Southern girl by Amos Lee

Look at that...less than a month since I wrote last. I'm proud of myself, even if everyone else thinks it is far too long. So much has happened in the last month, I don't even know where to begin.

School finished up last Tuesday, with teachers finishing report cards/folders/etc. on Wednesday. I made a huge choice last Friday and decided with a heavy heart that I was not going to be returning to my classroom in the fall. I was offered a job with Teach For America to work as a program director here. While I hadn't seriously considered being a PD until the week prior after a conversation with the head person here, I decided that it might be the best decision for me to see if the classroom is where I should be in the future. I told my principal that I really hate who I am in the classroom. I don't like yelling, I don't like the idea that yelling is the only thing that gets through to some kids, I don't like going home and hating who I am and how I have ot act in order to teach the lesson. She understood and agrees that I did not come in with the personality and mentality of other teachers in the delta. Therefore, this opportunity could show me if I belong in the classroom or if teaching maybe isn't for me. The role basically involves managing a cohort of 30 corps members in their 1st and 2nd year of teaching, observing them and problem solving around their data to ensure that they meet their goals. It is an honor that others think I would be good at this job, because I'm neverous about basically sucking at it. ha ha...however, I know it's going to give me good experience and I look forward to working on staff as TFA doubles again in the delta.

The end of the year finished up strong. We did our final assessments and ROCKED the math summative with a 94% on all skills taught during the year. We also had a reading growth of 1.40 years. I'm excited to hear how they do next year in first grade. My class is definitely further this year than my first year.

Summer is here and Mississippi isn't lacking heat or humidity. I spent a few hours outside sweating buckets this afternoon. I'm coming home for the month of June and will be venturing north on Tuesday. Therefore, if you're bored/free...please call me, I'll be driving for 14 long hours! I'm excited for summer, but know I'm going to stay plenty busy. Trevor's graduation at the end of the week. I'm taking two grad classes. I'm trying to finish that darn thesis. And I'm going to do roughly 8 hours of PD work a week. This is all on top of spending my time rollerblading, playing tennis, fishing, being on the lake, going to parades, and enjoying the Minnesota sunshine. I cannot wait!

Yay for summer :) :) :)

The Final Four

Easter was only a couple of weeks ago, therefore, no one can get too worked up about me not blogging for awhile! Each weekend of April was crazy hectic, so without a lot going on this weekend, I'm twisting my thumbs and pretending to be productive to ward off the spring fever!

Here is a recap of the last few weeks. Easter came and went...and was amazing. The following week Erik came to visit the dirty, dirty Delta. It was crazy! We had a bonfire on Friday night that ended with a lot of beer consumed and a nerf gun rifle fight in the kitchen at 2 a.m. The rest of the weekend involved more alcohol, leaving groceries in the car for a few hours too long, a whole LOT of tennis, another bonfire, some Mississippi sunshine for the pasty from Minnesota, an afternoon cookout that turned into a Sunday night of drinking. Phew...it was a crazy but oh so fun! I love when my Minnesota friends get along so well with this crazy Mississippi crew :) (Picture is of my roommates and I out after our professional saturday)

The following weekend was the HUGE Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale. We ran a 5K in Cleveland in the morning, beat our time from last year by at least 5 minutes, haha. I guess that's what happens when you don't walk parts of it. Juke Joint was crazyyy. It's basically another reason to drink all day and listen to blues music at different venues all morning/afternoon/night. The weekend was GORGEOUS...I love getting sunburnt in mid-April. Heck, anytime of the year is suitable for me!

Last weekend started a little rough, tornadoes and storms across the state. The kids were loading the buses when the sirens went off so they had to come in and put their heads down in the hot, overpacked hallway. It was a mess but eventually everyone made it home safe. It has now been two weeks in a row that the sky opens and it downpours right at 3:15 when I am outside on bus duty. I'm going to start bringing my rainboots for Friday duty. Last Sunday I went to Oxford (home of Ole Miss) for Double Decker their annual art and music festival. I cannot wait to go to an Ole Miss football game this fall....Oxford was great. Ole Miss was great. While it's not in the Delta, it still makes me realize that Mississippi is great too!

Now onto the important stuff....my classroom. So far we have grown 1.2 years in reading. This is okay...could be better. We want to get closer to 1.5 years of growth by the end of the year. We will be close...it's things like this that make me nervous for the last weeks of school but force me to constantly stay productive! I just started giving our big math test that determines how we did overall. It's a 16 page test, clear to see that we are going to spend a good 5 days or so taking it! My kids did their end of the year DIBBELS test last week and kicked the **** out of it! I had 12 students that were considered "at risk" at the beginning of the year (that is NOT a good thing) and I finished with 3 that were only scoring in "some risk." Definite improvements. Many of my kids had phenomenal scores. I even baked them brownies on Friday because I was so proud of them!

Our district has been in an absolute mess all year. I've tried to refrain from complaining too much (because I wanted to keep my job) but now all bets are off. Before spring break, parents lodged a protest and didn't send their kids to school for two days. The state finally realized there was a problem. They brought 50-60 members of the state department to the district for a week to do a FULL audit. Their report was concluded 30 days later and was more than 300 pages long. Our superintendent was fired. The school board was removed. The state took over. They issued a conservator to be in charge of our district to straighten us out. It could take months but more likely years before the state will remove the conservator and allow us to function independently again. This is not necessarily a bad thing. There are 37 qualifications for accreditation that must be met in entirety across the district. We did not meet any. It was severe. However, spirits are rejuvenated and people are happy again. All is starting to become peaceful again in the land of sunflowers.

I have another little lovely (no one is sure how I got so lucky two years in a row). This one is worse in many ways. When I give him ANY instructions (sit down, get in line, etc.) he does the opposite. A clear case of oppositional defiance. When he gets mad (many, many times a day) he does bodily harm to himself. Scratches his arms and face. Tries to break his fingers. He has punched himself in the face. Other awful things. We are guaranteed to have some sort of blowout each day, you just never know when it's going to happen. Well, he went to the same behavioral treatment center for two weeks. He came back last Thursday WORSE THAN EVER. I cried in school more that once....I am NOT a sap, I NEVER cry in school. I didn't want to come to school on Friday, but knew that I couldn't do that to my assistant. Ugh. It was a nightmare. He is still bad and each day you never know what you are going to get. I try to get him through the day and will walk him home after school if he makes it all day...many times if he is sent to the office even the principal can't control him or keep him from hurting himself. It's a sad situation and one that makes me realize that the future of this Class of 2022 is not everything I wish for and work toward.

Enough of the sap....lets talk about animals, particularly ones that are in and around my school. There was a lizard in my classroom a few weeks ago. I made one of the kids kill it. Now I realize that might not have been my best move. The janitors killed two snakes climbing up the outside wall of my classroom two weeks ago (this was ON the playground mind you). They were not small but luckily not poisonous. (Picture is after they poured a little gasoline on them. Turns out gasoline makes them flip over and die instantly) The other day at recess one of my cute and hilarious girls told me there was a turtle by the door. I went to look and sure enough there was a big ol turtle right at the door. Its shell was probably 10 inches or so! A bigun'. Anyway...the kids all screamed when we walked past it just because they can. I went out the back door an hour later to get something and saw the turtle had dug a hole and was laying eggs next to the school. My co-teacher and I quickly got groups of kids to come out back and watch. I thought it was SO COOL that my kids got to watch that...heck, I haven't ever seen a turtle lay eggs before! However, good thing I went to see The Last Song over Easter so Miley Cyrus could teach me a thing or two about turtles!

In one month I'll be home for the summer (or at least 6 weeks of it I guess). I cannot wait to enjoy the sunshine and some Minnesota lakes!! If anyone knows of any sand volleyball leagues around Amboy...please let me know...I really want to play :) ALSO...here is my plea...if anyone hits up any good garage sales and finds some Disney movies on VHS...please buy them for me! I'll pay you back, PROMISE :) We are getting a little sick of the ones we have and with the rain we've gotten lately, we haven't been able to go outside (mehhhhhh).

Hope Minnesota spring is FABULOUS! The humidity in the 'sip for the last two days has been at least 80%. Ridic. I just turned the air on because our house got up to 78 with TOTAL humidity!

Just less than four weeks left of my Teach For America commitment...who would have thought it would go this quickly....