We are finishing up Lord of the Flies in my class with much excitement. They have really liked this novel and their observations have been astounding. I thought I would share some of their responses to the journal topic, "If you were dropped on this island and had to be chief, what would you do?"

"I would be nice to Piggy cause they alwayz talking about Piggy and call him names. Cause they get jealous and say fat, greek, Piggy, Piggy, Piggy." (I didn't realize Piggy was Greek!)

"I would smack Jack becuz Jack smack Piggy and make his glasses fall off. Thats not cool."

"The way I would get peace is tell everybody to shut up because I am boss and call meetings all the time if they act up or just been wrong and never quite!!!"

"I would act like a stright fool unknown." (This is the journal entry in its entirety).

"I would probly die because I am not strong because I am a girl. So I would just die."

"No poop by the fruit. That is nasty."

"I would make rules like only 6 cocanuts a day. If they have cocanuts. I don't think they do."

"I would still kill pigs because I like bacon but not all wrong like Roger. Do you know he stick a stick up that fat pig but? You don't have to stick sticks anywhere to eat. You could just eat."

I think they got the main points. Interesting what each student focuses on.  ¶ 11:10 AM

  You know what I love? Campbell’s Soup at Hand. How wonderfully convenient! I can’t say enough about the ease of having a sturdy thing of soup that has to be microwaved for two minutes and then drank out of the same sturdy thing. I can let it roll around my bag. No muss, no fuss. I can then just carry it around with me while I make copies, talk to parents, etc. What a wonder.

You know what I hate? War. Hate. Prejudice.

Speaking of prejudice…

The conference that I went to yesterday turned out to be about teaching English Language Learners (ELL). These are students who used to be referred to as English as a Second Language (ESL) students. In my district, as in many districts, these students are overwhelmingly Hispanic—mainly from Mexico. Had I known this was the kind of conference I was going to, I probably would not have gone. My family is Mexican and I don’t find the attitudes around where I work very favorable towards Mexicans. I would have realized that I would probably only end up offended and would have bowed out. However, I didn’t know.

At the beginning of the conference, the woman in charged talked about the change from "ESL" to "ELL". This change takes into account that some kids know more than just their native language and so English may not be their second language) and sneered, "Probably this change came out of California somewhere. All of this ridiculous political correctness, my word!" Being from California, I took this as my first indication of trouble.

I won’t bore you with too much mention of the general snarling disgust in most teachers’ voices when talking about these "ELL’S", as they were referred to through the entire day. They kept saying things like, "They are taking over" and "They are everywhere, now"—phrases that bring to mind infestation of insects rather than an abundance of students in a school. I won’t linger too long on the fact that they kept referring to our ELL students as "those kids" and the regular education students as "our kids". You know, like "Those kids take up resources that our kids used to get".

I was more upset when the woman who led this thing said, in a warning tone, "Even more of them are coming!" She cited her proof as, "They are building trailer parks by the school! So you know they are on their way!" Clearly, trailer park equals Mexican.

I was most upset when one of my co-workers (I wrote of him the other day, the guy who thinks he knows everything and makes meeting last forever) said, "Most of those kids know English. They are just faking it because they are lazy. If I say, ‘Get moving, Mexican Jumping Bean’ I bet they would know what I was saying."

I freaked out a little and just kept sputtering, "That is so offensive. That is so offensive." But he never listens to anyone and probably didn’t hear me and everyone else in the room was so mortified by the potential confrontation that they moved on very quickly and didn’t let me speak. I spent the rest of the day glaring at him. And he didn’t notice because he lives without any sort of recognition that there are other people on the planet with him.

I have to do this thing four more times. Someone is going down before it is over. I don’t think I am capable of just letting these horrible attitudes slide for three more entire days. Luckily, it is only once a month.
  ¶ 11:44 AM

  I am frightened and guilty.

I have been chosen to go on this workshop with a few other teachers. I leaped at the opportunity because those of us going get to go to five all-day sessions of this thing. While I know that I will kick myself later when I am sitting in some boring conference room hour after hour, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to get away from my kids for five whole days and still get paid.

However. Tomorrow my students are going on a big field trip. It is a complicated affair where they have to interview people. There will be other schools there. I know that it will be madness. Only the tightest reigns will keep this thing together. And tomorrow is day one of my conference.

This means that I will be leaving this field-trip up to my substitute. I know some subs read this, so I will just apologize to you, in case it is you that will have to slap name tags on my obstinate students who will insist that they can't wear them because it will ruin their clothes. Oh, and I am sorry that they will throw things in bus and cause the bus-driver to scream so near your head. I regret the fact that you may not be able to find some of them after the get off the bus because they will be lurking around the back of the building to make-out with one another. I am all torn up about your shirt or pants that one of them will ruin by spilling something on you...or worse, throwing up.

I feel so guilty making a sub go on a field-trip. I hate going on field-trips. They are so stressful and awful. I am very sorry that you may have to deal with that while I sip coffee and listen (by listen I mean doodle and daydream) to a presenter and do ice-breakers. I'm sorry.
  ¶ 6:22 AM