kick up the leaves

I'm ... so ... tired ...

Trailblazers plus Trophies plus Harcourt Science, my GOD, is this what it's going to be like for the rest of the year? Will the madness calm itself, or will we run ourselves into the ground? Let me give you a sample of what one measly prescribed day of Trophies looks like (you know, because there is no math, social studies, or science to teach):

Question of the Day: What are some of society's unwritten rules of etiquette?
Literature Read-Aloud: "The New Kid" by Mike Makley
Skills and Strategies: Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots (use transparencies)
Skills and Strategies: Make and Confirm Predictions (use transparencies)
Read: Vocabulary Power. List: authority, souvenir, incredible, vow, commotion, exhausted
Writing: "Writer's Craft." Prompt: You want to go on a trip with your friend's family. Your family has never let you do this before. Think about good reasons for being allowed to go on the trip. Now write to convince your family why you should be allowed to go on the trip.
Grammar: Declarative and Interrogative Sentences (use transparencies)
Spelling: Words with short vowels.

It was a freaking three-ring circus around here yesterday and today. I've GOT to do SOMETHING! (If you need an audio-visual to help you imagine how I've been saying this phrase over and over in my head for the past couple of days, go watch that scene in "My Best Friend's Wedding" where Jules is shouting into George's answering machine about how she's running out of time to steal Michael from Kimmy; pretty soon the civilized conversation at George's dies while everyone listens to Julianne's one-sided crescendoing freak-out which culminates with a very emphatic and slightly rabid "We've GOT to do SOMETHING!!"

Well, we did get around to declarative vs. interrogative, and I was rewarded for that with this shining example of a declarative sentence: "Your face is weird!" ... There was a huge gasp after he let loose with that one, and someone murmured, "I don't think you're supposed to say that to a teacher." Previously there'd been good energy, me throwing out examples of sentences and them answering "interrogative," "declarative" or "imperative." The mood was killed, however, when I shook things up and shouted "Okay, gimme declarative!"

"You know I didn't mean that, right?" he said later.

"Interrogative," I replied.

---

"Today was fun because we did a science experiement and I like science experiments. And because today was one of my favorite lunches which was macaroni with bread and butter on top. In science we used materials which were a pinto bean, chalk, oil pastel, and a half-dead orchid petal." - Tasi

"I had a splendid day." - Shael

"Today was fun we got to work in groups and odserv stuff. and in the morning in jpo we thout there were only 1 cat but theres 2 mr. s was feeding them we got to eat sour punch." - Mike

Conversation between me and L. Taka:

L. Taka: I don't know how to answer this question.
me: "Tell specific ways you could show kindness to a newcomer"?
L. Taka: Yeah, I don't understand.
me: Well, how could you be kind to a person who is new? Say, a new student or a new kid in the neighborhood?
L. Taka: I do not know.
me: Can you think of just one thing you could do to be nice to a new student?
L. Taka: No.
me: Why not?
L. Taka: I do not know.
me: If you were new at school, how would you like to be treated?
L. Taka: Horribly.
me: ... pardon me?
L. Taka: Horribly.
me: ... ... ... Why?
L. Taka: - shrug -
me: Let me ask you something. How do you treat other people?
L. Taka: Okay.
me: So why do you want to be treated badly?
L. Taka: I do not know.
me: Do you think that if I gave you some more time to think very, very hard you could come up with at least one or two ways to be nice to a new kid?
L. Taka: - shrug -
Mike: I'll help him! I'll help him!

Instead of utilizing the teachable moment, I threw my hands up. Mike was obviously doing something kind for L. Taka, which I should have pointed out instead of despairing audibly that someone in our class could not think of one single way to be kind to a new student. Sometimes I totally suck.

Answers that appeared in L. Taka's (and Mike's) journal at the end of the day: Shareing, helping, working together.