swear jar

I'm in the process of deep cleaning my house. Mostly because it hasn't been done in a LONG time. And partly because I'm bored. Tonight is the first night in a long while that I haven't had anything to do or somewhere to go and it feels good. My hands are all pruney and dry from being in soapy water and cleaning stuff, so I just put some lotion on and am giving them a tiny break before I go clean the bathroom.

It's been almost a week since I last posted and, like usual, it's been a crazy whirlwind! I'm counting down the 8 days until I'm off for Winter Break: 12 Wonderful-no-student-seeing Days!

Last week in my 1st period I created a "Swear Jar--" 50 cents per swear word. I had enough of the horrible language I keept hearing the majority of them using. I initially thought they'd all think it was stupid, but they loved the idea and even wrote out a list of the swears they thought they would have to pay for. By the end of Thursday I had 2 dollars. By the end of Friday I was up to 4. Today I earned another dollar. I can't say it's curbed all of their swearing appetites, but it's sure been fun to see some of them put upwards of one dollar each class period.

We've been reading several pieces from Langston Hughes, the prolific African American author of the Harlem Renaissance. First the students read "Thank You, M'am," a short story about friendship and respect. Today we read 4 of his poems that all deal with dreams of equality for the African American people (written during the time of segregation). I tried to help them understand the Jim Crow Laws of that time and we had good discussion (in most classes) about the reasoning for them.

I have one African American student who is not afraid to speak her mind. She complained that the poems were racist. I asked her why she thought so and she explained that the poems were about segregation. Of course, this makes no sense, so I had to (AGAIN!) explain what racism really means: how could an African American poet writing for the bettering of his OWN people be racist towards African Americans?!?!?! Most of my classes enjoyed the poems, but I got quite irritated having to explain the true definition of racism.

On Friday I found in my box two thank you notes from two of my most troubling students. They thanked me for being nice to them when most teachers aren't and they also thanked me for not giving them ASD's for every small thing they do wrong. I don't know which teacher made the assignment to write Thank You's to other teachers, but it was the highlight of my week. Of course, I embarrassed those students by saying thank you to them today, but I think they both had improved behavior today.

We went to see The Forgotten Carols last Thursday with dad Hubert and Jaren. It was such a treat! It helped me get into the spirit of Christmas and I (like always) bawled during the last 10 minutes. I've been listening to the soundtrack at every opportunity since.

Sadly, my bathroom is calling and I'm out of stuff to write about. Happy week!