Gather Round the Campfire

Today for Halloween, I had my students write ghost stories. One group of girls came to the front of the class and started their story like this:

• Girl one: Once the bread popped out of the toaster, nobody knew what to put on it. Jelly, margarine, cinnamon-sugar.
• Girl two: He said write a ghost story, not a toast story!

Teacher Credability

This week I was teaching a lesson on credibility in writing. We were specifically looking at types of evidence and fallacies of argument, but that's not too important right now. What I remember saying is that if your readers doubt your credibility, then they're going to have a hard time taking you seriously or believing anything you say.

As teachers, we have a certain amount of credibility with our students. Our credibility can be strictly as educators, but I think it extends to more than just that. Students need to believe that we are credible human beings too and this sort of credibility will pay off if a student has some major life issue going on in their personal life. (abuse, divorce, death in family, etc.) It's one thing to say that you care about a student's well-being, life, and future, and it's another thing entirely to actually show it. Telling a student, “I care about you as a person, not just a student,” doesn't really cut it. In fact, it's kind of lame if that's all you do. There needs to be someway for you to convey this to students through actions. I've discovered a few ways to build positive relationships with students that establish credibility as a human being, and not just a robot whose only job is to teach.

1. Talk to students about their lives. Get to know what type of music they like and don't be afraid to have a five minute talk about pop culture.

2. Support their fund raisers. I've bought half a dozen candy bars, several magazine subscriptions, and even some bathroom candles. I've spent maybe 60 bucks, but I write it off as an educational expense and not only does my bathroom smell good now, but there's something to read in there as well. Supporting fund raisers in visible way or allowing students to hawk their wares in class builds your credibility as a person.

3. Go to their extracurricular events. If you can, show up to the baseball, basketball, or scholars bowl even. Go to the school plays and other student led events. If you don't have the time for these sorts of things, then at least find out about them and ask your students how they went.

4. Smile at your students and say hi to them in the halls, even the students who give you a hard time in class.

5. Chaperon events. I chaperoned a dance last night and the students were pleasantly surprised to see me there. I had a lot of them come up and talk to me throughout the night and ask me how things were. A few of them asked me to get out on the dance floor and break it down, but I told them that I'm there to make sure they're having fun and being safe. I'm always mindful that they know that I'm still a teacher, even though I don't look much older than they are. At my high school, everyone shows up to the dance and everyone dances with everyone. It's a friendly environment, but even if you're dances are more drama-filled, I still suggest you go. At the very least, you get to learn a lot about your students by watching them dance.

6. Do the assignment with them. If students are complaining about an assignment being unfair, a lot of times, I'll go ahead and do the assignment with them while they're doing this. I do this most often with my creative writing class, but sharing a personal narrative as Kyle did is also a good idea.

7. Have a sense of humor. If you're not a funny person, then at least laugh at the funny things your kids say in class. Students say the funniest things, sometimes unintentionally.

Full Court Press

As I begin typing this, I'm sitting at my first high school basketball game at the school that I teach. It's between games right now, so don't worry. I'm not typing this during the game. I'll finish typing most of the post at home. I just watched the girls slaughter the opposing team and I'm kind of impressed. It's funny because every single one of the girls who played are students of mine. My students who work hard in the classroom, work hard on the court as well. I watched them hustle hustle hustle the entire game. I'm not sure how a parent instills that sort of determination and drive. From what I can tell, it's mostly intrinsic. I have a pair of sisters who are more or less the exact opposite as far as motivation goes. One of them busts her butt to get everything done while the other barely works at all.

I can't help but feel I am but a minor player in these students' lives. I see them for one hour a day, five days a week. I'm facilitating them in becoming the adults they will be, but most of these kids have a good framework built up already. Not all of them, but most of them. It's as if I'm helping to pass the baton, from one role model to the next. In some cases though, I might be the first adult to actually attempt to pick up the baton.

I really love this job. The small school is great for letting me get to know all of my students, not just a small portion of the population. Tonight I also got a chance to talk to some of the parents and for the most part I was able to tell them what great kids they had and what a good job their kid was doing in my classroom. That's a really good feeling actually. I then reminded them that they had parent teacher conferences next week and that I hoped to see them again. Tonight was a rewarding night, but jeez, I was at the school for over 13 hours. That's a long time to be hanging out in one place. It's almost the weekend and I'm looking forward to it. Next week is an abbreviated week. I only have class for three days really. Thursday is parent teacher conferences and Friday is a day off. I need to get to bed. I got another full day on track.

Personal Narratives

My seventh and eighth graders turned in their personal narratives today and after reading over them, I am so damn proud of them. Most of them really took hold of this assignment and ran with it. I have some really excellent pieces of writing and it's neat thinking that I had something to do with them. In total, we've spent two and a half weeks with these things and I think the extra time really paid off. I think what really ended up helping a lot was the fact that I gave them all two days to work on it in class, and two days of proofing. The first day of proofing was really a revision day. I had the students read over each other's personal narratives and then tell each other what they liked about them. The second day was yesterday and that's when we looked at the nitpicky details such as spelling and grammar. Almost all of my students have mastered the MLA heading, something I still didn't have down pat until college. It's days like this when I actually feel more like a teacher, like I've done something worthwhile during my time at school. I had them write reflections before they turned in their personal narratives in order to gauge their thought processes. Most of them just wrote letters to me and they all said how much they enjoyed the project and how they found the writing to get easier as they did more of it. Furthermore, a lot of them asked if we could do more writing in class. More writing! How wonderful is that?

On another educational note, today in my creative writing class one of my reluctant writers came up to me and asked if we could do some free writing. He said he had something on his mind that he wanted to write about. Now, this is a student who I have to constantly request that he write more than just four lines. He filled up an entire two pages with his thoughts about the day. It was silly teenage relationship drama, but it was important to him and I was glad that he allowed me to read it, though I didn't ask him to share it with the class. I'm starting to realize that sometimes my students don't want to share with the class what their thoughts truly are. I usually ask my students to share their writings, but perhaps I'll make it more optional.

Blogaction Day

Why just complain about the state of education when you can do something to actually help? I want to plug a fundraiser brought up by my friend Chris, who is a phd candidate in computational biology. To quote the man himself:

"In an era of increasing politicization of science, it's more important than ever to teach children about how the scientific method works. Science teachers are on the front lines of this culture war, and it's important that they have the resources that they need.

Solutions like this are no substitute for adequate school funding, but we can't wait around for that kind of education reform. Doing so would mean losing a whole generation of scientists. The potential to change the world is in these children's minds, and it would be a crime to neglect them. Let's give these children and teachers the support that they deserve."

The donate page here. As Chris says, it's only a few bucks and it only means you have to give up coffee or alcohol or something small for a week.

I'd say donate to English classrooms, but we're much easier to fund.

(Note: This is my contribution to Blogaction day. Shakespeare and Billy Collins probably won't stop global warming, but science might.)

Reading Ain't Cool

Today I was remind of the very strong undercurrent against success in public schools. One of my students, who we'll call Randy, was openly mocked today for two things. One, he was able to make inferences from the reading about future events. Two, he liked the reading enough to talk about it in class. Now Randy is a smart kid. He's probably the smartest boy of his social group. The problem is that his peers don't do well in school because their academic ability is below average. As a result, they blow it off and disparage the school in general. This poses a problem for students like Randy who perform well in school, but must keep their success and understanding a secret from their peer group. Now Randy is fairly successful with this, but he let his enthusiasm for the reading material slip and his peers jumped on this. They negatively reinforced the idea that reading is a waste of time by making fun of his eagerness to read. This is made worse by the fact that the book we are currently reading has a female main character who falls in love with a boy and raises a giant pumpkin. It's not the typical topic that teenage boys are interested in. Randy likes to hunt, ride his dirt bike, and horse around as much as the rest of my male students, but he also has a sensitive and artistic side. It's hard to encourage this without making him seem even uncooler, but I'm trying.

"Big Tid"

This is so far a pretty slow week at school. We're doing testing so I don't have to teach half of my classes. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't enjoying the pace. My eight graders are reading a book called Squashed. It's a book about a high school girl who is in a pumpkin growing contest while at the same time trying to win the love of her life. I know, it's an awesome sounding premise. But don't judge too quickly.

I enjoy the book a lot and I think my students are enjoying it too, even the boys in my class and students whom I would label as at-risk students. Many students don't necessarily enjoy reading, but almost all of my students love being read to. That in and of itself is enough to remind me of the power of the written word in reaching people. In an age where entertainment is measured in microseconds, it's good to know that books still have a place.

I had a pretty cute moment at school today. It's the only way you could really describe it. As I've mentioned before, I've been eating lunch with the elementary school teachers because they make for better company. Well, the other day, one of the kindergartens asked me if I was a "big tid" as I was standing in the lunch line with them. He can't say his K's very well. (Imagine him saying kitty cat.) One of the elementary school teachers overheard this and laughed. She thought it was pretty funny. I thought it was pretty funny too. Today when I went to sit down at the teachers table, she had made a little standup sign for me that said, "Mr. Anderson-Big Tid." Now I was of course too polite to point out the name misspelling because I really appreciated the thought. It was just one of those aww moments. The teacher that made it for me is the kindergarten teacher whose son I have for 7th grade English. She's a bubbly 30-something redhead who is always in good spirits. Overall she's just a pleasant person to be around, as are most of the elementary school teachers. Her son doesn't really enjoy English and writing in general, but apparently my class is his favorite class according to her. I take that as a good sign that I'm doing something right. I actually don't get to see my 7th graders this week due to testing. I kind of miss them to be honest. You become attached to your students, even the ornery ones.

The World in Mono

The cold I caught from unnamed sources has hit my ears. As a result, I've had a somewhat difficult time hearing today. One of my ears seems to be perpetually clogged so I had to ask my students to repeat themselves a few times. Being under the weather and trying to teach is a pretty abysmal experience. The most difficult part is keeping this knowledge from your students. If they sense weakness, they will use it to their advantage.

I kind of feel like I'm failing my 9th grade class. I don't see them as getting very much out of the readings and my teaching efforts seem to be falling short. To be honest, I picked a reading that was way above them and because of book shortages I'm having half the class read one book and the other half of the class read another. Because of this, I don't think either half of the class is really benefiting from it very much. I just wish we were done reading the book so we could move on.

I've started eating lunch earlier, with the elementary school teachers and kids. I have my plan period 3rd hour so it works out well. I've done this for a few reasons. One, I'm hungry. Two, the elementary school teachers make for better company than the high school teachers.

Kids can be pretty damn cruel. I am reminded of this on a regular basis. It's not just the name calling, but every time I have the kids write a creative piece they insist on casting classmates they don't like in unpopular roles. I tell them afterwards that I'm pretty disappointed in them and that I don't think what they did was appropriate, but they're 12-14 years old and could care less.

I'm starting to make some real progress with the one problem student who I had to send to the office the second week of school. I've tried to make my class a safe environment for her and she said she's liked the last few activities we've done. She's not a stellar pupil, but she's actually acted kind of sweet in my class these past few days. She's even "gasp" helped me pass out papers and ask if we could do more activities.

Oddly enough, I've realized that I've been a better middle school teacher than a high school teacher. If I had to rank my teaching ability based on the class I taught it would go something like this:

7th Grade

8th Grade Reading and Writing

8th Grade English

11-12th grade Creative Writing

11-12th grade journalism

9th grade English.

I never thought I'd want to teach middle school, but I've got a better rapport with them than I do the 9th graders. Of course, the 9th graders are a weak class on the whole. Their MAP scores show this and they have been a terror for past teachers. Their previous teachers have horror stories. I'm going to keep adjusting my teaching strategies and maybe I'll figure them out. Either that, or they are going to fail fantastically at learning and I'm going to fail miserably at teaching.

One of my favorite students is an 8th grader who I have twice a day. She's a low end student, but a real nice girl and a hard worker. She tries her hardest, but she also struggles. In addition to school, she also goes to Sylvan learning center for added help. I know that Sylvan isn't cheap and I don't think her parents can afford it. I am really impressed by the value they put on education though. I want this girl to succeed so badly because I know she wants to succeed herself. I talked with her mom today after school. It turns out that she is enjoying my class. That's kind of a relief. A lot of times my students give me these thousand yard stares like I'm lecturing on rocket science. Scratch that, rocket science would be something cool. Let's pretend that I am lecturing on watching the soil erode in real time.

I'm no great teacher, not yet at least. I have been keeping my head above water and my students are learning, but I'm still not doing as much as I could be doing. My classroom management skills need improving and so does my ability to provide individualized educational opportunities. It never feels as though I have enough time to do everything, but I love this work. I love the job and the kids and getting up and doing something as great as teaching. That's enough for tonight. I have to get to bed so I can do it all over in the morning.

Just a Glimpse

You catch glimpses of insight into the lives of your students, though they don't always tell you outright what's going on. I had my creative writing class come up with a list of 30 story ideas. Mixed among a cache of writing ideas that ranged from "My family" to "The summer playing softball" was something that made me stop and reevaluate one student.

"Being lonely"

There was no other explanation than that, and I wonder why she's lonely when it seems as though she's surrounded by friends and well liked by the teachers and staff. It bit to the core of something true though and I wonder when the next glimpse will come.

Some Thoughts Under the Bloody Moon

I am a more meticulous teacher than I would ever have expected. Not everything has a place in the classroom, but I keep a mental catalog of things. I keep track of students who will help me keep order. I remember students who need an extra nudge. I organize students into groups of leaders and followers. There are dozens of these groups in my head, some of which I'm not even really consciously aware of. I am also constantly shuffling around those groups and cross indexing. It's not exactly a concrete filing system where I organize by discrete categories. It's more like I'm tracking motion in my head. Some students tend to move in certain patterns and that has me define them in a certain way. It'll be interesting to see how this eventually works out at the end of the year.

I also have a digital catalogs of lesson plans, what we actually did in class, and discipline problems. Those are helpful for documentation purposes. For those who are considering teaching, document as much as you can. Don't get caught with your ass hanging in the breeze because you can't prove why a student has a discipline problem or may have abusive parents. You may think you can remember it all, but get organized.

Assessment (not grading), even with my small number of students, is slowing me down. I want to give authentic feedback. I want to make comments not just on student's big papers, but their daily writings. This takes time, and while it would be easier to just check for completion, doing so doesn't really help the students very much. The key is asking the big questions, the dumb questions. Why am I giving this assignment? Why is this important? How will this benefit them? What are they really learning?

I finally figured out what I want my 8th grade reading and writing class to be like. It'll be a lot more relaxed than my regular English classes. The last thing they need is more rehashing of what we've already done. So we'll primarily be reading in class. This might very well be my last shot at getting these students to enjoy reading on any level. Right now we're reading Holes by Louis Sachar. I think we may read a Joan Bauer novel after that. I just need to organize some learning objectives to really give things shape.

I'm struggling to learn some of the student's names. Some of them just won't stick in my brain for some reason. I just try calling on them as often as possible. Any other suggestions to help me on that one?

What am I like in the classroom? Well, as I was telling Mandy tonight, I like to think of my teaching persona as a concentrated form of my regular personality, much like o.j. in a can. Everything is just a bit more focused and sharp. I smile in class. I don't believe in not smiling till Christmas. I'm not a pushover though. While I won't yell, I will pull students out into the hall to have a little talk. I'm a controlled person, a focused person. Joey says, intense. I guess that's fairly accurate. That carries over into the classroom. I'm enthusiastic, but I'm also laid back. I'll joke, but not too much. I've had to give up on sarcasm, but sometimes it just kind of slips out. Old habits die hard. I'm an optimist in class. I have to be if these kids are going to succeed. It's starting to spill over into my normal everyday life as well. It's not entirely a bad thing. I try to be flexible and fair. Some students need extra help. You don't deny a drowning man a life preserver because it's not fair to the other swimmers. You cannot treat everyone equally and still be fair.

The hardest part of teaching is showing the students that they know the answers already. I hate to give definitive interpretations on poems or texts. I want to show them how to find water instead of sticking a hose down their throat.

I made a breakthrough with one of my more behaviorally challenged students today. He made a connection between ambiguous pronoun use and how it can affect our perception of the reading. Small steps. It's a start though.

Everything has taken a backseat to teaching at the moment. I don't know when I'll get around to other types of posts. Hopefully soon.

Oh, if you're wondering about the title of this post, there is a lunar eclipse tonight.