Sabbatical

So I've been gone awhile. Anyone out there in the education industry will understand when I blame it on the fact that it's because we're so close to Christmas break and there's been a full moon growing. Add to that that my kids are waiting on bated breath to find out if they've accumulated the grades and the behavior modification points that they need in order to be released from our program, and you perhaps begin to understand the enormity of emotional resources that are used just to get through the work day. (Luckily, it's a passing thing, or I would be in the wrong line of work!) Some of the kids are itching to go back to their home school, some of them are dreading it. In both instances, when taken to extremes, the kids fuck up. Either they get lazy because they think they are home free or they do something ultra stupid and get suspended. The kids that really want to leave bust their butt to get their academics on track at the last minute and the kids that want to stay lose their behavior mod points and are held back for behavior. (For instance, I recently had to break up a girl fight. Real fun. But easier when you know that one of the girls really doesn't want to go back to her home school but that her mother is not going to allow her to stay in our program until she feels she's ready. This is makes it a totally different kind of fight. Both the girls are now suspended and not allowed to return until January. They will remain in our program for a minimum of nine weeks. Perhaps they will be ready to return then. Academics academics is not the primary factor in determining our kids' release dates because we are first and foremost a behavior modification program that is provided to the county by the Board of Ed. It's a pretty cool concept, I think. And it releases us from a lot of the petty administrative bullshit that occurs in larger environments. Forty kids, five teachers, a parapro and a principal. And we're defining the program as we grow. But back to the kids that don't want to leave, we don't make them. But it's either the kid or the parent that is against the idea of staying in an alternative setting. Alternative has a bad connotation. Some of those assumptions are correct, but they fail to shine light on all the positive. Smaller class sizes, structured and enforced behavioral expectations (consistency), individualized instruction, community service built into curriculum, freedom to try anything and see what works. These kids never know what kind of assignment I'm gonna throw their way next. Right now I have a class writing and illustrating their own comic books for a competition sponsored by Dark Horse Comics and developed through Teachers College at Columbia University. It rocks. For anyone interested in checking it out - it can be used in science curriculum too - it's at www.thecomicbookproject.org. The site also has a link to Columbia's awesome music technology program for schools. My principal has put me in charge of making that work at our school for our kids. Even okayed moolah for the equipment. (A note to my friend Nappy, if he's reading, be prepared. I'm gonna be picking your brain on this one.) The point is, alternative has a bad connotation. I mention where I work and most people say, "I'm sorry." I always tell them that I'm not. I love my kids, they challenge me in many ways. And I only really want to slap them silly a few times a day. So anyway, I may have taken a sabbatical from this blog, but I assure you I've been around in spirit. Here's to more posting soon.