THE MAYA

Hello! This week we are studying the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the American civilizations. You want to hear some crazy facts about the Mayans?

• They played a game called pok-a-tok in which they tried to hit a small rubber ball through a hoop and they could not use their hands or feet. The losers were sometimes sacrificed and the captain of the losing team was often beheaded.

• They would sacrifice people to the gods by dropping them down a 60 foot well. If the person survived, they would pull them out and then ask them what message they had heard from the gods.

• They believed having a flat head was beautiful, and tied boards to their babies foreheads to shape their skulls.

• The ruler wore a headdress that was as tall as a person!

That's all. Hope you enjoyed your lesson! My students thought pok-a-tok sounded amazing. I also told them that many people would bet on the games, betting away their slaves, cattle, and/or homes.

You know what is cool about my GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) students? No? Well, let me tell you. Besides being your future doctors, explorers, scientists, famous actors and actresses, lawyers, and Presidents, they rock!

They are present at every single school function. If I just taught all general classes, probably 1 percent of my students would be represented. But that is not the case. I teach GATE social studies and my students are the movers and shakers of their generation. No lie. They give me hope for the future.

If there is a Renaissance Faire, they are the ones dressing up, and they are the ones making the calligraphy bookmarks. If there is a talent show, they are in one half of the skits/songs/dances. If there is a chalk festival in Santa Barbara, half of the students assigned a block to chalk for Santa Babara Junior High are in one of my GATE classes.

I love those kids! They are going places.

Hello lovelies. The party was awesome! Two days of pizza, movies (Night at the Museum), candy, cake, jelly beans, etc.

This week we are studying the Age of Exploration! It's not as glamorous as it sounds. Especially when you consider the consequences of Westward expansion, such as death, disease, slavery, and so on.

I only have three more weeks left until school is out, and I feel like I could spend months teaching the Exploration times, the Mayan and Incas and Aztecs, the Scientific Revolution...

Last, my birthday is in two weeks and I think I'm gonna do another party on that day (Tuesday, June 3rd).

THE PARTY

Things have improved tremendously since my last post. So much so, in fact, that my fourth period class has earned themselves a party! They have been earning class points towards a pizza party, and that is what I am going to give them on Thursday and Friday. Two days of relaxing, pizza, brownies, maybe a movie, some games, etc.


Should be good!

THE PRINCIPAL THAT CARES (AND SWEARS)

Wednesday was a terrible day. But it was amazing in a lot of ways, too. Either way, nothing in my fourth period class will ever be the same again.

On Wednesday, my fourth period class made me cry. There was not one particular thing, but many little things, like poison darts, that broke through my defenses and just tore me down. Students blaming me for picking on them too much (they bring it on themselves), telling me class is boring (they bring it on themselves), telling me I don't pick on OTHER students when they talk (they bring it on themselves, too, but in a positive way), not listening, not respecting, talking too much, never doing homework (ever), and so on. After class, with my heart in my throat, I went to talk to the principal, a fantastic man, about my woes and more or less plead for help.

"Write down the names of the people causing trouble. We'll have a meeting right now."

So I wrote down the first six names that came to mind--student who give me grief every day; when they are absent, class is smoother. I could have written more, but the others grief-makers that day were not so bad, so I wasn't thinking of them.

Then all six of them were called out of their class, filed into my class with the principal, and sat down.

In the most angry, serious voice I have ever heard, he started, "Ok. Right now, you are going to do something you normally do not do in this class. You are going to shut your mouths, and you are going to listen. And nothing I say is going to be funny for the next 10 minutes."

He then proceeded to detail every action that he assumed they did in class, with amazing accuracy, and told them how they should respond to me in the future. I now feel more empowered than ever before, and know how I can respond to their actions. Hopelessness gone.

But this is awesome.

Favorite line: "What you have been doing so far this year is BULLSHIT! [pause] That's right, I said it. It's bullshit. And if you wanna go home and tell your parents I said it, do it! I'll tell them the same thing. That your behavior this year has been shitty and you need to change."

THE STILL CALM VOICE

Whenever I get to read to my students I invariably say "Ok, now you can relax and do nothing but listen to the soothing sound of my voice."

They usually laugh and kind of relax. I don't pretend to have a soothing voice, I just like to say it. I actually get really tired of the sound of my voice. Apparently so do some of the others, because yesterday one of my girls said, "Mr. V, I'm sorry, but I just have to say this. You don't have a soothing voice."

My only consolation was the boy in third period who wrapped himself up in his big jacket and lay on the floor while I read to him. In my soothing voice.