Flash Mob.....KSI Style

You have to be living under a rock if you are from Kansas City and you have not heard about the recent unfortunate events that have occurred on the Plaza. Let's just say that when I first saw the story on the news I was fairly certain that I would be able to see the face of a former or current student on the news footage if I looked hard enough, so I just turned it off all together. I figured, why ruin a perfectly good Sunday worrying about how I would address this with my kids on Monday. Well, as soon as I knew it, Monday came and I had to figure out a way to talk to my kids about the incident. Let me first just say that I have the honor of working with some of the MOST amazing, insightful, brilliant young people in Kansas City. I am often left astounded by the wisdom and maturity that I see in my kids, (although I will admit that some days it is hard to remember that when they act like typical middle schoolers....) I shared with the scholars that what bothered me the most about the incident is how people would inevitably judge them as a result of the actions of their peers. I feel like we work SO HARD to change the perceptions that people have about inner city youth and that stuff like this crap on the Plaza takes us backwards.
Professionally, I have spent my brief career devoted to empowering young people to make choices to protect their futures. I challenge my kids to rise above the stereotypes, labels and reduced expectations that society has for them and a lot of my kids work their butts off to accomplish this. The ones who don't are the issue. As an organization we have tried to impress upon our scholars that they are different, they are not a statistic, they are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of others and that they can achieve whatever they dream of with hard work and dedication. In teaching this difference we hope to make our scholars understand that they will sometimes have to stand alone against what might be popular and that it will be really hard because, lets face it, at the end of the day they are kids. They want to have fun, they want to be popular and they don't WANT to be different. Furthermore, how do we make society (and the media) understand that these kids are different!! There are AMAZING young people living amongst the degenerates who were featured in the stories in the news!!
Needless to say, I was frustrated and feeling a little disgusted with the whole thing! Then I remembered that I had to work that weekend. I'm sure you are thinking, "how could that possible make you feel better?" Well, last weekend just happened to be our annual community service day. Our scholars and their parents spend the day helping us host a carnival type event that is free and open to the public. We also raise some form of donation for a charity organization (this year it was food for the Haiti earthquake victims.) I have always loved doing community service, it just makes me feel good about the world. However, as a teacher, watching my kids do for others gives me a sense of pride that I just can't put into words. While I was watching my scholars pay such careful attention to the little kids as they moved about the carnival I could not help but think that it was just what I needed. The absolute BEST part of my day was when one of my kids turned to me and said, "You know Mrs. AC, if we could just get a flash mob of kids to do something good like this every once in a while, the world would be a much better place." All I could do was give her a hug and tell her that I thought she was right....I then excused myself to the restroom so she would not see the big fat tears of pride that were about to stream down my face. Later, when I got in my car to head home after a really long day, I could not help but smile and think that maybe one day at a time, one kid a time we are making a real difference and for me... well I just could not ask for more.

Life Just Keeps Getting Better....

For as long as I can remember, I have NOT gotten any money back from a tax return. While other people were getting new computers, ipods, vacations, etc... I have always had the distinct pleasure of paying the state of Kansas exorbitant (in my opinion) amounts of money, simply because I choose to live in Kansas and work in Missouri. This year I literally wanted to vomit at the thought of filing my taxes, mostly because half way through last year I got a new job and a substantial raise. Lets just say that I was braced for the worst. My ever so level headed husband kept telling me not to freak out and that we would just deal with whatever the almighty Turbo Tax told us. So I sat on the couch next to him, silently waving goodbye to the hope of spending Christmas in Jamaica. 2 hours went by, Brent diligently put in all the information, and the magic numbers on the top of the screen went up and down, my emotions followed. The last time I remember being that nervous was when the Jayhawks were playing Northern Iowa...and we all know how that one turned out. I feared that this tax situation would have the same ending. Then the end came. I swear, I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes....we are getting money back from the Federal Government AND we only owe Kansas $34.00!!!!!!!!! Not to mention the great state of Missouri OWES us $13.00. Some kind of voodoo magic about getting married, saving for retirement and being in grad school!! (It also helps that some smarty at my work noticed I live in Kansas and signed me up for whatever it is that takes the taxes out for me...needless to say, someone is getting a hug AND a seashell from my Jamaica trip!) So what did I learn from all this??

1) I am married to the absolute perfect person for me. Even if he gets nervous, he never shows it. (Let's face it, I'm outwardly nervous enough for both of us.)
2)I need to work on worrying about things that I can't control.
3)The possibility of having a tan in December just went up like 50 Bazillion percent.
4)Next year, I'm fighting to get an adoption credit for dogs.....I mean seriously, we adopted Atticus and he is pretty much like a human. Lord knows he is as needy as one. (Brent rolled his eyes for about 20 minutes when I brought this up but he knows better than to argue with me about it...if I get serious enough, he knows I could make it happen!)

Things I Should Have Been Doing All Along....

When I first started teaching, one of my mentors gave me a lot of advice. Most of it I took and held as gospel because she had been teaching urban youth for 5 years, which is practically retirement age for most teachers who start out in the Urban Core. She taught me all about how to break up a fight, how to stand my ground with crazy parents, how to make certain that the security guard and vice-principals like you and want to help you with nutty kids and how to make 1 box of copy paper last all year when you have 110 students. Of all of the things she taught me, the one thing that I did not listen to and looking back I really should have was keeping a journal. She told me to write down all the funny stuff, the sad stuff, the crazy stuff and everything in between. Unfortunately, 5 years later, I don't have the journal and occasionally I find myself really wishing I could look back and see how far I have come. I know that I am a totally different teacher today than I thought I would be 5 years ago, I think I always expected that to happen. What I did not see coming was how much I would change in 5 short years. I know that I am no where near done growing, (hopefully) I have a lot of life left to take on but moving forward I want to use this blog as the journal that I should have started years ago. I want to share more than just stuff about teaching because if there is one thing that I have learned it is that who I am in the classroom is a direct result of who I am out of it. So this blog will be my attempt to make sense of (and keep track of) life. Life as a wife, a daughter, a dog mom, a sister, a friend, a teacher, a mentor and everything else in between....and if any one cares to read it, well than I guess that is just icing on the cake!