I can’t believe that it’s already May! This is our last full month of the school year, it’s gone by so fast! While I am excited for the summer (and my trip to Thailand) I’m not quite ready for the year to be over. I truly do love being here and teaching at Mount.
I got a text at 7:30 on Saturday morning (my first thought was, “who the heck is texting me this early on a SATURDAY morning!?”) from one of the girls I work with at the youth group where I volunteer. She told me that she was taking the SATs and that she was in my room to take them. Now this may seem silly, but it honestly made my entire weekend! My classroom is my happy place, it’s bright and it’s where I feel loved, satisfied, fulfilled, but mostly, it’s where I feel safe. My potential is reached in this space, the real me is showcased when you all walk through the door and into my classroom. Most students in the youth group where I volunteer are either in the Acalanes school district, or they go to College Park or Northgate. So I spend so much time hyping up Mount, telling them how wonderful it is and what a great place it is to be. So when I found out one of the students was actually in my room, it made me so excited that she was able to experience my happy place.
On top of that message Saturday morning, I got to spend the afternoon with my coworkers, your other teachers, at Ms. Fontanilla’s daughter’s hootenanny. Not only do I love the place where I work, but I absolutely adore the people I work with! They are truly some of the most amazing people I have ever known. Their kindness, passion, and knowledge is astounding and everyday I’m thankful that I get to work with and hang out with such admirable and fun people.
I hope that you all have a place and people in your lives like I have found here at school. There are certainly sometimes when it can be tough to be here, especially in the face of so many negative (budget cuts, layoff, etc.) but I have learned to focus on the positive aspects of it all, hopefully you are able to do the same!
This week will mostly be focused on STAR test review. We will break down sample test questions, review academic vocabulary, and review material from earlier on in the year. The hope is that you will be able to understand the test better and improve your scores from your 8th grade social science test scores. We will take a review break on Wednesday for current events and then pick up review for the end of the week.
Homework:
- Current Event due Wednesday, 5/5
- Workbook page 135 due Thursday, 5/6
- Legacy of Imperialism drafts due Friday, 5/7
Welcome spring!!! The weather is getting warmer, the trees are blooming, the flowers are flowering, and people are sneezing. It’s an incredible time of year with beautiful growth and summer is getting closer. I know that it is sometimes hard to get focused, but do your best to stay on top of your school work so that you don’t get too far behind. Even I’m having a hard time staying focused and getting all the grading done that I need to do. One of my high school students at the youth group that I work with said maybe I shouldn’t assign as much work, and while that sounds tempting, the 
reality is that I would be doing you all a disservice. The reason why I give you the work I do is to enhance your learning. To give you the best education that I possibly can. Without assessing what you have learned I cannot figure out how I am doing as a teacher. You all deserve the absolute BEST, and I am trying to give that to you. I believe in you and I know that you can all succeed if you want to!
As I was thinking about the content of this week I can’t help but think about my time and friends in D.R. Congo. We will finish watching the movie Hotel Rwanda on Wednesday, a movie that deals with the harsh and ugly reality of the world that we live in, the world our ancestors have created. I see so much hate around me, a world where people hate one another because that’s what they have been told to do and I wonder how I can change things. How did I make a difference? How can I help my friends in Congo who have lost their homes, who have seen murder, torture, and rape? What can I do for people who are suffering on the other side of the world? Sometimes I get so fed up with my helplessness that all I can do is cry. I see people suffering all around me and I feel so useless.