Sleeping students

On friday during my 6th period class, half of students slept through my lesson. I didn't bother trying to wake them up because they were all consistent trouble makers in that class. The kids that were awake got a lot more out of the class becuase their were no disruptions. I've come to realization that I have to try my best to help the kids that really want it as opposed to wasting valuable time trying to get my class under control. I guess I'll go with that strategy. Give demerits to sleeping students and keep teaching the kids that really care.

Plans for next year???

At this point I'm not to sure what I plan to do next year. Law school, teaching, Law school part-time and teaching, or maybe I might stay in Mississippi? Who knows... I'm really interested in teaching in a school for incarcerated teens. I think those kids would take their education a lot more seriously than some of the kids I currently teach. All of those kids have already hit rock bottom and really want to get an education so that they can assimilate themselves back into society as a productive citizen. At least I hope so.. I'm extremely frustrated with the lack of effort from my students. I've tried everything I can think of to motivate them, however, this generation of kids, in my opinion, have no respect or sense of urgency in regards to education. They aspire to be lawyers, doctors and business owners etc, but they think that it's just going to happen. It actually pisses me off the way they are so arrogant and cocky about what there going to become when they don't even realize that their illiterate and that there is no possible chance of them becoming a professional doctor or lawyer when they can barely read and write!

Memory

A few days ago, I glanced out the window of our house and saw two girls playing football with two boys. The two boys live directly across the street and the two girls live adjacent to me. It was awesome to see them having so much fun! I was tempted to go out and play with them, but decided to watch TV instead. I definitely should have gone out their and asked them if I could play. That moment reminded me of the first time I went outside to play football. I was about 8 years old at the time, and there were a dozen kids playing on our street. I begged my grandmother persistently for about an hour to let me go play. She finally let me go, but warned me to stay on our block. I knew why she was so overprotective of me. Some of those kids were 5 or six years older than me. The main reason she wanted me to stay clear of them is because some of them sold crack in the neighborhood. “You’ll see what ends up happening to them,” she said. “It may take you many years to understand, but you will.” She was right. I was so fortunate to have a guardian that realized that keeping me away from my environment would protect me. Most of my students don’t have those types of parents or guardians. Being poor and uneducated doesn’t mean or shouldn’t be an excuse for allowing your kids to get into trouble. It also shouldn’t be an excuse for them not to get an education! My grandma wanted me to do much better than the eleventh grade education she had. Sometimes I think that some of the parents of the children I teach don’t want their kids to succeed. To be continued……

First Few Weeks

Things were a lot different the first few weeks of school this year as opposed to last year. First, I decided not to coach. This has allowed me to have time to be a more efficient and creative teacher. I have been able to really prepare and review my lessons each day. I will also be able to participate in some after school tutoring which will begin this week. Don’t get me wrong! I really miss coaching, but teaching English and coaching is just suicide. The amount of work you have to put in unparallel with other subjects. Let’s see. My principal came into my room during the first week of school which I thought was amazing. Last year, I didn’t see an administrator in my room until several months into the school year. The kids at Chambers are the same as the students I taught at Murrah. There is one difference though. The students at Chambers are treated like young adults and not like dogs in a kennel. My classroom management is pretty much the same. The kids are trying to see if I really care about them or not. In a way, I’m testing them as well. I told them the first day that the door of trust swings both ways.

First Few Weeks

Things were a lot different the first few weeks of school this year as opposed to last year. First, I decided not to coach. This has allowed me to have time to be a more efficient and creative teacher. I have been able to really prepare and review my lessons each day. I will also be able to participate in some after school tutoring which will begin this week. Don’t get me wrong! I really miss coaching, but teaching English and coaching is just suicide. The amount of work you have to put in unparallel with other subjects. Let’s see. My principal came into my room during the first week of school which I thought was amazing. Last year, I didn’t see an administrator in my room until several months into the school year. The kids at Chambers are the same as the students I taught at Murrah. There is one difference though. The students at Chambers are treated like young adults and not like dogs in a kennel. My classroom management is pretty much the same. The kids are trying to see if I really care about them or not. In a way, I’m testing them as well. I told them the first day that the door of trust swings both ways.

Unit/Book that worked

One book in particular that my students loved was "Nigger", which is the autobiogragphy of Dick Gregory. I was a little scared of how the principal might respond to this book, therefore I decided not to include it in any of my lesson plans. Let me tell you it was well worth the gamble. My students absolutely fell in love with this book. Parents went out to buy the book for most of my students even though I had a class set and didn't require my students to buy the book. Anyway. My students related to many of the struggles that Mr. Gregory endured throughout his childhood. I completely took advantage of this. I had my students write an autobiography about themselves. As we were reading through the book I had them thinking about how their lives were similar to Mr. Gregory's. This sort of took the place of a pre-writing activity becuas ethey would use the information for an essay I would have them write after completing the book. I decided to teach what and how to write a compare and contrast essay. Since they had jotted down notes about Mr. Gregory's struggles it was easy for them to understand what comparing and contrasting is. After reading the drafts, I could tell that my students were extremely engaged in this assignment. They also told me that it was tough talking about their personal lives, but enjoyed writing about something important. There is no doubt that I will have my students read this book next year.

Corporal Punishment

When I first arrived in Mississippi I was strongly against the use of corporal punishment in public schools. Luckily, I was placed in Jackson where corporal punishment is illegal, but this is not to say that it doesn't occur because it does. I always knew that football coaches were aggressive towards players and occasionally a coach will grab your face mask or shove you, but I wasn't prepared for the physical abuse that I saw as a football coach. The first incident (The only incident I will discuss) occured when one of our players failed a class for the first term. This player was called into the football office by our head coach and was infomred that he would have to face some sort of punishment for failing to pass this particular class. The coach closed our office door and told the player to place both his hands on the wall. The coach preceded to whip him with a leather weight lifting belt. I thought to myself "Ths isn't legal". I didn't say anything to the coaches or the principal about it. I probably should have considering the trouble that lied ahead for me. The player didn't tell anyone about it. The entire team heard him get whipped and no one protested it. I guess it was just excepted. I find it hard to believe that the principals didn't know anything about it since they speak and know each other pretty well. This upcoming year, I will be teaching in the Delta where corporal punishment is permissible. I am still strongly against corporal punishment and will have to be very careful on expressing my opinions on it. My principal is very progressive and will hopefully repsect my views on it. I do believe in a child getting spanked by their parent, probably because I was spanked, but I still believe that giving a principal the power to paddle a kid is to excessive and gives to much room for abuse to occur. I am hoping that I don't have to witness a child get paddled. I also plan on completely changing around my classroom management plan so that I can at least attempt to discipline kids without sending them to the office. If they are sent to the office, they will most likely get paddled.

If I could go back to last June!!!

If I had the opportunity to go back in time and do something different during my first year, I would have opted to not coach football. Coaching affected a myriad of things both inside and outside of school for me. An English teacher has a much greater paperwork load than any other teacher. It was almost impossible to grade papers in a timely fashion and get them back to my students with good feedback. I could have done a much better job at that if I had time after school. In addition to not being able to edit papers the way I wanted to, I also couldn’t hold any after school tutoring. This was frustrating for me because I knew that many of my kids needed more instruction.
My sleeping patterns were inconsistent during the week due to coaching. Sometimes I wouldn’t get home until 8:30 P.M. This leaves very little time to eat, shower and get ready for the next day. I did it, but it almost killed me. Overall, I had a pretty rough first year, it would have been so much easier if I had that additional time after school. And by the way, practices were on average lasted about 3 hours and could sometimes go even longer.
There were also a lot of ethical concerns that I had to deal with. I was asked several times to talk to teachers about grade changes and was even asked to change grades. I managed to avoid accepting those requests, but at a price. I slowly disconnected myself to the coaching staff which I’m glad I did. I had to fail one of the star players on our football team. He’ll have to take the class over during the summer and I really hope he passes. If not, the head coach we’ll probably go to the principal for a grade change since I’m no longer at the school. All of these factors that I’ve discussed have made it very easy for me to decline the coaching job I was offered at Simmons for the upcoming year.

Five Pieces of Advice for the 1st years

Five Pieces of Advice

Implement your classroom management plan immediately!! Your classroom management will set the tone for the entire year. If you don’t establish order and discipline, your students will think that they can do whatever they want. Keep in mind that most of your kids will come from homes that are unstructured. In addition to this, you must also make sure that you are consistent and objective when it comes to disciplining students. In other words, don’t show favoritism toward particular students.
Stay organized!! Get a filing cabinet and lots of manila folders. Every worksheet and lesson plan that you create should be filed. This makes it a lot easier to look and see what you taught on particular day and how you assessed the objectives taught etc etc. Keep your grade book organized and neat. This will avoid any hassles when entering grades at the end of the term or semester. I would suggest keeping your grades on some type of software that can calculate percentages for you. If you do decide to do this, make sure you keep a hard copy in case your computer crashes!
Develop relationships with your students. Don’t be impersonal. Ask your kids how their weekend was and if they did anything interesting. You don’t have to be their best friend, but just show some interest in them. Doing this will make your classroom management more effective. Kids will respect you more if you have a relationship with them. Another way you can develop relationships is by attending events that students participate in or attend such as sporting events, church, school plays etc etc.
Don’t coach a sport during your first year! The first year of teaching is very stressful. You are trying to adjust to the everyday functions of the school your in. You don’t have a years worth of lesson plans etc etc. Coaching a sport is rewarding, but will consume a lot of your time. You will probably be getting home at 7 or 8 in the evening!! It can be done, but I’d advise against it.
Sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have all heard that adults need at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep each night. However, most adults get less than 7 hours of sleep. Get your rest. Don’t stay up late doing work. If you organize your time, there is no reason to not get enough rest. You’ll burn out pretty quickly if you consistently get minimal sleep. This is what happens to most of your students. They don’t get enough rest and as a result, don’t have the energy to focus on learning.

Trip to Hollandale

Last friday I went to Hollandale to sign my contract and speak to my principle about the upcoming year. I can see that Mrs. Johnson is an excellent principle that is organized, intelligent and has high expectations for both her teachers and students. As soon as I sat down to sign my contract she asked me what I wanted in my classroom for the upcoming year. I immediately had a number of things on my mind.

* 30 dry erase boards for students to use during class
* 30 Dictionaries
* 30 Thesaurus's
* Portable Smartboard

She immediately told me that everything I requested would be in my room by the end of the month. One of her requirements of me was that I keep my self updated with current discussions regarding education. She encouraged me to challenge her with any ideas that I may have about instruction and any other issues within the school. I said to myself "This is my kind of principle." I am really excited about working at Chambers. I still have a bad taste in my mouth because of my experiences at Murrah. I spent so much time dealing with those idiots that call themselves principles. I learned alot though. Especially the fact that its really easy to act like you know what your doing as an administrator. Until I see otherwise, I have lost faith in principals. There jobs seem pointless to me, however, Mrs. Johnson may prove otherwise. I've decided that I'm most likely not going to coach, due to the fact that I want to focus on helping out kids academically.

"What a difference individual attention makes"

Last week while Aaron Thompson was teaching, I decided to take one of our students down to the library to review some material. Since we are teaching one class of Spanish each day I decided to use that time to work one on one with students. It was so beneficial working with Darcel. We all had preconceptions about her being a potentially weak student with learning disabilities, however, I was surprised at how incredibly bright she was. I had her read aloud to me and answer some reading comprehension and context clue questions. She read pretty fluently, but could use some more practice. I preceeded to go through each question that Darcel got wrong. In addition, I also had her edit an autobiography she wrote. I was amazed to see that she really understood the mistakes she had make after reading over her work (I made her read it aloud!). She admitted that she doesn't read over anything that she writes. We all initially thought that Darcel was one of those students that was lazy and didn't care. Her problem is that she stays up late on the phone and doesn't really get discipline at home. I decided that our group would take turns working with students on reading and writing. So far, the first years say that it makes a tremendous difference.

Classroom Managment Blog

Morning detention has been an effective tool to deter my students from misbehaving in class. Since I have to coach after school, I can't assign detention at the end of the school day. My students hate getting to school at 7:45 A.M. when they normally could arrive at 8:15 A.M. If a student doesn't show up to detention, they will be assigned to I.S.S. (In-school suspension), which they hate even more. In addition to assigning detention, talking to a student one on one also works. This allows me the oppurtunity to try and find out why a student is misbehaving and what can be done about it. For the most part, I've discovered that my trouble makers are generally good kids that certainly know how to behave. Sometimes these methods don't work, but they've been consistently effective.

Class Discussion

Toward the end of one of my English classes, I decided to have an open discussion about things my students didn’t like at school (Murrah High School). A couple of girls openly told the entire class that they had been harassed by a security guard at the school. They specifically said that this security guard has made inappropriate comments toward them and many other female students. One 14-year-old student said, “I just don’t feel comfortable around him. He looks and talks to me in a weird way.” The girls also stated that they felt that the security guard used his authority inappropriately to enforce the dress code. “He asks me to open up my jacket to see what kind of shirt I’m wearing,” said one student. “He stairs at my chest to see how far down my shirt goes.”

I asked the girls if they had told anyone about this. They responded by telling me that no one would believe them and that they were afraid of getting into trouble. I was hesitant to give them any guidance as far as what to do. In fact, I’m not to sure what I should do.

Battle with administration

This week I broke up one of the worst fights I’ve ever seen. One of my students was cut above they eye and will have to get stitches. I was extremely angry and upset about how the administration and security handled the situation. As the student was bleeding, the first thing that the assistant principle asked him for was his name. He didn’t even have the decency to ask if the young man was ok. No wonder these kids don’t respect the principals at our school. The administration is to busy focusing on what punishment the students should get as opposed to being concerned with their safety. In my opinion, the assistant principal should have been more concerned with Keavin’s physical injury. I handled the situation in that matter. The only thing I was concerned with was stopping the bleeding and making sure Keavin calmed down. The next day, I sat down with the assistant and head principal to vent my anger. I can’t say that I was impressed on their comments involving the incident. This incident has undermined my respect toward the principals. To be continued