End of the semester! The first semester is the long semester so I am pleased that it has finally come and gone. I put together a packet of the "best" sonnets of 2007 and stuck a copy in the principal's mailbox today. Sure, it felt a little self-promotional, but I am feeling that I have no choice if I am going to attempt to create a new position for myself. In looking over the number of students who completed the assignment, challenging though it was, I felt pleased because the completion rate was pretty high given the challenge--typically more give up and quit than actually try and muddle through. I was pleased by the outcome. Sharing the sonnets out loud was a real pleasure. By taking the names off of the work and distributing copies, the kids were all interested in trying to discover who had written the good ones. They were so attentive and gave wonderful and constructive feedback to the authors. Also, they really were proud of themselves for conquering something that they initially found so perplexing. My favorite ones mirrored Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 with a real urban school flavor--shall I compare thee to a pair of new Jordans? Or my love is like macaroni and cheese?

As a review for the final exam (which will take place tomorrow), we played Jeopardy today. I am always astounded by how competitive and excited the student become when we play these games. They bicker over the rules, they are sure that I am biased towards the opposite team, the points aren't fair or aren't elaborate enough... it's so funny. Meanwhile, I get a decent chance to look at what I think has been learned and what has been missed completely. It seems to me that the debate unit sunk into their brains as did the sonnet and poetry unit while the library skills and bibliography know-how seems to be lost by the wayside. Vocabulary and grammar are somewhere in between. As unbelievable as it may be, several groups of students STILL were not able to tell me that a noun is a person, place, thing or IDEA. I fear that the exam will be too long and too difficult for a great many of the kids but I also think it is a very fair assessment of the material that I've covered and will show me how much has been absorbed. I am pleased with it overall.

One of my students had a horrific meltdown this week. Her mother is in a coma from a car accident, her uncle was shot by a cop and her father recently had a leg amputated. It's hard to believe that this is true, but according to her advisor, it is indeed. No wonder she is not so keen on school. This is one of those reminders about just how irrelevant school can be for so many of these kids. They have so many other kinds of traumas and other responsibilities to contend with. Last Friday, one of my students was freaking out because she was going to be late to pick up her brother after school and it was snowing. Another student is struggling with a serious drug addiction while his father seems to be abusing him and is an alcoholic--the poor kid was already removed from living with his mother because she abused him too. Such disasters. It's hard for me to take any of the academics seriously when looking through this lens.

I told one set of parents who came up today that I thought their son was dangerous--he seemed indifferent when four teachers told tales of him nearly blinding students as he throws things across the room. He admitted to an anger problem but did not seem to want to do much about it. He is so manipulative. I felt sorry for his parents. Actually sorry for them because clearly this boy is not going to fulfill their hopes and dreams.