One of my proudest moments...

Let me try really hard to put this feeling into words...it's going to be hard to explain but let's try; after all, this is kind of an online diary.

This week is my last week of teaching. With that being said, I am both excited and sad. Excited for my next job. Sad that I'm leaving this job. So there is a lot of emotions involved and it's only Tuesday.

Yesterday, I brought in pictures of elementary all the way to high school to show my students. I tell them about my life stories from stealing/being a bad kid in elementary to my life changing in middle school to loving high school. I show pictures of orchestra, swim, speech, prom, winter formal, drama, etc. Definitely there were moments when my kids exploded in laughter, but in the end, it was great bonding time.

Then I showed pictures about my next job. The free candy and unlimited snacks got my kids out of control, begging me to send food back to them. After classes, my 8th graders would stick around and ditch their 4th period class to hang out. I don't mind; I hate the math teacher. We play trashketball and for some reason, one of my girls was so annoying. She's so whining so I taped her to the chair and the boys literally surrounded her and threw trash at her head. Priceless...Video to come.

With my 7th graders, we played mafia. I thought it would be a good game and it turned out very fun for the students. But in retrospect, this is such a horrible game to teach the kids. In mafia, all you do is kill people, wrongly accuse one another, and lie to defend yourself. Oh well...

Anyways, got sidetracked with my stories. My 8th graders were finding out whether or not they were cross-stage during graduation. A lot of my 8th graders that knew that they weren't going to walk during graduation stopped coming to school. However, there was still quite a few on the borderline to see if they were invited to walk. Here are the requirements of walking/cross stage:

No F's
No more than 4 U's
Less than 8 absences
No fines, detentions, etc.

Many of my students were borderline, for example, some did not meet the absences criteria, or some had outstanding fails. Dang, this is hard to explain but basically, these kids did not know how to fight for themselves on why they should cross stage. On paper, the numbers show that they are not to cross stage because they do not meet the requirements. But as their teacher, I knew I had to do something for them.

So for 10 students; I advocated on their behalf in front of the counselor and the principal to make a case of why they should walk during graduation. It was tough. I witnessed parents crying, my students crying, my principal fighting her tears, and at times, I couldn't help but tear up myself. Out of my 10 students, I successfully helped 7 borderline students make their case so now they are invited to walk this Thursday!! This is such a crazy feeling, crazier than my kids scoring top scores on the state test or anything. It felt like a life-changing event for my students.; and that's why this moment feels so precious. The smiles and tears that I saw when they got the okay from my principal in the office made me feel proud. I was satisfied, but for the 3 students that I couldn't do anything for no matter how hard I fought, my heart goes out to them. I know they tried hard but for dumb mistakes and a terrible math teacher, they do not get to walk.

For the first time in a school setting, I actually fought for my students. Now that school is almost over, I connected with many of my students through MySpace and a student updated his status "da best day of my life, i'm crossing stage!" Touche, my friend.

I'm tried and emotionally drained. Time to watch Lakers game...peace