WEEK 38 - When Tragedy Strikes

This past week there was a tragedy in Saint Paul which involved students from Peter Hobart Elementary School in Saint Louis Park. A group of 4th grade students were fossil hunting at a park when the ground gave way and either completely or partially buried 4 students. Two students were injured but survived, and 2 students passed away after being buried under 5-6 feet of dirt and rubble. One of the deceased, Mohamed Fofana, was my student when I was a student teacher at Peter Hobart 2 years ago.

I did not have a deep relationship with Mohamed because I was only at the school for a few weeks, but the accident definitely shook me up a bit. It is devastating for everyone involved, and the family and classmates will have many difficult days ahead of them.

But today I want to talk about this event from the perspective of a teacher. As I was imagining and replaying the event over and over in my head, I started to think of what it would be like to lose one of the students in my current classes. I spend 1 hour a day with each student, and over the course of the year have developed great student-teacher relationships with many of them. I would feel destroyed if one of them passed away in such a horrendous way. And then I began to think of Mohamed and Haysem's teacher who spends all day every day with her students. She had to stand in front of her kids the next day and be the strong one to make sure their lives were as normal as possible. I'm sure she had the option to stay home the following day, but knowing the dedication of the Peter Hobart staff, I would assume that she chose to be the one with the kids the day after the tragedy, rather than leave that job to a substitute teacher.

As a teacher, you are expected to shut many of your emotions off when you're in front of students. It is not professional to show anger, you are not supposed to react to controversial news (then you are accused of brainwashing your students and not being impartial), and if you are having a bad day, most of the time you are just supposed to suck it up and make sure that learning is still happening. As a teacher, you are also expected to be the leader. Students look to their leaders for guidance, and I'm sure that 4th grade class was looking to their teacher to see how school would continue with 2 empty chairs in their classroom. That teacher probably wanted to hide away in a hole and not face the world the next day. What could possibly be on the lesson plan now??? How do you fill 6 hours every day after something like this happens??? How do you even have the energy to think up new activities???

My deepest condolences go out to the families and classmates of Mohamed Fofana and Haysem Sani. A speedy recovery to Lucas Lee and Devon Meldahl (injured in the landslide). My support and admiration to the rescuers, who ran straight down 30 feet of unstable dirt and rubble when they found out there were children buried (2 rescuers were injured by falling rocks). And a big hug to the teachers, who oftentimes are like a third parent, who have to guide their students through devastating events. You have earned your summer break.

My hours for week 38:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	5/19/2013	4:15 PM	8:15 PM	4
M	5/20/2013	7:30 AM	4:30 PM	9
T	5/21/2013	7:30 AM	4:30 PM	9
W	5/22/2013	8:00 AM	4:30 PM	8.5
Th	5/23/2013	8:00 AM	4:30 PM	8.5
F	5/24/2013	8:00 AM	3:30 PM	7.5
Sat	5/25/2013			0
	Total			46.5

WEEK 37 - 2 weeks left

I have worked a total of 481.25 hours of overtime so far, which comes out to 12 full-time weeks of overtime. At Washburn, our summer break starts on June 6th and we go back to school on August 16th, which comes out to about 10 weeks. This means that I have worked 2 weeks longer than people who work full-time year-round.

The last day of school is on June 4th, which means we have 2 weeks of school left before June 3 & 4 finals days. This is the final push!

Hours for week 37:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	5/12/2013	9:15 PM	10:00 PM	0.75
M	5/13/2013	7:45 AM	4:30 PM	8.75
		5:00 PM	6:00 PM	1
		9:15 PM	10:45 PM	1.5
T	5/14/2013	7:15 AM	4:45 PM	9.5
W	5/15/2013	8:00 AM	4:30 PM	8.5
Th	5/16/2013	7:15 AM	5:00 PM	9.75
F	5/17/2013	7:45 AM	3:45 PM	8
Sat	5/18/2013			0
	Total			47.75

WEEK 36: Teaching when it's nice out

Spring is finally here, and it has understandably affected students' motivation to learn and teachers' motivation to teach. We all remember back in the day when spring hit and the last place you wanted to be was sitting in a desk inside a big brick building. It makes it even harder when we're now 160 days into the school year and have been going full force for 8.5 months. Everyone - students and teachers alike - are worn out, and the weather outside is enticing.

So last week I brought my kids outside to work one day. Then, every day after that, when I said no to going outside, the kids were very upset. The kids (and I) want so badly to be able to enjoy the nice weather, but our system doesn't always allow it. I'll probably be bringing the kids out again this week, especially since the weather will be in the 70s most of the week.

16 days of school left! And counting...

Hours for week 36:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	5/5/2013	11:30 AM	1:15 PM	1.75
		7:00 PM	8:30 PM	1.5
M	5/6/2013	11:00 AM	12:00 PM	1
		12:45 PM	1:30 PM	0.75
		3:00 PM	4:30 PM	1.5
		8:30 PM	9:30 PM	1
T	5/7/2013	8:00 AM	5:00 PM	9
W	5/8/2013	7:45 AM	5:00 PM	9.25
		8:15 PM	10:30 PM	2.25
Th	5/9/2013	7:15 AM	3:30 PM	8.25
F	5/10/2013	7:45 AM	3:15 PM	7.5
Sat	5/11/2013	11:30 AM	2:00 PM	2.5
	Total			46.25

WEEK 35 - Seeing students grow

One of the neatest things about teaching, I'm beginning to learn, is seeing students grow into young adults. We teachers spend 170-190 days with these students, and oftentimes build very strong teacher-student relationships. Then the year ends and the student gets a new teacher the next year, and another one the next year, etc. Before you know it, a few years have passed and you see a former student and think, "wow has he grown!" It has to be one of the coolest things I've experienced in teaching so far.

I got to thinking about this because recently I was contacted by a former student's mother. She wanted me to tutor her son Klaas this summer. Klaas was a freshman in my level 1 class when I was a student-teacher at Southwest High School a few years ago. He worked hard and spent some time in Spanish-speaking countries, and was able to skip levels 2 and 4 of Spanish, so next year he will be entering level 6 as a senior. I met with him this past Wednesday, and I was floored by his growth. Not just physically (he was very small as a freshman, but now he is taller than I am), but also in terms of maturity. He has more confidence, is very forward-thinking, and thinks deeply. His Spanish has also improved tenfold. Not only can he defend himself in Spanish, he can do it very grammatically-correct with a broad range of vocabulary! :)

I'm very excited to see what the future brings Klaas, because I know that when he graduates, he's going to go out there and do great things. The same can be said for many of my students now at Washburn. Most of these kids have no idea that they are destined for awesomeness, but we teachers often recognize it before they do. Yet, since we only get these students for a year, oftentimes we get to plant the seed but never see the flower. It is awesome when we get to see the final product, and know that we had a hand in its creation and development. Again, it's one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching I've encountered so far.

My hours for week 35:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	4/28/2013	5:30 PM	6:30 PM	1
		9:30 PM	11:30 PM	2
M	4/29/2013	7:45 AM	3:15 PM	7.5
		8:30 PM	9:45 PM	1.25
T	4/30/2013	7:15 AM	6:15 PM	11
W	5/1/2013	7:45 AM	6:30 PM	10.75
Th	5/2/2013	7:15 AM	6:00 PM	10.75
F	5/3/2013	7:30 AM	5:30 PM	10
Sat	5/4/2013			0
	Total			54.25