Wednesday April 27th, 2011 (Week One)

I've mentioned the route Miss Q likes to take to reach the playground, but you should also know that in order to get to the turtles, you walk past a mini-playground for the smaller set. Today there was a group of younguns crawling on their knees pretending to be puppies. They barked and whined convincingly while the two 'handlers' shouted orders. All were welcome to play, it seemed. It was the kind of scene that left you feeling lighter afterwards. They threw themselves into their roles with humble abandon, content with being part of the group and noticeably not caring which particular puppy they found themselves next to. Even though there were different roles, none all seemed equal.

I'm not sure if Miss Q could throw herself into a silly pretend game the same way this point in her life. The turtles probably could, but even with them there was a difference. I wonder at one point did the turtles grow out of the puppy games and into social ones.

Walking towards the turtles, this time she came upon Nancy Drew and Princesstard on the swings. The conversation that followed seemed natural and unplanned but the question that started it was by design.

"What's your favorite book?"

Nancy Drew is one turtle that Miss Q doesn't talk to as often. But definitely not for lack of things in common. Her eyes lit up.

"A Dog's Life. It's a 4.9"

Miss Q feigned disappointment.

"You know I don't like books with the dog dying."
"True. But this actually makes the book better."
"Really?" wondered Miss Q with calm interest.
"Yes."

Princesstard's favorite author was Percy Jackson. Sort of.
"The author's name is Rick Rogaine, Princesstard." corrected Drew. Because of their friendship, Princesstard was gratefully accustomed to Drew's bluntness. She just really liked the Percy Jackson series in general. Whatever that is.

Miss Q told them about the A.R system, and how it could be mastered by simply reading a Harry Potter Book and gaining at least 25 points from a 10 question test. Nancy Drew happily explained the class owls, which involved reading a book, creating a questions, and making a diorama. Miss Q had seen Nancy present her diorama's before. They are similar types of students. Even in front of a classroom, Miss Q also feels at ease explaining books.

Nancy Drew mentioned that she could retrieve the book for Miss Q but it was still a pleasant surprise when she handed it over during cursive. She was beginning to start conversations with Co-Pilot and Solomon so that's how Miss Q found out she was ahead on her reading work. Hmmm.

When Miss Q suggested The Narnia series, she let out a little 'meh'.
"I heard they were a little cheesy?" (What???)

Somewhere, Lady Finch sneezed.

When the bell rang to line up, Miss Q took a moment to steal away and talk to The Gage.
"I thought about you this morning."
"Why."
"I spent all night working on an assignment for English and then left it at home. I felt really bad after that. But then I remembered what I told you yesterday. Ya know? Try anyway. Because that's what you did."
"Ok." he said, probably wondering why she shared that.
"Organization's not my thing."
"Me neither."

Miss Q wanted hoped that she could get across the idea of trying even without natural ability. What she said, though, was actually only a brief explanation of a ton of different emotions, gains, and failures. Truthfully she had forgotten and remembered only to forget many other things in the same morning. Miss Q: short-sighted, disorganized, whiny, sulky, and procrastinating. It's like someone looking at themselves in a fun-house mirrors. From the inside these weaknesses seem to swamp and overshadow any other qualities she might have. But by that point in the day the answer was obvious. Try anyway.

Lunch was fun. Beancurd tried to move his seat. Beancurd I need you to move back to your seat...Beancurd I need you to back to your seat... Beancurd... "ok ok blahbedyblahweirdladyharrassingmmmeeee". Beancurd always talks. The thing is not to acknowledge every thing he says. Who know how many hours of fun he's had with that already. The broken record method, with an easygoing but firm tone, did the trick this time.

Sitting next to Fruitbat who was sitting next to Beancurd was interesting. Fruitbat regaled me with a series of jokes. "Who's the newest pop singer out there?" "I don't know?" We eye each other in curiosity. "Lady Goo Goo Gaga!"

You have to be careful with Fruitbat. She has a biting wit. If she tells you a gossipy secret, there's always the danger of it actually being funny and that's always inconvenient. But Miss Q was ready today.

Uniqua, noticing me explained her harshness was because she gets cranky with the whether, launched on a story against Nala.

"She got a attitude with me. All I did watch her and she was like 'Whatchu lookin at!'."
"So then I came in and I was like, Sumthin ugly that's for sure."

I'd already mentioned earlier that Uniqua uses all her good all-star qualities against people sometimes. She agreed. As for Fruitbat... not nice.

"But it's the truth." Sigh.
"No. If someone calls you ugly, you can't say it's untrue just because you disagree. That's how they see it. But it's still hurtful."
"True, I guess."
"Don't do it. You wouldn't want someone to call you ugly."

It seemed to make sense then.

" I. get. irritated." Uniqua repeated, though in a decidedly good mood.
"I know." said Idaho. "You show me pink all the time, even though you know it makes me angry."
"You're like my best friend though." Instantly a part of Miss Q's brain went, 'umm, when was this?' but that was when she noticed the fickle quality of the turtles groupings.

For instance, Fate had become 'popular'. She chattered happily beside Skinny Jeanz, whispering in her ear, discussing her past boyfriend, and laughing at Beancurd's antics. She was 'in'. Truthfully, Miss Q didn't know whether to celebrate or not. Nala was apparently on the outskirts. There was also the fact that Solomon no longer flirted so much with Skinny Jeanz. Both of them seemed slightly subdued. Maybe their break apart had cooled their little romance.

On the far side of the table sat Nancy Drew, Princesstard, Mariska, Dexter and The Brit. They were a solid little table with a nice three-seated distance away from ours. Miss Beiber (Miss Q guessed with her eyes closed at Fruitbat's questioning) was missing and in silent lunch. Miss Beiber's finger is now covered in a cast. After Miss Q accused her of ridiculous sneaky dealings, she explained that her brother had shut the cutlery drawer with her finger still inside.

After cursive, the turtles had the opportunity to catch up on some of their work. Miss Q cringed inwardly as she saw the new set of Clique novels on Miss Beibers desk. Because what we really need, ladies and gentlemen, is more Clique novels. Princesstard got her rug in a hurry.

"Miss Q, would you please come over and help my table get along." she said, a bit annoyed.
Miss Q wish she'd stayed. She could use some of her diplomacy.

Fate and The Gage are notorious enemies. They argued quietly and alone at their table. The funny thing, I highly doubt they actually dislike each other. It just made life more interesting.

As Miss Q sat down, they stopped and went back to their work. Yeah. That's what I thought.

But The Gage had the dreaded Morphed Animals worksheet, with it's one finished paragraph. Uh oh.
Suddenly he becamed extremely engaged (note choice of words) with drawing a disfigured puppy head on the back of his cursive. Here it comes.

He scrutinized the eraser of Miss Q's 'special' mechanical pencil. He asked her questions about the pencil. Fate also distracted a bit, discussing the methods to take care of the pencil she would trade Miss Q.

Maybe because he sensed how much Miss Q wanted for him to work, he got a bit of leverage.
"I'll work as soon as I hit the pencil." He tried. He missed. He hit the pencil.
"I don't wanna work."

Miz Boss noticed all this.

"Gage, put the scissors back." she said dangerously.

When it was time to go to art ("Yesss! Art!!"), Miss Q told him what she saw. "You use distractions in order to not do your work."
"Nuh uh! I did do something."
"You didn't write anything."

Miz Boss told him to stay behind. Miss Q wondered how Miz Boss would approach him as she followed the turtles into art.

Besides Beancurd quickly being sent out of the room, art was pleasant. Miss Q discussed art and the meaning of the word regional with Mariska and Princesstard. She glazed her mother's day spoon at a little table with Co-Pilot, Fate, and Dexter. She laughed at Co-Pilot.

"You make me laugh Co-Pilot." Like Zefron, Co-Pilot is extremely hard not to like. He's just a jovial, roundish red-head with a huge grin always plastered on his face.

"Don't worry purple. You'll be used soon enough." Miss Q laughed. Fate was in a good mood. She was trippin.

"Yes, don't worry purple. You're so lucky to be used by the beautiful, amazing Fate." I love Fate's glasses, which she took off for me that day. They made her more Fate-like. And she never did look more like Fate than when saying that.

"Poor purple." Yeah. That was Miss Q. Co-Pilot smirked. A pause.
"Hey!"
"Just kidding. Heh heh." Sheepish.
"Don't worry purple," Fate added. "You won't be used by that awful lady who called me mean."

The Gage came to art sullenly. Later Miz Boss told Miss Q that The Gage had to make a teary call home over his work not being done. Of course they both understood how much The Gage wanted to escape from writing. Miss Q had a good feeling about it but there was still the problem of how The Gage responded to writing assignments ahead of him. In the fourth grade there's a huge writing test. If he can use all that determination (stubbornness) than he'll be in good shape. But Miss Q can't do it for him.

March 27th, 2011 (Week 1)

Morphed Animal Report: Planning Sheet (To Be Five Paragraphs)

First Paragraph
*Introduce that we are in the year 3000 and you are a scientist working to morph two species of animals...

Miss Q took the long way down the fourth grade hallway to get to the awkward turtles. The walk is longer, so it gave her more time to think. Plus, she always wondered which turtle would notice her first since she came from the back.

There was a tradition among some of them that meant some of them dropped everything to go run to Miss Q. The boy band made it a competition, seeing who could tag her first. It was Boo, quiet as usual, who found her first.

He hasn't been that quiet lately.

"Zefron's not here." he explained. "We don't know where he went."

Without Zefron, the Boy Band had a disjointed quality. His bright personality and good humor always was a favorite with Solomon, Co-Pilot, and Boo. Poor Co-Pilot instead had to settle for teasing Miss Beiber. I wish I could say the nicknames they came up with, but they're too close to their actual names.

Miss Q laughed. The teasing had a playful, innocent quality about it. The turtles, perhaps because they were back from spring break, all managed to get along. Even on the way to the computer lab, The Gage only tried to torture Fate halfheartedly like a little afterthought, dangling his sheet of paper in front of her face untill she glared at him.

Beancurd was his usual overtalkative 'whatchagonnado' type self, but he hadn't found something to be angry about yet. Miss Q made sure to ask him how his mouth had been over Spring Break.

More important things happened. Nancy Drew revealed her views on custodians.
"You know how they are." she said. "That's probably why they're custodians." What? Nooooo.
"I was a custodian!" I say, almost pathetically (I should probably explain. Nah) She has a deep sense of sarcasm and is a gifted writer. She reminds Miss Q of a friend.
"I know. But you're not one anymore."

Miss Q didn't have an argument prepared at that point. But then again, Nancy Drew probably liked a good debate, didn't she? Hmmm.

Other important things? Fate's baby sister could come at any moment. Miss Q should know because the third time Fate told her she made sure to remind her she could be picked up to the office any moment... any second... any moment.

Fourth Paragraph: Food
*What will this animal eat? Must be foods that are found in your chosen environment.
*Explain HOW your animal gets its food...

I sat next to The Brit, who seemed to be on frosty terms with Dexter. Miss Q was surprised to hear they didn't spend any of their break together.

"I went on a cruise." said Dexter
"Nobody cares." said The Brit, uncharacteristicly.
"Miss Q cares," reminded Dexter. Miss Q agreed.

We discuss how Miss Q can always sense which turtles weren't present without having to look around. She closes her eyes.... hmmm Zefron and Skinny Jeanz. Neat huh? Freakazoid was chatty and as usual, openly affectionate, making sure to remind Miss Q how she shared in the classes awkwardness. We got into a political discussion. Miss Q needs help recovering from it. Is Al Qaeda a group or a person? Taliban is Afghanistan? What? In Miss Q's defense, sometimes the news and 4th graders are equally reliable.

As a rule, all fourth graders must destroy their food before they eat it. We discuss this. On Miss Q's left, Idaho attacks her potato chips and offers plenty of conversation. It's kind of nice, since before we seemed to have nothing to talk about.

Second Paragraph: Adaptations
*Can it fly away? Hide in inside its shell? Stand very still and blend into surroundings?...

Solomon seems sad. He gives a short mumbled answer when questioned once. Somehow I think it has to do with more than just Skinny Jeanz not showing up.

In the computer lab, Mook and Freakazoid, of course have the required empty seat between them. Mook forbids Miss Q from sitting there. Miss Q managed to look so heart broken, he even looked a little guilty.

Of course, seeing as Mook and Freakazoid have an assignment to do, she sits over there anyway. I remember as A kid, sometimes having an adult right there would almost help you concentrate. Like the goofyness that I always had would go away long enough for me to focus. That's how Mook and Freakazoid are. Then there was The Gage.

Miss Q knew what he was doing before she looked at him. Sitting at his desk, red head flat on the desk with a comatose posture, he had already checked out. I mean, it was a writing assignment. The first time Miss Q met The Gage was in a reading group. There was certainly a lot of distraction to deal with that first time. We were adversaries. And since then, The Gage still desperately wants to escape writing.

Not all the time though.

"You forgot the sheet." He said promptly, the minute he saw Miss Q at recess. He was referring to the writing assignment she had with her mini-lesson. A miracle had happened then. "Now I know writing is easy." he said. He wanted to stay and finish what he'd started. I think he liked the steps I came up with. I don't know. If he was only trying to make me happy, it definately worked.

I guess this new determination of his that he showed was what caused Miss Q to walk over to him this time.

His little freckled face was flat on the desk, slowly drawing a dark smiley face. Helpless.

"You told me writing was easy, remember?" Miss Q prompted.

"But my hand hurts." he sighed. "Can't get this pencil to work." he mumbled, taking the the point of his pencil and jamming it until it was broken. The Gage clings desperately to distractions, accepting alternate preoccupations (even annoying ones) with open arms.

"Try anyway."

He fiddled with his pencil some more. It was a brand new pencil, he muttered.

"Don't worry about it." A pause.

"Ok."

Paragraph 1...

Hi.

"I can't use this pencil."

"Take mine." Miss Q handed him a new mechanical pencil. She told him it was a special pencil since it happened to match her shirt that day.The eraser was gone, but he had an eraser.

"Try anyway." Miss Q said again.

Hi. My name is The Gage. I come from the year 3000. I am a scientist working to morph two species of animals.

Almost everyone else was typing theirs. The words looked like a solid paragraph on his looseleaf. When Miss Q left, she knew there was a chance he might not finish the rest of the paragraph. But he'd done 100 % more than what he would usually had done.

It was like a scene out of Love and Logic. Couldn't really have done that a few weeks ago.

Los Angeles' Combat High School (Blog 18)

"A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs.

The troubled campus in South Los Angeles was locked down after the fight broke out at 12:55 p.m., as students returned from lunch to their fifth-period classes. Overwhelmed school officials called Los Angeles police for help, but students and faculty said it took about half an hour before dozens of officers, many in riot gear, restored order.

"The kids were crazy, running from place to place, jumping on other kids," said Reggie Smith, the school's band director, who said he ran to pull his students from the melee. "Some of my kids were crying because they were walking to class with friends and they got jumped."

Los Angeles Unified School District police said that there are only two officers assigned to Locke but that the school police force brought in about 60 officers after receiving word of the brawl. The Los Angeles Police Department also dispatched more than a dozen patrol cars and about 50 officers.

Susan Cox, an LAUSD spokeswoman, said police arrested four people -- three students for fighting and one non-student for illegal possession of a knife. Four students were treated in the school nurse's office for minor injuries.

The campus at 111th and San Pedro streets has long been one of the city's most troubled. This school year has been particularly difficult, with near-daily fights -- albeit on a much smaller scale -- during much of the fall and winter. Locke is about to be reorganized as a cluster of charter schools run by Green Dot Public Schools, which will take over in July, and some faculty and staff have accused the district of letting the campus drift in its final year as a traditional public school.

"Morale has really dropped because they don't feel like they have everybody behind them," cheerleading coach Marlo Jenkins said recently. "There are just fights upon fights upon fights now."

Faculty members and Green Dot complained that L.A. Unified nearly halved its funding for non-police security aides at the start of the year. The school has been especially plagued by tagging crews -- the school employs two full-time workers just to paint over graffiti, said Green Dot's Kelly Hurley, who is managing the transition.

Faculty members also complained repeatedly about in-school ditching and a massive tardiness problem. Finally, the district restored some of the trimmed security, faculty said, and also dispatched an additional administrator to help restore order. Until then, the district had relied on Principal Travis Kiel, who'd been brought back from retirement. In recent weeks, students and teachers have reported improved conditions -- less ditching, a little less graffiti.

But then came Friday's melee, which students and teachers said was by far the worst of the year, perhaps the worst in years.

Joseph Sherlock, a senior, 17, who has been at Locke for four years, called it "my first actual encounter with a riot." He added: "I've seen fights, and I've seen fights between black and brown, but I've never seen anything like this."

Sherlock, who said he saw police use pepper spray during the melee, said tensions between African American and Latino students have not been a serious problem at the school. With an enrollment of 2,600, Locke is 65% Latino and 35% African American.

"It's not the way it's portrayed in the media; that's not what it's like at all," said Sherlock, who is black. Another black student, Ronald White, said African American and Latino students commonly divide along ethnic lines but aren't necessarily hostile. "Everybody usually just sticks to themselves," he said.

White, a 17-year-old senior, said he had just stepped from a main building into the school's grassy quad when he was met with a scene of chaos.

Hundreds of students were outside, and from what he could see, "Most people was fighting." Eventually, police began to swarm onto the campus, and White said the students began fighting the officers, who responded with their batons.

"I was in the corner, just watching," he said. "I saw a girl get hit by the police and she went down."

Senior Victor Wong, 18, said the brawl grew out of a fight two days earlier between a Latino student and an African American student. Wong said Latino students who are friends of his asked him to participate in a fight planned for Friday that was to pit 10 Latino students against 10 African American students.

"It was a crew-on-crew thing," he said, referring to graffiti gangs. "They asked for my help, but I'm graduating," he said. "I'm done with all that."

Wong said the two groups of instigators met as planned at the school's handball courts, and "all of them started going at it." Within seconds, he said, the fight escalated beyond the original two groups, and people began running throughout the campus fighting.

"They would finish one place and run to another corner and fight," he said.

"Security didn't know where to go," Wong added. "They'd concentrate in one spot and something would happen somewhere else. This is the worst I've seen."

Minor injuries at the scene were treated by the school nurse and L.A. Fire Department personnel. No one required hospitalization, the school district said. There were, however, some descriptions of students being badly beaten.

Wong said he saw one student beaten unconscious on a handball court. Sherlock said he saw one Latino student walking along Saint Street, the road that bisects the campus, when he was surrounded by a large group of black students who began hitting and kicking him. "He was bleeding real bad," Sherlock said. "When they stood him up, he kind of collapsed back down."

Sherlock, who is a member of the Black Student Union and the school's new House of Representatives, which was formed to help guide the transition from traditional school to charter, added that he had tried to stop the fighting, but to little effect. After securing order, authorities rounded up the students who hadn't returned to class and segregated them by race, holding Latinos in the boys gym and African American students in Hobbs Hall, the school's multipurpose room.

Beginning at 2 p.m., school officials began releasing students in small groups to go home. The school remained on lockdown until the last group had left about 3:15 p.m.

LAUSD's Cox said that there would be an enhanced police presence at Locke during school hours next week and that the district would send human relations staff to the school to talk to students.

In recent years, melees have broken out periodically at many campuses with a black and Latino presence, including in Los Angeles, Lynwood and Compton. There have been fights between Latinos and Armenians in other areas that led to campus lockdowns.

In nearly all cases, no serious injuries have resulted, but the incidents have frightened students and parents, marred the reputation of schools and hindered the learning of students who frequently already face substantial academic challenges.

"How do you build anything here when something happens and adds to the negativity?" asked band leader Smith.

Q: I was going to post an article on teachers dealing with helicopter parents but I've never been able to wrap my head around stories like this.


You know: the schools full of gang activity, violence, and racial tension. One of the questions I've had in my head is how much should schools tolerate students who's behaviour puts other students in danger and keeps them from learning? "Students shouldn't be entitled to an education regardless of how disrespectful and misbehaving they are," goes one view.

 But this ---"Until then, the district had relied on Principal Travis Kiel, who'd been brought back from retirement." caught my attention.

How could a principal change the dynamic of a school like this? Ive seen examples of this.

This lady.
That lady.
THAT man

Each of them have something that I see in common. They often take an active grassroots approach to their students. Things like knowing the names of all the students, going after the students who don't show up, and fearlessly dealing with parents are no surprise to them.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I read articles like these is to increase security measures. But I think it's only a temporary to the real problem. The number one thing I can think of to help schools like these is administrators that are willing to get involved with students lives. The first link features a woman who promised to get a mohawk if the students got at least a 70 on their SOL scores. If you read, you'll see the results were even better than that.

The Order of Things (Blog 17)

The Order of Things

There are some things that surprise Miss Q about elementary.

The turtles seem to have a self-awareness of themselves in the social pecking order of things. The same awareness that Miss Q now remembers she had herself in fourth grade.

There are several groups in the class.
The "boy band" The Atomic Ponies, with Zefron, Dubby, Co-Pilot, Boo, and Solomon.

Their sophisticated female counterparts the Chippettes: Mariska, Nancy Drew, and Princesstard.

The two bright best friends, somewhat considered sissies: Dexter and The Brit.

The Trio: Freakazoid, Mook, and The Gage.

The Girls (popular?): Uniqua/Miwok, Miss Beiber, Skinny Jeanz and ... Beancurd. Have to explain that one sometime.

And the rest are somewhat misfits. Fate gets along consistently with few classmates. Rickster is just the opposite. He's the tallest of the class, talks slowly, has a largish frame. He just wants to chill, man. Fruitbat sometimes hangs out with the Girls but sees herself as the weird, quirky chick. She can't stand Fate. Memphis often shows off in misbehavior in front of the girls. The boy band and the rest of the boys think he's pretty bad to the bone and all that, but find him unapproachable. Nala sometimes doesn't seem as accepted, but it doesn't appear to bother her.

This is what the class is like, I think to a 4th grader experiencing it. There's good pressure and bad pressure. The boy band to me has the most positive, drama free, and fun connections. However I worry about the Girls (along with Beancurd). They're nice to me, but not nearly as nice to everyone else. Uniqua is a prime example. I feel like because of her charm, grades, or all-star quality she gets away with a lot of harsh words. Especially towards Fate.

Of all the groups, Miss Q has yet to have one-on-one interaction with any of The Girls. They're always together, acting up as a unit. And the clique-ish quality makes a Cadet uneasy. Miss Q hopes that now that she realizes this, she can influence them to want to think for themselves and have a better influence on each other.

Miss Q has made sure to let Fate know she's allowed to switch to other table if she gets too angry. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is normal, right?

I don't want my turtles to be normal.

The new goal (coming to me as I write) is to change the status quo amongst the turtles. We lack chemistry, it's been said. We don't mesh. Oddballs. What needs to be done now is to make sure that values that are really lasting are at the top of the pecking order, and things like the phantom elementary "popularity" are at the bottom.

The cool thing about elementary school, or specifically Awkward Admiral Elementary, is rather than just pushing them through test scores, the teachers really care about what the students are like. This just isn't the same in a high school. It goes along with the character education bit in the curriculum and is necessary and practical to run a classroom but values are sincere and genuine. In elementary school, one of the most important things is learning how to be in a classroom. That's what's so great about it.

For Fate sometimes being in a classroom means stess and rejection. For Memphis on some days it means showing out to get attention, to keep a tough devil-may-care attitude. TheBut there are countless moments when being part of a classroom means being part of a classroom.

The silence that falls when the teacher demands silence and means it. The cheer when the class earns Footballs in P.E. Reminding each other (gently or not) which of their assignments is missing. Answering questions earnestly. I hope I never take for granted being apart of that.

Educational Article #3: Waiting for Superman (Blog 11)

3/21/11: My Own Boy Band, The Atomic Ponies (Blog 10)

"Bye Atomic Ponies bandleader." Zefron whispers as Miss Q exits the computer room.

"I thought you were the leader."

"Oh right... well, you're the manager."

Zefron, all warm brown eyes, and outstanding sense of humor heads what Miss Q calls her "boy band."

On a very interesting day when Miss Q went with the awkward turtles to play soccer for P.E (remind her to tell you about it) Miss Q remembered afterward a comment the coach made about the classroom.

"I guess there's just a weird chemistry going on in this class. They don't seem to mix so well."

This was of course referring to the turtles P.E performance. There had been some spectacular moments. Miss Q got them excited, got them to chant about teamwork and how awesome they were gonna do in the class together.

...And then Uniqua (who now wants to be called Miwok) let loos her sassy mouth on Fate and Fate broke down into tears on the sidelines. As Miss Q gently encouraged her to get back in, the morale of the teams seemed to sink from their, dissolving into general irritation at one another's lack of performance.

"It's usually the girls." Noted Lady Finch.
"You guys are gonna be around each other for a long time. Ya'll should start learning to get along." Said Coach.
"You're kids are crazy." Said Stewbeef, although at that point, when they were excited, Miss Q thinks he meant in a good way.

But a weird chemistry? Did Miss Q's class just not blend well like oil and water. Maybe. Fate so far has yet to get along with anyone in the classroom on a consistent basis without having to take herself out of the situation. Her method that she's learned is to isolate herself when she's angry, which is good, but Miss Q still wants her to figure out new ways to handle her emotional issues.

The Gage, Freakazoid, and Mook hanging out together is usually trouble, althoug Miss Q has amazing incidents to report for bothe of them. Nala is another mystery. The other girls seem to shun her at times, maybe because of her looks. She's a very dark girl with lines crisscrossing her face that remind you of scars.

"Quit acting like you're popular." Fate often lashes at Nala, who is often one her only allies. The class seems to have come to a general consensus on Fate. We may not be allowed to show meanness to her but we sure don't have to try to be nice to her. If only they weren't practically the same treatment?

Uniqua and Miss Beiber have sassy mouths and are very sly. Even catty. And Rickster? Well, he just wants to eat his lunch and chill.

So with troublemaking groups, catty mouths, and flaring tempers, does our group just have any chemistry?

Only if you know where to look. Five boys: Zefron (the funny one), Boo (the quiet one), Solomon (the wild one), Dubby (The One who does all the tricks with his arms) and Co-Pilot (The red-headed jovial one).

They sit together at lunch, play together at the playground, cheer for each other during Sparkle. Each of the friendships between them are very different and complicated.

One day two weeks ago, The band minus Solomon came running up to Miss Q.

"Solomon's being really mean!"
"Yeah! He gets like this sometimes. He pulled me by my arm into the ground!"
"And he says that word F** a lot."

The meaning was clear, as Miss Q noticed Solomon walking sullenly by himself. The group together had decided that, even though he was mostly a good friend, his behavior as of late was unacceptable and therefore they had to reject him.

In the lunch line, Miss Q asked them what they would do. It was Zefron who responded.

"I think we'll give him another chance."

This is when Miss Q first noticed the powerful dynamic in this little group. There was camraderie, there was order, and their was leadership.

"Ya'll are gonna be my boy band." Miss Q explained to them one day. She had a private word with Zefron.

"Now, whether you realize it or not, what you do influences the group. You have leadership qualities, so guess who I'm looking at whenever you and Co-pilot goof off in line?"

"I don't care." Zefron looks thoughtful for a moment. His body language betrays his words. He seemed to be figuring out if he like the weight of the 'responsibility' on one hand and the chance for extra praise on the other.

From that moment on, the boys took it from there, dubbing themselves the Atomic Ponies. They like it. And Miss Q will continue to find ways to work their natural group chemistry to her advantage. And man is it fun. The collective trust you get from them is priceless.

Speaking of groups.

"Miss Q. Miss Q!" It's Princesstard. As usual she is with Mariska and Nancy Drew, a sophisticated girl trio that remind me uncannily of the Chippettes (you know the girl chipmunks that were always trippin' about Alvin and the boys and offset them so well?)

"Were making a movie! It's like a reality t.v show. In order to get The Atomic Ponies to be in it, they're making us find them hot girlfriends and paying them 50$!"

What? In the lunch line when Zefron was asking honestly, do you see any hot girls around here?, Miss Q pointed to Mariska. His not-so-secret-admirer. Bad Miss Q!

He could barely find a comeback for embarrassment. Zefron said he didn't really want a girlfriend anyway. Good.

I could never find enough space to blog about the things I've seen. Perhaps one day, I'll have a blog-a-thon.

3/08/11: Educational Article #2 Classroom Routines (Blog 9)