Friday, October 17, 2003
Sideways Stories from Underwood High*
At midnight last night I determined that if there were a just and merciful God, He was certainly not a baseball fan in any true sense of the word. As I watched, all hopes for a slightly entertaining World Series were swept away as the New York Yankees dismantled the Red Sox's seemingly established lead at the bottom of the 8th inning. Part of me remains convinced that if I had not been watching or concerned about the game's outcome it might have turned out differently...the same part that believes a guy named Heisenberg. But whether that is true or not remains uncertain...all I know is that for me today started out with the Red Sox losing (the game ended around midnight EST) and progressively went downhill from there.
Every alternate Friday my school holds professional development meetings. These are intended to supplement our summer orientation with the district, any graduate courses taken for certification (in my case two per semester), and of course the recently begun New Teacher Academy run by the district and slated to run for 18 alternating Wednesday sessions. Unfortunately, given their relatively broad audience, these meetings have tended to vary in terms of relative usefulness. What good, for example, is a discussion of the school's new style guide when my students can barely read or write complete sentences? Or finish a simple lab on how to use a mass balance? Or pass an open note quiz on how to calculate the area of rectangles and circles?
[The author of this blog would like to apologize for the previous digression into ranting about his students' academic deficiencies. This blog entry will now return to some semblance of normal narrative before moving on to critiquing those same students' behavioral deficiencies. Thank you.]
In any event, due to the short day, the periods at school were cut from 90 to 60 minutes. This is a mixed blessing from a lesson planning perspective, because although it is easier to plan fewer activities, standard classroom routines no longer take up the same proportion of class time. Today however, I decided to give a science diagnostic to my G.P.S. students and use that to take up the majority of the period. (Physics continued with its pursuit of vectors and vector components using my new video-game based technique...Pac-Man and Mario can teach vectors, even if I can't really draw the latter.) Everything went basically without a hitch in my first period class. Only the standard complement of fools and idiots who do not understand the idea of NOT TALKING during a test, even if it does not count. But it was relatively manageable chaos, and I even got to chat with a visiting parent, so that was good too.
The trouble began in my final period, which I nickname the Dirty Dozen. The name comes from the number of students who regularly show up to participate and their complete and total disrespect for the school environment. The moniker is actually rather unfair to about half of them, who actually do try to learn, but given the extremely disruptive nature of the other half, the amount of learning progress in that classroom is generally about 2/3 to 3/4 of my other physical science class. There are several students, for example, who are something of a clique/gang/"team" (the last is their own term for it) and are continuously yelling, singing, calling out to other students during my class. And of course phone calls have proven almost entirely ineffective...
But returning now to our narrative, after the beginning of class vocab list had been copied down, I assigned a student to pass out the answer key for the diagnostic. During this time one of my students, a girl who has been on the upswing in terms of her behavior, asked if she could lower the window. She was cold. It was understandable. And since she had asked permission (a rarity in my classroom, let me tell you), I gave her permission to do so. After attempting to close the window nearer to the front of the room, and meeting with opposition from one of the students sitting nearby, she went towards the back of the room.
In the back, near the other window sat a student with a past history of disciplinary problems, including a suspension the previous week and a detention just the day before for hurling profanity laden insults towards the head of the math department. (He skipped the latter.) The reason for that suspension was an unwillingness to change his seat, which I only subsequently learned was due to his asthma. Consequently, when the girl arrived wanting to close the window, he might have been understandably upset. And so, the minor verbal interplay that developed between them would have been acceptable if it had remained limited to that.
It didn't.
One moment it was just a small argument. The next the asthmatic student was out of his seat slamming the window open. As the girl went to close it again, the asthmatic was out of his seat, bear-hugged her and rotating her 90 degrees attempted to shove her out the window sideways.
Attempted nothing...he did put her head and neck out the window.
Fortunately it was over in a moment or two thanks to the girl's struggling, although I'd like to think that perhaps the realization of the seriousness of his behavior was responsible. As soon as it was clear the student was safe, I called security. This was around 12:20. Within five to ten minutes, I had about half a dozen different administration officials in my room during the course of the afternoon. Both students were escorted away and ideally I would be able to coninue my lesson.
There is no "ideally" in this business however.
I lost real control over the class. They were all revved up by the chaos, playing into it and continuously adding more energy to the system. I was reduced to having them copy material from the textbook...the whole section on mass...before they were allowed to leave for the day.
Of course, things were not that simple. Because then it was time for me to take a trip to the police station! That's right...I had to make an official statement on the incident. Rode in the back of the school police cruiser to South Philadelphia. Got a chance to chat with my window bound student and her cousin on the way there, met her folks at the station...did some simple science demos to liven up the wait. Gave a short statement (nearly identical to the one above) to the detectives at the precinct and after watching my student plaster my name as graffiti on the police department bulletin board (which I consider something of an erstwhile honor), bid them all farewell and went back to school.
It had been about 3 hours. I missed professional development. My parent phone calls for the end of the week would have to be postponed because of more pressing organizational concerns, and let's not forget that I had not eaten or drank anything since my morning oatmeal except for a handful of raisins that I keep in my desk. (The remnant of a science experiment from a few weeks back.)
An experience to be sure, and although it will likely have some positive results, it closes off a short week that foreshadows many more challenges in the future. What good will the arrest of one student for misdemeanor assault do me when the remainder of my ever expanding last period class is generally irresponsible and disrespectful? Getting rid of one rotten apple does not restore the bag. But we shall see...
Tomorrow, in an attempt to drown my sorrows, both literally and figuratively, I am going whitewater rafting on the Lehigh River. Should be a lot of fun. Coincidentally some old friends from college are traveling to Harvard early in the morning for a quiz bowl tournament. And to think, I was naive enough to believe that the end of my participation in such events would mean I could sleep in on weekends. (Silly rabbit...sleep is for kids.)
Here's hoping I return from the expedition damp, triumphant, and slightly more ready to face my students on Monday, that my friends shatter all opposition with their knowledge of medieval literature, Japanese history, and obscure legal jargon (maybe a smidge of Norse myth for old times sake), and that the Marlins keep their winning streak alive...
[NB: I have updated (actually, more accurate to say created) a list of links to other blogs that I try to check on a semi-regular basis and whose comments I find interesting, humorous, insightful, or some combination of the three. If anyone whose blog appears below wishes to be removed from the list, feel free to contact me using the link below.]
*Underwood is, as mentioned in an earlier post, a pseudonym for my actual place of employment.
At midnight last night I determined that if there were a just and merciful God, He was certainly not a baseball fan in any true sense of the word. As I watched, all hopes for a slightly entertaining World Series were swept away as the New York Yankees dismantled the Red Sox's seemingly established lead at the bottom of the 8th inning. Part of me remains convinced that if I had not been watching or concerned about the game's outcome it might have turned out differently...the same part that believes a guy named Heisenberg. But whether that is true or not remains uncertain...all I know is that for me today started out with the Red Sox losing (the game ended around midnight EST) and progressively went downhill from there.
Every alternate Friday my school holds professional development meetings. These are intended to supplement our summer orientation with the district, any graduate courses taken for certification (in my case two per semester), and of course the recently begun New Teacher Academy run by the district and slated to run for 18 alternating Wednesday sessions. Unfortunately, given their relatively broad audience, these meetings have tended to vary in terms of relative usefulness. What good, for example, is a discussion of the school's new style guide when my students can barely read or write complete sentences? Or finish a simple lab on how to use a mass balance? Or pass an open note quiz on how to calculate the area of rectangles and circles?
[The author of this blog would like to apologize for the previous digression into ranting about his students' academic deficiencies. This blog entry will now return to some semblance of normal narrative before moving on to critiquing those same students' behavioral deficiencies. Thank you.]
In any event, due to the short day, the periods at school were cut from 90 to 60 minutes. This is a mixed blessing from a lesson planning perspective, because although it is easier to plan fewer activities, standard classroom routines no longer take up the same proportion of class time. Today however, I decided to give a science diagnostic to my G.P.S. students and use that to take up the majority of the period. (Physics continued with its pursuit of vectors and vector components using my new video-game based technique...Pac-Man and Mario can teach vectors, even if I can't really draw the latter.) Everything went basically without a hitch in my first period class. Only the standard complement of fools and idiots who do not understand the idea of NOT TALKING during a test, even if it does not count. But it was relatively manageable chaos, and I even got to chat with a visiting parent, so that was good too.
The trouble began in my final period, which I nickname the Dirty Dozen. The name comes from the number of students who regularly show up to participate and their complete and total disrespect for the school environment. The moniker is actually rather unfair to about half of them, who actually do try to learn, but given the extremely disruptive nature of the other half, the amount of learning progress in that classroom is generally about 2/3 to 3/4 of my other physical science class. There are several students, for example, who are something of a clique/gang/"team" (the last is their own term for it) and are continuously yelling, singing, calling out to other students during my class. And of course phone calls have proven almost entirely ineffective...
But returning now to our narrative, after the beginning of class vocab list had been copied down, I assigned a student to pass out the answer key for the diagnostic. During this time one of my students, a girl who has been on the upswing in terms of her behavior, asked if she could lower the window. She was cold. It was understandable. And since she had asked permission (a rarity in my classroom, let me tell you), I gave her permission to do so. After attempting to close the window nearer to the front of the room, and meeting with opposition from one of the students sitting nearby, she went towards the back of the room.
In the back, near the other window sat a student with a past history of disciplinary problems, including a suspension the previous week and a detention just the day before for hurling profanity laden insults towards the head of the math department. (He skipped the latter.) The reason for that suspension was an unwillingness to change his seat, which I only subsequently learned was due to his asthma. Consequently, when the girl arrived wanting to close the window, he might have been understandably upset. And so, the minor verbal interplay that developed between them would have been acceptable if it had remained limited to that.
It didn't.
One moment it was just a small argument. The next the asthmatic student was out of his seat slamming the window open. As the girl went to close it again, the asthmatic was out of his seat, bear-hugged her and rotating her 90 degrees attempted to shove her out the window sideways.
Attempted nothing...he did put her head and neck out the window.
Fortunately it was over in a moment or two thanks to the girl's struggling, although I'd like to think that perhaps the realization of the seriousness of his behavior was responsible. As soon as it was clear the student was safe, I called security. This was around 12:20. Within five to ten minutes, I had about half a dozen different administration officials in my room during the course of the afternoon. Both students were escorted away and ideally I would be able to coninue my lesson.
There is no "ideally" in this business however.
I lost real control over the class. They were all revved up by the chaos, playing into it and continuously adding more energy to the system. I was reduced to having them copy material from the textbook...the whole section on mass...before they were allowed to leave for the day.
Of course, things were not that simple. Because then it was time for me to take a trip to the police station! That's right...I had to make an official statement on the incident. Rode in the back of the school police cruiser to South Philadelphia. Got a chance to chat with my window bound student and her cousin on the way there, met her folks at the station...did some simple science demos to liven up the wait. Gave a short statement (nearly identical to the one above) to the detectives at the precinct and after watching my student plaster my name as graffiti on the police department bulletin board (which I consider something of an erstwhile honor), bid them all farewell and went back to school.
It had been about 3 hours. I missed professional development. My parent phone calls for the end of the week would have to be postponed because of more pressing organizational concerns, and let's not forget that I had not eaten or drank anything since my morning oatmeal except for a handful of raisins that I keep in my desk. (The remnant of a science experiment from a few weeks back.)
An experience to be sure, and although it will likely have some positive results, it closes off a short week that foreshadows many more challenges in the future. What good will the arrest of one student for misdemeanor assault do me when the remainder of my ever expanding last period class is generally irresponsible and disrespectful? Getting rid of one rotten apple does not restore the bag. But we shall see...
Tomorrow, in an attempt to drown my sorrows, both literally and figuratively, I am going whitewater rafting on the Lehigh River. Should be a lot of fun. Coincidentally some old friends from college are traveling to Harvard early in the morning for a quiz bowl tournament. And to think, I was naive enough to believe that the end of my participation in such events would mean I could sleep in on weekends. (Silly rabbit...sleep is for kids.)
Here's hoping I return from the expedition damp, triumphant, and slightly more ready to face my students on Monday, that my friends shatter all opposition with their knowledge of medieval literature, Japanese history, and obscure legal jargon (maybe a smidge of Norse myth for old times sake), and that the Marlins keep their winning streak alive...
[NB: I have updated (actually, more accurate to say created) a list of links to other blogs that I try to check on a semi-regular basis and whose comments I find interesting, humorous, insightful, or some combination of the three. If anyone whose blog appears below wishes to be removed from the list, feel free to contact me using the link below.]
*Underwood is, as mentioned in an earlier post, a pseudonym for my actual place of employment.
