Getting to know my students

We're still just getting to know our students.  The beginning of the year is a time to set the tone for the rest of the year.  We've been going over lots of classroom procedures, expected organizational techniques, and community (classroom) norms.  At the beginning of the year I also like writing personal narratives so we can each get to know each other better.  Poems are also a fun way to get to know the students better.  At the beginning of the year, there are several parents who proactively come to us to talk about their children's learning styles, preferences, and difficulties.  It's nice to get to know our students' families this way.

Students' families here often employ drivers to take the kids to and from school and nannies.  Sometimes the drivers and nannies seem to be the primary contact points when parents are out of country for long periods of time.  It's not uncommon to hear students speaking fondly of "my driver" or "my nanny."  I just had a meeting this afternoon with a parent and their child's live-in governess (stress on the last syllable, please!).  Yeah, you might want to click that hyperlink to read what that is because it's not that common nowadays.  I wonder if this year I'm going to start hearing stories about what "my governess" did.


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image sourced from the internet

Planking and owling

Another school year has begun.  We haven’t had a full week yet.  We started on Thursday last week with two full days.  This week we had Tuesday off for Constitution Day which was also Eid al-Fitr.  Unfortunately, there aren’t many holidays this year, and only one three-day weekend.  Boo.

As you know, Brooke has moved up to teaching 9-year-olds (4^th grade).  I’ve stayed where I was and have a new group of 12-year-olds (7^th graders).  It’s an age group that I really enjoy working with.  I have a really bright bunch of kids.  We’ve spent the first week going over classroom procedures and creating a positive, supportive learning environment.  I really hope it will be so – really important at any age, but especially in the transition from elementary to secondary.  Most of the middle school teachers were here last year so we started working on this year’s middle school program back in March or April last year.  It has been great.  Again, we’re working to give students more support in this critical period of change from elementary through middle school so that they’ll be successful secondary students.

My 12-year-olds have already started saying the darndest things.  Here’s a sampling from today alone:

 “Mr. Michael, do you like planking?”

“No, huh?”

“How ‘bout owling?”

“What?!”

This kid was referring to the latest fad.  He then went on to demonstrate planking: lying on the floor, face down, expressionless, arms at his side.  Picture a soldier standing at attention who just fainted.  I looked it up and The Washington Post had an interesting article on it.  Have a look.

Another student asked me, “Can I erase the board?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you! It’s my favoritist thing, that and watching Star Trek.”

Okay, time to go owling.



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images sourced from the internet

Last week of school and a trip to the petroglyphs

As a final road trip of the year, a group of us drove out of the city to see the petroglphs (a UNESCO Heritage site). It’s not that far from Almaty, but it takes several hours to get to (driving slower on unpaved/damaged roads).  It was well worth the trip, though!  We walked for several kilometers with our guide, and there was hardly a rock not covered with an image of an elk/mountain goat, horse, hunter or dance party.  Some of them were quite elaborate or quite large – covering rocks more than five feet high. We stopped and had lunch in a little gazebo, gazing at images of the sun and sky, eagles and turtles.  It was a great day out.

The last weeks of school were very eventful, and it included my birthday!  We had a small popcorn party in my classroom, and kids brought me flowers, cards and little presents.  My favorite gifts were the drawings they made, depicting me and them in various places (hiking, traveling, playing outside).  Michael cooked up carnitas and we had a fiesta at our friends’ house (our usual location for a Friday afternoon).  Another of my friends went to the trouble to even make horchata to go with the carnitas, and I was feeling very loved by my group of friends here.  

Another party was for the people who are leaving the school this year.  Many of them are very good friends of ours, so it was a somewhat sad event – but I’m very excited for them all to have their new adventures.  Most of them are moving on to other schools in the QSI network, so I’m sure I’ll have a chance to work with them again.  Other people went on to other adventures, traveling to other continents to return to their previous jobs (on hold while they were here) or finding new ones (like our friends now in Morocco).

The last week of school was a lot of fun, and it was on a field trip that I realized how much I am going to miss my second-graders.  We went to a park across the street, rented row boats and paddled on the lake.  Three of the boys ran up and hugged on to me, saying they wanted to ride the boat with me.  So cute!  It was fun to teach them how to row and everyone got a turn.  We took sidewalk chalk and signed our names all over the park’s walking trail, and looking down at each of their names made me smile.  I’ve really enjoyed being their teacher.


And then, before I knew it, we were at the end of our last day of school and kids were rushing out with their certificates and their backpacks, saying goodbye for the last time this year.  Most of them will be back next year, so I’ll see them in the hallway and will get to high-five them when they pass me.  I hope they will look back on this year and smile.  I know I will.

End of the school year

We made it!  The school year officially ended for students yesterday after an awards ceremony and some time for yearbook signing.  For teachers, the year ended today at 10:30 when the director opened his door to begin signing our check-out sheets.  Our rooms are cleaned, student files turned in to the directors, and furniture moved to the center of the room for whatever happens while we're away during the summer.

On Friday, once again, I was struck by how well-rehearsed our students are at saying goodbye.  I commented on this back in my post in December.  We've signed up for a transient lifestyle.  Students and teachers come and go.  For us, it's a sad time of year saying goodbye to all the other teachers who have become our family away from home.

Tonight we're part of the "party plane", the Lufthansa flight from Almaty to Frankfurt that many of the teachers head out on.  We're going with our friends Brock and Cathy to Europe, first visiting one of Brock's friends in Düsseldorf.  Afterwards, we're on to De Klinge, Belgium to show them why this little country is so great!  We're also using this opportunity to lighten our load.  We'll be checking in tonight with some things that we haven't used here and some things we just don't want to have to move with when we finally leave Kazakhstan, probably next year.  We've also decided to take our bicycles to Belgium to live with our family there.  Kazakhstan, at least Almaty, seems a little stressful for me for bicycling, nothing like the cycling around De Klinge.

Here's to the start of a great summer!

GPS class and "water day"

We're down to the last few days of school.  Books had to be turned in over a week ago.  Kids have all turned in textbooks.  The classrooms need to be totally packed up so classrooms can be reassigned next year.  

Finding a clue hidden in a tree

Finding a clue hidden under a swing

Units had to be completed over a week ago so that "outcome cards," an ancient system we use here to keep report students' grades, can be turned in and centrally entered into the system.  So what to teach?  At Life Academy and Oakland International, our schools in Oakland we used to teach at, we did postsession for the final three weeks.  What a grand idea -- and kids get credits for the classes that they take all day with us!  I don't think this system is ready for that, but we did have a mini-version of it this week.

For two days I taught a geography class using GPS technology.  Students had to find geocaches that my co-teacher Dave and I had set up around campus and the neighboring community.  So, for example, students had to answer the question like "Amorgós, an island in the Aegean Sea, is part of which group of islands?" or "Which country does not border the Red Sea: Jordan, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, or Eritrea?" and then go to the teacher listed on the clue to see if they had the right answer.  If they did, they got a clue, Amazing Race style.  The clue then might send them to 43.20935°N, 76.81440°E or 43.20966°N, 76.81827°E where, if they look "up, down, in, under, through, beneath, an any other preposition you can think of" they would receive another geography question to answer.  It was lots of fun for all and Dave was kind enough to bring cold drinks and ice cream for students to enjoy when they finished running around under the sun.  It was good for all.
On Thursday, we had field day, which should probably be called "water day".  I volunteered to do the water bottle fight station and was absolutely soaked for hours by the multiple groups of students who passed through this area.  Many of them were my students who, I think, were feeling like they were getting revenge for a year's worth of essay-intensive curricula.  Others I didn't know at all, yet they still attacked with ferocity.  I have to so I had a bit of my own revenge.

I love edible presents!

Today one of my students came to class early -- with a present!  I was excited.  It was an edible present.  She said that there was a Russian candy bar that she liked and wanted to share one with me.  Cool.  No obvious tampering the the wrapper and it was intact.  I thought it was like a granola bar because the label said "с миндальным орехом" (with almonds) and it had the texture of a granola bar. She said that it was more like fudge.

As she was about to leave she told me that it was prescribed to her by a pharmacist who thought she had anemia.  "Why?" I questioned.

"It's made with cow's blood."

Right.  I'm pretty open-minded about food.  (I'll try anything multiple times in hopes my taste buds have changed and I like it again.)  I didn't feel disgusted at the thought at all.  I was more surprised that this sanguine snack food was wrapped up like a candy bar was readily available and some of my other students liked it and ate it fairly regularly -- and didn't even know it was made with cow's blood!

I haven't tried mine yet, but I will and will let you know what I think.  In case you're interested in importing it to your local convenience store, it's called Гематоген (Gematogen or Hemotogen) -- which the Wikipedia article on this snack bar informs me is Greek for "blood-maker."

Saint Patrick's Day, and Mr. Wolf's birthday!

Today was, as stated, Saint Patrick's Day, and Mr. Wolf's birthday!

Mr. Wolf is my class mascot.  He's a felt hand-puppet from some fairy tale set of characters, though I can't tell you how old he is or where he's from.  Michael rescued him from an abandoned box of supplies, and for four years, he brightened Michael's office.  Now that I teach elementary, Michael thought it best that Mr. Wolf came to my classroom to help me.  He's great!  He sits on my whiteboard, greeting students, reminding them of special projects, telling them how many days until Spring Break... the kids ask questions about him and gleefully play along.  We write stories about him.  I often show them sample work by Mr. Wolf -- posters about habitats or narratives about his travels.  He really is a part of our class. 


So, I decided that he should have a birthday party, just like everyone else! To my surprise, several students brought presents for Mr. Wolf.  One girl (she's so adorable) made tiny paintings of the tundra/forest and Mr. Wolf in different places "for Mr. Wolf's desk, so that he can remember his habitat and places he's been".  She then made him a leprechaun hat, a birthday hat (and matching red bow-tie), and a third outfit "for the last day of school!" (a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and a suitcase).

 Other kids made cards or brought special treats for Mr. Wolf "to eat when he's hungry".  They asked how old he was and what he wanted for his birthday.  We made rainbow murals with pots of gold hanging off of them.  I brought in cookies and frosting (I made the night before), then dyed the frosting all the colors of the rainbow -- right in front of them, like magic!  Then we decorated them.  The kids sat there, eating the cookies and smiling.
"This is the best birthday party ever!" "Well, at school anyway..."  "Yeah, at school!" 


Yeah!  Best birthday party at school.  Yay me.  Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolf!  Maybe we'll celebrate on February 29th next year, just for fun. :)

"NAURYZ, NAURYZ!", and other classic songs about the Kazakh spring festival

We just had a school-wide celebration for our Kazakh spring festival, Nauryz ("nar-eeze").  The Kazakh kids (with Kazakh passports, who are learning Kazakh language and history as part of the mandated requirements for a Kazakh diploma) dressed up in all kinds of beautiful and intricately-patterned national dress, performed songs, dances and plays about the spring festival and traditional life on the steppe.  The ending finale had all the students singing together... it was some singing that only a mother, or teacher, could love -- but boy, did they sing with passion!  The only part I could hear was the chorus, which was, as you may have guessed "NAU-RYZ, NAU-RYYYYYYZ!"  I loved it!  I wish this kind of stuff could happen more often, so that I could feel the old culture of this big city and not just the exhaust and detachment of productivity and modernization.

Elephant and Piggie! Hooray!

 This month is literacy month at AIS.  We have read-a-thons (in PJ's and everything!), we have parades where we dress up as main characters in our favorite books. And we dress up our doors as book covers for a book we love.  But what book to choose?  Do you know how many WONDERFUL books there are out there?  I had a feeling, but I didn't really realize it until I started teaching elementary. I think I've read more than 100 books with my students so far, and not one of them has been bad. So, what book to choose? We listed a few of our favorites -- Amelia Bedelia, Elephant and Piggie, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Cowboy and Octopus, Henry and Mudge... the list went on.  We narrowed it down to three.  Then the kids had to each decide on what they wanted, and then draw a mock-up of what they thought the door should look like.


Elephant and Piggie got the most votes, and their designs were pretty creative!  They each made their own Elephant or Piggie and we stuck them on the door.  My co-operating teacher drew big versions of the two characters, and then we stuck it all on the door.  It looks great!  And the school looks great, too -- so many awesome books coming to life.  My next-door-neighbor-classroom did the Magic School Bus.  Sara, the teacher, took pictures of each of the kids and then they put their heads into the windows of a school bus, flying into a giant eyeball.  Michael's class did The Outsiders, with brooding silhouettes and bloody switchblades (granted -- much less cheery, but it shows a real understanding of the theme!).  Isn't reading fun?

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Photos by Brooke,
book cover image sourced from the internet

Earthquake drill and pizza -- a great day!

Almaty sits at the foothills of the mighty Tien Shan Mountains (in Chinese 天山, "Heavenly Mountains"), the northernmost reach of the Himalayas.  In thirty minutes, we can be high above the city and its smog.  The mountains are big, and growing.  Pik Talgar, the 96th tallest mountain in the world, is just 40 kilometers from here and stands at 4,979 m (16,335 ft).  Needless to say, we are in an earthquake zone.  Moving to seismic zones seems to be a common trend for Brooke and me.  The last two places we've lived, Tokyo and the San Francisco Bay area are also notorious earthquake zones.  So, to feel a bit more prepared, on Thursday last week our school had a earthquake drill. We were told to get under our tables, hold a leg of the table, and be quiet to listen for instructions.  I took this opportunity while we were under the tables to remind students why it was a bad idea to stick gum under furniture.  "Oooo!" they responded.  (Fortunately, the undersides of the tables were all clean.)  The administrators walked around the building checking classrooms and then we were given the all-clear.  Back to SSR.

In my last blog post back before Christmas, I mentioned how my homeroom won our school competition to make a torch for the upcoming (this week's) Asian Winter Games.  At lunchtime on the same day as our earthquake drill, my 12-year-old homeroom class was rewarded with a pizza lunch in the dining room of the nearby (5-minute walk) Hotel Chagala.  The kids were very polite and had a great time (and filled up on pizza).  I love this group of kids and am glad to have chosen to continue next year teaching the 12-year-old classes.

Last day before Winter Break

I'm sitting in my classroom listening to Save Me San Francisco by Train. It's the last minutes of school before the Winter Break. There's an excitement and sadness in the noise in the hallways. It's mostly good stuff.  Kids are excited that they're going on vacation (either staying here in Almaty and don't have to go to school or they're going to cool places like the Swiss Alps to ski or just hang out with their wherever they're from).  Other kids are saying good-byes to their classmates whose families are moving on to another city and another international school. We had one student who is leaving the 12s after several years here. The kids were sad to see their classmate leaving and they expressed it so maturely -- I was impressed. They appreciated their classmate's qualities that they'll miss and expressed their emotions about their friend leaving.  So often I've seen kids leave and it's a flat good-bye, like they're just going home at the end of the day. It's hard to explain, but if you've experienced it, you probably know what I mean.  Maybe it was perceived in my other schools that saying good-bye and genuinely expressing your love of your classmates would show a weakness? Maybe there just wasn't such a sense of teamwork and community? Maybe they just didn't know how to do it or my international school students are such pros are saying good-bye to their friends.  It's probably some combination thereof.  Anyway, what I saw today was wholly appropriate for a good friend and classmate who was leaving our school.

We had a great morning together.  We had a team-building activity in our homerooms to build a torch for the Asian Winter Games which will be held here in Almaty in February.  It was so cool to see the kids working together to make a design and to decorate the classroom.  We had an assembly and each of the classes got to take a lap of the gym to show off their creations.  Of all the secondary homerooms, ours won!  The kids were so proud of themselves and I was proud of them for their teamwork.

We're off in a few days to spend our Winter Break in Poland and Belgium and very excited about that.

13 boys and 3 girls in a small room...

Since Michael wrote a little postcard from his classroom, I thought I would, too.

I have 13 boys and 3 girls in my class(!).  It's a small room designed to hold about 12 students comfortably, but the school is way over-enrolled and many elementary classes already have over 20 students.  That limit in space makes it hard to separate two students when needed.  ("Okay, you -- move 5 inches to the left!")  

In some ways, boys are a lot of work.  They aren't always naturally inclined to want to sit still and write, and often need a lot more excitement injected into an assignment if it involves being quiet and focused.  They cry way more than my girls -- every time they are tired, hurt, frustrated, angry, sad.   And, most importantly, they're very physical:  they fight/wrestle/run into walls/poke each other with their sharp pencils for fun -- and someone always gets hurt.   (Fortunately, they are able to repair friendships instantaneously, which is more than I can say for most grudge-holding girls.) Sometimes I just feel exhausted from having to be so physically involved (pulling them off the tables, picking them up from wrestling matches on the floor, guiding them to where they're supposed to be instead of where ever they are).  Here are my three most memorable phrases from last week:

•  "This is the Reading Corner, not the Karate Corner!"
• "Hey!  You'd get a red card for headbutting in soccer -- and you get one in this class, too.  Go sit down."
• "We do not play suffocate in the bean bag!"  

They're making me realize that I have to be a lot more explicit with my instructions ("I'm sorry -- I forgot to say not to break it.").  Fortunately, they do apologize and follow my instructions when I reprimand them.  I think this is because I preface all of my "I'm upset because..." statements with "I like you, friend!"  Somewhere along the line, they see that I'm not just picking on them -- I really do like them and am trying to teach them more than just academics.

And, yes -- even with all this, they are pretty adorable.  One kid to another in my chess club:  "We can't beat Mrs. Fitzgerald at chess because she's super smart and the strongest."   One boy to another: "It is too okay for boys to cry!  I bet your daddy cried the day you were born and he saw you for the first time."   One boy to me after I told him why his friend was mad at him and how to fix it:  "Thank you for helping me be a better friend, Mrs. Fitzgerald."   And even:  "I think you are the best at telling us about Cultural Studies.  I love Cultural Studies!"   Me too!

Yeah. I guess I can stand another day.  : )

They've got a case of the what-ifs.

Just a quick post in between my classes. I think the 12 year-old brain is fascinating. They're always looking for the exception to the rule; I kind of like this or at least can identify with it. I'm not saying that I have a 12 year-old's brain, but ...

Anyway, their favorite way to begin a question is, without a doubt, "What if...?" All day long, every class, every day, "What if...?" I should write some of their what-ifs down, but they fly at me so quickly I don't really have a moment to. I should maybe, at least, start tallying them up.

I talk to teachers who have students slightly older than my seventh graders and their students don't really ask this many what-ifs. I wonder if there's a critical age where the what-ifs drop off. For me, I remember the age where I knew whether I wanted to ask the question or not. You start thinking of what the possible answers will be before you ask the question and then, if you don't like what's a probable response, you don't ask the question. I don't think they're there yet. Sometimes they make more work for themselves.

The bell just rang and the students are starting to stream in now. Questions are already flying. I wonder how long before a what-if pops up. What if one doesn't?? Should I worry?

Quotes of the week

Quotes of the week (from an earlier Facebook posting):

"Mr. Michael, I want to be a writer when I get older. Could you please grade my essays harshly? I want good feedback."  Students were writing personal narratives (vignettes) in our writing class.

"Mr. Michael, is it okay if I write two poems instead of one?"  We were writing acrostic poems and I asked students to use vocabulary words from the Cultural Studies class (ancient history) that I also teach.  There are some great poems that I might share a bit later.

"Mr. Michael, can I answer the review questions at the end of the chapter even though they weren't assigned?"  Of course!  It's a different world. This, in fact, is more common than it might seem.  I've caught students not listening to me in class because they're answering chapter review questions which I rarely assign anyway.  I guess it could be worse.

"Mr. Michael, would it be alright if I used my iPhone in class so I can take a picture of the assignment so I don't have to take the book home."  Yeah, that would be just fine.  Good thinking!

Hoe, sickle, stick

I’m really enjoying teaching my 12-year-old students (7^th graders) here at our new school in Almaty.  In our system of international schools we use ages instead of grades because students are coming from so many different school systems around the world that use different grade ranking or numbering systems.  This alleviates a lot of misunderstandings among parents about their kids being placed in the correct classes.

The kids, generally, are very eager to learn and challenge themselves.  I love this because it was totally me when I was their age.  I think I’d drive my teachers nuts by giving them a lot of extra work to review.  Mrs. Wood’s world studies travel itinerary assignment for one country turned into an epic round-the-world journey annotated with current exchange rates for the countries I’d be in, visa requirements, and alternative flight and overland connections.  Spanish homework would be also done in French to make it more of a challenge.  I can identify with many of my students.

I teach two sections of three different classes, reading, writing, and cultural studies (history), plus a homeroom.  There are about 40 12-year-old students in total so I see each of them three times a day and I think we’ll really get to know each other.  In reading and writing we’re doing poetry units.  In order to get to know each other better, we’re writing personal narratives in the form of a vignette.  They have picked an event from their lives which they think has made them into who they are today and tell what they learned from that experience.  It has been interesting.

In cultural studies we’ve been learning about hunting-and-gathering societies and the agricultural revolution and the changes farming brought to societies around the world.  One of the technological advances that came about during this time period was the development of tools for farming, including sticks, sickles, and hoes.  “What’s a hoe?” one Russian student asked out loud, shattering the silence of a whole class reading.  Okay, in America, in just about any classroom I’ve worked in, this would summon hysterical laughter and possibly even initiate a volley of personal insult on each others’ mothers.  Here in Almaty, in my 12-year-old class, not a snicker.  Eyes were on me, “Yeah, what’s a hoe?”

"What's a hoe?"

“Ah, it’s a tool used in the garden that you can use to dig a trench to plant seeds.”  Not being an artist, I did my best to draw a hoe on the whiteboard.

“Oh!  I know that,” said a Hungarian student.  “My grandmother has three of them in her shed.”

A Kazakh student added, “We used a hoe this summer at our dacha to plant vegetables.”

Gotta love it!  The students were making text-to-self connections.  In their 12-year-old way, they all wanted to tell a story (lessons can easily get sidetracked by the number of stories these kids like to share with each other).  They were giving examples of the use of the tool.  And there wasn’t a single reference to “street walkers.”  (Brooke's students at her old school in Oakland could, from their classroom windows, see prostitutes working on International Boulevard.  The students even had nicknames for the 'regulars', and knew when any one of them was having a 'good' day!)

These kids are great.  I do miss my students in Oakland though and am happy that many of them send me emails keeping me updated on the goings-on at my school there.

We're enjoying how social everyone is here.  There's a gathering nearly every night at someone's house if you want to get out.  We've gone to game nights several nights this week.  On weekends, there are lots of outdoor events like hikes in the Tien Shan Mountains just a few minutes out of the city.  It's all very supportive and friendly and we're having a great time.

First week in school, and it's a whole new world

Michael and I just got through our first five days of long school meetings, and our first three days of teaching.  It's been such a change!   Don't get me wrong, I love my teenagers and my wonderful co-workers at my lovely Life Academy in Oakland (I have to give a special shout out to them because I really took for granted how together and organized they are there!) -- but there is something truly joyous about teaching a group of kids who are even more enthusiastic about learning, and just about as in love with reading as I am!   I'm so used to introducing an 'assignment' and bracing for impact, waiting for the "awe, maaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnn!" which inevitably flows from the mouths of teenagers being asked to write down, say, the date on their paper.

Today, I said that we were going to do some math and the kids ... cheered!   We moved on to Writing, and I was even more shocked by their eagerness to expand their knowledge.  "Can I write five sentences instead of two?"   Then Reading:  "Can you help me choose some more challenging books? I like to challenge myself!"  "Reading!?  Yay!  I love books!  I! Love! Books!"  And so began the chant, raising in volume as my twelve little 7-year-olds sat in a circle on my "Reading Zone" rug.   I pulled out two books, Blueberries for Sal and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, to applause and excitement.  "I love those books!"  "I have that one at home!"  "She follows a bear!"  "Maybe we should let him drive the bus this time?"  "Noooo!"  Giggles, and then, "Shhhhh!  She's going to read!"....  Ah yes, a whole new world for me.

On the other side of the school, Michael opened a poetry unit today.  He announced this first unit somewhat hesitantly, ready to convince and cajole his 12-year-old students into reading and writing poems -- only to be met with enthusiastic readiness:  "Will we get to read Edgar Allen Poe?!", "Can I write a poem and set it to music?!", "Will we get to share what we read?!", and the winner:  "Poetry is so cool!"

I continue to be shocked by the seeming randomness of the kids' love for learning.  I'll be cleaning up something in the room, during a transition from one activity to the next, when K, a Kazakh boy, runs up so close to me that I'm sure he can smell the laundry detergent in my sleeve.  "Will we have some math today?  I love math!"  Me (shocked):  "Uh, yeah.  We'll do math today."  K: "Yaaaaaaayyyy!  I hope we do some super challenge math!" (my phrase for math I think should be 'hard' for them, but usually isn't) and he runs back to his table to reassure his friends that math is indeed on the agenda.

I'm also shocked at the depth and breadth of their knowledge.  These seven-year-olds have had the benefit of true and literal investment in their education.  Tuition to this school is half my annual salary.   Most of the kids have their tuition paid for by their parents' company (as part of their compensation package), but if the kid is from Kazakhstan, that means that their parent is most likely paying from their own pocket.   They get to read a LOT at school and at home, have tutors and intensive instruction in several languages, and have visited almost as many places in the world as we have -- and that's saying something!  I put up my travel photos today and every one of the kids identified at least two of the locations (without looking at my captions), exclaiming something like, "Oooh!  Paris!  I loved Paris!"  To which someone else says, "Me too!  Did you go to the Eiffel Tower?"  ... response:  "Of course!"   Third kid:  "I liked the Taj Mahal better."  Fourth kid:  "The pyramids are cool, too!"  Collective agreement.  They turn to me:  "Have you been to the Eiffel Tower, Miss Friz-zizzle?"  (They haven't learned to say my name quite yet, but we'll get there!)  Me (stunned again):  "Yes.  These are my pictures."  Collective awe. "Coooooool."  Fifth kid:  "What's your favorite airline?  I like Turkish Airline, Boeing 737-800!"   First kid:  "Yeah, Turkish Airline has video games!"  Other kids shout out names of airlines, and describe seats and fun little perks that I associate with First Class.  Ah yes, this is a different place indeed.

On the flip side, we're also having to "make do" a bit here.  Our annual shipment of workbooks and supplies didn't arrive from the USA.  Technology isn't working properly because of some issues with upgrades, compatibility and lack of specific know-how.  Electives teachers "aren't ready yet", which means that my kids are with me most of the day instead of going out for all of their extra classes.  So, even though I'm in a much more 'privileged' school, my old-style public-school background of pulling solutions out of thin air has helped me a lot here!  Skills are priceless, my friends!  I learned mine in public schools. : )

What's your favorite airline?

So many things to do...

There are so many things to do before ending the school year that it doesn't really feel like the end of the year. Remember that feeling on the last day of school when it felt like all the weight of assignments lifted off your shoulders? Teachers feel that too. I definitely did last year, but this year I have so many things to do before starting summer vacation that so far, I haven't felt that relief.
Brooke and I went away with our staffs on retreat to recap and plan for the coming year. Today I've been working from the computer at home. We have been really lucky and were given $5,000 from our school district to spend at Barnes & Noble on books to help our students in next year. I've been put in charge of spending the money. It's kind of fun, but I hope everyone is happy with my picks. Besides that, I'm trying to edit student writing and illustrations into a book that I will send away to get published.
I'll probably feel that the end of the year is here when I'm at the airport checking in for our trip to South America next week.

Oakland kids blog on blogger, too.

I've been teaching this class for the last two weeks where kids are blogging their own stories on blogger. The stories are relate to Oakland, the East Bay, their perceptions of other neighborhoods around the Bay Area, and and how people perceive them.

The idea to teach this class came after an encounter I had with a fellow teacher, who had been teaching in a suburban school in Utah for about as long as I've been alive. She lived in Oakland about twenty years ago, and her views of kids from the Bay Area were really stuck in the past -- based on her old ideas about how kids "should" behave, as well as her understanding of race relations, youth culture, and the educational system. She actually said to me that kids from Oakland are dangerous, and asked how I could keep sane trying to teach in such a dirty, scary place. She asked how I managed -- as a white, female teacher in a "non-white community" (her words), and how I could teach kids who "invented their own language so that white people wouldn't understand what they were saying". I guess I shouldn't have been shocked, but it really hurt me to hear her say that. She is still a teacher. She is educated, and has travelled.... but, instead of educating herself and trying to understand where my kids were coming from, she was perpetuating sterotypes with her students... teaching them to be mistrustful of students like mine.

I didn't know what to say to her. At first, I just nodded and smiled and didn't say anything.... but when she really started coming down on Oakland and my kids, I just looked at her and said "I don't think that point of view fits Oakland anymore. My kids are wonderful, and it really hurts me when people say things like that. They're beautiful, thoughtful, bright kids who need more people to beleive in them and listen to them. I strongly urge you to learn more about it, because things have changed since you lived there".

Okay, so I acknowledge that Oakland is in the top ten "most dangerous cities" in the USA... but it's not without beauty. And I think that my kids forget this, too. That's why this class exists -- so that they can see the beauty of where they live, and so that people from other areas around the Bay (and others who read their blog) can meet them and see how great they are.... and learn not to fear these wonderful students -- who face challenges we can't even imagine, and face obstacles that they can only get over if we keep having faith in them.

So, we've been breaking the kids up into groups of four, and taking them to places like Walnut Creek (95% white, or something), Chinatown and Fruitvale (Latino neighborhood). We'll also be going to The Castro (rainbow-flag district), and Peir 39 in downtown San Francisco. They interview people about their neighborhoods, to find out about safety, health and accessibility, economics, food, aesthetics and diversity. And then they blog about what they learn, what they find out, and how their own perceptions of their own communities change along the way. Hopefully, we also change a few other people's minds as well.

A priest, a rabbi and two teachers get on a plane...

No, really... that's what happened on our way home from New York. I figured, there's no way our plane is going to crash with this much good karma getting on board!

New York was very interesting: we got to watch teachers who were really good at what they did, and not so good at what they did. This is helpful to see, because it allows us to think about what makes a successful lesson, and what would have been better for the students' learning.

On a totally different note, Michael and I spotted comedian Eddie Izzard roaming around Grand Central Station(!). I was seriously going to say something to him, like: "don't poke badgers with spoons" (a reference to one of his jokes)... but I lost nerve as he brushed past my elbow. He had his iPod in and looked like he was enjoying just being a tourist... But now I can say I rubbed elbows with Eddie Izzard! Cool....

I just cleaned the apartment yesterday and it looks great. Now, I have a load in the dishwasher, and am putting off doing my homework for grad-school classes tomorrow. I guess I'd better get going on that. : (

I was going to procrastinate, but I think I'll do that tomorrow.

Teacher retreat

The trip to New York was great. We saw some really interesting classrooms and met some great teachers.

I just returned tonight from a night away on retreat with my school staff. It's nice being around so many people who care so much about our students are really care about their teaching enough to devote personal time to improving what we can offer to them. I was planning our final three weeks of school with another teacher. We'll be taking students out cycling daily as well as doing some rowing and kayaking with them. Should be fun!

Daylight Saving Time begins tonight! Yay!