The P(r)ep Assembly and The Paper Issue

So today was the first pep assembly at a school with three times as many students as I'm used to. No student I had contact with had any interest in going; many wanted me to write them a pass to be excused. Apparently there had been an alternate venue in years past for students to go who did not care to attend the forced prep pep assembly. I imagine though that this became such a popular place that they had to stop offering it.

For whatever patriotic or showcasing reason, the National Anthem was sung first by senior members of the choir. It took a few moments for the crowd to quiet down. What surprised me (and maybe it shouldn't surprise me so much) were the students who remained seated during the singing. In the junior high I had been at, no one would have dared done such a thing. Maybe they are just more sheep like. Maybe these high school students are rebeling against the standard of order that states one must stand at such a time. I wonder though if they would do the same at a United States sporting event.

Afterward, exiting was chaotic. There are two double doors out. All students plowed down the bleachers only to wait in a large crowd to pass through the door. Students could be hurt and trampled with so much pushing. Well, until it happens, the exiting ridiculousness will ensue. Fun.

On to the Paper Issue. I teach in four different classrooms during my five class hour day. I have a workspace a foot shorter than my arm span at which to keep my materials in the teachers' workroom. I carry a backpack with me to each class which includes any texts and materials for each class, along with a mini office inside: pens, overhead and dry erase markers, paper clips, scissors, mini stapler, band-aids, etc. I refuse to carry reams of lined paper with me. (I have been issued a cart on which to store these same materials, but the passing time and physical area of the halls are not sufficient to manuever it around.)

In three different rooms in the last two days, there has been no paper. I cannot go in to the drawers in two of those rooms due to the teacher who uses that room five hours a day locking them. The third room just didn't have any. So when I needed my students to do some written work, a number of them were kind enough to share their own personal supplies of paper from home with others around them. This is (obviously) frustrating to me.

In two of the four rooms I share, I have been in the district longer than the teacher who has the room for five hours. That matters little to The Establishment. I have been looked at with disdain by one of these teachers when I inquired whether I could leave a few extra copies of texts, a dictionary, and some paper on a table in that room. So I didn't even bother to ask the other teachers if I could do the same in thier rooms. These folks are much too teritorial and they seemingly refuse to believe that they have been infringed upon in such a way by me (when in fact, I really had nothing to do with the room assingnments.)

Oh, and for the record: Of the 130 or so teachers in the building, about a third of them must be in two different rooms during the day, and of those about a third are in another (for a total of three rooms), and of those, two teachers travel to four different classrooms, one being myself.

I welcome the time when a parent calls to complain, "Why didn't my child have access to paper for your assignment?" because then I can say, "Well... " and go into some of the things I've mentioned here with a recommendation that they please talk to the building administration and the superintendent.

Comments

[ms frizzle]

If a parent called me and asked why his/her child did not have paper to do an in-class assignment, I would give the question right back (politely): Since when has it become the teacher's responsibility to provide basic looseleaf paper? I always provide construction paper and the like for special projects, but for regular classroom work, you're supposed to have a notebook. The best way to make sure this happens is to make it a homework assignment to purchase all your school supplies. Then, do NOT hand out paper. Make it clear that you expect students to have it and that YOU will call THEIR parents if they repeatedly come to class unprepared. Other students will always help a friend out with a sheet of paper so they can do their work, but for the repeat-offenders, you have to be tough. (And, incidentally, I teach very poor children - that's no excuse. Children who cannot afford a notebook see me and I provide one, quietly, at the start of the year. It has happened about three times in four years.)

That said, I was a "cart-teacher" - teaching science labs, no less - for two years, and it stinks! I sympathize!

[pankaj saikia.]

i would like to have more precise and brief guidance for science projects.

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