Let it snow...

Except don't really. Snow days can be nice, but they really screw everything up. Especially when they come out of nowhere. It started snowing like crazy Wednesday night and they didn't announce school was closed Thursday until after 9pm. Which was kind of ridiculous if you looked outside. Friday was a snow day too, even though things weren't that bad. But that was probably for the best, because who wants to go to school on a Friday after a snow day?

Today, of course, teachers were doing things they planned to do last week. Today the ESL kids were being tested in reading and math. They were benchmark tests, which means they weren't being graded, just used as assessment tools. I realize that it is important to test these kids to see how their language is progressing, but when is enough testing too much? Especially since these kids also get the same tests as students who do have English as their native language (i.e. SOLs). Culturally, these kids may be less used to tests, also, and therefore not have the test-taking skills most adolescents possess. Also, it depends on how well these tests are written. That, I cannot attest to.

Speaking of testing, Valerie Strauss again uncovered another great article about the art and science of teaching. Often there are more questions than answers. Just like in life.

Sounds like...

Teaching certainly requires some acting. I was running around like crazy yesterday, because they were actually short-staffed. But when I got to my regular placement (the ESL class), I had to pretend I wasn't feeling harried. And at the end of the day, I had to sub for the drama teacher's last period for an emergency and since I actually know something about drama, that was no problem. She told me we could just play games, and they wanted to play Charades, so we did. It was rather fun.

Today, however, I've been subbing for the Spanish teacher all day. All her directions are written in Spanish. I know very little Spanish. I have been pretty useless about answering questions, etc., and when they've completed their work, I need to hurry to find them something else to do. However, I still need to maintain the air of being an authority figure and look like I know what I'm doing. I can do that pretty easily, thankfully, but again, I have to make it look easy. That's something on which I'm still working.

Timing is not everything.

This article today brought up an interesting question regarding how the school days are being used. I'm not sure on which side of the debate I stand. On the one hand, longer school days, and/or more of them, would help give students more time to grasp the material, and more time for teachers to elicit more information. On the other hand, how much of this time would be used efficiently? Would this extra time simply give bad teachers more time to waste? Obviously, extending the school day cannot be seen as a solution in and of itself, but I do see the importance of the debate, and why it is not easily solved.

I saw something amazing today.

For the second half of class, the ESL students I'm now helping with went to the library to read and check out books. Occasionally there is a blind woman who comes to the library with her guide dog (I'm not sure if she was a volunteer, friend of the librarian, or what). Today, one of the ESL students and the blind woman were reading together. The student was reading a beginner's book and the blind woman had the same copy with braille below. She was helping the student with pronunciation, and the student was making the words come alive for the blind woman. It was really amazing. I wish schools could do more community service of that nature.

Also, four day weekend FTW.

Checking Out

This afternoon I was subbing for the librarian. That only reinforced the notion that the librarian (and her aides) have an overwhelming job. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that people don't bother to think about. In the space of less than an hour, I had to re-shelve books, take old library labels off new acquisitions, pack up old books into boxes, check out books to students, and set up the library for after-school. I am exhausted just talking about it. And that was just the beginner stuff. Ms. Librarian wants to train me how to do everything eventually so I can be, as she called it, "library-sub extraordinaire." After school I basically just had to make sure kids were speaking quietly and not killing each other, and we limited the number of children because it was only the library aide and me in there, and even though there are generally at least four adults in the library, they are all doing other things, not just babysitting. You wouldn't think it, but the library is one crazy place.

¡Aprender español!

One of the benefits of working with ESL students is that I learn another language along the way. The regular HILT aid (who is bilingual in Spanish and English) was out today, so I had the challenge of working one-on-one with a girl with extremely limited English. Since I have extremely limited Spanish, this definitely provided quite the challenge. However, I felt that I was successful in explaining things so that she understood, and she seemed to grasp concepts that were unfamiliar to her before. Also, I am forced to remember my very rudimentary Spanish. It's rather awesome.

Several students in the ESL class have Amharic or an Asian language as their native language, and thus have to learn another alphabet as well as an entirely new language. They seem to be having an easier time with the curriculum than the two Spanish speakers I work with, for whatever reason (maybe they were learning in their home countries; several of them are here expressly to learn English). They are learning Spanish, as well, due to the translations between the students and the fact that the students continue talking in their native languages because that's what they're comfortable with. Hooray for immersion.

Sexual Healing

...except really just the opposite.

We had a little incident at 7th grade lunch today. The activities' director (a late-30s/early-40s blond woman) was one of the supervisors and as she walked past a group of boys one of them said to her, "Hey, baby," at which the activities' director became (rightly) ensconced and attempted to explain to him what sexual harassment is but had to take a moment to cool off. She asked the school police officer to escort this boy to the office and that she would be with him in just a moment. Evidently, these lewd comments have come from that table of boys before. After that boy left, she asked me to go over to the table with her as a witness and told them that making such comments, particular at a teacher, was a very massive offense. I didn't think the activities' director was overreacting (although she may have taken it a bit too personally), but I also don't think the boy thought he did anything wrong. In fact, the policeman was telling us after he escorted the boy that they were talking about it and it wasn't until the policeman asked the boy, "What if I said that to your mother?" that the boy understood what he had done. Sexual harassment is, therefore, a sticky wicket, a very thin line, and other mixed metaphors. If we want to teach children about it, that means we also have to teach them about sex, lewd behavior, and other uncomfortable topics.

Victory!

An actual assignment today. For most of the day, I was helping out the HILT-A classes, and for the first two periods (a combined English/reading class), I was helping a boy one-on-one with his reading skills and comprehension. It was pretty great, and also pretty challenging since it was essentially teaching a five-year-old learn how to read. (He can read better in English than a typical five-year-old can, but what made it that difficult was that he could barely speak the language, so when I asked him to do something he may not necessarily have understood.) I also accompanied the students to their math class, and didn't really have much to do there but was basically on-hand to answer questions. The science teacher didn't need assistance, but I did help with social studies, and that was great, too. I was working with all the students and actually had a fair amount to do. What's interesting, though, is that all classes involved language skills (basic acquisition, grammar, etc.) since all these children are coming from a native language that is not English. They were at different levels but were all able to glean something from the lessons at hand. They were also all incredibly eager to learn. I wonder if part of that eagerness comes from a survival mechanism, but whatever the reason, they all seemed motivated, which kept me motivated, as well. Hopefully this will become a regular thing.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Boredom strikes again....

Came across this article about censorship, specifically about the harm censorship will do to Mark Twain's masterpiece, "Huckleberry Finn." I'm with you all the way, Mr. Gribben. I especially love the fact that he believes "If we can't do that [explore racism in the context of culture and history] in the classroom, we can't do that anywhere." Right on.

Speaking of satire (and we are if we mention "Huckleberry Finn,") here is another excellent article penned in the same fashion. I think I have a girl-crush on Ms. Petri (or at least her prose).

Hum de dum...

Once again wasting time in the library with nothing to do. So I read the newspaper. For anyone who is familiar with the education section of the Washington Post, you are aware that the two biggest contributors are Jay Matthews and Valerie Strauss. Pretty much every time, I feel that Valerie > Jay. Here is one of her latest, which discusses that one of the major problem with educational policy (and political policy) is failing to collapse reality with implementation. Reminds me, yet again, of the Jean Anyon book I read in grad school. Clearly, that book resonates with me, and if I were in charge of national education policy, I would require everyone involved in the field to read it.

Also today in the Post, there was another article about the changing face of poverty. Evidently, I work at a school with a large percentage of low-income students, though I doubt any students I encounter are in poverty. (Though it's really hard to tell with all the iPods, smartphones, and expensive clothing every child seems to have every day...) It will take a while, but it looks as if we are slowly developing a more realistic view of income levels, and maybe from that, we can hope to develop a more realistic and effective education policy as a whole.

Dolldrums...

Today was ridiculously boring. Not only did I not fill in for anyone, but I had hardly any tasks I could do. I was filing in the main office for about an hour, and after that... nothing. Neither the librarian nor the head of counseling had anything I could do, and I didn't know where else to look. So I fooled around on the computer and then went into the cafeteria to be a lunchroom monitor, whether they needed me there or not. I needed to feel useful. Then I ate my own lunch, and monitored again for third lunch. Then, once again, I had nothing to do. Your tax dollars at work, citizens!

Speaking of boredom, I noticed several times before winter break how prominent instant gratification is in our culture. It really hinders kids' motivations/patience/work ethic/what have you. Technology is certainly partly to blame, but that culture also comes from the fact that we pretty much encourage instant gratification in many ways. One of my goals, certainly, is to gain more patience, and impart this invaluable trait onto my students, as well.

Happy New Year!

A new year, a (semi) new position. Since the aide I was covering for has come back from maternity leave, I am now the official school-based sub. Today I had quite an interesting assignment. I was once again filling in for an aide, but this one has a very particular job since she works with the self-contained, really sped kids. There were only five in the room, but it was an exhausting job. I don't know how people can do that everyday. The majority of them were pretty high-functioning and could do basic and even advanced tasks with little to no help, and one girl even helped one of the lowest-functioning students. This student, along with another boy, needed a LOT of assistance. The girl even needed help getting dressed in and out of her gym clothes. It was kind of depressing, but also kind of refreshing at the same time, because their gym class and typing class were integrated with "regular" kids, and they were very social with everyone, so they seemed to have relatively normal lives. I still put the teachers who work with these kinds of students everyday on pedestals, though. It is quite an undertaking.