Teachers are master manipulators

I've realized recently that my classroom has become my students' living room.  JT and Jon have this new habit of walking into seventh period and taking off their shoes before they sit down.  The farting continues, and today Jon walked around with his khakis around his ankles (he had shorts on underneath, but still...)  It is really nice to see Jon happy though.  For a few weeks he was in this slump where he looked miserable and slept through all of his classes.  Last week I gave him the most amazing guilt trip ever, telling him, "You know you are one of my favorites, and I really don't want to have to write you up...I thought you respected me as much as I respect you, but the fact that you aren't trying shows me I'm wrong.  You're making me feel like I'm a failure as a teacher."  He looked at me, almost speechless, and sat down and finished the Algebra test he had avoided for three days.  It was beautiful.  I feel like I do a lot of manipulating and mind-games in order to get them to do even a little work these days...


During lunch today I looked up my 7th period students' grades, and literally almost had a panic attack.  After freaking out in the hallway to my co-teacher and the biology teacher, I set up my projector and typed a new Do Now:


"Data set:  the number of classes each student in this room is currently failing:  4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 4.   Find the mean, median, and mode.  Which measure of central tendency best describes this data?"


They sat down and began doing the mean, median, and mode, without even understanding the point I was trying to get across.  When I explained how frustrated I was and how we really had to work at this,  Carolyn looked up at me with an evil little smile and asked, "Miss, you're tired of our shit, aren't you?"  


"Yes, yes I am."


I mentioned to my principal how bummed I was that their grades dropped so dramatically, and she told me this point in Term 3 is a huge slump for all of the students, but it hits the Resource kids the hardest (and she saw this exact same thing happen with my kids last year), so I'm going to try not to stress too much.

No such thing as a day off

My students had a lot of tests this week, and all day Thursday I was bombarded by teachers handing me stacks of unfinished exams and mixed up scantrons with no names on them (because my students, bless them, never ever remember to put their names on things unless I watch them as I tell them to write it), and by students ADVOCATING for their right to take their exams with me, rather than in their classrooms.  This meant that during my resource periods I was doing a lesson with my 8 students while simultaneously trying to answer questions by the 5 other students in the room who were each taking a test for a different subject.

I may be good at multitasking, but no one's brain can handle that much information at one time.  At one point, all of my students were asking questions at once, and a lot of them were being really rude about it, so I just walked over to my desk, sat down, and ignored them for a full minute so I could breathe!  By the end of the day I was feeling really run down and like I was coming down with a cold.

Friday morning, I called in sick.  I'm the only teacher that hadn't taken a day off yet, so I figured it was about time!  By 9am, I had text messages from three different students asking where I was.  My response, "I'm sick, and you're not supposed to be texting in class!!!"  At 3pm, I got a text from my co-teacher, who told me that one of my students (who is her advisee) took her into my classroom because he needed to find the Algebra test that he had completed.  She told me not only did the room smell like sweat, but the tests were scattered all over the floor and she found his in the corner by the garbage!  

A half hour later, I get a text from Cristy, and I asked her how 7th period went without me.

Cristy: "Lol we was loud ms c and CiCi was going crazy and ms h was gettin mad cuz she heard us from her room and dey heard us from the hallway lol."  
Me: "WHAT?!"
Cristy: "Lol, I no, we need u."

As much chaos as there is when I'm there, at least I now know it's worse when I'm not!  

Next I got a text from a student who found out she got an 82 on her global test. I told her I was "hype!" and she responded: "Omg miss, I can't believe you just said hype."

Slang Dictionary, in progress

On the low    =     secretly, unexpectedly

Wavvy    =     cool

Swag(ger)    =    nice, cool, awesomeness

I'm hype     =    I'm excited

Tight    =  angry

That teacher's got me tight    =     that teacher's pissing me off

Shakin my head     =     you're stupid, what are you thinking?, i don't want to deal with you

Diablo!  =  I know this means devil in spanish, but I have yet to figure out why students run around saying this randomly

You're wiling    =   you're crazy

Thats flee    =    that's cool

She's feening    =   she's getting overworked/overexcited

OD    =  very  (as in, "this is OD hard")

Dead ass  =  I'm serious.

"Sorry Miss, I won't be in school the rest of the week..."

It's 7:30am, I walk into my classroom with my two travel mugs of coffee--it was especially hard to wake up this morning.  It's almost a half hour later than I usually get to work, and as always I become immediately flustered by all of the posters falling off the walls, the papers that are everywhere, and the desks that are arbitrarily strewn about the room.  I wish, for the ten-thousandth time, that the teacher I share this tiny space with would help me keep our classroom clean.  No matter how much time I spend organizing, it never lasts more than two days.   I'm now remembering all those times I made a mess after my mom cleaned and she would say, "I can't wait until you have your own kids, then you will understand why this makes me so mad."  In a funny way, these are my own kids.  The only way I could love them more would be if I gave birth to them myself.  Before I can even take my coat off I hear my phone ring: it's a text from Arnelle.  


"I had a miscarriage, I lost the baby. I can't stop crying."  


So, my girls are having babies, abortions, and now miscarriages.  My boys are in gangs, watching their cousins get shot, spending their winter breaks "locked up," missing school for court dates.  I try to remember my most traumatic high school moments.  No matter what I come up with, it pales in comparison to what these kids are going through.  I realize no matter how great of a relationship we have, I will never completely be able to understand where they are coming from.  I've learned never to say, "I know how you feel," because really, how could I?  


This was a wake up call for me.  As frustrating as it is when my students have those days (or weeks, or months) where their grades and their education aren't priorities, I have to remember that it's not necessarily because they are lazy or they don't care.  But every now and then they do need a gentle reminder that education might very well be their only chance to make safer, happier lives for themselves.    

Maybe I should become a counselor?

Friday, first period:

Arnelle: "Miss, I have to tell you something later.  Don't worry, it's good and bad."

Fourth period:

Arnelle:  "This is really hard to say." *long pause*  "I think I might be pregnant."
Me: "Well, what makes you think that?"
Arnelle: "I have all the symptoms.  And I didn't use protection.  And you know, I took a pregnancy test from the dollar store and it had two lines on it."


I have FIVE female students.  This is the THIRD one that has been pregnant at some point this year!

Whirlwind

The past few days were a whirlwind!  This is the first chance I've had to catch my breath since Monday.  The week definitely had it's ups and downs, but either way I am looking forward to 5pm tomorrow (If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that 95% of the business that bars get between 5 and 9 on Fridays is from stressed out teachers).

On Tuesday, my 7th period was an emotional wreck.  It's funny, because now that we're in a new semester, my 7th period is mostly made up of my old 2nd period students, and yet 7th period is still crazy.  It must be because it's the period after lunch, so maybe it's not (entirely) me after all.  Cristy came in crying, because her boyfriend broke up with her.  Dennis and Jon came in looking like they were going to cry, put their heads down, and refused to do anything (I found out later that Dennis' cousin died, and Jon's girlfriend interrupted class to tell me that they got into a fight and that's why he wasn't doing any work). Amy came in freaking out because one of my 3rd period students punched her in the face in gym.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Arnelle rolling down her sleeves and caught a glimpse of a hideous bruise on her arm, which I immediately told her I'd discuss with her later.  Sweet, quiet, focused Steve decided to morph into JT in his craziest form (which I like to describe as being similar to a severely ADHD person with tourrettes having a seizure), saying "diablo" over in over at the top of his lungs, while JT followed along saying a different Spanish word over and over (which Amy told me later was the Spanish word for "vagina.")

Needless to say, it wasn't the most productive period.  I made them all finish their Algebra test from earlier in the day, which didn't take more than 15 minutes, and the rest of the period we sat in a circle and talked, watched old morning announcement videos, and drew on the chalkboard.  It was like one big therapy session.

Yesterday I took four girls (who are not my students, but who I've bonded with while co-teaching their Algebra class) on a field trip to Pearl Paint on Canal street after work before grad school.  They were like kids in a candy store, it reminded me of the first time my Uncle took me there when I was their age, and I realized it was five floors filled with every kind of art supply you could imagine!  I missed the staff meeting while I was gone, but Pedro was voted student of the month!

 Today I had four IEP Annual Review conference, for Pedro, Jay, Monique, and Steve.  I was really impressed with Jay, who is not my most mature student, because although these meetings are incredibly awkward, and although he has told me that he doesn't want to have an IEP or Resource anymore, he handled his meeting the most seriously out of any student I've seen yet.  He articulated everything he struggles with and decided, on his own, that he did want to keep his IEP and even add to his testing accommodations, and talked about how the behavior contract for the baseball team is really helping him stay motivated.  He really, truly ADVOCATED for himself, and I've never been more proud!
 

CELEBRATING!

I finally got my hands on my students' official report cards today.  The way our school works, quarter one and quarter two grades need to average to at least a 70 in order to be considered "passing" for the semester.  If they don't pass for the semester, they don't get the credit and have to make it up either in summer school or take that semester of the class again next year.

Out of my ten students that actually come to school more than once a month, FIVE OF THEM PASSED. I went and searched them out throughout the day to tell them.

Pedro, who has been working SO HARD the past two months, was like "Yeah Miss, I KNEW THAT. I'm nice!"

JT's eyes popped out of his head, he asked me if I was sure about 100 times before he jumped up and down, hugged me, and proceeded to run down the hall screaming "I'm HYPE!" repeatedly. (Sometimes I joke with him that he might have tourrettes, although it's really nothing to joke about, but whenever he starts saying something he says it over and over like a broken record until someone snaps him out of his trance!)

Dasean came into my room to ask for a pencil, and as soon as I saw him I was jumping up and down telling him over and over that he passed all of his classes until he realized what I was saying, and he begged me to call his mom immediately (he is over 6ft tall and acts like he's really tough, but he has a real sensitive side and is definitely a mama's boy).

I had texted Allie's mom as soon as I found out, and her mother must have texted her while she was in class, because five minutes later Allie burst through my door shrieking at the top of her lungs, hugged me, and ran back out of the room still screaming.

I pulled Monique out of Global, the one class she wasn't sure if she passed.  I asked her if Mr. V told her her Global grade, and she said no.  When I told her she passed, she looked at me and said, "Miss, don't look at me, I'm gonna cry!"

The amazing thing about Monique, who is such a sweetheart (and I tell her an unnecessary amount of times a day how wonderful she is), is that she struggles, but she never complains and works at this slow and steady pace, and is always gradually getting better.  My co-teacher and I call her the Little Engine that Could.  Monique's mother told me today the story behind her "TBI" classification (traumatic brain injury).  When she was in 7th grade, she was hospitalized with "water on the brain," for several months. She almost died, and when she did get out of the hospital she couldn't speak, walk, or remember who anyone was.  It's such a miracle to see where she is today, you would have never guessed she had anything more than a slight processing issue!