Whew! Another Week Over

I am so glad it is Friday! I am in a groove now, and although I am still working hard, it is not as hard as it was the first few weeks. I began a series of grammar lessons when I tried to do a mad lib and my eleventh graders asked me what an "ad-g-tive" was, only to be followed by what is a "preposition?" They hated it but I think they needed to be reminded of the little things.
I also read "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner. It was surprising, but a few of my less advanced students really liked it, while my "advanced" students thought it was lame. I am beginning to break down some walls and have the kids trust me. I have a few that I just simply do not like, and I don't know what to do about it. One boy just is plain old dirty, and he always wants to touch you. When his hands are on my back, I can feel the heat from them even after he removes them. He wore flip-flops one day and his toes were covered in dirt. Gross!
And then there are the kids who break my heart. I find myself mothering them, and they just melt under any type of compassion. Some days I have to walk up to them as they drop their heads on the desk and say, "you can do this. Just give me a little effort." I do not push and by the end of class, they sheepishly hand me the assignment I gave them. They may never be scholars, but I hope that I can, for just a moment, make them feel loved and cared for. They need it so much. Today, a girl in my class was called to the office. She came back a few minutes later sobbing and put her head on the desk. I took her outside to see what was wrong, and she told me that DFACS came by to question her because someone reported that she was having sex with her father. I did not know what to say. I gave her a hug and asked her if she wanted to go to the office. She walked back in class and just sat her head back down. What can I do for her?
I did a timed essay that asked what can our education system do to keep kids from dropping out of school. Here is one kids answer:
"Teachers should let kids go to the bathroom whenever they want because the reason kids drop out of school is because teachers will not let kids go pee when they want to." Nice.

It's Nice of You to Notice

To those of you so kind as to make me feel missed, I promise I will post on Friday. I could do it everyday, but time does not permit. Trey is playing football and so I come from school and pick him up and go to sit on a hard bench for two hours. I need it though. Trey has all of a sudden decided that school is torture and he does not want to go. I feel that it is a reaction against school because of my teaching experience. I think he feels my tension and so he is focusing anger on school. He will be fine - both of us will. The Crucible is going badly. However, the class perked up when they heard that one of the girls was naked in the woods. I need lots of advice. Here is a fun assignment for my clever friends - We have to create "Activators" before we begin a new lesson. Something that will get the kids excited about what we are going to study. Before we began a character writing assignment, my activator was to put a bunch of classic and modern well-known characters on the board and asked them to pick a character and give me three reasons why they know, remember and like that character. It was OK, but if you can think of something for the other elements of the short story, anything is welcome. More later!

Fun With Words

From a "Do Now" in my class:
"You never know if you are setting someone up with a child mullester or something . . "

What o Do?

I spend all weekend trying to find a way to teach my 11th graders skills they should already have. To quote Napoleon Dynamite, "They don't have any skills." In response to my writing prompt, "What type of career do you want to have when you finish high school? Give me three reasons you want that career," one girl wrote: "I want to be a nurse cause I like to help people. After I get finished with nursing I want to go to cosmotology school because I like to do hair."
Another girl wants to be a plastic surgeon because, "some people are misshapen and deformed and I would like to give them a boost of confidence."
Another boy said he wanted to be a "street pharmacist."
Princes wrote that she wanted to be "a surgeon." This makes sense because she told a boy in class one day, "If you touch me again, I will cut you mofo."
Others just wrote three reasons why they wanted to be something: "I lik baseball. I lik money. I lik playing baseball." Makes sense to me.

In my 10th grade class, I have a boy who is extraordinarily gay. He wears shirts that say, "Taste the Rainbow," and "I'm not gay but my wiener is." He is in the color guard and wears long earrings. He is in a class, a school really, full of rednecks and homophobes. Actually, he is in one of my better classes, but the kids in the back keep throwing things at him. They are too fast for me to catch them, but Cody complains everyday. On Friday, he made a sexual remark to a boy that called him a faggot and I thought there was going to be a fight. I tried to talk to them about kindness - you may not like what someone else does, but we must be kind to each other. They listened and sat down, but I fear this is situation will erupt into violence one day. What do I do? Should I ask the gay kid to tone it down? Ignore it and continue to teach kindness? I am at a loss.

I've Lost Track

Well the roller coaster continues. I could blog everyday about what happens in my strange classroom, but I spend all of my time working and planning for the next day. I finally started writing kids up. One told me to shut up and he spent 3 days in ISS. I was thrilled to see him go and hated it when he returned. He's a mouth-breather that thinks he is too cool for anyone. I have to say that I hate him - not something I like feeling, but honestly, he is a smart mouth. I found comfort in the fact that all the teachers hate him - loathe him in fact.

I am still struggling with my eleventh graders. They are a surly bunch and they sometimes ruin my entire day - I have them first period. It has been difficult to get through the Puritans, but I thought they may enjoy Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech. I talked about how we are persuaded, and I had them do an ad analysis, like we did in rhetoric Kirsten. I asked them to bring in an ad and only two did - out of 30. Luckily, I was prepared with some ad's from O magazine. They did not like it but they did it. It was like pulling teeth to get them to talk. I talked about persuasion - how are you persuaded? Who can persuade you? I enjoyed it, but they did not seem to really care. The next day I asked them this question, "What would persuade you to go to war?" Blank stares. I pushed. Many said "Nothing." I introduced Patrick Henry and his speech to the Virginia Convention. Before reading his speech, I showed them a clip from Braveheart - the one where he stirs them up to fight the English even though they were outnumbered. They liked it, but mainly because of the cursing and mooning. After watching that, I read Henry's speech. I got into it - not because of them, but because I was inspired. It really is quite a nice speech. As I am reading I hear, "You gettin into this Ms." Yeah - I really was. for a few minutes, all their eyes were on me and I could feel their interest. Alas today was another confrontational day: no books or talking; except for rude comments. Back on the rollercoaster.

The stories I hear from these kids are heartbreaking - and funny. Here is an example of an original simile written by one of my kids - "Neal is such a good player its like he's Isaac Newton." Cute.

I miss all of you very much. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of each of you. Love you!