Monday, April 25, 2005
Lyle the Looming Liar
The InvisiblE-mailbox has been filling up fast this past week with messages from readers like YOU (yes...you there, eating the paste!) wondering what bold and daring tales of success I might share from the halls of Underwood High. Well, no such luck you success-starved sycophants. You'll get no riveting tales of inspiration this Monday evening. Even if I had some, and there could be a few posted later this week, they would be completely overshadowed by today's debacle of a lesson.
Said debacle was my first attempt to take the general student body to the lab. I had previously taken selected students, specifically those who were not failing 2 or more classes as of the second report card period, to the lab with great success and was looking forward to finally exposing the students to some hands-on science as a class. Unfortunately 2 of my 5 classes could not sit quietly through a 15 min. safety talk in the lab and lost their lab privileges for the unit. But I tried to put a good face on this...after all, fewer classes meant fewer possibilities for distraction/destruction/classroom management disasters as well as less stress involved in setup, cleanup, etc.
Still, due to a combination of factors things turned out going poorly. Perhaps the biggest problem was the lab I chose to unveil, without editing, from the district mandated core curriculum. The lab itself was not terrible; it covered a concept we had reviewed several times over--the difference between physical and chemical properties. Specifically, students were to utilize their knowledge of these concepts to identify 5 unknown powders--chalk, antacid tablets, sugar, flour, and baking soda. They would be provided with water and vinegar to perform their tests.
The trouble was that the lab was poorly edited. It did not provide a data table for students to fill in experimental results, only a section to mark their conclusions. Students also had difficulty distinguishing between making observations and forming hypotheses as to the powders' identities. Worst of all was trying to explain to my students that they had to write out a procedure before they could proceed with their experiment. When I explained this they looked at me like I was insane. I gave them the standard patter about the importance of keeping track of steps and the necessity of being able to duplicate an experiment for it to hold any scientific merit, but all they could do was ask why and then write a half-hearted, and in most cases painful to read attempt at a procedure. Not to mention the groups that ignored directions NOT to pour liquid directly into the powder cups as that would taint all possible future samples.
But the best, or worst, part of the day came in 8th period when for the second time in a day a beaker was broken. (The first time was in the morning and I'm relatively sure it was an accident.) This time a student, let's call him Lyle, was playing with the 250 ml beaker I had left on his lab table while I was trying to explain how the lab would proceed. And somewhere along the line, he bangs it on the table and the bottom half cracks off. I dispose of it calmly enough, but what amazes me is that even before I asked anything he was blaming it on the two other girls at his table!
Lyle is a large kid, a little more than six feet tall...built kinda like Forrest Whittaker (yeah...the Ghost Dog himself), he looms over you and peers at the world through deep set eyes. His voice always has a kinda quivering pleading to it. Like he's longing to be accepted or something. Or believed. Maybe both, because he always seems to get himself into situations like this one. Why, there were two last week alone!
Example 1: I had set my desks up in groups of three for students to work independently on some review worksheets. One of the desks in his group had been pulled away shortly after I had rearranged the setup between periods. I ask him why the desk is out of synch, and he immediately proclaims it is not his fault.
"No, Lyle...I just fixed the desks." I explain. "I know how they should be set up. Look around the room. That desk you are in now has been pulled away within the past five minutes. It was not there. You could not have found it there. If you are going to lie, at least make it a PLAUSABLE lie!"
He moves back the desk and we move along.
Example 2: Test last week on phases and properties of matter. Students, as always are permitted to use a 3 x 5 card worth of notes. By preparing and attaching it they get 5% extra added to their grade. (Golly gee, the Invisible Ben is a nice guy...don't you wish he were YOUR science teacher?) So the kids hand in their test and up lumbers Lyle, clutching his paper tightly in Stay-Puft hands. He passes it to me with his index card, covered with pencil scrawls, and I notice something is written in black marker on the back. I turn it over. It's my handwritten vocabulary card from the class word wall. I had been wondering where "sublimation" went!
I confront him on it, saying that he should not have used a vocab card from the word wall for this. He claims that he found it on the floor the day before. I make some comment about how you are supposed to have your own pack of 3 x 5 cards and that if he had found it the day before why not give it back to me so that I could post it on the wall again? He claims never ot have looked on the back. I turn the card over and look at the top margin...where his handwriting is. Bloody brilliant Lyle!
Regular criminal mastermind this one. I tear up the card and tell him my decision. I won't deduct any points from his grade...but that card was mine. And he knew it and tried to lie about it. A stupid choice...but people make stupid choices everyday. And so as a result of this one, he will not be getting any points added to his test through that card's use.
Anyhow, the point is that he had a history of shoddily attempted deception. A history which continued through today when I took him into the hallway to discuss the broken beaker and he swore fervently that it was not he who broke the beaker. Not good ol' Lyle! It was the two girls at the table with him. They did it! They did it all along ! And why? To make him look bad. That's why they corroborated each other's story so closely...they were friends and out to get him...
The problem with this logic is I had already questioned several others who were not affiliated with the group and the truth was known to me. Oh Lyle...when will you learn?
Long story short, between the kids without safety contracts cussing me out, the broken glass, the continued inability to shut up, the addition of new kids into the class (or the reinstatement of old ones who had left 6 months prior), today was a miserable day and the lab only took place in 2 of the 3 classes I brought up. And of those, no one really got what the lab was getting at which was not merely scientific concepts but effective laboratory procedure. And it was a mess to clean up the glass and the powders.
So all in all, not the best day.
But who knows what the week may bring? Tomorrow we start our study of the periodic table. Up and 'atom, right?
The InvisiblE-mailbox has been filling up fast this past week with messages from readers like YOU (yes...you there, eating the paste!) wondering what bold and daring tales of success I might share from the halls of Underwood High. Well, no such luck you success-starved sycophants. You'll get no riveting tales of inspiration this Monday evening. Even if I had some, and there could be a few posted later this week, they would be completely overshadowed by today's debacle of a lesson.
Said debacle was my first attempt to take the general student body to the lab. I had previously taken selected students, specifically those who were not failing 2 or more classes as of the second report card period, to the lab with great success and was looking forward to finally exposing the students to some hands-on science as a class. Unfortunately 2 of my 5 classes could not sit quietly through a 15 min. safety talk in the lab and lost their lab privileges for the unit. But I tried to put a good face on this...after all, fewer classes meant fewer possibilities for distraction/destruction/classroom management disasters as well as less stress involved in setup, cleanup, etc.
Still, due to a combination of factors things turned out going poorly. Perhaps the biggest problem was the lab I chose to unveil, without editing, from the district mandated core curriculum. The lab itself was not terrible; it covered a concept we had reviewed several times over--the difference between physical and chemical properties. Specifically, students were to utilize their knowledge of these concepts to identify 5 unknown powders--chalk, antacid tablets, sugar, flour, and baking soda. They would be provided with water and vinegar to perform their tests.
The trouble was that the lab was poorly edited. It did not provide a data table for students to fill in experimental results, only a section to mark their conclusions. Students also had difficulty distinguishing between making observations and forming hypotheses as to the powders' identities. Worst of all was trying to explain to my students that they had to write out a procedure before they could proceed with their experiment. When I explained this they looked at me like I was insane. I gave them the standard patter about the importance of keeping track of steps and the necessity of being able to duplicate an experiment for it to hold any scientific merit, but all they could do was ask why and then write a half-hearted, and in most cases painful to read attempt at a procedure. Not to mention the groups that ignored directions NOT to pour liquid directly into the powder cups as that would taint all possible future samples.
But the best, or worst, part of the day came in 8th period when for the second time in a day a beaker was broken. (The first time was in the morning and I'm relatively sure it was an accident.) This time a student, let's call him Lyle, was playing with the 250 ml beaker I had left on his lab table while I was trying to explain how the lab would proceed. And somewhere along the line, he bangs it on the table and the bottom half cracks off. I dispose of it calmly enough, but what amazes me is that even before I asked anything he was blaming it on the two other girls at his table!
Lyle is a large kid, a little more than six feet tall...built kinda like Forrest Whittaker (yeah...the Ghost Dog himself), he looms over you and peers at the world through deep set eyes. His voice always has a kinda quivering pleading to it. Like he's longing to be accepted or something. Or believed. Maybe both, because he always seems to get himself into situations like this one. Why, there were two last week alone!
Example 1: I had set my desks up in groups of three for students to work independently on some review worksheets. One of the desks in his group had been pulled away shortly after I had rearranged the setup between periods. I ask him why the desk is out of synch, and he immediately proclaims it is not his fault.
"No, Lyle...I just fixed the desks." I explain. "I know how they should be set up. Look around the room. That desk you are in now has been pulled away within the past five minutes. It was not there. You could not have found it there. If you are going to lie, at least make it a PLAUSABLE lie!"
He moves back the desk and we move along.
Example 2: Test last week on phases and properties of matter. Students, as always are permitted to use a 3 x 5 card worth of notes. By preparing and attaching it they get 5% extra added to their grade. (Golly gee, the Invisible Ben is a nice guy...don't you wish he were YOUR science teacher?) So the kids hand in their test and up lumbers Lyle, clutching his paper tightly in Stay-Puft hands. He passes it to me with his index card, covered with pencil scrawls, and I notice something is written in black marker on the back. I turn it over. It's my handwritten vocabulary card from the class word wall. I had been wondering where "sublimation" went!
I confront him on it, saying that he should not have used a vocab card from the word wall for this. He claims that he found it on the floor the day before. I make some comment about how you are supposed to have your own pack of 3 x 5 cards and that if he had found it the day before why not give it back to me so that I could post it on the wall again? He claims never ot have looked on the back. I turn the card over and look at the top margin...where his handwriting is. Bloody brilliant Lyle!
Regular criminal mastermind this one. I tear up the card and tell him my decision. I won't deduct any points from his grade...but that card was mine. And he knew it and tried to lie about it. A stupid choice...but people make stupid choices everyday. And so as a result of this one, he will not be getting any points added to his test through that card's use.
Anyhow, the point is that he had a history of shoddily attempted deception. A history which continued through today when I took him into the hallway to discuss the broken beaker and he swore fervently that it was not he who broke the beaker. Not good ol' Lyle! It was the two girls at the table with him. They did it! They did it all along ! And why? To make him look bad. That's why they corroborated each other's story so closely...they were friends and out to get him...
The problem with this logic is I had already questioned several others who were not affiliated with the group and the truth was known to me. Oh Lyle...when will you learn?
Long story short, between the kids without safety contracts cussing me out, the broken glass, the continued inability to shut up, the addition of new kids into the class (or the reinstatement of old ones who had left 6 months prior), today was a miserable day and the lab only took place in 2 of the 3 classes I brought up. And of those, no one really got what the lab was getting at which was not merely scientific concepts but effective laboratory procedure. And it was a mess to clean up the glass and the powders.
So all in all, not the best day.
But who knows what the week may bring? Tomorrow we start our study of the periodic table. Up and 'atom, right?
