It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times

UPDATE TO THE STORY BELOW ------ Maybe ten days after I posted that story below, "Mark" asked me if he could leave class early. I don't recall why, but I let him go, feeling a bit uneasy about it. I saw him later that day, handcuffed with 2 other boys all sitting on a curb at the edge of the teacher's parking lot. I never saw him again. About 2 weeks after that a student service worker came by with a computer print-out for me to give Mark his checkout grades.

He had about 40% of the points in the class at that point but his writing skills, and likely reading were very low--- maybe 5th grade at best. Here is a kid that desperately needs education and life skills like reading, writing and the ability to problem solve, but he also desperately needing the approval of peers so he made another bad decision. I never found out why he was arrested that day but my guess is that it involved vandalism or stealing. Sad.

However for every Mark, there are 3 or 4 students who turn it around. A young latina - Raquel, was in my health class last year which ended in late June. Here she was again in my same class, same seat in early September. She received in June what could only be described as --what the kids say today-- an EPIC FAIL. She had a ditching buddy and the two of them missed maybe 20+ times in a 75-80 day semester. Raquel also had a bad attitude. She did some work but probably got less than 25% of the points required to pass. Approval of her friend was more important than anything else to her.

So here she is back in my class. Sixth period again-- the last period of the day, the notorious ditching period. Thus far after 9 weeks, she does have 7 absences, but she also has every assignment turned in and is getting an A with over 90% of the points possible. She stays awake in class. She has a good attitude and completely turned it around after a summer vacation.

Maybe about 5 years ago when I was coaching tennis, I ordered trophies at the end of the year and ordered an extra one for a girl named Xiomara. Her first semester was a disaster. She was very quiet but also very apathetic and never got any work turned in. She had poor attendance and she was just your garden variety "didn't try, didn't care, 'F' student". The next semester she had me for a different class, Health. I don't know how or why but she put it all together. She was still quiet but Xiomara did her work and received a B. In the last day or two of class I told the entire class "I have never done this before but I got a trophy for a student who was very surprising to me this year. The first semester she didn't do very well, but THIS semester she com-pletely turned it around and is getting a B, and Xiomara, this trophy says Most Improved Student Award - John Marshall High School, June 2006". Xiomara came up, accepted the award and a student started clapping and the whole class followed.

There are so many stories, some good some not, but these kids as you watch them grow and change are never boring.

Not Your Father's Oldsmobile

The title of this entry refers to a 20+ year old ad campaign that GM did to upgrade the image of their new line of cars. That same phrase popped into my head when I had this conversation as I will relate below (but the phrase was modified to: This is not your father's education.

Two days ago I asked a boy to stay after class. He had been tardy two times in a row and was also very slow to take out paper later in the period.

"Mark, I want to talk to you about being late. This is the second day in a row and I need for you to arrive earlier, like your classmates. Where is your 3rd period class that you have to walk from?"

"It's way across campus, in the main building, on the second floor"

Yeah Mark, I know that's pretty far but you can...

"And I can't walk that fast now because I got shot in the leg."

"Um...okay, well do the best you can.

That wasn't just a line, I know this student lives in a group home with other kids that that have had trouble with the law. If they have good behavior there and at school, they get to go back home in usually 4 - 9 months. Bad behavior earns them a trip back to ... jail.

Most of these boys are nice in class. However, sometimes their tempers flare at the group home, they go AWOL and I never see them again.

This is a transition year for our school. We are going back to a single track, on a traditional calendar. While last year my largest class leveled off at 42, I have 4 classes now at 44 to 47, and teach all six periods, no open conference or planning period. Students and staff alike know this isn't desirable or normal, but we all seem to be doing the hard work and not complaining so much. I think we teachers are just grateful to have a job. I know I am.

Geographic Literacy, sort of

We read a statistic in our 2005 health textbook the other day. It said: 54 million Americans have a mental disorder. To put that in context to convey how common this is, I asked each class how many TOTAL people live in the United States? Obviously is HAS to be MORE than 54 million but some of the more memorable answers were 400,000, 400 billion, 30 million and so on. Usually after a few ridiculous answers in each class like that, someone would say 250 million - or the more recent accurate answer of 300 million that the US reached sometime around 2006.

My students are primarily 15 year olds. Is it too much to ask that they have SOME awareness of the world in which they live? Instead most of them could tell me things like Lady Gaga's real name, talk at length about Lindsay Lohan's latest tattoo, or what Paris Hilton's new reality show is about.

Technology is great. It allows me to write this blog. It cooks my food in less than a minute using microwave technology. But it also helps to fill our youths developing minds with drivel or acts to distract them or help them escape the more worthy work of completing their algebra or English essay. I tell them that when I was in high school, I had no cable TV and I had no TV in my bedroom. There were no portable music players. People told stories, told jokes. Today those relics of just a generation ago seem to be a lost art.

It doesn't help that Hollywood starts literally 2 miles west of our school. We have undeserved ethnocentric pride, because stardom is the tail that wags the dog in our culture. I also tell my students that this one TV program started when I was in high school- Entertainment Tonight. That was the only one for years. Now "news shows" covering entertainment programs on television probably number over 30 (English speaking only), and I would guess the number of entertainment blogs runs into the thousands.

I am not sure what the answer is but at least I am more convinced than ever that a no-electronics policy in my classroom is the way to go. The last thing I need is kids checking their text messages when I am leading discussion about health matters, that believe it or not, will MATTER a lot more to them in 10 years than "waz up?" and "LMAO!" and "TTYL".

An update on the January 4 post

In the early January post I lamented (and worried) about the 42 students at the end of the day. After 5 weeks that has shrunk somewhat to a mere 38. Did I mention Period 5, the class before that one? In that class there are 39 students, of which 30 are boys.

While both scenarios are far from ideal, I have found them to be pretty well behaved. I think classroom management always goes back to the idea of the teacher being prepared, and it helps if she or he also sets up a familiar routine from which to operate.

As far as being prepared is concerned, I am motivated less by the promise of reward than I am by the avoidance of pain. The prospect of 40 ill-behaved freshman is not a pleasant scenario so it motivates me to be spot-on ready, at 7:25 for that first period class, everyday.

Student Choice, it Rocks!

I don't do this enough and I should. On Wednesday night I stayed up late designing an assignment that gave students 3 choices of projects, and the 4th choice was design your own. Two of the assignments also had a portion that would include a very small presentation as that also appeals to some students.

Varying assignments and letting students choose, especially when it's something bigger, like a project, should hopefully result in a higher participation and completion rate. At least that's the hope. We'll see next week when it's due!

It's Hard, but You Can't Take it Personally

The other day I was subbing for another teacher during my conference period. Since I got the call late to sub I was about 3 minutes late. This class followed a 20 minute "nutrition break" plus a 6 minute passing period to get to class. When I arrived the 18-20 freshmen Algebra students were standing outside the locked classroom door. Once inside, I told them that while their regular teacher might let them listen to music or eat during class, "unplug" and put away all the electronics and food. I reminded them a minute later as some were slow to do this. Also, by this time they had about 30 minutes to eat something, they still shouldn't be eating chips (Flaming Hot Cheetos seem to be the current favorite). I am now starting to call roll and take attendance and I notice a boy is still eating chips from his bag. I assertively said to him from about 6 feet away while making eye contact, "didn't you hear me, you need to put your food away."
"I'm not done!",
he replied angrily as he reached for another chip.

"Go outside and stand by the door, I will be with you in a minute", I told him.
He left and about 20 seconds later I looked outside and found him about 120 feet away nearing the end of the hallway. "You need to come back, stay here", I said loudly. He turned when I said this but kept walking away.
I had to call the dean about this boy's behavior and talked to him at the end of the day again. The boy was suspended for later skipping another class and also from not cooperating with another teacher who had made a request from him.
It bothered me initially and I thought about it periodically until I went to bed that night. It was then I realized that his aggressive and disrespectful behavior with me was not really about me, but more about him and what was going on in his life. It was then I let it go and found myself ready to sleep without worry.
We only see the surface of these kids, but we never see the problems at home which could involve various forms of abuse, neglect, divorce, life threatening illness, death, incarceration and more. Each student also brings with them their collective experience with all their teachers in the past, good or bad. Or maybe this kid is an A student who was just really hungry that day and had low blood sugar. Anyhow, misbehavior in our classrooms is rarely about us. It's sometimes hard to do but we have to let some of it go and not let it bruise or trouble us.
Also, if we are really motivated, we can dig deeper on another day and see if we can uncover the reasons from this maladaptive behavior. At the very least, it's probably worth a referral to the school psychologist to let them do their job.

OMG!

Hi citizens!

The second semester began yesterday. We finished Life Skills in December and this semester is a continuation with the same students but now it's Health. There are always a few change-ups. Students moving from my period 4 to period 2 or getting a few new seniors that never took health and need it to graduate.

The numbers are about the same... still have 35-42 for four out of the five I teach but the weirdness is the my last period of the day, which had been my smallest, is now 42 (which is the max since I have exactly that many desks). My first period is 31 which means it lost 6-7 students. In a perfect world all classes would be the same, whatever the average is, but we don't live in a perfect world (you probably already knew that!)

I find that after 2 days I can ease into my day with 31, or even the 28 or so that show up. And at the end of the day, kick out some adrenaline and be "on" for those 40+ that show up. Classroom management is even more vital with a large class at the end of the day. With freshmen, they treat the last period of the day already like the morning before a trip to Disneyland. Now with a packed class, OMG!

It should be an interesting semester. It always is =))