Day 11: September 10, 2009

More grading papers today. Purty much the whole day. While the class was discussing the constitution, why we needed a constitution, why the articles of confederation didn't work out. That sort of thing.

Two things I want to talk about in this entry:

First is that it seems as though giving one of these kids 5-10 minutes of undivided attention, it's sometimes enough to make them think that you're they're friend/advocate/whatever. It's kind of like my cat. I can use my existing talents to befriend the following types of students:

Nerdy kids
Angry teenage leftists
Kids who do too many drugs
Hipster trash
Various other 'artsy' kids

Hopefully I figure out how to deal with other kinds of kids eventually. Overachieving kids are easy because a lot of them do their best to befriend you on their own. I've been able to get the respect of some of the jocks by mentioning that I can't come to their game Friday because I'm going to my friends party (PARRRRTY). Lyn has informed me that the grace period of students liking you because you're young only lasts a few years. Better come up with another strategy soon.

Second point is that I question my professional ethics in teaching this government class. I mean srsly. My purpose here is to deliberately dumb down, misrepresent, and otherwise mangle my subject matter so that these kids will pass their tests. The content we're supposed to be teaching is overly simplistic and slanted narrowly toward a rose-tinted vision of how the United States operates in the world and at home. And there is so little room to operate in. Even if I defied the administration and the kids' parents and taught my ideal US government course, what then? I would still have to prepare the kids for the HSAs. I have to think about this more. But questions, I guess:

How do I present my kids with a model of civic engagement that is dynamic and engaged, and not based entirely around passive and atomized activities (i.e. voting, reading the news)? How do I present this when I myself am passive, atomized and cynical?

How do I provide a wider perspective on global affairs than the one offered in the curriculum and in mainstream media while still meeting constraints of time/varying ability levels?

How do I do both of these things without pissing off parents, administrators and still get my kids to pass the HSAs?

Day 10: September 9, 2009

I forgot to mention something of mild importance from yesterday: after finishing with the presentations, we watched this video: Morgan Freeman FTW! And we watched it again today, after the on-level groups finished their presentations.

Important points from today:

The metal group went down in flames. And not in a metal way. In an awkward way. No one would agree to sing except the metal kid, so they just ended up reading his song aloud. Tragic.

But stylistically, it was a lot better than a lot of the other compositions.

I got the opportunity to grade papers. Which was kind of neat. I'm not sure how I will do this as a professional teacher. It's ungodly repetitive, and I couldn't resist the urge to make Star Wars references as I graded.

ALSO! We agreed that I give the lesson on the 11th, giving a lesson on what constitutes Islamic fundamentalism. Pretty cool.

Day 9: September 8, 2009

Today, I witnessed the first wave of "rappin' the declaration" projects. The on level classes were still working on theirs, but AP was good to go. A tentative recollection:

About half did poems of some sort, as there was a consensus that that was the 'easiest.' And it was, if you did the kind of half-assed poems that most of them did. Amirite?

The beatnik poem group didn't bring their bongos.

Of those that did songs, the majority did some sort of rap. A majority of those raps were more or less on a par with most of the poems. I am being overly critical of the abilities of 15 year olds to produce great works of art that still fulfill the requirements of a syllabus. But shit, I'm a snob. And my kids are just going to have to fucking deal with it.

There were some groups that really went above and beyond, and thus should be recognized for it. This included some creative appropriations of popular music, such as an amusing version of Lazy Sunday, and no less than two renditions of Like a Boss. Good to see Andy Samberg getting his due. One group made a DVD, and two others did recordings of their songs. There were also some really good original raps, some rather well executed dance moves, and a cover of "Let it Be" performed on ukulele

Day 8: September 4, 2009

Rappin' the Declaration? Ballin'!

It was interesting to see the kids engage in creative work. The project was to make a rap/song/poem of the Declaration of Independence, incorporating the basic points of the preamble and conclusion and mention at least 5 of the grievances.

At first, some groups seemed to stall. Others took off immediately into daring projects. Mrs Blank advised me to walk around the room at first to make sure everyone had a handle on what they were supposed to do, and then to hang back and let them work. Which is pretty much what I would have done. Just sayin'.

Note on differentiation: The AP classes were responsible for reading the declaration themselves. For the on level classes we read it together.

Ideas discussed:

Recording a music video
Recording a song
Beatnik poem/poetry slam
Metal song
Ska song
Something with a ukulele

Notable Quote:

Overachiever Girl: "We're going to do a rap! And have costumes! I love group projects! Do you know any gang signs?"

Day 7: September 3, 2009

I think that today was, in many ways, pretty valuable. I've felt, for the past week, in doing procedures, course information, pre-assessments, that I wasn't getting anything done. I mean, on an intellectual level, I realize that this is exactly the kind of stuff you're supposed to be doing in the first two weeks of school, but I still felt impatient. I want to be a teacher. Let's get to teaching already. Srsly. I'm ready.

Well, today I didn't really teach. Instead I played a supporting role as Mrs. Blank showed how she delivers content. Which was, in its way, a relief. I didn't feel any huge pressure; instead I could feel free to chime in and agree or embellish, pass out papers, etc. And I got to observe as she interacted with her students.

Note 1: She asked students as much as possible how much they already knew, and tried to build on that. In a subject like government, where what you teach is dictated by the state and rigorously tested, there is a temptation to talk about content like it's something rote and static. Which it is. But in addressing it the way she did, it was more like a conversation. Overall, it was really impressive, considering how we were talking about Locke, Hobbes, and natural rights, and most of them didn't have a fucking clue what that noise was all about.

Note 2: I got to see how she differentiated between the AP classes and the on-level classes, while still delivering basically the same information. The APs had more independent work, and she was able to move from topic-to-topic quicker, while she spent more effort in the on level class working with them and ensuring that they understood the question.

Note 3: Every class had a couple people who knew the information already, and a majority who didn't. It seemed like she did a good job of keeping the kids who knew that material entertained while ensuring the rest of the class was following along.


Also, choice quotes from Craig:

Craig: You know how Mexico is sending people and invading our country? I think that we should send all of the people on welfare to Mexico to see how they like it.

Mrs Blank: Handshakes, hugging, clasping hands, spitting in hands -- that's an Arabic way of sealing agreements.
Craig: Is that why they smell?

Did I mention that Craig says racist things sometimes? Because Craig says racist things sometimes.

Day 6: September 2

FIRST: Today the kids finished up their pre-assessments, and we went over their service project. Which sounds really cool. I like the idea that all students will have coordinate their community service projects. While it's cool to encourage them to do individual stuff, it's possible to make so much more of an impact when you have 120 teenagers working together. Last year they raised a enough money to build a schoolhouse in rural Ecuador, as well as making extremely valuable efforts to help local charities. The student reaction was mixed. No one seemed reluctant, per se. Just some more enthusiastic than others. For the most part, though, I think that most of the students thought that it would be fun; Mrs Blank made it sound like fun.

On to the drama.

Let me describe a student I have. Let's call him Craig. Craig is a senior in a 10th grade Government class (8th period), which he has to take to graduate (he transferred from out of state, so his credits are all screwed up). Craig is someone who can be... Abrasive.

Apparently, while I wasn't in class yesterday, Craig just bullshitted his pre-assessment and didn't look at the questions. He bubbled in a bunch of random circles and then gave it to Mrs. Blank with a smug look on his face. Like it would really piss her off. When she didn't care, he sulked off to the bathroom. When he came back, he actively tried to distract the other students by poking them, etc. Today he made the water-drip sound while other students were finishing their pre-assessments. When we didn't acknowledge it, he tried to draw attention to it by looking around and saying there was a leak. Charmer, amirite? Because of today and yesterday, Mrs Blank decided to move ahead with re-arranging their seating charts, so that Craig will be right in front of her.

Day 5: September 1, 2009

Today I wasn’t in class too much. My kids were pre-assessing, and there wasn’t that much for me to do. Instead, I sat in the library typing up substitute plans for the social studies department. It was more fun than I would have had just sitting in the classroom waiting for my kids to get done their tests. At least I got to read the news.

Day 4: August 31, 2009

Today was, in its way, an excellent example of top-down educational decision making at its finest. We were supposed to have pre-assessments, which are how teachers (and more importantly, the central office) gauge what the students know at the beginning of a semester. Pre-assessments especially help to measure what has been taught over the course of a school year (i.e., they’re compared to the scores of high-stakes standardized tests such as the HSAs that are administered at the end of the year).

All of this is irrelevant. All of this is irrelevant because the central office sent us the wrong Scantron sheets, so we couldn’t administer it. WTF.

Mrs. Blank did her best at making up for this. She had the class practice procedures for doing group work, which is a surprisingly useful and necessary activity. But what, really, can be done? The students will have to take the pre-assessment tomorrow, and some of them will have to finish it up on Wednesday, which means that we can’t do anything content related because they’ll have forgotten it by then.

An interesting aspect of teaching is this constant level of pressure, of being under the gun. In other work situations, a central-office fuck up like the one that happened today wouldn’t have been a huge deal.

So we do it tomorrow? So what?

Here, there is so little room for negotiation. There is a list of things the students absolutely have to know, and a limited duration in which we can teach them. A strategically placed snow-day can rearrange a whole month of lesson plans. And for the source of this stress to be caused by an administrative oversight rather than nature’s fury is all the more irritating.

Day 3: August 28 2009

Picture, if you will, a 23 year old with a degree in history, no previous experience dealing with high schoolers, wearing the same pair of khakis he has worn for the past 3 days. Now imagine that this dubious individual was placed in charge of 127 14-17 year olds who have no real reason to listen to or pay attention to him. I have a lot to unpack today, so bear with me.

I got up in front of the class, and reminded them that Mrs. Blank wasn't there today. I introduced the substitute, and told them that they would be working on the questions in their unit guide. If they didn't have a book, they could borrow one from someone who did. I told them it was okay if they talked.

The results were shocking. In all six classes, students took out their books and started working. A lot of them had problems finding definitions if they weren't in the glossary (a surprising number didn't know to check the index). The first two periods were kind of chatty, and after that I made sure to specify that they had to stay in their seats. And they listened! Even 8th period, who I often joke is my 'problem class,' did a remarkably good job of sitting down and shutting up. 4th period was completely silent. Completely silent. 6th period was the most talkative class, but it gave me a good picture of the classroom dynamics. As I floated around the classroom, I was able to develop a tentative rapport with some of my students. These links are fragile, and easily sundered. Inevitably they probably mean more to me as a teacher-in-training than to the students as teenagers wrapped up in whatever it is the kids are doing these days. And when I come back in January, I might have to rebuild them from scratch.

Day 2: August 27 2009

Today, Mrs. Blank learned (from a 1 AM  phone call)  that she had to attend a funeral on Friday. That meant that the schedule becomes a lot more cramped. The initial plan for the week was to spend today going over the unit guide (which has definitions and questions they're supposed to know for the HSA/AP tests) and syllabus and spend Friday practicing group work and issuing them their books. Now we had to go over the unit guide and pass out books in a single day; which is a lot more complicated than it might seem. For one, 10th graders don't necessarily know how to read a unit guide. It seemed really easy and clearly laid out to me, and Mrs. Blank patiently went over its contents, and still it took a fair amount of time before it seemed like everyone was pretty much on the same page. The AP classes, generally, didn't take as long to catch on, but their Unit Guide was a lot longer and took more time to go over. The second, and more time consuming problem, was that we needed to keep a record of which student received which book, and so they had to be handed out one-by-one.

How does one crowd-control when doing something boring/time consuming like calling students up one-by-one to get their books? Mrs. Blank was originally planning on doing it while they were doing group work, so that the other students would be occupied. But under a time crunch, we decided to show a movie on the history of the dollar bill. In introducing this movie, she warned that some of the claims made in it are controversial, while others were just out-and-out false. The movie was a sensationalist History Channel production which seriously privileges the theory that the dollar bill was part of a Masonic conspiracy. We told the kids that in order to be critical consumers of media, they had to learn to analyze the way things were presented to them. In discussion afterwards, they were clearly able to tell what claims were crazy and which were credible. Good for them.

Day One: August 26 2009

--First things first: it was utterly terrifying. Completely and totally terrifying. Talking in front of a group of strangers is one thing. Talking in front of a group of strangers who think that you're an adult in a position of authority is another thing altogether. I stumbled through the introduction to the first class, but by 4th period I pretty much had my footing. I mentioned my cat too damn often.

--For future reference, I teach three AP Government classes and three on-level Government classes.

--For the most part, we went over the syllabus and supply list, and everyone introduced themselves and said how they felt about "government." Some students interpreted this to mean government as an institution, while others interpreted it to mean government as a subject in school. Their responses to this question included:

"I think that government is a good thing, as long as leaders base their decisions on facts and science."

"I'm taking this class because I'm Vietnamese and my parents said they would stop feeding me if I didn't take an AP class."

"I normally like the government, but I stopped paying attention because I hate Obama."

[Half the class rolls their eyes]

"What? How come every time I say I don't like Obama it's gotta be a race riot?"

"I'm Will, and I'm unusually gifted at politics."

"I'm taking this class because I have a crush on Mrs. Blank."

--The teenaged son of a well known SMCM professor is in one of my AP classes.

--The perky girl continues her visits, but is constrained to handshakes

--When it was over, it wasn't as scary as it seemed at first. There were no big blowouts, disasters, or fuckups. Everyone seems to accept that I'm supposed to be there; that I'm an adult and that I'm qualified to instruct children. How weird is that?

Back to School Night: Dispatches from the Front Lines

--A substantial percentage of her AP classes apparently were never given the summer assignment. They all have the same terrified look on their faces when they find out about it.

--Every time there was a kid with snakebites or gauges, they were never in one of my classes. Maybe there will be though. Maybe the kids with gauges in my classes were just too badass to bother showing up to back to school night.

--A large ginger bearded fellow, with a brood of ginger children, ambled in. When I extended my hand, he seemed to ignore it at first. Then, with apparent disdain, he took it. Our conversation was lulzworthy on many points, so I will give only a few choice quotes

Man with Undiagnosed Asperger's: So you're being trained to take the most dynamic, interesting topic and suck all of the life out of it?

William Dhalgren: Absolutely, I look forward to it!

MUA: You're not even going to try to make it interesting?

WD: Once you're a member of the teacher's union, you sign a contract promising to make all of your classes as boring as possible.

MUA: [lost interest when I wasn't put off or offended]

MUA: Are you going to teach how our government was founded on free market principles, but over the past half of a year has been creeping toward socialism?

And so on.

--One mildly emo, extremely perky junior promised to come visit our class every day. Our exchange went something like this:

Perky Emo: You're with Mrs. Blank? That means we're going to be best friends!

WD: Yeah, I look forward to it.

PE: Seriously, it'll start with high-fives, but at the end of the year it'll be hugs.

WD: I really doubt that.

PE: It'll happen. You just wait.

WD: I don't like to be touched.

PE: I'll make it happen.

WD: I've gone from joking-uncomfortable to real-uncomfortable.

PE: We've just started.

Then we spent the next 10 minutes talking about our cats.

That's all for back to school night!

Rules

#1. No real names. Not mine, not my students', not my mentor teacher's, not my classmates.

#2. No mention of what schools I'm teaching at. Though there are some hints.

#3. There are no other rules.

For your enjoyment and edification, the host proudly presents...

A venture in internet writings, in which the following will be attempted:

A chronicle of my experiences student teaching.

My progress in completing my Master's Research Project.

My thoughts on the news and shit that I'm reading.

Lets see if I make it past 20 posts.