The Twilight Movie

This blog entry should be attributed to the girls in my class. They are all rabid Twilight fans, and have been after me for months about the fact that I had not yet seen the movie. This, in their eyes, has a very negative impact on my coolness rating as a teacher. Well, I took some time last night to sit down and watch the video on my computer (with headphones). I wasn't too sure if the movie would be appropriate for Bailee since it was rated PG - 13. As it turned out, it wasn't.

So, I was able to tell my girls that I have finally watched the movie. Hopefully this will now salvage my "coolness," but I don't think my response to the movie was quite what they expected.

I liked the movie, but not as much as the book. Sorry Hollywood - but you NEVER do the books justice. You never could.

To me, the main message of the book is that you can always choose to overcome what life hands you - no matter how horrible that may be. People have the ability to change themselves and control their behavior. That is WAY too psychological for my little eleven-year-olds. They are probably more interested in which boy I thought was cuter. As far as going into the realms of the Edward vs. Jacob thing - forget it! I will not go there. (Besides, I've read all the books, so I know how futile that is.)

The girls interest in Twilight has always been a source of curiosity for me. The books are written for the teen market, and they aren't age appropriate for 5th grade girls. The emotions and events in the books are simply too intense and too mature for them to understand. I think they mainly read them because their mothers and older sisters are so excited about them. The one thing that seems to apply to all eleven-year-olds is that they want to be older. All they can see is the prospect of being a teenager on the horizon, so they try to eradicate the "tween" years separating them from that goal. It's a shame really. I wish they could appreciate just how special and unique those "tween" years can be.

For this reason, I'm looking forward to seeing the segment on channel eight tonight - "Too Sexy, Too Soon." This is something I see every day. Our girls DO want to grow up too fast, and I really think that we, as parents, need to step in and step on the brakes. So ... Bailee won't be reading any of the Twilight books any time soon. Nor will she be watching the movie (too intense by far in my opinion). Those teen years will be here soon enough. I'm enjoying the joys of a ten-year-old too much to throw that part of her life away. Childhood is too fleeting and too precious NOT to savor and appreciate every stage while it lasts.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The GOOD would be Bailee. She had her piano recital on Monday, May 11th, and did a nice job. She had to run to the recital straight from dance, so was a little frazzled. Her hair looked less than fabulous, and we realized that she had a hole in the leg of her dance tights. Oops. Oh well. We'll call it our testament to the fact that we are one busy family!



The BAD would be Caribou. Who else? I don't know why, but he developed a passion for fiberfill last year. He has to maniacally shred any toy or bed that contains the stuff. I don't get the attraction, but he thinks that filling his kennel with the fluffy white stuff is heaven on earth. This is big fun for the resident American Eskimo dog - could he think that the fiberfill is snow? He also has a manic passion for snow, so it COULD be so. At any rate, I returned from work one day to find him in quite a state. He had shredded the quilt in his kennel (again), but had somehow ended up trapped inside of it. As you can see, he was not amused. Somehow, the fun of fiberfill had lost its allure. I know it won't last, but I did get a chuckle out of his disenchantment with his favorite toy.

The UGLY would be ISATs. Thank heavens they are now over. We scored a 96% in Reading, 76% in Language, 84% in Math, and 79% in Science. Now it is time to celebrate and enjoy school again. This week we're making and launching rockets (if the wind will allow it). Only 12 more days of school remain!

Cheri's ISAT Nightmare

This is the time of year when all schools and their students are subjected to the infamous state tests knows as the ISATs. This is always a tense time for students and their teachers. For my fifth graders, these tests will determine whether or not they will be granted their electives in the sixth grade OR whether they will be taking remedial core classes instead. As a teacher, my entire worth rides on the results of how well my students perform.

Small wonder that we all face these tests with some trepidation! My worth and my students' future will all be decided by about 60 random questions (drawn from a bank of thousands of questions) administered over a 90 to 120 minute period. As teachers, we are not allowed to know the questions which will be asked on the test. We are just told to teach the state standards ... and hope that we have covered everything that might crop up on the test.

Last week my students took their first test in Reading. As a class, 96% of my students were proficient or advanced. Only one child did not pass the test. Today we took the Language Arts test. I was nervous, as this is usually the most difficult test, and I was not terribly thrilled with taking it on a Monday morning. The urchins came in either rowdy or dragging. Oh well, you hope for the best.

We had three students absent today, so I won't have my final results until they return to school, but the preliminary results were not good. Right now only 76% of my students scored at the proficient or advanced level. Pretty disappointing. I feel quite discouraged, but will pick myself up and go over the District's Language Arts curriculum (again) and see if I can't fine tune it in some way. Most of the children said that the majority of their questions were about proofreading. (Find the sentence written correctly. Find the sentence NOT written correctly.) I feel bad, but I really ache for those five students who will probably lose an elective. I'm hoping that those who only missed the target by one or two points won't be penalized ... but in this BRAVE NEW WORLD, that isn't likely to happen.

I guess, according to many legislators and the owner of Melaleuca this makes me a failure as a teacher. Funny. You shouldn't have to work so hard or care so much to be a failure.

Regardless of our struggle today, we'll all lick our wounds and return to the testing lab on Wednesday for our Math Test. On Friday we will take a swing at Science. God help us all.