Bring History To Life For My Students!

Bring History To Life For My Students!

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Maintaining that Work/Life Balance

I always thought that after I graduated college and didn't have constant reading to do anymore, I would have so much more free time.

I was wrong. Probably took the wrong kind of job if I want free time.

To be honest, this normally is not a huge issue for me. I'm not unhappy with spending a good amount of time planning for my job, as long as I feel like I'm being productive. However, over the past few nights, after my roommate and I have planned to go to the gym together 2 or 3 times and due to a conflict in her schedule or mine, we have not gone any of those times, its starting to get to me. I really like teaching ( I almost typed that I love it, but then I realized I don't know if our relationship is that strong yet...), but I don't understand how people do this and have spouses, kids, pets, time to go out on weeknights (like several of my 30ish colleagues still do).

Maybe I procrastinate more than others. Maybe its that I don't really love my textbooks so I create and find a lot of supplemental materials. Maybe its that I have 3 different classes I'm planning for, or maybe I'm just really bad at time management. Anyway, I'm not sure if this post truly has a point, except to say that I don't understand quite how other people do it. I really hope I figure that out sometime soon.

How do you teach someone to think?

It's that time of year again...yes, the holidays, but also, the end of the first marking period of the year. While it might be the most wonderful time of the year on the radio, it is definitely not for a lot of students in my class. Report card time is always interesting to me for several reasons. First, in my second year of teaching I am still struggling to understand how a student who has turned in very little homework, failed to complete a major project, and refused to answer half the questions on the tests I give because they aren't multiple choice and therefore don't seem to be as easy could be shocked when the grade on their report is not an A, B, or C. I guess in part its a failure on the part of the teachers to demonstrate that cause and effect relationship effectively, but still, it always amazes me.

Second, though, I find it interesting to try and answer many of the kids questions about why they got the grade they did. It's easy with some kids: the ones with A's and B's don't ask why, they're just happy they got the grade, and the ones who never turned in work- well, clearly that's why. What is tough, though, are the kids who did turn in a lot of the work and thought they were genuinely making a serious effort and who still ended up with D's based off test, quiz, and major classwork and project grades. Despite my efforts to offset some of this with mini-quizzes, quiz retakes, and daily points for participation and effort, there is always a batch of kids who fall in the low C or D range who are truly upset they got this score, and I can understand why- they thought they were putting in adequate effort, and have suddenly realized they have fallen short of their goal in my class. After this, I almost always hear, "But I'm doing so much better in my other classes! Why not in your class?" This always leads to me to go back and wonder: am I being unfair to students? However, I don't think so, and here's why.

In many of my students other classes, I think (I don't know, since I'm not in those classes) that students get graded on how much stuff they hand in, regardless of how much it seems like they have learned. In my class, on the other hand, I am attempting to really grade my students on how much they have learned and how much thinking they have done that marking period. It is relatively easy in a social studies class to memorize basic facts and spit them back out (What is cuneiform? Who was Aristotle? What are latitude and longitude?). It is more important to me, however, that my students learn how to really analyze these things- why does it matter that Mesopotamians used cuneiform, or that we still study Aristotle today? And this is a stumbling block. My students do not like to do this kind of thinking because they have never been taught to- when you can get an A for copying poems offline that have examples of simile and metaphor in them, why ever bother to think about the purpose of those similes and metaphors? Therefore, I come off looking like this incredibly difficult teacher who expects too much of my students because I ask so much more of them- but let's be honest, this is what the kids in the suburbs of Philadelphia are doing every day-thinking.


By no means am I even close to being that good at this-if I was, perhaps it wouldn't be such a battle in my classroom every day. I have not yet gotten the hang of asking just the right guiding question to get my students to draw a conclusion from the material in front of them. So, it's my goal for this semester to see many more A's and B's- but not because I've gotten any easier as a teacher, but because I've challenged my students (and myself!) to be better and finally started to win this battle against not wanting to think and analyze with my students. Anything else is shortchanging them and allowing them to fall short of their true potential.

We Are the Champions!

Today my middle school ladies won the city-wide volleyball championship! I managed to make it to some of the game, and it was awesome to see them all working together at something and supporting each other. Definitely a great way to end the season and to head off for Thanksgiving!

Matchmaker, Matchmaker

My students like to play matchmaker since they know that I do not have a boyfriend (my bad on being honest when they asked that question) and this always leads to hilariously awkward moments. Last year's worst was when they dragged the assistant basketball coach up to my room because all the girls on the team thought he was cute and they wanted him to meet me. He was definitely not my type, but actually did try to call me- and I still hear about it. Today was another of those fun little moments. As I was leaving, I was talking to some of my 8th grade girls who were still outside the building after volleyball practice, when out walked a twenty-something guy. There are always people from the school district or one of Philly's universities trying to do research or have meetings or do mentoring or any other of a plethora of things in the school, so I've kind of learned to ignore the people walking in and out. Today, however, one of my girls says loudly as the guy passes by, "Hey, Ms. D, he looks pretty nice, " and winks at me. I'm going to hope that the random guy just didn't hear that one. I guess it's nice of them to care that much?

On another note, our girls' volleyball team, despite being more concerned with matchmaking and fashion than schoolwork, is playing in the city championship tomorrow! Here's good luck to the Duckrey girls!

Thank Goodness for Veterans

Thank goodness we had today off. Yesterday I had an observation with my Teach For America advisor, and the class he saw was much worse than it usually is. Maybe because it was the last period before a day off, I don't know. Anyway, I've certainly been feeling a bit down about the fact that I got observed on one of my worst days- I would love to have someone see my class on a good day but it seems like people never come in on those days.

On the plus side, the students did seem to pull out the important parts of the lesson when they summarized the lesson on the exit slips I give after every class. There was one funny one though- the lesson had been about Mesopotamian agriculture and students discussed where their food comes from. When asked to tell what the most important thing she learned today was, one student told me that the most important thing she learned was where canned tuna fish comes from because she never realized it was a fish before. I'm glad I could teach her something...

A Great Moment

Just in case I don't have enough to do teaching a new subject to three different grades, effectively meaning I am teaching 3 new subjects, I decided to sign on to do my school's Power Hour, which is certainly nothing like what that term meant in college. It is an hour and a half after school 4 days a week when kids who are below grade level on reading and math skills get extra, small group instruction. I am doing the literacy power hour 2 days a week (Mondays and Wednesdays) because I am basically a bleeding heart- neither of the 2 English teachers at my school wanted to do it, and I felt like it was important enough to take it on.

I have been doing Power Hour for about 3 weeks now, and it had definitely added stress to my life- instead of just 3 preps, I now have a 4th for Power Hour. Other teachers who had signed on to do it have already quit, and we have switched math teachers twice, and I wasn't sure it was worth it- until Monday around noon, when I was running to the bathroom because it was finally my prep period. I ran into one of my students coming out of the girls' bathroom, and she stopped me to show me her most recent test in reading: a B. This girl is in learning support for reading and math because she is behind on her skills, so I was obviously super excited for her, but I almost cried when she said, "Actually, I wanted to thank you for helping me." I haven't had a student thank me for helping them before- middle schoolers tend not to think like that- so it was truly an awesome moment. Made even more awesome when I graded her most recent social studies test and she got a 96% :)

Duckrey Happenings

I haven't updated in awhile, and I don't feel like writing anything especially profound today, as I have been trying and failing to fully recover and get back on top of my work after my (extremely fun) weekend trip to visit my sister in Boston, so here is an interesting smattering of happenings going on at school at the moment:

- our principal announced today that he was leaving in December to take an assistant superintendent job in a suburb of Philly. Hopefully this won't be an out of the frying pan and into the fire kind of experience

- a car was on fire outside of school the other day. Kids were running all over the place, especially toward the fire. Sometimes I wonder if the fight/flight instinct is really intact in these kids...

- the middle school has now instituted a mandatory "homework club" for all students who are regularly failing to complete homework (brainchild of yours truly...which of course means I have to run it...). Today was our first "meeting," which consisted of all boys, one of whom was much more interested in whether or not I would bring him some of my cheez-its that I have at home than in finishing his homework...

- I have a new best buddy in the 8th grade. We got a new student on Tuesday of this week- he started out the week VERY badly, swearing at the dean and me when we told him that he was in the wrong class (he followed all the girls to my class instead of going to science with the boys). However, things have turned around since he won candy in his first day in my class for being a winner in our class debate. Now, I frequently find myself being sneak attacked by an oddly huggy 8th grade boy, but I guess I'll take what I can get.

- I have been proposed to twice in the past two days by two different boys: one was a 7th grader in my homeroom who got down on one knee and pretended to give me ring, in an attempt to get out of classwork...and the second was today- one of my 8th grade boys saw my Penn ring and said "Forget that...let me put a ring on that finger." I haven't figured out whether or not this is a step up from my last marriage proposal, which was from this guy in Amsterdam last summer:

And that's all the news (from Duckrey) that's fit to print. The weekend cannot get here fast enough.

Future Justices of the Supreme Court

Today in class we had our first-ever current events day. On Mondays, from now until May, the students have 45 minutes of planned parenthood's health and sex ed classes, which means that instead of their usual hour and a half blocks, they spend 45 minutes in health and 45 minutes with me. Now, I don't know what happened in health class (though one of the 6th graders excited told me that the Planned Parenthood man will answer questions about anything- and I can only imagine what kinds of questions he must get), but in my class it was both crazy and awesome all at the same time.

I now know why I don't see all 6 of my classes every day, like I thought might make sense. It is insane- the time flies by, the kids are crazy, we don't get half of the things done that I had planned for us to do. However, I also discovered today that my kids get really excited about current events. The cover story in this issue was about the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and some of the cases she will be looking at once the court's term begins (the term actually began today, which, when I pointed that out to my classes, elicited reactions from "Wow" to "That's tough"- which means good, for all of you who don't know my kids' lingo). My kids had opinions on every case, and we got to have really awesome unplanned debates on them, especially a case in which a 16 year old was given life without parole for committing armed robbery, burglary, and home invasion twice in a span of 2 years. I was especially excited to see two boys in two different classes who sit in the back and who are never engaged in the lesson excitedly sharing their knowledge about the government, volunteering to read, and offering their opinions on the cases. I think its about time to get some student government going- looks like I have some future justices in the making.

In other news, I learned a new slang term that all the cool kids are using today: in my bag. Apparently it means to get angry or annoyed or have a bad day, as in "If you don't stop talking, i'm gonna get in my bag." Do not ask me where it comes from; I have no idea, as with most of my students' slang terms. What I do know is that I used it today when my 7th grade boys wouldn't shut up and line up, as in "I'm about to get in my bag if you all don't line up and get quiet right now!" Needless to say, the kids completely lost it-I thought a couple of them might actually pee their pants. Nothing like a good "I'm not as old and uncool as you think" moment to make the day end well ;)

Christmas in October

Today, in the middle of my lesson on the colonies with the 8th grade boys, one of the NTA's (non-teaching assistants) at my school came in with a whole box of copy paper (most months I get a ream, or two if I'm lucky). I looked at him and said, "If that's all for me, this is better than Christmas." My students gave me the weirdest looks...if only they knew. Gotta love the joys of teaching in an urban school.

Also making me happy- my donor's choose magazines came today! My kids can finally learn about current events in our classroom...granted, its the September 7th issue, but hey- that's still better than any current events they've done before...

And We'll Have Fun Fun Fun...

When my principal first switched me to social studies at my school, I was not especially happy with him. I had spent a whole year struggling to get a handle on how to teach reading and writing to middle schoolers, and now he wanted me to throw that all away ?!?!?! Not to mention the fact that I had to study for and take another Praxis test.

But now I'm starting to think this is the best thing EVER. Teaching social studies is (more or less) awesome. My kids aren't tested, but I wish they were, since they're so enthusiastic about stuff in my room. Not necessarily the parts of class where we take notes, of course, but I get to plan so much fun stuff for social studies. Today, I had more kids engaged in latitude and longitude game than I ever have before- we were racing in teams to track Carmen Sandiego (complete with some Rockapella background music...) across the globe, and kids were literally falling over each other to give me the correct answers and be the winning team. Talk about awesome! Well, maybe not the falling- we had to put a stop to that pretty quickly. We were supposed to have an assembly during class this afternoon- and the kids were actually glad that it got canceled because they wanted to finish the activity! Seriously, this is awesome. This is what teaching is supposed to be like.

And next week, my 8th graders are going to put the colonies on trial to see if they allowed as much religious freedom as we would expect they would based on their reasons for their founding. I am super-excited to get to that lesson next week- which makes me excited to go to school- which makes me happier all around.

Obviously, not every day gets to be this awesome, but its so nice to have the ones that are :) My kids can definitely get excited about education- you just have to find a way to make it worth their while.

First Week Down!

Well, we've officially made it through our first week of school for year two of TFA. Let me tell you, if you had come up to me on September 12 of last year and said that this is where I would be in a year, I would have laughed at you (through the tears, clearly). Last year at this time, my roommates and I were spread out all over the dining room table, frantically trying to figure out what we were going to do the next day to keep our students from killing each other (forget keeping them in their seats). In between panic attacks, I spent a lot of time being really really upset and thinking about finding a new job in the tanking economy.

What a difference a year makes! Today, the first Saturday of the school year, my roommate and I started the day at the coffee shop down the street to get some grading and lesson planning done, came back here, watched this week's episode of Top Chef, had lunch, got the rest of the posters we have hanging around hung up, cleaned the kitchen, and then did a little more planning and relaxing. I'm lesson planned through next Monday, and all I have to do tomorrow is create/modify the worksheets that go with those lessons. Tonight, I'm going out dancing for a friend's birthday. Life seems pretty good right now :)

Of course, that was only week 1. Next week it will be time for the students to test me. But I'll be ready- this year I'm in control of my classroom. Now if I could only get used to waking up at 5:30 instead of at 9...

Day 1: Check

Day 1 of school is down. It's going to be a good year- I feel way more confident than I ever did and I just had an amazing conversation with a parent. I got a text from my TFA program director (kind of like a mentor) this morning wishing me good luck and saying this was my year. I really think he's right :)

The SDP should be a scary movie

Forget his reality show; Tony Danza ought to be making a horror film about the Philadelphia School District. Today was the first day of school for teachers, and inevitably all the roommates have arrived home with horror stories about new developments at their schools as of today. My roommate who teaches 9th grade English might have to cover a period of Spanish because there might not be a teacher hired for that position at all this school year. My roommate who teaches Spanish might have to cover a period of corrective reading (or corrective math...who knows which?), for which he has no training. On top of that, in all the high schools, students will be re-rostered after about 2 weeks of school once they have taken tests to determine whether they need to be in a corrective reading or corrective math class (which essentially is the curriculum used in special ed classrooms). My roommate who teaches 7th grade English won't have a curriculum until October, and is expected to just work with week-to-week "themes" until then. I just found out we will be doing gendered classes, meaning I will see all my boys in each grade in one class, and all my girls in each grade the next day, which means that in some classes I will have many more students than I have desks due to disproportionate numbers of girls versus boys. Even my roommate at a relatively awesome charter school is now on a cart in 3 different classrooms at his school.

And the kicker? Because they don't "have the funds" to post to hire a new English teacher at another friend's high school, she now has classes that number 65 (at least) on her rosters. They hope to have the classes down to "normal size" by October- based on massive truancy, I suppose...

Just how do they expect our kids to learn in this logistical mess?? When this is the best the educated, intelligent adults who are supposed to be running things around here can do, what can we hope for for the students who are stuck in this system?

However, not all hope is lost. Almost all of my roommates are currently working through ways to problem solve these new challenges- if we could all approach challenges in teaching, even ones that seem insurmountable, like that, we would eventually make the widespread changes we so desperately need around here. Here's hoping that at some point I'm in a position with enough power to say that and have it mean something.

Can't Stress it Enough: The Importance of Education

This past week, I (finally) finished reading Three Cups of Tea, a book that has been on my t0-read shelf for a long time. It's a non-fiction story about a man named Greg Mortenson, who, after getting lost in Pakistan after a failed attempt to climb K2, is struck by the need in the small mountainous villages of Pakistan for schools. He promises to return to one village to build a school for them after raising the money, but from there a whole enterprise was born. Today, he and the Central Asia Institute founded by Mortenson and his supporters, build schools in small villages all over Pakistan and Afghanistan. I was incredibly moved by this story, and I'm sure if I had not just spent more than I care to admit on supplies for my own classroom, I would have gone online and donated to his cause without hesitation.

However, I was more struck by Mortenson's message in America after 9/11 and the War on Terror began. He suggests, and I agree, that we do not do anything to help our cause or create any more goodwill toward Americans in the Middle East by being involved in conflicts in which we deliberately or as a side-effect destroy whole villages, promising aid to help the people who we may have disrupted, and then never sending the aid. This only opens the way for terrorist organizations with lots of money to fill the void, especially in education, and thus taking advantage of the desire for education of many non-extremist locals. They build schools because the government of Afghanistan has not, and because our promise of aid for schools has not come through, and churn out more young men who have been educated with an extremist curriculum full of western hatred. Mortenson argues that only by making education a priority (albeit a long-term one) can we ever hope to stop this area from being a hotbed for terrorism for good. A NY Times article circulating among people I know on facebook made a similar argument about education, specifically of girls, in the Middle East. Education is the single-best way to improve a region like this, that desperately needs it.

I can't help but think that Mortenson's ideas ring true in our country as well (and if we're going to give money away to other governments for education, I certainly hope we get some here too). While poor schools in America may not breed terrorism, they certainly do not help to improve things such as the high crime rate in urban areas, or help to improve the number of people who are on government aid and thus contributing to the strain on the nation's resources, or any other number of unpleasant statistics. We have just spent time bailing out big industries all over the country, realized that we seriously need to overhaul things like the healthcare system and social security, and more, and I cannot help thinking that by pouring more money into all of these systems, we are only helping (if we are helping at all) in the short term. We need to educate all of the children in this nation if we truly want to make things better, and yet education never seems to be at the top of anyone's priorities. Certainly, it is up there for most politicians, but it rarely makes it into position number 1 on the list of concerns the government must handle-but it should. A good education for all students is really in all of our best interests, just like it would be in the Middle East.

And by the way, I highly recommend Three Cups of Tea. You should absolutely read it if you have the time.

The Students Are Coming! The Students Are Coming!

Well, it's now late August. My roommates have almost all returned, those of us who were here have played so many games of quizzo we may actually be sick of it now, Charlie's party is this weekend, and TFA has started weekly Thursday blasts again- all of which can only mean one thing: It's just about time for school to start again. And underneath the sadness that summer (and thus my lazy days of sleeping until 9am instead of 6am) is almost over, I keep feeling something weird, something unexpected. It took me a long time to put a finger on it, but I think I might be able to call that feeling...excitement?

Excitement was not the feeling I was expecting to feel on the eve of my second year of teaching. Not after last year's numerous bouts of crying, minor depression, anger, frustration, and general terror about the path I had chosen for the next two years. However, as I walked into my new classroom, having moved down the hall now that I am Duckrey's only social studies teacher (and my new classroom is bigger!), and as I begin working through my incentives and management plan and my unit plans for the beginning of this year, I'm finding that I am kind of looking forward to having students again. This year, hopefully at my mercy, rather than me being at theirs. I am excited to teach social studies, a subject which, in previous years, has been neglected and left to a teacher who seemed less-than interested in his subject, and to teach it so that my students can have as good a social studies education as I had (thank you, Mr. Traester), and so that they leave me with a much better sense of their world than they had before they entered my room this year.

So overall, I can seriously say, I'm ready to head back to the classroom. Well, almost. I still have to finish 3 unit plans, make 587 posters, and spend ridiculous amounts of money on classroom supplies... But after that, I will be ready to make this the best year it can be.

School's Out For Summer

I know, I know. I fail at keeping up with this blog lately. It's amazing how busy the end of the school year ended up being (considering grades were due on June 1)- but I guess that was probably because I took on an extra job with TFA.

It's official, though- summer is way more awesome as a teacher than as a student. My students are already calling me because they're bored, and I'm sure not bored yet :) The year ended well for me too- PSSA scores came in, and although we didn't make AYP, half my 8th graders scored advanced or proficient- up from 21% scoring in that range when they were in 7th grade. Not quite what the government cares about for AYP, but exciting for me all the same.

Once school was out, we began Induction for the new TFAers in full force, and I have to say, it's much nicer being on this side of things. They had so many questions, and still seem so naive- it's nice to at least seem like we're the ones who know what we're doing. Plus, the 2009 crew are a pretty good bunch- I think we'll get along with them really well. They began Institute this week, and I hope its going well for them- although I guess they haven't started teaching yet, and that's when it all comes to a head.

It's nice to know that, even though a year ago I was beginning the hardest 5 weeks of my life, this year I'm kicking back and enjoying life. I still have stuff to do this summer- after all, I have to learn 6-8 grade social studies and take my Praxis test to be sure I know it- but I feel way more prepared for next year already, and I'm taking things easy for now. Plus, it's my birthday tomorrow, and I go to Canada in a few weeks, so at the moment, it's summertime, and the livin is very very easy.

End of Year Awesomeness

We officially have 2 days of school left. I don't know if anyone thought we were actually going to make it here, but we have, and it's wonderful, despite the fact that Philadelphia keeps kids in school 2 weeks or so past the point when grades are due, so its been a struggle to get kids to do anything in my room. We've been playing a lot of Apples to Apples, which I like to play off as educational, even though my Program Director says it's not.

What's making the end of this year even better for me is the number of kids I teach who scored advanced or proficient on their PSSAs! It just goes to show what they can do when they really buckle down and try. Even though these kids have driven me crazy, and probably will continue to drive me crazy on Monday when we have their moving up ceremony, I will miss them- after all, I think all teachers probably think back with a mix of fondness and horror on their first class :)

It's the Final Countdown!

It's time. 2 (and kind of a half) weeks of school left. We can do this. We can so do this.

Grammar Mastery- Check!

Yesterday morning in my 7th grade class, as we were beginning our daily edit, one of my students announces:

'Guess what, Ms. D? Because of you and this daily edit thing, I got grammar master on the facebook grammar quiz! It was like, thirty questions!"

It's good to know I'm having an impact :)

Lunchtime at Duckrey

For the past couple of weeks, I've had a group of kids in my room at lunch rehearsing for their dance in our school's field day performances on June 12. They're currently teaching 2 new kids the dance, and I am continually amazed by how talented and quick to learn these students are when it comes to dancing. As a teacher, I think we often forget how talented our kids can be in ways outside the classroom, and it is nice to be reminded every once in awhile. It better be one of the better acts on field day, because they have worked damn hard on making it look good.

Its June!

And yet, life is still crazy! Grades went in yesterday, and the assistant principal made the mistake of announcing this over the loudspeaker during the end of day announcements yesterday. So of course, today:

"What happens if I don't do this project, Ms. D?"

"It hurts your grade."

"But grades are already turned in..."

And here, I had to fumble to lie (I'm not great at lying) that they could be changed at a later date, when in reality I know that only the assistant principal can change them, and she will only do that for a small number of students. And I very much doubt she will change them down.

I can only hope that I make it through the next 15 days alive and sane. Today was clearly not a great predictor of this, but I'm just going to keep the finish line in sight...

A Very Pleasant Surprise

Yesterday we took our 8th grade class trip to Cape May, NJ. All the teachers were a bit on edge for this trip for several reasons, the foremost being that our trip company had already messed up our dates. The previous day, we had gathered all the kids at school at 7:45, only to realize by 8am that we had no bus, and when we called the tour company they told us we were in fact scheduled for Friday the 29th, even though our confirmation said Thursday. Needless to say, we had a lot of very angry 8th graders to deal with.

However, on Friday when I got to school, our coach bus was just pulling up to the school, which was clearly a good sign. Our 8th graders all showed up on time, and there were no major incidents as we boarded the bus (except for the assistant principal running up right as we were about to pull out- she was supposed to be chaperoning and only barely made it). The kids all looked great and seemed to be excited (although whether that was to go whale-watching or just to be out of school, I'll never know) On our hour and a half bus ride to the Cape May zoo, the kids were quiet, and the chaperons got to relax up in the front of the bus.

At the zoo, which is in the middle of a park in Cape May, I got the dubious honor of trying to find the entrance to the zoo, which was surprisingly unclear. However, I followed the parents with young children and it seemed to be a good bet, as we did make it to the zoo. It was unfortunate, though, the number of looks our kids were getting from others, as if at any second they would fulfill all stereotypes associated with urban black teenagers. They were being really great, so its truly unfair that people always expect the worst from them.

At the zoo, I had my group of 5 of my favorite 8th graders, and I loaned one of them my camera since she wants to be a photographer when she gets older. She did a great job of taking photos, like these:

I think that's a snow leopard in the background.

Another good one:The kids got to see a lot of cool animals, from giraffes to lions to different creepy crawly reptiles.

We were back on the bus by noon to drive over to the Cape May whale-watching company. Thankfully, the day was getting nice and sunny out, and the boat was really nice- carpeted floors downstairs, and padded benches and lounge chairs on the top deck. All our kids headed for the top deck, and were putting on "We're not freaked out" faces until the boat began to pull away from the dock, at which point I was able to take a great series of photos of freaked out kids that I have promised not to share :) There were a few schools on board, and of course, immediately all the kids started to get rowdy, but after the teachers and I spoke to them once about how that was a) more likely to make them fall overboard, and b) more likely to make them seasick, they chilled out. The kids were fine on the boat, and ate their free pizza as we headed down the Cape May canal, but as soon as we got into open water, they started to freak out. They wanted to know where we were going and how the captain knew where to go when there was nothing to look at, especially since it was very foggy out. I tried to explain some of these things from what I remember about navigation from my boating course, but it didn't do much to allay their fears that we were already hopelessly lost at sea. Plus, we had about 3 kids who were already looking green, so the teachers were beginning to worry that this would be a bust.

However, all that changed when we stopped to look for dolphins. Even our toughest boys were running from one side of the boat to the other to try to get a good look at the dolphins we had found. According to the boat captain, we saw about 100 dolphins over the course of our trip, and a few calves. Here are some of the shots I got, although I was always a split second too late for the best photos.
Unfortunately, we didn't see any whales, but the kids LOVED the boat anyway. They all said it was their favorite part. A lot of them liked standing out as far as they could get on the prow trying to touch the splash, and giving me minor heart attacks when I kept thinking they were going to fall overboard.

We ended the day with a stop at Old Country Buffet, where they announced that it was the birthday of one of the girls in my homeroom, which was exciting. Feeling sleepy and full, we made our way back to Philly, and the kids even cleaned the bus without having to be asked. We were super impressed, and I'm glad we were able to go on a trip, despite how much the 8th grade has driven me crazy this year.

Breakthrough

I discovered today that the only way to make one of my special ed kids pay attention during guided reading was to make him track my finger as we read. This is the first time he has paid attention through an entire guided reading session ALL YEAR. Too bad I didn't discover this method before the second to last chapter of our last book of the year.

Fashion Advice 101

Yesterday at school, one of my 8th graders took a look at me as we were sitting doing our guided reading.

"Ms. D, do you realize you're wearing white, black, and gray in that outfit?" she asked me.

"Uh yes, I picked it out myself this morning," I replied.

She didn't even answer, just rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book. Now I know how my mother must have felt when my sister and I commented on her clothes. Next time, I'll call up my middle school fashion consultant before coming to work.

The School District of Philadelphia: Inefficiency in One Easy Vignette

Today we had an all-day professional development. I was supposed to be getting an all-day training on a reading program we're in the process of implementing, but they canceled on us last minute. Instead of coming up with something meaningful for me to do, or, letting me go home where I swear I would have been more productive about school, I sat around all day. Doing nothing. I couldn't even clean my classroom because the K-3 professional development was in my room. Fail, SDP, major fail.

Frustration

This week was one frustration after the other. First, having to give benchmarks and reading level tests in the same week was a management nightmare. If looks could kill, I'd be dead by now thanks to my students. They were not happy to have to take 2 standardized tests in one week (and while I can't blame them, I still wish they would complain less...)

Then, I got observed for my certification on Thursday, and instead of celebrating my progress this year (and recognizing that mid-May of 8th grade will certainly not be the best time to observe...), I felt as though only my management mistakes were being pointed out, and believe me, I'm fully aware of things I should have done differently from the start. On the same day, though, my 7th graders were their usual awesome selves, and I got a stellar observation from my assistant principal. I am doing some things much better than I used to, and I wish that had been acknowledged.

And then, I had the same child swear at me twice in the same day, so I wrote him up, causing his mother to fly into an outrage, call the school, and then hang up on the middle school dean. Friday morning, I had to have a meeting with the family to "settle the matter," during which the child lied and said he didn't swear, his parents believed him, wanted to call his friends in as "witnesses" (though we all know they won't say anything about their friend), and basically insinuated that I was out to get this child. This is the second time this has been an issue in my class, where this child has said something and then lied to his parents and said I made it up, and it just boggles my mind that they believe him. My assistant principal launched an "investigation," in which all the other kids (predictably) said they didn't hear anything (or they heard something that may have been disrespectful but they're not sure), so instead of getting a suspension (which is what another child got when he was disrespectful to the principal) he got detention on Monday. It's a bad precedent to set in my classroom and I am not happy about it.

And finally, some of my 7th graders stole the answer sheet to the reading level test, which made me angry because I feel like I have a better relationship with them than that. It did get returned, anonymously, at the end of the day, so at least that's a bright spot.

But it was one of those weeks where I can see why these schools have trouble keeping teachers, especially if they don't really feel like the administrators have their backs. When there's a double standard for disrespect to the teacher and to the principal, that sends a pretty awful message to the students about the teachers. It's really too bad that, with all the issues urban districts face, a lot of the times the schools are shooting themselves in the foot.

Teacher Appreciation Day

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day, and all across the country, teachers are being appreciated by their students and principals. Duckrey also recognized its teachers, with breakfast in the morning, and cupcakes this afternoon. I also got some of my first teachery desk supplies, complete with cheesy sayings about teachers touching the lives of their students. It made me smile :)

However, this day also makes me think about all the teachers I have had, both employed by schools and colleges and those people who taught me valuable life lessons. Though I think most of them probably don't read this blog, here's thanks to them as well. I don't think I realized how hard it was to teach someone until I started trying, so for all my awesome teachers out there, thanks for what you're doing and keep on doing it...I don't think you screwed up anything too badly with me ;)

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

I mean to post this on Friday, but I decided to actually have kind of a social life this weekend in between working, so here it is now...

On Friday we were taking a quiz in class on our Holocaust novels, and this is always a management disaster. Keeping the louds kids quiet so that everyone can concentrate on their quizzes is a little bit like playing tug of war with a gorilla. But I did eventually manage to get things quiet in my last period class, and was walking among the desks when one of my hyperactive students yells out, in reference to the girl sitting near him

"Miss, she's saying that I have a small penis!"

Now, the first thing that came to my mind was that this girl is pretty studious and is unlikely to be whispering this under her breath as we're taking a quiz, so I said, "I'm pretty certain that's a lie."

Oops. Didn't think through that one. My class burst into laughter, and thankfully, it was time for us to break for lunch, because there's just no way you can follow up on that one.

Coincidence?

Today we had our last English methods class of the year, and our professor decided to try out a few surrealist experiments on us. One of them involved writing conditional statements (If..., then...) to create a poem. The trick was, one person wrote the if part of the statement, and then folded the paper over. The next person wrote the "then" statement without looking at the "if" part- and of course, in a room full of young 20 somethings, double entendres and hilarity ensued. However, the best statement was one that, completely randomly, possibly made the most sense to any of us:

"If I made my choice again....I'd quit my job and move to Mexico."

If only...

In all seriousness, I do like my job a lot of the time though...and with that swine flu, Mexico isn't looking like a good choice anyway.

Middle Schoolers Say the Darndest Things...

In the middle of our guided reading group meeting during my second period class, as we were discussing the Holocaust and how Jews tried to escape to free countries, one of my male students leans over and starts sniffing. I looked over at him with a quizzical look on my face and he says, quite seriously,

"What deodorant are you wearing Ms. D? It smells really good!"

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Too Busy To Blog

Matt Gruskin yelled (and by yelled I mean mentioned via gchat) at me for not blogging recently.  Sorry.  I am ridiculously busy.  Here's a quick rundown of what my week this week has looked like, so perhaps you can get an idea of what a busy week in the life of me entails:

Monday: teaching 7-3:09, organizing my classroom/finishing a bulletin board until 5, ran downtown, got Starbucks, TFA focus group meeting 6-7:30, home to lesson plan, shower, and pass out

Tuesday: teaching 7-3:09, boys volleyball game (which I have to go to- the school teams know I am their number ONE fan), quick break to meet with one of my favorite groups of TFA girls, class until 7:30, home to lesson plan, shower, and pass out (and catch Adam Lambert on American Idol...)

Wednesday: half day, professional development, run home to grab a few things I forgot, training for TFA summer position until 7, meeting with my Program Director to organize some things that were supposed to be dealt with by other people but have now fallen on me if I want to get them done right- which lasted until 8:30, then home to lesson plan and prepare for my observation tomorrow.

I'm lucky I have time to breathe.  And this is only Wednesday.  Tomorrow I have to write my grad paper which is due on Friday, do all the reading for my weekend classes, and begin to think about a) my new summer job, b) revising a test I have to give, and c) organizing my room, which is threatening to swallow me whole.  So my apologies on the lack of updates, but the end of the year is apparently not nearly as relaxing as I expected it to be.

On the plus side...there's only about 40 days left of school :)

A Historical Event in Room 222

My 7th graders were truly amazing today, and showed me the kind of teacher I want to be.  It was incredible.  I spent 2 hours after school on Monday in my classroom with my Penn mentor (an unheard of amount of time for me, since I have last period prep and am usually out by 4, at the latest) cleaning and throwing out the forest's-worth of papers that I had accumulated in my classroom.  All of this was in preparation to start the much talked of and rather scary Writer's Workshop,when kids get to produce their own writing at their own pace without me hovering as I always have to when I announce that it's time to write. 

While ideally I would have wanted to spend my night prepping for my first foray into this teaching method, I had to spend it instead worrying over the massive unit plan due for my English methods class.  Thus, this morning found me running around my classroom frantically trying to get posters made, get the supplies set up, and to prep myself for giving my first writing mini-lesson that could be mildly successful.

When my 7th graders came in, I was mildly panicky- I literally had nothing else to teach this morning if this failed somehow, and on top of that, the Learning Support teacher was out this morning, so all of the special ed kids I normally do not have to worry about management-wise were in my room for what I considered to be a slightly dangerous activity.  I explained the writer's workshop after our daily edit, and the kids actually seemed mildly interested.  We talked about ideas for writing and how to set up their writing materials, and then I gave them the challenge: write for 15 minutes without anyone in the class talking or being disruptive.  15 minutes of silence is probably some that has never been achieved in my classroom, so it was with trepidation that I sat down to write myself, as my students chose their topics and began their own writing.....

...and magically, it was silent in my room.  I made silent bets with myself about how long this could last...3 minutes? 5?  do i hear 10?  I kept glancing at the clock and to my complete and utter amazement, every kid in my classroom WROTE about something for 15 MINUTES.  On top of that, almost every kid then volunteered to share out one interesting word, phrase, or sentence from their writing- and it was all really good! 

Not only that, but with some mild chaos (but very mild, compared to the norm) we moved into silent reading, with even one of my toughest students stretching out on the reading rug and reading his book about the Titanic in a way that, if he wasn't engaged the whole time with it, at least was a very convincing act.

I was so shocked at the end of class I almost cried for joy, and compromised by promising to buy them donuts for Thursday.  The way to a student's heart is almost always through his or her stomach... and today, apparently, it was also through writing.  

Back to School, Back to School...

Happy Easter!  But, not so happy is the fact that I have to go back to school tomorrow :(  Going back is so tough after breaks.  The kids have forgotten everything you taught them, and you have forgotten what you were trying to teach them before the break.  I'm not sure what state I left my classroom in, and I really have no desire to wake up at 6am tomorrow.  At least there are only 10 weeks left, and with a lot of field trips, assemblies, and other fun stuff planned, they should (theoretically) go quickly.

Death by Unit Plan

This unit plan may actually kill me... if I don't return to school on Monday, you all know why.

Spring Break

How is it fair that I have so much more work to do over spring break than my students?  While I did go to New York and had a blast seeing people there (and eating far too much food...), I am now home in CT and rather than being able to lazily relax, I've had doctor's appointments, errands to run, and a ridiculously large project for my methods class.  Ugh.  So much for having free time...

Teachers Gone Wild!

I am officially on prep which means I am therefore thisclose to being on spring break for a week!  Here's to heading off to happy hour after work with my roommates!

Everybody Dance!

We had a middle-school dance today, for kids whose behavior has been consistently good, especially during PSSAs, and to my surprise, it was actually a total blast. I got to be the awkward white teacher out on the dance floor, who didn't know any of the moves or the dances (except the cupid shuffle...that one is easy since they tell you want to do), and I think my kids were more embarrassed than I was :)

All the K-5 teachers told us we were crazy to be having a dance, especially with the lights off (GASP!), and I have to admit, I had apprehensions myself. But the kids really rose to the occasion, with only a few students having to be separated for grinding (by an NTA with a yardstick...hilarious!) and as far as I know, nothing awful went down in the shadowy corners of the cafetorium (a mix between cafeteria and auditorium). It was nice to see the kids prove the rest of the school wrong for once and not live up to the low expectations the rest of the school sets for them as the unruly middle schoolers. All the teachers and kids left with smiles on their faces, which is always a nice way to end things right before break :)

April Fool's

Tomorrow is a scary day.  All my students are very into the whole concept of April Fool's, and I am very worried that I will have one (or more) tricks pulled on me during the course of the day.  I myself have never been very good at coming up with pranks, and therefore know I will not match up to anything my students will be able to come up with.

I'm compensating by showing a movie of the book we just read ( The Outsiders), which is a huge teacher no-no at my school, and with my luck I will get caught.  Which, by the way, is so unfair, since the science teacher used Twister AND The Day After Tomorrow during her severe weather unit.  One of the objectives on my curriculum is to have students evaluate a variety of media...movies count as a variety of media!  Well, here's to hoping that this preemptive rant improves my luck a little so that I get away with it...

Scary Moment?

I'm on facebook too much, and have recently become interested (read: addicted to) in those quizzes you can take and post in your newsfeed.  They are truly a great time-waster, as evidenced by the number of people who I know should be lesson planning who are instead posting these quizzes.

Anyway, I just took one to find out what my ideal job is (because hell if I know, I may as well let facebook help me out with that one) and it told me teacher.  Um.  Seriously?  I'm not sure if that's scarier than the girl coming out of the TV in the ring or a positive thing suggesting I picked the right career path at the moment.  Though I do have to wonder...what does my preference for KitKats over plain chocolate bars really reveal about whether or not I should be a teacher....

TGIF

My principal is letting us leave at 1:30 today!

In other news, I just had a conference with a parent who told her son that because his grades were so low, he wasn't getting that $300 to go down to the Polo store today!! Want to adopt me? I'll get A's and B's if you'll give me $300.

Meet the Parents

I had a very interesting parent-teacher conference today. The parent of one of my brightest but toughest (and one of my favorite, though I'm not supposed to admit that) students came in today, and this was my first chance to meet her, despite numerous phone conversations (and messages that, in hindsight, probably got deleted by the student before they ever reached her mother). Shaheeda's attitude in class has been difficult, to say the least, and her behavior has certainly been less than desirable. In my head, I had constructed this horrible home situation in which no parent seemed to care what Shaheeda did or said, leading to the angry student who frequently lashed out in my class.

I very quickly discovered I was wrong. Shaheeda's mother lit up when she saw Shaheeda's report card- almost entirely A's and B's, and all her grades had risen tremendously from the end of the first marking period. Shaheeda's mother and I chatted for quite a bit, discussing everything from Shaheeda's most recent essay (which her mother hadn't even known she was working on) to our mutual love for the Twilight series. I learned that Shaheeda's mother worked most days and it was difficult to get off work, that Shaheeda has several sisters, all of whom take away the attention Shaheeda so desperately wants, and that her mother had never heard from Shaheeda about any of the positive changes to her report card or the high marks she received on school projects. As I look back at this conference now, it's clear I seriously have to change my outlook- her mother definitely cares, even if she doesn't always call me back. And, I need to call home for positive things MUCH more often.

First Post, and it's only....March?

Now that it's March 25, I finally feel like I have my feet under me enough to maintain a blog (even if I can't always maintain my life in any kind of organized way). Of course, that could just be the end of the PSSAs talking...just like the kids, I kind of feel like the year should be over NOW. If only Pennsylvania made any sense and put their standardized tests at a reasonable time, like, oh, the end of the year. I'm going to try to use this to keep folks updated on my life, but no guarantees.

We began our second round of parent-teacher conferences today, and unlike last time, I do not feel as terrified as I did back in November. Maybe I have finally realized that the murderous looks on the faces of some parents are not directed at me (though the ones on the faces of my failing students might be). However, between the end of PSSAs and parent-teacher conferences, I am realizing how unsatisfied I am with how my year has gone. I realize I still have three months with these kids and they are valuable three months in which my students can be motivated to learn a lot, but in the end I wish it hadn't taken me this long to get it together, because only now do I have a clear vision of the teacher that I can be, if I try. It's just unfortunate that this realization comes as a result of feeling as though I have failed those students that failed my class this marking period. As veteran teachers at Duckrey are beginning to feel as though they are winding down, there is a part of me that is geared up and so ready to try new things that I was super unprepared for before.

Back in October or November, the science teacher at Duckrey, who is a truly amazing lady and is definitely one of the reasons I didn't walk out of the school and never come back in the fall, told me that she reached February of her first year of teaching and was ready for it to end because she wanted to try all new things, to have a fresh start. I'm beginning to see EXACTLY what she meant.