May 4th, 2011 (Week 2)

May 4th, 2011

Today, Arbear did her lesson on blogging and the half hearted results. As planned, in the beginning we had a community building ice breaker. We each had to speak one minute about the person to the left of us. Ms. Finn was fierce in her selection, making sure to put Miss Q by the person she knew the least about. Almost all of us stumbled for words.

'We don't really know each other, so we can't judge each other', explained Arbear after the Icebreaker. I agreed.

Because I know and trust Arbear, not only do I not have a problem with her leadership, but some of her trademark bluntness washes over me. Over the past few days, she had explained to me the blogging system and exactly what she wanted everyone to get out of todays lesson, so I largely kept quiet.

As we got into the heat of the debate on the blogs, Ms. Finn was determined with her message.

Arbear's side can best be summed up like this: We are the ones that need to change. Not the standards.

Not all of us were convinced. There wasn't really a comfortable middle view. Especially since there seemed to be a dividing line between those with complaints and those who were content.

This is what I think:

There are many many reasons that we have for not completing all of our Teacher Cadet assignments. Many of us knew, when we got memo, which ones we may not have been able to do. But did we do our best, even knowing that, like we would in our other classes?

Because we didn't, without coming close to returning the energy and or humble determination that Arbear and Stewart did in creating the new blogging system, I'm going to have to say I agree with Arbear

Monday May 2nd, 2011

Miss Q's birthday is in 22 days. That just came to mind.

Miss Q's thoughts are constantly changing. The low level of anxiety that sometimes attended her was gone today. Maybe this was a result of all the hoping, praying, and thinking she'd done this weekend that took her mind off herself.

Zefron returned. Everyone was here except for one boy, the one that Miss Q had thought about all weekend. Memphis had ten days of suspension to serve. But I'll tell you everything Miss Q goes through for and with him later.

At lunch, Miss Q struggled to make Dubby see the seriousness of his rudeness to Mook. However, Mook, who's ego was already bruised began to try to annoy Co-Pilot and Dubby back. Miss Q has learned that this is Mook's way of putting up a shell to protect his feelings. If I can be obnoxious, than I don't have to let you know that you hurt my feelings.

But since I'm thinking about it now, should Miss Q tell him that? If Miss Q talked about it to Dubby, would that make him understand? With kids, sometimes it doesn't hurt to go beneath the surface. We'll see. Finally Miss Q asked him to finish telling her about the World of Warcraft game. Again, his eyes lit up.

Listening, someone might see the connection between the violence and raw nature of his video games and the mean-spirited nature of his insults toward Mook and play with Co-Pilot ("Let go of his arm"). But changing the topic got him off focus from his clash with Mook.

For some reason, Miss Q felt a bit tense after that, as if something bad was about to happen. It must have shown because a few times, the turtles looked a bit spooked when they caught her looking at them.
Fate's attitude toward Miss Q was cool today.
"How's the baby sister?"
She stuck her thumb up. Then she asked to move so as to not sit next to "them", meaning the Boy Band.

Once she looked up at me and stared at me for ten straight seconds like a deer caught in the headlights. Honestly, I didn't mean to stare. But I did wonder what was up with her.

Today, we got to go to gym to see Mr. Willard. Jailbreak is a favorite. He and Miss Q both agreed that the awkward turtles made up the best and most interesting class. Leading by example and with of competitive nudging, Miss Q was able to get everybody to aim for Mr. Willard on the other side. By arguing playfully with Beancurd over who would hit Stew first, Beancurd pegged him out twice. It was a lovely game.

Beancurd drove me crazy on while the class were waiting on the steps listening to directions. He seems to talk compulsively, but at the same time we still have a relationship. In the reading corner, there's a little beach chair. Today, the boy got stuck when the chair caved in on him and Miss Q had to help him out. It was so funny to see him trying to look innocent after I looked back to see if he would do it again on purpose.

2/16/11: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: It All Hangs Out (Blog 4)

Miss Q's about to give you an honest breakdown of what went on today. The sitch. The skinny. Things that were good and some things that make me wonder if I was thinking at all? It's weird to write it. You usually don't think. You react.

Yesterday afternoon I had one of those fits of inspiration. They come in short creative bursts and I entertain some really awful ideas For instance, ever fought out an argument in your head? The scene goes off flawlessly as you script your artful version of Telling Someone Off. You're furious and angry but somehow your reasoning is flawless. Finally you hear a chorus of amens as your opponent goes to eat their humble pie.

Yeah, not that kind of idea this time. It never goes down like that in real life anyway.

This time I was thinking about how the turtles act at lunch. Some, like Princesstard, Nancy Drew and Mariska, talk quietly amongst themselves. Or you know, semi-quiet. However, once they finish eating they start to argue, get loud, mess with their food, roughhouse and flick cake at each other. Just like high school.

Obviously part of it is that they're bored out of their minds sitting there. Do they not find each other interesting enough?

So naturally, the answer is to hit them with Honors Civics and Spanish 2 material.

I really enjoyed picturing their brains fry trying to name the three branches of government and any ridiculously hard questions I could come up with. Hee hee hee.
"Come on guys, you need to know this stuff." Why, you ask?

• It would keep them occupied.  Grandma used to say the idle mind is the devil's workshop.

• They'd like the challenge. They're just crazy enough to go for it. Fourth graders are fearless. They can do anything.

• I'd feel like I'd actually be teaching them something instead of distracting them. Maybe broaden their minds so that they reach for knowing things about the government and conjugating verbs in Spanish.

• I'd make sure that when they got to High School, they'd be ready.

• When my Civics teacher sees that some of her students are beasting at Civics concepts already, they'll say," Oh. That's 'cause Miss Q taught me." Then she'll go, "Oh. Well, of course Miss Q. I mean naturally."

In my world, it'd turn out exactly like that. But even besides those reasons, I think it was because I was getting too comfortable.
Now, I can see from the point of view of some of the older cadets. I'm not as professional yet, but once you get used to a classroom and get familiar, you see just how much more opportunity is there. I can see how they get their drive but still feel the need to be tough on themselves. With so many different things, I start to feel like I'm not even doing 10 % of what I could be doing. Like I'm shooting basketballs turned around backwards with my eyes closed.
It doesn't dishearten me, but with the idea in mind, I felt that much more excited about trying it the next day.

Because in Civics, we were watching a movie, I decided my crazy challenge would come from Spanish 2.

Todos los dias, Zefron le gusta dar Mariska un abrazo enorme.

Now kids, translate that. Yes, I'm crazy.

However, the thing I like about Spanish is that it can be so intuitive. Suppose you've never even taken Spanish. What does the word enorme look like?  Or un. what number in English looks like un? Dias? What could I possibly be talking about?

The Spanish word for arms is brazos. What could an abrazo be?

When I arrive, SkinnyJeanz is the first to call me and come running for a hug. From far off I might have heard Nala shout out Miss Q but I wasn't sure.

About three conversations were going at once. Nala was all abuzz about how our outfits matched (me with my black dress and patterned tights and her with her lacy ruffled black skirt), Idaho was going on about... something (forgive me! I no one else is guilty of failing to cherish all the precious words that come out of their mouths but sometimes I am.) And none of it came out clear because I was looking at Fate and CP.

Fate had become Lucy the trick-doing cat of many languages with CP as her owner. I was real glad Fate could consistently get along with someone.

"Lucy!" CP was pretty darn commanding. "Now, speak frrrench." she said, rolling her r's masterfully.
"Banuladeiuuuu!"
Huh?

Now would be a good time to say: And speaking of languages, lets hop to lunch time, but there's some foreshadowing to do.

Talking to Mariska and Copilot, two of the three redheads in the class, I learned a not-so-surprising fact.

"Mariska likes Zefron!" he announced, all charm with his big smile and military haircut.
"Really? How shocking!" I said, insinuating the opposite.

I mean, what was not to like about Zefron? He's intelligent, outgoing, has warm brown eyes, and a good sense of humor. And hadn't her two bff's, Princesstard and Nancy Drew arranged the whole "forcing"-him-to-say-he-liked-her thing?

"You must be a pretty trusted friend for such a secret right?"

"No." Mariska shrugged. "He'll tell him."
"Yep. He's my friend."
It was part of the guy code.

"He does know already."
"I know. You liked him in second grade too!"

Have you figured out what my Spanish phrase translates to yet? Talk about a coincidence.

CP wasn't the only one about to teach languages.

The Good:

Because some of the awkward turtles were watching Tuck Everlasting, I was in charge of twelve. Sitting with Fruitbat, Nala, Idaho, and Fate, I sprang into action as soon as I saw that first ranch dressing get passed on across the table.

"Alright guys. I am tired of watching you guys pick your noses and throw cake at each other." Don't say stuff like this if you know you have no sense of humor.

Giggles.

"You're mean, Miss Q." remarked Idaho.

"That's right. Whoever can help each other figure out this Spanish phrase gets a sheet of paper from my notebook." I said with lots of brovado.

Somehow they ate this up. Idaho had gotten one earlier for being the first to locate Mrs. Bridington for me (hey she felt like she should get a prize, that's what I came up with). They still would have done it without a prize.

When I read the phrase, I immediately had their attention. I knew I had to give them a lot of clues, but they were quick to catch on. What suprised me was that Nala, usually softspoken and distracted, seemed to catch on the quickest.

"What does the word dias sound like?"

"Dolls?"

"Daffodils?"

"Days." said Nala.

Amidst all the guesses, it was Nala who got that enorme meant huge before I gave a hint about it. She figure the sentence was something like Every day, Zefron likes to something a huge smile.

This fascinates me because I know in order to make the connection, you can relate the word to enormous, which is not something everyone does when learning languages. Like me, with chemistry, some people have to repeat concepts again and again to understand. Nala made the connection before I gave the translation:

Every day, Zefron likes to give Mariska a big hug.

They really caught on with it being Zefron and Mariska. They're a perceptive bunch. Honestly, when I came up with it, it was more to poke fun at Zefron than having to do with Mariska's crush.

Gave Boo a compliment. He smiled. Quiet doesn't seem like a way of hiding for him. It's just his way of experiencing things.

When Nala passed out her late Valentines, Dubby took his lollipop and in his hands, it became an eye wrench. Remember when I said Dubby could stick his toungue out and touch the back of his head? He just seems to have a different way of looking at things.

The Bad:

I hate the smell of  hard boiled eggs. I told them so and they made sure to give me a whiff.

Are The Gage, Freakazoid and Mook not supposed to sit together or what? Why does no one know for sure?

When I took my twelve turtles to the water fountain, Idaho and Nala preferred to lean on the wall by me instead of getting in line.

"Why aren't you listening to me? You tell other people to listen?" I asked Idaho, gently.

They seemed to look at me like 'oh Miss Q, you know you like me too much to really mean for me to get my tail back in line', but they got it eventually. At that point you stop smiling, ignore their conversation, and stick to your guns.

The Gage is interesting. He talks to me just fine but he likes to show that he can do his own thing. During cursive, I watched him flip through the finished papers stacked in the middle.

"I want mine on top!" he said, despite there being no talking. As we walked into art, he and Nala hopped into chairs next to me when everyone else sat on the carpet.

"This is my seat."

And Nala just had to sit in a seat because she was wearing a skirt. The art teacher didn't go for that. When they still didn't move, I volunteered, "I'll sit on the carpet." I like sitting with them. Ladylike, with legs tucked under. Immediately, Nala hops off the seat to sit beside me, imitating my position.

The Gage looked doubtful.

"Wanna sit here? We'll miss you."

I'd hoped that by sitting down, I demonstrated that sitting in the big chair didn't make you All That. Now he was sitting by himself. His eyes seemed to say he was about to come sit but when he got up he got called on to help with art supplies.

He also talked at random, blurting out and earning the class silent lunch. The looks Solomon, Dubby, and Co-pilot flung back at him were so perfectly 'way-to-go', too.

I don't know why The Gage seems to needs do things The Gage Way like that. I usually think if you feel like you need your paper to be on top, it's really because you think yours is on the bottom. Hmm.

Why is The Brit sitting at the front of the class? He and Dexter are usually models of good behavior.

The Ugly:

That day, Miss Q was waiting for Los Compadres to be on their merry way to Anderson so she could play a trick on them. She ended up failing miserably.

Seeing Ms. Odd in her office, I made a secretive shush sign, as I waited for their approach. When I heard footsteps I jumped out from the side but instead of a scared Ar-bear and Stew, there was only a confused Hispanic girl. Mr. German, who just happened to walk by, had a nice laugh on his way around the corner.

What the heck, Miss Q?

The teaching companions were, of course, several paces behind the girl. Too smug, as if to say they were used to and could always easily avoid Miss Q's crazyness. Ay ay ay.

Fate was in one of her moods today. She might have managed to offend everyone.

Miss Q made a blunder and asked Fruitbat how many she had invited to her upcoming sleepover that Saturday, failing to notice how she purposely sat a seat apart from Fate. On my left was Idaho, whom I knew had been invited.

"I'm not allowed to talk about it." said Fruitbat.

"Why?" (Ugh. Shut up!)

She thumbed in Fate's direction. That got her started.

"See? Everyone hates me."

Earlier she told me that my lil buddy from Miss Beautiful and Big L's class had started liking her, but now hated her again. Oh boy.

"Mook even admitted he hates me." Mook looked apologetic.

"We can't help our feelings."

At the same time Nala, tired of Fate's dramatics, started nosing into my notebook, her dark eyes no doubt resting on the scribble reading: she hates me again.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

Evasive action.

Fate while snappish, is very protective of me. I watched her glare at Nala as she tried to peek into my notebook.

"Excuse me? Why are you being so nosy?" her voice took on a nasty tone I didn't like. I didn't think this at the time but where could she have learned that tone from? It didn't seem very childlike.

Nala, usually shrugging affably at Fate's abuse, got angry this time.

"You were were nosy in So-and-so's class!" and back and forth. But Fate was so abrasive with it, I told her to come talk to me.

"How come every time you get angry you feel like you can be nasty to people like its nothing?" I asked.

"Well, I don't know." she said, referring to her anger issues."I was just trying to help."

After explaining that I could handle it and wanted her to worry about being nice, I asked if she could give Nala an apology and she agreed. Just like that.

"I'm sorry!" her look accused Nala from across the table. But she did want to say sorry.

"Do you accept her apology?"

And boys and girls do you know Nala kept staring at me and eating her cheesy broccoli?

"I'm gonna keep on bein' mean since you didn't accept my 'pology!" Fate decided.

"You got a lot more stuff to apologize for!"

This was Nala's explanation to me for not accepting. "I tried to be nice to her but..."

I said a lot of things, but it felt like I was saying nothing. One of you has to be nice first. The point of an apology is is for the other person, not you. Blah blah.

Fate wants to be the bigger person. She likes to say "I'm going to do the smart thing and end it." But the way she says it usually starts everything back up again.

When fate brings drama, there will be drama. As I write this, my mom and I talk, going back to the days when I too had best friends that would be mad at me and make up with me the next day. I was dramatic and had no perspective too. So I can't help but have a little grace when looking at Fate.

What can I teach her though? That she's overdramatic, selfish, and insecure? How is she different from anyone else in that case? She's also nine. In elementary I remember being melodramatic but I never felt so persecuted and defensice towards all my classmates like she is. How did I learn to deal with things differently? Time? Experience? Constant teaching? Grace.

But she listens to me. I see her eyes when she's unsure what to do and something nasty she was about to say gets held back in her mouth. Just like when I saw Freakazoid's eyes looking back at me in Art, watching me to see if I notice how quiet he's being. I made sure to mention some of that when I talked to her.

Freakazoid is a different matter.

"Freakazoid wants to go on a date with you!"

"No I don't!"

Whether he did or not, I just love him. I mess with him sometimes and while he used to act out towards me, he now acts sweet. Almost like the tables have switched.

There you have it.



2/09/11: A Compliment, A Masterpiece, and an Ugly Spool (Blog 2)

Miss Q was feeling pretty awesome today. She told me.

She probably also might have shown you a picture of two of her babies and stopped you to have you read an AHmazing piece of writing.

But first things first.

Today, Miss Q got to observe Big L and Socrates do their thing with Crossroads.

'Nice projection voice, Big L' wrote Miss Q.

Socrates speaks articulately. Duh. You can tell he's gone over the material and when answering a question, often goes beyond it. His sarcasm and sense of humor serves him well here.

"Mr. Lancaster is quite the ladies man back there." Giggles. He had a bit of of a rapport (as in resonance, compatibility, accord; a sympathetic relationship or understanding) with a few of the males.

They also did a good job with getting the younguns to think and to challenge each other during the drug trivia game. However, Miss Q questions the team's basic counting ans spelling skills, as pointed out unanimously by the class.  Not that it made them lose credibility.

Miss Q smiled as she watched Big L correct the kids when all of them got it wrong.

"No! It's steroids."
"That's why they're the Crossroads Teacher's and ya'll can count." added Miss Q.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

Then, Miss Q went over to Anderson to see her kids, escorted by Ms. Scoutticus and Miss R.

Q-tip of the Day: Q-tips In Their Ears refers to Miss Q giving daily examples and life lessons, not grooming sessions, and certainly not that other thing you were thinking when you first read it.

After wishing Air-bear and Stewbeef (Los Compadres Profesoros) good luck on their teaching with the 3rd graders, Mrs. R came with me to Miz Boss' room.

Miss Q didn't take two steps through the door before stopped by a wide-eyed Zefron.

"I did it Miss Q. I did what I was supposed to do."
"Glad you manned up."

This was refering to his binding obligation to escort the redheaded Mariska exactly one lap and say that he liked her. Of course, this was Nancy Drew's doing, along with her best friend Princesstard.

"I didn't hold her hand, though." Miss Q's disappointment was written all over her face.

Miss Q thought she noticed CP had new glasses. No, I've had these said CP. Miss Q can be a bit unobservant at times. However, she did notice the Miss Beiber had straightened her hair, usually blondish, thick, and wavy.

Mrs. R likes 4th grade. I introduced her to a few of him.

"There's Dubby. He's got a trick." 
Dubby can stick his tougue out and touch the back of his head. He can also stick his head through a a little tiny hole.

As Miss Q and Miss R watched them do cursive, Miss Q caught some of their eyes as they worked. Either to say hi, or to get em' back on task.

When they lined up for Spanish, Fruitbat made a come-over gesture. Fruitbat is quiet, quirky, and at times cuttingly insightful. Miss Q sometimes has to ignore her when she has these 'little secrets', if only to keep from laughing too hard.

"Pssst."

Miss Q walks over.

"You're a good dancer."

Aww Fruitbat, you're making her blush! Fruitbat of course announced earlier that she had seen Miss Q onstage for Hairspray. It was strange for her to think about her kids, watching her in the audience.

In Art, they were weaving little tapestries. You know the ones with a weft and a wight or something like that? Miss Q took a photo.

FruitBat's art piece.

Speaking of masterpieces, Nancy Drew wrote the most amazing paper. The assignment was just to write a sentence including each of the vocabulary words. Not Nancy Drew. Her paper is typed and ... well, see for yourself.

To get a better view, right click, select open link in new window, then click that. Then the text will be larger.

The Gage didn't seem to be in a good mood today, because he was acting a bit smart alecky.

"Who wants to sit by themselves?"

"I do!"

Finally, when Gage got told to sit by himself he said "Thank you."

"Your welcome." replied the Art Teacher, not missing a beat. Miss Q came over and asked him how he was doing and he said fine. He was happy to explain how the weaving worked. Miss Q loves The Gage.

The art room was layed out with colorful spools of thread. Yarn was everywhere. Walking around, Miss Q admired all the colors and patterns being used, but she couldn't help but notice a lonely spool of tan and pink thread.

"Why is no one using this one?" She asked, playfully.

"Cause it's ugly!" said Idaho. Fate agreed wholeheartedly.

"No it's not." Miss Q defended on behalf of the poor spool. Everyone at the table seemed to agree that it was Ugly, though. Who knew what was going on in Miss Q's head, but she felt a touch of sympathy for the poor thing.

"Hey Uniqua (formerly known as Monet)"

"Yeah?"

"Wouldn't you want to use this thread?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Cuz it's ugly Miss Q. You know it's ugly."

Oh, but Miss Q pretended not to know. Eventually, she got Memphis to use it. She has a picture of Fate and Zefron holding the Ugly Spool but I told she 'sho nuf' better not post them without permission.

That's it for today. Isn't that story AHmazing though? Miss Q read it to a certain employed adult who prefers to remain anon. Her reaction?

"She writes better than some of my staff!"

Miss Q agrees. It's that good.