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.

Bullies are people too

Been a while. Mostly due to Thanksgiving break. I don't tend to post during breaks because a) I don't really think about pertinent topics to blog about while I'm not in school, and b) more importantly, I'm lazy. But, now for a fairly meaty post.

First of all, there was a significant incident during my first period, a sped math class. I didn't hear exactly what was said, but they are pretty much always talking and taking jabs at each other. Today, student E (who is constantly talking, and somewhat mean) said something about student M. M probably ignored him or didn't hear him and continued working on his warmup. But then, student D repeated what E said and kept going and M got really upset and started going for D, looking like he was going to hit D. I stepped in and M backed off, but a few minutes later left the room without saying anything. Normally, these students are not allowed to leave the room, ESPECIALLY without asking permission, but it was obvious that M was distressed so we let him go. I had to ask the aide in the next classroom to make sure he was in the men's bathroom, then I walked him to his counselor's office. After several minutes, she came back to the room with M and asked to see D. I saw her later, who told me D got two lunch detentions as a result for his behavior. When the counselor came into the room, she and the classroom teacher had a quick lecture to the students about how serious bullying is, including verbal bullying, and cited the Rutgers suicide case as an example. Evidently bullying will be against the law soon, and as it is now, every school I've ever heard of has a zero-tolerance policy toward bullying. As they should. Apparently D (who heard it from E) said something about M being homeless, but it doesn't even really matter what he said. The point is that "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" is untrue.

Also, amusing anecdote that is not at all related. The principal called me out of class to tell me that another aide had overheard students say I wear low-cut tops. Um, really? News to me. I am very deliberate in NOT wearing things like that to school. I mentioned this to the principal and she said she was surprised to hear that too. She thought maybe I bent over too far or something. (I was wearing a turtleneck sweater at the time.) It was quite odd, to say the least.

Counseling

I understand that managing 750 children's schedules is quite an ordeal. I realize that even the experts don't know where every staff member is during every moment of the day. However, the counseling department has issues, mostly those that deal with inefficiency, that are even more basic than these occasionally overwhelming responsibilities.

I help the counseling department for one period a day. They have others help them too, which in itself can be obnoxious since I may begin a task and not have time to finish it, then come back the next day only to find that someone else has a different organizational system and I have to start all over. However, I think the underlying issue lies in the fact that pretty much everything the counseling office deals with is not done expediently. For instance, the registrar or head of counseling will usually give me a task and brief directions, then leaves me to it and goes about their own business in another part of the school. Occasionally she returns before I am finished and comments upon how fast I am. But it's not as if she is giving me something terribly tedious to do. Today, for example, I was given hand-written files and asked to type out labels and affix them to the appropriate files. It was a 15 minute job. I had finished typing two labels in less than two minutes on the registrar's computer and she came back to her office because she had forgotten something, and commented upon how fast I was. Really? It's not that difficult. I was even playing around with fonts and sizes because I had 15 minutes left in the period after I finished, and of course I was not given another task to do. I really wonder sometimes what people do with their time.

Last week, I had a much longer task of separating the special ed files from the rest and still managing to keep them alphabetized by grade level. It took me several days to complete this task and I was not alone. That is understandable; that was quite a large task. However, I was told that last year the special ed files were kept separately and then they were asked (wasn't sure by whom, but obviously someone with some authority in the matter) to be included with the rest, but then that person changed his/her mind again. What a freakin' waste of time. Just keep the files where they are; stop changing things around. People have better things to do. The counseling department particularly has an incredibly important role to play in the school and they don't need to be burdened with unnecessary office work. They could be using that time more effectively to, oh, I don't know, how about *gasp!* helping students?

Teachable Moments

...are sometimes difficult to find. Especially when one is subbing for an aide, and not a regular classroom teacher. But the other day, I happened upon one. I love it when those happen. They are so rare, so individual, so heart-warming, that they make everything worth it.

On the day in question, I was in the last period of the day, helping Mr. S.'s students read particularly difficult stories in various groups. One group of fairly high ability students had the entire version of Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." One girl stated she didn't understand anything that was going on. So we went through it together slowly, word by word, and she followed my finger with her eyes and looked into my own as I painstakingly explained what each word in the passage meant and what was going on in the story as a whole. She asked questions and genuinely wanted to understand. We get toward the end of the story and I ask her if she can translate one particular sentence. She says she can't, so I slowly explain it again, then say something like "Essentially, Ichabod dies." "He dies!?" she exclaims, "Cool!" I was going to go on, but then Mr. S. asked for the class' attention, so I briefly said to her, "You understand?" and she nodded so I quickly nodded back then relinquished my attention to the front of the room.

So maybe she still doesn't have a grasp on the archaic language. Maybe she isn't ready for independent learning. Maybe she only gets the basic gist of the story. But the point is that she understood my explanation, but even more than that, she really wanted to learn. She was invested in her own education. THAT, fellow students, is what teaching is all about. It made me feel so good that my own efforts were, at least for those brief moments, worth while.

Food

The entire eighth grade had a field trip today to see a play about five short stories they read in English class (The Necklace, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Monkey's Paw) and I went with them. It was quite an adventure keeping track of everyone and attempting to explain the logic behind the fact that they can't sit with their friends. The plays were kind of interesting, but what I got most out of the experience was the whole excitement from a field trip scenario. Since we returned too late to eat lunch in the cafeteria, they ate in their first period teachers' rooms. Man, these kids eat JUNK.

And I've noticed this multiple times, not just today. Yesterday, one kid pulled out Apple Jacks that had fallen out of their baggie into his bookbag; earlier, one student asked if he could eat his breakfast in class and pulled out a bag of pretzels then said he had chips and cookies for lunch, and today this same kid's lunch was an instant cup of Ramen. The culture certainly encourages this junk, as well. A few days ago the lunch lady walked around after breakfast handing out the extra of what were labeled "breakfast muffins." I took one because I was curious but took one bite because it was a cookie. Literally a cookie. For breakfast. I looked at the label and there was something like 250 calories too. Ridiculous. No wonder there is an obesity problem in this country.

To finish or not to finish

Different teaching styles exist because different learning styles exist. Everyone works at different paces. However, a persistent problem I have noticed in pretty much every class is there are no alternative options for students who finish their work before others. Often in these cases, boredom can be misconstrued for being unfocused, when it's actually just the opposite. These kids should be rewarded, not just made to sit there doing nothing. Also, I think some students are slow just to give themselves something to do, because even doing a stupid old worksheet is better than sitting there twiddling your thumbs. But more often than not, especially in remedial classes, teachers do not provide alternative activities for students who have finished. In grad school, these were called "anchoring activities," literally for anchoring students in their chairs until the bell. They are also supposed to provide enrichment on the same skill set, thus anchoring the students' knowledge. But in many classes I have seen here, different pacing does not seem to be an issue when it comes to lesson plans, even though it is a specific tenet of proper differentiation, which, in every interview I've ever been to, is the most important technique in teaching. I wish I could get more practice with experiencing it in action.

Hooray for Grammar!

A few posts back, I stated that I was fortunate to *attempt* to teach a grammar lesson about comparatives & superlatives (i.e. beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful; easy, easier, easiest) and had a difficult time because I was unfamiliar with the vocabulary. And while the lesson took place (and once the regular teacher took over) I wondered how well the students would remember, and was the vocabulary necessary for them to understand the concepts. Essentially, the question was when to use "er" and "est" vs. "more" and "most". Then a couple days later, Mr. S. taught the same lesson, but very differently.

For one thing, he didn't have the students take notes (which is a consistency between their differences; Ms. L. always has them take notes and Mr. S. almost never does). Secondly and most importantly, while Ms. L. broke them into pairs and gave them different categories on index cards (i.e. if they received "sneakers," they would have to write sentences like "Nike are better than Adidas" or if they received "soccer players" they would have to write "Ronaldo is the best soccer player"), Mr. S. gave them each an adjective as they walked in the door and had them literally hop for "ugly, uglier, ugliest," etc., until he was satisfied with both their words and hopping. Was it more effective? Hard to say. Was it much more fun? Indeed. Chances are, then, Mr. S.'s lesson was more memorable for the students, and therefore, probably more effective.

Furthermore, when Ms. L. asks her students to move around the room, they groan. They are used to staying in their seats the entire period. Mr. S., on the other hand, *always* has them get up and move at least once during his class. It is more chaotic and more noisy, but it also forces the students to be more engaged. I'm not saying Mr. S. is definitely the better teacher, but I am saying his methods are certainly more interesting and more energetic, and he is by far the favored teacher. Therefore, his students most likely remember his lessons better and therefore probably score better. Of course, this is just my humble theory, but based on everything I learned in grad school and my observations during the day, I certainly prefer Mr. S.'s methods over those of Ms. L.

Subs. And I don't mean the sandwiches.

Substitutes come in two flavors. The first is timid and unwilling to take total control, which usually results in the students walking all over you, unless they have been told before by their teacher they will be persecuted if they do. In some cases, these subs actually know something about the subject they are teaching and are attempting to relay information but usually fail since the students have little or no respect for a stranger up in their bi'nis. The second, to which I was privy to yesterday, is a major bitch with a penchant for power. Holy crap, are these subs universally loathed.

I have been moved to a 7th grade social studies class, and there was a sub yesterday. The original teacher was smart and instead of playing a video or something, she had them fill out packets that would serve as their study guides for their major test at the end of the month. The sub informed the class that there was to be NO talking. Understandable. However, 12 year olds are prone to speaking before raising their hands, and several needed a pen or other necessary implement or asked what the abbreviation of Missouri was. I was happy to provide these things because they could not do the work without them. I even let two girls look at the same notebook since one forgot hers as long as they were doing the work by themselves. This woman, though, threw a fit whenever one of them said anything, even whispered, and one child was humming (which I didn't even notice), which apparently drove her even crazier. I was walking around answering questions and handing out packets, etc., trying to be helpful, and she was walking around drunk with power. It was ridiculous.

This woman was back today and handed out different packets. At first she told them to do the work without help but quickly realized the work was especially difficult and both of us were busy the entire class helping them out. Many students professed to me that this was boring and they didn't want to do it. I genuinely apologized because it did suck that they were stuck in this situation. The sub was also constantly interrupting their work to say what the punishment would be if she were pushed to hard and she was about on her wit's end. Of course, nothing happened. The students were not that bad before this remark, but the MOST important thing when disciplining students is consistency. If you say you will do something, DO IT. If the threats are empty the behavior will continue. It seemed as if this woman were on a power trip yet had no idea how to control the class. I realize she is just a sub, but it seems like common sense to do what you say you are going to do.

Yes, the students did their work but it was not at all an appropriate learning environment.

I taught today!

The female eighth grade English teacher had to go to a meeting during the first part of her class today, so she very briefly explained her plan for the day and had me teach the first part of the class. It was pretty invigorating, and the kids were actually extremely amenable, and even with the no preparation whatsoever it wasn't that intimidating (only a little). They started with a warm up and then I went over it (correcting grammatical errors), which went very smoothly. Then we moved into copying grammar notes from their textbook, and I was a little confused because even though I know grammar like the back of my hand, I don't know the terms for everything. When Ms. L. told me they'd be practicing comparatives and superlatives, I gave her a look like WTF? But after glancing at the textbook, I realized it was just "er," "est," "more," and "most." Even though I couldn't answer all their questions and kind of confused them with how to take notes (which Mrs. L. then went over once she got back) it went pretty well. The kids were really respectful and patient with me. Hooray!

Also, I've been helping the drama teacher run auditions. They have been pretty crazy, and today we finished and did the casting. It will be interesting working with 30 middle schoolers every afternoon. Should certainly wake me up!

As tomorrow is Veterans' Day, we all have the day off. But then we go back on Friday. Strange, and will probably screw everything up. So it goes.

School Culture

...is usually its own entity, and it more often than not doesn't mimic culture as a whole. This should not be the case. The reason, I think, many kids do not like school is because they do not find it relevant to their lives as a whole. I completely empathize with this. Instead of improving schools from the inside out, we need to work on improving them from the outside in. That is, look at society/culture as a whole and attempt to integrate it into the school environment. As things stand now, though, these two cultures are way too disparate to ever help kids connect one with the other. The most obvious example of this is the culture of reading, which is extremely prominent in schools, but virtually non-existent in the real world. Every day you see advertisements for consumer culture, including TV shows, movies, video games, food, and almost never for books. You rarely hear among people not in the field about the latest or greatest book they've read. But if we expect our children to not only accept but embrace reading, society as a whole has to encourage it. Before we can look at school reform, therefore, we need to look at societal reform. In grad school I read a book by Jean Anyon that discussed just that. I think it's something we should all aspire to, but certainly something that will require our patience.

Happy Students

Slacking off again. Oh well.

This has been an interesting week. Yesterday was no exception. First of all, my first period is a class of self-contained math students. I don't have access to their exact IEP's (individual educational plans, used for special ed kids) but my guess is most of them have ADD due to their inabilities to focus. Today they took a quiz that took about 10 minutes, and during the rest of class I graded them quickly. They asked to see their grades on the quizzes afterward (mind you, these are kids who are excited with their C's for the quarter grade), and I showed one boy, who was so unbelievably excited when I showed him he got 35/36. His smile was so gigantic and his "For real!?" statement was incredulous. This is a kid who's been driving me crazy from day one, but that smile wiped every annoying instance away. THAT is teaching.

It was also Career Day today for the seventh graders, which meant I had one extra period off, which was nice. Then the two eighth grade teachers combined their classes so the students could meet a Secret Service Agent. They asked her questions that would (hopefully) help them write their next paper. They were really interested in what she had to say. It was pretty cool. I saw the speaker again during the last period. It was quite the way to end a Friday and the week as a whole.

Deja Vu

I've said it before and I'll say it again: librarians are amazing. Today was the first day of the school book fair, and the library is set up like a book store. It looks pretty authentic too. It obviously took a lot of work to do. Especially considering the fact that most kids aren't avid readers and books have to be set up in an alluring manner to entice them to read. And they were. I was impressed. There was also a section there for adults, with several cookbooks that I was drooling over. But I haven't cooked a lot recently, and the last thing I need is another excuse to make desserts.

Also, I went back to the counseling head to get my alternative assignment and the teacher with whom she said to be had a dark classroom when I showed up. I was, again, confused, and hung out in the library instead of being productive. But you know what, I don't even care, I do what I want.... Seriously, though, without sounding like a spoiled brat, I have eight of nine periods a day (including after school) in which I have an assignment. I don't think it's too much to ask for a forty-five minute break.

And more and more, I am preferring Mr. S's methods over Ms. L's. Yesterday he did an activity of which I did not see the point, but it was fun. My questions of relevancy, though, were answered with today's activity. Though Ms. L's students read the same story and had an interesting lead-in, I thought Mr. S's was better (and more bravely) run. However, both could stand to be more transparent with their students. I think this is one of the most difficult things to do in the teaching world, but also one of the most important. Speaking of transparency, I really liked the fact that Mr. S. handed out a state-written rubric for essays and explained how his grading system was similar because that's how they will be graded for the SOLs. Hooraaaay for explanations.

Slacking Off

Changes in scheduling make me a slacker. There was no school yesterday because it was teacher workday (to coincide with voting day). Teachers had to get their grades in since it was the end of the first quarter. Yesterday was a great day for me for a variety of reasons, but I hate breaks in the middle of the week. It makes them seem so much longer.

Anyway, today in the reading class I help with, I was testing fluency of some of the students. It was an interesting experience. I listened to how slowly and effectively kids read while marking down mistakes. They seemed completely used to it and not at all nervous. Evidently they are tested often. The passage seemed really long and may have been to high a level for them, but I am certainly no expert. I just wonder how accurate these reading tests really are.

Also today, the head of the counseling department changed my schedule a little. Instead of helping with the eighth grade reading class, I'm now helping with a seventh grade social studies class. My knowledge of late US history is pretty good, and I'm interested to see how it will fare in this class. She also took me out of helping in the counseling office and switched me to another class for that period, but when I went to that classroom today it was a different class than what she said it would be. The teacher in that classroom and myself were very confused. So I came to the library and typed this up instead of looking for another assignment. Woooooooo slacking!

But I will find something else to do in that time tomorrow, and tell the counseling head there was some sort of mix-up today.

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.