Countdown to Christmas

Despite the fact that the past couple of weeks have been extremely busy, and the school has been somewhat marred by tragedy, I've managed to get a fair amount of Christmas-related activities in. I've checked off some important Christmas movies, including Bridget Jones' Diary and Love Actually, as well as The Santa Clause, Elf, and Scrooged. Liz and I fully decorated our tree, and it was beautiful until we axed it this evening (we don't want to deal with a dead tree when we come back from winter break). AND we spent all of this evening baking Christmas cookies for an event in the elementary school tomorrow afternoon. They are beautiful, multicolored sugar cookies (Liz insisted on making them colorful, rather than normal sugar-cookie-colored), with a powdered sugar glaze and sprinkles. I've already eaten enough to know that I don't want any more. For now.

Talent Show

Last week was the after school program's talent show and comedy performance. It basically included a lot of cute performances of elementary kids singing miley cyrus and taylor swift songs. The junior high kids attempted to do improv; however, they're at that awkward stage where they are inexperienced (and therefore not real funny) and old enough that they're not exactly cute. Oh well, they tried.

Visitors

I have finally entertained visitors in my trailer! Adam and Kat came all the way from the east coast, and stopped in Morton as part of their epic road trip. It was interesting trying to host people in a town where there is practically nothing to do. However, we cooked dinner, then headed to the local bar. While it had its usual sketchy older men, it also had a fair number of young people, a demographic you don't find much in Morton (apart from the Americorps members). We had an enjoyable enough time, and I think those two can now say that they've seen what there is to see in Morton.

Cispus Christmas Party

At the beginning of our term our whole team got tacky Christmas sweaters from a local clothing drive, and I finally had an excuse to wear mine! The Cispus Christmas party featured all employees of the Cispus learning center (our americorps team's home base), and most of the team. So basically lots of old people, and a group of 20-somethings. It was all right; luckily there was fooseball and pool to entertain us young folk. On our way home, it began to snow, and we got a good 2 inches! Talk about a winter wonderland.

Quack

We ended our last team meeting by quacking, mighty ducks' style. I think it should be a regular occurrence.

2 quoteworthy quotes:

1. Teacher: "Why isn't Keisha here?"

Student: "She's here, she's just....retarded."

2. 7th grade English teacher talking to her class, whom she has told to put their heads down on their desks because they were getting too loud:

"Now, don't look at me! I know I'm the most beautiful thing you've seen all day, but don't--(gasp!) Did someone toot?"

"When you go to college, do you get to have boys over? And can they STAY over?"

Lately I've been feeling a little bit bored with my same old routine, partially because when one student left, I had a gaping hole in my schedule which hadn't been filled....until today. In addition to leaving 3rd period open, I've rebelled against working in the 6th grade math classes because they are such an utter waste of time. I never felt useful in those classes, and often would walk in to find that they were a) not there b) watching youtube videos, or c) making friendship bracelets, among other things. Soooo I just kinda stopped going, for the most part.

Sped teacher?

Today, the principal told me that a girl in special ed needed help in science with reading comprehension, so I stepped up. I actually already know Hannah from afterschool....her special ededness is basically just extremely low reading and writing levels, but she's also one of the most entertaining kids I've met. She spills out wayyyy too much information, lapses into a southern accent and calls me "darlin," and farts constantly. She also told me today that she loves hispanics. And that she can't eat pie because she's a cheerleader and therefore can't get fat. Oh, and the quote in the title of this post is most definitely compliments of her.

Project Bernarda:

In general, today was a satisfying day, between working with Hannah and continuing to work with my four high school students. I was a little disappointed with how much Bernarda forgot after missing school yesterday, mostly because I'm convinced she didn't forget any of it, she just is so freaking lacking in confidence. In English class, she has to write a paper about Pablo Neruda, and she was hardly able to do any research, even with a week in the computer lab, so her rough draft is still only one sentence. I'm trying not to get frustrated with her, since obviously it's not her fault that she has little research and writing experience.

Tragedy strikes:

This past week has been disturbingly full of very sad happenings in Mossyrock, and it just seems like one thing after another. As mentioned, last week a 7th grader was diagnosed with leukemia. Yesterday, another 7th grader's dad passed away in Morton. He had been sickly/in a wheelchair/on oxygen, but apparently had made somewhat of a recovery and was off the oxygen and out of the wheelchair. However, as a result, I guess something in his system failed and he died.

Finally, today, as we are filing into the afterschool program, we learn that there has been a horrible car accident right outside of the school. The English teacher I work with was very concerned because apparently it involved 2 seniors who she had taught when they were in junior high. We kept learning bits of information--they had turned in front of an oncoming logging truck--and we saw the helicopter come in to airlift them out. However, shortly after that arrival, we learned that both driver and passenger had died. I didn't know either of them, but apparently all of the high school students who were still in school were just horrified (understandably so). I don't work in any senior classes, so I don't know how palpable the tragedy will be tomorrow, but surely it's going to be a sad day. It's pretty terrifying that this happened so abruptly right outside our window.

Celebration:

Back to happier things, I had a fun birthday celebration on Sunday. I went with 4 friends to Olympia, went to Red Robin and was sung to/humiliated by the waiters, and went to Trader Joe's. Back in Morton we made dinner: baked brie, gnocchi, and spinach cheese squares, all of which was delightful. This Friday is Liz and my joint birthday party, which I am very much looking forward to. And a week from Friday I fly home!

And finally:

Pre-algebra quote of the week:

Teacher talking to student who was gone yesterday: "You need to focus on now. You can't worry about the past, what you missed yesterday, because you need to learn what I'm teaching today. Focus on the present."

Random student: "I like presents."

Teacher: "Oh I love presents."

Other random student: "I really love balloons."

Motivated students are my crack....if only there were more of them

I've really come to realize just how lucky I am to be working with the students I'm working with. The majority of my americorps team, working in their respective schools, are assigned to target the problem students, the ones who act out, who really need help being convinced that doing their work is worth it. However, the ESL students that I'm currently working with actually want to do well! They buckle down when everyone else is doing nothing, they ask me questions when they don't understand, and they do their entire assignments.

In particular, 2 twin 9th grade girls, who I've had since the beginning, have become much more confident in expressing themselves, especially in English. They greet me warmly, constantly ask questions (not just work-related questions), and speak English with me the majority of the time. Bernarda also puts forth effort, although it's obviously more difficult for her to speak with confidence when she doesn't know the language. HOWEVER, I'm definitely seeing progress in her skills--she can now pronounce and write her numbers quite well, without as much thinking; she can recognize more English words on paper than at the beginning, and she is becoming less shy about asking me questions. There's definitely still a long way to go--for English she has to do internet research and write a paper about an author (in Spanish). It's pretty hard to do internet research when you can't really type, or for that matter, don't have any familiarity with using the internet. Progress is progress though.

In sadder news, I just learned today that a 7th grade girl that I've been working with after school was diagnosed with a severe form of leukemia. She's going to be stuck in the Seattle children's hospital getting chemo for the next 7-10 months, and her family had to move there as well. It's especially tragic because she is one of the sweetest, most well-behaved kids at that age group, so she has always stood out to me. I am hoping she pulls through.

Back to happier news: I have officially secured a Christmas tree for the trailer! My principal, living on the edge of a tree farm, has some direct connections there, so he's going to chop it down and deliver it to the trailer on Friday night. Finally our place will smell like Christmas magic instead of smelling like it's previous owners/the disgusting carpet shampoo used to clean it. Also, Santa already brought something for my stocking--buffalo jerky! He knew I've been craving my favorite meat since I've been here....Santa always knows.

Freshman boy quote related to Thanksgiving, very revealing of the typical family situations in East Lewis County:
"My Thanksgiving was boring because I didn't really know anybody. It's really weird when you're surrounded by all of your immediate family and you don't really know them."