Krispy Kreme Kraziness

I really should start watching the local news. Apparently this weekend there was another incident involving one of our students (playing with a gun, someone got shot). Luckily the student is ok, but you can sense the community's growing concern about our school. In my humble opinion, our school is pretty awesome. We have kids from all around the world who manage to get along pretty well on a daily basis. There are plenty of resources and lots of staff who gives a damn. That's more than in other places just a few miles away. I went to a high school that was on the opposite end of the diversity spectrum. I was one of a dozen or so "Spanish" kids in the school and I was the only one in all of my advanced classes. Today I created a list of Hispanic kids who were former ESOL and I was beside my self when I saw over 600 kids in our school who fit the bill. This doesn't even count the students, like me, who never needed English as a 2nd language. We have kids from Nepal, Cameroon, Haiti, Colombia, Albania...you name it. Everyday these kids get along just fine, but some community members get in a panic when there is a streak of violence OUTSIDE of school. I repeat, it takes a village to raise our kids. Instead of complaining, I wish more people would dedicate some time to our school and come by to check out the amazing work of our staff & students .

Sadly, I don't know if I will be back in 2009. My position is grant-funded. The money comes from a MD Dept of Ed School Improvement grant. When our school's academic performance improves, the grant is cut, or parts of it are. My pay is part of the deal. I think our school did improve, thank goodness, but now I might not be able to come back. It's hard to get too invested when I don't know if all my work will be of use. I'd love to create more programs to get the community involved in our school and to continue addressing certain communication gaps, but alas, it all depends on the grant. Can my school get a piece of that bailout plan???

On a lighter note, I took Chayla for her yearly physical and found out upon arrival that the appointment is for tomorrow. I was so mad, until I saw the Krispy Kreme next door. Chayla and I sat down to a delicious donut and some chit chat w/o that annoying little brother :). After dinner I gave Mateo his donut. Why did I do that? He was literally jumping off the bed. My brother told me I should've just given him some smack! Fortunately for me, he jumped on that bed so much he wore himself out. Still, my kids are night owls like me and they can't fall asleep until 10pm. I'm hopeful that when Freddie returns he can help me put these kids down a little earlier. These are the days I wished I followed a schedule like most of my friends who have little ones.