Slept on like a red eye.....

Again, my apologies for not updating for a hot minute. November-December have just been nonstop.

A few things:

The girls are 3-0! After losing all three of our tournament games, I wondered if the girls would be ready to start league play. After winning 37-2 and 30-2, it's clear that they were determined to turn things around. Our third win came from a forfeit-- and now we face our toughest test yet.... Friendship Woodridge on Monday. I don't know why they're coming to our house with that "friendship" nonsense... but seriously-- Kelanji (one of our girls) was telling me that Woodridge likes to press the heck out of the teams they play. We have our work cut out for us.... but it'll be a good test for us regardless of the result.
I've been really impressed by how motivated the girls have been to get better. Everyone got to play in our last game, and some of the girls realized how much work they need to do in order to be a regular contributor. It's good to see that they're not complacent with where they're at... and they're inspired by each other's skills....

Friday, we took the teams to the Wizards/Lakers game. It was a lot of fun to get to spend time with the kids outside of school...especially at a Wizards game. We had a really good time... and Kobe played like garbage, so all was well with the world that night. (well.... almost.)

Parents need to stop schemin'. DC Special Education is in shambles (at least in DCPS and most charter schools)-- because parents are just steady suing the school system for what we might call educational malpractice. Basically... parents look for "inadequacies" in the way a school provides its special education services, and take the school to court to try to get compensatory services for their child (which usually means upwards of 40,000$ a year to send their child to a boarding school). While I'm sure some children are the victims of a poor education, and one that does not meet their IEP needs, there have definitely been quite a few parents who have exploited the system. As a result, Special Education is costing DCPS mad money each year.... and each year our programs lose more and more money and other resources. Needless to say, we've been experiencing some of this lately-- and it's discouraging to see parents take away from the system that's supposed to be helping their child.....

I was able to start working on remedial reading skills with a few of my students last week. I must confess that I have no clue how to teach reading, and I'm pretty intimidated by the thought of it. Regardless, we've started on phonics and blending.... and my students will be excellent readers by the end of the year. One of the girls I'm working with already blends... and she does it quite well. She usually does it silently... and then is just afraid to try to pronounce the word. When you sit and listen to her blend, its clear that she's right 95% of the time... but it's hard to get a child not to be afraid of mispronunciation. It seems silly, but I remember how afraid I used to be to make a mistake when I was reading in front of the class... makes you wonder how much confidence plays a role in reluctant readers-- I was excited that the one girl in particular that I was working with on Thursday was ALREADY making progress.... things were really looking up.

Anyway, I was able to grip some resources from one of our more veteran reading teachers. She's the G.O.A.T. and is always so eager to offer her services-- we talked for a bit about how the girl I was working with was struggling with her reading and writing-- She had worked with her last year.... and gave me a look like.... don't be disappointed when I tell you this..... Well... she basically told me that the girl has serious recall problems. One day she'll know her long and short a sounds like it's her job.... the next, she'll forget we even talked about them. Talk about a buzzkill! I walked out of her classroom with more resolve than ever... it was a blessing in disguise I suppose as I need to remain motivated with the goal of having each one of our students be strong readers by the end of the year.

And shout out to Ms. Floyd and Mr. Wegman who were more than accommodating when I asked if I could grab students out of their classes. Ms. Floyd had the quote of the week, "She can't read my music if she can't read!".... YUP!

I'm excited for Christmas. It was really nice to be at home at Thanksgiving and to spend time with family and friends. I really enjoy being at home... don't get me wrong... DC is cool, and I've definitely enjoyed my time here. My calling is in Camden or Philly though... I know that's where God wants me to be. I'm glad I have my kids here and a great supportive staff who have become friends at Paul.... they carry me through. There's not much left for me in DC otherwise... so it's nice to have that support system in place at school. I won't say that I regret my decision to stay in DC-- it's all part of God's plan for me to be here... but I am anxious and excited to get back home at some point.

With that said....

Accept the master plan with joy in your heart-- stop trying to control a destiny that is not yours to control. Stop dreaming, and start living.


EP