Like Parent Like Student

The other day I was working with the remedial reading students as they did their typical program in the computer lab. The teacher's rule is that three tardies equals a detention, and she had handed a detention slip to one student who had recently received her third tardy, but had left the date of detention blank since this week was a short one and she wanted to make sure this girl's schedule could abide it (apparently, she gets detention a lot so might have already had the week booked). Therefore, the girl was allowed to call her mom on the school phone to ask what date she was able to stay after school. She has been a behavior problem from day one and has one of the worst attitudes I've ever seen; she shows no respect toward teachers or students and never does something she does not want to do. Now, when she was on the phone with her mom, it was evident why she upholds a superior attitude toward everyone around her. She talked to her mom in such a condescending and disrespectful matter that (from what I could hear from her end of the conversation) was not quelled or questioned. The lead teacher and I looked at each other like, "Damn, no wonder she doesn't respect us." Clearly, this type of behavior is condoned or at least tolerated by her mother, and therefore, this girl thinks (reasonably) it can be extended to school. It was absolutely disgusting how she talked to her mother.

On a brighter note, today was an early release and the last day before winter break. Hooray! When I go back in January, the aide I was covering for will be back and I will again be relegated to being a floater. It was really nice having a consistent schedule and being with the same kids every day. It has been quite a year. I probably won't be writing until school starts up again, so happy holidays and slainte to you all!

Sometimes People Do Things That... Well, Just Don't Make No Sense

So this weekend I went to a holiday party at an apartment of a math teacher I worked with while I was interning. There were several other teachers from that school there, and at some point they brought up the fact that they were all having trouble implementing the new "No Homework" policy. At that point, I inserted myself into the conversation with a type of WTF look on my face. We all seemed to be on the same page-- we didn't see the point of the policy and thought it was completely counter-intuitive. The math teacher said she could encourage students to practice their skills, but since the new policy disallows teachers to grade homework, students won't practice and thus will fail the tests. The English teacher said the students couldn't discuss the books in class since they are not motivated to read them at home. Evidently, this trend is only spreading. In a middle school, it is especially harmful since kids at that age don't understand that in order to master a skill they must practice it consistently, not just for the 40 minutes they are in class. I really hope this trend is incredibly short-lived. Yikes.

Different Ability Levels

Every Thursday both English teachers are in the computer lab, and generally the students spend this time working on an essay. This week, the students' assignment was slightly different. Instead of a formal essay, they had to create a How To poster of anything they wanted (How to Dribble a Basketball, How to Eat a Sandwich, How to Survive a Zombie Invasion, etc.). Normally, when it is time to write a formal essay, the students who are labeled as lower-ability struggle and almost never finish before the end of the class period. But this assignment they dove right into. Even if they did not pay attention to all the instructions of the assignment, they were, for the most part, much ahead of the rest of the class by the end of the period. The "high-achievers," on the other hand, first had difficulty coming up with a topic and then were concerning themselves with formatting, etc., and most were not close to finished by the end of class. It was really remarkable to see this flip. That, my friends, was a very interesting (and effective) use of differentiation and a clear reason why appealing to different learning styles is important.

Another rambunctious end of the day

Several days of week I chaperon kids in either the computer lab or Homework Club after school, which I have been doing more than usual this week since the regular woman who does the computer lab has been out sick. The rule is that the kids can only be in there if they are working on school work, and can use the computers for no other purpose. Occasionally there are a few instances when I notice a kid is playing a game and have to stop him/her, or is talking to a friend, etc., but after a stern warning things are fine again. Also usually, students sit every other computer to avoid distractions, but there were nearly 30 kids today in the lab so that option was not available. As a result, they were much more rowdy than usual. Most of them went back to doing what they were supposed to do after I asked them to, but there were two girls who were completely distracting to others around them and extremely disrespectful toward me. At one point I said the next person who talks will get a referral (ie talking to an administrator, which goes on their permanent record), before knowing if I even had the authority to assign them. And I hate making threats, but I didn't know what else to do to keep the chaos down. I wrote down these two girls names and they kept talking. I couldn't do anything else. After the extended day was over I talked to the activities director about them who said she would talk to them both about revoking their computer privileges. It was only then that she told me I could put a cap on how many people could be in the lab and could kick students out if I needed to. Huh. Wish I had known that before. It was utterly insane in there. There is a definitive reason why class sizes need to be small. Even if those two girls weren't in there distracting everyone, it would have been too crazy. Yet, it is also amazing what a difference just two students can make in the dynamics of a room. Holy shnikies.

Crazy day!

...really just the last 15 minutes of it, but still.

First, the kids went back to their TAs to get mid-quarter progress reports. This requires a lot of paper with individual print outs from each class and a half-piece of paper with letter grades in each class thus far. When I got to my TA teacher's room, she had not started stapling these things together so there was a mad rush with us (mostly me) writing in grades and stapling before the bell rung.

However, then something even more exciting happened which gave us more time to staple. The bank down the street was robbed! As a result, we were all asked to hold students in classrooms, at which point the room I was in became very whiny and rowdy. Ten minutes later, the assistant principal began to periodically release students by bus, then came basketball players/play rehearsal, then walkers, until finally, after about 30 minutes after the regular school hours everyone was safely released. It was actually quite a sight to see how organized the staff all was with no preparation time. Well done.

Field Twip!

Today I went on the 7th grade field trip to the Newseum. It's a good thing I had been before since I didn't really have time to look at any exhibits; I was too preoccupied making sure I had all the kids I was supposed to have. The social studies teacher who organized it was crazy organized-- all chaperons had a quick meeting Wednesday to get the rules, necessary materials and a list of which kids were assigned to whom; these lists were posted along the 7th grade hallway so the students could quickly find their chaperon when we all met in the theater this morning; each chaperon was given enough packets of scavenger hunts, which the students fill out for a grade, which was fantastic, because it gave them purposeful things to look for in the museum instead of meandering around. (Wow, that was a long sentence...) And even though they were filling out paperwork, the students really enjoyed themselves. There were a few exhibits they genuinely wanted to go to, and looked for where information was even after they were given the answer from a friend. It was a bit of a clusterf*** when we returned, because the students were supposed to go to seventh period, but one bus was late, and the aides were sent to fill in. I ended up going to the 7th grade English teacher's room (where I am during 6th period), where two other on-call subs were also sent. But eventually we figured it out, and the classroom teacher showed up about 10 minutes later. I handed out folders I knew they were working on, but they weren't really doing any work, and Ms. S. & I didn't really expect them to-- it was after a field trip on a Friday during last period. We basically just calmed them down when they got too rowdy. I didn't need to be there, but it was actually a nice break from my regular 7th period. And the field trip went extremely smoothly. I knew two of the 10 kids in my group before today, but now I can 8 more students to my name-to-a-face list. Hooray for Fridays!

Speaking v. Writing

Of the essays I've perused while looking over students' shoulders, a fair number of them are of quality but need work, but almost all of them are downright terrible. Why can't kids write? I find it especially interesting that these kids, when given the chance, are extremely articulate when they speak. I know that some of them have learning disabilities that hinder their writing skills, but that is not the case with most of them. I was working with several students this past week who could not write down a coherent sentence, yet when I asked them to explain to me what they mean, they were able to express it perfectly. I realize these are two completely different skill sets, but I will never understand why what's in a student's brain gets all jumbled up when s/he tries to write down his/her thoughts. And while I'm sure it's possible to teach this skill, I do not know how to do it. Often I find that when I talk it out with the students, they are able to take what they told me and write it down on paper, with much prompting from me. I think if I better understood how the brain worked, it would be easier for me to help students who literally cannot write a coherent sentence to save their lives.

Also, I am constantly fascinated with how many little tiny moments of which our lives are made up. There is one student in the 7th grade reading class before lunch I have again in an English class after lunch, and it was like he was a completely different person in each period. In reading, he was one of the only students on task, asking questions, and being polite, yet in English he kept his head down the whole time, and it was only after the students had been working on their tests for 10 minutes that I noticed he hadn't even started, and only did so with prompting from me. Same thing when he finished his test and had to finish his packet. He was quiet and did his work once he was asked, but was nowhere near his usual, enthusiastic self. It was actually quite disturbing how much his personality changed in English. I'm thinking something happened during lunch. I know this kid has emotional problems and a pretty terrible family life, but because he does not have an IEP, no one at school can really do anything about it. That sucks, but that's the truth.

Which leads me to yet another educational oped. In case you haven't guessed yet, I heart progressive educational reform. This one is fantastic, and I agree with everything said. We really need to get on this.

Return of the sub

A few weeks ago, I posted about a particular substitute teacher who was not well liked by the student body (or myself) because she was strict. However, yesterday, there was a different sub in my first period sped math class who was also quite strict but extremely effective. This is a class that is composed mostly of low level learners, most of whom have behavioral problems. We rarely get through a lesson without the lead teacher or myself asking (practically begging) students to be quiet 5 or more times. As a result, they are slightly behind where they should be.

However, yesterday the sub held no punches. The first thing they do every day is log into a program called Fast Math which tests how fast their mental math skills are. Usually they do this for 10-15 minutes, however long it takes them to finish one session. But the sub said to do it in 5 minutes, no more. And they did. Then they are handed a warm up that reviews skills from the previous day, and after I reviewed the first problem on the board for them, they were very well behaved. They even had time to start on their homework, which never happens, and some of them even finished their homework. There was something about the sub that let these students know that he would not tolerate any deviation, and that he wouldn't give them attention for negative actions. It was really amazing how smoothly the class went.

Also, for those of you who know me, you are probably aware of my intense dislike for former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee due to her ridiculous and ineffective policies. This article does a really good job of summing up what she attempted to do. I particularly like this paragraph:

"Rhee is promoting an agenda that many educators see as de-legitimizing the teaching profession; making standardized tests a holy grail of assessing students, teachers and schools, allowing private foundations to set the education agenda; and inviting for-profit companies to come into the public sector with programs that are designed primarily to make money for investors, not help kids."

The article also mentions that she's starting an organization dedicated to education reform that is doing the exact opposite of what she did in DC. Awesome.

Friday musings

Problem child came back this week. Apparently the school she transferred to kicked her out. But our school doesn't have a choice. She lives within its district lines, so we have to take her. Despite her rampant behavioral problems, she always has a large entourage of students around her. It makes me nervous. This child is going to have major problems later in her life, too, if her mom's solution is to quit if you don't like something.

Also, a really interesting oped was in today's Washington Post. I completely agree with everything. Unfortunately, though, educational policy has a long way to go before this is commonplace.

Uurgh. So. Tired. Damn you, five day weeks after a long break.

Kids say the darndest things...

A couple days ago a student in my 7th period asked what I would want my last name to be if I had to pick a different color. It was an intriguing and clever question, and one that I had never heard before. I told her probably Greene, and there was quick tete-a-tete between her tablemates and her about "Oh I would have thought she'd say white," "Told you she wouldn't say hot pink," and things like that. It definitely provided a few moments of amusement.

Today they were in the computer lab to write an essay and one of the girls at that table did actually call me Ms. Greene. I told her that wasn't my name and after brief teasing, she called me Ms. Brown again. Also, one kid from the same class called me Dude today. Dude. I told him not to call me that.

Oh, children.