Hilarious Moments at Secret School May 15, 2008

Student VB came in at 9:07 this morning.  She was late; her teacher was absent and her class was split up.  She didn’t come ask anybody where she was supposed to go.  No, that would be common sense.

She went into the girl’s restroom. And hung out there until lunch.

She came out during lunch; my other grade partner saw her, but it didn’t occur to us that she wasn’t assigned anywhere (students were split between four sections; it had been a harrowing morning).

It took two students telling me, after lunch at 12:45 that VB had been hiding out in the bathroom all morning.

It took Grade Coach and Assistant Principal to drag her back to class.  Her excuse?  She didn’t know where to go.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

An Incident in Four Days March 2, 2008

On Tuesday afternoon, a student that has a lot of history (if you know what I mean) attempted to walk out of my classroom in order to avoid getting into trouble. I was preventing his exit; he attempted to get around me by grabbing and twisting my wrist. My wrist is sore and sprained, but otherwise I’m okay. I filed an incident report with the school and went to the local precinct to press charges against the student.

On Wednesday morning, I went to the workman’s comp doctor to get patched up. I returned to school at around 10:45.

That afternoon, I played Phone Tag with a guy who identified himself as an investigator from School Police. His last message to me was “rather than play phone tag, I’ll just come up to the school on Thursday morning.” Thursday morning he comes up, I’m in the office dropping off my roll book. I don’t know for sure that it is the guy who called me, so I don’t say anything. He asks to meet with the Principal. In the course of talking to the principal, he realizes that the teacher he is looking for is, in fact, in the same room with him.

So, we meet, he runs me through the process, I tell him what he’s done, he determines that there’s actually nothing he needs to do. He leaves. On his way out, the principal double checks that there’s nothing the Investigator needs from him.

At the end of the day Thursday, the Principal is in a bad mood and yells at his secretaries in front of everyone in the office. I happen to be in the office. He then says “Ms. [Me], can I see you in my office?” He’s pissed and I’m not sure what he wants.

First question: “Why was [Investigator] up in my building?”
Second question: “You know we’re taking care of the situation, correct?”
My response (in short)

1) Secretary #1 informed me yesterday afternoon that I had missed a call from a man from school police. I took the message and I called him back and left a voicemail. He called me back later that afternoon and left a voicemail saying rather than playing phone tag, he’d come up to school to talk to me.

2) He came up this morning. I spoke with him in the conference room. When he asked what action was being taken against the student, I informed him that the student had been out for two days, but I was unsure as to whether that was official or not because I had not gotten a chance to speak with the Dean due to being out (at workman’s comp) Wednesday morning. You interjected and informed us both that he was on a five day suspension and was being 21ed. I told the school police officer that that was what was happening to the student.

3) He gave me some incident numbers I would need for my case, I took down his name and contact information. He left.

Principal gets a whole lot calmer and seems satisfied with this answer.

Friday after school, the Dean bitched me out because she had to deal with the school police Investigator. Apparently the only reason an Investigator comes out following an incident is if someone calls the anonymous tip line. I didn’t even know the anonymous tipline existed, it was created last year after a serious incident at another school. The Dean assumed that I called the tipline and took an exceedingly nasty tone with me about about how “she’s been doing this job for longer than I’ve been teaching”.

Interjection: Reality check. Everyone in that building has been doing some job longer than I’ve been teaching. I’ve only been teaching 1.5 years. Comparing the success of your career to my teaching experience? Rather mediocre.

She refused to believe that I could possibly not know the safety tip line existed. She lectured me and said, in essence, that if I didn’t call it, I knew who did. And since I knew who called the anonymous tipline I should figure it out and tell them to keep it to themselves.

Interjection: Half the school is sick of the kid who assaulted me and half the school knows who did it and what happened because my school is full of gossipy people.

Anyway, she called me a backstabber and made it clear that she remembers when people stab her in the back and question her ability to do her job.

At this point, I’m fundamentally aware that I probably have no disciplinary support for the rest of the year. Furthermore, I will be putting in a transfer request from my school in order to insure that next year, if I stay in Philadelphia, I can start fresh at a new school. I would rather be at another school where I have an opportunity to build relationships than stay in a place where my discipline problems will not be supported in the future because of catty nonsense. I’m still applying to districts in Virginia and West Virginia; I need to get out of this school system before it kills me.

She really wanted me to find out who called the ANONYMOUS tipline that parents, students, and staff members can call when they encounter a problem. Talk about the chill effect on whistleblowers. Sheesh.

Incident Report – Made Anonymous February 10, 2008

Incident Occurred Thursday February 7, 2008

At 1:15 p.m., Sections 72, 73, and 74 made our last rotation of the day.  Section 74 was lined up in the hall while Section 73 was leaving 324 to go into 325.  Student and the rest of her class lined up (although there was some play-fighting by the boys in the back of the line, I could not address that because I was attempting to clear my classroom of Section 73).

Approximately 1:20
Section 74 entered my classroom as I handed each student their daily work.  When I entered the classroom, a few students were away from their seats.  I told them to move to their assigned seats and they did.  Student, while other students were moving, walked out of the classroom.  I caught her going around the corner and said, “Student, you have just walked out of my classroom.”  Student replied, “I’m going to get my bag from Mrs. Grade Coach.” I said, “You need to come back in the classroom and ask permission first, you can’t just walk out.”  She interrupted me halfway through and said, “I’m going to Mrs. Grade Coach’ and then started screaming and cursing about how she wasn’t “fucking” walking out.  She walked away and I made a note to call her mother after school about her walking out of the classroom.
Approximately 1:25
Student returned, walked into the classroom, and slammed the door.  She started shouting about how she didn’t walk out.  Then, she took her seat with her work in front of her.  She seemed to be calming down and in the past I’ve had success with giving her time to herself before I engage with her.  Because she had already escalated herself to this degree and because I was the target of her anger, I was unable to implement any calming suggestions or techniques with her for fear of escalating the situation further.
However, one minute later, she escalated the situation further.  I saw her walk out of the classroom with her hand to her ear and heard, “Mom, yeah. . .” and it trailed off as she closed the door and went into the hallway to call her mom and tell her that I had reported her for walking out of the classroom (which I had not, as of yet, giving her time to get to Mrs. Grade Coach’ office and back as she claimed she was).
1:26 – 1:29
At that point, I called down to the office and reported that I needed an administrator to deal with a student who has walked out of my class on the cell phone with her mother, and that this was a student with particularly high-risk tendencies.  Meanwhile, I kept my door propped open so that I could hear and see Student (as I was still responsible for her as a member of my classroom, and I periodically poked my head out to check on her.
Older Sister (Student’s sister), came down the hall and saw Student yelling and screaming on her cell phone.  Older Sister walked up to me and asked what happened.  Since our interagency meeting regarding Student’s behavior, Student and Older Sister’s mother has asked us to let Older Sister know what is going on.  I started explaining the situation to Older Sister starting with Student walking out of the classroom without permission.  Student overheard my conversation with Older Sister and started screaming into her cell phone about how “now Ms. Me is yelling at Older Sister” when Older Sister and I were having a conversation in normal tones of voice.
1:30
Seeing that Student had gotten herself even more worked up and that there was still no administration or school police/NTAs in the vicinity, I stepped back into my classroom to call again for an administrator and an NTA/School Police.  At this point Teacher 2 and Teacher 1 had put their heads out of their classrooms to see what was going on, recognized the players in the situation, and tried to intercede.  I tried to keep myself away from Student’s line of sight as much as possible, but she was still screaming about how I had cursed at her and reported her for walking out of classroom.  Ms. Teammate1 was trying to keep her kids in the classroom and Ms. Teammate2 had closed her door.  Neither of them witnessed what followed.
After Teacher 1 and Teacher 2 attempted to intervene while we waited for NTAs and School Police, I closed my classroom door in an attempt to keep Student out and away from harming either myself or another student.  (Prior to winter break, there was an incident where Student had another student on a table and was strangling him.)  I was concerned about anyone initially involved being in her line of attack.  My students attempted to continue their warm-ups while Student continued screaming in the hallway.  I was explaining how to do a bar graph for one of the problems and had just moved into the space in front of my classroom entrance (my back was to the door) when I heard my windowpane shatter and the shards of glass fly up and hit the back of my shirt and pants and fall down to the floor behind me.  When I turned around, the door had been punched out.  Although the glass hit me I was physically unharmed, although any of my students at my front table could have been seriously injured had I not been placed exactly where I was.
I am unsure at what point in all of this the NTAs and School Police arrived and managed to get Student away.  In the moments after the glass was broken, I looked out the window and could not see any adult other than Teacher 1, although they could have been out of my line of sight.  Shaking, I tried to keep my kids on their warm-ups and transitioning into grading their previous day’s work.  At some point in that transition, Teacher 1 knocked on my door and asked if I was okay and if I had a broom to clean up the glass.  A split second later, MaryEllen asked me to make a statement.  She and I stepped into the maintenance area next to my classroom to have a private summary while Teacher 1 supervised my students.
That was the end of my interaction with adults until 3:00 when I received a call from Mrs. Grade Coach.  Older Sister was left behind in the hallway after this and she seemed uncertain where to go and what to do.  I asked her if she was okay and she seemed in shock.  A few minutes later she disappeared from the hallway, I do not know to where.

Well, Today Was. . . November 27, 2007

I made it back from Minnesota yesterday. I had a fabulous Thanksgiving with my family there. Dinner with my dad, Suzanne, Chelsea, and Rachel and extended family members from both sides. Everyone was on their best behavior and it was an enjoyable meal. I enjoyed spending time with my little sister. She can be adorable and a handful at the same time. Sort of like a young Jewish boy I know who frequently yells “Abba” during the service and hangs off of his father the rabbi when he’s trying to accomplish other things.

I also had Thanksgiving with my mom’s side which was pleasant as well. Good food; pleasures and people whose company I have not enjoyed for more than a year.

Onto the “Back to School Update.”

Today, I failed to properly clothe myself. I failed to realize this fact until part way through the school day. I was decent, of course. The cold weather would have warned me otherwise far sooner. But around 10:30 this morning as I looked down at my arms, I realized that my shirt was inside out. The seams were on the outside! I prayed all day that my students would not notice. Thankfully, they did not. Crisis averted.

Today, I had a student who created a Christmas Wish List instead of doing his math. It included “Nintendo Will” and “200 dollers.” Seeing that he was creating a wish list instead of doing his work, I took the list from his hand and spell checked it with my blue marker. Then I wrote a note at the bottom saying that “[Student] deserved none of these things until he started doing his math work instead of creating wishlists and disrupting testing by talking to other students.”

Then I gave the student a written assignment to do for me to explain why talking during a test is not a good thing for other people.

I think I’m going to have my students create Christmas Wishlists and then as a class we will calculate what percent of us want what types of gifts. Perhaps we will do this on half-day Friday.  Oh, thank god I teach in Philadelphia where we never go too long without a break.

“Age Appropriate” October 3, 2007

Today’s topic is age-appropriate classes.

Development and Philadelphia history dictate the following:

An 8th grader is 13 or 14; no more than 15.

A 7th grader is 12 or 13, no more than 14.

A 6th grader is 11 or 12, no more than 13.

A 5th grader is 10 or 11, no more than 12.

There is a practice in Philadelphia that if a student is the “no more than” age, they get bumped up to the next grade to keep them “age appropriate.” This is done in conflict with a practice in Philadelphia that if a child fails a grade and does not attend summer school, the child will have to repeat the grade.

We have been dealing with this again at Jones this year, as with every year. It’s a way of pushing the kids through the system faster but it ends up making no sense.

A child struggles in 2nd grade, so he is failed and retained for a year. He continues through 2nd grade again and does fine; maybe he’s now in the middle of his class in performance rather than at the very bottom.

Then, the student reaches 6th grade and someone decides that because he is *already* 13 because he was a struggling student at one point and was retained, he must be moved up to the 7th grade so that when he is in 8th grade, he will be no older than 14. Even if the child has caused zero behavior problems and is learning in his 6th grade classroom just fine with no appearance of grade-inappropriate behaviors.

So, the kid jumps a year (having been retained once) and immediately falls behind because he missed a WHOLE YEAR of educational instruction, reinforcement, and practice.

Why, I ask, did we retain this child in the first place? What did we hope to accomplish in the first place? And what message are we sending about school when we jump kids entire grades like that? I have two answers, neither of which is very pleasant:

“6th grade isn’t that important?”

“Your age is more important than your ability?”

Counter-intuitive to our goals, no?

The Real Day 9 of School September 25, 2007

Yesterday, my team and I had a meeting.  We are becoming the team that is getting the special ed inclusion class.  We will have to team lesson plan with the special education teacher because we are going to have a bunch of part-time special education students mainstreamed into one of our three classes.

Logistically, I feel a nightmare coming on.   The students move classrooms next Monday.

Day 7: Counting Up and Down the Seconds September 16, 2007

One of the on going problems in education is “how do you deal with the chatty class?” In my experience, there is always at least one — even in summer school, I had my silent class and my chatty class.

At first glance, it appears that the older teachers have a method for keeping their classes silent and it is a method that works consistently for them. However, the method of silencing the chatty class has to be consistent with the teaching methods of the teacher. Teacher DG’s method for silencing her students might not work for me because DG uses direct instruction and “kill and drill” practice methods whereas I use an inquiry based approach which requires students to ask occasional questions to one another and encourages groupwork cooperation. In a “kill and drill”/direct instruction model, silence from the students is doable because there is no reason that the students should need to ask one another any questions. The teacher is the focal point of the classroom. Essential to my instruction is the ability to communicate to the chatty class that there are appropriate times and places to have a conversation with a friend about the argument that is going on between two other friends and that my classroom instructional time is not that time or place. My students have not quite grasped the ability to differentiate between conversation types and the fact that there are appropriate conversations (which I ignore or involve myself with) and inappropriate conversations (which will earn the student a reprimand of some sort).

In cooperative endeavors, it would be nice to be able to adopt a Harry Potter system of “Houses” and “Points.” However, I am not a witch with the magical ability to award and remove points with the power of my words. And, unfortunately, there are more important things for me to keep track of during the day than points from students within groups.

On Wednesday, I started getting on the right track again with dealing with the chatty class but the ongoing issue is that of punishing the whole class for one or two people talking.

Here’s a situation: Class comes in, takes seats. One or two students start working on the “Do Now” on the board. Teacher re-directs class and praises the two students who got to work right away. A few more students begin working; a large group of students is still chatting aimlessly. Time starts being counted for after-school detention. More student fall silent but now there are five students who continue talking past time being counted.

It is five minutes into class and there are students who finished the “Do Now,” students who are almost done, students who are just starting, and students who haven’t started at all.

We have now, four categories of students within a whole class detention: 1) Those who start immediately and thus shouldn’t be subject to detention (but since they now have to wait for the other kids to finish the work, they are more inclined to start talking), 2) Those who started after a reminder of the procedures and are probably going to finish the work before I move on, 3) Those who started after I threatened time after school who will only be done if I sink more time into this activitiy, and 4) Those who will not be done at all because they have no interest in starting.

To my mind, Groups 1 and 2 do not deserve detention. They have been working hard and deserve to go home on time. Group 3 needs to stay detention for as long as it takes them to finish up the classroom work from the day (meaning not just the “Do Now” but the other tasks they ignored from the day as well). Group 4 needs to stay an extended detention because I need to have independent conversations with these students and figure out what is going on with them. These students will need to get parental permission to stay after school to complete their work during extra hours.

However, on a day to day basis, it is difficult to track and categorize these groups and make it clear to the student which group they are falling into at any given point. That way when Robert complains that Sabrina got to go home on time even though she was talking, I can make it clear that Sabrina got to go home because she was already done with her work when she started talking and she was refocused after I moved on to the next activity (instructional issue – I need additional math work for my students to do when they have finished a task).

In an elementary school, color charts (Red/Yellow/Green/Black) are often used to tell students which group they are in. Students colors can be moved over the course of the class period. However, this color chart model does not work as well when you see three sections of students and would constantly have to change over the name cards with each new class coming in. I never remember seeing a high school equivalent of this. An additional issue is that of embarrassing the student — how do you clearly communicate what category a student is in without causing misbehavior among the rest of the class by taunting, etc.

Applying psychology to adolescents is no easy task; I need to have something in place by the end of this week to effectively deal with these issues.

Comments on School: Days 5 & 6 September 12, 2007

We got students on Monday. That was a little bit crazy. The kids have been good so far. They only misbehave when they get promised one thing and have it changed on them. I don’t make promises; frequently, I have to break the ones other people made. On behalf of the other people. It sucks.

I love my new students, though. Nothing too crappy so far.

But you know you’ve become a teacher when you ask permission from male friends to pretend they are boyfriends in order to get a bunch of 14 year olds off your back.