"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.