Saturday, September 18, 2004
Never did no (cough) vandering...
So last week, the tenuous system of procedures and discipline I had struggled over the summer to construct collapsed on top of my head. Not completely. Things are going better than last year on the whole, especially with regard to my not taking student excuses seriously. On the other hand, there are always trouble classes and discipline issues...and this year is no exception. Most of my disciplinary issues come during my three hour deathblock after lunch. In point of fact, the class after lunch is arguably the worst of the lot due to the presence of a few young ladies who think they know better than the teacher about EVERYTHING and then cuss him out whenever he insists they have their homework out at the door. (One of these accused me of hitting her with a clipboard when I put the offending office tool between us to slightly muffle the sound of her yelling...made a phone call home, but I'm not looking forward to Monday.)
That class is also home to Calvin the choker. Calvin is one of those students who apparently had disciplinary problems when he was younger, but has a family caring and supportive enough to confront these issues and send him to a private school for a few years to sort things out. He's now returned to high school and, at least so far as my class is concerned, seems to take nothing seriously. He just wants to pass and get on with his life. And yet he doesn't do his homework. Or bring his school-provided binder. Or pay attention in class. And last week, he started having a coughing fit.
I don't know why.
My students always complain that my room smells. From armpits to kitty litter, the olfactory diversity of my class knows no bounds! But there was nothing particularly different about that day when Calvin started coughing out his left lung during the Do Now exercise for the day. I was foolish enough to actually care what was going on, and so I walked over to ask if he was ok. Without any real warning, he tells me to "get out of his face" and then runs out of the room. No permission. No pass. No nothing.
Fine with me. I lock the door and get back to work.
A few minutes later, a knock on the door. It's security with my choked up friend. Apparently he was caught wandering the halls without a pass. After a brief discussion with the guard, I let him in. A quick phone call to his house later that evening yielded positive results and a letter from the student himself asking for forgiveness. We'll see how long this good attitude lasts.
The same day I had another incident involving passes or the lack thereof when one of my students walked out of the room cussing after I told him he had to wait to use the hall pass. He comes back a few minutes later without a hall pass to get his notebook and backpack and I tell him that he should have taken it with him when he left the first time, because he isn't coming in now. Close the door, that should be the end.
It isn't.
A few minutes later, he's back, with a hall pass, but, strangely he won't let me see who signed it. I tell him until he gives me the pass and let's me see who signed it, he's not coming in.
He goes away...but only for a short while, because the end of the school day is drawing near and he really does want his stuff. So he concedes to show me the hall pass, comes in, and tries to leave. I make him stay in my room until the bell rings at the end of the day.
I take the hall pass upstairs to see the person who wrote it, a new math teacher. Apparently the student was supposed to be in her class. What's more, the name written on the pass is not the student's real name...he had assumed the identity of another of my students. And what was even better...the new teacher didn't know the student's real name, so now he's lost in the shuffle.
Just another wandering clown in a building full of chokers.
So last week, the tenuous system of procedures and discipline I had struggled over the summer to construct collapsed on top of my head. Not completely. Things are going better than last year on the whole, especially with regard to my not taking student excuses seriously. On the other hand, there are always trouble classes and discipline issues...and this year is no exception. Most of my disciplinary issues come during my three hour deathblock after lunch. In point of fact, the class after lunch is arguably the worst of the lot due to the presence of a few young ladies who think they know better than the teacher about EVERYTHING and then cuss him out whenever he insists they have their homework out at the door. (One of these accused me of hitting her with a clipboard when I put the offending office tool between us to slightly muffle the sound of her yelling...made a phone call home, but I'm not looking forward to Monday.)
That class is also home to Calvin the choker. Calvin is one of those students who apparently had disciplinary problems when he was younger, but has a family caring and supportive enough to confront these issues and send him to a private school for a few years to sort things out. He's now returned to high school and, at least so far as my class is concerned, seems to take nothing seriously. He just wants to pass and get on with his life. And yet he doesn't do his homework. Or bring his school-provided binder. Or pay attention in class. And last week, he started having a coughing fit.
I don't know why.
My students always complain that my room smells. From armpits to kitty litter, the olfactory diversity of my class knows no bounds! But there was nothing particularly different about that day when Calvin started coughing out his left lung during the Do Now exercise for the day. I was foolish enough to actually care what was going on, and so I walked over to ask if he was ok. Without any real warning, he tells me to "get out of his face" and then runs out of the room. No permission. No pass. No nothing.
Fine with me. I lock the door and get back to work.
A few minutes later, a knock on the door. It's security with my choked up friend. Apparently he was caught wandering the halls without a pass. After a brief discussion with the guard, I let him in. A quick phone call to his house later that evening yielded positive results and a letter from the student himself asking for forgiveness. We'll see how long this good attitude lasts.
The same day I had another incident involving passes or the lack thereof when one of my students walked out of the room cussing after I told him he had to wait to use the hall pass. He comes back a few minutes later without a hall pass to get his notebook and backpack and I tell him that he should have taken it with him when he left the first time, because he isn't coming in now. Close the door, that should be the end.
It isn't.
A few minutes later, he's back, with a hall pass, but, strangely he won't let me see who signed it. I tell him until he gives me the pass and let's me see who signed it, he's not coming in.
He goes away...but only for a short while, because the end of the school day is drawing near and he really does want his stuff. So he concedes to show me the hall pass, comes in, and tries to leave. I make him stay in my room until the bell rings at the end of the day.
I take the hall pass upstairs to see the person who wrote it, a new math teacher. Apparently the student was supposed to be in her class. What's more, the name written on the pass is not the student's real name...he had assumed the identity of another of my students. And what was even better...the new teacher didn't know the student's real name, so now he's lost in the shuffle.
Just another wandering clown in a building full of chokers.
