I might as well have not gone to school on Thursday. I had a doctor's appointment, so I missed the first hour-and-a-half of the school day, so I missed drama; the only class I would've done anything in all day. After first period, we were supposed to go to 8th period (the schedule has been completely messed with because of SOL testing). So, I went to 8th period. I had forgotten 8th period was the testing period for Math 7 and pre-algebra. But not for algebra.

There are nine 7th graders in Algebra. We were told to go to our math class. There was a substitute teacher there, but no lesson plans, nothing. We talked, played cards, made snow-cones, talked some more... Finally, we moved to our next class. Gym. There weren't enough kids finished testing to dress out, so we sat in the bleachers and talked some more. We had lunch. Then we went to PACE, a forty-five minute period where we are technically supposed to be reading, but no one does. We talked some more.

Finally, we got to the last period of the day. Math. We thought we would do a practice SOL or math review. It turns out, the 8th graders had an SOL. Our class is comprised of nine 7th graders (including me) and sixteen 8th graders. Technically, our teacher is an 8th grade teacher, so she had to take the 8th graders up to the third floor to be their test monitor. That left us 7th graders for another two-and-a-half hours to kill off. Only, this time, we didn't have a substitute teacher so a hall monitor stood just outside our classroom all period. How did we kill off the time? We talked, played cards, drew on the whiteboard, talked some more...

What I Learned on Thursday

-The latest gossip

-How to work a snow-cone machine

-As much as administrators like to lecture about time; 

It's not about the amount of time you have, but how you use it.

SOL

Standards of Learning

The tests that decide what kind of a learning experience we receive the next year. If we do well, the school is allowed to have fun, the teachers are allowed to make their own lesson plans. If we don't, then the reformers come. The think of more 'creative' ways to get kids to pass their SOL's.

Student's Definition of 'Creative Learning'

Games, going outdoors, field trips, labs, meaningful creative projects, edible projects, songs...

Reformer's Definition of 'Creative Learning'

Worksheets, reading practice, slogans, campaigns with cheesy titles, encouraging posters, flashcards, cutting and pasting little definitions next to pictures, outlines...

Today, to get us pumped for SOL's, we had our annual SOL pep rally. It began with face-painted, flag bedecked students spilling into the gym to our jazz band (really good jazz band) playing 

'tonight's going to be a good night, tonight's gonna be a good, good, night..." Everyone sand along.

Then, one of our drama teacher's took the microphone. Our choir sang the national anthem, but the mics weren't working, so we watched them instead of hearing them. Then the two cheer-leading teams came out. They were obviously not very well thought out as a public image; one was entirely made up of whites, and the other entirely made up of blacks. It's not like nobody noticed, either. 

There was a competition with an obstacle course and SOL questions, and a tug-o-war championship. Overall, the entire thing was a bit lame. Oh, and, of course the two SOL teams ended up tying. Of course. 

The SOL's aren't a big deal for students like me. We don't even really study. But for some students, the SOL's are a big deal. These students sometimes know the exact same amount as I do. The difference is: I naturally process information; for some people it's much harder. 

My language arts teacher has devoted her class periods to test-taking skills instead of language arts review. Many kids have found it useful, though they would never fully admit it. 

So, what do you do as a teacher? You have a student who doesn't process information very well. Do you try to use creative teaching techniques to teach this student the key information, or do you teach this student from the text book in hope that they will do well on the SOL's? 

Or say you have a student who knows a lot about history. That student knows every leader of the suffragette movement, and every battle of World War II. Are you supposed to narrow that student's knowledge? Just for the SOL's? And who is to say that Susan B. Anthony is more important than Elizabeth Cady Stanton? 

"Don't think outside the box," my language arts teacher tells us. "Think inside the lines when you take the SOL's."

The bible-guy was out side of our school yesterday. He stands just outside the school boundaries and hands out pocket-size orange vinyl bibles. He only visits once or twice a year. My family has accumulated quite a collection through my brother's middle school years and mine.

A Profile

Tall girl, small voice. 

Middle-eastern, dark eyes, a tangle of black hair.

Never wears gym shorts, only sweatpants.

She used to down-cast her eyes 

and press her lips together

when they teased her.

Now she flails out her hand

and smiles confusedly,

uncertain.

For the past few days, my social studies class has procrastinated doing worksheets by sucking our teacher into conversations. And I am sure I am learning more from these conversations than any worksheet in the world.

We are learning about the civil rights movement right now. Our teacher began by asking us, a predominantly white honors class, how we would feel during this time period as a black...and as a white. Everyone cringed. We'd feel awkward, we said, guilty, uncomfortable. She asked us; what if we were raised that way? No one could answer.

She showed us a black-and-white picture of two schools. One was small with a group of black school children out front. The other was large and had well-kept lawns. We looked at the first one. Tell me what this is, she said. It's an old black school, someone yelled out. We talked about it awhile. We looked at the other one. And that's an old white school, someone else yelled. "How do you know?" Our teacher said, "There's no sign, no white children..."

"Well, we assumed..."We all started. We assumed.

For these past two days, that has been the basis for our conversations. We assume. But usually the assumptions we named were ones that we assumed others assumed about us.

Things That We Think Others Assume About Us

-That whites are rich, in all honors, and kind of snotty

-That blacks are rude

-That if your in an honors class (especially if you're black), you're a nerd

-That only blacks have problems at home

-All blacks are 'ghetto'

"Ghetto?" Our teacher asked, "Define 'ghetto'". No one said it was coming from a certain place or a background. Everything that was said was about appearance and actions. So different from the original use of the word.

"Wearing your pants on the ground." Someone said. 

"I wear my pants on the ground," a boy pointed out, "and I'm white."

"Drinking Kool-Aid," someone else yelled. 

"White kids can't drink Kool-Aid?" Our teacher laughed. We all laughed at the absurdity of it. There wasn't really a difference. And yet, if one of the white boys went up to someone and said "Yo, wasup homie", they'd automatically be told, "You're way too white." 

Even the vocabulary, though, is not all that different. Beast, cool, legit, sweet, 'sup...everyone uses them; blacks, whites, and hispanics.

As for whites being rich and snotty; yes, most of the whites at our school are from families with larger incomes, but it isn't as if anyone is proud of it. At one point the student who was talking about that very stereotype named a street with very large houses on it. Another kid, who lives on that street hid under the table. Money is not flaunted at our school.

And here's the other interesting thing. We all assume others assume things about us, but no one said they actually assume something about other people. 

So, do we assume and just aren't telling, or are we assuming without even realizing it? Or are we stuck in a tangle of imaginary assumptions of other people's assumptions? 

But isn't incredible we can all talk about it?

A Highly Interesting Event

A boy wore a skirt to the cafeteria this morning.

In fact, it was one of my friend's skirts. He wore it purely for the attention. And he got it. Almost everyone in the cafeteria has a picture of him on their cell phone, camera, video camera...

Unfortunately, they made him change. I can't see why. The skirt was past his fingertips.

A Middle School Hallway

Full of shouting.

Arms and legs, books and pens, strewn around, bouncing off walls.

Lockers slamming.

Gaggles of tweens.

"Get to your class! Get to your class!"