Time is flying....and random pictures from before

My roomies have this thing because I am so short. So we were on our way home the other day and there isn't anywhere else to sit so I stand up against this wall. Well, this black man apparently stands up against the same wall on the other side. Chanel asks if she can take a picture with him and me because I am a midget and he is quiet tall...ay ay ay

We hit up the zoo this week! The national zoo, it is free!Below: the Capitol Hill book store...unreal!

My favorite part of the store...the bathroom...aka the Philosophy section.

o
Always a street named Pratt...this one you have to walk on when we go to the temple. YOu take the metro to the bus and then the bus to Pratt and then you walk the rest of the way. This is in Maryland

Chanel thinks she is pretty sly taking this picture as we ride... too bad you can see her shadow holding the camera out! :) A pretty good job I must say while riding.

along the bike trail by our house

Could life get any better than this?

HEAVEN = BIKES

This is a park on the Potomac next to the airport. The planes come RIGHT over you. IT feels like they are going to land on you almost!

There have been interesting experiences in health class. There are three boys that are trouble makers. They rarely if ever have made it through an entire period without getting kicked out of class. There is one student, Derek, who is a universal problem throughout the school. They have worked with him for years and nothing is changing. They say they have tried everything with him and nothing budges. He is just as defiant as ever. Antoine and Anthony are different. I don’t know much about Antoine other than the fact that he is in our health class and PE class. We have him two different periods in one day. He is easily affected by Derek and any other peer. He does well when he is alone without distractions. Anthony is the student who, for whatever reason, has opened up to me. He shared with me about his father being a drug dealer and being killed when he was 9, him and his buddies being shot when he was 12 and one of them dying, and waking up to drive by shootings in the morning before coming to school. We are really trying to focus on how to work with these boys and make a difference in their lives without taking away from the rest of the class and the attention they need. There is also a boy in that same health class that has expressed himself a lot concerning his suicidal feelings and depression.

In PE we have two classes that are difficult and two classes that are angels. One class today even after we blew the whistle to go dress down the entire class came to us begging us if they could play 5 more minutes because it was a tie and they had to break the tie. Who does that right?!! The entire class dresses down every period as well. They are fantastic.

We had a crazy schedule this week being home coming. We had the talent show and the pep rally which really messing the schedule up. There was a Wilson student who passed away this week at a swimming pool. She was best friends with one of our students, which made it very difficult for him and made him act out in class. The death was announced over the intercom and the entire school had a moment of silence. Wilson no longer has security guards. They dropped the contract with the company they had there. It will take approximately 5-7 business days to get another company back into the school. In the mean time we are short security and things could be a little hairy.

Nicole is going to be gone on Monday. There should be a sub but I am going to teach all of the classes. With the PE classes I am going to do team building activities. If you have any, would love some ideas! Wednesday is a conference/meeting thing the PE department is supposed to be going to. Nicole is trying to make it so I can attend as well with her and be there for everything. So, I probably won’t be at Wilson on Wednesday. She is very good at including me. I appreciate that. I still really enjoy working with her. She is great. I am slowly seeing her personality and I feel like we are more able to be ourselves with one another because we are getting a handle on what we are doing, well sort of, more than before that is for sure.

Our biggest challenge in PE is classroom management. However, a lot of it is because there are two other classes that are not being managed. The teachers allow them to do whatever they want really. So when we are trying to manage our own class and their class starts walking through what we are doing or their students interfere with what we are trying to do. It is very disruptive and somewhat difficult.

So, we also had a dance party this weekend! Keepin' it real! We danced the "jerk". It is a dance that all the black kids are teaching their "student teachers" how to do. Almost as a welcoming into their culture! :) We busted it out for sure! Nobody had any clue what we were doing!