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education and teaching

Victorious

Monday 8 May 2023

Congratulations to our girls’ soccer team, who won the district championship tonight.

Several of my students are on the team, so I had to go watch this — not just our school to cheer but individual students I’ll see in class tomorrow and give high fives.

They went to extra time, scored at 0-0, and they won in the final minute of extra time. In a way, though, I feel awful about it: they didn’t win on a big strike to the corner of the goal. It was a goalie mistake, pure and simple. Almost a beginner’s mistake, I would say. The goal slumped down and began weeping. I felt awful for her: she’s going to feel the whole team did their part, and then she let them down. She’s going to relive the moment endlessly. She’s going to beat herself up over that for weeks. And the team will (and already did) huddle around her and cheer her up, tell her everything is fine — “We did the best we could!” But that won’t help. At least not for a while.

Guest Speaker

Thursday 4 May 2023

Some days, out of seemingly nowhere, every single class clicks. Every period, kids are focused, doing what they need to do, and doing it well. Doing it thoroughly. And appearing even to enjoy what they’re doing.

Where do these days come from? How is it that we’re doing almost exactly the same thing we did yesterday and yet everything is different? How is it that the same students are here, even the students who can exhibit problematic behavior at times, and yet we have a totally different result?

The frustrating thing about it is the timing: we have 20 days of school left…

ACE Awards

Tuesday 2 May 2023

Tonight was the ACE Awards, a local award program that recognizes the kids who might not be in the spotlight all the time but are making a difference. The “unsung heroes,” as they’re called.

One of the two winners from our school, a sweet young lady named A, is in my English class. You’ve never met a sweeter, kinder human being. It’s an honor to get to work with such kids.

Lord of the Allegories

Monday 1 May 2023

Sometimes, the regularity of my teaching surprises and almost depresses me: am I so predictable? Four years ago today, I wrote about beginning Lord of the Flies with my honors kids.

Beginning Lord of the Flies

And what did I do today? I began Lord of the Flies. We always begin with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” for a couple of reasons:

  • Bragging rights: How many teachers have their eighth-grade students reading Plato?
  • Pedagogical purpose: We need to cover what an allegory is, and what better way than to look at one of the most famous.

It’s a challenge for the kids, though:

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: –Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette1 players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

I have them draw the image presented in the text, then go around sharing with other groups what their group determined:

Few get an accurate image like this:

Image converted using ifftoany

Of course, they’re only given a few minutes for the whole task…

Faculty Meeting

Wednesday 26 April 2023

State testing is coming up, which means the state Department of Education mandates a meeting to cover test administration protocols.

It’s the same every year. Nothing ever changes. Ever.

“Can’t you test out of it?”

If only…

Jokes

Friday 21 April 2023

One of the things I love about teaching is the relationships I create with the kids I teach. We laugh together, fuss together (or rather, they fuss at me about how hard something is), have deep thoughtful moments together…

“Mr. S, you should put that picture on our class website!” the girl to the left declared. I didn’t, of course, put the drawing the girl on the right had created that she was none-too-proud of and mildly irritated at the thought of it being publicized.

After a moment, though, she added, “And put that picture I drew as well, so everyone knows what was going on…”

Stay the Course

Friday 14 April 2023

Power goes out; students with sub next door are going almost wild; these guys kept doing what they were doing.

Selective Reading

Tuesday 11 April 2023

The kids were reading about Jim Crow laws as part of the To Kill a Mockingbird unit that we started a couple of weeks ago. Part of the article dealt with the religious justification some Christians used to explain the harsh segregation of Jim Crow times. One young lady — a sweet kid that always has a smile — wrote the following comment:

It reminded me of the suggestion that Christians who don’t read their Bibles are Catholic, Christians who read their favorite parts are Protestants, and Christians who read the Bible critically from cover to cover become atheists. It is, perhaps, an over-simplification, but I’d be willing to bet this young lady goes to one of those Protestant churches that are well-versed (no pun initially intended) in the parts of the Bible that make the feel good and avoid completely the tricky parts.

Parts like 1 Peter 2:18: “Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate but also to those who are harsh.”

Or Philemon 1: 15, 16, in which Paul sends back a slave to his owner, suggesting, “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever—no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.” He could have suggested that slavery is wrong, but he chose not to.

Or all the countless passages in the Old Testament instructing Israelites on the proper use of their slaves.

I, of course, said none of these things to her. It’s not my place: I’m there to teach them, in part, how to think critically, not what to think. However, a close reading of the text…

Email Home

Friday 31 March 2023

I wanted to let you know that I had to sign —-‘s ROCK card today because he was talking excessively and disrupting class. I saw, too, that another teacher had to sign his ROCK card today as well.

I know you are following —-‘s behavior on Class Dojo, but I wanted to let you know about the ROCK step since that’s not immediately obvious on Class Dojo. Right now he has two for the quarter, which means he’s nearing the point at which ROCK steps become referrals (on the 5th step). I know —- doesn’t do these things maliciously, but it is still a problem for classroom management. Please help me encourage —- to make better choices that more accurately reflect his potential.

Lit Circles

Wednesday 8 February 2023

My most challenging, most rewarding, and therefore favorite class really nailed it today.

Teaching as Consequence

Monday 6 February 2023

This quarter, I have hall duty, which means I keep an eye on the kids who arrive early and have to sit for half an hour in the hall before school starts. With over 300 eighth-grade students in the school, it would get very loud very quickly if we didn’t keep them quiet, so we have a whisper-only rule.

There’s only one problem: many of the kids don’t know how to whisper.

“I am whispering!” they’ll protest after they’ve been speaking in hushed tones (but definitely not whispering) to friends.

“No, whispering doesn’t mean just talking quietly.”

Tired of telling kids over and over what whispering means, and knowing of course that they did indeed know (or at least most of them), I enlisted the help today of The Whisperers, kids who I’d called down for talking who had a choice: either take a signature on the school discipline card (the ROCK card), or teach a lesson during advisory on how to whisper.

They chose the second option.