DRAGONS

Hannah, my illiterate 7th grader, has a unique reading style. Rather than try to sound out words (because, let's face it, that takes too much time and energy), she just makes them up with no regard for context....or the English language. A sentence that reads, "The rocks are weathered by erosion," will, in her words, turn into, "The riskadecks are warning by exercises." This tendency was especially problematic the other day when she was reading aloud to the class--instead of the word "During," she came up with "Dragons." I couldn't help but laugh along with the class--perhaps not very professional of me, but she didn't seem hurt by the laughter. Now every time I see the word "during" in my reading I can't help but think of "dragons." I hope that never goes away, it never fails to make me laugh out loud.

The weather at the beginning of this past week was BEAUTIFUL and I actually got to see the sun rise like 3 mornings in a row. Of course, now it's back to rain, though the temperatures are still pretty agreeable.

I finally saw the high school girls' basketball teams play. The JV girls were actually, surprisingly, extremely painful to watch, and I even thought about leaving. I like to think that my JV team was more competent. Then the varsity girls played, which wasn't really anything special. The game was somewhat close, but no real great standout players or teamwork. Plus I've heard the girls on that team are real biotches, so I couldn't really watch them without thinking of that. However, the next night I did go to the Junior high boys games. The B team is pretty bad, but the varsity boys are impressive, and very fun to watch. AND I got to sit with some of my favorite 7th graders, and watch the awkward 7th grade "couples" as they sit next to each other and don't say a single word to one another.

The Shakespeare unit in freshman English is already proving to be very interesting. The first assignment was a group project to make an informational poster about Shakespeare in a class period. The boys and girls were divided up, and the girls' group included the 3 ESL students and 3 girls who I've never seen lift a finger to do their work. The ESL students had prepared facts and questions to put on the poster, and were ready to buckle down; the other 3 spent the first 10 minutes talking and laughing about how Shakespeare may have been gay. Finally they came together and actually produced a decently interactive poster. The ESL girls made up all of the questions and found the answers, and therefore provided the "educational" aspect. The one question the other 3 contributed, which occupied the largest space on the poster, was, "What was Shakespeare's sexuality?" The answer on the inside said, "You'll never know, tee-hee." Despite my slight frustration at how the work was distributed for that project, I still thought that was kinda funny.

Freshman English quote of the week:

The class discussion focused on how Romeo and Juliet were from parents who hated each other, and didn't want them to marry. Savannah raised her hand and said, "I know exactly what type of person my mom wouldn't want me to marry: BLACK CHIC!"

6 more weeks of winter? I think not....

Important points:

-I love my job

-I'm psyched that we've just begun a new semester, because these kids need to start over with new grades

-I almost lost Bernarda, but then got her back

-I love working with the migrant program

-I wanna live in Portland next year, but I actually strongly considered staying in Mossyrock for another term....go figure

To elaborate:

As I was reflecting on my americorps term so far (I had to do this because I had my mid-year evaluation with Rich, my supervisor), I've realized just how happy I've been working at Mossyrock. There are certainly aspects that I don't like about my americorps position--I'm heavily affected by other people's negative attitudes, I get more than a little bored living in Morton, I get frustrated with the low standards of the schools in the community, and I still really really really don't like the Teen Center. However, I feel really connected with the students, and from day to day, that's all I really need.

I'm struggling with how to handle academics. With my ESL students, they're all extremely motivated to do well....and doing well for them usually means ending up with a low B or a C. How great would it be if I got a couple of them up to a high B or an A? I think that in math, it's a definite possibility, that seems to be their strongest subject. A real adventure is about to begin when we read Shakespeare in their English class. The language in Romeo and Juliet is hard enough to understand for native English speakers, so it will be extra challenging for the ESL students. They will have a Spanish version to work with, so that should be helpful.

With the junior high students, academic motivation is still so challenging. I can only really force them to do homework for half an hour after school, and since I'm not in their classes, I can't know for sure what homework they have. Overall, the district-wide standard just needs to be higher, so these kids stop settling for Cs just because everyone else is getting them. Some of the students I think have the most potential just settle for mediocre because that's what they're used to, and that's all that is necessary to get by. I guess I need to be grateful if I can influence just a small number of them to improve their grades.

Also, I was on the brink of losing Bernarda, which obviously would've put a real kink in the progress of Project Bernarda. For some reason, which I still don't understand, she and her brother had to move to a different school district, meaning she would have to change schools, start over, and attend classes where basically she wouldn't have...me. So she somehow convinced her brother to drop her off at a bus stop in the morning so she could continue to attend Mossyrock. Working out that bus route involved a lot of complicated planning, and she got on the wrong bus more than once (luckily I found her in time). It should be sorting itself out now. So now (hopefully) I have a semester left to teach her all of the English that I can. This is especially important since she told me she probably will not be going to school anymore after this year, because she'll have to work in order to survive. She is a freshman, so that is just sad. I'm going to try to encourage her to stay in school, but really all I can do is do my best to prepare her for the English-speaking world she is about to enter.

Speaking of migrants, we had our second meeting of the migrant program last week, which had a focus on teaching the parents about the internet. Though they didn't get a large amount of time to use the internet, the time we were in there was very exciting for them as well as for me. The woman I was helping had no experience with computers or internet, and I showed her how to do a google image search. She searched for the city in Mexico that she is from, and all sorts of familiar photos appeared. She proceeded to click on each one and tell me all about it, whether it be a shot of the Cathedral or pictures of people marching in a holiday parade. She would get so excited, she would grab me and want to tell me everything. It was really great to see that kind of enthusiasm, and because of the success of that night, we are having another internet night in February.

Upcoming events:

-This Saturday: we are taking teens from the Teen Center skiing. That's right, I'm going to be in charge of teens while also having to balance on skis. It could be disastrous, but hopefully I won't be in charge of more than a couple of kids, and hopefully I haven't lost ALL of my amazing ski skills.

-Last weekend in February: headed to Palo Alto for Stanford Parents' Weekend. I'm way excited to get out and have a break, and I get to see the family, and Anna and Andrea!

-Coming in May: Healthy living night at Mossyrock. This event has continued to evolve, and has been pushed (way) back from February to May. It will include healthy cooking, exercise machines, doctors, putt putt golf, possibly Wii fit, dance class, and maybe kickboxing. Apparently I will be "taking the lead," and having the kids help plan quite a bit of it as well. I'm super nervous/excited, at least I have a little more time to plan.

Awkward 7th grade science quote:

In science class, the 7th graders each had to take a post-it note and write a question about natural resources. They submitted them to the teacher, and she read each question aloud. The question that got the strongest response was: "What does 'resource' mean? Rachel is hot."