No I'm not dead, its just High School

Busy is an understatement to my last few weeks at Harborside and searching the job market. I have dropped off a resume and cover letter at about every school in Kenosha Unified and have had two interviews so far and hoping for some more.

I just got back from a 3 day camping trip with too many freshman and I am pooped (not to mention very, very smelly). This camp trip was part of the expeditionary learning style that Harborside adopted in its charter. It gives students an opportunity to participate in intensives which are activities they do to earn credit. They have intensives like sports and games, cooking, forestry and painting. There is also a section of intensives where students have an opportunity to recover credit from classes failed earlier in the year. Since a D at Harborside is considered failing there was a large group for academic intensives. I was in charge of doing the math and biology academic intensives which was very frustrating and a lot of work.

Some students do not appreciate the opportunity they have to recover credit and are not on track to pass the intensive. These go till the end of school and it looks like it is going to be a long week.

Back to this camping trip and a few stories. I was asked to stay in the cabin and chaperon those who did not want to sleep outside in tents. So you can imagine these students did not want to be outdoors for very long. When it was time to go to bed I asked some student to share some scary stories and the response I got was great. One student made up a story about a troll living under the cabin we were sleeping in. Another about some campers who were murdered by some camp counselors and the last student recited to first 20 minutes of the Spongebob Square Pants movie word for word. This is the same student who knows every plot about every Ernst movie which entertained me very much.

It is sad to think in two weeks I wont be with my kids at Harborside anymore but at the same time it will be a relief to be done with student teaching and be licensed in teaching. The job search is the next order of business and am hoping that goes smoothly.

Busy Week, IEPs and Pen Pals

Well I made it through my first week of high school. It was fun and I really enjoy this school and the staff I work with. Somethings that are different from first grade:

• I am not the tallest person in the building or the only one with facial hair
• Ear bud head phones will cause this generation to go deaf, I think these kids were born like the picture left.
• Long hair for guys is very popular (thought I saw 2 girls kiss in the hallway)
• They are not motivated by stickers or high fives but food and "jean days"

Being a special ed teacher with a case load of about 17 students I have a lot of meetings to attend. 6 in my first week and already 4 scheduled for this week. Mostly they are IEP re-evaluations and I have to do a lot to prepare the student and the agenda for the meeting.

Harborside Academy is an all inclusive school so every student I have on my case load is in a regular class. This can be difficult for them because they need differentiated instruction that the teacher does not always offer, that is where my job comes in. I am in the room to help explain or present something to a student in a way they can understand. I have always been good at this and it seems to come natural to me. I have also had the chance to collaborate with different teachers about me planning and teaching lessons which I am really excited about. Mr. Mengel a teacher who went to Carthage and I are preparing some World history lessons on the Holocaust. It it great to work with him because he is a 2nd year teacher and really fun, he also knows a boat load on the subject because he went on a J-term trip to Germany with a focus on the Holocaust. I teach my first high school lesson on Wednesday about a German children's book that was very derogatory towards the Jews.

Mrs. Underwood the English teacher I work with was selected for jury duty so the periods I am in that class I will be in charge. The first few days we are finalizing Renaissance art papers. The students are also working on sophomore passage which is like a half-way point evaluation in high school. The student must pass in order to move onto 11th grade at Harborside.

I have been emailing back and forth with room 105 (my first graders), we have become pen pals. It is great to hear from them and I miss them a lot. Its hard to write G rated stories about high schoolers for the student but I find some fun things to share with them. I will have to prepare a mid-week recap of some of the funny and appropriate stories from high school. If you want the inappropriate ones you have my number. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Harborside Day 1!

Well I knew high school was going to be different than first grade and I think my first introduction says it all. When the teacher introduced me to the class the response from one single student was "What's popping homie?!"Totally different than my reception in 1st grade. I had a great first day though, might have been from the kids being just back from spring break but I'm hoping not.

Since this is my special education placement I do not have a class I have a case load. My load is 14 some need more help than others but all 14 are eligible for my one-on-one service. While I am in the classroom I am a support teacher which I really enjoy and the teachers I work with are great. We talked about opportunities for my to write lessons which sounds great except for Chemistry which wasn't my best subject. Harborside is a Charter school and does some great work which I'm sure you will read about in later posts. This first day had some great highlights and I'm sure your waiting to hear about them.

I was in Mr. Mengal's class during prep-period and listening to his students share about their spring break stories. These give my first grade stories a run for their money! The first student shared that they were a the Dollar Tree and saw a woman dressed as a chicken. Apparently she was buying all the plastic eggs in the store claiming they were her babies. Believability of this story is skeptical but I still laughed. The next girl couldn't tell her story because she had her hand over her mouth and had been doing that all morning, but her friend next to her was quick to tell the story. I guess for some reason beyond me this girl and her friends decided to mess around with duct tape. After placing some over her mouth and having a friend rip it off she was covering up a scar from losing a layer of skin off her top lip. OUCH!

I remember being silly as a 10th grader but that was even out of my league (OK for those who really know me 'maybe not'). Mrs. Lewis is my cooperating teacher and she is a great lady who all her kids love. I am very excited to be learning from her she seems to really reach the kids and thats exactly what I want to be able to do. Overall it was a great first day and I'm excited for more.

Final Days of First Grade :(

I knew this day would come and I wasn't looking forward to it. My last day of first grade was also April Fool's Day so I was hoping someone would pop in and say "April Fools! You're here till June!" but that didn't happen. I really enjoyed my time in room 105 and it was a great learning experience and really did what student teaching is suppose to do, make me a better teacher. I had some great memories from this and if you wanna read about them just scroll down. The last week of student teaching I took a break from planning and teaching and did some observing around the building.

I observed a 4th grade classroom where Mr. Wolf taught and it was very cool to see a male teacher at work (something you don't see in a lot of elementary settings). I really enjoyed my time in the EDBD room with Mrs. Holm see is a great lady and cares a lot about the students but the boys that are in there don't respect her. When I walked in the room I could tell the had respect for me and when I got working with them they were very attentive. It is great to see this kind of change and was fun to help them learn. Sadly the student I was making progress with on Monday wasn't there Tuesday because he was suspended for fighting after Gym Class. I know it would be hard and a lot of work but I would love to have classroom like Mrs. Holm one day to see if what I have learned at Carthage and in my experiences can help these students.

On the last full day of class the first graders surprised me by bringing their lunches back from the lunch room so we could have a "picnic" lunch together (the weather was great!). And after lunch before we went out for recess each student had made a card for me which was very sweet.

The next day was a half day and April Fool's day. The principal started it off by saying "The district called and we have to take standardized tests today so instead of a half day we are staying for a full day..." April Fool's pranks that early are not funny because all the kids thought she was serious. I thought it was pretty good, but if you want to hear a good April Fools prank ask my mother about my tattoo.

After the student's left (some didn't want to leave and some with tears in their eyes) the teachers went out to lunch. Since it was such a gorgeous day Ms. Wrobel's boyfriend picked her up on his motorcycle and they went for a ride. We sat outside at a little diner and enjoyed the good weather. When we went back to school I helped Ms. Wrobel finish 3rd quarter report cards and clean up some St. Patty's Day decorations. She had a gift basket for me with some teacher books and tools in it and my favorite a Michael Jordan kids book. She gave me this because when I brought up Michael Jordan one day in class the students (being born in 2003, mostly) had no idea who I was talking about. Someone started to say Lebron... and I stopped them mid word. Growing up in Chicago in the 90s Jordan and the Bulls were like air and oxygen to me. That was very nice of her to remember that and give me a book on him. We have agreed to stay in touch and I will try to write a weekly email to the 1st graders in room 105 telling them about my high school experience. Thanks to all who read my 1st grade experience on this blog even my D.G. Uncle Bobby out in California who printed out this tome. I hope you all will follow as I start my High School experience on April 12th.

Parents Visit Room 105: Shear Madness!

So my situation was I needed a ride home so I could got to the water polo tournament at Wheaton College and drive a team van home. I called my mom to ask if she could pick me up on Friday and invited her to visit room 105 before I was done student teaching at McKinley. I had planned a lesson at the end of the day ("crazy time" I call it) where my mom could help the kids cut their grass and measure it.When my mom showed up on Friday right after my lunch time I was surprised she had brought my dad too! So we had another Mr. Bax and now a Mrs. Bax in the classroom, the kids were going to be confused.

I went and got my kids from gym class then took them back to room 105 to meet my mom and dad where my mom had pencils for all the students which they loved but immediately asked me to sharpen. The kids then have recess after gym so we headed outside since it was so nice out. After some kickball drama (daily occurrence) and watching Mrs. Bax try to hula hoop (one in a lifetime occurrence) we headed inside to start the lesson. Anytime a teacher visualizes a lesson it almost never goes in that direction but is not usually far off, this time it was WAY off. I have said it before but getting kids to settle down after gym AND recess is like trying to un-toast bread.

This plant lesson involved cutting down the grass the kids have been growing and journaling about our plants growth so far. When the students were done journaling I picked quiet students to go over and see mom and dad where they helped the students trim their plants. We went over how to walk with scissor before in the class and the kids did a good job. I also mentioned to keep them out of their mouths (for those who have read before you know what I'm talking about). One of my girls decided my parents being there meant she had to be the trouble child for the day. After moving her desk against the wall and getting a journal thrown at me the threat of calling her dad got her following directions real quick. This is a girl whose mom said "That is not my favorite child!" at parent teacher conferences. While I was dealing with this the kids did a good job of working on their journals and cutting their grass. I guess in my directions with scissors I forgot to mention another thing not to do: don't cut your hair! One of my students decided this was a good time to give his bangs a trim. I heard a student say he did it and when I looked over his face said it all, guilty. I asked him if he had cut his hair and when he shook his head "no" a few clipping of hair fell out of his head. I decided the goofy look he gave himself was punishment enough and I think he learned his lesson.

This was on the other side of the room from where my parents were and since I took a nap on the ride home I forgot to tell them this. I decided it would be a good story for them to read in the blog. They are both sleeping after a fun Easter yesterday so when they wake up I'll let them know there is a new post. Post about my last day at McKinley coming up sometime this week.

Bad Days

No I didn't have a bad day today but that was the theme for my journal. The kids had to tell me about a bad day they had or what a bad day would be like. Here are some of the bad days the kiddos shared, enjoy:

• "When you hit someone and then they throw up on your desk..."
• One kid to another "Your bad day was when you threw up corndog on the carpet..."
• To me "I had a bad day when you got me out in kickball" (got him out again today!)
• "I threw up then I wasn't feeling good and I threw up 2 more times, that was a bad day..."
• "My kindergarten teacher accidentally gave me a cookie with walnuts in it and I'm allergic..."
• From a twin "My sister didn't go to school and I didn't get to stay home and play all day..."
• From Mrs. Wrobel "When I found out I had Swine Flu!"
• "I got a bloody nose and then sneezed blood"
• "It was my dad's birthday so we couldn't go to the YMCA"
• "I drank a big orange drink too fast and threw up orange all over my dad's Mercedes"

I wish I could show you some of the pictures these kids drew, especially the ones where they threw up. Apparently puking equals a bad day I just thought it meant it was a good night. Story of Parents visit to come later on, promise!

WWE vs WWF

After seeing all of the WWE shirts in my classes and getting the John Cena "Can't see me" gesture done to me I would like to take a moment to reflect on my days as a WWF fan and see what has stayed the same and what is different. (sorry moms that read this but my old friends will love this nerdy post)

Thinking back to my days with WWF Monday night RAW I would come home from CCD just to catch Stone Cold Steve Austin slamming 2 beers and showing 2 select fingers to the crowd on his way to the ring. DX was doing some suggestive gestures and steroids were as common as they are in major league baseball. Professional Wrestling back then to me was real and to these kids it is too. I don't know exactly when it was I realized Booker T and Hulk Hogan were just really good actors but these kids feel the same way I did when I was a kid and I love it.

The WWF is now the WWE after losing a battle to the World Wildlife Federation, ouch! But it seems to be the same production a little less tame and a little more Hollywood. Here is a list of fun stuff I used to love on WWF

1. NWO and NWO Wolfpack
2. Goldberg's Winning Streak (WCW)
3. The intro songs
4. People's Elbow
5. People's Eyebrow
6. Mankind/Cactus Jack/Dude Love
7. Cage Matches/Ladder Matches/Coffin Matches/any ridiculous matches they had
8. The amazing story lines and plots
9. Kane and Undertaker's brotherhood
10. D GENERATION X!!!

Thanks for letting me vent. I hope for fans this was entertaining. Story on my parents visiting the class coming soon.