Tuesday, Apr. 01, 2003
An update on Holden, life at school, posted at 8:23 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Thank you to everyone who has donated. I am tremendously overwhelmed by the outpouring of support to save Holden, amazed by everyone's efforts to donate, to link, and to offer kind words. I feel very optimistic about the human race right now, even more than usual after a day of good classroom interaction, and... well... thank you all. Holden thanks you, too. I get to pick him up on Friday.Not a whole lot is new with the situation. I have the union's lawyer making calls, and he is considering more action for me. I am only angry at one person right now, the "Bite Coordinator" of the city, who has simply refused to return now 11 phone messages to me and openly lied to me before that time. Unfortunately, she is also the woman who holds the keys to Holden's freedom, so I do not want to disrupt anything with her until after Holden is safely back, snuggled in the crook of my knee at night.
Oh, yeah. I visited him on Saturday, the only day I can visit him. Yup, I cried. He was sad. I dropped off a t-shirt with him with my smell and was pleasantly surprised to find the workers at the facility to be decent people.
I keep telling myself that people leave their dogs in a kennel all the time when they go on vacation, but the guilt still creeps in. Plus, I never saw a kennel as dingy as this place. But he'll be out soon. I think I've got enough now to cover his costs. Thanks again, everyone.
***
In other news, school has been pretty decent lately. Today, I led a circle discussion on the first half of To Kill a Mockingbird, analyzing theme and characterization. It felt great. I love looking around and seeing kids intent on me. That's got to be the best compliment a student can give you as a teacher - undivided attention. I felt it today, so much that I got goosebumps and got nervous that I was being too repetitive.
One kid, my current favorite student, raised his head and asked with his usual sly grin, "Are we going to have to interpret and analyze everything in this book?"
I said, "Well, that's part of being an active, critical reader, and it's even better if we use this enhanced understanding as a way to enjoy it more."
"So, does she just pretty much tell the story, and we do the interpreting?"
"Pretty much."
"Oh, okay. So what's this book about?"
"A lot of things. What do you think about it so far?"
"I like it."
That conversation doesn't look as amusing in print as it was in person, because you've got to imagine this kid - he's got a blazing intelligence and a quick mind that you can always see working. It's all in his eyes. And this kid makes eye contact like you wouldn't believe. That's probably why I like him.
I just heard that next year, our freshmen class will be only 15% boys. Quite a big change from when this was an all-white male a while ago. Since I tend to connect well with the male students, I'm disappointed. I'm also disappointed because I think our school should make an effort to recruit more boys. If Baltimore is going to continue to change, if we're truly going to Believe in ourselves, then we need to see the future through the young black male as well as the young black female.
But I digress.
Today was also interesting, because the head baseball coach was sick, and I got to run my first ever practice alone. It was a blast, much easier than expected. I figured that once he was away, I would develop more of my "coaching" voice. The practice did not start auspiciously, as I fell on my ass down the muddy hill twice before practice began, but we went two and a half solid hours after school and played a pretty intense scrimmage that I coached and umped.
Tomorrow, a woman comes in and will teach for 45 minutes to my 9th graders. It's her audition for a teaching role next year. I've never given up my classroom before; this should be interesting.
That's all. Thanks everyone for contributing.