I've survived the first month of the school year, and so far it's been a doozy. I'm teaching five sections of freshmen reading, which is not my dream position. I have never enjoyed teaching freshmen, and these particular freshmen have been identified as needing an extra English class in an attempt to boost their scores. Their reading scores are far below grade level, even more so than our average student.
I'm not a reading teacher, and there is no real curriculum for the class, so I'm kind of winging it. I know most of these kids hate to read, so my goal is for them to find something they enjoy reading, so perhaps they'll see reading as a joy and not a burden. I'm not sure if that's working yet, but that is what I'm aiming for.
There have been two major challenges I've been dealing with thus far. One, it's been incredibly hot in Chicago this school year, and my lovely school does not have air conditioning. I teach on the third floor and it is an oven in there. Only two windows open in my room. There is rarely a breeze. How ever hot it is outside, it's about twenty degrees hotter in my room. Makes for a fun environment! The kids bitch and moan to no end. It is so frustrating. And makes it really hard to get through a lesson.
After every long Chicago winter, violence in the city escalates when it gets warm. My kids always explain, "When it gets hot, they start shooting." The statistics would seem to prove this statement. When it's hot, tempers shorten and people get really agitated. When you cram 27 or 28 students into a small, ventilation-free 100 degree classroom, you can imagine how effective that is in creating tension. (Not to mention I'm six months pregnant. I keep telling the kids, "However miserable you are, I'm more miserable!" They don't care.
The other challenge is that some genius from my school thought it would be a good idea to put all the freshmen students into "pods." Some of the pods are single sex, but most are mixed sex. So these kids are together all day long, including PE and lunch. Which is not what high school should be.
Furthermore, the bad kids (of which there are many) are having a negative effect on the good kids. Because they are stuck together all day long. I feel so bad for the kids who I can see want to learn something and are at least somewhat excited about school. The unmotivated students (I know I should not use the word "bad," and I don't mean it literally, it is just a fast description) tend to gobble up most of my attention, because many of them have incredibly terrible attitudes. I've been cursed out more this year than any since my first teaching job six years ago. And these are freshmen. It's pretty shocking the behavior I've been subjected to. And it's not even October.
I always try to do some kind of icebreaker activity at the beginning of the school year to get to know my students better. This year I had my students write me a letter describing themselves and defining three goals they want to achieve in my class.
It was amazing. In 90% of the letters, the students would write about how great they were, how much they loved school, and how they would not be a problem in my class. But every one of those letters added this caveat -- that the student was great until I got on his or her bad side. When and if that happened, the student would have to put me in my place, because he or she has a temper and that is just how it works.
I find this attitude incredible. It's not new -- I have always heard this from students. But it still never fails to astonish me. I think this is a huge problem for my students. They seem to have no idea how to get along with people who don't follow this philosophy.
I'm reading these letters thinking, "Seriously?" As if I could put my principal in her place when she made me mad, because she had gotten on my bad side? How will my students ever be able to hold down jobs with this attitude? I have told the kids that it's not my job to adjust to their personality flaws -- it is their job to overcome them. But they don't seem to believe me.
When I meet their parents, I see where they get it. I've had many a parent try to put me in my place for daring to question their child or give their child a failing grade. These are usually the parents who have never returned a phone call, who have never made any effort to contact me. They show up for the last fifteen minutes of "Report Card Pickup Day" ready to kick my ass. They chew me out, even as I'm trying to show them that their angel has missed 27 class sessions, has never come to class on time, and has never turned in an assignment. It makes for a fun day.
I am trying a new philosophy of my own this semester, however. We'll see how it goes. I really enjoy reading Alan Kazdin's writing about child discipline. He is often published on Slate.com. I bought his book The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child.
My daughter is only 19 months old, and I don't think she'll be defiant. But most of my students are constantly defiant, so I thought the book was a good investment. Basically, Kazdin believes that you should try to ignore bad behavior and praise the hell out of good behavior.
This is probably much easier with your own child. No matter how defiant your own child is, he is still your child and you love him. I don't love that many of my students, especially not the defiant ones. But I'm trying.
I have one class with four problem students. Three males and one female. They are doing their best to control the class. They are four of the most awful, disrespectful students I've ever had. And they are together all day long, feeding off each other. It's great.
Two of these boys cursed me out the second day of school. And the third. The girl in this group spent one class last Tuesday yelling and screaming and singing at the top of her lungs about how awful and bogus and unfair I was. There was no security on the floor, so I had to just sit there taking deep breaths and ignoring her. She kept screaming, "You have no control!!!" It was the first time I ever truly contemplated just getting up and walking out and never coming back.
But it made me mad that she was acting like this in my class. So I just kept sitting there, taking deep breaths. And emailing my friends. It would have been funny except that it was in my class and it was just getting worse and worse. Then this student, whose name is Precious (that's a misnomer if ever there were one) started yelling about how hot it was. Then more about how bogus and unfair and awful I was and how much she hated me.
It is really hard for me to say anything positive to her. I would prefer to never speak to her ever. But I'm employing Kazdin's methodology. Each day that she is good in my class, which means she is not combative or rude (she doesn't do any work), I praise her for how well she's behaving and thank her.
I'm using the same technique with the three boys. I find something good to say to each of them each day. If they are reading, I praise them. If they are not reading, but not talking either, I praise them. If they have gone through a whole class without cursing at them, I praise them a lot. In one of the boys, I can already see an improvement. With the other two, I can't tell yet.
If I survive this class until Christmas break (which is when my maternity leave begins, hallelujah!), I will most likely have Kazdin to thank for it. But if I don't make it, I'm holding him personally responsible.
It's supposed to be cooler this week, so perhaps I'll see an improvement from my students do to that factor alone. Cross your fingers for me.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
This Makes Me Furious! (And makes my job harder)
I am completely against the idea of paying students for grades. So seeing this story first thing this morning in the Chicago Tribune made my already stressful morning that much more infuriating.
As anyone who has read my stuff knows (thank you, to my seven awesome readers!), I teach in a low income African American high school on the South Side of Chicago. My students are reluctant learners at best. They are several years below grade level in reading and math. Most of them (90%) receive free or reduced price lunch. Many live in public housing projects. To say they have many challenges in their lives would be an understatement.
Trying to motivate students with these challenges is one of my greatest challenges. My kids don't see the value of education. All they really seem to understand or appreciate is money. So paying them to get better grades makes the idea of learning as its own reward impossible.
And this is a problem, in my opinion. I want my students to be independent thinkers and learners. This is hard, as they have received subpar educations all their lives. But I don't think it's impossible. If I could just help them believe in the idea that education matters. Monetizing their achievements (and I use that word lightly, as grade inflation is a huge problem) further reduces the idea that learning should be its own reward.
When I went to graduate school to become a teacher, I dreamed of having these amazing rhetorical discussions about literature. I thought maybe I'd have a "Oh captain, my captain" moment like in the movie "Dead Poets Society." I dreamed I would have many such moments. It hasn't happened yet, but I can still dream.
But I think that one of the reasons I haven't had any of these moments is because my kids don't know how to think that way. They don't know how to let literature carry them away. The magic of language is lost on them. They know how to find answers to recall questions in a story, because that is all they have been taught to do. But they have no clue as to how to delve deeper into a text and really absorb it. It breaks my heart.
Now they will have even less of a reason to figure out how to do that. Now they will do exactly what they think the teacher wants them to, so they can get the grade and earn from $20 to $50. They won't care what they learned, they will just want the grade so they can plan on their next shopping trip.
So many of my students are on public assistance. They get vouchers to help them pay for rent. They get a Link card (electronic food stamps) to pay for groceries. They know that having another child will increase the amount of assistance they get. Many of them live with parents or guardians who don't work.
They don't see the value in much of anything. Which is tragic and sad.
I am not arguing against public assistance programs -- please understand. I think we have an obligation to help those less fortunate. But the problem with these programs is that they don't seem to give people the tools to not need help. My kids take it for granted that they will never have to pay full price for housing or have to pay for groceries.
And now they will take it for granted that school is just another way to perhaps make a little money. With no thought into what school is supposed to be.
If we raise a generation (not counting the ones we've already raised) who can't think independently, then who is going to write the next great American novels? Who is going to figure out how to solve our energy crisis? Who is going to tackle the problems that my generation and the ones before have left?
This is another example of how we further cripple our poorest children. It is almost like we want to keep them poor and in need of our assistance. I just don't understand when this is going to stop or when we will figure out that our current system of public education is not working.
As anyone who has read my stuff knows (thank you, to my seven awesome readers!), I teach in a low income African American high school on the South Side of Chicago. My students are reluctant learners at best. They are several years below grade level in reading and math. Most of them (90%) receive free or reduced price lunch. Many live in public housing projects. To say they have many challenges in their lives would be an understatement.
Trying to motivate students with these challenges is one of my greatest challenges. My kids don't see the value of education. All they really seem to understand or appreciate is money. So paying them to get better grades makes the idea of learning as its own reward impossible.
And this is a problem, in my opinion. I want my students to be independent thinkers and learners. This is hard, as they have received subpar educations all their lives. But I don't think it's impossible. If I could just help them believe in the idea that education matters. Monetizing their achievements (and I use that word lightly, as grade inflation is a huge problem) further reduces the idea that learning should be its own reward.
When I went to graduate school to become a teacher, I dreamed of having these amazing rhetorical discussions about literature. I thought maybe I'd have a "Oh captain, my captain" moment like in the movie "Dead Poets Society." I dreamed I would have many such moments. It hasn't happened yet, but I can still dream.
But I think that one of the reasons I haven't had any of these moments is because my kids don't know how to think that way. They don't know how to let literature carry them away. The magic of language is lost on them. They know how to find answers to recall questions in a story, because that is all they have been taught to do. But they have no clue as to how to delve deeper into a text and really absorb it. It breaks my heart.
Now they will have even less of a reason to figure out how to do that. Now they will do exactly what they think the teacher wants them to, so they can get the grade and earn from $20 to $50. They won't care what they learned, they will just want the grade so they can plan on their next shopping trip.
So many of my students are on public assistance. They get vouchers to help them pay for rent. They get a Link card (electronic food stamps) to pay for groceries. They know that having another child will increase the amount of assistance they get. Many of them live with parents or guardians who don't work.
They don't see the value in much of anything. Which is tragic and sad.
I am not arguing against public assistance programs -- please understand. I think we have an obligation to help those less fortunate. But the problem with these programs is that they don't seem to give people the tools to not need help. My kids take it for granted that they will never have to pay full price for housing or have to pay for groceries.
And now they will take it for granted that school is just another way to perhaps make a little money. With no thought into what school is supposed to be.
If we raise a generation (not counting the ones we've already raised) who can't think independently, then who is going to write the next great American novels? Who is going to figure out how to solve our energy crisis? Who is going to tackle the problems that my generation and the ones before have left?
This is another example of how we further cripple our poorest children. It is almost like we want to keep them poor and in need of our assistance. I just don't understand when this is going to stop or when we will figure out that our current system of public education is not working.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Crazy People Make Me Tired
I just had a rather unpleasant and flummoxing email exchange with a guy from Etsy. I am not sure what to think about it, other than the man is crazy and I should just let it go.
A couple of months ago I ordered a couple of items from Builderstudio. I ordered a little flying saucer charm and a Santa ornament made out of robot parts. The guy doesn't take paypal, so I had to send him a check. I didn't get the order for a long time. I emailed him as to when he had sent it, and he responded that the package had been returned to him. Which was weird.
So he sent out the package again. When the items arrived, they just weren't very cute. I know that I ordered based on pictures, and sometimes things aren't quite what you expect. No biggie. I thought, "Well, now I know not to order from him again."
On Etsy, they want you to give feedback regarding your purchasing experience. I rated my experience with Builderstudio as neutral. Meaning it was neither good nor bad. And I added that the items were not what I expected. Which is true.
So today I get an email from this guy complaining about his neutral feedback and requesting I change them. He said he didn't deserve negative feedback.
I replied that it wasn't negative feedback, it was neutral feedback. Then he responded that that was unfair and that I gave no reason for the problem, etc. I tried to explain to him why I found the experience neutral. I should have just not responded in the first place, because I do think he probably is crazy and I could tell he was really offended. But I couldn't help myself. I finally said that I just didn't think the stuff was that cute in person and that's fine - he got paid, I got the order, whatever.
Then he gets really irate. He said that how could his stuff not be cute when he had pictures of them? This was in all caps. Now look, sometimes you see a picture and then the real thing isn't what you expected. It's not a big deal.
He then wrote this:
"Well, it took two quesries jsut to get any details from you. And not too
cute? THEY ARE THE SAME AS IN THE PHOTOS... no different. And you never emailed me about the problem, that's annoying. And a neutral is NOT a neatral, it's a negative
(viewed as such), a true neutral is to leave NO FEEDBACK! I certainly was waiting to hear what the actual problem was before offering a refund, which you never gave. And now you shut me out? You had no right to leave that neutral because you got what you saw in the pics and everyone loves them. PLease don't contact me again unless you are willing to withdraw the feedback." (All the typos are his; he is too crazy to proofread.) (I love how he says "everyone loves them." Not everyone, buddy!)
By this time, I'm pretty annoyed. I did contact him one more time (I just can't help myself) telling him he is very unpleasant and that I will never purchase from him again.
He wrote this:
"Good, as I would not sell to you. Treat a person as you would be treated. Now do not contact me again, second request."
I have no interest in contacting him again. I am a little afraid he is going to try to come to my house and murder me.
I did try to go to Etsy and change my neutral feedback to negative, but they don't let you do that. I would like to somehow let others know that if you make him unhappy he will harass you. But I am just going to let it go and hope he doesn't come to my house and try to kill me. When I got the package, the handwriting on the address label was very child-like. He probably still lives with him mom and all he has are his little figurines he makes for people.
But I would recommend that you not order from him. That's my advice to you. Whatever you do, don't use my name. Seriously, I think he's scary.
Here's a pic of the flying saucer. It is ok, but would be much cuter if it were smaller. It's too big to be a charm or pendant. I am not sure what to do with it. I'll probably hang it on the Christmas tree, too.
Here's a pic of the robot Santa. It really wasn't that cute even in the picture. Don't know what I was thinking.
A couple of months ago I ordered a couple of items from Builderstudio. I ordered a little flying saucer charm and a Santa ornament made out of robot parts. The guy doesn't take paypal, so I had to send him a check. I didn't get the order for a long time. I emailed him as to when he had sent it, and he responded that the package had been returned to him. Which was weird.
So he sent out the package again. When the items arrived, they just weren't very cute. I know that I ordered based on pictures, and sometimes things aren't quite what you expect. No biggie. I thought, "Well, now I know not to order from him again."
On Etsy, they want you to give feedback regarding your purchasing experience. I rated my experience with Builderstudio as neutral. Meaning it was neither good nor bad. And I added that the items were not what I expected. Which is true.
So today I get an email from this guy complaining about his neutral feedback and requesting I change them. He said he didn't deserve negative feedback.
I replied that it wasn't negative feedback, it was neutral feedback. Then he responded that that was unfair and that I gave no reason for the problem, etc. I tried to explain to him why I found the experience neutral. I should have just not responded in the first place, because I do think he probably is crazy and I could tell he was really offended. But I couldn't help myself. I finally said that I just didn't think the stuff was that cute in person and that's fine - he got paid, I got the order, whatever.
Then he gets really irate. He said that how could his stuff not be cute when he had pictures of them? This was in all caps. Now look, sometimes you see a picture and then the real thing isn't what you expected. It's not a big deal.
He then wrote this:
"Well, it took two quesries jsut to get any details from you. And not too
cute? THEY ARE THE SAME AS IN THE PHOTOS... no different. And you never emailed me about the problem, that's annoying. And a neutral is NOT a neatral, it's a negative
(viewed as such), a true neutral is to leave NO FEEDBACK! I certainly was waiting to hear what the actual problem was before offering a refund, which you never gave. And now you shut me out? You had no right to leave that neutral because you got what you saw in the pics and everyone loves them. PLease don't contact me again unless you are willing to withdraw the feedback." (All the typos are his; he is too crazy to proofread.) (I love how he says "everyone loves them." Not everyone, buddy!)
By this time, I'm pretty annoyed. I did contact him one more time (I just can't help myself) telling him he is very unpleasant and that I will never purchase from him again.
He wrote this:
"Good, as I would not sell to you. Treat a person as you would be treated. Now do not contact me again, second request."
I have no interest in contacting him again. I am a little afraid he is going to try to come to my house and murder me.
I did try to go to Etsy and change my neutral feedback to negative, but they don't let you do that. I would like to somehow let others know that if you make him unhappy he will harass you. But I am just going to let it go and hope he doesn't come to my house and try to kill me. When I got the package, the handwriting on the address label was very child-like. He probably still lives with him mom and all he has are his little figurines he makes for people.
But I would recommend that you not order from him. That's my advice to you. Whatever you do, don't use my name. Seriously, I think he's scary.
Here's a pic of the flying saucer. It is ok, but would be much cuter if it were smaller. It's too big to be a charm or pendant. I am not sure what to do with it. I'll probably hang it on the Christmas tree, too.
Here's a pic of the robot Santa. It really wasn't that cute even in the picture. Don't know what I was thinking.
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