Teaching High School

Trying Again

It has been nine months since I made any progress here. Much has changed. I am now teaching in my own room, teaching one subject, and teaching an extra class for which they pay me an additional 1/6 of my salary. It has been a better year, but not without its trials. Keeping that in mind, that there are trails, I want to take a new tact with this blog, one that will hopefully allow me to keep my sanity and see the positive side of what I do.

My new tact is to record the funny things kids say. They are often a funny bunch, because they are so young, but they are also sometimes truly comedic.

For a first entry on funny students, I turn back to the day before Christmas Break back in December. I was showing a movie as many teachers did that Monday and Tuesday, and a young man came to my desk. I was expecting a request to go to the bathroom, but it was better than that.

"Can I have a candy cane?" from said young man.

"Sure, so long as you get any mess and wrapper in the trash, please," from me.

"Oh. Don't you have one for me?"

"No, no I don't." I waited politely until he was out of earshot on his way back to his seat to say to the two girls in front of me, "What was that all about?" to which we all giggled.

A Compliment

One of the things about teaching that I really enjoy is the unsolicited compliment. This happened to me the other day and it still thrills me.

A young man who has the pleasure of being in two classes of mine (different subjects) said to me, "I've learned more [subject area] in one semester with you than I did with the teacher I had for two years."

I'm still beaming.

Seating Arrangements

I would like to let you all in on a little secret: I seat my better students in the front of the room. Yes, against all teacher prep courses, I put in the back of the room the kids who goof off, the kids who get poor grades, the kids who have actively made it known they don't like the class. A colleague and coach at my school made a speech about what he does to promote success in his room, and promote positiveness in himself, and that is to put the kids who are positive in the front, close to him. So for the last five weeks I've had such a seating arrangement. And let me tell you, I spend much less time reprimanding and cajoling inattentive students into being on task.

As it happens I overheard a student today say, "She doesn't have any control over this class." This came fromt the middle of the room. I pointedly looked at him, told him I didn't care what he thought (even though he probably didn't think I could hear him), and went on to teach to the kids who did care and were paying attention. I think the kids in front appreciate it since I've had much more participation from any of them in the last five weeks than I did in the first twenty. I think I'll keep it this way.

"You're Not Special"

Oh the giggle I had when I read Joanne Jacobs' "You're not special" entry. If I were asked to name one thing that I thought was a detriment to students coming into the junior high it would have been to not tell students so often --and so undeservedly-- how special and wonderful they are. Having to tell students "No" at the junior high in seventh grade came to be almost taboo because it would hurt their fragile young egos. They were only fragile because they hadn't heard that before, seemingly not from anybody.

The students I taught last year at the junior high started kindergarten the year I started teaching (so it goes to figure that this year my tenth graders also started kindergarten then too) and they were (the ninth graders) by far the ones who had the most difficulty being told they were wrong. My tenth graders this year seem to be a little more hardened, a little more hip to sometimes being wrong. But there are a few who still believe mommy and daddy will take care of anything they do that is wrong. And wrong can be many things: not getting an A, not getting the city they wanted for a project, not getting an extra day on an assignment given out two weeks ago but they were absent the day before it was due, not getting to work with a certain person, etc.

I do not know how to get around this problem. Back at the junior high, before some of my good adaptive lesson plans got nixed, I had been able to create environmets in my room where it was ok for students to be wrong. In foreign language class we would don new hats with new foreign language names (not my favorite thing to do, but it worked) in order to create a persona for the kids so they could take risks with the language. In my high school classes, some witty remarks seem to do the trick, as does me making (on accident usually) mistakes here and there. Having a good sense of humor on my part helps. Having had my 'hot buttons' uninstaled after my first year of teaching also helped tremendously. (You know, the 'hot buttons' the things that would get you irritated but then you wised up and realized you have to be selective in the battles you wage. I'm just glad it only took me one year to realize the kids won everytime they were able to push those buttons. Although, the buttons seemed to try to find their way to the top earlier this year.)

I do believe kids are special, don't get me wrong; but special in a way that means that I believe in them. Not special in a way that means they can do no wrong. Trust me, if I didn't believe in kids and the power of what they can do and what they can teach me, I wouldn't be teaching.

Arguing About Grades

I am feeling very frustrated with my students. In particular, I'm frustrated with my beligerent students, the ones who constantly and consistently confront me with accusations that I want them to fail. (A note: The grades resemble a perfect inverted bell curve, which seems to be the common-place plot of grades for the last number of years in my experience at junior high.)

I feel that these students are very disrespectful. And I fear what others may say: That I am not being respectful to them. To that I would have to say: Not true. However, I also do not feel I need to defend to this blog whether I am respectful or not to my students, and here's why: Their disrespect extends beyond me. They have no regard for themselves, no regard for the time they are wasting of their peers, and no regard for the administration.

When the keep coming at me, demanding things, I chalk that up to having no respect for themselves. They do not feel that the work they have done should represent the grade they have earned. They feel that they can talk and bull-doze their way out of a poor mark.

When their peers complain to these students directly that they are wasting time, the beligerent students do not care, they tell their peers that they don't care whether they are being fair to them. When these peers come back with telling the beligerent students are not being fair to me, the beligerent kids roll their eyes and come back to me.

When the administration does nothing for behavior referals for plagiarism and insubordination, I am left with little choice. It is obvious from the beligerent students' behavior that they must have learned it somewhere, and I will not call home to confront more of the same but from an adult. I also will not discuss any matters with the administration since it is quite obvious they will do nothing but give warnings.

I have five more of these times to go through with these students. I doubt it will get better. I will not back down from the grades and will not 'fix' the numbers. That I will leave to the milk-toast administration if they want to appease the parents.

Saying "Shut Up"

Why do students see the phrase "shut up" almost as bad as saying "damn it" in class?

To be clear, "shut up" is a phrase I rarely use, prefering "be quiet" of course, --with "please" attached usually-- but when I am exasperated with a student, that is the phrase I want to use, "shut up".

Where do students get this from? Is it in a children's book published in the last 15 years? Is it from the overwhelming amount of undue self-esteem pumping up that is done in elementary school? What?

Where does their gasping come from when that phrase comes out of my mouth?

School Should be Fun?

So conferences were the other day. Sigh. I thought they had gone so well; at least, in comparison to last year when the parents yelled at me and the administration did not care to notice and therefore did not intervene. There was no yelling and it was quite slow, really, for being in a new building. I was thrilled.

Until today.

I had been requested yesterday by my English department chair to meet with her for a few moments during my lunch today. No problem, she's a great lady, a wonderful teacher, and has always been helpful to me. Well, she asked me about what I had said to any parents about technology use. As I recalled, I had said some things about why I hadn't used the language lab for my foreign language teaching to a few parents who asked.

So, firstly, the wrong chairperson had been contacted by the administration to discuss this with me. Secondly, she was so embarrassed and apologetic to have to be talking with me about this. Thirdly, I knew which parents had talked with the administration about this and as it happens, they are members of elected positions for the district.

A few reasons I had told the parents when they asked me about the technology use --or lack thereof, really-- in my foreign language classroom, were that I am new to the building, I have never had access to language lab facilities for teaching foreign language before, and I really do not know what is available to do in there.

These parents went on to tell me, along with some other parents I saw, that their child was no longer having fun learning foreign language anymore. I informed them that I am not the teacher those students had the last two years and that she and I have different teaching styles, as well as this being new material to these students which is not as easily made fun. (Is there a way to make past perfect tense in any language fun? And can you make it fun when it is formed a different way in the foreign language than it is in English? Yeah, I didn't think so either.)

For the last two years these students made videos "using" the foreign language and played games. All of that is well and good, but that does not lead necessarily to actually learning the vocabularly, dealing with word order, and overall being able to continue on with the foreign language. So these kids are struggling. And in these parents eyes, it is my fault. Because, gosh darn it all to hell, I am not making it FUN for them.

Fuck that.

I had just gotten to the point with this move that I had figured out the rules of the game, and then they are changed on me yet again. I am tired of bending over for these problems.

I am a good teacher. I have been told that by many other parents and former students. But of course, it is always the negative stuff that sticks out in your mind.

Cheating --- Update

I was entering some homework marks yesterday afternoon and came across the assignment from the young man in my last post. Would you believe that not only did he try to turn someone else's work in as his on Tuesday, but he also copied his homework from a young lady in class and turned it in? Unfortunately, I am beginning to believe such things can and do go on much more than I would like to believe. So disappointing. Well, I do have the meeting with him and his mother to look forward to today. Although with all the coughing I did earlier this morning, I'm almost positive I should've called in today too. Perhaps tomorrow.

Cheating? Or Plagiarism?

Not that either one is an acceptable thing to do, but the following situation presented itself yesterday and I am having a difficult time deciding which it is.

Yesterday, after receiving current progress reports, a young man in my last hour class presented me with a completed and graded major writing assignment and said, "Miss G, you forgot to record my 30 points for my writing assignment." I looked at it, looked at him, and said, "That is not yours. You just erased someone else's name and wrote yours over it." It was pretty obvious: The pencil was darker and there were parts of the other name still visible despite erasing.

It went on. "No, Miss G, this is mine. You forgot it. You gave this back to me yesterday and forgot to record mine. And it shows on my progress report that I didn't do it. And I did. It is right here." I shook my head and told him no yet again and said, "I can tell you erased someone else's name and wrote yours on. I won't accept it." I even gave him the name of the kid whose paper it likely had been since the student in front of me told me I should check with that other student of mine the other day to verify that the student in front of me had done and does do notes on short stories. He emphatically said, "No, it isn't [that kid's] work. It's mine." He remained insistent that I take the assignment a few more minutes until finally sitting down. But I could hear him right behind me complaining to his friend that I wouldn't take "his" paper.

So I turned around and told him, "Fine. I'll take it and think about it. But I don't want to hear any more about it." His response, " ... ... ... . " I put it directly in my bag and put the bag under the desk. His non-response said volumes, really.

Once class, and therefore school, was over, I compared handwriting. Unwittingly, he had just given me a new sample via a comprehension quiz they had just taken, as had my other classes. So I pulled his out and the kid whose paper I thought it was, and amazingly, his didn't match... but the kid whose paper I thought it was was a definite match. I asked some other teachers as they walked by. They agreed.

I made copies of all three papers on the copier and made a copy of the page in the student handbook where it talks about plagiarism and cheating, and wrote up a discipline referal. When I saw the associate principal and gave her the run down, her response was so disheartening, "Call the parents and tell them and him that if it happens again, disciplinary action will be taken." Oh, and I could still give the student a zero on it. Thanks for small favors.

I called the young man's home. His father answered. I explained the reason for my call. He said to me, in a thick eastern European accent, "This is a very serious matter. Here is my wife's cell phone number. Please call her. She is a teacher too." Putting the receiver down and getting ready to make the next call, I thought to myself that this young man is in big trouble.

His mother was shocked, embarrassed, and sad. She told me he was going to have dire consequences, including no Halloween party this weekend. By her request, she, her son, and I are meeting tomorrow after school. I was ever so glad she understood. She asked if I had already told him I knew with certainty about the handwriting samples, and I had not, so she was greatful to be able to ask him, "So, what happened in last hour today, son?" The nice mom sneak attack.

From the other teachers I talked with, cheating/plagiarism is rampant at this high school. In the junior high I had caught a few kids copying research info from the Internet and turned them in. They each got three days suspension and F's on the research reports. Apparently, things are not like that at the high school. Other high schools in the district are, though, as one teacher who was at a different high school informed me. And she was sad to hear the response from this administrative office.

What’s New in High School?

It’s been a while since I’ve been a high school student myself, buy I must say it never would have occurred to me even now to have sex in the boy’s bathroom. Yes, that’s right: Sex at school. During the school day. In the gross (sorry guys, but it is) boy’s bathroom.

These two youngsters apparently had it arranged for someone to distract the teacher on duty so the young lady could sneak in and then they were able to get their freak on. And apparently it didn’t matter if a few people saw.

From what I heard from the staff, all who know her are shocked. Not much has been said about the boy, which goes along with our society’s double standard of it’s ok for the gents to score.

I’m disgusted. Mostly because the district I instruct in does not have a safe sex program or a sex program at all. The word ‘masturbation’ is not to be uttered. It’s a ridiculous policy. I imagine we’re getting close to only teaching the creationist theory of how humans got on this Earth. But I digress.

As a staff we were forbidden to talk about “The Incident”, almost to the point of not even discussing it amongst ourselves. Don’t talk about it with students, direct any media contact to the board office, and don’t discuss it with any parent of any student.

Suspensions are already being served and it may be decided that they should both be expelled. Although, I imagine the young lady, who by all of her teachers’ accounts is a soft spoken, all A student, will be hard pressed to show her face there again. But maybe I’m wrong; I’m not now 15. Maybe it’ll be seen as an act of courage.

Assemblies

***I read an excellent article in this month�s Harper�s by John Taylor Gatto. Unfortunately the actual article is not available; you�ll have to go look in the magazine. He makes good points, as he often does, about how education is failing the progress of our culture.*** UPDATE For now it is available here. Thanks to Diane for the link and to the owner of the site (rahoorkhuit) for posting it.***

This past school week, I took my English classes to the auditorium for two presentations. One was Sophomore Orientation and the other was from the local police liaison officer about student rights. Overall, the two presentations were well done.

Sophomore Orientation had to do with the big no-no�s in the building. The one which surprised me was about the dress code. I had been under the impression that it was just fine whatever they wore: skirts up to their ass, tops down past their cleavage, jeans sagging to their knees, and shirts with inappropriate pictures or phrases. I have had students already breaking each item mentioned and thought I was unable to send them down for fixing. So I guess I�ll start. Now, I do have a curious thing: if a student is wearing some Christian promoting shirt, and it could be offensive to other religiously affiliated students, should I send them down?

The other presentation was a little more shocking. I did not entirely know all the details the officer went into about student rights. Basically, they have none. They can hardly breathe without asking for permission. Ok, I exaggerate, but regardless. They can have their person, their locker, their car, their bags, etc. all examined and gone through for less suspicion than an adult. They have no right to remain silent (take the Fifth) because that is an admission of guilt. It was put to them this way, �If the student had something good to say, s/he would say it.� So if they can�t say �I didn�t do it� then they are guilty. Surprised me.

The Former and the New Student

The other day I received a call at home from a former coworker. She has taken over some of the duties I performed there and part of the reason for her call was to discuss those. The other reason for her call was to deliver a message she promised to get to me from a former student: "Tell her I came by and that I miss her." He's also in high school now. His parents were (and likely still are) very thoughtful of their son, and involved but not overly; they want him to succeed and push him to do so independently, offering him options and suggestions, consequences and routines. So after I got off the phone with my former coworker, I called him. It was so nice to hear from him, get his take on the high school experience. I wished, as did he, that he and I were at the same high school. Having familiar faces would make the transition a little easier. But then again, there are many of his peers whom I would rather not see again.

Then I also got a different call: A call into the associate pricipal's office. She wanted to tell me about a new student I'd be seeing on Monday. He is much like the character Russell Crowe played in A Beautiful Mind, as it was explained to me. He has an aide who will help him with his work. My class which he will be a part of was let in on this student's abilities and was told about what to expect. Some of them have had courses with him before and they seemed to deem it no big deal. I've had special needs students with aides helping them before, so it also is no big deal to me. And, I don't know if I should see this as sincere or as smoke being blown up my ass, but I was told that my course was specifically chosen for him. For now, I'll take it positively.

How Hard is it for a High School Student?

I can’t even imagine how difficult it is. I observe them and wonder why the education system makes it so difficult to really learn. And trust me, I have looked at various models that have been researched and are better than this traditional model.

Think about it:
Could you learn about seven different subjects each day, five days a week?
Could you switch gears every forty-eight minutes to adjust to each of seven (and for some kids, eight) different teachers’ rules and routines?
Could you be to your place of work by 7:15am each day ready to go?
Could you wade your way through 2000+ students in five minutes in 10’ wide hallways to get to your next place of “learning”?
Could you get anything done with the girls (if you’re a guy) dressed in barely there clothes?
Could you, after work, get down to the business of sports, activities, and/or band?
Could you then go home and do the ersatz homework (because, really, the work that is asked of them is really bullshit)?

My high school system was a little better, in that there was not 2000+ students, we had eight minutes to maneuver 15’ hallways, and classes were sixty minutes long. But really, I didn’t learn much in high school. Oh sure, I learned German because I really wanted to and it got me out of level 100 classes in university.

So I then wonder: Am I expecting too much of my students? Am I giving too much homework? (I’ve given about five pages of reading two of the six school nights we’ve had so far.)

Back After the Long Weekend

As I sit and sign students in who have a pass to the restroom, I feel sad for my former junior high coworkers. I seriously have more time at work/school to do school stuff during school time than I ever had. I get so much done during this restroom sign in duty. And it is so silly to have. I mean, I have to make sure students use the bathroom appropriately? What is that for? That was not fully explained, but I am sure it has something to do with security.

And then there is the beginning of the whining: This book is sooo heavy? Do we have to have it? Do we have to finish this story (five pages) for tomorrow? How do we actively read? (That after going over all hour and after they took notes on those terms previously and after I explained the assignment in three different ways. Ugh.) Welcome to the world of high school (although it really, at least right now, is not much different than junior high).

The First Day With Students

I survived the first day!!!

Not as if I didn’t expect to, but as in I am glad it’s over. I finally slept by 1:30am and had to get up at 5am. This adjustment to the time is rough. Unfotunately I napped for about the last hour, so I’ll likely have a tough time falling asleep today too. It shouldn’t feel so rough, but I am guessing all the new suroundings and the new staff are partly affecting this rough feeling. The reason it can’t really be the amount of time making me feel so wiped out is because I just figured out that I was physically in front of students for ten minutes more this summer when I taught summer school than the number I am now. Plus my day is broken up by a prep, a lunch hour, and a hall duty. My nervousness is truly due to the adjustment of being in a new place.

So the students: They are much like the students I left last spring. Now that isn’t too shocking because I finished last year teaching freshman and now I am teaching sophomores, so it is as if I have followed them through to the high school. The two German classes I have (one level one and one level two) were much quieter and subdued. This could be due to a number of things. 1) The German students have elected to be in that class. 2) The German classes are smaller (19 in level one, 27 in level two, and 30 in each Sophomore English). 3) The English classes are in rooms that aren’t designated as English rooms (one in a Math, one in a Japneser, Spanish, French, and one in a Spanish room).

I need to put together my syllabus, or rather, my class information, objective, classroom rules, and materials needed packet.