More about my community service kids

So yesterday, when the kids were doing their volunteerism, I had one kid tell me it was "lots of fun." This kid, being a 14 year old boy, is sarcastic- by definition, aren't all 14 year old boys? I rolled my eyes at him and gave him a "yeah right".

But he stopped me and said, "No, Ms. O'Sullivan. I'm being serious here." He went on to tell me that he lives with his mom and she 'works all the time' and all he does after school is sit at home, alone, and watching tv or plays video games.

He continued telling me it was cool I would take them to get their hours and he got to spend time with his friends and it helped old people and poor people, so it was fun. He said it was better than being home alone, day after day.

I was completely taken aback. This is a kid who really seemed to hate me for most of the year and really has given his teachers fits because he's just lazy. He's really smart (he's not special ed or LD or ED) but he just doesn't do his work. As a matter of fact, to prove he's no dummy, the 8th grade teachers told him at the beginning of the last quarter he better pass everything or he would fail 8th grade. He's doing his homework and studying and guess what? He has all As and Bs. He's just lazy and also has no encouragement at home- the grades prove he has the ability.

And this is the kid who was liking volunteering.

He liked it so much he asked if he could still come once a week all summer to keep helping because it "feels good to help" people and "it's better than sitting at home" and he thought it might look good on a resume or college application. Can we say a complete 180? I was very impressed.

Just when I think I can't be surprised anymore by my students...

Smilin'
Maggie Mae

Community Service

My middle school wants our 8th graders to be "well rounded citizens". Well, duh- it's a nice idea in theory but the approach is a pain in butt.

Here's the deal: the kids get "points" for their grades, attendance, behavior, standardized test scores, and extra curricular activities. For a kid who makes good grades, plays a sport or joins a club, doesn't miss much school and passes the standardized tests, this is no big deal. For about 95% of the 8th grade population, this is no big deal. BUT!!!! (yes, there is always a BUT!!!!)

Well, I guess before the "but" I should also say the 8th grade teachers claim that they have the nerve/ the right/ the guts/ the whatever to tell kids who have passing grades, good attendance, who are NOT behavior problems and who pass their standardized tests that they will not allow these kids to PASS to the 9th grade because they don't have any community service hours or because they aren't participating in an extra curricular. You read that right- no passing because of that lack. I think that's one of the stupidest things in the world. And I am pissed.

Now remember what I do? I work with mild special ed kids, and LD and ED kids. These kids, for the most part, HATE school with a passion, usually are discipline problems, fail their standardized tests, and never have any extra curriculars because they hate school and want to be as far away from the place as they can be, once that bell rings. (Or their parents don't have money to pay for them to join anything, they don't have transportation home from something after school!) So MY kids are the ones who are in danger of passing because they have a low amount of points to begin with. So last week, the 8th grade teachers had individual conferences with these kids, and told them they needed 20 community service hours by May 14 or they would not be able to go to 9th grade. Outrageous!

Where are MY kids going to get community service hours? Really? Most people would take one look at them and say they weren't interested in their help. Most don't have parents who can help guide them; obviously, or they wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. Most of my kids don't have a way to GET to a place to work. Who thought of this whole stupid idea?!?

So, I decided since this is stupidest thing I've heard this year, and I teach special ed so I hear a lot of stupid shit, I'm going to make sure the kids get their hours. I called Curley, who works at our local senior citizen rec. centre here in town and tell her about the BS at school and can she help me get 5-12 kids some hours. With her help and with the help of her boss, I have time slots for my kids to go in to volunteer every day, beginning today, until next Friday.

I arranged transportation from the school to the centre, and I'll be taking them home. And I'm staying to oversee this huge bunch of kids for the two hours they're spending working. The kids will be doing anything from yard work to "house cleaning" to stocking the food pantry to moving furniture. The won't really be interacting with senior citizens because we get there so late in the day that most of the 'senior' activities are over.

Tonight, after school, I took the first load of kids over; I had five. These are kids who hate school, really don't have typically good adult interactions, most have criminal records, and in general, aren't kids most adults like nor approve of. WELL!!! My kids totally ROCKED!

They were polite and worked so very hard. They did everything they were asked with very little screwing around, and NO bad attitudes. They stocked the food pantry today and they did as they were told: lugged and hauled food, stocked shelves, cleaned, organized, cut up card board to recycle... I am so proud of them. They used manners (and I didn't even have to give them the manners pep talk) and were very respectful. I am so proud of them. I couldn't be more pleased.

We have five more days to go of this and if each day goes this well, it will be more than worth it. They were phenomenal. I think they deserve monstrous kudos.

And they deserve to be freshmen next year. Hands down. Today reminded me why I like teenagers, and why I don't like school policies.

Life is a game of "whack-a-mole" & I am the mole

• In the last few days, I had an incident at school with a classroom teacher so I can't go into it here, but it wasn't pretty. I did something that made the teacher mad. I apologized. He made a big deal of it but it backfired and he got his own ass in a sling because everyone found out he wasn't doing HIS job, and I was. Which he's taking out on my special ed. kids, AND me.
  
• The boarder incident was with the aforementioned teacher
• My mouth is still sore from my dental work last week.
  
• Yesterday I was told Mac needs $6,000.00 of dental work done- it's a damn long explanation and a rather gross one, but that's the short version= $6 grand
• I've gained weight.
• Daddy-O just told me to shut up; I sort of deserved that.
• There are black ants the size of golden retrievers living in the dishwasher; don't be a smart ass and just try and drown them because the "clean" dishes end up with ant body parts on them and you have to run the dishwasher again
• Apparently my subscription to Entertainment Weekly wasn't renewed like I thought
  
• The laundry room ceiling leaked all over the clean clothes that were hanging or folded in the laundry basket, requiring me to wash and dry and fold them all. over. again.
• And I haven't had sex in approximately 408 days.
  
• And my check engine light came on.... the check engine light on the car, not on me. The car's check engine light came on, which is never a cheap thing. Oh shit!
  

And the award goes to me!

As with all good blogger awards, there come rules.

1. Brag about the award.
I got an award and it's so cool! I love awards. They're like presents. And I love presents. An award!!!!! For me me me!!!!!

2. Include the name of the blogger who gave you the award and link back to that blogger.
Wiley gave it to me- thank you, thank you, thank you!!! She so rocks. If she didn't give it to me first, I'd give it to her! And I'm super-duper excited because she moving to the States and then we can hang out. Hey, I know she could be 2000 miles from me, but that's better than the current 3 million-jaillion miles and a bunch of oceans and mountains and stuff away that she is now!

3. Choose a selection of blogs that you find brilliant in honest content. Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with this award.
So I present this award to the following:

• Jain at Food for Thought is brilliant in presentation, word, and deed
• Shan at Shansland is funny, creative, an excellent mom, and beautiful inside and out
  

4. List at least ten honest things about yourself...
Geez, 10 honest things about me? Really? Okay here goes:

1. My real middle name is not Mae; it's Janelle.
2. I worry about what other people think of me and I hate that I do. I wish I was more like French women who just don't give a flying monkey's butt what people think and do their own thing anyway. Guess that's why they're French and I'm not.
3. Being in love scares me to death and I avoid it because I just can't fathom being hurt again. Our hearts don't regrow or bounce like I pretend they do. I just can't stand the thought of romantic disappointment again.
4. I get pissed off at the weather, which is stupid because I can't control it, but the rain made the roof leak and screwed up all my clean clothes, making me wash them AND dry them all over again.
   
5. I want Mac to get a summer job but I can't MAKE that happen, just like I can't MAKE anything else happen.
6. I'm seeing a pattern that I have control issues so I'm honest in that I have control issues.
7. I'm really hating my job right now. Yes, I am lucky I have a crummy pay job with no benefits and it's better than being unemployed. But that doesn't mean I still have to like it, right?
8. I worry I won't be able to afford Mac's college tuition. Sperm Donor is NOT an option; let's not go there, shall we?
   
9. Chocolate doesn't solve all the problems of the world but it seems to help.
10. I like to get mail that's not bills. I love to get letters, cards and magazines. These make me happy.
    

Damned if you do, damned if... well, if you do

I went to the The Dollar Tree and I love their education corner! And I found some really great bulletin board stuff. Since I'm just a worthless aide now and don't have my own room, I still like to look and I find reasons to buy!

I found some totally fabulous science words and I bought a package for the science teacher whose room I'm in. She thought they were totally AWESOME, and jumped up and down and promptly did a new bulletin board using them. How cool, right?

So on Thursday night I was in there and found some super cool boarder that was all US History stuff. Well, the 8th grade social studies curriculum is all US History! So I bought some boarder and gave it to the social studies teacher. He's a coach- did I mention that? And he never speaks to me when I'm in his room, unless I ask him a direct question. He isn't what you would call "Mr. Personality". So I gave him the boarder and he looked it and said, "Is this a hint that I should decorate my bulletin boards?" *Screeching halt*!!!!!!!

Shit. Well hell, that's not what I meant at ALL! Why would his first instinct be that I was being mean? I stuttered around and said no but I just thought it was cool. Then when I was in his classroom, I noticed, for the first time in months of sitting in his room, he really didn't decorate his bulletin boards real elaborately.

But I seriously just thought it was cool since it had Lincoln, the St. Louis Arch, Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and the like on it........ I thought he would just think it was neat.

Jerk.

I should go in his classroom when he's not there, steal it and keep it.

See if I ever do anything nice again....
Maggie

I don't think Ace of Cakes will be hiring us any time soon!

So you know how last night was the "un-surprise" birthday party for Mac? And you know how XRay Girl and I were going to make a Mad Hatter cake? And you know how I spent Friday night making seven different cakes so the layers could be made?

XRay-Girl and I worked on the cake for 5 hours and it just didn't work out right. Here is the experience, in pictorial.

Here is XRay Girl prepping our first cake with the buttercreme icing.

Here is the first layer of the bottom section.

Here is the bottom section before we shaped it.

Here is the bottom layer after we built it, sculpted it, and "dirty iced" it. After this is where things sort of fell apart... If we could've had a Mad Hatter Cake with one layer, this wouldn't been perfect. Did I mention that we were going to only use buttercreme icing on the whole thing since XRay Girl nor I had ever used fondant? That could've been our first fatal flaw in our plan.


In the background you can see that we are starting to layer the second part. And you can see the butter creme icing on the "done" layer starting to run-- because it was about 75 degrees with nearly 90% humidity. Yes, it was really hot and the icing was MELTING!!!!

This was supposed to be the second layer. The cake was too moist even though it was chilled. And the icing was melting so instead of helping hold it all together, it was causing the cake layers to slide apart. And about fell on the floor. So I caught it. So we decided to trim it a little bit more, so the whole second layer isn't going to really be six inches around. More like 4. But we kept trimming and got this:

three big piles of scrap cake. And that plastic pitcher in the background held the margaritas we started drinking when it all fell apart. And I have no idea where the Comet came from; I swear it didn't get in the cake or icing.

We then got out some more cakes and cut them up differently and made a second layer- sort of. But it was a small second layer. It was supposed to be six inches--- not even close as you can see.

The up side is that I made 2 of those little 3 inches ones, so we decided to cut one of those up to be the top layers.

XRay Girl is icing the second layer in green.

We are icing the top layer in orange. We were going to do the bottom layer in all buttercreme stars but the entire thing was melting so we left it iced in white.


This is the final product. I know... it looks NOTHING like the pictures. It was so hot the buttercreme icing was melting faster than we could ice it. We kept stopping to stick the frosting bags and the cake in the refrigerator and then taking it out to keep going.

We figured if we ever did this again- and we probably won't- we'll need to freeze the cakes and make the icing the night before and chill it. We're also going to make sure we cook in a cold room, as cold as we can stand it. We're also going to learn how to use fondant. Yeah... so...

Mac is the best sport in the world. Though it didn't look anything like it was supposed to, he thought it was a cool effort and he appreciated the tie into the Mad Hatter concept.

We had a good time and lots of laughs. The one thing I didn't show a picture of was then we opened the refrigerator and found the middle layer had slid off the cake and was laying on the floor. We just stuck it back on, after swearing a lot. We also had some icing slide off and I didn't photograph the blob.

I can say, though, we laughed hysterically!

And as Bragger pointed out earlier, it all involves cake so how can that be bad? We have tons and piles of cake, as well as the blobby cake. Can we still have an A for effort anyway?

Maggie

Girlie Pink things that make me happy on a Saturday, and always!

Here some of my favorite girlie pink things!

My piggy bank; and yes, she IS wearing a tiara and a tutu.....!

A pink Elvis purse!

My cell phone- and yes, it's pink, too!

A pink feather boa and my sleep mask

And thanks as always to our Pink Saturday hostess Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. Each week we're supposed to also feature a fellow Pink Saturday blogger, and I encourage you all to visit Anna at Frosted Petunias. Her blog is beautiful and well written- I enjoy stopping to see her on other days than just Saturdays for sure!

All things pink,
Maggie