Hey! Teacher!

pUPDATE

This week Mark and I are puppy-sitting my friend’s new dog, Gus. 

Gus is a big sweet baby. He loves to romp around and play. Tessa, another fun loving dog, is a bit put-off by Gus and his chipper demeanor. She likes to watch him from the stairs, like a cat, and when she comes down she stares at him with her blue eyes like she’s trying to figure him out… or hypnotize him… or kill him. I’m not sure.

Gus likes to fall all over her… sometimes stepping on her tail to put her in the play mood. They’re both pretty goofy and sneaky.

Anyways, having two big dogs is a lot of work. So, naturally, Mark and I started watching “The Dog Whisperer.” Cesar Millan, aka the dog whisperer, is INCREDIBLE!

He will literally just stand next to a dog that is barking and bearing its teeth and, well, stand there. Maybe hiss. And the dog will stop. The dog will roll over and let anyone come up and pet it, like it was always just the sweetest little pup and never once tried to bite anyone.

But what’s the CRAZIEST is how his techniques are exactly the same as Teach For America’s. “You have to be a calm, assertive pack leader,” says the dog whisperer. Funny… sounds like how to be a teacher as well.

“It’s not the dog’s fault for acting out of fear or aggression, it’s the owner who does not respond properly.” 

It’s not the student’s fault for pushing limits and misbehaving, it’s the teacher’s responsibility to set high expectations for behavior and maintain them.

 

Institute = Over

It’s been a long five weeks… an emotion roller coaster to be sure.

Waking up at 4:30 in the morning, eating the same stale cinnamon raison bagels for breakfast, spending nine hours a day in a smelly, cold Houston middle school, sleeping on bouches (a combination couch bed in an incredibly outdated dorm)…

And I’m going to miss it.

Institute has been unreal. I’ve been surrounded by hundreds of motivated, dedicated and incredible people. People who pick themselves up day after day. People who managed to get classrooms of 6th graders to come in for extra help during lunch. People who are just plain awesome.

I’ve eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner with these people. I’ve ridden a bumpy yellow school bus with them. I’ve laughed, cried, and been completely ridiculous with them. And now I have to say goodbye.

But what’s most amazing is that we all going to different places. Houston, Dallas, the Rio Grande Valley, Memphis, Hawaii and the Mississippi Delta will all get a chance to experience these people… these teachers.

Mmm… I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Even though Institute has been difficult, it’s also been phenomenal prep for my region. I made mistakes, and I know I will make plenty more in these next two years. BUT… I’ve already learned from the blunders I’ve had and from the other corps members who surround me.

I’m ready for my 120 students in Dallas.

BRING IT ON.

Another one bites the dust…

I’m down to two students.

One stopped showing up. Another was expelled yesterday.

There are four days left to summer school. She could have made it. Poor choices.

In other news…

Monday my cell phone was stolen.

Wednesday, my phone was returned. 

Yesterday, the two students I have left both got 100%s on their quizzes… even though they spent most of the class playing with playdough and drawing clowns on their desks and papers. As long as they keep getting 100s, I’m okay with the occasional off-task behavior. I mean, it’s summer. There are two kids left in my class. 

Am I really going to kick one of them out? No.

I might as well just go with the flow.

Teaching Week #2

I started this summer teaching 7 students.

On Tuesday, two of my students were expelled. I’m not sure why one of them was kicked out, but I do know that other – the boy whose girlfriend broke up with him last week – was expelled for swearing. Immediately after being sent to the principal for cussing out another student, he yelled out a swear word in the hallway. This was the last straw.

These two were great students. They would take notes and focus when I told the class they needed to refocus. I was dreading class without them.

On Thursday, another one of my students was expelled. This student was on his “last leg” since the first day of school. He’s a smart kid. He knows his stuff. And, in his own words, “Miss, I’m sweet. Ask my friends. I’m so sweet.”

No matter how sweet you are, you still get kicked out of school if you flick off a teacher after weeks of complaints for disrupting class. (Note: He didn’t flick me off – he flicked off his 2nd block Language Arts teacher during a “check for understanding” where students were supposed to put a thumbs-up if they understood, thumbs down if they did not. I’m not sure if the middle finger means he got it or was confused… ha   ha    )

So… then there were four.

And the rest of the week went really well. Even the girl who tells me she hates me everyday is warming up to me (though I doubt she’ll ever admit it.)

On Thursday she made a poster with her notebook paper. It said “I hate Ugly people.” 

“Hey… that’s not very nice.” I said.

She smirked at me as she folded the paper on top of itself.

“I hate U”

OHHHHHH… I said back. “Very creative. I was getting worried – you hadn’t told me you hate me yet today…”

It was a nicer moment than it reads… 

Just to see her laugh at me (or was it something I said?) was a great moment.

Small steps. Small steps.

On Friday they all worked really hard. I high-fived each and every one of them because they were kicking some serious math problem butt.

Finishing strong

Thursday I waiting outside the classroom for my class to arrive.

I lined them up in the hall and raised my voice in an assertive tone:

“Yesterday was awful. That will NEVER happen again.”

A quiet girl raised her hand, “I was good, miss.”

“Yes. But you will also have to follow these new rules.”

One check mark on their papers is a warning. Two, and they have to move to the corner desk. Three, and they’re gone. Out of my class, out of school. They were quiet. It was amazing.

Friday was even better – for me at least.

One kid in my class got his heart broken by his girlfriend during lunch. I happened to catch the end of it as I was walking upstairs to my classroom. I walked around with him and told him he could just take a few minutes to calm down before heading to his science class. The kid had tears in his eyes. It reminded me that, even though he’s in a gang and acts tough, he’s still just an 8th grade boy. He’s a baby. I told him “Middle school sucks.” He said, “Yeah.” I told him he couldn’t do anything about it until after school, but he CAN focus on the problems he can solve… like the math problems in my class. He laughed, but he also listened and worked really  hard during class.

The best part was the raffle. (My students get tickets when they follow the rules or participate or take good notes and write their names on them for what will be a weekly prize raffle). I bought a fake plastic microphone and yelled into it, “WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY RAFFLE!!!”

The boy with the broken heart won a pack of “Go Fish” cards. His smile made my day.

I’m not going to let my guard down and think that they will be perfect little angels for the next three weeks. But I appreciated their cooperation. I wrote them post-it notes to tell them what they are doing well and how they can be even better students.

One student asked for extra hard math problems to solve for a Snickers bar.

Day 3…

Let me walk you through the first three days of Institute:

Day 1:

I teach 8th grade math during the 4th and final time slot of the day. The students I teach were expelled from school for behavioral issues (gangs, drugs, etc…) 

I had to give them a test to see what they know and how much they need to grow this summer. It was their fourth and final text of the day. Needless to say, they weren’t happy.

Of the seven kids I’m teaching, 5 fell asleep at some point during the exam. 

The highest grade was a 36%. The lowest grade was a 0%. 

One student told me she doesn’t like me. 

Day 2

Today all my kids were awake – for most of the class. They chattered and fidgeted, but they eventually got on task…

I could only go through the first part of my lesson, because some of these kids are really far behind. 

“What is ‘x’? One asked. And, no. She didn’t mean “What is the value of ‘x,” She meant: “Why is there a letter there?”

That makes it a little hard to teach a lesson where students have to find the missing variable…

On the complete opposite side of spectrum, there are kids in my class who shout out the correct answers without even writing the problem down. They know how to do this stuff… It’s just hard to find a happy medium…

Overall, though, today was good. The students responded to consequences and rewards. The students at least filled in their notes. I didn’t get to give a quiz at the end because I ran out of time, but I felt like I made progress with some of them…

But then…

Day 3

Today happened.

Two of my kids are already kicked out (for some reason or another). The difference between my kids and most summer school kids is that when they get kicked out, it doesn’t mean that they have to repeat the grade.

It means they go to jail.

Summer School is a part of their probation. 

Instead of working hard to pass, they just have to show up and not get kicked out.

Long story short: I lost control of my class.

I tried to get them to work  in groups, but did not do a good job explaining the process. Probably because every other second I had to address behavioral issues.

These kids are so needy. Not in a “Hey, teacher… I don’t understand this” way, but a “I’m going to throw this piece of chalk across the room, lay down on this desk, and roll this piece of paper into huge joint” kind of way. 

I couldn’t handle it.

I felt like I was baby-sitting, only I couldn’t just say “Fine. Whatever. I’m going to go watch HBO while you cool down.” I still had to teach them how to calculate percent of change. (My lesson was focused on the salaries earned with different levels of degree and calculating what percent more you would make if you got a Bachelor’s than if you dropped-out of High School. No one was able to complete any of the problems.)

One student told me to stop babying her (when I pulled her fill-in-the-blank note sheet out of her folder, put it on her desk, and told her she needs to fill it in). I told her I’d stop treating her like a baby when she starting acting like an 8th grader. She told me “Oh, I’ll show you how an 8th grader acts. I’ll show you, but I’ll probably get kicked out.”

I was not amused. I told her, “Really? I’d love to see you act like an 8th grader. Because right now all you’re doing is crying and bitching and moaning. And that’s what babies do. An 8th grader would take notes and pay attention and take responsibility.”

It elicited a few gasps. It didn’t change the course of the class, though.

After everyone left the class I walked around, took down my empty “What We Learned” poster and crumpled it in a ball.

Then I cried. 

Then I came back to the dorm and had 2 tickets on my windshield. $120 worth.

Incredible.

I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Institute

My first week of Institute is done.

I’ve officially had 120 hours of teacher-training.

Monday I will be an 8th grade math teacher at Sharpstown Middle School in Houston! I have eight kids for summer school and I’m so excited.

I spent an hour and a half at Target with a fellow corps member buying folders and pencils and raffle ticket and prizes and anything and everything. I plan on having a rewards system for good behavior. If my students are participating or just being awesome, they get a raffle ticket to write their name on and put in the “Behavior Bonuses” jar. Every Friday I will pull two tickets out and give away prizes.

I also bought one of those plastic microphones that make your voice echo. I was going to give it away… but after a few minutes talking into it in the aisles of Target, I realized I couldn’t part with it.

I’ll figure out some way to make it relevant to the classroom.

I’ve decided to stop stressing about the kids I’ll have. If they’re bad, I’ll try my best to motivate them to do better. But I’m not going to let it freak me out. They’re in 8th grade. I’m a grown-up. I will have an awesome plastic microphone to talk into when I get sad.

Here’s to my first week of school…

Oh, what a week…

So much has happened in the last five days – so much that I’ve decided to make a top five list:

 

1) I officially started my Teach For America Experience. On Tuesday I drove up to Dallas and began my newest and greatest adventure! I got to meet all the staff and coordinators for Teach For America Dallas who have been filling up my voice and e-mail boxes.

2) I learned more about Dallas and the state of its public education, and it was honestly shocking. The most shocking tidbit: Highland Park is a neighborhood that is completely surrounded by Dallas Independent School District. It also has its own school system – and the two districts could not be more different. Only 1.4% of students in the Highland Park district qualify for free or reduced lunch while, literally 1000 yards away, 89% of students in the Dallas ISD are qualified. Also, while 98.7% of Highland Park students graduate high school, some sources estimate that as few as 50% of students in Dallas ISD will walk across the commencement stage in July. Crazy.

3) I got a job (!!!)

3.5) And I’m teaching 8th Grade Math! (See earlier post on my experience with fractions). But, in all seriousness, I’m excited. I’m excited to teach math because I never felt good at it and I want my students to have all the confidence in the world – even when it comes to difficult algebraic equations. I’m excited to teach math because there were times in school when I would find myself completely disengaged and three pages into an elaborate doodle because I just didn’t get it. I want my students to “get it,” to be better than I was and to not give up when the problems are frustrating.  I told the principal of my school when I interviewed with him, “Math was always a challenge for me…” He said, “Great. My best math teacher struggled with math.” A lot to live up to… but I signed up for TFA for the challenge…

4) I toured my school, met some really great teachers there and got a feel for the environment. Even though 75% of my future students will be on free or reduced lunch and they have to walk through metal detectors before they can enter the school, the test scores are among the highest in the district. It’s a true testament to the people who work there, who were incredibly welcoming and willing to help me in whatever way possible when I get back to Dallas. Also, the school has an open door policy, which means I can observe veteran teachers during my free time. I’ll also have a whole score of mentors to give me feedback on lessons and my teaching.

The BEST part, though, are the classrooms. Not only can teachers paint the walls, we are ENCOURAGED to have a classroom theme (some examples include: Tropical Island, Rain Forest,  Dallas Cowboys, and The Great Outdoors). This. Is. Awesome.

ANOTHER BEST PART: Within the school is a fine arts academy – a magnet school for some of the district’s most talented. I got a chance to see some student art and it was incredible. Apparently at different times during the year music students will set up instruments in the front lobby and serenade people as they pass by. The plays are supposedly fantastic. Even still, one of the art teachers offers painting lessons for faculty and staff after school once a week. I. Am. So. Excited.

5) Finally, I’ve arrived at Institute. As of five hours ago, I have officially begun the next leg of the journey. Some call it “Teacher Boot Camp,” but I think the official term, “Institute,” is intimidating enough. I’m not really nervous… more excited. For the next five weeks I will learn how to plan lessons, implement classroom management, and get real results from students. I know it will be difficult at times, but I also know without the next five weeks my next two years would be unbearable.

Here’s to  my longest blogpost yet and the five weeks ahead!

8:25am

It’s 8:25 in the morning. I’ve been up for an hour and a half, packing and drinking coffee. I think these are early signs of adulthood.

Speaking of which, this packing thing is getting really old.

I don’t understand how, even though I have sold all my furniture, my apartment is still FULL of stuff.

When I first got my apartment I was so excited for all the storage space. Now, the storage space is the bane of my existence.

Every time I open a drawer or cabinet door, things come spilling out.

Did I REALLY accumulate this much stuff in ONE year?!

Craigslist, Observation #3, and Mental Health?

Anyone looking for a bunch of apartment furniture? Gently used, price to sell?

Anyone? 

Because I just posted my first Craigslist ad and I’m hoping my furniture and sales tactics are enough to woo in the buyers from all around Austin… or maybe just one buyer who happens to be in desperate need of everything I posted and wants to take it all off my hands. Either one – as long as it’s gone by Monday.

Besides delving into the world of e-commerce, I also had my third and last classroom observation today. This class was a lot of fun. It was another 5th grade math class and they, too, were visibly anxious about summer and middle school. But, they listened quietly to the teacher’s instructions, stayed put in their seats, and were really, really smart.

The activity for the day was fraction Jeopardy – a nice, fun activity for the end of the year. The students were so excited, I couldn’t help but share the enthusiasm. I got to keep score and was constantly being asked, “Who’s winning?!” “By how much?!” “How many points does my team have?!” Although they got a little wound up, they were most excited about getting the problems right and encouraging their teammates. 

I was just surprised at how good at fractions they were.

Fractions have never been my favorite math concept. Fractions was the first math unit that stressed me, stumped me, and made me cry. They are the fifth grade bully to my brain.

But these kids had fractions DOWN. A problem would pop up on the screen and within seconds a buzzer would go off. 

I was very impressed.

In other news: Teach For America apparently has its own mental health supervisor. I received an e-mail from him yesterday.

I guess I’m relieved that if these next two years drive me insane, I have someone to go to…

Oh wait, no… I’m sorry… That just scares me.