quickly learned that Freddy was not allowed to be in a bowl with other fish, because of his aggressive tendencies — demonstrated for me cruelly by a friend who insisted on propping up a mirror at the side of his bowl and watching him try to attack his own reflection.
Most of the...
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Sorry if I've been relatively unavailable these...
Closing out the old job (that I still somehow ended up not entirely walking away from except now I don’t get paid for the bits of work…it must say ‘welcome’ across my forehead because I’m a doormat) and starting this new job (as much as I love it, the kids have been kicking my butt and I have ended up crying on the way home two out of three days this week) has left me...
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I was relaying an art-related mishap to my mother...
She was watching an interview with Susan Blakely, creator of Spanx, and told me that her father routinely asked them at the table what they failed at that day, and then gave them high-fives for it because it meant they tried something. I tracked down a piece of an interview where she mentions it, though I can’t find the one that my mother saw specifically (and it turned out it was week, not...
