Sh!t My Students Say

During Leadership, we were talking about the activities for the upcoming rally.  We always have a competition between grade levels, where we play part of a song, then turn it off, and the class has to finish it.  We joked about giving the 6th graders something really silly like "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

Then Ruben says, "I always mess up that song.  It's the knees and toes part that gets me."

Sh!t My Kids Say

R (an extremely avid reader), to three of his (male) friends, "We're going to start a book club.  Have you guys read Twilight?  We're all going to read Twilight." And then he distributed copies of Twilight from my bookshelf to his friends.

Maybe it's only funny to me, but I think this kid is absolutely hilarious.

On the past...

One of my students bought an old copy of LIFE magazine featuring Anne Frank (we happen to be reading The Diary of Anne Frank right now). The article was really interesting, but what was more interesting were the ads from back when cigarettes didn't have Surgeon Generals Warnings. And, oh yeah, we needed to teach our "chubby girls" that they better have a good personality to fall back on!

On Recharging your batteries

We are on Fall Break this week and it has been so nice to just recharge my batteries. I drove down to Huntington Beach to visit Lesley and since her husband was working that night and her mother-in-law was watching her kids, we had a real girls' night. Well, the way WE do girls' night, which involved dinner out (during which we did nothing but over-analyze Sons of Anarchy), and then drinking and watching funny YouTube videos and old episodes of Sons of Anarchy. We got up and were at Zumba by 9 am. Her hubby and kids came home and we all went to brunch. It was so wonderful to see her and the rest of their family. I love them and have missed them so much. 

   The rest of my time has been spent obsessing over my adorable nephew. 

I drive back tomorrow, just in time for practice. We have an away game in Fresno this weekend, so I'll have to get the rest of my rest (ha!) in before Saturday. 

Really high up on my list of things to do is is clean my room and donate old shoes and clothes. 

I've been checking my EdModo site periodically and am so proud that my AVID kids continue to post the #avidawesome year things they are doing. 

This break will have gone by too fast. I need to get organized for 2nd quarter!

On technology

I am not ashamed to admit that I'm pretty on top of current pop culture.  I rarely hear my students talking about something and think, what is that? while smiling like I get it.  (Exception being Twerking and Kik--both of which I now know all about, though I wish I knew nothing of twerking and could unsee Miley Cyrus's infamous twerking at the VMA's).

The point of this tangent on technology is that I use it in my classroom as much as possible.  I'm always looking for new ways to use it, new apps, new devices.  I would kill for an interactive whiteboard and a set of student clickers.

I was introduced to Edmodo about 4 years ago and at the time, it was kind of lame and not very user friendly.  However, I randomly thought of it the other day and decided to check it out again.  It looked a lot more appealing.

Edmodo is like facebook for classes.  A teacher creates an account and sets up groups--I chose to have one group for each of my classes.  Edmodo creates a Group Code for each group, which the students will need in order to sign up.  A student cannot create an account without a group to join.  They don't even need to input an email address, but they can if they want to receive email alerts.

With Edmodo, kids can post things, upload files, add files to their "Backpack," which is a place to store work electronically that they can access again.  As a teacher, you can send alerts, take polls, create quizzes and close them on a certain day so that students must take them by a certain time, upload assignments and documents, etc.  There are even apps that you can add to the site.  I added a flashcards app and created a stack using their vocab words.  I shared this with them and now they have an online study tool--in addition to the cards they make in class.  There's also a (free!) app for iPhone and Android.  It's not the best, but it's functional.

It has been a slow process getting my AVID kids and my 8th grade grade-level English class to all get on the site, but my honors 8th graders are obsessed with it.  They post silly pun-ny jokes and hashtag everything ironically.  I'm having a blast using it with them.  I have already used it to post homework, give them a quiz, have them all respond to a discussion question, and even post a grammatically incorrect sentence to see who would find the errors.  My 7th grade AVID class has been using it to ask each other homework questions.  As the teacher, you have the ability to delete anything they post, and you can even change the settings so that you have to approve every post before it goes up, but #Ain'tNobodyGotTimeForThat. :)

Some of my kids are not allowed to have Facebook pages, so this is the only social networking they get to do.  And so they blow it up.  They will come into the room and say, "Ms. T, check the edmodo site! Someone posted the most ridiculous joke."

Here are a couple of screen shots:

On redecorating

Thought it might be fun to do a little classroom tour! I wish I had really taken before pictures of my classroom.  I spent all summer painting it. Here are a couple of "before" pictures.

BEFORE:

My desk area

Can you see that disgusting teal color and the dingy color of the walls and door? 

Gross.

AFTER:

Grey and yellow.  So much more soothing.  I wish I could get rid of those hideous shades that can be pulled across the top windows. 

 Of course it's not this neat anymore.  This was before 200+ teenagers graced my classroom with their presence every day.

 God, those shades are so ugly.

Aaaaaaand a great shot of today's Exit Ticket board (I got your engagement strategies right here, mister).

Direct or Indirect Characterization?

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A bunch of random thoughts about education

There are a few things I've been meaning to post here, but then life gets in the way and a week has past and I haven't posted, and now I have something else that I want to post about in addition to the first thing.  *sigh*

I am in a perpetual group text with two of my best friends (and two fellow teachers).  Lesley and I taught at SHS my first year teaching and were instantly inseparable.  We had (mostly) weekly movie nights for the next 5 years.  Then, two years ago, enter Jen.  She was hired at SHS and Lesley was assigned as her mentor teacher.  Jen came to one movie night and, to use a cliché simile, she fit in like a missing puzzle piece.  Then, in June, the saddest thing in the world happened.  Jen moved back to her home state of Minnesota, and Lesley and her family moved to Huntington Beach where her husband had gotten a job with OC Fire.

Almost immediately after Lesley's move to HB, she got a job with Girls Inc. which is a great organization.  We have it here in our area and they work with the 8th grade girls at my school.  She worked a regular 9-5, 5 days a week.  She spent her summer taking middle school girls on field trips to aquariums and Knott's Berry Farm.  She attended fancy luncheons where she convinced rich ladies to donate money to the organization.  There was no more grading papers, no more staying after school for hours to help students who were struggling, no more attending funerals for family members of students who were killed in gang activity, no more teenage pregnancy, crying for the kids who were homeless at 17 because their dads kicked them out to make room for their new girlfriends, no more trying to control classes of 40+ students whose reading levels ranged from 4th grade to college level.  The area where we live(d) is a very interesting one.  Within a 20 mile radius, you have millionaires, migrant farm workers, gang members, and everyone in between. We teach (taught) in the less affluent area, but still even there, you have kids who live in huge houses and kids who live 3 families to a two bedroom apartment. Lesley's new job was a cake walk by comparison.

And she was unhappy.  "I need pain-in-the-ass kids who drive me crazy." She said in our group text.  "Teaching is 100 times harder than this job, but it is where I belong.  I'm a teacher."

Most people would think she was crazy, but I get it.  Jen gets it.  Plenty of my other teacher-friends get it.  We are teachers.  The same way we are alive.  Teaching isn't a job, and it's certainly not a back-up plan (I'm looking at you: people who have ever said, "well if that doesn't work out, I can always teach" as if it's that easy).

Which is why I get so angry when non-teachers talk shit about public education and how there aren't enough high-quality teachers.  I teach in a very low-paying district.  I am there early.  I stay late.  There is nothing I wouldn't do for my students.  I spend hundreds of my own dollars every year on my classroom.  I feed them.  I counsel them.  I nurture them.  I protect them to fullest extend of my ability as long as their bodies are on our campus.

But I also get it.  Because I've had colleagues I've despised because they had no business teaching.  However, those people are few and far between.  You want high-quality teachers? Give schools more money.  Give them the resources they need. When it comes to the education of our children, why should any expense be spared? Why should I have to spend $400 on a class set of The Hunger Games so my kids can read a book they are interested in? I shouldn't.  But I did.  Because it means that much to me.  Is it my fault that my school district can't afford to provide the resources I need to teach? No.  But it's not the kids' fault either.

You want high-quality teachers? Pay them wages they can live on. I am always, always broke by the end of the month and I have two roommates.  There is no way I could afford to live on my own.  It really is no surprise that there is such high turnover in education.  Perhaps if teachers were paid a lot more (the way they are in many other countries), education would be a more competitive field, and teachers wouldn't leave the field so quickly.  Show teachers that their work is valued.

You want high-quality teachers?  Make things equitable from school-to-school.  Another middle school in my district just 10 miles down the road has smart boards, ipads, and apple tv.  Some of our teachers are still using overhead projectors.  Not LCD projectors.  Overhead projectors.  These things:

Some of our classrooms still have chalkboards.  Chalkboards.  There is a classroom on my campus where the floor tiles are coming up so badly that students (and teacher) routinely trip over them. But 10 miles away, they're having a ball with their smart boards and their apple tv's.

Why don't I go get a job there?  Why don't I go get a job in a better paying district? The kids.  I love our kids.  I love the diversity.  I, like Lesley, love the pain-in-the-ass at-risk kids who drive us crazy, but steal our hearts.  Would our job be easier in a more affluent school where all kids are performing at grade level and behavior problems are few? Yeah, probably.  But working with our demographic is so much more rewarding.

You see, it's not about the money, and it is totally about the money.  I don't teach for the money (obviously.  And I know you've heard that before). But could money make me a better teacher?  I lie awake at night sometimes and dream of the things I could do in my classroom if I had the resources I want/need/deserve to do my job well.  I know I'm the best teacher I can be right now.  Would that be magnified if I had better resources? I get excited just thinking about it.  Maybe one day.  But for now, I'll continue to do what I can with what I have.

Because the problem with education isn't the teachers.  It's the conditions under which they are expected to teach and students are expected to learn.

Non re-elects

Last week was a really trying week, mentally and emotionally.  On Wednesday, they non re-elected every teacher on my campus that wasn't tenured.  A non re-elect is different than a layoff.  A layoff is because of budget reasons.  Sorry, we can't afford to keep you.  A non re-elect is for teachers who are in their probationary years.  When you begin teaching in California, you are on probation for two years.  During those two years, they can fire you at any time and they don't have to give a reason.  At the end of your second year, they have to decide if they want to keep you, thereby granting you tenure, or get rid of you because you're not good enough.  A non re-elect means that you can never work in that district again, whereas if you get laid off, you can always reapply.  So, 5 teachers on our campus (4 of the 5 who are GREAT teachers) were non re-elected, two of them being my good friends of mine and another being the only eye candy on campus!

Last year, Melissa and Rebecca received stellar observations by admin (this year, we have all new admin and they're terrible.  It's very much an us vs. them mentality on my campus) and this year, they received good observations--not the stellar ones from last year, but still good.  Then, their most recent observation forms come back and they're marked "does not meet expectations" on one tiny, stupid, minute thing--which is all they need to non re-elect someone.  One of the 6th grade teachers received a "does not meet expectations" because she didn't have enough things on her walls!  She is a first year teacher who was given really difficult kids and had been asking admin for help all year, but received none.  And then they fired her.

Rebecca is our music teacher who also took on the leadership class, organized a huge school-wide going away party for our campus monitor, Eddie, who had been at the school FOREVER (who the new admin promptly transferred to another school as soon as they stepped onto campus), and spent countless hours putting on concerts and doing anything else they needed done at school.  Yeah, she was non re-elected.  Melissa was harrassed on a daily basis for almost a semester by one of her students.  He said, "Shut up, bitch" and "Fuck you, bitch" to her and the Instructional Aide in her classroom on a daily basis.  Nothing was really ever done about that kid.  He was finally moved into the Opportunity class, after A SEMESTER of that.

It sickens me, the way teachers are treated.  What was their reasoning for non re-electing them instead of just laying them off?  Public education is a joke.

In other news, that fall I took a couple weeks ago?  It looks like this now:

It's super puffy and itchy!
On Sunday, we went up to Oakland to scrimmage the Oakland Outlaws.  It was a ton of fun and they were great hostesses as usual.  Last year, we scrimmaged them in February.  It was the first time that we, as a travel team, had played against another team EVER.  We lost 242-24.  This year, we only lost 152-51.  We did so much better!  And we only had 10 skaters and they had 17, so we were tiring out much more quickly. I love B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls.

I've come down with a really terrible cold and am out of work for my second day. :( I'm trying to get as much rest and liquids in as possible because we have a game in Paso Robles on Saturday and I need to be able to play.

Rants about my dipwad school district.

I am so frustrated by my school.  I honestly don't know how the District hasn't imploded on itself and crumbled to pieces.  The district and its schools are so poorly run.  I've taught at 3 different schools in this district and I have never really felt supported by the administrators at any of them, and forget about the people at the district level.  That's a whole different story.

We have this class called "Opportunity" class.  It is for the kids who are such a problem that they can't function in a regular classroom (we're not talking about special education students.  This is for students who do not have any learning difficulties or an IEP).  These are the kids who take an entire class hostage with their poor behavior, or show no respect to the teacher, etc.  Once other avenues have failed--counseling, detention, suspension, etc, a meeting is set up with the student's teachers, parents, counselor, and an administrator and it is discussed whether or not opportunity is the place for the student.  There are only a handful of spots open in Opportunity as the Opportunity teacher cannot be expected to handle too many of this type of student at once, since the teacher is with those students the ENTIRE day.

I had a student in Opportunity all semester who just came back to me and has made absolutely no improvements.  His first day back, he called another student a bitch because he was bullying her and she shoved his binder away from her because she was frustrated.  He also says, "make me" when I give instructions and then gives what he thinks is a genuine I'm-just-kidding smile, but is really a genuine I'm-an-asshat smile.  He has no remorse for anything that he does wrong.  He has no respect for women.  He waltzes in to class 15 minutes late and is super loud and disruptive when he comes in.  As soon as I turn my back, he is throwing something at someone, taking something that doesn't belong to him, or out of his seat bothering another student.  And my only choice is to give him detention (which he doesn't show up to).  If I send him to the office, they send him back saying I haven't done enough of my own interventions.

At the last school I was at, Opportunity students had to earn back their regular classes gradually, and a meeting occurred with the teachers-of-record and the opportunity teacher to discuss whether or not the student was ready to come back (part of the deal is that the student needed to be turning in the work being sent to him/her in Opporunity).  At my current school, we got an email from the AP (assistant principal) saying he was coming back.  Both the art teacher and I emailed asking if there was going to be a meeting about it because he hadn't turned in ANY work in 15 weeks.  We got no response.  The first day back to school, there he was, gracing my door with his stupid jerk face.

I don't dislike kids.  I like all my students.  No matter how annoying they are to have in a big class that I have to manage, I still like all my students on a personal level.    My students love me.  I'm not saying this to brag.  I'm saying it because it is true.  I'm very easy to get along with.  I treat them like people, not children (even though they are).  I share students with other teachers who are just fine for me, but terrible for other teachers.  It is really, really hard for me to dislike a kid. This kid is a bad seed.  He does and says terrible things.  I've not seen a single redeeming quality in him.

That is just one example of why my school sucks.  Another?  A colleague of mine had a student who, when given any kind of direction by herself or her instructional aide, would say, "Shut the fuck up, bitch."  This occurred on an almost daily basis.  This is not just disrespect.  It is harassment.  It took the administrators and entire semester before they took him out of her class and put him in Opportunity.  He was never once suspended for this behavior.  The admin is always telling us we never do enough.  We're expected to hold our own detentions (because the school can't afford to pay someone to run detention), unpaid, beyond our contracted work hours.  A kid has to be assigned 5 detentions before we are allowed to send him/her to the office.  So, if you have a kid who is loud and obnoxious and you can't teach over them and you've assigned them detention, but they still won't shut up, you just have to put up with that student.  And so do the rest of the students.  Who aren't learning anything.  Because said kid won't shut up.

My hand hurts from typing.  It is all bruised from being run over by a skate at practice last night.  I love teaching.  I love teaching.  I love teaching.  /rant.