Schoolpocalypse

Today my school imploded. 

Lets start at the beginning:

1) For the past few weeks there has been talk about a "Reduction in Force" or RIF.  Michelle Rhee and the Mayor have claimed that we are $40 million or so short in funds and therefore need to fire a bunch of people.  The Council claims that the District has known about these costs for a long time and it should not be surprising or an 'all of a sudden thing' so it is impossible to really know what is going on.  One could be paranoid about Rhee and Fenty (which I'm sorta tending towards) or the Council is full of bull.

2) Students begin to hear all sorts of rumors and statements from politicians, the news, etc. about what is happening and talk about it and worry about it quite a bit for the past week.

3) Students arrive at school this morning and find there are no security guards.  They believe (falsely) that this is part of the RIF and decide to 'protest' outside the school and not go to class.  [Turns out that the security company that DCPS employs went bankrupt today and so this was just extremely unfortunate timing.] 

4) We eventually get the kids to come inside because they really weren't protesting they were just hanging out talking and refusing to go to class.  This is about 30 minutes into the day at this point.

5) First period is uneventful and I cover second period due to a teacher being absent.  Things go well in that class and I actually get the kids to work through the period which is a miracle.

6) Then the principal announces that the kids will get an extra 20 min. at lunch to protest and let out their pent up energy.  It also gets announced that there is a debate meeting at lunch when it is supposed to be after school (I'm the debate coach).

7) Lunch happens.  The FBLA has a meeting that I help out a little bit with and then I head downstairs to check and see if any debate kids went to the non-existent lunch meeting and find a few of them and tell them to come to the meeting after-school. 

8) A few minutes after I get downstairs, two very large boys barrel into the hallway I'm standing in having a huge fight.  There are two police trying to break it up and a huge crowd of yelling and riled up kids.  I get run in to by one of the fighting boys as I'm struggling to keep some of the kids away.

9) The police get the boys away and the kids seem to be milling about and I'm trying to get them into the cafeteria again and then all of a sudden there is a STAMPEDE (I mean this literally) towards the doors at the stairs.  ALL the kids run full tilt, screaming to get upstairs.  My boss had just gotten to me and pushed me to the wall so I wouldn't get flattened and those who stayed behind just stare fabbergasted.  I have never seen anything like it.

10) I make it upstairs a few minutes later after assessing the downstairs situation and end up in the atrium.  There I end up trying to disperse more students and break up a few more fights and almost fights.  It seemed like every time more than 10 kids were in the same place a fight broke out. 

11) As that calmed down a girl collapsed and had an asthma attack.  We had to call paramedics and once again general insanity ensued.

12) I eventually collected about 1/3 of my students for 3rd period and that went very very calmly.  For 4th period I helped a few students on applications and scholarships.

13) Then at 3:10 we get an announcement for teachers to check their emails.  As the bell rings students are running around the halls yelling about how they don't have to have certain teachers ever again and how they hope so and so gets fired.  And I have no idea what is going on but I tell them to shut up because what they're saying is really mean.

14) Kids tell me I have to check my email so I go back in my room and do so... at this point I am VERY nervous.  There are kids standing around me and I open up an email that has the new master schedule.  I read it over looking for my name and luckily I find it.  All it says is I'm teaching World History II and American History.  I don't know what this means and I won't really know until Monday apparently.

15) I have a debate team meeting for 1 hour after school w/about 6 kids (which is a miracle in and of itself so congrats to them for holding it together for debate).

Apparently tomorrow I'm going to the debate competition w/the kids... we'll see how that goes.  Hopefully they'll come and have fun.

Craziest. Day. Ever.

In Rio!!

Janet and I have arrive safely in Rio and have now been here for about 24 hours.  We met at the airport, both having long but uneventful flights.  Our stuff arrived, and we hopped in a taxi and drove to our hostel in Copa Cabana.  The hostel is called Stone of a Beach.  It is nice and has good security.  Our room is on the second floor and has a private bath and a veranda, which just about doubles the size of the room.

Yesterday we walked towards the beach, went to a buffet for lunch, and walked down Copa´s beach to Ipanema where there was another nice series of beaches.  We walked around a rocky point between the two beaches and then headed back to the hostel. The beaches are very scenic (despite all the tall buildings not far off of them) with dramatic rock outcroppings and cliffs surrounding them.

When we got back to the hostel we took it easy for a few hours, planning our route up the Bahia coast and then we went upstairs to the rooftop bar/hot tub/grill area and got yet another buffet (I´m sensing a theme here in Brazil.  A tasty theme) - this time it was BBQ.  Now one thing I can say beyond a doubt is Brazilians know how to cook meat.  The BBQ was great.  I had chicken, sausage and a bit of steak (in small quantities).  The sides were alright-doesn´t seem to be high on the list of importance, but they focus on what is important.

The weather is slated to be perfect for our stay in Rio.  Clear blue skies, in the 70s and (most importantly) not humid.  Today we are probably going to go see the huge Jesus Christ statue and maybe a tour of some other sites in Rio.  We also want to take a ´favela´ tour - a tour of some of the poorer areas in Rio, and then of course hang out at the beach and relax.

The Cardinal Sin

I am being very bad in fourth period.  While I have assigned a worthwhile project to the students and I intend for them to do a good job on it, I feel that I am basically just having them work on the assignments in class with little instruction.  Project Based Learning at its finest.  That being said, I am NOT wasting their time with busywork, I just also may not be strictly teaching new skills but having them practice ones they already have.  I suppose if I throw in some formative assessment I can work it out.

Last period of the day...

It is a universal truth that those entering the last class of the day must act completely insane and different from how they have acted the rest of the day.

At this point in my short career I have taught four classes at the final period of the day.  Three have been World History II and one has been Entrepreneurship.  All have been crazy.

It doesn't matter how big the class is (two classes had 20-25 student and the other two classes were under ten students). 

It doesn't matter what grade the students are in (most of the classes have a lot of 10th graders, but are mixed).

It doesn't matter what the students are learning (in the first semester my third and fourth periods are doing the exact same content).

It doesn't even matter how 'high achieving' my students are in other classes (I have had both top honors students and students who barely pass their classes in my fourth periods).

They all become different people when they pass through that classroom door.

Things that seem inconceivable in  my other periods become altogether too possible in my last period of the day:

Students talk out of turn at alarming rates.
Students get into physical and verbal fights.
Students yell.
Students run around the room.
Students don't complete a single assignment.
Students physically destroy each others' work.
Students steal the possessions of others.
Students from other classes walk into my room and do whatever they please.
The list could go on and on.

I understand that the day is long, but it doesn't justify the type of insanity I have often experienced in these classes (and the complete lack of control I seem to have over the situation).  While it isn't every day, it is far more often than I find even remotely acceptable. 

I am still trying to find ways to deal with this situation, because right now I really just try and ride the wave and power through it.  But that is very tiring and it isn't good for the students overall (When I give out surveys to the students to assess how the class is going, the only negative comments I ever get come from 4th period, and the big complaint is usually the behavior problems of other students).  I need to find ways to positively get the class under control.

I just don't know how to get through to them, to hold on to their attention throughout the day.  I know one thing I can do is make the lessons more interactive and as fun and relatable as possible.  But even some of (what I believe are) my best lessons have completely bombed in fourth period. 

Fourth period requires a whole different way of thinking and interacting with the class.  I can barely let them do independent work because it immediately dissolves into chaos.  I can't let them talk much or it dissolves into yelling matches.  I have to have a seating chart to keep certain students from talking all period and/or killing each other. 

One thing that has helped is making them stay quiet but allowing them to violate school policy and listen to their own music on headphones (but that stops working when an administrator comes in and yells at the students - and me by proxy - to put them away).

I may need to institute some type of regular physical stimulus to both keep them interested and release their pent up energy (calisthenics anyone?) but I honestly don't have any experience in that arena and I don't know how I could do that properly without wasting too much time.

Any suggestions for helping students release all that energy in a positive manner on a regular (if not daily) basis?

Empowering the children or Disheartening them?

I am asking for the advice from my peers (and any who care to give it).  Is informing students of the achievement gap and the structural factors that contribute to the achievement gap a worthwhile effort?  Will it serve to empower my students or will it just dishearten them?

I am personally of the belief that by showing students the truth about their current situation and help them learn about the social, economic and other structural factors that are standing in their way, that I could empower the students to take charge and work harder to get where they want and need to go.  I want them to see their obtaining an education as an act of social justice (and possibly even minor rebellion), something to do both for themselves and society at large. 

On the flip side, this may just make them think that everything is hopeless and out of reach.  I don't want them coming out of this kind of unit thinking that they are less than, that the cards are impossibly stacked against them, that everything is doomed to repeat itself.

Then there are the implementation questions + my initial thoughts on them:

1. Which classes would I present this information to?  I want to say all of them, I can relate this kind of topic to World History, Economics and all my government classes.  But at the same time, that may not be realistic.
   
2. When would I teach this to the students?  I think that this might be something to do near the beginning of the year.  Starting with the personal and working outwards to the global (or national in US Government).  Maybe instead of focusing on the schools I would instead focus on the communities at large and talk about the structural arguments towards both the achievement gap and poverty rates.  Could I get away with spending a week on this kind of unit?  There are many books that students have loved reading in the past (I could get a class set of Our America and also look at books/essays by William Julius Wilson -among others) and begin by showing what social studies can do while working on basic reading and writing skills and issues of social justice that directly pertain to my students.

I may spend some time this summer seeing if I can come up with an excellent and brief introductory week-long unit to the study of history and the social sciences using a topic that is more contemporary and relatable to the students and integrating lessons on the analytic frameworks we will be using in the course with the basic reading, writing and interpretive skills needed for social studies.

All good things...

...clearly must come to an end here in DCPS and especially at my school.

*Stop reading now if you don't want to hear a long rant about technology and my school, because right now?  I'm seriously annoyed.*

I have been experimenting with our laptop lab, having 2 of my classes basically conduct their entire class on the laptops.  I believe there are a myriad of benefits from conducting these small classes in this manner including the following:

1. Students get experience taking notes and completing all their assignments on the computer.  This is exactly how colleges conduct their courses now, and it will be even more true by the time these juniors get to college in just under two years.  So if they are good at taking notes, completing outlines and drafts of papers and using the internet actively in class (while also dealing with the temptation to just check their emails, etc.) they will be far more prepared for the modern college classroom.
2. Moving towards an almost paperless classroom.  In my first and third periods we have become almost 100% paperless with students submitting assignments via email and me giving them their grades and feedback the same way.
3. Students have become reinvigorated to complete assignments and then revise them. I have noticed better notetaking; an increase in the level of submitted work for feedback (since we can both have a copy of the work at the same time); and an increase in a few students overall grades.  While this is not universal, it is a very promising start.
   

But now the other teachers are apparently (and I'm actually a little dubious on this front) complaining about the fact that the laptops are located in my classroom since I use them every single day.  Now let me be clear I do not use all of them and I always let the other teachers use them when they ask to, and I tell them to sign up in advance and let me know when they want the whole lab and I'll give up the lab entirely because I will plan around them.  But do they do that?  No.  Do they plan what they're doing?  No.  They generally seem to want them as a filler, like a 'type up your paper' day assignment.  (Sorry but these kids can do that on their own time, school time is for instruction.)

And then when I go to the classrooms that are asking for the laptops and I see what they are doing with them? They're having the kids do dopey research projects where I watch the majority of the kids cut and paste wikipedia pages into their 'research reports' and then watch as they get an A.  There is no analysis, there is no thought, the kids don't even READ what they wrote!  So pardon me if I get a little up-in-arms when they then "demand" that I return the hijacked laptops in their entirety so they can use them.  I'm going to have to figure out how to get at least 5 laptops permanently housed in my classroom that have access to the internet.

AND THAT IS ANOTHER THING.  The only reason they even HAVE the internet on these laptops is because I paid for a wireless router and it broadcasts from my room.  I'm going to have to change that password daily from now on and make sure that only my students sign on each day.  I know it is ungracious but I'm getting sick of getting taken advantage of, and frankly this particular wireless internet connection is something that I paid for and have to work my ass off to keep up and running (there has been a lot of troubleshooting on my side plus teachers interrupting my class to come and help them figure out the internet in their room which they only have thanks to me - which they have not once acknowledged). 

Not only that, the teachers actually get indignant and complain when the internet isn't working perfectly.  They have the audacity to try and make me fix it for their class during my class' time.  That and fix every computer glitch they have (This occurs at least once every 2 weeks and some weeks as often as a couple of times per day).  There are two problems with this.

1. I am not very good at troubleshooting problems on Windows computers.  Internet issues are easy enough but when it comes to getting the projectors to work I am at a loss.  
2. They ask me when my classes are in session and sometimes when I am at the front of the room actively teaching a lesson.  As if my time, and more importantly, my students' time is somehow less important than theirs.  If you want to use the technology troubleshoot it in advance and get it set up in advance.  I'll help when I can but you're on my schedule.  And if you don't like that?  Well then tough, go help yourself.

In the end I have pretty mixed feelings.  I don't mind sharing resources at all, but when I feel that they're not being used appropriately and at the same time that I am being taken advantage of well then I'm not having it.  But the school year is almost done (one half of an advisory left!) so I guess I just have to make it to the end and then readjust for next year.  I know I've been living in luxury getting to use these computers for my assignments but you can't just take them away now that all my classes have adjusted to them.

Fire Alarm... Again

We don't have to leave apparently, but we do have to sit and listen to it go off.  It is really high pitched and annoying and LOUD.

Please turn it off soon!!!!  We can't actually conduct class in these conditions.