I Kind of Want To Punch Somebody In The Face

Yesterday in our staff meeting after school from the guy who is our "Turnaround Director": "Never, ever yell at these kids. They've already been yelled at. If yelling worked, we wouldn't have to be here turning this school around."

WELL, as my friend Jen (shoutout!) so eloquently put it, "If idiot solutions worked, they also wouldn't be there."

REALLY?! REALLY?! You think you get paid the big bucks to come tell me some moronic thing like, "don't yell" and everything's going to be fixed??

Today was a pretty bad day. Nothing even really happened, my kids are just ALREADY ANNOYING. It's the second damn day of school! When I step out into the hallway or go onto other floors, it looks EXACTLY THE SAME as it has every other year. Kids running the hallway, no consequences.

So, apparently when we went to that summer training, they just wanted to tell us all these things we COULD implement....not that they would help us implement such things. "You could do a Friday Breakfast Club, guys! You could bring in donuts and juice for your students that did well that week!"
Thank you for that genius advice. I would never think of something so smart and wonderful and life-changing all on my own, because I have the brain capacity of a bird. I basically just wandered in off the street to hang out with these short people that I just recently found out are actually not small adults, but something called "children." Whatever would I do without you, my saving grace, my one lifeline to dealing with these people. I am so glad you all get paid so much money to tell me how to interact with kids you don't interact with yourself. Why don't you wander on over to the hospital and give the surgeons tips on a more effective and efficient way to do a heart surgery? And on the way there, why don't you stop by the construction workers and critique their way of laying pavement?.....No?...just me?...I'm the lucky one? Yay, again, I really appreciate your pearls of wisdom.

He's Ready

We had 6th grade orientation on Thursday. After it was over I was standing the hallway talking to an incoming student.

"Hi, What's your name?"

"Corey."

"It's nice to meet you, Corey."

"Do y'all have a hall monitor up at this school?"

"Yes."

"...Is she fast?"

That Was Fast.

So this is a picture of the hundred or so boxes of books that were in the classroom next to me. They are full of textbooks, so each box weighs at least twenty pounds, if not more. They are not science books, but they were in the science teacher's classroom. She had been asking if they were going to get moved anytime soon. She asked the custodian what she was supposed to do. Custodian asked New Principal. New Principal told Custodian that every teacher had to deal with whatever crap was left in their room. (Which makes sense for say, trash or old books...but all of that?)
Days go by, books are still there. The teacher is getting frustrated because the kids come on Monday and she can't get her room together. She keeps pestering various people and no one has anything to say. She starts trying to move the books. (Just to get an idea here, she's about 5'1.) New Principal happens to be walking by and she says, "Hey! Do you want to help me move some books?"
And HEEEEE says, "You know, I got some stuff in my car, you wanna help me bring it in? Or maybe you just want to turn in your resignation over some books."

He walks off, and she gets really upset and starts crying. (This is literally the only interaction he has ever had with this woman. The guy is BRAND NEW!) She continues trying to move the books, all the while crying. The Language Arts teacher down the hall comes out of her room and yells, "Don't you move those books! That is not your damn job! It don't make no damn sense for you to have to move those books!"

New Principal comes around the corner and says, "YOU TWO! In my office NOW!" This man calls the Teacher's Union on them to try and say they are responsible for what is in their classroom. They met in his office for like 45 minutes.

WHAT THE HELL. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?! Is it sooooo hard to be a principal in my school building and not be a complete asshole?

A better person might say he's just really stressed out right now and said things he didn't mean out of frustration. And I say, the stress has not arrived. Your frustration will be there Monday morning in the form of 400 children. If you are panicking because teachers are bothering you with legitimate concerns, then let me show you the exit door.

Oh, and it's Thursday and we still have no idea what our schedule looks like, what grade we're teaching, class times, class lists, ANYTHING. We have not had ONE SINGLE MEETING discussing logistics, policies, procedures...any of that.

ANNNNND they spent all this money fixing up the front of the building. Painting, landscaping. I moved to the third floor where all the locks on my cabinets have been ripped out, my door is falling off the hinges and my ceiling tiles are sagging and missing.

Day One: I Hate Everybody

Soooooooooo.....
Our new school is a "Turnaround" school. So far ain't a damn thing been turned around. We were told two weeks ago what our grade assignments were. Today we were told something different and "it may change again, heh heh. You never know, heh heh. You get what I'm sayin' heh heh. Be flexible people." Awesome.

Thank GOODNESS I went in last week (on my own free time) to get my desks out of my old room. Because apparently there aren't enough desks and chairs to go around. Lots of people spent the entire day looking for desks and chairs. The teacher next door to me has ONE HUNDRED BOXES of books in her room that no one will claim responsibility for. She's just sitting in there wondering when she'll be able to put her room together.

Because for the next TWO DAYS we have to go to worthless, worthless Professional Development out of the building. As in, I teach Ancient History but I have to go to a 3 hour Professional Development on one Supreme Court Case (Tinker v. Des Moines). In fact, there aren't even enough Social Studies PD's to last all of both days, so I was told I have to sign up for "something, anything. You just can't come in this building tomorrow or Wednesday." So I'm going to something targeted at Special Educators.

Somehow ALL of my posters got thrown away. Five years worth of me making posters...gone. Very depressing. I might have cried a little.

They told me two weeks ago I was teaching 6th grade. I was SOO HAPPY to have only one grade level. I haven't had one grade level since my first year! It was such a relief! When am I going to learn that never lasts? They told us today that my team will "more than likely" teach 6th and 7th grade....when we will know for sure, they don't know. This is my conversation with new assistant principal:

"Yeah, more than likely both grades....is everyone on your team, like, heartbroken?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well, tell them to get over it. It's only TWO preps. Do you know how many preps I had when I was teachin?!"

"No, but I had four last year....We were just so relieved this year to not have all that extra work. And now, well, we're not relieved anymore."

"Well, it's only two and that's not something you should complain about."

So, that's great. I'm really excited to have yet another administrator who dismisses my concerns because of "all they went through" as a teacher. Because it sucked for you it should suck for me?

My new classroom has basically been a dumping ground for the past two years. I found 5 computer monitors and over 100 random books. It was like that show, "Hoarders."

This does not bode well.

How Much Do I Share?

So last week we had our little training. It was cute how they were so positive.
At one point, we were discussing who our "stakeholders" in the community are. Teachers, Students, Parents, Neighbors, etc. Someone pipes up with "The Criminal Justice System." After all they do have a stake in us, the better we are, the less work they have to do.
One of the new teachers (there are soooo many!) looks alarmed and says, "Why on earth would we have to deal with the criminal justice system?" (oh, you are so cute, new teacher.)
I raise my hand and say, "Well, in an official capacity, you meet with Probation Officers to discuss a student's progress. But we also have several kids who go to jail during the year, who've been in jail, who's immediate family members are or have been in jail."
The presenter (who is in charge of our "school climate" but has never been to our school and actually lives in Houston) quickly interjected with, "Oh! But to be fair, that is a VERY small percentage of students! Maximum 5% right?! And there's never been a bad incident, right?" I said, "NO, not right." And she just said, "Wellll, anyway..." and went on to some blahblahblah.

This guy that worked with me last year stood up and was like, "WAIT A MINUTE. I'm sorry, but I have to say something. If you are going to work at this school next year, you need to know that teachers HAVE been assaulted, cars HAVE been stolen, bad things HAVE happened. You NEED to know that." And he sat down. I'm thinking, THANK YOU. The presenter AGAIN tried to gloss over it.

My question is this, how much do we share? Personally, I think they should know what they're getting into. Don't NOT tell them that Darrell is going to cuss them out...tell them what to do WHEN Darrell cusses them out! I'm not saying be all doom and gloom...I can stories about my sweeties too. But come ON.

I Read It Because It's Beautiful

I Read It Because It’s Beautiful
by Karen Morrow Durica

Somehow a life without poetry seems…
Dismal
Empty
Flat—
Not much.

So each day in my classroom I read…
Sonnets
Haikus
Free verse—
And such.

An observer sat in my room one day…
Noted poem’s title
Evaluated delivery
Recorded “lesson” sequence—
Said dryly: “It seems

There’s no connection curricular-wise…
No anticipatory set
No vocabulary drill
No comprehension query—
Do they know what it means?”

I could have contrived a defense or two, but…
Spirits flowed with peaceful joy
Honesty prevailed
Simple truth explained—
“I read it because it’s beautiful,” I said.

She didn’t quite frown but recalled all the same, “We’ve…
Standards to meet
Timelines to keep
Pages to cover—
Important content to be read.”

I looked from her to my students’ gaze; they…
Had relished the words
Danced with the rhythm
Mused with the meaning—
Were richer in spirit than when we began.

I read it because it was beautiful. And beauty is…
Never superfluous
Never irrelevant
Always needed—
Always in my “lesson” plan.

THIS

"When studies control for poverty, American children do very well on international tests, indicating that there is nothing seriously wrong with our educational system. Our scores are low only because we have so many children living in poverty, and the highest of all industrialized countries (22.5%, compared to Sweden's 2.5%).
Improving education is not the path to eliminating poverty. Eliminating poverty is the path to better school achievement. All the money going to new standards, new tests, and of course new textbooks, should be spent on protecting children from the effects of poverty: Proper nutrition (no child left unfed), health care, and access to books."

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/07/improve-education-to-eliminate-poverty.html

Easier Said Than Done

Well, I've been in training for four whole days now and I can't say that I've learned much. I appreciate the fact that we are at a nice conference center and we have excellent food. I REALLY appreciate the fact that no one has yelled at me or berated me or made ridiculous demands of me. I'm being treated like a professional and it is super weird.

I WANT to believe them. I WANT to get on board with their hokey behavior management plans and their ideas and their "don't ever yell at the kids" and their "kids just need love" philosophies. But I've been there a little too long. In fact, I do or have tried to do a whole lot of the things that they want us to do...and it doesn't always work. So, my question is, what then? What happens when your "Caught You Doing Good" tickets and your Good Behavior Breakfasts don't stop the fires and the fighting? Is there any course correction or are we stuck?

Besides the "never yell at kids" thing, today we also heard about how you have to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS (50 more alwayses) have a POSITIVE! attitude. Okay, get back to me in November on that. If you still have a positive attitude then, I promise to have a positive attitude then.

I hate to sound bitter and jaded. Like I said, I WANT to believe in them. And I definitely want our school to not suck. But you read this blog, do YOU think we can just fly in there with treats and posters and smiling faces and everything will be okay?

Notes from The Heather Vinson School of Teaching

So I was talking to a co-worker this morning about one of the sessions we have to attend for the conference tomorrow. It's called, "The Genius in All of Us: Why Sorting Children Isn’t Just Unfair, It’s Bad Science." First of all, what a ridiculous title. There's not a hidden genius in all of us, sorry to break it to you. I mean, I get it, never tell a kid he's dumb...but seriously.

Tracking is very controversial and always has been. I understand why people hate it. Our school (used to I guess) use it. One of the many problems was that it wasn't always accurate and it sometimes did make children live up the stereotype of whatever class they were in. (Last year you were so smart, what happened?!) They also never listened to teachers about who needed to go where (it was based totally on test scores....and sometimes even then it was just arbitrary assignments) and behavior problems were moved to higher classes so they could be "controlled." And once you do it one year, every year after that kids will think that being in "7-01" means you're smart, but "7-06" means you're dumb. Granted, everything my school touches turns to shit, so maybe other schools have a better handle on tracking.

From my own experience, I did the whole Advanced Diploma College Prep Whatever The Hell You Want To Call It when I was in high school. I guess I was tracked? But you know, it wouldn't have killed me to learn how to take apart a car engine or build a birdhouse. Why can't you have vocational AND college prep classes together for the same kids?

ANYWAY, this co-worker said, "That's crap. I'd be pissed if my smart child was put in a class with a bunch of kids who didn't know how to read."

And I get that too. People say the "smart" kids will help bring the other kids up, but those people are overestimating the niceness and helping nature of middle school children. They'll either get frustrated with them or just let them copy their work. You may have a few (mostly girls) who are willing to help the low achievers, but what benefit are they getting re-doing work they already understand instead of moving on to more complicated subject matter? And frankly, I LIKE my separated kids. I love being able to have an actual debate in my 01 and 02 classes (the others just end up screaming at each other) and I like knowing that for 03 and 04 I'll have to slow it down a little and put in a little more explanation.

Since this is an issue that I can't decide how I feel about it, here at The Heather Vinson School of Teaching, we have a whole new philosophy. We have tracking, but it's not based on academic performance, it's based on MOTIVATION. Do you care about school? Do you try to do your work? You're in 01. Do you miss 20+ days of school, come to school high, write your name on your paper and go to sleep? You're in 06. I'm not saying we'd put our little 06 kids in the corner and forget about them, but CLEARLY they need more help than just a classroom teacher can deal with. And for the middle kids, we could base our instruction around how motivated they are.

My 01 kids would barely hear me talk. I'd give them projects and papers and research issues out the wazoo. I'd put them in groups with varied abilities and let 'em roll because they are MOTIVATED to learn. Those kids don't need me. They need me to get it started and provide the materials, but if they like learning, who am I to say what information and at what pace they should go? The middle kids, they'd need a little bit more guidance, perhaps some short lectures and small one-class period projects and activities. They know why school exists, they know what they SHOULD be doing, they just don't do it. Those kids need me to get them excited about learning and to show them HOW to learn. I got that.

And as for those kids at the bottom, well they are special cases. One of my other co-workers, last year he got really tired of their attitudes and them ruining classes so he put his desks into two groups--the "DOs" and the "DO NOTs". He let the kids decide where to sit. Then he taught the "DOs" and the DO NOTs just sat in the back and slept or talked or whatever. What are you to do when you have almost half a class of students who couldn't care less about school or learning? YOU GET THEM AWAY FROM THE KIDS THAT DO CARE. They are NOT going to be positively affected by the other ones. If anything, the other ones wil be negatively affected by THEM. These kids need counselors and home visits and parent conferences and drug testing and school supplies and basically anything you can think of that a child would need. They need to be taught the importance of education.

What do you think?

The Day Before

Well, tomorrow I'm off to a conference. The people that took over our school have a national conference here in Baltimore and we've been asked to attend. I'm going to sessions entitled "Parent and Community Involvement for Student Success" (WHAT?! That is so crazy! Who knew...) and "A Curriculum of Engagement."
I'm trying to hold back on the cynical and bitter part of being a teacher in this city and trying to keep some of the hope that these people will help us...but it's not looking good.
After the two day conference, we have to go to a week and a half of professional development. I'll keep you updated.

In other news, they've hired us a new principal and assistant principal. I've met neither one of these people and nobody knows anything about them. What I've found out so far is that both have served as principals in other Baltimore City Schools for ONE YEAR TOTAL. (Which makes me wonder, if they are any good, why didn't their school keep them?) I've been told they are very young.

It's not looking good, friends.