some delightful moments from today!

This morning I was about to hand out some papers that gave the kids an offer for free 6-Flags tickets for reading a certain amount and this is what happened:

Me: Students, I have something exciting to share with you!

Student 1: "You're getting married!"

Me: Haha, no guys, it's not quite that cool.

Student 2: "I know! You have a boyfriend!"

Me: "No, guys, I wouldn't tell you about that in class!"

Students: "WELL WHAT THEN?"

hahaha, as if those were the only two things that are exciting.

Later on in that class somehow we got talking about Mt. Everest. One of my kids raised her hand and said, "Ms. Maxwell, if you climbed Mt. Everest, would you get to God?" I sorta laughed and said no, but she was NOT done talking about it. Then she said, "Ok, so what about if you went up in an airplane? Is that high enough?" By this point I'm laughing but I'm not really sure how to explain this. So I say something along the lines of "Well, it depends on what you believe, but it definitely doesn't make sense that Heaven would be anywhere close to Earth because lots of people have climbed Mt. Everest and nobody has found it up there. People who believe in God believe that He is everywhere." OOOH but that opened up a lot of discussion! "Miss, my grandma says that when we're like talkin' mess at the dinner table, she's like, 'this is God's table'." Then the kid cracked up like it was the funniest thing in the world. Then it really started though and I got all kind of questions! "Miss is hell real?" "Miss, is it true that you get burned in hell?" and then...the stories started. "MISS! My tio, he died, and he sent back a letter that said he was burning!" and that's where I said, "Ok guys, I'd love to talk to you about God anytime, but after class, let's move on."

In other news this week my kids told me I should quit being a teacher and be either a.) a model or b.) on American Idol.

Lovin' it.

Water for Christmas

The last three weeks of school before Christmas break my 5th graders spent raising money and awareness in our school for the international water crisis. We read a book aloud about a girl who lived in Southern Sudan who had to spend all morning walking for water, read Time for Kids articles about clean water problems worldwide, used water words for vocabulary, talked about how it made us feel, and made a plan to raise some funds to provide clean water to kids who needed it. It was a really beautiful time and we ended up raising over 200$ which we will donate to Living Water International (http://water.cc/)

Here are some shots of all of our fun!

Making posters to put up around the school

We had a little competition for which of my classes could raise the most money

I stayed WAY too late after school one day making this bulletin board

This is an excellent book to read if you want to learn about the way that access to clean water affects communities. It's a dual story of a boy growing up in Sudan as a child soldier and a girl also in Sudan whose family suffers from lack of water. It's a really beautiful story and to all my teacher friends, would be a great addition to your classroom libraries. I cried at the end...while reading it out loud!

Spanish and English versions of the TFK articles are available here:

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,2027478,00.html

On bullying

Lately there have been some really sad stories in the news about kids killing themselves because of other kids teasing them. Because of this the district is really pushing us to teach about bullying and what it is and why it's wrong, etc. I asked my kids to generate a piece of writing about bullying and I got some very funny responses. Here is a sampling: (remember they're learning English so don't be too hard on them)

"I hate bullying, it is not nice. Bullying is a group of people who tease kids. They give weggies, they take their lunch. They hurt them and make them cry. And one more thing, bullying is mean."

"Think of the person you are insulting as a piece of paper. As you say something mean to them they start crumpling up into a ball."

"People who bully can't make friends because they're mean. Nobody should ever bully some other person. The end."

"The word bully is something hard to describe. Doesn't it feel sad when you hear bullies talking about you? Bullies love fighting with you sometimes they hit you in the back of the ____ (don't know what they wanted to say here, there isn't a word) with their hand and you really sense. You can even see them teasing others too. Sometimes you can smell their spit when they do it to you at lunch. sometime you are worried or thinking that they will keep on bullying you until graduation."

"My brother always bullies me by saying 'Brian' and I say 'what?' and he says 'sucks'. Also, he will take your girl."

"Bullying is a bad thing to do. Bullies can hurt you until you cry to your mommy. If you get bullied you speak-up loudly until you lungs die. You shouldn't be quiet like a mouse."

"The bullies no make caso to the teacher, persons, and ni a su mom. The bully kick to the others persons and the others childrens. The bullys los inside from the carcel." (In English rather than Spanglish that says "bullies don't listen to the teachers, other people, or their mom. They kick other persons. Bullies are those that are inside the jail.")

who says grading isn't fun???

Are you a Christian? OR...do you celebrate Halloween?

I was really excited about fall last night, so I bought a pumpkin for my classroom. Little did I know how much trouble that thing would cause me.

7:40am: First of all, pumpkins are heavy, and since I always have about 5 things to carry in from my car, it was very difficult. After this awesome twisty spin move where I almost threw out my back, I managed to hold on to my pumpkin all the way in from the parking lot and up the stairs to my classroom. Thankfully, there were some girls waiting outside my room so they held the pumpkin while I unlocked the door. Whew, pumpkin successfully carried in to Rm. 30.

7:45 am: the rest of the kids march upstairs and start getting things from their lockers. All of them start commenting on the pumpkin. "Miss! you got a pumpkin? Are we going to carve it? How much does it weigh? Where did you buy it? Can I keep it? Can I hold it? Is it real?"

7:50am: Students are seated in the class eating their breakfast. I have not had time to eat my breakfast yet. (bad thing for me if you know me at all) A student from the back of the room raises his hand and says, "Miss Maxwell, are you a Christian?" We've been talking a lot about religion lately because it keeps coming up in stories we're reading in class. So I said yes. He instantly shoots back at me, "Well, if you celebrate Halloween, then you're not a Christian."

Boom. the end. Because I brought a pumpkin to school, I no longer am allowed to be a Christian. Let this be a warning to you: you shall go to hell and burn in hell fires if you bring a pumpkin to school.

Just sayin...

One Year In

I've lived in Texas for a whole year! So far I've only...

-dented my car door with the neighbor's truck
-knocked off my front bumper
-been yelled at by one parent
-been hit on by 1 man over the age of 60
-eaten fried pickles and crawfish twice
-recorded one country record
-said "might could" once
-wore an Aggie class ring once
-ridden in the back of a pickup truck once
-danced a wild polka with a 50 year man once
-and bought only one pair of cowboy boots and NO HAT.

For a whole year in Texas, I think that's pretty impressive.

Things I have managed to do:

Learned to salsa dance much better
Become a runner!
survived my first year as a teacher
painted my apartment wall as a chalkboard
Introduced my students to African hip-hop and indie-rock
Learned how to have cute hair in the humidity
got comfortable driving on huge highways
still ride my bike once in a while
fell in love with the cute mexican percussionist at taco milagro
sang karaoke taylor swift to my 5th graders
Taught from atop a desk or sitting on the floor
Cried while reading out loud to my students about the Holocaust
Got kids who have never passed Reading EVER to pass
Got a Texas driver's license
and...made curtains for my apartment.

On the to do list:
-get a tat
-buy a vacuum
-talk to the guy at taco milagro

In all seriousness though, one year in to Texas life I'm content. I have a wonderful support system, I love my job, and I'm learning to know God...know Him, not just know about Him. I'd like a close with a quote that speaks to my heart:

"You may all go to hell, but I will go to Texas"
-Davy Crockett

(Just kidding about the speaking to my heart part)

I really did set out to write a serious post, I guess it's just not in me.

Hopelessness into hope...kinda

A few months ago one of my students just up and moved to Florida to live with his mom. His dad didn't tell us, he just left, we don't know what school he's at or how to contact him or anything. When he moved I was really upset because he was a kid I checked on all the time to make sure he was ok. If he didn't show up to school, we'd call or go to his house. If he didn't eat breakfast, I had food for him. His dad drinks a lot and his two brothers are crazy messed up. Anyway, when he came to school I knew he was at least alive, got two meals a day, and had some clothes to wear. When he moved it brought up this doubt again that God can be trusted with my students. I see so much pain in their lives and wonder often how He can let that happen to them. Without being able to see J every day I lacked trust that God would provide for him and put people who care for him in his life.

Well, this morning my principal came into my room and took me outside in the hallway. She told me that his older brother had been accused of capital murder and was on trial that day. He is 15 years old, and was the person that my student was at home with because his dad was always gone and his other brother was in jail. Apparently this brother killed another teenager and after the kid was dead took the money from his pockets. And it's all on camera so there's no way he will get off. As horrified as I am, at least my little student isn't here to witness all of this. It makes me sick to even think about it--but imagine trying to deal with that if you were an eleven year old and your parents were completely absent from your life and you brother, who you really love in spite of his craziness, killed someone and is being shipped off to prison, probably for life, at 15.

So my little J, wherever you happen to be--I'm glad you're there and not here even though I can't check up on you.

It All Depends On How You Look At It

It All Depends on How You Look At It

I.


Terezín is full on beauty.
It's in your eyes now clear
And through the street the tramp
Of many marching feet I hear.

In the ghetto at Terezín,
It looks that way to me,
Is a square kilometer of earth
Cut off from the world that's free.

II.

Death, after all, claims everyone,
You find it everywhere.
It catches up with even those
Who wear their noses in the air.

The whole, wide world is ruled
With a certain justice, so
That helps perhaps to sweet
The poor man's pain and woe.

-Miraslav Kosek, 10

Died, age 12, in a concentration camp.

Reflections on standardized testing and holocaust

This morning I sat down at my desk in my classroom before any kids got there and I looked over at my bulletin board that has a note pinned to it. It says "The way we honor the children of the Holocaust is to not repeat the world that they had." which is a quote from a 5th grader I think I've shared before. Last week I read my students an article about how classrooms are becoming standardized test prep centers and when I finished the article I asked the kids if that was how they felt. All of them immediately answered "yes!"

So today, after reading that note and realizing how my students were feeling, we had a little chat. I asked them how the Holocaust happened, and they talked about how people weren't educated, how they ignorantly followed Hitler because they were in a depression, etc. and so then I asked them how we kept something like that from happening again. Our discussion led to understanding how to decide what is true and what is false by researching it. The beauty of the conversation was that we were able to give a purpose to learning to read and understand what we read that went beyond passing a test at the end of the year.

I hope that someday my students will grow in to people who WANT to learn...I hope.

Time for a lighter post.

Yesterday I pulled a piece of paper off of my overhead cart and all my papers came cascading down. One of my students goes "See Ms. Maxwell! That's why you gotta CLEAN" Then she stayed after school with me and helped me clean up the room.

Last night my roommate and I and our friend watched Muppets in Space, which if you haven't seen it, is absolutely hilarious. Anyway, the little Prawn Pepe made me laugh so hard that today in 3rd period reading class I did his voice...for most of the time. We were laughing so hard, I loved it.

I read a story out loud to my class about this guy that worked at the zoo and there was a funny trick ending. It was really funny to see the reactions of the different classes because my first perioed class has 3 gifted students in it who got the joke right away and were laughing like crazy. However, my next period is my ESL class and no one really got it at all. Finally in third period, there were about 2 seconds of silence after I finished reading and then they all started laughing really loudly. Today was one of those days when no matter how many kids get in trouble or don't bring their homework or how inadequate I feel as a teacher, I love it.

On sadness, hopelessness, and how useful those are.

this week one of my student's fathers (who just got out of jail) stole his mom's truck.

last week one of my students whose father is an alcoholic and whose two older brothers are both in juvey and only owns his uniform clothes moved off to FL where I hope to God someone will take care of him better than here.

two weeks ago one of my students was crying every 5 minutes in class because she was worried that her family wouldn't be able to pay their mortgage. When I was a kid, I didn't even realize my parents HAD a mortgage.

This job of teaching inner city kids is emotionally draining, at times feels completely pointless, and makes me, more than anything else, doubt that God really loves these kids. However, here is a quote from Brennan Manning that is slowly sinking into my distrusting heart:

"The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials...David, the most beloved figure of Jewish history, was no stranger to terror, loneliness, failure, and even sinister plots to destroy him; yet he ravished the heart of God with his unwavering trust."

It seems then that trust that God is good comes through situations where it really looks like God is actually not good at all.

Some more Texas

It's been a while, I've seen a lot more of Texas life, and enjoyed most of it immensely. Here are a few Texas tidbits for my anxious readers.

I was an Aggie for Halloween. If you don't know what that is, it's a person who went to Texas A&M University. So I wore a class ring and cowboy boots and a jean skirt and a shirt that said "You may all go to hell, but I will go to Texas" and I had big hair. I may have offended some people since most people I know went to aTm.

The past week we have been studying the Holocaust in my 5th grade class. You know, when you need to teach your class how to spell a word and write it on the board lots of times, you learn how to spell it. Holocaust and Renaissance, two words I finally know how to spell. Anyway, we are reading Number the Stars, which is a wonderful book, and we were talking about how Denmark didn't fight back against the Nazis but allowed them to take over in return for political independence. One student raised his hand and said, "But didn't they have an army?" and I said, "Yes, but a small one, not big enough to win against the Nazis." And then one kid randomly calls out, "Yeah, but they couldn't beat TEXAS."

Teaching about the Holocaust has given me a really big sadness and horror about the state of the world, but at the same time, teaching Number the Stars has been wonderful. It's estimated that there were 7,300 Jews living in Denmark at the beginning of WWII. All but 300 of them were able to escape through fishing boats to Sweden and it's estimated only 50 Danish Jews died in the Holocaust. It's such a beautiful story of courage and what people can do, but it makes me really sad to think of what we didn't do at the same time. Hand in hand with teaching the Holocaust I'm teaching about Japanese Interment camps in the U.S. and in Social Studies the kids are studying colonists and Native Americans. Poor kids--that's a lot to take all at once. To go along with teaching the Holocaust, we read the allegory Terrible Things by Eve Bunting. I'd highly recommend it if you are ever trying to get a child to understand what can happen if we don't stick up for what's right.

On a lighter note, I like Lonestar beer now. Who would have guessed.

I'm enjoying 70 degree sunny weather every day in November, new girl friends, biking around the city to church and along the Bayou, having beautiful symphony music at my fingertips, and finding new places to dance and speak Spanish. Life is normalizing a little more, but I'm still missing Chicago and Maryland. Why is it that life ends up so spread out?

On Mexi-Cowboys and such

2 months ago I moved to Houston.

1 month and 3 weeks ago I turned on the AC and haven't turned it off since.

1 month and 2 weeks ago I started reading Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne. Houston + Claiborne, you can see where this is going.

1 month ago I bought cowboy boots. That night I went Country Western dancing and met the tight-panted, Latino, rich but living simply, orphaned, bike-riding, tattoed, man who wants to foster children of my dreams. Or maybe that actually didn't happen. What maybe did happen was this:

A girl walks into a bar. After noticing the disco balls in the shape of saddles, she walks to the other side of the skating rink shaped dance floor and greets her friends. Her friends happen to be talking to some boys who ask her if she knows how to Country Western dance. To which she replies "no, I just moved here from going to school in Chicago and pretty much the only Country Western dancing done in Chicago is at gay bars." Boy #1 laughs. He says, "Maybe half of 1 % of the guys at my school were gay, and if you were you certainly didn't tell anyone. Also, you didn't tell anyone if you were a Democrat." Boy #2 walks up, boy #1 turns to him and says "Describe Obama in three words." Boy #2: "Marxist, incompetent, and self-absorbed"

3 weeks ago my aunt sent me a pair of TOMS. I was pretty excited after driving my car a LOT that week and struggling with what Shane Claiborne has to say. I put the TOMS on, read the tag, and sadly, they are made in China. Yay TOMS for being cute, for donating to children in Africa.......and for manufacturing your shoes in compliance with local labor laws. Thankfully China has really great labor standards.

2 weeks ago I was driving behind a pick up truck that said "We can achieve change. Palin 2012"

1 week ago I decided that in order to begin assimilating to Texan culture I no longer think hunting is a bad thing to do, and am ok with other people doing it and eating what they shoot. Yum.

3 hours ago I went to the auto parts store to get a new tail lightbulb and air filter for my car. The guy called me baby and installed everything into my car just to be nice and asked me all about my job and where I was from and told me I didn't sound like a Yankee.

So maybe I don't sound like a Yankee with my accent, but my inner dialogue is definitely still Yankee and I'm experiencing culture shock much more than I thought I would. In Chicago I was conservative, in Texas I'm crazy liberal, and learning to be loving and live simply is nearly impossible no matter what state you live in. Thank God for grace, for wonderful people who challenge me, and phone conversations with Hannah Foster.

Latin America

"Events of massive public suffering defy quantitative analysis. How can one really understand statistics citing the death of 6 million Jews or graphs of third world starvation? Do numbers really reveal the agony, the interruption, the questions that these victims put to the meaning and nature of our individual lives and life as a whole?"

Today I learned that on September 11 in Chile in 1973 there was a coup, financed by the U.S. that overthrew the socialist democratically elected president and killed 30,000 people that year. But 30,000 is still just a number to me. Sometimes suffering is so big and so catastrophic that it numbs me because it is so incomprehensible. Pinochet's ruling regime cut up an artist into four parts, shipped each part off to a different part of Chile to teach them a lesson, the U.S. knew about this and didn't say a word. President Nixon called Pinochet's take over of Chile a triumph for democracy.

I'm taking a Latin American Studies course and each week I come home liking America less and feeling like there are more conflicts in the world I, and most others, have no idea about than ones we actually know about. So much suffering, so many wars, so much heartache and poverty and violence, it's hard to process even a small piece of it.

Today at school we were talking about why it wasn't a good idea to play pretend guns. We talked about how guns aren't good because they kill people and when you take someone's life from the you can never give it back. My first graders understand this but I'm not sure I really do. One of the questions I had to answer today was, "How does what we do contribute to the suffering of the people living in desperate conditions and what can we do to change this?" good question.

As we were leaving class today my teacher said, "Remember, silence and inaction are actions as well. They are still decisions."

I have a lot to think about.

NoiseTrade Widget

Joy

One of my favorite things about Christmas, very very very much secondary to family and caroling and friends and presents is the Joy tea from Starbucks. It's just so yummy. I never buy it any other time of year because I want it to be special. I haven't even had any yet but soon.

Today I wore a yellow and brown polka dotted dress to school. It made quite a stir, I guess people don't wear dresses that often. Anyway, on the walk home I was waiting at a light when I turned to see a woman literally an inch away from my face. And she says, "Don't move honey, your underwear are showing." So on the corner of a busy Chicago street, in the snow no less, a random strange woman grabs the bottom of my skirt and yanks it down to cover my undies. Though, they weren't really underwear, they were like short leggings under my skirt to keep me warm. But then, instead of laughing and walking away, she proceeds to put her arm around me and walk me across the street saying, "Don't worry honey, it's just that static electricity! Oh that static electricity, get's you every time. I used to wear those colors when I was young, they used to be my favorite colors to wear." Then we crossed the street, she released me, and disappeared.

So my neighbors downstairs, who also happen to be my landlords decided to put up a big plastic santa claus light above our front door. So if anyone decides to come over, I live in that house, you know the one with the big light up plastic santa on it? Yeah...that one.

some jokes

I was talking to this guy at a bar this weekend and when he asked me why I came to Loyola all the way from MD I told him I had a prophetic dream leading me here. Then my friend Hannah told him her name was Amber. Oddly enough he kept talking to us.

Some of the girls did a survey at school to find out what languages the children at our school speak at home with their parents. One of the kids wrote, "beans and rice."

Usually I don't see the kids from my school outside of school which is odd because I live in the neighborhood. However, my luck ran out as I was buying a large bottle of wine at the grocery and one of my little first graders says, "Hello Ms. Maxwell!"

One of my students today decided to adopt a Jamaican accent. The entire day. We were lining up to go to lunch and the teacher said, "Will you please move that chair?" to which he responded, "Ok mon."

Voting

Today as I voted for the very first time I got chills realizing how historic of an election this is. Even though my vote didn't really count because Illinois is so solidly Democrat, I still felt historic marking the arrow next to "Barack Obama". Maybe he'll win, I certainly hope so, I don't know, but regardless I love it that our country has come to a point where a black man has the chance of actually becoming president whereas only 5o years ago Jim Crowe laws existed in the south and black people were getting sprayed with fire hoses for trying to vote.

Not that there isn't so much farther to go, institutionalized racism is deeply embedded in our country--but at least we have a hope of a president who understands that.

bah

today I spent an hour teaching 3 children 1 math problem. And they didn't even really learn anything. So discouraging. I also spent 12 hours straight at my school today, I don't think that's very healthy. But I love those kids so it's totally worth it.

I was extremely flattered this week as 3 different kids have asked me if I'm from Mexico. I overheard them talking in the hallway about me, asking each other how I speak Spanish and then an eighth grader tonight told me I have a very nice voice for Spanish. I think he meant accent, I'm not sure. So while I may be bad at teaching math at least I'm learning some Spanish!

the devil?

today I overheard a kid telling another kid in line,

"I sold my soul to the devil."