When middle schoolers go wild

There's a boy on our team who's... well, let's just say that he's quite overweight. In fact, the other teachers on the team and I refer to him as "the big one" (kind-heartedly of course!). Anyhow, "the big one" is not very well respected by his peers, probably due to his weight. However, in the Bronx, it's not uncommon to see students 10-20 pounds heavier than they should be due to the sparse access to farmer's markets/healthier food options and high presence of bodega food (ex: chips, candy, gum, soda, etc.).

We all knew he was.. ahem.. *big*, but today he broke a new record even for himself. HE BROKE A DESK. IN MY CLASS. IN THE MIDDLE OF A LESSON. All the teachers this morning were a little stressed out because the discipline AP announced that he will be doing a special evaluation on our classroom management strategy/style/technique this week and will have a follow up meeting about classroom & behavior management soon. This is especially stressful for non-tenured teachers because this evaluation is one of many that will go in our tenure portfolios. (I'm up for tenure next year, and so far I've been exceeding expectations, but with the difficulty level of this year's students, I'm a little bit nervous about this upcoming evaluation.) Because this incident was so unexpected, I had no idea whatsoever about how I was going to begin to deal with this situation.

First off, my thoughts ran a little like this:

1. How can someone as big as him even fit in one of those desks? (We were considering getting him a special desk to avoid an incident like this, but felt that doing so would isolate him and make his "situation" more obvious.)
2. How in the world do you BREAK a desk?
3. I wonder if he will ever live this down...
4. Am I supposed to go and get help? From who? The custodian? Mrs. Brown (our team's science teacher next door)? Mr. O'Klay? (the discipline AP)
5. This is definitely not one of the things they teach you at NYU Steinhardt School of Education. And Steinhardt has one of the top undergraduate teaching programs.
6. Okay, the kids are laughing/taking pictures/whispering/taunting right now. Time to take action.

I ended up taking control of my class - silencing them, asking for all pictures/messages on their phones regarding this matter to be deleted, sent "big kid" to my desk for the rest of the period and mandated a "what happened in room 203 today stays in room 203" policy.

But all in all, it was a crazy day. The students never fully got back on task, and when I gave them their groupwork for the period and left the room to report the incident to the custodial office, Mrs. Brown had to come into my room and discipline the students for their (not excactly uncalled for) rowdiness: they RECREATED THE SCENE, continued taunting "big kid" for his accident, mocked his weight and well, did not do any of their groupwork.

Saved by the bell. Not long after I returned, the bell rang. Not too much learning happened the second half of seventh period. However, all teachers have those crazy days... just not many have crazy days like my South Bronx crazy days.

Teachers, any stories about your wild days? :)

First Quarter vs. Second Quarter

Undeniably, second quarter is SIGNIFICANTLY busier than first quarter! (As if you couldn't tell with the significant decrease in blog posts. Hopefully it will get better in the new year? I didn't have my blog running in the beginning of the year last year either...)

This year, being the first teacher in our school's history to teach accelerated 8th grade Integrated Algebra, I have been relegated to creating a school-wide curriculum for Integrated Algebra. It's time consuming, but I know it will save time in future years when (I better!) teach Integrated Algebra again. Also, changes in the 8th grade curriculum and the way our department chair/AP/principal wants to run the curriculum means additional planning for all 5 of my classes.

I find second quarter to be more difficult for the majority of my students, especially in 8th grade. We start hitting some more difficult concepts and sometimes it's challenging for students to keep up with the material. I always offer morning and after school tutoring sessions, but I find that fewer & fewer students are coming. The students that need these sessions the most are the ones that do not come.

Second quarter is also when a lot of families decide to capitalize on lower fares and send their children away to Mexico/Guatemala/Dominican Republic/Costa Rica/El Salvador, etc. to visit family -- for two, three, four weeks at a time - increasing their gap of knowledge during this extended vacation. This was not very prevalent last year, however, this year, I am finding a considerable number (about 3-4) in each class period. In math, it's hard to make up lost learning, which is why I highly discourage these extended trips.

However, on the bright side, teacher collaboration is up from first quarter and up from last year. The newest teacher to the math team, Mr. Gorbett, is AMAZING and highly innovative. Both Miss Gonzalez and I have used at least four of his lesson plans throughout this year. We are sharing more with each other and doing more collaborative work, and the results for our students speak for themselves :)

I am also very proud of Andres, a student in my 7th period Pre-Algebra class. During first quarter, Andres barely pulled a B -- an 80.1% --, goofed off in class and was occassionally disruptive and rarely completed his homework. He is a bright student, however, and the reason why his grade was so borderline that quarter was because, like I said, he ALMOST NEVER completed any homework assignments! I conferenced with him at the beginning of this quarter and we set a goal for classroom behavior and homework completion. Two weeks ago, Andres and I reached our first checkpoint of the quarter. He made it & we celebrated with New York cheesecake and pizza! Hopefully the goal setting and positive reinforcement for performing the correct behavior will influence him to continue this positive habit for the remainder of the year, into high school, and into college.

How's that for an update, guys? Thanks for reading and staying patient with me!!!

Oh where oh were have I been?

Where have I been? This blog has been empty for over a month! :(

To all my lovely, loyal readers, I am so sorry that I haven't been updating this blog. I would like to take this space to let you know that:

1) I am still alive! I have not been eaten alive by my kiddos yet!

2) I am still teaching in the DOE and loving it.

3) My students have gotten better and I am actually starting to like my first period again... slowly, but steadily they are improving :)

4) I've already been observed and evaluated this year. My principal, Ms. Lopez came in on a Wednesday in November in my second Integrated Algebra class and observed a lesson on solving & graphing inequalities. In my post-observation conference, she went up to me, took my hand and said: "That was one of the best lessons I have seen in over ten years as principal of this school. Thank you so much for everything you do for your students."

Teaching in NYC is time consuming and I have had work PAST MY HEAD every week. However, that's not an excuse to stop blogging. I created my blog so that I could have space to reflect on my teaching, and unfortunately, with all the paperwork, lesson planning, etc. that I have had these past few weeks, not too much reflecting has happened.

I promise (!!!) that I will be better about updating you guys on my teaching adventures! My goal is at least 1 post a week -- hopefully 2 posts from now till the end of the school year.

Election 2012: The 13-Year-Old Version

My kids are very involved in the election. They are showing (relatively early for their age) signs of maturity, decision-making and voter education that is unprecedented for most middle school students. 

They are pretty educated about the issues going on right now and each candidate's position on the issues. 

Now, maybe it's because I'm strongly liberal and so are they, but I'll bet that conservatives would have a soft spot in their heart for my students and their participation in the election process. 

Was I this educated (or, quite honestly, interested?) about politics in 8th grade? Not at all. 

GO. FIGHT. WIN. - a story of school spirit

I have previously discussed on this blog about my shiny-glory days in high school, culminating in being voted as our high school's Class of 2007 "Most Popular Boy". For a brief time period during junior year, I dated our school's head cheerleader. It was a FUN (let me assure you, very fun... from the perspective of a 16 year old) experience, but didn't last very long. And at the end of the experience, I did learn a lot about relationships, why they usually don't work in high school and about members of the opposite sex. No offense female readers ;)

But one of the big things that I do remember from my experience with "Talia" is that cheerleaders have a ton of school spirit. From going to watch her practices to supporting her at our school's Friday night football games, I picked up a lot about what it really took to be a cheerleader - the head cheerleader - or, in other words, the school's "poster girl". This was high school.

My school right now, a middle school in the South Bronx, currently is in a friendly rivalry with a neighboring middle school. I would think it has something to do with gangs between the different neighborhoods, but that's not what the administration wants us to think. Our school administrators are also at it -from competing about basketball scores to NYS scores to which school has the best teachers -the rivalry between adults would seem intense. The students have also picked up on this, and have lately been hard at work brainstorming ways to beat this school (as opposed to, say, doing their homework...). 

Yesterday, I suggested to them: "You know guys, why not beat MS *** by showing them that you guys are better at math?". This was meant to be a joke, more or less, but my 8th graders really took that message to heart: agreeing and working twice as hard as they usually do in an effort to outperform this class. 

When I got home, I made a call to a teacher at this school and laid out the grounds for this "competition", He was thrilled! Clearly, this is a very unexpected occurrence in the school year. Miss Gonzalez and Mr. Gorbett have joined too.

Today, one of the girls in my class made a sign for me to hang up in my room: 
"!SI, NOSOTROS PODEMOS! YES, WE CAN!" 

My kids, just like Talia, have a lot of school spirit. Maybe they are more motivated because of gang affiliation (although the vast majority of students from my observation are not affiliated with the neighborhood gang). But most are motivated because they want to show someone they are BETTER. This is an opportunity for them to apply what I have been telling them all along. 

Maybe this should continue for the entire year? I would LOVE to see my kids like this for the rest of the school year. 

May the best middle school win. 

Re-Blog: Why Middle School?

This would be how I spend my lunch period on a Wednesday when the other teachers are at their meetings with Ms. Lopez...

The following post comes from John Spencer's blog "The Best Part of Teaching is...". You can find this blog at www.bestpartofteaching.wordpress.com. No copyright infringement intended.

Why Middle School?

For all their awkwardness, they often surprise me with their creatvity

"8th graders are the most understood people on the planet. Perhaps even the universe. Sure, they might talk too loud or tell a sub to fuck off or wear jeans that vacillate between sagging to their knees or skinny jeans that severely limit their movement. True, they have a tendency to be self-centered and to care too deeply about peer approval and to say things that are socially awkward or rude as they try to be ironic or cynical or whatever it is that grownups hold as social capital.

Get past this facade and you’ll see that the act is so opaque that the student becomes transparent. You see the pain and confusion of inhabiting a world of childhood and adulthood. You see the insecurities that they haven’t learned to mask as well as adults. You’ll see that they are misunderstood.

Look even further and you’ll see generosity and kindness. You’ll see an honesty that is rare among adults. You’ll see that they’re just beginning to question the answers after spending so long answering the questions. They haven’t bought into the lie that it must be “practical” to be important. 

You’ll see the dreamers, the existential wanderers, the rule-followers who are now questioning the world of rules that they’ve spent so long serving.

You’ll see documentaries that aren’t professional, but are amazing in their viewpoint. You’ll see murals that aren’t flawless but are beautiful in their flaws. You’ll hear voices passionately pursuing social justice without yet feeling jaded by the system.

And you’ll hear laughter.

You’ll see smiles.

You’ll see why some people have discovered that this age group is the education system’s best kept secret. And you’ll realize why we feel fortunate to have this job."

I always have that one group

This week has been extremely stressful. First, the amount of work (lesson planning, grading, dealing with students, teaching, conferences, etc.) has almost tripled from last week. No, it's not an exaggeration. I find myself running on only about 6-7 hours of sleep this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and not really engaging in my social life. This is much worse than my first year of teaching and the challenges posed this year are definitely greater.

Day in and day out, the challenges of my first period class this year are showing and growing. I quite possibly believe that this year's first period may be able to beat last year's second period as my WORST class. Not only do I have eleven (a student in 1st period was tested, diagnosed and placed on an IEP on Monday) students with special-ed requirements and IEP's, but I have a group of loud, obnoxious students - both guys and girls - added to my list of troublesome students. Put together, this comes to a total of 16. Out of 32 students. The other 16 students are MARVELOUS, angelic, motivated, diligent and behaved - and I feel really bad that they have to see me in my "not so good" state because of the other difficult half of the class. Don't get me wrong. I have NOTHING against students with IEP's or that are special ed... in fact, some of them are my best students. However, no teacher can contest to the fact that the greater the number of special needs students and IEP's in a class period, the greater the workload and the greater the challenges begin to come out from that class.

In this troublesome group...

• 3 of the 5 students have F's in the gradebook right now. These F's range from a 17% to a 41%. The other two students have D's, ranging from a 59.6% to a 63%.
• The students CAN NOT and probably WILL NOT stop talking!! Not when I'm lecturing, teaching, etc. Not in group or partner activities. Not in class activities. Not with the substitute teacher on Tuesday when I had a meeting.
• Don't even get me started about their ability to stay on task... or how long they have been putting off making up tests, quizzes and homework assignments.

One thing they can be reliable for : showing up in class! They are almost NEVER gone. 1st period is not a pleasant class.

I really want to make this situation better. But for right now, I am so exhausted that I think I might go and take a nap.