Of Bears and Penguins

Live Wire:

It's been another week in Baltimore. The first week of our standardized testing and yet another week that was hardly quiet. The most notably dramatic thing was a parent assaulting a child (not hers, but someone else's) by repeatedly slamming the girl's face into the side of a car.
After this incident my principal asked if the show "The Wire," would send her money for story ideas, or would want to come film at our school.

The latest season of "The Wire" focuses on Baltimore's school system, and most people that work agree that it's an accurate representation. Even though my school is not the worst in Baltimore, there's still a lot of violence, anger and strife. But in the fourth grade there are moments of grace.

On Thursdays and Fridays, the children who have been well behaved all week come and eat lunch with me in the classroom. We eat and typically read aloud, or sometimes play a game. I'm reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to one class, and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. These kids, some of whom were not at all sold on the idea of reading, are slowing hearing the stories come alive and are beginning to comprehend them on their own without a lot of prodding from me. This is very much true from the Sideways group, who pointed out that when the book said a dozen apples it meant 12 and that in order to reverse a magic spell the teacher said it backwards. Well done kiddos.

This week we continue on with the testing, finishing the math portion this week. The fourth graders are making progress, and as the year draws to a close I am beginning to really see that the work is making a difference.