How in the hell is it only the end of the first quarter? I feel like I've been pulled through a knot hole backward, as Papa would say, and we've got to do this three more times?!
And we had a faculty meeting today?
End of the Quarter
education and teaching
Action Shot
"Let me get an action shot!" I said. They stopped their conversation (itself, an action shot) and posed...
Open House
Tonight we had open house at our school, an opportunity for parents to come and go through their child's schedule, meet the teachers, and see what their child's daily reality is like.
The only parents who ever come are the parents of the students who work hard, give their best all the time, and show excellent citizenship and not the parents we really need to talk to more often.
It's easy to make generalizations about that, but as I grow older and more experienced, I try to resist that temptation. There could be any number of reasons why the other parents didn't show up, never show up.
A Good Day
Last year, it was a much more frequent occurrence: the day winds down, and I realize that by some miraculous aligning of the stars and kids' hormones, impulses, and desires that every single class has been productive. I walk out of the building thinking I'd done something, thinking that perhaps everyone had learned something. At the very least, everyone engaged in some reading or writing.
Today was only the second day this year that I've felt that way...
More Notes
Cheating, I know...
Notes
The Response
Absent
If any of my colleagues ever suggested -- or simply thought (then how would I know?) -- that they were more productive a given day because I wasn't there, I would feel such shame that it might be difficult to show my face again among those folks. I would reflect on my behavior, on what I'd always considered my contributions, and I would likely realize that I shouldn't have simply been second-guessing myself; I would realize I'd had a completely false self-image.
Today, several students were absent, with most of them were suspended. The types that are likely to get suspended are the types that are likely to disrupt class, and so today, two classes that generally leave me wondering about my decision to stay in education were absolute pleasures. They were productive, polite, focused. They were unlike they'd been in a long time, if ever. (Is it really only September? Are we really only in the second half of the first quarter?! I feel so tired of it all that everything in me screams that it must be March.)
What if I tell these students that? How would that conversation go? I think we all know: they would be indifferent. At least one of the students admitted openly that he is disruptive because he knows it annoys other students, and he likes to annoy other students.
Several of them will be back tomorrow -- will it be business as usual? No. I've seen what we can accomplish: if they are unwilling to cooperate, I will do what is necessary to protect the education of all the other students.
The Reality of Teaching
At Work
