I answer to M'dole and M'dur’s Neighborhood

Blog 41: Comparison of two consecutive first years of school, examination of the change

Blog 41: Comparison of two consecutive first years of school, examination of the reason for the improvement
The first week of school this year has been worlds better than that of last year. Last year I started on the wrong foot. I was ill prepared for what I was about to encounter. Growing up in the university bound advanced track of a nice suburb in Canada, my expectations were a little off. I assumed that the common courtesy that we gave our teachers would follow down here too. I was wrong. Last year I closed my door for the first period and was shocked that the students were not all doing what was written on the board. After a short talk they began working, but they all talked and would not stay focus. I was clueless on how to address the situation, unsure what power I had, timid to use the power I had and not sure what to do. The students realized this and, to put it kindly, they walked all over me. The first day of school I had the teacher next door give my students a harangue about how they should respect me. The second day I had the senior biology teacher come in to my room to ream out several of these students. This helped in the situation but it also lost credibility among the students. This they wielded into a semester of chaos. All this happened because I dropped the ball and did not hit the ground running.

This year was a different story. I was well equipped. I came into class ready to go. My confidence level was high and I believe that the students could perceive this. I have not had any difficulties yet with any of the classes. It is almost one month into the school year and still classes have all been going smoothly. I still teach in an inner-city school so I have had some students who did not want to conform, but holistically, not many, and virtually none compared to last year. Also, this year I am far better at dealing with these issues as they arise and they no longer faze me.

I have spent some time analyzing the reason for this change in my student's behavior from this year compared to last year. This year I had a better understanding of what I could expect of my students and what is beyond my student's abilities. I established my expectations early and have been consistent in enforcing these expectations. Finally, I have learned how to run a quiet class identified the steps required in lesson planning and understand what can be expected. These small changes have helped me to enhance my class efficiency.

This next semester I intend to be more on the ball. Last year I played a lotof catch up. Trying to finish grading, maintaining discipline, writing lesson plans. I never felt I had a grasp of anything and I was always behind the eight ball. This year I have been far more aggressive in getting all the loose ends tied up. It helps that I have a better understanding of what is important and what can wait. One goal that I have already implemented is to have the students do some labs and do a little more hands on work. Last year I did not have my students do any experiments. This bothered me but I was doing the best I could to keep things going. Now I will take it to the next level.

welcome to my final entry

It's been three weeks since I left behind Mississippi, and my two years of teaching English in a rural Delta school district (and two partial summers of mentoring and coaching new teachers!). I've been meaning to sit down and give an "ending" to this blog, so to speak, and I think enough time now has passed that I feel like I can do that objectively.

Leaving Mississippi (or more specifically, education in Mississippi) was definitely bittersweet - certainly "relief" might be the first word that comes to mind. I am relieved to be back in an educated state, in a place I love, surrounded by family and old friends. I am relieved that I will never again have to face the pressure, stress, and heartbreak of teaching in the Delta.

But a part of me is distinctly frustrated at the thought of leaving the classroom, or the realm of education. I'd like to work a way back into the education sphere in some way - if not through a career, then peripherally as a volunteer, a board member, a community leader, or even as a participant in a sort of wider conversation about education reform. That was the root of much of my Mississippi woes - I would rather reform the way education happens (to avoid the huge gap in achievement for low-income students) than try to work within a broken system (as a teacher to those low-income students). That conclusion was reinforced as I crossed into Minnesota driving up 35N on my way home from Mississippi. Ironically enough, the first thing I hear over the radio in Minnesota was the last 30 minutes of the Minneapolis School Board Meeting (broadcast over public radio) -- I thought I was leaving education only to re-discover it in a whole new way as I arrived. Listening in on the meeting was fascinating. No board meeting in a Mississippi school district would sound like this. But they had their fair share of big problems, controversial issues and inside arguments, too. Made me want to hop on the bandwagon as soon as I can - and I still plan to.

And so ends this blog. I hope someday soon I will have the sort of incredible inspiration that teaching in the Mississippi Delta brought to me (with perhaps little more free time!), so that I might start a new blog, with new thoughts, on new experiences. I'll leave this blog up here -- partly because it serves as a easy way to remember my experiences, and partly because it might help future teachers cope with theirs. Feel free to read back, and back and back any time you wish!

For now, my time is devoted to writing for someone else's blog. And at the very least, I will still feel connected to the digital world on facebook, twitter and linkedin....

EDIT: An interesting conversation went on re: this last entry over on Ephblog, the Williams alumni blog-meeting space. Read it here.

please, y'all, be polite

sabatier
Jun 23, 2009
3 comments

We were asked earlier to write a blog entry on advice for the incoming first-years. Done.

A couple of things have occurred to me during the first weeks of summer school, though, that I think bear saying.

First, where most of us come from, we are used to being able to portray a teacher as someone who is probably not rolling in money. We tend to start with, "Oh, I'm a teacher ..." in those conversations emphasizing that we're tight on cash.

Take a look at the demographic stats on median income for the town where you teach. Jackson: $30,414 (That's for a household. Males: $29,166, females: $23,328. Per capita: $17,600) Household for Panola County: $26,785. Household in Greenville: $25,929. Per capita income in Greenville is $13,992. In Leland, where most GWHS teachers live, per capita income is $11,681, household: $25,678. (From Wikipedia, most figures from 2000 US Census. Things have most likely gotten worse.) You'll be earning about $31,000 your first year. Yes, the cost of living in Mississippi is lower than where you came from, but you'll soon find out that applies mainly to housing and real estate taxes (which you most likely will not pay). Food, utilities, and gasoline are in-line with most of the U.S.

Especially for those of you living in small towns, please remember that you are basically a guest there. You (hopefully) will join a church or other group to involve yourself in the community, but you're in Mississippi, and unless your Mama or your Daddy is from your town, you're a stranger, a guest, until your grandkids are married there.

As a guest, it's rude to poor-mouth in front of people who know you're at the top of the local economic ladder, and most likely know (or suspect, no matter what the reality is) that you are partially bankrolled by your parents who sent you to your pricey private liberal arts college where you didn't even learn how to change a tire. Believe me, this is how you are perceived in your town until your neighbors know otherwise. They know you're there to "help" but be aware that the sense of noblesse oblige is very strong, and very offensive.

Second, please Google yourself from a computer where you are not logged in. Your students will do this. Your administration might.

When they find this, on an unprotected page that also contains your photo and your full name, as the fourth item on the search results, you're gonna have some explaining to do:

Summer school is only 4 hours long. Unfortunately it sucks. And is boring as hell.

Going to beale street tonight. Gonna get shitty.

Guns bonfire beer all on a farm. Amazing. Oh and some cunt cop pulled me over for no reason. And I got no fucking ticket.

Class of 2009

2009

BLOG 39: Teacher Skills

June 2, 2009

The three teacher skills I want to practice and improve upon this summer at the MTC Summer School… and one strength I have and will employ

The three things I want to improve on for this summer school session are to improve questioning techniques, increase the diversity of teaching strategies and to avoid teaching for a test. The first goal should be easily attained. I just need to use appropriate wait times. Waite times from when I ask a question, to when I pick out a student and the time when I ask a student until I try another student. This should be easily accomplished. The second goal should also be easily accomplished. The size and structure of the summer school should easily allow for greater class activates. Summer school will also not have an administration that strongly encourages me to teach for the state tests therefore, my final goal should be simple to accomplish. I will be able to teach biology and should have some fun with this. As for my greatest strength, I believe that my greatest strength lies in my consistency. Students knew when they arrived into my class what to expect. I believe that by employing a similar style of consistency it should be possible to maintain my greatest strength with the addition of these new techniques.

live from room 228

For their final exam, I decided my students were simply tested-out from this spring of state-testing craziness. So I borrowed a unit from a great teacher-friend of mine, and used the final project in place of an exam. After reading and analyzing the Virginia Woolf story "Widow and the Parrot", groups created newscasts to present the events of the story and explore the motives of the characters in it.

Overall, the kids did a FANTASTIC job! I've uploaded a couple clips here, and hopefully will finish uploading more soon!

[assigned] the one where i design a model school district

sabatier
May 15, 2009
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School district

The culminating project for Innovations in Education (EDSE 610) was to design a model school district from the ground up, using prescribed budgetary and student population parameters.

The full proposal is available as a PDF.

I focused on an integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum; grouping students into smaller two- or three-grade facilities; and a year-round schedule. Based on my experience with my students in the Delta, I also included a 2+2 program that accommodates both a meaningful vocational program and a college prep curriculum.

In the college-prep program, students work with an advisory teacher to develop and implement a final senior interdisciplinary project that incorporates at least two subject areas. Core curriculum teachers are given advisory periods during the day, and students are expected to present a portfolio. Elective courses in the senior year are designed to support the project. An internship can be incorporated into the project, but cannot be the only component.

The 2+2 program allows students who are not planning to attend a four-year college an opportunity to get a jump-start on their careers by taking some classes at a community college. There are four strands in the 2+2 program: Health Care; Business and Trade; Agriculture; Technology. The district reimburses the community college at a cost of $1500 per student each year.

The school operates on a year-round schedule with 4 three-week seasonal breaks to maintain academic continuity and reduce the scheduling problems for working and single parents.

life imitating art

My Learning Strategies class is in the midst of reading A Raisin in the Sun. Like my previous classes, they are loving it. They love having their own parts to read, the incorrect grammar, the occasional swear word for emphasis. The opening act includes three confrontational arguments (including a mother slapping her daughter!) and they love to yell at one another with animation while reading.

I love teaching Raisin as much as they love reading it. It works perfectly for group work -- almost every scene involves three actors, so the kids can read aloud in small groups, and answer analysis questions at the end of each section together.

The other day I had a moment of total happiness listening to my students read -- a moment in which suddenly, I saw the characters in the book reflected in my students, and, I hope, they saw themselves reflected back.

A group of three girls were deeply engaged in their reading and didn't seem to notice that I was grinning over their shoulders. Without realizing it, the three had perfectly chosen to play the character that matched their personality and temperament (We haven't been reading the book for very long, so the students are not quite familiar yet with each of the characters' personalities and nuances). Shenique, a kind, thoughtful student who is one of the older girls in the classroom, was reading the part of calm, unselfish Ruth, a mother and support system for the Younger family. Chantyrita, an eternally positive smile in my room who is firm about her beliefs and values(and her role as a teen mother), was reading Mama's kind but firm words as the Younger matriarch. Kalbrielle, an outspoken student with a penchant for drama (and an occasional attitude to match) was reading independent Beneatha's rant about personal freedom.

Perfection.

Blog 37. Swine Flu

Swine Flu
The truth is the swine flu is here. Originating from Mexico, the swine flu is spreading across the country from tourists escaping the wet northern spring. Returning home, these unsuspecting vectors are spreading the disease across the world. Currently there are cases of the flu in Canada, USA and Europe as well as New Zealand. As of yet no one knows how much damage this disease will cause. What is known is that this disease originated in pigs and it may contain strains of the avian flue. It’s spreading and it’s here.

So what does this have to do with education? The direct answer is nothing. However, indirectly there are several ways that the swine flu could have severe effects on schools. First of all, states with state tested classes could be troubled. Should this flu hit one part of a state during testing time some schools might have to be closed. This would compromise the integrity of the test. Unaffected areas would have already finished the test when affected areas would still be writing. This could result in some cheating.

More severely, yet within the distant realm of possibilities, should a contagious virulent strain of swine flue hit, it have catastrophic consequences. It could kill the entire population of students, or perhaps kill a significant number of them. Like the plagues in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds this plague could wipe out a lot of people. This would hurt schools because of teacher shortages and student shortages. Since a majority of teachers are older and consequently would have poorer immune systems, the teachers death toll would be higher than that of the students. This would further create a teacher shortage and cause class sizes to increase. Increased class sizes would result in more difficulties in classroom management and student learning. Not to mention the psychology effects of having so many parents die due to the disease.

Although this flu is less than ideal, I highly doubt the severe scenario listed above will happen in the near future. What I do see in the realm of possibilities is that this flu would cause a lot of students to become sick. With a high proportion of these students becoming sick it would create havoc for teachers trying to teach students who are coming sporadically. Many teachers would also be likely to come down with the disease as well. This would cause issues for administrators because they would be scrambling to find substitute teachers.

twelve hundred words

sabatier
May 1, 2009
2 comments

Assignment: Twelve hundred words. I have 1,200 words. I spilled just over 9,000 of them into my portfolio. I probably have a few left.

What I can’t seem to find is exactly the right 1,200 words. How can something so small sum up something so huge? It’s just a tad more than a word-and-a-half for each day of these two years. There were days, surely, that deserved more. And there were days for which there are simply no words available.

I thought about harvesting my 18 months of twitter feeds.

Here are some words:

desire restless anticipation trepidation fear good-bye mountains valleys highway truck wondering welcome hello ice-breaker dormitory roommate swelter rookie dawn preposition cheese-toast tickets chocolate-milk strong companion baloney vis-a-vis home lost interview jesus horror solar-plexus creek cotton dread classroom gin cardiologist crawfish referral theft duty framework cremation wait alone inhale exhale femoral neck rain morphine resignation abandon reunion plucky permanence shelter adrift anger flood roster prayer betrayal love stop doing evil redundant nutella blood history chicken-spaghetti obamaobamaobamaobama gimme gimme hopeless exhale inhale vascular event snow-peas mentor commitment vodka moths coloring squirrels reflection inadequate peace

Sometimes words become arranged in such a way that they begin to tell a story.

I can tell you why I came here. I had spent almost 20 years surrounded by, and arranging, words about education. I had raised a daughter and seen what happens when a child’s mind is engaged and nurtured. I wanted to find the peace that comes with balance, and my life was heavily weighted to the side of fortune and prosperity.

Fifty stalks, one put aside, divided between my left and right hands again and again gave me these words:

It furthers one to undertake something.
How is this to be carried out?
One may use small bowls for the sacrifice.

There has been sacrifice. And I fill these small bowls every day. Some are broken.

I can tell you what I thought I knew.

The bright path seems dim;
Going forward seems like retreat;
The easy way seems hard;
The highest Virtue seems empty;
Great purity seems sullied;
A wealth of Virtue seems inadequate;
The strength of Virtue seems frail;
Real Virtue seems unreal;
The perfect square has no corners;
Great talents ripen late;
The highest notes are hard to hear;
The greatest form has no shape;
The way is hidden and without name.

I’m still haunted by leaving my first school. As I said at the time, the reasons I left are the reasons I needed to stay. I count it as a failure. The school where I teach now is still critical needs. The administration is still woefully disorganized. Decisions are made without regard to their outcome. Money is wasted. All of the things that go into the making of a failing school district are here.

My central quandary remains: What level of sacrifice is made, and whose sacrifice is it? Was SDHS so hopeless that I can ultimately help more children by teaching in a district where more children will take advantage of my teaching, and benefit from what I do? Or is it more noble to find the one among those who are most deeply lost?

The highest notes are hard to hear.

I come back again and again to the popular ethical dilemma of the children on the train tracks. You know the one: There are several children playing on a train track, and you see an oncoming train. You can throw a switch and divert the train, saving the group of children, but the diverted train will kill a single child playing on the branched track. Do many children die because you do nothing, or do you actively cause the death of a single child in order to save many?

And I never know the answer. But some nights I wake in a sweat as the train itself is bearing down on me.

My wealth of virtue seems inadequate.

And then there are the words about my life.

In the past two years I've spent more time in hospitals -- in emergency rooms, cardiac ICU, neurology ICU, and orthopedic recovery -- than I've spent with my principal. For that matter, I've spent more time under general anesthesia than I have with my principal.

My mother's heart surgery during my first month of teaching; my own accident that took me out of school at the end of March last year; and my mother's recent stroke last month have all taken a toll on my energy and stamina. It’s taken a year to be myself again and recover both from the initial shock of teaching in a critical-needs school, and from the physical trauma of my accident.

There’s almost no way in which MTC has not impacted my life. Not being in my 20s with the safety net of “going home” beneath me, my commitment to this change was a serious one. I have nowhere to land if I fall. There’s almost no aspect of my former life that I recognize, apart from the furniture in my house — and the moths have made major headway on my Turkish wool rugs. For the first year I lived, breathed, ate, and slept teaching and planning. I’d like to say I am more optimistic about the future now, but I’m not. I’m more resigned, though, to the concept of slow change. I’m beginning to understand the intricate complexity of the dance of race, poverty, privilege, and history. I’m beginning to get the barest glimpse of just how much I still don’t know. I do know that I no longer believe that our present system of social services helps lift generations out of poverty.

We have code words, too. Like poverty.

I’ve had conversations with several of my fellow MTC’ers in which we lamented that we are now racist in situations where we wouldn’t have been before. I’ve felt the very strong effects of reverse discrimination. At one time or another I’ve heard at least three of my colleagues say that they didn’t come here to hate, but feel hate every day.

We come here with love in our hearts.

I met a man who worked for 40 years without ever taking a day off except holidays. He usually had his allotted 30-minute lunch at Tony’s Grocery, a little market lunch counter in Mayersville, a town of about 700 people on the levee in Issaquena County. He’s worked and paid his taxes. But every day at lunch he’s ridiculed for paying those taxes by men young and old who spend their days sitting on buckets or going fishing. This is the legacy of poverty. This is why there is still hate.

Here are some words:

crazy check earned income credit obamaobamaobama now we’ll have freedom

I came here with love in my heart. It’s still there.

I’m staying on, at least for a third year, and probably beyond. I live in Mississippi now. So this doesn’t feel quite like an ending. My relationship has been less with MTC than with Mississippi. I know we’re gathering for what is probably the last time tomorrow.

But I will continue to gather Mississippi.

Twelve hundred words. Let me show you them.