Kellya

DramaGeek · April 2011

I've been thinking about you a lot lately. How are you doing?

kellya01 · April 2011

Aw, thanks dramageek!

I'm pretty much stressed to the max at the job and trying to hold it together to get through the day 2 periods at a time. We now have 39 official days of school left until the kids go home for the summer, and from what I've heard, once testing starts, we'll see fewer and fewer students at school. I'm honestly looking forward to that time... I know it sounds bad, but I can't get anyone at school to care about the kids like they need to. We have veteran teachers indoctrinating the younger teachers with this REEE-diculous slogan of "you can't make them work, but you can make them behave." SERIOUSLY?!!! Yeah, I'm not a babysitting service. I am not there JUST to make your kid behave. I'm going to call home when he / she refuses to turn in or even attempt to complete the work in my class. Yes, I don't care if it's just music class. They will not go through their school day and be a zombie in my room, much less will they even TRY to misbehave in my room. I get your butt thrown out and suspended. :-) :-D

Get this... on Friday (2 days ago), the entire 7th grade, ALL of the core classes, decided to have a test in every core class. They didn't BOTHER to tell elective teachers ahead of time so we'd know, and we had 3 elective teachers out on Friday so for 7th grade, we all had about 10 extra students in our rooms. Well, I had a "partner" type quiz (they could work with someone but each had to do their own work). Eventually... I had to have an admin remove 6 students from my room for throwing trash, paper (etc) at each other.

I also had to have the admin come and calm down my 2nd 7th elective class because a kid showed up who had physically harmed the substitute about 2 months ago and because of coverage was back in my room on Friday... anyway, after we figured out somewhere for him to go, he apparently pulled up my piano bench top and when I went to sit to conduct my chorus class from the piano (and I didn't look before I sat because I had JUST stood up from the bench and sat down literally 20 seconds later and dinti' move from that spot), almost fell on the floor and my rear end really hurt. The admin came to calm them down and to figure out who pulled the "prank" as they call it. I'm sorry, I don't call that a prank, I call that physical harm. Unacceptable.

In better new, my 2 6th grades, 2 8th grades ,and 1 reading class were all fine on Friday. Every day gets a LITTLE bit better (imagine the width of an ant leg on that one).

Anyway. I'll be glad to be done... one more week, and then we have spring break for a week off... then 8 weeks to the finish... we can do it, we can do it... right???!!!

DramaGeek · April 2011

I have to admit, my philosophy has always been "I can't make you work." However, I am very transparent about that fact and we talk a lot about making decisions and how those decisions will affect your life. The grade in my class is based on participation, so if a child chooses not to participate they choose a lower grade for the day, which of course affects their overall grade. I always go to them and say, "If you're choosing not to participate today, that's fine, it is your choice to make. However, I want to remind you that this choice means you're choosing a lower grade for the day which will affect your report card grade." Usually within 5 minutes they're participating with us. I guess I use it as a teachable moment for life skills, like it sounds like you do, rather than just making it a holding cell, like it sounds like your colleagues do.

I'm sorry it hasn't improved tremendously. I was hoping you'd have had one of those education movie moments where the kids suddenly see that you care about them and their future and started to behave. But you're right, you CAN do it, you WILL do it, and you'll come out better for it in the end. Many prayers for you!

kellya01 · April 2011

Yeah, I wish the threatening of a lower grade would work... this school tells the kids that all they have to do is pass the end of grade tests. Even if they fail every subject, if they pass EOG's, they pass to the next grade. Oh, and if they pass all their cores, fail electives, and fail EOG's, they can STILL go on to the next grade level.

Sadly, I learned that the first week I was there.... so threatening a zero for participation if they are choosing not to participate doesn't work. It has worked in EVERY school I've ever been in, except this one. Ugh!

DramaGeek · April 2011

Oh man, no wonder you're frustrated! You really do have your hands tied. Wow, what a poorly run ship you're working on! I cannot even begin to imagine how I would handle things if my students had zero consequences for anything.

kellya01 · April 2011

Yup, you've hit the nail on the head... the school has no consequences.

I am dreading the next 5 days. At least 3 of those days will be mock EOG's and the band teacher and I have planned to have joint classes to show a movie. It sounds lazy, but after these uncontrollable children have been quiet for 3.5 hours, getting them to actually sit in class and do something productive in electives would be like pulling teeth from a pit bull trying to fight you. Well, literally, too.

So... 2 more periods tomorrow morning, then a break, then 2 more periods .... the cycle won't stop for a while, but if I can break it mentally into 2 more classes at a time, I can get through the day a little better.

I'm praying for the kids to turn their ways around because at this rate... the city where this school is will be going downhill fast. The work ethic, or lack thereof, is astounding. And you can imagine if the kids are this way, they're learning it from home... which is even scarier. ALL of the non-blue-collar work is moving out of the city, and the blue-collar work is starting to move out too. Sooner or later the city will have to come to terms with its lack of economy!!

DramaGeek · April 2011

I hear ya on the movie thing. My show opens April 21. I'll be showing a movie to all of my other classes starting April 18!

Kellya

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