Pre-Halloween Excitement

Today was actually fairly exciting. The kids were really colorful since they were celebrating Halloween (the school does not allow actual costumes for some reason. I find that strange). One of my problem kids (the one who didn't care about getting a 1 out of 4 on his essay the other day and didn't have a book to read so I had to babysit him in another room while he read one of the teacher's books) was in in-school suspension so I didn't have to deal with him. He's in two of the classes I help with, and I hate to say this, but things were so much more manageable without him there.

Fridays are always kind of crazy but today was actually not bad. Many of the kids were much more subdued than usual (probably due to it being the end of the quarter and thus many tests & projects were done). However, my sixth period is seventh grade English, and the teacher there has absolutely no discipline plan in place whatsoever and it shows, though I don't know how bad her other classes are. Apparently this class is further behind since they waste so much time talking. I was never a fan of her discipline plan (or lack thereof) but today was just ridiculous, because she made a big deal about it being rude for them to ask for glowsticks just because her other classes got them, then at the end handed one out to everyone. She said she was disappointed with their behavior and they didn't deserve them but because it was Halloween she was giving them out. That is such a horrible idea in so many ways. If I were a kid in that classroom I would think, "Sweet! I can behave badly and get something!" It will be interesting to see how her kids' behavior affects their SOL scores at the end of the year (and thus, her job).

Also, I was between classes this morning and a girl who was walking next to me asked if I go to this school. I responded, a little taken aback, that I am a teacher here. She said she has never seen me. I asked what grade she was in, and after saying sixth, I responded that that made sense since I mostly deal with seventh & eighth graders. Siiiiigh. I knew it was going to happen eventually, me being mistaken for a student. Which I guess is a good thing, since so far that aspect hasn't diminished my authority.

Anyway, this week was mostly pretty good. This afternoon as I was driving home the local elementary school paraded their kids down the road in their Halloween costumes. So cute.

Also, when I got home I found my Master's Degree waiting for me, so now it's official. Woohoo!

The Wonders of Technology

Oh, technology. How I do often loathe thee. I find that in this incredibly high-tech world, sometimes we are too reliant upon it. Take yesterday and today as examples. Yesterday, the seventh graders were writing final drafts of their essays in the computer lab. The teacher asked them to submit it to the automatic grading program of Holt (textbook maker) in addition to printing them out for her to grade. As long as she is also grading them herself, I have no problem with this. However, the problem arises after the score is shown to the student submitting that paper, particularly if the student is already unmotivated to begin with. The essays are graded on a 1-4 scale. Theoretically, if students get less than a 3 or 4, they should edit it. But it has appeared to me that most students don't care what their grades are. They just want to finish. So it does no good for most of them to see their score. In fact, it probably hinders them because they may think, "Oh, I got a one out of four. I'm stupid. Whatever." And that's really the complete opposite point of school.

Today was even worse in terms of technology. The eighth grade reading class does a program called Journeys, which is supposed to supplement the lessons in their textbooks. I can't say how beneficial the program is since I'm not familiar with it, but today it was useless because the laptops they were logging into to use were ridiculously slow. When the teacher was getting ready to dismiss them, several students had just gotten the program up. Talk about a waste of class time. Sometimes technology cripples us, and teachers need to learn how to do things without technology just in case something goes wrong (and it will).

Anecdotes!

The seventh graders learned a new word yesterday. Anecdote. It's a great word. And it reminded me that one of the words in the title of this blog is "tales." I have been doing more bitching than tale-telling, really, and I hope to remedy that right now. So here we go.

I find it interesting that I feel like I really know so many kids already. However, I find it even more fascinating that the same child can convey different personalities depending on what class he/she is in. For instance, there is one boy in the seventh grade reading class who needs help staying focused but is generally on task and participates all the time. But in English, he's a completely different person. He is NEVER on task, is always a distraction, and rarely participates in class. I have no idea what the differentiation in his grades are (or if there is one) in the two classes, but I don't understand how he can be completely different in each one. Granted, the reading class is much smaller and thus he gets a little more attention, and the material is easier and the teacher moves more slowly, but I still don't think that accounts for the complete personality change.

As another example, a boy from the eighth grade reading class is also in one of the eighth grade English classes I help with. His situation is entirely the opposite: in English, he is polite, on task, and seems to be interested in the material. But in reading, he is constantly (and perhaps deliberately) pissing off the teacher, distracting others, and generally not staying on task. It's the same thing here-- the reading class is smaller and the material is easier than the English class. I don't think it's that he doesn't want attention, because otherwise he would avoid being yelled at, not trying to create them.

I just find it interesting that our environments have so much emphasis upon our personalities. Clearly, school is a classic example of this phenomenon.

Scheduling is Hard, Dude

In addition to filling in for people during the day, I have the added responsibility of running homework club twice a week and then taking those students to intramurals. Yesterday was quite the clusterf*** when it came to these tasks.

About twenty kids showed up for homework club, which was ridiculous enough in itself, and half of them weren't doing homework and/or distracting others from doing their homework. I had to deal with it completely by myself. Hooray real world experience! So that was a little crazy, but not too bad.

But then (and the taking the kids to intramurals is a very recent thing. So recent I started doing it yesterday), another teacher who was also supposed to help with intramurals on Monday helped me lead them to the field, where there were already students along with another teacher. Apparently this teacher does soccer every Monday and has been doing so for years. Whaaaaa? Why did the activities director assign three teachers to one activity that one teacher has been able to handle for years? Wasn't a huge deal, as I was still getting paid for my time (as, I presume, so were the other two), but that is a misuse of resources, I feel. Mr. M., who was evidently in charge of intramural soccer, said having all three of us there was overkill. Way to make me feel useful...

Today was a little better. There were half as many students in homework club and all of them were doing work. There was also (ironically) another teacher in the room. That was probably why they were all doing work (I think that the students don't really think of me as a real authority figure yet). There were two activities for intramurals. The other teacher lead flag football while I led soccer (of which I actually know something about) so I actually felt useful this afternoon. Hooray!

TGIF

Kind of a crazy day. It was early release, which meant the classes were shorter than usual, which meant the kids were even more riled up. Plus, the first two periods were taken up by a mini-walk for Fannie Mae's Help the Homeless. I was in charge of essentially babysitting students who stayed behind because their parents did not sign a permission slip. They were given something about homelessness to read and then answer questions. They had an hour to complete this task and most of them finished in 40-45 minutes. There was nothing else for me to give them. It was such a great use of time! (*sarcasm*)

Also, during my lunch break I hung out in the library since it was too early for me to eat during that time, and came upon this article. I feel that it's a step in the right direction. It's extremely difficult to tell, after all, exactly what direct effect teachers have upon test scores. Yet another reason the standardization movement hurts the progress of both students and teachers.

But anyway, it's been an interesting week and the kids definitely see me as an authority figure, which is, obviously, good. I feel like I am actually a part of the school community. Hooray!

Helicopter Parents

Since I see the same students every day, I have gotten to know a lot of them very well. Before I became the school based sub, I was the long term sub for the drama teacher who was on maternity leave (who is now back), and so I got to know those students also.

One of these students always had behavioral/attitude problems in class. Apparently her issues were widespread. I was helping with intramurals the other day and the teacher who runs it was telling me about this girl's latest issues. She is always getting called to the office and all her teachers have had it with her. School has been going on for just over a month, and she's had something like 40 referrals. It's a little ridiculous. Evidently, though, this girl's mother thinks her daughter is an angel and can do no wrong, so she of course blames the teachers/administrators/school, and puts none of the blame on her own daughter. Really? You would think 40 referrals from 40 different teachers would give you a hint. But no. Even if some, or even all, of those teachers were incorrect in disciplining her, you should be teaching your daughter to obey her superiors. She will get no where in life if she does nothing but rebel. Great lessons there, mom. No wonder your child is such a spoiled brat.

This woman, apparently, did ridiculous things last year, when this girl was in 6th grade, like signing her out of school so she wouldn't have to go to class of a teacher she hated and then show up again with McDonald's; and transfer her to another school in the district. That school, though, said "No, we don't want your horrible daughter; send her back where she came from." So this girl ended back up at the school where I teach. Now, her mother has decided she's fed up again with the teachers/administration/school and is transferring her to yet another school. I wonder what will happen there.

I hate to say this, but at least she's not our problem anymore. It's really ridiculous how much harm one student can do. Especially when her mother is the butt of the problem. Way to make teachers' jobs even more difficult. Holy moly.

Discipline

...is a tricky matter. It's difficult (probably impossible) to say that one thing always works while one thing never works. However, there are guidelines that all teachers seem to follow because there do seem to be tried and true methods that work 90% of the time. To me, it seems that the object of discipline is to stop problems before they start. This did not happen today.

Here's the scenario. I'm in Ms. L's English classroom. The students sit in groups of three or four around the room. They are involved in individual work about making inferences in a particular story that they each read the day before. Ms. L. and myself float around the room to see who is on task and who needs help. Soon, she interrupts them and explains to take out their notebooks to take notes on grammar.

Now, I learned in grad school that the most effective discipline procedure involves, first and foremost, an engaging lesson plan. And I have seen this method in action. It works. But taking notes is one of the dullest things I can imagine for a classroom. Especially notes on grammar. (And this is coming from a grammar-loving English teacher.) Yet, the students know the notes are part of their grades, so they are mostly obedient. Even if their notes are not up to par, they are, for the most part, not disruptive.

However, now we come to the rub. I stated in the beginning that the object of discipline is to stop something before it starts. Perhaps if Ms. L. had been slightly more observant about students' abilities to stay on task the entire situation could have been avoided. But instead, it exploded. There is a student, call him A, who is almost always talking when he is not supposed to. The other students who sit at his table encourage this. Simple solution: move him to another table, or to the "refocus area" (meant for students who are not on task [i.e. student A]) during more individual work. Many twelve year olds (and thirty year olds, for that matter) have trouble focusing when left to their own devices, after all. I noticed several times (today and earlier) that his work was not completed. Clearly student A is easily distracted.

Instead, Ms. L. waited for his disruptions to fester, and lost it. Soon after introducing the notes, she asked student A to move to another seat since she had asked him to stop talking before and he didn't. This was fine in and of itself, as was her raising her voice at student A when he refused and had a bad attitude. Students should obey teachers. Even if they are completely wrong. That's just the way it goes. So student A reluctantly moves (away from his seatmates, female J and male M), and after he sits and opens his notebook, Ms. L. said, "I know J is interesting and funny, but you have to stop staring at her so you can take notes." Ouch. I felt sorry for student A. How embarrassed he must have felt. That, as I have been taught and take to heart, since I have seen it in action, is a big NO. You NEVER single out a student in this way. Especially when it means complete embarrassment.

Student A made not a peep after that and appeared to be taking copious notes, but I am certain he was teeming inside. Ms. L. had every right to move him, but she should have stopped there. She won. There was no point (and in fact it hindered her position) in embarrassing him. Maybe it was her way of making up for the fact that she didn't take care of the problem before it started (the problem being his attitude more than his disruptions), her way of showing him she is in charge and she can hurt him if necessary. I don't know. I didn't ask her, and I wasn't about to question her methods in her classroom. But I thought it was horrible.

Charter Schools etc

The charter school movement is huge now. Especially in the DC area. I hate them. People who know nothing about education investing in schools that children have to compete to go to, even though they are newer, have less experienced teachers & administrators, and do not necessarily provide a better education, goes against everything a strong public education system should do. Instead of increasing the charter school movement, how about investing in public schools to make them better? It's not really that difficult, considering the ridiculous amounts of money that goes into charter schools. The Washington Post today has this extremely good article about the problem with charter schools. Read it and be convinced!

Zzzzzzzzzzz

So. Tired. Getting used to this new schedule is tough. Teachers get two planning periods a day, but aides get nothin'. They have an assignment every class period. Here I am, a fairly healthy (though slightly overweight) 20-something hauling my ass from one side of the building to another, all the while maneuvering through hoards of children, and I'm exhausted before the end of the day. And while I'm in class, I'm constantly on my feet, saying to Johnny to stay on task and running over to the other side of the room to answer Suzie's question, while simultaneously making sure that Jimmy and Joey are keeping their hands to themselves and that Mary* is caught up on the homework she missed yesterday. Imagine doing that while pregnant! Yeesh.

People don't give aides the credit they deserve. At least, people who don't work in a school environment don't. Sure, they have no planning to do, but they WORK for their money for sure! I think every citizen should be required to spend a few days in a school to see how things really work. Most of the stuff that goes on people can't even imagine, let alone suspect.

*all names are changed to protect the innocent

Quotations!

First: I love quotations. It's a little scary how much I love random quotations.

Second: I'm reading an amazing book right now called "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," by French author Muriel Barbery. It's probably my favorite book ever, and I'm only two-thirds finished.

Thirdly: There are several memorable quotes from this novel and a few remind me of the trials we English teachers go through. Here is an example: “A text is written above all to be read and to arouse emotions in the reader… Never mind the fact that the minds of younger kids are, I think, more open to literature than say the minds of high school or college students. Let me explain: at my age, all you need is to talk to us about something with some passion, pluck the right strings (love, rebellion, thirst for money, etc.) and you have every chance of succeeding.”

The narrator, by the way, is a super smart twelve year old girl.

Here is another: “Language is a bountiful gift and its usage, an elaboration of community and society, is a sacred work. Language and usage evolve over time: elements change, are forgotten or reborn, and while there are instances where transgression can become the source of an even greater wealth, this does not alter the fact that to be entitled to the liberties of playfulness or enlightened misusage when using language, one must first and foremost have sworn one’s total allegiance.”

*Squeeeeee!* Obviously the author is a logophile. Which is probably why her novel is becoming my favorite book. This is what all teachers should strive to elucidate to their students.

Center For Kids Who Can't Read... Good

It's no wonder 80% of the population can't write. It really helps if the teachers knew what they were doing. Or in this case, the computer programmers.

One of the classes I'm covering is a reading class for 8th graders who failed their SOLs. Every week, they venture to the computer lab to do a section of a program called SkillsTutor, which is supposed to help them improve their grammar, spelling, and general writing skills. At the end of each section, they get a grade and an explanation of which questions they got wrong. Most kids don't even bother reading this, which defeats the point of the exercise. If they don't know why they got a question wrong it does them no good to complete the exercises again (which they have to if they get less than 70%).

Not only that, but as I was looking over kids' shoulders to make sure they were on task, I noticed that a lot of the questions were murky or even... dun dun dun... plain WRONG!

Here is an example in which the student is supposed to identify which line has an error:
A. Pope John Paul II, leader of the
B. Catholic church speaks eight languages,
C. including english, Italian, and of course Latin.
D. No error.

Do you know what the answer is? The obvious choice is C because "English" should be capitalized. (By the way, they don't need to know why the correct answer is correct, just that it is correct.)

However, there is another error. There should be a comma after "chuch" in line B because it is the end of a dependent clause and is grammatically incorrect as it is.

Programs like this make me mad. They simply feed the problem; they do not fix it.

Creative Writing!

I love it when teachers are inventive and relevant at the same time, which rarely happens. I've started filling in for the aide on maternity leave and one of the classes she helps with is a reading class made exclusively for 7th graders who failed that portion of the SOLs. It's one of those classes in which the instructor has a script, and because it is very prescribed, it is often very boring to the students, thus they don't learn, thus they fail the test again, and therefore the class has no purpose and educators are forced to repeat cycles that have failed several times over because reform comes at a snail's pace. However, the few times I have observed this class, I was intrigued by it, as were most of the students. Today the instructor admitted to me after class that she often strays from the script.

Hence how she was able to bring in a guest speaker to talk about forensics. This was extremely interesting to the students and relevant as well, since the next few articles they read from their textbooks deal with this subject. The guest speaker made forensics more visual, more life-like, and, what is necessary to yet often missing from education, more applicable to the real world.

Anyway, to the butt of this post. The students read a very short blurb in their textbooks every day and prior to the reading, the teacher goes over relevant vocabulary. Today she reviewed the vocabulary and after talking about it with her students, instructed them to write a short story about anything they wished using at least three of these vocab words. Those students who wanted to share did so, and Ms. K. pointed out that from the context of the stories, it's clear that these students know what the words mean. Talk about a fun way to make learning relevant to everyday life. And in this case, she is teaching reading strategies (which most of these students clearly lack) without saying in that boring old way, "This is how you can tell what a word means." Hooray creative writing! Learning can be fun!

All Hail Librarians!

You should worship your libarian. Hopefully you already knew this. I look at them so much differently now, compared to when I was in school, in my older and (hopefully) wiser state. Back then I didn't think they did anything terribly difficult. Now I think school librarians come from a special breed of people who must have phenomenal patience, memory, multi-tasking skills, knowledge of technology, teaching strategies, and so much more. There is so much they do that of which we are unaware, especially in this technology-driven world.

The librarian at the school where I work had assigned me the task of checking all the websites linked from the school library site to see which ones are dead. On that site, she has several different categories for student projects, ranging from history of ancient civilizations to beginning chemistry to sites on every subject written in Spanish. It's really amazing how much time and effort went into her research so that the kids have one hell of a starting point. If that's not enough, she goes back several times a year to check which ones are dead and/or need to be updated. Eventually she will teach me how to fix dead links. She's a librarian and webmaster, and overall master of knowledge in general.

Even with the non-technology stuff, she helps kids with finding things (i.e. books) in the library. I think we can all agree that kids don't often know which authors they prefer reading or even remember the titles of books. Because of this, our illustrious librarian has put titles of books in parentheses next to authors (i.e. Collins (Hunger Games)) and labeled all books by genre (mystery, fantasy, comedy, etc) and stuck a label on every single fiction book in the stacks. And for a middle school library, it's quite an extensive collection.

What would children do without librarians? Heck, what would teachers do?

Lunch Monitor!

The cafeteria is a craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy place! It's amazing how much my views of it have changed since I was in school. Today, I was put in charge (bwahaha) of monitoring the snack bar, which contains a (barely used) salad bar, chips, cookies, and other such junk. Man, kids eat a lot of crap! Why does the school even offer such things? No wonder there is an obesity problem in this country.

I was really surprised during 7th grade lunch to see kids actually using the salad bar. But then several of them (plus others) came back to grab cookies and/or chips. None of the 6th graders got salad. But, and this surprised me, every child had the option of going to recess for the last 10 minutes of lunch. Apparently all grades get recess every day unless it's cold, rainy, or snowy (so that means November to March is basically out). Even though it's only for 10 minutes, it's nice to see that they get a chance to exercise and be outdoors. Plus, standing in front of the snack bar, into which only five kids are admitted at a time, made it clear that I was an authority figure and not some random girl wandering the halls looking for something to do.

Oh, middle school. Strangely, how I have missed thee.

Standardization? Not so much.

We all know about the gigantic move toward standardization of education, culminating with the state tests given at every grade level in every subject. But standardization of education is impossible because standardization of an occupation as amorphous and necessarily pliant as teaching is impossible.

Before the explanation, some background is required... next week an aide is going on maternity leave and the principal asked me to shadow her this week in preparation for covering her absence for the next two months. She mostly goes to integrated (which now means multiple levels of skills, not multiple skin tones) English classes. Both eighth grade English teachers do exactly the same thing (subject-wise) in their classrooms, but their styles are wildly different. Mr. S. is much more intense, more lenient, and slightly more engaging than Ms. L., for instance. He also gives much clearer instructions and has better time-management skills, but is less organized.

It's clear to see whose teaching style I prefer. But that doesn't mean this style works for everyone. If teaching styles are (and I would argue, must be) definitively different across the board, doesn't it stand to reason that the ways kids' knowledge is tested must be different to? I (as was every other teacher) was taught in grad school that differentiation is a MUST in the teaching profession. Which makes perfect sense. Why doesn't this differentiation extend to the state & federal level, from which all decisions arise?

A lot of work is left to be done.

First Post!

Woohoo! Blog is up and running.

At the risk of being unoriginal, I, like every other teacher in the world, have started a blog dedicated to the art of teaching. However, my situation is a bit unique, since I am a floater. No, not something that hovers in the air, as cool as that would be, but rather my official title is "school based substitute," which means I go wherever an extra body, brain, or additional body part is needed. As a result, it's possible I may end up in every single classroom of the building, and if there's nowhere to go, I hang out in the library or office updating the website, filing, or doing something else other than twiddling my thumbs. Occasionally, I do that too. Hence why I'm able to write this midday.

Two days into the position so far and I could already write a novel. But I won't. Yet.