Happy birthday indeed!

How cool is this?

You KNOW you've reached a kid when he does something like this for you.

And happy birthday, Tracey! :)

(Image credit to Jonathan & Jill)

How long can you try?

Still struggling with the loss of trust over here. Some of the behaviors have changed (which is actually pretty awesome, since those have been problems for a loooooooong time) but it's still discouraging; I asked the student involved for one more thing to demonstrate that new leaf, and that has not yet come. Which makes me sad, because I don't think I can back down on this one.

And then I read a post by my friend TeachEnEspanol that was awfully similar to my situation (go read!), and the comment I left her applies equally well to me. She said:

I guess the truth is that they've made their bed. Why then, do I have such a hard time letting them lie in it?

And my response, which I need to remember for myself as I'm having that hard time:

It's hard because it takes a long time to break a habit that was formed over a long time....and you want them to break that bad habit. And you want them to get that feeling of success that elissa mentioned, and you want them to have the triumphant end to the year that everyone else has had.

Because you're a good teacher and you care and even when you know someone has made the wrong choice, you still want to believe that they CAN make the right one.

Because you see though the missing work or supplies or appropriate attitude to the kid underneath who can make you laugh or has great insights into the reading or is kind to the bullied kids or takes on too much responsibility at home.

I'm not saying you should keep giving chances because that's not the best thing for the kid either (I'm in the middle of that myself......sigh), but that's why it's hard. At least, that's why it's hard for me. :/

That's why it's hard. That's why I have such a difficult time letting go. That's why I can't give up, even when my husband and my colleagues think I'm being too soft.

The picture I chose today is kind of a cheesy metaphor, I know that, but still. I believe that light is there, and if we can just keep going, just a little further, we'll reach it. Because how sad would it be to quit when (I think) we're so close?

(Image credit to extranoise)

Carnival time is here again!

New Carnival of Educators is up over at I Want to Teach Forever - go read the goodness!

My post about losing kids is included, as are many others. Though a lot are great and totally worth reading, two especially stood out for me.

Pat at Successful Teaching wrote about how That Kid could be the Great Kid. One line in particular made me well up a little (remember, I'm a crier): "I should focus on all of my kids as if they are all Great Kids." I know, it's not anything new, but at this time of year, it's a really good reminder.

And Molly is having a tough time. She lost her job, and she's really sad about it. It broke my heart to read this post from a dedicated teacher and to see how destroyed she is by this situation that is all based on money. Because I came really close this year to being in her situation, and I feel so fortunate that I'm not, and odds are fair that next year I will be, and it's just so scary and terrible.

Ultimatum update

I posted this in the comments, but thought I'd update here as well, re: my homeboy Drama King and my possibly unwise ultimatum.

I got very thoughtful comments from several people, but OKP's especially made me think.

I think you did the right thing. Let me start there.

I just don't know how it's going to work on your end. How does he know what it means to not be trusted? What does that look like?

If the trust is gone, does that mean he can't come to your room? You stop riding him about his work, or requiring him to come in? You don't call him by his first name (professional distance)? You don't give him tasks? Or treats?

Does it mean more detentions, more often? Calls home?

If the loss of trust has a consequence for him, then maybe he can try to earn it back.

I still think you did the right thing.

As soon as I read that, I was like, "....oh. Right. What does that actually MEAN." So then I thought about it, because, yeah, forever, awfully long time, and what DOES it look like, and decided that it would mean that he was no longer allowed in my room for lunch, but would be able to earn the trust back if he got the work done.

(Didn't end up being much of an issue, though, because he came in with the work. It wasn't completed, but it was a lot closer, and it was good enough. He'd stopped because he was stuck on where to go next with the piece, so he came in early this morning (he was absent yesterday), I helped him think through it, and he got it done.)

But that, I think, is why the ultimatum was the wrong choice - it didn't necessarily mean anything. It would have been better to be more concrete and have specific, measurable consequences, like not being able to come to my room, or like not being able to call me Mom, as with Honey.

I don't think telling him that I would have lost trust in him was wrong; I'm completely with TeachEnEspanol:

[T]his is a very important life lesson about the kind of man he is going to become and it is a true test of how much he values the relationships that means something to him.

He needs to know that promises should matter, and do, and breaking them isn't something to do lightly.

And as Rachel said, I could've asked him what it looked like. That would have been interesting for me, and useful. It's always good to ask kids what they think consequences are/should be. Gives good insight.

I'm really glad it worked out, that he did keep his promise. Next time I do that though, I'll be more clear on what my grandiose statement actually means.

(Also - see? This is why blogging is awesome! Because I got totally good insights and thoughts from super smart teachers whom I would never have otherwise known! Yaaaaaaay Internet!)

Carnival of Educators - check that out!

'Sup, y'all? It's time for some carnival madness! We have a buncha good entries this round (though we can always use more....submit for next time here!), so settle in and get reading.

Mathew Needleman presents What to do When Children Cry in Class posted at Creating Lifelong Learners. Although I laughed so hard that I cried the first time I saw this video a while back, it's a serious topic when it comes to the classroom.

Erin Topping submitted a piece by Q6, described as, "a blog that doesn't update that often, but usually has some interesting things to say -- this one's a radical grading paradigm shifty thing": Grade Calculation, Student Focus, and Winter Sports posted at Assistive Principles . . .. And it is interesting indeed.

Sarah submitted THREE (love those overachievers!) and told me to choose...so I'm going with Confessions: Boundary Issues posted at Confessions of an Untenured Teacher. I totally get where she's coming from.

Pamela presents CreekSchooling posted at Blah, Blah, Blog. What a great experience....I want my kids to get to do more stuff like that!

Sarah Garb presents Hold Your Nose posted at Dead Class Pets. I like fries too....

Scott Palat presents Student Success Resolution #6: Get Help When Needed posted at Colleen Palat. Oh my GOD I wish they would do this.

TIC Technology In Class presents Whom Do You Help? posted at Technology In Class. I write a lot about the needy wacky kids, because they make for good stories....but I'm with the poster here. We gotta think more about the middle.

Georgina Baeza presents Mr. Hinz posted at La Brown Girl. I wanna be in the superhero teacher crew....

Sarah Ebner presents An education in good manners - are schools and teachers given too many parental responsibilities? posted at School Gate - Times Online - WBLG. Wouldn't it be nice to give BACK some of these responsibilities? Sarah's a rockstar, and she's got kickin' guest posters too!

Rhonda Franz presents School Choice and Student Discipline posted at Parenting Squad. This really is a HUGE issue. Like, ridiculously so.

Adriana presents How To Kill a Dream posted at Today's Life Psychology. You gotta keep your dreams.

Rachel presents Harris Burdick - Who's there? posted at Progressively Unnecessary. I know I'm a better writer when I think about who's reading my work.

teachin' presents Hell of a day. posted at I'm a Dreamer. I still can't even believe this day. Like...ridiculous. On so many levels.

Oh, and some list posts. I deleted most of 'em but these three seemed valid. (If I didn't include your list post and you think it was actually education related, comment, and I'll add it in.)

Florine Church presents 100 Creative Ways to Excite & Inspire Young Readers posted at Online Degrees.

Zach Macias presents 10 Essential Web Tools for Teachers posted at Online Teacher Certification.

Wise Bread presents How to answer 23 of the most common interview questions posted at Wise Bread.

Thanks to everyone who submitted - don't forget to keep 'em coming. Carnivals are always in the works, and YOU make them successful!

Carnival time is close....

....and I have gotten some awesome submissions (thanks!) but still want more!

So. Here's the deal. If you are reading this post and you have a blog that is related to education in any way....would you please do a quick post asking people to submit here by midnight Eastern time tomorrow (And. If you miss the deadline. Let's be honest - hit me up by Monday evening and I'll probably still work you in. See? That's how much I love you! That's how much I want your work in the carnival! That's how awesome you are!)?

Because, sure, I can go around and just gather posts I like from the millions of blogs I read (and I will if I have to), but I'd love to get more people submitting the work they want others to read. So any posts soliciting submissions would be much appreciated.

And. If you have not yet submitted. Do it. Do it now. Look at your posts, recent or otherwise, and choose one you like for any reason, and submit.

It doesn't have to be the most amazing post ever written in the history of the world; it just has to relate to education and be from an actual person. If you submit it and it's a real post and not just a spam list post about the 50 greatest things anyone could do in their classroom ever ever ever for reals yo (of which I have gotten about 20 and ain't none of 'em getting posted), then your post WILL be in the carnival! The point is to share ideas on education on a wider-than-usual scale, so that you find awesome new blogs and people who've never read you before find your awesome blog, and we all feel more connected and happy and yay!

So go. Go now. Choose one and submit and then come back on Tuesday and read the whole dang thing. It's gonna be sweet. For reals.

Liar liar

Do you guys read Road Diaries? It's Anthony Mullen's blog; he's the Teacher of the Year, and he's a DAMN good writer. His post today is about breaking points - "the moment when remaining calm and appearing sane becomes harder to grasp than hugging smoke." It's an interesting story, and one I'd recommend you read, but I'm not posting about that overall. I'm writing about one line. Mullens was talking to someone about the situation in which they found themselves, and his conversational partner said, "People can take a lot of tings [sic], but not the lies. Not the lies."

And I was going to write about that (though not from Mullens' perspective so go read his too), just sort of a general thing because I try really, really, really hard not to lie to students; I don't like lying and I don't like to do it and I feel bad about myself when I do and so I just generally don't do it. It's awkward sometimes, because they'll ask me about things that I really CAN'T talk about from a confidentiality perspective, so then I have to find ways to answer without actually lying, but usually that works out in the long run.

So that's what I was going to write about.

And then I read about Constance McMillan, and the end to her prom saga.

Have you followed this? Constance, a senior in Mississippi, is gay. She wanted to go to her prom with her girlfriend. The school board said no. Constance and the ACLU sued. The school board lost and so they canceled the prom entirely rather than let her go. But then a private one was being put on! Constance was to go to that! A victory for reasonable, accepting, open people everywhere!

Except.

Oh, except.

The new prom was fake. Seven students, including Constance, went. SEVEN. Everyone else went to the REAL private prom that night, at a location kept secret from Constance.

And my heart broke.

Because why would you do that? Why would you treat another human being that way? I just....I don't get it. She's a person. SHE'S A PERSON. A human being like all the rest of us. That's all you should have to say.

And what makes it even worse is that it seems some teachers and the principal may have been in on it, since they chaperoned the fake secret prom.

In my classes recently we've been discussing what it means to be an American, particularly in regards to race, gender, social class, and citizenship status. I wanted to include sexual orientation as well but I got shot down on that because it might be too controversial. And I deferred. And now I'm so angry that I did. Because if we don't talk about this kind of stuff, then nothing changes. And this bullshit keeps happening. And we're lying to ourselves about our society and our futures and our humanity.

See, the thing is, lying isn't just about saying something untrue. It's about not saying the truth when you know what it is. It's about hearing the word gay sneered at someone and not calling the user out. It's about letting a friend refer to a decision as retarded without correcting their language. It's about ignoring the dozenshundredsthousandsmillions of petty cruelties that we perpetrate on each other every single day.

Land of the free. Home of the brave. We should be brave enough to stand up for those who aren't allowed to be free to be themselves.

Anything else is a lie.

I hope that I can someday be as brave and honest as Constance McMillan. I try every day but I'm not there yet. But I'm going to keep trying. That's my truth. That's what I have to do, because I can take a lot of things, but I can't take the lies.

Support our schools and our students.

Bill Ferriter of The Tempered Radical has a great post up about how the public thinks they know just what to do to fix this giant sloppy mess that is education....but how they really have no idea. Bill focuses on specifically the idea that a level playing field at the school level (funding, supplies, teachers) is all that any kid needs to learn.

Boy, wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be freakin' AWESOME?

Because that would mean that home environments and external concerns don't affect student learning, and it would be so nice to believe that. I'd love to think that these kinds of stories don't impact what happens inside the school.

I could stop worrying so much then, stop feeling so much responsibility, just teach 'em about reading'n'writing and not have conversations about how crappy it is that their favorite cousin just got shot in the face, or that their brother got arrested last night, or that their sister is pregnant and has run away from home (all of these have happened in the last month. Not exaggerating even slightly).

Because those things wouldn't affect their learning - they could just ignore them and focus on how sometimes off is an adverb and sometimes it's a preposition and it just depends on how it's being used. And then we could all laugh about how wacky the English language is and skip lightly off to lunch, chatting and singing songs about how wonderful life is. Tra la! Tra lay!

As is. Not so much.

I left a comment on Bill's site about how it's not just the general public who judges kids in poverty and doesn't want them around their precious little darlings - teachers do it too. Sometimes it's teachers from other schools, sometimes from my own. I know a teacher who is very vocal about how she wouldn't send her son to our school because of the bad influences and how academically low our kids are. I think if she wouldn't send her son, she shouldn't come herself.

A student asked me a few days ago why the kids from other schools don't like us. This big tough eighth grade boy, someone who looks a little scary, who might make people cross the street if he was walking toward them late at night, genuinely wondered and was genuinely hurt by it. His voice cracked as he asked me.

Whenever you hear someone speaking disparagingly of students like mine, or questioning why the teachers in high-poverty schools struggle to raise scores as high as those in middle- and upper-middle class schools, please remind them a lot of factors influence education, and that we do the best we can to make things better for our kids. It's not about making excuses for them - God knows I don't want to do that. Education is their only way out, their only chance to escape the generational poverty that so many of them are born into. And so I'm hard on them, I push them, I love them. But I need a little understanding from the public that what I'm doing is worth it, that these kids are worth it, and that they can do everything that anyone else can do but it might take them a little longer and a little extra support to get there.

(Image credit to Travelin' John)

I feel pretty fancy here, I tell you what.

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah Ebner of School Gate very kindly nominated me for Best New Blog in the Edublogs awards. Obviously, I'm super honored, and now all the nominations are up. I'm in good company, I'm sure - I don't actually recognize any of the other new blogs (though I read a number of the ones in other categories), so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to check them out! (You know, with all that free time teachers have. Well, winter break is coming, at least....)

If you are so inclined, I'd be pretty psyched if you'd go check out the noms and maybe even vote for me? I'm listed about two-thirds of the way down the page. Of course, if you think another nominee is better, vote for them! And then tell me who they are so I can start reading them too. :)

Sarah, thanks again for the nomination!

Why blogging rocks.

Rachel at Progressively Unnecessary wrote a post yesterday about leaving her school at the semester and how sad she is about it. It's for a good reason - her husband got a new job in a new state and they can't afford to live in two different places - but she's heartbroken about leaving her kids. Which I get. I would be too. (Heck, I will be. What's that? I'm dwelling? Yeah, little bit. I'm working on it.)

When I read her post, though, my first thought was, "Oh no! I don't want you to go!"

Think about that for a second.

She's a blogger. Who lives across the country from me. Whom I've never met in person. Whom I've never even talked to - we've just read and commented on each other's writings.

And I still felt like I was losing a friend.

But that's the fabulous thing about blogging - I'm not. Because I assume that wherever Rachel goes, she'll still be blogging. Different kids, different curriculum, lots of changes - but still writing about it. And I can still read it.

Ain't blogging grand?

(Image credit to firepile)

Carnival fun!

#12 is up at Epic Adventures are Often Uncomfortable. Get thee hence!

Sure isn't.

"Well, it's never dull." Thus spake Ricochet at the end of a post detailing some class/student turmoil. I read it and thought wistfully, Boy, but wouldn't it be nice if it was? Just for a few days? Just once in a while?

Today I:

made a social services call (first of this year but certainly not the last);

tried to convince some of my colleagues that a new student probably deserves a chance and some assistance to help him fit into our school before we simply throw up our hands, declare he's hopeless, and look to expelling him (yep, he's acting like a little shit, but he's clearly a troubled kid who needs some help, and we can't just throw kids away - we're not a charter school, after all);

learned that the Charmer has moved schools again, though he apparently tried to call me yesterday before he did (I got the contact info for his grandparents, his new guardians, and am working on getting in touch with them);

talked to a student about why it's not his fault that another student got beaten up (which it really truly isn't, but he sure doesn't believe that yet);

talked to another student about why social services came to talk to her (because of a really, really, really horrible thing that happened to her little sister;

persuaded a student with broken ribs to go to the doctor (yay football injuries!);

harangued four kids into staying after school and getting enough work done to move from high Fs to very low Cs (ah, the beauty of completing assessments that you'd started and just hadn't taken to publication...it's like magic!);

and.....huh. Guess that's it for the day. Oh, and did some teaching and grading and stuff.

Never, ever, EVER dull.

(Photo credit to Kapungo) (Okay, can't get it to upload. Will try again later. But theoretically credit is to Kapungo!)

Bear witness.

Joanne Jacobs had a post last week referencing a Newsweek article about the new movie Precious (based on the book Push by Sapphire) in which the Newsweek writer complains that Precious should be taught math rather than being encouraged to write her story. And the article and its comments left me frustrated, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why (except of course that I'm a Language Arts teacher and I think my content matters). So I went about my way feeling irritated but unable to articulate a response.

Then yesterday I read a post from Larry Ferlazzo referencing a post from Angela Maiers about using the words, "I notice..." with students. In Angela's post, she quotes the movie Shall We Dance, saying,

"We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."

And suddenly it was so clear to me.

Everyone needs a witness. Everyone needs to know that their life matters, that THEY matter, that they're SEEN. If you feel like you're nothing, like no one cares, like you have no possible future other than violence and pain and trouble, why would you care about your education? I sure as hell wouldn't.

Maybe I'm speaking hyperbolically when I speak of no possible future. For some kids, I certainly am. Not for all of them, though. For some, it's true.

My content area lends itself to seeing kids - they write about things that matter to them, personal experiences, hopes and fears. And I get to read that writing, and so I get to know more about them than some of their teachers do, perhaps more easily. But the thing is, any teacher can see a kid. Any teacher can get to know them on a personal level. Any teacher can notice a student who seems off and say, "Hey, you okay?" I asked a student that this morning; she told me she'd been crying last night, thinking about her dad who was murdered last year and then her cousin who died yesterday. I'm not close with this student; she told me because I'd asked. Can I do much about her situation? No. But at least she knows that I know her well enough to see when something is wrong. And I'll check in with her again tomorrow to make sure she's okay, or see if she wants to talk any further.

A burden shared is a burden halved; an old, perhaps trite, aphorism...but true. And sometimes burdens are so incredibly heavy that they crush you to where you can't even inch forward. If you don't share it, you'll never get out from under. You'll never be able to move, to heal, to breathe.

See your students. Talk to them. Listen to them. Do it whenever and wherever you can - in the hall, at lunch duty, when they come in to make up a test, at a concert or game. Give them a chance to open up to you. Because they have to tell their stories, they have to know they're seen, they have to get through those life-sucking burdens, or they'll never be able to care about the statistics and probability lessons that Newsweek's Jennie Yabroff thinks are so crucial.

Be their witness.

(Photo credit to Sonnett)

EduCarnival V2 Issue 11!

This weekend, we fell back an hour. I can never remember if that's Daylight Savings, or Daylight Spendings (okay, I know that's not really a thing) - all I remember is that I feel like I get an extra hour. So what are some teachers around the blogosphere using that extra time for? Oh my goodness, so many kickass things....

Darren of Right on the Left Coast is using it for some of the many tasks that teachers do that actually have nothing to do with delivering instruction. (He is far more focused at school than I.)

Mo of A Day in the Life of a Selfish Brat is spending some time reflecting on how she got her job, and questioning herself. (Go cheer her up!)

Mathew Needleman of Creating Lifelong Learners is wondering how to get teacher education programs to address integrating technology in the classroom. (Any thoughts?)

Pat of Successful Teaching is using it to connect to school board members near and far. (And I'm totally going to be using some of her suggestions to do it myself.)

Richie of Bellringers is meeting high school newspaper deadlines....and doing it CHOCOLATE FREE. (A shiver just ran down your spine, didn't it? I know. An extra hour's not enough time for that kind of tragedy.)

Siobhan Curious of Classroom as Microcosm is applying a personally frustrating experience to her students' learning experiences, as seen through the lens of what sounds like a really smart book of Buddhist precepts. (I'll be adding it to my reading list! For, you know, when we fall back three days and I have the time to read it. What? That doesn't happen?)

Old Andrew of Scenes from the Battleground is creating some handy negative correlation illustrations. (My favorite is the last one.)

Pissed Off Teacher is helping her students set some pretty dang useful goals. (I should try that with a few of mine.)

Joanne Jacobs is promoting a new way of training teachers involving mentoring that is far more extensive than our current system. (I think it sounds great! Plus the comparison to young doctors makes me assume it would be as dramatic as, say, Grey's Anatomy, and that'd be fascinating.)

Mister Teacher of Learn Me Good is regrouping his thoughts around subtraction regrouping and questions that involve words as well as numbers. (His math tests are way more thought-provoking than I recall third grade being. I just had to, like, add and subtract and stuff.)

Mr. D. of I Want to Teach Forever is hooking up his math teacher homies with a rockin' sounding game to help with number sense. (Sounds way fun to me - perhaps I should come up with something similar for parts of speech....)

Jose Vilson is thinking deeply and sharing generously about his writing process. (I super heart his simile from his title. THAT'S some effective figurative language right there, my friends.)

Mr. B of Docere Est Discere is reviewing a book that responds to a question we've all gotten a few times, and reconsidering how to answer that question. (I'm with him - you have to be willing to answer that question. I wish more teachers would.)

And I of here :) have been worrying about my kids and the change of seasons.

Only one list post - peruse Rachel Holtz's article if you're looking for a change in career and want some non-traditional majors. (#9, yo - Casino Dealer. Not for me, but totally badass.)

Boy. Will you just LOOK at everything that got done with that extra hour? Rock on, y'all. Keep up the good work, and don't forget to submit for next week's EduCarnival V2! I think it'll be back at Epic Adventures are Often Uncomfortable, but keep watching there and Clix will let you know if it's going elsewhere.

(Photo credit to Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)

Bet Red: Thank you, Tomato Nation!

How many of you have used Donors Choose? If you've never submitted a proposal (or possibly never even heard of them), you should look into them.

Basically they're a site that allows teachers to submit proposals for materials or experiences that will benefit their students, and generous people give money to fulfill those dreams. It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

I submitted a proposal in early September for two digital cameras, two memory cards, and two digital voice recorders. With the products, shipping, a donation to Donors Choose for operating costs, supplies for a thank you package to donors, the total cost was not quite $700.

That's a lot of money.

I sent it out to my friends and family, hoping some of them would like to donate, and several did. But yesterday something amazing happened because of a woman with a mission, a group of like-minded people, and the power of internet organizing.

Every October, Donors Choose does a social media promotion. Sars at Tomato Nation is a tremendous supporter of teachers and students and just general coolness, and every year, she gives her readership a goal to reach. As incentives, she sets up matching donations at certain levels, prizes for donors, all kinds of good stuff. This year, the base goal was $150,000 - a HUGE amount of money - with the hope to get to $210,000 through a match from HP.

They reached it. They passed it. They're still going.

As of right now, just over 1100 donors have given (including matches) over $300,000, reaching over 50,000 students. Including mine.

Isn't it incredible to know that so many people want to help kids learn? So many people are willing to give so much to enhance student educational experiences? Kids they don't even know?

Below is the letter I wrote thanking them. If you haven't ever checked out Donors Choose, look into it. Not every project gets funded, but a whole lot do. And if you're ever looking for a rockin' blog to read with advice, humor, a supportive and intelligent host and community, check out Tomato Nation.

I will always Bet Red.

*******************************************************************************************************

Dear Sars and everyone at Tomato Nation,

It's not quite 4 am and I'm sitting at my laptop in tears. But not like the 4 am kind of tears that mean something terrible just happened.

Sometimes I don't sleep very well, and so I get up and go do something while I'm waiting to feel tired again. Tonight was one of those nights. As I was playing on the internet, I decided to go look at my DonorsChoose page just for kicks - I like to check in every day on my projects. Usually not much has changed (often not anything). Today was different.

My page looked different. Suddenly my projects had been split up - and one was listed as fully funded. What?

I clicked through to the page. Yesterday, three Bet Red donors finished funding my project to create digital stories. (Four Bet Redders gave in total.)

Although I knew that Donors Choose was a great organization, although I knew that donors help teachers and students every day through them.....somehow it hadn't seemed quite real till now. Hadn't seemed possible.

You guys kick SO MUCH ASS.

From me, from my kids, from everyone you've funded -

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

Much love,

Ms. Teachin'

Keep On Keepin' On: The Teacher Look

As you’ve read, I’ve been a touch nervous about moving to eighth grade. Would I be able to handle it? Would the kids respond to me? Would my discipline tactics still work?

So far, the answer to all is a resounding yes.

I’ve had several students tell me how excited they are to have me as a teacher – and several others tell me how sad they are that they don’t. At back to school night, I met a handful of new parents as well as a couple I already knew, and all were very responsive. Of course, they’re the ones who show up for things like back to school night, but still.

AND my teacher look still works. Every good teacher has a teacher look – my favorite description of one comes from Miss Eyre, who describes hers thus: “[M]y own is one of appalled dismay, followed quickly by disappointment.” Love it. My teacher look is more of your basic stare, one eyebrow slightly raised (though it can go higher when needed). It’s always worked beautifully with sixth graders, but would the eighth graders respond?

Turns out, yes. I had to use it a few times on Friday for kids who were whacking their pencils violently on their desks (okay, technically they were tapping, but I simply cannot handle that – it is as distracting to me as a jackhammer would be) or who were chatting with a neighbor rather than listening to my student teacher try to teach about appropriate hallway behavior. (Why, yes, I have a student teacher. Yes, this IS my third year teaching. No, no I don’t consider this fully appropriate. We’ll discuss this later.)

Anyway, each time I had to use The Look on Friday, the kid in question immediately shaped up – and the majority also mouthed a sorry at me. Sure, second day of school and they’re still on their best behavior, but I have high hopes that we can continue with this.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

(Photo credit to jbaij)

52 Teachers - are you one?

As of yesterday, Mr. D at I Want To Teach Forever still needed a submission for his 52 Teachers, 52 Lessons community project. I know it’s not much notice, but if you haven’t submitted something, do it!

I love reading the advice that other teachers (or parents, or admin, or…?) give – several weeks have been very thought-provoking for me. And I myself wrote one a while back. If I can, you can.

So what are you waiting for? You have cool and useful things to tell people! Go do it!

The Trouble with Boys: Turns Out, It's Not Them

Bill Ferriter, The Tempered Radical, has a great post up about a former student of his, Jack, who is the “PROTOTYPICAL middle school boy.” It’s about how schools are simply not designed for boys – they drop out at higher rates, they’re placed in special education at higher rates, they’re suspended and expelled at higher rates – and how incredibly tragic that is.

Bill describes Jack this way:
It means that he’s a constant ball of energy, tapping his pencil, blurting out answers, standing, sitting, squirming, moving, shouting, and running all over the room. And if you let him stop by during lunch, he’ll burp the entire alphabet, stuff fourteen Cheetos up his nose, and chug milk like a frat boy on a weekend bender…If you patiently sift through the movement, though, it’s hard NOT to fall in love with “Jack the Student.” He is an inquisitive kid who is ALWAYS focused on what’s going on in class. Everything that he blurted out in my room was brilliant, directly connected to the broad themes that we were studying in class and challenging the thinking of everyone in the room—including me.

He continues the description – it’s worth a read. The post closes with, “In the end, I’m starting to think that schools are rigged against kids like Jack. And that breaks my heart.”

I completely agree.

This probably isn’t a surprise to anyone, but I love my obnoxious boys – the kids who Mrs. Mimi at It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages refers to as the Naughty Boys. They’re energetic, and crazy, and loud, and so much fun. Total whack jobs. So often they’re made to feel like they don’t fit at school, like they aren’t good enough because they aren’t the quiet girls who sit and get their work done. Would I like the Slacker to get more (okay, any) work done? Absolutely. Would it be nice if the Charmer could go a week without getting in trouble for being a smartass? Hell yes. But does that make them bad kids, or serious problems, or more trouble than they’re worth? Not in a million years.

My husband was one of those boys. So was his brother. They were active, energetic, normal boys who liked to move around and do stuff and make smartass comments. Some of their teachers could handle this, could redirect them without making them feel like failures, and some of them couldn’t.

So my husband and brother-in-law spent a lot of time kicked out of class. Frequent visits to the principal’s office. Phone calls home. Made to feel like losers. My brother-in-law especially didn’t much care for this, so he became a total behavior problem – he reminisces fondly about the different times he made teachers cry. Positive attitude? Probably not. But kids know when their teachers don’t like them, and why would you want to try for someone who clearly does not like you?

I’ve been reading the book The Trouble with Boys by Peg Tyre. I can’t remember where I found the recommendation or I’d give credit, but it’s pretty interesting. It’s written more with parents in mind than teachers, but definitely has information that I can apply to my classroom and my kids. That’s especially true for me as a Language Arts teacher, because there’s such a gap between boys and girls in reading and writing. The book’s suggestions aren’t new – boy-friendly books, choice in subject matter, male reading role models, let kids be active in the classroom at times – but they’re a good reminder.

My brother-in-law dropped out of high school. Today he’s a stable small business owner. He got his GED and works incredibly hard, but his success is due in large part to his middle class parents who gave him a down payment (the money they’d saved for his college fund) and co-signed the loan with him.

My kids don’t have parents who can do that. I need to make sure that my boys are as prepared as possible to succeed, because no one’s going to fix their mistakes for them.

(Photo credit to JoF)

Guest Post Up!

I have a guest post up over at JD2718; he's been thinking about new teacher retention, so I wrote an essay from the perspective of a relatively new teacher and what would have helped me. Please go check it out!

I'd love thoughts from anyone, but especially from those of you who are still in your first five - statistically, around half of us should be gone by then. I don't intend to be one of those, and I don't think most of you do either, but are there things your schools or districts could have done (or could still do) to help keep us around?

Ideas here or there are very welcome!

Anger in the Classroom Part II

One more bit to add about the anger stuff. A teacher I work with is legendary for his rage. When he gets mad at a kid for behavior he considers beyond the pale (like the time a student put a “kick me” sign on the back of one of our severe needs kids), he loses it. He takes the kid out in the hall and yells so loudly that we can hear it in my room, and I'm four full rooms away.

Honestly, it would scare the crap out of me to get reamed like that, so I imagine it's true for the kids as well. That's one of the reasons I'm resolving to yell less and try to not get so angry – I hear how the students talk about him and I just don't want to be known that way.

I'm not saying that when kids do dumb or inappropriate stuff they shouldn't have consequences, because they should; that kick me sign was deeply not okay and the student involved needed to know that, but I don't think that yelling did anything to change that student's future behavior. I think all it did was humiliate him and make him hate the teacher involved.

I'm also not saying that we should make decisions about our behavior based solely on how students will react, or that we should worry about our reputations too much, but, again, I believe that I can be more effective as a teacher if my kids like and respect me, and they'll like and respect me more if I treat them with compassion and respect.

A few weeks ago I read this great book (and I'll post about it more extensively coming up because I loved it so so much) that Angela Watson from The Cornerstone Blog recommended. It was short and simple, just some advice about fourteen things that great teachers do differently. The whole book really resonated with me, but one part in particular stood out for me – the section on treating everyone with respect.

Whitaker writes, “If everyone in a school is treated with respect and dignity, you may have nothing special. However, if everyone in a school is not treated with respect and dignity, you will never have anything special. Of that I am sure.”

I want to have something special in my classroom, and so I need to make sure I treat everyone with respect. The change I personally need to make to ensure that happens is to reduce my anger and my yelling.

(Photo credit to bethany actually)