Love my nerds...

GB: "Can I take my book to recess?"
Me: "Absolutely"
GB: With a fist pump and a grin..."yessssssssss"

Conferences

One of my kid's parents just cried during our conference talking about her middle school aged son. Why did she cry? She is terrified that our middle school isn't challenging her son and isn't preparing him to be successful. 

Who exactly are the parents in low-income communities who don't care and aren't invested in the education of their children that I always hear talking heads blame? I haven't really met many. 

Sad. During Recess Reading, JB has decided to sit in MP's desk. He is moving on Friday and I think he will sorely miss who we all think to be his crush. 

I have turned my kids into nerds. Many of them now opt out of recess to come into the classroom and read. Love it. 

Growing pains

Our kids have been growing their own plants for the last two weeks. They have been controlling the variables (water, sun, etc). The results have been hilarious. We have bone dry cups and cups with floating soil. 

After they assess how their experiments have been going, we will be planting new plants. 

Hilarious. 

Spanish vs. English

Yesterday, we read a book about a family returning to Mexico for a visit. A lot of my students really connected with it. 

As I was writing back to YG's journal today, I noticed that she had written something inspired by the book. It was about how some of the people in her family always tease her or pick on her until she'll say something in English. Her teacher last year was also known to talk about how Spanish was "not what we use here." 

I feel so sad for my kids who are taught not to appreciate their native language. Knowing another language is so wonderful. 

Needless to say, I wrote back to her in Spanish. She beamed. 

Reader's Workshop

Thanks to Ms. Wright's planning, my kids read and write in the workshop style. There is an article today about workshop in NYTimes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/30reading.html