My 10 Girls

My job is pretty amazing. I have 10 African American daughters from 4-6th grade. We are starting to become a family in our little classroom. I made reservations for our first field trip (Orchard) and actually felt like a real teacher. They definitely challenge me, but they also adore me and I adore them. Let me explain our day today:

Morning: I, (Miss Trump) arrive late with a frappe in hand. Students hang out playing crossword puzzles in the activities room while I prepare for the day. I finally let them in about 10 minutes after the start of the school day. (Meh, boss was out of town. The rest of the staff felt pretty relaxed today obviously).

Math: Studied for next week's test.

Writing: Nope. Read "Coraline" instead.

Lunch.

Indoor recess due to the funeral procession outside. We watched "Madeline".

Afternoon: Continued watching "Madeline". I look over and see one girl has taken her tracks (fake hair), stuck it on her chin, and was stroking it like a beard. After a moment of fascination I told her it was creepy and she needed to put it back on her head. She looked like a billy goat. Creepy children.
Then took spelling test. Then "Fun Friday" with a surprise visit with cupcakes and ice cream from the birthday girl's mom, granny, and auntie. Told students to go get plates and silver wear. Girls come back with a soup ladle to dish out ice cream. I go with it. Its Friday.
Finished "Coraline". Students were five minutes late for dismissal because we wanted to finish the book.

That was my day. Not necessarily a typical day, but pretty close.

Man It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta

I've been singing this song today with the words changed to "Man it feels good to be a teacha".

I'm lame I KNOW!

Anyway, the reason for this post is to update you all about my life. I had a summer of laying around and thinking that I was never going to get a job. I must have applied to dozens and dozens of schools throughout the US. I had a few interviews, but I didn't get a job. I was offered one job in Arizona, but I turned it down because I didn't agree with their teaching style.

Two Wednesdays ago I received a call from the headmistress of a private girl's academy. The teacher that they hired this summer had a family emergency and cannot accept the position until January. I toured the school, met with a few board members and accepted the position. I am the only teacher at this private academy. I have the job until January for certain and then possibly longer.

I have 9 girls from 4th to 6th grades. I teach them a home-school curriculum for math and language arts and I have a lot of freedom in what else I teach. Last week was art week, this week is drama week, next week will be either music or social studies or science. Then I will rotate. Hopefully we can get a good balance of material this way. I am still working our schedule out. I found that it is best if the girls have a strict schedule that they work in. And for goodness sakes, they need to work in small groups! Whole class instruction gets crazy. I love groups though, so I can make this work.

We have some bullying issues that we are going to work on next week. I am using the books "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes and "Pinduli" by Janell Cannon. Hopefully we can have some good discussions about feelings. Middle school girls are VICIOUS!

We are also working on enrichment activities. These are activities to help them become better people. Team building activities, yoga, meditation, Christian teachings, and other activities are going to be taught. We are a foundation that is founded on Christian values and I am supposed to teach the girls to be better people in the eyes of God. Through this, I will become a better person as well as my girls. Any type of enrichment activities that you can suggest to me are very welcome! I hope to help calm these girls and get them comfortable around each other and themselves.

I feel good about the work I am doing and I know that it will be a challenge. By the end of this experience I will have done so much good! I am truly blessed to have such a great job and great coworkers! I also got an apartment near my school so I am looking forward to moving in there!

Whew this was a long post! I hope that you will continue to read my updates and provide me with any feedback and suggestions! I can use help from sorority women (team building activities!!), teachers (any activities, but especially bullying), Sunday School teachers (enrichment activities), and all the rest of you!

Now for a bath!

The Christmas Singing: an excerpt

Click here for an excerpt from Cindy Woodsmall's latest book, The Christmas Singing.

Click here for a book trailer for the book as well.

The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook: a book review

The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook by Jeff Kinley is a book like none I've ever read. It is half a zombie novel and half a Christian living discussion. Every other chapter follows a storyline about a world with a zombie outbreak and the other chapters are Kinley talking to you (the reader) about living a Christian life by "Slaying the Living Dead Within". Lets start with the storyline aspect of the novel.
Ben Foreman is a man living in a world where zombies are a constant threat. Each person has a dormant zombie gene that could break out at any time. Ben and others are forced to live their lives with their eyes constantly in the back of their heads. This story was compelling and interesting. As a horror fan, I appreciated the zombie element. There was enough creepy imagery to keep my attention, while at the same time I could imagine living in this world so different from my own. Or is it different? The other chapters explain how we are living with zombies in a figurative sense. By following God's commandments and expectations we can live lives unblemished by evil (zombies).
There was a lot of information in these chapters and Kinley's style of writing was very difficult for me to follow. I admit to only being able to absorb a small amount of what he was telling me because of his readability level of writing. The points he was making are relevant and very thought provoking. He used many examples and cultural references that are interesting for today's young people to think about. However, I believe that his language and cadence were too difficult to keep my attention. To reclaim Kinley's points (which I want to do) I will have to reread these chapters.
I recommend this book to young adults who struggle with understanding God. Kinley does an excellent job of breaking God's demands down into levels that are easier to understand and follow.
I received this book free from BookSneeze® for my review.

The Hardest Thing to Do: a book review

This fall I had the pleasure of reading Penelope Wilcock's trilogy The Hawk and the Dove. This trilogy is about the stories a little girl's mother tells her about a group of monks. These tales, which are passed down through generations, include stories about monks learning life lessons. The reader grows to love the monks and care about their problems. When a monk has a personal breakthrough, the reader feels the breakthrough as his or her own. These charming and touching stories are held together by the single storyline of the little girl and her mother.

In 2011, Penelope Wilcock came out with a fourth book in the Hawk and the Dove series, entitled The Hardest Thing To Do. This book contains more small vignettes about monks in the St. Alcuin Abbey. There are a few differences in this book. There is one main storyline in this book, instead of many small ones. This book follows the monks and their reaction to a less than honorable man seeking refuge in their Monastery. I missed the different monks and the variety of life lessons they learned in the first three books in this series. I still quite enjoyed this book, but I liked the setup of the trilogy better. Another difference in this book is the missing thread of the girl as a narrator and her mother as the storyteller. I felt that this common thread held the mini stories together quite nicely. Because this book had the same storyline throughout it, it didn't need the common thread.

As a Christian, I gained a sense of peace reading this book. I was so emotionally invested in this book, I felt empathy and sympathy for the monks in St. Alcuin Abbey. I loved learning about the culture of a monastery, something I previously knew nothing about. Anyone with a love of God would do well to absorb this series, and enjoy every minute of it. Even people with no religious investment would enjoy learning about a different culture and a different way of life. I highly recommend this entire series and eagerly await the next book. I received this book and the preceding trilogy for free from Crossway, a Christian publishing company.

October is Bullying Prevention Month

We all have heard about the latest controversy surrounding bullying. No? Read this. As a student teacher, I have encountered bullying of my students in both 2nd grade and 5th grade. Last week one of my students and a student in the other 5th grade class came to us about being bullied by another student's MOTHER. This mother came to school at the end of the day and said appalling things to my girls in Spanish regarding the friendship of these girls and the woman's daughter. Even though the other 5th grade teacher didn't speak enough Spanish to understand what the woman was saying to the girls, she knew it wasn't appropriate. Seeing the girls upset and scared, the teacher found me and the other 5th grade teacher (my mentor), and we talked to our girls. After a heartbreaking report that moved me to tears, we had the girls write down the incident in as much detail as possible. Today I was emptying my pockets from yesterday and found a note from my student detailing the incident for me. I felt like crying all over again. Bullying from a fellow student is bad enough, but from an adult? What kind of person would come to school and threaten innocent 11 year old girls? Here is a link to visit: http://www.stopbullying.gov/

Qwilleran's Last Stand

I was looking forward to a restful Saturday for my roommate and I to hang out, be lazy, and play video games. We did just that until around 4 or so. Then my beloved hedgehog, Qwill started having a seizure. After a minute, it was over and he was back to normal. About 40 minutes later he had another one. That's when we took him to an animal hospital. He had an episode when we were there and the vet said Qwill was having fainting spells and they had to put him on oxygen to wake him back up. The bills for keeping him overnight and running more tests were more than we could spend. On top of the bills for the tests we would later have treatment bills. So I made the decision to have the poor little guy put down. I couldn't bear to let him suffer through another episode where he thrashes and squeals, which by the way, is the worst and saddest sound I've ever heard. He is now buried in a place that has a lot of meaning for me in Allendale. He was about a year and a half years old and my little baby. RIP little guy.