Monday, June 16, 2014

Some Final Words on this Last Official Day of School

Official quotations from students over the past few months written on the "Over Heard Wall" in the teacher's room:

"If I am the POTUS, I would close down all the schools."--Ariel

"Ms, hurry! I have to apply for the AT & T exam." (aka SAT)--Brayan

[observations on a teacher's illness]
"Ms. W., no offense but seriously you look like you just got out of rehab."--Adrian

"Yes! I'm not ESL anymore! I'm American! ...Wait. So do I still get to use a dictionary on the Regents? No?! Why did I have to pass that stupid test ?!"--Joseph

"Mr. Ho., Kiara says you should marry Ms. Hu."--Yanvier

"Ms, when I get married, will you go to Kosovo for my wedding?"--Vatan

"It's okay for men to suffer but not women..."--Maisha

"I studied so hard last night I'm 60% more confident!"--Stacy



Friday, February 28, 2014

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk

It was great sitting with a Responsibility Team in action this morning in 11C U.S. History. I was pleasantly surprised to find the WHOLE Team sitting together, as this particular team has had some difficulty in getting one or two members to participate with the others regularly this week. They were not sitting idly either. In fact, Rubel was very professionally reprimanding Bella for not having a checklist, which students should have picked up on Monday. "I'm very disappointed with you," he told her.

Bella responded by telling Rubel how she was sitting with Principal Nariman during our last class, therefore she was in fact completing other work. Rubel then turned to Zaman and asked him why he also did not have a checklist. "What have you been doing this week? When you go home?"

Zaman: "I don't need to tell you what I do when I go home."

Lisjan, sitting nearby, looking down: "Tsk, tsk, tsk (shaking head)."

But it was all said respectfully.

Zaman, meanwhile was holding a paper of Lisjan's in his hand. Lisjan's nicely annotated document paper had been left in their Team folder, where it should be. Lisjan to Zaman: "Why do you have my paper, man? Give that to me [takes paper from Zaman's hand]."

At that point, I could not contain some mild laughter at the situation. I was very proud of how this group, very multicultural with multiple language groups and ethnicities represented (Bangladesh, Albania, Dominican Republic, and Mali) was handling itself.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Snow Days

HSLI has demolished the competition!

In last Wednesday's ice/snow storm, when many other high schools had 20-35% attendance, HSLI was at 50.3%. When other schools in our building (7 in total) had numerous teachers absent, we had 95% teacher attendance (only 1 absence).

Again yesterday, with over half a foot of snow falling during morning rush hour, we had 95% teacher attendance. Our student attendance dropped a lot yesterday--to 35.6%--but it was still higher than many high schools. Remarkably, students were still engaged and working. In my tenth grade global class, there were only 8 of 24 students present, but these students--a couple of whom regularly get very distracted and distract others--were working assiduously. Others were assisting them and helping to improve the classroom environment.

All in all, a great prelude to (yet another) break. We are off to our mid-winter break, beginning, well, NOW.

Most folks have already left, except for the half dozen or more HSLI teachers who are still here a full 45 minutes after their work day is over on a Friday before a long break. This is typical of our staff; not that I want to brag too much or anything.

Enjoy your February,
Mr. Hall