The World According to Tsarina

The other day, one of my students was complaining about something, and suggesting that someone should fix the problem. This is one of my biggest pet peeves- people who complain and complain without offering any solutions. Before I could spit out one of my favorite cliches (which I do have on both poster and Tshirt), half the class said it to him! The shouted, "Be the change you wish to see in the world" (Gandhi). I was so proud that my love of motivational quotes is soaking in! It seems to me that many of my favorite phrases come from posters I have bought for my room. These are just a few of them:

"Where you come from does not determine where you can go"
"No matter how far you have travelled down the wrong road...you can always turn back"
"Your actions speak louder than words"
"A little respect goes a long way"
"I choose to be happy"
"Without education, you are not going anywhere in this world"- Malcolm X

I throw these pearls of wisdom at them daily, in the hopes that some of them will stick with the kids- I'm glad to know that one of my favorites is beginning to.

I've only talked to my mom once in the past two weeks. She must be sulking because I haven't called, but honestly, I feel better when I don't have to hear her complaining about how unfairly she's being treated by everyone and everything. I also get sick of the racist implications she slides in- now, she's not as bad as dad, but she honestly believes that my kids are so far behind because of the color of their skin. Truthfully, I don't want to try to explain to her any more; she just doesn't get it. It makes me sad that they live their lives in such ignorance, and completely unaware of it. She is just another person who is an energy vampire- she will suck the positive energy from you, and then convert it to negative. If you try to point out to her that she always looks on the dark side, she goes into the 6 year-old chant; "Well, I'm sorry I'm not perfect. I guess if nobody likes me, I'll just leave you alone". It's exhausting. Now that Grandma is gone, I wish my parents would move to Arizona with everyone else (sorry, Arizona). But, dad will never leave- he hates change. Often, I just look at them and wonder how I came from that environment. I guess I should just be glad that I was able to avoid spending my life in that mindset, and continue to pray that they somehow get out of it.

James will be back in school tomorrow. Bill has suggested that I take control of helping him make up his work, and he will make sure he gets home. The math teacher was pissed because she saw James in the stands at the playoff game (he wasn't supposed to be there because he's suspended), and she said he was flirting with a girl instead of watching the game... Has this woman never seen a 15 year-old boy before? Derek- correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most 15 year-olds like to flirt with pretty girls? I mean, seriously, she was going to complain in the office- she said that if he'd been there to watch the game, she wouldn't say anything, but since he wasn't paying attention, she would. I tried to explain that he's been suspended, so he hasn't seen a lot of the kids for several days, and besides, he has the hormones of a normal teenager. She's a very rigid person, but agreed to not complain. The other teachers are going to keep me updated on James' progress...it seems that he hasn't been turning in everything in Lit and Grammar. I think I'm just going to make him stay after one or two days a week, and we'll work on study habits. I'm also starting a computer skills workshop after school on Mondays to help the kids who need it- you can't believe how many have absolutely NO abilities. Then there's scholastic bowl T-Th, so I may have to start missing one practice a week to help James. I sometimes wish there was one more day in the week.

Ok, I should go get grades recorded. I wish you all peace.