weeks 24-29: stamps, sweetness, and saturday school

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~Jacques Barzun

Another summary! Sigh. Here we go, quick recap of the end of winter/beginnings of spring:

• In week 24-25, we began a NEW positive behavior system that revolved around self-inking stamps. Students keep their planners open on their desk during every class. They receive stamps from the teacher for all of the following, plus more: being on time to class, answering questions, following directions, taking the extra step to clean their area or help others, etc. At the end of each week, students can "buy" various privileges with their stamps like bathroom/dress down passes, eating lunch outside, a ticket to Worlds of Fun in May, etc. or they can "bank" their stamps with their Aztec homeroom teacher. Since then, we have seen a HUGE improvement in behavior across the board. Now the good kids are truly being rewarded, and some of them are racking up ginormous amounts of stamps. Our principal is frantically trying to find "big" enough privileges for some of these no-stamp-spenders by the end of the year!

• By the end of February, we had had a total of 10 snow days. TEN. I'm still waiting to hear what the state has decided on whether or not we have to make them all up. It's going to be a long spring anyway since our original last day of school was June 3. Now that we have all these days to make up - basically, we might as well just adopt a year-round school calendar at this rate. Unless the state will be merciful to us...here's hoping we don't go past June 6!

• We have had a breakout of drugs at the school. It's not clear who is selling and who is buying, but we are all watching any pairs or clumps of students vigilantly, especially if they seem to be passing anything to each other. We also have students drinking energy drinks that are actually depressants which mimic the effects of cough syrup. What pubescent male wants to take depressants?! At the very least it may be hero worship, at the worst, trying to offset the effects of stimulants. Knowing that my young students are exposed to drugs and are exposing each other to their dangers is stressful and heartbreaking.

• Spring fever is causing some turbulence to emerge among the students. The student who led the sexual harassment ring from last semester returned to school. He lasted for a week or two as far as good effort in class and respectful behavior. But now he is up to his old behaviors. Two students were suspended for fighting, 1 was suspended for directing sexually inappropriate comments toward female students, and 1 was suspended under mysterious circumstances. They're dropping like flies, and it's only March! We have 2 1/2 more months left...yikes...

• Parent-teacher conferences, round 2. This was in week 27 or 28. This time, I was the teacher that every single parent wanted to see, since many students were failing both my classes (homework, kids, do your homework!) and I also had NWEA test scores to share with parents. To quote a favorite YouTube video , "it's like one continuous stream of TALKING."

• My poetry unit took off like a marvelous rocket - these 6th graders are born writers. Some moreso than others, but for the most part everyone is willing to try their hand at poetry. We tried an activity I'd read about in college called "found poetry" - I cut up a bunch of random song lyrics intro strips, mixed them all up in a bag, and had students draw 4 strips out of the bag to glue onto some cardstock. They came up with titles on their own. I was so impressed by their arranging of the lines that I made a display outside my room:

• The reasons for the quote at the beginning of this post: In weeks 27-28 I had a young lady (who is one of our strongest readers and most talented writers) share her personal poetry with me. I read it, gave her compliments and constructive criticism. Our interactions were not movie-moment gushy. At least I didn't think so. But later I received a pleasant surprise from this student that indicated how profoundly young teens are affected by an adult showing interest in them and giving them affirmation. This week, week 29), the student informed me that she had a poem she'd written about me as a gift. Here it is, a lovely acrostic poem that totally made my week:

• Another student used her stamps at the end of this week (week 29) to "buy" a special lunch with me for next week! This is a new privilege that the principal came up with for this week. It costs a considerable amount of stamps. This student who wants to eat lunch with me is extremely QUIET. Air circulating in an empty classroom makes more noise than she does. Also, I have seen her smile once this school year. And that was a thin, close-lipped smile. We have not interacted that much, certainly not as much as I've interacted with other, louder students. Yet she wants to spend time together one-on-one next week. I literally can't wait for the chance to spend time with her and see past her serious facade.

• One of science teacher Ms. B's guinea pigs, Alvin Theodore, passed away in week 29. :( SO SAD!!! Ms. B and several students had an impromptu funeral outside the school. Most students showed appropriate serious respect - however, a few 6th graders did see the lighter side of the situation. One left a note on the secretary's desk that said, "I would like to apologize to Alvin Theodore for naming you after a chipmunk when you are a guinea pig." When instructed to write a poem about the passing of the guinea pig, here's what one student came up with: "Roses are red, the guinea pig is dead."

• And the final addition to the update: Saturday School. We decided to have 2 intensive MAP-preparation (another state test - sigh) Saturdays this semester. The first one happened today, March 12, and it was Language Arts skills that we targeted. Six teachers (including me) committed to teach six topics: root words, summarizing, inferences, context clues, figurative language, and writing constructed responses. I wrote lesson plans for 2 while the other LA teacher and our SPED teacher wrote the other 4. Each one was planned to last app. 25 minutes so the students could rotate between the teachers/topics and not get burned out. It was stressful preparing for this - I do not consider myself a good skill-targeted instructor, so it was difficult to fit lessons with input, practice, and authentic learning into 25-minute chunks. It took me too long to plan it and I tried unsuccessfully not to be stressed all the way through Friday evening.

• I knew I would get paid for Saturday School no matter the outcome, so I was prepared to put on a happy face when I walked into the building this morning. What I was not prepared for was how GREAT Saturday School would be. All of the students we asked to come, came. All 22 of them. Fresh-faced, even if pajama-clad. Ready to learn, even though it was the weekend. I had no idea how much FUN it would be to spend 25 minutes at a time with tiny groups of them - only 2-4 students at a time. I was amazed by how quickly the time passed. I may show up for next week's math-focused Saturday School, it was that great!

Spring is near, Daylight Savings Time is tomorrow, soon nature will start showing tangible growth and hopefully my students will, too. :)

week 23: "how are we supposed to know this?

I had a joint observation this week from my principal and the high school principal. I thought they were coming to my reading class, but something convinced me the night before my JO that I needed to revamp the language arts lesson plans. So I stayed up 2 hours later than normal to change everything around. I went to bed fussy, got up in the morning and went to school, only to have the principals walk in to my most challenging LA class of 21 low ability, LOUD students! Good thing someone (aka the Lord) nudged me into spicing up my plans!

Everything went fairly smoothly (for that class) - but we were making posters and spent too long getting situated and putting away supplies. All of a sudden I realized I only had 12 minutes to cover about 15-20 min worth of our novel study. Sooooooooooooo...I had a split second decision to make. Go ahead with the novel stuff and not expect much? Or, quickly come up with something else?

Being one to fold under pressure, I decided to plow ahead with our novel study. I was frustrated, the kids were frustrated, but I wasn't prepared for what happened at the very end of class. When I asked students if they had any questions, one boy raised his hand and asked, "How are we supposed to know this?"

Right. In front. Of the two principals. BLURGH.

I had never felt so ridiculous and embarrassed in my life. I acquiesced that he had a point, explained that we would finish it during our next class, and somehow sent them on their way/finished the school day.

One goal for next year: improve my timing so I can get to everything I need to. Also: don't call on any smart-aleck kids when the principals come to observe. :)

snow days = catching up on the blog, weeks 8-23, YIKES.

Well...the inevitable happened. I let life get in the way of keeping my blog updated about school happenings. Here's a quick recap of weeks 8-23 (!!!!!!!!):

• Week 8: My birthday was on Tuesday and I learned a lovely lesson: our students LOVE BIRTHDAYS. I was serenaded at least 3 times by different groups of students. Not just "Feliz Cumpleanos," but also this little ditty: http://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/qt/mananitas.htm I received several handmade cards, which are all decorating my wall by my desk. Adorable and so affirming. The crowning glory of the day was a surprise visit from my mom during my 6th hour Reading class. The students crowded around and said hi. One of them looked at my mom and said, "We're Ms. Branch's kids, so that makes you our grandma!" and gave her the HUGEST hug. Absolutely precious.

• Week 9: Funny that a wonderful week would be followed by a wretched one. This week was interesting because it was the Self-Esteem week. It didn't sit well with me to be preaching the world's doctrine of self-love and self-acceptance with my students. On one hand, they DO need to know they are beautifully and wonderfully made, just as they are. On the other hand, I am absolutely convinced that my generation and the following generations have been glutted to death concerning our wonderfulness. The result? An ego-driven view of life that culminates in entitlement and self-obsession. I see this all the more clearly as a teacher. Not just in my students, but also in myself. While they are aggressively countering my requests with "Why?", I am secretly fuming that they are not doing what I say. I take it personally, as an affront against my very self. Whoops.

• Week 10: This week we began our Scary Story Contest. My students' definition of scary stories? Clowns. La Llorona. Murder, blood and gore, complete with makeup. Yikes.

• Week 11: We started our Behavior Card system this week. Basically, students have 5 symbols on their cards and they get new cards each week. During the week, they can get their cards hole-punched for various things including but not limited to: tardies, untucked shirts, shouting out in class, being disrespectful, no homework, etc. Some students are thriving on this, others lose all 5 symbols on Monday before 3rd hour.

• Week 12: 6th graders finished their Holes projects and my Aztec planned their testing goals for May. The prize for the class that meets their class goal (ours is that 60% of us meet our individual goals) is a free trip to Worlds of Fun in May.

• October-early November: I attempted to run National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with my students. One success: middle schoolers are a great age for this project - full of creativity and interest in participating, yet mature enough to handle it. One failure: I quickly learned that I did not plan for the process of keeping track of novels, editing novels, or publishing novels. The result: many students lost or destroyed their work and only a few came away with an electronic file of their story. Also, 2 laptops were stolen and I am shamefully admitting that they were most likely stolen under my watch.

• Thanksgiving Break to end of the semester: During this time I was made aware of the hormonal filth going on in adolescent boys' minds: I was poked in the rear by a male student from my homeroom during their reading class. It was one of three suspects who I turned my back to while speaking to another student, and I never found out who did it. But when I took those three students outside and shakily yelled at them for sexual harassment, the wonderful Christian man who is our orchestra teacher happened to be in the hallway. He went straight to the principal and she proceeded to see every student from my homeroom until the truth came out: We had a ring of boys who were playing a game involving levels of dares of a sexual nature directed against the teachers.

They had poked another teacher besides me and had actually poked me once already (at the time I blamed my clumsiness since I often bump into students while moving between rows).
A camera phone had been used to look up yet another teacher's skirt. Sexual gestures had been made behind many of the female teachers' backs and sexual comments had been muttered under their breath.

The student at the center of all this turned out to be one who was generally regarded as "dead weight" in the classroom: he refused to do work unless coaxed, prodded, dragged or threatened (meaning Mom would have been called) through assignments. He had a lot mroe going on underneath his vacant demeanor than anyone would have thought. With a known active gang member for an older brother, he was coercing the male students into this sexual game by threatening them with physical punishment at the hands of his brother and "friends" if they did not participate.

That student was suspended for about 40 days. Two other students were suspended for 5 days. My entire homeroom of burly boys was split up and sent by ones and twos to other homerooms. In exchange, I received many more girls. Now the gender dynamics in my homeroom are evened out and I like this new group much more.

Now for some stream-of-consciousness updates to bring us to now:

• High schoolers came and read books with the middle schoolers (thus, the new picture that headlines my blog). This was one of the sweetest days I've ever had as an educator so far. I was close to tears for most of the hour as I watched students reading, shyly, with their older partners, smiling and interacting with each other.
• I was given the opportunity to choose what I wanted to teach next year at AVMS. I chose 4 sections of 7th grade LA, and I believe I will be teaching 2 sections of Advanced Writing, or at least 1 section of that with a reading class rounding out my schedule. I am thrilled to have those marvelous 6th graders be some of my students again next year.
• We found out that we will be DOUBLING in size, from 99 students to around 200. We are still looking for a new building and it's possible we have one.
• I took on the Tutoring Coordinator position for extra hourly pay. At our school, parents and students must sign a contract stating that they understand that tutoring is mandatory if their student is requested by a teacher. My job is to make sure every teacher requests students for tutoring each week and that they update a Google doc with the day they are tutoring, the students they will see, and the priority of their tutoring session. I also make sure students get snacks to keep their brain running and work with our Parent Liaison to follow up on students who "forget" about tutoring.
• SIX. SIX SNOW DAYS IN JANUARY 2011, WEEKS 22 AND 23. I am now understanding the boon and the bane of being a teacher in the urban core: with buses unable to handle snowy side streets and students not always having reliable warm clothing, our schools are much more apt to close than others. Our school and the public schools whose weather policies we follow will possibly still be in school come August. Oh well, carpe diem for now, right?

I, Ms. Branch, do solemnly promise to update weekly or at least biweekly on teaching during this spring 2011 semester, so that I can quit writing ridiculous posts like this one and also so I have a record of the joys of "flying the plane while building it" (as our superintendent described this first year at our school).

week 7: testing drives us all insane

"Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?" Confucius

"Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power." Clint Eastwood

We are FINALLY done with our fall round of NWEA testing! Wahoo! I am not sorry to say goodbye to testing, although I will miss the chance to watch movies all morning...we saw 3 last week: "The Karate Kid" (the ORIGINAL, which has Ralph Macchio in it, who I recognized primarily from "The Outsiders"), "James and the Giant Peach," and "Stand and Deliver" (which is my NEW favorite teaching movie - inspiring, sappy but with great acting).

I met with the Reading Specialist at the high school on Friday. We're almost 7 weeks in to the school year, but I've been having great feelings of trepidation about the reading classes. Since I have the 6th graders for LA as well as Reading, it's been an odd thing trying to keep the classes separate but equal. Not only that, but now that we have seen our NWEA scores, it's official how low the general reading skills are in our student population.

Now that I see what lies before us, I am overwhelmed, but feeling more prepared to organize the amorphous mass of information called Ms. Branch's Reading Class. It's so nice to have a principal that is not asking me to move a mountain but rather provide proof of progress.

Speaking of progress - I have apparently made none in the area of "creating an environment of respect and rapport." A frequent troublemaker threw a massive spitball (2 " wide) onto my Smartboard on Friday. I was so appalled and angry that I know I did not act very Christlike - I kicked him out and another kid who was being disrespectful, then I made the rest of the class write a definition of respect for the classroom and write a word of advice to me for making our classroom a respectful place.

My principal is so tired of seeing the same guys from my class that she announced to these students that any more visits from them to her office will result in a 1 day suspension, no questions asked or discussion allowed.

It is so discouraging to me that I can't think of ways to build respect and kindness into my classroom. All I can think to do is arrive early this week and pray over each desk and each student who will sit there. I need the Lord to show up in my classroom this week.

In other news: I have created a Notewriting Hall of Shame in the teacher's coffee room. So far we have 5 notes hanging up (out of reach of students' eyes of course) and I anticipate there will be many more. Like the multi-hued break up letter from my last post. That one's going front and center. Keeping notes is valuable for several reasons: to inject a little humor into our daily lives, to show us how students actually communicate with one another, to remind me about what communication skills we should tackle in reading class, etc. (I mean, if somebody has to read a break up letter from their middle school love, they should at LEAST be able to get through it quickly instead of painfully trying to decipher the writing!) Pictures soon!

week 6: conviction and stealing notes from students

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward

Quick highlights from weeks 4 and 5:

• Week 4: The main water pipe at AVMS broke, resulting in much drama as our principal tried to figure out if we could still have school that day. She came up with the following arrangement: after lunch,all the kids who needed to use the bathroom would HOP ON THE BUS and drive ACROSS TOWN to a community center who would allow them to use their restrooms and then return to school. The majority of my lunch class went on the 1st bathroom bus, leaving me with 6 students to entertain with riddles for 40 minutes. Hilarious.
• Week 5: Honeymoon period = officially over. A student literally escaped from school in order to avoid P.E. Just walked right out the back door and started walking home through the city. One of the teachers' landlords spotted him and called us. 20 minutes later, we had him safely back. First suspensions this week for fighting, 2 from kids who I wouldn't have expected to be suspended and 2 from kids I DEFINITELY expected.

This week we have NWEA testing,

the state test of Missouri that will confirm for us where our students rank as far as their abilities in reading, writing, and math. So far, so good. My Aztec students test tomorrow and then we will have 2.5 hour classes together on Wednesday and Thursday. Need to gather plenty of insightful activities for that precious group to keep them occupied in the business of becoming better humans.

I confronted an ugly truth about myself this week. Part of my difficulties with teaching stem from one-size-fits-most lesson plans - I have been trying to plan for the "Middle" level of ability in Language Arts, hoping that my high kids stay occupied and the low kids succeed. Instead, what has happened is tons of disengagement as low students give up or wait for me to drag them through while the high kids are bored to tears.

The state of my approach to plann

ing lessons has revolved around hoping, wishing, and defiance. Hoping, not planning, that students succeed. Wishing, not being proactive, concerning the value of my lessons. Defiance, because I am lazy and selfish and do not want to spend extra time creating modified lessons for both low and high students.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Why am I here if not to make learning about language and literature acceptable to everyone?

Talk about conviction. The truth is, nothing will change until I am physically and mentally prepared to plan for everything, rather than throwing things together on a single weekend day and calling it good. So within the craziness of this week, I will suck it up and start structuring these lessons better.

In other news, I picked up what may very well be the BEST NOTE I have ever taken from a student during class. Spanglish with a little bit of Spanish gangsta colloquialism thrown in for good measure:

"Dear Christian,

Jajaja srry pero I luv u pero I also love this boy in my school ese (tr: homeboy) Im not trying to brak up with you but also I dont want to lie to you I love you porque you sexy smart pero it's to hard to love 2 boys at the same time mijo (tr: my dear) poreso I want to ask you algo that If you realy loved me you woudnt say que we Aint goin out and all them lies borque if I was you I would not care wat people said about use 2 you now but tell me if you want sombody else oque cuz I cant make you like me Vato (tr: homeboy)"

Just one reason I love teaching middle school: passionate break-up letters with a woefully poor understanding of conventions. Maybe this week we'll do a notewriting assignment so that whoever reads their next break-up letter can stop wasting time trying to decipher the note and be broken hearted faster?

weeks 2 and 3: AZTEC PRIDE

This week marked some significant firsts:

• I got to use my Smartboard in class for the first time,
• My 8th hour Reading class made a classroom tweet for the first time (and consequently I have created a Twitter account for the school year, we'll see if I figure out what we can do with that),
• We had our first middle school assembly,
• Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand drum roll please - here are the first anonymous quotes of the week from AVMS students!

In order from hilarious to ROFL infinity:

3) The teachers were talking about a particular student they all adore, which 1 of us had never met. A meeting was arranged in which the student mentioned previously was sent to the teacher on a fake errand: to tell her his name and shirt size. Apparently the student waltzed into the teacher's room and boldly declared,

"Ms. _________! My name is __________, and I am an M!"

She had no idea what he was talking about, but now she knows who he is.

2) In another class, a student was flipping through a magazine for an assignment. He walked up to the teacher, pointed at an advertisement for alcohol, and asked her,

"Do you do this?"

Her response: "Uhhhhh..."

His response: "Good!"

1) Same student came to my room at the end of the school day. He looks up at me and, in complete sincerity, asks,

"Ms. Branch...have you ever been stabbed?"

I respond with, "No...no I haven't."

I wait for more.

20 seconds later, he says, "Oh, well, I was just wondering...because I have."

Later I found out the stabbing incident involved a female bully and the business end of a sharpened pencil in the shoulder.

But in all seriousness, the first assembly of AVMS was fantastic. Our principal led the group in a serious discussion of achievement and being college-bound. She even started pointing at kids in the audience, asking, "Where are YOU going to college?" Some of the kids had answers: Harvard. Park University. Mizzou. (No K-Staters yet, but I'll keep praying!)

(I'm finishing this post from last Saturday on a rainy Thursday morning, the 2nd day of September in the year of our Lord 2010)

Then my principal had each class stand up: the 7th graders first.

The class of 2016.

I turned around in my seat and watched as my Aztec (homeroom) class of 18 stood up. All those burly boys, some with swagger and some on the shy side.

(When we have our schoolwide Aztec dodgeball tournament, we will crush everyone. LITERALLY.)

Then there were my 3 girls, the minority in our group. All banded together against the tide of testosterone.

All of these students dear to me already after just 2 days together.

I looked in the faces of these students growing into young adults, and my heart swelled with pride. After only 2 days of being with them, they had stolen my heart. I got teary just looking at them, although they were only standing for a few seconds.

The best part is, none of them know how great I think they are.

Hopefully soon, I can start showing it.

______________________________

Week 3 has been marked by serious failure and serious success. I had a moment on Tuesday where everything seemed insurmountable. My plans weren't ready, I was freaking out, and a snowball of accusing thoughts was growing in size and gaining in speed, rushing toward a meltdown.

Then on Wednesday, I had one of the smoothest days ever - activities timed out mostly right, transitions were smoother than before. It's amazing how one day can seem so bleak while the next turns out to be just fine. I'm sure this is a reminder from the Lord to quit letting me emotions have a say in my success.

So tomorrow is College Colors day. Perfect timing since K-State football starts on Saturday! Although do I really care?...no. But an opportunity to brag on my college is always fun. So I'll leave you with some wise words:

BE PROUD. BE PURPLE. GO STATE.

week 1: flexibility and adjustments

"Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself." -Chinese proverb

Although the title of this post no doubt applies to the first week of many teachers across the world, I think I can safely say I own it. Here's why:

Our middle school is brand new this year. We accepted incoming 6th and 7th graders with enrollment capping at 50 per grade. The 7th grade enrollment filled up 2 weeks before school, so our principal sent out the word that 7th grade was closed, but 6th grade was still accepting enrollment.

So on the first day of school, we had students with a 6th grade schedule coming up to us and saying, "I'm a 7th grader!" By mid-day we figured it out: About 20 students were enrolled as 6th graders when they were actually 7th graders. Because their parents wanted them at our school so badly that they lied about their grade level.

This meant that on Thursday, I received 3 new 7th grade classes: my homeroom, and 2 7th grade reading classes. SO now I have 6th and 7th graders this year! Which is great because I was beginning to really regret not having any when I saw them in the hallways, with their all-knowing smirks and self-assured swaggers.

Other things to deal with this week included not having Internet for most of the school days, and our technology was not hooked up. We all learned how to use our projectors so we could at least have Powerpoints going. But there are no laptops for students. Here's hoping that those show up by next month so we can get some Web 2.0 up in here.

But this week, although frustrating and overwhelming, was so beneficial: an exercise in patience and ingenuity, for sure. I give myself a B for overall teacherliness and the stunning display of dominance that came out of me when I met my new homeroom. Subduing a class of 18 students of 12-13 year olds, most of which were boys, is a rare feat indeed for someone who is not exactly a model of strict discipline...

Speaking of those boys - man, does my heart go out to them. All the students are adorable and funny in their own ways, but it's those boys that really get me. I am already mindful of the need to accumulate more books that are boy-friendly and to create more interactive lessons so they can move around and show their stuff instead of being forced to sit and listen to me for 90 minutes. I want to reach them. To show them that Language Arts is a guy-friendly subject, not effeminate or weak or stupid. This 2nd week I hope to get started on that. Again, I can only do so much before the students have to decide for themselves if they want to learn. There's enough going for these kids that, if they can just recognize their potential, hopefully a fire will be lit and they'll do their very best to learn. We will see.