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!