The Story of the Orange Wall

Our living room is shaped like an awkward L. Hard to know where to place the TV...hard to know what to do with the tiny end of the L that doesn't have the couch or the TV in it. There were some bookshelves currently living on the far wall of the L that had been intended by the previous owners to flank a fireplace. If only they'd followed through on that...I'd love a fireplace. I figured out pretty soon that I wanted to take down those bookshelves and line the whole wall with new bookshelves, and figured out exactly the number and sizes I needed to fill the wall. After an emotional trip to Ikea, though, we ended up with an entirely different design than I'd originally intended...which usually creates the best designs anyway. (This I've learned after the emotional trip to Ikea. I didn't see it as clearly at the time.)

Now came the issue of color. The wall had previously been painted a deep purply color by the previous owners and my husband had left it when he bought the house. We both like accent walls, so we agreed we would paint it a different color...but we have slightly different ideas about what the word "color" means. I think in reds and greens and blues and he thinks in beiges and greys and sometimes greens. So when he said out of nowhere one night that he was thinking orange for the accent wall...I didn't argue. I was shocked, and secretly wondered if anyone had ever painted an interior wall orange, but I didn't argue.

This is the part of the post where I encourage you to prime your walls before painting them a new color. That seems pretty basic...but sometimes even the most experienced and intelligent of homeowners make mistakes. We got the primer/paint combo gallon...and the orange simply did not cover the deep purply color until coat #7. This didn't make me super happy at the time, but now that it's approximately three months later I'm laughing about it.

Here are some before, during, and after pics, in chronological order:

 

 

And there you go! The orange wall. We're pretty happy with how it turned out. I had a lot of fun styling the bookshelves and incorporating little nick-knacks from both of our single possessions as well as things I'd made for our wedding. Every little new thing makes it feel more like our home!

Recipe: Quinoa-n-Cheese

Remember when I wrote a post about how there's a transition in my life and therefore my blog, and how I was so excited to start blogging about things like home renovation/decorating, cooking, and marriage? I really was excited. But marriage, as it turns out, is time consuming. Especially in these early days. And then we got a puppy. A handful of a puppy. And I picked up a small part time job at church. And suddenly here we are, in December, and I haven't blogged again. Consider this my official apology. I've gotten the bug again, though, and I'm back!

I have a string of posts lined up, but for the sake of not writing them all tonight, I'll start with a recipe. I've made it twice now, and it's so good!

Quinoa-n-Cheese

baking time: 30-35 minutes
preheat oven to: 350 degrees

1.5 cups quinoa
veggies of your choice (optional)
good pinch of salt
a few grinds of seasoned salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 large eggs
1 cup skim milk
1.5 cups grated cheddar cheese
Panko bread crumbs for topping (optional)

Lightly saute any veggies you want to include. Cook quinoa completely. Coat 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray. Whisk together the eggs and milk in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the quinoa, salt, seasoned salt, garlic, and veggies if you're including them. After mixed, fold both the quinoa mix and the cheese into the egg/milk mixture. Stir very well until the cheese starts to melt. Transper to baking dish and if using Panko bread crumbs, sprinkle on top now. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350, or until bread crumbs are browned.

*Gluten free notes: Obviously, the bread crumbs could cause some problems, depending on the stores around you and whether you can find any. You can either make your own by smashing up pieces of your own gluten free bread, or you can check your stores for some. I have found a great corn based Panko-style bread crumbs brand at Food Lion.

*Other notes: I haven't added veggies either time I've made this dish. I can't really imagine why you would want to...but apparently it's an option.

The beginning of a new era.

Well...I'm not teaching anymore. Not for the moment anyway. At least for this coming school year, I'll be outside of the classroom. Although that's very weird for me and has been difficult to come to terms with, that's not what this post is about. Since I'm not teaching this year, this obviously can't be a blog about teaching; I'm going to shift blogging gears, then, and focus on my new chapter in my life. As of today, I've been married for three wonderful weeks. There have been ups and downs...there have been moments of both laughter and conflict...there has been an incredible amount of Olympics watching...but it's all been wonderful and they have all been opportunities for growth and strength in the foundation of our marriage. Even though those last couple sentences may make you doubt me, this blog is not going to become my personal journal about my marriage. It will not become the place I vent or share personal pieces of information about conversations and situations my husband and I come across. It will probably just be a place where I share funny anecdotes and home decorating/changes I get excited about and recipes that are really successful. And maybe some of my journey as I adapt to and figure out this new classroom-less life.

The end of an era.

Today was the last day of my first year as a teacher. But even though more days have been terrible this year than the days that have been good, and even though I've been counting down the days till today for months...I woke up oddly down. These kids have tried every last bit of my patience. They have threatened me, destroyed my personal belongings, vandalized my classroom, and cussed me out on a daily basis. They have tried to kick down my classroom door, they have gone entire marking periods without doing a single assignment, and they have literally chased subs out of my room after three minutes. They have been led out of the school by police officers. And even though some of them are really not my favorite people in the world, some of them kind of are.

I’m having a really difficult time writing this post, mostly because I don’t know what I want to say or how to say it. I have spent the last year dying to get out of that place and away from those kids, and now that I’m officially gone I feel like I need more time with them. I have two girls who call me “Mom,” one girl who comes to hide in my classroom to cry when she’s having a bad day, and a boy who spent two weeks threatening my fiancée because I should have married him. I have a boy who has shared all of his sadness and frustration about his dad who has been stationed indefinitely in Korea. I have two boys who almost daily ask me why I’m leaving and am I sure I want to leave because they will really miss me. I have relationships with these kids that I’ve only just started to become aware of. And now that it’s, for all intensive purposes, over…I’m having a really difficult time getting over it and moving past it.

One of my boys, the one with the father stationed in Korea, came up to me and was chatting a few days ago and I told him that he kicked butt in the teacher-student basketball game, and he got excited and said that he can’t wait next year to be on varsity. I told him that I can’t wait either because I’m going to come back to watch him play. He got so excited and asked me repeatedly if I meant it, and I told him that I’m completely serious and that I’ll come as often as I can to watch. This morning he came into my homeroom and asked me again, totally serious and quiet, if I was really going to come watch him play next year. I told him again that I can’t wait to come back and see him play. This afternoon, when the last bell rang and my kids were dismissed, I stood in the doorway and hugged student after student as they walked out, so many of which mean so much to me. That boy, though, hung back and waited, holding hands with his girlfriend, for everyone else to leave. Then they both came up and separately hugged me and thanked me, and then walked out quietly.

I didn’t expect a lot of things about this year…but I think what I expected the least were the tears I’m fighting back right now as I think about not seeing them every day anymore.

Marty Wolf Pictures, please hold.

I mentioned last post that we were in post-SOL movie-watching mode. Now we're officially out of movie-watching mode and into post-movie assignment mode, which means the children are whining again. We watched Freaky Friday, Rookie of the Year, and Big Fat Liar (except for 5th block which whined so much when I tried to put in Freaky Friday that they got Antz instead. Antz is a legitimately stupid movie). Now that they're done, the kids had to do a day of plot structuring, indirect and direct charaterizationing, themeing, and summarizing...but today marked the start of a longer project in which they picked one of the three movies their class watched and were given the task of writing a sequel to that movie. If you notice, Miss Melchione was clever enough to pick only movies with no sequel already in existence. Today, one of my girls in 5th block spent all class working on her pre-writing for her sequel to Big Far Liar, and she came up to me at the end of class and said "Miss Melchione, what if someone steals my paper, and turns it into a successful Hollywood movie?" I laughed and said "I don't think that's going to happen." And she looked at me, dead serious, and said "Miss Melchione...Marty Wolf is out there. He is out there and he is real and he's going to come steal my paper and get rich!"

That entire blog post was useless to you unless you've actually seen the movie Big Fat Liar.  If you haven't seen it, you probably should immediately. Or watch this trailer.

The return of the blog.

I'm going to skip my usual opening line of "it's been a long time," mostly because it's been too long to even legitimately make that comment. It's been like a month and a half. It's been a rough month and a half. I've laughed a little, cried a lot, but me and fiancee have endured and there's light at the end of the tunnel. He has been painfully patient with my weekly breakdowns, providing the support and encouragement and realistic practicality that I've needed to turn my focus back towards my Lord who is dying to help me through it all. My time with Him has transformed from pride and ignorance to humility and earnest desire for His guidance, and I am eternally thankful. It's finally become a bittersweet time, as I stare down the end of an era with a brief 12 days left.

My kids are making me laugh again, but it's mostly because I'm seeing their humor again when for so long I only saw their rebellion.

My kids are making me smile again, but it's mostly because I'm seeing their humor and good intentions again when for so long I only saw their disrespect.

SOLs are over and we're officially in movie watching time now. Yeah...I'm that teacher. But I have a legitimate and Language Arts related writing assignment planned to begin the moment the movies end, so have no fear. Funny things that have happened in the last week:

A boy from my 5th block came into class and wandered around my room for about four minutes whining about how he's in the mood for an apple. "I really want an apple...I"m really in the mood for an apple...do you have an apple for me, Miss Melchione? Please give me an apple, Miss Melchione." I didn't have an apple for him. He picked a piece of trash up off the floor though and walked it over to the trashcan, and then looked inside the can and screamed "THERE'S AN APPLE IN HERE! SOMEONE THREW OUT A PERFECTLY GOOD APPLE!" I nearly died of laughter.

Yesterday my [favorite] student got caught by his homeroom teacher wearing a hoodie and was told to put it in his locker. He came into my room freaking because he was wearing his track uniform underneath the hoodie with no shirt underneath. Hoodie = not school uniform. Track uniform with no shirt underneath = not school uniform. Quite the quandry he was in. So he went around asking all my kids if they had a sweater he could borrow, and none of them did. I said, as a complete joke, that he could wear my little gray cardigan...and he said okay. As he was putting it on, looking a little bit like a moron, my mentor (his homeroom teacher) walked in looking for him, and laughed. This is a man who doesn't laugh. We told the kid that he better wear the sweater all day long....which he probably would have done if the French teacher hadn't told him he needed a pass from the office to wear a women's sweater that's two sizes too small for him. I have to say that when I heard that, I nearly died. Kid went back to the hoodie and wore my sweater around his neck until lunch when I walked into the cafeteria, frozen in my sleeveless dress, walked over to where he was sitting with all his friends, and took my sweater back without saying a word. I feel like he might be getting crap for that whole exchange until he graduates from high school.

A male student who I don't have said last week in my presence that I'm too beautiful for anyone. And then yesterday he told me that my cheekbones are perfect. I told him I'm starting to get creeped out.

In other news, I was treated to my very first manicure/pedicure last week (have I mentioned that I have a fantastic fiancee?) and I am kind of in love with my French tips that are now sadly chipping. I've literally never liked French tips on anyone and never had a desire to have them. The sweet manicure lady pretty much told me I was getting them and didn't give me the choice, though, so I rolled with it. And now I want them to always be French tipped. And less chipped than they are right now. I need to come up with a way to legitimize regular trips to the nail place...

Engagements and Middle Schoolers.

Well...today was eventful.

I was given a beautiful engagement ring last night from the love of my life, and after all the conversations and pre-planning that has taken place about us getting engaged, I am so excited to be wearing his ring and officially able to tell the world that it's happening. I was so excited to be able to come into work today and have all my nosy little children see it and freak out and get excited for me...but no one noticed. Aside from the extremely rewarding scream and tears that came from my close friend and coworker when I crashed through her first class of the day to show her the bling, I got nothin' from anyone. If they noticed, they didn't say anything. It seemed a little anticlimactic...I'm not the kind of girl to announce it with no lead in, so I was lost. Do I just go through the rest of the school year without them knowing I'm getting married? After they've stalked the heck out of our relationship for months trying to get as much info as they can? Should have known that wouldn't be the case. This is how it went down:

4th block was ending and one student sleepily said "...is that an engagement ring?" and another girl said "I saw it but didn't say anything." Three nearby girls freaked and came to look at it, and then the bell rang. One of them went out into the hallway screaming "MISS MELCHIONE IS GETTING MARRIED!" and then every. single. kid. from my 5th block that was standing right outside my door ran in screaming "MISS MELCHIONE'S GETTING MARRIED?! MISS MELCHIONE, YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED!" and then Miss Famous 5th Block Girl ran up and down the hallways screaming that I'm engaged. My homeroom kids showed up in awe because they never saw it. One boy from homeroom came barreling in screaming "YOU'VE GOT A RING?!?!" and then the bell rang and Miss Famous 5th Block Girl wouldn't shut up until I told them the story. So I told them how he did it.

Class: Are we invited?
Me: Of course.
Miss Famous 5th Block Girl: I'm going to be up on the stage singing and rapping.
Me: Of course.
Male Student: Can I be the best man? And the guy that makes a speech and cries?
Me: Of course.

I was immediately asked what my name is going to be [it had never really hit me how much my last name is my identity as a teacher...] and when I told them it would be Mrs. Moore, half of my students said that they'd still call me Miss Melchione, half of my students asked if they could start calling me Mrs. Moore now, and one student said he's just going to call me Ms. M, and then paused and smiled and said "...get it? Get it? Because they both start with M."

One of my [favorite...shhh] students came in late, and Miss Famous 5th Block Girl says "Miss Melchione's engaged" and he stopped frozen and said "....really? REALLY?! Ah!" and then rushed me with a hug. It took everything within me to get them quiet enough to explain what we're doing today. Thankfully, what we're doing today is watching the movie Hoodwinked to review direct and indirect characterization. A couple of them are having a hard time grasping the concept of a fairy tale cartoon, though:

Miss Famous 5th Block Girl: She is a little girl...and she's singing to the animals! Singing to the animals, Miss Melchione! This is why little kids love fantasy trash now!

Miss Famous 5th Block Girl: A taxi in the middle of the woods?
Me: Move on.

On an unrelated note, one of my boys has told me that he would like to be called "Batman" from now on. Not sure where that came from...honestly don't want to know. Also, I took one of my boy's phones about a month ago, and his mom never came to the school to pick it up because his grades sucked. He kept coming to me and whining "my mom won't come get my phone until my grades don't suck!" and I would say "well sweetie...your grades still suck." He walked in today with a HUGE smile on his face and a swagger to his step, announcing the my engagement is not the biggest news of the day: his mom gave him his phone back. And then he interrupted me several times to tell me, with a huge smile on his face, that he got his phone back. Ten minutes into the movie I look over and he's staring at his lap. I called him out and said "you wanna lose it the day you get it back?" He's been dutifully watching the movie since then.

Cake Boss and such.

Last week was Spring Break, and this week has been sketchy at best. Not one teacher wanted to be there Monday for the Teacher Work Day, and not one student wanted to be back yesterday. Yesterday was rough. Lots of attitude all around. I literally had a student say "It feels like the year is over." Yeah. There's only NINE weeks of school left, but they've all checked out. Every single one of them. I thought I could expect this after the SOL, not this soon. Today was more fun, though. I worked them fairly hard today - with Dr. Seuss, sure, but I made them work - and then let them run wild for about 20 minutes. Turns out that was a good call...but it also created some funny conversations.

While my 4th block had free time, they all ended up talking about the Hunger Games. They've all read through the series at different places, and they were all discussing the end of Mockingjay even though they haven't all gotten there yet. One boy who's in the middle of Catching Fire kept freaking out when someone would spill something important. He had just gotten over freaking out about something really minor...there was a pause of silence in the room as everyone who had finished the series weighed the pros and cons...and then one brave soul said: "Prim dies." I thought that kid was going to have a heart attack and die right there on my floor.

Student 1: Algebra will never be used in the real world.
Student 2: Dude, all I need to know in life I learn from Cake Boss. I'm totally serious.

Student: My ears are great! [pretending to adjust his ears] I'm listening to the NFL right now!
Me: How's that off-season working out for you?
Whole class: OOOOOOOOHH!

[after reading Yertle the Turtle earlier in class]
Me: Stop trying to climb onto my filing cabinet!
Student: I'M TRYING TO BE YERTLE!

Stooping to their level.

I had the following conversation with a student today after I handed her back her rough draft with my comments:

Student: What's H?
Me: It's not an H.
Student: Then what is it?
Me: The paragraph symbol.
Student: Paragraph...paragraph...paragraph...whatchu tryin' to say?
Me: I'm tryin' to say that your whole paper is one long paragraph.
Entire class: Oooooooh...
Student: That's just because I didn't break it up into paragraphs.
Me: And I was just showin' you WHERE to break it up into paragraphs.

Another student came to me with the "Research Paper MLA Cheat Sheet" I had handed out. He put the sheet on the desk and pointed to the top, which showed them how to put in in-text citations step by step. This is literally what I put on their sheet:

First: put quotation marks around the words you're using that are from somewhere else.
Second: at the end of the sentence, put a parenthesis --> (
Third: put the last name of the textbook/article's author inside the parenthesis
Fourth: put the page number of the book/article you got that quote from
Fifth: put the other parenthesis --> )
Sixth: put a period.

It seems this student was offended that I had felt the need to break it down quite so simply. This was our conversation:

Student: Miss Melchione, we're not in second grade.
Me: I just wanted to make sure you got it.
Student: I think I know where to put my quotation marks. I can't believe you think we're that stupid.

And then I reached over and just circled the "put a period" on his paper. We had a good chuckle.

I initiated something today called "silent day." What the kids don't know yet is that it's going to evolve into "silent week." I walked into school this week - this wonderful week before spring break when the kids are going on field trips and attending assemblies at the end of the week and they're on Week 6 of a research paper they hate - and decided I can't do it. I can't handle them running around and screaming and tearing my stuff up for another week. So when silent reading time ended I passed out their folders and told them in whispers that they can choose to either keep reading or work on their papers, but they may not talk. And by golly, it worked. So I did it with my other classes too. Didn't work quite as well for 5th block, but it worked better than letting them run wild. Silence, my friends, is glorious. It's my new favorite thing. Hence: the birth of "silent week."

Last Minute Productivity

Just one tiny story. Today the research papers' rough drafts were due, and they've had a week to write them. Many of my students didn't even think about starting until the end of class yesterday. Two of my classes didn't even really make an attempt today either, but my 4th block busted their butts to reach the deadline. And all but two were successful. One girl, sitting in the front row, who honestly sleeps through about half of her time in my room, asked me repeatedly to come up and help her through a rough spot in her draft. About three minutes before deadline when I went around to grade the drafts, she suddenly yells at the top of her lungs "I'M DONE!" and I yelled back from my desk "YAY!"

I really do love it when they get their butts in gear.

Grace and love.

Once again, time has passed since my last blog update. I don’t think I really have much of a reason this time, except to just say that life has been busy. No busier than normal or than anyone else’s life, just the normal kind of busy where suddenly you think “Huh. It’s been two weeks since
I’ve blogged.” I actually have no idea how long it’s been, but you get the point.

I haven’t tried to hide in the last couple of weeks that things have been rough here in Room 43. Kids have been crazy, I’ve been frustrated, and questions of whether I’m going to stay or not have resurfaced. To make that long and needless story short, the answer came in the form of a still small voice that whispered to me last weekend that I’m fine, I’m where I’m supposed to be, and I’m staying. Just having that knowledge that I am in fact where God wants me – for now, anyway – has given me such a peace about the situation at school. The kids haven’t really calmed down much, they haven’t really started caring more, and the over-all atmosphere of the 7th grade hasn’t changed, but my attitude has. Have there still been bad days when I struggle with holding on to things too much or let myself get bothered by them? Yup. But I’ve also been laughing and teasing with them again, and I’ve seen some of them actually learning and working hard. It’s been easier to keep it all in perspective, which I’ve been so thankful for. And then we watched a video at church Sunday night that rocked me to the core.

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/12872/Deidox--Lindsayhttp://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/12872/Deidox--Lindsay

I do not work in the Bronx. I understand that. I do however work in a school that is 77% free and reduced lunch, 50% ESOL, and 100% NOT the suburban middle school all my textbooks told me about. I teach reading and writing, like this woman. I teach middle school, like this woman. My kids physically look like this woman’s kids (although mine look much older), and my kids wear the exact same uniform as this woman’s kids. And as I watched this video and heard her talk about her kids and talk to her kids, and see her obvious love for them, I felt something that I really can’t describe. The phrase that wouldn’t stop running through my head over and over again was “I haven’t loved them like that…” And honestly…I don’t know if I have. There’s a very real possibility that I’ve only loved them conditionally, when they’ve done what I’ve asked and they’ve worked hard and they’ve stayed in their seats and they haven’t tried to hurt each other or me or my stuff. But after all the tears were wiped away and the hugs and encouraging words from the incredible man in my life had been processed, it occurred to me that even if I haven’t loved them like that up until now, I can start. I can walk into school with a different expectation and a different mindset. I can love them for who they are and for who God sees them as, instead of what they do for me or how well they behave or how hard they work. Please believe me when I say that that is much easier to do with some of my kids than others. But that’s the point, right? Grace isn’t grace if it only applies to who we want it to apply. Love isn’t love if it’s only given to the people we think have earned it. I will be the first to tell you that I don’t want my grace to apply to all of my kids, and I don’t think that all of my kids have earned my love. But…that’s the point.

...Still finding that happy place.

Well...it's been a week and I'm still looking for a change in behavior/work ethic/attitude from the children. At this point it probably goes without saying that I haven't seen it. I'll spare you the drama and details of my last week, or specifically of the day I had today which gave me a headache because of all the anger I held inside all day long, and I'll just tell you one story from homeroom. One of my girls brought an entire, unopened quart of butter pecan ice cream into my classroom to eat for breakfast. The truly surprising part of the story, I think, is that she was genuinely confused about why I asked her to take it to the head of the cafeteria to store for the day.

I also found out today that one of the kids I absolutely love from my 5th block is moving. Tomorrow is his last day. And just because all of us teachers spent the morning talking about how great he is and how upset we are that he's leaving, he acted like a jerk all afternoon in class. Because he's leaving and he doesn't care anymore. Because it would have been way too much to ask for him to just stay a great kid for two more days, I guess.

Happy Place

Usually, I shy away from sharing much when things aren’t going smoothly in Room 43. This week, though, I feel like I need to be a little bit more honest. Not vent, and not whine, but share honestly. I am struggling. The insane thought hit me Sunday night that I could just call in sick yesterday and not go in. I have sub plans for this very reason, after all. I thought about it for about three minutes too long, and then got convicted and realized I couldn’t do that. I’m an adult, and I have a job, and I’ve got to show up for it. I think that yesterday was especially hard because that conversation had taken place in my head the night before. First block was bad. What’s funny is that they weren’t that much worse than they have been, and nothing too crazy happened that should have pushed me over the line. But pushed over the line I was; I finally just snapped. “Middle of February, haven’t had a snow day all winter, my kids are incredibly rude” snapped. After being interrupted and ignored for half of class, I stopped talking, wrote an assignment on the board, and sat down at my desk. I was so done. So done with putting my heart and soul and so much of my personal time and money into this and being treated like dirt in return. So done with explaining something or teaching something and hearing other people’s voices. So done with trying to implement one of the millions of research based strategies and methods that I spent 5 years learning at one of the best educational universities available, and having them literally balled up and used as weapons, never to be completed or read. So done with looking around my classroom and seeing trash and pages torn from the books that I used my own money to buy and graffiti on my desks/walls/boards. I was so, so done.

It was a long, painfully reflective evening – with one of the best listeners and encouragers that I could ask for fighting beside me – and I walked into school this morning with a different attitude, and a little bit different of a perspective. I do too much for them. I work too hard and invest too much and I hold their hands through every task (even though I say all the time that I’m not going to hold their hand through every task). It’s time to cut some ties and give them the opportunity to either sink or swim, and to either start owning this thing or not…but they’re going to make that decision themselves. I gave them the vocab words this morning, but not the definitions. They get to look them up themselves. I gave them a poem to analyze and study and the questions I want them to answer, but we didn’t go over it together and I didn’t give them the answers. Class was silent this morning in 1st and 4th blocks, and they did their work in silence. At the end of class, some kids turned in their work and some didn’t, but they made that choice for themselves.

Six kids in my 5th block did their work but the rest of them didn't even seem phased by the fact that I literally didn't speak to them at all. Tried to start class, got ignored, put the assignment up on the screen and walked away. Six kids came and asked me questions and did the work and turned it in, and everyone else ran around the room and talked and threw things and thought they had free time. But those six kids who chose to do their work and who chose to learn rather than ignore responsibility will be an example for the rest of them. It nearly killed me to sit at my desk and ignore them while they destroyed my room and ignored the assignment on the board today, but I'm making a point. I'm going to get mad and I'm not going to hide that from them, and I'm going to take three steps back and let them decide (like the adults they act like they are) what kind of student they're going to be.

I’m going home this weekend to see my family and celebrate my birthday. I have a three day weekend, a four day work week next week, and two days worth of a 7th grade field trip next week that cuts my class size to half both days and allows me to do the same thing two days in a row. All of these things are the light at the end of the tunnel, and a spirit week where kids are out of uniform and misbehaving is what’s keeping me from it. But in the meantime, I’m staying in my happy place: Mumford and Sons and my new cowboy boots and hugs from that really great listener/encourager. It's the little things.

Just Kind of Depends.

Yesterday in 5th block, a student tried to kick down my door because she was late and I had started class and I wasn't going to interrupt myself and the beginning of class to let her in. She did, after all, have eight minutes to get to my class on time with the new bell schedule. In my homeroom, we did the moment of silence four times; they wouldn't shut up and I was tired of it so I started the timer over every time someone talked, sat down, or made an obnoxious noise. But I also had a kid get his pinky finger stuck in the handle of a window in my room during notetaking. I guess he realized it fit in the tiny hole and I'm sure he thought it was really cool until he tried to take it out, and it was completely stuck. He tried so hard to be discreet about it, but he was sitting near me and when I saw I couldn't help but laugh just a little bit at him. I did, though, get up and get my lotion out of my teacher bag and hand it to him without saying anything and without stopping teaching. When his good friend from across the room realized what was happening, though, it was all I could do to get the crazy little hyena to stop laughing.

So...you know...you take some and you lose some.

"Such a Hater"

First of all, I need to say that I have never gotten so behind on my television shows. I’ve watched one episode of Parenthood since Christmas. I’m finishing one episode of Parks and Rec as we speak. Oh, I guess I did watch one of New Girl. The point is, though, that having a boyfriend means that shocking priorities change. I’ll catch up eventually, but for now I kind of think it’s funny. I think my mother loves it. Time for some random stories and anecdotes from the week.

My kids will not shut up about the stupid Super Bowl. Actually, it’s probably more fair to say that the world won’t shut up about the stupid Super Bowl. Apparently it’s a big deal or something. But when the two teams in the Super Bowl are the Patriots (gag) and the team that beat your favorite stupid team out of the Super Bowl, you get a little grumpy about all the hype. Yesterday in fifth block, someone brought up the stupid Super Bowl….again. One of my students, whose favorite team is the Giants and who is also the student I told to get out of my face the day after they beat my team, was laying on his stomach on my back counter with his head laying on a pillow (just painting the Friday afternoon picture for you). When someone asked me what I thought about the Super Bowl – knowing full well how I felt about it – I said immediately and casually “I hate the Super Bowl. I hate both teams. I hope they both lose and they all spontaneously break their legs.” Giants fan on the back counter just shook his head and said “You’re such a hater, Miss Melchione.”

With a new nine weeks, I started some new policies. I started Tuesday off saying that since we’ve now spent a whole semester together, I am very aware of all the things that they do that make me angry and I’m now going to do something about it. So I turned their attention to the bulletin board behind my desk, that had two pieces of paper on it. One said “I was late,” and one said “I didn’t read,” and I explained that it’s a three-strikes policy where their name gets written on the list the first time and checks next to their name the second and third time, and then I’m writing a report for the Assistant Principal. Throughout the day, I added three more sheets of paper as I saw more things that make me angry: “I didn’t put my journal and/or book away,” “I didn’t come to class prepared,” and a bathroom list where they only get three trips for the marking period. LOTS of whining commenced. And continued. If you saw my face right now you would see how little I care. One of my girls – family and frequent readers: yes, THAT girl – got really mad Thursday when I wrote her name on the “I didn’t read list.” She had asked me if she could lay with a pillow on the back counter “just for silent reading time,” and I said yes, just as long as her butt was back in her seat as soon as I start class. She read for two minutes and then slept for 18 minutes, which to me means that she didn’t read. She disagreed. So she spent all afternoon Thursday and all morning Friday whining to me and the other teachers about how I had the nerve to write her name on the “I didn’t read list.” I figured she would bounce back by reading the whole twenty minutes yesterday to prove to me that she does her work and it was my mistake to try to fault her for her nap. But how did she respond? Oh, she slept for the ENTIRE class. Walked in, fell asleep, and woke up when the announcements came on and everyone was stacking chairs and putting things away. She missed silent reading time, a test, a music video, a classwork assignment, and me reading aloud for ten minutes. She did all of this in the middle of me yelling the whole class period, not because I was mad and they were being bad, but because their volume is much louder on Fridays and so is mine. She woke up about 17 times – I watched her – and rolled over to go back to sleep. Yeah, that’ll show me. I put a check next to her name on the “I didn’t read list.” (And in case you were wondering: no, it’s not my job to wake up my sleeping students. They’re big kids. Sleep through my test or notes or a classwork grade? Take the zero. That’s life, kid.)

Two conversations that happened yesterday:

Student: Miss Melchione, can you take me to Chipotle?
Me: No.
Student: But there’s a Chick-Fil-A right there. You can get yourself something too.
Me: …no.
Student: There’s an Arby’s…a Starbucks…come on Miss Melchione.

(after I said something about Facebook)
Student 1: You have Facebook?
Student 2: Oh yeah! She’s got Facebook.
(all other students in the class nod and agree)
Student 3: Yeah, I found you.
Student 4: My brother was searching for you and we found you. Did you know there’s a man in your picture?
Student 5: The bald one.
Student 6: Wearing a yellow shirt.
Me: This is why all you can see is my profile picture. And why I will decline every single friend request.

So what? I'm still a rockstar.

When my kids are being difficult and/or I feel very bad things towards them, I don’t blog as much. I don’t want to be that blogger that thinks that because she has a blog she gets a free pass to whine and complain about how terrible her job is. And I don’t want to be that employee that goes home at night and whines and complains on the internet about how unhappy she is with how she spends her work week. So when those phases come (and they are just phases), I keep quiet, ride it out, and wait for funny stories to surface again. If you’re one of the approximately six people who look for my blog posts regularly, that’s why you haven’t seen one in a while.

I should have seen this valley coming when a student walked into class one afternoon, asked me if she could go talk to the band teacher, and then responded to my “no” by throwing her book across the room. That should have tipped me off that my kids were about to spiral back out of control, but for whatever reason I didn’t catch on right away. You can bet that I caught on, though, when I found myself kicking kids out of my class, yelling much more, and ending last week with two classes in which I didn’t teach. Tried to start class and they wouldn’t shut up, so I just calmly went back to my desk, took attendance, and started grading papers. I did this in my homeroom and set a timer to see how long it would take them to catch on…and twenty minutes later I got up without a word and passed out the quiz. Once everyone had one, I said loudly “Number one…” and read the first spelling word. That shut them up. After the quiz I casually collected them, placed them on my desk, and said “So let’s talk about the fact that only ten of you passed the benchmark yesterday.” Silence. I didn’t mention that everyone who failed was within a four question window of passing, which really excited me…this was reality check time and I told them the positive spin a different day. It was awesome. They were actually quiet and respectful the rest of the class. I tried to accomplish a similar thing with my infamous 5th block and it didn’t work…oh well. After trying to get them quiet several different ways, I ended up trying to have the “a whole lot of you failed the benchmark” talk with them and when a student made an extremely rude and sarcastic comment in response I just told them to put their heads down and I didn’t want to see or hear them for the rest of the class. And that’s what we did. Until the announcements came on and they left for the weekend. I patted myself on the back for not killing that kid or any of his classmates.

Eventually, my kids are going to get it that I’m not playing.

Things have been better, though. I think this week has been a lot better…everyone usually starts new marking periods with better attitudes. I know I do. Right now I’m all “I love poetry! I’m so organized with this research paper I have to teach them! I have so many great activities for The Westing Game!” I’m fully aware that in a few weeks I’ll probably be saying “Poetry is stupid. Teaching kids how to research is impossible. Who has time for fun activities?” But…we’re not there yet. And everyone is happy. And mad about the “Unsatisfactories” that I put on their report cards that keep them from playing basketball (heeheehee) so I’ve got these boys following me around like little puppies trying to help me and be great and sweet so I tell their coach that they’ve improved. Life is pretty good.

Womp Womp

This morning I went into school after a three day weekend to make copies. Everything I'd planned for the day - a really good lesson, btw - needed to be copied, and the copier was broken. I can't even tell you how annoying that is. I had three minutes to come up with something else to do with my 90 minutes with my kids. And then I came back to me room, stressed and freaking out about this new turn of events, and remembered that I rearranged the desks and made a new seating chart that I needed to somehow give to the kids. So I'm walking around the room frantically putting sticky notes on each desk saying who sits where, and I look up and one of my students from 5th block who loves the Giants is standing in front of me, with a huge smile on his face. I looked at him and said "I don't want to talk about it. Get out of my face."

In case you were wondering, I managed to improvise enough to use about 3/4 of the block, and then passed out the mountain of papers sitting on my desk, and then read Green Eggs and Ham. Just for fun. It had nothing to do with my lesson and there wasn't even an attempt to link it to content. I just read Dr. Seuss. And it was awesome.

The Almost Mental Breakdown

To start, a couple of conversations:

Student 1: The Packers are going to the Superbowl again and they’re going to LOSE.
Student 2: To the Saints!
Student 1: They’re in the same conference, stupid!

Me: Hey, the Steelers lost.
Student: I KNOW. I was like Teboooooooooow!

Student 1: Miss Melchione, what’s an ox?
Me: Have you ever played Oregon Trail?
Student 1: No, what’s that?
Me: It’s an old school computer game.
Student 2: Two big problems there. One: old school. Two: computer game. There’s a 360 now and a PS3 now and all kinds of other great things.

Also super amusing, one male student wrote during an exit ticket for the Hunger Games that a cause in the novel was that Katniss pretended to love Peeta, which led to the effects of Peeta being mad at Katniss, Katniss feeling lonely again, and no more kissing.

Something not so amusing happened today during 5th block. I’ve talked a lot about 5th block and all the not so amusing things that have happened in the last several weeks, but this time it was different. I had an interaction with the extremely difficult student I’ve mentioned before…she was just having a bad day and no matter how hard I tried to calm her down and keep her in the room – which , trust me, was pretty hard – I finally gave up and let her go talk to the Assistant Principal. Who then put her in In School Suspension for the rest of the day. She came back afterwards to apologize and talk things out with me, and we’re good again. She wasn’t the real issue. The real issue was that after she left the rest of the class continued to be terrible. After silent reading time (which was neither silent not involving any actual reading), I felt like my options with this class were either 1.) try a new approach with them or 2.) have a mental breakdown. So I went with the new approach. I asked them to open their journals and to spend a few minutes writing about what they think they’re getting out of school right now (if anything). Then I had them write about what they think high school is going to be like if they ignore middle school. Then…I told them that I can’t care for both of us. I told them that no matter how hard I care, I can’t make them care. And I told them that I care a LOT. I told them that I wanted to share a little secret with them: this is my first year teacher, and so they are my first actual students. I told them that that means that I care a lot about their success, and that I put an incredible amount of work and passion into our time together so that they are successful. I told them that I’m not exaggerating when I say that because they’re the first students that have ever been officially mine, I honestly think of them as my own kids. And that when they show up and act like jerks it ticks me off. I finished with saying that if they go on to high school and drop out because they wasted their time in middle school, it will BREAK my heart.

I wish you could have seen the facial expressions and heard the silence. I think it might have made a difference. Time will tell, I suppose, but they seemed...different, afterwards. Chatty and goofy and loud, but also productive and compliant and respectful. They were also extremely interested in interrogating me about the rumors that have been flying about whether I have a new boyfriend or not, with several of my boys responding in an incredibly protective manner. One boy told me to tell him that he’s stronger than he is, and to be scared. Another boy told me to tell him that if he ever breaks my heart he’ll kill him. “No really, I will. Tell him that I will KILL him.”

I never really thought that I would experience some of the things I’ve experienced this year. I never thought I’d hold onto students’ cell phones for the day, not because they’re in trouble but because they told me that they had them and I asked if they wanted me to hold onto them so they’re not tempted to use them when they shouldn’t. I never thought I’d have three of my girls come into my room in between Encore classes to chat, avoid going to their next class, and drop half of what they own onto my desk, under my computer cart, and onto my back counter for safe keeping. I never thought I’d use Lil Wayne to teach what a climax is. I never thought I’d argue with students over how I want them to stay in my classroom when they’re misbehaving horribly rather than go to the Assistant Principal because I’d rather work out our issues with them myself. I never thought I’d have students from my Homeroom sneaking into my other classes throughout the day and whining with me as I’m physically pushing them back out the door, saying “But Miss Melchione! It’s my favorite claaaaaass!” I never thought any of these things would happen, just like I never thought I’d tell a class full of students that I see them as my own children. It’s all true, though, and I honestly wouldn’t change any of it.

Teachers really love Christmas break too.

Christmas break has come and gone, and we were back at it this week. I have to say that going back to school on Tuesday was the worst. I had the absolute worst attitude in the world when I walked into my classroom that morning, and it didn’t really help that all 90 of my kids had equally bad attitudes. Needless to say…there wasn’t a whole lot of happiness and productivity that day. Wednesday was better, Thursday was much worse, and Friday was a Friday. Since being back, it’s felt a little bit like a whirlwind. I’ve dealt with a student taking a half hour bathroom break, a student breaking into my colleague’s math class to ask if her brother has been misbehaving, a fight involving two girls that happened inside my classroom during the ten seconds I was out in the hallway, students throwing everything another student owns onto the floor in a huge mess when I was helping someone across the room, a surprise informal observation by my Assistant Principal during my worst class, a student refusing to give me a cell phone he had in the middle of class (don’t worry…he got it), three cell phones, an iPod and a PSP all confiscated within the span of two days, and two students who were kicked out of the library because they were too loud and then decided to take twenty minutes to walk down the one hallway to get back to my classroom (they got it too). It’s been a little ridiculous and I’m fairly certain my children are nuts, but I still love them and they still manage to make me laugh out loud. Time for some recorded conversations, both overheard and participated in yesterday?

(while studying for the vocab/prefix quiz they were about to take, female student who will be called S and male student who will be called J had this conversation about the prefixes “intra” and “infra”…and yes. I’m evil for giving them both of those on the same quiz.)S: Intra.
J: Infra or intra?
S: Intra.
J: Infra?
S: No, intra!
J: Oh. It means below.
S: No, that’s infra. I said intra.
J: WHAT? No, intra is below and infra is inside!
S: No! You’re backwards!
J: MISS MELCHIONE! Is intra below?
Me: No, that’s infra. Intra is inside. Like intrastate. And intramural.
J: That’s what I said. Intra is inside, and infra is below.

Student: Are you going to go see “The Devil Inside” tonight?
Me: Nope.
Student: But you could meet a guy there! You could do this! (cuddles up to an invisible guy)
Me: What if I don’t need to?
Student: YOU COULD GO WITH ME!

My fifth block has been horrible. HORRIBLE. And it’s gotten to the point where it’s not even just about the fact that they’re disrupting my ability to teach them. It’s transitioned into this whole new realm where I’m truly disappointed in them and the decisions they are making that are changing who they are. This is such a vital time in their developmental process, and they make so many decisions right now in middle school that could potentially shape who they become as high schoolers and as adults. And it ticks me off a little bit to watch my kids start the year as wonderful, sweet, thoughtful kids turn into rude, mean, and destructive. So when they hit their pinnacle of frustrating on Thursday, I told them that. All of that. They were a little bit quieter the rest of the class period…and they were a lot better yesterday. We’ll see how it works in the long run, but I’m going to be having a lot of heart-to-hearts with my kids because I just refuse to watch it happen and not do anything.

They WERE better yesterday, though, and because of that they earned Friday free time for the first time. Ever. I wish you could have seen their cute excited faces. The funniest moment of my day came during that cherished free time, when male student who will be called E called to me from across the room SO excited because he had made an M out of dominoes on the desk in honor of my name and he wanted me to come knock them over. As I was making my way across the room to knock them over, male student who will be called K calmly and expressionlessly threw a Sharpie from across the room at the dominoes, sending them scattered in a million directions across the room. Usually, I try to keep my laughter at the children inside as much as possible, but at this point in my Friday afternoon and after the week it had been, I lost it. I honestly couldn’t stop laughing. E went ballistic on K and they pretend fought with E calling K some mildly inappropriate names (see the drugstore scene of the movie “Signs” as a reference). It was a good time. Welcome to 2012.