It's All Worth It.

We're almost six weeks into the first semester, and today I got a comment from a student that makes it all worth it. The bell rang at the end of the day, and as my eighth period class filed out of the room I saw a former student of mine in the hallway who ran up to me, a giant grin on her face...

Grace: Hi Ms. Stutelberg!
Me: Hi Grace! How's it going this year? I haven't seen you!
Grace: You know how you recommended me for Epstein's class [AP Lit.]? Well, I've been really stressed about it because everyone else had honors English last year and I didn't.
Me: Well, is it going okay? Are you struggling?
Grace: I don't think so...I just had this mental block, like I wasn't as smart as all the other kids.
Me: Oh Grace, I'm sorr--
Grace: No! But today was the best day! Remember when we read "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" last year. You know, by that John Donne guy?
Me: Of course I remember, John Donne is one of my favorites.
Grace: Well, today in class I was the only one who had ever read it, and I got to explain the compass part to the class and I kept thinking in my head, "Ms. Stutelberg is the other leg of my compass right now! I can always come back to her!"
Me: Grace, that's wonderful. I can't believe you remembered the poem so well!
Grace: How could I forget all that sexual math imagery! I never thought about my calculator the same way again!


Well...even if it was the "erect" compass that kept her reading, it felt good to know that she gained confidence in AP Lit. and felt smart today. And I'm the other leg of her compass...how great is that?!?

Books, Not Bombs!

So, I guess it's time to start the old blog back up, since the blog is about teaching and I am once again in the thick of it. Or to use a war analogy, I'm back in the trenches. And speaking of which...we had a Congressional Medal of Honor winner visit our fine school yesterday! We had an all-school assembly for him (when was the last time we had an all-school Peace Assembly? Never.) and he gave the kids some good advice about working hard, having faith, freedom isn't free, etc. (I really wanted the kid in the Ralph Nader shirt sitting in front of me to get picked to ask his question, alas.) and then he told us how many enemy soldiers they killed when they raided this village in Vietnam.

I don't know. I guess schools really are still training camps for the military. The military presence at my school is huge. We have this gigantic JROTC that brings their guns to all school events and posts the colors. They compete all over the state and win all kinds of competitions. I think it's pretty ironic that the school is named for the president who started the Peace Corps and we're most known in the city for our rifle team?

But I digress.

In happier news, the Book Club, which I am running this year with the school librarian, met for the first time this week. We had a huge turnout of 18 students and 12 teachers, and we gave ourselves a name: THE READERS OF THE LOST ARK. This month's selections are: Sold by Patricia McCormick, and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It was so fun to sit around at lunch with the nerdiest of the nerds and talk books!

I am also helping to sponsor Mock Trial and we met for the first time this week as well. I am lucky that they have a great coach and a couple of lawyers who come to help. I just have to be the school supervisor, and I'm splitting the duties with a social studies teacher.

The most exciting revelation this week was that one of my students, Lupe, is a master Rubik's Cube solver. She solved a cube in class in under 2 minutes, and said that it wasn't even close to her best time. She's a rockstar!

More about my fantastic students and their silliness on another post. As a teaser, second period has decided that their one allowed put down word is "poopyhead". In other news, I reinacted the death scene in Titantic this week in period 8 and every time a cell phone goes off, I DANCE! Have a great weekend!