H to the izzo...

The New York Times ran an article yesterday that discussed a Chicago premier of an upcoming PBS documentary, "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes." The documentary airs on PBS in February and discusses the violence, sexism, and homophobia that is rampant in much of rap and hip-hop music.

It really excites me that someone is finally bringing these questions to the forefront of our societal consciousness; and not just anyone - a member of the African-American community of which hip-hop is of course so popular.

I can't help but notice on a daily basis the impact these lyrics have on the way my students dress, talk, and more importantly, the way they treat each other. I must hear a reference to a rap or hip-hop lyric at least 5 times a day in my classroom. There are probably more that I am unaware of.

As a listener of hip-hop/rap myself, I understand how catchy the music and rhythm can be. As an educated adult, I am able to understand that the lyrics often discuss a make believe society in which violence and degradation of women come easily and serve to solve all of man's problems.

However, I am not so sure that my highly impressionable 11- and 12-year old students are able to distinguish between what is real and what is not - what is legal and what is not.

The makers of the documentary are touring the country leading up to its debut on PBS, showing the film in several major cities. There are several showings in Atlanta in January and one in Athens as well. If you are in a city the campaign is coming to, I'd encourage you to go check this out. Hopefully, this is just the start of a national debate on the responsibility all musicians (not just rappers) have for their lyrics.

The campaign website can be found here.

The link to the article can be found below.

Fan Asks Hard Questions About Rap Music
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: December 24, 2006
A new documentary questions the violence, degradation of women and homophobia in much of rap music.

Inspiration in the Strangest Form

Today, I was bolstered by two separate events.

First, I had each of my students grade their DCA benchmark exams while we await the official scores to come back. These initial numbers could be a little off here and there, but stay pretty true to the actual score, traditionally speaking (and by traditionally, I mean the one time I've administered a DCA previously).

On the first Science benchmark exam, my students had an overall mean of 57%, with only 12 students receiving a passing grade. Abysmal; utterly and unabashedly.

On this past Science benchmark exam, our scores went up! Our overall mean was a 64%, now with 23 students passing! Though this falls still short of our goal of 80%, my students are showing gains and we are slowly closing the gap between where we are and where we want to be.

I can't wait to share the news with my students. I know that they will be so very excited to see their class thermometers move upwards toward 80%. The first class that gets there gets a pizza party and I can just taste that pepperoni!

The second thing that happened today was extremely alarming and extremely heartening, all at the same time.

I've written about Jeremy before. He is the kid who is on his third set of teachers this year at Miller, having been moved twice for making terroristic threats to both "blacks" and "all the sixth-grade teachers."

The past two weeks, the district psychologist has been observing and meeting with Jeremy, trying to pinpoint a reason for his eccentric behavior and comments. Whatever he said to the psychologist is confidential and as such is unable to be shared with his teachers. What I do know is that today our counseling staff went into an emergency-mode in dealing with Jeremy. They had the psychologist call his mother and discuss her assessment - apparently Jeremy is "suicidal without ideation," which I take to mean he wants to kill himself but doesn't know how he will do it.

Jeremy is searched (practically strip-searched) each morning by a member of the administration to ensure he has no weapons and all three of his teachers watch him like a hawk to ensure he is not threatening other students. However, now I anticipate he'll be watched even more closely. As to what that means for instruction in my classroom, I yet to know.

The other thing the counselor shared with us, I found strange. She said that Jeremy stated he "wanted to kill himself but liked Mr. Wilson." The counselor said that if he were to make verbal any suicidal threats they would probably be verbalized to me.

Huh? I barely speak to this kid other than to give him instructions for class and now he's going to confide in me suicidal threats?!

Somewhere hidden deep beneath the seriousness of the situation is a compliment. Something that I have done has meant so much to Jeremy that he told the counselor that he hated everything around him but me.

Hearing this, I couldn't help but think of Taylor and how, even though he is the worst behaved student I have and I ride his case more than any other, he tells his mother that I am the only teacher he likes. To be honest, I think Taylor and Jeremy both serve to illustrate how much positive male influence is missing in the lives of my students.

If I do nothing else while I am at Miller, I hope my presence serves to show students like Taylor and Jeremy that they are loved by people who have never known them and that it is possible for them to become strong, positive male figures.

Weekend Update

Last week ended with a big up and a big down.

Report card grades were due Friday, which meant that I spent all Thursday afternoon and early evening making sure all the grades were plugged in online and were averaged correctly. I decided to just stay at school late to take care of it all since the Theater Arts department was having its Winter performance Thursday night and many of my students were in the show.

It was a good thing I decided to stay for the show Thursday night because if I would have just left after calculating grades I might have quit the next day (okay, not really).

Turns out, even after I had made it impossibly easy for students to turn in their missing work so as not to receive zeros, many still did not turn the work in, and consequently received many zeros. I had a significant number of students fail Science and twice as many fail Social Studies. I was mortified when I looked at the numbers. Was it really possible that I allowed the situation to get this far out of hand?

It would be easy to blame my students, labeling them as lazy and incompetent, but that wouldn't be fair. The truth is, the responsibility remains with me. It's my job to get them motivated about their work and about succeeding in my classes. The numbers I saw last week only served to show me that my students are no more motivated to complete work than they were before I came to Miller; that it is really I who should receive a failing grade right now.

I was really upset with myself, but decided to go to the play anyway. I'm glad I did because it turns out I had 9 students in the play (out of the 13 in the cast) and they were hilarious! One of the plays was about an elf rebellion and the other had something to do with the Christmas spirit, though I still can't quite figure it out. Regardless, it really made my students feel special to see that I had stayed and really gave me perspective seeing them in a different light.

I was so proud of all my students on stage - they did such an amazing job. One of my students in particular, Anthony, who has ADHD and very rarely sits down in class did an amazing job as the lead male in the elf rebellion play. He really stole the show and I could tell he was proud of himself - a feeling I know he doesn't have very often.

After the play, I made sure to wait outside the "cast party" in the Theater Arts room so that I could talk to each of my students. Each of them was so happy and surprised to see me and I could tell that I really helped to make their night special.

As I walked back to my classroom to gather my things and leave, one of my students yelled at me from the other end of the building where the play had taken place. "MR. WILSON! Thanks for coming. See you tomorrow!"

She does not know this, but at that moment Damiya re-inspired me to commit my entire being to achieving significant gains in my classroom.

No Field Trips

Apparently field trips are out. I missed the memo.

I talked with my principal this past week about putting together a field trip to Rice University or the University of Houston for my students. Her response was rather perplexing.

I told her that I had heard the district was kind of funny about field trips and was wondering what the policy was. Her response was, "Well, I don't have a problem with any field trips, as long as they are grade-level wide."

WHAT? The entire sixth grade has to go? "Yes, Mr. Wilson." Well, in that case, I asked, could the entire sixth grade go on a college field trip?

"Funny you should ask that Mr. Wilson. I would normally not have a problem with that, but since our fundraiser was lackluster this year, I have to say no. Why don't you start planning it for next year and see if you can get everyone on board."

Are you kidding me? Next year?! My kids will be in middle school next year and won't be able to go on the field trip next year.

"Well," I persisted, "what if it's like a reward trip for my class. They set an academic goal and if we meet it, they can go on the trip as their reward."

Her response is one which I still don't understand. She said that "we" shy away from reward trips because it's not fair to those students who don't get to go. In her words, "We have to give all students the same chance to go."

Funny. I thought all my students would have an equal opportunity to go. If they make the choice to work hard and reach the goal, then they get rewarded; that's the whole point of a reward. If you're just going to give everyone the reward trip though, it ceases to be a reward. So, then, why even work hard to reach the goal? Why even work?

Why even go to school anymore?

I bet if I planned a field trip to the Texas Education Agency (the group that writes the TAKS standardized test) she wouldn't have a problem with it.

This policy sucks!

Run in with the Law

Friday was a relatively good day, especially considering it had been an abnormally long week and the day was going by without incident. But then I talked with my AP in the teacher's lounge.

She was telling us why it was that there had been two police cars at our school the entire morning. Turns out, this kid decided to put his hand through a window of a school bus on the way to school that morning. When we asked her who it was, she said "Darious."

My heart sank as I realized it was my Darious, a student who had been in SAC (in-school suspension) the past few days. A student with whom I had experienced significant challenges since the beginning of the school year, but together with his parents, was actually making progress with.

Now Darious was facing a $500 citation from the Alief PD, along with a bill for the bus window. To top it off, my AP informed me that the reason he was in SAC the day before was because he had gotten in a fight with another student (which I had no idea about) and had been issued a $500 citation for assault in that case.

I have no doubt that Darious will be moved to ALC (alternative school) come Monday, though my AP didn't say one way or another. Darious's mother works for the Houston Independent School District, so will most likely want him pulled into an alternative learning environment.

It's just so confusing to me, because I have yet to experience Darious's unbridled rage in my classroom. But, due to his bewildering behavior outside my class, all the progress that I've made with him will now come to an end.

Unfortunately, this is the reality in my classroom; students come and go like clockwork. I have come to realize how true the saying is that your time with your students is limited. This inspires me to work extra hard today to make sure every minute of class this week is spent teaching my students the skills they need to carry them far in life.

The truth is, I never know from one day to the next who my students will be.

Just Tired

Today, I was a really bad teacher. I was just so tired. Last night, I literally passed out on my bed after getting home from my graduate course. When I awoke, it was 2:20am, I was still dressed and all the lights were on.

I was still really tired this morning and had a hard time putting together an exciting lesson for the day, so was forced to settle for mediocrity in the crunch for time. I knew it was a bad lesson when my best student (out of all three classes) asked me during class, "Mr. Wilson, what is it that you are trying to teach us?"

I soldiered through today, but then had to also get through a meeting after school. We actually ended this meeting early today, so that put me in a better mood.

Then, I helped my roommate Danny pick up his new digital piano from the music store. It is a Hannakuh present from his parents and is quite an addition to our house. Danny is quite the talented musician and plays perhaps the greatest rendition of A Whole New World this side of the Mississippi!

I know that Winter Break is only a week and four days away now, but it seems like forever. I'm actually not wanting it to get here any quicker, due to the fact that my students have their next Science benchmark exam the Monday before we leave. I'm really wanting to see some big improvements from our last overall average of 55%, but I'm not sure if it will be realized. I don't want the days to pass by until the break, I just want to stop feeling so tired all the time.

Now I'm going to go enjoy the yuletide melodies echoing from the living room!

Front Page News

The headline says it all...

Here's the story

Pullout is not PC

Man, today was tough. Even the janitor told me she thought today was rough - and she doesn't have to teach! It was mostly due to the fact that nobody wanted to be back in school, including the teacher.

I tried to teach a lesson on goal setting today, making note of the 3 weeks we have left in the semester and 3 weeks we have until the next big science benchmark exam. I thought it would be a perfect segue into "hard-work" mode for the next 3 weeks, but I was fooled.

I had to send Migueal out of my class again today. This is probably the 7th school day in a row that he's been removed from my classroom for his outbursts. I was warned at the beginning of the year about his bipolar disorder, but never had any problems out of him until about a month ago. That's when he realized how popular he becomes when he shouts disrespectful things at Mr. Wilson during class.

Today I asked to borrow his mapping packet to use as an example in front of the class. In a boisterous response, he shouted, "No! Get your own, man!" I looked down at him from my post in front of his desk with the most serious face I could muster. He looked right back and was just daring me to respond. Of course the rest of the class was in a complete uproar at this point, and so I decided enough was enough. I kicked him out of the room and called the AP's office to come pick him up. I hate having him removed from my classroom; I can't help but feel like I'm quitting on him. But, should I really forsake 28 other students for him?

I also got another new student today. My two partner teachers and I are Jeremy's third set of teachers so far this year at Miller - and we've only had 13 weeks of school! After a bit of detective work during our planning periods, we discovered that Jeremy was initially moved due to his making terristic threats to all the black students in his class (Jeremy is a white student). Turns out that he was moved a second time for the same reason, only this time he threatened to kill all the 6th-grade teachers at school that he didn't like. Needless to say, I hope that I'm not on his list, but it wouldn't be the first time I was on someone's hit list, now would it?

I can't help but feel overwhelmed in a system that sends children like Migueal and Jeremy to my classroom with the deep psycological problems they suffer from, expecing that I will be able to get them where they need to be academically. The problem is not that I can't bring them up to a sixth-grade level, it's that I can't give them the individualized resources they need and give all my other students what they need at the same time.

It's not fair to treat Migueal and Jeremy like every other student - they aren't like other students! They have psycological disorders that require medicine, therapy, one-on-one attention, and instruction in a resource-room type environment. However, due to No Child Left Behind and a new state law, all pullout programs have officially ended at Miller Intermediate. No students are pulled out of general education classrooms for small-setting instruction anymore. Texas has decided it is more politically correct to have "inclusion" classrooms.

Too bad "inclusion" really means Migueal and Jeremy will be excluded from learning because they are being denied the resources they so desperately need to excel. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is America

I made it to Atlanta and then to Athens, where I've enjoyed spending the last three days catching up with friends and doing what I can to help recruit for Teach For America.

While staying with my friend Casey, I came across a book he was reading. Written by former Clinton budget official Matthew Miller, The Two Percent Solution posits a radical shift in national priorities. Miller argues that many of the current national crises we experience can be solved by dedicating two percent of our national income (gross domestic product) to putting our money where our mouths are.

I am particularly galvanized by his incredible platform for education.

Miller correctly identifies teacher quality as the defacto hindrence to student performance. He points out that this problem does not intend to demean the outstanding teachers who have dedicated their lives to the profession and produce excellence, but rather narrows his focus to those teachers who, based on their qualifications, are basically being hired to babysit.

Moreover, Miller argues that despite urban schools that are too often targeted as the reason for our substandard state averages, "when we are failing 10 million poor children, the problem is national."

Miller argues for $30 billion to create a system of enhanced teacher pay based on experience, student performance and content knowledge. Teachers in poor schools would have their salaries rasied 50%; conditional upon teacher unions agreeing to raise the salaries of the top half of performers another 50%, as well as streamlining the dismissal process for incompetent teachers to a four- to six-month period.

In real numbers, this would mean that a teacher in Houston would start at $62,000 and the best would earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $130,000. For content-rich college graduates, teaching will actually become a profession they can ligetimately consider as a career, without taking a vow of poverty.

In Miller's words... "With the amount they would be able to put aside in savings at these salaries, the aim would be to make America's best teachers of poor children millionaires over their careers. We need nothing less if we're to change the way this essential career is viewed by our brightest college graduates."

This is it folks - this is the start of an answer to our national education dilemma. In a nation that has the foremost system of higher education in the world, it is a sin that we should have a k-12 system that ranks last in the world.

This proposal would double our national spending on education from 7% to 14% of our annual budget, but would place the much-needed (and hereto much-lacking) priority on reform. Rather than making the stakes higher for teachers in place now, this proposal correctly targets the underlying problem of attracting the brightest scholars into a profession for reasons other than altruism.

**Many thanks to Casey Mull for letting me crash at his place for three nights and having books laying around his house that I find intelectually stimulating!

Two Days Left...

I desperately need a break. Today was the roughest yet and the outlook does not portend well for tomorrow or Friday.

We started homeroom this morning with another power failure. The last time it happened, my students remained relatively calm - not the case today. I had them write letters to me about what they were doing for Thanksgiving. One of my students addressed her's to "Mr. Williams."

By the time we got into Block 1, I had to abandon my lesson which required us to use the computer lab. Since we were so off schedule, I had already lost my time slot for the computer lab, so I somehow managed to turn checking last night's homework into a 15-min activity. That's what I call stretching!

Block 2 was bouncing off the walls today. They were so incredibly loud. For some reason, they really got investing in working with the computers. But, as soon as we returned to the classroom is was all downhill. At one point, my partner teacher had to come over from one room over and yell at them because we were disturbing all three classrooms that surround mine. Ridiculous. This is the third time that's happened for me in that particular block of students. While I welcome my partner teacher's help in getting them under control, it's just really humiliating to me that she feels it necessary to come over.

I have to find a way to get them under control. I fight the urge to constantly be stern, but the minute I show them a human side it's like they don't know how to act. They respond by either behaving completely barbaric or by laughing so loud that it becomes a disturbance.

Then, I had Taylor in Block 3. Within the first 15 mins of class, Taylor had already received two discipline marks for not following directions and for chewing gum. One I gave him the second mark, he got so angry that he literally got up and walked out of my room. He went into the hallway and sat down outside my door. I decided to give him room to cool off and chose to ignore his behavior - at least, I made him think that. As I was keeping my distance but with an ever-watchful eye, Taylor proceeded to get closer and closer to the doorway, desperately trying to bait me into a confrontation. When he realized that it wouldn't work, it proceeded to start crying. He got louder and louder and finally until he was finally lying in my doorway, sprawled out, crying like a crazy person.

That's when my partner teacher walked by with her class, headed for the restroom. They had no idea how to take Taylor's behavior. The students in her class were befuddled at his childish tantrum. I gave Taylor the ultematim of acting like a sixth grader or going to the office. He chose to act like a sixth grader.

Is this really happening? Is my life really this crazy right now?

The good news in all this is that I had a lot fun last night at the UGA Archway to Excellence event held at the Houston Country Club. It was so great to see the administration and advisors from college. I even met a women who wants to give me a donation of 300 books that she's been trying to find a home for.

Two days left...

Election Night, Part 1...

Today I hit the brick wall. I ran slap into it and then it crumbled on top of me.

For some reason, I just kept waking up last night. Six times before 5:30, I awoke and had trouble getting back to sleep. When I finally did get out of bed at 5:20, I felt very tired and my sinuses were already in full rage. All day today, I was fighting to have the energy to do anything.

Blocks 1 and 2 were tough. I fought tooth and nail to keep their attention and get them excited about the lesson that I was actually pretty proud of. But then it was all over in Block 3. No matter what I tried, I never had full control of the class. At some point, my AP walked into the room and I almost just threw my hands up and walked out. She said that she was just "walking through" and did just that as she entered my classroom. I'm positive she could see the chaos that was my classroom, as well as the complete dispair that was my face.

The thing is, it was a good day today. Considering the worst that happened was that I had trouble keeping Block 3 in their seats, it wasn't that bad. Things could have been, and have been before, very worse.

Once I got home, I started getting ready for our election watch party and received a rather disheartening phone call.

It was Renece's mother. She called to apologize for Renece's absence today and for the fact that her Science Fair project will now be late. Her reason: Renece's mother was arrested last night for disturbing the peace and her car was therefore impounded. What am I suppossed to say to that?

Sadly, this is the second parent that has called to apologize to me for being arrested. I had another student whose parent called to explain why she wouldn't have her homework - her father had been arrested the night before. That happened during my first month of teaching - they don't prepare you with what to say to a student that tells you this. How can they?

Thank God for politics; my respite in all this bedlam.

To Be Continued...

Sunday is a Work Day

Last week ended pretty well. I still have to grade the tests from Friday to see how much was learned, though I am pretty optimistic. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get a lot of work done today - trying to lesson plan through Fall Break.

James Baker (former Reagan and Bush-41 Chief of Staff, former Secretary of Treasury, former Secretary of State) sat in front of me at church this morning. It was funny because I had seen him on "The Daily Show" and "da Ali G Show" earlier last week.

I'm getting excited about the election Tuesday. My roommates and I are having some friends over for an election watch party. I'm getting pumped about a Democratic takeover, though I doubt the blue wave will reach Georgia. This blog entry is brought to you by the numbers "6" and "15."

6 - number of seats in the Senate the Democrats need for a majority
15 - number of seats in the House the Democrats need for a majority

November Already?

Is it really November already? Has it already been 3 months on the front line? I tried to think back today to my first day in front of my Miller 6th graders and I had a hard time remembering back that far. It seems that I live my life in weeks so much so now that I can't remember events that occurred 3 months ago.

I can remember summer school though. Second grade was a cake walk compared to sixth. I had it so easy then and never realized it. It's not so bad now though. I've settled into weekly and daily routines that help me to minimize the work and stress I bring home each night. So, basically I've transitioned into the real world.

Two weeks left until I fly home for Thanksgiving. Can't wait to see everyone again and actually get to take some time to enjoy home - not having to worry about grading papers or lesson planning, though I'm sure a little of both will be going on.

As I was grading the Science tests from last week, it seems my students didn't do as poorly as I had originally thought. They did pretty well with physical and chemical changes, and after spending two days this week re-teaching the material, I feel pretty confident they will nail the test this week.

Now if I can just get through Thursday...

By the way, I lost two students and gained two new students today. New vocabulary word for next week - "revolving door."

I Feel Like A Person

This weekend was really great (especially after Friday's day-long adventure), giving me a chance to put school-life on hold (harder said than done, as you'll see) for a moment to just feel like a person again, doing normal things.

The 5-and-a-half hour car ride with my roommates was actually a lot of fun, minus the constant razzing over my selection of music. It seems country and hip-hop are just not that popular with guys from the Northeast.

We had a lot of fun discovering the French Quarter. We never really left this area since our hotel was in walking distance and so was the Superdome. Kyle had been before several times, so was able to give us the 50-cent tour. Our romp across New Orleans included stops at Mother's for some po' boys, Cafe du Monde for some benients, and Bourbon Street for some... bourbon.

We topped it all off with a trip to the Superdome to see the Saints battle the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens are Brian's hometown team, so you can guess who the rest of us were pulling for. Unfortunately, the Ravens dominated the entire game. I have to say though, I was thoroughly impressed with the Saints' fans - the Superdome was the loudest place I have ever been, and the game wasn't even that close.

We got back around 10pm Sunday night, so I've been playing catch up since then. I did get a little work done on Saturday. We found a sports bar in a nearby Hilton and graded papers and lesson-planned as we all watched the Georgia-Florida and Mizzou games. But I still had a lot of work to do Monday morning since this week is my observation window. That means that my AP has to observe me for 40 mins and submit an evaluation to the district. I also have to take a test over the 7 hours of ESL training I received last week for my certification.

Luckily, today I had both occur. My AP dropped in during my second period today. I'm not sure if it went well or not - it was up and down as per usual. She kept getting up and helping kids also, which I'm not sure was due to her perceiving me as a bad teacher so much as is in her nature to help out while she's in the classroom. She said that I did a "nice job" so I guess I'll be looking for good marks on that evaluation that I should see sometime next week.

I also went ahead and knocked out my ESL test this afternoon. I actually scored an 80% on it. The training required me to read writing samples of English-as-a-Second-Language students and categorize them according to their ability. Out of 15 sets of writings, I only missed 3. That sounds easy, but considering the ESL coordinator at my school has been teaching for some 20 years and is a native speaker, I was shocked to learn that she didn't pass this test on the first go-round (neither did my partner teacher). I have a whole laundry list of reasons why our ESL coordinator is too inept for the job, though.

No Lights = No Fun

Editor's Note: This story was written last Friday, but due to reasons you'll soon understand is only now being published.

This morning I was really excited about the day. It's Friday and I'm headed to New Orleans right after school, so there's no way it was going to be a bad day. Then the lights went out in homeroom.

The power company is installing a traffic signal in front of our building to accomodate the new elementary school going up across the street. Somehow, they cut the wrong line and the power was out for about half an hour. We thought we had it restored, but due to it being an extremely windy day today (not typical) the lights have continued to flicker throughout the remainder of the day.

A classroom of 11 year-olds is crazy enough without surprises, but take away the lights then turn them back on and take them away and turn them back on and take them away again... well, it just creates chaos. We were in lockdown mode through lunch, which we had to eat in our classrooms by the way. The only thing that got me through that little treat was the Chick-fil-A milkshake one of the teacher's had her husband bring us. Thank God for cookies and cream!

Right now, my students are reading silently as part of DEAR-time (Drop Everything And Read), a half-hour we devote to reading each day. This is the first point today where I've been able to catch a breath and mentally regroup. Because of all the chaos, we haven't had a break all day (which is technically illegal) and I'm stretching this silent reading out as long as I possibly can.

NOLA-bound

It's Thursday night, which means it will be Friday in a few hours. And that means that I'll be on the way to New Orleans very soon. Brian's birthday was Tuesday, so a while back all my roommates decided to go to New Orleans for the weekend to treat Brian to the Saints-Ravens game (Brian's from Baltimore).

Today was a little out of control in my third block. I blame it on the rain. We've had a lot lately, and it doesn't bode well for recess tomorrow.

There's just something about rain that affects a person's psyche. You know what I mean - that feeling you get when you look outside and see a gray sky and a downpour. Now imagine you're 11 years old.

We have no windows in my room, but we can definitely hear when it's raining. Whenever it rains, my students flip out. They suddenly can't sit still, can't keep quiet and can't stay on task. All this makes me go crazy too, which means my classroom is just one big nuthouse.

Life is not so bad though. Today I bought an EZtag so that I can take the tollroad to school, saving me 900 hours of driving a month!

All I Ask for is Respect

I had it in college - from everyone. Teachers respected me as a student and treated me as an adult. They knew my time and money were both precious and wasted neither. Advisors/Supervisors knew that I had little experience, but respected the hard work and effort I put into all my endeavors. They helped to point out areas where I could improve, but in doing so, treated me as a professional, with respect.

At Miller Intermediate, life is a little different. While I feel that I have respect for the most part from the parents, the administration, and my supervisors, it is more than lacking from the students. It's just so hard to put so much into a job when your target audience treats you like shit everyday.

Today, my nastiest student crossed a line. I threw her out of my classroom and called the AP. I told the AP that I refused to take verbal abuse from a 12 year-old. And I shouldn't have to.

Sierra entered my room today chewing gum (there has been a severe breakout of gum-chewing lately), so like I do with all offenders, I asked her to spit it in the trashcan and asked for her planner so that I could give her a discipline mark. At first she complied, understanding that she violated a rule. But she refused to let me give her a mark and wouldn't give me her planner, despite my stern protests.

Finally, I gave her an ultimatum. I told her that she could a) receive a mark and we could move on, or b) she would have to leave my room. I refused to allow her to hijack my classtime, as happens on a regular basis. Eventually, she folded and handed over her planner. As I walked away after marking her planner, I heard her mutter "I wish he'd die."

I was on my way across the room to help another student when I heard it. My instinct was to go ballistic, but instead I stopped. Allowing Sierra to bait me into a confrontation never works, so I chose instead to ignore this comment since it was said under her breath and only 1 or 2 other students heard her. I pretended that I never heard the comment and proceeded to help other students.

Meanwhile, Sierra decides that she is not going to do the in-class assignment and out of the corner of my eye, I notice she is throwing hers away in the trashcan. Fine, I tell myself; that's her choice. I decide not to say anything about it and allow her to sit quietly at her desk and make paper fans, which is currently keeping her silent and in her desk. As long as she's not disturbing any other students, she can make origami for all I care.

The portion of class dedicated to Science ends and I ask for everyone to turn in their assignments. Sierra is continuing her silent protest, so I continue to leave her be.

Then, the downward spiral suddenly entered hyperspeed.

As I was beginning Social Studies, Sierra takes advantage of a pause in my instruction to blurt out a question.

"Mr. Wilson, why did you decide to teach? Because you suck!"

That was it. That was beyond it. She not only crossed a line, she was running past it. Without missing a beat, I demanded that she leave my classroom as I walked over to the phone and informed the AP that I was putting her out in the hallway and she would have to come get her. I will not be the verbal prisoner of a 12 year-old!

I mean, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

The one factor compounding the situation is that Sierra is one of my highest performing students. She made one of the highest scores on our most recent DCA. Why, then, is she resorting to such belligerent misbehavior?

I called Sierra's Dad and he'll be meeting with me at school tomorrow to further discuss what happened. He kept me on the phone tonight while he chewed her out - that was nice to hear. Hopefully it has some impact on her behavior.

Somber Numbers

I spent this weekend grading the DCA that my students took prior to my leaving for Georgia. It took me a week to come to the realization that the answer Scan-trons that I had to turn in were never actually coming back to me, bound instead for district headquaters. Sometimes you just wonder about people who come up with these rules that make absolutely no sense.

Regardless, I was a bit disappointed to see where the numbers fell. Out of 72 students taking the test, I only had 17 pass it. The class means were 66%, 46% and 41% - none of which are passing. Overall, the all-student mean was 55%... somber numbers to say the least.

My Science Curriculum Specialist at my school assured me that my numbers were right on par with the rest of the 6th grade, as well as the school average. I'm not depressed at these numbers - they're actually pretty good considering where my students started. One class' beginning-of-the-year diagnostic score was a measly 19%, so these numbers are significant improvements.

I am realizing, however, just how hard it is going to be to push them over the 80% bar. I thought that I had really laid everything out for my students, in a way that they were sure to make at least an 80%. But now I realize just how layered the instruction is going to need to be.

Now if I can just get a chance to make some changes! If there's one thing that I've learned at Miller that I didn't learn at Wainwright (summer school) it's how much time you really have to spend each night tweaking the next day's lesson based on the information you received that day from your students. These DCA numbers show me that I'm going to really have to tweak some things, in a major way.

It frustrates me though that it will be next week at the earliest before I'll be able to change anything in my classroom. I found out Friday at 4pm that I was required to participate in two Professional Development courses Monday (tonight) and Tuesday from 4-7:30pm. Since I also have my graduate class on Wednesday from 5:30-8:15pm, my nights this week will all be spent in class - ridiculous.

Why Can't I Just Teach?

Today was my first day back since I was out, and let's just say my desk was a little cluttered. I also found out today that we lost one student, and gained another. What does that bring the total up to now - I've lost count.

That's not all - Monday night one of the 6th grade Science teachers resigned. He sent the principal an email letting her know that he wasn't coming back to school. On one hand, I understand how he must have felt overwhelmed and underappreciated. But on the other, what a freakin' jerk! Are you kidding me? He's just going to up and leave the 9th week of school?! Like that's going to solve anything - now his class has a long-term sub until they can hire someone new. Then that person has to go through a learning curve, so at best, the students in that class will only be about 8-10 weeks behind come Winter Break!

I'll stop that rant right there, because it's actually not what I wanted to tell you about. I found out today that I have to scrap my lesson for next Wednesday because the entire school will be in TAKS-mode. TAKS is the "Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills" and serves as our "high-stakes exam." Since we are a Title I school who didn't pass our AYP (Annual Yearly Progress, a part of 'No Child Left Behind') last year, we HAVE to pass the TAKS in every subject this year, or risk the state taking over our school.

So, this means that on 5 occasions this year, every teacher in the building will be administering either a math or reading TAKS test (full-length) to prepare our students to take the actual TAKS tests in February. This means that on those days, no teacher will be able to actually teach the material that we were hired to teach; that no teacher will be able to actually teach the material that our kids need to know in order to pass the TAKS test; that no teacher will actually be able to do the one thing that we are expected, but never allowed, to do - TEACH!

I was furious when I learned of this information this morning - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! My kids have a Science Fair in 3 weeks and a Science benchmark exam administered by the district in 8 weeks - and right now we're behind! This goes without mentioning the fact that poor Social Studies has been sacrificed for about 2 weeks now so that we can catch up in Science - the one subject that is tested of the two. But now, I'm expected to just put all that on hold a day - AN ENTIRE DAY - so that they can practice reading? I THOUGHT THAT WAS WHAT READING CLASS WAS FOR!

I know you might be saying, "But Matthew, it's only one day." That's true, but that one day is a Wednesday. And that means that the entire week will be a sacrifice because whatever we learn on Monday and Tuesday will be put on hold for Wednesday, then I'll spend all of Thursday reviewing what we learned Monday and Tuesday and then it's Friday, which is suppossed to be test day. By the way, there is no substantive material that can be taught in two days. I NEED FULL WEEKS HERE!

I wrote a kind of nasty email to one of the APs, expressing my discontent with the situation, but doing so in a manner that would allow me to return to work tomorrow. I think she got the message, but it's not going to change anything.

The one ray of hope in all this is that I was appointed to the school committee that is able to make executive decisions about things like this. Granted, this is probably a district mandate, but at least I can bring it up at the end of the year so that I can at least get the administration to understand how little sense this makes.

A test is a test is a test. The more we practice for the test, the less teaching we can actually do. So in February, our kids will be very familiar with the layout of the test and how to bubble-in answers on a Scantron, but will have no idea WHAT THE ACTUAL ANSWERS ARE!

Sick Day 2

Today I'm feeling a lot better. Granted, I panicked a little when I woke up at 9:30am and momentarily forgot I took the day off.

My voice is definitely coming back and should be back to 90% by tomorrow. The meds I've been taking have definitely made a difference. I felt so good today that I decided to go run a few errands. As I began driving, I realized that although I wasn't tired, my brain seemed to be running sluggishly. After a little bit, I recalled the doctor saying to me not to do anything that involved mental alertness after taking the medicine he gave me. Hmmmm.... driving must be on that list. I cut my errands short and went home from the bookstore.

I stumbled into quite a good deal at Borders today. I was wanting to buy a new book with what was left of a graduation gift card. I took a long time before finally deciding on "Second Acts," a book about presidential life post-White House. It was a little over what I had left on the gift card, but hey, why not splurge a little, eh?

Once I got to the checkout counter, I was asked if I was ever a teacher. Well, yes. Turns out, I got a 25% discount - just for being a teacher! How awesome is that!

Once I got home, it donned on me. I wonder if the discount will work on a DVD boxed set... say West Wing?

Diagnosis

So I went to the doctor, and only after having to explain that I wasn't in high school and was actually a middle-school teacher, I received the diagnosis. It appears that I have a viral infection with laryngitis.

The doctor told me that under no circumstances was I to return to school prior to Wednesday, so I get tomorrow off also. As bad as this will be once I return to school, I'm actually taking this as an opportunity to get caught up on all the little things I've been needing to do - vacuum the house, go grocery shopping, write my paper for grad class, etc.

There was major rain all night and day in Houston today. Flooding was rampant. I drove through three lakes on the way home from the doctor today. Several school were cancelled - of course mine was not one of them.

In true Houston fashion, the forecast for tomorrow is all sun and 96 degrees.

General Update

Now, for a more-generalized update.

1) Master's Degree - I've been considering the past few weeks staying for a third year in Houston, in order to earn a Master's of Education degree from the University of Houston. I keep going back and forth on this. On one hand, I really like the idea of spending another year exploring big issues in educational policy. On the other hand, knowing that I am headed to law school, I don't really need a Master's degree. And another year in Houston, is another year standing between me and being a lawyer.

I don't have to have a decision until the end of the year, so I have plenty of time to weigh the pros and cons.

2) Dogs Fall - I went home this weekend for Homecoming and while I had so much fun catching up with all my friends and advisors from college, Saturday was depressing. The fact that we, the Georgia Bulldogs, allowed a win to Vanderbilt - VANDERBILT - is just sad. We've only allowed a win 3 different times (in 26 years!) and the last one was 12 years ago. That's also the last time we lost a Homecoming game.

Wow - this is bad. Our season is all but over. This loss, coupled with Thomas Brown's season-ending knee injury and a host of others, we're done for.

3) Athens - Despite Saturday, I had the most fun I've had in a while. It was so great to have the time to catch up with Raj and Casey, Laurie and Laura. I also got to spend some time with Ashley on the drive from Hartsfield to Athens. I also had the chance to catch up with several of my advisors at Georgia, which provided much-needed inspiration and motivation.
All in all, it was a great weekend.

The one bad thing (number 2 above as an aside) was this illness that I've gotten, most likely from going from 87-degree Houston to 62-degree Athens all weekend. I'm starting to feel better already though, thanks to being able to sleep in until 10:30 this morning.

Classroom Update

It's been two weeks since my last post... things have been a little crazy to say the least.

Today I'm home sick with some head/chest cold or maybe it's a sinus infection - either way, that means that I'm getting a lot of planning done, as well as updating the blog.

As far as updating what's been happening in the classroom, several things in particular stand out in my mind.

1) DCA - My students took their first DCA (District Common Assessment - it's a TAKS benchmark exam) for Science this past Thursday. I anticipate the scores should be hovering somewhere around 65-70%, just under our class goal of 80%. Hopefully, I'll be getting the scores sometime early this week.

2) Taylor showed some very concerning signs 2 weeks ago. One day, he came and just stood beside me, waiting to be recognized. When I asked him what he needed, his reply was "A father." Another day, he flat out lied to me and said that both of my partner teachers had given him a failing conduct grade for the day. In fact, he had received two "A's." Yet another day, he told me that his mom was moving him to another set of teachers. When I talked to her that afternoon, she said that he was lieing again.

I spent last week meeting with all his teachers and the school counselor to try and figure out a way to turn his misbehavior around and get to the bottom of all these public cries for help. Something is going on at home; something is so bad in his life right now that his public behavior at school (in front of all his peers, nonetheless) is completely uncharacteristic of an 11 year-old, but more like a 6 year-old, complete with tantrums and crying. Together, his teachers and counselor decided to recommend his seeing a pyschologist. I think it's a very good idea - hopefully we can convince the district and the mother that it is warranted.

3) Antonio was expelled from school last week for a third sexually-inappropriate outburst. We've been struggling with him for about 4 weeks now, trying to get to the bottom of what's going on at home. His other teachers and I suspect there might be some sexually abuse going on at home by his grandfather, as we also suspect the mother is leaving Antonio at home completely alone while she goes to work.

The first incident occured in my classroom about 4 weeks ago. We were taking a test and he raises his hand. Over the course of the next 5 minutes, we engaged in a conversation of his asking me to go to the bathroom, and my reminding him that the bathroom was off-limits during a test. Eventually, Antonio let me know that he had an erection, and his behavior showed me that he a) had no idea what was going on, and b) didn't know what to do. I gave him a few minutes to settle down and then let him go to the bathroom. I talked to him afterwards, letting him know that it was completely normal for his age and that nothing was wrong with him. He seemed okay with that.

The second incident occured in my partner teacher's classroom. She intercepted a note from him to one of the girls in the classroom. When she read it, she discovered it was of an inappropriate and sexually-explicit nature. When she talked to Iris (the intended target of the ntoe), Iris said that she was completely uncomfortable by Antonio's behavior towards her and that it had occurred before.

The final straw occured last week in chorus class, when for whatever reason Antonio pulled down his pants in front of a group of girls. His underwear was still on, but regardless, this was quite a red flag.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the administration will be working with district psychologists and Antonio's mother to figure out what it going on at home and determine whether Child Protective Services will be involved.

That's about where I stand coming into the classroom this week. Despite how bad it sounds with Taylor and Antonio, I really am excited about the general upbeat nature my students have after taking the DCA. They said it seemed "easy," so we'll see how that plays out in the scores this week.

Delta Weekend

This weekend was a blast - and was just what I needed to recharge my batteries.

I took Friday off and spent the day driving to Leland, MS (home to Missy) with Serafin. We got there about 6pm, just in time to catch Missy at the Leland football game. Once the game was over, we made the trek to Helena, AR (about an hour and a half) to spend the night with Amanda. Amanda had some other college friends staying with her also, so her house was hopping.

We slept in till about 11am Saturday and awoke to an amazing breakfast feast that Amanda had homemade. Nothing makes a weekend better than some homemade bisquits and grits.

We headed over to Oxford and got there about 1pm, and setup our tailgate in "the Grove." The Grove is a huge quad that everyone tailgates on. It's really neat to have everyone in the same place. I enjoyed walking around and seeing so many of my Georgia friends. Of course, walking around with Missy was like having a movie-star as a best friend, but I still enjoyed it.

Speaking of celebrities, we actually had Cooper Manning at our tailgate! He was just walking around and saw our TV and so stopped to ask about the Florida game. As he was leaving, it donned on us who he was. Needless to say, Amanda was in histerics, being so close to achieving her life's goal of marrying into the Manning family.

The game had me worried, but we pulled it out in the end. I don't know why we keep stumbling with these unranked teams. It's like we get cocky and then just trip all over ourselves. Let's hope we pull things together for No.13 Tennessee this week.

Serafin had to catch a 4pm flight to New York to interview Wendy Kopp, so that meant we had to leave the game about 15 mins early and start the journey back home--all 9.5 hours of it! At first it wasn't so bad. Thank goodness for Red Bulls, otherwise those last 4 hours would have been impossible.

Now I'm back home, refreshed and recharged. Which is a good thing, because I just found out that our teacher call-in program never registered my absence and therefore never called a sub for me. So, my classes were split among the other 6th-grade teachers. This means things tomorrow are going to be very interesting.

"One of your students has a gun"

After coming in this morning and getting all my materials printed, copied, and ready to go for today and tomorrow, I was walking down the hall back to my classroom feeling pretty good about myself. Then, I got to my room.

I noticed an AP was standing in my partner teacher's room and could only imagine what it must be about. Probably another angry parent, upset over her child's low grades. Come to find out, administrators were posted all around the building looking for one of my students.

Somehow they learned that this morning he had a gun in his bookbag. Not a real gun, but a gun nonetheless; supposedly of the pellet variety. We were all given instructions that if he came to school, we were to intercept him immediately and lead him directly to the office, not allowing him to take off his bookbag. I looked for him this morning but never saw him.

Then he shows up for first period with Mr. Wilson. Whatever happened between him and the administration has already taken place. The fact that he's in class must mean that it wasn't a serious enough offense that he had to be escorted off-campus with a one-way ticket to ALC (alternative school). Still, it's hard to believe that he's in my class this morning after all the commotion earlier.

I'm still working on finding out what happened.

3 More Days...

...till I get my first, and much-needed, road-trip out of Houston!

I've decided to take Friday off to give me more time in the Delta this weekend. It will give me some good time to chill out and not think about school - at least, not too much. I'm really excited about seeing Missy and Amanda and hopefully the Bulldogs, if I can get tickets.

Ever since the end of Institute, I felt like I started the year off in the "disallusionment" stage that so many TFA teachers reach around October. Everyone I know went home after training, except for me. I thought it would really give me a chance to settle into Houston, but all it really did was prevent me from taking a mental break that comes so easily with a change of location.

Needless to say, I've been waiting on this weekend for a while now.

--In other news, Taylor (my worst student who I've already sent to the AP) asked me yesterday if I'd go to his football game. He really wanted to play football this year, so his mother and I made him a deal: go a whole week with no misbehavior marks and you can play football; keep it up and you can stay on the team. Well, Taylor was an angel the other week, so his mother let him join the team. So far, he's kept up the good behavior, for the most part. There are still days when he pouts in his seat, refusing to do anything, but those are occuring less often than before.

I told Taylor that I wouldn't be making his game (which was last night) because it was too short notice. But, I told him that if he told me at least 2 days ahead-of-time and he completed all his work and participated in class, I'd love to come see him play football. I think that really made him feel loved. Today, I saw him while he was walking to another class and he came up to me and joyfully said, "Mr. Wilson!" and wrapped his arms around me. He caught me completely offguard, so I just smiled and said "Hey, Taylor."

--Today, our district Science Specialist made a school-visit. While my students were at electives, our school Science Specialist brought Dr. Ponder through my room. She showed him my Observation Binder as he walked around my room taking mental notes.

All this was after we had a morning-long 6th-grade Science training about Science Fair. We are the only school in the district that requires our 6th-graders to complete a Science Fair project and it really aggrevates me. My students are so far behind and we have to waste about 2 full weeks (that's 900 classroom hours!) to allow our students to work on Science Fair projects. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

We actually will be working on the projects until November 9th, but the last half of the projects involves more at-home work.

I've decided that my classes will each complete one class project, rather than 30 individual projects. There's just too much my kids need to learn this year for me to waste 900 hours of instruction on a 6-week art project!

Don't get me wrong, I think there are many valuable lessons that can come from Science Fair, but all the higher-level learning is completely lost on 6th-graders who have the attention span of only slightly-developed gnats. There's no way they will be able to process information about one subject (ie - the Scientific Method) that is spread over 6 weeks.

I really feel that the administration and district have the best intentions in implementing Science Fair in 6th grade. However, as a soldier on the front lines, I can testify that it's just not happening in the practical world of my classroom. I have a job to prepare these kids for middle school Science and Social Studies and if that means less art projects, then parents will just have to understand that learning does take place in classrooms lacking student art on the walls.

--With all that, I have to now write a mini-lesson plan so that I can introduce the Science Fair tomorrow.

3 more days!

Where Am I?

Seriously... today I just can't figure it out.

All of a sudden this weekend, the autumn came. It feels amazing in Houston right now. I don't think this fall weather is normal, but I hope it's here to stay. This weekend it got down to 65 at night. On the drive home this afternoon, I rolled both windows down (yes, they rolled back up) because it felt so nice. We've opened the windows in the house - this breeze is great! It reminds me of the weather at home this time of year - can't wait to make it back home for Homecoming and then Thanksgiving.

After school, I went to the Galleria (country's third largest mall) to buy my iPod. I'm hooked - where has this little masterpiece been my whole life?

Actually, it was the mall that adds to tonight's theme. I hadn't realized it, but I hadn't been in a mall in a LONG time. I couldn't get over how much money I was surrounded by. It doesn't help that this mall is in the ritziest part of Houston. Even the parking deck looked expensive. Mercedes and Jaguars are not parked in cheap decks.

It hit me how little money I'm surrounded by at work everyday. The population I work with has little of it, and what they have is not spend on items meant to show it off to others.

I just couldn't help but feel in a foreign place... and then I bought my iPod.

Chess Club

Today my AP asked if I'd be willing to revive the school's chess club. I have no idea why she'd ask me, other than the fact that I'm a new, naive, first-year teacher. I told her that it was more appropriate of a request than she knew.

My dad was the chess fiend. He loved the game and spent all his time, while he was still well, playing the game and teaching students how to develop their strategies. When I was in middle school, he started the middle school chess team. Then, I moved to high school and so did the chess team. When I moved away to college, he expanded his operation and had chess teams at both high schools in town.

I have played the game since I was a little boy. I think I'll tell my AP tomorrow that I'd love to bring back the chess club.



In other news, I will be losing 4 more students tomorrow, much to my chagrin, and I gained a new kid today. My students give a whole new meaning to the label "mobile generation." Since school has started, I have lost 14 students and gained 3.

Teachers at my school have told me that it's normal to have this much turnover as often as we do, because we live in such a mobile community. When I get a new kid, though, it's not as easy as just giving him/her the work. I have to give diagnostics to determine their current content levels, and I have to reteach management and classroom procedures.

One of my partner teachers told me that last year, she had actually lost and gained an entire homeroom by the end of the year! That means, that by the end of the year, 27 students had been moved and replaced on her roster with new students... that's ridiculous! Turnover makes the teacher's job so much harder, not to mention stiffles the progress of the student.

I just fell asleep on my keyboard, so I think that means it's bedtime for me.

Incredible Power

Today I realized the incredible power I now wield as a professional in my community. I've sort of thought about it before - for example, when I realize how much instant credibility I have calling parents as the "teacher." But today, it really struck a chord with me.

My AP called me this morning to let me know that she had called the Alief Police (yes, my school district has its very own police department) to file a report against Marcus's mom. She also said that there was an officer posted at the front door for my protection. I was to leave my door closed all day and administrators would be patroling all entryways throughout the day.

When I talked to the police officer to file the report, I couldn't help but think that I was only 22 and Marcus's mom must be at least 40. It just didn't seem like it could be real.

Everything turned out fine today. Marcus's mother never showed up. The report was filed and the AP called Marcus's mom to inform her of the report. She is meeting with the AP tomorrow morning, so we'll see what comes out of that meeting.

As for me, I'm trying to grapple with the new sense of being a "professional." And not in the sense of living on my own away from home, paying my own bills, making my own money... but in the sense of having the utmost respect of those around me and the power to have parents arrested (which is what would have happened to Marcus's mom had she come to school today). It just seems wierd to me that 4 months out of college I have this intense power and responsibility.

On the upside, I got my jeep back from the mechanic today with one brand new window and two that now roll up when I push the button. Thank goodness - now I can go back to eating drive-thru Taco Bell!

There's Always One...

...rotten parent in the class.

Tonight I received a phone call from a parent. She told me she was Marcus's mother and wanted to ask me about a misbehavior mark he received in his planner Friday during my class for "talking during a quiz."

She told me that Marcus said he was saying "thank you" to a girl who had picked up his pencil from the floor for him. I told her that he told me the same story on Friday, but I still marked his planner because the policy is "absolutely no talking during quizzes." I told her that I review this policy with the students before every quiz, and did so twice Friday since we took both our Science and Social Studies quizzes for the week.

She told me that she tries to teach her son good manners at home and couldn't understand why I would get him in trouble for having good manners. I told her that it wasn't because he has good manners but because he was talking during a quiz. I have my policy to prevent cheating and maintain the integrity of my tests. My insistance on standing firm in my policy did not make her happy.

She then started to raise her voice, getting very loud as she made reference to an earlier incident where her son received a mark for talking very loudly in the bathroom (all 8 boys in the bathroom received a mark). That's where the conversation took a weird turn.

She said, "If things like this keep happening, I'm coming up there and I'll be ready to blow someone's head off!"

What?! Are you kidding me?!

I told her that I'd gladly discuss the incident with her but only if she stopped raising her voice and making threats. I would not continue a destructive conversation, she has no right to attack me over the phone (or in person for that matter).

Well, she continued raising her voice and only got angrier. Everytime I attempted to explain myself, she would angrily cut me off and start yelling more.

After 5 mins of being berated, I told her that I was ending the conversation. She said that she was sure I wanted to end this conversation (mocking me) but that she'd be coming to school first-thing in the morning to discuss this with the principal. I told her that I looked forward to discussing the matter more with her and the principal "in a calm environment." She said fine and hung up the phone.

I couldn't help but scream an expletive after hanging up with her, which all my roommates heard and came to my room to see what I was screaming for.

Now I've had to take an hour and a half out of my Sunday night planning to take care of this, emailing my administrator so that she knows what's happened.

I just can't understand it. Are you serious? Marcus is pretty well-behaved, save a misbehavior every now-and-again. He's received two marks since the first day of school and both times his mom has made a federal case out of it. Really?

How am I suppossed to invest her in his being successful in my classroom if she wants to blow my head off?

I guess we'll see tomorrow when she comes to school.

Andrea is Homeless

I'm writing this Thursday morning, because Wednesday night I was too exhausted to do anything but type in a few grades and then crash into my pillow. Wednesdays have become an all-out marathon to get through the day, and then get through a graduate course I'm required to take for certification. The course runs from 5:30-8:15pm.

I found out yesterday that one of my students is homeless. Her family is a New-Orleans "transplant" family via Hurricane Katrina. Andrea's mom reached out to me early to make sure I understood all of the district/state/federal-required modifications I have to utilize for Andrea, due to her characteristics of dyslexia. She also told me that their family was in transitional housing right now, while they work on finding employment and housing in Houston.

Yesterday the counselor emailed me to let me know that the family is officially homeless and is seeking placement in a local shelter. The family is made up of mom, dad, and 5 children, who have all been spread out among family members and foster homes throughout the city. They are also utilizing district vouchers for school uniforms and supplies.

I find the whole situation just really sad. I was the closest to breaking down emotionally yesterday afternoon that I have been since arriving in Houston. Andrea is one of my hardest working students and has made it known that she really enjoys my homeroom and classes. The fact that she does so well, despite all the challenges she faces at home and with her learning disabilities is an inspiration for me to work even harder to ensure her success.

The fact that now all that is in jeopardy because she might be pulled out of school due to homelessness is enough to just drive me over the edge of an emotional cliff.

Better stop things there; it's time for me to head to morning staff meeting.

Even Parents of Bad Kids Care

Today I had a meeting with Taylor's (the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent) mother. Taylor is the worst behaved student out of all 80 students I see on a daily basis. His daily routine generally involves severe teacher disrespect, wondering aimlessly around the room, negotiating why his behevior is not inappropriate, and vexing as many students as he possible can.

I don't know what I was expecting from the meeting with his mother, but I was blown away. This woman definitely knew her son, for better or for worse. She knew he was no angel; from from it, in fact.

Regardless of her telling me about her new baby or recent marriage so as to confirm my initial notions that Taylor is simply seeking attention in any form available, she still understood that the blame for Taylor's misbehavior rests with Timothy. She understood that sixth grade is a growing-up point and it is imperative that our students understand and are able to link consequences to their misbehaviors.

She even told me that she had taken away all of Taylor's new clothes, sneakers, and video games and established a system whereby he will have to earn them back - one good grade at a time.

She completely reconfirmed a fact that TFA has been adament that I understand - Parents - *ALL* parents - care about the future of their son or daughter. All parents want their child to succeed in school and bring home good grades. Regardless of a parent's financial or educational situation, they care about ensuring their child the best possible educational opportunities available, period.

Taylor's mother proved to me today that this is completely true. The sad part is that I'm not sure this resonated with my more-experienced partner teachers. I fear that they have been teaching for so long, that too many nights of feeling desperate for relief in any form of the misbehavior from students like Taylor has caused them to develop a jaded sense of reality. In their minds, parents of children like Taylor simply don't care, otherwise they would make sure their children were displaying only the best behavior while at school.

The one thing I heard Taylor's mother say above everything else was about a comment Taylor had made a few days ago. She said that he casually mentioned to her that he wished all his teachers were male teachers. I am the only male teacher Taylor has. It's so clear - this child needs a positive male role model in his life; someone who is going to correct his misbehavior, but also reinforce his positive behavior, giving him a renewed sense of pride in his schoolwork.

After today, I rededicated myself to ensuring that every one of my students, especially Taylor, masters the skills they need for middle school next year.

And I'm making sure Taylor has a positive male role model.

Broken Glass

So, today my adult life came crashing into my face... literally.

Last week, the two front windows on my Jeep rolled down but wouldn't roll back up. Jeeps are notorious for this defect, so I knew that it was only a matter of time. I taped the windows up and wedged some paper in the crack between the window and door to keep the windows up and buy some time until the weekend.

I woke up early Saturday morning to get to the mechanic in time to be back home for Football Saturday beginning at noon. I felt really good about finding a trustworthy mechanic (oxymoron?), that I knew wouldn't rip me off--too much, anyway.

Well, after he looked at the situation, he made some phone calls to the Jeep dealership and told me that it would cost around $850 to fix the windows. Really? FOR TWO WINDOWS?!

Needless to say, that's not in my budget as a school teacher. I don't know what profession that expense would be in, perhaps a doctor or lawyer, but not a Houston public school teacher. So, my plan was to put this on the backburner for another week and give me some time to figure out what I was going to do.

Today, I went to the grocery store during the monsoon of a rainstorm we had, happy that the tape on my windows was holding them up. When I came back to my car, I noticed the rain had stopped, but once inside my car, I found water on the center console... and the dash, and the passenger's seat, and the glove box. The window had fallen while I was in the store, apparently before the rain had stopped.

No big deal. I had a towel in the backseat, so I cleaned everything up and dumped the water from the floormat on the ground and went home.

After dinner, my plan was to pull my window back up and reapply tape to hold it there. Apparently, the window must have cracked when it fell into the door, because as soon as I got my fingers around the top of the window to pull it up, it shattered into a million pieces.

Really? Did that just happen? Indeed, it did.

I'm reminded of some really sage advice Mandy Marable gave me one time about how life is not about work-life balance, because it doesn't exist. In her words, "it's more of an ebb-and-flow."

I'm beginning to realize this holds true between my work life and personal life. Right when I finally feel that I've gotten into a comfortable spot with my work life, my personal life has a catastrophe.

Granted, it could be a lot worse. At least my car wasn't broken into like was the case with one of my friends who parked his car in front of our house overnight. At least my family members and friends are all in good health.

Still, having no windows sucks right now. Good thing I can carpool with my roommate to work and park my Jeep in the garage for the week.

Brownie Points

Today, my Science Content Specialist... time out for an explanation.

At each school in my school district, there is a Content Specialist for each subject area, whose job is to make sure the teachers teaching in their content areas have all the resources they need and that each teacher in that school is teaching the state-mandated objectives for that content area. Meredith is my Science Content Specialist. There isn't really one for Social Studies (since SS isn't tested until the high school exit exam, it gets the raw end of every deal).

--TIME-IN--

Today, Meredith sat in my room for about 10 mins for a "walk-through," which is basically a really short observation. She taught fifth grade last year, so my students were immediately distracted when she walked in. She helped me redirect them back to the lesson though.

The "high" of the day came this afternoon, when she stopped back by my room. She asked if she could borrow my Observation Binder (a notebook I keep by the door with all my Lesson Plans for the year, along with an explanation of my management and investment plans) to show all the Science Lead-Teachers at my school. She said that she really liked the way I put my lesson plans together - in a brief, yet thorough manner - and liked the idea of having the binder.

Then she said, after completing her walk-throughs, that she thought I had the best science lesson on the 6th-grade side of the building. WHAT?! Really? Me? The first year teacher? Don't let the other Science teachers on my hall hear that. Their reaction won't be one of excitement for the new teacher.

It was such an unanticipated compliment, and one that I wasn't even trying to receive. However, all I could think of tonight as I was sitting in my St. Thomas class (local graduate course I am required to complete for certification) was how much my lesson was lacking. It was good, but not that good. There were so many students who I wasn't reaching. There were so many things I should have been doing, but wasn't. And I had the best lesson on the 6th-grade side of the building?

This gives me some added incentive to work harder on improving my lesson plans.

Today's Numbers... 26 and 146

Today was a good day. Today was one of those days where I felt like I was being productive from the moment I woke up this morning, which was 30 mins early, by the way (5:05am). No idea why; just sat straight up this morning, ready to take a shower.

Class went well today. It was probably due mainly to the fact that Taylor, my worst-behaved student, was in SAC (in-school suspension) all day from where I was forced to write him up last week. He was determined to push my buttons and see how far he could go. Turns out, he got four strikes, then Mr. Wilson sent him down the hall, straight to the AP's office.

I'm really starting to get fed up with SAC though, I have to admit. Everyday, I'm interrupted in first block by my phone ringing. It's always the SAC teacher, requesting work for my 2 or 3 students who are in SAC for the day. I've only sent 3 students to SAC so far; you have to go pretty far to earn a referral from Mr. Wilson. However, my other team teachers aren't as hesitant to sent behavior problems to SAC.

The only problem is that it creates more work for the teacher. Inevitably, I have to stop my first block for 10-15 mins, while I run around the room, trying to piece together some "busy work" for my students in SAC, knowing the whole time that the only way my students will master anything is by physically being in my classroom. It's a catch-22. Starting tomorrow, there are no SAC referrals by Mr. Wilson. Instead, you get a time-out or have to stand or something, but you HAVE to remain in the classroom. It's the only way to learn the objective. In order for students to learn, they need a TEACHER! It seems pretty obvious, but you'd be surprised.

On the way home, I spent 26 mins on the phone with the gas company trying to get my name added to the account at my house, which apparently was not the result of the half-hour conversation I had with them almost two months ago. The lady kept putting me on hold because her computer wouldn't respond. Apparently, whenever someone at the gas company types in "Matthew Wilson" to their computer, the system refuses to process the order. Who knew? Anyway, she wound up taking my number and calling me back - which she could have just as easily done at minute 12 (and save me half the daytime cell phone minutes), but what can you do? I really enjoy hot showers in the morning.

Since I've been home, I've been a grading machine (thanks Meg for the break), due to the fact that progress reports are due to the APs tomorrow so that students can take them home on Thursday. I am happy to report that I've recorded a total of 146 grades, which is both a Science and Social Studies grade for each of my 73 students. Technically, they received two conduct grades also, which really means I recorded 292 grades tonight - yikes!

A big thanks goes to Mom for the "pencil pouches" I received this weekend. The desks in my classroom don't allow for a place for students to put their pencils, so they wind up on my floor at the end of every day. My students really enjoyed their "gifts" today and thought it was "cute" that they came from my Mom. Thanks Mom!

A Good Day and Even Better Weekend

After a day that was completely crazy, my week ended pretty fair. Despite the fact that there was a strep-throat scare momentarily; I had to run the show on Friday, operating three classrooms, since two of them had subs that had no idea what was going on; and that as I'm grading our weekly quizzes this weekend, my kids are not performing as well as I'd have hoped... despite all that, I had no major discipline problems on Friday, which is much-welcomed after the past 13 days. Small victories.

I've tried to balance work and rest this weekend. Friday after work, my roommates and I met up with some other TFA teachers and enjoyed dinner and drinks and a chance to catch up with everyone. Saturday, I went to the beach with a few friends, but made sure I was back in time to catch the GA Tech/Notre Dame kickoff. Being in Texas doesn't make it convenient to catch the Georgia game on TV, or the radio for that matter. Thankfully, ESPN.com has live updates.

Sunday and Monday I've reserved as my work days. I have to take care of all that domestic stuff (laundry, cleaning the kitchen, etc.), as well as grade about 5,000 assignments so that my progress reports will be ready to go out Wednesday.

What a Day...

Wow! Thank God today is over with! It was quite a dramatic day for Miller Intermediate School. Here's what happened...

-This morning 9 teachers were out, and 4 of them had no subs. That means that the kids in those 4 classrooms had to be spread out among the remaining teachers. My class had three students added, all of whom spoke Spanish.

-One of those teachers with no sub was on my team, which meant more work was shifted to me in order to cover there not being a teacher in her classroom.

-A kid was hauled off by the police this morning for several reasons. First, he brought a pellet gun on campus. Second, he had already shot 6 kids with it at the bus stop. And third, did I mention he was shooting kids with a pellet gun?

-One of the mentally handicapped students had a severe breakdown today. Their classrooms are basically in the middle of the building. The Special Education Team had to put her in a classroom by herself to try to control her. The teachers and counselors worked all day to get her calm. Everyone in the entire building could hear her screaming all day long - it sounded like they were killing her or something. Try making 30 6th graders be quiet in the hallway when you have a girl screaming in the room next door.

-I was approached by a parent in the cafeteria today (they are allowed on campus to eat lunch with their children - why? I have no idea!) who basically accused me of physically attacking his daughter's art project with a marker and then verbally assaulting her. All this was in front of my entire team - not just my class of 26 at the time, but all 80 students I see everyday. Not the time, nor the place.

To top it all off, the laminator broke today!

Like I said, what a day!

The World is in my Classroom

This week, the learning objective for Social Studies has been for students to understand that many of the families in our community originally came from countries all over the world. Wednesday night, I had them interview their parents about their family's cultural heritage. Yesterday, we pulled it all together through a crafts project.

I had each child create the flag of the country their family most identifies with. By the end of the day, I had seen 13 different flags... there are 13 countries represented in my classroom! Well, technically there's only 12... Palestine is not officially recognized as a country, but you get the idea.

In all, we had America, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Romania, El Salvador, Cuba, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, and Palestine. Take a look at the ones hanging in the hallway...


That's so amazing to me - I've never been in a place where I had so much diversity! With all of this excitement in my classroom, I decided that I wanted to take this to a school-wide level. I've proposed a project to my principal where my students would survey the student body at Miller to see how many different countries we have represented at our school.

The grand idea is to change our mono-chromatic cafeteria that reeks of institutionalism into a bright, colorful representation of the diversity in our school through the use of flags.

Hopefully, my principal will be onboard and will give me the go-ahead to get this started. I think I can really get my students invested in this project, based on the excitement level we had in class yesterday. The worst that could happen would be a group of students from America engage in a conversation over their smiley-face french fries about where Romania is.

Evangelical Parents?

So, two posts in one night is a bit extreme, but trust me - you want to read this one.

Anna Lee, my "Southern" friend from UVA, is working at Cafe Artiste with me. She's making several parent phone calls regarding disruptive students.

On her third call, she stumbled into quiet an interesting conversation.

"Hello?"

Anna: "Hi, may I please speak with Mrs. Rodriguez?"

"First, let me ask you about your relationship with Jesus Christ. How is it?"

Anna: "Excuse me? This is Anna Lee - (so-and-so)'s teacher. Is Mrs. Rodriguez home?"

"She's out right now, but do you consider yourself a Christian?"

Anna: "I'm sorry; are you related to (student so-and-so)?"

"Do you consider yourself a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?"

"Ok, well, um, can you please just tell Mrs. Rodriguez that, um, I called to talk about her child's behavior and that I'll call back tomorrow?"

"Okay, God bless."


Not quite the conversation you expect when you make a parent phone call. Funny - it's just plain funny!

Coffee and Cheese Grits

Today is Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday. That means my lesson plans for next week are due tomorrow.

So, I have setup shop at Cafe Artiste, an ecclectic coffee shop in my neighborhood with lots of tables, outlets, and plenty of booths to spread out graded papers and lesson plans. Think Jittery Joe's, only more room.

I had a good afternoon today, mainly because I decided to come home early today (5pm) and take a nap. It's amazing how refreshed you can feel after a 30 min nap!

Back to planning... next week we're learning about the USA and Cananda in Social Studies, and we're planting Wisconsin Fast Plants in Science.

Help from a Neighbor

So today I came to a realization. One of the teachers at my school had a pep-talk with me in the hallway. As I was delivering the finest lining-up orders to my students, she invited me to plan for next week with her afterschool tomorrow. Of course, I agreed and told her that I was going to go home tonight and put together a draft lesson plan for the week.

Then, she stopped me and asked, "Why?"

"Matthew," she said, "this week is stressful enough. You have the whole year, there's no need in getting all stressed-out this first week. Go home tonight and work on tomorrow's lesson, but not next week's."

Normally, my TFA-brainwashing would have taken over and blocked Senora Rivera out, but real-world Matthew kicked in and thought she made a lot of sense. Why get overwhelmed with next week now?

So, I've finally found the calm that I've been looking for the past few days. I'm working on tomorrow's lesson and taking the rest of the week one day at a time. I'll work on next week's lessons tomorrow and Thursday and have them ready to go by my Friday deadline, but no need in stressing about them tonight.

I actually got to watch an episode of "West Wing" with ALL of my roommates tonight. Rare for us all to be in the same room at the same time, and even rarer to be watching our favorite show during the week - we would normally have agreed that there's just too much work to do.

But today is different - today was a good day. Especially because we got a free dryer from the band director at Miller. That's great news, since the one that we bought a few weeks ago off Craig's list decided it would die as soon as we plugged it in.

Back to experimental variables and world geography...

Brain Dead

**Editor's Note: I took a brief hiatus, but I'm back and blogging better than ever. Read on my friends; I promise to do a better job of staying up-to-date.**

So, I had my first full day today. I have to admit that I'm in over my head right now. My lesson plans for the week are flimsy at best and I really have no idea what I'm doing.

I won't say that I'm having second thoughts, but I'm just realizing how incredibly hard these next two years are going to be. I know it's worth it, it's just hard when I'm so mentally tired all the time. Every night I have about 4-5 hours at home and have to spend them all working, so it's like I never get a break. Considering that I have been in Houston since the beginning of June, my brain feels like I've been going non-stop this whole time. I should have gone back to Georgia for a weekend or something. Thank God the Ole Miss game is coming up soon.

On a positive note, my students are all really smart and appear to work hard in class. I have a few rowdy troublemakers, but I can handle just a few.

Back to lesson planning...

A Broader Perspective

I've always considered myself to have a rather broad perspective on life. However, now that I find myself surrounded by so many amazing individuals (extremely smart, talented, dedicated, etc.) from every corner in America, I realize how much my perspective was lacking in Georgia.

I get so excited at the chance to learn from other TFAers about how life works in their home states and/or colleges. Many TFAers have had international experience (one lived in Germany for three years), which adds a whole other dynamic to the conversation. It's just really great to engage in a deep, thoughtful, and respectable conversation with truly incredible individuals who all share this same passion -- TFA.

I also realize how I am contributing to other people's broadening perspectives. Because I am in unfamiliar territory as well, I am able to provide language, dialogue, dress, and customs which are typical of my neck of the woods -- GEORGIA.

I get a lot of pride showing my Georgia experiences with others here in Houston. But, I also realize how limited my experiences have been in Georgia. And that makes me extremely thankful for this opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and learn so much about others and their unique perspectives.

Houston Area Survey

Today at TFA Orientation, we had a very interesting presentation by Rice Sociology Professor Stephen Klineberg, who annually conducts a public perception survey of Houston residents. He presented data to help us better understand the areas where we will be teaching, aligned along demographics and local mindsets.

Some interesting facts that I heard...

-the "blue collar path" to economic success has largely disappeared (an education is fundamental now)

-Houston has the best medical facilities "on the face of the earth," but it also has the highest percentage of kids without health insurance

-In 1999, Houston surpassed Los Angeles as having the most "highly dangerous" days concerning air quality

-All of Houston's ethnic communities are now minorities - Anglos: 37%, Hispanic: 39%; and have more equality among percentage of per capita makeup then any other "melting pot" city

-88% of all Indians in Houston are first-generation

-48% of all Indians in Houston are professionals (college degree or post-graduate/professional degree)

I don't necessarily believe the way the survey was conducted (random telephone households) was the most reliable or valid, but some interested numbers nontheless.

Check it out for yourself... www.houstonareasurvey.com

The Best News Ever

Today I began Teach For America*Houston Orientation. All this week, we'll be learning specifically about standards and practices for the Houston school districts and how that traslates to the work we will do in our classrooms.

I also discovered today something that I am absolutely fascinated by... some news involving one of my roommates. I found out today that Danny (from Chicago, mathematics major at Purdue) scored a whopping 180 on the LSAT. Not a 180 out of a 200, but a 180 out of a 180! He made a perfect score on the Law School Admissions Test! He's already been admitted to Harvard Law, where he will attend after finishing his two years with Teach For America.

This is amazing! Could it be possible that I have, living down the hall from me, in my very house, a living, breathing person who scored a perfect 180 on the very test that I will prepping for in order to take next summer?! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to get some help from a proven success story when the time comes.

Trained and Ready to Go

I've officially been in Houston now for 7 weeks, which should make me a legal resident, aside from the fact that I haven't registered with the DMV yet (actually, in Texas it's the Dept of Public Safety).

That being said, I've already completed my official Teach For America training and am ready to begin putting things in order for my 6th grade science/social studies classroom at Miller Intermediate.

Not so fast though... I still have a TFA Orientation (beginning at 8am tomorrow), school district new teacher orientation, and a series of campus staff development sessions before I can focus solely on my classroom and kids.

A side note... I technically haven't secured housing yet. While my things might be all setup in a 4-bedroom house with 3 other TFA guys, the landlord is considering kicking me out. Get this - she only wants 3 people in her 4-bedroom house. Granted, she's 60 years-old and raised all her children in this house, so she has somewhat of a sentimental attachment on the property, but I think she's being unreasonable. I'm currently still trying to convince her that she could not find 4 better guys to live in her house. I've given her references, personal assurances, my official employment letter, and I've emptied my bank account to make the security deposit larger. We shall see what she decides.

Other than that, Houston is amazing! Okay; minus the weather and mosquitoes, it's not all that bad.