"They can't go to school with us!"

I was going through my phone today and I ran across a video of my 7th period doing their presentations on Helen Keller and author's purpose. It reminded me of a conversation I had with them while they were preparing for the presentation.

Kid: "Man, ain't no rich kids at THS. Y'all just faking."
Me: "How do you know they aren't rich?"
Kid: "Cuz it's illegal for rich kids to go to school with non rich kids."
Me: "What?!"
Kid: "It's against the law for rich kids to go to public school with poor kids. They have to go to private school. Don't they?"
Me: *blank stare and walk away*

This is the same kid who said you can't have any contraptions in your essay. SMH

Today I met with some of my fellow English teachers to plan and toss around ideas for next year. I'm really excited about the upcoming year (if you haven't noticed). I shared all of my Pinterest finds with them and they are going to sign up for Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. Both of those sites are amazing and extremely helpful in planning and finding ideas. My goal for the new school year is to be more organized and to stretch myself as a teacher.  Last year's bunch of kids were fairly intelligent and I had 3 classes of honor students, so they kept me on my toes.  I actually had to know my material.  In the beginning it was a bit nerve racking because I was teaching a new curriculum and I was uncomfortable with it.  As the year went on I saw how successful my kids were at learning and retaining the information and it gave me a confidence boost.  Now I'm going to run with that fire from last year into the new year.  I'm going to start expecting a lot more out of my kids as well as start stretching them as students.  I've got a lot of great ideas!  I pray that I can keep that fire all year. 

Teachers spend a lot of their own money on school supplies and material.  You can help by adopting a classroom.  You can adopt my classroom by going to Adopt a Classroom and donating.  Or you can buy supplies and donate them.  We need a lot of simple things to help our classes run smoothly.  My main needs are Kleenex, hand sanitizer, and copy paper.  My school district doesn't allow me to buy Kleenex and hand sanitizer with the money they give me so that has to come out of my pocket or from the kids, if they bring it.  I would LOVE to have a smartboard in my classroom.  That'd be amazing.  We were told we'd eventually get them in our classes, so I'm patiently waiting.  Thanks for any help you give!