Day 172: Testing

Everyone was testing today.

The Math 8 kids were taking their Unit test and will begin a summative review on Monday.  The geometry kids were spending today testing their games.  They circulated through playing the games created by different groups and giving feedback.

I showed off my new toys to my classes and they were suitably impressed.

It was 86 degrees in my room today.  I was hot.

In 8th period, I had to remove 5 students because they were unable to remain quiet and respect the testing environment.  Over the year, these same students, with one or two others in rotation, have managed to elude my ability to manage the classroom.  I have never figured out how to reach them or get them to understand the damage that they were doing to themselves and the rest of the class.

Day 171: Student Voice

This morning, in preparation for the move to the Secondary Campus next year, the entire school was called down to the auditorium for a presentation about the available courses and expectations that will be in place.  Since I didn't have students at the time, I wandered into the back and watched for part of it.

While I was there, the presenter (who was dynamic, energetic and funny, as was the presentation itself) talked about dress code.  Two of the items in particular stuck with me.  The first was this image:

Who WOULDN'T want a muffin top! They are the best part of the muffin!

It was accompanied by the statement "if you have to lay down to zip your pants, leave them at home."

The second was an image with an accompanying statement of "just because they make it in your size, doesn't mean you should wear it."

There were, of course, rules for boys as well, but they were more about decorum and safety (no hats, no shower shoes, no shirts with drugs, etc.) but the rules for girls spoke solely about exposure of their bodies.

I made a  few mental notes on my thoughts and left.

After lunch, my geometry students came to class.  As I have written previously, the young women in this class are very conscious of race and gender issues within our culture.  I have tried over the course of this to make my room a safe space for them to discuss the topics that they find meaningful.

When they came into my class, they were visibly upset.  They had spent their lunch period discussion the presentation and how they felt as though they were being objectified and sexualized by the female-specific dress code.

One young woman told me that she received a message from a male student telling her that she needed to be more aware of her clothing.  Her told her that boys in the hall like to touch girls and she shouldn't be showing her boobs or wearing leggings.

In the 170 days that this young man has been in my class, I have never once had a concern for her clothing.

I have fairly strong feelings about the different rules that are handed down to young men and young women in terms of what is acceptable for them to wear in schools, but this was more about how my students felt.

As the students continued test-playing each others games, I heard of the young women yell at a young man that she couldn't learn because his clothing was too distracting.  It turned out that they were right.

His bra strap was showing, the strumpet!

I can only speak for myself and my discomfort about how this issue is addressed, but since I've been working to give my students a safe place, I think it's important they be able to speak up about these issues.  The following is a statement written by two of my students in response to the dress code and body-shaming:

Today we had the transition presentation, they brought up dress code. First they started off the presentation with talking about problems that some people may not be able to control, like muffin tops. Saying that if your pants don't fit, don't wear them. I'm sure that many other females in that room felt just as attacked as we did.

They continued to go on about not showing bra straps or wearing a colored bra with a white and/or see through shirt. Like god forbid a young girl with boobs were to wear a bra. Then continued about underwear lines. Every human being should wear underwear. Seeing underwear lines should not affect how you judge or think about someone. No one should be ashamed of wearing what they want to feel comfortable.

Some girls would not prefer or do not feel comfortable wearing a thong so that you don't see their underwear. The presenter then went on to show a few pictures of outfits she thinks would be appropriate, not everyone has the same taste in style and people express themselves differently. 

The school districts make it seem like all people should dress and act the same. They say school is not a club but a place to represent yourself. So if it is a place to represent yourself, why are we supposed to wear things to please other people. 

They ended the topic by saying "Just because it's in your size does not mean you should wear it." That made us personally feel so disrespected and insecure. A girl should not have to hide her body if shes proud of it just because it's not appealing to someone else. 

Young girls should grow up loving their body but instead they grow up being told you have to cover yourself up. There's always limits to how you should represent yourself but not to the extent that you have to hide yourself behind the dress code.


K. R. & H. S.

Day 170: "Pencil: A Play In One Act"

Scene:

 Mr. Aion's classroom, an activity has just been given out to students.  Mr. Aion finds himself circulating through the class, clarifying instructions when he is approached by a student.

Student

"Mr. Aion, I need a pencil."

**zoom into student's head**
Crap. I forgot my pencil again.  I was actually gonna try this assignment, but I can't without something to write with.

**zoom out of student's head**

Mr. Aion

 "There might be one on my desk. If not, I don't have one."

Student

"There isn't one. How am I supposed to do my work without a pencil?"

Mr. Aion

"Then I don't have one for you. You really need to come prepared to class."

**zoom into Aion's head**

What day is it?? How have we made it 170 days into the school year and you still don't bring a pencil to class? What do you think we do here, sit and stare at each other?  I've given you pencils almost every day this year in the hopes that you would become responsible.  I reminded you daily that you needed something with which to write.

How do I teach you responsibility?  How do I teach you self-reliance?  How do I convey to you in a meaningful way that lack of preparation makes it so much harder for you to succeed?

**zoom out of Aion's head**

Student

"Then I guess I can't do my work today."

Mr. Aion

"That's not an acceptable solution. Did you ask someone else if they had a pen or pencil for you to borrow?"

**zoom into student's head**

I don't understand why you're so annoyed.  It's not a big deal.  I just forgot my pencil and you're getting all bent out of shape.  All the other days that I've asked you for one, you've had one.  Why would I expect you to NOT have one for me today?

It's your job to provide me with an education.  How am I supposed to get my education if you won't give me a pencil?

**zoom out of student's head**

 Student

"Does anyone have a pencil for me?"

**silence**

Mr. Aion

"Very well, here is my pen. I would like it back when you're done."

Student

"Why would I want to keep your pen?"

**pen is returned chewed and bent**
**Mr. Aion throws pen in trash**

Curtain

**************************************************************

I'm trying to put myself in the mind of a 13-year old who needs me to give them a writing instrument every single day.  Part of me recognizes that at 13, it's hard to keep everything straight in terms of what they need to carry.  Our school does not allow students to carry backpacks, which makes it very difficult.  It's not an excuse because we have plenty of students who DO have pencils every day.

If a student comes to my class with willingness to learn and participate, I should be doing everything I can to help foster that.  If that means giving them a pencil every day, it seems like a small price to pay.

On the other hand...

"Why, yes! I DO think you're made of pencils."

I worry that I am fostering dependence.  If I am willing to provide a kid with a pencil every single day, what incentive do they have to bring one of their own?  More so than content, I want them to learn life skills, one of which is preparation.  It's not as though I am expecting them to bring a complicated or expensive apparatus each day.  It's not as though we only use pencils once or twice each month. 

I honestly don't know where I come down in this debate.  The reality is that when I have pencils, I have no problem lending them, letting the kids know that when they run out, they are gone.  Like typical children (and many adults), they never consider that the pencils will eventually run out and they should maybe start bringing their own..

It's endlessly frustrating.

Did you not realize you were coming to school today? Did you not think that you might need to write something?

The line between supporting and enabling is a very thin one.

This was a stressful post for me to write, so I'm going to end with a picture of me as an angry unicorn dictator.

Day 168: A Naked Room

THE END IS NIGH!!!

We have 9 student days left and 12 staff days.  Since, regardless of my employment situation in the fall, I will not be working in my current building, EVERYTHING MUST GO!

 I've discovered that the items in my room fall into 1 of 3 categories.

1) TRASH!
"What is this scrap of paper with a random expression doing on my counter?"  TRASH!
"Why do I have 14 copies of the chapter 2 test from 4 years ago?" TRASH!
"Here's an unclaimed test for a student who was on my roster for 4 days." TRASH!

Anything graded, or shaded, or dusty.
Anything ragged, or shredded or rusty!

This is my favorite category.

2) Personal Items
These are the posters, supplies, activities that I paid for myself or were donated to me from good friends and colleagues.  I have BOXES of dry erase markers, manipulatives, toys and games.  I have stacks of dry erase board.  I'll have to make MANY trips to get all of this home.

3) School Items
I have 2 district issued laptops which, if I can revive the octogenarian hamsters inside, will go back to the district for summer storage.  My projector and Promethean board will remain with the room.  I'm supposed to pack all of our textbooks into boxes, but since I haven't used them at all this year, I'm not sure why.


I like sorting things, but my room is looking very bare...

Day 167: Movie Bux

As we continued our foray into scatter plots with Math 8, I pulled out an awesome and timely activity from Yummy Math.  The students were given the opening weekend gross earning of 15 movies along with the lifetime theater earnings of those movies.  The students created a scatter and analyzed the data to determine if the opening weekend was a predictor of future income.  The ultimate goal was to, using the opening weekend gross, predict the future earnings of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron.

We had a good conversation about toys and clothes that they were SUPER excited to get, but quickly lost their novelty versus ones that stayed fun or cool for years. The discussion was excellent and they put forth several idea about where certain movies would fall.

Then they got started on the activity.

And things fell apart.

A large percentage of the students seemed to have forgotten how to graph.  It may have been because of the scale of the numbers but there was terrible confusion.  When I did the lesson the second time with 8th period, I spent more effort examining the scale and how to graph specific points.  The second group did much better with it and, interestingly, were MUCH more interested in talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I should develop an entirely comic book-based math course.

"How much does Mjolnir weigh?"
"What would happen if Superman punched you as hard as he could?"
"Could Superman fly against the rotation of the Earth and turn back time?"

You know, the important questions!

Most of these can be found online in the form of videos or article from smart nerds, but it would be pretty amazing to turn them into a course the covered robust and interesting mathematical concepts.


We touched a bit upon this in geometry today when, in talking about tangent lines, I got to discuss roller coasters, the Gravitron and using a stop watch to determine the radius of the Earth.  The majority of the class was enthralled and it reminded me that I've been doing things wrong.

This is the kind of stuff that should be the norm in my class, not the exception.


Well, I'm not quitting teaching yet, so there's still time to get better!

Day 166: Storm Clouds

"When it rains, it pours."

It's not raining yet, but I see dark clouds on the horizon.  There are some interesting opportunities that may be presenting themselves in the next few weeks and I'm very excited about them.  I'm not, however, taking out a second mortgage on my house to buy flood insurance.

I made a deal with my Math 8 students today.  If they paid SUPER close attention to the lesson on scatter plots, we could go to the computer lab for the second period.  They did a great job and I held up my end.

Normally when we go to the computer lab, they "work" on the mathematical remediation software that the school has purchased.  It's not bad, but can get tedious.  Instead I introduced them to the puzzles on Solve Me.  They seemed to really enjoy working on them and I overheard several helping each other to solve particularly complicated puzzle.

There were even a few who made their own and challenged me.

The geometry class has a week left until the playable versions of their games are due.  I took most of them into the computer lab and helped them navigate Word and Publisher so they could start creating boards and cards.  The school network only crashed and erased their progress twice during the class, so I consider that a win.

Day 165: Distracting Myself

My throat hurts, I'm slightly light-headed and I'm still exhausted.

Last night, I took an hour long nap from 8 to 9, went to sleep at 10:15 and hit my snooze this morning.  When I got to work and prepped for the day, I dozed off for another 30 minutes.  None of that helped.

One of the things that I've always found fascinating is that when I'm feeling generally under the weather, my students' behavior drastically improves.  They seem to understand illness much more than annoyance.

As a result, I was able to do a fairly uninterrupted lesson on scatter plots.


I find it slightly distressing and confusing that when I am subdued, the students do what I expect of them, but when I'm energetic and passionate, they are disruptive or just tune me out.  I wonder how I can reverse these trends, or, better yet, maintain their passion and energy all the time.


A few weeks ago, a good friend asked me if there were days when I hated writing this blog.  I told her that no, I don't ever hate writing it.  There are, however, days when I don't want to write.  These days usually fall into 2 categories:

1) I don't think I did anything worth writing about.

This usually means we spent the day doing notes, taking tests or otherwise playing school.  I don't like writing posts that only read "we did notes."  This leads me to try to avoid notes as much as possible.  Knowing that I'm going to writing about my day has changed how and what I teach because I'm almost constantly thinking "I'm going to write about this later. Do I really want to do/say this?"

It's like constantly having someone observe my teaching.  There are benefits and drawbacks, but I think this is a major one.

2) I'm angry or frustrated by external things.

I want this blog to be about me.  This is partially true because I'm a narcissist.  It's mostly true because I can't improve my teaching by complaining about things over which I have no control.  When administration makes decisions that I don't like, or student behavior is horrible, I could go on for pages and pages.  I could fill the internet with the things that annoy or infuriate me, but are outside of my control.

Those would be rants.  Ranting isn't the goal or purpose of this blog.  Do I talk about the things that annoy me? Absolutely.  But that isn't the centerpiece of my writing (I hope.)


I write here to reflect on my teaching in the hopes of being a better teacher. When students fail to live up to my expectations, I try to look at what I could do differently to change that, rather than falling back on the old stand-by of "these kids are lazy."

Sadly, and probably understandably, I have days when I'm not able to make that distinction.  I have days where all I can think to write is "these kids are lazy" or some variation.  Those days are hard days to write.

I would imagine that English teachers sometimes feel the same when they are grading essays.  I imagine that a well constructed argument with solid points can be derailed by poor grammar and spelling.  How difficult would it be to NOT correct every capital letter, misplaced comma, dangling participle or sentence fragment?


Generally, on days that fall into either of these categories, I write more abstractly, focusing on philosophy or long-term goals.

If you couldn't tell by now, today was one of those days.  The district mailed out our building assignments for the 2015-2016 school year.  Whatever complaints I may have are overshadowed by the fact that I'm just glad to be employed when so many others are not.

Dwelling on my concerns and complaints will not help me to be a better teacher.  Instead, I need to start focusing on what I can do next year to provide my students with the best education that I can.