“We live by that big ocean? What if I can’t swim?”

“Eh Bebe! Eh bebe!”

“My dad and I modified our car last night. It goes a lot faster and makes more noise.”

“It’s o.k. We speak English.” (from a parent when I was struggling to explain in Spanish why my newsletters aren’t translated)

“Ms. Boylan, why is it wet under your arms?”

“Lookit - he’s crumpin!” (to a kid who was dancing to a multiplication rap song)

“Mi perro, he runs hella fast.”

These are some of the funny quotes I’ve heard from my kids in the past five weeks. I teach 3rd grade at a school in East Oakland. I have 4 African-American kids and 13 Spanish-speakers who have been taught in Spanish for the past 3 years. It never ceases to amaze me what comes out of their mouths. They are smart and funny and “hella” unpredictable.

I most recently lived in Minnesota where I got my undergrad degree in Geography and trained to be a Geographic Information Scientist (glorified computer programmer). I worked for the Department of Natural Resources for several years as a map maker, programmer, and planner. I went on hiatus and ended up travelling to a school in Ghana, going to a craft school in North Carolina, moving home to Cleveland, and then going to grad school back in Minnesota. For the past three years I’ve worked in 5 different schools as a tutor with the American Indian Education Program while also working as a nanny for up to three different families. Last year I student taught at an arts magnet school and did several long-term sub positions there throughout the year.

I know California is a different place, and I made the decision to come out here to do something different. Yet it strikes me EVERY day how vastly different the administration, funding, delivery, and expectations of schools are here than they are in Minnesota. Back in St. Paul, teachers were expected to arrive at least 30 minutes before school, and stay at least an hour after. Every week we had staff meetings and committee meetings after school, which was an accepted part of the work day. Here teachers arrive 10 minutes before school and leave 15 minutes after. There is little expectation for people to get involved in their school. Many of our teachers stay quite late and come in very early, but it is certainly not recognized or expected. In St. Paul, teachers had a 40 minute prep EVERY day. Students had one recess. I had time to make copies, check student files, make phone calls, and get the room set up for the next subject during my prep and I still had time to teach reading, writing, math, and social studies or science every day. Here I have three recess times per day (including lunch), with six transitions herding my kids to and from, and I have 6 different curricula I am supposed to address daily (reading, math, science, social studies, ELD, and P.E.).

I don’t. I worry. I wonder how to do it all. I wonder how I’ll make it through the year with only one bathroom break all day (lunch). I wonder how my kids will fare on the looming standardized tests because we cram so much into their brains without giving them time to reflect, let it sink in, try it, apply it and analyze it.

But at the end of every day, I think of some silly little quote from one of my kids and I know they’re thinking, they’re looking, they’re wondering, they’re hoping:

“My hope and dream is to be the smartest kid in the whole school.”

My hope, as their teacher, is that they learn to like and take pride in school so they can claim what belongs to them in this crazy, messed up, unfair, and endlessly fascinating society we call America.

Siobhan Boylan is a 3rd grade teacher at East Oakland PRIDE