Four Feet More

Sorry I've been so bad about blogging lately (and bad about reading your blogs!). I've been pretty busy and, needless to say, there is a lot to catch up on. I will attempt to do a tiny bit of that now.

The week began with a Monday, as it always does. As I was getting ready for work, I went to close my bedroom door, putting my hand around the knob with fingers holding the edge of the door. Then, I proceeded to shut the door, with my hand still in that position, and smashed my middle finger. Every time I look at the black bruise in the center of my fingernail, I am reminded of what an idiot I am.

The rest of the day wasn't much better. After school I had a meeting with Vika's teacher and the principal about the lack of interventions being done to support her learning. This was a follow-up to the meeting I had with the teacher two weeks ago, in which she said she would not be doing any interventions for Vika, would not be using her Friday afternoon movie time for additional instruction, and told me that while Vika is not meeting grade-level standards, she is also not low enough to require intervention. When I said it felt like Vika was slipping through the cracks, the teacher looked me right in the eye and said, "Sometimes that happens." As you can imagine, I was less than satisfied with this response.

At Monday's meeting, I laid out all Vika's reading comprehension tests, with big, red "F"s, "D"s and "C"s on them, and asked what we could do to improve these scores. The teacher began a relentless attack of me that continued throughout the meeting. She was very defensive that I was questioning her teaching style, and the principal did what she could to talk around my concerns. Finally, after they told me that they didn't want to do any extra interventions because they wanted all children to start out on "the same playing field," I did something I swore I would never do. I pulled the "adoption card."

My frustrated response to their statement was, "Is every child on the same playing field? Is my child, who has only been speaking English for 2 years, and who spent the first 4 and a half years of her life in extreme poverty and neglect, on the same playing field as a child who has been raised from birth with two supportive, English-speaking parents? All children do NOT start out on the same playing field, and to think so it a bit short-sighted." At this point, the principal jumped right on board with me and began scribbling down a plan to help Vika catch up with her reading comprehension. The teacher still resisted at every turn, but at least now I have a plan in place, and really, I'm just counting down the weeks until my child is out of her class. Hopefully I can do some work over the summer to get Vika more prepared for 2nd grade.

At least Monday ended nicely, and Jeff and I were able to do a mini-anniversary celebration.

Tuesday brought the dreaded California State Testing for my class. 2 and a half hours, and nearly 30 pages of reading comprehension questions! The students were definitely squirrelly after that. I can't say I blame them, really. Those types of standardized tests are enough to drive anyone mad.

Tuesday afternoon, I came home to an unexpected surprise. On the counter was a package, addressed to me and waiting to be opened. Imagine my delight when inside were my PIF gifts from Starfish! I think you may remember these from a post she did a while back:

I confess, when I read that post, I secretly hoped that she would make me similar items for PIF. I’ve already got my sock project stuffed into the sock bag (one sock is done, the other is nearly half-way complete), and now my heaps of knitting needles are carefully arranged in the straight needle holder. Thanks so much Starfish! After a kind of weird couple of days, your gift brightened my mood and left me with a smile on my face.

Wednesday went pretty well until around 5 pm, when I was suddenly overcome with awful stomach cramps. I got violently sick, but seemed to feel better afterwards. Around 5 am Thursday morning, I became queasy again. As I was trying to get ready for school I got sick, and soon realized that I would have to call in an emergency substitute. It's really no fun, scrambling around to get your class covered and make sure that testing is going to be taken care of when all you really want to do is collapse in a heap near the toilet, waiting for the nausea to pass.

Finally, around noon Thursday I began to feel better, and by Friday afternoon, my appetite had completely come back. Perhaps I ate something that was off? Who knows? I’m just glad it’s out of my system!

The week ended on a positive note Friday afternoon, when my principal informed me that she was recommending me for rehire next year. I was relieved at this news, but still didn’t quite know what it meant. I figured this was another hurdle cleared in the “re-hire race,” but that there were still more up ahead. However, when I went into the office on my way out, the principal was there, and she said, “Don’t I get a hug?” I was a bit confused and said, “Umm… OK!” and hugged her. Then it dawned on me…. “Is this it then? Am I definitely coming back next year?” The principal said that it was as good as a done deal, and that my hire letter would say 6th grade, but I would actually be moving into 5th grade. I really like the 5th grade team and am excited about working with them next year. I know I’ll learn a lot, and now will be able to complete my beginning teacher training and clear my credential in California!

What a great way to end a roller-coaster week!