Civics and Kool-Aid

40 Days Left — April 15

strawberrykoolaid — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:00:28 +0000

What was an otherwise uneventful and peaceful final day before Spring Break was ruined during the final period. Steve burst into class 10 minutes late, demanded to finish his test from Wednesday. When I told him it was done being graded and that the deadline was past, he got upset. He later dug the remaining homework packets from his bag and dropped them on my desk before walking out — 25 minutes early. As I perused them quickly, I realized that he had done nearly all of them, but had another student copy the final page.

This incident bothered me. First, Steve should never have reached this point. The material is not difficult for him. Every piece of work he has turned in with any effort has been outstanding. Over the course of the year, he has allowed his standards to drop slowly to the level of our school. Now, just handing something in is the bar he sets for himself, and even that is done at the last possible minute. Students like Steve, who are doing relatively better than most classmates really drive home to me how far this school has before it is truly preparing students for life after high school (especially if that life includes more education).

On that note, it’s Spring Break. Thank god.

P.S.: Ms. Berman successfully rescued my tie from the ketchup!

41 Days Left — April 14

strawberrykoolaid — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:34:10 +0000

Today was a peaceful day. The Seniors worked on their senior project. The World History classes watched The Devil’s Arithmetic. During the film, Mary, who has been fairly disengaged and disruptive all year, recognized the film (after walking in late). I heard her talking about the Holocaust to the girl sitting next to her. It was a bittersweet moment. I know Mary has incredible intellectual potential, and even a certain amount of intellectual curiosity. Unfortunately, she has yet to apply that to her school work.

After school, we had the faculty Spring Celebration. It was a nice chance to relax, though I did dip my tie in ketchup. Luckily Ms. Berman vowed to rescue it through some sort of laundry magic. We’ll see about that…

Also, walking home from the celebration, I faxed my formal resignation to the School District. It’s been official since January, when I sent in my law school enrollment, but now it’s really official. It’s very interesting to me how the Kinko’s/FedEx on Market Street has been a part of so many landmark moments for me in this city.

42 Days Left — April 13

strawberrykoolaid — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:39:33 +0000

Today I gave the Seniors work time to finish their senior projects. Though in some ways it was a concession to the impending break, it is also legitimately the most important things these students need to do right now. Learning three more days of economics is, in my opinion, much less important than completing a high quality capstone project.

Unfortunately, not every student took advantage, and the disruption was frustrating. I understand the need for structure and routines, but by 12th grade, students should be able to use independent work time for an imminent project responsibly. When senior project worktime turns into babysitting and putting out fires, that is a symptom of a systemic problem. It’s also a shame, because there were many students who did benefit, and probably would have benefited from more opportunities to control their own time all year.

After school, I had the privilege of reading a draft that reminded me of the potential of our students. It was outstanding. Not quite college-level, in terms of the citations or the structure, but very strong and certainly a foundation from which a high level paper could be built with only moderate support.

43 Days Left — April 12

strawberrykoolaid — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:00:58 +0000

It was exam day for the Economics students. Things went well, for the most part. As I reflect on my growth as a teacher, it’s hard for me to believe that there was a time when test days were nightmares. Test days are extremely informative when evaluating a teacher, I think. When the lessons are clear, aligned, and well-taught; when the teacher has a rapport and the respect of the students; and when the students are invested in the course; exams days are calm and productive. When any of the above pieces is missing, tests become chaotic torture sessions for everyone involved. It took me until halfway through my second year of teaching before everything started lining up on test days. Now, I’m proud to say it’s a routine.

44 Days Left — April 11

strawberrykoolaid — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:00:35 +0000

It’s the final week before Spring Break, but everyone (students, teachers, administrators), is already mentally loosing focus–me included. Since President’s Day, we’ve had twelve days on which we did not have to come into school, and eight of those were Sundays.

Nothing remarkable happened today, which was good.

45 Days Left — April 8

strawberrykoolaid — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:34:23 +0000

We had a building committee meeting with our principal. The main issue was the budget. There wasn’t really any news, just confirmation that it’s not a happy budget.

It makes me sad that my colleagues who want to stay in this profession long-term must endure the uncertainty of budget cuts/layoffs. It’s not good for anybody. The teachers must deal with the stress/anxiety. The School District will likely lose some (even many) good young teachers who seek out job security elsewhere, either within the field of education or outside of it. In the end, the students unequivocally lose.

There is no easy place to put the blame. The Governor did cut education spending, but that doesn’t account for it all. The District bears blame for two reasons: 1. Spending lots of money on programs that don’t add much value to education (but do all to the profit margins of the publishers), 2. Mismanaging funds for years making itself an easy target for a conservative governor. If I were a taxpayer outside of city, I can’t say that I’d want the School District making decisions about how spend tax funds. Shoot, I live in the city, and I’m still pretty leery of giving this District more money unless it shows it will actually reach students in the classroom in meaningful ways.

__ Days Left — February 4

strawberrykoolaid — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:00:06 +0000

Today was simultaneously encouraging and discouraging. On one hand, my lesson about the earning potential differences between average individuals of varying levels of education went over better than I expected. On the other hand, attendance was atrocious. World History was even more extreme — the lesson was pretty engaging and went quite well, but attendance was so low that I had difficulty staying energized.

One of the students missing from the afternoon classes was Christopher. Christopher’s attendance has plummeted since his suspension a few weeks ago. I am becoming very concerned about the situation. Hopefully things do not continue to go downhill.

Also, randomly, Herman, the third of the my “three shadows” from 2008-09 emailed me today. I wonder it has any connection to last weekend. He didn’t really say anything substantive, but he was a lot more respectful than he typically was when addressing me in the past.

I’m on my way to Phoenix for a quick weekend trip. I can see Chicago out the window of the airplane right now.

__ Days Left — February 3

strawberrykoolaid — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:00:13 +0000

Today was an exhausting day. It was originally supposed to be the first day of the Second Semester. I attempted to execute some beginning-of-the-year type things, but the students in the large class were not cooperative. It’s very frustrating how one or two very vocal and disagreeable students can make an entire class go south. Janet was in fine form today, throwing a fit over basically every thing. It makes it so difficult to teach when even basic announcements become an argument. I’m really concerned about what will happen to her when she goes into the real world — her behavior is so profane and aggressive that it will be a major barrier to functioning as a member of society.

Our common meeting today was silly. We still haven’t turned the corner from superficial discussion of issues to substantive action planning. We have agendas now, ut they are not focused, and we aren’t really adhering to them, anyway. It makes me yearn for a setting where the structures that are necessary to facilitate efficient and productive meetings are intentionally practiced.

After school, we had a SGA meeting. Attendance was disappointing again. Two of the more involved students, however, stayed after with Mr. Adams and made some strategic plans for how to go about effecting positive changes in the school model. I hope that it results in truly productive and strategic modifications.

After that, I attended the TFA continuity group. Many of the teachers there had just learned that their schools would be Promised next year. Our discussion for the evening was centered around the role of the teacher. Our consensus was that were are being asked to do everything, and that schools are holding teachers much more accountable than many other positions, despite the complicated nature of our work.

88 Days left — February 2

strawberrykoolaid — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:00:23 +0000

Today was originally supposed to be a PD Day, but it was changed to a student day to make up one of the Snow Days from last week. As the weather would have it, we had a late start, due to ice (though it was actually less icy than yesterday in the city).

The abysmal attendance today highlighted the fragility of what we are building. One of the biggest differences between successful/good/fully functional schools and struggling urban schools is the capacity to deal with irregularity. In most schools across the country, a late start might result in slightly lower attendance. In our school, the day is basically a wash due to the attendance.

The weather and the attendance have really slowed the great academic momentum we had built before Winter Break. Hopefully the awful weather will let up a bit in the coming weeks and we can get back on track.

96 Days Left — January 21

strawberrykoolaid — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:00:39 +0000

It snowed again. Another late start. I was worried about how this would impact my Government Final Exam. My 2nd period students came through — attendance was nearly normal, and the students were phenomenal during the test. Every single student demonstrated incredible test behavior. They were silent, focused, and truly invested in showing me how much they knew–even the students who are very frustrated with the class right now.

The rest of the day did not go as well. Attendance was down during 4th period and very far down during 2nd period. Many of the students that missed are not in range of passing anyway, but some of them are. Hopefully they’ll be in school next week.

After school in the PD, Mr. Engel was very pleased with the results of the walk-through. He talked about the great teaching that was seen throughout the building and generally congratulated us. It is so refreshing to have a leader who respects and praises his staff. After he was done, Ms. Pfeifer stood up and make an enigmatic comment about rumors that she had targeted an academy. It was somewhat awkward, since may of us had observed (based on the information from Ms. Nix) that most of the “red” ratings came in the same academy, from the same individual. It was a little unsettling to hear her talk about how transparent she is, especially since it’s the first time all year she’s said anything substantive to the staff.