Stand Up and Cheer!

Trey recently won a spelling competition at school so he is going on to face the other kids in Glynn County for a county wide spelling bee. He was so proud and we have already been working on his list of words. I suggested we watch Akeelah and the Bee. I heard it was good and I thought it may inspire Trey. However, I was the one who was inspired. I loved this story and the ideas behind it. Akeelah's coach made her read a quote and tell him what it meant to her. I liked the quote so much that I wanted to share it with you. I am going to find a way to post it on my wall at school. I recommend you put this one on your Netflix list.


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous.
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us -- it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others

-Marianne Williamson

Some of the Reason's School Sucks

After a relatively calm week, school ended on a sour note Friday. Next week is Homecoming and we are preparing for a big week. Here is a sampling of the fun scheduled for Mcintosh County Academy:
Monday: Pajama Day (There is no way I am wearing pajamas to school. I may don slippers, but that is it)
Tuesday: Halloween: I am going to be Bob Marley, or Barbara Marley
Wednesday: Dress to impress (I guess you dress up)
Thursday: I can't remember
Friday: Spirit Day

Well, our apathetic kids were rarin' to go and decorate so the school was in chaos. My day began with the assistant principal handing me a stack full of write-up's from the previous day. I had been out at training and my sub tried to take over my class. Well, my kids revolted and told her that she "was not their teacher," and "Ms. Taylor told them what to do so they did not need her help."
This sub is notoriously pushy. The assistant principal handed me the write-up's and said "take care of them."
I had just finished "The Monkey's Paw" and so I had the kids rewrite the ending of the story and describe how the son who comes back from the dead looked. They loved it! and approached it enthusiastically, so I let two boys who had done an exceptional job, go to the gym when there was ten minutes left in class. A few minutes after the boys left, the asst. principal came into my room and said, from the door, "Ms. Taylor, do not let your kids out of the room again." She turned and left and I felt scolded and embarrassed in front of my kids.

At lunch, the other English teacher came into my room furious. he said that Ms. Hunter, the asst. principal had come into the media center and asked him what he was doing in the library? She then told him too many kids were in the lab and he had to leave. Once again, she did this in front of his kids and embarrassed him.

Later in the day, with my prisoners-in-training seventh period class, we were working in collaborative pairs, which they want us to do, rewriting the ending of the story. These kids are always loud, but Friday they were loud but doing the work, when Ms. Hunter walks in and tells me, "Ms. Taylor, this class is too loud. Be quiet!" Once again, I was furious, but just said "OK."
Shortly after this, she comes back in and says, "All the other classes are quiet, but this class and I don't like it!" I apologized and told my kids to be quiet, but inside I was ready to cry. each time she came in, I was mediating the class and helping them do their work, but I feel it is totally inappropriate of them to reprimand the teachers in front of their students. I believe they have lost control of the school and may be trying to regain it, but at the expense of alienating the teachers. Many of the other teachers who have taught elsewhere say they have never seen a school so poorly run. Three veteran teachers have already left and more are threatening to go. I guess I do not know enough to know how bad it is there.

I do know, however, that I have written up one boy four times, me and others, and he has not spent one day in ISS. I am very discouraged today, but I am going to start the History of the English Language on Tuesday and I am going to have them try and read a little Chaucer aloud. Should be fun. I may have to bring Kirsten in as a guest reader, or maybe I could ring her up on Google chat and have her give an over the phone reading.

I am sad and lonely for all of you and can't wait for Thanksgiving break so I can come see you!

Nice, Simple Fun

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 31 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Getting There

I have to say that I am beginning to enjoy teaching. I have tried to let the class be a little more organic and let the conversation flow naturally. This has worked out pretty well for me. It all strarted with Jack London's story "To Build a Fire." The story is about a man who makes a trip in Alaska when it is 75 below zero. He travels down the Yukon trail alone, well, he has a dog with him, and meets a terrible fate. The story is told from the 3rd person omniscient point of view and we know what is going on in the mind of the man and the dog. It is clear that London does not think much of the man because he writes, "The man lacked imagination. He knew about the things of life, but not their signifigance." In my teachers edition it asked the question, "Why might the man's lack of imagination be a flaw?" My kids said, "yeah, why is that a flaw?" Well, I had to think about it, and I came to the conclusion that a lack of imagination about what was to come in life, and what was significant in life could be disasterous. I told my kids story after story about people who had failed because they could not imagine the horror of their choices. How people lioved miserable lives because they did not realize what was really significant in life. I tried to convince them that although this story was written in 1908, it still spoke to us today. That is the neauty of lieterature - that no matter how many years we have been on this earth, we are still the basically the same. As I taught them this lesson, I remembered that in the middle of all the headaches of teaching, I can make an impact somewhere by teaching my beloved literature. And I do love it - maybe now more than ever. I read Flannery O'Connor and her story "Revelation" and realize how important it is to expose these kids to a world outside of Darien, Ga. I have grown to absolutely love some of them, and want to help those that have not grown to love yet.

I went to the football game Friday and met the mom of one of my very quiet kids. She said, "Jonathon talks about your class all the time. He said he just loves you and the stuff you teach."
I was shocked. He never says anything in class, and I often wonder what he is thinking about while he sits in the back so quietly. Now I know, and it feels wonderful.
Maybe I can make it back next year.

Entitlement

After reading Kirsten's post about entitlement, I thought I would address it on my blog. I have so much to say about the subject - in fact, I talk about it everyday with my fellow discouraged teachers. The kids I teach are so low performing, that, I believe, teachers in the past have found it easier just to tell them answers rather than try and teach them how to do an assignment on their own. After reading "Everyday use" by Alice Walker, I told my students that we were going to create a character quilt. This quilt would involve reading half of the story and then drawing either symbols of the mom, Maggie and Dee or a picture of how we feel they are described in the story. They were excited because it involved color crayons and glitter, but when I asked them to think outside of the box and imagine these characters as symbols, they acted like I was crazy. I explained the directions several times, over and over they asked me to tell them what to do, and over and over I refused. "Use your imagination," I said. Apparently they have none - not one ounce of it - except for my one special ed kid Leroy. Leroy drew the mother as a brick wall and had nails laying at the bottom of the wall because he said she was "hard as nails." "Perfect," I screamed, "Leroy gets it!" All the while I tool in poster after poster of stick figures who had silly smiles on their faces. "Where do you get this idea from?" I asked, "The family is not happy." Oh well - at least Leroy gets it.
I often have kids who want clarification and then when I give it to them, they shrug their shoulders and turn away. It is not their fault. They have not been asked to do anything hard. I work constantly to find something to give them hope that they can do the work, but they have no intrinsic motivation. That is something I cannot teach, but i share my thoughts and enthusiasm with them, and I tell them how much it matters to me that they succeed, but lately, I find myself not giving a rat's ass if they learn anything. At the first sign of a sniffle, I call in sick. Me, the girl who missed one class in five years of school. To say I hate what I do right now is an understatement. I hate myself for giving up and for expecting myself to be a seasoned veteran after 12 - is it only 12? - weeks of teaching.
Today, during my planning period, the other 11Th grade teacher burst into my room and said, "Please, go to my class! I can't stand them anymore!" Of course I went in to find a class of angry students shouting, "She doesn't teach us anything! Who are you? We want you to teach us!"
"No," I said, "Really you don't. Ms. Abby is a great teacher."
They gave me the assignment and as I looked it over, I said, "Even if you don't know how to do it, you should show Ms. Abby some empathy and respect and be kind to her."
Dull eyes.
Then, Ms. Abby burst into the room and yelled, "Ms. Taylor, do not be nice to them! They are horrible, mean, vicious children!"
Stunned at her loss of control, I took her outside and tried to calm her down. She had taken the criticism personally. I fear being that person that makes a spectacle of herself to get the attention of my class. I believe that class is lost to her now. They will continue to pull her chain now that they know she views them as "horrible and vicious."
Oh well! Another week in McIntrash.