Tuesdays bring another day and another pair of observers. (I have one pair Monday/Friday, the other Tuesday/Thursday). Before class started, I was talking to one of them about some of the differences in working with this type of student population and having to let go of certain things. I told her how hard it can be to have class discussions. Take all the kids in a normal classroom that don't respond and put them in one room yadda yadda that's my class. She then made a really important point about flexibility. After class started, I showed the students a few short videos about how to use Pepper's Ghost to create ghosts in our own haunted house. Originally I told my observers that we'd most likely go over to the woodshop and measure some of the space. And then I ate my words. My class had an awesome discussion about what we were learning and how we could use it. Then one girl asked, "Can we look through the costumes for ideas?" Um...yeah. Absolutely. Welcome to the learner-centered classroom.
Dress-up ensued. Ideas shared. I ended up doing the same thing with most of the rest of my classes. It's amazing how fast you can get a bunch of tough teenage boys to start putting on wigs and dresses. The highlight was surprisingly at the end of the day during 6th period. I knew that we were going to have a fire drill when we had 15 minutes left of class, so I gave the kids a heads up. The next thing I knew we were all picking out the craziest outfits we could to wear to walk outside in. Students that think they would never perform put on quite a show, some of them even embodying characters that would wear such costumes.
During my conference period today I ran into a student that has had a lot of changes since last year. Once upon a time, teachers were shocked when I nominated her for student of the month after her attitude started to change with me and she started helping us with our haunted house last year. After a few bumps and a life changing experience, she is back this year in school with a completely new attitude. Two teachers nominated her for student of the month this month. When I walked with her for a moment, she looked up at the wall where the graduates pictures are and said, "I'm trying to get my picture up there."
Later, I had a student from last year return to my 4th period class. I made the mistake of thinking I could just pick up where I left off with him. He seemed bothered by something, almost sad, and eventually left on his own and went up to the office. It seems he just felt like he needed to get out of there. I had to remind myself what it took to get through to him last year. Now I have a place to start and hopefully I can start building him back up again.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Lost and Found, Secured and Insecure
I really should be more on top of this and had made some separate entries, but you know how it goes.
Firstly, a miracle. The second day of school, my classroom key disappeared. Do you have any idea how expensive those things are? Yikes. It somehow disappeared between 4th and 6th period, and I didn't remember leaving during that time. For a week and a half, I had to get my supervisor or the custodian to let me in. Each day I checked my classroom again, hoping that it had slipped between some papers or something (I'd barely had the key and had not put it on a keychain yet). Finally my supervisor told me the last Friday of week 2 to tell the principal's secretary so they could get me a new one. I sent the email, and in my next class the receptionist walked in with my key. A few days earlier, someone found it upstairs on a table and turned it in to the front office not knowing whose it was. No idea how it happened. Maybe it got mixed up in some papers and picked up accidentally. Whatever the key's story, I'm so happy to have it back!
My students are much like this missing key. They disappear sometimes. They have bad days after a long string of good ones. And for some reason, somehow, they find their way back. I have a student this year that is 18 years old, and came back to school...as a freshman. How much courage must that take?! He failed the 9th grade more than once before dropping out, and after a lot of love and intervention by family and friends he's back in school. This is a kid who has a history of making teachers quit teaching (one even left a note on their door saying as such on their way out). It's such a gift to watch and work with students like him.
At the end of week 2, I took my students into the woodshop, turned off all the lights except for one creepy orange one hanging from the ceiling, and told scary stories. It was awesome. In 4th period, a student who is normally very withdrawn shared a few that totally freaked all of us out. By 6th, a few of my students from earlier in the day snuck around the outside of the woodshop and banged on the metal door and my entire class jumped about five feet in the air. It did a lot to help them feel more comfortable reading and sharing in front of their classmates.
And now the reason I am so far behind. Last week I got sick. Bad allergies led to a sinus infection and an ear infection. Gotta love Texas. I was out for two days and went to work sick the rest of them. I HATE not being at work when my students are there. Nothing gets done while I'm gone, students forget about classroom expectations, and it takes at least twice as long to get your students back on track when you return. I found out that a fight almost broke out during my last class on Thursday, so I had to execute a smackdown upon my return...and stop letting students visit my class during 6th period for a while. Now that class is kind of getting awesome again.
My students in general are so excited about being a part of creating this haunted house. I've really been trying to drive home the importance of trust and responsibility as we go to work on it. After being gone, we've talked a lot about "what you do when I'm not looking is just as important as what you do when I am." I told each class that they could start work on the haunted house as each class showed me they were participating and following the rules. 1st period we went over, and a student pulled out her cell phone and answered it. The result? We went back to the regular classroom and did math related artwork. Let's just say word travels and my later classes did not have the same problem.
Then today I had a moment of feeling totally insecure. I have a few college students observing my classes this semester. There is a little bit of excitement having people see what is possible with these kids, mixed with feelings of having those same people pass judgement on the way you teach. These college students more so since I worked for their professor for three years, and they are writing papers for him about my teaching. Yikes! One of them asked me some questions today that kind of surprised me, while others made me laugh. Other questions caused me to wonder if I've given up on certain things. Then I remembered the importance of understanding your students and building them up and into the work. It's almost like I trick them into learning. It's not a group that you can really get a class discussion going with, which was one of the topics that came up today. Imagine taking all the students in a normal classroom who don't answer during class discussions and putting them in one room and then you have my classes. But here's the thing. These kids are working. And while they won't have a big class discussion about something, you can accomplish the same goals through individual conversations with students throughout class. Same principal, different approach. My students will get there with time.
Firstly, a miracle. The second day of school, my classroom key disappeared. Do you have any idea how expensive those things are? Yikes. It somehow disappeared between 4th and 6th period, and I didn't remember leaving during that time. For a week and a half, I had to get my supervisor or the custodian to let me in. Each day I checked my classroom again, hoping that it had slipped between some papers or something (I'd barely had the key and had not put it on a keychain yet). Finally my supervisor told me the last Friday of week 2 to tell the principal's secretary so they could get me a new one. I sent the email, and in my next class the receptionist walked in with my key. A few days earlier, someone found it upstairs on a table and turned it in to the front office not knowing whose it was. No idea how it happened. Maybe it got mixed up in some papers and picked up accidentally. Whatever the key's story, I'm so happy to have it back!
My students are much like this missing key. They disappear sometimes. They have bad days after a long string of good ones. And for some reason, somehow, they find their way back. I have a student this year that is 18 years old, and came back to school...as a freshman. How much courage must that take?! He failed the 9th grade more than once before dropping out, and after a lot of love and intervention by family and friends he's back in school. This is a kid who has a history of making teachers quit teaching (one even left a note on their door saying as such on their way out). It's such a gift to watch and work with students like him.
At the end of week 2, I took my students into the woodshop, turned off all the lights except for one creepy orange one hanging from the ceiling, and told scary stories. It was awesome. In 4th period, a student who is normally very withdrawn shared a few that totally freaked all of us out. By 6th, a few of my students from earlier in the day snuck around the outside of the woodshop and banged on the metal door and my entire class jumped about five feet in the air. It did a lot to help them feel more comfortable reading and sharing in front of their classmates.
And now the reason I am so far behind. Last week I got sick. Bad allergies led to a sinus infection and an ear infection. Gotta love Texas. I was out for two days and went to work sick the rest of them. I HATE not being at work when my students are there. Nothing gets done while I'm gone, students forget about classroom expectations, and it takes at least twice as long to get your students back on track when you return. I found out that a fight almost broke out during my last class on Thursday, so I had to execute a smackdown upon my return...and stop letting students visit my class during 6th period for a while. Now that class is kind of getting awesome again.
My students in general are so excited about being a part of creating this haunted house. I've really been trying to drive home the importance of trust and responsibility as we go to work on it. After being gone, we've talked a lot about "what you do when I'm not looking is just as important as what you do when I am." I told each class that they could start work on the haunted house as each class showed me they were participating and following the rules. 1st period we went over, and a student pulled out her cell phone and answered it. The result? We went back to the regular classroom and did math related artwork. Let's just say word travels and my later classes did not have the same problem.
Then today I had a moment of feeling totally insecure. I have a few college students observing my classes this semester. There is a little bit of excitement having people see what is possible with these kids, mixed with feelings of having those same people pass judgement on the way you teach. These college students more so since I worked for their professor for three years, and they are writing papers for him about my teaching. Yikes! One of them asked me some questions today that kind of surprised me, while others made me laugh. Other questions caused me to wonder if I've given up on certain things. Then I remembered the importance of understanding your students and building them up and into the work. It's almost like I trick them into learning. It's not a group that you can really get a class discussion going with, which was one of the topics that came up today. Imagine taking all the students in a normal classroom who don't answer during class discussions and putting them in one room and then you have my classes. But here's the thing. These kids are working. And while they won't have a big class discussion about something, you can accomplish the same goals through individual conversations with students throughout class. Same principal, different approach. My students will get there with time.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Let's get it started in here
Yesterday morning I had one of the most hilarious moments ever teaching. I must preface by saying that I found out that a few students from the University of Texas at Austin will be coming to observe my class this semester twice a week. They are currently enrolled in classroom management, and told the professor (who I once worked with) that I would love to have them come here and get a real experience in it. I work with the students that a lot of other teachers kicked out of their class or hoped would leave their class. People have a lot of ideas of what at-risk kids are like and what it's like to work with them. It is not easy, and I fall short on a regular basis. But there is so much you can do.
It all started when I was telling my students about the UT students that would be coming. I thought it would be hilarious to play a practical joke on the college students when they came. We started joking about staging a fake fight in class so I showed them how to make pulling someone's hair without actually hurting them more realistic. Right as a student was pretending to throw me around, the assistant principal walked in the door. Hilarity ensued. She walked back down the hallway afterwards saying, "Hey, whatever it takes."
My students are getting pretty excited about the haunted house. I love that I have a few returning students that remembered both that we've pulled it off before and the things that needed improvement. I love when I have new students coming in (still at least daily) and I tell them and I get to see the excitement on their faces. I love that I get to teach them skills and application together that they can use in the real world. I love that they are a little bit crazy, and therefore in good company.
I actually have two theatre kids this semester. One that is a total techie and one that took Theatre I already. Even one techie opens up a whole world of possibilities for us and trying to build this program from nothing. Well, not nothing. From my students and I.
Today we continued talking about storytelling and used children's stories and fairy tales as inspiration for our own stories. Some of my favorites from students today:
Snow White and the Seven Zombies
The 3 Little Wetbacks (the wolf character was an immigration officer)
Jack and the Weed Plant
The student that wrote the last one came up to me after class so excited and said he planned on going home and typing it up. He was giddy.
Can I just take a moment and say how much I also love the teachers that I work with? When I was in school we were warned to stay away from the teachers' lounge at lunch. Avoid the negativity of teachers complaining about students. At my school I find something very different. First there is the group excitedly discussing baseball (be careful, there is a Mets fan), others talking about life in general, and even more talking about what they are doing to help their students and how they can work together to make things better for individual students. Today they were talking about tattoos. My fault. I challenged some of my students to find out which teacher had a Harry Potter tattoo. It's the deathly hallows. Hey, it got students talking to teachers as they tried to find out.
I just think they are a pretty dang cool bunch.
It all started when I was telling my students about the UT students that would be coming. I thought it would be hilarious to play a practical joke on the college students when they came. We started joking about staging a fake fight in class so I showed them how to make pulling someone's hair without actually hurting them more realistic. Right as a student was pretending to throw me around, the assistant principal walked in the door. Hilarity ensued. She walked back down the hallway afterwards saying, "Hey, whatever it takes."
My students are getting pretty excited about the haunted house. I love that I have a few returning students that remembered both that we've pulled it off before and the things that needed improvement. I love when I have new students coming in (still at least daily) and I tell them and I get to see the excitement on their faces. I love that I get to teach them skills and application together that they can use in the real world. I love that they are a little bit crazy, and therefore in good company.
I actually have two theatre kids this semester. One that is a total techie and one that took Theatre I already. Even one techie opens up a whole world of possibilities for us and trying to build this program from nothing. Well, not nothing. From my students and I.
Today we continued talking about storytelling and used children's stories and fairy tales as inspiration for our own stories. Some of my favorites from students today:
Snow White and the Seven Zombies
The 3 Little Wetbacks (the wolf character was an immigration officer)
Jack and the Weed Plant
The student that wrote the last one came up to me after class so excited and said he planned on going home and typing it up. He was giddy.
Can I just take a moment and say how much I also love the teachers that I work with? When I was in school we were warned to stay away from the teachers' lounge at lunch. Avoid the negativity of teachers complaining about students. At my school I find something very different. First there is the group excitedly discussing baseball (be careful, there is a Mets fan), others talking about life in general, and even more talking about what they are doing to help their students and how they can work together to make things better for individual students. Today they were talking about tattoos. My fault. I challenged some of my students to find out which teacher had a Harry Potter tattoo. It's the deathly hallows. Hey, it got students talking to teachers as they tried to find out.
I just think they are a pretty dang cool bunch.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Week One
Remember the kid that walked out the first day? He was great the next day. Now that we are getting to work it he's actually working. I even emailed the principal with the little bit of happy news.
This week we started with some basics. Elements of Art. Line. Thought I could cover a few of the elements a day, but changed to covering one a day. I had a cross-curricular/connect to previous knowledge moment when I asked students about where they had heard the term element before. "Science!" they shouted. So if in science elements are "stuff you use together to make more stuff"then it was easier for them to understand that in art, the elements are "stuff you use together to make more stuff." We also played with pipe cleaners to illustrate the different kinds of lines we can make.
As the week went on I realized something amazing. My students seemed happy. They were working. They were learning. I was beginning to see opportunities. I even did a little bit of playing stupid. When I got a new student that wasn't doing anything yet, I'd say, "Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to get you some paper. Let me go get you some." They would look at me confused and when I got back didn't know what else to do other than get to work. Also the my hall pass rule has worked surprisingly well. Want to go to the restroom? Leave me your cell phone or your shoe. My students are usually gone for 2 minutes, 5 tops instead of wandering around the school. They also know if they leave early or even without permission that they lose whatever points they've earned for the day and get -5 instead. I've had much fewer problems, especially at the end of the day, with kids taking off. It's the first week of school and my kids are working AND learning.
After we learned about Line, Shape, and Color we had a Pictionary competition on Friday. Most of them had never played before! Not only did they enjoy it and use what they had learned, but they got to practice inferring by observing the drawings and then trying to interpret what they were. You're welcome central administration.
I think what I gained the most this first week was feeling confident in being myself with these kids. I laugh a lot. I joke with them. I don't get in their face. I don't give them a reason to feel they need to rebel or prove themselves in a negative way. I greet new students with a huge smile and learn their names as fast as I can. I tell them I want them in my class. They are amazing, though many don't see that in them. I have been having more fun with what I'm doing. I try to keep my classroom feeling safe and welcoming while showing my students that as they meet expectations they are the ones making it possible for us to do great things.
This week I felt like a superhero.
This week we started with some basics. Elements of Art. Line. Thought I could cover a few of the elements a day, but changed to covering one a day. I had a cross-curricular/connect to previous knowledge moment when I asked students about where they had heard the term element before. "Science!" they shouted. So if in science elements are "stuff you use together to make more stuff"then it was easier for them to understand that in art, the elements are "stuff you use together to make more stuff." We also played with pipe cleaners to illustrate the different kinds of lines we can make.
As the week went on I realized something amazing. My students seemed happy. They were working. They were learning. I was beginning to see opportunities. I even did a little bit of playing stupid. When I got a new student that wasn't doing anything yet, I'd say, "Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to get you some paper. Let me go get you some." They would look at me confused and when I got back didn't know what else to do other than get to work. Also the my hall pass rule has worked surprisingly well. Want to go to the restroom? Leave me your cell phone or your shoe. My students are usually gone for 2 minutes, 5 tops instead of wandering around the school. They also know if they leave early or even without permission that they lose whatever points they've earned for the day and get -5 instead. I've had much fewer problems, especially at the end of the day, with kids taking off. It's the first week of school and my kids are working AND learning.
After we learned about Line, Shape, and Color we had a Pictionary competition on Friday. Most of them had never played before! Not only did they enjoy it and use what they had learned, but they got to practice inferring by observing the drawings and then trying to interpret what they were. You're welcome central administration.
I think what I gained the most this first week was feeling confident in being myself with these kids. I laugh a lot. I joke with them. I don't get in their face. I don't give them a reason to feel they need to rebel or prove themselves in a negative way. I greet new students with a huge smile and learn their names as fast as I can. I tell them I want them in my class. They are amazing, though many don't see that in them. I have been having more fun with what I'm doing. I try to keep my classroom feeling safe and welcoming while showing my students that as they meet expectations they are the ones making it possible for us to do great things.
This week I felt like a superhero.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)