A Broken System

No exaggeration, there is NOTHING that frustrates me more than the school system in the United States.  I'm talking all of it...charter schools, public schools, private schools, testing, core standards, the pay.  I could go on forever, but I usually don't because I find it so frustrating.

So when Johnny sent me this New York Times article this morning I almost didn't read it because I didn't want to get worked up.  Unfortunately, I did read it and did get worked up, so now I am recommending it to you.

"Teachers: Will We Ever Learn?"

By Jal Mehta

"Real change in America is possible, but only if we stop tinkering at the margins."

High School

Remember this kid?

And this one?

Well they're going to high school a week from tomorrow . . . and they're going to drive themselves there.

Class of 2011

It has been quite the weekend. My little baby seniors up and graduated yesterday morning. This is the first time that I've ever taught seniors, so it was a very exciting graduation day for me. Here are a few fun facts about my school's graduation:

1. The average graduation rate in Philadelphia is 50%. My school graduated 100%
2. The average college attendance rate from those graduating classes is 25%. I believe almost 100% of our students are planning on going.
3. One of my students is going to Wheaton!!!
4. I wore the same dress that I graduated from high school in under my cap and gown this year.

All the teachers got to wear graduation regalia as well. I've got my Wheaton orange and blue on the inside and then white on the outside for my English degree. I felt pretty snazzy.Johnny also got to wear something special this weekend: his uniform. For those of you who don't know, Johnny did ROTC all through Wheaton and is currently serving in the National Guard. Two years down, six to go. He's getting ready for a month long stint in Maryland in July. Only a few hours away this time, and he does look cute in that uniform.

"This is the Moment"

Well, the end of the school year is upon us. I know most of you in the midwest are already finished, but for some reason, out East, we start late and end late. Usually, I try to avoid talking about school too much on here because of this, but I did want to mention a couple things about the end of the year.

After an awesome awards ceremony today where students received all kinds of things, including cash prizes (I'm still waiting for that teacher cash prize one, for some reason we didn't get to that in the ceremony...), we all got our yearbooks! They are entirely done by our student yearbook staff and our art teacher, including the cover, which I got the student artist to sign.

And apparently every year the senior class surprises one teacher they felt close to by dedicating the yearbook to them. I kind of knew it was going to be me because a few months ago one student said, "I heard a rumor that you said you don't want the yearbook dedicated to you." I said, "I have no idea what you are talking about." Student says, "Oh...ok." and leaves.

So I thought I might get a sentence or something in the back. But no! I have an entire spread full of pictures of me on the second page of the yearbook. Please notice that in some pictures I'm holding up my lunch box, holding books, looking annoyed and saying why are you still taking my picture in the middle of class... But it was really very sweet, and I'm very excited to cry all through graduation because this is my first graduating class of seniors; they've gotten so big!

Little Shop also got a really nice spread. I don't think I ever put a picture of Audrey II on here. Audrey II was built entirely by our art teacher, Joe Sinagra, and pretty much almost every student in the school and numerous teachers. We finished it the night before dress rehearsal, and then asked, "Wait, how are we going to get it over there?" The stage was 25 blocks away in West Philly.

But she made it, and the show was amazingly fun, and I'm so pleased to have a spread about it in the yearbook because it was a huge success for all of the students involved.

Here's where I need your help. Next year, Joseph or Godspell? They don't have to be Christiany shows, those just seem to be the two I'm stuck on.

And We're Back

Spring cleaning! House, classroom, and blog. In defense of my long sabbatical, I thought I would sum up my last few months in a list of reasons why I wasn't posting. These aren't really in any particular order.

10. Johnny Came Home!

After four months of training in Augusta, GA, Johnny finally came home to Philly. Though he surely enjoyed eating various forms of fried potatoes in the Army cafeteria and living in an Army hotel room, I think he's happy to be back.

9. New School

No, my school is not on a beach, but we did take a retreat to the Jersey Shore during the first month of school. My kids are funny, respectful, and think I'm 28. Gotta love them. Pictured here is Melissa, school counselor extraordinaire. Melissa is my Ikea-loving, advice-giving, dinner-cooking friend who kept me company when Johnny was gone.

8. Abscess Removal

Fortunately for you, there's no picture for this one. I woke up one day with a giant boil on my leg. After it turned black, I decided to go to the nurse practitioner who promptly sent me to the emergency room where some lady cut it open. Most painful thing I've ever experienced...but don't worry, Johnny was getting free coffee from Wawa at the time psycho doctor was rinsing my boil ridden leg off with a hose.

7. The Holidays

For Thanksgiving this year (I go by school years, not real years) we went home to Kansas, and for Christmas we went home to North Carolina. The trip to Kansas was filled with Oklahoma Joe's barbecue, mimosas with good, old high school girls, and Settlers with the boys. The trip to NC was filled with dancing with the Wii, baking McDonald family cookies, and opening presents. It actually ended early because of a snow, yes snow storm that came through Christmas night. Johnny and I left early to beat the weather.

6. Trip to Paris

So after 14 years of taking French in school, I finally got to go try it out in Paris. Johnny and I went over my Christmas break and did everything; I mean everything. Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, Arc de Triumphe, Hotel des Invalides, Napoleon's Tomb, Versailles, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Conciergerie, Hotel de Ville, Sainte Chapelle (forgive the lack of accent marks). And through it all, the ironic thing was that Johnny, with his six months of French in high school, was able to communicate just as well as I was with pointing and saying, "Oui." Good thing I didn't try for the French AP exam.

5. Two Year Anniversary

We got to celebrate our two year anniversary in Paris. I am so blessed to have someone who I love, who I enjoy spending time with, and who will tell me every little thing about the place that we are visiting. Note the travel guide in his left hand.

4. Netflix

I will admit that part of the reason I have been lax in posting is Johnny's and my obsession with Netflix. Whether it's Watch Instantly or getting movies on DVD in the mail, I just love the ability to watch hour upon hour of shows I'd never even heard of before. We've demolished Arrested Development, Bones, Law and Order SVU, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Sopranos, just to name a few. This obsession can be partially explained by a conversation that two of my students had with each other.

Student A: Do the teachers here have a collective Netflix account or something because they all have it.

Student B: No. They're just poor and can't afford cable.

And so it goes.

3. Bought a New House

And we decided to buy a house. It's a quaint (doublespeak for tiny) two bedroom, two bathroom row home with a basement. I had Johnny paint the entire downstairs Gecko Green. He's been calling it the Rain Forest Cafe.

2. Little Shop of Horrors

One of the biggest parts of this year was directing Little Shop of Horrors at my high school. The kids were great, and our school's art teacher helped us built all the plants. We actually made a profit, and some of the kids follow me around singing, "Little shop, little shop of Hutson..." Instant hit.

1. Little Shop of Horrors Cast Party

Saturday night after our last show, Johnny and I had the cast and crew over for the cast party at our house. We fit something like twenty teenagers into our tiny living room and kitchen. They played Apples to Apples, made s'mores in the back "yard," and watched Little Shop the movie. A few tater tots, meat balls, and chips and dip later, we got everybody home by 1:30 am.

First Day of School #19

I feel like singing that song from Peter Pan: I won't grow up. I won't grow up. I will never wear a tie. I will never wear a tie. In just a few hours, I will be embarking on my sixth year of high school. In some ways it's like I never left. I had summer reading. I've been planning my outfit for the last few days. I bought a new purse. I want people to like me. We've all been there...unless Mitchell is reading this because well, he hasn't.

In more ways, though, it's totally different. This is my plan book, filled to the brim with plans for the first month of school. For those of you who don't know, I will no longer be at Delaware Valley Charter this year. I have the joy of starting a new chapter at City Center Academy, a Christian school that's affiliated with our church, Tenth Presbyterian. I am teaching Sophomore English, Senior English, and Junior History. Yes, you heard me correctly. I am teaching American History. A little of Revolutionary War here, a little Dust Bowl there. I got this.

So besides making all of my students do either a major project or a paper or both during the first week of school, I'm starting my sophomores with a new book that I hadn't read until this summer that I highly recommend to all of you. As you can see, it is called Crispin: The Cross of Lead. It's this great book about a teenager during the middle ages. It introduces the topics of feudalism, peasants, knights, and land owners in a way that's really accessible for students. And who can resist Avi? I mean come on.

So for all of you who start school this week, or you crazy midwesterners who started weeks ago, good luck!