First days and Changing Times

I spent the last days of summer in nightmare hell having the GroundHog Day-like dreams where night after night, I am facing the first day of school, and I have not planned -- the students are eating me alive -- figuratively speaking of course. However, the first day came and went, and everything went as planned… yes I said planned because of course as a ten year teacher, I was more than ready unlike my counterpart from the other realm that haunted me.

And, though (thankfully) there were no "Revelations" level catastrophes, there were some small eye-opening moments that swung between “Oh, come on now, times have changed!” to “Oh my, how times have changed!”

In the “Oh, come on now, times have changed!” scenario, we were in our collaborative meeting planning for our first days. At our school, we have to teach the same standards at the same time, but can teach it anyway we wish. Now, I have one of the the sweetest co-workers who happens to love her worksheets of twenty years. She shared one that had a picture of a filmstrip with three blank squares on it.

Yes, I said “filmstrip”.

I raised an eyebrow and she must have seen it because she went on to say that although kids do not know what a filmstrip is, she uses it as a teaching opportunity. She shows them videos and images, of filmstrips, so she feels that she teaching a bit of history, too. So much for curriculum guides.

Now how does she use it in English, you ask? Well, she has them draw a picture in each of the three boxes, one was to illustrate how they felt before school, another was during the first day, and lastly, a week later. Next, they write a little bit about the picture beside it. So it is a reflective writing that guides them with chronology (I suppose). However, in today’s climate of Active Engagement, Personalized Learning, and Student Authenticity,-- well…?.

Now, in my own classroom... after three blocks with my students on the first day, I had an epiphany. I needed to take the splinter out of mine own eye!

Our first days consist of an extra long Homeroom leaving us with very short classes,with just enough time for a quick get-to-know you worksheet (like hers) and this is where my own problem started.

For a couple of years, I had been using this “great” first day worksheet called “Extra Extra, Read All About It!” And yes it looked like a newspaper. That in itself is a problem because though my worksheet theme may not have been obsolete... yet, most students still do not interact with them on a regular basis, thus they had no attachment to creating their own.

All I heard all day long was: “Do we have to?” "I did this in elementary!” “Do I really have to color it?”

I was floored. I thought it would be fun. That’s when I realized I was no different than my coworker. I do admit that I originally tried to find something current. I searched for Instagram worksheet templates, but all I found was a picture of a glorified square to draw in. The Snapchat was not much better. And Twitter simply had a small space for a blurb. Facebook did have a good template because it had much space and lot of profile questions to answer, however, everyone knows FB is for “Grandmas” these days so the kids are not too familiar with it, nor excited by it.

At any rate, I have realized that as much as we love social media, it is not conducive to learning English anymore. Everything is either written in short blurbs that can be taken out of context, written in abbreviated text-ese phrases, told through photos with blurbs, or a combination of these together with emojis taking the place of most words. There is just not a lot of writing for a fun first day English class template... heck there is not a lot of writing in real life, either.

Lastly, I had my students play an ice-breaker game called “Find Someone Who...” where they run around and find someone who likes to swim, has a brother, or likes math.

Do you know that out of three blocks and 75 students, only one of them wanted to be a teacher! I was slightly insulted. Everyone wanted to hold a “techie" job or play a sport. And to add salt-to-the wound was a young man who shared that he wanted to be a MLG.

I racked my brain trying to figure out which sport it was before some else asked what it stood for (I was too proud to do that myself). And his answer was -- a Major League Gamer!

That’s when I had had it. I put my hands on my hips, and announced with much attitude and a twinkle in my eye, “You may all want to be “techies” software engineers, basketball players, or designers, but someone has to teach you first!”

Oh my how times have changed! I thought while SMH (Shaking My head). ;-)

Level-up!

Any mother will tell you that a boy’s hygiene between the ages of 10 - 13-ish is suspect, to say the least. You can train them as well as the next mom from a very young age. My son would start his own showers by the time he was six and could bathe himself better than some men. However, when he turned nine or ten, I began to notice a change in him. I would tell him to go and take his bath, and he would make excuses and delay until he thought we forgot.

As time went on, water became an aversion worse than vegetables. You would have thought I was trying to get him into a vat of acid. On those days that I could actually get him to enter the dreaded room of doom, he would close and lock the door, turn on the shower, and stay in so long that I feared he would deplete the water for the entire county. When he would finally emerge an hour later, his skin was suspiciously dry and lacking the wrinkles that an hour long shower would produce.

Meanwhile, his iPad, DS, or Nintendo Switch would be warm as he still clutched it in his death grip gamer hand. And, I would be too tired to fight any further. I had to pretend that I did not know that he simply sat on the lid of the toilet and leveled-up for the last hour while the shower poured gallons of water anddollars, down the drain. 

They always said one day boys suddenly wake up and care about their hygiene. However, I did not believe them… that is until two weeks ago when his older cousin showed him how to make his hair look cool. 

“Mom, can you get me some of that S-curl and Cantu Conditioner that T.J. uses? Also, I am out of shampoo.”

Huh? Did I hear him correctly?

I was floored. I wanted to shout to the top of my lungs, “HALLELUJAH!” It was finally happening. Now this was leveling-up!

I did have enough sense to know that I had to play it cool so that I would not scare him off. You know, like when you are trying to get an animal to come to you and you move real slow to gain its trust. So, I just nodded and said “okay” as if that was our everyday conversation… and not his first request in 12 years.

If wearing his hair curly was important enough to make him take showers without being held at a metaphorical gunpoint, then I wasn’t wasting any time. I hurried out to get his product, but in my haste I forgot the shampoo. So that week, I happily shared my shampoo with him until I could get back to the store.  

That Saturday, I picked him up his first very “Men’s Smell Good Shampoo,” as opposed to the two-in-one body wash/shampoo family friendly kiddie stuff that he had been refilling with water (when he did deign to actually get in on those rare occasions that he complied.) Then I rushed home happily anticipating his excitement at his new product. Since he wasn’t there, I placed it on his bathroom counter and went into his shower to get what was left of my shampoo. 

That is when reality slapped me in the face. Though my son had been showering everyday and adding hair gel and conditioner to make his hair cool — that is all he had been doing! There was not a lick of soap anywhere in his bathroom. So much for hygiene. Game over.
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