Bonne année!

To the only two people that probably read this (you know who you are) I'm sorry it's been so long!  One of my New Year's Resolutions is going to be to post at least once a week. Hopefully I can stick to that.

On the last day of school before winter break, I was standing outside of the office and I see one of my students (Pedro, who has been working really hard over the past few weeks) burst out of the chemistry classroom with a test in his hand.  He runs down the hallway with both hands in the air yelling, "MISS, I GOT 100 ON THE CHEMISTRY TEST!" gives me a big hug, tells me that only one other student in the whole grade got 100, and proceeds to run into every classroom to tell every teacher in the school.  I don't take any credit for his Chemistry grade, but nonetheless it was one of the best moments I've had all year.  A lot of my students seem to be realizing that I am their advocate and that my purpose in their lives is to help them do well in all of their classes, and I love that, without me asking, they are always sharing with me their successes and their failures.

To give you an idea of the kind of people I work with, you NEED to watch this.  It's a commercial for the coat drive we're having at school...all of the male teachers (and some of the female teachers) did a fashion walk down the hallway.  We made this after all of the kids left before break...they have no idea how much we enjoy our jobs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BACrm7j_SpA&feature=player_embedded

Back to work on Monday after two weeks off.  I struggled a lot last month to get my students to take Resource Room seriously. I'm really going to push for a fresh start...it's going to take a lot of focus and dedication not only from the students, but from myself as well.

Meltdown #1...check.

Whenever I realize it's been a while since I've posted, I get all overwhelmed thinking about everything that I didn't write about...so I'm just going to forget about all of that and start fresh with today. On Wednesdays the students have half-days so we can have staff meetings and workshops.  Today, the two special education directors from the network were at our school (I've probably mentioned the very quirky blonde lady that my students don't really like, even though she is actually a very very sweet lady).  The other director has not been around at all, and she ran a workshop about what co-teaching should look like.  It made me feel completely inadequate and guilty.  I don't normally "lead teach" in that class, but I'm there instead to support the students who are struggling (and this is not limited to "my" students, but to any student who is having trouble).   I've never felt that to be a problem, because I can see that I am helping, and I think the students benefit from my individual attention more than they would if I tried to stand in front of the whole class and teach them Algebra that I haven't taken since I was their age!  But apparently our co-teaching model is expected to look different.

The problem is, being the only 10th grade special educator, I see my students struggling in classes other than math, and I want to be there for them in all of their subjects...and I have been.  After the workshop and holding in a lot of frustration (I "discussed" it with my supervisor until I realized I wouldnt be able to say anything without crying), but the other special ed teacher, Mr. B, caught me crying as we were walking back downstairs...and then so did my co-teacher! It was completely mortifying, but I have to say, I made it to November without crying, which is pretty impressive for me.  They both made me feel so much better, especially my co-teacher.  She is an amazing teacher, and I can tell she really appreciates me.  We decided to make a little more time to plan together that way I know what's going on a little more ahead of time, but mostly I dont think too much is going to change because what we are doing is working.

As soon as I was done crying, JT bursts into my room and yells, "MS. C LOOK! They gave me a uniform! They let me back on the team!  Thank you!! Wait...are you crying? Oh no, don't cry!" and gives me a big hug.  The reason he thanked me was because I found out he had been suspended from the team for grades, and I noticed that he was only failing one class while other students on the team had worse grades than him.  I made a big fuss about it to the coaches, and they let him back on.  The basketball game they had tonight was incredible to watch, the teachers had so much fun cheering the kids on, and we won! I really truly love the school that I work at...everyone has so much spirit, and I really feel like I belong here.  It's a wonderful environment to be in!

It's like a disease...

As I probably mentioned, this past week was CRAZY.  Yesterday morning one of the counselors and I made plans to actually go out of the building and have lunch (usually I have at least 6 students in my room during lunch).  Just as I kicked all of my students out of my room, my supervisor walked in (we have 3 prep periods a day and yet she insists on either coming while I'm teaching or during lunch to give me more work to do).  Anyway, when I was finally able to escape, we went to this delicious little sandwich place and sat and talked.  I realized that I would never be able to do her job.  I've been seeing my job lately as part teacher and part counselor, but for me, when I start to worry about the students' lives and everything they have to deal with outside of school, I can focus on helping them do well in school since that is something that is within my "locus of control."

Apparently, pregnancy is going around like an epidemic in our school all of a sudden.  Another one of my students, Amy, just found out she is pregnant.  Amy is the student whose mother calls about 1000 times a week, and she hasn't told her mother yet.  Looking forward to that phone call!  Carolyn is due in January, and  I'm really worried for her! She's already not doing well in her classes, I can only imagine what next semester will be like.  

Five Pointz Field Trip and Pumpkin Carving Photos

Excited to be getting out of class

Mural Club Artists

Me and the art teacher

Pumpkin Carving

"Monique" and her purple wig...I can't figure out how to rotate pictures in this blog, sorry!

Carolyn and her "favorite acquaintance" 

RC- one of Mr. B's resource room kids, never without a smile on his face, and always looking to give  lots of hugs

Mostly my French club kids

We brought all the pumpkins upstairs and left them on Mr. V's desks.  I was lucky enough to get to see him this morning as he walked into his classroom to this... 

End of Midterms Week

"Ms. C, you know, it really bothers me when people think that resource means we're dumb.  I think it's great. It just means we need a little help to stay focused and all...we're lucky!  Like, have you heard the word 'special education'?  That's not us is that?  Because that makes us sound like we're stupid or something, and a lot of people say they want to get out of resource, but I would never want out of resource!"

JT said this to me after school today as he was finishing his global midterm, and my heart actually broke a little.  I had a good long talk with him about what an IEP is and how students end up with them and why some students just don't understand because no one has ever explained it to them.  He was also really bummed today because he got kicked off the basketball team since he's failing 2 classes, so I promised I'd help him work towards getting his grades up so he could get back on the team.  I'm actually really glad that happened, I think it'll be a good reality check to get him back into gear.

Midterms week is almost over, and as hectic as it has been, it's also been really...interesting.  I haven't gotten a single one of my prep or lunch periods all week, and I've had some students in my classroom 4 or 5 periods a day.  I'm getting to see their personalities come through more and more.

I don't think I've ever mentioned Monique in this blog because she's not a huge character in my class, but I realized this week that if I was still in high school, I would want her to be my best friend.  She's like a big sweet mom, and every once in a while she throws you this hysterical sarcastic comment that makes you just want to give her a big hug.  I'm really worried about her because she's currently failing a bunch of classes, and she is not one of my students that goofs off and doesn't do the work.  She's my only student not classified as LD (learning disability).  Monique's classification is TBI (traumatic brain injury).  Though I don't know the story behind what happened, she is perfectly perfectly normal, it just takes a longer for her to take notes and process information, and I think most of her classes move a little too quickly though.  I absolutely adore her for her patience and am realizing that I really need to find a way to keep her up to speed!

 I also just found out that I am in the weekly TFA digest under "corps member spotlight"!  Check it out!

(way way way at the bottom) Teach for America Weekly Digest 10/28/2010

yay!!!

All of my students that took the Algebra 3 midterm passed!!!!  The lowest grade was a 72 (Arnelle, who literally caught up on 2 weeks of info in 2 hours), and the highest was 100 (JT!!!).  When JT showed me I actually cried.  He was so happy, and I spent the whole day following him around and making him tell all the other teachers how well he did.

Today was also a mural club trip to 5 pointz graffiti lot in Queens and we had a pumpkin carving party after school, so I have pictures to post soon!

Past my Bedtime

I dread Thursdays every week, because I have grad school on the Upper East Side from 7-9:15.  Since the earliest I can leave school is 4:30, I don't have enough time to go home before class, so I stay late and do work, go to class, and don't get home until around 10:30/11pm....and lately I've been so exhausted I fall asleep before 10!  It's almost 11 and I think I'm only still up because I had to have a ton of coffee to make it through class.  I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow.

After my slightly depressing entry today, I had to make a quick post because I am so proud of two of my students today.  Arnelle, as I mentioned, is finally back, and she's shown a lot of initiative in catching up on everything she missed.  She came during lunch and stayed for an hour and a half with me after school today.  We worked on Biology (together, because I had no idea what was going on in Biology) and she caught up on about 3 or 4 days worth of Algebra in a half hour.  Without me even saying anything I heard her tell one of her friends she "learned her lesson and isn't going to miss any more school."  I also made her a "to do list" for tonight (things to study/review before she can make up a few of the 7 or 8 quizzes/tests she missed while she was gone), and I'm excited to see if she actually does it (I have a good feeling she will).  I think this one small little victory was something I really needed to show me that sometimes I do make a difference, even if it's just a little!

Cristy, who I haven't mentioned a ton in this blog, has also made me really happy the past few days.  She is currently failing Algebra and English (she has so much trouble with Math especially), but she's been working so so hard and watching all the Algebra concepts we were working on during the midterm review today finally click with her made me happier than I could express in words! I'm just really nervous because I would have sworn that she would get an A or B on the last math test, and she got a 65.  It'll break my heart if that happens on the midterm too.  I know she knows it, but for some reason a lot of my students freeze up on the tests.

Underwhelmed

A lot of my fellow TFA-ers seem to be drowning right now in the amount of work they have to do right now...lesson planning, making tests, grading papers, checking homework, etc.  For me, the only way I can describe how I've felt is underwhelmed.  I don't have tests to give or grades to track...and half of the lessons I write I have to throw out the window last minute when I find out that there's a big test coming up in one of their classes or I realize half my students don't know their multiplication tables.  It sounds ridiculous, to complain that I don't have enough to do, but it's more that I'm feeling a little helpless.  

My role as a teacher is so undefined.  I don't teach one particular subject, so I feel like it's my job to make sure my students do well in all of their subjects.  This would be perfectly reasonable if I taught a self-contained class and I saw these kids all day, but I only see them one or two periods out of the day! Not to mention how difficult it is for me to know what they are doing in Science, History, and English at all times when I am never in those classes.   I need to narrow down the focus of my class so we're not so all over the place (especially since there is no possible way I could help them with biology or chemistry anyway), but I still haven't quite figured out how to do this.  

On a somewhat lighter note, today's "Do Now" was "Write about what you imagine your life will be like 10 years from now."  Second period talked about how they wanted to be vets, lawyers, basketball players, therapists, etc.  Seventh period: "I'm going to be a drug lord and make mad money.  No seriously, you need to know chemistry and math to be good at that.  Those are the only two classes I'm passing."  This, by the way, was the first time Jay has ever actually done the Do Now.

The rest of the period I fought to get them to prepare for midterms.  Jack (who, as tough as he pretends to be, is a big teddy bear), spent the period trying to come up with names for Carolyn's baby, and JT took the highlighter I gave him to help him focus on his test and drew little yellow polka dots all over his entire history test (this was the third day he was working on the test).  Arnelle is finally back in school after being absent for almost two weeks, and I realized today that she went from passing all of her classes to only passing gym and Resource (which doesn't even count as a credit for graduation).  Midterms are next week, and grades are due on the 31st.  There are no words to describe how nervous I am for my students!!

Last week in a nutshell

I proctored the PSATs for my 13 students in a separate room.  I had four IEP annual reviews the next day, so I was working on writing one of them while they were taking the test.  I look up to see Dennis, who is usually a perfectly behaved gentleman in my class, standing next to his desk, in the middle of stripping.

Me: DENNIS. WHAT are you DOING?
Dennis:  *Stops before taking his shirt off, looking shocked, shrugs* What? It's hot in here.

*Later*
Denis:  Miss, I don't mean to disrespect, but Carolyn is flicking boogers at me.
Carolyn:  *Looks at me with a huge, guilty smile, with her fingers 2 inches away from her nose*  No I wasn't...

In the middle of perfect silence JT shouts out:  "I'M FRESH!" and then farts loudly.

*The next day*
Me: Carolyn, tell Mr. L (the counselor) what you were doing yesterday when you were supposed to be taking the PSAT
Carolyn:  I was picking my nose and throwing it at Dennis
Mr. L: Carolyn, you still do that? What did we talk about last year?

Me: Dennis, what got into you yesterday?
Dennis: I think I had too much candy.

Cristy: Miss, you need a boyfriend.
*Rest of class gets off topic and begins to brainstorm*

*After her IEP Review*
Carolyn: That  HAG made me feel like I was retarded (referring to my supervisor, who really was talking to her like she was two)

Me:  I'm very impressed with how silently Jay is working right now, he's the only one on-task
JT: YEAH that's because he has his headphones on!
Jay: Snitch!

When students rebel.....give them dodgeballs.

I can’t believe I didn’t post all week…it was a very eventful week! Every week goes by in such a blur (but at the same time many days feel like 6 days in one) so it’s pretty hard to remember what went on. But I’ll give you the highlights.

Wednesday was the only day I’ve had so far that I would describe as “horrible.” The math teacher I co-teach with was out, as were a few other teachers, so I was covering the math classes and the English teacher’s advisory. In Algebra we were reviewing for a test, and I basically have no authority in that class, so it was a little crazy, and I actually had to count down from 5 to get them to settle down (I’ve only ever done that before with elementary school kids, and I told them that!) After my 7th period, Carolyn came to me with the counselor and they told me Jay was saying inappropriate things to her in my class, even from the other side of the room, and I realized that that is why she keeps avoiding my class. I felt horrible, because I had no idea, and I should really know what’s going on in an 8-student class…

Normally on Wednesdays the students have half days, but instead of letting them go home they had to stay and take practice ACT exams. They were pissed. In the advisory that I covered it, it took me a good 10 minutes to get them to sit quietly enough to pass out the test, and they all complained incessantly about how it was stupid and they didn’t want to take it. Many refused and went to sleep, some didn’t even open up the test book and just randomly filled in bubbles, and one boy and girl got into a verbal screaming fight out of no where and I had to kick them out. I wrote my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th write-ups that day.

Thursday I started 7th period by lecturing my students about how I no longer wanted to hear any racists or disrespectful comments, or it was going to be automatic detention. They laughed because apparently I was “looking at Jay” the whole time I was talking about it. But then they were amazing for the rest of the period! JT has taken to dragging his desk to face the wall so he can concentrate (without me telling him to!) and Jordan started doing it too! Baby steps…

Friday during lunch my supervisor came with all this paperwork I have to do by next Wednesday. Ever since I told my students that she was my “boss,” they’ve decided they don’t like her. A few of them were in my classroom during lunch working on tests, and one of them (God only knows why) happened to have a small beach ball with him. He stood behind her and pointed at her head, mouthing to me and motioning with the ball, “Should I hit her with it?!” It was so hard for me to look at her and not laugh. I love that my kids are looking out for me.

After school we had a teacher vs student dodgeball tournament. I volunteered to videotape it so they wouldn’t pressure me into playing. Funniest thing I have ever seen, 20 teachers vs 50-60 students. And the students lost.

Back to School Night

Friday was a "professional development day," which meant we had no students and were supposed to spend the day at workshops and meetings and such.  Instead, we had a 10 minute meeting at 9am, and spent the rest of the day doing whatever we needed (planning, organizing, bulletin boards, etc).  We also blew up 300 balloons and decorated the hallways for Back to School Night (the parents were all supposed to come from 6-8pm to meet all the teachers).  It was a really great day for bonding with all of my co-workers, but I was also was pretty much working non-stop from 9am-9pm.  I found out that 4 of my students have their "annual IEP review" coming up on October 14th, so I ran around all day trying to track down forms and get them filled out and reserve a room for the meeting.  The other Special Ed teacher was out for Jury Duty, so I also had to prepare for his and my student's parents.

When it actually came time to meet the parents, only 3 of my students' parents showed up.  Luckily, Jay's mom and stepdad came (so did Jay, and when he saw me in the hallway he shook my hand. I was floored).  His parents came into my room and said, "Okay, don't sugarcoat anything, just let us know what he's been doing and what he has to do.  We were told that no one fails resource room, and yet Jay is failing."  It was fantastic, and hopefully he will start to get better.

Beautiful Moments

Today we had an advisory "field trip," where we split into our advisory groups and had 3 and a half hours to complete a really long scavenger hunt that required us to run all over town finding different places and taking pictures (for example, we had to find a statue that I had never known was there, and take a picture of everyone in height order, and we also had to take a picture with a dog and find out its name).  I was with a 9th grade advisory group with two other teachers, since I don't have my own, and the only student I knew was one of the 9th grade kids in Mr. B's special ed class.  The group was super excited, and everyone was running around screaming and cheering each other on.  I am really surprised no one got hit by a car, but there were so many beautiful moments of problem solving and teamwork that I never would have expected from a silly scavenger hunt.

We finished in an hour and a half (first place!!) and bought the kids pizza.  We had run so far that RC, (the sweet, short little boy from Mr. B's class), could barely walk and was in a lot of pain (he goes to an OT for some kind of leg problem).  RC is the kind of kid that at any other school would probably be a target for being teased, but these kids were so concerned about him.  One bought him a water with his own money, another actually carried him all the way back to the school!

Every Wednesday we have a staff meeting after the students leave.  We always start by writing "merit referrals" (the opposite of disciplinary write ups) for students, and sharing them with everyone.  Two teachers wrote merits for JT, for being uncharacteristically focused in class and calmly helping explain something to a frustrated classmate.  I felt like a proud mom...I almost cried!

Meet my students!

My job description, when I was offered this job, was extremely vague and no one ever really specified exactly what my role was supposed to be.  As I've been trying to figure out my place in the school over the past five weeks, I've realized that I have gotten really protective over "my" thirteen students, and that my role has become a cross between teacher, advisor, and mother-figure.  I feel a responsibility not only to teach them, but to constantly advocate for them and make sure they know how to advocate for themselves--and to feed them cookies!  Yesterday I brought in a box of rainbow cookies that my aunt had given me to share with them, and they were so excited that I had other kids coming into the classroom asking if they could have (I guess it was better than my usual oreos).   

Since I have such a small group of students that are actually "mine," I thought I'd introduce you to each of them, so when I talk about them in my posts everything makes a little more sense.  I won't do all 13 tonight, but here's a start:

I've mentioned JT already, my ADHD friend who’s awesome at math when he will just focus!!  He’s decided that he wants to go to Pratt when he graduates, and he recently got onto the basketball team (which is hysterical in itself, because he’s only about 5’3”), so luckily I have two huge motivating factors with him.  It’s gotten to the point where all I have to do is give him “the look” and he’ll say “I know, I know, I have to focus or I won’t get into Pratt and I’ll get kicked off the basketball team.”  

James is by far my lowest-level student, and this is probably mostly because he is absent on average 3 or 4 days a week.  I went through his grades with him yesterday, which were almost all below 50 (many below 20), and had a long talk with him about the importance of attendance.  He’s a sweet kid who is willing to take any help you can give him, but it’s hard to catch him up when he has missed entire units in more than one class!  Unrelated, I found out he calls himself "chippy" because he is missing half of one of his front teeth.

Most teachers at my school dread having Amy in their class, and not because Amy is a tough student—but because her mother is incredibly overbearing and calls constantly to tell us that her daughter has to become an attorney.  Amy has been staying in my classroom during lunch almost every day to make up tests and quizzes, and kind of lingers around to talk with me when she’s done.  I realized yesterday that she is the Latina version of my middle sister: smart but ditzy enough that it sometimes affects her grades, and constantly surrounded by boys.  One of the 9th graders was hitting on her in the hallway last week, and as she walked away she said "you wouldn't be able to handle me."

Arnelle—the girl who used to come in really angry and refuse to do any work until the day that I had a one-on-one meeting with her and somehow got through to her—is now one of my hardest working students!  She not only tries really hard and gets all of her work done, but when she finishes early she gets up and starts washing down my chalkboard.  She also has a habit of stealing my stamp and my stickers and covering herself in them.  Today I overheard her tell another of my students that her boyfriend “broke up with her to get with the girl he cheated on her with,” and she was really blah all day.  I asked her if I let her hang onto the stamp for the period if she’d cheer up, and it actually worked J

Anyway, 9:45 is pretty much teacher bedtime.  Next time I'll introduce you to a few more!  

My First Write-Up

Yesterday I wrote up my first ever disciplinary referral (referral for a school-wide detention, which goes on their record).  It was for Jay, surprise surprise.  Although he wasn’t acting much different than any other day, I realized I had to show him that I actually would write him up.  He was completely ignoring every direction I gave whether I asked him or told him to do something.  Everything had to be an argument or have an explanation.  The worst part was that James—who is absent four out of five days of every week and is extremely behind—was actually there yesterday and was so distracted by Jay that he got nothing done.  Jay also made fun of Carolyn’s belly, which is starting to show (she’s now about 4 months pregnant), which was the final straw.  I used my best teacher stare and teacher voice, told him I was no longer going to tolerate his behavior, and walked over to my desk and wrote his name down on a random piece of paper.  So, in those last 5 minutes, he was an angel, but I wrote him up anyway.  When he found out he had a detention (and who gave it to him), he walked into my French club meeting screaming, and I calmly told him we’d talk about it tomorrow. 

I was dreading seeing him today, but he was actually better today.  Not perfect, but an improvement!  The Global Studies (Mr. M) teacher and I have teamed up to create a daily behavior tracker that he has to have every one of his teachers sign every day, and he has to bring it to us at the end of every day.  It’s pretty hysterical because it’s tailored specifically to him.  The categories include, “stays in his seat,”  “does not talk to himself or others while the teacher is teaching,”  “does not argue or give excuses when given a reminder or consequence,”  “takes notes and does work” etc.  We’re going to introduce it to him tomorrow, and he’s going to hate it, but Mr. M and I are already getting a kick out of it. 

French club, by the way, was magnifique! One of the 9^th graders, whose chosen French name is André, was apparently a fantastic French student in middle school and was so sad to find out our high school doesn’t offer French.  I swear, the kid is actually just as good, if not better, at speaking French than I am.  We had a lot of fun, and it was so interactive and high energy that I’m starting to think I’ll go back to school to get my French certification after my Special Ed. master’s is finished!

Something in the Water

During 7th period today, as the full-time substitute (Ms. L, who I love, she's going to end up being one of my best friends) walked into my class exactly when I needed her.  I looked at her in desperation, as I was trying to review the rules of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers, and said, "Ms. L, did you know I taught a kindergarten class here?"  In that class, I have 8 students, and their desks are arranged in a U-shape.  In the center of the U, four boys in a row were sound asleep at their desks.  For some reason today, no matter how many times I woke them up and threatened detention, they fell right back to sleep.

Ms. L, who is a tiny little thing (less than 5 feet tall), sneaks up to them with a history text book and slams it on the ground.  Two confused boys slowly lifted their heads, looked at her sleepily, and went back to sleep.  JT looked at me and said, "Ms. C, how about if we all get 100s on our Math tests tomorrow, we can sleep for the entire 7th period?"  and then he too went back to sleep.  I remembered that phrase "pick your battles," which I've been reminding myself of a lot lately, and reviewed with Carolyn, who was so near tears by the thought of adding negative numbers that she kept muttering, "Math just isn't fair!"

8th period, which is one of my prep periods, I saw the principal in the hallway and she asked how my day had gone.  I mentioned my sleepy children, and she said today was a particularly sleepy day in most of the classrooms she saw--some days the cafeteria food just really slows them down.  I walked past Mr. V's global studies class and did a double take, and noticed JT in the front row--passed out on top of his notebooks with his mouth wide open while Mr. V pretended not to notice.  I couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the day...at least I knew not to take it personally!

Tomorrow after school is my first French Club meeting!

Last Week's Quote of the Week: "Ms. C, if I were to win an award right now, like a VMA or something, the first thing I'd do would be to thank Ms. C for all her help in Math." -JT


**Note: A good friend of mine reminded me to make sure I changed the names of all of my students.  I went back to look and realized that I had been using one real name, so I went through my old posts and gave him a new name.  In case you were wondering, "JT" is the formerly mentioned, self-proclaimed, "math pimp."

Reflecting.

I'm sort of just writing this post to figure out some of my thoughts right now, so I have a feeling this entry may be kind of boring and not make much sense.  I've been weighing the pros and cons of my specific teaching position (as the resource room teacher who co-teaches two math classes), and I definitely have it easy in many ways. I have a "case-load" of 13 students.  My second period class is 5 students, and they are angels.  My seventh period class is 8 students, and as individuals they are all wonderful (except for one, I hate to say it, but he's just a nasty kid.  He has good moments, but they are few and far between).  When they get together as a group, they can be a nightmare.  For some, it's because the work is way too hard, and for some it's because it's way too easy...I can't seem to find a balance between remediation and challenging them!  What is good about the resource room class is that I can sort of do what I want with it...so one day I'll teach art history lessons that relate to their global class, and another day I'll do writing strategies and another I will have them all practicing math.  The problem is that it's hard for me to track how they are doing because they are not graded in my class (which also results in many of them not taking this seriously), and I don't really know what the end of the year result is supposed to be for them!  

I know it's only week three, but I'm starting to feel like even on my really good days that I'm not making a big difference with them yet.  Our ultimate goal is to help them pass all of their classes, and especially the Regents' Exams they are taking at the end of the year (passing at my school is a 70, not a 65).  I'm thinking I'm going to have to somehow restructure my class (already! ugh!) so that I can track each student's progress in every class.  Or should I just figure out with each student which subjects they need the most help with and track their grades in that?  So much to think about, I don't even know where to start...

Pink Pens and Projectors

Today was a fantastic day.  The 10th graders had a quiz on multiplying and dividing polynomials, and grading them was really rewarding...most of my students got As (one even got 105), and the two that didn't do well at all just made really silly mistakes (something I have to work on them with).

I had "one on one" meetings with my students today, which actually went amazingly.  Had a great talk with this one girl who always comes in looking really angry and sits and writes her name all over her notebook with her multi-colored sharpies while I'm talking.  I've never seen her smile that much...I'm hoping that means I got through to her!  Another girl told me that resource room was a lot different this year: "kids are not out of control crazy and they don't curse at you and we actually do work instead of just hang out."

During the dreaded 7th period, my supervisor was observing, and we worked on changing out "rules" into "norms" (taking the rules they came up with the first day like no sleeping and no cursing and making them positive like learn actively and use appropriate language).  They got into that about 10 times more than I thought they would--I pretty much expected them to refuse to do it.  When my supervisor left, they wouldn't stop talking about how she winked at JT as she left, and when they found out she was my boss JT tried to run after her to make sure she would "give me a good grade."

Other great things that happened, that I would not have understood the importance of two weeks ago...

• The copy machine finally works!!! 
• I found the pink pen that I like to use to comment on student work...I thought I lost it!
• We got a screen and a projector in our room (pretty old school compared to the SmartBoards that every other classroom has, but better than nothing!)  Just in time for me to be able to do a lesson on analyzing photography tomorrow...I've been finding it surprisingly easy to incorporate art into my lessons.  

Pop Quiz

Every once in a while, I give my students a pop quiz: "How do you spell and pronounce my last name?"  Even after repeating it every day for a week, I get blank stares from most of them!  I used to refuse to let students call me Ms. C--I thought it was disrespectful considering my last name is only 5 letters and if they tried they could learn it easily.  I quickly realized the importance of the phrase "pick your battles."  Most students at this school refer to their teachers as "Miss" or "Mister," so I'm lucky when they actually try and end up calling me "Ms. K."

Overall, my first week went pretty well.  My colleagues are amazing.  Most are new teachers, I'd say everyone, even the principal, is under 40 (most under 30), and we all get along wonderfully already and everyone is really supportive.  Some of my students are absolutely hysterical.  On Friday all they could talk about was the hurricane...one student asked if we were "going to die."  At the end of the day I saw one of my students, JT, who I have in both resource room and in Algebra, slowly swagger past my room using an umbrella about half his height as a cane.  I had been incessantly praising him for his awesome math skills all week (I noticed it got him to actually stay awake during class), and when I stepped into the hallway he said, "Miss! I'm a pimp...that knows math!"

What I learned that day: Never underestimate the power of praising a high school student and....STICKERS.  Yes, they are 15, but they love stickers and stamps.  It's hysterical.  JT, who gets distracted really easily and will at random intervals during the class either fall asleep or stand up and disrupt the whole class by cracking jokes, tells me he is going to "shoot for 3 stickers a day" on the positive actions sticker chart.  Allison steals the stamper off my desk whenever I'm not looking and next thing I know she's covered in smiley faces and A+s.

I spent several hours on Sunday calling the parents of all my students.  I was a little anxious about it, but I had some great conversations (and some really funny ones, and some awkward ones that made me realize I need to learn Spanish).  Today most of them told me they were surprised I called home, so at least now they know how easily it can be done!

My ongoing challenges for the year:  

1.  "Differentiating."  Basically, although most of my students in resource room are 10th grade (only one is 9th), they are all at completely different levels in each subject, and in subjects like math and science they are learning completely different things (those who failed biology last year are taking it again, others are taking chemistry, and one isn't taking science at all because he is at a fourth grade reading level and needs all the English classes he can get).  It's really difficult to find ways to simultaneously challenge the ones, like JT, who are really high functioning, and others, like Cristy, who forgot their multiplication tables!  I feel like I need to be a magician...

2. Every teacher has that one student....out of all of my students, I only have one that blatantly disrespects me.  Jay interrupts me every other sentence to try to derail my thought process, makes inappropriate comments under his breath, and very easily gets the whole class off task.  Today, while I was talking, he took a wooden hairbrush and banged it repeatedly on his desk. When I told him to stop: "No Miss, it's okay, I'm just cleaning it out" (as little bits of hair fly everywhere).

My principal was in to observe this mess of a class, and to my surprise she left a note in my mailbox saying she was happy to see my "lovely demeanor in front of the class", and the students "respond really well to me."  A lot of times I have other teachers tell me I'm not tough enough (though I do break out the teacher voice when it is necessary), so I was glad to hear directly from the principal that my teaching style isn't in fact that terrible.

Crazy Wednesdays

Mr. B (the 9th grade Special Ed teacher, who is also a first year teacher) and I decided to dedicate each day to a different subject in Resource Room.  Math Mondays, English Tuesdays, History Thursdays, Science Fridays.  Wednesdays are shortened periods (30 minutes instead of 56) because the students have half days, and teachers stay the rest of the day for professional development. I thought having short classes would make the day go by so quick...but it's chaos!! 


This pretty much sums it up:


"Miss, I can tell you're having a bad day."
"No I'm not, what makes you think that?"
"Your hair is a mess."

5 seconds later, I attempted to take a pen off of a desk and walk away, not realizing it was the pen I had attached by a string to the bathroom sign out sheet.  Needless to say, I gave my kids some good laughs today.

On a not-so-funny note...the social/emotional counselor told me today that one of my students is 3 months pregnant.  She wanted all of her teachers to know so that she wouldn't get in trouble for leaving to go to the bathroom a lot.  She's a really silly girl who seriously wants to be a mortician when she grows up.  I don't even know what to think right now.

First Day

Day one went fairly smoothly.  Both of my resource room classes (period 2 and period 7) had 50% attendance, which is kind of hysterical because that means I had four students in each of those classes.  Period 2 was wonderful--they are all such sweet kids, and it was almost awkward to go over my rules and consequences systems with them.  One of them wants to be an artist, two of them want to be vets, and "Big Mike" wants to be a mechanical engineer, despite the fact that he hates math and science.

Periods 1 and 5 I "push into" Ms. A's Integrated Algebra class, so today I didn't do much but introduce myself and help students with the review problems.  One student referred to us as "Batman and Robin" when we tried to describe what co-teaching would look like in that class.

After Period 2, the Bio teacher (who is also TFA) asked how my class was, and I said, "I only had four students, it isn't possible to have behavior issues with only four students."  I'm a big believer in jinxing....and I definitely jinxed myself there.  Let me just say that the days I write in this blog to vent, it will more than likely be about period 7.  They were really disrespectful--not to me, but to each other, which was pretty disappointing.  Had to start implementing the consequence system right away, but I inadvertently gained some "street cred" when I mentioned that I live near Pratt Institute (immediately they all burst out in excitement "Oooh Ms. C lives in the hood?!").

One thing I learned today: an hour goes by waaay slower than 45 minutes.  At summer school, I felt like I was never able to get through a full lesson.  Today my whole lesson was done with 15 minutes to spare, even though I was positive I had over-planned.

Tomorrow is Big Goals day...

My Classroom!

Some pictures of my classroom...it's super small (literally half the size of every single other classroom in the building, including the resource room for the high school upstairs), but it's cozy!  The only thing it's missing now is students.  

Thursday we had Freshman Orientation, and I was so excited to meet some of my students because they were so fantastic!  However, today we were sent our class rosters, and it turns out that all but two of my students are 10th graders.  I haven't met any of the 10th graders, so Monday is going to be an experience...

(Before)

(After)

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." -Thomas Jefferson

(They are definitely going to make fun of me for this poster, but I couldn't resist)

Why I Teach for America

As of August 2009, the graduation for students with special needs in New York State is 26.6%.  

And the graduation statistics for students with special needs (the "exceptional students," as I like to call them) in low-income NYC neighborhoods are even more depressing.  Teach For America refers to this as the "gap within the gap." As a first year teacher and a 2010 TFA corps member, my mission is to not only close the achievement gap between my exceptional students and the students in the general education program in the Brooklyn high school that I will be working at for at least the next two years, but between my students and general education students in high-performing, high-income schools like the suburban high school I was fortunate enough to attend.

They can have a future.  But what we are providing is the opportunity to fail.  
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/education/03dropout.html)

The first day of school is one week from tomorrow.  I will be teaching two 9th and 10th grade "SETTS" classes (formerly known as resource room), and pushing into two 10th grade Integrated Algebra classes to support students who are struggling most in preparing for the Regents exam. I started this blog as a way to reflect on my classroom and my students' progress, which I am hoping will help me constantly improve my teaching so that I can better serve my students.

My concerns going into the school year:

• Making sure my SETTS classes are more than just glorified study halls
• Investing my students in the importance of what we will be doing (while avoiding a repeat of  the classroom-management-nightmare that was my summer school class)
• Trying to figure what exactly Integrated Algebra is

To be perfectly honest, I'm terrified.