Weekly Blog #8: Another One Bites the Dust

Weekly Blog #8: Another One Bites the Dust

“Don’t start that AGAIN! Lance Hunt wears glasses, Captain Amazing DOESN’T wear glasses.” – The Shoveller

            Well it was the final week of school for the seniors this last week, and boy was it rough. It was really, really difficult to get them to do any work or really get them to do anything besides fantasize about the brand new world that was about to open up for them. They spent all day talking about what schools they were going to next year or what kinds of trips they were taking this summer. Planning return trips and roommate situations already, even though summer hadn’t even started yet. In a way it was a real challenge to keep them focused for just one, two, or three more days, but at the same time, it was relieving to know that so many students made it and to know that I played a small part in it. A really small part, but a part nonetheless. That was both the low side and the highlight of the week.

            I also attended the graduation ceremony, I grouped students into their walking order and helped to hand out diplomas after the ceremony ended. I watched 467 seniors take pictures with families, turn in their robes, and flee like they were never coming back to this town and it was quite an experience. Helping to set up and clean up from the ceremony was a lot of work. Making sure that it went according to plan was a lot of work. Making sure that it was a special day for those seniors who worked twelve long years to get to this point was a lot of work. The thing I noticed most during the whole thing was that not once did any of the teachers complain about it. They put their heads down and did everything they possibly could to make sure that it went according to plan and that it was a very special day. They ignored the things that normally would have made them freak out and they shook hands and hugged the students that they normally might not have engaged. This made me feel very differently about teachers. It was one of the many moments so far in my placement where I realized that teachers have a very expansive dedication to the students and that they work very hard for all of them, even though very few of the students recognize it and fewer still acknowledge it. But that is the life of a teacher, dedicated to hundreds of kids who may not ever truly know how much work was put into making sure they could succeed.

Weekly Blog Posting #7: The Week That Wasn't

Weekly Blog Posting #7: The Week That Wasn’t

“Someone must have ripped the ‘Q’ section out of my dictionary, ‘cause I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘quit’.” – Mr. Furious

            This week was pretty interesting for two reasons; first, I had to combat the growing anticipation (especially on the part of the seniors) for the end of the year; and second, I had to combat my own disorganization when I accidentally misplaced a whole week. That’s right, I lost track of an entire week. Up until the moment I wrote this, I was convinced that there was only one week left of school, that graduation was this coming Saturday. This is apparently not the case. That was perhaps the biggest challenge to overcome.

            On the other hand, Senioritis has become an epidemic more damaging than Bird Flu and Swine Flu put together. It has spread throughout the school in exponential fashion: nearly everyone, including some teachers, now suffer from Senioritis. Getting students to buckle down and work has been a challenge of epic proportions over the course of the last week. I have tried everything in my power from bribes, to group work, to a movie to round out the year. None of it seems to work, my promises of goodies only pacify the class for minutes at a time. At this rate, I might owe each student his or her own weight in candy bars by the time school finally closes out. The thing that really gets me going is that the students aren’t even really that disruptive, most are just totally disengaged. No one turned in any of the homework due on Friday and it is pretty difficult to get the kids to just chill out and do their work. The thing that really baffles me, is that neither myself nor my master teacher have encouraged the idea of summer. It is always reinforced as “not here yet,” or there is a difference between “done and finishing.”

            The teachers have begun to turn off a little bit as well. Some of the teachers seem a lot more irritable and stressed out, probably due to the massive amount of work they have to do to finish out the semester. None of the students cared for the first 2.75 months of the semester what their grades were or what assignments they were missing. But now at the end of the semester, it is a mad scramble for them to try and catch their grades up, even if it is just to be eligible for the summer football work outs or appease their parents when the progress reports come home. In short, I have learned a lot about what the end of the year entails, and the amount of work that all of the sudden becomes necessary for both teachers and students. It also has made me rethink my end of the term strategy, which until now has been “Scramble like Vick in his prime.”

Weekly Blog #6: The Hallways

Weekly Blog Post #6: The Hallways

“All I’m saying is, when we split the check three ways, the steak-eater picks the pocket of the salad-man” – The Blue Raja

            The hallways at any school are quite a wonder. Where I have been working, there are two thousand kids that have five minutes to get from one class to another, from one side of the school to the other. The halls are filled with young students trying to find their friends that they swear will be their best friends forever. Two thousand stories are told in five-minute intervals. Conflict comes to a breaking point, as does resolution. The hallway is a truly unique place. I have noticed this especially this week above all others so far. This week I have really noticed how much a part of the student’s lives a teacher really is. There are the students that will come up and talk to me even though I haven’t had them in class since last semester. There are students that come to talk to me that I have never had in class. There are students coming up to me to ask me to participate in big school events, like prom or graduation. There are students that go to any length to avoid making eye contact with me. The point is that when I walk through the hallways, I finally realize how big the school is. I have seen how many people are affected by each other, sometimes minimally and other times immensely. The strangest thing though has been to think about what the hallways will look like in a couple of weeks when the seniors no longer stroll the halls. I keep thinking about what the hallways will look like next year when the fresh students come in. I keep thinking about how the school is a constant organism with an always-rotating population of cells. I bet that it gets easier with time, but I have a feeling it will be a pretty unique experience to see that change for the first time.

            This has led me to a different perspective on students and teachers. First the students: when I attended high school, I was positive that the day we left the teachers turned towards that new class and embraced them as if they were the same people we were. After listening to lunch room conversations and grappling with my own realizations, I have come to think that this isn’t true. Each student is unique, and won’t just simply be replaced by the new students coming in. I now have a different perspective on teachers; I realize that each and every student impacts them for more than just 180 days. Quite the opposite in fact, it’s an impact that lasts a career and probably a lifetime.

Weekly Blog Posting #5: The End Cometh

Weekly Blog Posting #5: The End Cometh

“Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you want to keep fighting evil today.” – The Bowler

            This week capped off perhaps the most unusual week of my time in the classroom so far. Up until this week I had literally loved every second of time that I have spent with the students. It is very fulfilling to see them grow at such a quick rate, and even though it wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school, it still seems like they grow and learn at such a faster rate than I have ever been able to. Being a part of that process is wonderful… Enter end of the year.

            Now that the end of the year is palpable, especially for seniors, the students have begun to turn off quickly. Students no longer feel condemned to the prison that they see school as, but instead realize that release is imminent. All of the sudden, with only three weeks left, the students miraculously care about their grades to the point of being really irritating. Something about fielding questions about grades, especially from the students that haven’t cared for a second all year long, has really worn me out this week. I find myself sometimes ready for the end of the year, something which I hadn’t anticipated. Whether or not it is because of the rigorous schedule I have myself on currently, between work and school and other school, or just because the kids seem to have changed, I’m not really sure. But one thing is for sure, especially on Fridays, I find myself waiting for the end of the year.

            This was a big change for me, because I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be the teacher that loves hanging out with the students regardless of their attitudes or actions. Maybe it was just one of those rough weeks that you can’t wait to put behind you. I think that’s probably it, I woke up Monday as ready as ever for the week and have thoroughly enjoyed every moment I have been in the class since that one day. I guess the thing that I learned this week is that regardless of the job, there are always going to be those days that just force you to stumble a little bit. Optimistically, it just ends up being preparation for next time.

            This gave me a new perspective on the teachers in the school. There are some teachers that have seemed as though they are always waiting for the end of the year, and at first I found it pretty hard to respect them. Now, I understand that it doesn’t mean that they aren’t dedicated to their job, maybe its just their time to stress out a little bit, which everyone, especially teachers. So, there it is, the new perspective I have on the colleagues that I have been immensely fortunate enough to work with in my time at the school. I look forward to each new week with them and the students regardless of how I feel.

Weekly Blog #3: Combatting Senioritis

Weekly Blog #3: Senioritis

“You must lash out with every limb, like the octopus who plays the drums” – The Sphinx

            This week has been rough, the first week of the post-prom era. Prom was held very early this year, before April even ended. This information, by itself, no doubt sounds inconsequential, but the reality is that the disease known as Senioritis kicks in with its most serious symptoms. The real problem is that it isn’t only the seniors that have Senioritis this year, it goes down as far as sophomores, who are already a handful usually. The lack of motivation for these last few weeks is going to be a big battle, one that seems impossible to win. But the highlight of the week comes from this attitude, this Senioritis plagued school population is still able to learn, even though they are sure that they cannot. This week, it was a comparison between the Holocaust and the genocides of Rwanda and Armenia that managed to grab even the most unmotivated student. Some of the students that I have had the most trouble reaching were intrigued by the idea that genocide on a massive scale has occurred even though the UN swore that it would be impossible. The students then took it upon themselves to research the more recent genocides, finding information about the victims, the perpetrators, causes, and outcomes. The truth is, students were so intrigued by the lack of the UN teeth in their resolutions that they took the next day’s discussion down a totally different road. Though it wasn’t explicitly part of the curriculum, it was a welcome break to encourage freethinking and refocus students on learning, even if they didn’t know it.

            This whole event really shifted my views on students. For one, it is too easy to write students off for the year because they seem tuned out. But the truth is, maybe teachers don’t really think enough about how to engage the students in a meaningful way to them. High school students are on the verge of becoming full functioning, independent members of the community, and whether they realize it or not, serious issues matter to them. The goal shouldn’t be to try and find a way to make them learn, but to let them learn based on meaning. Students are fully capable of learning without realizing explicitly that they have had a lesson. This is why CWP classes are the envy of the school, because everything you teach is relevant without trying to force it to be relevant. The truth is, students may seem tuned out, but the reality is that they just need to be engaged on a slightly different level.

            This leads into my changing views on teaching. Perhaps the big challenge is trying to figure out how to make students digest the information that I want them to. Looking at this week retrospectively, the challenge is finding a way to teach students to find meaning in what is being taught.