Things I Keep Track Of

Some days when I stop and think about what I'm doing (yikes, I should probably do that more often!) I realize just how much I have to keep track of. Now, I'm not trying to brag here, but damn, I keep track of a lot of stuff! How does my brain handle it all?! Today, for instance, I have kept track of:

1. The teacher who borrowed my DVD player and when I can get it back
2. Which students missed class on Thursday and need make-up work
3. Which students are gone today and will need make-up work on Monday
4. The students who told me that they would come in to make-up the vocabulary quiz they missed, and when
5. The student who asked for a letter of recommendation and when it needs to be written
6. How far in Antigone each of my classes read--where we needed to start today and wheere we'll start on Monday
7. The students in each of my classes who read a part in Antigone so they can earn points for participation
8. How many pennies my 4th hour collected for the Penny Harvest
9. When the next GSA meeting (Gay Straight Alliance) is and who will hang up posters
10. When the next book club meeting is and who will hang up posters
11. What days I need to sign up to take my students to the library and computer labs
12. Which students handed in make-up work from being absent and where I put it
13. What happened in chapters 13-16 of Wuthering Heights
14. This week's vocabulary lists, which are different for periods 2/4, 5, 7, and 8
15. Which students were absent because they were at a college visit or field trip
16. What roles in Antigone were being read by which students in periods 2, 4, and 8
17. Whether or not I assigned homework in all 6 of my classes and when it is due
18. To dismiss students early for girls swimming and boys basketball
19. To make an announcement in my 2nd period class about the canned food drive
20. Whether I have made copies of all the right handouts for all the right classes in the right amounts
21. Whether or not I remembered to eat lunch
22. Taking attendence in all 6 classes--both in hard copy and computer format
23. Putting notes in the students computer file when I talked to him/her about classroom behavior or academic work
24. Calling the parents of students who are in danger of failing for the semester
25. What's cool and what's on tv so my students' comments don't go way over my head

That was a fun list to make, but a little overwhelming. I notice that many of my entires come in the form of lists and I think it's a control thing. Hey, if you had to keep track of all those things every day and you just never know when the fire alarm is going to go off or some kid is going to have a break down in your class...you'd probably want control, too.

Happy Weekend!

HOPE

So, I can't tell you how much hope I feel this week. I have a little bit of a "hope hangover" that's still lingering a couple of days after the election. Here's what has sealed the hope double ziplock bag for me: my students' sense of excitement. It's one thing to feel personal satisfaction and elation over the electoral victory of a candidate in which you can believe (who also happens to make historical inroads and has really cute little kids of his own). It's another experience all together when hundreds of students--young people who missed the chance to vote by a year or two and are genuinely upset about that--greet you with smiles and wide eyes. "Can you believe it, Ms. Stutelberg?" "I think he can change the world, Ms." and "I feel like I matter now." Okay, that last one almost got me as much as watching Jesse Jackson's cheeks drown in tears as he stood in Grant Park. My students' hope is shocking; these are minority kids who live in poverty stricken or lower-middle class homes and normally have a very healthy dose of cynicism about...everything. Never before have I seen so much idealism and joy in them.

I guess that's why, on the morning after, I drove to work and listened to NPR (okay, that's usually what I do) and suddenly had to announce to myself aloud in the car, "This makes me want to be a better person!"

I bring you, Things I've Done This Week To Be a Better Person:

1. I allowed my students to pound on their desks and chant each others' names before they presented their Beowulf Boasts to the class. Then I let them chant Dr. Le's name (he teaches math across the hall) to see if he'd come over to the room. He did. That was a little embarrassing.

2. I used my Sigmund Freud finger puppet to present Freud's theory of psychosexual development to my students before we read Oedipus Rex.

3. I brought cupcakes to my 1st period class when I found out that two of my 20 students had their birthday on the same day.

4. I found on the internet the official "code" for determining what one's Captain Underpants villain name would be, and I spent actual class time allowing students to determine and announce names like, "Crusty Pizzapants" and "Poopsie Toiletchunks".

5. I shared my damaging middle school bullying experiences with my freshmen class. I even told them about how bad puberty was, how I finally broke down and had my mom get me Converse All-Stars so I would fit in, only to be harassed for wearing the wrong socks, and how the only girl who would be nice to me in seventh grade was the girl with the insulin pump, because no one would be nice to her either.

6. I helped a student read and understand a biology article (The Birth of Complex Cells) by showing her how you can turn any science article into a cartoon by using cartoon voices and imagining everything drawn like it's in SpongeBob Squarepants.

7. Something to be added tomorrow as I still have a day this week to be a better person.

So, what can HOPE do for you? As for me, I'm exhausted. This hope, change, be a better person stuff is a lot of work. Thank goodness I've got my students to inspire me.