Signed, Sealed, Delivered...

Today marks a monumental day for me. I mailed in my last assignment for school...ever! My Teacher Work Sample, as this historical document is known, ended up being about 65 pages long, so it was very good to have over with. To celebrate this occasion, a few of my roommates and I visited the National Postal Museum. It was really cool. Today was Black History Family Day, and so there were all these projects for the visitors to do. There was also a performance by these people called the Delta Players who read Langston Hughes poetry. Turns out, we were some of the only people who got the memo about this special day (only we didn't really get a memo- we just happened to go today). Because of this, there is a definite possibility our picture will be on the website. This lady asked us to fill out a paper that lets her use our picture and since no one else was there, she took a lot of pictures of us. Also, there was a raffle, so we have a good chance of winning some stuff.
In other news, I have some more funny school stories. I'm sorry if they are boring to you, but I think they are funny and I think there is a small population who agrees so I will continue to share them. First, I was walking around the class during math yesteray making sure everyone was doing okay. This boy Jiheib came up to me and innocently asked, "Ms. Buttars, what's a slut?" Wow! That one caught me off guard. I replied, "Who did you hear that word from?" He said, "I don't know, some kids just say, 'You're a slut,' and someone else says, 'Right back at you." I still didn't know what to say. I ended up just telling him it was a very offensive word and that he shouldn't say it.
I teach writing to both fourth grade classes. Right now, the students are just getting into writing realistic fiction stories. So far they have had to create a character, figure out what the character wants, and then create a problem that gets in the character's way. Last week we started by writing a scene from our story, and then we started writing the introduction. Darjanay raised her hand and I went to help her. She read her story which began like this (I'm making this up but it is pretty close to what it said, "Diamond was in the 9th grade, but only read at a 7th grade reading level. She was 14-years-old. Diamond and her mother walked outside the Rec center. The sun was really hot and all of the kids were playing in the pool..." So far so good in my opinion. I asked her what she needed help with. She said she needed help writing the conversation between Diamond and her mother. "Why," I asked, "what is their conversation about?" She replied, "Well, Diamond obviously needs to go to summer school to work on her reading but she just found out that she's pregnant and needs to tell her mother." Yikes! I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that one.
I absolutely love the funny little things the kids say. Aaliyah, in Ms. Appel's class, was being really snotty at the end of the day on Friday. She is a beautiful little girl with an ugly attitude. She had REACH all spelled out (which is the goal) and I erased her H with 20 minutes of school left. I told her that if she was good for the last 20 minutes, I would give it back. Her sincere response was, "Ms. Buttars! You know I can't be good for 20 minutes... I'm fussy!" I think that most of them are "fussy". I saw one of my student's little 1st grade sister by the office yesterday. I said, "Spring, are you in trouble again?" (she is ALWAYS in trouble). Her face got all sour and she growled, "NO! I just need to talk to Ms. Davis and tell her that Ms. Darlington (her teacher) should be fired!" She is only 6!
Everything is good out here. Student teaching out here is crazy, and will be a big relief to have done, but the thought of leaving these kids forever already makes me sad. They are disrespectful-needy-difficult-sassy-angry-unmotivated students, but I love them and they love me.