rubinc in nyc!

The big excitement for today was that our school got back our math test results, and 80% of our kids got 3’s and 4’s! (The test is out of 4, for you non-NYC-teachers). That is amazingly awesome, so much so that the mayor apparently decided to visit. He picked one school from each bureau to come congratulate in person, and ours was the chosen school for the Bronx! Or at least, that was the story, but by the time I left at 4:00 he still hadn’t shown up. All the administrators were still there waiting for him, I guess I’ll find out on Monday if he actually came. It kind of reminded me of that episode of MASH where MacArthur is supposed to come, and they all go crazy trying to get ready (as my school was doing today), and then he doesn’t even slow down his jeep as he drives through the camp. I love MASH.

That’s all for today, except for a shoutout to Jessa for sending me delicious candy. Thank you from my endocrine system, hopefully you were paying attention in unit 6.

Twenty days!

Well, technically, go-to-the-allergist-and-figure-out-why-my-body-is-violently-rejecting-spring day.

It’s amazing how many things are open during the day that I don’t usually get to go to because of work: the post office, the bank, the library, the pharmacy… I think this was the most productive day of my life. I would be such a competent adult if it wasn’t for my job.

Twenty-one days.

Remember when I was all excited about learning how to access the school’s scantron machine? My students took their Unit 7 Exam last week, on scantrons, only for me to find out that the lady who operates the machine is out of the building indefinitely. So today I had to recruit students to sit with me for two hours and grade 120 scantron sheets by hand - which is pretty much the epitome of annoying tasks.

Also annoying: today Ricardo - a student with about zero impulse control - ran up to me, poked my upper arm, and yelled, “It’s Mr. Wiggles! It’s Mr. Wiggles!” I was reminded of that episode of Pete and Pete when they are mesmerized by watching their neighbor lady’s jiggling arm fat, and then I was depressed.

Twenty-two days.

We took a field trip to the bowling alley today - not exactly educational, but it was an incentive thing: a lot of kids have been skipping now that all the standardized tests are over, so in order to be allowed on the trip you could only have one unexcused absence over the past few weeks.

We didn’t leave for the trip until third period, so I had one class in the morning. I didn’t want to do a regular lesson and get them out of sync with the other classes, so instead I just showed them a Bill Nye and had them take notes. Bobby and Donny thought it would be funny to turn in a notes sheet covered entirely in profanity and lewd sentences; I thought it would be funny to call their moms and read what they wrote over the phone, then have them stay back from the field trip and spend the day in sixth grade. I think mine was funnier.
The actual bowling was really fun. I love when I get to relax with my students, and when I get a chance to see them be kids instead of crazy people. One boy made a point of finding me a purple bowling ball to match my dress, and another proudly informed me that he was doing an experiment instead of trying to win - he was tossing the ball at different speeds to see how its velocity affected how much it spun as it rolled.

After bowling we went to the park, and my beloved Gustavo accidentally got hit in the face with a frisbee. He came over to me with a bloody nose, trying to hold back tears, and asked if I had any tissues, and I just about died. It was really painful for me to see this kid that I like so much be simultaneously hurt and embarassed, I had this quasi-maternal urge to hug him and kiss his forehead, and also to beat up the kid who threw the frisbee. I think I will be an over-protective mom.

Twenty-three days.

I’ve been meaning to write about Reuben for awhile now - he’s the only kid whose real name I have to use. He is in second grade, and approached me reverentially on the playground at dismissal one day.

Reuben: Excuse me, is your name Ms. Rubin?

Me: Yes.

Reuben: My first name is Reuben!!

Ever since that magical first encounter, he runs over and hugs me every time he sees me, especially if his classmates are watching - he obviously takes great pride in not just knowing, but also sharing a name with, a big kid teacher. Let’s hope he retains his adoration for me if he’s in my class five years from now…

Twenty-four days!

Apparently I jinxed myself yesterday when I said I would be sad at the end of the year, because today my kids were back to their off-the-wall spring insanity. The highlight/lowlight of the day was when Tareque excused himself from class and spent the rest of the period doing drive-by paper-ballings of the room - he would run by the door, throw a bunch of paper balls into the room, and then keep running down the hall. Ugh.

Adding to the chaos was the fact that the health department was in our school today. We’ve had abnormally high rates of students and teachers being absent with flu-like symptoms, and after the DOE announced that schools closed for swine flu won’t have to make up the lost days over the summer I had my fingers crossed. But alas, not enough people are sick, and none of the sick ones have been confirmed to have swine flu, so we are still in business tomorrow.

The day ended on a positive note, however,  because I came home and decided to make a few positive phone calls instead of the negative ones I’ve been making all week. I love making positive phone calls; Betty’s mom actually said, “Stop, you’re going to make me cry!” as I went on about her wonderful daughter.

A huge thank you to Quinn and Keila for helping get my students one step closer to MIT next month! And another thank you to Erin, who has volunteered to be in charge of food for our barbecue. My friends are the best!

Twenty-five days.

Tomorrow is our Unit 7 Test, and so today we played Unit 7 Review Jeopardy. We have done this the day before every single test all year, but for some reason today the kids got so into it, they were the best behaved I’ve seen them since it started to get distractingly beautiful outside. One class was so intensely focused that we actually got through every single question in just over half of the period - and I’ve never had a class make it through all the question before, even in a double. I had to wing a “partner review mini-quiz” to kill the extra twenty minutes.

The best part of the day was that it made me feel like an actual teacher, not just a crazy lady who screams at twelve-year-olds all day. The kids were focused and learning things, and throughout the day I heard kids frantically whispering things to each other like “It’s chlorophyll, it’s chlorophyll! Chloroplast is different, that’s what chlorophyll is in“, or “Seedling is before full grown plant, I was paying attention that day so I know!” I can’t wait to for next year, when I can know what I’m doing from the beginning and hopefully have kids paying attention and knowing things on a daily basis.

Even the after school remedial program wasn’t that bad today, except for when Jorge asked me if I was jealous of the social studies’ teacher’s “hot body.” I mean, yeah, who isn’t, but that’s not exactly an appropriate or respectful thing to ask your teacher.

Anyways, I can’t believe how many people are sharing their amazingness with my students to help them visit MIT - most recently, thank you to Laura, Erin, and Sam! We are almost there!

Twenty-six days. If they all go like this, I’ll be sad when we get to zero.

Nigel has the most intense ADHD I have ever encountered in my life, and at the beginning of the year he used to annoy the pants off me with his constant running around and talking. But we have figured out better ways for him to manage his energy, and now I realize that he is a really awesome kid.

For one thing, he always wants to spend lunch with me. Always. Not just when he’s fighting with his friends (a la Devon), or when he wants to make up work or re-take a test. He just constantly wants to hang out and ask me science questions - and he does not stop for air. As soon as he gets in the door, it’s a nonstop stream of “Ms. Rubin, I was wondering about if we could breathe underwater if we cut those gill things into us like fish, and Ms. Rubin, what about if I ate a bunch of chlorophyll, could I do photosynthesis, and that would be so cool, and Ms. Rubin, did you watch the UGA game last night, I sure love football, I love it, I love it, and Ms. Rubin, what about…” He never seems to care enough about the answers to pause and let me actually respond, but it is pretty adorable.

For another thing, he is very protective of me. Whenever he sees a student disrespecting me, he starts listing all the things he’s going to do to that student, starting with “I’m gonna punch him, then I’m gonna punch him again…” and ending with “…and then the police are gonna come and I’m gonna be in jail.” This whole thing is made more amusing by the fact that he is one of my pre-pubescent students, so he barely comes up to my ribs and he looks like a freckle-faced  8 year old.

I think my favorite part about Nigel, though, is how he has learned to manage his excess energy. He doesn’t sit down, but he no longer runs around the room. Instead, he just stands in one place and rocks back and forth between his two feet. Constantly. Even when I am talking to him one on one, he is going back and forth and back and forth. Even when he is walking from place A to place B, he can’t go in a straight line - he has to zig zag. The other kids all call him “Happy Feet,” after the penguin that has to dance everywhere he walks.

So in conclusion, Nigel is both awesome and adorable, and he will be on the trip to MIT next month. You know you want to be awesome like Dave and Emily and make it possible!
Twenty-seven days.

I just got back from turning in my final portfolio for my Lehman College grad class, which means I am officially done with Lehman for this semester! Too bad their summer semester starts in like a week…

Today I heard Jorge, who had been a really problematic student early on but after much positive attention and reinforcement is largely reformed, telling Felippe, who is still a really problematic student, “You better stop disrespecting Ms. Rubin, she’s my teacher. If you don’t stop it, I’ll see you after school.” Awww.

Also, great news on the MIT trip! My principal heard about it and was so excited that now he is coming, and he’s going to have the school pay for the teachers’ tickets - which is great because they’re $120 each, and we thought we were just going to have to pay out of pocket. I’m also $50 closer to raising all the money we need for the students (their tickets cost half as much, but $60 is still way out of their price range), thanks to the awesome Ben. Every little bit helps - so if you have even $10 to spare, my kids and I will really appreciate it!

Twenty-eight days.

For a long time now I’ve been dreaming of bringing a small group of awesome kids to MIT, to show them what is possible if they work hard enough in school. And now it’s going to happen! I got administrative approval to take a group on a Saturday, and my AP was even excited enough about it to volunteer to come along. I emailed my friends who are still students there and got volunteers to give lab tours and make liquid nitrogen ice cream, and I called the MIT Office of Community Outreach and they are giving us $750 to help offset the travel costs!

So, if you are an MIT reader who will be around campus June 13 and want to help out, let me know. Or if you’re a regular reader who wants to give an amazing student (Betty’s going! And Gustavo, and Emily, and Edward…) the time of his/her life, we still need to raise another $250 or so to make the trip affordable for each kid. I can show you pictures, and the kids can write you a letter about how great you are! Who knows, the kid you sponsor could end up curing cancer or inventing the next Roomba or other helpful robot, all because of you!