LESSON TWO: Every Student Counts

7 JANUARY 2014: DAY TWO

LESSON TWO: EVERY STUDENT COUNTS

I met Allison in the school entrance, where she had hall duty (the hall is a madhouse in the morning while students wait before they can go to their classrooms. I really miss the time before class when I get to visit with my students).

At the beginning of each class today, Allison invited me to introduce myself and tell the class a little about myself. I told them about OPA, a couple of classes I teach there; about Chelsey and Bolt, about going to Helen Haller, about my summer job. Then they were invited to ask me questions. Among them:

·         What is my favorite steak?

·         What happened to my hair?

·         What’s my favorite hair style?

·         Why was I dressed like the principal?

·         Have I ever been to Cest si Bon?

·         What was my most embarrassing moment?

·         What’s my favorite insect (I told the story of the bamboo ant)

·         Coke or Pepsi?

·         What states have I been to?

·         What’s my favorite sport?

·         What do I do in Canada?

·         What’s my favorite Hawaiian island?

·         Do I know Hannah Gloor?

·         What college did you go to?

·         What kind of dog do I have?

·         What’s my favorite blizzard flavor?

·         Is recycling important to me?

·         How many countries have I been to?

·         What’s my favorite subject to teach?

·         Do I know anyone in the Coast Guard?

·         What’s my favorite movie? (I told them it was by a director they’d never heard of, named Majid Majidi; one kid chimed up: “Hey! That’s my dad! We hi-fived).

They were assigned to continue test edits from yesterday, if they were not done, or to complete their outline maps of Europe. Allison took the students through how to identify land vs. water on their photocopied outline maps, and students identified specific nations on an Elmo projection of their map. Then they divided into groups (on desks and the floor) and worked on their assignments.

One group of students were appallingly distracted. In the hour of work, they got very little done. I tried to work with them as a group much of the time; two of them refused to work by being distracted and focusing on anything else they could (including daring me to go work with other students). One student, though, seemed able to work only when given one task at a time. When the task was broken down in that way, though, and when he was prompted each time, he did fine. I wonder—if he had been diagnosed with a learning challenge as a child, and been provided with the sort of differentiated instruction he needs, if he wouldn’t have turned out very differently. He has failed since he was very young; he has been given the message over and over that he will not be successful in school—not in so many words, but by virtue of his experiences and grades. Now, he no longer tries.

It’s one of the terrifying, appalling, depressing aspects of the school system. These students—lots of them--are falling through the cracks, and it is preventable.

At 10:00, Allison stopped and told them they would have a test on the map in a week. She then told them they could do a Google search and find a site that would allow them to practice learning the European countries. She did not give them an address (???); but they used the website together as a class for a few moments. It sounded like they needed to prepare for the test on their own—I’m sure I will learn more about that in the days to come.

Allison uses a tiny, cheap, tinny little music player thing to get the kids to sit down—when she wants them to sit, pay attention, etc., she plays it and they are supposed to be sitting by the time the music stops. It kind of works.

At lunch, I wandered among the students, having conversations with more of them this time. Then I went to recess and primarily visited with the Vice Principal Scott Harker, about student teaching, SPED, and scheduling.

After lunch, the students are assigned silent reading. And they did!

The 8^th Graders:

Early in the hour, Connie Stites stopped by to get me because my former student Leah and her one-year-old son Bradley had stopped by the school. I got to go and see them for a minute in the hallway. Talk about a strange situation: A former student, who has now been a teacher for years, who was inspired to become a teacher by me, visiting me while I was student teaching so I can become a teacher. Surreal…

Allison tried to take the students through the reading of a chapter by showing it via the document camera, reading line by line—which they didn’t follow at all. Perhaps six students (of 31) were paying attention and participating. This was the only teaching. She shared a few paragraphs from the book, and then asked them one scenario: was Washington’s policy of neutrality the best choice. She entertained two or three comments from students (who didn’t really understand the issue).

After that, Allison turned half of the class over to me to prepare a very brief (one page) play about the conflict between Jefferson and the Barbary pirates. She gave me the more difficult half of the class. The next half hour was spent trying to wrangle those 14 students into choosing from the 9 parts available, and read over those lines. Several volunteered to read parts, some enthusiastically; they also began trading parts right away. One girl (a sort of queen bee among these 8^th graders) asked to be a bird; I assigned her to be a parrot for one of the pirates. It was so difficult just to get them assigned parts (they never stop talking, completely ignoring me, joking and laughing) that we never actually got to a read-through.

I, however, felt I had one success. The student who was the most disruptive yesterday, SP, the day of the substitute, was my goal for the day. He is a very large young man, and he loves football. Through the length of the football season, he works hard to keep his grades up. As soon as football season is over (which it is), he quits trying. Throughout both classes, he never got out his text, his workbook, or paper. He sat doing nothing.

I chose to have a brief conversation with him during my introduction/Q&A with the class, asking him about football. When I was given the group to oversee, I asked him to help me organize the students. He immediately helped to take charge, helping me keep the students on task. Also (much to my surprise), he volunteered for one of the parts. At the end of the class SP stayed after for a few minutes to visit with me. I thanked him for his help; he shook my hand. “No problem, Tim,” he said. “It’s good to meet you.”

One student down. 143 to go.