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.

The Meeting

So I had the meeting with Ms. Rhee and overall it was a positive experience.  I was not as coherent and organized and positive as I might like but she seemed receptive to hearing about our problems and of the same mind that a leadership change would vastly improve virtually all of our problems.  I gave her an agenda, made the case for the students and that I firmly believe we should have an Academy.  I then primarily focused on our entire academy's lack of focus and the lack of effective leadership.  Then she asked me some questions, I told her what I thought would help us and then we were done!  It was kind of a whirl wind, which is why I'm worried I wasn't as coherent as I could have been.  I was pretty nervous but once I got going it wasn't so bad.

She also put me in touch w/another person who was sitting in on our meeting and actually works in our building and is in charge of all the high schools.  Basically they said that I could keep in touch w/him and meet regularly to discuss progress.  So hopefully increased oversight will happen!  So yeah, I should have maybe prepared exactly what I was going to say in what order a bit more (I had my agenda but hadn't necessarily run through it enough and planning exactly how I would phrase everything) but I think that overall it was a positive experience and I got my point across as much as could be expected.

I'm not exactly sure what concrete things will change soon, but she couldn't really make any promises and she said that the school is on her radar and she appreciates hearing about these problems.  And frankly I understand her position.  We are a very small academy at the moment, and we are relatively unproblematic compared to the larger schools.  So I did not expect a team to immediately get sent in to fix things, but because it wouldn't take much to fix them I am going to currently believe that there is a possibility that we will get new leadership and that will make a huge difference.

What I do know for sure:
1) They aren't talking about closing us (at least not yet...)
2) They want us to increase enrollment
3) She said she hopes I stay at the Academy
4) I'm feeling invigorated to continue to fight the good fight and keep closely (hopefully not annoyingly) in touch with the official directly overseeing my director and seeing if some of my ideas can come to pass.

At least I'm trying both inside my classroom and out, that shows initiative and guts I would say and that can't be a bad thing in the long run.  All in all this may be a chance for me to both show leadership potential and take on a more significant role in the future (let alone the chance that I could help effect real change - ok I know that is the best case scenario but that is the point right?).  Who knows.

Irony:

When teachers use copious amounts of paper, mass produced posters and other newly bought items (that undoubtedly came wrapped in plastic packaging) promoting 'going green'.

A wee bit incensed

I don't mind sharing the technology that we have, so when a group of students come from the other social studies class next door to ask to use the laptops I motion them over to do it.  But if I'm at the front of the room teaching a lesson, and they keep coming in and out, and then come in to interrupt my class to ask me to fix the internet (which they wouldn't even have access to if it weren't for me) I get a little p.o.'d

I'm not just mad at the students.  If that teacher hadn't let them think it was ok to constantly come in and interrupt my classroom then they wouldn't be doing it, but since she doesn't ever actually teach, I don't think she realizes some of us actually do. 

Plus they never actually do anything over there so the idea that they would be using the internet for anything other than surfing for private purposes is absurd.

Interesting

This whole week practically the entire staff seems to be sucking up to me, or acting unusually nice.

• Teacher across the hall and I got into a cordial discussion about how crazy some of our boys are and mused on whether they will ever grow out of it. (she generally seems to huffy to talk to me)
• Teacher next door has been very nicely asking to use the laptops, returning them in a timely fashion, and then today offered me Chinese food (which I declined since I still harbor a fear that she's attempting to kill me. If her ineptness and lack of knowledge of social studies didn't do it, then maybe she's trying a more direct route)
• Young business teacher introduced me to some guy she's working on a project with, then tried to set me up with him. She has also been praising my efforts to help us 'go green' and has all of a sudden become very gung ho about the Going Green competition we're having
  
• Herr direktor has been giving me anything I want and going out of her way to praise me and what I do.
• The evil english teachers have been really nice to me and asking me to help them with things.

Perhaps they heard about a certain meeting that I'm having next week?

Too bad. Too little, too late my friends.

YOU SHALL REAP WHAT YOU HATH SOWN (if I have any say in the matter)

Authentic as it gets

Well today my small Constitutional Law class and I were 20 people away from a life changing experience and were 'forced' to settle for a great experience.

Let me set the scene..

In March I took my students to see oral arguments for a Supreme Court case (Abuelhawa v United States).  We didn't get to see the whole case being heard but we did catch the last 20 minutes and it was a lot of fun.  The case was about whether or not someone should be charged with a felony for minor possession of a narcotic because they used a cell phone to facilitate it.  What I noticed when we left was that even though we had gone through the background of the case, the students had a really hard time understanding what was going on when we were in the courtroom.

Taking this into consideration, and after reading an article in the Washington Post about a school in Virginia that did mock Supreme Court cases, I decided it would be fun to take an upcoming case from the Supreme Court and have the students be the lawyers and do all the leg work.  So first I gave students brief summaries of the cases and then we picked one that interested them.  The students picked the case Safford Unified School District v. Redding.  This case was about a student who was strip searched when students were looking for illicit prescription drugs (in this case 400 mg prescription ibuprofen).  The student says her Fourth Amendment rights were violated and she was traumatized by the experience, developed ulcers and had to leave the school.  The school district basically says it was protecting their students and they need to maintain the right to do so.  Once they had picked the case they were assigned to teams representing the two sides.

The first thing the students had to do was submit legal briefs.  They worked together and performed research using only primary sources (the same sources that were used in the case) reading and citing previous legal decisions on the case (local, appellate and en banc), relevant Supreme Court decisions, and the sworn statements used in the case.  While the final briefs were far shorter than the real thing, the students used legal terminology and made multiple outlines, drafts, and numerous revisions to come to their final product and gained experience using legal evidence and making strong arguments based solely on the law and interpretation of the law.

The students then had to present 'Oral Arguments'.  First the students had to write a persuasive speech representing their side.  This forced them to pick only the strongest arguments for their side and work on their persuasive writing and speaking skills.  Then they had to present the speech in front of their peers.

The next step was to simulate what it would be like to be in front of the Supreme Court Justices (who get to interrupt you at any time and interrogate you mercilessly).  Because our class is too small to have a set of Justices, I decided to arrange it as a debate, where they would get to question each other and force the other side to answer potentially damaging questions.

The culmination of this project was for us to go to the Supreme Court and hear the Oral Arguments for the very case we had been studying ourselves.  The students picked a very popular case, and one that has gotten a reasonable amount of press (far more than the other case we attended though certainly not a landmark case).  I decided we had to arrive at the Court early because seating is very limited and it is first come, first serve.  I figured that if I arrived by 5:30 then my students arrived by 6:30 and we would be fine.


I arrived at the Court around 5:35 and to my dismay saw a huge group of people already waiting.  I ended up being about the 70th person in line.  My students arrived and were able to join me (with a little bickering behind me) and we patiently waited in the fairly cool/cold weather to see if we were going to get in.  I was not very hopeful but my students jokingly 'kept the faith'.  After lots of time in line, we received the final 'placeholder' issued by the police at #75.  We kept waiting since we only got one for the six of us.  At one point we were offered $100 for the placeholder (which in retrospect my students said we should have taken haha) by a supposed friend of one of the attorneys trying the case.  Apparently the parents of one of the attorneys trying the case was actually behind us in line as well, clearly no special privileges were given to anyone.


In the end we were about 20 people away from getting a seat for the whole trial (and when there are only about 200 seats total 20 is a lot).  I probably would have needed to get there at least an hour earlier and the students would have had to have been there with me to avoid a riot.  So we didn't really have a shot since the fifth student arrived around 7 AM.

We then moved directly to the 5 minute rotation line and were the first group to go inside.  We went in, put our things in the little lockers, heard 5 minutes of the case, and were then led out.  While we only got to hear a tiny portion of the case my students did not come across as very disappointed and were animatedly talking all about the case as we left.  I can only imagine what it would've been like for us to hear the whole thing if 5 minutes got them going.

Here are the highlights of what we did get to witness:

• Safford Unified School District was presenting and was talking about how the school district had to be able to protect their students from illegally using prescription medications and that there had been a history of students getting sick and abusing these drugs.
  
• One of my students who represented Safford in our class was very excited that she heard the very argument she used in her paper used by the lawyer
• Ruth Bater Ginsburg began to pull Safford's case apart
  
• Another student who represented Redding was very excited that the Justices seemed to be very harsh on the Safford lawyer

In the end, while we did not quite get the potentially life changing experience that we wished we could have gotten, I think that we ended successfully.

Case and point: 3 out of 5 students are now saying that they are seriously thinking about law school (when before none of them had any interest).

Mission Affirmed

A student randomly came up to me in the hall who hasn't had me as a teacher all this year and told me that she thinks I am one of the best teachers in the school on the grounds that she always sees me standing and walking around the room, that I always seem to be teaching, and that she remembers she learned a lot in my class last year.

While this was a very kind sentiment there is the dark flipside which is: if that is all it takes to be the best teacher in the school, then what aren't the other teachers doing?!  I mean after she told me that she basically said "you aren't like those other teachers who always sit behind their desks and give out work in the first 5 minutes" and then pointed at a certain english teacher's classroom.

This just reaffirms the reason I have to talk to Ms. Rhee and try and work something out here.  Our teachers are flat out lazy, and it is killing this school and making it a place that students don't want to be in.  If I am the 'best' teacher (and while I think I do a good job and try pretty hard there is no way I should be considered a 'best,' especially since she had me last year when I was even worse than this year) that says way more about the other teachers then it does about me.  So thank you my dear, you have convinced me that my cause is righteous and I will fight for you until I can't fight any more.

(Now what I have to do is see if I can get some students to fight for themselves.  Admittedly it is hard when one does not know how to change people who have such authority.)

Financial Anti-Literacy

I am just going to be taking some notes while this financial "literacy" "lesson" is going on.

• 9:15 - Carryout EVERY DAY is apparently a great way to save money.  Who knew?  Never mind the cost to your own bank account, the environment and your health.  Who knew long term costs don't actually affect you (and that doesn't negate the fact that it is also a short term cost)?
  
• 9:45 - since when is POPEYE'S a wise financial decision?
• 10:22 - Keep it legal people.  Keep it legal.
• 10:29 - Glossary = cheating
• 10:38 - Don't trust the internet.  Espeically paying bills and online banking.  (Ummm... new era lady)
• 10:48 - 2nd time we have brought up that you shouldn't bring a baby in when you ask for a loan.  I mean ok, but twice?  Really it needed saying twice?

wow. 4 hours of precious class time wasted.

Beginning to lose it

Thank goodness we have a FOUR DAY WEEKEND that starts tomorrow!

Today I managed to wake up at 7:50 AM (2.5 hours later than normal) which already wasn't good since we're supposed to be at work by 8.  So I called the director and informed her that I would be on time for class, but not any morning meetings.  I got to school by 8:30 (I am that good).  Kids were normal.

Then during 3rd period the fire alarm goes off - apparently a kid pulled it and an announcement was made for us to stay in the classrooms.  So we sit in the classroom and continue to work, being blasted by this fire alarm for a good 20-30 minutes (or at least that is what it seemed like).  It went off for a few minutes and then came back.  I was really beginning to lose it when that happened, the sound is just so awful and it just keeps going and there is nothing you can do but sit there and try to survive the high pitched jarring sound.

Then about 15-20 minutes into 4th period the fire alarm goes off again!  But this time the announcement tells us to evacuate.  When we get outside I have to corral the students onto the basketball court, which is no easy feat, by threatening them with suspensions.  I acutally ended up getting 100% of my students to not leave the school grounds.  I then met up with some of the other teachers and we proceeded to find out that the banner wishing the 10th graders luck on the DC-CAS on the opposite side of the building from me (where I teach Saturday School) was lit on fire on both sides and there was also an even more severe closet fire somewhere near the gym.  So 2 fires.  We stayed outside in the sun until 3:15 when the kids were released.  Also my fellow teacher (and rockstar) managed to pick up the fire marshal.  Oh yeah, she's that good.

Anyways it is very difficult to get anything done when this keeps happening.  I can't believe we are returning to this kind of insanity after holding it at bay for so long.  Stupid spring, the minute the weather even looks like it is improving the kids go insane.  Well actually that isn't quite fair, a few kids go insane and spoil it for the rest of us.

Fire (?!) #2

Well we may have had a second fire, though we didn't smell anything and were only oustide for 20-30 min or so.  It wasn't a drill, that much I do know.  Rumors say that something happened in the gym.  Fire trucks did come, we got out of the building much faster than normal and actually got the kids onto the basketball court.  I forgot my jacket, and froze to death.  We were having a debate team meeting... we don't have many left before the competition.  We're back folks!!!  Yay spring (that was sarcasm fyi)

Update 12:31 PM: Apparently there was a fire, and something looks black and you can smell smoke on the other side.  It must have been easy to put out though since we weren't outside nearly as long and there wasn't water all over the floor.  We really are back - the fire starters have reemerged after laying dormant for so long. 

Guilty as charged

On Friday afternoon the entire school had a meeting to discuss the shockingly low attendance rate on Friday and why it is occurring.

Our entire school has a definite cycle where on a half-day students don't bother coming to school.  This is for a variety of reasons, but the main one is probably because they don't think we will be doing anything of use on the half-day.  Now unfortunately they are largely right.  Classes don't do much of value on the half-day.

The question is: why aren't teachers doing more on half days?  The answer: because students aren't showing up, and if you do too much that day you will probably just have to re-teach it to the class when they show up the next class day.  So we have this cycle of low expectations that has to be broken, and the students aren't going to be (and shouldn't have to be) the first ones to break it.

Thinking about this I realized I am guilty of fulfilling this low-expectations of turn-out on the recordkeeping day this year.  I planned a survey and work period for projects into my curriculum because I knew many students wouldn't show up.  Therefore students still got credit for coming, but we didn't cover any new material.

This compromise is probably too large, and I will do better to make half-days more essential for the class to try and force them to come.  But here's the dilemma: If I do that, and then the rest of the classes are a waste of time, then it will really just further reinforce the idea that it is useless to come to school on those days.  Therefore we really need to come together as a staff and make this happen.

Now I'm going to go die on the floor laughing at the idea that a bunch of teachers who can barely muster up the energy to show up to work on time will actually teach a real lesson on a half-day.  Man this staff is making me pessimistic.  Good thing I have a meeting w/Ms. Rhee at the end of this month to try and change them by force.  If bottom up won't work, then top-down it is!

The past few days

Today is a 'record-keeping day' which means students only have a half day of school, which means that barely any of the students show up. The few students who are here are quietly working on their project and need little help from me, which generally makes me extremely bored. Since I have finished all my grading and have already inputted my grades I am going to write about the past few days.

Wednesday - April 1st

• I wrote a short email to Michelle Rhee requesting a meeting to discuss the future of the Academy and some of the suggestions I have about how to fix it. And 40 minutes later the meeting was set up. A+ for efficiency. I want to meet with her because I believe the Academy is in major trouble and I think that with a few changes (namely: leadership) and/or a proper focus we could turn it around and give the students what they deserve. I think this will take a lot of effort on the part of our staff (which I am not convinced they are willing to give) and therefore I want to see what options there are in mandatory meetings over the summer (like what other schools do) amongst other things.

• The DC Debate League lost the building they were going to use for April's competition and sent out a blanket email asking debate coaches to ask their principals if it would be possible to use our buildings. I asked our principal (without expecting much) and he was very gracious and said that it should be fine. So now it appears our school is hosting our first debate competition! (This would also be the first competition we have ever attended)

• I was asked if I had suggested I wanted to join the staff of our host school. I do not believe I had ever expressed that wish to the principal, but I have certainly thought about it. This possibly means that if I have to escape then I have at least 1 fallback option (although it would be very awkward to be in the same building as my current program but not on the staff)
  

• I had a long conversation over email with the woman who runs the Model United Nations program in DC about how I can join that program next year, and she had a lot of good ideas and I intend to implement them next year.

Thursday April 2nd

• We had our first fire (see previous post)

• Two students decided to act like wannabe gangsters in my 4th period
  

Here's how that went down:

• Student 1 (happens to be the student who instigated me getting hit in the face last year) walks into my 4th period class (which he does not have with me) and begins yelling at Student 2 who is sitting across the room. A female student is trailing him and telling him to back down and leave the classroom (happens to be cousin of student 2). The female student is actually trying to be helpful and diffuse the situation.
  
• Student 2 stands up aggressively and whips out his cell phone
• Student 1 yells "I have people too!" and other things about how it wasn't ok that student 2 had threatened to kill him and his family
• Student 2 says something along the lines of "I will f***ing kill your mother"
• Student 1 yells "don't bring my mother into this!"
• During this time I am trying to get student 1 to leave the room and telling student 2 to sit his ass down while standing between them
  
• The students are about 3 feet away from each other
• I am about to call the Director to help me deal with them since they are clearly not listening to me in the slightest
• She happens to be walking towards the room (not sure if she already knew something was happening or it was just very lucky)
• She tells the students to give her their cell phones (they're still both on them calling "their people")
• Student 1 yells "hell no I ain't giving you my phone"
• Student 2 says nothing but is not giving up his phone
• They both end up heading towards the office after the Director as she yells at them about how she was done with them disobeying her
  
• Student 2 ends up back in my classroom at some point, I didn't actually see him come in, but he sits quietly in the back doing nothing and I have nothing to say to him.

I don't really know what to make of this situation. I have been extremely lucky and this is really the first time this year I have almost had a serious fight (as opposed to a joking around kind of fight). I do not like what the students were saying at all, they both seemed very serious. I have no idea where this problem came from. I warned my class that if they were participating in this that I had no sympathy and would have very harsh consequences for anyone caught up in this feud. I'm don't really know what I could do, but they could tell that I basically would have no love for them if they got mixed up in that petty, ego-tripping business.

Today I am giving the students a survey about their perceptions of me and my classroom. So far everything is positive but with these kinds of surveys you have to worry that they're just feeding you what you want to hear and not the truth. I really need them to be honest with me if I ever expect to grow as a teacher. I don't quite know how to communicate that I like hearing what is wrong and what they don't like because then I can make sure to either not do it again or change it in some way to make it better.

Another reason why I am a terrible person

I can't help but laugh along w/the students after the counselor slowly walks by with her all green, possibly leather suit and she creaks the whole way extremely loudly.  I blame it on the lack of sleep.

That's the old Woodson we know and love

Well today we had our first real fire.  And apparently it was a doozie because the whole building smells like smoke, and after the fire department was done (which took almost an hour) there was water all over the floors.  The kids being NTB, decided to light a fire on a rainy and cool (if not cold) day.  So we had to stand outside, getting drizzled on, in the cold, for over 2 hours.  And as fun as that was...  Yeah, no.  Bad children.

And it's off

I just sent an email to Michelle Rhee requesting a meeting with her to discuss the future of the Academy.

Wow I am very nervous, but also excited that I am actually trying to be proactive instead of just running from my problems by applying to another school.

While I don't know exactly what she can do, at least I am going to try to fix things before I head for the hills.

UPDATE (8:40 AM): "Sure thing, Angie pls schedule." And with that... we begin.