Day 100: I Wish

Yesterday, instead of being in school, I was in court.

A few weeks ago, I helped to break up a fight across the hall from my classroom and I was called to witness in the pre-hearing conference.  I paid $14 to park at the courthouse, was never asked any questions, and was sent home 2 hours later when one of the defendants didn't have an attorney.

I returned today to find 2 students had been added to my roster in my largest and most boisterous class.


There seems to be an inverse relationship between student and teacher energy lately.  It's almost as though there is only so much energy and enthusiasm to go around and it must be split between the groups.

One of my other students asked me if anyone ever tried to bring a star to Earth.

Another student, who comes to school once every 2-3 weeks spent the entire class antagonizing the other students.

A colleague has come to a section in his class where the skill he's teaching is a multi-step process, the first of which involves counting.  A not insignificant portion of his students were stuck on that step.  We have spoken at length about students who are approaching the content from not just a deficiency, but a massive deficiency.  This is in no way the fault of those students and they are absolutely the victims.

I have no idea what to do about it.

I look around and I see challenges all over the place that feel insurmountable.  I feel as though I lack the tools, resources or abilities to fix any of these issues.

I'll let my man, Skee-Lo tell you all about it.


Wishes don't make things better, but they can give a direction for our goals.

In Physics, I was able to be the teacher I wanted to be.  I set up pulleys around the room and handed them labs as they walked in.  I was able to walk around putting out fires and working with them as needs arose.

I wish I could do this in Astronomy, but I'm not sure how.

Day 98: Not Personal

Why is it so hard for students to recover from a bad test, marking period or year?

So much of school is cumulative.  Each week builds on the previous one, each lesson uses information and skills from those prior.

If a student falls behind, even for a small period of time, it takes a supreme effort to try to catch up.  This is one of the reasons why deficiencies when a child enters school are such a huge problem.

I MADE A GRAPHIC!!!

 I started my classes today by asking some basic questions to review from last week.

"Name one method of exoplanet detection that we spoke about last week."'
"What does that method do to find planets?"
"What's one advantage of that method?"

If they couldn't come up with answer, I had them check their notes.  If they still couldn't, they shut down.

Angela Duckworth believes that in the face of adversity, students who are successful are the ones who push through.  Instead of giving up, they double down and try to make up for lost time.

She calls this grit.


I don't believe in Duckworth because I've seen these kids work their asses off on the things that matter to them.  For me to say that a kid is failing my class because they are lazy is overly simplistic and doesn't give credit to students who come from diverse backgrounds.

With that said, it's still very hard to be ignored and talked over.  It's hard knowing that you are trying to teach a subject that they don't care about at all.

It's difficult to watch a kid ignore your lesson and KNOW that in 5 minutes, you're going to have the conversation with them about how they would do the work if you weren't such a bad teacher.

I don't know how to convey to them that they COULD be successful if they were willing to focus their energy on my class.  I don't know how because I don't know what else they are going through and can't understand the situations that many of them face daily.

Diane Sawyer visited Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia a few years ago and produced this heart-wrenching piece.

While my school isn't ANYWHERE near this one in terms of poverty, violence, or need, there are absolutely students in my building who are.  They have needs that I can never hope to meet.  What I can do, however, is provide them with a space in which they can feel safe and heard.

Man, is it hard not to take their lack of engagement personally.

Day 97: Teach Like Gandhi

I am tired of being ignored.

I'm tired of being spoken over.

I'm tired of having to answer a question that I just finished answering.

I'm tired of being told how boring I am.  I'm tired of hearing how boring other teachers are.

I'm tired of being called a racist for asking students not to scream profanity.

I'm tired of the bigotry, homophobia and misogyny that I hear on a regular basis.

I'm tired of the anger and hatred and frustration that I see all around me.

I'm tired of being afraid to stand up for what I think is right.



I'm tired of thinking that there will be a perfect school/class/lesson/activity.



I'm ready to be finding the things that work and building on them.

I'm ready to accept my students and colleagues for who they are and where they come from.

I'm ready to set an example for how I want them to be, but not be angry when they don't step up.

I'm ready to acknowledge that different people have different wants and needs.

I'm ready to stop setting goals for others.

I'm ready to clarify my goals for myself.


...now... to figure out how to do those things...

Totally unrelated, I'm worried that my blog is turning into a cat poster.  I'm going to take the weekend and try to get more edgy.

Day 96: Blue Goals

It seems appropriate that today was talked about the Doppler Effect in Astronomy.

As a wave source approaches an observer, the frequency of those waves increases.  As it moves away from the observer, the frequency decreases.  This is manifested in the sounds made by a police car as it speeds by a pedestrian.

This same concept applies to light.  Unlike sound however, when light increases frequency, there is no sound to shift.  Instead, the color shifts slightly more blue.  Objects moving away are shifted slightly red.



Next Friday, my district will be holding a district-wide EdCamp-style professional development.  We put out a call for proposals last week and had 47 teachers and administrators volunteer to facilitate or present!

I will be presenting on one of the only things I know: Blogging As Reflective Practice.

There is a huge variety of topics being offered by our staff that range from data usage to classroom management to how to use Kahoot.  Everyone has something that works for them.  Much of the faculty is excited!

And many are not...

Several have expressed concerns about the format in respectful and professional manners.  I have had many discussions over the past week, especially with those who know that this is somewhat my baby.

There are others, however, who have complained very vocally about the idea.  They have done so in the manner that suggests that they are not open to conversation about the idea.  A few have openly scoffed the notion and denigrated the organizers in my presence without knowing that I'm on that list.

I'm writing this not to complain about my coworkers, but to remind myself of something important.

This is not personal.


I truly believe in the EdCamp-style professional development.  I know that I have claimed great benefit as a result of what I have learned there.

I also know that it took me a long time to get the point where I was even open to this type of development.  I don't blame others for not being willing or ready.

Much the way that the lack of interest displayed by a student in my class may be completely unrelated to me or my instruction, the same can be said for my peers.

The lack of desire to participate in this event is created by a long list of situations with my own existence not being anywhere on the list.

All I can do, just as in my classroom, is remain an advocate for positive change.  I will make myself available to answer questions as they arise and be positive about the benefits of this experience.

I will support those who need it.

I will also recognize that there is simply no way to please some people.  No matter how great something is, there will be people who will always find fault.


So how are these things related?

I don't think that I'm an amazing teacher, or an amazing colleague.  I know that I have many shortcomings in both areas.  In many cases, the opinions of my colleagues are well-founded.

I am, however, moving in the direction that I wish to be.

I see my goals and they are blue-shifted.  The distance doesn't matter nearly as much as knowing that I am on the right path and will stay the course.

Day 95: Notes

After watching my students take notes yesterday, and coming to the solid conclusion that most of them have no idea how to do so, I decided that today would be instructive on that point.

I began class by discussing with the how copying words verbatim from the board are a pretty terrible way to take notes.

Today's class was more of a discussion.  We recapped the topics from yesterday and talked about writing the salient points in the notes rather than every little mark that's on the board.

After that, I handed out a new article about exoplanets for us to discuss as a class.  I pointed out the headline and the sub-headline as ways to quickly summarize what the article is about.

I had my students write:

3 main points of the article
2 questions that were raised for them by reading
1 new piece of information that they learned


We took 10 minutes to read the article and discussed what it meant.  I was incredibly impressed with the engagement and will continue to reinforce it over the next few days.  Tomorrow, we'll be talking about the methods of exoplanet detection and I'm planning to go through it slowly, giving them a chance to reflect on their notes as we do.  In addition, I'm hoping to bring more articles into class, giving them more opportunities to read and write.

They prefer to take notes because it's mindless, but they learn much more from discussion.

I'd rather have that.



Perhaps I'll have another student build me a satellite model to continue decorating the room.

Day 94: I'm A Bad Man

I have sent confusion and frustration through the ranks of my students.  I have upended what they know about note-taking and send them scurrying to the hills.

Or, more realistically, I have made many of them think that I don't know how to teach.

What did I do?  How do I strike this blow for student confidence and spark massive complaints?


I gave them guided notes that required them to do more than copy from a Powerpoint.

I provide guided note packets for my students to help them organize their learning.  I don't grade these packets because I don't want them to feel as though my way is the only way.  Up to this point, the packets have been laid out as an outline with section headers that match the Powerpoint slides.

This was primarily because I've been using the notes from the last teacher who taught the course.

For this chapter, I modified the slides and wrote my own guided note packet.  This means that the sections are more general with headings being questions rather than topics.

In this chapter, I'm asking students to synthesize the information, analyze what they feel is important and ask extension questions of their own instead of simply copying words that they will never look at again.

They were...less than pleased.

I watched as a large number of students frantically flipped pages in their books while trying to match notes to slides.  Several gave up and tuned out.

But many others gave up and tuned in.

They began asking insightful questions and engaging in the topic.  We talked about exoplanets, what we look for and travel possibilities.  We began a discussion of detection methods and the difficulties therein.

The majority of students ignored me, but those who didn't do so were fully engaged.


I was going to talk in this post about how schools train (or not train) students to take proper notes, but as someone who has never taken effective notes, I'm not sure what insights I have to offer.  What I do know is that when note-taking is something other than "copy what's on the board" most of the students have no idea what to do.

They (I) often don't get past the first of these.

Day 93: The Early Bird Catches The Racist Worm

We are contractually obligated to be at our posts at 6:45.  I usually roll into work about an hour before that.  There is almost no one in the building when I get there, and that's how I like it.

I know how I operate in terms of work and I know that if I don't get everything done for the day before the students arrive, I won't get it done.  So my alarm goes off at 4:30 and I'm at school by 5:45.  I deal with any remnants of the day before, make the copies I need to make and mentally prepare for the day.

This morning, as I approached the building, I saw a piece of paper taped to the front door.  When I went to examine it, I found the following:

I should take this opportunity to say that the district in which I teach is predominantly African American.  I'm not even sure where to begin with this flyer.  This man has a history of similar controversial signs and made the news a few years ago for this gem:

"Please pray for them. They have guns!!!!! A message from reverend Sheldon Stoudemire."

He posted these around the community, stapled them to utility poles and signs in the various neighborhoods.

This time, he taped the first poster to the door of our school.

I am thankful that I saw it, was able to take it down and gave it to our administration before out students arrived.

I could add statistics here about how school shootings are perpetrated predominantly by white students.  I could talk about how this "Reverend" is himself an African American male.   I could downplay the situation by making fun of his grammar and photocopy skills.

I could mention how disastrous it could have been for students to arrive this morning to a building that many already perceive as being on the wrong side of the race relations (regardless of the incredible effort that is put in by the faculty, staff and administration to counteract that perception) and have them find a paper of happy white children asking God for protection from the violent blacks.

Instead, I will again be thankful that I managed to take it down.

There are many disadvantages that I have being a white male trying to teach African American students.  I try very hard to understand the situations from which my students come, be they cultural, racial, economic or social.

I know that my background is very different from many of those with whose care I have been charged.  Over the past few years, I have become much more conscious of those differences and tried very hard to build relations with my students.  I don't sit backwards on my chair and try to "rap with them" as you would see in a movie.  I am authentic to me and my experiences while attempting to empathize and understand theirs.

I know that I cannot shield them from the ugliness in the world and in many cases, they have experienced more than I can understand.

But I can shield them from this.