Monday, December 04, 2006

A Number of Things

I'm overwhelmed by everything lately. Yeah, I know. For a change, right? Anyway, I'll ramble a bit before I sign off for the night.

This is a testing week. It's a common assessment for our region. Today we tested in reading and language arts. I tested Corazón on grade level, without modifications. She passed with a strong score. I am going to save every goddamn thing she does forever and then push for her to get out of special education next year. This is totally off-subject, but last week we discovered that her hands and feet are bigger than mine. She asked me to try on her boots, so I did. They almost fall off my feet!

My Carmen got a freakin' 98%. It's her first year in an English classroom and she outscored every child in the grade. I'm so proud of her. She qualifies as 4th grade's only gifted/talented child. I asked her last week, if she could learn about anything she wanted, what would it be? She told me that she would like to read a novel with me, but didn't know which one, so could I please pick a good one. I was obsessed with ancient Egypt as a child, so I am going to try The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. It was one of my favorites. I'll see how her English goes with it. I am so goddamn proud of my girl.

I am worried and sad about Esperanza. She got commended scores last year and is without a doubt very, very bright. However, this year she is screwing up, big time. I am pretty sure that it's at least 75% emotional. I have no idea what to do about that. I am going to start sending her to another teacher she likes a lot for some extra tutoring and hope for the best.

I just realized I never talk about my boys. I only have two boys with me during the day, the rest are in special education (more than half my students are special ed). Alejandro and Amado. It took a long time for us to warm up to each other, but we have a good thing going, I think. They are best friends and have a sly, sneaky, oddly subtle sense of humor. I am sort of obsessed witih octopuses, so I have a few stuffed ones in my class. They sit up on a shelf (we call it the ocean) with the other monitos (stuffed animals). Amado likes to put one of the octopuses on his head. He calls it his thinking cap, and lets the tentacles hang down all around his face. Both of my boys talk about gang violence and shootings in a very casual way. I worry about them a lot. Alejandro's brother(s?) is/are in bootcamp right now. He talks about it with a mixture of unhappiness and longing that makes me hurt.

My kids have filthy mouths. They really do. It cracks me up. On a more serious note, I honestly do believe that they are (partially) just exploring their new language skills. But they also enjoy feeling naughty. What the hell, who doesn't? I secretly love hearing what they come up with. As long as they aren't trying to hurt or intimidate anyone, I seldom interfere. They have kind of caught on to that, too.

2 Comments:

Blogger Venha Futuro said...

I was thinking about how you and Carmen are going to read a novel. I'm not familiar with the one you chose, although I'm sure it's a great one. When you're done with that one, you should take a look at some of the books by Daniel Pinkwater. He was my favorite author when I was little, and I am of the firm belief that if you read just one of his novels you will never, ever become a boring person. Surely you want that for Carmen.

12/09/2006 5:48 PM  
Blogger lily of the valley said...

Laugh. I will make an addition to the Amazon wishlist, then. Thanks!

12/09/2006 9:35 PM  

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