Week Five?!

The first unit of teaching has come to a close, but moving on is difficult when so many students are failing. I'm trying to reserve judgment, but I just can't comprehend why these students can't make it to school so often. They are doing a raffle at school for all the students who haven't missed a day of school yet - only 60 out of 2000. And I ask these kids why they weren't at school when they come asking what the missed, and I can tell that they are lying to me when they say they were at the doctor. I don't know what past teachers these students had, but I get the feeling that these students don't actually think that I will give them an F. One of my kids said to me on Friday, "Aren't you proud that I came to school today?" On a bad day, I just want to reply, "No Andres, you actually make it harder for me to teach the rest of the class when you are here."

That's the most upsetting thing I've found is that while there are students here that truly want to learn as much as possible and are committed to it, there are also students that pretty much do anything and everything to detract from that classroom commitment. Case in point - I gave my Algebra class pretty much an entire class period to correct their poor quiz grades for additional points, but a handful of students just didn't want to do the work and instead distracted others. When grades and points are no longer effective motivators, what do you do? Why do these kids come to class? I know there must be things that I can do to remedy this, but I feel like I don't have time for these trial and error games!

Week Three

Just in case you were wondering, gum in the hair still happens in high school. That was my 6th period yesterday. These kids are crazy right after lunch (yeah- there are five periods before lunch) and the fact that they are freshmen does not help matters. I definitely have some characters as students though; I am blessed with the presence of Anita every day, a girl who has absolutely no manners whatsoever- and yet is really smart, so she shouts out every answer. When I ask her to stay silent to let some other students learn too, she reminds me that her mother always says not to care about the other students in the class- only on her own education. Needless to say, she is not well liked by her other 6th period classmates. And then in 4th period, Fabio has convinced the entire class that I look like Michael Phelps, and has "accidentally" asked for help by saying "Mr. Phelps..."

I can deal with all that, but I must say I was disappointed to grade the quizzes last Friday and find that each class got about a 60% on average. Then again, I am also disappointed that the school is still in the third week switching kids in and out of my class. It makes grading a nightmare for a new teacher. Not to mention the fact that I expect 1st period to learn less due to truancy. At the end of last week, I had only seven students in class when the bell rang and then 18 tardies throughout the period as people rolled in. On one hand, I feel like I shouldn't have to spend each morning catching all these students up to where we are- I want a negative effect so that they decide to actually show up on time. But then on the other hand, it is my goal as a teacher to have them all on track... all the time. So every morning I am exhausted after 1st period trying to get everyone caught up. Hopefully they'll respect the time I'm putting into this. After all, from other stories I've heard from other TFAers, my kids are relatively angels (knock on wood).

Just a quick update - time to get back to planning. (I spent too much time this weekend in San Francisco getting enough ahead - although I will say that the best thing about holiday weekends is not the extra weekend day, but the fact that the week is only four days!)