I teach the "tough" kids. For the past 3 years, I've also taught the Holocaust, justice and tolerance as an end-of-the year unit that cumulates with a dear friend who is a Holocaust survivor coming to speak to my students. Well, we just got back from our 3 week spring break (year-round schedules rock!) and I started my annual Holocaust unit, which always begins with a timeline of key events, a discussion over the book (or books) we're going to read in class, and some basic vocabulary.
Enter my 10th grade class (one of 2 10th grades I teach, plus 1 9th grade) on Thursday morning just before lunch. I've got a mixed group of students, about equal boys & girls. Well, one boy was just NOT keeping it together during class, and this student has TBI so his impulse control is just. not. there. I take this student with a whole shaker of salt, not just a "grain of salt" due to his disability. He is also on my IEP caseload so I know him quite well. Anywho...this student starts making very racist comments about Jewish people and the Holocaust in general. One of the girls says, "Don't you know that Ms. is Jewish?" and this student said he didn't realize that, but kept on withhis comments. I see two other boys getting very upset and telling this student to be quiet. He eventually quieted down after I gave him the "calm/scary mom voice" and told him he was getting a discipline referral for the comments and I'd talk to him after class. Class commenced with some other varied, lively discussion and the kids went to lunch.
One of the two previously upset boys came back after the class dismissed and said, "Ms., he did not need to talk to you like that, that was VERY disrespectful!" I thanked this student and sent him on his way to lunch. Little did I know that the two previously-mentioned boys and the other student would get into a fight at gym because they thought no one stood up for me to 'defend my honor' as it were!
Granted it's not the "Right" thing they should've done, but it makes me...well, not happy per se, but more...happy-ish(?) that they thought that they could stand up for me!
Friday, April 13, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Teaching Hope...or, hope for my sanity
I just finished reading Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writers' Teachers and it was all I needed to hear/read/see/experience. I've been at my school for 4 years now and teaching the same type (demographic, ethnicity, etc.) of kids for the past 5-6 years. This is a tough population, true, but I find myself drawn to these tough kids. I like how I as a teacher who is not of their ethnicity, background, or even lifestyle, can push these up-til-now so resistant to ANYthing kids and get them to realize their full potential.
Case in point, a former student (F.) came in today, and this student was one of my very first students when I started at this school. This beautiful young woman graduated high school and will be attending college this fall. It gave me hope that I am truly touching lives, even if they don't show it right away.
Back to the book and, ironically, this particular young woman. My first (or maybe second?) year, I'd taught the book The Freedom Writer's Diary with F. and her classmates. This student was part of a small group cohort of about 20 students who were pulled for extra help in a small class environment. Between myself and the 3 other teachers who taught F. and her classmates, we actually did create a "Room 203" environment where the kids could come to any of us and talk about their problems. Case in point, the year after F. and some classmates left, another former student was killed in a car accident. F. and 3 of her friends came back to our room, sat and talked to me and the other staff because, "This was the only place that we call home." We sat, talked about the young man gone too soon, cried, and grieved with each other. That moment still sticks with me even these few years later.
Lately I've been feeling discouraged so when I was at the library over spring break, I picked up Teaching Hope as it was on the display just as you walked in. Reading the teachers' accounts, I felt my own teaching spirit renew as I know now that I'm not the only one going through the "trenches", busting my ass for little pay, even less recognition, and trying to make some damn bit of difference in a kid's life. This quote by Ana Quindlen, from the book's forward says it all:
"And so I stick with my blanket statement: It’s the toughest job there is, and maybe the most satisfying, too. There are lives lost in this book, and there are lives saved, too, if salvation means a young man or woman begins to feel deserving of a place on the planet. “Everyone knows I’m gonna fail,” says one boy, and then he doesn’t. What could be more soul- satisfying? These are the most influential professionals most of us will ever meet. The effects of their work will last forever. Each one here has a story to tell, each different, but if there is one sentiment, one sentence, that appears over and over again, it is this simple declaration: I am a teacher. They say it with dedication and pride, and well they should. On behalf of all students–current, former, and those to come–let me echo that with a sentiment of my own: Thank you for what you do" (2009)
Case in point, a former student (F.) came in today, and this student was one of my very first students when I started at this school. This beautiful young woman graduated high school and will be attending college this fall. It gave me hope that I am truly touching lives, even if they don't show it right away.
Back to the book and, ironically, this particular young woman. My first (or maybe second?) year, I'd taught the book The Freedom Writer's Diary with F. and her classmates. This student was part of a small group cohort of about 20 students who were pulled for extra help in a small class environment. Between myself and the 3 other teachers who taught F. and her classmates, we actually did create a "Room 203" environment where the kids could come to any of us and talk about their problems. Case in point, the year after F. and some classmates left, another former student was killed in a car accident. F. and 3 of her friends came back to our room, sat and talked to me and the other staff because, "This was the only place that we call home." We sat, talked about the young man gone too soon, cried, and grieved with each other. That moment still sticks with me even these few years later.
Lately I've been feeling discouraged so when I was at the library over spring break, I picked up Teaching Hope as it was on the display just as you walked in. Reading the teachers' accounts, I felt my own teaching spirit renew as I know now that I'm not the only one going through the "trenches", busting my ass for little pay, even less recognition, and trying to make some damn bit of difference in a kid's life. This quote by Ana Quindlen, from the book's forward says it all:
"And so I stick with my blanket statement: It’s the toughest job there is, and maybe the most satisfying, too. There are lives lost in this book, and there are lives saved, too, if salvation means a young man or woman begins to feel deserving of a place on the planet. “Everyone knows I’m gonna fail,” says one boy, and then he doesn’t. What could be more soul- satisfying? These are the most influential professionals most of us will ever meet. The effects of their work will last forever. Each one here has a story to tell, each different, but if there is one sentiment, one sentence, that appears over and over again, it is this simple declaration: I am a teacher. They say it with dedication and pride, and well they should. On behalf of all students–current, former, and those to come–let me echo that with a sentiment of my own: Thank you for what you do" (2009)
Friday, April 6, 2012
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