School's Out

The chairs and desks are stacked, the books are inventoried, and the story rug has been rolled up. School's out!

The year ended with a bang. The day after the First Lady's visit, we had our Fifth Grade Graduation and the kids were absolutely on fire. Rakia read "Still I Rise" with extreme poise. Jada, who is perfect in every way, got her wish of being the MC for the ceremony. And the group brought down the house with their perfectly-choreographed performance of a song and dance from the newest hit movie for the 'tween set, "High School Musical."

As for me--I'm back in California already, trying to finish up that pesky dissertation. So...no more "adventures in inner city education" for the time being. Please check back in the fall!

First Lady's visit

What a day! The First Lady's visit went off without a hitch. Okay, well maybe one small hitch:

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/060605/480/a24db68ac4184d2ea385ef8b1f786eab

But other than that, it was a wonderful event. The kids were on the verge of exploding with joy--and trust me, these are no Bush fans in general!

As a bonus, they actually brought us the check. And looks like I'm in for a promotion of some sort...meet with the exectuive director again later this week.

Even better!

Our visitor wants a couple of my kids to read for her from our new class book! Now *that's* classroom publishing for you!

Young Author's Night

In other news, the Fantastic Fifth Grade had their end-of-year poetry and prose reading. We turned the classroom into a 'coffee shop,' borrowed a mike from the church, snagged the podium from the school entryway, and used the overhead projector as a spotlight.

Each student got to read as many of their selections from the class book as they wanted, another benefit of having only ten students. I made the event mandatory so there was a fantastic turnout. The captive audience, however, enjoyed themselves immensely.

Anthony cracked everyone up with his slightly racy (for a ten-year-old) essay entitled, "I Love Angelina Jolie." "It would be nice to marry her, but Brad Pitt is obviously in the way. I'll have to deal with him later. The baby is a problem, too. To fulfill my fantasy, I have to kiss her, just once. Her lips are so big it makes me want to bite them." His father was literally falling out of his chair with laughter. Anthony finished with, "I'm obsessed with Pamela Anderson, too, but that's a whole 'nother story."

Rajanique thrilled us with her brilliant narrative about the day she ran her head into the wall and had to go get stitches. She organized her story so that it started in the middle--sheer genius for a fifth grader. "I was hot and sticky and hungry and tired. It was eight o clock at night and the doctor was finally stitching up my head. I was thinking; Will I still be able to play? Will I be able to lay down? Will I still be beautiful?" The tale included a gripping scene of me running across the playground to rescue her, and pressing my (new, cashmere) glove to her head to stop the blood. I felt like an action hero. And I felt like an actual hero when she drew the biggest applause of the night--she's a student that most folks might not think to applaud otherwise.

There's lots more to say about the evening but I am running short on time. Suffice it to say that the fifth grade (and their teacher) is having a pretty decent end of year. Tomorrow is our end-of-year field trip. Monday, our VIP visitor is coming, and we'll practice for our graduation ceremony. Tuesday, the kids graduate...and that's it!

Close Hold

In December, over Mrs. H's active and passive discouragement, I submitted a grant asking for money for library books to the Laura Bush Foundation. The school hasn't spent a dime on book acquisitions in probably ten years, as there have been no dimes to spend on such a luxury. I couldn't deal with it, and whipped up a piddly little $5000 proposal.

We were supposed to hear by the end of May. Yesterday morning I said to my partner, "Well, we still haven't heard, so I guess I didn't get it." Always the optimist, he replied, "The day isn't over yet." I rolled my eyes and got out of the car, dismayed that my honestly kick-ass proposal must have been rejected because our enrollment is so low.

An hour later I got a call from the director of the Laura Bush Foundation. Not only had I won the grant, but they were so impressed with the application that they wanted to come present the check in person at our school. The White House later told me to keep the name of the visitor "close hold," which made me feel immensely cool, since I once heard that phrase on The West Wing. So I am not at liberty to divulge the name of the person who is coming to the school to present the check from the Laura Bush Foundation. I can say it's not Joe Wilson's wife.

The VIPs imminent arrival has thrown the school into a tizzy. The district has gotten involved and now there is a long list of "our" VIPs who want to attend. Only a handful will get to be in the room with the presenter--none of them gave a flying fuck about the grant when I wrote it, but now they're all interested.

Anyway, this is a huge success for the school, even if it is turning into a political football. I will get a couple of my students in the room and I'm sure they'll be thrilled.

Oh, and when the principal held an emergency meeting to announce that we couldn't take down our bulletin boards just yet, she started it off by saying, "I gave Ms. Sweetland a proposal to submit a while back..."