Skip to main content

A Better Day

The class I gave up on yesterday and I had a frank discussion about what happened yesterday. I explained my frustration, remained calm and listened while they talked. As usual, it boiled down to miscommunication. Like when I say research for a paper I mean, find information and distill to use in a paper. The student definition was look at stuff on the web to use for a paper… someday. We also examined definitions for the words “work” and “prepared”. I’m sure it won’t surprise any teacher that their definition of ‘coming prepared to class’ means ‘walking through the door under your own power’ and everything else is a bonus. I wish I could write something pithy or funny about the scene, but really, it was 20 kids silently staring at me with slightly scared/guilty looks on their faces. They were still talking to me, but treading lightly.

Then we came up with a compromise. I drew a calendar on the board and said, “these days I’m willing to schedule as work days” and asked them what they needed in addition. Turns out they decided that they didn’t need as much time as they were demanding yesterday. After setting the schedule, we went on to discussing how to organize the paper, what an outline actually is and how it works when writing a multiple page paper. I felt like we were really communicating with each other and facing down this research paper together. I don’t know if this togetherness will continue on after the weekend… but for that day, it was good.

Remember the teacher who actually assigned this paper? Apparently, he’s been asking if I’m "’allowing’ them to work on the paper in class, like the other teacher. On a daily basis. And then acting a manner that would lead the students to believe that I am in fact cheating them out of work time. Nice. This is where the term “as*hat” comes into play.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“They Don’t Get It”

I hear that a lot these days. It used to be mostly from various teens trying to negotiate the drama unfolding in their lives as they wandered into that no-man’s land between adult and child. These days it’s from adults trying to navigate the education scene these days. So many people talking and no one listening. The other day I was reading a post by a blogger I’ve been following for several years. Before there was such a thing as “blogging.” We all know spring is IEP review season. This blogger wrote about his daughter’s. Among the various elements, there was the discussion about the state assessment tests. She did not pass. There was discussion about what this means… and why said student needed to pass this test. Would she be taking a modified test? While reading, all I could think about was what would happen to that child as she entered middle school and high school. A history of not passing the assessment test vs. teachers who will now be evaluated on how many students pass t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Cruelest Month

I know T.S. Eliot favored April as the most cruel, but we teachers know that May is… even more so these days. Most importantly, it is the final testing month. National ‘assessments, state ‘assessments’, district ‘assessments’, school ‘assessments’… on and on. It’s impossible to actually get anything done. Toss in graduation activities, planning for the upcoming year and the 2011 bonus, lay-offs and transfers, and you have to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to save money by simply shutting down school entirely except for a few test proctors. Meanwhile, there seems an air of hopelessness permeating the education world. Plans to lay-off thousands are coming to fruition. Schools are being closed, despite protests. Charters are increasing where they can whether they should not. Unions have lost a lot ground and teachers are trying to decide if it’s even worth it any more to continue talking about education . ( not that I blame anyone for that, we all have lives to live ) For myself, I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Campaign Promises

While purusing the Sunday paper, I came across an article describing some local candidate forum held over the weekend. Apprently they either weren't able to say a lot or what they said was pretty boring because the article was skimpy on specifics. What caught my eye was a position of Randy Dutton. He wants "higher standards for teachers." My interest was piqued... what kind of standards? In looking at his website, apparently those standards will be raised by carrying a gun to school, finally; "full days of school"-whatever that means - personally I'd love to put in business hours. No more 5 am wake ups; increasing the number of k-8 schools - because those kindergartners don't swear enough; sending disruptive students to placed like Habit for Humanity - babysitting is what people volunteer for; and teaching more American History- too bad that with all the testing, no one ever gets past the Civil War... I'm not sure how any of these apply to teachers, ...
Post a Comment
Read more