Irony and Underoos

I had such a bad case of after school giggles today, I had to write them down. Here they are, in four acts.

Act one-Irony
It took my students 45 minutes to come up two flights of stairs. They were not following the school procedures for being quiet and keeping hands to themselves. With 16 boys, I know this is challenging but we keep working at it until we get it right. So after about 20 minutes of going up and down the stairs, I had lost the ability to speak and just watched them yell at each other. Here is a a typical interaction: "Shut Up! She's getting mad (meaning me)." "You shut up! Your the one that's talking!" "If you all would stop talking, we could go back to class!" And on and on.
Oh the irony...if they would all stop talking, we wouldn't be standing there. They just don't get it.

Act two-The Kid From the Former Soviet Union
After school, I asked the volunteer that is in my room how it went today with a student that I have from the former Soviet Union-I won't name the country. The school is just too small. He has very limited English. Her reply, "Not so good."
I say, "Isn't he supposed to be cutting out pictures of articles of clothing from the newspaper and labeling them?"
"Yes, but he just took the scissors and stabbed the newspaper."
Great.

Act three-Super Pencil and Backwards Pants
I pull a student out of my class to have a chat because he has had an especially hard day. At one point he had his "Super Pencil" (just a regular pencil that he has given super powers) duct taped to his forehead. In hind-sight, the duct tape had to come from my desk drawer. Interesting. How and when did he get it?
Anyway, I pull him into the hall to talk with him about the issues we have had today.
"What do you think I am going to ask you?" I say.
"If I took my medicine today," he replies. He is on ADHD medicine and I can tell as soon as he comes to school whether or not he has taken it.
"Well, did you?"
"Some of it," he lies. We have been through this before. Some of it means none of it.
I say, "Well, I can tell and I need to tell your mom that you didn't take it."
He thinks he's tricky and says, "Oh no. It's OK, I'll tell her."
Yes, my students think I am a fool.
Then I notice his pants look funny. I say, "Student Name, do you have your pants on backwards?"
Student replies, "Yes."
I am so used to the craziness, I didn't even bother to ask why. I told him to go to the bathroom and change his pants around. He asks, "What if somebody sees me?"
I respond, "Go into the stall." I can't help but wonder if his concern for being seen had anything to do with the underoos I noticed sticking out of is pants when I pulled up his shirt to see if my suspicions of backwards pants was correct. He thinks he is so tough, but now I know he wears underoos.

Act Four-Just Reading
Upon entering my classroom, I find that one student has moved his desk half way across the room and is just sitting there like nothing is wrong. He does this all the time. So, I take his desk and move it into the hall. Where I can see him, of course. He is bawling because I moved him. I mean, hysterically sobbing. Just one of four boys that cried today in my class. He eventually calms down and I find out later that when asked by a teacher why he was sitting in the hall, his response was "I just wanted to sit out here and read." Well....at least he's reading. Or is he?

What a Day!

It is difficult to write because I do not want to diminish the importance of today by the minuscule details of my own experience. I will say that I had an amazing day and am honored to have been here to experience the joy. I hope the pictures tell the story that I am unable to write at this moment. Plus, I would like to get back to celebrating with my friends. :)

On This Moment

Lincoln Memorial-closed as soon as I got there.

Frozen reflection pond.




Obama's viewing box for the parade.


This may be as close as I will ever get.

In front of the Capitol Building-where the action is going to be tomorrow.

1/19/09

I went down to the DC Mall to see what I could see. It was crazy. But awesome crazy. You can’t put millions of out of towners in one place and not have a little bit of chaos. I tried to go to the Lincoln Memorial, but it was closed. So, instead of battling crowds in museums or landmarks, I decided to just stay on the Mall and experience what was happening around me.
As I was walking around, I was overcome with emotion. I started thinking about the importance of this event and what it means for this nation and the world. The DC Mall is like a walk through American History-wars and presidents. And tomorrow, history will be made and all the millions of people that are in DC find tomorrow’s moment so important that they made the journey here to see it. Being here is more powerful than I imagined. I couldn’t help but think that I was part of something so much bigger than myself. It is almost too big to comprehend.
As the tears flowed and I looked at the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, I tried to find the source of the tears. It appears to be very complicated, but this is what I have figured out so far:
Not since a small child have I felt proud to be an American. In fact, I often felt shame, especially when in the company of people from other counties. But today, I am proud of what my country has done. The load of shame-that I didn’t even know I was carrying- has slightly lessened. I think the tears were part of that release.
The tears were also spurred by my beginning to understand of the power of hope. For 8 years (maybe even longer) I have had little hope in the leaders of this nation-and some other nations for that matter. But today, sitting with all those people walking by, hope could be felt in the air. Adults were talking to children about history and political policies and people were dancing to the music from yesterday’s concert. I didn’t even realize what I was missing when I had lost hope. Is it Obama that has brought the hope back or is it the people?
The children dancing around made me think about my students and the other children in my life. What will this moment mean for them? My mind stumbled upon a story my cousin told me about going to vote during her pregnancy. After voting she touched her belly in a moment of hope for her unborn baby. Last week she gave birth to baby Rowan. We all know there continues to be atrocities and violent injustices in the world. But I can’t help but hope, because of this moment in history, the injustices that Rowan will experience will be a little less. And he, in turn, will never be without hope.

"Education Made Everything Possible." -Barack Obama

Currently listening to Ira Glass-all about Obama-and getting ready to head to DC tomorrow. I can't wait to feel the energy of the city. Unfortunately, this blog will be blocked on the school's network. So, my students will not be able to follow along as much as I had wished. I know some of my students will never get to DC and really wanted them to feel as much a part of history as I do. It will have to wait until I return.